Hooray, I finally finished Chapter 2! This is cause for celebration!

*confetti, Seize the Day playing in the distance*

Okay, party's over. Time to get down to business.

Enjoy!

-Marcelle

"Of all the halfwit ideas you've had, Jack, this is really the dumbest one of 'em all!"

To say that Race was angry would have been the understatement of the century. The reality of his fury extended much further, to the point where he could only think of a word he saw in a headline once to classify this new emotion-livid.

"You really think is gonna help us? You hangin' around with the scabs and gettin' paid ta steal from some poor old guy? I mean, I know we ain't the most honest guys around, but I at least thought we was better than this!" He ranted, almost unable to contain himself at the thought of what Jack had done.

His choice was nothing short of idiotic, and Race wasn't going to stand for it. Jack may have been older, but clearly that did not make him any wiser.

"What did you want me to do, Race? Huh? We don't got many options at this point, an' I'd get caught on my own. And I ain't gettin' paid, we'se just splitting whatever we can take. But, you know...safety in numbers, right?" Their leader tried to attempt reason, but his efforts fell on Race's admittedly deaf ears. What Jack was trying to tell him really did not make even a hint of sense to the other boy.

"Not their numbers, Jack, ours! Ya don't need ta turn to some gang to get help, don'tcha know that by now?" Race argued, his features seeming more animated thanks to the river of constant anger that flowed through him-both at the situation itself as well as Jack's method of handling it.

Did he really have such little faith in the rest of the newsies? Couldn't he trust them to provide aid in their own survival? "Me an' the boys, we woulda helped ya the moment you snapped your fingers!"

"That's what I was afraid of...you guys havin' ta risk your necks for somethin' that I can tackle on my own," Jack murmured in response, and for a moment, Race found it difficult to keep up his frustrated persona.

The elder newsie looked so concerned about the rest of them, so willing to do whatever it took to keep them safe, that it seemed almost wrong to be upset with him.

Almost.

"And so you decided to join a gang 'a thugs who'd pound ya to the ground the minute ya stepped outa line rather than just trustin' your own family?" Race pressed the matter, intent on changing Jack's ways. His reasoning was completely out of line, and Race considered it his own personal duty to get it back on track again. If he had to demean their leader a bit in the process, so be it.

Jack would get over it, he might even thank Race later. "Yeah, real smart. Well, it doesn't matta now. I can help ya find some way ta get us by, you just gotta tell that gang that you'se is out of their little operation."

He crossed him arms in what was meant to come across as a defiant stance, one that showed he meant business. There was no way Jack was really going to go through with his half-baked plan, not if Race had any say in the matter. Which, as of now, he did.

"Look, Race, it's a little more complicated than that," Jack sighed, his fingers once again runnig through his hair as he gave a rather withering sort of please drop it look that Race was certainly not going to obey.

"What's so hard about it? Just tell 'em you're done and walk away. What're they gonna do?" he pressed instead, shrugging his shoulders with the confidence he wished Jack had at the moment. He seemed to underestimate how much power he really had.

Jack Kelly could be pretty darn intimidating when the mood struck him, he just needed to realize that. Once he did that, then-

"They'll come after you guys, that's what."

Jack held his gaze as he spoke the words, his voice solid with a kind of solemnity that stopped Race in his tracks. A moment seemed pass by in slow motion as he tried to work out this new piece of information, and soon the wheels began to turn.

The implications of the simple sentence were far greater than he could have imagined, but now things were beginning to click into place. Race pushed back an overwhelming sense of guilt that welled up in him at the thought of his attitude towards his friend earlier, the thought of his own ignorance.

Jack's strange behavior, his distance, his refusal to get anyone else involved...that gang of his had threatened the rest of the newsies. That was why Jack couldn't just leave.

"I joined them after I almost got caught stealin' a first time. I guess they saw me an' were impressed or somethin', I don't know. They asked me if I wanted ta join 'em, and I said no, 'cause I already had you'se guys. But then they said if I didn't...uh...not very pleasant things would happen to the rest of ya. I'm not lettin' that happen, Race. If I bail, they'll just find the boys and...and hurt 'em to make sure I stay." Jack lowered his eyes, looking as though nothing else could bring him greater shame-or greater fear.

"Apparently I'm the best they got or whatever, and they don't want me ta leave. That's why I didn't tell ya earlier. 'Cause I couldn't."

Race breathed deeply through his nose, exhaling as he let the situation settle into his reality. Their position was compromising, to say the least. Either Jack continued to get deeper in over his head with the gang until he had no way out, or the rest of the newsies would be put in jeopardy.

It was looking like a no-win scenario, but Race decided right then and there that he was not going to lie down and accept it. Jack wasn't alone in this anymore, and it was time for him to stop acting like it.

"Well, it's a good thing ya did now, Jackie-boy," He put an arm around his friends shoulder, wishing he hadn't noticed the way Jack's muscles felt tense and rigid under his arm. "Now ya got me, an' you know I ain't gonna let some gang think they can get a one-up on us. I'm gonna go with ya tomorrow, and we'll figure somethin' out. You an' me."

"Are you sure you wanna do this, Race?" Jack asked in all seriousness, as though he actually believed Race would back out just when Jack clearly needed him the most.

"You kiddin' me? Things is finally gettin' interestin' around here!" He insisted, feeling a smile broaden on his face. His life had taken a sharp nosedive that would surely only spiral deeper as the morning came, but Race couldn't help but feel confident that it wouldn't last forever.

There had to be some way out, some secret loophole or escape route that they could take to get the other kids out of the mess that most of them didn't even know they were in.

Jack had taken on this enormous burden with the intention of keeping it a secret, and he had done so successfully. It was now only Race that was in on their perilous situation, and he took that as a sign, that it was he who was supposed to help Jack turn it around. It was his duty now, and Race was going to see it through.

"They'se gonna regret messin' with the Manhattan newsies. That I can promise ya."

I hope writing this in Race's point of view gives this an interesting perspective, as that's what I was going for. I want to update either Walk Over Us or Origins next, but hopefully the latter because Race's backstory actually ties into this fic quite nicely. I guess it just depends on public opinion on what gets done first. Please don't forget to review, and I happily welcome prompts!

I end on one final random note: The song "Rude" by Magic! is exactly how I believe Jack's discussion with Pulitzer about marrying Katherine would go down. Just saying.