Race arrived at the Brooklyn Newsboys Lodging House, after having dropped Ella off safely at her house ("At least now I know where it is") and hesitated outside the door for a moment before going in.
He saw Dash right away, seated next to Alto and playing poker. He made his way over and cleared his throat, "Hey, Dash?"
She looked up. "Racetrack, what're you doin' ovah here?"
"Um, can I talk to you foah a minute? It's about Spot."
Dash's face went very blank, and she stood up, pulling Alto with her. "Yeah, come on."
Once they were outside Dash demanded, "What is it? Is Spot all right?"
"Yeah, he's fine." Race smirked. "Actually, I suspect he's more than fine."
Dash looked at him suspiciously. "Tell me what you mean, right now."
Now he actually had to tell her, he didn't quite know how. Telling a possessive sister that her brother is married is never easy, and when said sister and brother are Spot and Dash Conlon, well, you'd rather not have the job.
Race had no idea how much, if at all, Dash had liked Jeans. He drew in a quick breath and blurted, "Spot and Jeans got married a half an hour ago."
It was a good thing Alto was there or Racetrack might have been shaken to pieces.
"Where are they?" Dash demanded, struggling to get away from Alto's restraining hold.
Race was glad he was able to answer truthfully. "I dunno."
"Dash, settle down and let Race tell it to you from the beginning." Alto calmly said, forcing her to sit beside him on the step.
She elbowed him, but folded her arms and looked expectantly at Racetrack.
"Well, da foist I hoid about it, Jeans comes into our lodging house and practically forces me to come and be a witness for her and Spot's wedding, then I saw who the other witness was and-" he noticed Dash's foot begin to tap impatiently and skipped ahead hastily, "So, we went to dis little church and dey tied the knot den Jeans asked me to come tell you." He looked somewhat nervously at Dash.
She continued to sit with her arms folded, staring into space.
Alto cleared his throat and said, "Thanks for coming to tell us, Racetrack."
Race nodded an turned to go, then called back over his shoulder, "Spot said they wouldn't be back for a while."
Alto looked at the girl by his side. "You all right, Dash?"
She got up. "Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm gonna go think for a bit. Do me a favah and don't tell everyone else yet."
He nodded. "Sure." As he watched her walk towards the docks, for the first time he thought about how hard it must be for Dash to be Spot Conlon's sister.
She was fiercely proud of her brother, he knew, but co-running Brooklyn couldn't be easy.
Alto got up. Fine or not, he was going to go find Dash. He walked down to the docks and saw her.
She was staring down into the water, and her shoulders were shaking.
He was by her side in an instant, pulling her close to him and stroking her hair, murmuring in Spanish comfortingly.
In all the years he'd known her, he'd never seen her cry, but now she clung to him like a baby.
In a few minutes she sat up and wiped her face, still sniffling. "I thought I told you not to worry about me."
"I was not worried about Dash Conlon. I was worried about you. Want to talk?" He offered his knee for a seat.
"I guess." She said, sitting down on it. He ran his fingers gently through her hair.
"Well," she began, "Spot's always been the one in charge. I mean, I've been in charge, but..." she trailed off. "I'd better start at the beginning." And sitting on Alto's knee at the water front, she told him, as far back as she could remember, her life's story.
"So as I see it," Alto said when she was finished, "you feel that, by marrying Jeans, Spot betrayed you because now his primary concern is taking care of Jeans instead of you. Am I right?"
"Yeah."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Oh, I don't know." She looked at him wearily. "I'm tired of being strong. You tell me."
"All right. I'm going to take care of you now. When can we get married?"
Dash pulled away and stared at him. Then she began to smile slowly. "We'll have to wait till Spot gets back."
A/N So I'm going to do something I've never done before. You get to suggest a title for this story! And I'll pick the one I think best captures the story as a whole. So review and let me know!