Newsies One-Shots

Chapter 79 - Jack

Unease and Worries
Ship - None
Era - Modern
Triggers - Injuries, hospitals, blood, crying and implied abuse.

Jack anxiously ran a hand through his hair as he sat on the hospital bed, the feeling of unease anything but unfamiliar to him. He didn't want to be there. He wasn't even sure how he'd ended up there.

All he knew was that he was somehow in hospital with nobody to care where he was.

"Mr. Kelly." The nurse caring for him appeared in his sight. "Are you alright?"

Jack's head snapped up to look at the nurse. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine."

"I am. I just don't like hospitals," he lied.

The nurse nodded, unconvinced but giving him the benefit of the doubt anyways.

"When can I leave?" Jack asked, desperate for an answer.

"Well, you have to wait for a legal guardian to sign you out since you're only sixteen," the nurse explained. "But once that is done you can go."

Jack nodded. "What if my legal guardian can't sign me out? Or if I don't got a legal guardian to sign me out?"

"I'll go speak to someone. See what we can do."

Jack watched as the nurse turned on his heel and walked away from Jack's bed. A little while passed before the nurse came back, followed by Jack's social worker, Maria.

"Jack," Maria sighed as she looked at Jack's small figure. "What happened? I thought you liked this home."

Jack wouldn't meet her eyes, not wanting to tell the truth.

"I guess I ain't supposed to have a family," he mumbled. "Or anyone."

"That's not true. Things are weird right now but I promise that soon you'll have a family."

"Soon I'll be too old. No one'll want me at this point," Jack pointed out his perception of the truth. "I should just be looking for a job."

"Actually, I've found a placement for you." Jack frowned. Getting sent to a new placement was something Jack never liked.

"What?" Jack asked, not sure he'd heard her right.

"There's a lady I know and she already has two boys but given the circumstances, she said she'd take you in for as short or as long as you like."

"I thought I can't be placed with other kids," Jack reminded her. "Don't want my 'criminal tendencies' rubbing off on them and all that."

"The judge that ruled that was stupid," Maria said.

Jack was surprised, while Maria would acknowledge that things that happened to him were bad, she always pushed an optimistic view on him. She never said anything against how his life played out.

"I think not letting you with other kids was bad for you. You need other kids to help you form relationships and just to be a kid."

Jack shrugged.

"Do you want to meet her?" Maria offered. "She's outside, you don't have to if you don't want to but you'll meet her sooner or later."