Parentsies (Sequel to Newsies MS-HS AU)

Chapter 42 - Can't Sleep

TW: I feel obligated to put this here because this chapter has some HEAVY topics near the end. If you'd rather not read them, just stop when Davey waves goodbye to Alexis in front of Katherine and Sarah's building.

"And this is Paige playing with Bella," Davey was showing Alexis the pictures he took while visiting Les and Sally to see their new baby.

"Belinda is such a pretty name," Alexis expressed, "but why name her Belinda if they were just going to shorten it to Bella?"

"They wanted it to be like Sally's name, she's Selina but she's always been called Sally," Jack was trying to get Paige's shoes back on after she had taken them off, "here, Davey, hold Nugget's leash, I need two hands for this,"

"That makes sense," Alexis nodded.

"So what have you been up to?" Davey asked.

"Funny you should ask," Alexis chuckled, "I met a guy a few weeks ago, we've been on a date, and I think we're planning to go on another one,"

"That's great," Jack finally got Paige's shoe back on, "how did you meet this guy?"

"Well, I needed to get the lock on my door replaced because Harley broke it, so I called a locksmith. We chatted while he worked, and it turns out we have a lot in common," Alexis smiled.

"A locksmith, huh?" Jack paused, "What was this guy's name?"

"Morris," Alexis replied, "Morris... Delancey, I believe,"

"Delancey?" Jack blinked, "Alexis, I don't think you oughta plan this second date,"

"Jack," Davey looked at him in shock, "I thought you said Morris apologized,"

"He did, but apologizing doesn't suddenly void your actions," Jack defended.

"You know him?" Alexis realized.

"Yeah, he and his brother were real bullies when we were in school. I made my mom hold me back a grade so I could protect my little brother from them," Jack explained heatedly.

"Jack, calm down," Davey took Paige from Jack, "that was a long time ago, and you even said that he seemed fine when you talked to him,"

"He seemed fine when I talked to him, too," Alexis added, "we really clicked,"

"Trust me, the Delanceys are not the kind of people you wanna 'click' with," Jack shook his head.

Alexis stood up, "Well, Jack, I happen to believe that people can change," she sighed, "but I didn't know Morris when he was in school, so I guess your judgement is better than mine," she started walking away.

"Alexis, wait," Davey followed her, "something I've learned about Jack is that he tends to... well... need time to warm up to things. When his mom started dating the superintendent of our school district, he was super weirded out by it. He just needs to get used to the new Morris, and things should be fine,"

"I understand," Alexis nodded, "I suppose it would be strange to find out your friend started dating one of your high school bullies,"

That night, Jack felt guilty about what he'd said to Alexis. He didn't feel guilty often, in fact, the last time he felt this guilty was when he had heatedly told Medda that she wasn't his mom. It was hard to call someone else 'mom' when you still remembered your biological mother. 

His guilt for that instance led him to begin calling Medda 'mom' to her face, but when he was talking to others, he still referred to her as Medda. 

This time, his guilt was causing him to lose sleep. Usually Davey could tell when he wasn't sleeping and would talk him through whatever was bothering him, but Davey was sound asleep.