After the Strike (Newsies X Reader)

SEVEN

(A/N: Just to warn you, you are about to read and EXTREMELY fluffy chapter. If you have had any sugar in the past 48 hours, I advise you wait another 72 before continuing to read to prevent any sugar overload.

DaveyIsTheBest you're gonna like this chapter. 😉)

Y/N spent almost entirely two days, running on less than an hour of sleep, tending to her little sisters. They had no energy to get out of bed, but the medicine helped the two a lot.

Y/N fell asleep sometime the next afternoon, because it was dark when she woke up. She lifted her head up from the bed and immediately jumped up when she saw that her sisters were missing from the bed. She gasped in shock and fear and stumbled around in search for them. There was a sharp piercing pain in her head and her stomach was nauseous, but she had to find her little sisters.

Suddenly, Y/N froze and listened. She heard giggling and someone running around. She ran down the stairs, almost tripping several times since the floor looked like it was spinning. Nobody was in their bunk, but she could shouting from downstairs.

She peeked down the stairs to see the bottom floor crowded with newsboys of all ages. After scanning the crowd, she saw Beth running around holding a pair of glasses, with a tall blonde boy chasing her around playfully. Sue was riding on his shoulders, laughing her face off. "Give me my specs, ya lil' rascal," he said, resulting in her giggling furiously.

Y/N wanted to yell, to run down and save her sisters from these strangers. But the voice of Jack came back into her head. "They'll be fine. Trust me." Something inside told her that she could trust these boys with her little sisters. Inhaling deeply, she slowly and silently backed up from the stairs.

She regretted taking that deep breath though, because it really tickled her throat. She held a cough in until she made it back to the small bed. However, once Y/N started coughing, she couldn't stop. She coughed until her throat felt raw, and she felt faint, so she decided to try to sleep. Almost instantly, Y/N fell into a deep yet restless sleep.

~~~~~~~

Beth was happy. Actually happy. She was young, and didn't fully understand how tragic her mother's death was. She just pushed the sadness and grief she felt for the past few days to the back of her head and focused on how happy this moment was.

Beth had met several boys, all with funny names like Finch and Racetrack. But her favorite was Specs. She thought he was fun and nice.

After a while, the older boys grouped together for different card games. Beth and Sue met a boy named Les who was only a little older than them. They had so much fun with him too! They played tagged and hide and seek until Sue was so completely exhausted.

Beth, being the good big sister she was, grabbed her little sister's hand and led her upstairs. They found their way through the dark room full of beds to the very back corner where their bed was. Y/N was fast asleep on the bed, coughing like crazy.

Beth was a little worried, after all, she knew that coughing like that usually is bad. She poked her big sister and whispered, "Y/N?" No response. She shoved her sister and said louder, "Y/N!" After no response, Beth's calls and pushes became louder and more desperate.

Memories from a few days ago started flooding back to Beth. She thought of when her mother had just died, when Y/N had ran out of the room and Beth started weeping, desperately trying to wake her mother up.

"Ma? Ma!" she cried, gently shaking her mother. She repeated her cries only to fail, repeating and repeating this useless cry until the doctor came and pried Beth off of her dead mother's body.