Eastern Beach

[murdoch]

Hyrum tried to keep up a brave face even as his feet dangled well above the ground but it be came more and more difficult the longer the guy held him there. "Oh yeah?" he choked out just before he was dropped roughly to the ground a the man's feet. "Well, you better not or Murdoch'll go call the bulls on ya, won't ya, Murdoch?" He asked, a defiant scowl distorting his features. He had to admit, it was much easier being confident when he had the option of running. Murdoch nodded vigorously before throwing his own two cents into the ring "you bet, an' no matter how much they don't like us, I betcha anything they don' like a thug like you even more an' they'll take you to jail forever an' ever." He snipped, looking confident in he and his brother's combined abilities.

"Yeah, so go ahead" Hyrum sneered, feeling considerably more empowered as, while Murdoch had been speaking, he had gotten up and stepped out of the strange man's immediate reach. "Leave as many bruises as you want. I'll be able ta brag about it at school and you'll just be sharing a jail cell with a big guy named Bubba." He placed his hands on his hips with a triumphant look on his face yet again.

Osa, who had been pouting a few steps away since Scar had pulled her off of his leg wobbled up into a standing position, mimicked her brother's pose and with a stern expression on her little face stated "Kitty!" in the same determinate, admonishing tone that she had heard so much in the past few minutes.

[Scar Bourke]

Scar just laughed and lifted an eyebrow at the children, "Kid you got a lot of growing up to do. The bulls ain't gonna help you and they certainly aren't gonna do anything to me." Pulling a cigarette from his pocket he lit it and blew his smoke in the kids general direction. "Now beat it."

[murdoch]

Hyrum contemplated trying to fight the guy to uphold his image in his brother's eyes but he knew he'd just get beat up and he really didn't want anyone to see that. "Fine" he stated finally in an inadvertantly pouty sort of tone. "i'll save you the humiliation of havin' ta tell folks you took on a little kid today" He glanced in the direction of the shoreline which had been his and Murdoch's original destination. "But you don't own the whole entire beach so we're not leavin'." He paused and pointed towards the shore. "We'll be right over there if ya got a problem but I'm warnin' ya, my big brother's showin' up in a while an' he's almost as big as you" This was only partially a lie. Bascom was definitely closer to the guy's size than he or Murdoch, but he would still be no match for a grown up. Nevertheless, a confident bounce was back in Hyrum's step as he made his way over to the shore and motioned for Murdoch to follow Him. Osa, who seemed confused by the whole situation at this point, looked back and forth between Scar and her brothers for a moment before toddling off towards the shore as well stopping only for a moment to turn around and chirp "Bye, bye puppy!" at Scar before scurrying the rest of the way top the water, giggling all the while.

[Alexandreia Halliway]

*NEW DAY*

The seconds had crept into minutes, which had crept into hours, and then into days which seemed to drag by at a snails pace. The first few she'd barely moved from her bed, hadn't spoken a word to anyone beyond the necessary and then Reid had come by again and told her that tomorrow was the day they would bury their young brother. He hadn't said much just that he had spoken with a priest who would say some words before they buried him. A thousand things had flown through her mind, but the one thing that continued to repeat itself was that this would make it real. Part of her still expected it was all a dream and if she could just wake up from this nightmare she would be able to tell him she loved him.

Lexi couldn't bare to lay in bed a moment longer, once Reid had left she'd washed her face and put on some clothes before coming here. Now she just stood staring out at the water wishing she could hear her brothers laughter again. All she wanted in the world was to hear his voice as he asked her question after question each of her answers just prompting more questions. Never in her life had she felt so lost, even when her parents had died it hadn't hit her this hard. She'd been to busy taking responsibility for her brothers to be overcome with grief as she was now.

She could feel her eyes watering but she refused to let the tears fall. She'd been doing nothing but shedding tears and she didn't want to anymore, she wanted to scream and curse God for being so cruel. How he could he take her beloved brother from her? How could he let those men kill the one thing she'd cherished above all else? Silently she stared at the water, contemplating what she could have done to prevent this from happening. If only she hadn't been such a complete failure to her family none of this would have happened. If only she'd had more control over herself in Jersey City they would have never have come here.

[dewey]

Dewey didn't usually come to the beach much anymore. He could remember the first time he had come here, though, at the tender age of ten. He'd only just moved here from Tennessee to make money for his family and he had never seen the ocean before in his life. He must've spent hours wading in the water, and just staring out at sea back then. But that kind of stuff was for little kids, women, and sissies. And, at thirteen, he wasn't a little kids anymore and he definitely wasn't a woman or a sissy. But lately, he'd had a lot on his mind and he figured that it wasn't too bad if he came down top the beach just to be alone for awhile. After all, it was one of the few places in the city which didn't have a billion people stomping through it all the time, breaking his train of thought. He wasn't there for the view or anything wimpy like that. Just for the peace and quiet.

As he wandered down to the sand, however, he was not really surprised to find that he wasn't entirely alone. He was, however, surprised to see who it was standing in the middle of the sand, staring out at the water. Even from several feet away he could recognize Dodger's female counterpart, Lexi Halliway. He'd heard she'd holed herself up in her room since the battle and he hadn't expected to see her anywhere for awhile. She sure looked sad now. It was understandable, of course, he didn't know what he would do if he lost one of his little brothers and he was man. It must've been a thousand times worse for a girl, what with them being so emotional and all. Not that she was a wuss or anything. It took stones ro run a lodging house, well, hypothetically, of course. But still, no matter how tough the girl was, you just couldn't fight physiology. He felt almost guilty seeing her like this, though. If he were in her situation, he wouldn't want anyone seeing him or anything like that.

But, uncomfortable and unwelcome as it might've been, he just couldn't help but feel like he should say something. It just wan't right to leave a lady all alone like that...crying and all. "Hey... you allright?" He asked in his softest voice, taking a couple of steps toward the older newsie. "Real shame what happened ta ya brother" he added gingerly "He was a good kid." He didn't really know what else to say and he didn't want to step too much closer yet. After all, she was grieving and he didn't really know how she would react to him interrupting her like that.

[Alexandreia Halliway]

Lexi blinked a few times and swallowed trying desperately not to drown in her emotions. That's all she'd been doing since Reid had told her the news and she hadn't come here to wallow more. She'd come here to clear her head and try to find something to distract herself from the misery that threatened to overwhelm her at every turn. Lexi knew it was reasonable for her to feel this way but she was afraid that if she allowed it to go on much longer she wouldn't be able to drag herself back from it.

At the sound of a voice she turned her head to the side away from the approaching person and quickly dried her face before turning back to the person. She hadn't been crying exactly but it was hard to hold back all her tears and some had fallen. Lexi recognized the boy immediately as one of the Bronx newsies, Perry had spoken highly of him. She believed his name was Dewey and she thought that he was the one who had originally sparked Perry's interest in Brooklyn and Spot Conlon. A sad smile crossed her face as the memory popped to the surface. Perry had come running up to her rambling on and on about Dewey and his tales of Conlon, it had been the happiest she'd seen him since she'd brought him to the city. Lexi nodded slightly to his question, but didn't speak and glanced away once more when he mentioned Perry.

For some reason she couldn't bring herself to say a word at first and instead stared at the water for another moment before focusing back in on Dewey. "Yes, he was..." She trailed off and swallowed once more realizing she'd just spoken of her brother in the past tense. Had she been with Reid or even Dodger she may have broke down once more but she wasn't going to dump her despair on this boy and instead decided that it was best to let that subject rest for the moment. "What brings you out here?"

[dewey]

Dewey shrugged and looked down at his feet, feeling slightly ashamed “nothin’. Jus’ thinkin’. Ain’t hardly any places ta do dat in a big city like dis, y’know?” He had mostly been thinking about his brothers and her brother, really. He felt bad that he hadn’t come to the battle. Maybe it would’ve made some kind of difference. Maybe if he had, the kid would be alive. Not that he thought he could’ve saved him or anything but you could never tell how things might change if even the smallest details are altered. He didn’t really want to tell her either of these things though. It was probably in bad taste to talk about his four, live little brothers when her only little brother was dead and he definitely didn’t want to bring up the fact that he hadn’t been in the battle. People had told him that he was too young for it but he should have fought them harder, insisted on going. He didn’t want her to be angry at him for it too. He was angry enough at himself as it was.

His eyes flickered toward his pocket and he placed his hand inside of it, fingering a folded envelope which contained some pictures that his mother had sent him of his little brothers. He couldn’t imagine losing them now, when they hadn’t seen him in over three years. Mickey and Natty probably didn’t even remember him at all and Simon and Elijah probably couldn’t even pick him out of a lineup anymore. He used to write to them a lot but now, he mostly only replied to letters and he never got letters from them so… “at least ya knew him…” He blurted out suddenly, looking up at Lexi with a conflicted expression. “Y’know, an’ he knew you an’…an’ he knew ya loved him” his hand clutched on to the envelope in his pocket as he spoke. “dat’s real good. Kids need dat” he finished in an uncharacteristically gentle tone. He knew she probably didn’t want to talk about what was going on right now, but he just had to say it. He couldn’t have her take what she’d done for granted. She’d been twice the sibling he’d ever been and she should be glad for it.

[Alexandreia Halliway]

Lexi nodded to Dewey's response even though she could tell he was holding something back. Normally she would prod him a little more because she could tell something was troubling him, but she was still too lost in her own pain to try and lend an ear to him. Pushing a piece of hair off her forehead she held back a defeated sigh. Getting her mind off of Perry just wasn't working at all. She had doubted it would though but she couldn't stand staying abed a moment longer.

When Dewey spoke again Lexi's eyes were drawn back to him, boring into his own. Although she covered her expressions well enough her eyes were filled with pain and sadness. Lexi nodded a bit as he finished speaking, "You're right." She didn't have the heart to blurt out her hatred at God for this terrible mess, not to this boy. He was still a child in her mind and she wouldn't bring him down with her, it wasn't in her nature.

She studied him closely, feeling that pull in her stomach to wrap him in her arms and get him to talk about what was so clearly bothering him. She wouldn't though, not now, the wounds were still to fresh at the loss of her youngest brother. She hoped that once tomorrow was over she would feel some sort of closure and could get herself together more. Since she hadn't really seen or asked about anyone she figured now was as good of a time as any, she knew Dewey would probably know how at least the guys were doing. "How is everyone at the guys house?" She asked it quietly, ashamed that she didn't know more.