Downstairs--The Front Desk

[Jack Kelly]

[[New Day, Jack is back!]]

It was around noon, or maybe half after, which meant that most of the Manhattan kids would still be out selling. It wasn't exactly the grand entrance Jack had been planning on, but he couldn't stand to just wait around, walk around the city aimlessly until it was time. As much as he loved a spectacle, Jack just wanted to be home.

He opened the front door and leaned in to look inside. The front room looked deserted. He walked inside, closing the door behind him. Looking around, he took in the familiar sights, and leaned his back against the front desk, sighing. He smiled.

It was so good to be home.

[David Jacobs]

David walked down the steps, tossing the ball that Les had left upstairs when they'd been visiting the previous night. His brother had been beside himself this morning when he realized he'd left it behind and David had promised to drop by and pick it up. It had taken a little while to find it but a few minutes had found it wedged into a corner. He reached the bottom step and out of habit his eyes turned to scan the front room, certain it would be empty at this hour, but he stopped short when he spotted someone familiar leaning against the front desk. "Well I'll be damned..." David said with a smile, feeling a sort of giddiness swell up over him as he looked at Jack Kelly standing at the threshold of what it had seemed had always been his - at least for as long as David had known him.

And he could tell, by the smile on Jack's face and the easy way he leaned against the desk that whatever it was that had gotten a hold of his friend and had been holding him down was gone. It was something of relief that washed over David at the knowledge, because though he might not openly admit it - and okay there might have been a time or two that he had, but mostly only to Fighter and that one time the guys had managed to get him unsteady with ale, but that had really only been once - Jack was his very best friend. And things hadn't been right with Jack, but now it seemed they were and David was glad of it sure enough. "Jack-" He acknowledged with a smile, tossing Les' ball over in his friend's direction as he shot him a wide smile.

[Jack Kelly]

At the sound of someone coming down the stairs, Jack looked up to see David. "Well I'll be damned..." his friend said, and Jack heard a laugh escape him. "Son of a gun. Dave!" How strange that it was almost as though the two friends hadn't seen each other in years... Granted, even when Jack was still living at the lodging house, he wasn't around to talk to anyone all that often. Things had been bad for a while--and they had gone from bad to worse, which had led him to leave the lodging house for good.

Well, not for good--there was only one minute out of the eight and a half days he'd been gone that he ever thought he was never coming back. He had entertained the thought, considered it was best...then experienced this awful sinking feeling that had ruined whatever lightening of his mood he'd managed so far. It was then that he resolved he would go back, and soon. As much as he dreamed of getting away, as much as he wanted to make something of himself (not just as a newsboy, but as a real somebody), he realized in his time away that he was nothing without his lodging house and his friends.

Jack caught the ball as it was thrown at him, a little far over to his left. He returned David's smile and walked up to him. "How's it goin', Dave?" he said sincerely, giving him a one-armed hug. As he pulled away, his boisterous smugness returned, if mostly in jest. "D'ja miss me? The place fall apart without me, or what?"

[David Jacobs]

Jack caught the ball with ease and the casual movement told David everything he needed to know about the current emotional state of his best friend. Whatever that thing was that had been hanging heavy was long gone, the invisible wall that seemed to have been pushing Jack away had been destroyed and David couldn't help but grin at the thought. Because sure he was alright at the managing of things when Jack was away, he was better equipped for the planning and the thinking and the talking than the actual doing - it's what made them a good team. "Aw, you know it wasn't the same without you around," David conceded, returning Jack's hug and giving Jack's shoulder a pat, a moment of levity before snagging the ball from Jack's hand and tossing it back up in the air. "Course I missed ya, probably never let me forget it if I didn't."

David turned to look at Jack and shook his head slightly - had things fallen apart? Not exactly. But it didn't mean everything was the same either, seemed much had been changing over the last little bit, even with David and there was a lot that had to be said. Things that David needed to tell Jack, because they mattered but also because, damn it he had missed his friend. "Not fall apart exactly," David said, quirking a smile as he wandered into the front room and sat in one of the chairs, bouncing the ball against the floor and watching it rebound up into his hand. "Lot changing though - Prince turned Queens over to Styx, River's got Bronx now from what I hear."

It had been whispers mostly, the way anything was passed around on the streets. Some that David had picked up from his own rounds or that the others had heard talking, some that Fighter had passed along. It didn't make David nervous exactly, change was one of those things that happened, whether they wanted it to or not, but he just wasn't sure what to make of it all.

[Lucky Volpecillia]

"He ain't wrong," Lucky quipped from the doorway the Brooklynite born, bred and living the life folded her arms as she edged into the downstairs from the door. She'd been doing a lot of avoiding, just about everyone it was true. She'd not wanted to talk ot her friends, not wanted to deal because well River wasn't speaking to her still and she was this close to giving up on them getting back together after this debacle. Being in Manhattan really she was there to talk to Skittery-- they bonded over snarkiness and their mutual distaste for human stupidity.

But she'd been surprised to see Jack talking to the mouth in the doorway. Lucky had no problems with David, she'd actually defended him a few times in Brooklyn because she knew he was smarter than the average bloke. All that book learning he had and she had car-blanch to go where she wanted.

"Spot's up in arms over all of it actually and has been stalking Brooklyn in a permanent bad mood since he got word River's leading the Bronx." Everyone and their dog knew that River used to be one of the higher ranking boys in Brooklyn before an alpha dispute with Spot had him leaving Brooks on his own. There was no kicking out, River had simply left. "And Prince has stepped back, told me so herself and was asking me all kindsa life.. question.. things." Lucky did not do touchy feely unless your name was Smalls.

[Jack Kelly]

"Aw, you know it wasn't the same without you around. Course I missed ya, probably never let me forget it if I didn't."

"Pro'lly not," Jack agreed with a grin. He leaned against the banister as he spoke next. "So how's everyone? Race, Bumlets, the boys keepin' out of trouble?" He asked the question ironically, knowing that keeping those boys out of trouble was like trying to keep ... Jack couldn't think of anything to finish the thought with, but it was damned impossible. Instead he asked Dave, "How's Les and your sister? Family good, or what?" He knew he had quite a bit of catching up to do with everyone, just to know how they were and get back on top of things. He didn't know how Spot did it, disappearing forever and then coming back, still the king of Brooklyn and privy to anything and everything there was to know.

"Not fall apart exactly."

Uh oh, Jack thought. His smile faded as David's emerged again, as he followed him to the front room and took the chair across from him.

"Lot changing though - Prince turned Queens over to Styx, River's got Bronx now from what I hear."

"River Chambers?" Jack exclaimed. He had nothing against River, it was more the shock that Dodger--who was not all too familiar with modesty, in Jack's opinion--would let a Brooklyn-born boy lead the Bronx. Maybe it was just Jack's personal preference. If he ever stepped down as leader of Manhattan, which wasn't happening any time soon, he would be careful to choose a replacement who was as Manhattan born and bred as he was, just like the leader before him. It was about allegiance, he reasoned.

Once he got past that bit, however, he let the rest of it sink in. Prince and Dodger weren't leaders anymore. Styx and River were. That made all the borough leaders male, except Alexandreia, who he assumed was still co-leader and head of the girls' lodging house in the Bronx. He exhaled. "You're kidding me, right?"

"He ain't wrong," said a voice from the door. Jack turned, and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Good to see you again, Lucky," he said dryly, pointing out with some good humor her lack of a greeting. "What, ya didn't miss me? How's Brooklyn?"

"Spot's up in arms over all of it actually and has been stalking Brooklyn in a permanent bad mood since he got word River's leading the Bronx. And Prince has stepped back, told me so herself and was asking me all kindsa life.. question.. things."

Jack could imagine why Spot was upset. The Brooklyn leader kicked people off his turf like newsies were going out of style, but from what he had heard, River had just left on his own accord. Jack imagined that took a lot of the satisfaction away from Spot. Now River was king of his own little section of New York? Jack thought of the kids in Manhattan who had been kicked out over the years (there were far fewer than in Brooklyn, that was for sure), and cringed inwardly at the thought of any of them taking over a borough of their own.

Lucky's explanation let him know why Prince had stepped down. It was common for leaders to step down to just get on with their lives as grown-ups. Jack was well aware that living as a newsie could keep you a kid forever, and when you didn't want that anymore, there was only one thing you could do. It was easy for kids who weren't leaders, all they had to do was head out whenever they wanted. They didn't have to say farewells. Leaders had more of a choice to make. If they cared anything about the kids they had led, they'd have to make time to find a replacement. It was more of an ordeal, and it made you think more. "Why did Dodger decide to hand the reins over?" he asked.

[David Jacobs]

"The boys are...." David waved his hand because well, the guys had been rather like they always were and that was one of those things that hadn't changed in Jack's absence. Always some bit of trouble just around the bend, always some pot to get stirred or adventure to be hand and David had learned to love that about his friends. Sometimes you didn't have to have every moment planned and sometimes life had a way of shaking things up, handing you the unexpected - David knew about that for sure. Which was something else that he needed to tell Jack, about the changes in his own life, but that could wait until Jack adjusted to how things were.

"Family's good," David said with a smile, bouncing the ball again and grinning over at Jack. "Les will be glad to know you're back, been asking about you...like always." His brother had always idolized Jack, from the very first moment they'd seen him leading the Newsies their first day on the streets. And David appreciated that his friend accepted the adoration of a ten year old with the sort of good natured ease with which Jack accepted most things. Though by the look on his face, the changes in Queens and Bronx were going to take a moment to sink in - they certainly had for David when he first heard.

David was about to interject that he wouldn't joke about a thing like that when a voice from the doorway confirmed the news he had given and he turned to see Lucky standing in the doorway. He didn't see her much, though they had a passing sort of respect for one another and David knew that Lucky saw him as more than just Jack's mouthpiece - which was more than he could say for most. He liked her well enough and she certainly had an ear in all the right places, he sent her a smile and motioned with his head for her to join them. "Lucky here could probably tell you more," David said, when Jack started asking questions that David was pretty sure he didn't rightly have the answers for. David had his own questions about what had happened and why, particularly in the Bronx, but also knew that sometimes those were the sorts of things you never got answers too.

[Lucky Volpecillia]

At Jack's quip and David's nod the Brooklynite made her way farther in and offered Jack a smirk. A part of her wanted to hug the idiot but Brooklyn pride always won out over a girly sentiment or two. She inclined her head to Dave a half smirk on her face though really she just looked exhausted, nudging him with her elbow. "Nice to see you Dave.. and you JackJack. Not like I didn't miss ya, just seem to vanish whenever the fun happens right?" That was enough wasn't it and they all knew Lucky had a mouth, though she was one of Spot's most trusted she was also -- or had been dating River. Which just made her the perfect person to get information out of.

"Eh?" she asked when Jack put the question too her. Shrugging her shoulders as she thought about it. "Dodge an' River have been friends since Dodge was here, so I can imagine it's a trust thing with them. Dodge was sayin he was gettin' old. Wanted to do something while he still had a life left to live and he wanted to get a job I guess. Said he was happier.. or some shit like that."

Whatever she meant could only really be answered by Dodger, but the truth was the Bronx leader had decided it was just time. He'd been the leader for so long he didn't think he had anything left in him to give and it was just time to be his own man again. Dodger had never been the kind that would lead forever, he'd grown up well though. It'd taught him a lot but really losing Perry had damaged the leader more than he'd let on.

"I dunno how River feels about any of it anyway he's not speaking to me right now.."

[Baby]

Baby had been in the kitchen trying to sift through everything they had to figure out what she could possibly make. She wasn't having too much lucky as her stomach continued to growl at her but when she heard the commottion in the other room she closed the cabinets she was rummagging through and made her way into the main downstairs room. She stood in the doorway of the kitchen and leaned her side against the frame as she allowed her eyes to proccess the picture....Jack was back, that was a relief and Davey seemed pretty happy about it. Lucky seemed abit concerned about other ordeals taking place around the city and in burroughs and Jack was questioning as always as well. Baby folded her arms gingerly over her chest as she watched the three converse, she wasn't eavesedropping she was just observing and wondering when they'd realize she was standing there. After listening for abit though she cleared her throat.

"Heya Jackyboy....how was yer lil disappearing act?" she questioned him abit teasingly before she freed one of her hands and began playing with her hair abit absently. "We missed ya, bet ya could imagine so though...." she muttered abit. "Feel free to carry on your conversation though, didn't mean to interrupt, just wanted to say hi...." she commented as she crossed the room and sat on the staircase near the three, her eyes still watching them, seeing if any of them would say anything to her.