#validation is cool

Requested: nope

Word count:

Warnings: mentions of the Delanceys and Snyder, brief mentions of death, mentions of abuse

A/n: I got this idea from a post (really it was a tangent I went on) that I had saved in my drafts about how when the kid in letters of the refuge told Crutchie to be quiet while he was talking about Santa Fe and how that represented Crutchie losing hope. Hopefully this is good, and it’s kinda a prequel to Without Crutchie. I hope you all like it!

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—

When Snyder grabbed him, Crutchie knew that he was done for. He yelled for Jack, but he knew that Jack wouldn’t come. Jack wouldn’t come face the man that he was terrified of, the man who had abused over a hundred children since imprisonment in the Refuge first began. He was being taken to the Refuge and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

When Crutchie got there, he was in more pain than he had been in a long time. Snyder and the Delanceys has beaten him before even having the handcuffs on. He was forcefully thrown into the back of the horse drawn police wagon and the door was nearly shut on his bad leg. Then finally, he was shoved into the small bunk filled room, and once again beaten by Snyder and his goons.

—

He couldn’t move. He felt like he was in the worst nightmare imaginable, but he couldn’t wake up from it. He was trapped. Shut off from the rest of the world, from his friends, his family. Although it was hard, he tried to remain hopeful.

He remained grateful to the kids who helped him get to the top bunk. If it weren’t for them, Snyder would be able to grab him without any effort, but this way, he was as safe as he could possibly be in the situation he was in. For the first time since he had gotten there, he didn’t feel alone. He felt taken care of.

He remained grateful to the kids who would bring him food whenever they were able to get it, whenever it was smuggled to them. They were considerate enough to not make him get off of his bunk. They were considerate enough to help him through thick and thin. He felt like he always had when he was around the boys at the lodge.

—

Crutchie could barely move. Snyder had pulled him from his bunk and dragged him by his bad leg to his office to “teach him a lesson” for striking.

Jack went to visit him, and Crutchie wanted to get down to see him, but he just couldn’t bring himself to move. Kids offered to help him down since they were well aware of everything Jack had done for the kids locked away in the Refuge, but Crutchie couldn’t go. He just wasn’t able to do anything.

—

By the next day, Crutchie was able to sit up for a short amount of time, so he took the liberty of writing down everything he would have said to Jack when he came to the window. He wanted to tell him that everything was going to be fine, that the strike was going to work and everyone would be treated fairly like they should be, that after the strike he and Jack would go straight to Santa Fe and not look back.

But that was a long shot. He wasn’t sure any of that would happen, especially not getting to Santa Fe. It was across the country. He wouldn’t be able to ride a Palomino, neither of them would. They didn’t know how. The fresh air wouldn’t fix his leg, no matter how much he tried to convince himself of it. They would be in the same situation they were in in New York, only they’d be in a different setting.

Santa Fe was a long shot. It was a fantasy, a dream that Jack had chased since Crutchie had met him. It wasn’t going to happen, but he wouldn’t tell Jack that.

He wouldn’t let Jack or the others know that he had lost hope, that he felt he would never get out, that he might die within the confining walls of the Refuge. He couldn’t tell them that. He couldn’t tell Jack that he was close to giving up.

Sure, he had an escape plan: tie a sheet to the bed, toss the end out the window, climb down, and run all the way back to the lodge or however far his legs could carry him. He knew that wasn’t going to happen. With the worsening of his leg, and the new abuse added to that, he knew he was stuck. He was trapped with nowhere to go.

He couldn’t protect himself, or the boys at the lodge whom of which he had grown to love, while he was locked away in the under-kept prison for children , but they could protect one another. If he never got out, he’d know that they were safe because they wouldn’t never let anything happen to another one of their own.

He didn’t know how to end his letter. Should he just say he was Jack’s friend? It didn’t sound right. He was more than that. Should he say that he was Jack’s best friend? That just didn’t sound right either. So Crutchie chose a relation that best represented the way he felt about Jack and the way Jack felt about him. He was Jack’s brother. He was his family. So that’s how it ended, Your brother, Crutchie.

Specs had come to check on Crutchie the following day, and was asked to give the letter directly to Jack. He obliged, and told Crutchie that he would do it right away.

—

The next week and a half, Crutchie had no visitors. He was left on his own and treated horribly by the adults in the facility. He wondered what could have happened in those men’s lives to make them so willing to hurt children and not feel any sort of remorse. All he could do was wonder.

That week alone was a blur. It felt like forever when it happened, but now looking back, it felt like only a few days, rather than being a painstaking two weeks. Without knowing what was happening next, Crutchie saw two state officials unlock all of the rooms that children were locked in.

For a moment, he started to have hope, then he realized that something bad could be happening. They could have been being let go, but they could also be taken to a more secure prison away from the city. Anxiety started to build, and Crutchie kept thinking more bad thoughts, until he saw Snyder being dragged away by two police officers.

Crutchie asked a few if the kids in his bunk to help him down to the ground so he could ask the policemen taking Snyder away for an important favor. Luckily, they obliged and the policemen did as well, and with that, Crutchie, the two policemen, and a very angry Snyder made their way down to the circulation gate of the World.

—

Jack stood above all the newsies on a balcony of the World building, telling everyone that they had won. They had beat the “king makers of New York” as Katherine had called them when she was first introduced to the group, and Crutchie couldn’t have been prouder of his large, dysfunctional family, who stood in front of him, congratulating one another.

He decided that the group of four would enter the square after Governor Roosevelt had let everyone know that the Refuge was being shut down for all of the mistreatment that had occurred. Of course, Crutchie would go first so everyone would know that he’s okay, and then the officers and Snyder would follow so Crutchie could put the handcuffs on Snyder just as Snyder had done to him two weeks prior.

Everyone was ecstatic when they saw Crutchie. He honestly wasn’t sure if they were more excited about winning the strike, or having him back, but since Crutchie knew his family, he knew that they were more happy to see him. The large group didn’t expect to ever see what they saw next. Crutchie had put the handcuffs of Snyder, hit him with his crutch, and off Snyder went to prison.

Jack had rushed down to the center of the square to see Crutchie and to thank the governor for his generosity in helping with the strike. Jack was still planning on going to Santa Fe even though he had his best friend back, was the leader of a union, had a new relationship with Katherine, and had just gotten a job offer from the very man he lead the strike against. If it weren’t for the convincing from Crutchie, Davey, and Katherine, Jack would have already been on the train, straight to Santa Fe.

The one that convinced Jack to stay was Crutchie. He had been right, they were all a family. They were always there for one another, and the last thing Jack would do was abandon his family. They were glad that Jack was staying, relieved even, but they were more happy about Crutchie,because after weeks of hell, he was safe. He had made his way back home.

—

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