Archive of Our Own ^beta

Here’s the thing, Spot Conlon does not like Davey Jacobs. He tolerates Davey because without him the newsies would have lost the strike but that’s all. Spot owes Davey for the strike and the one thing Spot Conlon hates is to owe anyone. That is the only reason he is doing this; it has nothing to do with his feeling for Davey or Racetrack.

Racetrack Higgins on the other hand adores Davey. Davey is friends with all the Manhattan newsies. He’s been teaching them to read properly and other such school things. Race respects Davey. He thinks of Dave as a good friend, and Race hates when people pick on his friends.

Which is why he is currently attempting to convince Spot that locking everyone but the Jacobs in the school building and setting it aflame is a good idea. Luckily for their criminal records Spot realizes that that is not the best answer, though he is not averse to finding the main perpetrators and punching the life out of them.

Davey has been back at school for three weeks now, and after Davey’s “episode” as they have taken to calling it Jack has informed all the newsies in New York City to keep an eye on him. They all agreed, no one wanted him to deal with that alone.

Of course all the newsies are oblivious.

Race and Spot seem to be the only ones who noticed. Race has spent a few days every week selling near the school to watch as Davey left, and noticed the way he leaves everyday with a few new bruises and an increasingly vulnerable look. Spot and watches as Race came to visit in Brooklyn in the late afternoon increasingly hostile.

It took them three weeks to notice Davey’s anguish, it took two minutes for Race to convince Spot to help, it took four days to create their plan.

As Davey leaves school on that fifth day, he runs past Race not seeing the newsie in his rush. Three other boys followed Davey off the school yard, laughing and jeering at him. Race cracks his knuckles and clenches his jaw before storming at them.

He’s quite a few inches shorter and the bullies seem to laugh at him as well. Race responds by punching the one closest to him in to stomach before kneeing him in the genitals. The other two clench their fists and bare their teeth as they advance towards them but Racetrack easily picks a fight with one as Spot pelts the other with rocks using his sling-shot.

The first guy recovers and starts at Racetrack and Spot abandons his sling-shot in favor of throwing himself into the fight and uses his size as the shortest to be the quickest.

They pull back when all three are on the ground bleeding and bruised. Spot and Race are covered in blood and bruises as well but they don’t seem to notice. Race bends over the three upper-class boys on the ground and menacingly whispers “we newsies stick together,leave Davey Jacobs alone,” as Spot picks up his sling-shot.

Together the two walk off, leaving the schoolboys there and show up at the Jacobs house. Where they clean up and make no mention of how they got injured, the fading bruises covering Davey's face, or the young men a few streets down still struggling to stand up.