"Sure you can handle being away from me for a day?" Jack asked Katherine with a smirk. She rolled her eyes and pushed his chest playfully.

"I can handle a day... as long as you promise to come back to me tonight." She said and stepped closer to him.

"Count on it." He said softly and his hand came up to her cheek and slowly moved back until it was resting behind her neck and he was pulling her face to his. She felt herself shiver as he kissed her, oh it was wonderful! He pulled away and smiled at her.

"Gotta go." He said and tipped his hat in her direction, he turned and climbed out on her fire escape giving her one last flash of a smile before he made his way to the bottom. She rested her chin on her hands dreamily as she watched him till he was out of sight. They'd been a "thing" (or that's what Race and Romeo called it) for a little over a month now and she was still completely and utterly head-over-heals in love with him. She sighed again and headed off to her kitchen for something to eat when she herd a knock at her door. She took a detour to answer it.

"Dad?" She asked with a gasp at the man standing in her door way.

"Katherine my dear, good to see you here I thought you were at work." He said stepping inside.

"Not till 10" she said closing her door behind him. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to speak with you, I have some good news." He said clapping his hands together.

"Oh, ok well come sit down." She said gesturing to a seat that sat under her counter. She spotted the two coffee cups her and Jack had been drinking earlier and slyly set them in the sink, she hopped he didn't notice. He sat down at her counter and she went and sat across from him.

"Well Katherine," her father began "you have grown up to be a very beautiful, worthy young women and that beauty and worthy has not gone unnoticed." She lifted an eyebrow at her father, where was he going with this?

"Um, thank you Father, but I don't see your point." She said. Pulitzer sighed a little and rubbed his head.

"What I'm trying to say is you have caught the eye of a few men, one in particular that I am anxious for you too meet." He said, Katherine hated the way he said: Caught their eye as if she was a fish or something. She suddenly felt really uncomfortable, she knew the way this conversation was going to turn.

"Oh" she said fidgeting in her seat.

"Anyways, this man -George Hudson is his name- has offered to court you." Her father said, she almost screamed aloud.

"What?" She asked shocked and a little horrified. "He can't just do that! I don't even know him!" She said.

"You don't know him, but he knows you. He's a very good man, I worked with his father for many years." He said. Great, Pulitzer likes the guy.

"I can't!" She said "no, that wouldn't be good, I-no I can't court him." She said and stood up. Pulitzer sighed deeply.

"Honey, you are very lucky I'm letting him court you first, some aren't as lucky, I could have let him marry you already." He said, Katherine felt herself go light headed. Oh gosh, what could have happened to her and Jack if her father had forced her to marry? She didn't want to think about it. There was a reason she hadn't told her father about her and Jack.

"I can't!" She said again.

"You can't or you won't?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"No, I can't, I'm actually kinda already seeing someone right now..." she said trailing off.

"Your what?" He asked his eyes going dark with a glare.

"Um, I'm seeing someone, like, we're courting already." She said nervously.

"And who might this person be?" Pulitzer asked. Katherine winced, she wasn't really to keen on telling him about her and Jack but what other choice dis she have?

"He's um... Jack Kelly." Katherine said. There was a long stretch of silence as Katherine watched her fathers face get angrier and angrier.

"Who?" Her father asked his voice low even tho he knew exactly who Jack Kelly was.

"Don't be mad-" she started to say but Pulitzer cut her off.

"You mean the Newsie Jack Kelly?" He said Newsies like it was a crime to be one.

"Yes we-"

"I can't believe you! When did this happen and how did I not know about it?"

"Well, we got together just after the strike," she didn't fail to notice the scowl that was etched to his face "and I didn't want to tell you because I knew you wouldn't like it..." she said fiddling with her skirt.

"Why on earth would you want to spend your time with someone like him? He's good for nothing!" Pulitzer said angrily.

"You can't say that! You barely know him!" She defended. If Pulitzer had a scale from 1 to 10 of how much he hates Jack then it would be at a 9 right now.

"I know him well enough to know he has nothing but the shirt on his back. He is a hopeless street rat." Pulitzer said through his teeth. Katherine's jaw dropped and she glared at her father.

"I don't care that he doesn't have any money, I don't care that he lives on the streets, all I care about is him! Do you not see how happy I have been for the last month? It's because of Jack!" She exclaims.

"I can't believe I didn't know, my men never reported seeing you hanging around Kelly!" He said, Katherine rolls her eyes of course he'd have men keeping an eye on her!

"That's because we weren't public with it! We didn't want you to know so we kept it private!" She said trying to make him see her point.

"So you guys are "together" but not really together." He said making air quotations in the air.

"No we spend time together, we both work durning the day so he stays with me at night." This had obviously been the wrong thing for Katherine to say because Pulitzers face darkened suddenly.

"You better not be letting him under your skirt." He said his voice low and dangerous.

"No! No we-haven't no..." she said feeling her face grow warm. She didn't want to be talking about this with her father. "We don't, um no, h-he just sleeps with me." She said which didn't help her case much. She winced at her own words. "We don't see each other very often so he just spends some nights with me, that's all!" She said in a rush, after a moment he seemed to believe her because the imaginary scale of Jack Hate went from a 10 to a 4.

"That better be all." He said darkly.

"It is!"

It got awkward after that, Katherine sat fiddling with her skirts as her fathers grumpy mood stayed the same.

"So... tell this George Hudson that I'm already taken." She said venturing for something to say. Pulitzer snorted at her choice of words.

"I'll tell him to give it another month." He said and got out of his chair. Katherine guessed that was the best she could get. She bid her father farewell with a sigh of relief, she couldn't wait to see Jack that night.

-----------------------------------------

"Greoge Hudson?" Jack asked raising and eyebrow at her. "Isn't he like... 48?" Katherine shuttered at the thought.

"I am so glad I have you." She said and snuggled closer to him pulling the blankets around them tighter. "With out you I would be getting ready for an unwanted date in the morning."

"And if it weren't for you I'd probably be stuck out West somewhere." He said and kissed the top of her head. She smiled into his shirt.

"I love you."

"I love you too Katherine."

Authors note- This was a quick off-the-top-of-my-head story so hope it doesn't suck. Suggestions are welcome! I own nothing! Thanks