AN: This is short and mostly a filler but it's necessary so... here ya go 

It had been three months since Jack had gone upstate, and Katherine and the boys hadn't heard anything from him. It was now the beginning of August, they'd been hoping to hear something from him over the summer but they'd had no such luck. The only good thing that was coming out of Jack being gone was that Katherine had gotten to know the boys, and now thought of them as her brothers, and they thought of her as their sister. They had mixed feelings about it, but there was no denying that Jack's leaving had brought them closer together.

oOo

Jack grit his teeth as he propped himself up against the wall in Snyder's living room. He had just endured another one of the beatings. Jack was starting to really hate that belt. He pushed himself up and made his way to the bathroom. He guessed he should consider himself lucky, Snyder tended to leave the house several times a day, so he had plenty of time to himself, and there was always a stock of medical supplies in the bathroom so Jack could take care of himself. Some kids had it worse, he knew. It was just hard to stay positive with a belt slamming against your back.

oOo

Katherine woke up at 2:00 in the morning to her phone ringing. She glanced at it and saw that it was Crutchie, which struck her as odd. Of all the people that would call her this early, he wasn't one of them, so she quickly answered it.

"Crutchie?"

"Katherine."

"What's wrong?"

"You need to get to the hospital."

"What...? Which one?"

"I'll text you the address, just hurry."