AN: Another sort of uneventful chapter, but there's some angst here and there. Also, I would like to apologize for Jack's accent, when I write it, sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not, I dunno.

After several more hours of driving, Katherine finally felt the car slow to a stop. A few moments passed, and then the car door opened and Colin picked Katherine up and flung her roughly over his shoulder, aggravating her still-fresh wounds. She gritted her teeth. Clearly, if she was still being held for ransom, it didn't matter to these two what condition she was returned in.

"Just lock her up in there for the night, I'm tired of driving - we'll deal wth everything in the morning." Mary instructed, presumably pointing somewhere. It was pitch black outside, so Katherine couldn't see where she was talking about. 

Soon enough, her eyes adjusted, and she recognized that they were taking her inside some type of shed that was just barely big enough for the three of them to fit. Once they were inside, she was dropped carelessly on the floor.

"You know how much he was feeding her before?" Mary asked, as if she was just now remember that Katherine was a human being, who needed to be kept alive. Colin shrugged.

"Not much. Doesn't really matter, so long as she doesn't starve. We'll give her something tomorrow." 

The two of them walked out, and Katherine was left lying on the floor of the shed, her back throbbing, and the only light was the moonlight that was streaming through the one small window near the ceiling. 

oOo

"She's been kidnapped again?"

This news had just been broken to Jack by Mr. Pulitzer, and currently, more than anything, he was just angry.

"That seems to be the case. It seems that though Mr. Edwards is in prison, he had some accomplices who intend on finishing what he started."

"Why did anyone think it was a good idea to let her outta their sight? She'd only been there a little over a full day!"

"I understand your anger, Mr. Kelly, but we must try to think this through rationally."

"Your daughter has just been kidnapped! We don't have time to think about anything, we gotta do something! Do you even care about her?"

Pulitzer rose out of his seat, giving Jack a menacing look. "How dare you insinuate that I don't care about my own daughter! Of course I care!"

"Then how come you let her get taken away from you? Twice? Now, it ain't like I know anything about fathers, but it don't seem to me like you're doing too good a job at being one."

Unfortunately for them, one of the few things that Jack Kelly and Joseph a Pulitzer had in common was a rather bad temper. And Pulitzer had just lost his.

"Get out of my office. Now."

"Fine." Jack spat, his glare at the older man never wavering. And with that he turned and left the office, slamming the door loudly behind him.

oOo

"Jack."

The boy in question looked up as he entered the Lodging House to find a room full of concerned-looking newsboys.

"Yeah?" He muttered, still not in the best mood after his conversation in Pulitzer's office, but trying to tone it down for his boys. He sat down on the couch next to Crutchie.

"How's Kath?" Specs asked hesitantly. "They tell you anything?"

Jack sighed, leaning back on the couch and running a hand through his hair. "She's gone."

He cringed at the short outburst that followed, waiting for them calm down - if only slightly. Once they did, Crutchie turned to face him, visibly shaken.

"H-how'd it happen?"

Jack looked around at all the boys' faces, confused by why they all seemed so affected by this news, and then his eyes widened as he realized what his phrasing made them all think.

"No, no, guys, she's... she's not dead or anything." They all seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief. "At least, I hope not. No, she just... she got..." He blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. "They took her again. Mr. Pulitzer's expecting another ransom note soon."

None of the boys knew what to say to that. They didn't know what to do. They just sat there, holding in their own emotions as they watched Jack Kelly, their seemingly impenetrable leader, breaking.