AN: I have to say I haven't had this much fun writing a story in a while, and I am loving this one. Yay!

Katherine had almost made it all the way back to the Pulitzer Mansion, but she was about a block away when a pair of hands grabbed her from behind. She was calm for a split second (Jack had a tendency to surprise her by holding her around the waist from behind her, so she'd gotten used to the feeling) before her mind registered the fact that she had just left Jack at the Lodging House, and these hands were holding her much more roughly than Jack ever would have. 

Her first instinct was to scream, but before she could, one of the hands became tightly clasped over her mouth. 

"Just be quiet princess, I don't want to hurt you anymore than necessary." A gruff voice said harshly, sending chills down Katherine's spine. "Hold still, now."

Of course, Katherine being Katherine, did nothing of the sort. She turned as well as she could while still in the mans firm grip, and stomped hard on his foot with the heel of her boot. He cursed loudly and she tore herself from his loosened grip, intending to make a run for it, but he grabbed her again before she could go anywhere. 

"You're gonna regret that, Miss Pulitzer."

Before she knew what was happening, the man pressed an odd-smelling cloth to her face. Knowing what it was, Katherine tried to hold her breath for as long as she could, but after a while she couldn't take it anymore and was forced to inhale. She immediately began to feel dizzy, and not long after, she fell completely unconscious.

oOo

Jack was not surprised by very many things, by now he'd pretty much worked out how life on the street was supposed to work, but he was downright shocked when Joseph Pulitzer walked up to him in a rather angry fashion while he was standing on a street corner selling papers. None of the newsies had seen much of the man since the strike had ended, nor had they expected to.

"Watcha doin' around here, Joe? Here to buy a pape?" Jack tried to make a joke, obviously Pulitzer wouldn't need to buy a copy of his own paper. The older man didn't take it as such, however.

"I would have absolutely no reason for buying one of your papers, I've already read everything that's in it."

Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Then what do you need with me?"

"Where is my daughter? I know you have her."

"You'se making it sound like I kidnapped her or something." He let out a short laugh. "No way I'd know where she is, I ain't seen her since she left last night."

"That is quite obviously a lie, as she didn't come home last night."

"Well, she definitely left."

"I demand to go through that dingy Lodging House of yours and look in every hiding spot you have. She's bound to be in one of them."

"You think I'm hiding her from you? Sounds to me like you're getting kinda paranoid. 'Sides, don't you need some type of warrant for that?"

"I don't need a warrant, I have a perfectly reasonable cause. Now, either you bring her to me, or I will go in there and find her myself."

Jack gave him an odd look. He wondered if he'd always been this protective of Katherine, or if he'd just finally lost his marbles. "Look, she probably just got assigned to some early morning reporting job and had to leave before you was up. Now, I got a job of my own to do, and if you ain't gonna buy nothing, I really gotta get back to it."

"You insufferable little..."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Nice talking to ya." Jack gave him an overly friendly wave before deciding just to head over to a new selling spot, as it was obvious Pulitzer was not going to leave of his own accord. He shook his head. Sometimes that old man just made no sense.

oOo

Joseph Pulitzer muttered angrily to himself as he began the walk back to The World building. He didn't care what that horrible Kelly boy said. He had an awful feeling that something was wrong, and he knew he could trust that feeling. Katherine wasn't on an early reporting job. She was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. And he was going to get to the bottom of it.