The Refuge was still full of children, living in their close quarters and trying to survive. Everything was as normal as it could be in that awful building. Everyone who resided there was holding onto the hope that they were going to hear some good news from somebody. They were all up early in order to avoid any abuses for waking up late and missing breakfast. Then again, nobody was sure if those meals could even be called breakfast.

However, before "breakfast", there was just enough time for Elizabeth to read something to the other kids. The young woman sat on one of the lower bunks, with Crutchie and Patrick sitting on either side of her, looking out at the crowd of quiet children in front of them. Elizabeth started with the Newsie Banner, wanting to give them a little bit of hope as they started the day. "In the words of union leader Jack Kelly, 'We will work with you, we will even work for you, but we will be paid, and treated as valuable members of your organization.'"

The kids all seemed to like that, but they were scared to make too much noise, so they just nodded and smiled. One of the kids, a boy named Matthew, asked softly, "Do you think that will work? Will they win the fight?"

Crutchie nodded. "I know those guys. They'll win, and everythin' will go back to the way it should be," he told them.

"And as soon as they take care of that, they're going to get started on working to get us out of here. My sister told me so," Elizabeth added, giving the kids a reassuring smile.

Patrick couldn't help but smile from his place beside the two. "And we'll get to see our families and old friends again." The thought of seeing his mother was really helping him to feel better after all the injuries he had sustained and time he had spent in this dismal place.

"I hope it's sooner rather than later," another young boy, Daniel, admitted.

"Me too," a third kid, Luke, added. "This place is hell."

Elizabeth reached behind her, being careful not to strain her injuries in the process of swapping the Newsie Banner for  Treasure Island. "Well, when we get out of this hell," she started, "if we're not finished with this book, I promise I will keep reading it to all of you. Every Sunday afternoon, I'll read a new chapter to whoever shows up at my doorstep. And, when we finish this book, we'll pick out a new one. Does that sound alright?"

This time, the boys weren't afraid of making too much noise. They liked that idea too much to care. They cheered and voiced their assent, making the kids on the bunk very happy. So, Elizabeth quickly gave the details to the kids, including offering her address and a time to wait there for her. These plans were greeted by even more enthusiasm.

It didn't matter, though, whether or not they made any noise. That was the day the strike was settled, so they wouldn't have been punished. At that moment, the police arrived at the Refuge and they were getting ready to bring everyone down to the square to be part of the celebration and close down the awful place for good.

*****

The Refuge had been horrid, but thinking about the little moments of peace helped Elizabeth to keep a smile on her face. She planned to keep her promise to the group of boys, and it just so happened that the day after the strike was settled was a Sunday. So, after going with her father to a doctor's appointment to get her arm and other injuries checked out, she returned home and went upstairs to retrieve the book from where she left it.

That morning, she had explained to Bill that she had taken the novel from his room, and offered to give it back. After all, that story had been one of his favorites. But, Bill would have none of it. The young man just gave her the book instead, citing being a good older brother as his reason. Elizabeth would have said that Bill was a good older brother without doing this, but it certainly helped.

At the designated time of three in the afternoon, Elizabeth went downstairs to go sit on the steps. She was hoping for two, maybe three of the kids to show, the ones who didn't have any family or friends to go see.

Instead, she found fifteen sitting there on the sidewalk and some of the lower steps, waiting for her. She was clearly surprised, but she was also relieved to see so many of them already looking better than before. A day and a half of actual decent food from family members and kind people on the street had done the kids much more good than whatever they had been served in the Refuge. Patrick in particular, though he had so many fresh injuries, was clearly looking better, since his mother had managed to take care of dressing all his wounds and feeding him until he was stuffed.

Elizabeth smiled at all the kids. "Glad to see you all could make it," she commented and took a seat on one of the stairs, next to Matthew. As she carefully laid the book in her lap, she looked around at all of the arrivals. "How are you doing today?"

The replies were hardly distinguishable from one another. Instead of individual words, Elizabeth heard a jumbled mess of sounds in a wide array of voices. She pretended to understand, and offered nods and smiles in their direction before she attempted to open the book. "Well, then, let's pick up where we left off, then."

But, before she opened up the book, she saw somebody hobbling over to her. It was none other than Crutchie. He also looked better than before, likely due to being back with his friends and the party last night. Over his shoulder hung an empty newspaper bag, a sign of a good sales day. As he made his way over to the group, he said, "Sorry I'm late. I didn't miss nothin', did I?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "You're right on time, Crutchie. I was just about to start. Take a seat," she told him as she gestured to the empty space on her other side.

The newsie smiled and did as he was told, gently laying his crutch beside him so it was out of the way, but in easy reach. "Great. I was worried I was gonna miss somethin' in the story, and it's gettin' real good, so..."

Elizabeth smiled. "We're barely finished with chapter two, but I'm glad you're excited to read this as much as I am." And with that, she opened the book and started to read.

Everyone was immediately captivated by the words of the story. The story of the pirates excited the young children. Back in the Refuge, the story of sailing and swashbuckling was entertaining to the children. After all, it was a story about pirates and searching for adventure. For many of these kids, they'd been in the Refuge since they were very young, so they'd never had the chance to do much adventuring, even around a singular New York block. The story of pirates traveling across the ocean was making their imaginations run wild. Some of the littler ones, like Daniel, were already dreaming of becoming a pirate themselves, with their rediscovered mothers' permission, of course. The ocean wasn't all that far away, after all. All they needed was a boat...

About halfway through the chapter, one of the boys spoke up. "Ey, Doc?" It was Luke this time. "Pirates went on treasure hunts, right?" When Elizabeth nodded, he continued, "Can wes go on a treasure hunt sometime?"

Elizabeth chewed her lip. "Well, I'm not sure what kind of treasure we can search for in Manhattan, but if there is some, maybe we could," she replied, thinking about it. Maybe she could figure out something she could hide as treasure for them next week, like make a batch of cookies and leave them somewhere with a map drawn to their location. If she found the time, maybe she'd give it a try.

"That would be amazin'! Wes gonna be like real pirates, searchin' for buried treasure!" Matthew exclaimed, looking around at the friends who were gathered around him.

"We should go lookin' fer it now! Somebody else might go an' dig it up if we don't go now!" Little Daniel, whose imagination clearly was running wild, was already up on his feet and looking over at the young woman with excitement practically spilling from his blue eyes. "Doc, will you read whatever's left of the chapter next week so we can go hunting? Please, please, please?"

Elizabeth couldn't help giggling a bit at the boy's request. "If you boys want to go run and search for treasure, you are more than welcome to. We can finish chapter three next week right here on the steps."

"But won't you come with us?" Luke asked, looking a little hurt. This surprised Elizabeth a little bit. Yes, she had been taking care of the kids, nursing their injuries and such, but she didn't expect that they would want to spend time with her all that much now that they were all free. After all, she only expected a few kids to show up, not the crowd that had actually arrived.

"I really shouldn't, not until my arm has healed. But, maybe next week, or some other time," the young woman replied, offering a little bit of a compromise.

Luke frowned, but nodded understandingly. "Okay. Next week, then," he stated as Daniel sat back down, everyone choosing to stay and keep listening rather than run off.

So, Elizabeth returned to her reading, telling the story the best she could. She added some voices to make it more interesting, which the younger ones loved, and asked the older kids every once in awhile if they had any predictions of what was to come.

The end of chapter three, though, was something the kids didn't see coming. As she read the last line aloud, she let the words linger in the air and quietly closed the book, which allowed the children to process what had just happened.

Nobody said anything initially. But, Matthew did end up breaking the silence after a little bit, with a simple, "What?"

That was when the rest of the boys erupted in questions, with very few words being distinguishable from the rest. Elizabeth did pick out a few kids wondering about how someone could really be dead, but other than that, it all blended together, just like the answers when she asked how everyone was.

"Is that really the end?" Patrick asked, speaking up for the first noticeable time all day. He had left most of the talking to the three young boys, since they had many more questions than he could possibly come up with.

She nodded. "Yes, that's the end of chapter three. But, we can read chapter four next week," she answered easily, offering the kids a smile to hopefully make them feel a little better about how the chapter had to end.

Patrick looked at her pointedly. "But why can't we just keep going now?"

"Because then we might be reading until three in the morning, and my father definitely wouldn't like that," Elizabeth explained, gesturing up towards the building behind her with a shrug. "I wish we could, though." The kids seemed to accept that, and within a minute or two, they all said goodbye and headed off towards home.

All except Crutchie. He stayed sitting there on the steps, mainly because he didn't want to inconvenience anyone with how long it would take him to get on his feet. But, before he could start to get up, Elizabeth held out her hand to stop him. "Yeah?" he asked as he relaxed his grip on his crutch.

"Do you mind staying to talk for a while?"

Crutchie nodded, then offered a smile before he settled back onto the stairs. "Whaddya wanna talk about?"

Elizabeth just shrugged. "I don't know. Everyone was leaving, and I didn't want to be left alone," she mused as she gently set aside the book on her lap.

"Ah." There was a little bit of silence before Crutchie started, "So, how's your arm?"

"Better," she stated. "My father and I went to a doctor's appointment this morning, and it should heal properly as long as it stays in the proper position. How's your other leg?"

"Better," he quoted, which earned a laugh from Elizabeth. "Ise still strugglin' a bit, and Jack's was worryin' 'bout me today, but it's okay. Ise gonna be fine."

"Well, that's good to hear," Elizabeth said with a soft smile. "So, you had to sneak away from Jack, then, so you could come?"

"I wouldn't really call it sneakin' away," Crutchie pondered as his gaze shifted to the sky briefly, thinking about what he remembered. "Afta he finished sellin' today, he went straight up ta his penthouse and started sketchin' somethin'. Maybe it's for the cartoonist job or maybe it's just for fun. I didn't ask."

"Really?" she asked. "Well, I'm glad you came. It's nice to spend time with you without anything distracting us." This comment caused both of them to smile, and they subsequently locked eyes.

Crutchie started fiddling with the newspaper bag across his shoulder. "I wasn't gonna miss this if I didn't absolutely hafta," he admitted. "The story is interestin', and I wouldn't wanna miss spendin' time with ya neither, because I really like spendin' time with ya."

At first, Elizabeth didn't process the last bit of Crutchie's comments. "Well, I picked up the book for Les because I thought he'd be interested in reading it, but then things changed and we had different living arrangements, so..." she trailed off. That was when she thought about what he had said, and her mind made the connection. "Crutchie?"

"Liza, I, uh..." he started, but before he could continue, the door behind them opened. Standing in the doorway was Elizabeth's father, a man that Crutchie had never really seen before. Since he sold for The World and Mr. Hearst ran The Journal, it made sense. To Crutchie, the man was quite intimidating, and the older man hadn't even looked at him yet.

"Elizabeth, it's time for you to come inside. Dinner is being served," Hearst declared, his eyes initially locked on the pocketwatch that was nestled in his hand. When his eyes fell on the pair on the stairs, his countenance instantly shifted to one of confusion. "Who's this?"

After scooping the book up into her arms, Elizabeth was on her feet. "Oh, this is my friend Crutchie. He was with me in the Refuge. Crutchie, this is my father," she introduced, gesturing between them with each name.

The newsie got up to his feet as quickly as he could, shifting his weight to his better foot as he put the crutch under his arm. After he was steady, he offered his hand to the older man to shake. "Nice to meet ya, sir," he said politely.

"Same to you," Hearst replied in a similar manner, but he didn't shake his hand. "Now, come inside Elizabeth." With that, he turned around and walked back inside without another word.

Reluctantly, Elizabeth followed. But, before she completely went inside, she turned and smiled at Crutchie. "I'll see you later, Crutchie. Save me a paper?"

He nodded and offered a smile. "Of course. I promised, remember?" With a tip of his hat, he turned and hobbled down the stairs and onto the street.