Consider!!!! Queens being hella pissed after jack takes all that money and tells them to disband the union after literally begging for their help and they ain't gonna let the deed go unpunished so they find some of the Manhattan newsies to soak to send a message to jack that actions have consequences
stop it rn omgomg. i'm thinking dave finds him up in his "penthouse" before kath does and it goes a little bit like this:
"What the hell's the matter with you?" David shouted, shoving a finger into Jack's chest.
Jack angrily shoved the other boy away. "Go away, Dave."
"No. You don't get to run away. You don't get to screw us all, take your money, and get your dumbass happy Santa Fe ending."
"Shut up!" David all but screamed. "Do you know what happened tonight? Right after you left with your stupid fucking money; Queens beat the crap out of us!"
Jack went quiet, the weight of his actions drowning him. David didn't stop. "You can't just do that, Jack. No, not to Queens. And I can assure you, they made that pretty damn clear. You can't beg a turf to go out of their way, to lose their money, to help you and then just bail on them."
Dave chokes on his words, and Jack wouldn't have thought he had cared about them that much. "You know how I found 'em?" He doesn't wait for a response. "They were sitting in an alley, just a clump of practically lifeless bodies. You would've thought that a morgue had come and dumped some unclaimed corpses right there in the middle of that alley. Racetrack didn't move, not even when I tried to get him up. Honest to God, Jack, I thought he was dead."
"And Elmer was sitting there, and you know what he was doing? He was clinging to his rosary and he was pleading with God. Now, I don't know Elmer as well as you do, but I do know that he doesn't have the greatest relationship with the church. You know how desperate you have to be to plead with a God who hurt you?"
"You're not gonna believe this, but that's not even the worst part. The beatings aren't even close to the worst part. What's worst is that all of them are blaming themselves. And all of them are sitting in the lodging house waiting for you to walk in and fix their wounds, because that's what you've always done. The worst part is that they're all defending you with every broken bone in their body. And that's awful because it's all your fucking fault, Jack!"
Jack fell into David's arms. And David doesn't shove him away, he takes him into his arms and begs him to fix things. Because David isn't mad either, he wants to be mad but he can't be mad because he's making excuses for Jack too. All Jack can do, for at least a couple of minutes, is sob into Jack's shoulder.
SO SORRY FOR STEALING THE ASK LIKE THAT LMAO. honestly the idea ignited something in me bc oh my god like the angst?? i can't!! also imagining any of the boys telling him. racetrack telling him, all beaten up and sore. ugh im dead
