Nowadays, if someone told her a piece of information about her future that she would've otherwise found ridiculous, she wouldn't laugh.

In the span of a month, maybe less, she'd found a boy who would love her unconditionally, told off the other one who'd taken her for granted, and had lost her family to The Unknowns. She doubted anything could surprise her, anymore.

Dipper had always had a hard time with change. Try as she may, she'd never been able to fully suppress the toll it took on her. The sheer amount of recent changes in her life were almost too much to bear, yet she knew she had to keep going. To prove herself? Perhaps. To be of as much help as she could be, at the very least.

This was her mindset the day the masked men appeared.

It'd been a long day. The winds had been bitter, and every potential customer had opted to stay inside. This made their job of selling papes all the more difficult, and as if that hadn't been enough, the headline was no better than it usually was on a Thursday. She was cold, she was tired, and if her runny nose was anything to go by, she was sick. She'd gone back to the lodge that evening feeling like she could sleep a hundred years, if given the choice.

She wasn't. Next thing she knew, there were screams from outside, coming from the people she knew far too well. She ran out as fast as her legs would carry her, halting as she processed the sight in front of her. The newsies had all but waged war against the men in black, pushing their way through the sea of kids, coming towards her.

Towards the lodging house.

She stood, perplexed, for a moment, wondering what was happening. It seemed as though they — being the group of men — were there searching for the objects. Hadn't they learnt their lesson last time? What confused her was why they weren't targeting the newsies, as they weren't exactly hiding themselves. Unless they planned to harm the kids later on, yet wanted to attract the least amount of attention as possible before doing anything rash. Grab the objects, kill the newsies, and be on their merry way before the bulls showed up.

She clenched her jaw, enraged by this idea, and prepared to throw herself into the fray if needed. No, it was needed. If she went down, it wouldn't be as a coward. Mush seemed to sense this, as the next moment, he stood in front of her with panicked eyes. "What are you doing?"

She gestured towards the chaos with furrowed brows. Wasn't it obvious? He, too, turned to look, before he returned his attention back to her, grabbing her shoulders. "No, you go back inside. We'll deal wit dis."

"Mush, I wanna help," she pleaded. "C'mon, I'll jus feel guilty if I stand by. You've gotta let me help."

"You do help," Mush assured, "in oth-ah ways. But dis... dis ain't fa you. Do you know how scared Albert would be if he saw you mixed up in all dis?"

"Mushy's right," Race said from a few feet away, to which she rolled her eyes. Really? Two against one? "Plus, none of us wanna see ya get hoit."

"Fine," she relented, sighing deeply. "But I ain't goin' inside, I'll hide behind tha bushes."

Mush sighed as well, just as exasperated. "Alright, fine, jus do it quick. Those guys ain't gettin' any further."

She nodded and shot off to the right, crouching behind the bushes she'd just pointed out. Panting, she observed as the newsies did everything in their power to stop the men from trespassing. But they were huge, and on closer inspection, were also carrying guns.

Dipper worked on quieting her breathing, hardly blinking as she watched.

At last, one of the newsies came up to the men from behind, and whacked a stick into the back of the middle one, letting out a battle cry that could rival a bear's. All was silent for a long, dreadful moment, before the man, unphased, spun around and knocked the brave yet foolish newsie to the ground. Dipper slapped a hand over her mouth as she caught a glimpse of the boy who'd fallen.

Albert.

She let out a strangled cry at the sight of his motionless body, cap flung a few feet away, wondering how hard the man would've had to hit him to have rendered him that way. Suddenly, everyone was yelling again, and she dug her shaking hands into the ground to soothe her frazzled nerves. Before she could really begin to question her next actions, she abandoned her hideout by the bushes and neared him, pulling him away so he didn't get trampled on as the newsies continued to fight, now more aggressively than ever.

"Albert?" She questioned, falling to her knees beside the boy, turning him onto his back in order to see his face. Something in her mind whispered that he'd been knocked unconscious, immobile, done for, but it was as though the gears in her mind had stopped spinning, preventing her from processing the sudden turn of events. She wasn't aware that he was most likely on the brink of death. All she knew was that she was mad.

"Hey, get the boy," one of the guys hissed to the others as they fought off the newsies. She was pleased to see that his lip had been split at some point during the fight. "I'm sure something good'll come outta taking him along."

"No," Dipper growled, glowering up at the men. "Do not touch him."

The men chortled amongst themselves at her sudden bravery, while one of the tallest came forward. Seeing that the remaining ones were busy with the last of the standing newsies, Dipper gritted her teeth and grabbed Albert's abandoned stick, letting out a guttural scream as she charged towards them.

Forget fear, she told herself. Don't be scared. They'll know it if you're scared.

At first, the men simply seemed amused. But as she kept barreling at them, the stick raised above her head, they began to back up ever so slightly. They kept moving as if to grab her, but it seemed their eyes meant more to them than any of the guys wanted to admit, for they didn't hide the way they flinched when she got close. With good reason, too. She felt like a mad-woman, screeching and swinging the long branch with no reprise.

"Agh!" cried one, hunching over with both hands over an eye. "She stabbed me! She stabbed me!"

"Who's next?" she sneered, holding onto her makeshift weapon tightly.

When no one moved, she raised the stick again and they all scurried away from her and her tree branch of death.

"Dipper," Jack said, staring at her, dumbfounded. "What tha heck?"

She simply shook her head, panting, dropping back to the ground at Albert's side. "Hey, look, dey's gone. You can get up, now."

Still, nothing.

The small voice at the back of her head grew more intense, until it was screaming what she already knew.

He still wasn't getting up.

"Al," she sniffed, laying down next to him tiredly. "C'mon. Wake up."

And slowly, the tears began to fall from her stinging eyes, wetting the pavement under her head and the bridge of her nose.

Jack quietly approached, along with the other newises. The men had fled after putting a bullet through Finch's shoulder. "Is he..."

She couldn't respond, throat unbearably tight, slowly bringing a hand to his cold cheek, brushing his ginger hair aside.

Just then, he inhaled deeply, eyes blinking open with some difficulty. She gasped and sprung up, cupping his face, watching as he winced and groaned. "Yer cheek's... bleedin'..."

"You almost died!" Dipper retorted harshly, a few stray tears rolling down her cheek and dripping down onto his clothes. "I-I thought I... I thought..."

"Well, ya thought wrong." He squeezed his eyes shut and felt around his head, searching for some sort of bump. "Sure do feel like I came back from tha dead, though."

"Dat's ta be expected," Jack commented, crouching down next to her and grabbing the boy's hand, helping him up. "It's too bad ya missed seein' Dipper in action, Al. Dat was somethin' I nev-ah thought I'd witness."

Albert glanced at her, confused.

"I chased 'em off wit a stick," she admitted, playing with her hands. "It actually worked. But it was only 'cause dey hurt ya, 'n I couldn't really process anythin' else but dat. I didn't even feel panicked, not really..."

"Don't say it like it's somethin' ya shouldn't be glad to have," scolded Albert. "Dipper, it helps ta not go into shock when stuff like dat happens. It's good ta know you won't freeze when you've gotta get outta some situation."

"Yeah," she murmured. "Guess I nev-ah thought of it dat way."

From a few feet away, Finch groaned, lying on the ground in clear agony. As she helped Albert to his feet, Race went over to the other boy and examined his shoulder. Before long, most of the newsies had crowded around the two, and at some point Specs had to order everyone to give the poor boy some room.

"Bullet wound, huh?" Albert winced. "Guess I got lucky."

Dipper went around and examined his head, immediately seeing the red that was only slightly darker than his hair. "Yer head's bleedin'. I wouldn't count dat as a victory."

He put his hand to the back of his head, and sure enough, it came back coated in crimson. "Oh, man."

She thought she recalled him saying once that he couldn't stand the sight of blood, so as gently as she could, she lowered his hand and began guiding him over to the lodge. It was the least she could do after having not prevented the injury.

"Other than Finch, I don't think anyone else is hoit," she said as a way of distraction.

Albert turned his head, wincing. "Dey's not jus gonna leave him dere all day, right?"

"Tha boys is workin' on gettin' him inside right now," she said, not letting him stop to see. The last thing he needed to look at was even more blood. "Worry 'bout yourself fa now."

Some time later, now situated in her and Amy's room, he held an old rag over the wound on his head, leaning against her sleepily. She rubbed his knuckles, hoping the motion was soothing. It wasn't long before she noticed the arm holding up the rag droop slightly, as though he didn't have the energy to keep his hand there.

"Let me," she said softly, removing his grip from the cloth and replacing it with her own hand. He protested slightly, yet there wasn't much bite to his words, and she knew this was something she would win. Noting the way he still seemed to be leaning on her, she pulled him closer, so his head rested in the crook of her neck. She softly drew lines down the back of his head. Her poor Albert.

It wasn't long until he was asleep. At some point, Amy and Evangeline had entered, the latter with her three siblings. She kept reassuring them, especially the youngest, that they were safe. A part of her wanted to object that they weren't, in fact, safe, yet she knew it wasn't what any of them needed at that moment. She only wished it could've been true.

"We have ta tell 'em."

"Yeah," said Dipper softly. "I know."

Them being the newsies, of course, of that night. The one that had most likely caused all of this madness, and which had almost cost them two of their boys. It was doing them more harm than good at that point, which hadn't at all been the purpose of that night. Dipper had an inkling Lane would be irked that they'd even considered telling the boys about their well-intended robberies, but they had no choice. Lane and Domino were gone. As much as it might annoy the two, they needed to start making decisions of their own. Some things had been left in their hands the moment the two girls had continued along their path, and this was one of those times.

They would understand. If they didn't, well, the three remaining girls at the lodge weren't to blame. Not when they'd left them with no instructions to go off of.

"Dis has gone way too far," Amy continued, echoing her thoughts. "Dey don't deserve ta be left in tha dark like dis."

"Nice to see you guys finally making decisions on your own," commented Evangeline, stroking her youngest sister's hair. It reminded her of the way Albert remained asleep by her side. "When I first met you guys, you never shared what you guys thought about anything when it came to stuff like this. Well. Hardly."

"Guess we've had a change of heart," said Amy resignedly. Evangeline, expression suddenly contemplative, seemed to take these words into careful consideration.

"Ames, could you be tha one ta tell Jack?" Dipper questioned shyly. "I think we should do it as soon as possible, 'n..." She motioned slightly to the sleeping body glued to her side.

"Yeah," Amy said, sounding not bothered in the least. "Wese pretty close, anyway."

"You're a social butterfly," Evangeline remarked, which was not untrue. "Of course you two are close."

The girl tried and failed to wink. "All part of the charm, Angie."

They both watched as Amy left the room, being left with silence. Amy was the social one, indeed. Which meant that the two others were left to fend for themselves against the brutal constructs of small talk.

"You okay?" Evangeline questioned. "You didn't get hurt during the fight?"

Dipper shook her head. "All good. You?"

Evangeline nodded, turning her gaze to her three sisters. "Mm. I stayed inside with them." She sighed. "I wish there was a place where I could stash them away until this was all over."

"That'd be nice," she agreed. "Don't worry. It'll be ov-ah before we know it."

"Yeah," murmured the girl. "Hope you're right."

So did she.

Domino, Domino, Domino...

Specs twisted the single, thin shoelace around his fingers, mouthing the name over and over until the syllables became separate from each other and his lover's sobriquet ceased to make sense.

It'd been a week, and he hadn't yet heard of her. Not that he'd expected to, but still. She had mentioned maybe writing to him. To let him know that she and Lane were alright through the means of paper and ink, yet he'd received nothing thus far. Her sleepless nights had lessened gradually over the days, but he was still so worried. What if she ended up being unable to get the rest she wearily sought out some lonely night and he wasn't there to comfort her?

He wished only to be able to hold her in his arms. To tell her he loved her, to make sure she knew how much she meant to him.

And if she didn't come back?

No. He believed she would come back.

She would come back.

She had to.

(2548 words)

Guys, if ever there's a chapter where it seems like there's no spacing between different scenes, please let me know lol. It's an unfortunate side-effect of transferring the story from docs to Wattpad, and I don't always catch it before publishing the chapter.

But all that aside, this chapter is dedicated to the one and only MackJ134 ! Thanks for sticking around, and I hope that you'll be pleased with the conclusion of this story as it comes to an end. We've still got a few months left to go, but we're getting there. In the meantime, enjoy the drama!

~ nutcracker645