Give me Newsies who developed or were born with disabilities over their time in the refuge and growing up in the streets of New York.
We obviously have Crutchie, who crushed his leg in a trolley accident during the trolley strikes, but how about the others?
Kid Blink, who's eye was cut badly during a fight and totally lost all vision in that eye, leaving a nasty scar where he was sliced. He jokes that he's secretly a pirate to the younger kids because he wears an eyepatch, but the real reason he has it is to hide the scar because he is embarrassed and ashamed of his scaring and how scary it can look.
JoJo, who was born with a vision impairment that makes everything extremely blurry through his perspective. Somebody always needs to read the headline to him in the morning, and he sometimes needs a selling partner to lead him in the correct direction without getting run over by a carriage.
Splint, who's broken her arm so many times and in so many different ways that it's practically unusable. It's covered in nasty scars and bruises and is swollen and bumpy from where the bone never fully set back properly.
Elmer, who deals with chronic fatigue and sometimes having to be dragged away from selling for at least a little bit because Spot can see that if he doesn't sit down soon, he will pass out from ache and exhaustion.
Albert, who lost most of his hearing in a fight at the refuge and has Katherine teach him and a few of the others some sign language so he can finally communicate as well as he can with the other newsies.
Buttons was 16 years old. He'd been a Newsie for ten of those years, therefore being around to see some of the younger kids grow with him.
When he saw Elmer, he still saw the three year old Spot brought to visit Manhattan four years ago.
When he saw Splasher, he saw the five year old he and Tommy Boy found sat alone on a bench outside the church three years ago.
When he saw Mike and Ike, he saw the babies left in a basket outside the Lodge House five years ago.
So, seeing each of them beaten up and bloody hurt all the more.
The Lodge was absolute chaos after the fight. Not the usual Lodge chaos, however, it was a scary and fearful chaos. The one that made your heart pound and brain blurry.
Kids were wailing and crying, teenagers were yelling and shouting. There wasn't a quiet place in the house.
Everybody realised quite quickly that nobody had walked out without a few battle scars to show afterwards, and the little kids were no exception.
Elmer had a shard of glass thrown at his forehead, and it was bleeding badly. Despite the bandages now wrapped around the injury, the injury had bled through, creating crimson dots splattered around it.
Splasher had broken his ankle after being shoved to the ground by one of the bulls. Buttons had a pole tied to his leg to keep it as straight as possible and had it elevated on the other bed. He was still weeping silently with the pain shooting up his leg every few minutes.
Mike and Ike were sat on his lap and were crying harder than any of the Newsies had ever seen, despite knowing them their whole lives.
Mike had been struck in the back with a baton multiple times, his back now scattered with bruises and blood. He didn't understand what was happening or why he was in so much pain, he just wanted it to stop.
Ike was hit in the face with one of the Delancey's brass knuckles, leaving him with a black eye and scarred nose. He was practically inconsolable, not allowing anybody to touch him for a very long time after the fight, only relaxing enough for Button's to check him out when Mike was brought in with Albert and Finch.
Buttons, with no help from the others got to work helping the kids in any way he could. The kids needed a shoulder to cry on and a helping hand to wrap up their injuries while some of the older newsies tried to sort out where Jack was and if they could try to save Crutchie.
They didn't understand what any of this meant. They just wanted somebody to hold them and tell them they were okay. Someone to sing one of Meddas songs while they wrapped up their scars and cuts.
Buttons was okay. He was fine and could help with the little ones with their injuries. Yeah, sure, he was struggling to breathe properly, and his knees were throbbing with pain, but the little kids needed help more than he did. He could handle it.
Buttons was 16, but sometimes he wishes he was still 6, when there was always an older kid around to help him out.