Sadly I do not own Newsies, Disney does. Neither do I own San Francisco, MGM does. But I do own Jessica (Dreamer), Samii, Comet, Drummer, Lizard, Wrapper, Echo, and Woody.

I dedicate this story to my sister Melissa. 1980-1998.

Chapter 14 On The Way Down

Everything in the city just started to shatter like glass being broken. Buildings that were falling on them were killing people instantly. This was the worst earthquake they have ever had. Bricks and statues were crushing horses in the street. Then suddenly everything stopped. People started running frantically to make sure their loved ones were alright. Some people that were still in the building sat there shaking in such shock, mumbling to themselves.

Out from under a ton of bricks came Cub, whom had a gash wound on his head but besides that he was perfectly fine.

"Conlon, Mr. Conlon." Someone yelled.

Cub helped get the shelf off Jim's back so he could get up.

"Thanks a lot, gee that was a whopper huh?"

"Yeah it sure was, hey can you walk ok?"

"Yeah sure."

"Let me help you out of here at least Jim."

Jim soon found his family and left Cub to himself to find Jesse again.

But fate would not be so kind because about ten minutes later came another quake, which split the road in half. Which meant the water pipes broke so the firefighters couldn't use the hydrants to put out the fires. So they decided they had to blow up the burning buildings.

After the quake finished Cub went back around asking people if they saw Jesse. Finally he asked a young woman.

"Have you seen Jesse Winegardner or a Ryan Morris?"

"I saw Mr. Morris, he's over there." She pointed to a pile of bricks with the body of Ryan lying lifelessly there. Cub started frantically digging through the bricks to see if he could find Jesse's body. All he found was a piece of her pink boa, but no body. So he kept going around the city, asking.

He went up the hill to where Ryan's mother was, to give her the bad news, and they were dynamiting her mansion. Needless to say she was a wreck, but being the strong woman she was Cub knew she would be fine later on.

"My son was born there." Was all she said when they blew up her house.

Cub still went on searching for Jesse. He went to the old church his friend, Echo (Now known as Father Steven) to see if he knew where Jesse was, but the church was empty. A guard told him Steven might be up at the hospital helping the hurt. So Cub went.

It was a horrid place; people were badly hurt and dying.

"Hello Cub." Steven said.

"Thanks Steve."

"That map of yours needs some attention."

"No I'm alright."

"You haven't found Jesse yet, have you."

"No."

"Well you can't want her for the Holiday cub that's gone."

"I wasn't thinking of the Holiday Steven."

"Wait a minute." He went over to check on his patient, a little girl, then walked back to Cub. "Come on mug I'm gonna take you to Jesse."

"Is she alright?" Cub was in shock.

"Yeah she's alright."

They started walking towards the many tents that were outside. When Cub found her, singing, just as she loved to do, to a family that had just lost their son.

"Steven." Cub asked. "I wanna thank God, what do I say?"

"Just say what's in your heart Cub."

So Cub got down on his knees and thanked God. Jesse looked over and saw him and ran towards him and embraced him.

"The fire's out!" A kid started to yell.

"We'll build a new San Francisco." A man yelled. And build a new San Francisco they did.

As for Cub and Jesse, well they've come a long way from friendship, to love, to moving away, to finding each other again, to heartache, and loving each other again. Through it all they still found each other and still loved each other, with more love than they could dream. On the way down they made it through everything.

Sick and tired of this world,

There's no more air,

Trippin' over myself,

Goin' nowhere,

Waiting, suffocating, no direction,

I took a dive and,

On the way down I saw you,

And you saved me from myself,

And I won't forget the way you loved me,

On the way down I almost fell right through,

But I held on to you,

I've been wondering why,

It's only me,

Have you always been inside?

Waiting to breathe,

It's all right, sunlight on my face,

I wake up and yeah I'm alive 'cause,

On the way down I saw you,

And you saved me from myself,

And I won't forget the way you loved me,

On the way down I almost fell right through,

But I held on to you,

I was so afraid of going under,

But now the weight of the world,

Feels like nothing, no nothing,

You're all I wanted,

You're all I need,

You're all I wanted,

You're all I needed,

And I won't forget the way you loved me,

All that I wanted,

All that I needed now,

Oh on the way down I saw you,

And you saved me from myself,

And I won't forget the way you loved me,

On the way down I almost fell right through,

But I held on to you,

THE END

SONGS USED

On the Way Down (acoustic version)- Ryan Cabrera