A.N. Who was victim to the fire? Was it real? No answers in this one, but the countdown has started. I have no ownership of the Newsies and not affiliated with Disney in anyway. Thanks for all the Reviews. Please Review so I can keep the story up to par. LyxnLion

FIRE!

I laid there shocked. The title rolled in my head like thunder, like fire. "FIRE!" my brain screamed. I gulped air in, trying to keep the tears from my eyes. For the first line ran,

"A massive fire broke out last night after midnight incinerating the apartment building 509 on 32nd Street. The cause remains unknown."

Apartment building 509, that's David's apartment! That's the Jacobs' home! That is, was, my home. And, it was… gone? It couldn't be.

"There are no known survivors. The Fire Chief suspects the fire was incredibly fast growing and no time given to the sleeping victims."

And it was in the middle of the night, "No known survivors"! My heart stopped. Could it really be that my friends, my adopted family, were … dead?! Could… David, really be gone, forever? Apartment fires were horrible things that left little time for the sleeping to escape. I was breaking. I was bending. And he never knew! No, I had to find David and tell him. Tell him what I had meant to tell him for weeks now. He couldn't… not really… it was a joke, a horrible joke! Now, I was condemned to Hearst. There was no one else. No one who cared. I was freely crying now, and for the first time I realized the boy was still there.

He placed his hand on my arm and stared at me.

"Miss, are you all right?"

"Yes, its… its…" I stammered, "alright."

"You are really going to marry Mr. Anthony?"

"I don't know why I should," I answered glumly, tears still in my eye.

"He loves you," the boy said, oh so innocently, "Everyone says so, but I don't think you should."

"You don't?" I asked in surprise.

"I love you too, marry me," the boy said sincerely.

"You don't know me," I said almost smiling.

"He talks about you everyday. I love you." The boy said pressing close.

"You are a little young for me," I smiled at him through my veil of tears. The brink of helplessness didn't seem so sharp, I breathed a sigh of relief while a shudder of sadness clung to my heart.

"HENRY!" Tally's voice shrilled, and the boy scooted out.

I needed time to think. I needed time to figure out what was going on. Something nagged me. Picked at me. The boy was innocent, but all the while I seemed to have the shadow of Anthony in the back of my mind. If only I could think about it!

But moments later, Jerry came into the room. He didn't say a word, he never said a word to me. Like I was a lamp or coaster, he picked me up out of the bed and carried me down the hallway.

"Jerry," I began shaking, "Where am I going?" My face was still streaked with tears. He didn't say anything, but I soon figured out where was. My old room stood waiting for me, my things as they had been before I left. Jerry placed me on my bed of pink ruffles and springy comforter, and turned around and left. There on my side was the small dressing table, my silver brush and hand mirror lying just to the side of my old blue journal. My necklaces hanging on my vanity waiting for my throat to strangle. I grew up here. I belonged here. I thought I would never see this room again. It was so easy to slip back to the comfort of the room. I rolled on my side for the first time in days and sobbed and sobbed without a thought in my head until I cried myself to sleep.

David was waiting. It was all he could do. They had found Cecilia, talked her into her senses if only for a moment, found Rose's prison, gotten Jimmy to help them, and now all he was allowed to do was wait. It wasn't fair. She needed them. They needed her. They now knew that indeed she was still there. She had been kept in a room in the very back, and Hearst had come everyday… spending hours alone with her. Pain lanced across Dave's face and his knuckles curled in unison with Bumlets. Spot had gotten a look of disgust on his face and had found relief in practicing with his sling-shot. Race, he looked calm, but he was unusually quiet and humorless. There was to be a party for Angel in two days, an 18th birthday party that she had thought she'd miss by running away. It was on that day their plan was to take place. It was a fairly simple plan. They would pose as guests and go to the party. Try as they might, the actual details of her escape were a bit mushed, but Jimmy agreed to be on hand and lead them out the servant's passages. They had a long debate about the next part, but ultimately it was decided that Race would stay back as a lookout. Now, they just had to wait. David was horrible at waiting.