Hello! I've been missing in action for a few days; I was having a bad case of writer's block after finishing Stubborn (which you should go check out, incidentally...I added the epilogue), but now I'm back, finally! This is a little depressing, however...hope you enjoy nonetheless!

Once the laughter died down, a couple of the younger boys had been sent to bed by Jack, grumbling at him the whole way, and after Race answered his own question (he unashamedly announced that he had the sweets for Medda) it was Crutchie's turn to ask.

"My question for everyone is, what's your worst fear?"

Everyone silently took it in. "Deep, Crutchie," Jack commented.

"Weren't you the one who asked the 'deepest, darkest secret' question last time, Crutchie?" Davey asked.

"Nah, that was Les. I asked the 'worst memory' one. Anyway. So…Elmer? Worst fear?" Crutchie said.

"Um…let's see…spiders."

"Try again," Jack said.

"Fine, fine…the Refuge. Snyder."

"Okay," Crutchie said. The playful mood was gone now; the newsies were all serious. "Mush?"

"Worst fear…well…don't laugh…but, I'm kinda scared of water. Go ahead. Laugh."

No one laughed.

Mush seemed encouraged by this. "Like, a lot of it. I hate the ocean." He spread his arms out wide. "All of that, ready to gulp you up." Mush shrugged. "Hate it."

"Fair enough," Davey said.

"Romeo?" Crutchie continued.

"I'm still thinking, keep your pants on."

"You always think way too hard about these," Davey said, rolling his eyes. "Just say the truth."

"What if there's a lot of thruths?"

"Say your favorite."

"Favorite fear?"

"Romeo, do you need to go to bed too?" Jack said with a warning tone.

"All right, all right," Romeo said hastily. "I'm scared of the cops."

"Why?"

"You never knows what side they's on!" Romeo exclaimed. "One second you think they's coming to save you, next second they's your worst enemy, just as bad as Snyder himself!"

"You scared of Snyder too?"

"Who ain't?" Romeo said darkly. "'Course I am. But Snyder's predictable. The cops ain't."

"Snyder's gonna be locked up for good soon," Crutchie reminded him.

"No one knows how soon, though, do they?" Romeo gulped. "I get bad dreams. Snyder, plus the cops? All running at you? And you can't move your feet? It's scary!" His voice broke. "I get 'em a lot. But I'm pretty much over it by now, you know."

"If you have a bad dream, why don't you wake one of us up?" Jack asked concernedly. "That's what everyone else does."

Romeo stared at the floor. "I just don't wanna be no trouble," he mumbled.

"You ain't trouble for havin' a nightmare!" Crutchie said, and the others nodded. "Jack's used to being woke up, ain't you, Jack? And besides, he's usually up all night anyway!"

Jack nodded fiercely.

"Okay," Romeo said in a small voice. "Maybe I will."

Albert was next. "My worst fear is probably the Refuge."

It was a common answer. In fact, most of the boys chose it for their worst fear. Davey said nothing about copying, however, but nodded solemnly at each boy as he said it.

Specs said that his worst fear was his dad finding him. They all stared blankly at him for a moment, so he seemed to feel the need to elaborate. Suddenly Specs was pouring out his life story, his hoarse voice mingled with tears, as he told them how he'd escaped from his dad and didn't even know if his dad was alive anymore.

"I don't even need these dumb specs," he sniffed.

"I beg to differ," muttered Davey, who had observed him stumbling around without the glasses.

"I just got them so I'd look different," Specs continued, ignoring the comment. "I cut my hair and half starved myself so I'd look more skinny. If he finds me, it's all over."

"He's not going to find you," Jack said immediately.

"But if he does—"

"We'll all keep you safe. You look a lot different from even when you first got here. He'd probably never recognize you." Jack sounded calm and confident. It was enough to calm Specs down.

"Yeah…yeah, I guess you're right…"

There was a silence as Specs composed himself. Then he turned to Henry, and they continued with the question circle.

Les was the next one to burst into tears. He was sitting by Davey again, and when the question reached him, he said his biggest fear was being all alone. And then he started sobbing.

"I just…w-when Dad hurt his leg…and then I g-got so scared and I thought he w-was gonna die b-but he didn't and I just though…what if he did, what if he does and Mother does too and we're all alone…we couldn't do it…b-because I know they really are gonna die someday…and you're gonna b-be a long ways away…doing learning…and I'm just gonna be here, all alone…and I just can't stand it!" Les gasped.

"You'll have us," Crutchie said, as Davey rubbed his brother's shoulder.

"And we'se family," Jack added.

"You think we'd leave you all alone?" Mush said.

"B-but…without D-davey…and my folks…"

"That's a long way off, Les," Davey said quietly. "You don't need to worry about it. By the time any of that happens, you'll be more than prepared."

"But I don't want anything to happen to you or Mother or Dad!" Les sobbed. "I just want it to stay the way it is right n-now!"

"Seize the day. Live in the now. Enjoy it." Jack seemed to know just what to say. "You're a smart kid, Les. You know it ain't always gonna be so easy. But you know what? Life ain't easy. You just gotta roll with it."

"I know," Les said in a small voice.

"Then let's move on to Davey."

Davey gazed at his brother for another long moment, then raised his head. "My biggest fear is fear of failure and rejection," he said hoarsely. "I guess that's why before the strike I didn't talk that much. I didn't want people to dislike me. That's also why I didn't want Jack helping us out at first." He shrugged, seeming to realize how much he'd just blurted out. "It seems that was a mistake," he added, with a small smile.

Jack grinned back at him. "Good one, Davey." He looked at Crutchie thoughtfully. They were down to the last few answers before the question got back to Crutchie himself. But now Jack had to answer, and he still seemed to be pondering. "I guess you could say my worst fear is Snyder, and for good reason." Others nodded vigorously. "A lot of us have that in common, huh? Well, that's good. We can watch each other's backs." He pondered a little more. "The thing is, I'm wondering if there ain't something deeper to my fear of Snyder, you know? I mean besides the fact that he hurt me so bad." The boys were silent. It was rare to hear Jack speak Snyder's name, let alone talk about what had happened in the Refuge. "It was bad. But there's another part to it. When I was in the Refuge…I wasn't here. I was under someone else's control." He rubbed his head. "So I think…my worst fear is not being in control. You guys know it, too. I always gotta be in control. I always gotta push myself up to be the leader. Right? You know it is. I need to control. That's bad, but it's the way it is, and my biggest fear is losing it."

There was a stunned silence, then Crutchie blurted out, "Jack, don't say that!"

"Yeah, we wouldn't have survived without you in the strike!" Race added loyally.

"Who started the strike, though?" Jack asked dismally.

There was a pause.

"I did," Davey said before Jack could say anything more. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Hah. Yeah. I blamed it on you, didn't I? But we all know it was really my idea. I'm sorry, fellas. I'm sorry I got you into that mess."

"Don't apologize."

"Stop it, Jack."

"Don't be stupid." Several voices spoke up at once, but Jack just shook his head.

"Whatever. I said it. It's out there. Race?"

The conversation had clearly not finished the way the newsies wanted it to, and there would most likely be more talking to Jack about the subject later, but Race just rolled his eyes at Jack and took his turn.

"My greatest fear is the Refuge."

"Again?" Davey said, following it immediately with "Sorry. I know it's a good thing to be afraid of. Go on."

"Heck yeah, it is," Race said. "You guys have said it all for me. Our only hope is that it gets closed down for good. Crutchie? Your turn to answer your own question."

Crutchie looked very nervous. "You can't laugh," he said immediately.

"We won't," Jack responded, staring hard at him.

"You can't tell me it's stupid."

"We won't."

"You can't roll your eyes behind my back, because it's serious."

"We won't."

Crutchie met Jack's eyes for a moment, then sighed and stared at the floor. "I'm afraid my polio's gonna come back and kill me," he murmured very quickly.

There was a long, dreadful silence, in which every eye in the room turned to Crutchie's shriveled leg. Crutchie shivered and shook his head, clearly about ready to reassure them that that would never happen and he was just worrying too much. But Jack spoke quietly into the silence.

"Crutchie?"

Crutchie raised his eyes. "Yeah?"

"No one's laughing."

Sorry, that was really sad. Yikes, I need happier questions! Review! And give me some more ideas!

-Sis