Warning: This story contains adult language, graphic violence, sexual harassment, attempted rape, and sexually explicit themes. Reader's discretion is advised. Rating - R.

Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies or any of the Newsies characters. Brett, Brynn, Cocoa, Braden, Meade, Madeline, Brent, Maddock, and other miscellaneous characters are all mine. Sweets, Morning Dew, Meow, Sprite, Spark and children of said characters own themselves.

Chapter 3: Uninvited

Coming home from a hard day's work, Jack was happy as a lark as he strolled through the door. Brent came running up to him with wide, open arms as Jack reached down and swooped him up in one great sweep. Jack always enjoyed moments like this.

"Daddy, are you going to punish him?"

Jack looked at Brent with confusion. "What? Punish who? What are you talking about, son?"

"Meade is in trouble and I wanted to know if you were going to punish him." He said innocently. Furrowing his eyebrows, Jack put Brent down and instructed him to go play with Madeline in her room as he walked into the parlor. He looked and found a broken and sad Meade and a very angry Brett.

Brett, sitting across from Meade with arms crossed and garnering a fuming expression, looked over at Jack as he slowly marched towards her. "Sweetheart, what's all this about?"

Brett reached over and obtained a stack of cards from the table and handed them to Jack. Jack took them from her and scanned the deck. The cards were pictures of women, namely ladies of the evening. Some were partially nude, others were totally nude.

Jack looked up at Meade with wonderment. "Uh, where did you get these, son?"

With hardly and upward glance, Meade spoke in a low voice tone. "From someone."

"Who!?" Jack demanded.

"From someone at school." He uttered practically under his breath.

"Was it one of your friends?"

"Yes."

Jack and Brett just exchanged looks of disappointment and contempt. Jack then turned to his sulking son.

"Don't you ever, ever bring that kind of filth into this house, alright?" Brett demanded.

Meade nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Now, go to your room. We'll send for you when dinner is ready."

Without a word of opposition, Meade grabbed his books and went to his room to start on his homework. Shuffling the cards, Jack walked around the room

"I don't believe this, Jack. Here we are trying to raise our children to be respectable, American citizens and something like this happens."

"Relax, sweetheart. This is not so bad. It's not like he came home with a dead body that he had to stash here."

Brett just looked at him. He gave his trademark smirk as she put her hands on her hips. Jack looked at each of the pictures in his hands. Although he found the pictures arousing, none of the women looked as good as the woman he was currently in love with. He looked up to find Brett lighting a match and setting a log on fire.

"What are you doing?"

She responded by extending her hand out to him, indicating to him to release the dirty pictures into her possession. She took the pornography and threw them into the fire.

"Well, that's the end of that." She said, wiping her palms together.

Jack just looked at her, completely satisfied of her handling of the situation in their parental duties. "What is the world coming too?" She rhetorically asked.

Jack patted his lap, signaling for her to make herself comfortable. "He's a growing boy. These things are expected to happen."

She leaned forward and planted a kiss onto his forehead as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "But why do these things have to happen to us? We are good people. We have a bevy of respectable friends and associates."

"That's just the way life is, baby. We just gotta roll with the punches and go with da flow." Brett nodded in agreement.

Jack then pulled her closer to him in his lap and began breathing on her neck heavily. "Ya know, those pictures Meade brought kinda got me started up some if ya know what I mean."

"Sorry, Jack. I'm just not in the mood."

"Not now, anyway." Brett just chuckled at Jack's comment and lifted herself up to finish preparing dinner.

~

Brett went to meet Meade and Madeline at their school as planned. She was visiting her good friend, Sprite, and her three kids. Her kids with Mush were very distinct in appearance. Nora, the eldest, possessed Sprite's dark green eyes and thick, large, light brown curls. Aaron, the middle child, looked more like Mush with his dark brown, coarse/curly hair, and dark brown eyes. And Shawn, the youngest of the brood, was a perfect mixture of his parents, garnering curly blonde hair and hazel eyes.

All of the kids enjoyed spending time with one another and Brett would make routine visits to Sprite and Mush's house and they would return the favor by visiting Brett and her family. As she waited patiently for children, she watched on as other young mothers waited for their progeny.

"Hello, sexy." A husky male voice whispered to her. She abruptly turned around to see who was speaking to her. Much to her horror, it was Braden.

She looked at him with the face of utter shock and fear, which quickly turned to anger. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"It is a free country, isn't it? I have the right to go where I please."

"Unfortunately." She sarcastically retorted.

Smirking, he kept his cool. "Still got that fiery spirit, I see. I wonder what else heat up with you."

"Must you always have something lewd to say to me?"

Pleasantly surprised to see Meade and Madeline in the distance, she waved her hand to them to signal that she was waiting for them. She had plans to meet with Sprite and her kids. They were planning to go visit Dew, Sweets, and Meow in Brooklyn to let their kids associate with one another as the ladies talked "girl talk" and such.

Braden caught a glimpse of her two older children and smiled. They were busy talking to their teachers about some school work as she waited for them. He now saw that she had three kids instead of the one he saw her with several weeks before. He couldn't help but tease her some more.

"Well, I see that your husband has really gotten up your dress many times. But, of course, talents like yours do run in the family."

Brett's eyes burned within his. She knew all too well what his references were about. Braden's father was rather friends with Brett's father. Her father told his that he met Brett's mother near a New Orleans bordello in the Storyville the red light district. She worked as a waitress in a bar, but even waitresses were not immune to the advances of libidinous men. Celestine did fall in love with Marc and promptly quit her occupation. They married and shortly afterwards, the couple was expecting their first child. Unfortunately, the first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage as did the second one. The third pregnancy, however, proved to be successful.

Brett was a beautiful mixture of both her parents. She inherited her very dark brown hair and facial features from her father, who was primarily of French heritage. Her mother, however, was a Negro, and both of her parents possessed American Indian heritage; Cherokee from her mother's side, Chitimacha Indian from her father's side. The bronze undertones in her complexion and somewhat high cheekbones gave evidence to this.

After five years of living in New Orleans, the family of three moved to New York. Marc obtained a job on the docks with Adrian's father as well as Braden's. In a drunken stupor, Marc revealed Celestine's past to Braden's father, Sean. He swore to Marc that he would not say anything, but Braden overheard the conversation as his father repeated the news to his wife.

Braden figured that since Brett's mother worked among prostitutes, and occasionally sold herself, that she certainly possessed some of the characteristics of one. He led Brett to believe that he loved her and persuaded her to "give it up" prior to marriage. She loved him enough that she did as he wished. He liked that she went against her family's wishes to save herself for marriage. "A lady by reputation, a whore by heart." He thought to himself about Brett.

Little did she know that while they were a couple, he had already been sleeping with other women, including the one that she caught him with the day she came to visit him unannounced. The blood in her system began to race with a raging torrent that only God could control. Braden stood there, a smug grin spreading across his face.

"You have no right to be harassing me like this. Why don't you just leave me alone?"

As soon as Braden's mouth opened, she was saved by the hollers of the many children coming out, including Meade and Madeline. "There are my kids. I have to go."

"Nice seeing you again, Ms. Brett." He yelled. He was met with the swaying hips of a woman who he enjoyed pestering. A woman who was currently walking away with the hand of each child within hers. A woman who was about to head back to her home, and forget about the encounter of her past flame. At least, for now.

~

Racetrack leisurely walked into a bar without a care in the world. Scanning the bar, he was quite pleased to see that the place was jumping. He didn't have a family or a woman to go home to like the rest of his buddies, but he was always looking. Approaching the barstool, he keenly eyed the tall, heavy-set bartender.

"Hey, Barney! A tall glass of your best beer, will ya?"

"Coming right up, Race! Got lucky at the tracks today, did ya?"

"Hell, yeah! And I ain't about ta share da details of my winnings tips with anyone. And dat includes you, too, Barney!" Barney just laughed and went to retrieve Race's beer.

Racetrack looked over and saw two women arguing. One was blonde and drunk off of her ass. The other, who was highly strung and sober, met eye to eye with the drunken woman with whom she was bickering.

"I saw ya. I saw ya kiss him!"

"You don't know what you saw, honey."

"I'm tellin' ya I saw everything! You put your swingin' hips and electric lips all ovah my ol' man and I don't appreciate it one bit!" She said, pointing a crooked finger in the other woman's face.

The other woman, an attractive brunette, just looked at the woman like she was insane. As she rolled her eyes and proceeded to walk away, the inebriated blonde grabbed a hold of her arm and swung her back around to face her.

"Dis ain't ovah, bitch! I want ya ta stop comin' around here. Or else."

"That's just what I need. Some advice from a stank whore!"

Immediately, the blonde brought her fist back to attack the brunette, but was intercepted by Racetrack's intervention. He held the blonde woman's arm firmly until she calmed down.

"Listen, I'm not gonna tell ya no more. Don't ever mess with my man!"

"You can say whatever you want to, bitch, but just remember one thing. Whenever you kiss him, you're tasting my pussy!"

"Eat me!" The intoxicated woman said as the other left the establishment. Racetrack helped the woman up, as she was on her knees at the end of the bitch-out session and was in need of assistance.

"Are ya alright, Miss?"

"Just peachy, sir. Like a Georgia peach." She said in her slurred speech.

Racetrack went back to his station and made himself comfortable, lighting up one of his beloved cigar. As he took a puff from his cigar, he looked over and sees a woman sitting at the bar. She's wearing a long, low-cut dress, sipping from a wine glass, and looks rather dazzling. But it wasn't her beauty that caught his attention. It was the angry bully that was up in her face.

He narrowed his eyes to get a better look at the two and try to eavesdrop on their conversation in the already noisy bar.

"Why don't you pay attention to me, will ya? I'm your date remembah?"

"Oh, piss off. I don't have time for your games."

"What games? What da fuck are ya talkin' about, bitch?"

"You heard me. You don't have enough of what I'm looking for in order for me to mess with you."

"What?" Immediately, Race rose from the table and walked towards the dueling lovebirds.

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

The man, who was much taller and bigger than Race, slowly turned around and observed him. "Are you talking to me, fella?"

"No, I'm talkin' ta da Virgin Mary. Hell, yeah, I'm talkin' ta your ass!"

The brawling bully didn't appreciate this little Italian guy getting up in his face. Racetrack braced himself as the broad-shouldered bully stood toe- to-toe with him. The tough-looking tyrant gave Racetrack his most menacing stare as a way of intimidating him. Racetrack stood his ground, however, never faltering, never flinching.

In an instant, a solid fist came flying down towards Racetrack's face. He quickly jumped back and was missed totally. Race then flew forward and landed a punch in the man's chest. And with a swift motion of the leg, a knee was connected to the tormentor's crotch. The man balled over in intense pain.

"Never underestimate the power of short man!" Racetrack said smartly.

Everyone went back to their business, hardly paying any attention to the brawl that just ensued. Clashes were commonplace in a tavern.

He looked up at the woman that he defended and tipped his hat to her. She nodded and winked at him in return. Gazing his eyes upon her body up and down, he felt the need to strike up a conversation. "So, do you always cause men to fight over you?"

"Perhaps." She said with a sly grin across her face. She then pulled out some candy from her bosom and began sucking it. She was damn near fucking that lolly pop with her mouth. He thought. It was enough to fuel his fantasies for weeks. To diffuse his arousal, he decided to carry on the conversation.

"So, uh, what is your name, darling?"

"Everyone calls me Spark."

"Spark. Dat's pretty. Can I ask why?"

"Because sparks fly whenever I'm around, especially when there is a great deal of testosterone in the room."

"You know, I liked the way you handled that issue with that goon. I like a man who stands up for a lady and for what he believes in."

"Well, I make more stands than I can count. If ya know what I mean."

Spark was quite flattered at Racetrack's forward revelation of his sexual prowess. "So, tell me, what do ya like ta do for fun, sweetness?"