A/N - I'm not going to keep saying who's character is whose at the beginning of the chapters because it takes forever to write! If I've done it in a previous chapter that should suffice, right? If you don't agree let me know and I'll keep announcing you. Also I will keep taking characters and incorporating them into the story as I go so send 'em in if you have one, okay guys? Hope you like this chapter. -A/N

PS - I wrote this chapter to Enya and Adele so sorry if it's angsty. *hides*

"You can't come home anymore." The words literally sucked my heart out through my hollow chest and smashed it to pieces on the ground. Blinking rapidly so as not to cry in his presence, I looked away trying to desperately regain my composure.

"May I..." I stopped and cleared my throat, "May I ask why?" Spot sat down on his mattress and patted the side. I felt myself fold up brittlely next to him, crossing my arms over my stomach.

Spot paused to light a cigarette, and he offered me one. I took it, vowing to quit right after. Spot dangled his hands in between his knees and stared at me, head cocked back, a considering look on his face. I sat with my face averted, picking at a hole on my pant leg.

"Is it Pixie?" I finally blurted out the question just as Spot's hand landed on my shoulder, cupping it gently before sliding down my back He paused in twining my hair into his hand. It was such a slight pause that if I hadn't been waiting, holding my breath, still as a rock I wouldn't have caught it normally.

"Ya know I find it slightly disturbing that there's an Italian mobster out there who expects 15,000 dollars or the guns I gave a bunch of militant Irishmen or else he'll kill me and all I hold dear, and your first question is to ask about Pixie."

I tried not to groan blissfully as I always did when he massaged my scalp. He knew it was a sure way to disarm me and curb my anger over something. Damn the man. I twisted away, feeling like a heel after his statement and frowned at him.

"Well excuse me for being a female. If you don't like it I'll leave." I got up as if to go, and Spot's hand snaked out and grasped my wrist.

"Not so fast you're not getting away that easy." He pulled me so that I fell offbalance and landed half on the mattress, half sprawled across him. My chin thumped painfully against his chest and I grunted.

Spot brushed the hair out of my eyes then bent forward and gave me a kiss so sweet I wanted to burst into tears.

"I've been wanting to do that for a long time now." I looked over at him slowly, determined not to let the tears fall but one slipped down my cheek as our eyes met.

"Spot...Do you love me?" Spot's mouth thinned and his eyebrows drew together. We hadn't used the 'l' word yet so I knew I had caught him good as he drew my hand to his mouth and kissed my palm.

"mo ghrá," He said slowly and thickly as his voice filled with emotion, "Tá mé grá duit ar feadh i bhfad agus ní bheidh mé ag stopadh. Mar sin tá, grá agam duit." I usually loved it when he spoke Gaelic, but tonight after the bombshell he just threw at me, I wanted an answer.

"Just say it!"

"I said it the way I know how. The way that I can." I heaved an exasperated breath.

"But I didn't understand any of it!"

"If you couldn't hear it in my voice or see it in my eyes then you're blind." Its true his words had flowed over me like warm honey and his eyes had softened to a point I had never seen them before. Now they were a sharp blue, although he paused long enough to rest a hand on my stomach, his lean features gentling once more.

"I'll enjoy having a son." I laughed and jabbed at his side playfully.

"What if it's a girl?" Spot grew serious. Rubbing his chin he looked down at my stomach.

"Then she better be as tough as her mama." I blushed as Spot leaned in for another kiss, this one just as gentle as before. I wasn't used to such gentleness from him, and it made tears burn at the corners of my eyes.

"If it's a boy will you name it after my father? Liam Brendan Conlon." He was passing his hands over my stomach with a weird expression on his face. I nodded, a little afraid.

"What if it's a girl?" I said in a teasing tone, trying to lighten the mood. Spot looked up at me, and the desolation and despair where moments before had been love jolted me to my core.

"Name her Maureen for my grandma. She raised me for a little while and she was an angel." Spot stood, raising me with him, his hand firm on my arm. I pushed his chest when he looked away then looked at me again with a remote expression.

"What is going on Spot? You never answered my question about Pixie." I saw something flicker behind Spot's beautiful eyes before it was squashed ruthlessly.

"Pixie stays, I need her around for now. You on the other hand are forbidden to come to Brooklyn anymore. As soon as you leave, I'm issuing the order. The less the Italians know about you or see you the better." Something ripped in my chest and I looked at this cold-eyed young man with whom I'd been kissing just a few moments before.

I opened my mouth and then his earlier remark about owing Nicky the Blade and 15,000 dollars slapped me in the face.

"Oh my God, Spot! Didn't the Irish pay the money?" Spot cursed loudly and longly and pulled the door to his room shut and glared down at me.

"We try not to speak about it since he's got spies everywhere. He's given us three months to get the income together any way we can and if we don't then he takes over the lodging house, bringing in newsies from his neighborhood." I frowned.

"What will happen to you?" Spot shrugged and scratched the back of his neck.

"I'll probably be made an example of and then the rest of the kids will either be turned out into the cold, or the older ones pressed into serving these bastards somehow. The boys and I are going to get the money somehow we just haven't quite figured that part out yet. In the meantime, Declan has been trying to get in touch with the IRA and beg them for our money. Usually the Irish are good on their deals. He thinks one of them went rogue and stole the gun money." Spot tapped a finger down the bridge of my nose.

"Now you, mo ghrá will be out of Brooklyn and harm's way. You don't have just your own safety to think about, and if something happened to you or the baby..." Spot's hands clenched into fists and I noticed how big they were. He really was growing into being a man quite well. Although not super tall, he was medium height with wide shoulders and a lean build that tapered into a neat waist. He had the lean, muscly, scrappy build of a dockside brawler and I suddenly knew how they were going to make their money.

"Good Christ, you're going to box. You're going to let yourself get beaten for money!" Spot bit the cork out of a bottle of whiskey and took a healthy slug, his eyes now gleaming in a amusement.

"My God you do work in wondrous ways. How did your brain pick up this story then?"

"Well I can tell from your body," I stammered. Spot's eyebrows rose, and he ran a hand through his dirty-blonde hair, letting it fall rakishly. I backed away as he approached, but he snagged me around the waist and buried his face into my neck.

"Christ woman you smell good."

"Thanks, now am I right?" I was stiff in indignation. Spot kissed my neck and moved away to light another cigarette.

"There's fast money to be made in boxing and I won't be the only one to be doing it. Some of the larger boys have agreed to try their hands. We've been boxing down at the pier every day at lunch to practice. We're being held responsible for the Irish not delivering the money because we helped to set the deal up. But I don't want you to worry about any of this. You're going to be safe in Manhattan. I'll agree to the three months under the stipulation that Nicky doesn't visit you anymore." I thought about the odd man I had seen standing in the shadows near the lodging house in Manhattan and felt fear trickle down my spine.

"Three whole months I won't get to see you but Pixie will be here." Spot made a curt gesture with his hand.

"Enough about Pixie. She is a means to an end." I smiled smugly and nodded, hanging my head slightly to hide my smile.

"Well if thats the case, then you won't mind if I move out of the lodging house and into an apartment with Declan? He seems to really like me, and it would be nice to have out private space, especially with the baby on its way in four months it would be nice to have a man around to help, and to be supportive. He says I don't have to do anything in return, not even pay!" Spot's face had grown steadily redder and redder and I could tell he was straining, trying not to unleash upon me.

"You'd better leave," was all he finally managed to squeeze out. I crossed my arms over my belly once more and raised an eyebrow. A bead of sweat slid from my temple down into my hair as I faced him.

"No."

With a roar he reached over and grabbed me. Yanking me half-way up his body he kissed me so hard it literally ripped the air from my lungs. Releasing my mouth, he looked down at me with eyes that had gotten as dark blue as Declan's. Nudging me foreward until the backs of my knees hit the mattress, he lowered me to the bed while stripping away my shawl and undoing enough buttons on my blouse to get at breasts. Then he speared me with a look that went straight to my soul as one of his hands got to the front of my pants.

"This isn't going to sweet and gentle, I'm just warning you. You're going to want to hold on tight." It was all I could to nod and then follow his advice. I was embarassed about my swollen stomach, but Spot stopped his thorough assault of me palm it with both hands, whisper something in Gaelic, and kiss it. Then there was nothing for me to do but hold on tight.

When Spot and I broke apart, we were panting and covered in a fine sheen of sweat. I rolled away first, embarassed as I yanked my pants back up and straightened and buttoned my shirt. Scrubbing a hand through my long black hair, I let it fall to hide my face.

Spot got up and righted his clothing. We really hadn't taken anything off. Giving me his cocksure smile, he sauntered over to me and put his face so close we were nose to nose.

"I bet that bastard can't get you to say the Lord's name in quite the way I can." I made the smug smile drop off his face with a teeth baring smile and a quiet "We'll see."

"You're mine, mo ghrá. All...Mine. You go live with him if it makes you feel safer but if he touches you, I'll geld him myself. Besides Declan still has to answer for the Irish grabbing the guns and refusing to pay." Spot's voice was so deadly earnest that I found myself nodding like an idiot. Than I felt anger surge through me.

"So I'm supposed to toddle off happy with our afternoon banging and be all set and merry living by myself in Manhattan without a man's protection and leave you here dealing with all of this without me. You expect ME to walk out on you. And you've even been living with another woman, yet it's not okay for me to accept help because it's from a man? You've set so many lines in the sand you can't count how many you've stepped over. I'm going to have this baby. And since I'm now banned from Brooklyn I suppose you won't be around when I have the baby. Not until you get your debt paid off."

"You'll get taken care of if that's what you're worried about." Spot's voice sounded drained and disappointed. I slapped him once across the cheek as hard as I could, and would have followed it up with a second if he hadn't caught it right before it hit him.

"I'm worried about YOU! You stupid mick! I'm worried about our family. I'm worried because you expect me to be faithful yet you keep your own doxy. Well I'll tell you this much Spot fucking Conlon. I love you. I...love...you, you idiot! When you're ready for me and for our child go looking for Declan. At least I have one man who wants to take care of me."

"Can't you see I'm doing this for your own good?"

"Yes to some extent I can. But having Pixie around instead of me sends me a clear message. I've been replaced. Hopefully you don't get HER knocked up because then you'll have to waste your time finding a new slut." Brushing away mortified tears, I went for the doorway but stopped at the sound of his voice.

"Pixie is here for a reason. I'm sending you away because I don't want you hurt, not because I don't trust you. I'll have someone on you at all times so if something happens..."

"If anything happens I'll yell for Declan," I said snarkily before exhaling a long wobbly breath. My tear filled gray eyes met his conflicted blue ones.

"I do love you though. God help me I probably always will." With that, I turned on my heel and walked down the hallway, sobbing brokenly into my hands.

"Riot, what's the matter?" I pulled my hands away and rubbed my eyes onto my sleeve. Fingers, a calm, quiet girl stood before me, holding the violin case that was never far from her. Her brown hair was drawn into braids and her green eyes were clear and serene.

"Oh nothing Fingers, just having a splendid morning, really." I made as if to pass, but Fingers grasped the sleeve of my coat and drew me into the girl's room. Sitting me down onto a bed, she began with Fur Elise one of my favorites, and played other calming songs.

Emotions came in as the last note to a song rang sweetly from Fingers' violin and I smiled and clapped. The girl flushed and grinned. Emotions looked excited to see me, but stopped when I told her what Spot had said. Fingers sat quietly and grasped her violin, her worried eyes going from me, then straying to Emotions.

"So some of us are going to break into the boxing world for the money, and the rest keep on selling the papers. We'll be little more than slaves and if our boys aren't careful the more practiced boxers could kill them quicker'n' anything. I don't like it at all. And I don't like this whole Pixie business. Not one bit."

"I wish I knew what to tell you Emotions. All I know is that if these Italians are going to come after me, I'm not leaving myself defenseless. I'll go and stay with Declan. He's a good man, he'll look after me until Spot gets his head out of his ass." Emotions sighed and shook her head.

"I wish you didn't have to do that. There'll be a fight between the two of them when Spot comes for you. And he WILL come for you when all the dust has settled." I crossed my arms over my belly and narrowed my eyes as I saw Pixie walking up the street.

"Yes well we'll see if there's even anything to come and get when the dust is gone." I replied before spinning on my heel and heading for Manhattan. Spot didn't want me around, thought I was a liability? Fine I'd stay with a bodyguard for awhile. The only downside was I was sure the bodyguard was in love with me too and Emotions was right. He wouldn't give me up without a fight.

Shaking my head, I groaned in despair and sent up a silent prayer. What was a girl to do?

TRANSLATIONS (Now remember I have an online translator so don't get all bent out of shape if something is wrong!)

Irish - mo ghrá - my heart

Tá mé grá duit ar feadh i bhfad agus ní bheidh mé ag stopadh. Mar sin tá, grá agam duit - I have loved you for a long time and I will not stop. So yes, I love you

A/N SHOUT OUTS!

LvSingWrite - Well I'm glad you like my story, and yes I would like to beat Spot up myself half the time the way I write him. I'm really glad you like Riot, a lot of people don't like made up characters in the Newsies stories. I'll still take a character from you if you want to send it to me. Thanks for reading!

Cloakedauthor21 - Oh, my...GOD...New York Cheesecake...*eats the entire thing including the package* Okay...whew...If Spot were my baby daddy I'd be wondering what he was doing with another girl and then getting my guy friends to teach him a lesson! He comes across as a douche but he does have his reasons.

Blockheadwriter - Aww I didn't want you to cry! *hands over a tissue* I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for reading!

missfervent - Well you'll just have to wait and see! muahahahahah *rubs hands evilly* Yes I was happy when that character was submitted, it seemed good to have another French speaking person about. Don't worry, Riot is back!

Scout-britt - Yeah sorry I have an AWFUL thing with cliffhangers, I just adore them too much. Glad you liked it though, and thanks for reading! :D

HogwartsNewsie92 - No Faith in this chapter but she'll be back. I'm glad I got her character down right, that makes me happy. I always get nervous when I write other people's characters. Don't worry, the Pixie ass whooping will be soon, I promise!