Warning

Billie Joe's shoes made no sound on the cleared sidewalks of Minneapolis. All the snow had been shoved to the side for the commercialization littering the sides of the streets. The air was chillingly cold as Billie Joe shoved his hands deeper into his pockets for warm protection.

The early morning sun was shining brightly on the shiny windows of the buildings and reflected off the snow so badly it made Billie Joe wish he had brought his sunglasses out with him.

He squinted in the bright light and lowered his head a bit to shield them. He watched his shoes make tracks down the sidewalk and noticed the shoes and shins of pedestrians around him until something rough made him look up and reach out to grab something.

"Oh. Are you okay?" Billie Joe grabbed a woman by her flailing arms, her coffee spilling all over them, the heat a stark contrast to the cold.

The woman held onto him, her mouth agape in surprise at their lack of coordination and her near collision with the cold, wet concrete below. "Yeah," She breathed, her words puffs of foggy fug. "I'm fine. Oh," She looked sadly at her spilt coffee between and on them. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. You're sure you're all right?" Billie Joe gave her a curious look.

"I'm fine." The woman reassured, her dark eyes sincere. "Wonderful way to begin the day, huh?"

"What? Oh yeah. Shit, I love a hot coffee shower in the middle of the sidewalk. Fuck, yeah." Billie Joe grinned as the woman laughed lightly. "Billie Joe." He politely held out his hand for her to take.

She took his offered hand. "Adrienne."

"Adrienne." Billie Joe repeated to himself as their hands continued to bob up and down together in the air.

Adrienne glanced at their still shaking hands and laughed a short laugh. "Well, I have to be off to work. Bye Billie Joe. Maybe I'll bump into you again." She released his hand and continued on her way opposite of Billie Joe.

"Maybe." Billie Joe said to her retreating back. "Later Adrienne." He stood in his place and watched her lift her arm in response to his words. She did not turn around to receive or return them.

Billie Joe nodded his head and continued his walk in the opposite direction of Adrienne. He didn't really care about the coffee dripping off and staining his clothes. He bit his lip in soft thought. "Adrienne." He muttered to himself as he turned down another street.

He stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the signal to go. "Adrienne." His mind whirled in deja vu and remembrance of such a name. He moved with the mob of people as they crossed the road. Billie Joe was slightly jostled by the mass of bodies moving in one direction, but he never realized it as his mind was concentrating on something else.

Just as the crowd thinned and the wind came swirling around him, the memory he had been searching for hit him with the force of a truck. "Fuck, Adrienne Nesser."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Adrienne Nesser Wilkerson dropped her bag on the floor of her home. "Katrina, Jakob Where are you guys?" She went into the kitchen, taking her boots off as she went and discarding them ungracefully on the floor behind her.

She heard two bodies moving about upstairs and Adrienne went into the kitchen to begin preparing some dinner before her husband, David, came home. She picked up the cordless phone to call her mother but heard her daughter, Katrina, on the other end gossiping to a friend of hers.

Adrienne rolled her eyes and hung up the phone before Katrina realized she was on. She would just call her mother later. She opened the pantry and stared at the scarce contents inside. She desperately needed to go grocery shopping. Adrienne faintly heard footsteps pounding down the stairs.

"I am Captain Underpants Bow down to me "

Adrienne turned around from getting hamburger meat from the freezer to see her youngest, Jakob, dressed in a pair of socks, white underwear, a towel tied around his neck and another pair of underwear on his head. Adrienne could barely contain her laughter.

"Jakob," She breathed between giggles, "What are you doing?"

Jakob punched his fist into the air. "Saving the world one laundry basket at a time "

Adrienne put the meat on the stove and looked at him. "You are a piece of work Jakob Danger Wilkerson. No doubt about that."

"What's for supper?" Jakob climbed onto the counter next to the stove and watched his mother put the meat in a pan.

"Sloppy Joes." Adrienne answered him simply as she poured a bag of fries on a pan sheet to put in the oven.

"Yay." Jakob watched the pink meat turn brown. "Katrina hasn't been off the phone since we got home. She was talking to some boy."

"Really?" Adrienne cocked an eyebrow at her only son. "And how do you know that?"

"Because I was listening on the other phone." Jakob stated in a matter of fact tone.

"Jakob, what have I told you about eavesdropping and tattling?" Adrienne scolded him lightly as she poured the sauce over the hissing meat.

"Not to do it." Jakob recited in a bored tone, his underwear hat slipping on his tousled brown-haired head. "Can I stir?"

Adrienne gave him the utensil and he set about stirring the meat and sauce. "Careful." Adrienne said as some sauce sprinkled on the stove top. "You know you need to change before your father gets home."

Jakob hesitated a beat. "I know." Without an extra word, Jakob gave Adrienne the wooden handle and jumped off the counter to go change quickly before his dad came home.

Adrienne stirred a bit more and put a lid on the pan and checked the fries. Her hands shook slightly as she heard a familiar car pull up in the driveway and the door opened and shut. Adrienne took several deep breathes before footsteps came on the tiled kitchen floor.

"What's for dinner?" Her husband, David, was home.

"Sloppy Joes and fries. Jakob wanted them." Adrienne answered softly as she turned the eye of the stove down. "They're almost done." She gasped when David grabbed her upper arm roughly and spun her around.

"I don't like fucking Sloppy Joes." He hissed at her as he squeezed harder on her arm. "I spend all day giving fucking oil changes to rich bastards and their damn BMWs and all I want when I come home is a decent meal and a fuck. Not this shit and a kiss."

"Ow." The word slipped out of Adrienne's mouth accidentally; she had been trying so hard to keep it in. David's fingers were digging into her skin and causing purple bruises to blossom under them all ready.

David shoved her away and knocked the hot pan of meat onto the floor, the thick red sauce, similar to blood, splattering on the floor as the pan clattered loudly.

Adrienne shrieked as some of the hot meat and sauce hit her bare skin. She held her hands over her face to protect it. Her body was shaking and her eyes were wide with tears.

"Make something else, dammit " David yelled before he left the kitchen and his wife crumbled on the floor panting in fear. He threw the wooden spoon at her and it hit her upheld hands. It wasn't as bad as it usually was, but it was still bad.