I am sorry if I might have come off a bit strong in my defense of Justin in the last reply. It's just that it's a weird position to be in for me: I know what will happen in the rest of the story, I know how this story will end, so I have an unfair advantage that I am trying not to use when I reply to comments. I try to remember what it felt like when I was writing these specific chapters, but even then I already had a story outline, so knew what would happen in the end, so I am not sure I was ever at the point that you are in where I am just getting the information chapter by chapter. So apologies if my defense of Justin came off a bit strong!

It's just that these characters, even if they behave badly and do things we might not like and understand, feel like my "children" that I have to protect from criticism lol. Stupid metaphor, but you know? It feels like I made him behave like this, so people should be angry with me not him. And I know that we're talking about a fictional character, so I'll stop now before it sounds even weirder than it already does ;)

I remember how many people didn't like Brian in Back for Good at all and how you were one of the few who stuck up for him, saying you could understand why he had done what he had done. And I really appreciate that you're at least trying to understand where Justin is coming from and are trying to see his point in parts. That means a lot! 

As said before: We will get to Justin's feelings more in the second half of this story. We will find out more about his feelings, emotions and his reasons for behaving the way he did. And I hope that people will be able to forgive him in the end like I did ;) And if not, we can always be Team Brian and wave the Kinney flag for this story :) 

A friend of mine recently mentioned to me how much this story also reminded her of the ending of Castaway. When Tom Hanks came back from the island only to find out that his girlfriend had moved on and gotten married to another man in his absence. How disappointed we had been at the time when we watched the movie that there was no happy ending and how now, years later when we had grown up and were older, it made a lot more sense that she wouldn't just give up her new life for someone who hadn't been a part of that life for years.

I'll have to admit that I never even thought of Castaway when writing this story and it never crossed my mind until she mentioned it, but now that she has, I have been thinking about that ending a lot and I guess she's right: Now that I am older, I understand why the movie might have ended without what everyone would have considered a happy ending.

And yes, Justin loves Ethan. They have built a life together and Ethan has helped Justin as well as Gus during a really hard time in their lives. It's not something you can just ignore and throw away. At least Justin can't. 

Anyway, the story will start moving in a different direction soon and I promise things will get better! 

As for this chapter: The question is, was it really Justin or was it the lawyer who suggested to use the nightmares against Brian? We know from the Lindsay/Mel/Michael custody mess on the show how lawyers try to find dirty stuff on the other party and at this point it's not clear whether Justin mentioned that Brian had the nightmares in the hospital as well or if the lawyer just suggested: We need to establish a pattern here, so if we can get other people to confirm that he had the nightmares more than once...I know the final decision would have still been with Justin to use this, but maybe the lawyer made it clear that this was needed to win over the judge to their side. 

I am not sure if it would make any difference to Brian, the damage has been done and he feels hurt and betrayed by Justin. But like you said: Shouldn't he have seen this coming? The nightmares were the one reason Justin always gave for why he didn't allow overnight visits. Or didn't he think Justin would go through with using them against him? Who knows...

I agree, I don't think the judge had much liberty to decide anything else under the circumstances and the question is: How will this affect Gus?

A lot will happen in the next few chapters and I am quite excited to see what people will think :)

Thanks as always for your detailed comment. It's much appreciated :) More will be up tomorrow! Stay safe! 

Things will start moving in the right direction soon (even though it might not look like it right now)!

Thanks for your comment. More will be up tomorrow :)