JUSTIN

Daphne wouldn’t let up about my new friends. Actually it was more that I made friends with people. She always tells people she doesn't analyze me, but we both know better.

“It's not something you do, trust people you just met,” She tells me.

“It's different with them. They could have just ignored me at the park when Ethan came up to me, and they could have dropped me off at the hospital and gone on with their lives when I went into labor, but they didn't. Instead they stayed and helped, for no other reason than to help. Just from what little I know about them, anyone would have thought they'd be wary of getting involved with other people,” I tell her.

“I'm sure that Brian being outrageously gorgeous helps,” She laughs.

“Is it going to sound weird that it would normally be a reason for me to stay away from him? What I see when I look at him is a father wanting to give Gus a life better than the one he had. At first he seemed like he had it all together, but even he said he got help for himself because of Gus,” I tell her.

“Whatever happened in Pittsburgh left scars on all of them. Those people did a number on all of them, not just Ted and Gus. It's hard to imagine going to all the trouble of having a child then ignoring him when they got bored. They could have given Gus to Brian and gone on with their lives, but they didn't,” She tells me.

“It sounds like they liked the money they got from Brian. Shelly described what we saw from people our parents knew, they had kids because of expectations, but only wanted the kid there to say they did it,” I tell her.

“Yet they involved Brian. From what I've seen of him, he'd be the last person I would pick if I planned to ignore my kid. They had to know he would fight for his kid,” She tells me.

“Who knows what those women thought. I doubt they were thinking of more than themselves,” I tell her.

“I never like to judge people, but it's hard not to. What kind of person does the shit like Ted’s ex and his mother did? If Michael didn’t give a shit, why fight to keep Ted around? What's with the mother? She made them think she cared. That's really a twisted thing to do to someone, when they already came from families that didn’t care.” She tells me.

“It probably gave her someone else to treat the way she treated her brother. Brian mentioned him, it sounded like he at least treated the guys like a father would.” I tell her.

“Where was he in this mess?” She asks.

“I think he didn’t know how to support them. He lived with his sister,” I tell her.

“I could see that, how do you go against the woman who claims she's the reason you’re still alive? She had him believing she was Mother Teresa. Made sure he worshipped at her altar. He's probably got her all over him, since her following exited the building,” She tells me.

VIC

Rodney shook his head as Deb showed up at his door once again. I'd only been gone for two days, but she was hellbent on getting me home. Today she was outside the door with everything I owned, tossed in garbage bags. Screaming through the door at me, that if I wanted to treat her this way, then my shit needed to be out of her home.

“What do you want me to do?” He asks.

“I need to handle my life for once. She got away with the way she is because I let her,” I tell him.

He opened the door, only to have Deb pushing him aside to get to me. I could tell she was working up to a speech that involved me being ungrateful and her being self-sacrificing all my life. I didn’t have it in me to listen to her anymore.

“You delivered your message. Anything else will just make me wonder why I thought you were the person you want everyone to think you are,” I tell her, blocking her from getting any further into the house.

“I cleaned your ass and took care of you,” She tells me.

“I think we can agree you wiped my ass, you make sure everyone knows it. It's the way you take care of people that I question. I doubt, other than Michael, anyone would agree you took care of anything but him.” I tell her.

“So now you’re siding with them?” She screeches.

“It's something I should have done when you and Michael tried to help Ted finish what Brian stopped. I should have supported Emmett when you treated him like he was jealous of your son. I should have stood by Brian when you all made him sound one step up from Jack Fucking Kinney, the man who beat his son and almost killed his grandson. I can't even stand being in the same room with you and Michael, after you sat in court and lied to everyone about Brian,” I tell her.

“I told the truth, Brian doesn’t give a shit about anything but himself. He got Michael to do shit Michael wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for Brian!” She yells.

“Excuse me?” Rodney asks.

“What?!” Deb yells at him, for daring to say anything in her presence.

“First, let me explain; you're in my home, which means my rules, not yours. Second, yelling doesn’t make what you want to be true, true, because you raised your volume. Now if you expect us to sit here while you badger Vic, it won’t happen. Like Vic said, message received. He's moving on without you in his life telling him you're the only reason he's alive, not the doctors or nurses who treated him, and dare I say, divine intervention, because you outrank everyone. I don't see what coming here is accomplishing, other than reminding Vic and me why he finally got away from you,” He tells her.

“I spent my whole life supporting Vic when our family kicked him out,” She tells him.

“It sounds like he did the same for you when you got pregnant with Michael. Only he doesn't rub everything he did in your face, the way you do to anyone who crosses the threshold of your door,” He tells her.

“I tried to help Ted. It's obvious he had problems Michael didn’t know about,” She tells me, lowering her voice.

“Michael was half of Ted’s problems. Why can't you see how your son treated the man he was supposed to love? You don't love someone by putting them down, or finding ways to show them you could do better, when in truth, you were lucky they wanted you.” I tell her.

“Michael didn’t do anything like that.” She tells me.

“He learned it from you. And what do you call him telling Ted that he fucked another guy on the day Ted tried to kill himself?” I ask. “No answer? I'll call it like I see it, ‘the Debra Novotny school of training’. You taught Michael your brand of caring so well that he graduated and superceded you. I'm going to ask that you leave me alone, but if you can't, I'm going to learn from Brian. Let's not turn the name you gave yourself into a reason for a dead man to be ashamed of dying a war hero,” I tell her.

“Fuck you, little brother,” Was all she could say before slamming out the door, kicking the bags she brought.

“Vic, you have to let that life go. We have a future to live,” Rodney tells me, wrapping his arms around me.

BRIAN

Justin and Daphne showed up, laughing as they came in. Gus was watching the way they interacted with each other. To him, it was different than how Lindsay and I did. He only remembered the fights that came after he was taken away from the girls. He was seeing a healthy friendship between Justin and Daphne. It's something the rest of us were working toward, but not quite there yet. I needed Daphne to show him that a mother figure wasn't something to fear, with Shelly, he sees a grandmother, like my mother, which is different, according to Alex.

“How did our baby girl do?” Daphne asked him.

“She couldn’t tell me,” Gus tells her.

“Of course she can, it's just takes seeing that when she cries, it's because she needs things. When she coos it's because she likes what you're doing,” She tells him.

“She cooed,” Gus tells her, excited.

“Then your doing a great job, big brother,” She tells him.

“Did you hear that Jussin, I'm doing good,” Gus tells him, proudly.

“You promised me you would, so I knew you would,” Justin tells him, picking up Lily.

“I need to talk to you, alone,” I tell him. “Daphne can you watch Gus?” I ask her.

“I would love to watch Gus, if it's okay with him,” She tells him.

Gus took her with him to show her his teddy bear. I took Justin to my office. I didn’t know how to start this conversation.

“6463462437.” I said.

“What?” He asks.

“Do those numbers mean anything to you?” I ask.

It took a few minutes before he snickered. “Did you spend time trying to figure it out?” He asks.

“I knew it when I had my numbers assigned for my donation,” I tell him.

“You think Lily’s yours?” He asks.

“I checked with a branch of the same fertility clinic, they couldn’t tell me anything but that someone bought the whole sample already. A girl who was trying to get my number told me it was bought and sent here, and not in Pennsylvania. You sort of told me the rest last night. I want you to know, I didn’t look into because I thought Lily was mine, but because I remembered that Lindsay knew I did it,” I tell him.

“That wouldn’t have been good,” He tells me.

“I was just being paranoid, but with Lindsay and Mel, it pays to think worst case,” I tell him.

“What do you want?” He asked me.

“I want the chance to know my daughter; to be a part of her family. I want her to meet my mother and nephews. I don’t want to be just a number on a file for her,” I tell him.

“You want everything, including rights?” He asks me.

“You hold all the cards in this. If you need me to help financially I don’t care,” I tell him.

“I didn’t have a child to gain from it. You can keep your money. All I expect is that you never let my… our daughter, down,” He tells me.

“Justin, I want to support my daughter,” I argue.

“Buy the diapers or formula, but I don’t need a check the way you seem to think. I might not be rich, but I’m not desperate enough to use my daughter the way Lindsay used Gus. I won’t be that kind of parent,” He argues back.

“I thought they were taking care of him. Lindsay knew I wanted him to have everything I didn’t have. Clean clothes, love, and a house where he felt safe,” I tell him.

“Something you didn’t have? Brian, did you ever think Lindsay knew it was your trigger?” He asks me.

“What?” I ask.

“If your friendship with her was like mine with Daphne, then I’m sure you talked about things. She knew things that would make you go to any lengths for Gus. Only instead of doing what someone who is your friend does; take care of the most precious thing in your life, she used it to get what she wanted. I don’t want our friendship to repeat history,” He tells me.

“I don’t know how to explain the woman who I thought was my closest friend,” I tell him.

“Some people defy explanation,” He tells me.

“It didn’t help that her wife seemed to like the idea of bleeding me dry. Mel hated that I even existed to Lindsay. She went out of her way to make sure everyone heard her opinion of my lifestyle choices. She made sure my son heard it too,” I tell him.

“You show Gus everyday that Mel is a lying bitch, by being there when he needs you. Like I said to you, you’re the kind of father I want to be for Lily, and apparently, the kind of father she already has,” He tells me.

“I need it so that she knows I am. It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I want it so my daughter is never taken away from me,” I ask, trying not to plead with him.

“We’d have to look into how you would do that. I’m sure Lily would like it that there’s another father listed, not a blank space, when she see her birth certificate someday,” He tells me.

“You’ll be okay with telling my family?” I ask.

“So far, I like the family you're making, hopefully I’ll like the new ones you bring into Lily’s life,” He tells me.

“I didn’t expect you to react this well to it,” I tell him, relieved.

“With what you’ve been through, I’m sure you didn’t. Let’s go play with our daughter,” He tells me.