BRIAN

Carl came with me to wait for Justin to get back. CJ called to let me know that he had Gus with him. I told him to call and I would come if Gus had any meltdowns.

“There will come a time where Gus is able to forget. Children heal quickly when given a better environment and love,” Carl tells me.

“It's all I've work towards with Gus. When Alex suggested we move, it was to keep Gus from having Lindsay and Mel finding ways of being near my son,” I tell him.

“You did for Gus what no one did for you,” He tells me.

“I want my children to grow up believing they deserve the best in life,” I tell him.

“That's what real parents want for their children. I'm not putting Joan down, but telling you that Justin isn’t the only great parent your kids have,” He tells me.

“CJ and Vicky show me the same about you,” I tell him.

“It took time for me to see my job couldn’t be a reason my children had to wait for attention. I know there were times when I came home closing myself off to them, but the world I saw some days was something I didn't want touching them. My ex-wife kicked my ass, saying we couldn’t protect them from everything, but could raise them to never become like the people I arrested. I see you doing the same for Gus,” He tells me.

“I'm only worried because Lindsay and Mel are here right now. I'm not sure how Gus would deal with seeing either of them. Hell, I'm worried how Ted would deal with Michael. All of us came here needing a way to heal, and for the most part we are, but one of the things Alex is working with all of us on, is to not fall back into letting in the people who fucked with our heads,” I tell him.

“Maybe seeing how far they've fallen in their lives should be what you're seeing,”  He tells me.

“Lindsay just found another way to have what she wanted,” I tell him.

“Which will work until Sam sees someone he likes more. Then she's ends up right back in her current situation. None of them will ever get what you have, a family. It would take understanding that love isn’t something you treat as a game,” He tells me.

Justin, Lily, and my mom walked in. Mom kissed my cheek before taking Lily to her room. Justin grabbed a drink then sat down, not greeting anyone.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Sam convinced me to do his show, which was good,” He tells me.

“What aren’t you and Mom saying?” I ask.

“I can go if you need to talk to Brian,” Carl offers.

“It’s fine. I’m just pissed that I let Lindsay get to me. She saw your mom at the gallery with Lily and started in on her. It gave me an idea of what it was like for you and Gus. My father might win the asshole father award, but he didn’t come around me after realizing nothing he did was going to get him what he wanted,” He tells me.

“Mel and Michael are here, too,” I tell him, looking at the text Emmett sent me.

“What is wrong with them? Seriously. It’s like they need all of you, or they’d have to find lives of their own,” Justin tells me.

“They do,” Carl tells him. “They lost the people who made them believe they weren’t who they were. Vic moved out of Deb’s and ended up having to get a restraining order, because she kept showing up at his door. She thinks she can badger him into coming home. Lindsay and Mel treat their home like party central, and lately the only ones to bail them out are Michael and Deb. One of my detectives mentioned Lindsay throwing a fit when her mother kept answering the phone. I guess the father is the one willing to throw money at Lindsay,” He tells us.

“Maybe we should cancel tonight, until they’re gone,” Justin offers.

“I’ve let them make me do things to appease them, I won’t don’t that anymore. Our relationship won’t become another thing they have power over,” I tell him.

“What about Gus? If they find out about us, then it only takes using their last brain cell to connect the dots. My address isn’t hard to find,” Justin comments.

“They may find it, but I doubt they’ll like what they find when I open the door,” Carl tells us.

“Yeah, my dad’s a cop,” I smile at Carl.

LINDSAY

Sam was being a jackass the whole way back to the hotel room he got for me. I tried everything to get him to understand that if he wanted me, then it meant telling me what he knew about Justin. I didn’t like seeing Joan and Justin together, and knew I was missing something.

“I need to know why Justin would even know Joan,” I argue.

“Why? It’s not like either of them think of you as anything but a harpy.” He asks me.

“Why did you want Justin, an unknown, in your show?” I ask, trying to work back to what I wanted to know.

“I find that very funny, when you wanted the painting I have of his at my home,” He says, like he was making fun of me.

“I wanted to know why you like one artist over another,” I tell him, playing as if I really gave a shit about Sam.

“I’m sure you would love to know everything you could use to piss off Justin,” He tells me.

“I didn’t mean to upset him, but you do realize it could ruin his career being hung next to your brilliant work,” I tell him, kissing his ego.

He shrugged, looking back out the window of the car. We pulled up to my hotel and we got out. He waited to say anything until we were in my room. I was still unhappy that he didn’t get me a suite, or let me stay with him, but I let that go when I heard him saying something about going home.

“I could have just stayed with you,” I tell him, unbuttoning my shirt.

“My home will only ever have my wife living with me,” He tells me.

“All you have to do is ask,” I tell him coyly.

“When I find the woman I want to marry, I will ask,” He tells me.

“Why bring up going home?” I ask.

“I meant YOU going home. To Pittsburgh. I didn’t mind you being around and helping out when you were needed, but you almost caused me to lose the artist I wanted for my show. I draw the line when it comes to my work. You seem to think you were more than the decoration on my arm,” He tells me.

“I was only giving you my opinion based on my experience,” I tell him.

“What experience was that, dressing so the old men buying art were really paying to see your breasts? Sydney knew he needed young and attractive to get the people who buy in his gallery. He wasn’t paying for your experience. Reciting textbooks wasn’t what Sydney needed,” He tells me opening the door.

“Where are you going? You don’t get to talk to me like that,” I tell him.

“One of my old girlfriends is in town, she knows her place at my side. You have the room for the night and I'll have your ticket for Pittsburgh waiting at reception. The things you left at my house will be sent over in the morning. Other than those things, I think that's all we have left to say to each other,” He tells me.

“I wanted a future with you. I was going to tell you that I was leaving Mel for you. I could give you the children you want because I love you,” I tell him, crying the way that works on everyone I know.

“I respected you more for treating me like a way to keep the money flowing. Now you have just made it into the line with all the others, thinking I was fooled. In case you somehow want to blame Justin for ending our association- because it was never a relationship- you aren’t someone I ever saw as more than temporary entertainment. Lindsay, as a friend, I hope one day you’ll really be in love and become a better person because of it. It’s something I aspire to,” He tells me, leaving me.

“Like you know anything about love,” I scream at the door.

I wiped the tears, hating Sam for seeing through them. My phone buzzed again and I took it out of my purse. I saw that Deb still thinks calling a hundred times will make us do what she wants. I was deleting the texts without reading them until I got to one from Mother.

“You will never learn, but it’s not surprising. I gave you your choices and you chose poorly. It’s time for you to live with your choices.” She sent.

I called Daddy, because Mother really thinks he wouldn’t stand by me. I needed him to assure me that he still supported me.

“I’m busy Lindsay, you deal with whatever you and Mel did,” He tells me, sounding upset.

“I didn’t call but to talk to you, I miss the days when we could just call and talk,” I tell him.

“I can’t help Mel get out of this, she screwed herself,” He tells me, confusing me.

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“The email attacks on Brian, he’s suing her for everything you and Mel have,” He tells me.

“Why me?” I ask.

“Because you put everything in Mel’s name, thinking it would keep Brian from expecting you to pay child support, the way you two expected him to. Why were you even asking me for money when Mel had enough to support you two?” He asks.

“All she has was that account her grandfather left her,” I tell him.

“I don’t like to be lied to, you came to me asking for money when Mel had more than enough to support you,” He tells me.

“I don’t know where you got that idea,” I tell him.

“Your mother decided that if I supported you blindly that I could do it on my own. With the facts I now know, can’t go against her,” He comments before he hangs up on me.

I called Lynnette to find out what Mother was up to. “She’s closing ranks, she says she’s done letting us live off her. You fucked us both,” Lynnette yells, hanging up.

I opened my door to Deb standing there. I didn’t need this with all the other things I had to handle. “I don’t have time to listen to your problems, I have my own,” I tell her, trying to shut the door.

Deb pushed right in, not bothering to listen to a word I said. “Your wife needs to be bailed out of jail. If you’d bothered to answer her when she called, I wouldn’t have bothered you,” She tells me.

“You came to New York to tell me Mel needs bail?” I ask.

“She's in jail here. Michael ended up in trouble because you girls,” She tells me.

“I'm not even going to ask how you twist Michael’s actions into our fault. Mel needs to clear up something for me anyway. She obviously hid something from me that my mother knows about,” I tell her, grabbing my purse.

MEL

Lindsay showed up hours after I called, it's just like her to do this. Our whole relationship has been her making me feel that I only get her attention when she's ready.

“Why are we still here?” I ask, when we could be gone.

“I need to know why you have an account I didn’t know about,” She tells me, pissed.

“It wasn’t enough that Brian plans to take me for everything. He had to tell you that too,” I tell her.

“I'm getting tired of finding out things last. Explain what your talking about?” She asks.

“They think I sent emails to Brian’s clients defaming his character. Like I'm that big of an idiot. It would bury any chances I have at ever being taken seriously as a lawyer. It's something Michael would be stupid enough to do,” I explain the law once again to Lindsay.

“Why would it matter, it's just emails?” I ask.

“It's libelous, and he could have lost revenue, which means he can show potential loss to his business caused by false accusations. If they were sent to only him, the monetary loss would be negligible. It doesn’t matter anyway, because I didn’t do it, so once I get out of here I plan to counter sue him for false accusations. I expect when they follow the IP address there won’t be a problem,” I tell her, enjoying finally winning against the asshole.

“What does that mean?” She asks, looking less confident and worrying me.

“That I know I didn’t send it, so whoever hacked my email will be the one Brian will have to deal with, not me. While I’ll be counting the money he’ll owe me,” I tell her.

“They can’t prove anything, right?” She asks.

“IP addresses are like home addresses, they belong to one computer, which is why they think they have me,” I tell her. “What the hell is bothering you?” I ask, when she looks upset.

“Nothing, let me get you bailed out,” She tells me, getting up.

LINDSAY

I saw Michael standing there while Deb paid to get him out. I went over and dragged him to a corner, after handing the sergeant my credit card. “Michael our little joke is going to get Mel and me in trouble,” I whisper.

“What joke?” He asks.

“The ones we sent through Mel’s email. Fucking Trina isn’t going to keep her mouth shut, she would love to save Mel from me,” I tell him.

“It’s not like emails are that big a deal,” He blows me off.

“Then you won’t care if Brian finds out he can sue you too. Not that you have anything your mommy won’t replace for you,” I tell him.

“Or your daddy. Get over it. Your parents will pay to keep you at a distance and out of court again,” He tells me.

“Ms. Peterson,” The sergeant calls.

“This card was rejected,” He tells me, handing me the card Daddy gave me.

“It’s unlimited, so try it again,” I tell him.

“I tried three times, do you have another way to pay the bail?” He asks.

“Use this one,” I hand him my debit card.

He swiped it and it was declined. I called the bank, only to find out all our accounts were frozen. I paid out it out of the money Sam left lying around my room. Mel came out, while I called to see if I could cancel the flight and get a refund on my ticket. The lady on the phone said it wasn’t a problem and she could just reverse the charges back to the card they were charged to, before hanging up on me. I didn’t pay attention to Deb and got to them after she stomped off.

“Where is she going?” I ask, because we need to figure out how we were getting back.

“She thinks Brian is going to listen to her,” Mel tells me rolling her eyes.

“Let’s go back to my hotel. I need to figure out how we are going to get home. All our accounts are frozen and the bitch at the airport wasn’t offering to refund the money for my ticket to me. Don’t think I’m not going to ask about the money my father says you have in another account,” I tell them.

JUSTIN

Brian told me he didn’t plan an ordinary date for us. I trusted him and told him next time it was my turn. He took me to an underground jazz club and we discovered we both shared the love of jazz, then I got to find out Brian was an amazing dancer. He told me dancing in clubs wasn’t to showcase his dancing skills. I told him I agree, I didn’t really use them to dance either. We left, agreeing we needed to come back, and headed to a small eatery that didn’t have menus but allowed us to sample a variety of foods and wines. We left with my head swimming and liking that he planned something that didn’t turn into an ordinary date.

“I have one last thing, but it’s up to you. Mom and Dad are willing to stay the night with the kids,” He tells me.

“I’ve liked everything so far, so I don’t see any reason not to continue this date,” I tell him.

We got to a hotel and I thought I knew why we were there, I was wrong. Brian took me to the rooftop pool. It was set up with candles all around and a place to lay down away from the lights.

“I did a campaign for them, the owner told me I could have a free stay whenever I wanted,” He tells me.

“On the roof?” I kid.

“I wanted to make love to you under the stars,” He tells me, backing me to the cushions laid out in the dark under the stars.

“You know, this is ridiculously romantic,” I tell him.