BRIAN

Justin was sitting up looking at the view of the city around us. I put my head in his lap, watching the sun rising.

“It's moments like this when I see all the things we forget are still there to see everyday,” He tells me.

“What, the sun coming up?” I ask.

“It’s more what you see before it rises, the changing colors that I can’t duplicate because they change with each minute we get closer to sunrise. We start a new day as new people,” He tells me.

“When I lived in Pittsburgh, I had windows along one whole wall of the loft. I used to sit on my sofa and watch this, not seeing anything but that I made it through another night,” I tell him.

“After I left home, I promised myself not to let the bad things outweigh the good,” He tells me.

“How do you stop it?” I ask.

“When I first moved away from my family, I had a hard time sleeping. At night with no one around, I had too much time to think about why my father could love a straight son, but not the gay son who was still the same person he’d always been. It would have driven me crazy, wanting to believe that my parents divorce was my fault. I know it’s not, but you think stupid things in the middle of the night. It was changing the way I painted, and that was one thing I couldn’t let hatred take from me. Plus, I like the person I am and always have been, the man who I called my father didn’t know me at all if all he saw was my sexuality,” He tells me.

“I spent years looking in the mirror trying to see what it was that my father hated. I couldn’t find it no matter how hard I looked,” I tell him.

“Because the mirror was pointed at the wrong person,” He tells me.

I pulled him up to kiss me and his stomach went off like Lily’s at feeding time. I kissed him anyway, pulling us up and grabbing the clothes we threw off. “They have a restaurant in the hotel, we could eat and order to-go for the babysitters,” I tell him.

“I miss our babies, do you mind if we just get to-go orders?” He asks.

“Call down and order,” I tell him.

MEL

Lindsay was calling Sam again, trying to get him to pay for our trip home. I didn’t want to sit and listen to her begging for him to answer, it was like looking at myself. I left her in the room, just needing to get away. I walked down the stairs, not wanting to be around people. I heard voices on the stairs and recognized the asshole’s voice. I followed, but they stopped at the bottom, with Brian all over the guy, but it was different, as if the asshole had feelings…

“I love you,” I hear him whisper.

“I love you too. Let’s get home, I miss the kids,”

They opened the door and walked through. I followed, confused at Brian’s behavior. They went into the restaurant and waited, kissing and holding each other, as if Brian really meant he loved someone, other than himself. I heard a call for Justin Taylor and the blond got up with Brian and got the food. They left, too involved in each other to pay any attention to me.

I went back up the stairs, pissed and jealous of Brian, which was normal ever since I’d met Lindsay. The door was open and Michael was there with Lindsay. He left when Deb called, telling him she got a room for them. Deb took off like the hot head she is, not knowing where to go, and called a couple hours later saying she didn’t want Michael staying with us, since the reason Michael got in trouble was because he followed me.

“Ma said she was going to try to catch Ted and get him to tell Brian that suing Mel is bullshit,” Michael tells her.

“Mel said they could trace the address to the computer,” Lindsay tells him.

“Fuck. You sent one of them from my store,” Michael freaks out.

“The rest were from her laptop, but maybe Brian was just trying to scare Mel,” Lindsay tells him.

“Didn’t you say your accounts are frozen? I doubt even Brian could do that, unless he has proof,” He tells her.

I pulled out my phone and called the bank. I hung up defeated, Lindsay’s game just bit me in the ass. I came up here to ask her if the Justin she'd been bitching about was the same Justin that Brian was with, and to tell my darling wife that Brian had a little family. Now I just wanted to strangle Lindsay for losing everything we owned.

Instead of walking into the room, I called Tricia and got her to book a ticket for me to come home.

“Why are you still with her when I love you?” Tricia asks.

“I’m packing my things when I get back,” I tell her, not telling her that I plan to go live in Florida with my family.

“Finally. I can be at the airport to pick you up,” She tells me, excited.

“I need to settle things first, then we can talk,” I hang up, tired of everything.

TED

Blake called to see if it was okay if a friend of his could meet with us for lunch.

“I haven’t seen him in years and he just got into town. Maybe bring your friend Emmett to round out the group?” He begs.

“If you want to have lunch with him alone, we can just have dinner tonight,” I tell him.

“I hope you don’t mind but I mentioned to him that we were going to the opera together and he arranged a box for everyone,” He tells me.

“Tell him thanks,” I said, wondering who the friend was, that he was able to get a box two days before the show.

“He’s excited because you're the first guy I really talked to him about. He wanted to do something for the man that made me want to stay in one place,” He tells me.

I hung up after agreeing to meet them at the restaurant. I called Emmett and he agreed to come, because he wanted to meet the man who brought his Teddy home. We were waiting outside for Blake and the friend, when Emmett got the same look he had when Michael shows up. I looked over to see Mel walking towards us. She was on the phone and walked by us without saying anything, then turned and saw us.

“Ted…”

“Ted, hey, meet Drew,” Blake smiles, walking past Mel who he cut off.

“Ted, I’m sorry,” Mel tells me.

“In the immortal words of Brian Kinney, sorry is bullshit, and I no longer have it in me to accept anything from you,” I tell her.

“Is there a problem?” Drew asks.

“Not at all, Emmett and I are excited to meet you,” I tell Drew, and offered Blake my arm.

“I guess that leaves us,” Drew smiles at Emmett.

Mel stood watching us, and I wanted to leave her the way she left me. I just wasn’t that kind of person. “I’ll be there in a minute,” I tell Emmett.

“Teddy, are you sure?” Emmett asks.

“Yes, get to know Blake and Drew,” I tell him.

Mel followed me down the sidewalk and we found a bench. When she sat down, I left space between us.

“What do you want, money?” I ask.

“I want my life back. I miss when we were still friends,” She tells me.

“I don’t want or need a friend who could do the things you did,” I tell her.

“You need fucking Brian?” She asks.

“If that’s the only thing you have to say, then I have a date,” I tell her.

“I’m leaving Lindsay,” She tells me.

“Okay. But why tell me?” I ask.

“Brian is suing me, but I didn’t send those emails. Lindsay and Michael did, it’s just they did it from my computer and email account. I wanted to see if you would get Brian to leave me alone and go after them,” She tells me.

“Nope. You sided with them when I needed you, you deal with it,” I tell her, leaving.

EMMETT

I might have done a happy dance in my head when Drew walked me in and pulled out my chair. I know I was glad no one could see the thoughts floating in my head when he sat next to me, asking me to do him the honor of letting him treat me to lunch. Only there was a part of me that wanted to go outside and make sure Mel wasn’t doing a number on Teddy. Teddy came in a minute later and kissed Blake, saying he was starving. I let the tension go when I saw that he was okay.

“How did you two meet?” Ted asked Drew and Blake.

“Blake was helping with one of my teammate’s kids. I hit on him and he offered friendship instead,” Drew tells us, laughing.

“He wasn’t even serious. Afterwards we just started hanging out. It kept his teammates from offering up every gay man they met,” Blake tells us.

“What about you two?” Drew asks Emmett.

“I met Ted through mutual friends. When he was moving here, I came with him,” I tell them the bare bones.

“We all moved because life in Pittsburgh wasn’t the life any of us wanted,” Ted tells me.

I smiled and felt like I could put down the sword I carried for so long for Teddy. I turned to Drew and decided to see what interesting things I could get myself into.

JUSTIN

Brian and I walked in the house and found Carl and Joan sitting on the couch. Carl had his arm around Joan who was holding Lily. Gus was watching TV, but got up and ran to us.

“I didn’t get scared,” He announces to Brian.

“He got up once but Carl laid with him until he fell back to sleep,” Joan tells us.

“He said he would keep the bad dreams away. I didn’t have none,” Gus tells us.

Brian hugged Gus and mouthed ‘thank you’ to Carl.

“It’s my job too,” Carl tells him.

“We brought breakfast,” I tell them.

“I thought I’d take my fellow babysitter out,” Joan tells us.

They left while Brian got everything ready at the table. I went to change and came back, stopping to look at my family. Brian was holding Lily and helping Gus eat. I leaned over, kissing him and taking Lily, so he could drink his coffee.

“What’s your day like?” Brian asks me.

“Clear, Sam wanted to wait a couple days before I see his work,” I tell him.

“How do you feel about looking at houses?” Brian asks.

“Why?” I ask.

“CJ wants to look around here, he’s being stationed at a base near by,” Brian tells me.

“Oh… that’s great,” I tell him, worried that I was disappointed.

“Maybe we’ll see something.” He tells me, smiling.