BRIAN

Once Justin was holding our daughter, he started ordering everyone to clean and disinfect anything that went near her. I waited for him to say something to me, but he was completely under the spell of the tiny bundle in his arms. He didn’t even react when she started showing us her perfect set of lungs, only told me to get the bottle because Annabelle was hungry. See he already had a name, so regardless of what anyone thinks, I knew what he wanted and I delivered. I thanked the woman who carried our daughter, not letting Justin near her, because he’d think she needed him too. Which she didn’t, because I picked her to carry our daughter because she saw what she did as just a way to help couples, not to become part of their lives. I still needed to tell Justin about the egg donor, but he figured it out after we put Annabelle in her bed next to ours that night.

“Claire?” He asks.

“She wanted to do something for you. She feels like she’s happy for the first time in her life, all because you wouldn’t leave her to live out a miserable life with Satan.” I tell him.

“I’m so like going to find her a man, so she can be happy like me.” Justin tells me.

“How about we spend our life worrying about the man Annabelle will likely make Gus and I want to kill.” I tell him.

“Annabelle will be perfect, like Gus. Plus, I have a crew to do my bidding.” Justin tells me, falling to sleep.

I got up and traced the finger that laid next to Annabelle’s head, then felt BJ rub my leg. I picked her up and let her see the new addition to the house, but she was more interested in sitting in my lap and falling asleep, something she missed while I was gone for the week. I looked over as Rocky and Regina leapt from place to place in order to see the new smell they hadn’t recognized. Then Sunny and Ally wandered in, trying to get in the bassinette with Annabelle. It’s something they did when Gus was over, they didn’t sleep with us but curled around Gus. It wasn’t like I expected them to see Annabelle as anything but someone who took up the attention Justin and I gave them. Only, like us, they saw Annabelle as the next stage in the circus that Justin brings with him.

All I could see was Justin finally meeting his match in a baby that was likely going to turn is world upside down, the way he turned mine the day we met. I could see Gus relishing his role as big brother, and torturing Annabelle the way he did Jenny, who loved every bit of attention Gus gave her. I picked up BJ, laid her on the shirt I sacrificed to keep her out of the bed and wrapped my arms around a smiling Justin. Hoping that somewhere in all the madness of being parents that he didn’t stop making my life the crazy world it became when I admired a pair of kitten slippers, and well, spongebob stretched over a perfectly perky ass helped too.

JUSTIN

Annabelle and I went to show off what happens when you marry one Brian Kinney. Leo flew in to see his honorary granddaughter, since I liked him and decided we were sort of short in the Granddad department. My father sent a card with a college fund, which was more than I expected, since he still chooses to say I’m cohabitating with Brian, like we were bachelors sharing a house until the wives showed up. My mom, who apparently knew the whole time, was just thrilled to have two grandkids to spoil. Gus of course, was the perfect big brother, he listened to all my stories of how to deal with bratty younger sisters and continued my legacy. Only he was being nice, since Annabelle wasn’t ready for all the things big brothers are supposed to do yet. 

It was really great when Leo showed up, because Vern was sort of, well not sort of, he WAS pissed at everything we did. He showed up at Kinnetik, saying he was going to sue Michael for causing all the couples not to get what they paid for. Somehow, Emmett and I weren’t at fault for a change. Only Leo looked around the room at all the couples who had come to throw a welcome home to Annabelle party and asked Vern what his seminar promised.

“To bring couples together, and help them sort through all the things that eventually cause strife in the marriage. In a lot of cases people get married without even seeing the problems that will eventually happen because they acted on impulse.” He tells Leo.

“It might not have worked the way you wanted, but all I see are couples who managed to find out the problems weren’t insurmountable. In fact, from what Justin and I talked about, they forgot to have fun, so what Michael did was show them it’s the key ingredient they were all missing.” Leo tells him, which I like, didn’t correct, because well it seemed to make Michael beam that Leo made him sound like the hero.

“Which will only last until they run into the next stumbling block, I was giving them the tools to overcome it.” Vern says, like he knew anything. Six failed marriages contradicted the idiot.

“I have forty years of laughter and fun in my marriage to prove you wrong. What do you have? What did you call him, Justin?” He asks me.

“The Guru of Love.” We all say together.

“How long have you stayed married?” Leo asks, smirking.

He left without saying a word, which only means we’ll deal with him later.

“No!” Brian says, once again proving he’s on to me.