2 YEARS LATER
Debbie laughed at her granddaughter's antics. The waitress loved spending time with her grandchild. Gus would sometimes join them, too but he was still rather suspicious about her because unlike Jenny, Gus was able to hear and understand some of the things Debbie said after Michael and Lindsay kidnapped Justin. The mini Brian had no problem placing the blame where it belonged: on Michael and Lindsay. Gus and Jenny hardly asked for their mommy, Jenny because she was too young to really comprehend what had happened and Gus because he hated his mommy for hurting Justin and Leonie. If the blonde woman happened to be mentioned, neither Jenny nor Gus referred to her as mommy. She was Lindsay. Plain and simple. Michael lost his uncle and daddy title very quickly as well and since he hardly spent time with Jenny prior to his imprisonment, the young girl didn't miss him. Ben had become Jenny's daddy and hero and with the help of Melanie, was able to adopt the beautiful little girl.
Still, except for Melanie, nobody from the gang fully forgave her or welcomed her back into their lives. Everyone was friendly when Deb was around but things were never the same. For the children's sake, Deb was invited to their birthday parties and was allowed to spend time with them but the adults usually stayed away from the waitress. She never went to visit Michael again and found a new circle of friends.
Hunter had developed a passion for writing but had been more successful than Ben. With Justin's help, the young man had published two children's books already. Hunter wrote the stories about a young boy and his sister exploring the big wide world and Justin delivered beautiful illustrations. Gus and Jenny were Hunter's biggest inspirations but he was also inspired by Leonie Estefania and Thomas Mark, who was born almost nine months after Leonie.
Brian enjoyed his pregnancy to the fullest, eating and sleeping and just not caring about carbs or his looks. He found himself rather sexy with the baby belly. The fact that Justin was instantly horny just by looking at his lover, was a fine bonus for Brian. Five months after Thomas was born, Brian topped Justin for the first time since the ordeal with Lindsay, Michael and Ethan. Since then, their sex life was back to normal.
Melanie took some time off to recover and mourn the loss of her own family. Emmett invited Leda, Mel's former girlfriend prior to the Lindsay days, Melanie wasn't thrilled at first but relaxed quite soon. They began going out together for dinner and the movies or dancing and after a couple of months, the two began dating again. Ever since, they've been together and Leda was accepted and welcomed by Gus and Jenny and she became their mom. It helped that the wild woman bonded with Hunter instantly and got along very well with Ben.
Ted and Blake decided to adopt two young girls after they were found by Blake in a dumpster behind the Diner. Apparently, the girls ran away from their foster family because of the physical abuse. Blake called Ted and within a couple of days, they were parents of Lisa and Jessy. They both enjoyed the abuse-free life with their new dads and the big extended family. The eldest of the two, Jessy developed a big crush on Justin and declared that she would steal him away from Brian when she was older. Brian laughed out loud as well as the rest of the family. It was never boring, especially when Ted found out soon that he was pregnant himself. It took a lot of conversations with both, Brian and Justin, for the accountant to feel ready for a pregnancy and he found himself soon rather happy. Lisa and Jessy were looking forward to another sibling to love and cuddle.
Emmett and Drew just loved being uncles, they had no plans yet to become parents. Drew actually became part of a group house for runaway children where they would find not only food and protection and shelter, but also support to finish their education, finding a job and meeting people who weren't homophobes. Emmett provided the home made food and organised charity parties where the teenagers could help bringing attention to the cause.
Justin was the only one from the family who knew that neither Emmett nor Drew could carry. Emmett told him after he and Drew tried to get pregnant. After the first weeks of disappointment, Emmett and Drew accepted their fate and decided to focus on their careers and the group house before they would some day adopt.
Chris Hobbs actually visited Brian and Justin at the loft after the trial and apologized over and over again for his behavior and violent actions against Justin in the past. Although they would never be able to become friends, they remained friendly and Chris accepted Justin's offer to get Alex to talk to him. Chris began his own therapy with Alex and the young man accepted his sexuality and found the courage to come out to his parents. What happened from then on, was like a deja vú for Justin. Chris' parents divorced and he had no contact to his father anymore. Only his mother supported her son and thanked Justin for the help.
Debbie continued her therapy with Angela Turner and was able to rebuild a friendship with Carl. The detective could not fathom another relationship with the red head but agreed to be friends. He had actually met a nice woman his age at the hospital when Brian gave birth to Thomas Mark. He also kept the gang updated on Lindsay, Michael and Ethan.
The former committed suicide six months into his imprisonment after he was raped by the biggest gang in his cell block. Justin visited his grave some days after the funeral and was able to finally close the 'fiddler' chapter in his life. After that, Justin focused on Lindsay and Michael in therapy. Brian couldn't stop laughing when he was told about Michael being used as a washing cloth in the prison bath and Lindsay being shredded bald. Lindsay provided the biggest laugh later when she attempted to seduce a watcher in return for protection. The officer accepted and after he fucked her senseless, he threw her into the group of inmates and told them about her poor attempt at seduction. She wasn't able to walk or sit properly for weeks after her inmates gave out the proper punishment.
The family's garden was done by a company from Pittsburgh and along with Melanie and Leda, Brian and Justin hosted many barbecues for their friends. Of course, training their dogs Blacky, Lucky and Shiloh turned out to be an endless series of laughs and little accidents. Blacky and Lucky preferred to chew on the garden chairs instead of their toys and after re-buying the same chairs for the sixth time, Brian decided to buy another set of garden chairs and the fitting table. No more wood he decided. Melanie and Leda asked for a little flower garden which was destroyed by all three of the dogs within hours of leaving them alone outside. Also, Leda and Mel had to restock their shoe collection over and over again because they forgot to hide them from little Blacky.
Brian was sure the dogs hated him because whenever he was on poop duty, each dog left him huge surprises everywhere while Justin and Gus hardly had to search for the poop. The ad genius was not amused to find Shiloh's hair in his suit closet. The long haired Shepherd mix loved to sleep in that closet and Brian spent most mornings brushing the hairs from his suits. Life became even more hectic when Leonie learned to walk and kept following the dogs into the rose bushes. The young girl never had a scratch but Brian and Justin always looked pretty battered after getting their daughter of the bushes.
Lucky was the happiest dog whenever Drew stopped by and threw the balls for the brown labrador to catch. Shiloh on the other hand was a soccer genius who never let a ball through when playing with Brian and Gus.
Brian's biggest nightmare turned out to be the Disney movies. The kids loved to watch several Disney classics over and over again and quickly learned the lyrics to the songs. When Justin began singing 'Let it Go', 'How far I'll Go' or Ariel's songs the brunette banned every Disney movie but it didn't last and for Halloween he suffered as Olaf, the snowman from 'Frozen', while Gus and Justin went as Hans and Kristoff and Jenny was Elsa. Leda was dressed as Anna and Melanie as Sven, the reindeer. The rest of the gang was forced to dress as the singing trolls. Justin thought that Brian looked super adorkable as Olaf but the brunette wasn't happy at all. He did refuse to dress as Maui, Pua or HeiHei the next year tho and the kids agreed to go with Ariel and Brian ended up being Sebastian, the red crab.
Blacky was dressed as Fabius, Shiloh as Scruttle and Lucky as Max. Justin was asked to dress as King Triton much to Brian's amusement. Carl denied laughing and the kids wanted Justin as their second choice.
Life definitely was never boring for the family and despite all the thorns that were rammed through them and their relationship, Brian and Justin always stood together, never letting the evil thorns rip them apart. They fought all evil as individuals and together and that made them stronger, wiser and had them love one another more than any other couple before.
THE END