February 9 (Part Two)

"I'll see you later, Sonny Boy," Brian said as he hugged his son; Gus squeezed him extra hard and held on for a moment longer that he normally would, but Brian didn't blame him. He knew that Gus was still a bit shaken by the past week's events and his Jus' hospital scare.

"Bye, Dad," Gus yelled as he turned and ran back into the house, calling over his shoulder. "Give Jus a hug for me and tell him that I'll call him tonight."

"Will do, Sonny Boy," Brian called back, and then sighed.

While he'd seen Gus several times last week, both at the hospital and out of it, he hadn't had the chance to spend any quality time with him as they'd both been too worried about Justin and Sunbeam. That's why, instead of going to Mother Taylor's luncheon, he decided to take his son out for brunch and a catch up.

God knew they needed that time to regroup.

Turning on his heel, Brian groaned when he saw Lindsay leaning against his car; he so didn't need to deal with her bullshit today, especially as he still hadn't managed to go through all the fucking messages she'd left on his phone. The woman was becoming a menace and he was already dealing with enough shit in his life. He didn't need another stalker added into the mix.

"Lindsay," Brian greeted, a thin smile on his face as he walked over to his car.

"Where have you been?" Lindsay hissed, her arms crossed over her chest.

"With my husband," Brian stated blandly, fighting the urge to roll his eyes at her unwarranted show of possessiveness. Fuck, this shit got old, and he so didn't want to deal with this after the whole Michael debacle. What the fuck was wrong with his oldest friends? "Was there anything else that's none of your business that you wanted to know?"

"I need to know how to get a hold of you," Lindsay demanded, her nose set at a haughty angle, and Brian really did roll his eyes this time.

"No, you don't," Brian stated succinctly, moving around her to get to his car door.

"Yes, I do!" Lindsay spat, and Brian could almost see her stomping her foot like a petulant two-year old. "What if there had been an emergency and I needed to get a hold of you because something happened to Gus. He could have died for all you care…"

Brian swung around and pinned his friend with an enraged look, instantly halting whatever venom the vicious, little viper had been about to spew in its tracks. Walking over to Lindsay slowly, he got up into her face, making her take a nervous step back.

"Do not even go there, Lindsay," he stated in steely tone, his eyes hard as flint and his mouth twisted into a bitter smile. This had always been her go-to jab. "Don't forget how you tried that bullshit with me years ago and the result of it." Lindsay swallowed thickly and averted her gaze as she knew she'd crossed a line five years ago. "I told you then that I would not tolerate you using Gus as a means of controlling me, and I am telling you the same now. Do not make call my lawyer and tell him to enact those papers you signed."

Lindsay swallowed again, and then, seeming to find her spine once more, jutted her chin out as she watched him through narrowed eyes. "The fact remains that Gus could have been sick and you wouldn't have known."

"Again, no," Brian said with a cold smile. "Gus is well aware of the fact that he can call me anytime, day or night, and I will always pick up for him. Had he fallen ill, he would have called me." Brian paused and held up a hand to forestall what he knew would be Lindsay's next tactic. "And before you say it, had he been incapacitated and unable to contact me, Emmett, Ted and Cynthia, all knew how to get a message to me. And since none of them called me this weekend, because they, unlike you, understand the concept of 'do not call me, I'm going to be busy,' I know there was nothing that couldn't wait until Justin and I got home."

"I do not appreciate being kept out of the loop," Lindsay hissed, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I am the mother of your child…"

"And?" Brian asked, arching a disinterested brow; if he'd had a penny for every time he heard those words he'd be…well twice as rich as he was now.

Lindsay gasped, her hand flying to her throat as if utterly offended by his cavalier attitude; but really, what had she expected? Just because he'd shot his sperm into a cup didn't mean that she held any rights to his life no matter what warped little fantasy she'd built up in her head since college.

"Lindsay," Brian stated slowly, as if talking to a particularly dense and spoilt child. "Do you remember years ago; when you forced me to play hubby so you and Mel would seem 'hetero' enough to get Gus into that school you wanted him to attend?"

Lindsay didn't say anything, but he could see that she wanted to ask what the hell that had to do with their current conversation; so Brian pressed on.

"You said then, that back in college, you'd always imagined us doing that one day and then asked if I had done the same," Brian reminded her; Lindsay flushed a dull red and looked away. "And I told you then, without hesitation, that no, I had not."

The color in Lindsay's face deepened to a fire-engine red at the reminder; she crossed her arms over her chest and stared back at him, a mutinous frown on her face.

"That hasn't changed," Brian continued, rolling his lips between his teeth as he stared right back without an ounce of remorse. "You are not now, nor will you ever be, my wife. And the only person I answer to is a bitchy, little, pregnant blond who is currently driving me crazy with his fucking food cravings. The key word in that sentence being HIS not her. I don't answer to you; never have and never will."

Lindsay looked away, but not before he saw the hurt tears in her eyes; but Brian remained unmoved by them as he'd seen that ploy in action one too many times in the past and he sure as hell wasn't falling for them again.

"Now, if there isn't anything else," Brian said with a condescending smile as he rocked on his heels. "I need to get to the police station; and I have a whole slew of other things to do before picking Justin up from his mother's."

Brian spun on his heel and walked back to his door; he opened it and then paused to give Lindsay a hard look before he slid inside.

"Oh, and Linds," he said with a baleful frown. "Stop blowing up my phone when you can't get a hold of me; I have clients that need to know that they can contact me if they are ever in a lurch. I don't need you filling up my voicemail like an angry fishwife trying to track down her unfaithful husband. You have a wife; fucking pay attention to her before you lose your meal ticket."

And with that, Brian slid into his car, started it and drove away without looking back.

… … … … …

Sighing, Brian opened the door and stepped into the precinct; the last thing he wanted to do was meet with the police today. He'd rather be wrapped up in a cocoon with Justin, blocking out the real world for a few more hours; but sadly, the real world waited for no man, and Detective Nakamura insisted that it was important.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he walked towards the reception desk, but stopped as a familiar face made his way over to him. Smiling at Carl, Brian changed direction and held out his hand. Carl wisely took it as he knew that Brian, unlike Justin, would never tolerate something more touchy-feely in public.

"Carl," Brian greeted, shaking the other man's hand. "Aren't you supposed to be retired? What are you doing here?"

"I'd stopped by to talk to some of the guys today when Tak told me you'd be coming in," Carl said, looking over to the officer sitting at the reception desk and waved his hand; Brian assumed that was some preplanned signal to let the man know that Brian was here based on the way he picked up the phone right after. "Figured I'd stick around and see if you wanted any company."

"I…" Brian started, intending to refuse his offer, but then paused as he reconsidered it; the police had come a long way since the Stockwell days, but Brian still didn't trust most cops. "That would be great; I'm a little worried about what they found."

"Where's Justin?" Carl nodded, well aware of Brian's distrust for most of his former colleagues. "I'm surprised he let you come without him.

"He's at Mother Taylor's for her biweekly family luncheon," Brian said, huffing when Carl raised his brows in surprise. "I figured with everything that happened last week, he should just have a quiet day with his mom and sister."

"You did tell him…" Carl asked with a small disapproving frown.

"Yes, yes, he knows where I am," Brian said, cutting the other man off. "I didn't want it to get back to him through a different source like last time. I'm lucky I kept my balls after he calmed down enough to think things through."

"I hate to say, 'I told you so,' but…" Carl smirked, laughing when Brian scowled.

"But you're going to do it anyways," Brian said, a sardonic twist to his mouth.

Carl shrugged unrepentantly and laughed again. Brian rolled his lips between his teeth and looked away, not wanting to show his own amusement. Carl had indeed warned him that not sharing the details with Justin would come back and bite him on the ass. But, he'd expected his reckoning to come at the hands of an irate blond demanding answers; not a panicked blond sitting in a hospital bed, shaking like a leaf as he clung to Brian.

Christ, he could kill Michael for that.

That's not to say the anger didn't come later; it did as his ass could fully attest to. Justin had been livid and proceeded to take it out on him in the most delicious of ways. Brian didn't bother to tell Justin that his 'punishment' wasn't really much of one in his eyes; although, Justin was likely aware of that fact.

"So, did you talk to Mikey about his…indiscretion," Brian asked, looking around to see if anyone was paying them any mind, and then tempering his words anyway.

"Yeah," Carl huffed, a disgruntled look on his face as he stared off to the side; a sure sign that the affable man was still pissed at Michael's indiscreet words on Tuesday. "Not only did he get it from me, but he got it from Em and Deb; and then Tak had a go; Michael was lucky that Tak didn't simply haul his ass in for obstruction of justice."

"Would that have really been considered…" Brian asked with a frown.

"Not likely," Carl said, a small mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "But a day or two in jail while they figured that out might have done him some good. However, Tak didn't want to muddy the investigation with the arrest. As it was, Tak did explain to him, in small, pointed words, just how unhappy he was about it and told him in detail what Michael could expect if he did something so foolish again." Carl paused, looked around and then grinned. "He nearly pissed his pants when Tak told him that he'd haul him in if he continued to interfere with an open and ongoing police investigation."

Brian chuckled at that image; the part of him that was still fuming over Michael's actions deriving pleasure from his former friend's current predicament. It served him right; and couldn't have happened to a better person. Brian opened his mouth to respond and then closed it as young, brunet, uniformed cop walked up to them.

"Hey, Carl," The officer said before turning to Brian with a polite smile. "Detective Nakamura will see you now, Mr. Taylor-Kinney."

"I'll take him back, Bert," Carl said, nodding to the young officer, who in turn, nodded back and went on his way. "Shall we?"

Carl turned down the hall and led Brian deeper into the precinct, nodding to, and exchanging greetings with, officers and detectives along the way; until they came to a room filled with cubicles. Carl strode up to the last one on the right and knocked on the side of the wall. Detective Nakamura looked up, a phone pressed to his ear and held up one finger as he recited a bunch information that he wanted before he hung up. He stood and held out his hand.

"Mr. Taylor-Kinney," Nakamura greeted, shaking his hand firmly before turning to Carl and doing the same with him. "Carl."

"Please, call me Brian," Brian requested as they followed him into the cubicle.

"Brian then; and please call me Tak," he said as he retook the seat behind his desk. "I'm assuming that with Carl here, you give him permission to hear this information."

"Yes," Brian said, sitting in the plastic chair that sat just to the left of the desk; one that Tak must have pulled over when he heard Brian was there. Carl stood behind him, leaning against the low wall. "Did you find anything?"

"Well, we did gather evidence, and dusted for fingerprints, but we're still working on the findings; and I'm not at liberty to discuss it at the moment," Tak said, shuffling a few things on his desk and setting the files aside. "What I did want to ask about, was an item that we found that seemed out of place; but it could potentially be something that belongs to either you or your husband. I wanted to see if you could identify it for me."

"Sure," Brian shrugged; anything to help with apprehending this fucker. He wanted to make sure that this asshole stayed as far away from his husband as possible; or he wouldn't be held responsible for his actions. "What do you need?"

"While searching for evidence," Tak said, opening up a safe to his left-hand side. "My team found this." He pulled out a plastic bag that held a laminated picture of Justin and set it on the desk in front of Brian. "It looks like something you or your husband might do to salvage a fraying article, but something about it caught my investigator's eye. Does this look familiar to you at all?"

"No," Brian said, looking at it closely. He knew that picture. It was the one that had been printed in that art magazine Lindsay had shown him just before Justin left for New York. God, how he hated that magazine. "I have never seen that in my life; I mean, I know what article that's from, as it was the picture that went along that damned article that had Justin moving to New York. But I know that I don't own anything like it. And while Justin does have a scrapbook, it's not kept at the loft, nor would it contain anything like this. Although, I can have him stop by here when he's next in town if you'd like."

"That would be appreciated," Tak said, nodding as he jotted something down in his notebook. "If for no other reason than to eliminate him from the list."

Brian nodded and then looked down at the picture.

"I don't understand something, though; this picture is at least five years old," Brian said, noting the frayed edges; as if it had been handled over and over throughout the years. "And judging by the wear and tear of the photo, it's not been cut out recently."

"That would be my assessment of it as well," Tak said, leaning forward to study the photo with Brian. "What's your question?"

"If they've had this for that long," Brian said, leaning back into his chair with an assessing look. "Why are we just learning of this now? Why is it happening now?"

Tak nodded and picked up the bag; he stared at the photo for a moment and then put it back into the safe and closed it. He turned back around with a serious look on his face. "My guess is that your husband's stalker was happy to watch him from afar during that time; the fantasy sustained him and he didn't need anything more. But…but something has happened recently that's forced him or her out of hiding. Something's happened to make him or her escalate. When did you start noticing something was off?"

Brian averted his gaze and thought about it for a few seconds.

"Not long after we found out that Justin was pregnant," he said slowly, his lips compressing into a thin line. "It started gradually, with the feeling of being watched or someone being there; but when you turn to look, no one is there. The loft is the first physical sign that we've gotten; or well the first that we've noticed."

"That could do it," Tak nodded thoughtfully, rubbing his hand over his jaw. "Stalkers live off of their fantasies and they feed on the crumbs and scraps of their target's attention to power the illusion. When something comes along that shatters that illusion, which could very well be the tangible evidence of your union through your husband's pregnancy, it could send them reeling. And then, you get events like the loft."

"So, this asshole could have been following Justin around for five years?" Brian asked, shuddering at the idea that this asshole had been following Justin around for that long.

"Potentially," Tak said, linking his hands behind his head as he sat back into his chair; he cocked his to the side and stretched his lips thin effectuating a doubtful moue. "But not likely. The fixation could have occurred then, but the perpetrator probably wasn't following him around at that point. It might have just been a case of the perp following your husband through articles, such as the one the photo is from. But over time, that wasn't enough to feed the obsession."

He sat back up and stared Brian plainly in the face; and that was one of the things he liked best about the guy. He cut through the bullshit and got to the heart of a matter without fancy words or pussyfooting around. He stated it plainly and simply and just got the fucking job done, no muss, no fuss.

"So maybe then, he starts to show up at your husband's public appearances," Tak continued with a pensive frown. "It gives the perp a chance to watch and observe the object of their obsession, and if they happen to get a random word or smile in, then all the better for them." Tak paused to consider his words. "Eventually, the perp would likely try to find ways to insinuate themselves into their obsession's life to get even more of a fix. It happens so slowly over time that you don't even notice until one day, something makes the perp snap and you get what happened at the loft."

"So what do we do now?" Brian asked, uneasy that this asshole was still at large and could get to his husband easily; he'd never done helpless well.

"Beef up your security," Tak suggested with a shrug. "Change all your codes and make sure you, and only you and your husband, have them; don't give them out. Even if you trust the people you usually give them to; you don't know how the perp got that information yet. This will prevent it from being leaked again. I'd even suggest that you not use your typical cleaning services or any company that might have the access codes for the moment; at least not until we catch up to the perp. Keep an eye out and report anything suspicious. Make sure you don't go anywhere alone if you can help it. That's about all you can do at the moment."

"Bodyguards?" Brian asked, ignoring the pained groan behind him

"That's up to you," Tak grinned. "It couldn't hurt to beef up the security patrols around your house at the very least. It is a bit remote."

Brian rolled his lips under and nodded. He had been kicking around the idea of hiring a private security team for the past few days, and Tak made a very good point about the house. As beautiful as it was, their nearest neighbors were about half a mile down the road. Justin loved the remoteness of the property, but it sure didn't help them in their current situation. Nodding to himself he looked back at Tak.

"Was there anything else?" Brian asked, anxious to get on the road to Mother Taylor's and see, and just hold, his husband.

"That was it for now," Tak said, standing as Brian did the same and held out his hand. "But I'll call you when we have more information; and, of course, feel free to call if anything comes up or you if remember anything additional about the loft."

"Thank you," Brian said as he shook the man's hand once more. "You've given me a lot to think about."

"Thank you for coming in," Tak nodded, waiting until he and Carl had turned away to sit back down at his desk and pull a stack of files over to him.

Brian followed Carl out of the maze of cubicles and halls, his mind mulling over everything that he had learned and wondering just how much of it he should tell Justin. On the one hand, Justin needed the information so that he'd be alert to his surroundings; but on the other hand, if he knew just how long this has been going on, it would stress him out, and that wasn't good for him or Sunbeam. It was a tough call.

"Please, tell me you aren't going to hire a bodyguard to follow Justin around," Carl said, breaking the silence between them as they passed the reception desk. "You know as well as I do, that Justin will have a shit fit when he finds out."

"If he does, he does; he'll just have to deal," Brian stated implacably, even if he still hadn't decided if he was going to hire a private security team. He was leaning towards yes though; he'd just have to resign himself to dealing with his husband's wrath at a later date. "I will do anything – anything Carl – to make sure that he's safe."

"Oh, joy," Carl grumbled as they headed out the door; sighing at the drama the man knew this would likely cause. "I can't wait for the fireworks to start."