February 18

Brian walked down the hospital hall, his arm firmly wrapped around Justin's shoulders in an effort to ground himself. God, he hated hospitals. He had ever since Justin's bashing and he'd spent every night standing outside Justin's room watching him fight his demons in his sleep. The only blessing was that this hospital wasn't the one that Justin had spent all those weeks in recovery. He didn't think he could step foot in it if had been.

Pressing his lips to Justin's temple, he slid his arm down to his waist and wrapped his hand around it, resting it protectively on his belly. Justin looked up with a smile, but continued walking towards the waiting room where they were supposed to meet their guide for the hospital tour that Justin insisted on doing.

Personally, Brian didn't think the really needed it; how hard could it be? You showed up, waited hours while your spouse threatened you with every form of bodily injury that their creative minds could concoct, (which was not-so-surprisingly plentiful for someone as creative as Justin). And then you spent the rest of the time in pain as your partner squeezed the life out of whatever body part they could latch onto until the baby was born. He didn't really see the need for a tour.

But Justin started prattling on and on about preregistering and being comfortable in his environment during such a stressful time and knowing where to go when the time came, and Brian had finally agreed if only to shut him up. And, if it made things that much easier for Justin on the day of the delivery, then Brian was happy to spare a few hours to go on this stupid tour.

"Brian, Justin," a voice called from behind them; Brian halted and turned around to find Justin's OB, Liz Jackson, walking toward them with a small frown. Brian stiffened, hoping that everything was okay; he really didn't need anymore bad news at this point in the game. "I'm so glad to see you; I was wondering if after the tour, you had some time to come by my office so that we could talk."

"Is there something wrong?" Justin asked, his brow furrowing as he studied his OB's harassed expression.

"Not wrong per se," Liz hedged, smoothing her hair back from her face. "But I do need to discuss something of utmost delicacy and I really don't want to have that conversation in the halls where anyone could hear."

Justin and Brian exchanged worried looks.

"Sure," Justin said slowly, a small frown on his face; he arched a brow in Brian's direction. "I know that I don't have anything planned after this; what about you? Do you need to get back to the office?"

Brian thought back for a moment, mentally running through his schedule; he'd only been planning to tackle the pile of paperwork on his desk for a few hours after this, but didn't actually need to be in the office until his phone conference with Liberty Air.

"Not until about three," Brian said, scratching his chin. "I have a phone conference then. But, if necessary, I can have Cynthia take it or reschedule it for me. It wasn't anything important; we were just going to go over some numbers for their latest campaign. I can always e-mail them if necessary."

"It shouldn't take that long," Liz reassured them, looking relieved. And that really didn't sit well with Brian at all. "I think it should take no more than an hour."

"Are you sure nothing is wrong," Brian persisted, his hand tightening around Justin's stomach. He really didn't think he could take anything more at this point.

"Yes," Liz waved off his concerns with a smile. "Now stop worrying and enjoy your tour. I'll see you in an hour."

Brian watched her depart, still worried about what she said, but decided to shunt it aside for now. If something had been seriously wrong, she would have called them immediately. And while her words didn't lend any true comfort, he was willing to trust her for now. He had to stop seeing issues before they actually became issues, but it was difficult. Too many things had happened too quickly lately and he just didn't need something more to worry about at this juncture.

Pressing closer to Justin, they'd met up with the hospital educator, as apparently there was a shortage of nurses that day and the nurse assigned take them around was needed to assist in a birth. Their first stop was in registration, where the educator advised them it would be wise to preregister so that they didn't have to wait around and fill out papers when Justin wouldn't likely to be in the mood to deal with it.

Justin nodded emphatically at that, and suggested they do it after the tour, but before they go see Liz; Brian didn't see any problem with that at all. He hated paperwork in general and was certain that they would both be too busy dealing with the actual labor to care about it at that point.

From there they went to triage, where the educator explained that this where the nurse would not only admit Justin; but they would also monitor Justin's vitals and assess whether or not he was ready for delivery. from there, they then were headed to the family waiting rooms; and Brian couldn't help but snort at the size of it. There was no way in hell that they could fit the family in there; hopefully there was another waiting room where the excess could spill into or they were shit out of luck. Then, they toured an unused labor and delivery suite, and an unoccupied postpartum room.

Justin and the educator chattered away the entire time, with Justin asking dozens of questions that Brian wouldn't have even thought of; it was obvious that the little twat had done his research as he carefully noted things down in a notebook. Brian shook his head; if only he was that organized about everything else in his life.

The tour ended with a view of the newborn nursery; and really, Brian had a hard time himself not choking up at Justin's delighted reactions at seeing all the babies, and knowing that some day soon that their Sunbeam would be in there too. Justin wrapped his arms around his stomach, tears in his eyes, even as he beamed up at Brian with excitement. And Brian was hard pressed to hold back a few of his own because, somehow; this tour had just made everything seem that much more real.

Justin asked a few more questions as the walked back to the registration are to do their paperwork, his hands waving excitedly as they discussed the various amenities the hospital had to offer. Brian smirked at his antics, and when Justin finally wound down, Brian ushered him into the registration area; there they spent the next thirty minutes or so going over the paperwork and filling it out, which was peppered by even more questions.

And then, they finally walked out of the hospital itself and crossed the parking lot to surrounding medical offices, where Liz's practice was situated. Walking into the office, Justin sat down while Brian talked to the receptionist and signed in, letting her know that although they didn't have an appointment, that Liz asked them to stop by after their tour today. He filled out the even more paperwork, (and fuck, did he hate this part) and then walked over to sit down next to Justin, who was staring out the window pensively.

Brian watched as Justin chewed on his bottom lip, with his brow furrowed and a far off look in his eyes. He continued to watch the parking lot for several minutes, his fingers working nervously on the arms of the chair,so wrapped up, that he hadn't even noticed that Brian was sitting next to him yet.

"What's wrong?" Brian asked, trying to garner his husband's attention; but Justin was either ignoring him, or he hadn't heard him. And judging by the dazed look on his face, Brian was certain it was the latter.

Worried, Brian gently shook his shoulder, startling his husband out of whatever trance he'd gone into. Blue eyes looked up at him, wide and fearful, his body tense and ready for flight until he registered who was sitting next to him. And then he sighed and slowly relaxed, his body slumping into the chair.

"Justin?" Brian probed, trying to get an answer for his behavior.

"What?" Justin asked a bit absently, looking out the window once more before shaking his head and turning away with a frown.

"I asked if something was wrong," Brian prodded again, his own frown intensifying. "You've been staring off into space for a couple of minutes."

"I thought I saw…" Justin said, and then trailed off and shook his head again.

"Thought you saw what?" Brian prompted, looking out the window, but seeing nothing out of the ordinary. That didn't mean that he didn't believe Justin, just that whatever had spooked his husband was gone.

"Never mind," Justin said a bit more firmly, his lips compressing into a thin, white line, his eyes on fire as he looked back towards the window one final time. And then he squared his shoulders and turned away. "I'll tell you when we get home."

Brian opened his mouth to argue, but they were called into the office at that moment and he shelved the topic for the time being. Justin went through the typical vitals intake – blood pressure, weight, temp, etc. – and then they were ushered into an exam room. They sat there, the both of them silent as they mulled over this last little episode. This was getting ridiculous; fuck, he couldn't wait until the police caught up to this asshole so that they would stop jumping at shadows, no matter how real or imagined they may be.

Shaking his head as the door opened, Brian decided to focus on the matter at hand; there was time enough to deal with the stalker after this. Justin and Sunbeam were much more important at this given time as he was still concerned about Liz's words.

"Hey Liz," Justin greeted, back to his typical sunshine self and smiling broadly as his doctor entered the room.

"Hello Justin, Brian," Liz greeted, a chart in her hands; she walked over to the examination table, where Justin had been sitting. "So, before we get to why I had you come in today; tell me how you've been feeling? Have you had any further issues since you were last in the hospital?"

"Not really," Justin said with a small shrug. "I've been feeling pretty good recently, with the exception of being tired in the afternoons. But after a quick cat nap, I'm usually fine."

"That's good to hear," Liz said, noting the information into the chart. She looked through it, leafing through a few papers before addressing Justin once more. "Based on the vitals the nurse took, I see that you finally started gaining the weight that you needed."

"I'd be shocked if he hadn't," Brian muttered, snickering when Justin scowled and hissed at him. "The way he eats these days is awe inspiring."

"Shut up," Justin huffed, rolling his eyes when Liz just laughed; Justin's appetite had been a long running joke between Liz and Brian, with Liz herself saying she'd been amazed that Justin hadn't gained more weight than he had during this pregnancy.

"You know it's true, Sunshine," Brian smirked, laughing when Justin flipped him off as soon as Liz turned her back to him. Brian blew him a kiss.

"I also see that you've had your blood work done; that's good," Liz nodded as she continued to jot some things down in the file. "And so far there is no need to worry about gestational diabetes."

"Now that is shocking knowing his sweet tooth," Brian huffed; and really with the number of Twinkies the twat ate, he was surprised he hadn't died of sugar shock yet.

"I married a comedian," Justin said dryly, rolling his eyes at Brian's observations. And then squirming in his seat, he turned back to Liz. "So, not to be impatient…"

"But, truly he is," Brian quipped, laughing when Justin balled up a piece of paper and threw it at him. Liz just laughed it off, quite used to their banter.

"Shut up," Justin said, pointing a finger at him; Brian made a zipping motion over his lips, as Justin turned to Liz again. "What was the reason you needed to see us."

"Well, when we were looking through your files the other day, I noticed something off about the ultrasound you had a couple of weeks ago," Liz said a bit hesitantly, leaning against the bedside tray. Justin's eyes widened in alarm; echoing the panic that flooded through Brian's veins, but Liz just held up a hand. "Now before you panic, nothing is wrong with the baby. It has nothing to do with that."

Brian's panic tamped down a bit, but didn't immediately abate; as she hadn't said anything about Justin or that there wasn't a problem at all; just that there wasn't a problem with Sunbeam. Licking his suddenly parched lips, Brian took a deep breath and asked in an even tone, "So, what is the problem?"

"The reason I asked you to come by is that, somehow, instead of showing you your baby, we played a recording of someone else's ultrasound. So, we need to do it again." Liz said, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

What? Was that even possible? How the hell does something like that happen? Frowning, Brian tried to wrap his mind around it and just couldn't; it didn't make any sense to him. How do you mix something like that up? But, then again, he wasn't a tech expert, nor did he know anything about medical tech, so what did he know?

"What?" Brian asked, echoing his first thought; and then smirked with amusement as Justin echoed his second.

"How does that even happen?" Justin asked with bewilderment, staring at Liz in utter confusion, his hand pressing to his baby bump.

"To be honest, I don't have any explanations really," Liz said, still looking extremely embarrassed. "The only reason I even noticed any issues was that the name on the ultrasound was different than the name on your file. I do know that we had to put off your ultrasound once before because we were having issues with the program and the machine; but I can't even begin to figure out how this happened."

Brian and Justin exchanged confused looks; whatever he had been expecting, it certainly wasn't this. Not to say that he wasn't relieved that it wasn't something much more worse, but it was just an odd thing to happen and he didn't know what to think.

"So, we were hoping that you would have time to do it today," Liz finished in a rush, exhaling explosively. "No charge of course as the error was ours."

"Uh," Justin said with a small shrug; and Brian felt the same way. What else could they do in this situation? They both still wanted to know the gender of the baby. "Sure; I have the time. As long as Brian has the time…"

Brian nodded; after all, it was only about one; he still had an hour and a half before he really had to worry. "Well, it's a good thing that we didn't tell anyone the gender. That would have been fun trying to explain to everything if things had changed and why."

"Good," Liz nodded, heaving a relieved sigh; she moved over to the door and gestured. "So, let's move to the other room and we can get started."

They walked into the other room, and immediately Justin laid down on the bed; he tucked his shirt up under his armpits and lowered his pants to just under his baby bump. And God, if he still wasn't the sexiest thing that Brian had ever seen; Brian met his gaze, and held it, letting him see just how beautiful he was in his eyes. Justin flushed and looked away shyly, hissing as Liz squeezed a dollop of gel on his belly, before meeting them again. They simply stared at each other for a long drawn out moment, each wrapped up in the other, and this moment, before a surprised gasp caught their attention.

"Oh, well, that's surprising..." Liz said a bit nervously, her hand fluttering on the keyboard by the monitor in front of her. Brian instantly turned to her, his heart in his throat. What the fuck did that mean?

"What's surprising?" Justin asked as he swung his head over to the monitor; and then his mouth gaped and his eyes bugged as he stared at the screen.

"Well, I just wasn't expecting this," Liz said a bit flustered, her hands moving in an agitated manner over the keys as she typed something in, her eyes wide as saucers as she stared at the screen.

"What do you mean you weren't expecting this?" Brian asked as he looked up to the screening monitor mounted on the wall in front of him; and then his mouth slackened, and his heart began to beat out a staccato rhythm as just stared, not quite believing what he was seeing. He swallowed thickly, his vision graying around he edges as he asked in a hoarsely squeak. "Am I seeing that correctly?"

His mind tried to process what he was seeing, but kept balking at the image; that couldn't be. But as Brian counted them again and again, his eyes widening each time he did so; he couldn't refute what they were seeing. And yes, he said them, because if this was to be believed…

"If you're seeing three babies, then yes you are," Liz said, laughing a bit nervously as she too stared at the screen. "You don't mind multiples, right?"

Brian just shook his head, the noise in his head growing louder and louder as his blood pulsed, rushing through his veins as it tried to keep up with the rapid pounding of his heart. A cold sweat broke across his brow as he literally felt the color drain from his face, thinking that he must be dreaming because THREE? What the fuck?

He could barely deal with the thought of one in the beginning; how the fuck was he going to deal with three at the same fucking time! There was no fucking way. They'd never get any fucking sleep. Pressing his hand to his mouth, Brian swayed, his head swimming as it tried to make sense of what was in front of his eyes, but he couldn't deny it that every time he counted, there were still three fucking babies on the screen.

Dropping his head between his knees, Brian closed his eyes as spots danced before his eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to get the thrumming of his heart under control. It was fine. Really. He could do this. So, he wasn't expecting three babies, but they could make it work somehow. They could get an au pair, or three; and with the help of Mother Taylor, and Deb and Carl and the others, they could do this. Maybe.

Oh, fuck; who the fuck was he kidding? How the fuck were they going deal with three babies at once? How do you deal with three toddlers at once? Fuck! How the fuck were they going to deal with three fucking teenagers at once!? Gus was bad enough, and he was just starting his teen years; three at the same time, at the same age. Jesus fuck, his hair would be gray before they were fourteen.

Inhaling deeply, Brian startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder; he looked up at Liz, his mind whirling as he tried to accept his new reality.

"Brian?" Liz asked, holding out a glass of water in her hand. "Are you doing okay? Do you need a glass of water?"

"I'm fine," Brian stammered, taking another couple of breaths in the attempt to get his heart rate under control; but it seemed as if his lungs were crushed in a vise and he couldn't get enough air. Fuck. THREE. He looked over at Justin, who was staring at him with laughter in his eyes. "I'm fine; I just need a moment to adjust…"

Wait. His laughing husband!?

Brian trailed off, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the giggling twat on the bed; and in that instant he knew he'd been played. There was no way in hell that Justin would be sitting there, cool as a cucumber and laughing if he'd just found out he was having triplets. He'd still be sitting there, staring at the screen, completely catatonic at the very least; or he'd be cursing up a storm and throwing the biggest bitch fit in the world, blaming Brian for this at the worst. There was no way in hell he'd find this situation amusing unless the little twat had planned this somehow.

"Bull. Shit." Brian said, his eyes narrowing further as he pointed a shaking finger at his husband; Justin just laughed, his eyes sparkling with deviltry.

"Whatever do you mean, honey?" Justin said, trying to affect an innocent look, but the twat was laughing too hard for it to work.

"I call bullshit," Brian hissed, scrubbing a hand over his face as his heart finally started come down to a normal rate; fucking, little pain in the ass, twat. He was so going to kill him for this. "There is no way you could be having three; you're not big enough."

"Well, everyone shows differently, Brian," Liz said very seriously, but her eyes were sparkling with humor. "I have met some carriers who didn't even know they were pregnant until the last month or so because they didn't show much at all. They thought they were just gaining a bit of weight. It is possible…"

"Possible," Brian agreed, staring at his still giggling husband; he was so going to pull the little brat over his knee when they got home. Jesus fucking Christ. "But not likely. I know you, you little twat."

"Are you implying that we're lying to you?" Justin blinked, all faux innocence; and then he cracked up again, holding his stomach as he laughed, tears streaming from his eyes.

The fucking twat; when he got through with him…

"I'm saying that I know you're lying to me," Brian huffed, slumping back into his chair and scrubbing a hand over his face again. He pinned his husband with gimlet eye. "I'm on to you, Sunshine." Justin just smiled, completely unrepentant. Brian shook his head. " And I also suppose expect me to pay for this little prank of yours?"

"Nope," Justin chortled gleefully, popping the end of it. "It's all covered.

"You are so paying for this when we get home, brat," Brian huffed, ignoring Liz as she walked out the door to give them some privacy. And that only set his husband off on another round of giggles.

Oh, yes; laugh while you can, brat.

"I guess next time you'll leave my fucking Twinkies alone," Justin smirked, his eyes gleaming with humor as he let Brian know that he was onto him as well.

Oh, it was so on, little boy.