March 22 – (Part Five)

Brian leaned back in his chair in the media room, watching as Jenny, Gus, Tucker, Liam and Carl played Scattergories; smirking when his Sonny Boy seemed to be in the lead despite playing against three adults, and one of them a teacher at that. That was his boy. Those Kinney genes were shining bright tonight. Well, his genes were; he'd rather die than give his father any of the credit for the wonder that was Gus. That was all on him.

And maybe Mel had helped just a little.

Sipping his Beam, he glanced around and arched a brow as he caught sight of half of the Luscious Ladies – Deb, Mother Taylor, Lucille and Mel – huddled together with Daphne and Yasmeen chatting away about the shower and the various gifts that had been given and the ones that hadn't on the registry. That was worrying. He had a bad feeling that he was soon going to have a bunch of nosy, nesting women trying to help again if he didn't nip that in the bud right the fuck now.

Glaring at them, he briefly debated on going over and breaking up the hen fest now; and then decided against it. He'd just sic Justin on them. If there was anyone that could get his point across with nothing more than a few pointed words and a frown, it was Justin. As it was, he'd already had to listen to Deb and Mother Taylor bitch about him changing the nursery from their design to the current configuration.

Thankfully, his Sonny Boy had looked at them incredulously and asked them how would they like it if he were to go into their bedrooms and completely rearrange them to suit his likes and dislikes. And then pointed out it was Justin's nursery and that he should fix it up the way he wanted it, not the way they wanted it. Brian had barely held back a chuckle at Mother Taylor's abashed look and Deb's indignant frown.

Skipping over them, he landed on Ted, who looked like he was trying not to fall asleep as he idly flipped through a magazine; every now and then, he'd glance up at the door, waiting for Blake to come back from feeding Luc, and then he'd go back to his magazine, fighting off a yawn as he did so. Brian had to look away before he too fell victim to the same lethargy that Ted was feeling; he was almost tempted to run up to his bedroom and curl up next to Justin; and would if he didn't have a feeling that Justin would be up soon.

It had been a couple of hours since Justin had laid down and he was just glad that the vast majority of people had left. In fact, the only ones left were 'family' and that was only because Justin had made plans for a family dinner after the shower as he didn't want to deal with the clean up crew breaking everything down. If it had been up to Brian, he would have likely kicked everyone out, warmed up some leftovers from the shower for dinner and then made an early night of it.

"You aren't falling asleep on us, are you?" Mother Taylor said, smiling indulgently. "We can all leave and have dinner another time. I'm sure you and Justin are tired."

"No I'm fine; plus, Justin is looking forward to dinner," Brian huffed, smirking when another groan erupted from those playing the game, followed by Gus' triumphant hoot. "I am so fucking glad that this is all over; if I had to deal with another queen out over the food, or the favors, or the decorations, I might have packed my bags and moved to the other side of the country."

"Was Justin really that bad?" Mother Taylor asked with a frown. "I thought that he was supposed to be taking a backseat in the planning?"

"Who said anything about Justin?" Brian snorted, taking another sip of his Beam "It was Emmett that I was talking about. I swear, it seemed like he was having a meltdown every other day."

"I was not that bad, fuck you very much," Emmett huffed as he entered the media room, cringing and flashing an apologetic smile at Mother Taylor when she glared at him reprovingly before looking pointedly at Gus and Jenny.

"Emmett, you called me in tears one day because they'd sent you the wrong fucking napkins," Brian said, rolling his eyes when Emmett grumbled and flopped onto the couch. "Easily four weeks before the party."

"I was just having an emotional day," Emmett pouted, much to everyone's amusement.

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Brian deadpanned, ducking when a pillow came sailing his way. "Because I still call a spade a spade; it was a fucking queen out and you know it."

"I just wanted everything to be perfect for Baby," Emmett huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "He was already stressed out about everything, and I just wanted this one day to be everything he wanted."

"And it was," Mother Taylor reassured him, patting him on the arm as she sent Brian an admonishing look; Emmett smiled at her and the turned and stuck his tongue out at Brian. "I've never seen him happier."

"Yeah, at my expense," Brian muttered, but it had little heat to it; something that Mother Taylor knew well as she huffed and sent him an exasperated look.

"Oh, hush you," she said, shaking her head. "Like you didn't tell Emmett to contact you for any problems for this exact purpose."

"Exactly," Emmett sniffed, looking quite pleased with himself. "Don't think we aren't well aware that you would've gone through ten times worse for your Sunshine. As Baby always says, 'we're on to you.'"

"Great," Brian groused, even as he was fighting back a smile; they really did have him pegged. "Go and completely ruin my asshole image, why don't you?"

"Honey, you did that the day you put a ring on it," Mel chimed in, laughing when Brian just turned to her in mock horror.

"Not you too, Smelly Melly," Brian lamented; and who would have thought that they'd ever be civil with each other. Let alone friendly. "You're supposed to hold out against the crowd and call me an asshole. Come on, you know you want to."

"Too much work," Mel said with a languid wave of her hand; snickering when Brian squawked with mock outrage. "I have better things to do with my time."

"Is nothing sacred anymore?" Brian lamented, sighing theatrically.

"No!" came several voices from around him, although he only registered Mel, Em, Daphne, Liam, Ted, and Yasmeen's voices as they were closest to him.

"Fucking Twat," Brian complained, much to the amusement of everyone; all of whom didn't believe his words for one red second. "I knew this would happen..."

Brian cut off when the TV screen flickered to life in front of him; surprised, he'd turned towards it and watched as Lindsay came onto the screen, staring at the nursery with a sour expression on her face. Frowning, he watched as she spun around in a circle and took out her phone and began taking pictures. What the hell was she doing?

He looked over at the others, but they seemed equally surprised to see her in there; or maybe just to see that he was still recording. But he'd left the camera up and running because he'd wanted to capture people's reactions to the nursery, especially that of the mural, so that Justin could view them later. He'd actually meant to turn the camera off the last time he went up to the room to check on Justin, but had gotten distracted by his dad gift once more and it had slipped his mind.

Turning away, he braced himself to get up, but halted when Justin walked into the room, frowning and asking Lindsay what she was doing, only to receive a saccharine and meaningless answer, followed by a veiled insult that had even Gus and Jenny snorting. Sitting back down, he watched the two of them, immediately on edge, although he could place just why as they seemed to be exchanging barbed but mostly meaningless commentary on being an artist; nothing that Justin couldn't easily handle.

But maybe that was what had him on alert; Justin was far too tense for something that would usually roll right off his back, and leave him feeling amused as he bested Lindsay in a battle of words yet again.

"It has nothing to do with confidence," Justin shrugged; he cocked his head, vaguely amused. "It is simply what I am. I could never sell another painting or a pastel or a sketch again, and I would still be an artist."

Brian smirked; he couldn't have put it better himself, and understood where Justin was going with those words. Lindsay focused far too much on commercial success and the visibility of an artist; using those as benchmarks of their success. Something that Justin had in spades. But for Justin, interest in his work could shift,  or a new style of art could start trending, and he might never find commercial success again, but he'd still be an artist, he'd still create.

It was what he was born to do; and nothing could ever deter him.

Lindsay didn't seem to like that answer, though; evident by the fleeting malevolent sneer that flashed across her face before she turned away. And that look concerned Brian; he'd long known that Lindsay had been jealous of Justin - both for his raw talent early on, and his later success in an industry that had cast her aside. Not just as an artist, but even as an art expert in general after the whole Auerbach fiasco. That little affair hadn't just nearly ended her marriage; it had also made her the laughingstock of the art world. It was only sheer luck, and a lot of favor calling, that had seen her into her current position.

"What in Sam's hell is she…" Deb asked, frowning at the screen.

But Brian held up a hand because he wanted to see what happened next; especially when they started talking about Justin's new protégé. As far as he'd been aware, Justin hadn't announced anything to the family about Louis. He supposed Lindsay might have heard about it from one of her contacts, limited as they may be at this time; but there was something in Justin's expression as she asked about Louis that had Brian sitting on the edge of his seat, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

There was this sly, almost smug smile on his face as he waxed poetic over Louis; but what disturbed Brian most  was, it wasn't his art that Justin was raving about, which was that complete opposite from when Justin had met Louis a few days before. He seemed oddly fixated on Louis' physical traits; and had Brian been an insecure man, he would really start to wonder just what attracted Justin to his newest protégé.

And then suddenly it became all too horrifically clear in that way where all the pieces of a puzzle just suddenly fall into place when you're handed that one last clue. A cold icy feeling seeped into the pit of his stomach and spread throughout his body as he watched Justin turn to Lindsay with a diamond-sharp smile.

"But you'd know that wouldn't you?" he said, looking very much like the cat that had caught the canary. "I'm sure your friend Simon filled you in on all the details; told you about what a find he was and how he couldn't wait to show him the ropes. It must have really pissed you off that I'd foiled your plans again."

That icy feeling grew exponentially as Brian stared at the screen in utter disbelief, chilling him down to the bone as things Justin had said over the years came back to haunt him. All those little snide asides whenever Simon was mentioned, the sarcasm that dripped from his words whenever he thanked Lindsay for all her help, and the way he could barely tolerate being in the same building as either of them, let alone a room. It was a smack to the face and he couldn't believe that he hadn't seen it himself until now.

"Did he just accuse Lindsay of…" Emmett asked looking over at a still stunned Brian; who just shook his head in disbelief.

"That's what it sounded like to me," Ted said with a calmness that had Brian glancing at him sharply; and he couldn't help noticing that of everyone there, he didn't seemed all that surprised at Justin's accusations.

Brian inhaled sharply, pain stabbing into him like a knife to the gut at the implications – not only Justin's words, but the lack of reaction in Ted. He knew that Justin and Blake were close. Almost as close as he and Mikey were when there were teens, and as close as he and Emmett were now; and that Ted might know something that he hadn't…Brian shunted that aside because he couldn't deal with it now.

"Carl…" Brian said between grit teeth, watching as Lindsay tried to play dumb; but he knew her too well to fall for it; just as his husband wasn't falling for it.

"On it," Carl said, instantly alert and swiftly getting up from his chair and gathering up both a far-too-interested Gus and confused Jenny. "Let's go kiddos."

"But, Dad…" Gus protested, obviously not wanting to miss whatever drama that he sensed brewing; but Brian didn't want either of his kids here if he was indeed right and it deteriorated into an ugly scene.

"Now, Sonny Boy," Brian stated firmly, cutting off any further protests with a sharp, 'I mean it' look, one that had Gus instantly capitulating; he knew better than to argue with Brian when he saw that look.

Carl quickly herded the kids up the stairs and away from the escalating scene; or really, what Brian sensed would become a quickly escalating scene; and not a moment too soon.

"Of course I care about you," Lindsay simpered, shaking her hair forward; an action that made Justin laugh. "I've always supported you and your art; in fact, I was the one that…"

Brian didn't blame him either; Justin had explained that maneuver to him once, pointing out how manipulative it really was when Brian thought he was crazy. It wasn't until Brian had divorced himself from a situation and watched Lindsay in action with others that he'd truly gotten it. And then, he'd been annoyed, because usually he was a great judge of character; but for some reason he'd always been blinded by Lindsay and Mikey.

Justin once called it willful blindness; because, if Brian had actually seen them for who they really were, he would have to admit they really weren't that great of a friend. And he'd needed their support far too much at the time to question their intentions. And, as much as Brian had hated hearing it, he also had to admit that Justin had been onto something.

"Encouraged me to pursue it?" Justin asked lazily; he leaned against the crib and crossed his arms over his chest. "To go to New York to become more than I could here in Pittsburgh; trust me, I never forgot that fact." He paused and looked at her coldly. "Just as I know that it was not nearly so altruistic on your part. You see I know."

"Oh, please tell me this isn't going where I think it's going," Emmett moaned, staring at the TV screen in disbelief.

"Fuck me," Tucker breathed, his eyes going wide. "Christ, I remember that guy; he was practically eating Justin alive at the art show. And I'd always felt something was off in that exchange between Lindsay, Simon and Justin. Because don't get me wrong, Justin is very talented; but it always seemed odd to me that someone of Simon's stature came to the show out of the blue like that."

Brian grunted in agreement, his eyes still riveted on his husband and supposed friend; his lips compressed as he noted that Lindsay's voice and hands began to shake despite her attempt at nonchalance, especially when Justin mentioned how chatty Simon got whenever he was drunk.

"And you didn't say anything than?" Mother Taylor asked incredulously, her eyes on fire and hands tightly clenched as she stared at Lindsay.

"What was there to say?" Tucker sighed, pushing his hair out of the way. "All I had was a weird feeling; a vibe that Justin himself picked up on based on his interactions with the guy. And then Justin came over and distracted me by asking questions about our relationship; I forgot about it."

"Will you assholes shut up?" Brian hissed, only cringing a bit when Mother Taylor's disapproving look swung his way; he opened his mouth to make nice, but movement from the corner of his caught his attention as Mel moved to get up, her face set into a hard mask. But again, she didn't look overly surprised by the unfolding drama; Christ did everyone but him know. "And you; sit the fuck down."

Mel glared at him, but complied; no one was going to interrupt, potentially forcing Lindsay to clam up before he could figure out what the hell was happening.

"…he had a lot to say about certain of his activities when he thought he couldn't be overheard by anyone that mattered." Justin stared at Lindsay coldly, his eyes shooting lasers as they bore into her, seeking out any weakness he could find.

Brian sucked in another breath, his stomach clenching at the rage in those flashing blue eyes; and he couldn't help feeling sick to his stomach as the words just kept coming, spilling from Justin's lips in a torrent as he pushed off the crib and circled Lindsay, preventing the escape that even Brian could see was written all over her face.

Justin himself looked ill as he confessed to the conversation that he overheard in regards to his first protégé. The way those men had spoken of a human being as nothing more than a pet, a dog to be trained and awarded with a show or a contract so long as he played into whatever sick game Simon and his minions held. And while he'd heard rumors, he hadn't known it was this bad or that widespread.

But Justin had; and suddenly his husband's disdain for Simon made so much sense.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. How the fuck hadn't he known about this?

"It deteriorated from there," Justin sneered, his face scrunching up in distaste. "They got disgustingly ribald with all the acts that they wanted to perform on him; especially after they saw his picture. I was so disgusted, so…horrified at what I'd heard; and yet, I felt justified that I had gotten his mark from the very beginning. In that moment, I was so glad that I ignored all of his overtures when I'd first landed in New York; not that he ever stood a chance. I mean, I had Brian, why the fuck would I ever look at that dickwad?"

Brian smirked; he couldn't help it. It always made him feel good when Justin let the world know that he still found him hot all these years later. And then he frowned as Justin circled Lindsay, a shark-like grin on his face; verbally poking and jabbing at her to get a reaction, to get her to break her WASPy mask.

And from what Brian could see, he was making a good dent in it, even if the others couldn't tell; especially when he hit her with his true point.

"But then, it got real interesting," Justin smirked; Lindsay stilled at those words. "He grew bitter and started ranting about his very good friend Lindsay, who at one time had been one of his 'sweet, young things,' and had once brought Justin Taylor, the new hot artist, to his attention."

"Oh no she didn't," Yasmeen burst out, speaking for the first time since the live feed had started; her eyes narrowed and she looked like she was contemplating how many pieces that she could chop Lindsay's body into before feeding them to the fishes.

"Fucking, bitch," Daphne spat, shooting off of her chair and heading for the door "I'm going to pull every single strand of hair out of her skanky ass head. No one fucks with my Justy and gets away with it."

"Liam," Lucille said, shooting him a look that Liam correctly interpreted as 'grab your wife before she's arrested for assault.'

"Let me go," Daphne hissed, kicking out with her feet as Liam pulled her down with him, wrapping her tightly in his arms. "I swear to God, if you don't release me and let me tear that skanky bitch a new…"

"Oh, no you don't, young lady," Lucille commanded, the icy anger in her voice garnering Daphne's immediate attention. "You will sit there and let her hang herself…"

As for Brian, he sat there dumbfounded. It was one thing to suspect it and another thing to have it spelled out in words; fucking, Lindsay. If he wasn't riveted to his seat by pure shock at Justin's words, he'd be up there giving her a much needed beat down, female or not. No one fucked with his husband.

"Talked about how I had an open relationship and how I liked to be the center of threesomes and foursomes and orgies. About how I sucked cock like a dream and fucked like it was going out style; and how he'd been this close to having all that raw sexual and artistic talent in his hands to shape and mold into one of his good little soldiers before he tossed me aside for some new flavor of the month. But, and this was his biggest gripe, he couldn't get close enough to me because of that bastard Kinney."

Jesus Fucking Christ; and just when he thought it couldn't get worse. Brian felt as if he'd been sucker punched, and had the rug pulled out from under him, all at the same time. Hearing all that from Justin's own mouth and knowing that his husband had never said a word…Brian didn't know how to feel. Part of him was absolutely incandescent with rage at Lindsay's actions, at the betrayal of his trust; and yet another part was deeply hurt that Justin had never confided in him; he couldn't have possibly thought that Brian would side with Lindsay if he had, could he?

"But you know how he got that information, don't you?" Justin demanded, his eyes little, blue ice chips as they bore into Lindsay.

"So what if I do?" Lindsay snapped. "It's not like what I told him wasn't true. Hell, you can't walk down the Avenue without still hearing about the past escapades of the King and his Prince. He could have just walked into Babylon and asked about you and those dizzy queens couldn't shut up about you then – the little twink that toppled the King. So, yes, I told him that there would be a 'sweet, young thing,' coming his way that might need consoling because his dick of a boyfriend was going to dump his ass any day."

And there it was; an actual confession; Brian stared numbly at the screen, absolutely stunned by the malice in Lindsay's eyes as she stared at Justin. He blindly looked around at the room, not exactly deaf to the outraged reactions of his family, but they seemed to come from far away, like he was walking into a long, hollow tunnel. Dropping his head into his hands, he barely felt the arms that wrapped around him as his mind whirled at the implications of Lindsay's words.

It wasn't that he'd doubted Justin's words when he started talking; he knew his husband well. He would never make an accusation like this if he wasn't damned certain of the facts. But to actually hear the confirmation out of Lindsay's own mouth, shattered something inside him. He would have never in a million years have suspected her of…but then again, why was he so surprised?

Lindsay certainly hadn't made it a secret that she wanted Justin to stay in New York; hell she'd tried to manipulate him into forcing Justin do just that, using Gus as a weapon. Only she hadn't counted on him fighting back. Unbeknownst to her, Brian had been keeping track of the amount of support he'd sent over the years, not to mention Lindsay's less than stellar activities and spending habits. So, when she made a veiled threat at keeping him away from Gus, he'd slapped her with a custody suit so fast, she hadn't had the time to mount a proper defense.

Brian looked up, and met Mother Taylor's eyes, a weird amalgamation of fury and compassion swimming in them; thankfully, he knew her well enough these days to know that the fury wasn't directed at him. They both turned back to the screen in time for Justin to practically spit in Lindsay's face.

"Bitch," Justin spat, revulsion etched onto his face. "I would have had all that anyways; after all, I was eons ahead of you when I was only seventeen."

"You tell her, Justy!" Daphne yelled at the screen, snorting with laughter Lindsay gasped in outrage at Justin's words.

Brian managed to crack a small smile himself, especially when Justin just barreled on without letting Lindsay getting a word in edgewise, verbally poking and prodding at her ego while she stood still as a statue, fuming at every word. Her typically pretty face was twisted into an ugly snarl as Justin laid into her, forcefully reminding her of things that Brian had, himself, told her not that long ago – that no matter what delusional, little fairytale that she'd built up into her head, Brian was never going to want her because he was fucking GAY!

"I didn't need Simon like you did," Justin smirked; and Lindsay squawked in indignation. "I already had the life I wanted; so who the fuck did you think you were, all but pimping my ass out to that disgusting little prick who couldn't get someone to look his way unless they were desperate?"

"Forgive me for thinking you'd be fine with it," Lindsay spat, all but frothing at the mouth, her eyes flashing as she got into Justin's face. "After all, you and Brian were fucking anything and everything that moved. I knew all about your escapades; I heard the rumors on the Avenue about the King and his Prince and 'what a duo they made if you could get them to look your way.' I heard about the orgies and the trips to the baths on 'date night' and about your little games. And as for being passed around, you didn't seem to have a problem with going to one of the Sap's parties to be passed around like a party favor."

"Actually I did mind it," Justin spat, pushing back and getting into Lindsay's face this time; she scuttled away, her eyes wide with fear at the pure, unadulterated loathing in Justin's. "That is why, after they drugged my ass, and tried to put me in one of his infamous swings, I fought back and kicked the asshole in the jaw, dislocating it and ran as fast as I could away from there."

Lindsay went green around the gills at having it spelled out; her hand flying to her stomach as if she were holding back the urge to puke.

"Oh, yeah." Justin advanced on her. "He was quite pissed about that; bruised up the entire side of his face. You should count yourself lucky as that's what I typically do to little bitches that try to pimp me out to their friends."

Brian felt like he'd been suckered punched by that revelation; he'd known despite all of Justin's protestations that something had happened that night at Sap's. It had all been there in his eyes when Brian came in the next morning; no matter how hard Justin had tried to deny and hide it. And when they'd made love, and he'd rolled Brian over to top without asking, or even saying a word, Brian had halted to study Justin; and then capitulated, because he knew that Justin needed it in that moment to purge whatever demons that had been lurking in his haunted eyes that morning.

But to hear it spelled out so bluntly by Justin, to know exactly what had happened that night at the party, to know that Brian had let that asshole go with nothing more than a warning and a busted lip when Sap had tried to… Brian sucked in another sharp breath, his heart hardening; Sap was so fucking lucky that he was currently in jail due his tax evasion issues, because if he had been anywhere that Brian could easily get his hands on him, he'd be in a coffin by the end of the day.

Brian swallowed thickly, completely overwhelmed by this new information, and drowning in his thoughts, so that Justin's words were nothing more than murmurs in his ears as systematically took Lindsay down; he vaguely registered Justin hitting all her weak spots – her age, her beauty, her artistic talent, her desirability. But he was far too wrapped up in his head to for them to really leave an impression.

It wasn't until Lindsay made another outraged gasp that he was pulled from his thoughts and he was able to focus on the continuing showdown between Justin and Lindsay.

"I'll bet you hated it, didn't you?" Justin drawled and flashed a smug smile. "It must have pissed you off when your plans for me fell to the wayside; that I didn't become I mindless little drone like you did, despite your best efforts. That you had to sit back and see me rise when your star fell. You'd hoped that I would fail too; because then you could live with yourself and tell yourself that it wasn't your fault for getting mixed up with the wrong sort. It was just the way the game was played."

Justin paused, obviously waiting for a reaction, and he didn't have long to wait judging by the sour expression on Lindsay's face.

"But here is the difference between us, Lindsay," Justin smirked. "I work to get what I want; I don't just rollover onto my back, spread legs and expect the person that's fucking me to hand it to me on a silver platter. That usually only gets you screwed in the end; and not in the fun life-affirming way either."

Lindsay looked away from Justin, clenching and unclenching her hands as her lips began to tremble and her eyes filled up with tears. It was a command performance; but Brian knew better. Those weren't tears of remorse; they were tears of rage. She didn't care that she'd sold the love of Brian's life out like he was nothing more than a two-bit whore to her friend. No, she was pissed that she'd gotten caught and couldn't talk her way out of it.

He had to wonder what her excuse would have been had he'd only had Justin's word for it and he hadn't seen this little smackdown with his own eyes. Would she have tried to convince Brian that it wasn't nearly as bad as Justin was making it out to be? That she was completely unaware of what Simon had been up to all these years? That Simon had only said those things in order to ruin her reputation and relationship with Justin because he was upset that she wouldn't give him the time of day? That it was a blackmail attempt by Simon because she refused to play his sick games?

He supposed he'd never know; because no matter what excuse she used now, it would fall flat. Actions speak louder than words. And even if she'd never actually confessed to her misdeeds, and had they never been preserved on camera, every antagonistic line in her body spoke of her absolute hatred and jealousy of Justin.

All he had to do is think back to all the times she'd manipulated him over the years; all the times she'd tried to split them up using sweetness instead of rancor; all the snide little comments she made about Justin when Brian was traveling between New York and Pittsburgh; and the envy boiling just under the surface when Brian had moved to New York to be with Justin and establish the New York satellite that last year; and saw the truth. Lindsay had never been a true friend to them and only been in it for herself.

He flicked his eyes back up at the screen in time for Justin to give his parting shots, and ached at the knowledge that this woman was not who he thought she was.

"I do have to wonder, Lindsay." Justin smiled coldly. "All those times you went out of town on business, how many of those times were you at one of Simon's little artist debuts?" Lindsay flinched as if Justin had hit a sore spot. "And would you have come to mine had he been successful?"

They stared at each other for a long moment. Lindsay was practically choking on her anger, envy rising from every pore in a palpable wave. Justin just looked on, a disgusted moue on his face before he raised his hand and pointed to the hallway.

"Now, do us all a favor and get the fuck out of my house. I don't care what you have to do or say; pretend you're sick, or that you actually have found a conscience somewhere, but get the fuck out and stay out of my way. You do not want to take me on, bitch."

Brian exhaled explosively, unaware that he'd even been holding his breath, as Lindsay stared malevolently at Justin and looked like she were about to do or say something before she huffed and turned on her heel. Justin deflated, looking tired and stressed as he stared around the room, all his righteous anger gone now that Lindsay had left the room. He rested a hand on his belly and leaned up against the wall, trying to get back his breath and then he stole one last look at the nursery, pasted a happy smile on his face and then walked out.

And that stung; because he knew exactly what Justin was doing – he was preparing himself to face Brian and the others so that they didn't know that anything was wrong. And he knew in that moment, that Justin likely had no intentions of telling him about this latest fiasco with Lindsay and that left him torn. He was incandescently angry with Lindsay and her continued attacks on Justin, and yes, he was even angry that Justin had never told him of this betrayal years ago; but he was also hurt that Justin still didn't trust him with the information.

Tearing his eyes away from the screen as it once again went dark; he faced the silent room, everyone present still in various degrees of shock, and utterly speechless, as they exchanged looks with each other. That is, until they heard the tread of footsteps on the stairs and then each and every one of them – Daphne, Liam, Mel, Emmett, Yasmeen, Lucille, Deb, Mother Taylor, Tucker and Ted stiffened and turned towards the door with blank expressions on their faces.

And then that indifference morphed into rage as Lindsay walked through the door; greeting them all with a cheery wave. Brian turned his head slowly and glared at his former friend, because like hell would he consider her anything, but a stranger. Lindsay paused, her hand clutching nervously at her stomach as she scanned the room and noted all the hostile looks focused on her.

"Uh, what's going on?" Lindsay asked nervously; and that was a huge mistake on her part, as it broke whatever spell that had suspended them and sent Justin's, and his, favorite fag hag into an incandescent rage.

"I'm gonna kill me a bitch!" Daphne hissed as she wrenched herself out of Liam's arms.

She scrambled to her feet with Liam not that far behind her and stalked towards Lindsay, her hands raised in front of her like she was going to tear her eyes out. In the back of his mind, Brian realized that he should probably get up and stop her, but he was afraid that if he got up out of his chair, he might just be tempted to kill the bitch himself.

Sadly, Liam managed to catch Daphne before she could do much more than rake one set of sharp nails across Lindsay's face. He wrapped his arms around her waist and yanked her away from Lindsay, grunting when she lashed out at him in her attempt to escape and eviscerate Lindsay, who had pressed herself up against the wall and stared at a hissing and growling Daphne with wide eyes.

"Let me go, Liam; or you're going to be sleeping on the couch!" Daphne hissed, lunging at Lindsay again, but once again Liam managed to pull her away before Daphne managed more than a solid kick to Lindsay's shin

"Better that I sleep on the couch, than you sleeping in jail," Liam huffed, struggling to keep his arms around her; he began wrangling her towards the door, but not before Daphne got one last lunge in and spat in her face.

Lindsay flinched back into the wall, banging her head against it as spittle flew across her eyes, nose and mouth; she screwed her face up in disgust as she wiped at it with her sleeve, her expression murderous as she stared at Daphne. But Daphne just lobbed one back at her as Liam finally got a good grip on her, tossed her over his shoulder and walked out of the room and up the stairs, Daphne cursing a blue streak the entire way.

Taken aback at the greeting, Lindsay turned to everyone else, blanching when she noticed that they were all still staring at her with varying degrees of anger and disgust; especially when Mother Taylor had to be held back by Tucker, who was whispering frantically in her ear, likely trying to talk her down.

Brian, for his part, just stared back at Lindsay, trying to find any trace of the friend he once knew, and figure out where to go from here.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Lindsay huffed, scrubbing her sleeve over her face once more as she started to walk towards them, only to freeze when Yasmeen hissed and cracked her knuckles.

Brian smirked, his eyes cold as they looked at Lindsay; and then, instead of answering, he slowly stood up and stalked over to his laptop, which was resting on a small table by the TV. He leaned over and navigated to the desk top and double clicked on a file named Nursery Feed. Pulling up the video file, he waited until Windows Media Player popped up with the thirty-minute long video and the pulled the scroll to a random point within the last five minutes or so of the video, before letting go.

He stood back up and crossed his arms over his chest as a still of Lindsay and Justin flickered onto the screen, his lips set into a tight smile as it loaded. But that was enough to make Lindsay turn white as a ghost, her eyes wide as they stared at the picture. And then she began to shake as the video started, and Justin spoke.

"That she had told him that he would be ripe for plucking when he landed in New York because he was currently unhappy with his life and that he would likely bend over backwards if he could just have the right shot, if you know what I mean? After all, he had this thing for older, influential men and he'd be a shoe in for 'mentoring.' And I'm pretty sure that you and I know that he wasn't talking about mentoring in the artistic arena."

Justin arched a knowing brow; Lindsay flushed, but kept her mouth firmly shut.

"So here are me and my friend," Justin continued with a hard smile; Lindsay flinched. "Standing behind this asshole, listening to him as he described what he'd wanted to do to me; and we're not just talking about him. Oh, no; as we've established, he likes to share and was telling his friends all these details about me that he had no way of finding out in our very short acquaintance."

Brian reached back down and paused the video, his hands clenching and unclenching as he tried to rein in his temper after hearing those words again. He faced Lindsay and arched a brow, snorting in disbelief as Lindsay scrambled towards him only to freeze when Yasmeen hissed and Mel growled at her.

"Brian…" Lindsay simpered, her hair falling gracefully around her face, her eyes and words pleading with him. "It's not the way he made it sound."

Brian just stared back stonily, completely unmoved by her performance; although, a part of him wanted to sarcastically applaud her efforts. But he remained motionless; mostly because it would only encourage her, but also because he'd been he'd withstood the manipulations of far better WASPs than she could ever hope to be.

"I mean yes, I knew Simon," Lindsay amended when she noticed that her first attempt had made no impact on Brian. "But I would never condone anything that would have hurt Justin in anyway. You know me, Peter; I was always encouraging you to pursue Justin. I supported your relationship when you wouldn't even admit that it was a relationship. Surely, you all don't believe that I would…"

"Actually," Mel snapped, cutting Lindsay off before she could make anymore excuses; she met Lindsay's frantic gaze with a laser-like glare of her own. "Yes, we could."

"Mel…" Lindsay gasped, as if she couldn't believe that her own wife would think so little of her; but why she was surprised Brian didn't know. They had the whole fucking confession on tape; there was no coming back from that.

"Save it for someone who's buying bitch," Yasmeen broke in this time; making Lindsay scowl. "We all saw the whole thing; from the moment that you walked your skanky ass into the nursery until the moment Justin told you to get your skanky ass out of his house. So, why are you still here? You didn't honestly believe that Brian would choose you over his husband now, did you?"

"This absolutely none of your business…" Lindsay huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned to address Yasmeen; but she didn't get far before Mel laughed bitterly and cut her off again.

"No, but it is mine," Mel said, walking over to her bag and digging through it. "And you heard the man – get the fuck out of his house and don't come back! You aren't welcome here any longer." Mel pulled out a set of keys and threw them, hitting Lindsay square in the chest. "Here are the car keys; I'll get a ride with someone else. Right now, I can't stand to look at you."

"Peter…" Lindsay appealed again, but Brian remained stonily silent, still unable to speak for fear of what he'd say or do. "Brian…I only had both of your best interests at heart!"

"Oh, no she didn't," Yasmeen huffed, echoing Brian's own thoughts and looking like she was about to rip out every single strand of Lindsay's hair. Lindsay turned towards Yasmeen, likely to tell her to but out, but froze when Brian hissed.

"Lindsay," Brian said in a tight, controlled voice. "You have thirty seconds to get your ass out of my house before I unleash each, and every one, of these women on your ass. I may hesitate in giving you the beat down you deserve due to my upbringing, but I doubt that any of these fine ladies will have a problem doing it for me."

Lindsay gasped, her hand flying to her throat, but when she saw that Brian was still not going to fall for her act, her true colors shone through.

"Fine," Lindsay snapped, leaning down to grab the keys at her feet and walking towards Mel, where her clutch was located. "I'll just get Gus and Jenny and be on my way then."

"No you won't," Mel stated firmly, halting her progress with a steely glare; and thank fuck for that, because like hell was he going to let his kids go with this bitch. Not tonight. And not ever if he had any say in it. "They are staying here tonight."

"Gus is my son and he will…" Lindsay bristled, taking a step towards Mel, and something inside Brian just snapped.

Growling under his breath, he stalked towards Lindsay, smirking coldly as she dropped the keys and scurried away, her eyes wide with fear as hit the wall. He swooped down, picked up the car keys and then strode over to her without a word. Grabbing her arm firmly, he yanked her out the door and towards the stairs, forcing her up them, barely even pausing as she stumbled.

As they reached the top, they strode past a shell-shocked Justin as Brian dragged Lindsay across the hall and towards the front door.

"Brian…" Justin spluttered as he followed behind them, through the living room and into the foyer. "What are you doing?"

"Taking out the trash," Brian spat as he opened the front door wide and then unceremoniously shoved Lindsay through the portal. She stumbled, but managed to catch herself at the last minute. Shame that. He tossed the keys into the dirt after her, and then stepped back just in time for Mel to rush up beside him.

"Don't forget this," Mel yelled as she lobbed Lindsay's clutch out the door.

Exchanging a look of solidarity, Mel turned on her heel and headed out towards the backyard; likely to cool off and see if she could find Gus and Jenny. Brian nodded and then glared at Lindsay one last time, ignoring her screeching and pleading as he slammed the door and locked it. Turning on his heel, he walked back towards the living room and halted as he met up with a confused Justin.

"Brian, what…" Justin said, looking between him and the door; and Brian couldn't help it, he just stared at his husband as a fresh wave of pain and anger washed over him.

"Three words, Sunshine," Brian said, ticking each word off with a finger. "Motion Sensor Camera."

Justin stared at him with confusion for a moment, running the words in through his head, and then paled, his eyes going wide and haunted as he caught on.

"Shit," Justin cursed, looking worried and a bit pissed himself as he walked towards Brian, and then halted when Brian held up one hand. He frowned and fidgeted, swaying uneasily on his feet. "Brian, I never meant for…"

But Brian didn't want to have this conversation here in the foyer; especially with Lindsay still screaming like a banshee in the front yard. He strode over to Justin and stopped in front of him, his masks carefully in place as he stared down at his husband, and said before walking off towards his study.

"I think we need to talk; don't you, Sunshine?"