JUSTIN

With everything out of my hands that Hill was asking of me, I called my mom and asked her to meet me at the diner, away from everyone. It couldn’t have been easy watching me around George, even if he was trying to fix the things that were broken. He couldn’t fix that what she did with me broke her. And I couldn’t fix her with keystrokes, the way I spent my life trying to fix things for others. Deb ran over giving me a hug, something my mother watching hadn’t been allowed to give me.

“She only knows the baby she carried and the newborn she spent years missing. Give both of you a chance to start from there. Every day that separates you they win. Don’t let them, any more than I let my family. I think she could use the kind of people you found in her life too.” Deb whispers to me.

It was one way I hadn’t looked at things with all my confusion about everything. I never had anything tangible to show I’d lost anything, other than a teddy bear that ended up out of my sight. She had the memories she couldn’t lock away, and the pain of living with what her decisions did, not just to me but to her mother. If I meant what I said to Hill, then I needed to set aside the reasons I managed to use to keep her at a distance. I needed to let Jennifer start from here, and see if I liked the Jennifer she is, not the Jennifer she was.

“I didn’t know what you liked to eat, but Deb seems to,” Jennifer said, rearranging the table.

“When Ben was taking care of me… he stopped trying. He said it was easier just to go by trial and error… I ended up eating things I’m still not sure what they were.” I tell her.

“Ben’s a new name.” She mentions.

“He became a friend… when I figured out he really was.” I tell her.

“How does Brian feel about Ben?” she asks.

“At first he didn’t like him much, but that was my fault... My focus would override everything from sleep to eating. Most of my life people didn’t stop me. Brian won’t let me do that, after seeing it the first time. Ben tried, but gave up when nothing worked with me.” I tell her.

“What about all the friends I’ve met?” She asks.

“They weren’t around before Brian… I didn’t let people in my life. Brian’s friends kind of take over.” I tell her.

“I did that for a long time. Not letting anyone close to me. My mother finally sat me down and asked me if I was going to let my life pass me by. She told me to be a mother that you could be proud of one day, not a spinster with ten cats.” She laughs.

“She wasn’t upset about what happened?” I ask.

“She blamed herself for a lot of it. Like she had any power over the hormones and beliefs of a teenage girl who wanted to be loved.” She tells me.

“What made him the one?” I ask.

“He wasn’t. It was just a fantasy he wove that I wanted to believe. My mother never wanted me to throw away my chances in life the way she did and protected me too much. She didn’t want me to end up like all the others where we lived. Because she did it and knew what raising me alone was like. When I started staying at the Shickel home after school I ended up seeing things I thought were only in fairy tales. We struggled to eat, but there they threw away food as if it was nothing. Parties were thrown with no expense spared, and the heir was charming and witty to everyone. It was a disaster waiting to happen because I was still a silly girl who thought the stories could be real. George was a dear sweet man who treated me kindly, so in my head, the son was just misunderstood. Looking back now, he was really just a pitiful jackass who used that to spin my head to his advantage.” She tells me, laughing when I did.

“He still is,” I tell her.

“If he comes near you, then I’ll kick him in the balls again.” She tells me, meaning it.

“I’m always up for kicking balls, let me know if you want help,” Deb tells her, putting a piling plate of food in front of me. “This one is going to start coming to my house so I can really feed him,” Deb said kissing my head. 

“I might need a couple of people to help me eat this,” I said absentmindedly.

BRIAN

Blake wasn’t amused when he returned. Saying something about Finn and wondering how idiots still had a job, was what all six of us could make out. George asked to talk to us when Ron had called him to give him the news.

“I git news that some of the kids have been found. But you know as well as I do they’ll get shuffled about until the government can say we tried, then they’re back to where they started. I can’t touch Carter but I can help give them a better chance at whatever form of a normal life they can live after something like this happening to them.” George said, interrupting Blake.

“Count me in if they need help with withdrawal, or just need someone to lean on,” Blake tells him.

“Are they going to be brought to Pittsburgh?” Emmett asked.

“The ones that want to will, others will be placed as they want,” George tells them.

“Hopefully the place will be like Liberty House. The patients appreciated feeling like they were at home and not in a hospital.” Michael mused.

“Promise you won’t think less of me for this, but there was a bit of revenge behind it,” George told us, as Justin and Jennifer came in.

“Everything good?” I asked as Justin sat with me.

“Getting there.” Justin shrugged, as everyone’s attention was on George.

“Revenge is good since someone promised we had to be good for now.” Blake teased, and Justin rolled his eyes.

Everyone in the room saw the playfulness versus Justin’s usual stiltedness, but it was coming slowly along. And there was nothing but letting Justin go at his pace I wanted.

“I didn’t see a reason for my other house to sit empty when it would fit the requirements and had enough places that they wouldn’t feel closed or locked in if they needed to get away. The security will have to be changed, to ensure their safety. And I’d like Emmett to help change the house so that for once it’s a home instead of the prison it felt like for me. I was hoping maybe Justin would like to help teach them skills that won’t require them to deal with outsiders until they feel like they can.” George told them.

“Deb would love to help too. She took all of us in when we needed it and gave us what our families didn’t,” Emmett tells him.

“How did they find them?” Michael asked.

“It’s what Ben was doing, and now Hill is going to kill me.” Justin moaned.

“Is he back?” Michael asked, trying not to sound excited.

“I don’t know, Hill didn’t tell me that,” Justin told him.

“I wonder how Virginia is going to feel losing everything?” Jennifer asked.

“As if it’s not her fault. But then she never was one who saw anything as right unless it was the way she wanted it to be,” George told her.

“Do any of us really care?” Ted asked looking around.

“If we did, everything she did she won at. Or believes it’s about her or her son… All she did was give us a fresh start together,” Justin said softly to us.