Chapter 7

After what felt like hours of crying in Emmett's arms, Justin had finally fallen into a restless sleep, exhaustion taking over. Emmett had stayed seated where he was and had kept Justin in his arms, not daring to move and wake up his distraught friend.

He couldn't believe what Justin had told him. It just couldn't be true, but one look at his sad friend showed him the truth. He couldn't believe that Brian would have done this to Justin. Brian had loved Justin, Emmett had always been sure of that. Brian had been a lot of things, a lot of negative things, most of which he would have been the first to admit himself, but Brian had never been cruel to his Sunshine. He had loved Justin beyond anything and even though he had never admitted it out loud, it had been obvious for anyone who cared to look. And Emmett had looked. He had planned the now legendary non-nuptials for Brian and Justin and he had seen that Brian had been just as excited as Justin had been. Yeah, Brian might have told the world that he had only asked Justin to marry him to make him happy and give him what he had always wanted, but Emmett had seen the truth in Brian's eyes during the planning of their non-wedding. He had seen how Brian had wanted that wedding just as much as Justin, he had seen the way Brian had looked at Justin as if he was the most precious thing in the world, in his world at least.

Emmett had been devastated when the wedding had been cancelled and not only because he had known how fabulous it would have been, but because he had seen how much both men had wanted it to happen. When he had talked to Justin a few days later, however his friend had been almost happy and excited and had confirmed to him once more that it hadn't been Brian cancelling the wedding, but that they had agreed together and that cancelling the wedding and Justin moving to New York had been what both of them wanted.

He had heard from Justin a few months later that Brian had broken off all contact and hadn't been able to believe his words. He had seen how much Brian Kinney had loved the twink that wouldn't go away. He had been there and to him it made no sense for Brian to do something like that. He had then gone to Kinnetik, had confronted Brian about his behaviour towards Justin, but had only been met by the cold, unloving Brian that Brian had been before he had met Justin. Brian had seemed as if he had reverted back to the Brian of five years prior and had completely lost all of the loving Brian that Emmett had seen only a few months earlier.

They had argued that day about the way Brian was treating Justin and their ways had pretty much parted afterwards. Brian had drifted away from their family more and more and came to less and less family events. Emmett had been scared that Brian would go back to the constantly drunk, drug-taking over the hill club boy, but that hadn't happened either. Brian had even moved out of the loft, which had been the biggest surprise to Emmett back then.

After Brian had moved away from Liberty Avenue, he had hardly seen him anymore. They would sometimes meet at Kinnetik as Emmett was still responsible for organising and catering Kinnetik events, but he had noticed himself and had it confirmed by Ted, that Brian had also pulled back from his tasks at work and had directed most of his work to Ted and Cynthia, who were now Emmett's first points of contact for any upcoming events.

About a year after the whole thing with Justin had gone down, there had been a huge falling out between Brian and Michael. He had never known what it had been about and had done his best to stay out of it. He had known that the relationship between Brian and Michael had been strained for a long time already, but when Michael had come to his house, wanting to complain about something Brian had done or not, Emmett had sent him away, telling him that he didn't care about anything concerning Brian Kinney and didn't want to get involved in anything concerning the man who had hurt his close friend Justin so badly by abandoning him like yesterday's trash. Michael had not liked that and that had been the end of his friendship with Michael and in addition also Debbie.

Not that he had mourned that loss a lot. During the time that Justin had been away in New York, he had come to see Michael for what he was, a whiny, self-centered brat that had never grown up and demanded that everyone take care of his shit, but himself. Emmett had had enough of that whining and had been secretly relieved when Michael had been out of his life. He had felt slightly sadder about losing Debbie, but he had just assumed that she would take Michael's side, as she always had, so he had let her go as well.

He still hung out with Ted and found new friends through his business and through Drew when they had gotten back together six months later. After he had gotten back with Drew, he didn't really have time to miss the Novotny's and would only occasionally hear updates from Ted who was still his closest friend.

Ted had told him about a year later that Debbie and Michael had also had a falling out and that Debbie had apologised to Brian and had welcomed him back into her family. Emmett had been slightly baffled by that, not able to imagine what would have made her cast away Michael, the son she loved beyond anything else. Whatever it had been, it had to have been bad, he figured, but wasn't interested in the details. He had a life with Drew now, his business was keeping him busy, so he had mostly kept himself away from Liberty Avenue and the family and all the problems as well.

Ted had also told him about a falling out between Brian and the munchers which had ended in an ugly custody suit for Gus, which in the end Brian had won. Emmett hadn't known how he had felt about that at the time, he just couldn't imagine Brian as a full-time father to Gus, but when he had voiced as much to Ted, Ted had only smiled and said: You'd be surprised, Emmett.

And now here was Justin, telling him that he and Brian had a five year old child. That was just crazy. Emmett couldn't help but wonder if the falling outs Brian had had with the family had been because of his and Justin's child or because of something else. For the first time in years, he felt curiousity nagging at him where his old Liberty Avenue family was concerned and knew that he would have to ask Ted about it at one point. For some reason he had a feeling that all these events were connected somehow and that Ted had been involved. Damn, he should have paid better attention to the lives of his so called friends in recent years, but he had just been so tired of their constant whining and imagined problems, that he couldn't bear to be in their presence for longer than necessary.

Emmett was pulled out of these thoughts when he heard the doorbell ring. He wondered who it could be at this time of the evening. It was close to ten pm as he checked on his watch. He felt Justin stir and wake up at his side and gently padded his back. “You stay here, honey. I'll take care of whoever it is.”

Justin nodded sleepily and sat up as Emmett left the room to open the door.

“Teddy? What are you doing here?” Emmett exclaimed when he saw his best friend outside the door, holding a manila folder in one of his hands.

“Hey Em,” Ted tried to smile at his friend, but failed miserably. “I need to speak to Justin. Is he here?”

Emmett eyed Ted curiously, a suspicion growing in him as he led his friend inside and directed him to the living-room where Justin was looking up at him expectantly.

“Hey Ted,” Justin murmured.

“Hey Justin,” Ted gave back before shifting uncomfortably. It was obvious that Ted wanted to be anywhere but in Justin's living-room at that moment. “U-uhm, Brian sent me. He wanted me to give this to you,” he said as way of explanation as he held the manila folder to Justin.

Justin's face clouded over and his eyes darkened immediately. “I don't want anything from him. Tell him he can just fuck himself and to leave me the fuck alone!”

“Justin,” Ted sighed, growing more uncomfortable by the second. “I really think you should at least take a look at this. It's for your own good.”

“My own good? Just like keeping the existence of my son from me was for my own good? You know what? I have had enough of everyone's idea of what's for my own good,” Justin spat angrily.

“Justin, I know that this day played out very badly for everyone involved and...I am really sorry about that, but Brian wants you to have this and I think you want this, too,” Ted tried once more, feeling relieved when Justin finally took the manila folder from him.

He watched as Justin opened the folder and read through the paper on top. “A custody agreement? For Luke?” Justin said as he read the document on top. When he moved on to the next one he saw that it was a copy of Luke's birth certificate which listed him and Brian as the fathers and also listed Luke's full name (Luke Victor Kinney-Taylor) and his date of birth (September 7th, 2006).

“Brian wants you to have joint custody of Luke. He... he never meant to bar your access to Luke.”

“Really? He could have fooled me,” Justin snarled.

“You knew about all of this?” Emmett interupted, having his suspicions confirmed and looking at Ted as if he had grown a second head. “You were in on all of this?”

“Emmett,” Ted sighed. “Brian is my boss. Of course, I knew. This impacted Kinnetik in a big way. I am his CFO. He had to tell me,” Ted tried to explain.

“And you didn't think that Justin had a right to know?” Emmett asked unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Of course, I did. Brian and I had many fights about this. Damn, Emmett. Who do you think sent Justin to Britin, so he would finally know? I always thought he had a right to know, but... it was not my place to tell him.”

“Emmett, leave it,” Justin said calmly, looking up at Emmett and Ted. “Ted is right, he is the one who told me that Brian was at Britin and...,” Justin sighed, “Brian is his boss. If he had told me, it would have cost him his job.”

“Fuck his job, who would want to work for a monster like that?” Emmett groused.

“Emmett, it wasn't an easy choice, but... Justin is right. Brian is my boss. I owe him my life. I... I couldn't betray him like that.”

“So you just watched on as he betrayed Justin? Who are you and what have you done with my friend Ted?” Emmett glared at his friend and pushed past him. “I don't know you anymore. The Ted I know would have never done something like that to one of his friends. Shame on you!”

With that Emmett left the room and disappeared in the bathroom down the hall.

Both Justin and Ted watched after him and Ted was the first to find back his voice. “I am sorry, Justin. You have no idea how sorry. Like I said, Brian and I fought many times about this, but...”

“It's okay. I understand, Ted. He's your boss and you owe him your loyalty, not me,” Justin replied quietly.

“I just want you to know that it was never an easy decision for him and... he is a good father, Justin. Both Luke and Gus adore him.”

Justin just nodded, not quite sure if he really cared to hear about Brian's qualities as a father just then. He looked at the papers in the manila folder once more and frowned when he found a handwritten note at the bottom of the folder. He immediately recognised Brian's handwriting and his brow furrowed when he read what was written on the note.

“Tomorrow, 12pm, Debbie's place. Neutral ground to go over the custody agreement.

-B”

Justin handed the note to Ted. “That's it? Nothing more?”

Ted just shrugged helplessly. “You know how he is.”

“Yeah, don't I?” Justin snorted derisively and then looked back up at Ted. “I-I guess I'll have Mel check over these custody papers to see if they're alright.”

“Don't!” Ted exclaimed and when he saw Justin's confused expression at his outburst, he went on. “I get that you want to punish him, but don't do that to him. Please, Justin.”

Justin noticed that Ted was nearly begging now and frowned even more. “Why? She has always looked over my legal papers. Why wouldn't I send this to her as well?”

“She has?” Ted frowned, looking confused for a second. “All these years?”

Justin could only nod, feeling confused himself when Ted went on.

“You don't know, do you?” Ted asked, rubbing his hands over his face, wondering how much Brian would want him to share.

“That seems to be the gist of my day so far,” Justin mumbled, waiting for Ted to give him a proper explanation as to why he shouldn't contact Melanie about these custody papers.

“Brian and the girls had a nasty custody battle a few years ago over custody for Gus and by nasty I mean nasty. They really brought out the big guns and... They fell out over that and other things.... Brian got sole custody of Gus and Mel hasn't talked to either him or Gus ever since. He's beyond pissed at her for not staying in contact with Gus and I can't guarantee that he won't kill Melanie if you get her involved in a custody battle for his second child,” Ted explained quietly.

“What?” Justin exclaimed, wondering why Melanie had never mentioned it to him when she had read through his contracts for several gallery showings he had had over the years. He had always sent her the contracts and she had always read over them and had never wanted money for it, claiming that friends didn't pay friends. Why had she never told him that Gus was no longer living with her and Lindsey?

“It's a long story and not for me to tell, really, but...Brian suggested that maybe you want to have Daphne's father check those papers.”

“D-daphne's father?” Justin stuttered, wondering for a split second if his best friend had been in on this betrayal as well, but then immediately canning that thought, knowing she would have never kept something like this from him. He could always trust Daphne. She was probably his one true friend along with Emmett.

“He's a lawyer, right?” Ted asked, feeling confused now.

“Yes, but not for family law.”

“Well, if he's half as good as Brian thinks he is, you should be fine,” Ted replied. “And... I don't think Brian is trying to fuck you over with these custody papers. Whatever you want, he's probably going to give it to you.”

“Why would you think that?” Justin asked, not quite sure if he understood what Ted was implying.

“I have never seen him like this before, Justin. He's a picture of guilt. He'll do whatever it takes to make this up to you and to Luke.”

“Well, he should have thought about that before he decided to pull his five year vanishing act,” Justin angrily shot back, not yet ready to feel sorry for Brian or to be considerate of Brian's feelings in this whole mess.

“Right,” Ted said, as if Justin's reply had sobered him up. “Just make sure you think of Luke's interests in whatever you want to do, Justin. Debbie calls him 'Baby Sunshine' and he's the happiest child I've ever seen. Don't set out to destroy that, just because you want revenge on Brian for what he did to you,” Ted implored as he looked at Justin beseechingly.

“Why do you care so much?” Justin couldn't help but ask. He had seen real emotion on Ted's face when he had talked about Luke.

“Because he's my godchild and god knows you and Brian will pay if you hurt him in any of this.” With that Ted turned around and left without another word.