Ben and J.R. drove home.  As they drove, Ben started to think about what kinds of things they would do over the weekend.  Again, Ben was reminded that he usually only had her for a few hours on Sunday morning and an occasional Saturday night so he was used to focusing all his attention on her.  They would play games, go to the playground if it was warm enough and occasionally he would help her with her school work.  Michael often talked about comics or sometimes took her to the latest superhero movie that was showing at the cinema.  He was torn with focusing all his time on her or doing what he normally did on weekends with some special time with her.  He decided the latter was more appropriate.  If he was going to fight for her to live with him all the time, he would have to do all the activities that he normally did on the weekends but set aside some time just for her.  After he thought about it for a bit, he remembered his childhood where his parents both worked but found time to do special activities with him and his siblings during the week and on weekends. 

"J.R., what do you usually do on weekends when you are at home?"  He decided this was an easier way to determine what was normal for her and to make adjustments to his schedule if possible. 

"Well...," she paused before speaking.  She had to think about her weekends.  "On Saturdays Mom and Momma clean house.  I dust, clean the bathrooms, and put my laundry away.  Mom and Momma vacuum and wash laundry.  Then Saturday afternoons we usually go to the store.  Buy food and whatever we need.  That always seems to take forever as Mom and Momma don't always agree on what food to buy.  Then we go home.  You and Daddy Michael come over  sometimes and take me to your house on Saturday night.  When I don't go to your house, I watch tv or ride my bike if its nice outside.  Sunday we get up late and eat a late breakfast since we go to Grandma Debbie's for dinner in the late afternoon.  I usually do my homework on Sunday mornings."

Ben listened and thought the activities were on par with his usual weekend.  Usually Friday night and Saturday night were spent with friends, sometimes at Woody's or Babylon, but occasionally he went to a lecture or special event on campus.  He'd tried for years to see if Michael would join him for some of those activities but Michael was not interested in them, preferring to his usual night with the "boys".  Ben frowned at that thought as he realized that really hanging with the "boys" was an activity that Michael's friends rarely participated in any more. He thought about how Michael complained on many Sunday mornings that no one showed up at Babylon.   Brian and Justin had a family and they were usually not at Babylon or Woody's.  Ted and Blake often took advantage of cultural activities such as opera or plays and Drew and Emmett were busy with their commitments as well.  Emmett rarely had a Friday or Saturday night free as he was busy with his catering business and while Drew did not play football, he was a commentator for a local sports channel.  On the occasional Saturday they had free, they sometimes came to Babylon for a few hours, but often left early. 

"Since you are with us for the whole weekend, we will be doing some of the same things.  I don't think you will clean our bathroom but you can dust while I do laundry and clean.  I do need to go food shopping and we should pick up a few things for you too.  Maybe your mom will let you stay with me and Daddy Michael more often.  I want you to feel at home here too.  But tonight it's time for a bath and off to bed with you young lady."

"Okay, Daddy Ben.  Gus and I played outside this afternoon and I'm dirty."

"But in the morning, we will cook breakfast together.  You told Uncle Justin that your moms didn't let you cook and I think we need to start remedying that oversight.  Everybody needs to know how to cook."

"Oh!!  That sounds like fun.  I like staying at your house."

J.R. took her bath and Ben read her a story and tucked her in. She had her own bedroom at their house.  Michael and Ben had bought a three bedroom home and while Hunter was no longer living there, he still had a room in their home.  He attended Carnegie but lived on campus.  He had missed out on so much when he was growing up that Ben insisted that he have the "college" experience by living on campus.  He was majoring in Psychology, hoping to work with troubled teens.  He volunteered at the Gay/Lesbian Center and was active in the Gay Student Alliance on campus.  He came home about twice a month to do his laundry and Ben remembered he had mentioned that he would be stopping by this weekend.  Hunter and J.R. had a good relationship, but their paths didn't cross too often these days.

After putting J.R. to bed, Ben took out his laptop and typed in "Family activities in Pittsburgh."  Ben thought they might try to squeeze something different into their weekend.  There was a Children's Theatre festival, the zoo, art museum, history museum, and the science center.  They could always go to the park, but since he had her all weekend, he wanted to do something different.  He closed the browser and looked up activities for 8 year olds and found a number of activities there too.  Smiling, he thought of his friend Brian teasing Justin about his PSA's.  While he wasn't spouting PSA's here he was looking up activities for his daughter to enjoy.  His daughter, the words made him smile.  Regardless of what happened with Melanie and Lindsay, J.R. was his daughter and he was determined to make the time they spent together special.  He wasn't trying to become the "favored" parent, but he was trying to make her childhood one where fun was a regular activity. 

He had to finish grading the student papers from Thursday night.  Stopping in the middle of grading to pick up J.R., he hadn't thought about them until now.  Class met Tuesdays and Thursdays and he tried to get the students their work back within a week or less.  If the students turned something in on Thursdays, he tried to get it back to them on Tuesday the following week but definitely by Thursday.  They had turned the papers in on Tuesday so he only had a few days remaining to grade them.  He taught on Monday night so waiting until the end of the weekend wouldn't work.  He logged on to his school account and clicked to his class, starting to read the short essays of each student.  He completed about half of what he needed to do, but realized it was after 11:00 and J.R. got up much earlier than he did on the weekend.  Shutting down his laptop and putting it in his backpack, he turned off the lights and got ready for bed. 

About two hours later, Michael came home and went into the bedroom.  He saw Ben sleeping, but wanted to talk to him about his evening.  He purposely made a lot of noise, waking his partner. 

"Michael, you're home."

"Ben, I'm so glad you're still awake.  I've got to tell you about the signing.  It was great."

Ben looked at the clock and immediately became angry.  "Michael it is 1:30 in the morning and you know I was sound asleep.  We have J.R. all weekend and I need to get my rest.  You know I need a certain number of hours of sleep in order to stay healthy.  Be quiet and let me go back to sleep."  He turned over and pulled the covers over his head, attempting to drown out the noise. 

"But..."  Michael started to respond.  Seeing Ben bury his head in the bed clothes, he realized that Ben wasn't going to talk to him now.  He finished getting ready for bed and lay next to Ben.  He tried to hold him, but Ben turned away and Michael frowned, not used to being rejected.  Closing his eyes, he fell asleep.

Luckily Ben was able to go back to sleep with little trouble.   In the morning, there was a knock on their door.

"Daddy Ben, I'm hungry."

Ben looked at the clock, seeing it was after 8:00.  He thought that J.R. had probably been awake for a bit, and was thankful that Mel and Linds had taught her some manners. She didn't bound into their room and she most likely entertained herself until she was really hungry.  She had learned that you don't bother your parents on weekends until you are hungry.

"Okay, sweetheart.  I'll be out in a few minutes."  He nudged Michael.  "Michael, you need to get up.  J.R. is awake and we need to have breakfast."

"Go away.  I'm tired," Michael said as he looked at the clock and saw it was only 8:10.   "I don't have to get up till 11:00. The panel doesn't start until 1:00."

Ben wasn't going to argue with him.  It was clear to him that Michael was more interested in his own activities than spending time with his daughter.  Getting out of bed, he performed his morning ablutions and got dressed.

J.R. was in the living room watching cartoons.  "Morning Daddy Ben.  Where's Daddy Michael?"

"Sleeping.  He came home late last night and has something to do this afternoon.  It's the two of us, but I think Hunter maybe home this weekend.  Maybe we can convince him to do some fun stuff with us."

"Hunter's here?  Yeah.  I miss Hunter.  He's fun."

Ben walked into the kitchen and looked in the fridge to see what they could make for breakfast.  There were a few eggs and some cheese and milk, but little else.  "J.R., all we have is the makings of some basic omelettes.  What do you say to cooking eggs?"

"Ok.  Uncle Justin showed me how to crack an egg yesterday.  I think I can do it again without getting the shell in the bowl," she said with a mix of eagerness and trepidation. 

Ben took down a bowl from the cabinet and got the eggs from the fridge, placing them on the table.  "Do you want me to show you again how to crack them or do you want to do all of them?"

"Why don't you do the first one and I'll watch," J.R. said.

Ben cracked the egg on the side of the bowl and dumped it in the bowl.  J.R. took an egg and did the same. 

"Great.  See you already have one skill in the kitchen," Ben said as he watched her face light up with the praise.  "Go ahead and crack the remaining eggs and I'll watch."

J.R. cracked the eggs and threw out all the eggshells.  "All done," she said proudly.  "And I didn't get any eggshells in the bowl.

Ben took out the whisk and twirled it in the bowl for a few swirls.  "See, this gives the eggs a good mixing. We need to add some spices and cheese and then we are ready to cook." He took down some pepper, Mrs. Dash and a little dried onion.  " We don't want to overwhelm our taste buds so we just put a little of each of these in the mix."  He unscrewed the top to each spice and demonstrated with the pepper.  "Now you try with the Mrs. Dash and onion."

J.R. watched intently and added a little spice to the eggs.  She opened the bag of cheese and started to put that in the mix as well.

Ben put out his hand, stopping her.  "We add the cheese close to the eggs being cooked.  That way it doesn't stick to the pan."

"Okay," J.R. said.  Are we ready to cook them?"

"Not quite.  The skillet needs to be hot, so we turn on the oven and let the burner get hot.  We put a little butter in the pan to make the eggs not stick."

He took a knife and put about a teaspoon of butter in the pan, listening to the sizzle of the butter as it melted from the heat.  "Now we pour the whole thing in the pan and let it cook for a bit."

J.R. stared at the fry pan, wondering what was next.  "How do we know when to put the cheese in, Daddy Ben?"

Ben pointed to the eggs in the pan, "See how the edges are getting less liquidy, that tells me that the egg is cooked on the other side.  I take my spatula and put it under the whole mixture.  See how it comes up in one big piece?  That means it's ready to turn. If it breaks up or doesn't come in one piece, we need to let it cook a little longer." Ben slid the spatula under the egg and flipped it over. " Now we let it cook just a tiny bit and add the cheese on top."  After about 30 seconds he pointed to the side again.  "See how they don't look so runny?"  He added the cheese in the middle.  "Now I take my spatula again and flip the edge here folding it in half. That puts the cheese in the middle."

"You make it seemed so easy."

"We'll practice next time.  I wanted you to see what I did, but maybe tomorrow we'll make it again."

"That's right.  I get to stay the whole weekend," J.R. said as she remembered that she did not have to go home to her mother's. 

"Now the whole thing should be done and we can eat.  Why don't you grab the two plates from the cabinet and I'll separate our masterpiece."

J.R. grabbed the plates and Ben divided the eggs into two portions.  He poured some juice and milk for both of them.  "Do you want some toast?"

He asked.

"No.  I think this will be good."

Ben popped a piece of toast in the toaster for himself and then sat at the table.  J.R. took a bite of her eggs and made a mmm noise. 

"These are good.  I can't wait to tell Gus that I helped cook breakfast."

"Speaking of Gus,  I'm glad you were able to spend some time with him yesterday.  I know you miss him."  Ben heard the toast pop up and he went to grab it.  Putting it on a plate, he brought it to the table along with some hummus.  He spread the hummus on the toast and took a bite, and then put it on his plate.

"After breakfast we have some errands to run.  I have a little bit of school work to do as well.  But after that, we can do some fun things.  What do you want to do today?"

"I have some homework too, so we can do schoolwork together.  Will Daddy Michael be going with us to run our errands?"  J.R. took another bite of her eggs and then drank some juice.  

"No, he wasn't expecting you to be here this weekend and he has other plans.  Maybe he might join us tonight.  Do you want to see a movie or we could rent one?  We could play a game or go to the library and check out some books.  I know you like making things, maybe we could go to the store and buy you some supplies and you could do that."  Ben drank some milk and then ate a few bites more of his eggs.  He liked the experience of eating breakfast with J.R., planning their day and just doing the things that all families did.  He hoped that his dream of being a father would come true.

"I like to read.  My teacher says I'm good at reading.  Maybe we could go to the library. That would be fun.  I love to make bracelets.  Can we buy a bracelet kit?"  J.R. shared her interest with Ben.  She thought he would like that she liked to read since he was a teacher.

"I think we can do both of these.  I think we should buy some games too."  Ben drank the last of his milk, took the last bites of the egg and then drank his juice.

J.R. looked at Ben and smiled.  "It sounds like a lot of fun.  Gus told me that he paints with Uncle Justin and plays lots of games with his dads.  Do you think Daddy Michael would join us if we played some games?" J.R. finished her eggs as well.  She drank the last of her juice and then drank her milk.  She made a scrunched up face as the milk was weird tasting after drinking her juice.  "Is this a different kind of milk?  It tastes funny."

"No, silly.  You should drink your milk first and then your juice.  Your juice gave your milk a different taste since it has acids in it."

"I can't drink acids.  They are bad for you."

"No, sweetheart, the juice is acidic.  It is not acid.  You know, when you have a sore throat and you drink O.J. it burns your throat?"

"Yeah.  The last time I had a sore throat, that is how mama knew I was sick cuz the orange juice burned."

"Different foods have different makeup and OJ is good for you but it is acidic.  Milk is an alkaline and neutralizes strong tastes. When you eat something really spicy, you should drink milk to calm down the spice."

"Wow, you sure are smart, Daddy Ben.  But you didn't answer my question about the games.  Do you think Daddy Michael will play them with us?"

"We could ask him.  I bet he would be willing to play some games.  Daddy Michael likes games."

They had finished their breakfast and Ben put his plate in the dishwasher.  J.R. did the same.  As they were getting ready to wipe down the counter, Michael came into the kitchen. 

"I smell eggs.  Where's mine?"

J.R. looked at Ben for an answer, unsure what to say.

"We didn't make you any.  Didn't know when you'd be up and cold eggs are not the best.  We could make you some if you want.  J.R. has been practicing her cooking skills."

"Nah.  I'll just eat some Captain Crunch.  I need to leave in a little bit."

"Daddy Michael, will you be home tonight?  Daddy Ben and I are going to buy some games and I want you to play with me."

"Maybe.  I'm not sure when I'll be home."

"Okay.  But would you play them later?"  J.R. asked hopefully.

"We'll see.  J.R. can I talk to Daddy Ben for a few minutes?  Why don't you watch cartoons.  That used to be my favorite thing to do on Saturdays."

J.R. frowned since she wasn't sure what cartoons were on.  She rarely was allowed to watch tv on Saturday morning since her moms insisted that was the day to run errands and clean.  However, she wasn't going to argue.  She dutifully walked into the tv room and turned it on, looking for some cartoons.  She knew that Daddy Michael liked to watch cartoons so if he said they were on, she decided he would know.

When Michael was sure J.R. was out of ear shot, he said, "What are you doing?  Buying games and running errands.  Soon all her stuff will be taking over the house.  She doesn't live here so why should we have a bunch of her stuff?"

Ben thought he had received a huge slap in the face.  "Michael.  We talked about this just last week.  You were concerned that the girls weren't taking care of J.R. like she deserved.  You were all for being more involved in her life.  What is your problem?"

"I don't have a problem, just that bringing her home for the whole weekend and buying her all kinds of shit is not what I had in mind."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Talking to the girls."

"Michael, J.R. called me.  She was so upset she called me to come get here.  Talking to the girls is not the solution.  We need to step up to the plate and be there for J.R.  If that means picking her up from school, then we will do that .  If it means keeping her for the weekend, then we do that. She needs parents who want to spend time with her, not ones that just want to talk."

"Are you proposing that she is here on weekends and after school?"

"If that is what she needs, yes."

"I can't do that.  I have a shop to run."

"Michael, lots of parents work.  Melanie and LIndsay work and right now they leave J.R. to go home and be by herself while they work. They want her to clean the house and she has little time to be a child and play. That is unacceptable in my book.  I want her to have a great childhood, not be Cinderella."

"So, what are you saying?  You want me to close the shop in the afternoon to pick her up.  I might as well just shut it down.  Afternoons are one of my busiest times.  I worked too hard to do that."

"What about having her come to your shop in the afternoon?  She could hang out, do her homework and spend time with you."

"No.  I don't have time to watch her while I'm working.  There are a lot of collectibles in the store and she might break them.  Why don't you watch her?"

Ben had been hoping for a different conversation, but expected the discussion with Michael to resemble the one they were currently involved in.  It was obvious to him that Michael was giving lip service to be more involved in J.R.'s life.  Michael did not really want to be an involved parent and he most likely saw J.R. as a ticket to spend time with Brian doing "parenting things".  The conversation solidified his decision regarding their marriage and how he would need to proceed in gaining at least partial custody of J.R.  It saddened him to realize that his partner was so disinterested in his own child, but he realized he would rather have Michael say he was too busy at this point in time, then later, after he started the process of custody. 

"Of course, I'll watch her.  I'll figure something out."

Michael got down a bowl for his Captain Crunch and started pouring the cereal into the big bowl. After taking several bites of the cereal, he looked up at Ben and said, " She's Melanie's and Lindsay's responsibility. They are her parents."

Ben frowned, saddened by Michael's words and attitudes.  "Michael, you're her parent too.  We need to step up and help her."

"We can't do that. We're not her parents."

J.R. came in to the kitchen.  "Daddy Ben, are we going to the store?  It is almost noon and Momma says that the morning should not be wasted."

Ben looked at Michael, shaking his head in disappointment.  "You're right.  We should go run our errands and then we will do some fun stuff."  Ben walked out of the kitchen, ignoring Michael at the table.  "Let me get my phone and keys."

TBC