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Chapter 2

 

“Papa! Papa, we're home!” Vicky announced excitedly as she ran into the house from the garage where her father was just getting out of the car, mumbling to himself that it was a good thing they had no immediate neighbours or they all would know now as well. He followed his daughter into the house and smiled at her excitement as she went in search of Justin.

 

It was amazing how well Vicky had developed after the rough start she had had into her life, but now, at almost six years old, she was one happy, exuberant girl that absolutely adored her Papa. And himself. Brian knew that Vicky loved him to bits as well and she couldn't have made him and Justin happier than she did every day. Just like Luke and Gus did. He was really lucky with his three children and loved them all so much. They meant the world to him and always would. Just like his husband, who had helped him raise them all and had created this beautiful family with him.

 

“Sunshine, are you around?” Brian called out for his husband, wondering if Justin might still be stuck in his studio. He had mentioned earlier that he wanted to paint and when Justin got into one of his moods, he more often than not forgot about time and just created to his heart's content.

 

“Kitchen,” Brian heard the voice of his husband reply and he smiled when he saw Vicky immediately turn around from where she was about to head up the stairs to his studio and dart off towards the kitchen instead. Brian followed her, though at a much slower pace. Not that he didn't share his daughter's excitement about seeing Justin, but running? That wasn't his style.

 

When he made it into the kitchen, he saw Vicky in her father's lap, excitedly hugging him and greeting him. Brian's eyes then wandered to the young girl sitting at the kitchen table with Justin and he frowned, not having expected a visitor.

 

He walked over and gave Justin a quick kiss, raising an eyebrow at his husband when he nodded towards the girl. “I didn't know we were expecting a guest,” he said as he turned towards the girl.

 

“Brian,” Justin started and Brian could immediately hear something in his husband's voice that he didn't like. Nervousness and anxiety. “This is Jenny. Jenny Marcus.” Justin met Brian's eyes and gave him a meaningful nod as he went on. “Melanie's daughter.”

 

“Hi Jenny, I am Vicky,” Vicky immediately introduced herself, waving at the girl from her father's lap, a sunshine smile on her face.

 

“Hi Vicky,” Jenny smiled, enjoying the little girl's excitement. She had been smiling since the girl had stormed into the kitchen and then into her father's lap, so focused on greeting her father that she had probably only noticed her presence now when her other father had pointed out that there was another person in the room.

 

“Why don't you go and watch some TV while we talk,” Justin suggested to his daughter, nodding towards the living-room. “I'll come out and spend some time with you in a few minutes, okay princess?”

 

Vicky nodded, happy enough at the prospect of being allowed to watch TV on her own. She usually wasn't allowed to watch TV unsupervised, so she was really excited now. She happily made her way off her father's lap and into the living-room, her blond locks bobbing up and down as she went.

 

Once she had left the room and they could hear the sound of the TV being turned on, Brian immediately turned to Justin with a frown. “Okay, what's going on here?”

 

“Sit down, please,” Justin said calmly, taking Brian's hand as he pulled him down into the seat next to his. “Jenny came by earlier looking for Gus.”

 

“Gus?” Brian raised an eyebrow, not liking what he was hearing one bit. He turned towards Jenny, a question in his eyes. “What do you want from Gus?”

 

“Brian, it's okay,” Justin said calmly, running his hand up and down Brian's thigh in an attempt to calm down his husband. He knew only too well how much Brian hated Melanie and Michael and hoped that Brian's hatred for them wouldn't automatically move over to their daughter as well.

 

“Jenny only recently found out about Gus' existence and now she came here to see her brother.”

 

“What about your mom?” Brian asked as he looked at the girl and Justin was glad when he heard genuine curiousity but no anger in Brian's voice. “What does she have to say about you coming here and looking for Gus?” Brian could only imagine that Melanie would be anything but happy about that and he honestly wasn't sure how he felt about that.

 

“She doesn't know,” Jenny muttered, lowering her eyes and not looking at either man.

 

“What do you mean she doesn't know?” Brian asked, clearly looking for something more.

 

“Jenny ran away,” Justin supplied, giving Brian's thigh a squeeze before he shook his head slowly, giving Brian a silent warning to tread carefully where the girl in front of them was concerned.

 

Brian nodded in silent promise, as if to let Justin know that he wouldn't explode in front of the girl and would stay calm.

 

“How did you find out about Gus being your brother?” Brian asked next, not surprised to know that Melanie would have kept the news from the girl for the last fifteen years.

 

“I found some boxes with old pictures and documents in the attic and went through them. The pictures showed my mom with another woman and a small boy and... it also showed other people, including you two with either me or that boy,” she said as she nodded at Brian and Justin. “In the box with the documents I found several documents refering to Gus Marcus-Peterson, listing this address and reading them, I figured that we were siblings.”

 

Justin gave Brian's thigh another squeeze, this time in warning. Technically, Gus and Jenny weren't really siblings as they weren't blood related at all, but it wouldn't do to go into that now. Brian seemed to understand what he was implying and made no comment on that, but just nodded.

 

“Where does your mother think you are right now?” Brian asked her instead, not liking the idea of having to get involved with Melanie in any way whatsoever. He had hoped that he had seen the last of her all those years ago, but with her daughter now sitting in his kitchen, he realised that that hope was probably futile.

 

Jenny just shrugged. “I doubt she'll even notice that I am gone,” she said, her voice sounding strangely void of emotion.

 

“What do you mean?” Justin asked, looking at her from confused eyes. “She's your mother, of course she must notice that you're gone.”

 

“She's very busy with work,” Jenny started to explain and her tone of voice made it clear that that wasn't all there was to it. “She's working on a big case right now.”

 

“But still, she must know that you're not at home. She must notice that you don't show up for dinner,” he pointed out, not quite sure if he understood what she was saying.

 

“We don't have dinner together. She's... she's very focused on her work and... we don't spend a lot of time together. When she's busy with a case, we sometimes don't see each other for weeks.”

 

Justin could feel the anger rise inside of Brian and had to take a deep breath himself. He knew that Brian didn't think much of Melanie on the best of days, but hearing this certainly wouldn't help either man's impression of her. Both Brian and Justin were dedicated parents and had always made sure that their children came first. Their children had always been their priority and more than once their jobs had to stand back so they could focus on being parents first. Yes, they knew that they were lucky and in a financial position where they could afford to make the children their priority all the time, but even if that hadn't been the case, Justin knew that something like what Jenny had described wouldn't have happened in their family. Both Brian and Justin had had their fair share of bad parents in their own lives and had always known that they wanted to be better parents than they had had growing up. Neglecting their children for work in the way Jenny seemed to have been neglected by her mother would not have happened in their family.

 

“And who takes care of you?” Brian asked, hardly able to suppress the anger in his voice.

 

“I take care of myself. I always have,” Jenny shrugged. “My mom... she was never the maternal type or... like other mothers. Her career always came first for as long as I can remember and she always said that she had to work so much, so she could provide for me, so... I have always been very independent from a young age.”

 

Brian nodded, but didn't say anything else to that. Justin could hear by his breathing how angry he was and if he was honest with himself, he felt just as angry himself. How could anyone neglect their child like that?

 

“Do you have any other family around that takes care of you when your mom is working so much?” Justin asked next, not surprised at the answer he received.

 

“No, it is just me and my mom. Until I found the pictures and documents, I didn't even know that I had more family out there. She never mentioned anyone.”

 

“Not surprised by that,” Brian muttered, then sighed. “I am sorry, but... your mother and I... we have never been friends.”

 

“I figured as much,” Jenny replied, then shrugged once more. “If it comforts you, most of the time I can't stand her either.”

 

In fact it didn't and Brian just shook his head, before he turned to Justin. Justin nodded after they had a silent conversation with each other for a couple of seconds, then turned to Jenny again.

 

“Look, why don't you stay here for tonight? We have a couple of guestrooms and I am sure Vicky will love having another girl in the house. There isn't much we can do tonight, but tomorrow, we can try and see what we can do about this situation.”

 

“I really just want to see Gus and get to know my brother,” Jenny started, looking at both men. “I don't want to impose myself on you.”

“You are not imposing,” Brian immediately replied. “And at least we'll know that you'll be safe staying here.”

 

“Only if it's really not a problem,” Jenny said once more.

 

“No, it's not. Like Brian said, we'll know that you're safe here and it's no imposition.”

 

“Why don't you go and join Vicky in the living-room while we get started on dinner? Our son Luke should be home soon and he'll be famished after soccer practice,” Brian said, nodding towards the living-room where Vicky was still watching TV. “We can have dinner and then we'll show you the guestroom where you can stay.”



“That's very nice of you,” Jenny smiled, before she got up and left the two men on their own.

 

Once she had left, Brian ran a hand over his face and sighed. “I don't like this, Sunshine. Not at all.”

 

“I know,” Justin agreed as he turned towards Brian. “I think she's honest though. She really only seems to want to meet Gus.”

 

“Did she say anything about Michael or Debbie?” Brian asked, nodding when Justin shook his head in answer to his question.

 

“I am not sure she even knows about them. I don't think Melanie mentioned anything to her about the Pittsburgh family and she only seems to have found out about Gus by pure coincidence. She mentioned seeing pictures of Gus and what I assume to be Lindsay. She also mentioned that she had seen pictures of me with her and Gus and of you with Gus, so maybe she has seen Michael and Debbie, but doesn't really know who they are or that they live here as well.”

 

“How old is she now?” Brian wondered. “She can't be 18 yet, right?”

 

“I think she's 17. Gus was three when she was born, wasn't he?”

 

“God, I wish I had paid more attention, but at the time...,” Brian started, then stopped.

 

“Hey, it's okay,” Justin said quietly, before he leaned in and rested his head against Brian's. “We can figure this out tomorrow.”

 

“We have to inform Melanie. If Jenny's not of age yet,she has a right to know where Jenny is,” Brian sighed. “Not that she seems to care much anyway.”

 

“Hey, let me worry about that, okay? I don't want you to have to worry about dealing with Melanie. I'll deal with her.”

 

Brian chuckled and kissed Justin gently. “My knight in shining armour.”


“I thought that was you,” Justin smiled back, running his hand over Brian's back and neck, before he turned more serious. “I know that you and her never got on and that things didn't end well between you...”

 

“That's putting it nicely,” Brian muttered darkly, closing his eyes.



“She always had a soft spot for me. Let me deal with her, okay?” Justin whispered, giving Brian's neck a gentle squeeze.

 

“I doubt she'll still feel the same way now that you're married to the enemy.”

 

“I don't care. After what she did to Gus, she might as well consider me her enemy as well... God, can you imagine that she would be this neglectful with her own daughter?”

 

“She was always more focused on her career than her children. Even when Gus and Jenny were still babies,” Brian pointed out.

 

“How do you think Gus will react to this?”

 

“I honestly don't know. Sonny boy is strong and... he moved on from Melanie's disappearance a long time ago. I hope he'll be fine. He'll probably be happy to hear from Jenny again,” Brian guessed, though the crease on his forehead betrayed the worry he really felt concerning his son's reaction. “I just don't want him to get hurt any further.”

 

“I know, neither do I,” Justin agreed, pulling back and looking at Brian. “It's probably not right to feel this way, but I am rather glad that he isn't home yet. At least we can figure some things out before he comes home.”

 

“I know, I was thinking the same.”

 

Just as Justin was about to say something else, they heard the front door and knew that Luke was home as well.

 

Justin looked around, then sighed. “How about we order some takeaway. I don't really feel like cooking and I think we need to explain to Luke and Vicky who Jenny is and why she's here.”


Brian nodded in agreement, then got up. “I'll order some Chinese. How about you go and take the princess and talk to her and I'll speak to Luke? By the time dinner arrives we'll hopefully have made some sense of all of this.”

 

“Okay,” Justin agreed, getting up as well. “I love you,” he said before he leaned in and gave Brian a quick kiss.

 

“Love you, too,” Brian replied, before they were interrupted by Luke coming into the room.

 

“What's for dinner? I am famished,” he announced as he walked over and gave both his fathers a clap on the back in greeting.

 

“You always are. You are like a bottomless pit,” Brian chuckled, before turning away from Justin and towards his son.

 

“We'll have Chinese tonight. Your dad was just about to order it,” Justin announced. “We have a guest for dinner, but your dad will explain all about that to you once he's ordered the food. I'll check on Vicky and Jenny,” he finished, before he gave Brian's hand a squeeze and moved out of the kitchen.

 

“Jenny? Who is Jenny?” Luke frowned, looking after his father as he left the kitchen.

 

“I'll explain to you in a minute, okay? Just let me order dinner first,” Brian announced as he took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialled the number of their favourite restaurant.

 

Luke got himself a bottle of water from the fridge, then plopped down at the kitchen table with a nod. “Okay.”

 

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