Chapter 3

Brian sighed as he wrapped his arms around Justin's body, pulling him closer. “What an evening. Not what I expected when I left the office earlier.”

“I know,” Justin agreed, moving closer to Brian's body. “Can you imagine how shocked I was when I realised who she was, standing outside our door and ringing the doorbell?”

“Probably as shocked as I was when you told me who she is,” Brian muttered, running his hand over Justin's arm. “What are we going to do about Melanie?”

Justin took a deep breath before he chose his words carefully. They had asked Jenny for her mother's phone number earlier and had tried calling Melanie, but all calls, both to her home and her mobile phone, had only gone to voicemail or answering machine. Justin had left some messages for her on both, informing her that Jenny was staying with them and safe and could she please get in contact with him, so they could figure out a solution for their situation. By now, hours later, Melanie had not answered any of those calls. Something Justin knew had made Brian only angrier. He had heard Brian's angry mutterings of what if something serious had happened to Jenny and Melanie could not be reached. And he agreed. He couldn't understand how Melanie hadn't gotten back to them yet. What kind of mother would know that her daughter had run away, had left the state, had made her way to people she didn't know and would not call back? Or even show up? It made him angry as well and had made him wonder all evening what kind of mother Melanie had been to Jenny.

“I will try again tomorrow. I will also try to call her at work. Jenny gave me the name of the law firm she works for. Maybe I can get her there. And if not, I think we should ask Carl what to do.”

“Yeah, I agree. He will know how to handle this,” Brian nodded. “I just don't want to give her any chance to come after us for anything.”

“Like what?” Justin frowned, not sure he knew what Brian was talking about.

“Kidnapping or whatever,” Brian said quietly, before he closed his eyes against the memories that simple word brought back.

Justin looked at him sadly and ran a hand over his cheek. “I don't think it's kidnapping if she came here on her own. It's not like we took her away from her home against her will.”

“You know Melanie. She hates my guts and whatever she can accuse me of, she will,” Brian reasoned and Justin knew that he had a point.

“I really don't understand her, you know? How can she care so little for her own daughter? It's horrible. I feel so bad for Jenny.”

Brian nodded. Jenny had told them some more about her life with Melanie earlier and what it had basically come down to were years of neglect on Melanie's part where she had only cared about her work and career and had basically left Jenny to take care of herself. If Jenny's version of the story was true, of course, but so far they had no reason to doubt her, and the fact that Melanie didn't seem to have noticed her daughter's disappearance and hadn't replied to any of their calls so far supported what Jenny had told them.

“I always thought that... she had behaved towards Gus the way she did because he was my son, you know? I know how she felt about me and how she felt about me fathering him, so... I always felt like she treated him differently because he was my son and then after Lindsay... He wasn't her biological son, so I always explained it away like that, but with Jenny? It's almost like she only had her so she could say that she had done it all: The career, the baby, all of it, you know? Just like ticking a box in the game of life. I always hoped she would have treated Jenny better, but... It makes me so angry. I really want to wring her neck!”

“I know,” Justin murmured, cuddling closer to Brian. He knew how much Brian hated parents that neglected their children. He knew how much Brian hated parents that mistreated their children in any way or form and how he had no sympathy for anyone that treated a child badly. Not after everything he had gone through as a child himself and not after how much he had changed to become a great father. How much he had changed to become the exact opposite of what he had experienced growing up. And he had. Brian had broken the cycle and had become a great father. The best father any child could wish for. Definitely the best father their children could have wished for.

Justin leaned a bit closer and left a gentle kiss on his husband's mouth. Deciding not to dwell on the negative any longer, he tried to change the topic. At least a bit. “Vicky seems to really like her.”

Brian snorted, then looked at Justin from amused eyes. “Vicky is just happy to have another girl around.”

“She doesn't really understand why Jenny would be Gus' sister but not hers,” Justin said, meeting Brian's gaze. “I tried to explain it to her, but I don't think she really understood.”

“Yeah, I know. When I took her to bed earlier, she told me how happy she was to have a sister now as well. I tried to explain it to her as well, but she just said that Luke was Gus' brother and also her brother, so if Jenny was Gus' sister, why wouldn't she be her sister as well?”

“She's got a point. You have to admit that there's some logic to it,” Justin said, smiling at Brian. “It's hard to explain how Jenny is Gus' sister when they are not related by blood at all.”

“I'll try to talk to her tomorrow. I'll try to explain it to her again. For now I am just happy that she and Luke don't seem too bothered by Jenny's appearance.”

Justin nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I am sure it will be fine. I am more worried how Gus will take it, to be honest.”

Brian sighed. “It's been so long... And he has never mentioned her. I know that... when he was small and I had just had Luke, he always said how he loved that he was allowed to help with Luke and how he loved being able to feed him, how he loved being allowed to hold him. He was never allowed to do any of that with Jenny and they never really included him in raising her. It always felt like he had never really built a connection to her in the way he was allowed to do with Luke and... I wonder if that's why he never mentioned her when he grew up.”

“I guess we'll find out soon. In any case, I am glad he'll get to meet her here with us around. He won't be alone, he'll have everyone he loves around to support him. I think it'll help that it's happening here where we and everyone else can support him instead of her finding him in New York where he would have been on his own.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same earlier,” Brian said quietly. “Looks like it's going to be one interesting Thanksgiving.”

Justin smiled ruefully. “At least we know how to deal with interesting by now.” He then leaned in and gave Brian another kiss. “We'll be fine.”

Brian nodded, knowing that Justin was right. On the grand scale of things, they had already made it through so much in their relationship, had dealt with so much drama together that this would hopefully just be a small blip on their radars.

***

“Okay, could you please just let her know that it's about her daughter and very urgent,” Justin said, sounding frustrated and slightly angry. He had been trying to call Melanie for an hour now, trying to call her home phone, her mobile and now her office where a less than pleasant secretary had been trying to get rid of him for several minutes now.

“As I said, Mr. Kinney-Taylor, Mrs Marcus is in a meeting and not to be disturbed.”

“But this is about her daughter Jenny. Surely you must be able to interrupt her meeting for an emergency concerning her daughter.”

“I am sorry, but she can't be disturbed under any cirumstances.”

“Not even when it's about the well-being of her daughter?” Justin felt his anger rise. “This is an emergency.”

“I will leave a message for Mrs Marcus and will ask her to get back to you once she has time,” the secretary replied stiffly.

“When will the meeting be over? I can try calling her again then,” Justin offered, trying to curb in his anger as well as he could.

“I am not at liberty to give out that kind of information. I will leave a message for Mrs Marcus and will ask her to get back to you when she has the time.”

“Okay, thanks,” Justin sighed, feeling absolutely defeated. “Can you believe her?” Justin angrily slammed down the receiver of the phone in Brian's home office and looked up at the older man who had been pacing in front of his desk, listening in to the call that Justin had put on speakerphone.

“What if Jenny was seriously injured and no one could get a hold of her?” Brian fumed, his face showing the anger he was feeling.

“I think we should get Carl involved and ask him for his advice. I don't know how many more messages I can leave on her voicemail without yelling at her,” Justin admitted honestly, meeting Brian's gaze with a question in his eyes. When Brian nodded in agreement, Justin called Carl and put the call on speakerphone as well.

Brian and Justin had given Carl a short summary of what had happened in the last 16 hours since Jenny had shown up at their place and to say that the older man was shocked was an understatement. It had taken a few minutes for him to get over the shock of finding out that Jenny had shown up at Britin and was this close when he and Debbie had worried about her fate for years. Much like them, the older man had been beyond angry at what he heard about Melanie's behaviour and Brian and Justin felt quite glad that Carl was in Pittsburgh at his house and not in Florida close to where Melanie was supposed to be. They both had a feeling that it wouldn't end well for the woman. Once he had calmed down enough though, he had given them valuable advice on how to handle the situation.

When Justin had suggested calling the police, informing them of what had happened and about them not being able to get in contact with Jenny's mother, Carl had reasonbly pointed out that every call they made to the police would be logged as a report and that local authorities in Florida would then most likely refer this report to the child protective services over there, starting an investigation into Melanie's neglect of her daughter. While neither man really had any problems with that, Carl pointed out what a move like that might look like to Melanie and what it might do to Jenny if she was in the end taken away from her mother and put into foster care. He suggested that it might be best to keep the authorities out of it for now and to talk to Melanie face to face to avoid that from happening.

After much deliberation, Brian and Justin agreed in the end, knowing that Carl was right. They wouldn't help Jenny by having her put in a foster home somewhere in Florida. And they could all imagine the wrath Melanie would bring down on them in return.

They decided that it would be best for Justin to go down to Florida and try to meet with Melanie in person. Everyone agreed that Brian was not the right person to make this trip as a meeting between him and Melanie would only end in a bloodbath. Carl offered to come along on the trip, but Justin assured him that he would be fine on his own.

While they still talked some more, Brian started looking for flights and got Justin the last seat on an early afternoon flight to Tampa that would have him arrive in Florida late afternoon, giving him enough time to make his way to Melanie's law firm. They were lucky that they had still gotten a flight. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so most flights were booked already.

Justin suggested that Carl should inform Debbie and that they should come over for dinner that night. He could only imagine how much she would love to see her granddaughter and his children always loved a visit by their grandmother. Carl liked the idea and promised that he would break the news to Debbie gently before they came over to Britin.

Once their call ended, Justin had about an hour left before he had to head to the airport. He spent that hour talking to Jenny, trying to get some more information about where Melanie worked and where they lived, informing her of what was going on. He also used the time to explain to Vicky and Luke why he would be leaving in such a rush, promising them that he would be back the next day and that their Thanksgiving was not in danger because of this unplanned trip.

When he was ready to leave, he and Brian kissed goodbye, he gave each of his children a kiss and a hug and then made his way towards the airport, starting on a trip into the unknown. A trip that nobody was sure how it would end and what it would bring.