Chapter 6

“While I am proud of you for doing the right thing, I think this could mean big trouble, Sunshine,” Brian sighed after he had listened to Justin's summary of his conversation with Melanie.

“I know, but she just made me so angry and really... I mean, she clearly didn't care. If anything she's the one who should be in trouble, not us. She's the one who didn't even care that her daughter has been gone for days. Hell, she didn't even notice her absence. How does that make us the bad guys?” Justin ranted, leaving no doubt about how angry he was.

“I know, I am just saying. You know her. She'll cause trouble. She always does.”

“Then we'll be ready for it. I refuse to send Jenny back to a mother who cares as little as that. No child deserves that,” Justin emphatically stated, making it very clear where he stood on that matter. “She's got a family that loves her and actually wants to spend time with her for christ's sake.”

“Hey, take a deep breath,” Brian said calmly, trying to follow his own advice. He was just as angry as Justin was and probably even more so at Melanie. After everything she had done to Gus, Brian couldn't believe that she would behave like this to her own daughter as well. “I'll call the lawyer and see what he says. Ask if he thinks there's any trouble we should prepare for, anything she can do about Jenny being with us.”

“Thanks,” Justin replied, now slightly calmer. “I just want her to know that there's someone out there who cares.”

“I know and I am sure she does. She's spending the day with her grandmother, she will see her brother later tonight. I am sure she realizes that there's more than just Melanie out there as far as family goes.”

Justin nodded, even though Brian couldn't see it over the phone. “Speaking of Gus, I was thinking that I should wait for him at the airport and take him home. That way I can prepare him for what is going on.”

“Are you sure? I can come and pick him up,” Brian offered, knowing that Justin had to be desperate to come home and get into the mood for Thanksgiving with his family. That he wanted to see his children and just forget about the trip to Florida.

“Don't be stupid. He's supposed to land less than two hours after I land. It would be a total waste of everyone's time to have you drive out to the airport when I am already there anyway. I'll just get myself some coffee and will wait for him. It's fine,” Justin assured his husband as he listened to the announcement that just came on over the PA system. “They are boarding my flight now. I'll call you when I've landed in Pittsburgh, okay?”

“Okay,” Brian agreed. “Have a safe flight and try to calm down, okay? I love you.”

Justin smiled, still feeling beyond happy every time he heard Brian say those words to him, even though Brian said them regularly by now. It still made him feel special, no matter how often Brian said them to him. “I love you, too. See you later.”

“Later.”

***

“Papa? What are you doing here?” Gus exclaimed as he saw his father waiting for him at his gate with a small carry-on suitcase by his side as he came off his plane in Pittsburgh.

“Surprise,” Justin announced as he engulfed his son in a hug and pulled him close. “I just came in an hour and a half ago myself and decided to wait for you. I figured I could give you a ride to Britin, if you don't mind.”

“No, of course not,” Gus smiled as he pulled back. “I didn't know you were going anywhere. Why didn't you say? I thought you'd be busy at home getting ready for Thanksgiving.”

“It was an unplanned trip,” Justin sighed. “Believe me, I'd much rather have stayed home instead.”

Gus frowned when he heard his father's tone of voice and saw the almost pained expression on his face. “Is everything okay?”

Justin nodded, trying to put on his best smile, not ready to tell Gus about Jenny's appearance in the middle of a crowded airport terminal. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I am just a bit tired. It's been a stressful couple of days. Let's head home.”

Knowing that this wasn't the time and place to ask more questions, Gus followed his father towards the luggage carousel to pick up his suitcase.

While they were waiting for Gus' luggage and as they made their way to the car, they made small talk, Justin telling Gus how excited Vicky was to see him and how much everyone had missed him since they had last seen him.

Gus updated his father on some of the latest projects he was working on for his classes, but the whole time he noticed that something was off. He could see that his father was tense and that his voice sounded strained at times which wasn't really like him. Usually Justin was the more relaxed, laid-back and happy of his two fathers. Not that his dad wasn't either, but just compared, Justin was always the one smiling and laughing. So the fact that he wasn't now, immediately alerted Gus to the fact that something was wrong. Only he couldn't quite imagine what it could be. He had last spoken to all of his family on Sunday before they had been off to Sunday dinner and everyone had seemed just fine then. He had texted with his dad earlier that day to confirm the status of his flight and his dad had sounded okay in his replies as well. So whatever it was, it didn't seem to be any problem in their family. Or at least Gus hoped that it wasn't.

“Papa? What's going on?” Gus asked after they had left the parking deck and had made their way onto the Interstate.

“Hmmm? Nothing,” Justin replied, looking ahead and concentrating on the traffic in front of him.

“Don't lie to me. Something is going on. You've been tense and stressed ever since you stood outside my gate. And just the fact that you'd be flying somewhere this close to Thanksgiving. Something is going on, isn't it?” Gus asked, looking at his father in concern.

Justin sighed, throwing Gus a quick glance. He smiled to himself before he replied. “You're too smart for your own good, you know that?”

“No, I just know you well enough to see that something is bothering you. Is it Dad? Luke? Vicky?” Gus asked, hardly able to hide the worry in his voice.

“No, don't worry. Everyone is fine,” Justin immediately tried to calm down his son's fears. When he saw that Gus didn't look convinced, he turned to him once more and met his eyes shortly. “Really, everyone is fine.”

Gus saw the honesty in Justin's eyes and heard it in his voice and he really doubted that his father would lie about something as important as his family's well-being to him, so he believed him and took a deep breath. “But something is going on. Otherwise you wouldn't have flown somewhere on such short notice. Where did you go?”

“To Tampa, Florida,” Justin replied, knowing that he had to tell Gus the truth. Gus more than anyone deserved to know what was going on and just the fact that they hadn't wanted to tell him over the phone what was happening was the reason why he was still the only one who didn't know about Jenny's appearance.

“Why Tampa? What's in Tampa?” Gus frowned, knowing that there had been no mention of Florida before in any of their conversations. He knew that Justin had an upcoming show in the new year, but that was in New York and Justin's agent was also in New York, so Florida seemed a weird location for what he himself called a last minute trip.

“Your mother,” Justin just replied, knowing that there was no easy way to break the news to Gus.

Justin felt more than saw Gus tense up. Gus was so much like Brian and much like Brian he didn't often show his true feelings. Yes, he was more open with his feelings than Brian and also a lot more sensitive than Brian had ever been, but when it came to unpleasant news, Gus reacted a lot like his father and Justin wasn't surprised to notice the way his jaw seemed so tense it almost looked painful.

“I don't have a mother,” Gus just pressed out in reply, not looking at Justin.

Justin knew that the crowded interstate was no place to have this conversation, so he was glad when he saw an Exit coming up and went off the Interstate. He didn't care where they were and just pulled the car into the nearest car park. Once he had turned off the vehicle, he turned to Gus and put a hand on the boy's, no young man's, shoulder. He could immediately feel the tension in Gus.

“Gus, honey.”

“I don't have a mother...Why would you go and see that woman?” Gus asked as he turned to Justin, looking at him from hurt eyes.

Justin had heard the whole story about how Melanie had left Gus with Brian without even a goodbye once she had lost custody of Gus and he had also heard all about the therapy that Gus had needed after losing both his mothers within months. As Gus had gotten older, Justin had once tried to talk to him about his mothers, but Gus had insisted that he didn't have any mothers, that they had both left and abandoned him and that he couldn't care less about them and that he had two fathers and that was all he needed to be happy. Knowing that neither he nor Brian were looking forward to any interactions with Melanie or Lindsay, Justin had just accepted that reply from Gus at the time and had left it at that. It wasn't like he could blame the boy. Both his mothers had turned out to be big disappointments, both had disappeared from his life at a young age and Gus had been living with his fathers for longer than he had ever been with his mothers, so why bring it up again when he was happy with the family he had?

“Your sister Jenny... she came to see you at Britin earlier this week,” Justin said, carefully watching Gus' reaction to that news.

“Jenny? You mean... JR?” Gus frowned, looking at his father in confusion.

Justin nodded. “She goes by Jenny now and yes, she came looking for you at Britin.”

“How? Why? I don't...,” Gus started, but then stopped, looking beyond confused.

“Apparently your mother...,” Justin immediately corrected himself when he saw Gus' expression at what he had said, “... Melanie... She had never told Jenny about you, but... Jenny found some old pictures and documents and she put two and two together and figured out who you were and where to find you.”

“And she came looking for me?” Gus asked, still not sure he understood what was going on.

“Yes. She doesn't have any family besides her mother and... from what we could gather, they don't have a good relationship. Quite on the contrary. So when she found out that she had a brother in Pittsburgh, she ran away and made her way to Pittsburgh,” Justin explained.

“And why did you go to Tampa? Why did you see her?” Gus asked, meeting Justin's concerned gaze with his own confused one.

“Jenny is 17, she's still underage. So your Dad and I tried to reach Melanie, but... we couldn't. In the end, we decided that it was best to have me go and see her in person, to speak to her directly.”

That actually made Gus chuckle a bit. “I can see why you would go and not Dad.”

Justin smiled in amusement as well and nodded. “Yeah, we figured things might go better if I go and see her. She and your Dad... That has never ended well.”

“And, did you see her?” Gus asked, raising an eyebrow. The way he did it made him look so much like Brian that Justin couldn't help but smile. As he thought about how to best answer Gus' questions, he turned more serious again.

“Yes, I did. And it did not go well,” Justin told his son in all honesty. Gus was old enough and had a right to know the truth.

He and Brian had always tried to be as honest as possible with their children and Justin didn't want to change that now.

“What happened?”

“It took forever to get to see her. I couldn't see her at home and her secretary made me wait forever in her office until I finally had enough and just stormed into it.”

Gus' eyes widened as he listened to his father's words. “You what?”

“I was really angry and frustrated. We'd been trying to talk to her for two days about her daughter's well-being and she had totally ignored all our attempts to get in contact with her. So yeah, I've finally had enough and just stormed into her office.”

Shaking his head in amazement, Gus chuckled. “And they say you're calmer and more reasonable than Dad...”

“She just made me so fucking angry,” Justin justified with a shrug. “Not that she seemed to care. She hadn't even noticed that Jenny was gone... It seems like her work comes first and Jenny is just a millstone around her neck.”

“So she hasn't changed at all,” Gus replied flatly.

“Gus,” Justin started, running his hand over his son's arm, but stopped when Gus went ahead.

“I knew she never cared about me, but I thought... I still remember when I was small and we were in Canada... how she at least seemed to care about JR, I mean Jenny back then... I knew she never liked me because of Dad being my Dad, but... Jenny is her own flesh and blood.”

“We are all very angry with her right now... It's why I was in such a bad mood at the airport. I wish I could tell you something else, honey. I really do.”

Gus shrugged and spoke after taking a deep breath. “I never had any illusions about her caring about me... I just thought she would have been different with Jenny.”

“It seems not,” Justin said sadly. “She never told Jenny about you or anyone of her Pittsburgh family. So coming here brought quite a few surprises for Jenny as well.”

“Grandma Debs?” Gus asked, looking at his father for confirmation.

Justin nodded. “Yes, they met yesterday. Debbie and Carl came for dinner and met Jenny then. Your Dad said they are spending the day together today to get to know each other better.”

“That's good,” Gus smiled. “I bet Grandma Debs must be very happy.”

“She is according to your Dad. And I am sure it's doing Jenny good as well to know that there is some family out there that loves her and likes spending time with her.”

Gus nodded once more, then turned to look at his father from sad eyes. “Is Jenny angry with me?”

Justin frowned, not sure he understood the question, but he could see in Gus' face and hear in his voice that he seemed really worried about this for some reason. “Why would she be?”

“Because I never came looking for her... I mean, now she's here and... apparently she did what I never did.”

Justin looked at Gus' face and saw the guilt and also blame there that his son now seemed to be putting on himself. God, he really was too much like his father.

“Gus, don't even think that,” Justin started, pulling his son closer and taking him into a hug. He held him close as he continued speaking. “You've got nothing to blame yourself for.”

“But shouldn't I have gone and looked for her? I mean... she did and came looking for me,” he pointed out as tears filled his eyes. “What if she hates me for never coming to look for her.”

“Gus, don't think that. She came looking for you because she wants to meet you. Jenny seems like a really nice girl and I am absolutely sure that she doesn't blame you for whatever you think you deserve blame for. You did nothing wrong.”

“But I could have done the same and never did.”

“Why not?” Justin asked, for the first time realising that he and Brian had never really talked to Gus much about Jenny. In fact he couldn't really remember mentioning her to Gus at all. “Were you scared of what your Dad I and would have said?”

Gus immediately shook his head. “No... I know that even if you had disagreed with what I wanted to do, you would have supported me anyway.”

Justin nodded, knowing that Gus was right. Even if they hadn't understood or had disagreed, Gus was right. Brian and he would have supported Gus in whatever he wanted to do, no matter what they might have thought about an attempt to get in contact with Jenny. Not that he had ever thought about it. Which he probably should have. Maybe they should have even suggested it to Gus, just to put the option out there for their son.

“We would have, but... I know we never suggested anything like that to you. Maybe we should have.”

Gus looked at his father and then smirked. “Who's blaming himself now?”


Justin had to chuckle. His son knew him too well. “I am just thinking that we never presented the option to you either. I mean... I am sure we could have hired an investigator or something to look for Melanie and Jenny if you had wanted us to.”

Gus was quiet for the longest time. When he spoke his voice was eerily quiet. “I never wanted you to.”

“Gus?” Justin frowned, not quite sure what to make of that statement.

“I was happy with you and Dad. With Luke and Vicky. I mean... maybe it makes me a bad person, but... I never really thought about Jenny much... after everything. That was another life. A life that has ended a long time ago.”

Justin nodded, understanding to a certain degree what Gus was saying. “It doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you an honest one,” Justin said, kissing his son's auburn locks as he pulled him close once again. “What you went through... at such a young age. You were just a small child when you came to live with your Dad and Luke. And Melanie made the decision to move away with Jenny without leaving us any way to contact her. It was not a decision you made, Gus. It was a decision she made for you. She closed the door on that life, not you.”

Gus leaned into his father's embrace and sighed. “But maybe I should have opened it again...”

“And maybe you would have some time in the future. Who knows? Just because you didn't do anything yet, doesn't mean you're a bad person. Far from it,” Justin said, meaning every word of it. He would be damned if Gus now went ahead and blamed himself for something that wasn't his fault as far as Justin was concerned. Gus had just been a small, scared, six year old boy who had just lost his mother and Melanie had then made the decision to take away his sister and to abandon him on top of that. He would be damned if Gus now went and blamed himself for having had a happy life anyway with their family. “You deserved all the happiness you could get, Gus. And seeing the amazing man you've become... you have no idea how proud your Dad and I are of you and everything you've achieved. You're a lot of things, but a bad person is not one of them.”

“Thanks, Papa,” Gus smiled, now wrapping his arms around his father and hugging him back. “Thanks for always knowing what to say when I need to hear it.”

“That's what parents are for,” Justin replied, holding his son tight.

“Good parents,” Gus corrected, pulling back and looking his father straight into his blue eyes. “You and Dad have been amazing for as long as I can remember and... hearing about her and how little she seems to care about Jenny, I just realise once more how lucky we are to have you and Dad.”

“We love you, Gus. Your Dad and I love you and your siblings more than anything,” Justin said seriously.

“I know. I love you, too,” Gus whispered, kissing his father's cheek before he pulled back and ran a hand through his own hair.

“You okay, Gus?” Justin asked, as he looked at his son in concern.

Gus nodded, trying to smile at his father. “I think I am. And if not, I know that you and Dad will be there to help me.”

“Of course,” Justin agreed. “Always!”

“Thanks, Papa!” Gus said sincerely, smiling at his father. “For everything.”

Justin nodded, smiling back at his son, before he turned towards the steering wheel again. “I think we should head back. Your Dad must be worried by now where we are.”

Gus agreed and looked out the window as Justin started the car once more. “What's she like?” He asked after a couple of minutes of comfortable silence between them.

“Jenny?”

“Yeah.”

“She's nice, polite. She seems smart. Luke and Vicky seem to like her and get on with her. Vicky considers her her sister now as well. We tried to explain to her that Jenny is your sister, but she doesn't seem to understand how she's your sister and not hers, so I think she's made Jenny her honorary sister as well.”

“Well, it is complicated,” Gus agreed. “I mean, she's not even really my sister if you think about it...”

“No, I guess not,” Justin agreed, turning towards Gus. “Is that a problem for you?”

“No,” Gus said. “Just because we don't have the same parents doesn't mean we can't be siblings. If things had gone differently, we would have grown up as brother and sister...”

“I guess...”

“I am just glad that she has found us and the rest of the family. Everyone deserves to have a loving family and to be cared about. And I know that our family will welcome her with open arms.”

“Yeah,” Justin agreed, smiling at his son, proud of him for what he had just said. “They will. She will have us, her grandparents, her uncles. She has a family now.”

Gus nodded, a smile on his face as well, before he turned away to look out the window again as they made their way home.