Chapter 14

When Brian and Justin returned to the living-room an hour later, Debbie and Carl had wisely not commented on their change of clothes or the fact that they had apparently taken a shower.

Instead they focused on the problem at hand which was Melanie and the kind of trouble she would most likely cause for them.

Everyone agreed that it would probably be for the best that Jenny moved to Debbie and Carl's house for the time being, but everyone also agreed that she should have the last word on that. If she didn't feel comfortable with that, she would stay with Brian and Justin.

Brian and Justin also made it clear that they would pay for the lawyer to take on Jenny's case, even though Debbie and Carl protested and insisted that they should pay for it as Jenny was their granddaughter. In the end they gave in though, knowing that Brian and Justin could afford paying for the lawyer and would be able to afford a much better lawyer than they could.

Once it was time for dinner, Justin and Debbie prepared some of the leftovers they still had from Thanksgiving and Brian went to get the kids while they were busy getting dinner ready. By now Jennifer and Vicky had also come back and Jennifer would join them for dinner as well.

Brian was sure that Justin and Debbie would fill her in on everything that had happened that day while he was gone to get the kids.

When he made it to Jenny's door – funny how he already considered the guestroom Jenny's room even though she had only been staying with them for a couple of days - he could hear quiet conversation coming from behind the door. He couldn't make out any words and didn't mean to eavesdrop on the kids anyway, so he announced his presence by knocking on the door.

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes,” he said and was surprised when the door opened and he saw Gus standing right in front of him just a few seconds later.

“Thanks, Dad. We'll be down in a bit,” his son said, seeming okay in light of what had happened earlier that day.

“Vicky and your Grandma Jen are also back,” Brian added, before he made to turn around and go back downstairs.

“Dad?” Gus asked, looking at his father from worried eyes. “Is everything okay?”

Brian shrugged, deciding that honesty would be the best approach in this case. “We don't know. We'll see. We'll have a meeting with the lawyer on Monday and we'll know more then,” he said as he looked over to Jenny and Luke as well who were sitting on the bed.

“I am so sorry,” Jenny started, but stopped when Luke put a hand on her arm.

“There's nothing to be sorry for,” he said and Brian could only agree with his son.

“He's right, Jenny. You have nothing to be sorry for. It's not your fault that your mother is such a ...,” he was about to call her a name, but then caught himself just in time. “Is such an unpleasant person.”

Gus shook his head in amusement. “Nice save, Dad.”

Brian smirked, then looked from one kid to the next. “Are you guys okay?”

When all three kids nodded, Brian nodded as well. “Good, but if you're not... You know you can talk to us. All of you,” he emphasized as he looked at Jenny.

“Thanks, Dad, but I think we've got it covered,” Gus replied, looking over to his brother and Jenny who both nodded as well.

“Alright,” Brian said, this time starting to move away. “We better not keep your father and Debbie waiting. Dinner should be ready by now.”

All three children followed him downstairs and in the end dinner turned out to be a surprisingly fun affair. Vicky regaled them with tales of her day with Grandma Jen and Jennifer contributed quite a few funny anecdotes herself which made everyone around the table laugh and made all memories of Melanie and her earlier visit disappear if only for a while.

After dinner Brian and Justin spent some time with Vicky and got her ready for bedtime while Debbie and Carl had offered to talk to Jenny about their idea that Jenny should move in with them for the time being.

Everyone was surprised by how quickly Jenny actually agreed to the idea, having expected more of a fight from the girl, but Jenny said that she had actually thought about it herself, wondering if it wouldn't be better for everyone if she moved out of Britin.

When Jennifer who had joined the conversation heard the young girl's tone of voice, she took it upon herself to assure Jenny that she would be more than welcome to stay at Britin, no matter the circumstances. Both Gus and Luke immediately agreed with their grandmother and told Jenny that they wanted her to stay.

Once Vicky was in bed and Brian and Justin returned to join the rest of the family, they also explained that Jenny was more than welcome to stay, but that it would be her decision and that even if she decided to move in with Debbie and Carl for the time being, she would always be more than welcome to stay with them or visit them.

After talking all their options over, Jenny agreed in the end that she would stay at Britin for another day and would move to her grandparents once Gus returned to New York for university.

Which had opened up a whole other can of worms because with everything going on it had been clear that Gus had seemingly all but forgotten that he was due to return to New York the next day. He argued that he could miss a week of classes and should stay to hear what the lawyer would say on Monday, but both Brian and Justin immediately shut that idea down.

They promised to keep Gus in the loop and would also pay for him to come back to Pittsburgh the next weekend, but he would not miss classes. His education was too important. Much to Gus' dismay the grandmothers agreed with his fathers and he quickly realised that he wouldn't win that argument.

In the end Gus, Luke and Jenny excused themselves, saying that they wanted to spend their last evening together and went upstairs.

The adults talked for a while longer before everyone left.

On Sunday afternoon the Kinney-Taylors headed into Pittsburgh for family dinner at Debbie's house. Even though the whole family had only gotten together a couple of days before on Thanksgiving, it was a nice affair and everyone enjoyed spending time together.

After dinner it was time for Gus to say goodbye to everyone and Brian took him to the airport. On the way and in the terminal, Brian had to promise several times that they would keep Gus updated on what the lawyer would say and that Brian would send him a ticket for a flight to Pittsburgh for the next weekend.

With Jenny staying at Debbie and Carl's house and Gus back in New York, Sunday evening meant a return to normality for the Kinney-Taylor family when they returned to Britin. Both Luke and Vicky were sad that Gus and Jenny were no longer with them at Britin, but Brian and Justin knew that they would be fine.

Once Luke and Vicky had been dropped off at school on Monday, Justin joined Brian on his ride into Pittsburgh. They still had some time before the meeting with the lawyer and Justin decided to join Brian at Kinnetik. It had been quite some time since he had last been to the offices and he was actually looking forward to seeing Cynthia again and catching up with her.

After lunch they headed off to the appointment with their lawyer, meeting Debbie, Carl and Jenny at the office. They shouldn't have been as surprised as they were when Jennifer also showed up to the meeting, claiming that this involved her grandchildren, so of course she wanted to know what would happen.

The meeting itself went rather well, though it had some surprises.

The lawyer listened to all the information they gave him and told them that he thought that they had a good case against Melanie. Just the fact that Jenny was already 17 and her opinion would count as well as the fact that Melanie hadn't even noticed her daughter's absence for several days would help them with their case. Also the fact that Melanie had needed another three days to make her way to Pittsburgh to see her daughter after claiming how worried she was about leaving her in Brian's and Justin's care would only help their case. She couldn't have been that worried if she waited three days and didn't call once to see how Jenny was.

A surprise had been when the lawyer had advised against filing for custody and against filing for an emergency hearing or court order.

He had advised them that it would be better to let Melanie make the first move to see how she would argue her case. Yes, he could understand their desire to get custody for Jenny, but if they would make the first move, it could be that they were stirring up a hornet's nest so to speak.

After leaving on Saturday, Melanie hadn't been in contact again. She hadn't contacted the police or hadn't contacted authorities concerning Jenny's well-being which their lawyer assured them would only work in their favour. The longer Melanie waited to do anything, the harder it would be for her to prove that she had indeed been worried about her daughter's well-being.

While that reasoning made sense to everyone, it was obvious that they would have liked a more definite decision from a judge instead of following their lawyer's 'wait and see' approach.

He assured them that Melanie making the first move would be the best that could happen to them as it would reveal her strategy and would give them several options to react to that strategy, while filing for custody themselves would do the exact opposite and would give Melanie the advantage by revealing their strategy. And the longer she waited to do anything, the weaker her case would look and the more chances they would have of getting a positive decision from a judge concerning Jenny's custody.

In the end everyone agreed that the lawyer probably knew best and that following his advice was the best they could do for now.

Brian and Justin returned to Kinnetik and called Gus to update him on what the lawyer had said. They also sent him the information for the flight they had booked for him for Friday, getting him to Pittsburgh right after his last class ended.

“When are we going to talk to them?” Brian asked, looking up at Justin who was leaning against his desk, looking at some of the artwork that had been brought to Brian's office for a new campaign he was working on.

“What?” He muttered, obviously deeply concentrated on the artwork and not knowing what Brian was talking about.

“Gus and Luke. When are we going to talk to them?” Brian said, taking the artwork from Justin and putting it onto his desk, before he pulled the younger man over to sit down in his lap.

“I think we should give Gus some time to see Jenny first before we have that talk... I don't know, maybe Saturday afternoon? We could ask Debbie to watch Vicky, so she wouldn't be at the house. That way Gus could take her in the morning, spend some time with both Vicky and Jenny and then we could talk to them without interruptions.”

“You have already thought about this, haven't you?” Brian said, looking at Justin closely.

“A bit. I don't think it would be wise to have Vicky at the house. She's too young and she doesn't need to know...”

“I agree, but...,” Brian sighed, hanging his head and resting it on Justin's shoulder, “she will find out sooner or later that something is going on.”

“Yes, something, but she doesn't need to know all the details. And in any case, she's only five. She wouldn't understand.”

Brian nodded, albeit reluctantly. “And she loves spending time with Jenny, so that would be good now that Jenny isn't staying with us anymore.”

“Yeah,” Justin agreed. “Knowing Debbie, she'll probably be busy making Christmas cookies or something, so I am sure she wouldn't mind having Vicky around.”

“Sounds like a plan, Sunshine,” Brian said, running his hand over Justin's arm. “Have you also thought about how we should tell them? What we should tell them?”

Justin nestled into Brian's embrace. “The truth.”

“Yeah, I know, but I mean... it's complicated to put it mildly... how far back do you want to go?”

Justin shrugged. “I don't know. As far as we have to to fully explain to them what happened.”

“And I guess you expect me to do the talking?” Brian raised an eyebrow as he raised his head to meet Justin's gaze.

“No, WE will tell them,” Justin said quietly, turning around a bit, so he could better face Brian. “This is OUR history and WE will tell them. Not you, not me. WE. We will do it together.”

Brian nodded, but didn't say anything else. Justin could see how thoughtful he looked and ran a hand down his cheek tenderly.

“We will do it together and I will be there right by your side. Whatever happens, we'll face it together. You and me.”

Brian nodded once more, leaning into Justin's touch. “You are amazing.”

“I think you mentioned it before,” Justin said, tenderly running his hand through Brian's hair, before he leaned in for a short kiss. “I love you and whatever will happen, we'll deal with it together. As we've done before.”

The rest of the week was quiet. Luke and Vicky went to school and their normal after school activities, Brian worked on the new campaign and Justin worked on a new painting for his next show.

They didn't hear from Melanie all week which confused them, but at the same time no one really minded that there had been nothing from her. As the lawyer had said, the longer she stayed quiet, the better it would be for their case, so everyone just enjoyed the quiet before the storm for as long as they could.

Jenny met with Luke and Vicky twice during the week, once visiting them at Britin and once being visited by them at Debbie's house. She and Debbie and Carl had settled into a rhythm and had gotten used to living in the same house.

Carl had insisted that Jenny stay up to date on her school work and had gotten in contact with her school. It had been a bit hard to explain the current situation and the school had been a bit wary to hear that Jenny wasn't staying with a parent or legal guardian, but in the end they agreed to Carl's request to send her homework assignments to her in an email at the end of the day so she could stay on top of her homework.

Everyone knew that they would need to come up with a better arrangement soon, most likely they would have to enrol Jenny in a school in Pittsburgh while she was staying with them, but for the moment it was the best they could do.

Justin noticed that Brian seemed to be more withdrawn the closer they got to the weekend and couldn't really blame him. He knew that Brian was worried about the outcome of their conversation with Gus and Luke and quite honestly, so was he. They didn't know how their sons would react to finding out the whole truth about why Justin hadn't been a part of the family for the first five years of Luke's life and while he hoped that their reaction would be understanding they couldn't be sure.

He could very well remember how angry he had been when he had found out and he wouldn't blame either Gus or Luke if they reacted with anger as well. He knew that it would hurt Brian and yes, it would also hurt him, but at the same time there was nothing they could do about that. The boys had a right to know the truth and it was important that they heard it from their fathers.

Justin noticed how Brian seemed almost eager to spend time with Luke, as if he was expecting the worst and trying to spend as much time with his son while he still could. It wasn't like Brian didn't spend time with Luke under normal circumstances, quite on the contrary, they would spend a lot of one on one time together, playing soccer, Brian helping Luke with school projects, etc. Brian had always been a very involved father like that, as was Justin himself, but this week Justin noticed that Brian seemed to try to spend even more time with Luke.

When they talked, Brian said that he was fine, but Justin knew that he wasn't. He tried to be there and be as supportive as he could be, but he knew that until the conversation had finally taken place and was out of the way, there wasn't much he could do to cheer up his husband.

He was there whenever Brian needed him, offered his support and love, but at the end of the day he knew that nothing would help Brian but getting the conversation over and done with.

So Justin was especially glad when Friday arrived and Gus flew in.

At least the dreaded conversation would be out of the way the next day and then they could deal with the aftermath – whatever that might look like.