Epilogue

Brian wondered how he got himself talked into this mess. But he didn't have to wonder too much because he knew the answer. Briana. All his daughter had to do was look at him with those big blue eyes that are so much like her father's. She hadn't played fair either because she teamed up with her big brother and his other little sister.

Those three together were a troublesome trio. Gus was now six, Briana almost four and a half, and Jenny Rebecca just a month behind her. It was the beginning of summer and he had the great idea to plan a family vacation. The kids were officially big enough to really have a good time.

Unfortunately for him Briana had just watched a commercial for Disney World. It had been a losing fight after that. Gus quickly jumped on board and so did Jenny Rebecca.

So now they all were on a plane headed for Florida. Justin had bitched at him for wanting to fly first class. With as many people that were going with them, all flying first class was impossible. Brian really didn't want to get all the people first class tickets either. The whole point in flying first class was to get away from the riffraff's. He tried to talk Justin into flying with him but the twat wanted to be with his family, he was glad for that now. Like he wouldn't see them after a few hours of flying.

So now he was on his own in first class with every loud annoying person in economy. He wished he could enjoy it but he had too many things weighing down on him.

He was going to kill his husband. Really, the man was going to die a horrible death. Justin knew he shouldn't be that pissed off about Brian just wanting a quiet flight. The man worked hard so Justin could be a stay at home parent and paint.

After all the trouble he had with Craig Taylor he had decided when the money is released to him on his twenty-fifth birthday he was going to sign it all over to Molly. He didn't want anything to do with that money and she would need it. She planned to travel for the next several years. The girl had no want to settle down anytime soon. He didn't blame her; she was a free spirit.

A lot had happened in the four years since Briana's kidnapping. There had been good times and bad. The worst thing was when Brian and he split up for a time. It was only two months but the longest two months of his life. It had been coming for a while, surprisingly to everyone it was him that ended the relationship.

There was a lot of bad feelings Justin had after the kidnapping. It took a year for it all to explode. It was Brian who took the brunt of his anger. It was just after Daphne's trial ended. She was found innocent by reason of insanity. She was then placed in The Davidson Ingles Home. It was an institution but the best that money could buy. She was just now started to get better, though she doesn't remember almost the full year in question.

So for two months when Briana was a year old they lived separate. Briana cried wanting Brian to rock her to sleep. Justin was miserable and so was Brian. Justin had to suck up his pride and apologize. Brian took him back without one mean-spirited comment. He just took him back like they hadn't been apart.

After that they got a house together and moved in. It was huge. It was beautiful and everything Justin had ever wanted. Brian then surprised him with a marriage proposal. They got married two years ago. If someone had asked either of them five years ago if they would be happily married with kids, they would have laughed in their face.

"I don't understand why I can't share a room with Steven," Peter bitched, bringing Justin out of his thoughts.

Brian's nephew was now fifteen and very out and proud. He had convinced his mother and his boyfriend's mother to let his boyfriend, Steven, to come with them. Steven's parents shelled out so the boy could have his own hotel room. They were crazy if they thought Peter wasn't going to sneak into the room as soon as everyone went to bed.

Justin turned and looked at the sullen boy with his boyfriend trying to cheer him up. Then his eyes looked at everyone else on the plane. It was filled with family and friends. There was Michael and Ben who had J.R. sitting in between them. Hunter, their adopted son was behind them with his girlfriend. The boy had just turned eighteen, and was started college in the fall.

His eyes then went to his brother and his family. When they heard about the plan to go to Disney World they asked to go with them. They were paying their own way, they just thought it would be a fun family thing. Brian wasn't happy but said it was fine. Brian still had yet to forgive C.J. for how he had treated Justin when he was a child.

His sister and her husband were supposed to meet them there. They were flying in from Salt Lake City. Justin didn't think she'd have that much fun because she was five months pregnant and had a one-year old to carry around. She had been so excited to tell him about her son; this new pregnancy had been a surprise though.

He didn't realize how sad it made him until she told him about the new pregnancy. He didn't know how much he wanted another child until then.

"You know why," Claire said to her pouting son then rolled her eyes.

Claire had been the biggest surprise of all. After Peter had found and saved Briana, Brian had wanted to help the boy out more. He asked Claire if it was okay if Justin watched Peter after school because he didn't get along with John. She actually seemed grateful and Peter spent a lot of time with them.

Everyone was surprised when a few months later she asked Brian and him to go out to dinner with her and meet her new guy. She confessed to Brian that he was great at reading people and she wasn't. She didn't want to get into another abusive relationship. She also wanted someone who would be good to her kids. Because Brian didn't want the kids hurt he agreed.

That was when they met Chris Moffatt. He was a few years older than Claire and had two children also. Justin liked him, there was something different about him that he couldn't figure out. It wasn't until later that night Brian pointed out that Chris didn't have an Adam's apple. Brian confronted the man before they left. He didn't want the guy to lie to Claire. He was secretly a big protective softy.

Chris admitted to Brian that he was born a female. In fact, he had married and birthed his two children. After his divorce he finally got the guts up to make the change. His last surgery had been four years before Claire met him. Then he shocked the hell out of Brian and told him that he had told Claire.

Claire and Chris married six months after they started dating. Then they decided they wanted to have a baby. In the dysfunctional family hat trick Chris' ex-husband donated the sperm. Chris wanted his children related by blood. They got pregnant the first try. Claire gave birth to a little girl. Simone Lily was now sitting on his mother's lap jabbering about the flight. She was two now and a handful.

Debbie and his dad also wanted to come. They were going to use it as their honeymoon, even though they had yet to get married. Really the only people not on this plane were Emmett and Ted. Not having children or grandchildren, apparently made Disney World seem like hell on earth. Justin was sure Brian would agree.

"Papa, why is Daddy not riding with us?" Briana asked from beside him.

"Daddy works really hard all year long. He wanted to be able to relax on the flight."

"Then why aren't we riding up there with him. Daddy says he is happiest with us," she said with a sad pout.

"We could have but I wanted to be with the rest of our family. That's why we're back here."

"I just don't understand why he wouldn't want to be back here with us."

Briana was a daddy's girl. Everyone knew that Brian was her favorite person in the world. When she was a baby it made Justin a little jealous. As the years went by he started to see the humor in it. Like when she wanted Brian to sit and have a tea party with her. Justin was even able to sneak a picture of Brian in a red floppy hat. Brian threatened him with divorce if any other person saw the picture.

"I want Daddy to ride with us," Gus added.

"Daddy will be with us the entire time that we are in Disney World. I promise."

Once they all got to the hotel everyone went their own way. They were going to meet up for dinner but until then they were able to relax. Michael and Ben took J.R. with them and Gus went with Justin. Brian had told them he needed to make some business calls before he was able to relax with them. The truth was he needed a harder drink than he got on the flight. He knew he would have to be truthful and tell Justin what was going on sooner or later. But he was still adjusting to the thought.

A year ago, he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. He had gone against his better judgement and told Justin then. After treatment and surgery, he finally went into remission. Six months. That's what he had, six months of happiness. Why couldn't it have lasted?

After he adopted Briana at the age of two everything had gone well. Justin had a small hiccup but they had worked through it. When Justin had asked Brian to take Briana to her doctor's appointment last week he growled about it. Justin had flown to New York to talk to a fellow artist. This one had seen Justin's work and wanted to book him in his showing. The artist thought they would both profit off the collaboration.

So he only worked half a day and picked Briana up at preschool. They were decorating the room for her graduation. He had been through the absurdity of preschool graduation when Gus had his own.

It was just a stupid physical that was needed before they signed her up for kindergarten. How the hell did he know the scariest thing in his life wouldn't be hearing he had cancer? No, it had been when the doctor told him that she was worried about Briana's low white blood count. He hadn't called Justin; he hadn't called anyone. He took her home and let her have ice cream for dinner. The next day he took her in for more in-depth testing. The doctor said he was almost positive it wasn't anything to worry about. He was only doing the test because her count was so low.

Brian wanted to cancel the trip to Disney World but knew Justin would question it. So he did what he did best, drank. The doctor was supposed to call with the results by four pm. That was four more hours of waiting for the damn phone to ring. He couldn't tell Justin the truth but knew he couldn't look at him and lie. So he kept quiet and stayed away from him as much as possible.

He couldn't even stand to look at his little girl at the moment. The thought of her going through all that pain, sickness and just horrible days. He was an adult and could barely handle it. She was a small child. He couldn't even think about his baby girl sick. Why wouldn't the damn doctor call already? The waiting was making him go insane. Hadn't she been through enough in her young life? It really was perfect for a whole day; he had just agreed to finding a surrogate because Justin wanted one more child. There would be no other child if she was sick. He couldn't do that; he didn't think he could do it if she was okay. Bringing another child into the world for him to worry about.

"I thought Daddy was going to spend time with us?" Briana whined. She had been like this for a few weeks. He suspected she was a little under the weather. She usually wasn't so whiny.

"Daddy had to do some work. That doesn't mean you, me and Gus can't do anything fun. How about we go to the pool?"

Both kids shouted and started jumping up and down. He had Gus' bag because he needed his clothes for dinner that night. He quickly changed himself and both kids into their swimsuits.

The kids danced, hopped and skipped along the way to the pool. He wasn't surprised in the least to see Michael and his family, C.J. and his family and his dad and Deb at the pool. His dad and Deb weren't in the water; they were in beach chairs watching the kids play. Ben had J.R. in the pool tossing her between him and Hunter while she giggled wildly. Michael was sitting on the edge of the pool with just his legs in the water, talking to Cathy, who was sitting beside him doing the same. C.J. and his kids were splashing each other ignoring Cathy's glare every time some water splashed on her.

It was a large hotel so there were other guests but surprisingly not as many as he imagined there would be. He didn't worry too much about the kids getting in the pool. He would watch them of course but they both could swim well. Hunter had taught all three of the kids, and he was a drill sergeant about it. Brian had laughed at all the rules he had put on two three year olds and one five-year-old at the time. But they all had to hand it to the kid, he knew how to teach them. All three were confident swimmers.

Both Gus and Briana swam over to Hunter and Ben, wanting in on the game they were playing. Just as he was about to sit his phone down and jump in with them, it rang.

"Hello."

"Justin, I need to talk to you." It was Brian and he sounded like he was crying.

"Of course, let me see if Michael or Cathy could watch the kids. Where are you?"

"In the hotel bar." Why the hell was he there? They had just gotten here for their vacation. He shouldn't need to get hammered.

"I'll be there soon," he said before disconnecting.

He walked over to where Michael and Cathy were sitting. "What's up?" Michael asked smiling at him.

It was his friendship with Michael that surprised him the most. When he and Brian got together Michael had been less than pleased. He kept his mouth shut for the most part because he was scared of his mother. Over the years though Michael became a real friend and even better brother. It all had started with his saving Molly, and her saving him. They had a special relationship that Justin was sometimes jealous of, but he knew Michael was still sometime jealous of his with Brian. Jealousy was just a part of life; it was what you did with it that really mattered.

"Can you guys watch the kids for me? I need to talk to Brian."

"Is everything alright?" Michael asked.

"I'm not sure, but that's what I'm going to find out."

"Sure, we'll watch them," Cathy added.

Justin left the pool area and went back to his room. There was no way he was walking into the hotel bar in his swim trunks. Brian was funnily enough very jealous of guys seeing a lot of Justin's body. And drunk Brian was downright a caveman. He had learned that on their honeymoon.

His dad and Deb kept Briana for the week while there were in Crete, Greece. They stayed at the best bed and breakfast and planned to spend lots of time on the nude beach. That all went to hell when the first guy hit on Justin. Brian practically dragged him back to the B&B and wouldn't let him leave, not that Justin was complaining. Five days of sex with Brian just coming out for food was amazing.

Justin saw Brian as soon as he walked in the bar. He was leaning over the bar saying something to the bartender who was shaking his head. As Justin got closer he could hear the conversation.

"Buddy, I'm sorry but I have to cut you off. Either head to your room or I'll have to call hotel security."

"It's not like I'm driving anywhere," Brian snapped.

"It's okay, I've got him now," Justin said to the bartender when it looked like he was reaching for his phone. "Come on, Brian. Let's go sit down over there." He pointed to a quiet corner. "Can you make us some coffee?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure, just get him to settle down."

"I will, thank you."

Justin led Brian over to the corner and sat him down on the chair. That was when Brian broke down crying. No matter what Justin did he couldn't calm Brian down. He took a to-go cup of coffee and took the sobbing mess back to their suite. That was the hardest part because it was on the tenth floor but they made it.

As soon as he got Brian on the bed the man passed out. Justin sent a quick text to Michael to have Lindsay and Mel get the kids. They loved Briana so he knew they wouldn't mind.

Justin sat down on the bed and waited for Brian to wake back up. The girls came to get Gus' bag and he sent Briana's with them. He told them he would come get her before bed but didn't think they would make it for dinner. He guessed they saw how frazzled he was so they told him to just get her in the morning, the kids would love the sleepover anyway. He wasn't so sure because it was a strange place but he really needed to find out what was wrong with Brian.

Two hours after Brian passed out his phone started ringing. Justin knew he shouldn't answer but was worried it was work. Brian was in no condition to deal with them at the moment.

"Hello, Mr. Kinney?" a professional female voice asked.

"This is his husband Justin Kinney," he told the person.

"Oh Mr. Kinney, I'm glad to get to talk to you. This is Dr. Stevens. When I talked to your husband about the need to retest Briana he seemed to start jumping to conclusions. I tried to get him to understand it's just standard procedure when we get abnormalities in blood work."

Justin tried to follow what was being said but he was lost. "What are you talking about, Dr. Stevens?"

"When Mr. Kinney brought Briana in for her physical her white blood cells were low. Really low, it was so low that she should have been very sick. Since she wasn't, I thought there must have been a mix up in the lab. I had Mr. Kinney bring her back in to retest. I had to tell him why but he seemed to think it couldn't be a mix up. He was convinced Briana was going to die. I told him that wasn't true, even if she was sick we would have options. But I don't think he was listening to me."

"Briana's sick?" Justin asked. No, she couldn't be, she was fine. She might have a little summer cold but that was it.

"That's why I'm calling. I had her blood ran twice. Not only are white cell count fine but she is fine. There is nothing wrong with her. I knew how upset Mr. Kinney had been so I put a rush on it."

His heart slowed down to a normal speed again. "Thank you, Dr. Stevens, I'll let him know." After I kill him.

How dare he keep this a secret from him. They were in a this together. Briana was their daughter. Brian was going to get it just as soon as he convinced the stupid man that their daughter was perfectly fine. It didn't stop him from wanting to run to Lindsay and Mel's room to hug his little girl to him though. But that would have to wait until after he talked to his pig-headed husband.

The room was dark when Brian opened his eyes. He looked over to the window with a view he paid a mint to have. It was also dark outside. It took him a minute to recognize the pounding in his head. He had hadn't drank so much in years, and was now paying for it.

"Look who's awake."

Brian sat up too quickly and instantly regretted it. "What the hell, Sunshine?" he grumbled.

"What?

"What happened?"

"Oh let's see. First, my husband kept a huge secret from me about our daughter's health." Brian cringed. "Then instead of coming clean he drank himself into a stupor rather than tell the truth. I had to find out about all of this from the doctor."

"Doctor? The doctor called? What did she say?" Brian felt like throwing up, and it had nothing to do with the alcohol.

"She's fine asshole. There was a mix up in the lab the first time. She ran her second labs twice."

Tears prickled Brian's eyes. He remembered the doctor telling him something like that must have happened. But he had been too upset to listen, he just jumped to the worst case scenario.

"Where is she?"

"Well seeing it's six in the evening, I think she is at dinner with the family."

"Shit."

"Can you at least tell me why you kept it a secret?"

Brian didn't know how much he should tell Justin. Finally, he decided the man needed the truth. "I thought we were going to lose her. I thought if I told you it would be real. I just couldn't face up to it yet. Please, don't leave me."

"Leave you. Why would I leave you?"

"Because, I lied."

"Yes, and I'm pissed as hell. But I love you more than I am mad. This can't happen again, Brian. From now on I want the full truth okay."

"I understand. I need to tell you something now though."

"What?"

"I don't want another kid."

Justin felt like someone punched him in the chest. He couldn't believe after the emotional roller-coaster today had been that Brian was now taking away his dream for another child.

"Why?"

"Because, I don't want another kid. Is that so hard to understand." Brian sounded angry now so Justin decided to drop it.

Brian showered and quickly left the hotel room. Justin couldn't describe it but he knew there was no going back now. Things had been forever changed between them.

His cell phone started to ring. When he saw who it was he thought about not answering. But he was foolish and weak.

"Hello."

"Justin, I didn't know if you'd answer. I miss you."

"You need to stop calling. I told you to never call me again. It was just sex. Brian and I have rules and I'm on the border of breaking them. I've already betrayed my family. You're married, I'm married; it was a mistake. It should have never happened in the first place."

"We're in the same hotel. We're in the same family, we have to see each other sometime."

"What do you mean?"

"Your wonderful sister invited me and Keona to come with them. I didn't want to hurt my dear brother's wife's feelings."

Justin hadn't known that one of his tricks had been his brother-in-law's brother. In truth Justin didn't really want to trick but it was something Brian hadn't given up completely. Justin hated the way family looked at him. He started to trick again last year just so people wouldn't pity him. They had rules though. No names. No numbers. No kissing. He hadn't broken any of those rules but Calvin brought his new wife to meet his brother and his brother's family. That had been two months ago and Calvin had yet to stop calling Justin.

He knew he should be truthful with Brian after their no more lies. He couldn't find himself to do it though. Brian had just broken his heart.

"So what are you doing tonight?" Calvin purred.

"Nothing." Sulking.

"Come to my hotel room then. It'll be fun, Keona is eating dinner with everyone."

"I can't."

"You sound down. Why don't you come over and we'll just talk? You sound like you need a friend."

Justin's only excuse was his shattered heart. He knew he should stay in his own hotel room or go to dinner with his family. Instead he found himself going down to Calvin's room. Halfway there he realized what he was doing. He was going to throw his marriage away if he did this. Right now he still had yet to break their rules, if he walked into that room that would be trashed. Instead of hitting the fifth floor button where Calvin was he hit ground floor where the restaurant and his family were.

"Sunshine, about time you got here," Brian said wrapping his arms around Justin's waist.

"Sorry, I got a little lost. But I found my way here."

The End.