PART VII... Between Love and Hate

Lindsay blinked her eyes open and quickly shut them again. The light filtering into the room from the open drapes was blinding, only worsening the splitting headache that was pounding inside of her head. The beep of a machine much too close for her liking kept going off reminding her of how loud a fire alarm would sound within such a closed space. But perhaps that was just her imagination, which was already working overtime.

How did I end up in a fucking hospital? Why does my abdomen feel like a moving train smashed into it? What the hell is wrong with me?

All of these questions filtered through her mind as she tried to rein in the panic that was quickly setting in. She popped her eyes open again, trying to tether herself to the reality of her situation. Hearing a throat clearing to the left of her, Lindsay turned her head only to groan at the person sitting in the chair.

"Good morning to you too Lindsay," Deb said. "I guess congratulations are in order."

"Hi Deb," she answered with a tight smile. "I'm sorry that I have put you in this position. Can you please get the nurse for me on your way out?"

Debbie smirked in response to Lindsay's hint that she leave. "No dear. I'm not leaving just yet.  Not until you hear what I have to say."

"Deb please..."

"No Lindsay, you will lay there and listen. Besides it's not like you are going anywhere anytime soon anyway."

"What the hell are you yammering about?" Lindsay exploded, all pretense of patience gone. She was further annoyed when Debbie chuckled.

"As I said, congratulations are in order. It turns out that you are pregnant. And since I know that Melanie didn't grow a fucking dick, it looks like you have some explaining to do. And I'm not leaving until I hear it."

Shock and anger registered on Lindsay's face as she absorbed what it was that Deb had said. I'm pregnant? Pregnant? How the hell can I be pregnant? Okay Lindsay, think. THINK! What can I tell Deb that will get her off my back and onto my side instead? No one can ever find out this baby is Sam's.

Turning on the waterworks, Lindsay spilled to Debbie how she wanted another baby but Melanie said no. So she used a leftover sample of Brian's sperm and had it implanted.

"What the fuck did you do that for?" Debbie exploded at the young blond woman in the bed. She couldn't believe that Lindsay would be so willful and stupid as to get knocked up... again... by Brian Kinney. "Does Brian know?"

"No Deb and you can't tell him."

"Why the fuck not?"

Lindsay squeezed new tears out of her eyes at the question. She was glad that she had learned early in life to cry-on-demand. It had gotten her her way many times. "I...I was going to tell him but then this stuff with Melanie started happening and everything just went to hell from there."

"Is that why you have been keeping company with Sam Auerbach?" At Lindsay's instantaneous cessation of tears Debbie knew that she was possibly onto something. "You didn't think I knew about that did you?" Debbie smirked, reminiscent of Brian.

"My association with Sam is none of your business." Lindsay adopted that haughty tone that always grated on Debbie's nerves.

"I beg to differ. You see, I am the one who brought you in here. I told them that I was your mother, which, if I really was, I doubt the bitch would be sitting here waiting for you to wake up. I have two grandchildren at stake in this bullshit, so yes, it is MY business."

"Deb, I want you to leave."

"I will for now, but don't think you can keep me out Lindsay. Or I tell Brian everything." Deb got up from her place by the window and walked to the door. "By the way, I hope that you get out and find a job soon. Melanie cancelled your health insurance the day she kicked you out. Perhaps your cock-on-the-side will help you out."

Lindsay looked back at the older woman, squaring her shoulders at the information. "Brian will take care of me."

"Uh-huh," was all Debbie said as she left the hospital room.

Lindsay quickly grabbed up her cell phone, dialing the number she had memorized over the years. "Yes, this is Lindsay Peterson. I want to speak with Brian please."

"I'm sorry Lindsay, but Brian is on an important call with Justin and has requested that he not be disturbed for anyone except Gus or Debbie. May I take a message?" Cynthia answered the woman condescendingly.

"Just fucking have him call me back," she yelled into the receiver before slamming the phone off and letting out a scream.

The nurse rushed into the room and asked if Lindsay was in pain. When she replied a little and that the fucking beeping was getting on her nerves, the nurse advised her that she would be back to change the IV bag soon, and that Lindsay needed to keep it down or she would be tossed out far sooner than the doctor ordered her to be released. When the nurse asked if she needed anything else, Lindsay threw herself back on the pillows, ignoring the woman who continued to stare at her. When the nurse left, Lindsay whispered one name into the air.

"Brian..."

-~LS~

Harry, Ava and Ted had arrived just in time as Emmett had with breakfast and Gus. Gus was sent to find Jenny. She was the first person he asked for and he wanted to tell her what was happening from his perspective. When Brian had questioned Em about why he didn't leave Gus with Deb, Emmett filled them in on what he knew.

"I arrived at the diner this morning to do just that Brian, but was told that Deb wasn't in. I thought that strange because Debbie actually staying out of the diner on her day off is like one of us trying to turn straight." At Brian's near-retort, Emmett held up his hand to forestall it. "That was a lost-my-mind-due-to-medical-scare-induced-assholery Brian and not to be mentioned in polite company, fuck you very much."

Melanie had to laugh since she remembered that time well. "Emmett tried to turn straight after having an HIV scare when he had ignored a phone call from the lab earlier in the day. Had he just bothered to pick up his phone, he would have known that he was negative and that the bank had rejected his check. He spent the whole weekend promising God that he would be straight if he would just make it so he wasn't sick."

Justin laughed. "That's sick. Everyone knows that sexuality is pretty much determined by the age of six and is unalterable."

"Apparently Honeycutt here missed that memo and so did that good old brainwashing bordello called ‘See The Light.' I had never seen Emmett looking so...what's the word I'm looking for Ted?"

"Boring," Ted supplied.

"Yeah that's it. It looked like he went shopping in your closet," Brian quipped.

"Fuck you, fuck you and fuck you too, Melanie," Ted said. "Can we please get on to business before Brian starts waxing poetic about his own wardrobe. The cost of his Armani collection is enough to feed a small country for the next three years. I'd rather spend my hard-earned money on more worthwhile pursuits."

"Yes, well remember charity begins at home, Theodore and your extensive porn collection doesn't count."

Everyone had a good laugh at that including Ted, who had long since become comfortable with Brian's brand of teasing him. He was glad that he had gotten to really know Brian Kinney outside of what other people thought of the enigmatic brunet. It had taken awhile to understand Kinneyspeak but he had learned to appreciate the way Brian drove everyone he now considered his inner-circle to push themselves to be the best and to do what made them happy. He cleared his throat before speaking, getting choked up about finally feeling accepted without having to sacrifice or hide behind his principles. It was a pretty fucking amazing feeling.

"So Ava and I went over the numbers last night. Between the receipts you and Melanie provided Brian, Lindsay has been planning to do this sort of thing since she conceived Gus."

"What do you mean? What sort of thing is she doing?" Justin asked.

"She's been planning to leave me for Brian and I played into her plans time and time again," Melanie said, her inner ache evident in her voice.

Brian nodded. He knew that he had been played equally as bad. "One thing has always bothered me, Mel. That million dollar life insurance policy..."

"Her idea," Mel confirmed. "I only agreed because I was pissed at you for interrupting the bris and embarrassing me in front of my Rabbi and relatives. I realize now that there were a lot of instances where she played you and I against each other. And I can't even blame it all on her. We were a pair of fucking assholes for letting her, but Lindsay has that ‘earth mother' routine down to a science."

"Yeah she does, but where does that leave us?"

Before anyone had a chance to answer, Emmett's phone rang. "It's Debbie. I have to take this." He proceeded to get up from the table but was stayed by Melanie's hand.

"You might as well take it here. Put her on speaker."

He nodded and pressed the green ‘talk' button but hadn't said a word before the boisterous voice began shrieking into the receiver. "Since that asshole Brian isn't answering his phone and neither is Ted, Emmett you're my last hope."

"Debbie what's wrong? And why aren't you at the diner? I was there this morning to drop Gus off with you before my meeting, but KiKi said that you left with Lindsay last night by ambulance. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Sweetie...well physically I am. Emotionally I'm a fucking wreck."

"Deb, get your shit together and say what is so important that you have been acting like I own stock in AT&T," Brian said, clearly losing patience with Debbie's hysterics.

"Oh Brian! Brian! First don't you talk to me like that asshole. It has been a very eventful two days; I'm allowed to be overwrought. Now as for what the fuck is going on...Lindsay's PREGNANT! Why the fuck didn't you tell us that she was getting inseminated again?"

The entire table sat stock still at Deb's shrill announcement. Lindsay's pregnant? The silence was too deafening, so Justin decided to speak to the woman still rambling off information over the phone as if anyone on the other end was able to process anything else.

"Hi Debbie, it's Sunshine. What's all of this about Lindsay being pregnant?"

"Sunshine? Sunshine? SUNSHINE? What are you doing there with Brian and Emmett? I thought you had shows all this week and couldn't make it for dinner. Don't tell me that you and Brian are fucking?"

Justin blushed at her outburst. "Yeah we are. We are together and have been for awhile. But I'll get to that in a bit. Now you said that Lindsay is pregnant? How far along is she?"

"I don't know. The doctors have to do an ultrasound but if I had to take a guess I would say at least two months."

Justin wrinkled his brow at that bit of information. Another thought entered his head and he just had to ask, "Mel when was the last time you and Lindsay were down here for a visit?"

"About six months ago why?"

"Because it sounds like Lindsay is trying to pass her lover's get off as Brian's. The problem is we don't know when she was supposedly ‘inseminated.' Did she have a doctor's appointment or anything while she was here?"

"No she was sulking because Brian was out of town on business and she couldn't find out where he went from Cynthia. She came back to the hotel room pissed off and so miserable that she didn't get out of bed for the remainder of our visit. Or at least that's what I thought."

"Brian, do you know where Lindsay may have gotten ahold of your sperm from?"

Ted laughed. "For all we know she could have scraped it off the floor or walls of the Backroom of Babylon. Lord knows you've cum enough times in there to supply every female student and faculty member of CMU with a Kinney kid."

"Fuck you Ted," Brian couldn't help but chuckle at the accountant's assessment of his prowess. "But seriously, at that time she and Michael still had full access to my loft. In fact that was the weekend I was in Chicago with Leo discussing the latest Brown campaign."

"Wait the weekend Michael..." Justin began but drifted off.

Brian, Ted and Emmett looked at each other before Emmett voiced the question on the four men's minds. "You don't suppose he used a condom do you?"

"I don't know. All I know is that MY sheets were full of his jizz and they had to go with him," Brian said, the involuntary shiver wracking his shoulders.

"What if he had someone over during that time?" Justin asked.

"Michael's a total bottom boy, even nellier than Emmett. I don't think he's ever used his dick for anything other than jerking off or pissing a day in his life."

Ava, Mel and Leda winced before the tall brunette spoke up, "Gentlemen please. I would rather not throw up my breakfast. Keep talking about Michael being naked in any form or fashion and I definitely will. YUCK!"

"I second that," Melanie concurred as did Ava.

"In any event, that means that we all don't know for sure who Lindsay's get belongs to," Justin said, bringing the conversation back into focus.

"No we don't, although she is hell-bent on saying that it is Brian's," Debbie answered. "And let's not forget that hairy-assed, hare-brained artist."

"Oh my God, what's with you people and body descriptions this morning?" Melanie shrieked. "I definitely don't want to be tormented with thoughts or visuals of Sam Auerbach driving into anything or anybody, especially Lindsay! I already tried to find a bottle of both brain and eye bleach online the first time I saw it and was unsuccessful. Somebody really needs to invent that shit." It was her turn to involuntarily shiver.

Justin laughed. "Brian, seriously you need some new friends. Both are deranged, both are delusional, and both are desperate. How the fuck did you attract these nitwits?"

"Hey one of those ‘nitwits' you're talking about is my son Sunshine. Now I may call him such, but I won't let anybody else do it," Debbie reprimanded.

"Sorry Deb," Justin said, false innocence dripping from his voice, surprising everyone at the table. "How about I pick another language to call him names in so that you don't know and can't be offended? I speak five of them you know."

Brian popped him on the back of the neck, murmuring "Smartass," but laughing while doing it. The more he learned about Justin Taylor, the more he liked him. "So Debbie now we all have a mystery to solve. I have to check with my housekeeper and the lab where Lindsay was first inseminated with Gus. They might be able to narrow down the timelines so that we'll know for sure if the baby is mine or not."

"I may be able to help with that Brian," Melanie offered. "Harry, I'm thinking about moving back from Toronto. In fact, I'm definitely moving back and I have some paperwork to file to get my affairs regarding Jenny in order. Brian I would suggest you do the same."

"No worries at all Smelly Melly. I'm way ahead of you. Lindsay just fucked up big time. Debbie we're going to hang up with you so that when asked if you knew about any of this, you can honestly say that you didn't."

"But Brian..." Debbie's voice screeched at the thought of being left out of all the planning.

"Bye bye now," Brian said and disconnected the phone before she could protest further. "Now I think we all know what we need to do. First things first though, Harry will Mel be working with you again?"

The older man put his coffee cup down on the table. "Yes she will. Justin if you don't mind, I'd like to involve her in the situation with Gary Saperstein."

"Why what's wrong?" Justin asked. Honestly, he hadn't thought about Gary since making the decision to take Brian up on his offer.

"He's determined to sue you for breach of contract."

"What? There are only five days left to my current contract and I'm not renewing. So what the fuck is he talking about?"

Ava touched Harry's hand in support. She knew how much her husband hated telling Justin this. So she decided to take it upon herself to deliver the bad news. "It appears that when he renegotiated Brandon's contract, you were included in that. Brandon is refusing to work with anyone else except you. Therefore if you leave, per Brandon's contract, you pay for both your termination and his."

"That's fucking insane. Why would they agree to that bullshit?"

"Apparently, neither one thought that you would actually leave. You are aware that Brandon wants more from you right?"

"Fucking hell, who doesn't? But why this?"

"Both Brandon and Gary don't know how well off you are. Other than that, Brandon figured that he would wear you down over time. As for Gary, he thought that since he basically rescued you, you have nothing- no place to go, no family, no connections and no dreams outside of serving as HIS dancer for the rest of your life. In a sense he thought that you were trapped."

"So how much to get me away from these assholes?"

"Ten million," Ava whispered, as those around the table gasped in response.

Justin looked at them all before getting up from the table. "Write the fucking check and tell them to shove it up their collective asses. Have Greg officially put my loft on the market and tell the buyer that he can have it at market value."

"But Justin, I'm the buyer," Brian said.

"I know that Brian. Just give me a few days and you can take possession of it."

"I can't let you..."

"Fuck that Brian. Harry and Ava, please remember that you work for me. Get it done." And with those last words, Justin left the room heading towards the lake at the far end of the property.

Regardless of how the week turned out, Justin would be starting from square one. In order to be free of Gary Sapperstein, he would have given everything he owned including giving up his dreams of college. And with his demand to liquidate his assets, he just did.