JUSTIN

I’m a little disappointed this morning, nothing from Michael. I hitched a ride with Brian to Kinnetik, figured I’d check out the food situation. I just told Brian that I wanted to see the boards that I had been helping with. I don’t think he bought it though.

I stopped by the diner and picked up some food. I needed to talk about my schedule anyway. Emmett was sitting there with some guy, I waved but didn’t want to bother him. Deb was there getting coffee started and smiled at me. She told me to check in the refrigerator. MOUSSE. Can I just say, people love me. Brian said that if they loved me too much he was going to exchange me for a different model. I told him to kiss my ass, and boy did he.

I walked to the bus stop to get to school. I relooked at the schedule I was going to hand in to Nick.

I wanted to make sure that I didn’t overschedule it. A shadow fell over me. Lovely, Michael.

“Hey Justin, I was wondering if you want to work on Rage. I have a couple story ideas.” What is he up to now?

I wanted to tell him no, but Daphne suggested to use whatever he tried to my advantage. We are still trying to figure out what he’s doing.

“I don’t have a lot of time right now. I just got an internship at the school to add to my list but if you want to call or email me, I’ll try.” I tell him.

“I’ll email you.” He says then walks off.

God only knows what he is going to come up with now. I get to the school and go to Nick’s office to drop off the schedule. I hear him in his office, but with the door closed I figure that I can wait. Ten minutes later I was thinking about just putting it in an envelope and taping to the door. I start to look for an envelope when I hear a thump, I hope he’s alright. I grab the door and open it. Let’s just say they should have locked it.

“Theodore, shouldn’t you be at work?” I try not to laugh, but well. Ted is a top apparently.

BRIAN

I was going through notes for the day when my phone rings.

“Guess who's a top.” Justin says.

“Justin, I’m working, this better be good.” I tell him.

He then tells me that Ted is going to be late, and how he knows. Go Ted. I hang up and have to give it to Ted. Nick is someone I would have bent over my desk too.

I have been sitting here waiting for ‘my wife’ to show, but so far he has stayed away. Cynthia comes in to go over the day. She asks if I have seen Ted yet, I tell her no, I haven’t, but apparently Justin has seen a whole lot of Ted this morning.

Ted finally shows up, I take one look at him and give him a thumbs up. You know, for being 35 he still can blush.

MICHAEL

When I saw Justin at the bus stop, I figured I could try to get my Rage idea off the ground. He didn’t say he would do it, but we’ll see.

I was practicing last night and my back has a twinge in it. I tried to do the backbend that Justin did, but after I bent over I couldn’t get back up. I miss David, he could have fixed this. I decided against bringing Brian breakfast this morning, I think Justin is just eating it all.

I also figure I should go see JR and maybe Hunter before Ma says anything. I want to make sure that everything seems normal. I really miss my little honeybun. Making my way to the girl’s house, I am still trying to think of a song.

Mel opens the door and is helping Gus into a jacket and Lindsey has JR, I ask where they are going. They look at me like it should be obvious.

“The kids are going to daycare and we have to work Michael. What are you doing?” Mel asks.

“I want to see JR, why don’t I just take her with me and drop her off in a couple hours.” I offer. I figure I can take her to see Ma.

“Michael, we are going to work, which means that you can’t drop her off to us.” Mel says it slowly.

“Well I can take her for the day and save you the time.” All they have to do is ask. I mean, can’t they understand that I am offering help.

Mel looks to Lindsey, who just shrugs.

“Okay Michael. Here, take her bag, it should have everything in it.” She seems like she is trying to find a reason not to give it to me.

MEL

I want to say no, but then the little fucker will try to say that we are keeping JR from him. I look to Lindsey, she shrugs. We give Michael her things and I offer him a ride with us. He has us drop her off at Deb’s house, so I feel a little better about this.

After he is out of the car, I call Deb just to make sure she’s there. She answers just as Michael is coming in and tells me she is off so she’ll be there.

“Mel, do you think with everything going on, that he should be caring for her? I mean if Brian had been her father than...” I cut Lindsey off.

“Lindsey didn’t we discuss this the other day?” This is the first time I have had to say anything to her, hopefully she’ll take it well.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I know that he hasn’t harmed anyone, but the harassment isn’t much better.” She is looking back at Gus.

We have done really well so far, after the fight, we stayed home. I told her that this weekend was a gang free weekend. I figured if anything went on we would get a call, and nothing, and now it’s Wednesday.

LINDSEY

I wanted to snap at Mel when she stopped me, but we agreed to start talking to each other and stop anything that would cause unnecessary stress. I was going to call Justin to see if anything had been going on, but she told me no gang. Maybe I can call Emmett to see if anything has been happening.

We drop off Gus and I head into the gallery. Sydney is on to wife number four. She thinks she knows art and has been ordering all of us around. I had hoped she could stay home, but no. So I guess I won’t have time to call Emmett.

While I rehung the painting that just had to be moved back to where it was, Sydney walked by and asked if I could call Emmett for him. Here’s my chance.

“Emmett, it’s Lindsey, Sydney wanted you to stop by, I think he wants to use you for a party.” I wait, hoping after he tells me he can, that he will give me the gossip.

“Sure Sweety, I should be able to stop by around 2.” Then he hangs up.

I was disappointed, because I know I could talk to Michael, but Emmett is better with the details. I let Sydney know and go to rehang the same painting again.

When Emmett arrives, I ask him if he has time to talk when he’s done. He smiles and said yes. I wait and apparently number four is having a huge dinner party and wants it done to the max. Good God, she took till closing with Emmett.

Mel calls and says that she is running late and that we need someone to get Gus. I call Brian to see if he can get Gus and bring him to my house. Brian tells me that he’ll get Gus, but since he hasn’t seen his son in a while he wanted to take him home, and Mel could pick him up. I agree, because I figure Emmett could fill me in on everything I missed. I call Mel back and tell her to meet me at Deb’s and that we would go get Gus from there.

Emmett tells me everything, including things I don’t need to know about his date. It was fun. I miss the times when we could just run around. We finally get to Deb’s and I can hear JR giggling when we walk in.

“Hey, look who is here JR.” Deb is telling JR.

“Where’s Michael?” He told us he wanted to see her.

“He’s been in and out all day.” Deb tells us, but I get the feeling she isn’t telling us the truth.

We sit down at the kitchen table and Deb sets food down in front of us. I appreciate that, because I really didn’t want to have to cook and I know Deb is going to send us home with food too.

EMMETT

After getting out of the office with Valerie, or number four as Lindsey call her, I am ready for a break and gossip. Lindsey and I take the bus and walk the rest of the way to Deb’s, all the while I fill her in on everything. Lindsey is quiet when I am done so I must have done a good job.

We were in the kitchen eating when I looked around and realized how much food Deb has been making. Looks like she and I are going to have a lot to talk about. Mel finally arrives and the girls go. Mel looked around for a minute at the food. They need to look at it the way I do, no worries about midnight snacks.

After they are all gone Deb turns on QVC, that is a bad sign.

“Okay Deb, what gives.” I look at her and she just pulls a can of whip cream from the cushion and does a shot.

“Michael showed up with JR, stayed for an hour and then left. I didn’t want to say anything to the girls. They let him change their plans and instead of spending time with her, he leaves. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but he told me he was going to work.” Deb takes another shot.

“Deb, he does have to work and you know you love having JR.” I am going to have to wrestle that can out of her hands.

“That isn’t it. JR is more than welcome to stay with me. It’s just when I called a couple hours later to see if he was coming back, he wasn’t there, Hunter was. I asked Hunter where Michael was and he told me that Michael called him to see if he could watch the shop for the day.” Deb tells me.

Michael and I are going to have to have a talk. Deb just got Brian and Jen to forgive her. She has been running herself ragged trying to save Michael. Carl is not going to help. The man loves Deb but even he is tired of the continuing chaos.

I pat Deb and take the can. I tell her I will deal with Michael and she needs to rest, no more cooking. We are going to have to have people over in order to get rid of all the food.

I call Teddy to see if he has time for operation Michael and he tells me that he is working on operation Nick. Interesting. I can’t call Justin, Brian will kill me. That leaves my favorite.