Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. ~ Thoreau

*****

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Justin looked out of the plane's windows, his legs shook and he strummed his fingers against his the top of his thighs. Come on, he silently urged the plane to get to Pittsburgh faster.

"It's a good thing Lewis let us use his private jet," Brian remarked.

Justin turned toward Brian and agreed, "Yeah, it was nice of him."

Brian grabbed Justin's left hand and pressed down, holding both his leg and fingers still. "It's a good thing because you're so high strung you'd scare the flight attendants into thinking you were carrying a bomb."

Justin pushed Brian's hand away from him. "Shut the fuck up," he snapped, slouching in his seat. "I have every right to be freaking out. In just a couple of days, everything fucking changed. I'm leaving my whole life in Chicago to go back to the one place I never thought I'd see again."

"Some life you're leaving," Brian quipped. "Even if I was taking you back to live in an average apartment and couldn't help you any more than that, it'd still be a huge step up from your "life" in Chicago. Have you forgotten that your apartment was in the gay ghetto?"

"No!" Justin hissed, turning his head back toward the window.

"Your life revolved around whoring your ass to men so you could get money to pay off a fine so you wouldn't become a punk in prison."

"Fuck you," Justin gasped. He struggled out of his reclined seat and practically ran to the end of the cabin and slammed the bathroom door behind him.

Brian calmly rose from his seat, walked to the bathroom and rapped on the door. "Justin, don't be a drama queen. I was only stating the truth."

Justin gripped the sink and looked into the tiny bathroom mirror at his reflection. He didn't look anything like the person who looked back at him the first night he met Brian. He almost looked the way he had before... before his freedom was taken away from him. Brian was right, he knew that, but he didn't think he could take the man throwing it in his face whenever he felt like it. He hated himself for giving Brian the power to hurt him with the truth.

"Come on," Brian called. "Or are you going to stay in there for the whole flight?"

Justin flushed the toilet, washed his hands and unlatched the lock. "I just had to pee," he lied as he opened the door and brushed past Brian.

Brian rolled his eyes at Justin's behavior and followed him to their seats. "If you're done being pissed at me, I have something for you."

"I'm not pissed at you and I don't want anything else from you."

Brian knew that he'd have to deal with Justin's sour attitude for a long, long time to come if he didn't apologize, or at least attempt to do so. "Justin, I shouldn't have said that the way I did."

"You shouldn't have said it at all," Justin snapped.

Brian nodded in agreement. "So, you wanna see what I got you?"

Justin sighed, "I guess so."

Brian grabbed his carryon, pulled the items out and handed them to Justin. "You needed new ones for a new city."

Justin touched the front of the new sketchpad and then opened the metal box of pencils. "Brian, these are so expensive," he gasped. "I haven't had any like these since..."

"I meant to give them to you on your birthday," Brian interrupted, not wanting Justin to think of that time. "But with the wedding day and night being so busy I didn't have the time."

Justin gave Brian a small smile. "Thank you, Brian, but what about the last two days? You could've given them to me then."

Brian snorted. "We slept through almost all of Monday and yesterday you insisted on us waking up early and going sight-seeing in the freezing cold before everyone went home."

"We had a limo ride to the museum and the aquarium. We were outside for like all of two seconds." Justin poked Brian in the stomach. "You wanted to be with your son, don't act like you didn't."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to invite the Lewises, Justin."

"It wasn't my fault," Justin defended. "I was just putting the food cart out in the hall and she was walking to the other penthouse."

"You didn't have to say hi to her," Brian countered.

Justin gave Brian a disbelieving look. "She saw me; I wasn't going to shut the door on her."

"Well, you didn't have to strike up a conversation with her and tell her where we were planning on going."

"She started talking to me first. She started asking about why we weren't going on a honeymoon and I had to start talking about something else. It just came out. It wasn't so bad spending the day with the Lewises and your family. Was it?"

"No, I guess not," Brian admitted. He took out his iPod and urged Justin, "Go on, you don't have to worry, I won't peek at what you draw."

"Yeah, right." Justin didn't believe Brian for a moment; the man was nosy. He opened his brand new sketchbook and took a pristinely sharp pencil out of the box. The first strokes on the page were too heavy, creating dark curves he hadn't intended. He glanced over at Brian who now had his eyes closed, his lips moving to a song Justin couldn't hear.

A feeling zinged out from within Justin and prompted his fingertips to move the pencil. Once again, Brian had managed to awaken something inside of him that he'd thought would remain forever buried. The image of Brian's nose easily appeared and years of sorrow dripped off Justin's fingers, transforming into sure, content graphite strokes.

Brian opened one of his eyes a moment after Justin glanced at him and began drawing. It had taken a lot more time than Brian had planned, but finally he had Justin relaxed.

*****

"Holy shit!" Justin dropped his luggage just inside the doorway of the loft. "You... you live here?"

"We do," Brian chuckled, happy with the reaction he was getting from his husband. He couldn't believe he was actually married. Even if the vows were meaningless, he had still entered into a life-altering commitment and oddly enough, the walls weren't closing in on him. "Shut the door."

Justin turned and quickly did as Brian asked before walking to meet him in the middle of the space. "It's beautiful," he whispered.

"Glad you approve," Brian drawled. 

"I fucking more than approve," Justin said, laughing as he spun around holding his arms out. "I can't believe I'm going to live here."

"So you don't want to move to an apartment and have separate bedrooms?" Brian asked seriously.

Justin's arms abruptly dropped to his sides. "I didn't realize that was an option."

"I hadn't thought about it until now," Brian said chuckling. "But I thought that maybe you'd want your own space."

"You don't want me in your bed?" Justin asked in confusion.

"Yeah, I do. I'm hardly ever here anyway, but I thought you might need your own space away from me."

Justin shrugged. "Why don't we just see what happens?"

"Sounds good."

"You know what sounds even better?" Justin asked, grabbing Brian's belt loop.

Brian cocked his head to the side and innocently asked, "What?"

"You giving me a tour."

"This isn't the White House."

"I was just hoping you might want to fuck me in every room," Justin murmured against Brian's chin.

Brian's hands roamed along Justin's back and settled to lightly cup his ass. "I just realized that you didn't even ask me to carry you across the threshold," he joked.

"How about you fuck me across it instead?" Justin pulled Brian toward the door by his belt and pointed at the alarm. "Disarm it."

Brian had thought he'd fuck Justin against the door, but Justin's plan was MUCH more interesting. He walked over to the alarm and pressed some of the keys. "What's your sister's birthday?"

"What?" Justin gasped, head sticking out of his shirt, one arm dangling out.

"I figure if you're going to live here, I should change the code. All of my friends will probably guess anything I'd use and they have the current code, so I should reset it."

Justin threw his shirt away from him and walked over to Brian. "You don't have to change the code, Brian. If you want them to have it, that's okay."

Brian laughed and shook his head. "There's no reason why they should have it now. I'll give the code to Cynthia in case of emergencies."

"But what if they have an emergency."

"They will, twice a day," Brian assured.

Justin's eyes widened. "Twice a day?"

"Yeah, at least. So what are the numbers?"

"How about we set it to another date?"

Brian winced. "That's so lame."

Justin pushed Brian. "You don't even know what I was going to say."

"I know you are thinking our wedding date," Brian said, gagging.

Justin laughed. "No, asshole, I was thinking of a date that's actually important."

"What's that?"

"2-28-05," Justin answered, grinning.

"That's next Monday, isn't it?" Brian asked, mentally counting the days of the week.

"Yeah, even though we paid off the fine before we left today, that's the day that..." As the words tumbled from Justin's mouth, the reality enhanced his emotions, which caused his words to fade.

"You officially have your freedom," Brian declared.

"Yes." Justin cleared his throat and shook off the wave of emotion.

Brian gave Justin an agreeing smile before turning to the keypad and resetting the code. "Done!"

Justin grabbed Brian by the hips and roughly turned him around. "Now, you need to do me," he demanded.

*****

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Justin opened his brand new Razr cell phone and cautiously asked, "What now, Brian?"

Brian laughed deviously before answering, "Don't forget to get bread, butter and milk, dear."

Justin took a deep breath and blew it out into the receiver. "If you call me again so that you can poke fun at our arrangement I will throw this stupid slippery phone you insisted on buying me into the fucking gutter!"

"Shut up," Brian said, baffled at Justin's annoyed tone. "You're out having fun shopping while I'm working. I thought you'd appreciate how ironic and funny that is."

Justin shook his head but understood where Brian was coming from. He liked Brian's sense of humor, even if he were the butt of the joke at times and he had to admit, "It is pretty funny."

Pleased with himself, Brian let the teasing drop. "I really have had important reasons to call you."

Justin wasn't going to let him get away with that assessment. "Calling to make sure my phone number worked three times was not important."

"It would have been if you got a faulty phone and..."

"Had to return it?" Justin interrupted. "Why would that be a big deal?"

"I also called to have you put beer on the list, which was important and so are the bread and milk."

"I'm getting real food, Brian, you know, to make actual meals with." Justin had reacted much better to seeing Brian's barren fridge than he had when he saw that the freezer was filled with frozen meals and freezer-burnt pizzas. "Meals that don't sit in your freezer for a year. God, that thing smelled, I had to use almost a whole bottle of 409 to get the smell out."

"You really are turning into the housewife," Brian snickered. "Mikey and Ben are coming over tonight so you don't have to make anything."

"But you said you wanted me to get dinner," Justin spoke, frustrated. "That's why I'm at the damn grocery store. I was going to buy the stuff to make pizzas since you said that's what you wanted for dinner."

"Mikey and I have always ordered Beggar's Pizza," Brian explained. "I wanted you to pick it up on your way home since you're closer to it than I am. That's the other reason I'm calling now, to see what you wanted on it and I'll call it in."

Justin looked at the cart filled with food and wanted to push it into the stack of soda cases across the aisle. "I just finished buying like every fucking ingredient so we could make our own," he moaned despairingly.

"I thought you'd like Beggar's," Brian said. "Isn't it originally Chicago pizza?"

"How would I know?" Justin asked him. "I could barely afford peanut butter and jelly when I lived there."

"Well I guess we'll have Beggar's some other time," Brian relented. "Are you almost finished shopping?"

Justin relaxed. "Yeah, just about."

"Then I'll see you at home in about an hour," Brian replied. "And don't worry; I won't call you again unless it's a real emergency."

"Yeah, right," Justin laughed and closed the phone. He pushed the cart toward the freezer section and walked down the aisle of ice cream. There was every type of ice cream one could ever imagine eating but he had no idea what kind Brian liked.

Grinning, Justin opened his phone and dialed Brian's cell.

"Is this a real call or are you trying to annoy me?" Brian asked lightly.

"I was going to get some ice cream but I didn't know what kind you liked," Justin defended. "I'm not calling you because I'm bored with my job."

"Vanilla."

"What?"

"Vanilla."

"You want vanilla?" Justin asked.

"Am I breaking up or something?" Brian asked. "Are you going through a tunnel?"

"I'm in the freezer section, idiot. Is vanilla the kind you want or just the kind you think is the least fattening."

Brian snorted a laugh. "Vanilla is my favorite; it has nothing to do with fat. I've given up on my body now that I'm married. I gained four pounds in Chicago I'll have you know."

Justin smiled to himself. He sure did know, because Brian became a raving bitch the moment he stepped off the scale last night and Justin had to console his ego with a blowjob. The only reason he agreed to have pizza for dinner that night was because he declared that he'd be spending all of Saturday at the gym with his new trainer.

"If I was worried about fat at this point, I wouldn't be eating pizza tonight."

"If you weren't worried you wouldn't make promises of fasting all next week," Justin countered, laughing.

"If I had super powers that somehow made everything I ate go directly to my ass I wouldn't have to fast."

"Did you just imply that I have super powers?" Justin asked, liking the compliment.

"If the ass fits in the Diesels, yes. Or I should say doesn't fit."

"Goodbye, honey," Justin teased.

*****

Brian fucked Justin's nervous energy out of his body on top of the counter where he helped him make the pizza after they showered, and wiped off the counter too. Now Justin was more than relaxed and feeling a little loopy from the after effects of Brian!Sex combined with the really expensive wine Brian brought home. He had already drunk one glass and was halfway through another when the buzzer for the intercom sounded.

"I'll get it," Brian said walking toward the door.

"K." Justin set the timer on the oven and guzzled the rest of his drink. 

"Kinney." Brian spoke into the receiver, making sure it was his friends.

"Brian, something's wrong with the keypad," Michael's voice boomed through the speaker. "I can't get the co..."

"It's open," Brian cut his friend off and pressed the button to buzz Michael and Ben up to the apartment.

Surprised, Justin asked, "You didn't tell anyone you changed the code?"

"No." Brian opened the door. "Did you expect me to send out a mass text message informing everyone?"

"I doubt Debbie would know how to answer a text message," Justin assessed laughing.

"That's probably true," Brian agreed. "She doesn't even own a cell phone."

"Yeah well, I thought you'd at least tell Michael personally."

"Tell me what, personally?" Michael asked, stepping into the hallway from the stairs.

"Hey guys," Ben greeted and followed Michael into the loft.

"Hey," Justin greeted. "Glad you guys could come."

"Us too," Michael said, rolling his eyes at the domestic moment. He took his and Ben's coats and threw them over the back of the sofa. "So what did you need to tell me, Brian?"

"I changed the entry code for the loft, Michael."

Michael shrugged. "What is it?"

"Only Justin and I need to know," Brian explained. "I don't live alone anymore so..."

Michael gave Brian a wounded look. "So you want your key back?" he asked, digging in his pocket for his key ring.

"Yeah," Brian answered, relieved that Michael wasn't making a big deal out of it.

Michael took the key off and handed it to Brian. "I never thought the day would come," he teased. "You're finally a married man with a huzz..."

Brian shut Michael up by kissing him then dragged him over toward the computer. "Come here, I've got to show you something I found on EBay."

Ben and Justin shared an amused smile. "Would you like some wine, Ben?" Justin asked politely.

"Yes please, and if you wouldn't mind getting Michael one too?"

"Sure," Justin said, moving over to the kitchen.

Ben followed Justin into the kitchen and looked into the oven. "Did you make the pizza?" he asked.

"Yeah, Brian and I both made it. I hope that'll be all right. He said you guys normally eat Beggar's but I thought this might be a nice change."

Ben didn't comment on how surprised he was to hear that Brian had helped make the pizza. He was sure that once the family realized what he had already, they'd be doing everything they could to ‘spare' Justin and make him understand just what their perception of Brian Kinney was and what he could expect from him. "You bring around good change," he said, taking his wine glass.

Justin knew what Ben was implying but said nothing to deny or accept his words. He knew exactly where he and Brian stood and would always stand and it was far from where Ben and Michael's relationship was. "Brian found Michael some comic book accessory," he explained. "He's been excited all day about it."

"It's not just an accessory," Michael said with excitement, joining his husband and Justin. "It's the gloves that the most famous pannapictagraphist personally used!" The man bounced on his feet but didn't spill the wine Justin handed him.

Brian called from his seat on the computer, "They have a buy now button. Should I buy them?"

Michael spun around and handed Ben his glass before running back over to Brian. "They have a ‘buy now' button!" he shrieked. "I didn't see it a second ago."

"They just fucking put it on there," Brian told his friend in an amazed voice. "They're fucking meant for you, Mikey, do you want them?"

"Of course I want them, Brian, but not for... Brian! No! I can't fucking afford them!"

"Well, I already clicked the button," Brian laughed, "so you'll have to accept it as a gift."

"I can't take a...."

Brian pulled Michael to him again and kissed him. "Shut the fuck up and accept it."

Michael practically fell to his knees beside Brian's chair as he stared at the screen and touched it with two fingers. "They're mine."

Brian was busy finishing the order and he affirmed, "They're yours."

"Brian said that Michael was a comic geek," Justin whispered to Ben. "It seems like Brian is one just as much as Michael."

"I have to agree with you there," Ben replied. "If Michael or Brian could draw, they'd have made their own comic book by now."

Justin watched as Brian and Michael high-fived one another. "You think so?"

Ben nodded. "It's always been Michael's dream. He's got his comic shop but now he just needs to create a comic book and have..."

"His own special superhero," Justin finished for him.

Brian suddenly leapt from his chair and threw the mug of pencils to the floor. "How in the fuck can they not have overnight shipping for this item?" he raged. "The fucking seller lives in Philly!"

"Calm down," Michael spoke gently, looking up at Brian who began pacing.

"Find me a number to call!" Brian roared. "If I can fucking spend thousands of dollars on a pair of fucking cotton gloves they damn well can overnight them to me!"

"It's not that big of a deal," Michael tried. "I can wait."

"Find me a number," Brian barked.

Michael hopped into the chair and started looking for the number. "Really, Brian, it's okay."

Brian kicked the pencil holder while stalking around bending down to look at the screen. "Greedy bastards," he muttered.

Justin wasn't sure why he suddenly felt the urgent need to draw, but seeing Brian getting all hot and angry definitely had something to do with it. He instinctively grabbed the pen and grocery list from his pocket, placing it on the counter top and started to sketch.

"Found a number," Michael declared, picking up the house phone dialing it before handing it to Brian.

"What's the seller's name?" Brian asked.

"Vincent Lamar," Michael replied, looking at the account information. "He's an eighteen year old kid!"

A young nerdy voice answered the phone. "Comi-Craze Inc., this is Vincent."

"Vinnie?" Brian asked smoothly. "I have a question I need answered."

"Ah... who's this?" the boy asked, his voice cracking.

"This is Brian Kinney, a customer you should value since I just dropped a couple grand on a pair of gloves."

"Oh, yes!" Vinnie said quickly. "I just got the stats on that. How can I help you?"

"You can help me by giving me a logical explanation as to why it's going to take 2-3 business days to receive the gloves. I live in Pittsburgh, is there a reason you can't overnight my package?"

"Uhh...."

"I know the terms and agreements, Vinnie. I have twenty-four hours to cancel my buy if it has not been shipped. I'm sure you won't be getting what I paid for the item if you lose me as a customer and put it back up for auction. So I want you to tell me that I'll have them tomorrow."

"You'll have them tomorrow, Mr. Kinney. I'll package them up and see that they're mailed within the next hour."

"Thank you," Brian replied, "it was nice doing business with you."

"Yeah," the boy said hesitantly, "you too."

Brian hung up the phone and gave Michael a high-five. "Ha!"

"You definitely had some mind-control going on, Brian," Michael told his best friend.

"He's good at manipulation," Justin cut in, dropping his pencil.

Brian glared at Justin.

"Figure that out already?" Michael teased, walking into the kitchen. He spotted Justin's drawing and exclaimed, "That's really good!"

"Is drawing superheroes your specialty?" Ben asked, looking at the sketch, which appeared to be Brian in a Superman costume.

"You drew something?" Brian asked, grabbing the sketch.

Justin shook his head and laughed at his rendering. "I was just doodling," he told Brian, taking the paper away from him. "I've never really drawn anything like this but when I was little I wanted to be an animator."

Ben wondered why Justin wasn't an animator now. It was obvious he was a great artist. "Maybe you and Michael could do a comic book together."

"That would be awesome!" Michael agreed.

"Maybe some day." When I'm allowed to sell my art, Justin thought.

"Well, we could sit down and go over some ideas some time," Michael persisted.

The timer for the oven dinged and Justin quickly pocketed the sketch. "Pizza looks done," he said, cracking open the oven door.

"I'll get the plates." Brian gave Justin's ass a gentle squeeze. He looked at Michael and told him, "I'm going to be keeping Justin busy so you'll have to table your comic idea until I'm done with him, Mikey."

Mikey snorted. "Shut up, Brian."

"You're going to let him monopolize your creative energy?" Ben asked lightly.

Justin grinned and lied to Ben, "Yes, yes I am."

*****

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Brian hollowed his cheeks and slid his mouth down Justin so his lips were wrapped firmly around the root of his cock. He sucked hard, pulling the dick as far back into his throat as possible while using his throat muscles to hold and massage the head of Justin's dick. His fingers roughly pressed into the skin on Justin's hips as he fought to stop him from bucking around. He angled his head to look up at Justin as he drew the throbbing cock out of his throat. Brian squeezed his lips around the cap of Justin's dick, finally drawing out Justin's orgasm. He suckled the head until he swallowed the last drop of Justin's come and let the softening cock fall from his mouth.

Justin rubbed the blur from his eyes as he watched Brian crawl up toward him. He thought Brian would lie down so that he could return the blowjob and was surprised when Brian straddled his shoulders, sat on his chest and pushed his cock against his lips. Justin opened his mouth and...

Buzz!!! Buzz!!!

"Fuck!" Brian grumbled, crawling off Justin. "Never a moment's rest."

Justin caressed Brian's back as he sat up beside him. "Whoever it is, tell them to go away."

Brian looked at Justin and shook his head. "By the time I do, it'll be time for me to get ready for work." He stood up from the bed and slipped on his robe. "Imagine if I didn't change the code, whoever it was would've heard you screaming as you came down my throat."

Buzz!!! Buzz!!! Buzz!!!

"I didn't scream," Justin gasped, laughing as he pulled on a pair of gym shorts.

Brian threw Justin's sweater directly at his face. "Maybe next time I should tape you so you can see for yourself."

Justin considered that for about two seconds before he ran after Brian while putting on his shirt. "You'd better not ever do that," he warned.

"I'd tell you first," Brian assured him, dragging Justin against his body. "It'd be hot," he whispered and licked Justin's ear.

Buzz!!! Buzz!!! Buzz!!! Buzz!!!

"Fuck! We're coming!" Justin yelled, extracting himself from Brian's arms.

Brian laughed at Justin. "You came, but I'm not." He pressed the intercom button and yelled, "What?"

"Brian, it's me," Lindsay spoke. "Gus is with me and it's freezing out here, let us in, the code isn't working."

Brian pressed the buzzer to allow Lindsay into the building.

"Does she normally come by here this early?" Justin asked, yawning.

"No," Brian groaned, opening the loft door. "Usually she waits until after I get home from work to ask me for money."

Justin looked at Brian in shock and whispered, "I'm sure that's not the only reason she comes by."

Brian snorted. "I guess we'll find out."

The elevator reached the loft floor and Brian walked out to help lift the gate.

"Dada!" Gus yelled, throwing himself into Brian's arms.

"Sorry for stopping by so early but it's an emergency," Lindsay spoke in a rushed tone, walking into the loft.

"Good morning, Lindsay," Justin said politely.

Lindsay stopped in her tracks and looked at Justin warily. "Oh, I forgot you were here."

Brian laughed as he walked in after her, holding Gus. "Where did you think he'd be?"

"Justin!" Gus exclaimed. "Dada, let me down."

"Hi, Gus!" Justin bent down and hugged the little boy.

"Do you know my crayons are in the drawer in the kitchen? You can draw for me now," Gus told him.

Justin looked over at Lindsay and Brian. "Is it okay if I take him over to the bar to draw?"

Brian shrugged. "Of course."

"I guess," Lindsay spoke under her breath.

Gus skipped over to the kitchen and Justin followed, feeling the tension from Lindsay and happy to get away from her. He helped Gus take off his winter coat, sat him on the bar stool and searched in the drawers for the crayons and some pieces of paper.

Brian took Lindsay by the elbow and led her across the room toward the windows. "You didn't answer my question," he spoke quietly.

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "I just forgot he'd be here."

"Well, next time you plan on stopping by at the crack of dawn, remember that I'm not the only one who lives here," Brian said angrily. "And try to use some of those waspy manners you learned."

"I was caught off guard," Lindsay defended herself. "I'm not a child. Excuse me if I need some time to get used to him."

Brian pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "Just tell me why you are here."

"Gus' daycare had a fire last night. The whole damn thing burned down. Now, I don't have anyone to watch him today."

"Where's Melanie?" Brian asked.

"She left yesterday afternoon to go to Erie for a conference and won't be back until Monday."

"You can't call into work?"

"I have the Emerging Artists Show this weekend. There's no way I can get out of work or take him there with me," Lindsay spoke desperately. "I tried to call Dusty and see if she could watch him but Jamie is out of school too, and she and Marie are both sick with the flu. They have their hands full and I really don't want Gus getting sick."

"I have work," Brian informed her. "You said I could have him this weekend and I've planned for that, but I'll be working late tonight. I've got four different clients meeting me today."

"Can't you take him to work?" Lindsay asked. "Maybe you could have Cynthia watch him while you're working?"

"If it were a normal day, it'd be no problem. But I'm short-staffed as it is and Cynthia is picking up their slack."

Justin overheard most of the conversation and walked over to Lindsay and Brian. "I could watch him."

Brian and Lindsay looked at one another, gauging each other's reactions, which were both relieved before turning to Justin.

"You'd want to?" Brian asked.

"Do you have any experience with children?" Lindsay implored.

"I used to watch my little sister all the time. Gus is a lot better behaved than she was."

"You're hired," Brian told him.

"Are you sure you want to?" Lindsay queried. "It can be hard to keep him busy."

"I'm sure I want to," Justin assured her. "I was planning on going to the library today and I can take Gus with me. Do you know if the Children's Museum is still there? I'd like to take Gus if it is and if I have your permission. I haven't been there since I was a kid."

"Which wasn't that long ago," Brian teased.

Lindsay was surprised with Justin's request and even more astounded at how genuine he was. "The museum is still there," she told him and something occurred to her. "Have you been to Pittsburgh before?"

"I grew up here," Justin admitted, his chest aching as he spoke. "I only moved to Chicago to attend college."

"I see." Lindsay wanted to ask more but she noticed how hurt Justin looked when he spoke and didn't want to torture him, especially since he was helping her out. "Let me get you some money then for..."

"I don't need it," Justin interrupted.

"Are you sure?" Lindsay asked.

"Gus is my son," Brian told her. "Justin and I share a bank account."

"What?" Lindsay gasped.

"We're married," Brian explained. "I trust him."

"But you're not really married."

"Legally we are and before you get any ideas, Justin isn't a gold-digger. I had to put him on my account for private reasons that will remain between us both."

"Okay," Lindsay replied. "Since you're having him overnight do you still want him for the weekend?"

Brian nodded. "Now go say goodbye to our son and get to work. Justin, write down your cell," he delegated. "I've got to get in the shower or I'm going to be late for my first meeting." Brian practically ran up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Gus, I've got to go to work," Lindsay told her son. "You're going to go somewhere special with Justin while Dada works. Then you're going to spend the weekend here with Justin and Dada. Does that sound fun?"

Gus smiled brightly. "Oh, yeah!"

Justin was glad the boy was so eager to hang out with him; he'd been worried that Gus wouldn't want to be left alone with him. He wrote down his cell phone number and handed it to Lindsay after she said goodbye to Gus. "You don't have to worry," he assured her. "I really like kids."

Lindsay smiled. "I'm sure you two will have fun."

Justin walked Lindsay to the door. "We will."

"If there are any problems or Gus just wants to talk to me, feel free to call me."

"I will," Justin replied, opening the door for her. "Have a good day at work. Good luck with the show."

"Thanks, Justin," Lindsay smiled warmly. "And thanks for offering to watch him too."

"No problem." Justin gave Lindsay a wave and shut the door. He walked over to Gus and asked him. "Are you excited to go somewhere fun with me?"

"Yup!" Gus assured. "Can't wait!"

Justin smiled. "Me too."

*****

Justin and Gus were having an amazing time at the children's museum. They'd just come back from the cafeteria where they had chicken fingers for lunch and were now exploring the replica of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. 

"Smile, Gus." Justin aimed the camera at the little boy who was dressed like King Friday.

Gus posed and giggled. "What now, Justin?"

"How about we go see Daniel's clock?" Justin suggested, helping Gus take off the costume.

"Okay!" Gus yelled.

Justin held Gus' hand as they weaved in and out of the crowd of children, most who were on field trips from school. "Remember we have to be very quiet because Daniel doesn't like loud noises."

"I know," Gus whispered barely loud enough for Justin to hear him.

Justin was so caught up with the little boy's excitement that he barely noticed the two people they were walking toward, until his brain cleared and he recognized their faces. He wasn't sure why, but he protectively pulled Gus close to him as he paused before them.

"Justin!" Molly yelled and threw her arms around her brother.

In shock, Justin stood stiff, staring into his mother's eyes.