“It’s a boy!”

The words come at 4 o’ clock on a Wednesday morning and - after Brian gets past the confusion - he finds himself already resenting Michael’s and Ben’s offspring more than he has any right to resent a newborn baby.

“Didn’t we already know that?” Brian yawns as Eric sits up beside him and squints at him sleepily. Even through the darkness, Brian can see the man’s curly hair sticking up and out from a massive case of bedhead.

“Yes, but now we can be 100% positive,” Michael says enthusiastically, “He’s so beautiful, Brian.”

“And already super annoying, just like his father,” Brian says, “No one has any right to come into the world at this ungodly hour, especially on a Monday.”

“We’re lucky he didn’t come last week,” Michael says, “It would have killed me to miss it, you know? He was supposed to come at the end of the month, not the beginning of the month. I knew there was a reason I felt so nervous throughout your dinner.”

“Yeah, your nerves were rubbing off. Super grating,” Brian says, but then asks more softly, “Is he healthy? He came a few weeks early.”

“He’s amazing,” Michael answers, “It might be a good thing he didn’t stay in longer. He might be a little early but he’s already 7 pounds and 5 ounces, 20 inches long. Who knows how big he would have gotten if he stayed in there full term? I'm just glad he waited for us to get back. Lacey wasn’t even in labor that long. She called us at 10 o’ clock last night and he was born an hour ago. I guess when you know it’s time to come out, you come out, you know?"

“Of course I know,” Brian snorts, “Who the fuck wants to stay in the closet and pretend to be hetero for longer than they have to?”

Michael scoffs, “You know what I meant. Anyway, I just got off the phone with my mom, called Hunter before her. Hunter and Molly are planning to fly here this coming weekend.”

“Hunter is going to jet lag himself to death by the time New Year’s hits,” Brian says, “The kid was just on the east coast.”

“Yeah...” Michael starts, sounding a bit off but Brian is way too tired to place it, “He’s back on the east coast now. He’s in West Virginia with Molly.”

“No, he isn’t,” Brian answers, confused, “We saw you and Ben at the airport with Hunter and Molly Sunday morning. Molly and Hunter got on separate flights. They were clingy and stupidly coupley about it too.”

“Yeah, well,” Michael says, then clears his throat, “He flew back. Something happened a couple of days ago."

“What happened?”

“A break in,” Michael says vaguely, “It happened late Monday night and Hunter got there yesterday afternoon. He's staying with her at a hotel in Morgantown. He’s already arranging for all of his stuff to be loaded onto a truck and driven to New York or donated. I guess the principal at Molly’s school didn’t take her notice too kindly and told her they don’t need her until they go on winter break, despite everything she did for that damn school. They told her to just finish out the week. So they are heading straight to New York after they come here to meet the baby and pick up Katniss since we’ve had our grandcat here since Hunter did that project in Australia.”

Brian holds back a groan. He can't believe he's best friends with someone who uses the word grandcat, especially unironically. “So did someone take Molly’s stuff or-”

“I can’t get into it,” Michael interrupts, “It’s not my business to blab anymore about.”

“When has that EVER stopped you?”

Michael lets out a huff, “I’m growing, Brian, what can I say? Anyway, Hunter and Molly are visiting this coming weekend. It’s as good of a time as any since Molly’s last day is Friday. Justin will probably want to take the opportunity to see how Molly’s doing so it wouldn’t surprise me if he came up too. Assuming no problems come up with Felix, he should be home by then. I wanted to invite you, Eric, and Lily up if you guys aren’t busy.”

The conversation doesn’t last much longer after that, but even so, Brian’s still surprised that Eric’s still up since the man basically looked like a zombie upon being woken up by Brian’s ringing phone.

“We have a new family member?” Eric mumbles as soon as Brian puts his head back onto his husband’s chest.

“A bouncing baby boy,” Brian says tiredly, “Michael sent a picture. You wanna see?”

“Maybe when I feel like opening my eyes,” Eric huffs, wrapping his arms around Brian, “The kid could have been more considerate.”

And while it’s surprising to hear that out of Eric’s mouth, considering how much he loves babies and all, Brian knows him well enough to understand that they both like to sleep a little more.

-----------------------------------------------------

Despite seeing everyone less than two weeks before, they get to see pretty much everyone else again when they fly up to Toronto. Brian, Eric, and Lily catch the same flight as Justin, Emmett, Drew, and Duncan. Justin sits across the aisle from Brian and in front of the Honeycutt-Boyd family. From Brian’s understanding, he had a major show of his own in Miami last week, had a debut artist showing at his gallery this week, as well as rushed renovations for his building. He seems too tired to talk about anything substantial. He gives short answers about any questions asked about any updates on the twins (there are none and going by the annoyed expression on his face, it’s a question that has probably been asked of him a thousand times since the announcement). When asked about Molly and Hunter, he deflects most of the more serious questions.

“They are flying to New York Sunday night on the same flight I'm on,” Justin says, “Hunter is having some of his stuff shipped to a U-Haul storage unit in Brooklyn. We’re going to sort through everything when it arrives and I’ll use one of my trucks to move whatever they’re keeping to the building.”

“Couldn’t Liam or someone let the moving men into the building while you’re away?” Emmett asks, peeking around Justin’s seat, “It seems like an unnecessary step when you have friends close by-”

“I’m not going to risk it. Not with what happened,” Justin interrupts and his tone doesn’t make it hard to figure out that he isn’t going to elaborate.

“Well, I,” Lily starts, leaning in front of Brian to peer at Justin from her middle seat, “Can’t WAIT until Hunter and Molly move close to us! Hunter is so, SO funny and Molly is really smart and nice and knows lots about elephants. And whoever broked into her apartment is a meanie head. I hate them, actually.”

“It wasn’t her apartment,” Justin mutters darkly, staring straight ahead. And that leaves Brian all the more intrigued, not to mention worried. It’s not like he knows Molly that well - it’s not like he ever did. Other than Justin having her over at the loft a few times to watch her, a few routine dinners with Justin’s family, and one odd instance where Brian had picked her up from figure skating practice after Justin’s move to New York but before they had broken up, Brian had never been close to Molly. However, while she might practically be Michael’s and Ben’s daughter-in-law now, she had almost been Brian’s sister-in-law (and what the fuck does that make Michael to him now? What does that make Justin to him now?). He has never known her well but he had always liked the kid. He’s tempted to ask what the fuck is going on.

But it isn’t his business.

Instead, Brian turns his head and squints at his daughter, “How do you even know about that?”

“I heard you talking to Papa,” Lily says, shrugging, “Sometimes when I want to know more stuff, I get down low to the floor, hide, and listen to you guys talk and talk and talk. Gives me more info, you know what I mean?”

“No,” Brian grunts out, glaring down at his daughter, “Stop being an eavesdropper.”

“I don’t know what that means. I’m a really good spy though,” Lily dismisses, “But I can’t WAIT to meet Felix. He’s so cute! I can’t wait to hold him!”

“Only if Michael and Ben say yes, Lily,” Eric warns her, “If they say no, accept it. Babies can get sick easily and they might not want a lot of people holding him.”

“But I’m not sick,” Lily says slowly, as if her father is dense, “How am I going to get him sick if I’m not sick in the first place?”

Eric lets out a breath, “Just accept that Michael and Ben know what is best and if they say no, then it’s a no. Got it?”

The flight is short - as it always is - and two Ubers end up being needed to take the seven of them. Brian sort of feels a little shitty, considering Justin is probably going to feel a little out of place no matter which vehicle he gets in since he’s with two families -

“Duncan and I HAVE to sit together,” Lily says, coming up to Brian with her demanding presence, “We have so, SO much to talk about and we couldn’t sit next to each other on the plane. Please, Daddy? It would mean so much to me. You don’t even got to get me anything for Christmas, I promise-”

Brian snorts at the lie then leans down, “So I can take back the presents me and your papa already bought then? It would give me SO much more money-”

“Daddy,” Lily interjects, and that’s all she says as she looks at him with a put upon patience while she waits for an answer to her request.

“Fine,” Brian says, then gives her a condition before she can get too excited, “But only if you ride with Emmett and Drew so that I can have a break from your yakking.”

“That is rude,” Lily points out with a frown, “But if you are saying yes, then yes, you can have a break.”

“I am glad we see eye to eye.”

Lily gives him a strange look, “No, we don’t. You’re super tall. A giant, actually. But I’ll be taller than you when I’m a grown up. I will.”

The agreement leaves Brian with two extremely happy four year olds leaving his side, a slightly amused Drew, and a slightly exasperated Emmett sending him final glances before they get into their Uber, and Brian squished between both Eric and Justin in the back seat of a sedan - which is fucking stupid, by the way. If anyone deserves the middle seat, it’s Justin. He’s the shortest by far. But just this once, Brian is going to accept the seating arrangement because it means he will be able to talk to both his husband - and talking to him should need no explanation - and to Justin, who has been quietly stressed at best and a grouch at the absolute worst since they met up with him at JFK. So Brian exchanges a few words with Eric, judges if anything about Justin changes discreetly, and decides to just fucking ask since his ex is obviously in some sort of dark headspace. Besides Michael and Ben live a half hour outside of Toronto. They have to fill the time somehow.

“Alright,” Brian says, shifting in his seat to get a better look at Justin, “What’s going on with this break in? Michael wouldn’t tell me shit, only that there was one. You’ve been fucking pissed all day.”

Justin doesn’t deny his mood, nor does he try to claim that he’s fine. He’s not saying anything at all.

“You said it wasn’t her place that was broken into?” Brian asks, trying again, “That’s a good thing, right? I mean, it sucks for whoever it happened to but-”

“It was Jerome’s house. One of her best friends,” Justin says quietly, “She planned to stay with Jerome and his girlfriend until she moved up to New York. It was a compromise so that she would stay safe.”

Brian looks at Justin’s expression a little more closely and he can feel Eric starting to look in Justin’s direction as well, “Why wouldn’t Molly be safe in her apartment?”

Justin scoffs, “Because she has a fucking psychotic ex she dated for maybe three months. It was five years ago. He’s obsessed with her and he’s been getting worse in the last year but our family just found out about him getting worse again so that’s just fucking great. Wouldn’t have fucking found out if it weren’t for Hunter being worried and pissed enough about it to tell me what was happening.”

“So her psycho ex broke into her best friend’s house? Was anyone home to see him do it or-”

“Jerome was working an overnight shift at the hospital,” Justin says, “So only Molly and Rubina were home. They were both asleep in separate rooms. I guess Jerome had an appointment to have an alarm installed but it wasn’t scheduled until the day after the break in happened.”

Brian nods, “This guy take anything valuable?”

Justin takes out a breath, “I fucking wish. I fucking wish he had just taken money or their television. I would even prefer that he take my sister’s underwear like he did when he broke into her apartment a couple of months ago.”

Eric leans forward to get a better look at Justin, “Her underwear-”

“No, Seth couldn’t have fucking just done that this time,” Justin seethes, “He snuck up into my sister’s room, took her hair, and cut it off. She had braided it so he just cut the braid off.”

“Wait, what?” Eric says, sitting up straight, “Justin...Fuck, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. Was he arrested?”

Justin lets out an ugly laugh, “He’ll never fucking be arrested.”

“...Well, that’s not thinking positively,” Brian says slowly.

“He’s fucking hit her, punched her, attacked her, broken into her place multiple times, followed her around, sent her damn manifestos, threatened to rape and kill her, and all he got was a restraining order that was renewed only one time a few years ago. It’s not even active now because his parents must have convinced the courts that there was no need and wanted it expunged from his record,” Justin informs him, scowling, “This time around, the police did a sweep of the place for DNA, so at least they started there with the intent for some kind of justice. There should have been fucking DNA, you know why? Because Molly woke up and fucking fought him. Apparently, she bashed him in the head with a lamp so hard that the base shattered. He had a mask on but she said when she hit him, it sounded like him. He got a hold of her when she tried to run, punched her a few times, got Molly on her back, cut open her shirt with the scissors, and held the scissors to her neck. Rubina heard all of the noise and apparently just jumped on the guy. He threw Rubina into the wall and ran off when he heard a dispatcher on her phone. Took the hair with him, I guess. Who knows what fucking would have happened if Rubina hadn’t woken up, Jesus Christ-”

Justin cuts his last sentence off himself, the final words of it choked and terrified, as if merely thinking about what could have happened to his sister overwhelms him. Brian feels for him, he does, because he knows Justin has become extremely close to his sister in the last several years. Brian’s relationship with his sister is obviously a lot different than Justin’s relationship with Molly. Justin’s relationship had gone from distant due to the age difference to incredibly close. A seven and a half year age difference means nothing in adulthood and they had also formed a bond that can only happen after living together as adults, even if it had only been for a summer. Brian’s relationship with his sister had - believe it or not - been a relatively close one back when they were kids. There had been a sense of love and loyalty during their childhood years with the both of them sharing an abusive and drunk father and an overly religious and even drunker mother. Claire had been the one who tended to Brian whenever he got hurt or sick, not either of their parents. There had been a time when he felt comfortable enough to come out to her, back when he was a teenager. He has been mostly disconnected from the woman for years but if something like that had happened to her back when they were young, he probably would have been pissed off too. Hell, her ex husband had been an abusive piece of shit. He couldn’t stand Claire after a decade together (and yeah, with her untreated and undiagnosed mental health issues, Brian could understand why he was frustrated). But instead of just leaving her, he started to beat her. Brian had given her the money to get her and the boys out of the situation and to her credit, she had used it on divorcing her sons’ dad and putting a deposit down on an apartment.

Then Brian’s and Claire’s relationship became more strained as Claire became more stressed, only to become completely fucked when John accused him of molesting him. Although he has spoken to Claire since, it has almost always just been about any care their mother needed or if any turns for the worse have occurred. Even though Claire had ended up being extremely upset with John for lying about something like that, the damage had been done. Last time they had spoken in person, they had thought Joan was going to die. Claire was lashing out, wanted the house, and told him that their mother wouldn’t want a fag living in her house if she dies. It wasn’t a happy or cathartic reunion at all. The very rare phone conversations since have been mostly cordial and polite, or consist of his sister wailing about their mother not remembering her childrens' names, John and his slew of convictions, or Peter never visiting her. Despite everything, Brian genuinely hopes his sister lives a happy life one day, he does. It had been one of the main reasons he paid for the nursing home his mother is in - so that neither he or Claire had to be the ones to put everything in their lives down and care for the woman. But they’re never going to be close again. He wouldn't be surprised if he never saw her again, should he blow off Joan's inevitable funeral. He would never have any kind of contact with John again, because fuck that. If anything, John has just gotten worse. From his understanding, Claire rarely talks to him either. The kid - now a man with a slew of domestic violence and drug convictions under his belt despite only being 24 - was doing over a decade for beating on and severely neglecting his two year old daughter while binging on crystal. The baby’s mother was doing the same amount of time on similar charges. The only reason he knows that is because Claire had actually gotten a hold of him then, hysterical, asking if he would be willing to adopt the toddler.

“I can’t do parenthood again,” Claire had said, sobbing, “I don’t have it in me, Brian. Look how John turned out. Tamara grew up in the system. She has no family to take Tamika. Your daughter...what’s her name? I think Tamika is just a little younger. I’m sure it would be a better fit than here.”

The conversation honestly gave Brian fucking whiplash. He never knew where Claire exactly stood when it came to him, especially when they got older. She didn’t condemn him but didn’t necessarily support him when he came out to her. She had only said that she wouldn’t tell Mom and Dad, she hoped that he was careful, and that she didn’t understand it at all. She rarely brought it up again, but was ready to believe full-heartedly that he molested her son just because he’s gay. John had certainly thought he could get away with it and hated Brian because of it, but Brian had never been sure if that had been more Claire’s doing or John’s dad’s doing because John’s dad had been more homophobic than Claire had ever been, but she proved that day that she at least somewhat was and had once again a year after he had gotten with Eric and their mother almost died.

Ultimately, the whiplash and the idea of being tied down to the Kinney family by raising Claire’s granddaughter had been too much to handle. Eric had been willing to take Tamika in, but Brian hadn’t been. That had been when they had been preparing to move to New York, several months before the actual move took place. Besides, despite his partner’s need to be helpful and selfless, Brian knew neither of them had the time to give the attention needed to what Brian now knows is a recovering but also extremely traumatized little girl. Brian had actually felt guilty about it despite having sound reasons not to do it, but he hasn’t regretted the decision. Peter ended up adopting Tamika. Brian actually likes Peter. He’s a lot more mature at 21 than Brian had ever been. He’s at the University of Pittsburgh, studying to be a social worker and apparently can handle that, a part-time job, and a two year old. Brian touches base with him from time to time now, because his guilt did spike when he learned the load Peter has. But when he first reached out - through Facebook because he had no other way to make contact - and asked if Peter needed any financial support to help with the baby, Peter had just sent him: ‘We’re doing okay, but thank you for reaching out and asking! My boyfriend graduated last year and mainly works from home as a copywriter. He stays home with Tamika and his mom watches her when we need it. I’ll send you some pictures. :) ’

The only thing Brian could think about when Peter sent him pictures of a young, loving, handsome couple with their new daughter was how Joanie felt in regards to having the two most successful and stable people in her family being gay. He wondered how Claire and John felt too. He has never been one to want to involve himself in the Kinney family drama, but it had made him curious. Brian had stayed vague in his questioning, not wanting to pry in something that wasn’t his business, but Peter had given him enough information to understand what was going on with Brian’s otherwise estranged family. Peter had said that he hasn’t spoken to his brother since he was in high school, but genuinely hopes John can be rehabilitated yet has his doubts. If it does happen, he and Jamal still never want John to see Tamika again. Peter is not close to his mother but still loves and cares about her, despite all of the emotional baggage. She’s not absoutely thrilled about the gay thing but accepts it now, especially since John is a convicted felon and all. Peter’s father wants nothing to do with him but still talks to John, and Joan knows nothing about Peter being gay and she probably never will because no one wants to upset her in the state she is in. All in all, Peter is a lot closer to Jamal’s family and spends all of his holidays with them. Last time Brian talked to Peter was about a month ago. Eric had pushed him to invite Peter, Jamal, and Tamika to their Thanksgiving dinner in order to ‘continue to build and nourish’ a relationship with his nephew and grand-niece (Brian doesn’t want to be a fucking grand anything). Peter had declined due to having plans to spend that weekend with Jamal’s older sister in New Mexico, but was ‘really glad’ Brian reached out and hoped they could visit some other time in the future. Apparently, Peter had been tempted to try to get in contact with him when he was still closeted back in high school but didn’t know if Brian would want to hear from him since he never saw him again after John made the false allegations.

And knowing his family, that had made him feel more guilty than not taking in an abused two year old. His family was fucked in multiple ways. Justin’s family - even fucking Craig, apparently - was a lot better and safer, despite what was happening now.

“...It didn’t happen,” Brian finally says, finally snapping himself out of his own intrusive, family-related thoughts, “It didn’t because two badass bitches were in that apartment and they weren’t afraid to fight him. They should definitely find DNA after a struggle like that. If they didn’t, they should look harder.”

“I’m sure any DNA they found was conveniently thrown out and forgotten about. According to the reports, there was no DNA found except for Molly’s, Rubina’s, and Jerome’s,” Justin scoffs, “He’s extremely good at covering his tracks. No one can trace his calls since he’s probably encrypted his own VPN. His parents are extremely powerful and high profile attorneys who seem to have connections with every police force Molly comes in contact with. They will only protect their son. They don’t care about anyone their son hurts.”

Brian doesn’t even know what to say to that so he just doesn’t say anything at all. Eric is better with the comforting so he lets the man take over.

“Is Molly doing okay?” Eric asks, concern lacing his voice.

“Fuck if I know,” Justin says, suddenly seeming deflated, “She sounded okay. I guess he didn’t cut a ridiculous amount of her hair off so it’s just shoulder length now. Rubina fixed it for her. Not that the amount makes any of this better, but she was trying to look on the bright side to try to keep me from losing my shit. Probably did the same thing with Hunter but that obviously didn't work, since he called me all worked up and upset from the airport while he was waiting for his flight and that’s how I found out about it. Honestly, with the state he was in, I’m surprised they let him on the plane. He sounded like he was ready to commit murder. Actually, he outright said he was going to find Seth and kill him. The way he sounded, I wouldn't be that surprised he made it happen. But if Seth Warner does somehow turn up dead, I never told you that.”

“Well...” Eric starts, seeming to ponder his words, ignoring the subject of murder completely, “She and Hunter are coming straight to New York after this weekend, right? I have some connections if you want to make sure you get some reputable companies to secure the building and their apartment. I can make some calls and probably get them in there on Monday.”

For the first time since the conversation started, Justin looks relieved, “I had a few things installed a couple of days ago. But after this? I want to make the amount of security almost ridiculous. For my apartment and for theirs. I’m thinking of hiring a few doormen too. If you know who the best people are for stuff like that, then I want them.”

“I would too,” Eric says, clearing his throat, “My older brother had an ex who stalked him. It was a long time ago. He was probably around 22 or so. I was still in high school. It doesn’t sound like it was nearly as bad as Molly’s situation but it freaked him out enough to make him come home for several months. I remember her arriving at our doorstep. My mom screamed at her in Spanish and chased her off the property.”

“Good for her,” Justin says, actually laughing a little, “I know you’ve had some problems with your mom, but good for her.”

“Yeah,” Eric says, smiling ruefully, “That was one of her many badass moments. Anyway, you guys should be well prepared and protected. We care about all three of you and want you safe. I know if Brian or I were in Molly’s situation, I would definitely want the extra protection. If something like that happens to Lily when she gets older - god forbid - then I would want her to have it too-”

“Lily’s never going to be in that situation,” Brian interrupts, probably harshly and irrationally, “If someone pulled that shit with her, they would fucking rot.”

“Wow,” Eric snorts, rubbing Brian’s leg briefly, “That sent you into overprotective dad mode fast, didn’t it?”

Brian rolls his eyes at his husband but can’t deny it. It might be everything else on his mind all of the sudden, but yeah, Eric might be right. Whatever.

“I wouldn’t be worried about that happening to Lily,” Justin says, a slightly ornery glint suddenly forming in his eye, “She’s basically engaged to Duncan and she’s made sure that we all know Duncan is perfect. When she called me the morning after Thanksgiving, she told me that she and Duncan were going to help me since they needed to practice taking care of babies because they were going to get married and have lots and LOTS of babies-”

“Oh, fuck off,” Brian says and suddenly the remainder of the trip is much lighter.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Despite the fact that waiting on Hunter and Molly to arrive is making him more anxious, he does have to admit that Felix is a really fucking cute baby, especially for a newborn. Soft, black hair covering his scalp, plump, pink lips, and little tiny fists that immediately grab onto the first finger that comes near them, Justin finds himself not even wanting to put the kid down. Maybe it is his own impending fatherhood that’s making his paternal instincts go a bit out of control or maybe it is because focusing on the baby makes it so he doesn’t have to focus on his own life for a little bit, but he finds himself feeling a sort of calm he hasn’t felt in months as he holds Felix. Maybe the paternal instincts a newborn tend to bring out made Michael a little more perceptive to others’ wants and needs because as soon as Justin is through the front door, Michael offers the baby to him first, as if he knows it will give Justin something else to do other than worry about his sister.

“Want me to get one of JR’s old dolls for you?” Michael asks as he sits down next to Justin, “You can practice holding two kids that way.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” Justin says, shaking his head but doesn’t give Michael or anyone else other than Felix a second glance, “He’s adorable, Michael. He really is. If my kids are half as cute, I’ll be happy.”

Michael shrugs, but smiles with pride, “I mean, I’m sure they’ll be more than half. I don’t know if they can reach Felix’s level of adorableness, but they’ll probably get close.”

“They’ll have the twin thing going for them,” Justin points out, stroking the baby’s cheek lovingly, “That’s the kind of novelty that will get them all of the attention. Felix will be so jealous at the reunions.”

Michael scoffs but lets him win the playful argument before growing a bit more serious, “You’re making arrangements so that the building is safe for Molly and Hunter, right?”

Justin finally lets himself take his eyes off of Felix to look at the baby’s father, “I am. You know that I am.”

“I know, I know,” Michael says, running a hand through his hair, “I’m just...I don’t know. After what just happened to Molly, I’m nervous. And upset. Angry. Ben and I love her. She makes Hunter so happy, happier than I’ve ever seen him with anyone. We basically think of her as our kid too, at this point.”

“That’s...sweet,” Justin eventually gives him, “Incredibly weird, but sweet.”

“Yeah, well…” Michael starts, “It’s how we feel. And when we heard what happened, we were horrified. And devastated. It didn’t help that Hunter was basically crying from being so angry when he told us he was heading back to the east coast and why. He...Hunter has gone through way too much. If something worse would have happened to Molly like Seth seemed to possibly be planning, Ben and I would have probably missed our youngest son’s birth to make sure our oldest son didn’t go off the rails. Don’t get me wrong, he’s had his life in order since before he got settled in college. He’s far more responsible and sober than any of us were at his age. He’s even a lot more successful than Brian was at 28, and that’s saying a lot. You might be the only one out of all of us who made it bigger at the same age and give him a run for his money-.”

“Nah,” Justin says honestly, “I was successful at his age, but I was still partying a lot and doing stupid shit. Dating random men for shallow reasons. Whenever Hunter comes to visit, he is almost always the one who stays sober. I have never seen him do a hard drug in my life. Considering his background and him not having a good family until he was 15, he overcame more than I ever did, as well as got a lot more of his shit together a lot earlier. You and Ben did fucking good with him, so you’re allowed to brag about him all you want. Molly’s lucky to have him. When he told me what happened, I was obviously really upset myself, but when he told me he was already getting a flight to go be with her, I felt relieved. I know Molly is safe when she is with Hunter. I don’t have to worry about her nearly as much as I probably would otherwise.”

Michael blinks his eyes a few times and nods, “I’m proud of him. He can handle a lot. He can take on even more. This past April when he was staying with Molly and your dad, he ran into Rita in Pittsburgh. She tried to get money out of him, tried to guilt him - which almost worked because I guess she gave birth to a little girl in February and used that fact against him. Don’t even know how that woman is fertile at this point, with the drugs she’s been on. That’s probably what bothered him the most - that there’s a kid under Rita’s care. I actually know that it is, because he called Childline and CPS multiple times over it. But Molly...Molly was there for them. She apparently had to be pulled away from Rita when Rita told her she hoped the two of them died from AIDs and then was there for Hunter when the reality of what happened hit him. She’s the one who got him to invite us to Niagara for the day so that he could tell us everything because she wanted him to have as much support as possible.”

Michael lets out a breath and continues, “The Hunter from a decade ago might have run away or gotten drunk or high, even though he didn’t do much of either even back then unless he was truly upset about something. Nowadays, Hunter probably would have been able to handle it if he had been alone. He’s more mature than a lot of 28 year olds, which still baffles me because I don’t know how Ben and I helped make that happen. But despite that, he would have kept everything bottled up and wouldn’t have told us. Eventually, he would explode over something and we would be confused as to why. Molly gets him talking. She gets him to open up in ways I have never seen him open up for anyone. Molly makes him feel as safe as he makes her feel. When she’s in the picture and they’re together, he is at his best. But I don’t think he would be able to handle something really bad happening to Molly. I think that would destroy him.”

“Yeah...” Justin says in acknowledgement, then tries to think of how he can ask a question that’s suddenly on his mind, “Do you...Is there a part of you that doesn’t want Hunter to put up with all of this crap? It’s not Molly’s fault, but it is a lot to take on. She broke up with her last serious boyfriend because of it. She tried to end things with Hunter. Part of that might have been the distance causing so much pain, but I think a lot more of it was because of Seth. I know Hunter loves her a lot but I also know Molly feels a lot of guilt and doesn’t want to burden him-”

“I get where you are coming from and I wish that neither Hunter or Molly had to put up with any of this,” Michael says, “And even though Ben and I want to protect him, we both know how he was during the long distance thing and when things were up in the air between them. We’ve never seen him so upset about a relationship possibly ending, just like we have never seen him happier with any other girl he’s dated. Like I said, she’s really good for him. When they are close to each other, they are at their best and at their happiest. This...This is just an obstacle, but they’ve already proven they can get past those by moving in together. All relationships have obstacles, every single one.”

“And they’ll be able to face it together,” Ben adds, stepping into the room, obviously listening in on the conversation, “They’ll protect each other, love each other, we’ll support and love them too, and they’ll be okay. I don’t want to jinx anything, but they seem to be in it for the long haul. We’ll all work on making sure they stay safe and figure out how to handle this if it continues to be a problem after the move.”

Michael nods, then leans in to mutter, “He is better at saying what I want to say. He doesn’t need as many words either. I tend to ramble. Listen to Ben. Hunter and Molly are going to be okay because they’re together.”

“It’s true,” Ben says, nodding, “They are together. In the kitchen. They just got here. Hunter wants to meet his new brother. We might have to break the one person at a time rule for him though. I can already tell that he doesn’t want Molly out of his sight and JR is already latching herself onto the both of them.”

Michael must notice Justin perk up at the arrival because he glances at Justin and says, “You’re not going to leave her side either, are you?”

“No, probably not.”

“Well,” Ben starts, coming over to Felix to stroke his head lovingly, “Just give them a turn. Molly seems like she’s doing well, but Hunter might need the baby therapy.”

Justin can’t object to that, even when there are a few moments where he is alone with the baby and has this moment with him where he’s staring up at Justin with way more focus than a newborn should have. Despite feeling a connection that is probably just made up in Justin’s mind, he is more than willing to hand the baby to Hunter so that he can get up to hug Molly.

“I’m fine, Justin,” Molly sighs, patting him a couple of times on the back as he squeezes her tighter, “You’re overreacting. You’re hugging me longer than Ben and Michael did.”

“I’m your brother. I’m allowed,” Justin gets out before he forces himself to step back and take a look at her. At first, she looks okay. Her haircut looks nice and although he doesn’t know Rubina well, he knows she knows how to style herself and other people. But once he gets past focusing on her hair, he focuses on her face. He sees a hint of a bruise beneath her eye, likely the worst of it covered since Molly put makeup on. There is a cut on her throat, scabbed over. The cut had obviously been shallow - nowhere close to dangerous - but the fact that Seth broke the skin with the scissors makes him feel sick. He almost wants to chew Molly out for not revealing over the phone that she had been cut, even though that would probably prove her right on her overreaction claim. Before he can say anything on the matter, she must catch him looking like he might start in on the topic because she then gives him a look, glances at Hunter and JR, then stares back at Justin in a way that can only say, ‘Don’t get them all upset.’

And when Justin looks at the three siblings, they all seem okay. Felix is perfectly content in Hunter’s arms and oblivious to the horrors of the world around him, JR is excited to finally be a big sister after being the youngest child of both sets of parents. Hunter seems okay at first - happy to meet Felix, but there’s something simmering that only the occasional clench of his jaw and what might be calming breaths are giving away. He suddenly doesn’t want to set Hunter off either, not during what should be a special moment.

“You get Mom and Tucker to leave Pittsburgh?” Justin asks instead, sitting across the room in the loveseat as Molly joins Hunter and JR on the couch.

“Yeah, they left yesterday night,” Molly says vaguely before leaning over Hunter’s shoulder to coo at the baby, “And they shouldn’t have come down because our grandpa is half out of his mind and school systems are bitches about teachers taking family leave so close to winter break, aren’t they? Yes, they are.”

“You can’t coo ‘bitches’ to a newborn, Molly,” Justin tells her.

“Don’t impose those meaningless linguistic societal expectations on my girlfriend,” Hunter says, briefly looking up, “Besides, he’s my brother. We all know that bitch or asshole is going to be his first word anyway. JR’s was motherfucker. I was so proud.”

“It was not!” JR says, sitting up in outrage.

“Was too,” Hunter answers, “It was one of your first words anyway. Your ma thought I corrupted you but apparently your mom yelled it at someone who cut her off on the road that morning so I can’t claim that one. But I can try my best with this one.”

“That’s not mature, Hunter,” JR says, suddenly sounding a lot like Lindsay as she rests her elbow on Hunter’s other shoulder, “You’re old enough to be Felix’s dad. My friend, you know Tricia? The one who came with us when you took me to Splash Island last summer and said I could bring a friend? Her parents had her when they were in high school. They’re 28, just like you. So technically, you’re old enough to be my dad. You might as well get it over with and have a baby with Molly already.”

Justin almost chokes on his own spit at JR’s bluntness but this request isn’t a new thing from her going by the couple’s amused expression.

“Age shaming me into knocking up Molly. That’s a new approach on this quest. I may be old enough to be a dad, but you’re too young to be an aunt,” Hunter says, shaking his head in amusement, “The only baby I’m handing over to Molly in the next year is this one. And maybe Justin’s kids because if he hands me both kids and bails for the day like he claims he will, I’m handing one over to Molly because fuck not having a hand free.”

Hunter ignores JR’s grumblings about how she ‘totally is’ old enough to be an aunt and hands Felix over to Molly. Molly’s face - which has had a guarded expression on it since she arrived - softens at the sight of the baby and dons an almost maternal expression. Hunter’s staring at her with fucking heart eyes, JR’s enthusing over how cute and sweet Felix is and Justin suddenly really wants out of the room because he feels like more of an imposter than he did on the plane when he was tagging along with two families. So he gets up to leave and his departure is barely acknowledged other than a, “Hey, if you see my cat, give me a heads up!” from Hunter.

------------------------------------------------

As soon as Justin steps out on the back porch, the stench of marijuana hits him as fast as the cold breeze does.

“So did you get that here or did you sneak it over the border?” Justin asks Brian as he goes over to sit in the chair next to Brian’s.

“I didn’t sneak it over the border,” Brian says languidly, rolling the joint around between his thumb and index finger, “I have a medical card. They can’t deny me access to my medicine, especially when it is legal to prescribe here too.”

“What doctor prescribed you weed and why?” Justin asks, snorting out a laugh.

“Dr. Meng up in the Bronx,” Brian says, “Between me being a cancer survivor and Lily doing her Mandarin homework in front of her, she couldn’t say no.”

“You brought your daughter to your weed appointment.”

“Come on, Justin,” Brian says, looking at him, “That is much less shocking than my four year old having Mandarin homework.”

Justin shrugs his shoulders, “I think it’s a good idea that she is in that after school program. You’re supposed to catch onto languages a lot faster in childhood. And I believe it. I only know a little French and I took it all through high school. Except then there are people like Molly, who apparently can pick up languages like it’s nothing despite her age. She’s pretty much fluent in four languages, including English. Mandarin is actually one of them, along with ASL and French. From what I understand, she’s more than conversational in Spanish and German because she’s studying those now for fun. She’s fucking annoying.”

“You’re just jealous because she’s smarter than you in something and you thought that was impossible,” Brian laughs, “But that’s okay. It can be another thing Lily worships her for, even though she barely knows her. She can probably tell they have a lot in common. Lily is smarter than me too and I think she’s fucking annoying.”

“You’re such a liar,” Justin scoffs.

Brian raises his eyebrows, “Oh, you think I’m lying but I’m not. I love the kid to death and she’s...what does Gus say? My ride and die?”

“You sound so fucking old,” Justin chokes out, laughing, as a stoned Brian ignores the claim.

“But goddamn,” Brian concludes, taking another hit before handing the joint to Justin, “So fucking annoying.”

Justin stares at the joint, then shakes his head, “I’m not sure if I should. I haven’t smoked since I found out Arianna was pregnant.”

Brian gives him a disbelieving stare, “Justin, that’s when you should have started smoking more.”

“Right.”

“No, I’m serious,” Brian insists, sitting up a little, “Just because you’re about to become a dad doesn’t mean you’re supposed to become boring.”

“I don’t know,” Justin says, “I become pretty boring when I smoke weed. There’s one strain that just makes me zone out in front of the TV for hours.”

“Well, this strain,” Brian starts, then presents him the joint again, “Is called Green Crack. It fucks with your sense of time and will probably make you feel like you’ve been staring at the TV for hours, but it’s always only like three minutes max. Everything around you just feels so slow. I swear, I could probably get a whole ad campaign done in thirty minutes if I tried because thirty minutes would feel like a week while this shit is in your system. It feels like I have been on this porch for over a day but deep down I know I haven’t-”

“Jesus, you are high,” Justin says disbelievingly, “Can you even walk?”

“Haven’t tried yet,” Brian hums, then gets a more serious expression on his face, one that comes off as resigned and somber, “Eric is leaving me.”

The words feel like a punch to the gut and Justin doesn’t even know why because this isn’t his relationship but he’s so fucking confused right now, not to mention feeling shocked and what might be heartbroken. But above all of that, all Justin can think is, ’What the fuck, they seemed fine an hour ago-’

“He’s taking Lily with him too,” Brian sighs as Justin tries to just sit there and listen, “Eric wants to visit Rick for the week so he and Lily are catching a flight to DC after we leave here. He’s leaving me for his hetero as fuck best friend for a whole damn week.”

Justin closes his eyes, breathes out through his nose, and shakes his head before looking at Brian again, “You’re a fucking dick.”

Brian lets out a confused noise as he does a double take at Justin, “What did I do now?”

Justin scoffs, “You made me think Eric wanted a divorce and was taking the kids or something. I was about to get upset for you.”

“Oh,” Brian says quietly, “Nah. He hasn’t told me about any plans to do that yet. He’s visiting Rick because Rick’s parents and siblings died around this time of year back when they were in college. He didn’t get the chance last year because of the move but he has every year before that. He likes to be close by in case Rick wants to talk or hang out. I can understand why he’s going but Lily’s leaving me just to play with Rick’s triplets. They’re over a year older than her so it isn’t even like they’re the same age. No sense of loyalty, I swear.”

“Rick has triplets?” Justin asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Mmhmm,” Brian says, nodding his head before sending Justin an amused expression, “I’m surprised you didn’t see them running around at the wedding. Feel lucky now, don’t you?”

“Extremely,” Justin confirms, letting out a laugh before sobering up, “Although there are two parents in the mix so the trauma and stress will probably end up equaling out.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Brain says, taking another hit off the joint, “It was all natural. They didn’t do fertility treatments or anything. Multiples run on her side of the family and I wouldn’t be surprised if the men in Rick’s family have a high ass sperm count, considering how many siblings he had. That being said, they weren’t expecting triplets at all. I remember Sally telling me she begged the doctors to tie and burn her tubes while they were cutting her open to pull the babies out of her.”

“Yeah, can’t blame her there,” Justin says, smiling, “I’m stressing out over the birth and watching two come out and I’m not even the one delivering the kids, plus...Brian, stop trying to hand me that joint.”

“But you’re stressed,” Brian says innocently, keeping his arm outstretched, “It’ll help. That’s what it’s prescribed for. Stress. You know, I know a couple of CEOs that go to dominatrixes to relax. This is really tame in comparison.”

“Well, what has you all stressed?” Justin asks, hesitantly taking the joint from Brian’s fingers, “Besides your husband and daughter ditching you.”

Brian shrugs, “Not a lot. Just some shit you said that made me think about a bunch of shit.”

Justin gives him a confused look, “What shit did I say?”

“The stuff about your sister.”

“Well, yeah,” Justin answers slowly, squinting at Brian, “I mean, it’s a really fucking stressful and upsetting situation. I didn’t think it would get you stressed out enough to get stoned though. Sorry if it did.”

“It wasn’t that. I’m not really that stressed,” Brian sighs, “I mean, yeah. Yes! I’m worried about Molly. We should team up and murder Seth. Let Hunter be the one who actually kills him. No, let’s give it to Molly. She should be the one who does it. But it’s not that.”

“Brian, you are so high right now that I can’t keep track of what you’re feeling,” Justin informs him, handing the joint back to Brian because if this is getting Brian Kinney this fucked up, he doesn’t even want to know what it would do to him, “First, you said it was me talking about Molly and her situation, now you’re saying it isn’t that-”

“You talking about your sister made me start thinking of my sister,” Brian answers more softly, taking another inhale before continuing, “And then that made me start thinking of my mom and how I only talk to Claire when Joanie is taking a bad turn or she wants me to adopt her granddaughter-”

“Wait, what?” Justin asks, leaning in because when the fuck did this all happen? But Brian waves him off.

“It was months before we moved to New York,” Brian says, shrugging, “Obviously, I said no to Claire. Peter adopted her instead. I really haven’t heard much from Claire since except for when Joan’s medications had to be all switched around because of a reaction she had but that was back in June. I talk to Peter now, not a lot but some. He’s gay as hell. Has a boyfriend he’s co-parenting with and everything. I feel bad that I wasn’t around at least for him but he turned out a lot more stable than I ever did. How the fuck did he pull that off? Anyway, it’s just...I’m not really smoking because of all that. Sometimes I just like to smoke. This is one of those times. And then there are the times that I hear the love you and Eric have for your siblings and it...I don’t know, makes me think of the love I had for my sister. But, except for Gus and probably Peter, the people in my blood family are fucked.”

“...Brian,” Justin starts, reaching over to put a hand on Brian’s arm, in some sort of attempt to comfort him, “Your family is here. Blood related doesn't mean shit and I know you know that because of Lily. Your family is inside that house. All of us.”

Brian nods and meets Justin’s eyes, “Even you?”

Before Justin can answer around the sudden forming lump in his throat, Michael’s voice suddenly breaks into their conversation and they both turn their heads to look towards the back door as the man steps out onto the porch.

“Brian!”

“You’re seriously getting high right now?” Michael says disapprovingly, “The day of my baby’s homecoming?”

“You come to me, the day of my daughter’s wedding?” Brian quotes in Vito Corleone’s voice before bursting into giggles as Michael’s eyes widen.

“Jesus Christ, what strain did they give you?” Michael asks, taking the joint from Brian to take a hit.

“You hypocrite,” Brian scoffs as he stands up to throw his arms around his friend, kissing him several times on the cheek, “Have you been watching my pride and joy since I came out here to be irresponsible?”

“She’s somewhere with Duncan,” Michael says, “Not sure where. Probably JR’s room. She’s annoyed with me because I’m making them wait to hold Felix until tomorrow.”

“Well, can you blame her?” Brian says, looking down to meet his friend’s eyes, “He is adorable. He’s going to have a great head of hair when he grows up, I can already tell.”

Michael beams at the claim, “He really will, won’t he? He has a great head of hair now, it can only get better. Speaking of sons with great hair, your son and his mothers will be here in an hour or so. And unlike Lily, who probably won’t notice that you’re high as a kite, Gus definitely will.”

“My son would never judge me,” Brian proclaims, then leans in, “You know why I know that? Because I think he stole one of my joints the last time I came up. Don’t tell Lindsay and Mel that I told you. I haven’t confronted him. I’m not exactly sure what to say. I’m sure it’s long gone regardless of whether he stole it or not.”

“Jesus, Brian,” Michael says, then seems to think about what he wants to say next, “...I don’t understand Gus. Don’t get me wrong, I love him so much. The kid makes straight As and is responsible and sweet, yet has sex at a younger age than we ever did-”

“Technically, the same age that I did,” Brian interjects, “And it was with his girlfriend, so I don’t get why everyone is still so upset. That was like eight months ago.”

“-And he refused to stop when Lindsay found out and freaked out,” Michael continues, “Now, he’s stealing your drugs.”

“He doesn’t like to conform to one expectation or another, what can I say?” Brian snorts, “And please. It’s barely a drug. If he had stolen a bottle of liquor, you wouldn’t be nearly as scandalized and that can do a lot more harm.”

“What do you think, Justin?” Michael says suddenly, turning to him, “You were the tiebreaker on the name argument so you can be on this topic too. Do you think that Gus should wait to smoke weed until he’s a little older or steal his father’s drugs?”

“I think you’re both high,” Justin answers instead.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Michael says insistently.

“But he’s not wrong,” Brian counters, smiling lazily as he puts the joint to Michael’s mouth. Michael only takes half a hit before pushing it away.

“Ben is going to be pissed,” Michael says, “No more. I’m done.”

“We’ll say that it’s been so long that you just got my joint confused with a celebratory cigar,” Brian says, “It will all be fine. Besides, having a new baby is stressful. The amount of diapers and late nights you two are going to have because of this kid makes it so you deserve this.”

“I don’t know if ‘deserve’ is the right word-” Michael starts to say but is cut off by the back door opening once more, which causes him to push the joint behind Brian’s back.

“It’s just Molly,” Justin snorts, glancing over at his sister as she steps outside.

“Yeah, and my daughter basically attaches herself to Molly’s hip when she’s in,” Michael hisses.

From across the porch, Molly rolls her eyes before walking over to the three men, “She’s looking for Katniss with Hunter. They’re pretty sure she’s hiding in JR’s closet. Ben and Eric are hanging out with the baby. Why are you stressing out?”

“We’re fine-” Michael starts to say but Brian reveals the joint behind his back and begins to speak.

“We’re trying to de-stress,” Brian says, taking a step towards Molly, “But out of all of us, you’re the one who is probably the most stressed so I present this to you as a token to officially welcome you into Michael’s family.”

Michael huffs, “She’s been family-”

“But this is the first time I’ve welcomed her into it,” Brian says, as if that’s just a sensible statement.

“I don’t know,” Molly says slowly, glancing at Michael, “I don’t know if I want to smoke with you in front of one of Hunter’s dads-”

“Michael, go inside,” Brian says, not taking his eyes off of Molly, “Justin, you go inside too. Molly and I are bonding.”

-----------------------------------------

“So when are we murdering your ex?” Brian asks. He waits until Molly is two hits in. He’s being very strategic about it, if you ask him. And that’s proven by Molly’s lack of reaction to the question as she turns her head to look at Brian.

“Wait, I didn’t realize that we were teaming up to do this,” Molly says, a slightly humored expression on her face.

Brian shrugs, “I own my own business so I don’t have to risk getting fired over something as silly as a murder charge. You’ve left your teaching job and don’t start school until the fall. It’s the perfect time.”

Molly laughs, but then feigns a serious expression, “You know, suicide rates go up near Christmas. We can stage it. No one would probably think otherwise.”

“It is the perfect time,” Brian says in wonder, leaning in to further collaborate.

Molly shakes her head in amusement, but then lets out a sigh, “No one can find him. No one has been able to find him for years. He finds me. He literally just broke into my friend’s house to cut off my hair and attack me last week, but if they haven’t found him yet, then he’s long gone. Besides, believe it or not, I don’t want him dead. Hunter wants him dead. Justin wants him dead. My younger brother, Mason? I don’t know if you know about him. My dad adopted him when he married my step-mom. But Mason wants him dead too. My parents and Tucker want him dead. My friends want him dead. I have tons of people who would willingly murder Seth if they had the chance. But I have never actually wanted Seth dead. I want him to get help. I want him to never contact me again. But I don’t wish death upon anyone. I just want him to stop.”

“Hmmm,” Brian says, nodding, pushing the joint towards her because she needs it more than he does, “If you want, I can hire someone. A private investigator to track him down.”

Molly shakes her head as she takes a hit before handing it back to him, “We’ve tried that, multiple times. Tucker tried it a couple of years ago, Justin did too. Hunter tried it a few months ago. All three PIs came up with nothing. Seth’s a prodigy programmer. He can hack into anything; he can hide his location from the police when he calls me. If he’s making an income, I’m assuming it’s under a fake identity and he’s doing freelance work from home. He’s smart. He uses his intelligence in all of the wrong ways, but he’s smart.”

“You should avoid smart guys from now on,” Brian decides, “Only date himbos. The only shitty thing about that is that you’ll have to break up with Hunter.”

“That will suck, but I’m sure I’ll move on once I have my own personal Dumb & Dumber,” Molly snorts. Before Brian can continue the banter, the door opens once again. Only this time, Hunter comes out onto the porch.

“Why are the two of you hanging out?” Hunter asks incredulously before walking over to them to lean against the porch railing.

“Brian was trying to convince me to only date dumb people from here on out because of Seth’s misguided intelligence,” Molly says bluntly. Maybe it is because Hunter is completely sober or maybe it is because Hunter had to hear about the person he’s in love with being attacked, but he doesn’t take the topic being brought up as well as Molly had. Brian can see Hunter clench his jaw and his knuckles tighten around the railing once the words are out of Molly’s mouth.

“Don’t mind her,” Brian says, “She is only being so blunt about the subject because we’ve been passing this back and forth.”

Brian reveals the joint as if it’s a precious jewel and Hunter shakes his head, “Dude, I can fucking smell it. It’s not some big surprise you were getting my girlfriend as high as a kite.”

Brian shrugs, “Yes, well, we were talking things over. Murdering Seth is apparently out of the question because Molly has too many morals for that-”

“Not out of the question for me,” Hunter interrupts and Molly groans dramatically.

“But Hunter, your career is going like ridiculously and abnormally well. You’re making six figures and you’re not even thirty. That’s disgusting. You committing murder would ruin that-”

“I don’t care,” Hunter says. And even through the haze that the Green Crack has created, Brian can tell Hunter is being one hundred percent serious.

“Well, even if Molly isn’t in on it,” Brian says, “She came up with a great idea to fake Seth’s suicide close to Christmas if we ever do find him. But until then, I have advised her to stop dating smart men and to only date himbos. Sucks for you. You’re actually pretty smart. But you’ll move on. Eventually. Maybe.”

Hunter grabs the joint from Brian’s fingers, takes one hit, stubs it out, then flicks it out into the yard.

“Hey!” Brian says, actually offended, “There were like two more good hits on that.”

But Hunter points at him, practically staring into his soul as he says, “You’re a bad influence.”

“Yes,” Brian agrees as Molly giggles in a way that only a woman who hasn’t smoked weed in a long time can giggle, “But I swear, it’s not that bad of an idea. We could find her a truly good himbo, like a young Keanu Reeves.”

“Oh, that would be nice. He was so hot. Still is,” Molly sighs.

“Well, if she happens to find young Keanu Reeves, I’ll surrender,” Hunter says, “But until then, fuck off.”

Molly and Brian both watch Hunter go back into the house and Molly lets out a sigh, “He’s not upset with you. He’s been really upset after what happened last week. Like, a constant hum of rage, fear, sadness, and irrational guilt.”

“Understandably,” Brian reminds her.

“Yeah,” Molly admits, then meets Brian’s eyes, “I wanted him to stay here with his family on this trip. I know that’s what he wanted to do, even if that meant sleeping on the pull-out couch. But after what happened, I don’t want to stay here and put them at risk. It would kill me if something happened to them because of Seth. So I thought we could just stay in separate places for the weekend, but Hunter refused to let me stay at the hotel alone.”

“Again, understandably,” Brian says.

“We pushed the desk against the hotel room door every night in Morgantown,” Molly says, looking down at her hands, “In case Seth tried to break in. That way, we would hear him struggle to get into the room.”

“Smart. You doing that again tonight?”

“I don’t know.”

Brian lets out a breath, “I wouldn’t worry too much, being up here. If there is any APB on Seth - and there should be, even if the police are slacking on trying to find him - then that should show up if he tries to cross the border to get here. You’re probably safe here, regardless of where you stay.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Molly says in response, “I should probably go back inside. I know Hunter came out here because he was worried but didn’t want to come off that way.”

“Yeah,” Brian agrees, “He really loves you. A lot.”

“Yeah,” Molly says, smiling a little, before standing up and heading towards the door, only calling out, “Thanks for the weed!” before letting it shut.

-----------------------------------------------------

Since JR wants to stay in her room at Michael’s and Ben’s and the guest room has now become a nursery, the only people not staying in a hotel are Brian, Eric, and Lily, who opt to stay and Lindsay’s and Mel’s in order to spend the night with Gus. Brian never brings up the missing joint from back in early November. Maybe it had fallen somewhere or maybe Hunter snuck in from California and had thrown it out because it was some insane habit, not just a one time thing that had happened tonight. He’s not going to bring it up and get Lindsay and Mel all concerned (not to mention judgmental) because they are all having a good night, filled with games and quality time with their family. Lily and Gus aren’t picking on each other for once in their goddamn lives. They’re actually cuddling and it’s so fucking cute to watch. Sure, Lily is initiating it, but Gus is letting her seek love and comfort in him and Brian does take pictures because he wants them. He wants pictures of his kids and memories like this because they’re worth savoring.

And he tells Eric as much once they’re in bed together. He’s not ashamed of it.

“Oh honey,” Eric says, patting Brian’s cheek as Brian rubs his face against Eric’s shoulder, “You’re still so stoned.”

“I have more if you want to try it,” Brian says, trying to tempt his husband.

“Ha, no,” Eric snorts, shaking his head, “If this strain gets you like this? I don’t want to see what it does to me.”

“Molly and Michael were fine. Hunter was too.”

“Hunter and Michael were okay...ish,” Eric gives him, “Molly wasn’t as bad as you, but she kept asking what time it was every five minutes and was shocked every time Hunter told her. Then she went on a tangent about wanting a baby ‘right now’ when Ben handed Felix over to her to distract her, which got JR and Emmett way too excited and Hunter looked like he wanted to kill you. I couldn’t even keep a straight face throughout all of that.”

“Look, she needed it,” Brian says seriously, “She’s gone through a lot. Hunter should have had more since he’s stressing out so much. I would have let him have the rest of that joint but he put it out and threw it into the darkness.”

“So you’ve said six times.”

“I offered Justin some, but noooo,” Brian continues, “Boring little twat.”

“Brian?”

“Hmmm?”

“Go to sleep.”

--------------------------------------------

By Saturday morning, Brian is back to his normal self and Lily gets her wish when it comes to holding Felix.

“Careful,” Michael says to her, situating the baby in Lily’s lap, “You don’t want to drop him.”

“Uncle Michael, I would never do something like that,” Lily says seriously as Ben props a pillow underneath the upper half of Felix’s body.

“I know,” Michael says, seeming to suppress an eye roll, “Remember to support his head.”

Lily looks down at the baby with a big grin before staring up at the two new fathers, “I’m going to do this all the time with my little sister, you know.”

“I bet you are,” Ben says, smiling, “You’ll be a great big sister.”

“I need to practice though,” Lily continues, “That’s why I came here. To practice with Felix. To be ready for the real thing.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about my son being a test baby, but it’s nice that you want to make sure you’re ready,” Ben says with a laugh.

“Yeah, I’m really reponseral,” Lily agrees.

The rest of the weekend goes smoothly for everyone. Lily gets her ‘practice’ in and Justin seems to as well, something Michael is too eager to have Justin do whenever a diaper change or feeding is needed and the two aren’t working diligently on the newest Rage comic. Hunter seems to chill out a little in the presence of his dads, sister, and baby brother, as does Molly. Eric gets to chat away with Ben about having a newborn in the house and get all excited about their unborn daughter making her way into the world soon. As for Brian? He gets to sit back, spend quality time with Gus, occasionally bark out warnings at Lily and Duncan to settle down when he’s not actively playing with them himself, and ultimately just relax.

When Sunday afternoon hits, it’s a little hard, knowing he’s leaving his son and his extended family for a while and that his husband and daughter aren’t going to be home for a week. But he knows that it won’t be for long. Eric and Lily will be back by next Sunday and he’ll see the rest of his family the week of Christmas, just like he always does. And he knows that he’s not alone. Emmett, Drew, and Duncan are a few rows up and Justin - although it wasn’t planned at all this time - ends up in the seat right next to him.

“Are you sure you’re in the right seat?” Brian questions, glancing around for a discrepancy of some sort.

“It was one of the only seats left,” Justin says, “I looked at your lonely, filled in square on the seating chart and felt sorry for it. I’m your pity flight buddy.”

“Ouch,” Brian says sarcastically, “So what are your plans for the week? Besides helping Hunter and Molly move their stuff from the storage unit and going furniture shopping with them.”

“I’ve actually been thinking about that,” Justin says, “When you told me that Eric was going to be out of town, I thought I might take the opportunity to work on the mural. Get it finished by the time he gets back to surprise him. My schedule has been a mess but I would actually have a few days where I can just hyperfocus on that and get it done. If you’re cool with it.”

Brian shrugs at the suggestion. It’s a good idea and he’s sure Eric will be excited to see the final result sooner than expected.

“Yeah,” Brian says, giving Justin a nod, “I’m cool with it. I think he would like that.”