A few nights later the boys were having dinner at Jen's. Deb and Carl had also been invited, a new kind of family dinner, with Jen's new (and much younger) beau, completing one parental unit, while the only mother Brian had ever known love from, and the man who loved her and whom Brian had come to respect and turn to in times of trouble making up the other.
The boys had gotten very little sleep the night before, as it was their Friday night to have Gus over-night, and he had been up sick most of the night. He had fallen asleep finally in the wee hours of the morning once his fever broke, and the boys didn't have the heart to wake him in the morning. As a result, they had called the moms and told them they would bring him home on their way to Jen's house, so they had both been up all day as well.
So, while Jen fixed supper, Debbie kept her company in the kitchen, and Carl made himself comfortable on the recliner in the living room and sat down to enjoy a game on TV. Meanwhile, the boys took advantage of the few hours until dinner would be done and went up to the guest room to take a nap.
"Jennifer, can you tell me how to get to the bathroom?" Carl called out a short while later from the other room. "It's at the top of the steps, and the third door down the hall to the left" Jen called back in to him, turning back to stir the gravy for the mashed potatoes and pot roast she had been cooking.
As she finished the gravy and turned it down to low to keep it warm, she noticed that Carl had not yet returned from the BR. "Can you keep an eye on the gravy and the potatoes for a sec, Deb? I think Carl might have taken a wrong turn, I'll go and show him where the bathroom is."
Jen found Carl standing outside the guest room, and immediately recognized that unique combination of discomfort and fascination on his face that she had felt so many times herself.
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Justin moaned loudly as his orgasm overtook him, and tried to keep his voice down as he screamed Brian's name and felt his lover join him as he shouted out his own release.
As Brian rolled off of him and took hold of the condom to dispose of it, he looked down and noticed Justin quietly weeping. Quickly responding with concern, Brian asked him what had brought on the waterworks.
"I don't know, Brian. Things are so wonderful, and I love you so much that it hurts sometimes. What will I do if you someday decide that I'm not enough for you? Promise me you will always tell me the truth. I can't conceive of life without you. I don't know how I could live after knowing how amazing we are together...but if you ever stop living me...no - let me say this - if you ever find that I am not what you want...don't pretend Brian - don't do what my dad did to me and let me go on believing that you love me...for me...the way I am...'cause I couldn't take it when I found out...I wouldn't survive that, Brian."
"Hey, come here," Brian exhaled with a smile at the corner of his lips, not realizing until that moment he had been holding his breath. "I don't know where this is coming from. Maybe it's being here in your mom's house, that," he chuckled, " and sleep deprivation setting in, but let me assure you, Sunshine, I have no intention of ever letting you go. It took me forever to realize that I can't live without you, and I can't imagine ever not loving you. I could never go back to living my life without you. Don't you know that by now" He held his young lover as he continued to sob quietly, before he gave in to his exhaustion and fell asleep with Brian's arms tightly wrapped around him.
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Jennifer looked at Carl with a strange expression on her face. Along with feeling kind of guilty for eavesdropping on such an intimate conversation, she was clearly more than a little uncomfortable hearing her son and his male lover as they culminated their lovemaking.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to it." Carl cut into her thoughts, echoing some of what was going on in her own head. "And I sure as hell don't understand it any more than I ever did. Still, I think that the more time I spend with those two, the more sure I am that somehow they have found something that most of us have only ever dreamed of. I think I am one of the lucky ones, too. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go remind my wife how very much I love her. "
Jen smiled as he walked away, tears pooling in her eyes. She knew that Craig had hurt Justin with his reaction to finding out that his only son was gay, and involved in a relationship with another man, even though Brian would have sworn that was not the case long after their altercation. And she never had any misconceptions that Craig's actions and hurtful comments would not have any effect on Justin long after they had parted ways. Still, she had no idea how deep the wounds ran.
What struck her the most, though, was Brian's reaction to her son's request. Brian had just as much reason to hate Craig, even more so after all her ex-husband had done. Yet he didn't even give that part of Justin's plea a second of his time, needing only to reassure her son that he was loved unconditionally, that he would be for a very long time, and that he was more important than anything else.
If only her ex had given her even a fraction of the time and attention that Brian was now willing to give her son. She had known for some time how wrong she was about Brian, and how very much he cared about Justin, but she now found herself seeing him and their relationship in a brand new light. Surely they truly were soul mates. She was grateful that her misguided efforts had not kept these two apart when they were so obviously meant to be together. She made up her mind to tell them both that, and ask for their forgiveness, before this very night was over.
As she walked back into the kitchen, she saw that Tucker had arrived while she was upstairs, and she quickly walked over to give him a hug and a kiss in welcome. She would do her best to never take him for granted, but instead always let him know how very much she valued their relationship.
She saw Deb wink at her with a knowing smile. Somehow the flamboyant red-head had known from the very beginning that Brian and Justin had this chance at happiness, and had done everything in her power to smooth the way for them. She wondered for the first time if Deb's intuition that the boys would one day marry and raise a family could also possibly come true. For the first time, she allowed herself to hope it would.