BRIAN 

Justin left early to go see everyone in Canada. I had to stay behind and work on a campaign with Kenny. But now that it’s finished I will be free to spend time with Gus and Justin. I thought about just staying at the office tonight because it's strange to walk into my empty house. I thought about seeing if there was an earlier flight but decided to go in the morning. I pulled up in my driveway to see Michael sitting in front of the door. 

“Hey, you must have taken a wrong turn, this isn't Pittsburgh.” I tell him sarcastically.

“Brian, I'm losing everything.” He tells me. 

“Coming here isn't gaining you anything either.” I tell him. 

“Ben is seeing someone, Justin is quitting Rage, and I need you to be my friend.” He tells me. 

I open my door and let him in, telling myself ‘one more time’. Ted kept me informed about the idiotic things Michael has been saying and doing. The hard part for me is like Mel said, when you get away from it you have less tolerance for things than you used to.

“Michael, I can't solve your problems for you anymore. If you would stop and really think about things, you'd understand why you can't seem to get it together.” I tell him.

“All I've been doing is trying to figure out how my life got this out of control.” He tells me. 

“What have you come up with?” I ask him. 

“Not a lot, it seems like little things that got bigger.” He tells me. 

“It's the little things that add up, but if you work on them as they happen, they don't become bigger things. Learn to see the clues to why they happen, and you wouldn’t be running away from home.” I tell him. 

“I tried talking to Alex, but it's like I'm still where I started. I don’t get why Ma thought Alex would be able to help me.” He tells me.

“I don’t get why anybody needs therapy, but then maybe it’s because I don’t pretend things are fine, they way you seem to.” I tell him.

“I didn’t think telling Ben was going to help anything. Then you weren’t around to help me by letting me talk to you. Lindsay seems to be doing her best to get Justin away from me. Ted and Emmett are too busy planning dinner parties that don’t include me. Why does everything I do seem to be wrong?” He tells me.

“If you had talked to Ben, he could have at least tried to figure out a way for you to deal with your fears. It would have gone a long way in helping you and him stay together. You want to know what I feared with Justin? That he would leave eventually, because I wouldn’t be what he wanted. When we got back together, I realized that all he wanted was to know that he was first in my life. I couldn’t continue the way I had been going and expect different results. If you follow the same path everyday, you go to the same place. Alex can’t help you if you don’t try to look at things from other people's perspective. You want me to be there to tell you what to do, but then you aren’t solving anything, you’re just able to blame me if what you do doesn’t work. Ted and Emmett can do things without including someone who wouldn’t be happy with why they were celebrating. Justin has never done something because anyone told him to, so Lindsay isn’t the reason he wants to quit. If everything you do seems wrong, it’s because it is. Why aren’t you at the loft talking to Ben, instead of here talking to me?” I ask him.

“Ben is too busy with some other guy and… wait what do you mean go to the loft?” He asks me.

“Jesus, you didn’t even bother to see where he’s been living?” I ask him.

Michael gets up and slams out of my house. I hear him peeling out of my driveway and at this point I just text Ted to let him know that Michael was coming back to Pittsburgh, and I have a feeling it’s about the loft, and not about Ben. Ted texts me that I need to come home, Carl was shot tonight.

JUSTIN

I was dreaming about my alarm clock going off and I kept trying to shut it off but it wouldn’t stop making noise. I then realized it was my phone ringing and reached to answer it because it was the middle of the night.

“Hello.” I answer, half asleep.

“Justin, wake up and open the front door.” Brian sounded off.

“You’re here, I thought you were coming in the morning, is everything alright?” I ask him.

“Just come open the door.” He tells me quietly.

I get to the door and Brian grabs me and holds on to me. I just stood there, because something was wrong and I almost didn’t want to hear it the way he was shaking. 

“Carl was shot tonight, we need to get the girls and go to Pittsburgh.” He tells me.

“Is he…” I just can’t finish it.

“He’s been in surgery, but it’s not good. Ted told me that Deb is a mess and needs us.” He tells me.

We go upstairs and I knock on Mel and Lindsay’s door. Lindsay opens it but seeing Brian’s face she comes out and closes the door.

“What?” She asks quietly.

“Carl’s been shot and we need to go and be there for Deb. I booked all of us a flight that leaves in a few hours.” He tell her.

We all get our stuff packed to go and I call Emmett, who was sitting with my mom and Deb at the hospital.

“We haven’t heard anything and they keep asking for next of kin, that scares me.” Emmett tells me.

“Why aren’t they talking to Deb?” I ask him.

“Girlfriends aren’t family in their eyes. We had to get Ben to take Deb out of the waiting room, she about took the doctor’s head off.” He tells me.

“We’re leaving to get there soon.” I tell him.

Brian was holding a sleeping Jenny and Gus was leaning on me asleep as we waited for the flight. Brian was on the phone with Ted for any updates. Mel had been on the phone with my mom but hung up when the flight was called. When we landed Drew was waiting for us. It finally dawned on me that no one mentioned Michael in all of this.

“Brian, where’s Michael?” I ask him.

“He showed up at our house last night and left but I thought he was coming home.” He tells me.

“He’s not at the hospital, Ted’s been trying to call him, but so far no answer.” Drew tells us.

Brian dials and still no answer, it just rolls over to voicemail. We get to the hospital and find Deb sitting with Ben and a cop. Brian walks over and hugs Deb, whispering to her. I nod to Emmett to come with me outside. 

“Hey Baby, they let us know that Carl did well during the first part of the surgery. Carl’s daughter called and faxed permission for the doctor to talk to Deb.” He tells me.

“Has anyone found Michael?” I ask him.

“He’s not answering anyone, even Hunter. I don’t know where he is but he needs to get it in his head that now is not the time to flake out. I finally left a message telling him about Carl.” He tells me.

I pull my phone out and dial, because if Michael is true to form, he’ll answer just to tell me what he thinks of my life. 

“You know no one wants to talk to me, but now I seem to be getting calls from you guys when I finally don’t give a shit anymore.” He sneers.

“Michael this isn’t the time. Where are you?” I ask him.

“Why do you care?” He asks me.

“I don’t, but your mother needs you here. Carl was shot and everyone but her son is here.” I sneer, hanging up.

“Did he say where he was?” Emmett asks me.

My phone rings and I see it’s Michael. “WHAT?” I ask harshly.

“Is Ma okay?” He asks me.

“I don’t know because I’m busy trying to find you. Why the fuck didn’t you answer?” I ask him.

“It’s not important, but it’s still going to be a few hours before I can get there. Tell Ma I’m coming.” He tells me and hangs up.

I walk in and let Deb know Michael was coming, but right now I don’t think she cares about anything but Carl. I looked for Brian but couldn’t find him anywhere. 

“Where’s Brian?” I ask Ted.

“He said something about hating sitting in shitty chairs all night, then walked off.” Ted tells me.

I started walking around to see if maybe he was outside smoking or talking to someone on the phone. I finally find him standing in front of the coffee machine two floors down. 

“This machine actually makes the coffee strong enough that it doesn’t taste like shit.” He tells me.

“What did you do, try them all?” I ask him.

“No, but the nurses liked me, so they made sure I knew where to get coffee.” He tells me.

“You managed to get the nurses falling for you already?” I smile because only Brian.

“It took a week, but they figured I wasn’t leaving and it was easier to deal with me if I had caffeine.” He tells me.

“What are you talking about?” I ask him.

“My last secret from you.” He tells me.

“Which is what?” I ask him.

“I was here with you every night, until they released you.” He tell me.

“Why didn’t you tell me that?” I ask him.

“I didn’t want you to know, at first because I blamed myself, then it was just easier not to tell you.” He tells me.

“Why are you telling me now?” I ask him.

“I promised myself that if we were ever in this hospital together, I would tell you. I don’t break promises.” He tells me.

“No, you never did.” I lean in and kiss him for everything he did that I probably will find out someday.

“Carl will be fine, because like you, he’s too stubborn to let anything kill him.” Brian tells me.

“Deb wouldn’t let Carl die.” I tell him.

We walk back upstairs and into the waiting room. The doctor was talking to the other cop and Deb, who smiled through her tears. We listened as the doctor told us that Carl was still critical but the prognosis was good. We all started leaving when the doctor told us only Deb would be allowed to see Carl. Brian knew that instead of Canada for a week, we were staying here, so he gave Drew directions to Britin.