Chapter 11 - Celebrity Woes.

‘Well now, this is fascinating!’ Kevan thought as he continued to scrutinize the very, very small person thing who was standing in front of Kevan’s stroller and making strangely high-pitched noises with it’s mouth. Kevan vaguely remembered seeing another small person thing once or twice before, but never when he was this wide awake and sitting up so he could examine the creature thoroughly.

This particular creature was barely taller than the top of Kevan’s stroller. It had mounds of curly red hair that was bouncing around it’s face - which was very distracting to Kevan, who thought the bouncing stuff might be nice to grab hold of and put into his mouth for further analysis, but it bounced around so fast that he just couldn’t manage to grab any of it, so he gave up that idea. The noises the creature made were very shrill - even more so than those made by the big goofy person thing that would come play with him when it was light out some days. The noises were a little bit loud for Kevan’s liking but he was too interested in this new thing to get upset at the noise.

The small person was also poking at Kevan and trying to hold onto his hand. Kevan had been busy, before the small person thing came over, waving his hands about and watching the way they looked in the bright lights of the room where his stroller was sitting. Kevan wasn’t sure he wanted the little creature to hold onto his hand, especially since he still didn’t understand the nature of this new person thing. However, the Daddy, who was sitting in a chair next to Kevan’s stroller, didn’t seem to mind the small person thing. The Daddy was making mouth sounds right back at the small person thing and the sounds weren’t unhappy. Kevan decided that this new creature probably wasn’t something he should worry about.

When the small creature bent over and put it’s face very close to Kevan’s face, Kevan decided to try out a new trick he’d been practicing on his own people and see how the short person thing liked it. With a little bit of thought, and after a couple false starts, Kevan finally remembered how to make the edges of his mouth stretch and turn up so that his mouth was slightly open. He wasn’t sure why, but any time he did this little trick, his big people things made more happy noises and he usually got more hugs. Kevan had recently learned that he liked getting hugs so he’d been trying the trick out more and more often. Maybe if he tried it on this new creature, it would hug him too? That might be a nice way to get to know one another.

It didn’t work though. As soon as Kevan managed the new trick, the short creature with the bouncing hair poked it’s fat little fingers into Kevan’s mouth. The creature’s finger didn’t taste good at all and it really kinda startled Kevan.

‘Enough of that!’ Kevan thought as he opened his mouth even wider and let out a loud and very not happy cry.

Kevan decided that he didn’t care much for this short type of person thing.

Brian was sitting in the reception area of Chiefy’s office, trying to ignore all the whispers and stares directed at him from the other occupants of the office. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t have just gone to his regular - male - doctor for this shit. Justin had insisted, though, that only an OB would know the right way to treat the damn mood swings Brian had been suffering through. Brian conceded rather more easily than he would have normally - he was just so fucking tired of the weird shit his body was doing to him that he’d do ANYTHING to fix it. Even going back to see Chiefy one more time.

Of course, being here again meant that he was once again in the spotlight. After everything that had been in the media about him and Kevan in the past few months, he couldn’t really hope to stay inconspicuous. Especially not when he turned up again in the offices of his obstetrician. And, from all the staring and whispers going on amongst the women waiting with him in the reception area, it was clear that they’d been recognized the instant he’d walked in the door. At least there hadn't been a crowd waiting at the doors of the hospital and they weren’t all flocking over to talk to him. Only one really rude fat blonde woman in the corner had dared to take out her phone and snap a picture of him and Kevan. Brian tried to just ignore them all.

Brian fleetingly wished that Justin would hurry up checking them in at the reception counter. It wasn’t so much that he needed his small blond pitbull to protect him from the nosy women, but . . . well, okay, that was exactly what he wanted, although he’d never admit it out loud. Frankly, being mired in the midst of so many hormonally challenged women scared the shit out of Brian. What if they swarmed him? Justin better just get his ass back here fast!

“Hey, Mister,” an impish little girl with wild, unbrushed, red curls all over, tugged on Brian’s shirt sleeve in order to pull his attention away from the magazine he’d been trying to hide behind for protection. “Is that your baby?”

“Yes,” Brian answered and tried to return his attention to the magazine.

“My name’s ‘Bronnie’. I’m three and a half. I’m gonna be a big sister soon,” the undeterred little gamin announced, clearly not about to let Brian ignore her and go back to his reading.

“Nice to meet you, Bronnie. I’m Brian and this is Kevan,” Brian replied - he hadn’t really been interested in reading ‘Practical Parenting and Pregnancy’ anyway so he figured he might as well be polite to the kid.

“Is he a new baby? My momma’s got a new baby in her tummy. That’s how come I’m gonna be a big sister. I don’t know when it’s gonna ‘hatch’ though. I’ve been waiting for, like, forever for it to hatch. We had baby chicks hatch in my preschool, you know. That’s how come I know all about babies. Did Kevan hatch out of his momma? Was it like with baby chicks?”

“Well, actually, Kevan doesn’t have a mother. Just two daddies. He ‘hatched’ out of me instead,” Brian chuckled and tried to explain, using the child’s own terminology, as best he could.

The little redheaded doll screwed up her face and stared hard at Brian for a few seconds, her face tipped to the side as if whatever she was trying to wrap her head around was difficult to grasp. “Are you a boy or a girl? I thought only girls could make babies,” Bronnie finally announced.

“I’m a boy. But I’m a special kind of boy, so I got to have a baby of my very own,” Brian proudly explained, taking no offence at the child’s innocent confusion.

“That’s neat,’ Bronnie accepted Brian’s explanation without any struggle. “Kevan looks like a good baby. Oh look. He smiled at me!”

The fascinated little girl then proceeded to poke her pudgy index finger into poor Kevan’s smiling, wide-open mouth. Kevan, predictably, started wailing at the unwanted invasion. Bronnie’s mother immediately rushed over to see what mischief her little devil child had gotten into this time. Brian unstrapped Kevan from the stroller and picked him up to try and soothe him while a whole herd of well-intentioned but unwanted bystanders came over to offer assistance. And, generally, all at once, everything in the little reception waiting area went to hell.

Which was, thankfully, when Justin returned, taking control of everything, shooing off all the looky-loos and ushering Brian and Kevan back into the bowels of the office away from prying eyes and over-inquisitive preschoolers.

"How many fucking pills do I have to take everyday, Sunshine," Brian complained as Justin handed the relatively large paper bag full of prescription bottles to him.

"Just five, Brian," the harried young blond replied as he shouldered the diaper bag, kicked off the stroller brake and began herding his man and child away from the hospital pharmacy window. "You take one thyroid pill and one folic acid supplement a day, hormone pills twice a day and a new one-a-day vitamin supplemt. It's not that much, Brian, and it'll be worth it to get rid of the mood swings and have you back to your normal, cheerfully sarcastic self. Or did you enjoy the crying jags?"

"Yeah . . . No. Those I can live without. But I didn't mind the slightly manic episodes. I got a ton of shit done during the times I was feeling good," Brian smirked at the blond boy shaking his head at him in consternation.

"I think Kevan and I will be happier if you're just a happy medium all the time, thank you very much. We prefer our studly daddy more on the sane side regardless of how productive he is when he's doing the manic thing. Although . . . I DID enjoying being serenaded the other night," Justin winked at his man impishly, causing Brian to cringe at the incredibly lesbionic memory.

"How about I let you top tonight and we just forget that little scenario ever happened, huh?" Brian begged, only half-jokingly.

"Hmmmmm," Justin screwed his face up and tilted his head from side to side, as if he was seriously weighing that option. "Very, very tempting, Mr. Kinney," he finally answered now wearing a big Sunshine smile, "but I think that particular bit of blackmail will be worth far more if I wait a bit and let you stew over it some more."

"Damn, Sunshine! You might look like an innocent blond twink, but I'm beginning to suspect you have a hidden evil side to you," Brian retorted, causing both himself and the evil blond to chuckle a bit as they rounded the last corner before they entered the hospital's large entrance lobby area.

As soon as they stepped into the main lobby though, their casual banter and easy laughter died on their lips. The entire lobby was full of people milling around - far more people than either man had seen there before. Obviously, there were a lot more people than would normally have a reason to be waiting in the lobby. Brian immediately suspected that he might be the reason for the assembled multitudes. Here and there they spotted hospital staff and security guards trying unsuccessfully to sort through the masses, presumably trying to sort out who was legitimately supposed to be there and who wasn't. It was clear though that there were far too few security staff people to make much headway.

Brian and Justin had barely even stepped into the room when a cry went up from one of the nearest groups of bystanders and they were at once surrounded by a clamoring horde of people. Without having any prior warning or more than a few moments to prepare, the poor swarmed pair was too surprised to do anything other than huddle together. Justin did manage to move around to the front of the stroller so that he was, in effect, blocking Kevan with his body. Brian moved in behind the stroller as close as possible, using that prop as a shield of sorts. Nevertheless, surrounded as they were, there wasn't much else they could do.

"Brian! Brian! Can I get your autograph? Brian!" The words were being shouted at the beloved local celebrity from all sides while many hands shoved pads of paper and pens into his face. Brian might have even deigned to give out a few autographs if he hadn't been blinded by the flash bulbs going off in his face as several fans snapped photos.

And the worst part of all was that, unlike the professional media hounds who'd trailed Brian and Justin before Kevan was born, these were 'true fans'. They weren't going to be satisfied with a quick picture or two along with a short soundbite. These folks were groupies, rabid fangirls and obsessive devotees who longed to simply be near their idols. They wanted to show Justin, and especially Brian, their love. They wallowed in the fact that they were close enough to touch and talk to the beautiful men that they'd fallen in love with in their minds. They sorely wanted to see the beautiful miracle baby. They wanted to give the little family presents and tokens of their undying affections . . . You know - FANS!

About thirty seconds before it would have started getting ugly - Brian's fists were already balled up tightly, ready to strike the next person who grabbed his ass without permission, and Justin had just slapped away one set of hands reaching down far too close to the baby's stroller - a wedge of three hospital security officers shouldered their way through the rear of the crowd and circled around in front of the trapped couple.

"Everybody back the hell up! Move It! I said: BACK UP!" the largest of the three security guys bellowed at the top of his lungs, his large voice overwhelming even the babble of the throng of fans.

Once the muscle-bound lead guard had the group's attention he continued his shouted warning as the other two used their bulk to keep the crowd moving back farther away from Brian, Justin and Kevan. "This hospital is private property. If all of you don't vacate the premises immediately you will be arrested and removed by force if necessary. The police are already on their way so I suggest you either move the hell outside this building or prepare to spend the rest of your day in jail, folks."

The imposing threesome of guards, combined with the shouted warnings of possible police action, did help to move the worst of the pressing crowd back away from Brian and Justin by a few feet. However, the majority of the fans didn’t leave altogether. They were still hovering just outside the range of the security guards’ reach. And, while the little family now had at least enough room to breathe, they were still surrounded by a solid wall of people. There wasn’t any clear path of escape visible. Both Brian and Justin were teetering on the verge of panic.

“Brian! Over here, Brian. There’s an empty consultation room over here where you can wait until the crowds are gone.” Somehow an unknown voice managed to make itself heard over the roar of the rest of the crowd. At the same time a reassuring hand gripped lightly onto Brian’s upper arm. Without even turning to see who was speaking, Brian backed up, pulling the stroller after him. Justin followed along without question. Brian kept his eyes focused on the throng of people in front of them, making sure that no one was going to rush them. Meanwhile, the unknown savior gently guided the big brunet a few yards back and to the left until they all reached an opened door leading into a small but thankfully empty room. As quickly as possible, Brian pulled the stroller and his young blond into the room and slammed the door shut.

“Fuck! What the fuck was that, Brian?” Justin slumped into a chair, towing Kevan’s stroller closer to him so that he could make sure the baby had come through the ordeal without harm.

“I’m afraid, Sunshine, THAT would be our fucking fanclub,” Brian lamented as he flopped into the chair next to his partner. “Shit! Damned fucking nutcases! I thought maybe the uproar over my pregnancy and the baby would have died out by now. The damn media haven’t been bothering us much lately so why the fuck are all these other people here? And how the hell did they find us anyway? I wonder . . . Shit, I bet it was that fat blond cow in Chiefy’s office - she took a picture of me on her phone while I was waiting for you to check us in.”

“It doesn’t matter how they found us. What I’m worried about is how the fuck we get out of here and home without being mobbed,” Justin cut to the point, hopefully derailing Brian’s unproductive rant about the woman who’d snapped his photo. “Shhh, Kevan, shhhhhh. It’s okay, sweetie. I know the people were scary and noisy but it’s alright,” he whispered as he cuddled the baby in order to quell his crying. “If it weren’t for Kevan, I’d say we should just make a run for it. I’m sure we could make it to the car. But I’m not going to drag our son through that. He’s already scared from all the noise and the people. What the hell are we going to do, Brian?”

“Fuck if I know,” Brian conceded hopelessly.

“I’m sure that the hospital security guys will clear everybody out pretty soon. You’ll be okay as long as you stay in here until they’ve got things under control. Then I’m sure you’ll be able to arrange a way to get home,” announced the unknown young man standing next to the door - the one who’d ushered them into this little safe haven a few minutes earlier - whom Brian and Justin had both forgotten was even still there.

“And who the fuck are you?” Brian asked with his usual blunt tactlessness.

“I’m, uh . . . T-T-Taggart. I-I-I . . . We met before at the Liberty Diner . . . I-I-I was in the lobby when you got mobbed and I just happened to see this room and thought I could help you . . .” the young man stuttered out his explanation, daunted by the glowering and suspicious look that Brian was directing at him the whole time.

*Hhhhmmmph* Brian’s response was non-committal at best.

“Thank you, Taggart,” Justin’s manners rebelled at his partner’s rudeness to the young man who’d saved them from the mob. “We really appreciate you helping us out of that mess. I’m Justin, by the way. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s my pleasure,” the reticent young man replied with a nod to Justin before he focused a shy smile back onto Brian. “I’m just glad I could help. I could hear the baby crying and I didn’t want him to be scared. I know being shut up in this little room isn’t that much better, but at least there’s a door between you and that crowd.”

Nobody commented on that pronouncement. What was there to say? They really had no choice - it was either go out there into the swarm or allow themselves to be trapped in this little room. Justin concentrated first on calming Kevan. Luckily it had already been a very busy morning, so once the baby was quiet he quickly fell asleep - much to his Daddy’s relief. Justin strapped the infant back into the stroller where he could nap safely and then directed his attention to the other man-child he knew he would need to console.

Brian’s elbows were propped up on the top of the small conference table in the center of the room and his face was buried in his hands. Every so often his shoulders would shudder and Justin could hear a huffing through Brian’s splayed fingers. The occasional muttering was all that escaped through the physical and emotional barrier he’d set up. “What’s the fucking point . . . Just leave me the fuck alone already . . .”

Justin could tell that Brian was probably in the grips of yet another mood swing - there hadn’t been time to take even the first dosage of the medications Chiefy had prescribed, let alone time enough for them to start working, and this was exactly the type of situation that would trigger one of Brian’s more morose moods. Justin knew his stud was dangerously close to losing it. He was just about to stand and move around the small table so he could reassure the big man, when he was blocked by the slender yet solid form of their temporary roommate, Taggart, who had dashed over to Brian’s aid in Justin’s stead.

“It’s going to be okay, Brian. I’m sure that the security guys will have the hospital cleared soon. Then I’ll get you out of here, okay? Really. It’ll be fine,” Taggart crooned as he stroked Brian’s shoulder and arms with his hands.

Justin was left standing there, speechless and ineffectual, blocked from getting to Brian in the small space by the hovering form of their supposed savior leaning over the bulk of the table. Justin was pissed off as all hell at the proprietorial manner of this upstart newcomer. He just barely stopped himself from grabbing a hold of Taggart’s arm and throwing him bodily over his shoulder into the wall - the adrenaline running through Justin’s body at that moment would have been more than sufficient to give him the strength to do that and more, he thought, if he hadn’t restrained himself. However, there was no way Justin was going to just sit back and do nothing.

“EXCUSE ME!” Justin spat out in his most condemnatory and WASPish tone, getting both Brian and Taggart’s attention at once.

*Knock, knock*

The rapping on the door of their sanctuary interrupted the confrontation that Justin was prepping for.

“Brian? Justin? Thank goodness you’re okay,” the not-so-dulcet tones of Chiefy’s voice interrupted the soon-to-be-scene. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for this mess. The police and my security team are moving all these people out of the building now. It should be clear enough for you to leave in just a few minutes. I’ve arranged a car to take you to your home as well. Please, accept my apologies - we just had no idea that anything like this was going to happen  . . . again.” Chiefy insinuated her buxom self into the small, already crowded feeling room, and proceeded to spout off endless apologies and reassurances.

As soon as the physician saw Brian’s dejected countenance, she immediately knew what was wrong. With all her usual officiousness, Chiefy moved over to examine her patient - effectively bouncing Taggart out of the way with her plump posterior in the process. Justin was not only glad that Brian’s doctor was there for medical reasons, but was also more than happy to see Taggart physically separated from his partner. He took a lesson from Chiefy’s manner and also bodily shouldered his own way past the interfering young interloper.

By the time that Chiefy’s assistant knocked on the door and informed the occupants that the coast was now clear and they could leave, Justin was happy to note that Mr. ‘Taggart’ had been forgotten by almost all and was cringing in the far corner of the tiny room.

“Time to go, Brian,” Justin said with conviction, wrapping one arm around his partner’s shoulders and helping the larger man to stand. “Chiefy, can you have your assistant take over Kevan’s stroller while I help Brian?” Justin requested. “Come on, Brian. I’ve got you. I’ll get you out of here now,” Justin said with a not-so-nice smirk directed to the corner where Taggart was still hovering and watching over the proceedings.