CHAPTER 50: EPILOGUE

DEB’S POV

Well, the trials are officially over. Michael was sentenced to thirty years in prison, like most of the conspirators involved the Organization. He said that he’s going to appeal, but really, I don’t think there is a way he can. Although Carl and I have divorced, we are still friends in a sense. He’s already told me that as each trial was going forward, everything was already reviewed by the Judiciary board for the Supreme Court, primarily to make sure no one’s civil rights to a fair trial was violated. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to know and acknowledge that the boy I raised really did, not only pay all that money to destroy Justin, but knowingly provided huge amounts of information for the sole purpose of having Brian to himself. And if that wasn’t enough, I found out just where Michael had hidden himself right after the commitment ceremony a couple of years ago. Imagine my surprise when they dug up that information and called David Cameron to testify against my son. The revelations that came out of that testimony was indeed the nail in Michael’s proverbial coffin.

As for my personal relationships with everyone… well, there isn’t one anymore. Sure I receive cards for birthdays and holidays; see them all occasionally and they are cordial, but I’m no longer an integral part of their lives. Even my granddaughter doesn’t want to have anything to do with me because of what Michael did to her, placing her in harm’s way. I suppose I only have myself to blame for that, since I kept preaching to her that Michael didn’t mean what he did, or that he deserved her forgiveness for her being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mel was only too happy to serve me with a restraining order to stay away from Jenny, until such time as the young girl wanted them lifted. So as a result, I watch my family- or what used to be my family- live their lives from afar.

I could try to lay all of this at Brian and Justin’s feet, or even pull a Michael and blame Michael for all this, but I won’t. They all warned me repeatedly about what would happen if I sided with Michael in all of this. I can’t blame them for making good on their promises, when apparently, I haven’t kept even one. Maybe someday I’ll be welcomed back into their collective fold, but until then, I send up a prayer for each of them every chance I get and hope that their lives will not only get back to normal, but that they will be better than ever.

DAPHNE’S POV

These past two years have been… a whirlwind; a tsunami; a catastrophe; and renewal all at the same time. Yeah, I guess one could say that. I returned to Pittsburgh a very broken woman, but through faith, family, and friends, I’ve been able to move on. It’s still hard to believe that it’s been a little more than a couple of years since I found out I was pregnant with that cheating sack of shit’s kids. I would have loved them no matter what, but just the idea that I was the other woman, still rankles sometimes. For the most part I’ve let that go, but every now and again the thoughts still rear their ugly heads. Amazingly, making amends and being friends with Ciara has helped. I guess it’s the shared trauma of being involved with Steve Marshall.  

On the bright side though, I now understand what Justin meant by having the love of a good man be a soothing balm to a wounded soul. Troy Bradley is everything I could have ever hoped for and more. He constantly proves to me just how small my dreams were. Between us, our careers are blooming in ways we never expected from the day we met. He’s now the Director of Medicine, while I am now Chief of Surgery. The two nimrods who tried to fuck Brian and Justin over on the operating tables...well, I hear the only dissecting either of them will ever be doing again is at Pennsylvania State Correctional Facility with whatever the meal of the day is. Not only aren’t they allowed to have anything to do with medicine again, but their names were found on the vendetta list against Brian and Justin. Little did anyone know that they had put their life-savings into backing Stockwell when he ran for Mayor. Because of the work Brian and Justin did, they never saw a financial return for their abject stupidity. 

But more importantly than anything I’ve just mentioned, I’m now Dr. Daphne Chanders-Bradley and it’s a title I wouldn’t trade for anything in this world. Troy proposed at Brian and Justin’s welcome-home party, after they were released from the hospital. He didn’t even have a ring to present me with. If you were to ask him, he’d tell you that it was spur of the moment and that seeing Brian and Justin as together as they’d ever been is what made him ask himself what he was waiting for. See? Ever the romantic, right? Anyway, my answer wasn’t as spontaneous as he nor I would have liked. Oh, I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I loved him, but I was still in a place where fear ruled my life. However, it was his patience and understanding of me that won me over… well that and Brian threatening to play the psycho boyfriend, since Troy was too much of a gentleman to do it himself. After all, he reasoned, it’s how Justin got him to do whatever he wanted.

So after a long engagement, we finally made it to Tahiti where I am currently sitting on the beach sipping my tropical, liquor-laden beverage. And I can’t think of a single, better place to be.

EMMETT’S POV

There is something to be said for the Taylor-Kinney magic, as I have taken to calling that thing which makes them, and those of us around them, resilient. For the past two years, it has been nonstop go time for me since I did their wedding. Ironically, or not so much, as I found out later, I did the Brown-Jordan wedding in Chicago for Leo’s daughter Charlotte. It was a small, intimate affair of three-hundred of their closest family, friends, and business associates. Leo went all out and spared no expense, since he had been convinced that she would never actually tie the knot the first time, let alone doing it again. If there was anyone in the world as commitment-phobic as Brian Kinney, it must have been Charlotte. Anyway, from that day to this one, HoneyGrass Elegant Creations has taken off and become one of the premiere entertainment and catering companies across the globe. Not bad for having begun simply by putting together a commitment ceremony to rival any high society wedding, for my closet friends.

After the trial, it’s been hard, so having a constant stream of work has been a blessing and a curse. Of course, Drewsie and I have times when we don’t see each other as much, especially during the winter, but we’re still going strong. So it wasn’t even a question when Daphne decided that she wanted her wedding on a beach in a land far away from Pittsburgh. I think we all needed to be away from there just now, for obvious reasons.

TED’S POV

Some centuries ago, Shakespeare wrote a play called All’s Well That Ends Well, and as I sit here on this beautiful beach, I suppose that’s true. We, as a family, have had many ups and downs over the years. Justin’s bashing; mine and Blake’s addictions and subsequent co-dependency; Brian and Justin’s on again, off again relationship; Mel and Lindsay’s move to Canada and return to the Pitts; the Stockwell Era… all of it has served a purpose to make us stronger in some form or another. But some of us weren’t so lucky. There were casualties- the breakups and breakdowns of relationships- that even right this minute continue to take their toll on us, both individually and collectively. I think the biggest loss we all still feel to some degree is Deb’s. Like it or not, she was a mother to us all. I look over at Carl, sitting at the bar, and know that he still feels her loss as keenly as Brian, although probably a little bit more since she was his wife. But she made him choose between her son and his morals one too many times, and in the end, he chose himself.

As for me, I’m happy… I have Blake and I have a career that still continues to thrive, especially since Justin’s return. But most of all, I have Peter Townsend. Who would have thought that the young man would become almost like a son to me. I’ve spent many hours with him, tutoring him and getting to know him, have shared many of my past experiences with him, and it’s been a joy. If I take anything away from all of this, it’s that love- no matter what kind- can reach you in the most unlikely places, and someone is always going to need your brand of it. In Peter’s case, he needed someone who wasn’t going to judge him based on what happened. Because of my own gang rape while I was high on Meth, I understood exactly how he felt, even if John saved him just in time. Now that I’m older, wiser, and a lot more settled in the skin I’m in, I understand exactly what I went through during that era in my life. Someone once told me that you don’t go through the hard times for yourself, but to help someone else along the way. I truly believe that now.

LINDSAY’S POV

Well, where to start? I guess the most life-altering thing these past couple of years has been Gus going off to college. Sure, he’s only at Carnegie Mellon, but he’s no longer living with Brian nor I. After his freshman year, he and Carmella decided to get a place together. What’s strange is that I really believe they are going to make it, but no matter. They drive and push each other to be better, to become better, and in the end, that’s what really matters, right? I think that’s where Mel and I went wrong so many times. So at the very least, I have the assurance that’s he’s learned from my mistakes of being complacent. He’s like his father in that way and in so many others.

He, like the rest of us, attended Michael’s trial and that of the Kinney women. That was hard. First, was finding out just how deeply Michael hated Justin. Even now, I shake my head at the lengths he’d gone to be rid of him. Even more strange was that the prosecution was able to use the comic book as evidence to a large extent. When Justin took the stand and was asked why or how he could draw something that gruesome about himself, he responded that he would have done just about anything to sever all communication with Michael once and for all. I know that I’d always had a problem with that edition for that very reason, but to hear Justin say it… well there was just no controlling the involuntary reactions that statement engendered.

Then there were the trials of Kip Thomas and his cohorts to get through. That was when Gus started to unravel a little bit. I can’t blame him for that. Seeing Jenny shot in front of him had given him nightmares and for a time, we all thought he was past that. But Justin reminded us of what it was like for him every year when the anniversary of the prom came around, or hearing a sound that would remind him of the bat, or the bomb at Babylon, or even the whisper-whirring similar to the sound of a bullet shot through a silencer. It helped us all to understand that whereas Gus would learn to cope, he would never fully forget or be healed from it. I was surprised to learn that it was the same thing for Brian as well.

Brian… both my blessing and my curse. We still have our battles from time-to-time, as do he and Mel, but without Debbie here, it’s a lot more manageable than it was before. Now that’s not to say that we don’t miss her interference, because at times we do. But without certain things being drilled repeatedly into Brian’s head, it wasn’t hard for him to let go of her expectations and began living up to his own. As a result, things have been better between all of us in terms of how we take care of both Gus and Jenny. He’s pretty much taken on the role of father, along with Ben, and provides her with everything that Michael- even if he was free- wouldn’t have been bothered with. It makes me incredibly happy that in spite of everything, my children are becoming well-rounded, well-adjusted adults. Ah, if only we could talk Jenny into going to college next year here instead of in New York, where she wants to go. And of course, Brian is no help!

As for my personal life, well… Colby and I are still together. Who knew that I could be so satisfied with a man after living so many years with a woman. I think Mel said it best, that she was the love of my youth, while Colby is the love of my old age. Her saying that helped me to stop feeling guilty about what happened between she and I. But the one great thing came out of all the drama which resulted with us being back in Pittsburgh is that Mel and I have become best friends again, like we were before we ever started dating. Also a plus is that Daphne and I continue to be each other’s confidant as well. Between the three of us- four if you include Mel’s lover- we manage to inject enough estrogen into the family where the overabundance of testosterone still bows to us occasionally. On a spur of the moment, I clink glasses with Mel while smiling at Daphne and know that my girls got the silent message.    

MEL’S POV

I smile back at Lindsay, knowing exactly where her thoughts took her just now. You know, when we broke up, I never thought we would ever reach this place of love and acceptance again. We were much too angry with and hurt by each other to see the other’s point of view. But with the help of talking, and dare I say it, Colby, we have managed to co-parent and become the friends we once were. I think it hilarious that when she and Colby have their arguments, he comes to me for advice, or at the bare minimum, some understanding. I suppose it seems fair since Leda goes to Lindsay. Now that’s weird!

Leda and I came back into contact about a year after Lindsay left. Marianne and I just weren’t going to make it. Even though she and I were pretty much career dykes, she still had a problem that I had children who needed me. It was a constant source of contention since she wanted all my attention and I was dedicated to making amends with my family, which now included Lindsay and Colby. So when she and I parted ways, I took the time to really work on me and figure out what I wanted. It wasn’t easy to do, especially considering everyone else around me was paired up.

At first, it was a lonely life I was living, but focusing on work and then the trials- and on how Jenny and Gus were processing everything- helped tremendously. It also gave me limited patience to accept Deb’s judgment of me for siding with Jenny instead of forcing her to see or talk to Michael. I nearly jumped for fucking joy when Jenny asked me to keep her grandmother away from her. Don’t get me wrong, I love Deb, but we all know how she can be when something is not going her way. It wasn’t hard to see where Michael got his dog-with-a-bone mentality from. Jenny asked me to do it before she ended up decking Deb, so as any good mother would, I opted to keep my child out of juvie. Needless to say I was called all sorts of bitches, but it didn’t matter because Jenny was happy. And that was all that mattered to me at the time.

I worked untold hours to pay Brian back the money I took from Gus’ college fund. Instead of thanking me for doing the right thing, he called his attorney, and between the two of us, we sued Michael for back child support to recoup the money that was the cause of me taking the money in the first place. Because of the amount left in his bank account, even after his attorney fees, I was able to pad Jenny’s college fund considerably and still have enough to pay all of her expenses beyond that. It was a great thing not to have to worry about money after so many years of having to do so. Meanwhile, the relationship between Brian and I steadily changed. I know now that I was seeing ghosts where there weren’t any for most of the time I’d known him. Everyone tried to tell me that, but you know that person who just has to always be right? Yeah, I tend to share that in common with Deb and Michael- not a trait that I’m proud of, but I’m working on it.   

BEN’S POV

Life after Michael Novotny is GOOD! It took me a while, but I’m finally in a place of peace and contentment. It helps that the man who I’m seeing now was looking to put down roots that have nothing to do with Brian and Justin. Brandon gives me so much more than I ever thought I deserved. He accepts me for everything I am, not despite HIV, the way Michael did. Sometimes I still have doubts when he looks at other men, but he reminds me of very key thing. He’s with me, but he’s certainly not dead, and neither am I. As long as we window shop and don’t buy anything, then there really isn’t any harm done. I laughed the first time he came up with that analogy because as quiet as it’s kept, he’s as much of a shopaholic as Brian. On the days when he and the illustrious, always fashionable Mr. Taylor-Kinney go shopping, Justin and I make it a point to disappear into the nearest coffeeshop to have lunch and catch up.

Getting to really know Justin, I understood exactly why Michael had a problem with him. He’s near-genius level intelligent and can converse on just about anything; he’s charismatic and has a sense of himself that matches Brian to a tee. Even if I had never arrived on the scene, Michael would have always been on the outside looking in where Brian and Justin were concerned. I remember telling Colby once that Michael was like Icarus, flying too close to the sun. And like that fabled character, Michael has surely crashed and burned, never to rise out of the ashes of his own foolery. If one was to ask me, the thirty years he received as punishment for his misdeeds over the years was too light a sentence, since in some way or another, one or all of us will forever suffer the effects.

But in the meantime, I will continue to live my life to the fullest with my friends, who are really my family, and my man. Yeah... LIFE IS SO FUCKING GOOD!

JENN’S POV

I won’t lie...I miss Deb, but after the way she’s acted, I can’t be friends with her. The audacity of that woman to think that everyone should support Michael against Justin. Well, that obviously didn’t happen. If there is one thing I’m sad about, it’s that her continued blindness has now left her all alone.

As for everything else… well, while all of the people who contributed money to the Organization; Craig, along with Stockwell, Vance, the Hobbs Sr. and Junior, and Kip Thomas each received fifty years in prison. With any luck, one or all of them will piss off Bubba and end their lives a lot sooner. Harsh? Damn fucking right, I am! They messed with my babies- yes, once again I’m including Brian in that, but don’t tell him- so they deserve to get fucked in any way imaginable. One good thing came out of the trials though, and that’s that there was no trial for Evangeline Charles. No one is sure how it happened, since she came through the operation fine according to those inept, vindictive doctors who operated on her. But when they had gone to check on her in post-op, she had been dead for some time. I can’t say that I was sorry for what happened to her. I know we were all concerned about the influence she would have behind bars, and there was no way to guarantee that the people with vendettas against her would keep her contained. So even though she’s not serving time, I’m pretty sure that if God is merciful, she’s being jabbed every second of the day by Satan’s pitchfork. It’s still less than she deserves, but an eternity of torture… well, it’s a start.

Back to Craig for a moment… the ass still had the audacity to think that I was going to bail him out. From what I understand, Molly should be receiving a living bequeathment shortly. Sarah called and told me about it. Hmm, wonder what she’s up to now...

JUSTIN’S POV

I love this man… There is nothing that I could say about what it means to still have Brian by my side after everything we’ve been through. There were times when I never thought we’d get to this point in our lives. Hell, when I arrived back in Pittsburgh after being gone so long, I was willing to do whatever I could to see that we didn’t. We both were suffering too much, seeing each other every now and again in search of fame and fortune. Being together was easy; being apart wasn’t. Needless to say, I’m glad that he didn’t let me win that argument, that he actually fought for what he wanted this time, instead of falling back on the old mantras that kept his heart from me. I’m glad that he didn’t let me run away and ruin both of our lives in the process. Yeah, I can admit that now… I would have run as fast and as far away from him as I could and from all the pain he’s represented to me for many years. But, I’ve also learned that Brian is the only one who has ever had the power to make me stay. There’s always been some invisible string which has kept me tied to him, even when all we wanted to be was free of the other. Looking back on all of it now, I hope it stays that way for us. Hell, if they didn’t destroy us, how dare we engage in self-sabotage now? Besides, I have a feeling everyone will kick our asses if we do.

I try not to think of our main detractor too much, but sometimes I just can’t help it. I don’t hate Michael. I know that many of you would gasp at that revelation, but don’t. In order to hate someone, you have to feel a certain way about them, and I don’t. Instead, I feel completely indifferent about him, and I think that’s the real tragedy. It used to be that I would at least call an ambulance and wait for it to arrive if he was bleeding in front of me, even if I hated him. Now, I would certainly call the ambulance as my civic duty, but I wouldn’t wait around to see if it arrived or not. Brian said he would rather me hate him than be indifferent towards him. I think Ethan found that out too, in the end. It was a hard lesson to receive at the end of his life, I suppose. Please don’t misunderstand… I’m in no way a completely cold person, but there is only so much I could take before I reached this point. And I have taken much over the years, so now I choose to literally put it all behind me… to put the Michael Saga behind me once and for all, and live my life the way I’ve always wanted to. And if Brian should bring him up from time to time, I’ll listen to what he says, but without addressing the Michael issue. He did the same for me many times in terms of Craig, so it’s the least I can do for him.

As for Deb, I don’t hate her. I pity her. But it’s more than clear that how I used to view her will forever be skewered by the scornful way she treated Brian and I throughout this ordeal. I may forgive her eventually, but we will never be the same way again. As I look over at the man I married, I know that no matter what, I’m okay with it all.

BRIAN’S POV

So this is officially the end of some eventful times in our lives. And I can honestly say I couldn’t be happier. Between the trials and Gus moving out, I crave normalcy. I never thought I was say such a thing but yeah… I find that other than this beach we’re on, I just want to sit the hell at home with my head in Justin’s lap, watching tv or fucking until our eyes are crossed. See? Normal! Well for us, anyway.

I owe Theodore a huge raise. If it wasn’t for him pulling my head out of my ass some years ago, I would have never gone after Justin. I would have worked myself into an early grave and just been fucking miserable for the rest of my life. I would still be beholden to the ideals of a few, while once again, punishing myself for shit that wasn’t my fault. When Justin and I first got out of the hospital, we spoke to Dr. Alex Wilder to try to process everything, prior to the trials beginning. We knew we were in for some details that would rock the core of who we were, as men and as a couple.

Talking to Alex for those sessions went so well, that whereas Justin ended his, only keeping them up on an as needed basis, I decided to continue with my own on a more continuous rotation. Justin didn’t question it or comment unnecessarily, but I know that he was silently supporting me and if I needed to talk beyond Alex, he’s always been here. As a result, Justin and I are stronger. We’re able to put things into the correct context instead of existing in the preconceived notions of others, who really don’t know us behind closed doors. We still argue like the world’s on fire, but we set the world on fire when we make up. Yeah, sometimes, I start fights on purpose just to have Dom Justin come out to play. Don’t judge me- he’s fucking hot when he’s angry! But all in all, we’ve come through all of the tribulations like tempered steel. We’ve been burned, tried, tested, and still standing.

Ironically in all of this, I really don’t miss the Novotnys all that much. I mean, sometimes I do, but I think it’s more out of habit than any real emotion. I know that I cared deeply for them at one time, but there is only so much abuse that I could continue to take. I know now that I used them as my crutch for a long time, as if I had a broken foot for more than twenty years. In a lot of ways, that revelation was sad. If you think about it, I was the one with a career that was to be envied, a sex life that most people dream about, and a six-figure bank account that most wish for. If I had looked at all I had accomplished in my life on paper, I should have been a lot more self-reliant than I was in reality. It took meeting and ultimately fighting for Justin to make me see all that; to make me see just how capable I’ve always been; to really show me what unconditional love was about; to really understand the difference between love and abuse since they had been synonymous in my world for so long. So now letting go of my crutches, while painful at times, is also very liberating.

And speaking of no longer being enslaved, Joan and Claire will no longer be a factor for the nephews and I. After the sentencing, I took a look at the paperwork that I had regarding the house and bank accounts. Apparently Joan forgot that everything had my name on it, which was fortuitous since I didn’t need to see her ever again after watching her being led away in handcuffs from the courtroom. I asked both John and Peter what they wanted me to do with the money and property since I didn’t need any of it. After much discussion, they asked me to have the house fixed up and sold for not a penny less than market value. It was no sweat off my brow and they came away from the sale significantly financially stable. Ted has been helping them to invest it wisely. As for the boys- or the young men, I should say- each of them are beyond happy. They both work for Kinnetik Corp. and JT Designs, Inc. Also John freelances for Sarah and crew whenever asked. We’ve all still kept up relationships with all of our friends in the FBI. An ordeal like the one we’ve all endured tends to make you not want to let go of the people who saved your life in so many ways.

Speaking of which, Jason Dumas… well what can I say about him except that he is no longer a ghost in mine and Justin’s bed. Someone had gotten their hooks into him but good, and he now uses our house as a vacation or regrouping spot. I can’t help but laugh at the irony. Outside of that though, business between Kinnetik and Avlossa is still booming. The campaign Justin and I came up with more than tripled their market share and they just signed a three-year deal with us so we have some work to do once we return from Tahiti. And now that I have adequate staffing with the acquisition of Vanguard and all its contracts, swimming with the sharks of New York is no longer a worry.

Justin and I have survived much, but it was worth it all just to look over and see him beaming that Sunshine smile at me. After too many years of wondering if I’d ever be able to wake up to him, I’m never letting him get away from me. I have finally come to that place where I can say, I don’t want anything more than the man next to me to continue to share my life. So fuck the sands of the hourglass, the worries, and people who will always think they can destroy what the Taylor-Kinneys are building. The world, this love, this time we have is ours, and it’s FOREVER!