Part 2



“Brian?” Justin breathed out.  The tall brunet was the last person he had expected to find on his doorstep.  He just stood there and stared, afraid that if he looked away, it would be an illusion.



“Are you going to let me in?” Brian asked.  Justin automatically stood aside and let Brian enter the house.  He was still staring however.  Brian huffed and reached out to bring Justin into his arms.  “I’m really here, and I’m not going anyplace.”



As soon as Brian wrapped his arms around him, Justin seemed to fall apart.  Months of stress and fear and loneliness and grief came flooding out.  On top of the rest, the guilt seemed to be the worst.  It ate at him until he feared that there would be nothing left.  He felt guilty for lying to Brian.  He felt guilty for running away.  He felt guilty for hurting his lover.



When the tears finally subsided, Justin realized they had moved to his living room and he was sitting on Brian’s lap on the sofa.  Justin looked up at Brian and soon, shame was added to his list of emotions.  He looked around his living room.  It was clean and tidy—it had to be in case the judge decided to drop in for a visit—but the furniture was all shabby and dated.  He hadn’t been able to buy anything new except for the mattress for his bed.  The carpets were worn and an ugly shade of olive green.  The walls he had painted himself, so at least they were a cheery sage green that didn’t clash too badly with the mismatched furniture and carpet.



“Why are you here?” Justin asked with his head still buried in Brian’s neck.  It wasn’t the question he wanted to ask.  He wanted to ask if Brian would stay forever, but he couldn’t do that.



“To save your sorry ass,” Brian said.  “Why didn’t you just tell me what was going on?  I would have understood.  I would have done everything I could to help you.”



“But you can’t help me,” Justin said sadly.  “There’s nothing anyone can do.”



“That’s not true,” Brian said. “Your new lawyer is coming here in about an hour to go over exactly what options you have and decide how to proceed with the next phase of this case.”



Justin lifted his head and looked at Brian eye to eye.  “You hired a lawyer?  Why?”



“To help you get custody of your kids,” Brian said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  “Did you really think I wouldn’t support you in this?”  He pushed Justin from his lap and stood to pace back and forth in the small room like a caged tiger.  “Do you really think so little of me?”



“I didn’t…”



Brian didn’t let him finish.  “I thought we were past this shit, Justin.  I thought we were at a point where we trust each other, where we don’t keep secrets from each other.  Even if I hadn’t fully agreed with you about giving Daphne a kid—which would be a bit hypocritical of me, don’t you think?—I would have still supported your decision.  And why would you ever think that I wouldn’t want to help you get your boys?  After all the shit I’ve gone through with Gus, why would you think I’d let you go through the same kind of shit alone?”



He stopped pacing and realized that Justin was crying again.  He let out a deep sigh and sat back beside the blond.  “Did you forget that I love you?  I know I don’t say it often, but I really thought you knew.”



“I know you love me,” Justin said.  “God, Brian, I’m so sorry.  I should have… should have told you… but I was so sc-scared… and they were… so… so mean!  And I just…”



Brian wrapped his arms around Justin for the second time and let his own anger go.  He’d lost Justin for six months, but he had him back again now.  “You have to promise me that you won’t ever do something like this to me again.  I can’t… function if I don’t have you in my life, even if you’re four hundred miles away.”



“I pr-promise,” Justin hiccoughed and then laughed at himself.  Brian grabbed a tissue from the box on the side table and handed it to Justin.



The doorbell rang and Brian said, “That will be the lawyer.  You go clean up and I’ll let him in. Okay?”  Justin nodded and headed for the half bathroom down the hall.



Brian opened the door and a woman was standing there, not the lawyer he had spent hours on the phone with over the last several days.  “Hello, can I help you?”



The woman narrowed here eyes at him and the permanent frown which marred her face deepened.  Brian was reminded immediately of his mother.  “I’m Esther Anderson.  I’m here to pick up my grandsons.”



Justin came out just then and nodded a cool greeting to the woman.  “You’re two hours early.  They’re still taking their nap.”



“I was in town and decided not to wait,” the witch said rudely.  “Now get my babies.”



Justin was polite but firm in his response.  “We agreed that you would pick them up at four o’clock.  They will be ready at four o’clock.  I am not waking them up from their nap for your convenience.  Come back at four and they will be ready.”



She scowled but turned her attention to Brian.  “Who is he?”



“Brian Kinney,” Justin said.



“His fiancé,” Brian told her.  “Now, if you don’t mind, we have some things to do, and you are interrupting.”



How anyone could look that angry without exploding Brian had no idea.  “You can bet I’ll be back.  And you can bet that I’ll be telling Martin about this.”



Justin closed the door in her face and leaned against it.



“There is no way in hell any child should be raised by that woman,” Brian said, “let alone your boys.  We are going to find a way and we are going to win this.  Don’t you doubt it Sunshine.”



Justin nodded and felt a little hope for the first time in months.



BJBJBJBJBJ



The lawyer, Doug Bone, arrived a few minutes later and they sat at the kitchen table while whole story came out.  Justin got a call from a friend of Daphne and John’s that they had been killed in a car accident.  That same friend told him that John’s parents had come down to Massachusetts where the family was living, arranged to have their son’s body sent back to Vermont and took the boys.  All within hours of the accident.  Justin tried calling the Andersons but they were hostile and refused to even acknowledge that Justin was the twins’ father, despite the fact that it said so on their birth certificate.  They told him that he would never get the boys.



So Justin had packed everything he owned up, used a portion of his savings to buy the minivan, and drove to Massachusetts for Daphne’s funeral and John’s memorial.  Daphne’s parents were sympathetic to Justin’s plight—they knew that John had left home young and had never wanted to go back—but there was little they could do to help.  They were grieving and they wanted their grandchildren back, but they felt helpless to do anything.  Their daughter wasn’t even going to be allowed to be buried beside her husband.



So Justin headed up to Vermont after his children alone.  He hired the local lawyer because that was all he could afford, and they presented his petition for custody to the court.



“Brian, you don’t know what it’s like up here,” Justin said. “Everyone knows everyone, and they all hate outsiders.  It isn’t like the towns that people visit on vacation or for skiing.  There was no way that judge, who just happens to be Mrs. Anderson’s cousin, was ever going to let me have my children.  But legally, he had no reason to rule against me.  So he ruled that we would have joint custody and revisit the case in six months.  They’re hoping I’ll give them reason to rule against me.”



“And what happens if you don’t?” Brian asked.



It was Doug who answered.  “The judge has to make a ruling.  Under the state laws, there can only be one continuance of a custody hearing.  Once he makes that ruling, we can do something.  If he rules against Justin, we can take the case to the appellate courts.  In the meantime, chances are good that the shared custody will remain in place and Justin will have to remain local.”



“They don’t like that I’m gay,” Justin said.  “But they can’t legally rule against me for that.  They don’t like that I’m from New York, that I’m an artist, or that I’m single, but again there’s no legal basis for ruling against me.  Then again, in their opinion, there’s no reason they have to rule in my favor either.”



“How long before the next hearing?” Brian asked.



“Three weeks,” Justin said.



Doug sighed.  “I’m not sure how we’re going to get this resolved without going to through appeals.”



Brian sat back to think about that for a few minutes.  Just then, two sets of little feet could be heard above their heads.



“They’re up,” Justin said.  He looked at Brian. “You ready to meet the terrors?”



Brian smirked. “They can’t be that bad.”



And then they were standing at the bottom of the steps and looking at the two strange men with their daddy.  Brian was surprised that their skin was no darker than his when he had time to tan—though it was a few shades darker than Justin’s—and their hair was actually a lighter shade of brown than his own.  Their eyes were even the same shade of blue as Justin’s.  The only real sign of Daphne’s mixed heritage that was visible at first glance was the wild silky curls in their hair.  In all they were adorable and would probably be drop-dead gorgeous when they grew up.



“Alex, Robbie, it’s okay,” Justin said.  The two boys responded to him by running at full speed to his side and launching themselves into his lap.  Justin took it in stride and smiled at them.  “Did you have a good nap?”



“Un-huh,” Robbie—or was it Alex?—said.  Brian found it quite disconcerting that both boys seemed to be staring at him.  “Cookie?”



“Cookie!” Alex chimed in with his opinion.



Justin laughed.  “I did promise you cookie, didn’t I.  Okay, why don’t you get into your seats and I’ll bring your cookie to you?”



The boys scrambled down and went to the booster seats that were in the only two chairs left around the small round table.  Justin got up and went to pour milk into sippy-cups and get a cookie from the cookie jar on the counter for each of the boys.



“Who you?” Alex demanded.  He and Robbie were both still staring at Brian—and ignoring Doug for some reason.



“I’m Brian,” Brian said.  He held out his hand and shook each of the twin’s hands.  “Pleasure to meet you.”



The boys giggled and then shared a look communicating some message that none of the adults could decipher.



“Picture Brian,” Robbie said and Alex nodded in agreement.  “Daddy’s picture Brian.”



Justin returned with the snack and told them, “Yes, this is the Brian in my pictures.  He’s daddy’s special friend.”



Alex mumbled around his cookie, “Okay.”



“I guess that explains why there were staring at me,” Brian muttered ruefully.



Doug spoke up, “Their grandmother will be picking them up soon?”



“Yes,” Justin said, his eyes flashing a warning that he did not want to discuss anything in front of the boys.



Doug took the hint.  “I’d like to be present for the exchange.”



“We’ll both be here for that,” Brian said.  “I don’t plan on going anywhere for quite some time.”



Justin looked at Brian.  “But what about work?  You can’t just leave Kinnetik to run itself.”



Brian chuckled.  “I have no intention of leaving my agency to flounder.  I’ll be working from here, assuming you aren’t going to toss me out on my ear.  I can handle most things electronically or over the phone.  Cynthia, Ted and the new guy I hired to supervise the account managers can handle any pitch meetings.  And if I have to, I can fly back to Pittsburgh for a couple days at a time.  I have no intention of leaving you here to deal with all this sh­– stuff on your own.”



Justin chuckled at Brian’s self-censoring but the sentiment behind his speech was something that Justin hadn’t thought he could ever hope for. “Thank you.”



“No need to thank me Sunshine,” Brian said.  “We’re a team—even if you did forget that for a while.”



BJBJBJBJBJ



Esther Anderson was no more pleasant the second time around, and it almost broke Brian’s heart to see the change in the two lively and intelligent boys her arrival produced.  They went from giggling and wresting with Justin on the floor to quiet and almost timid in a heartbeat.  She marched them out to her car and strapped them in without ever once smiling or speaking to them.



“Every time it gets harder to let them go,” Justin choked out and Brian had to agree that it really did suck.  He stood there with his arm around Justin and watched the car disappear around the corner.



“Alright, let’s get to work,” Brian said gestured for everyone to gather around the table.  “This is what we’re going to do.  Doug, you are going to do your lawyer thing.  Justin, you are going to do you artist and father thing, and I am going to do my thing.”



Justin looked rightfully skeptical, “And what exactly is your thing?”



“Why, fighting injustice,” Brian said with a smirk.  “That and shelling out cash to get the results that I want.  I’m going to get my detective up here to do some digging.  Then I’m going to put together a media campaign that will have every gay rights activist in the state up here for that hearing.  Debbie isn’t the only one who can rabble-rouse.”



Justin leaned over and kissed Brian.  “You are a great rabble-rouser, Rage.”