“You don’t think Mel was serious, do you?” Justin asked, looking between the house and his lover. “About not letting us take Gus for the weekend? She wouldn’t do that, would she?”

“I don’t think even Mel is that stupid,” Brian stated. “She’s a lawyer. She knows how it would look to the courts if she interfered with the temporary custody agreement, especially after basically being told that one of the reasons we have joint custody is because her and Linds couldn’t be bothered to show up in court.”

“I still can’t believe that they tried to take Gus away from you,” Justin said. “I mean, I knew they weren’t happy about you suing for custody, but I just figured that they would agree to talk to you about what was happening and maybe the two of you coming to the joint custody agreement, but to try and make it so that you couldn’t see Gus at all. That’s seriously fucked. That’s not just hurting you, it’s hurting Gus too. He loves you.”

“I thought we established that, when it comes to Gus and his happiness, the girls aren’t thinking all that clearly right now,” Brian said. “If they were, we wouldn’t have to be doing all this shit. I hate what this whole thing might do to Gus, especially as it gets closer to the hearing date. Shit, half his family isn’t talking to the other half and that includes the father of his little sister.”

“Fuck, I never thought about that,” Justin swore. “Mel and Linds had to be pissed when Michael told them he wasn’t going to take sides now. I wonder what this will do to his relationship with Annie.”

“Oh I’m sure they’ll make it a bitch for him to see Annie, but if they were smart, they won’t do anything too drastic. It would look bad for them.” Brian looked over at the house and took a deep breath. “Guess we should go and get this over with.”

“Yup.” Justin leaned over and kissed Brian, trying to pour all the love he felt for his lover into it. “Come on. The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can get back to the loft and start the weekend.”

“Right.” Brian opened the door and got out of the jeep, Justin doing the same on his side. The two met at the front of the sidewalk and made their way to the front door, which opened before they had even hit the porch, revealing a none too happy Melanie.

“So you finally found the balls to actually get out of your fuck mobile,” Melanie sneered, her eyes moving over both men. “I was beginning to think that maybe you thought we would actually bring Gus out to you.”

“Nice to see you to, Mel,” Brian quipped, standing in front of her, slightly in front of Justin, trying to deflect her anger from the younger man.

“Hi, Mel,” Justin greeted the brunette.

“Justin,” Melanie said, her tone becoming slightly less hostile. “I see you still haven’t come to your senses when it comes to siding with the asshole. Still thinks he walks on water, do you?”

“I just want to see Gus happy, Mel,” Justin defended his choice to support Brian. “And right now, I know he’s not. I think Brian and Gus spending time together will be good for him. You know how much Gus loves his father.”

“And yet another innocent person taken in by his bullshit,” Mel bitched.

“I am standing right here, you know,” Brian broke in. Mel returned her glare to him.

“I was trying to forget that,” she told him. Before anything else could be said, an excited voice came from inside the house.

“Daddy,” Gus screamed, running towards the open arms of his father, who scooped him up and planted a kiss on the little boy’s cheek.

“Hey Sonnyboy, ready to spend some time with me and your Daddy Justin?” Brian asked, enjoying the open affection of his son.

“Yeah,” Gus clapped his hands excitedly. Justin and Brian couldn’t help themselves and laughed at his antics.

“Linds, do you have his stuff ready?” Justin asked the blonde standing behind Mel. While Brian was busy whispering something in Gus’s ear that made the little boy laugh, Justin watched the emotions crossing Lindsay’s face, seeing both happiness at seeing her little boy and his father together, and sadness at something that he could only imagine, before she turned her attention to Justin.

“Umm, well Mel and I were talking and we thought it might be a good idea if we eased Gus into his weekends with Brian.” Her announcement brought Brian’s head up and he stared at her.

“What the fu..What do you mean, ease Gus into the weekends?” Brian demanded, making sure to amend his language since his son was in his arms. He knew Gus was accustomed to hearing his family swear, but he was getting to that age where he was repeating everything he heard and Brian didn’t want him to get into trouble for saying something he shouldn’t.

“What she means, asshole,” Melanie said, “is that maybe it would be best if maybe for the first couple of weeks, that we think it would be better if you only took Gus for a little while, bringing him back later tonight before he goes to sleep.”

“Then you can pick him up tomorrow for a couple of more hours,” Lindsay continued. “Then, if it looks like Gus is handling that okay, we can see about him spending the whole weekend with you.” Brian and Justin looked over at the women, shocked. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing. The two men shared a look, before Justin reached over and took Gus out of his father’s arms.

“Hey, little man, what say you and me go get you into your car seat while your daddy finishes talking to your moms, okay?”

“K,” Gus said, turning to his mothers. “Bye, Mommy. Bye Mama.”

“We’ll see you in a little bit, Gus,” Lindsay said, waving to her son. Brian watched his lover carry his son towards the jeep, not saying anything until he was sure they were out of listening distance.

“I don’t know what kind of fucking games you two are playing,” he said, turning to Melanie and Lindsay, “but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you put Gus in the fucking middle of it.”

“You already put him in the middle when you decided you wanted to act like his fucking father,” Mel spat out.

“I am his fucking father,” Brian hissed, not wanting to shout and risk Gus hearing him. “And, just in case you forgot, the judge said that Gus stays with us for the weekend, so I ask again, do you have his things ready.”

“Brian, please,” Lindsay pleaded. “I know how you feel about Gus. I know you love him, but we’re just trying to do what’s best for everybody. Gus isn’t used to spending so much time away from home and we’d just like to ease him into this whole thing.”

“Linds, Gus has spent plenty of time at the loft, especially in the last year,” Brian reminded the women. “Fuck, where do you think he was the entire time you were in the hospital with Annie. He is used to it and he loves spending time with me and Justin so there is nothing to ease him into.”

“Brian,” Lindsay sighed. “Please, we’re just trying to do what’s best for everyone.”

“So am I,” Brian retorted. He looked back towards the jeep, seeing that Justin had Gus occupied, although he did catch a concerned glance his way. “Gus needs to know that he’s number one in someone’s life. He needs to know he’s loved and that’s what I’m concerned about right now.”

“He knows we love him,” Melanie said. “And we’re sorry that if we’re not giving him our undivided attention, but we do have another child to worry about also. Gus needs to learn that he has to share our attention and your taking him away from us isn’t going to help that.”

“I’m getting sick of your bullshit excuses,” Brian almost shouted. “I know you have to worry about Annie, and believe it or not Gus understands that too. He loves his little sister. What he hates is the fact that ever since you two brought her home, Gus has been pushed aside in favor of her. I’ve tried talking to you about what’s being going on and you’ve both been saying that you were going to take care of it. That things were going to get better and they haven’t. Gus is still on the outside looking in and I won’t fucking have it. Last weekend was the final straw. Unless the two of you get your fucking act together, I’m going to make damn sure that when we go in front of that judge in two months, I’m going to be the one that gets custody of Gus.”

“Fuck you, Brian,” Melanie shouted, Lindsay having to physically hold her back. I’ll see you in hell before you get custody of my son. Not as long as I have something to say about it.” Brian smile evilly as he leaned closer to the brunette woman.

“But you don’t have any say about it, Mel, because he isn’t your son.”

“Brian please,” Lindsay pleaded. “Just think about what you’re doing.”

“I have Linds and I’m doing what I have to so that my son doesn’t think that he isn’t loved,” Brian told her. “Maybe you need to start thinking about what that means before it’s too late.” Brian turned then, quickly making his way to the jeep and the two people that meant the most to him.