“Well, if anything proved that Justin has once again been brainwashed by that asshole Brian, that was it,” Melanie finally said, breaking the silence that had descended upon the group after the blond had left them.

“I can’t believe that Sunshine is supporting Brian,” Debbie said still looking at the door that Justin had just left by. “Of all the asinine things that Brian Kinney has done, this has to top them all, and Justin just stood there and said that Brian had a fucking reason for doing this.”

“Justin will do anything to get Brian,” Michael stated. “He knows that what Brian is doing will alienate him from the rest of us so he figures that this will be his best chance to get close to him. Get Brian when he’s alone.”

“That’s just a load of crap,” Emmett told his friend. “Justin said what he said because he loves Brian, and Brian already loves Justin so didn’t even start with that Michael. Besides, as much as it pains me to say, I think Justin may have a point.”

“What?”

“How can you say that?”

“What the fuck do you mean he may have a point?” Came from various occupants of the booth.

“Emmett, don’t tell me you actually agree with Justin about Brian suing for custody of Gus,” Lindsay asked, hurt that her friend might think she was a bad parent.

“I’m not saying that Brian is right about suing for custody,” Emmett tried to clarify, not withering under the stares by his friends. “All I’m saying is that I can see where he and Justin might get the idea that you are favoring Annie over Gus to the extent that Gus might be feeling ignored and unloved.”

“I can’t fucking believe this,” Mel shouted before lowering her voice. “After everything we’ve done for you, including taking you in after you left Ted, you’re trying to tell us that we aren’t good parents to Gus. You’ve lived with us. You’ve seen how we are with Gus. How can you even fucking sit there and try to say we’re unfit.”

“Emmett, what the fuck are you thinking,” Michael interjected, obviously supporting Melanie and Lindsay.

“I’m not saying that you’re unfit parents and I do know that you love Gus,” Emmett explained. “And I know you’ve done a lot for me. And, yes, I know you love Gus. I’m just trying to say that ever since you had Annie, I’ve noticed that you seem to concentrate more on here than on Gus. But it’s not just you, though. All of us are guilty of doing it. We’ve all been so busy paying attention to Annie that we’ve been ignoring Gus and I’m sure that he’s seeing that as us not loving him anymore.”

“Gus knows we love him,” Debbie objected. “We’ve told him that since the day he was born. How can he think that we don’t love him anymore?”

“Probably the asshole has been saying something,” Melanie said. “He’s always willing to take advantage of whatever he can and if he has an opportunity to fuck up our lives, he takes it. He hates me and Lindsay together and probably hopes this will split us up.”

“Mel, honey, you know that’s not true,” Emmett interrupted. “Brian has never gone out of his way to interfere in your relationship with Lindsay and you know it. You’re just too damn stubborn to admit it, if only to yourself. If Brian didn’t want you and Lindsay together, why did he go out of his way to make sure your wedding went off perfectly? Why was he willing to sign over his parental right to Gus in the first place, if it wasn’t to get the two of you together? As for him hating you, he has never let his feelings towards you show in front of Gus, and that’s something I can’t say about you. How many times have you yelled at Brian, or called him asshole or fucker or bastard in front of Gus. That kind of thing has an affect on a child.”

“He’s right,” Ben agreed, finally speaking up. “There are so many studies out there about how much children hear, even when we don’t think they are in hearing distance or we think that they are too young to understand what you are saying. The fact that you have made no secret of how you feel to Brian has to of come through to Gus. And, in a way, I can see that it is affecting how everyone acts towards Annie as opposed to Gus.”

“Mind explaining what the fuck you mean?” Debbie asked, not even making a pretense of getting back to work. Luckily most of the customers had left, most of them to go spread the latest gossip about the reigning king of Liberty. Ben took a deep breath, organizing his thoughts. He didn’t want to offend anyone, especially his lover, so he wanted to make sure everyone understood what he was trying to say.

“Okay, let me try and break this down. When everyone here thinks of Brian, what are some of the first things that come to mind?”

“Slut.”

“Asshole.”

“Pain in the ass.”

“Stubborn, selfish bastard.”

“Someone who cares only about himself,” were the various replies from around that table and Ben shook his head. He wasn’t surprised by the answers.

“Okay then. Now say what first comes to mind when you think of Michael.”

“Caring.”

“Helps a friend.”

“Good father.”

“Goes the extra mile.” Again, Ben wasn’t surprised by the answers. They were all things that he thought of when thinking of his lover.

“All the same kind of things that could be used to describe Brian.”

“Bullshit,” Mel said.

“It’s not bullshit,” Ben countered. “In the two years that I’ve been around, I’ve seen Brian Kinney do more for his friends than anyone else here. He got everyone together to help plan a wedding, supported his lover and his best friend in their endeavor to start their own comic. Paid for Justin’s education, even when Justin was with Ethan. Helped out Emmett by getting him some extra business, and helping to locate a place from which he could run that business, and contributed some free marketing to. Something which most companies pay a small fortune for.

“He helped Michael and I find a good lawyer to get custody of Hunter, not to mention him lending Michael his car when he was going to take off with Hunter. And how can any of us actually forget Brian almost going bankrupt by single handedly paying for all those ads back when Stockwell was in trying to go for Mayor. He lost his job, had to sell off almost everything, and he didn’t ask for anything in return. Not even an acknowledgement of what he did.”

“We didn’t ask him to do that,” Mel defended. “He did that all on his own.”

“With a whole lot of prodding from everyone one of you. Hell, Deb, I witnessed on more than one occasion you basically told Brian it was his fault that Stockwell had such a good chance to win. And yet not one of you said anything to him when it came out that he had financed the ads that won Deekins the election. You were all just more than happy that he did what none of the rest of you were willing to do, which is basically to put your money where your mouths were.”

“We didn’t have the money.”

“And neither did Brian, or did you all forget that he was out of work when he did those ads? But, admittedly, that has nothing to do with Gus. Let’s get back to him and what Brian has done as a father.

“Lindsay, since you’ve had Gus, how much money has Brian given you and Mel?”

“I’m not sure,” she answered hesitantly. “A couple thousand maybe. Maybe more.”

“And did he ever stop? Even when he didn’t have the money to spare?” She shook her head. “And what about now that Annie is around? Is he giving you more money to help?”

“A little, but that doesn’t mean a thing.”

“He just knows that Michael can’t afford to give us that much,” Mel defended, looking over at Michael. “Not that we’re blaming you Michael. We knew going into this that you couldn’t give it to us, not with the comic and the store and then with Hunter but we still wanted you to be the father.”

“But you naturally assumed that Brian would help out even more when you had Annie, didn’t you,” Emmett joined in, seeing where Ben was going. “Don’t even bother trying to deny it, Mel. Like you said, I stayed with you for quite a bit of your pregnancy and I overheard quite a few conversations between you and Lindsay and there was more than one occasion where money came up.”

“Well why shouldn’t Brian help out the girls,” Debbie insisted, jumping to their defense. “He always makes sure that Gus has the best of everything, its only fair that he helps out for Annie.”

“Why?” Ben broke in. “Annie isn’t his responsibility. He had nothing to do with her conception, other than supporting Michael in his decision to father her. And you said that you didn’t expect Michael to help out because of his responsibilities. What about Brian’s? He already has Gus, not to mention helping Justin out with his tuition. Plus he has the added expense of opening his own agency, which cost much more than running the store. I’d say all in all, expense wise, Brian has just as much to worry about, if not more than Michael, because at least Michael has me to help him out. Justin can’t do as much just yet.

“Brian doesn’t have to help you out with Annie, or bring her presents like he does Gus, and yet he always makes sure that she doesn’t feel left out. I’ve seen him on more than one occasion bring something for Annie if he was bringing something over for Gus. And that’s something that none of us can claim doing for Gus.”

“What do you mean, Ben?” Michael asked his lover.

“Michael, how many times have we gone over to the girls’ house and brought something over for Annie, without even thinking of bringing something for Gus?”

“Annie is my daughter. Why shouldn’t I bring her a gift when I visit?”

“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t bring her something, but is it fair that it appears that she is the favored child,” Ben asked. “I understand you wanting to make sure that Annie knows she has a father that loves and adores her, but can you see how Gus might see it. We’re talking about a four year old boy who is being forced to watch as his role in his family is being usurped by his little sister. He is being forced to watch as he is constantly pushed aside, if not completely forgotten, in favor of Annie.” Ben then turned to Lindsay and Melanie, who had become quiet as Ben and Emmett had spoken.

“Speaking of Gus, where is he?”

“We left him with a sitter,” Lindsay said softly. “We didn’t want to take bring him when we went to confront Brian.”

“But you didn’t think to leave Annie with the sitter?” Emmett asked. “Gus must have loved that.”

“Can we please get back to the problem at hand,” Debbie questioned. “Namely what the hell we’re going to do about Brian and this idiotic idea he has of suing for custody of Gus. We have to decide what we’re going to do about it. We have to make sure that Brian knows that we aren’t going to support him in this. And we have to get Justin to see that he is making a huge fucking mistake in supporting Brian.”

“Count me in, Ma,” Michael chimed in. He handed Annie back to her mother. “You let me know if there is anything I can do to help you, and I’ll do everything I can to try and talk Brian out if this. I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking, but I’m sure that if we all give him time he’ll realize what a mistake he is making. There’s no way that Brian will want to have Gus around full time. That’s just way more responsibility than he will be able to handle, let alone want to handle.”

“And you know Blake and I will support you in any way we can,” Ted agreed, not noticing the wince that statement caused in Emmett. “It might not be much but we’ll do what we can.” Everyone looked over at Emmett and Ben, waiting for them to join them in their support. Ben gave his lover a sad shake of his head.

“I’m sorry Michael, and Mel and Lindsay, but I can’t choose sides on this.”

“Ben?”

“No, Michael,” Ben repeated. “I can’t, and won’t, be made to choose sides. I know how hard this is going to be for you, Mel and Linds and I’m sorry about that, but we have to think about what’s best for Gus. He’s a little boy who doesn’t think you love him. I’m not saying that Brian is the best father; lord knows he’s got a lot of problems, but maybe he is what Gus needs right now to adjust to having Annie in your lives. Maybe he needs to feel like he’s number one in someone’s eyes. And Brian and Justin will do just that. In fact, I’d say out of all of us, they may be the only ones who are capable of doing that right now.”

“I agree with Ben,” Emmett said quietly, drawing gasps from the other occupants, and a look of betrayal from Melanie and Lindsay. “Now that Justin brought it to our attention, especially the way he did, I can see what he means. We do favor Annie over Gus, and I can’t help but think that a lot of that has to do with who their fathers are. Gus’s birthday party was a prime example. We were all fawning over Annie, even brought her presents, when it should have been Gus’s day. We completely ignored that little boy to the point that apparently he decided he would rather leave his own party than deal with that. And that’s when he is only four. What’s going to happen if nothing improves and can any of you promise that it will?” No one answered.

“That’s what I thought. None of us have ever made any secret of how we feel about Brian, and Mel you hate him. “You’ve never made that any secret. In fact, you go out of your way to cut down Brian every chance you get, even when he has done something that we should be proud of him for doing. And I’m sure Gus is sensing that on some level since you have never made a secret of that. That little boy sees, and hears, us bitch about his dad while none of us ever really have a bad word to say about Michael. On some level, he’s got to think that’s affecting how we all feel about him. Maybe staying with Brian will be good for him.”

“I don’t fucking believe this,” Debbie exclaimed. “I don’t understand how you two can sit there and say how Gus will be better off with Brian Kinney.”

“Debbie,” Ben tried to get her to calm down but the red wigged waitress wasn’t having any of it.

“Don’t Debbie me, Ben Bruckner. Not when you’re sitting there and telling me that you think Gus, sweet, innocent, little Gus, would be better off if he was raised by that asshole Brian,” Debbie said. “In fact, I don’t want you saying another word.”

“Debbie.”

“You too, Emmett,” she interrupted. “In fact, why don’t you and the professor just leave now so that we can try and discuss how we are going to make sure that this doesn’t happen?”

“You can’t be serious, Debbie,” Emmett asked, having never been on the receiving end of Debbie’s anger. The waitress just glared at him. “Debbie?”

“Out.” Ben and Emmett looked at her, and the around the table, seeing only silent glares reflected at them. Ben nodded his head, standing up. He didn’t even lean down to give Michael a kiss goodbye.

“Come on, Emm. I’ll buy you a drink.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Emmett said, standing and joining Ben. The two men left the diner, the remaining members of their family wondering what other havoc Brian Kinney would cause them.