“Jesus,” Mel swore, “the way you keep telling me to calm I’m beginning to think that you don’t care that Brian is trying to take Gus away from us.”

“You know that’s not true,” Lindsay denied. “I’m just as upset as you are about this, but that doesn’t mean that I want Gus and Annie to see how upset we are.”

“Well, Gus isn’t here and Annie’s too young to care,” Mel argued. “Anyway, why shouldn’t Gus hear what I think about his father? Maybe that will knock Brian off that pedestal that everyone has put him on.”

“Nobody has Brian on a pedestal,” Lindsay countered. “What happened at the diner proved that. You saw how everyone supported us.”

“Not everyone,” the brunette snorted. “Then again, what should we have expected from Justin. For such a sweet kid, he sure is willing to defend everything that Brian does. That man can do no wrong in his eyes.”

“That’s not true and you know it. Justin was just trying to explain why Brian was doing what he is.” Lindsay watched as Melanie filled the teapot before slamming it down onto the stove. “You can’t blame him for that, even if we think he’s wrong for doing it.”

“Of course we can’t blame him,” Melanie spat. “He’s just defending Brian “Fucking” Kinney as he tries to take our son away from us by saying we’re bad parents. Why the fuck should I be mad at Justin for that?”

“Justin wasn’t the only one who tried to defend Brian,” the blonde pointed out. “Ben and Emmett seemed to agree with him.”

“Don’t remind me,” Melanie said. “Justin I could understand. He thinks he’s in love with the asshole. But Emmett and Ben defending that prick is just unbelievable. Granted, Emmett might not be the brightest person around, but I figured that even he had to be smart enough to see through Brian’s bullshit. And I can’t believe Ben saying that Brian might be right in seeking custody. He’s Michael’s partner and Annie’s other father and now he’s saying that we’re unfit parents.”

“That’s not what he was saying,” Lindsay said. “All he said was that he could see where it would appear that we’ve been favoring Annie and that it wasn’t so strange that Brian would favor Gus because Gus is his son, the same way that Michael and Ben favor Annie because she’s Michael’s daughter. All he did was try and make everyone see Brian’s point of view.”

“Are you excusing Ben now too?” Melanie couldn’t believe what she was hearing from her lover. “He’s saying that Gus would be better off with that asshole and you’re going to try and tell me that he was right in saying the things that he did.”

“I’m not saying that he was right,” Lindsay argued. “You know I don’t think Gus would be better off with Brian. I can’t think of two better parents for that little boy than us.”

“That’s not what it sounds like to me,” Mel countered. “Maybe you would be happier if Gus went to stay with Brian.”

“Of course I don’t want Gus to live with Brian, but I also don’t want him to have to see us arguing over this,” the blonde said. “If we start arguing in front of Gus and keep bad mouthing Brian where he can hear, it will only make matters worse. What we need to do is make sure that Gus knows that we love him just as much as Annie, and that’s exactly what I intend to do as soon as we get him from Claire’s.”

“Well then we have all night to argue without having to worry about Gus hearing anything bad about his precious father,” Melanie informed Lindsay.

“What are you talking about?”

“What I mean is that when I went over to drop off Gus, I asked Claire if she would keep him for the night,” the brunette told her. “She loves having him over there and I know how much he enjoys spending the time with her and Mike.”

“And you didn’t think to ask me about our son spending the night away from home? Again?”

“You’ve never seemed to mind before,” Melanie pointed out, not seeing why Lindsay was so upset. Since Annie had been born, even for a few months before that, the women had asked their next door neighbors to keep Gus for the night so that they could have time for themselves. “And you know how much Claire and Mike enjoy having Gus since they don’t get to see their grandchildren that often.”

“That’s not the point, Mel,” Lindsay argued.

“Then what is the point, Linds, because I’m just not seeing the problem here.”

“The problem is that you didn’t bother to ask me if it was alright if Gus spent the night over at Claire and Mike’s,” the blonde said. “You don’t like it when I make decisions about Annie without consulting you, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t do the same thing with Gus. He is my son.”

“I thought he was our son. Or have you changed your mind on that?”

“No I haven’t changed my mind,” Lindsay sighed, tired of having the same argument with her wife. “All I’m trying to say is that, with Brian trying to take Gus from us, saying that we’re unfit or that we’re spending too much time with Annie and ignoring him, maybe it would be better if Gus stayed with us. He spends more time at Claire’s house than here. And if he isn’t there, he’s with Brian and Justin. The fact that you already asked them to take Gus for the whole night, without even asking me, just proves Brian’s point. In fact, us having just Gus stay with a sitter, while we took Annie to the diner, proves his point. We have been ignoring Gus.”

“Great, I can’t fucking believe this,” Melanie spat out. “One again Brian Kinney gets to dictate how we raise our son. Why am I not surprised?”

“Mel, please…”

“No, Linds, I have had it up to here with that asshole trying to dictate to us how we raise our son,” Melanie said. “I knew we should have never had him be the father but you just had to insist on it and look how well that has turned out. He has done nothing but caused problems since the day Gus was born and I have had enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that if Brian Kinney thinks that he can take away my family he is sorely mistaken. If it’s a fight that he wants, it’s a fight that he’s going to get and it will be one that he will never forget.”

Lindsay watched as her wife picked up their daughter to take her upstairs to bed. She knew how upset Melanie was about Brian suing for custody of Gus, all the while knowing exactly why Brian had felt the need to do so. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, the family had been ignoring Gus in favor of Annie, but the blonde woman had no idea of what to do to make things better. All she could do was try and make thinks up to her son and hope that thinks wouldn’t get worse before they got better.