Time moves differently when your child is missing. Brian would wake up every morning and get ready for work his attention split between the clock on the wall and the phone. He'd be at work, being fabulous when he needed to be, but again most of his attention would be either on the clock or the phone. He'd check her cell phone dozens of times during the day to make sure he hadn't missed an important call. And, time would drag. What felt like hours, would be mere minutes. What felt like days, would turn out to be only hours. Time moved slowly, deliberately from hour to hour, day to day, week to week. Brian looked at the calendar on his desk and realized that it had been exactly six weeks since Gus had disappeared. It felt like a lifetime. Detective Crenshaw continued with the investigation. He tried to appear upbeat and optimistic when he spoke to Brian or Melanie and Lindsay, but Brian could see through the mask the man wore. He could see the truth in his eyes. Crenshaw was losing confidence in finding Gus alive. Brian was, too. Nights took on a life of their own. Brian slept only a few hours a night. Then he would do what Justin called prowl. He'd climb out of bed and pace the length of the loft. He'd drink, but not to get drunk. He wanted to be numb. He didn't want to feel. Even though it seemed that's all he did. It was on one of these many nightly prowls that Brian heard a noise from the steps and saw Justin standing at the door to the bedroom a sheet wrapped around him. His hair tousled from sleep. "Prowling again?" He asked as he crossed to the refrigerator opening it and pulling out a bottle of water. "Didn't mean to wake you." Brian said in way of an apology. "You didn't." Justin stated flatly. "I just can't sleep." Brian said matter of factly. "Too much running through my head." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I keep wondering where he might be. Is he okay? Does he know that there are people who care and will never give up looking?" Brian eyes stung with unshed tears and he rubbed them angrily. "Does he really know how much I love him?" "Brian." Justin said moving to face the other man. "You are not your father." Brian looked up sharply. "You love Gus and he knows that. How could he not?" Brian shook his head and looked away, but Justin gently turned his face back. "I know why you do this. I know why you stay so distant. You're afraid." Brian shook his head no. "Yes, you are. You're afraid that you'll somehow turn into your father. That you'll fuck up and hurt him by doing something stupid." Tears slowly tracked their way down Brian's face. "But, you are nothing like that man. I may not know everything. But, I pay attention. I see more than most people know about because I listen and I watch. I know that he hurt you physically, emotionally. I wish that I could take that hurt away. I'd do it in a heartbeat if I could." Brian nodded knowing his lover meant what he was saying. "You aren't him. You could never be like that. There is no way that Gus would love you so much if you were. Don't you see that?" "I do now." Brian said tears flowing more freely now. "But, what if I never get the chance to tell him." Brian took a shaky breath. "What if he never comes back and I never get to tell him how much I love him and how important he is to me." "He knows." Justin said simply. "How do you know that?" "Because I do, too." Justin said. Brian frowned. "I know that you love me. You show me everyday. You've never said it and I might never hear it from your mouth, but you say it with everything you do for me, with me. You've been saying it to me since the first night we met." "I'm just so tired of waiting." Brian said voice choked with emotion. "I just want him to come home." "I know." Justin said pulling Brian into his arms. "I do, too." They stood there for several minutes while Brian cried and Justin held him. When Brian finally pulled away, he leaned in capturing Justin's lips. The kiss deepened as Justin allowed himself to be maneuvered back up to the bedroom. Allowed himself to be the way for Brian to grieve. -- Brian and Justin went to Melanie and Lindsay's house the following day. It had become a ritual between them all to meet once a week and regroup. Sometimes they argued, well, Melanie and Brian argued, while Justin and Lindsay tried to referee. Sometimes, they would discuss new flyers that were being made, a new picture that had been used this time. Sometimes they sat in a tomb-like silence only interrupted once in a while by Jenny Rebecca's baby-babble or crying. The crying was usually a byproduct of the stress she most certainly had to sense in the house, but sometimes it was simpler and a new diaper, food, or just being held seemed to sate her. It was on one of these tomb-like days that the phone rang startling them all. Melanie nearly toppled off the couch where she'd been lying silently playing with Jenny. Lindsay lifted the receiver as if she were afraid it might burn or bite her. "Hello." She said softly. "Oh, yes, hello Detective." Lindsay fell silent her eyes widening. "Are you sure?" More silence as the rest of them gathered around the phone watching in wonder and confusion listening to the one-sided conversation. "Yes. Okay." Lindsay lowered the phone back into the cradle staring at it as if she'd never seen one before. "What?" Melanie asked impatiently. "They found him." Tears sprang from Lindsay's eyes. "They found Gus." "And?" Brian asked feeling as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff waiting for that one final push that would send him head long into oblivion. "He's alive!" Lindsay shouted as she laughed and cried all at the same time. "He's alive." "Oh my God!" Melanie said looking like Christmas had come early. "Where? How?" "There was a man who tried to cross into Canada with him." Lindsay said sounding as astonished as everyone else felt. "The guard had the man pull over because of a problem with the man's passport and they stopped him. The border guard suspected that his passport was fake then became even more suspicious because Gus was sleeping so soundly. Turns out he'd been drugged." Lindsay said dissolving into her wife's arms. "Where the hell has he been?" Melanie asked her voice muffled by Lindsay's shoulder. "Crenshaw didn't say." Lindsay pulled away. "We need to get to Buffalo." "As in Buffalo, New York?" Justin asked. "That's where he is." Lindsay said excitedly. "We need to get there." She turned to Brian, but he had already pulled out his phone and was making flight plans. "Oh, JR?" Melanie asked. "I need to call Michael." She produced her own cell phone and called Ben and Michael's house. -- Brian packed haphazardly not really paying attention to what he was throwing into his suitcase. On several occasions, Justin pulled the last item out and replaced it with something Brian would need exchanging jeans for suit pants and making sure Brian had managed to pack the bare essentials for bathing and shaving. The whole time, the other man seemed to be floating about six inches off the ground. Justin found it completely endearing that Brian was humming without even knowing it. Listening more closely, Justin was stunned to hear that the tune Brian was humming was the theme to 'Sesame Street'. He smiled to himself and continued with his own packing. An hour and a half later all four of Gus' parents met at the check in desk for Liberty Air. They checked in quickly, went through security with Brian whispering, 'come on, come on' under his breath and finally made it to the gate with 20 minutes to spare. They sat down to wait, but Melanie and Brian kept popping up and pacing. When the flight attendant made the announcement that they were ready to start boarding, Brian was the first to grab his carry on bag and head to the gangway. "Come on." He said looking back at the others impatiently. "We're in first class. We can board now." -- The flight seemed to take forever even though in reality it only took about 45 minutes to an hour. When they landed and the seat belt signs where finally turned off, Brian popped up again like a jack-in-the-box to retrieve their carry on bags from the overhead and rushed them all off the plane. Melanie opened her mouth as if to protest, but quickly shut it. Brian figured she realized that she didn't really want to protest after all. They grabbed the first cab they saw and headed to the police station where Crenshaw would be waiting and where Gus was waiting for them. The idea made Brian giddy and he had to fight the urge to giggle uncontrollably. He wanted to see his son so badly that it actually hurt to wait for even the uneventful 20-minute cab ride to the precinct. "Do I look all right?" Lindsay asked suddenly trying to see her reflection in the cab's rearview mirror. "You look beautiful." Melanie and Brian said at the same time and started laughing. It wasn't all that funny, but the stress of the day triggered the spontaneous laughter attack and it took nearly the rest of the ride for the duo to regain some semblance of control. Justin smiled at the antics of his lover and Melanie. They were laughing hysterically holding onto one another as tears from laughing so hard slipped unnoticed down their cheeks. "You two are impossible." Justin said smiling at them as they finally stopped their guffaws, but were still smiling and chuckling to themselves as the cab pulled up in front of the police station. It took every once of control Brian had not to race into the station and start calling for Gus. He held Justin's hand tightly taking the front steps two at a time. Melanie was in the same mindset and all but dragged Lindsay up the stairs and into the building as quickly as she possibly could. They were met by Detective Crenshaw at the front desk. "That was fast." Crenshaw said as they all walked in. "I pulled a few strings." Brian said. "Got us here as quickly as possible." "How is he?" Lindsay asked. "Is he all right? Was he hurt in any way?" "We had a doctor look him over." Crenshaw explained. "He has no physical injuries, but we haven't been able to get him to talk about where he's been in the last month or what has happened to him." Lindsay nodded knowing that anything could have happened to her son while in the hands of his abductor, but pushed those thoughts aside as soon as they popped into her head. "Can we see him?" Brian asked. "Of course." Crenshaw said smiling. He led them down a corridor to a small room where they caught their first glimpse of Gus. He was sitting at a small table in what appeared to be a room designed for children with a coloring book open focusing on the picture he was coloring with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth as he ran the crayon over the image. He looked up when the door opened and smiled. "Mommy!" Gus shouted as he stood up and ran to his mother. Lindsay picked him up as he barreled into her and held him close to her for several moments unable to even think about letting go. "Mama!" Gus shouted then reaching for Melanie. Lindsay reluctantly let Gus squirm out of her arms and into Melanie's. "Oh, baby." Melanie said as tears coursed down her face. "Oh, Mama's baby." She could barely think as pent up emotions broke free. "I was so scared. Mama thought she'd never see you again." She smiled as she kept repeating, 'I love you' over and over again. She held him to her covering every inch of his face with kisses. When he turned to avoid the onslaught, he saw Brian and Justin. His face broke out in a mega-watt smile that Brian thought only Justin was capable of. "Daddy!" Gus shouted reaching for his father. "Jus-Jus!" Gus nearly fell out of Melanie's arms in his bid to get to Brian. Brian pulled Gus' small body close as his tears fell unchecked. Justin took Gus' hand when the boy offered it and kissed the knuckles as his own emotions started getting the better of him, tears falling down his face as well. "I missed you." Gus said softly his voice muffled by Brian's shoulder. "I missed you so much." He pulled away and looked his father in the eyes. "I missed you, too, Son." Brian said his voice cracking. "Can I come home now?" Gus asked sadly. "Of course you can." Lindsay said as she cupped his small face in her hand. "That's why we're all here, Gus. To take you home." Gus smiled widely again and buried his face in Brian shoulder. "Is there anything else we need to do, Detective?" Melanie asked. "Not right now." The detective smiled. "Take your son home and I'll be in touch in the next day or so." Melanie smiled and nodded placing her hand on Gus' back. "When does our flight leave?" Justin piped in. "9:40 tomorrow morning. I tried to book this evening, but there was nothing available 'til tomorrow." Brian said without taking his eyes off his son. "I made reservations at a hotel near the airport. We can check in any time. Hope you girls don't mind adjoining rooms." "I think we can live with that." Lindsay said smiling. "Are you tired, Baby?" She asked Gus brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Hungry." Gus said. "With the way he eats, you'd think he was your kid." Brian said looking at Justin who smiled brightly. "There's a family diner about a block from here." Said an officer at a nearby desk. "Better than anything you'd find at the golden arches." "Thanks." Brian said with a nod. "How's that sound, Sonny-Boy?" "Can I have cheeseburger?" Gus asked enthusiastically. "You bet you can." Brian said. Gus blew a loud raspberry on Brian's cheek and received a sound tickling for his trouble. Gus could barely breathe from laughing, but his laughter died quickly when they passed a room with an older man sitting at a table who was watching them with keen interest. Gus turned his face away from the man and gripped Brian's neck more tightly. "What's wrong, Gus?" Brian asked then looked up to see the man looking at Gus. "Is that the man who took you, Baby?" A barely audible 'uh-huh' came from Gus. "You sick mother-fucker." Brian said as he handed Gus off to Justin. It took three uniformed police officers and Detective Crenshaw to keep Brian from entering the room and exacting his own justice. The man on the other side of the door didn't seem phased in the least. He still watched Gus as though Brian hadn't come very close to beating him to within an inch of his life. Gus began to cry wrapping his arms and legs around Justin. "I wanna go home, Jus-Jus." Gus said frowning as only a 5 year old could. "Please. I wanna go home." "Brian." Justin said pulling Brian's attention away from the man who'd taken his son away from him. "We need to go." Seeing Gus' tears seemed to awaken Brian from a dream. He moved to his partner's side and wrapped a protective arm around them both. Lindsay watched the man as his eyes tracked Brian and Gus' movements across the room to the door. He then turned back to her and smiled. It took all her control not to repeat Brian's earlier scene in the attempt to wipe that smug look off the bastard's face. "Come on, Linds." Melanie said. She had seen the exchange and knew that in the few seconds after he'd smiled that the man had died a million painful deaths in Lindsay's mind. Melanie was only sorry that neither she nor Lindsay or even Brian would be able to take out all the pain the asshole had caused on his smug ass. She could only hope that the courts would lock him up and throw away the key. End chapter two.