The smell was terrible. Brian couldn’t get it out of his nose, even after multiple showers. The firemen, police and paramedics had all gone and the house was finally quiet after the excitement of the last hour and a half. 

Brian was amazed that Gus had slept through the whole thing. The pain killers they gave him at the emergency room last night had absolutely knocked him out; he had not stirred since they put him to bed at midnight.

He looked over at Justin who was sitting on the chair across from him. His hair was still wet from the shower they had shared and the only noticeable marks on him were the red splotches around his fingers where the chemicals from the fire extinguisher had irritated his skin. 

Brian thanked whichever God was watching over them for the hundredth time that night. He could still taste the bile in his mouth from when he threw up after they had taken Lisa away. The sight of her burning legs had been too much and he had finally lost it in the bushes close to the kitchen door. Her screams were still ringing in his ears, but what he kept trying to forget was the smell. The smell of burning flesh as Lisa’s legs caught on fire and Justin tried desperately to put it out with the fire extinguisher. Brian knew he would probably never be able to eat any kind of grilled meat again for the rest of his life. 

The firemen kept telling them how lucky they were. Things could have been so much worse if Brian had not been awake to see Lisa or if Justin had not had the presence of mind to pull the fire extinguisher off the wall, and if Mel and Linds had not been as anal as they were; having a fire extinguisher in the kitchen in the first place. 

The good news was that no one had died, neither the house nor the garage had been burnt, and after they had hosed everything down with a ton of water, the danger of anything catching fire had long gone.

“Brian,” Justin said, looking at him with concern. “You okay?”

Brian nodded, “Come over here.” 

“What a fucking nightmare this has been,” Justin said, as he moved over to the sofa and practically sat on top of Brian. 

“I know,” Brian replied. “It’s over, though, she won’t be bothering Gus anymore. Or anyone else for that matter,” Brian said sardonically.

Brian wrapped his arms around Justin, gathering strength and comfort from the closeness. He was still badly shaken and kept seeing the scene over and over in his head. Justin was trembling slightly in his arms, even though he said he was fine. 

Eventually, Brian started to move, kissing first Justin’s mouth, then the rest of his face. He kept moving his mouth all over him, smelling and touching, reassuring himself that he was safe and intact. His hands were roaming all over Justin’s body as well, feeling his arms and legs, rubbing and stroking, needing to connect. He picked up Justin’s right hand and looked at the redness that was still there from the strong chemicals. 

“I would have died if anything had happened to you,” Brian said quietly into Justin’s ear. 

“I’m fine, Brian, really, I’m okay. I can’t believe that I actually thought about grabbing that fire extinguisher. I don’t even remember doing it.”

“You were sound asleep when I left you in bed. What woke you up?”

“I’m not sure. I just sensed your absence and that woke me. It’s always been like that, you know. My body seems to have this Brian Kinney homing device. When you’re gone, it looks for you.”

Brian shook his head and huffed out a quiet laugh. “You never cease to amaze me, Sunshine. How the fuck did I ever get along without you?”

“You didn’t,” Justin said. He was trying to act calm for Brian’s sake, but he was far from it. The reality was that he was an emotional wreck right now, trying to keep it together and not get hysterical. The realization that he had come so close to losing Brian and Gus in one fell swoop was too much for him to even contemplate. 

All he knew for sure was that if it had happened, if Lisa had somehow managed to set the fire, he would have most likely died as well, because he would have stopped at nothing to try and save Brian and Gus. 

Shaking all morbid thoughts away, Justin pulled himself out of Brian’s embrace and said, “We need to call them, you know.”

“I’m aware,” Brian said. “I’m just waiting for a reasonable hour to call. We’ve already scared them once in the last few hours. This is going to be the cherry on the sundae.”

“I know, but it needs to be done,” Justin replied.

“They’ll probably take the next flight out and never let us baby sit again,” Brian said.

“We’re hardly sitting a baby, Brian,” Justin replied condescendingly, “And besides, I can honestly say that for once you had nothing to do with any of this.”

“Maybe if I had fucked her?”

“Christ! Shut up or you’re going to make me puke all over you.”

By this time it was almost six in the morning. Neither one had slept; except for the few minutes that Justin had dozed after the blowjob he had received last night. They were both going to be pretty useless the rest of the day if they didn’t get some sleep. The game was at four in the afternoon and then the dance was after that. 

“Sunshine, come on. Let’s try and catch a few hours of sleep, we’re going to feel like shit if we don’t. We can call Mel and Linds when we get up.”

“Okay,” Justin said as he pulled away from Brian, grabbed him by the hand and dragged him into the bedroom. They both fell into bed, not even stopping to take off any clothes, and were asleep within minutes of each other. 

Around ten o’clock Gus finally woke up and staggered downstairs. He looked eerily like Brian as he made his way into the kitchen; same bad bed-head, same bare feet. He was trying to find some caffeine, in either coffee or Pepsi form, and when he realized that he was alone in a very quiet kitchen, with no coffee in the pot, he had to settle for the Pepsi. He was surprised that no one was awake yet. Brian and Justin were usually up way ahead of him so the fact that they were still in bed was unusual, to say the least.

The house smelled unfamiliar too, like smoke, but the fireplace had not been lit since last winter so he didn’t know where the smell was coming from. 

He walked over to the guest room and stuck his head in. Brian and Justin were both fast asleep on top of the comforter. 

“Hey, Gus,” Brian said, as he woke instantly to the noise of the door opening.

“Dad, sorry to bother you, I didn’t think you’d still be asleep.”

“It’s okay. Come on in and sit for a minute. What time is it?”

“I think it’s around ten,” Gus answered.

Justin started to stir when he heard the voices and soon he too was awake. 

“Hey, Baby, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, ‘Daddy J’, just a little sore, but I know I’ll be able to play later on. I just need to move around and loosen up.”

“Well, that’s good,” Justin said, stretching. “I’m going to the kitchen and make us all some coffee, okay?”

“Please,” Brian said, “I need about four cups.”

Justin left the room and Brian sat up and propped the pillows against his back. He reached over to the nightstand and lit his first cigarette of the day. As he inhaled deeply, he looked at Gus and thought about the best way he could tell him what had happened last night. Gus sat cross legged at the foot of the bed, drinking his Pepsi.

“What?” Gus said. “You’re looking at me with that look again.”

“What look?” Brian asked.

“The ‘I’ve got to tell him something bad’, look.”

“God, that’s pathetic! Am I that easy to read?”

“Just by me, I guess. No one else seems to figure you out, except for ‘DJ’ of course.”

“Alright. Enough already with the Brian Kinney analysis.”

Brian took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Gus about last night’s events. As he kept on talking, as calmly and as unbiased as he could, he watched Gus’ facial expressions change from shock, to horror, to sadness. By the time he finished telling him everything, there were tears in Gus’ eyes that were threatening to spill over.

Gus moved up to Brian’s side. 

“Hey, Sonny Boy,” Brian said gently, as he reached for Gus and enveloped him against his body.

“Dad,” Gus said, as the tears started to flow down his face. “I can’t believe she did that. What kind of person does something like that?”

Gus had his face pressed to Brian’s bare shoulder and Brian could feel him shaking. 

“She’s a very sick person, Gus. She was sick for a long time, from what I understand, so this really had nothing to do with you or me, or even Kevin. This was all about her.”

“I feel terrible for Kevin,” Gus said. “I know that if anything happened to you or ‘Daddy J’, or Mom and Momma, I wouldn’t know what to do. I can’t imagine what he must be going through.”

“I’m not sure if he knows what happened last night,” Brian said. “I’m assuming that the cops have called his Dad but I don’t know what they’re going to tell Kevin.”

“Is she going to die?” Gus asked, pulling back from Brian’s shoulder and looking him in the face.

“No,” Brian said, cringing when he remembered Lisa’s screams. “But she’ll be in the hospital for a long time and in extreme pain. I doubt that she’ll ever walk again. Her legs were pretty badly burned.”

Gus swiped at his tears with the back of his hand and asked Brian, “You think we should call Kevin and his Dad?” 

Brian looked at his son, completely surprised by his reaction. He was so like Lindsay at that moment, sympathizing with the O’Riley’s and wanting to be the peace maker and make everything better.

“No,” Brian replied. “We need to let them grieve on their own. You can talk to them later, when it’s not so fresh, okay?”

“I guess,” Gus answered.

At that point, Justin stuck his head in the door and announced that the coffee was ready. He waited at the entrance to the room as he watched father and son get off the bed and walk towards him.

Gus stood in front of him and said, “You saved us, ‘Daddy J’. That was really brave what you did; I wish I had been here to see it.”

“Thank God, you weren’t Gus,” Justin replied.

Gus gave Justin a huge hug and hung on to him for the longest time. Brian moved around to Justin’s back and hugged him as well. All three of them stood together, Justin sandwiched between Brian and Gus, holding on to each other quietly, thankful that they were all here and able to do this. They broke apart when they heard the door bell ring.

“Who the fuck could that be?” Brian asked.

The three of them moved over to the front door and Gus opened it to find two policemen standing there.

“Hi, I’m Officer Fox and this is Officer Watson. May we come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” Brian said from behind.

The police stepped into the house and they made their way into the kitchen. 

Brian walked over to where the coffee pot was and reached for some mugs which were kept close by.

“Coffee?” he asked everyone in general.

“I’ll have some,” Justin replied.

“None for us,” the policemen said, “Thanks.”

“Gus?” Brian asked, raising his eyebrows.

“No thanks, Dad.”

“The reason we’re here is to give you an update on Mrs. O’Riley’s condition and to find out if you will be pressing charges for attempted murder,” Officer Watson stated.

“Murder? That’s a pretty strong word, isn’t it Officer?” Justin asked.

“It is, Sir, but that is what she was trying to do.”

“Tell us what’s going on with her right now,” Brian interjected.

“She’s at the burn unit and sedated. Her ex-husband and her parents were called when they took her in early this morning. As soon as they are able to transfer her, she’ll be put in the psyche ward for evaluation.”

“And her son?” Justin asked.

“We believe that he has not been told about the incident,” Officer Fox answered.

Brian moved over to the kitchen table and sat down. Justin and Gus were already sitting and the two Officers were standing close by.

“I would like to talk with the family of Mrs. O’Riley before we decide anything,” Brian said.

“Yes,” Justin seconded. “They’ve been through enough trauma. We should wait and see what they plan to do with her before we talk about pressing charges.”

“Well, that’s all well and good, but you don’t have much time. She will be charged with trespassing and destruction of property. That is a given. But for the murder charge, there is a window of opportunity here and you don’t want to miss it by not making any decisions,” Officer Fox told them.

“Dad,” Gus said, “We need to talk with Mr. O’Riley and Kevin first.”

“I agree with my son, officer. Window of opportunity be damned. We need to make the right choice for everyone, regardless of deadlines,” Brian said.

“Well, obviously, that is your decision. You are the injured party and it’s your choice.”

“Well, I guess that’s it for now,” Justin said as he stood up and started to move towards the front door. The police followed closely behind him. 

Justin pulled the front door open and was surprised to see Joe and Kevin O’Riley standing there.

“Hi,” Joe said looking very serious. “We were just about to ring the door bell.”

“Oh,” Justin exclaimed. “Brian,” he called out, “the O’Riley’s are here.”

Brian and Gus came out of the kitchen and stood in the hallway looking at Joe and Kevin. They were all quiet, looking at each other until the silence was broken by Gus.

“Come in,” he said.

TBC