March 22 (Part One)

Justin smothered a yawn and scrubbed a hand through his hair as he watched Emmett's team scurry around, putting the last minute touches to the banquet tables. The smells wafting out of his kitchen were making him salivate; and his stomach gurgled unhappily knowing that there would be no relief for another hour or so when everyone got there. He was tempted to sneak in and just grab an apple or some fruit to tide him over, but he'd already attempted to enter his kitchen half-a-dozen times, only to be kicked out by a frazzled Emmett, who muttered under his breath about interfering brats.

Something that greatly offended Justin.

He hadn't even planned to touch the food that they were putting together; he'd just wanted to grab some coffee and maybe a banana. But with the way Emmett had acted, you would have thought that Justin was in there, standing over the trays and stuffing his face. He knew he shouldn't have threatened Em yesterday as he'd known that Em could hold a grudge; but it had been Twinkies and he'd been interfering, and that was so not on. Justin had gotten enough interference from Brian; he wasn't going to put up with his friends doing it too.

Justin shifted in his seat, his eyes following yet another covered tray of food as one of Emmett's helpers walked past him; and his stomach rumbled again as he caught the scent of what he thought was lamb as he went past. That was so not fair. How exactly did Emmett expect Justin to resist pilfering one of his favorite sliders when he wouldn't even let him into the kitchen to get something to eat?

He looked at his watch again and frowned when he'd noticed that only five minutes had passed. Groaning, Justin huffed and slumped back into his chair, watching as tray after tray of tea sandwiches followed the guy with the lamb sliders. And then those were followed by several bowls of salad – a pesto pasta, a Yukon gold potato salad, and a mixed greens salad with a variety of dressings – and a platter of rainbow fruit skewers that just had to be Deb's idea.

God knows that only she could have talked Emmett into it after Brian had taken one look at Emmett's preliminary plans and had promptly put his foot down. He'd told both Deb and Emmett that if he saw any of that rainbow shit in his house, that he would personally see to it that they'd never receive another invitation back to Britin; and that he'd take all of his business to Designer Diner, Emmett's bitter rival, from that point on.

Emmett hadn't been all that happy when he'd heard that, and likely the skewers were his way of thumbing his nose at Brian without getting him too angry.

Justin licked his lips, each new offering looking more tempting than the last; especially when they started to set up the soup and bagel bars. And really, he was beginning to think that Emmett was purposefully doing this just to be an asshole. It was getting to the point where even the smoked salmon platter looked good, and he didn't even like smoked salmon all that much, even if he could eat it.

Scrubbing his hand over his face, Justin looked away, desperately trying to ignore all the enticing smells as the short-rib with apple slaw sliders and the Portobello sliders went by; followed by the French-toast kabobs and the mini-quiche. But it wasn't until they started setting up the sweets bar with the chocolate covered strawberries, the lemon meringue parfaits, the lemon cheesecake pies and other sweets that Justin nearly cracked and said the hell with it; he was this close to grabbing something to eat even if it meant incurring Emmett's wrath. There was no way in hell that he could wait.

"Here," a familiar voice said as a plate of food was jammed into his hand.

Justin looked down, salivating when he noted a salmon cake slider, a cup of tomato bisque, some roasted veggies and a small mound of fruit on it. Justin grinned and looked up to meet Brian's exasperated gaze.

"Emmett said to eat that and stop acting like a kicked puppy," Brian huffed, shaking his head when Justin bent his head to do just that; but he was immediately halted when Brian took his arm, holding him back. "He couldn't take the sad eyes and drooling anymore. Now lets go; after you eat that, I have a much better way for you to spend your time rather than just sitting there and strategizing your plan of attack. Let the other people eat first, Sunshine."

Justin looked at his food, and then looked up at his husband; and then he looked down at his food again and shrugged. He handed the plate to Brian and got up, happily following him up to their room. Yummy food? Check. Sexy times with a gorgeous man? Double check. It was the perfect way to start his morning.

… … … … …

Justin covered his eyes and wanted to sink into the floor while the rest of the table laughed at him; what was it about mothers and their need to embarrass the fuck out of their children at every opportunity? And his morning had started out so well too.

After he'd eaten all of his yummy goodies, Brian had dragged him into the bathroom, where they'd taken a long shower together; taking the time stroke and thouch and soap each other up before ending with a fantastic blow job that had blown Justin's mind; one that Brian had said that he could reciprocate later as Emmett chose at that exact moment to pound on their door and tell them that their guests were arriving. And then he'd spent the next thirty minutes greeting everyone, and then pointing them towards the 'guest book,' telling them to grab their commemorative #Team Sunbeam t-shirts and a rubber ducky out of the trays for their door prize.

It had then been followed by light small talk while they waited a few additional minutes for any stragglers before Emmett finally opened up the buffet. And then he was able to grab even more yummy food; and he even got to go first because he was the guest of honor, so, ha! Take that, Brian! He wasn't feeling smug at all when he scurried over to the tables and loaded his plate to the hilt; and then briefly considered grabbing a second plate when Brian had rolled his eyes and dragged his ass over to the front table, where he had his own seat of honor.

And that's when his morning went to shit.

Because also sitting at his table was his mother, Tucker, Deb, Carl, Lucille and Leo. And as this was the first time that his mother had been able to spend any appreciable time with Lucille, and she'd been knocking back mimosas like they were going out of style, the child torture began; also known as, "Let's Embarrass Justin by Telling Everyone About the Time That He Did *Insert Embarrassing Kid Moment Here.*"

It didn't help that Deb, Lucille and, not all that surprisingly, his traitorous husband were egging her on and trying to wrangle even more stories out of her about Justin's precocious childhood. And while he may not be able to do anything about his mother, Deb or Lucille, Brian was so going to pay for this later.

Huffing, Justin decided to focus on his food, blatantly ignoring his snickering husband, as his mother's next story started.

"And then, there was the time that he broke his arm," his mother giggled, taking another sip of her mimosa; yes, giggled. His mother. Giggled. Jesus Fucking Christ, how many of those fucking things had she drunk? She was so getting cut off after this one.

"Mom," Justin huffed, trying to cut her off before she could begin this one, because like hell did he want the entire party to know; he'd never live it down. "No one wants to know any of this stuff."

"Yes we do!" a voice called out; Justin snapped his head towards the voice, but couldn't figure out which asshole had said it. But he'd figure it out eventually.

"Oh, hush, Justin," his mother said, dismissing him with a careless wave of her hand; one that nearly tipped over her glass if Tucker hadn't reached out and saved it. "Brian needs to know these things, so that he'll know what he's getting himself into with your genes involved."

"Yes," Brian smirked, snickering again when Justin glared at him. Asshole. "I need to know these things."

"So, anyways, he was about four years old?" his mother said, cocking her head to the side to think about it. Justin just went back to his brunch and tried to ignore the growing mirth around him. "I think it was four, but he could have been five at the time. And he had been playing on the jungle gym at the park when he'd fallen and broken his arm."

Justin cringed as his mother paused to sip her drink; God, he hated this story. He hated it just as much as she loved telling it. He could never get away from it; or any of the others that were sure to follow because she now held a captive audience.

"So, I run over there, scared shitless," his mother continued, shaking her head at the memory. "And I'm expecting him to be crying and upset; but other than whimpering a little, he was a little trooper. So, we leave and get to the hospital, where he was examined without much fuss; he was actually doing quite well until it came time to put the cast on his arm. He watched, frowning the entire time, as the doctor wrapped him up. And then, when he was done, Justin looked at it, and then looked at us quite pissed off and said, 'now, how am I supposed to suck my thumb!' And the doctor just looked at him, completely flabbergasted for a moment before he broke down laughing. And then he gave Justin a sucker and all was well."

Justin groaned, hissing when Brian threw his head back and laughed, clutching at his stomach. Asshole. He hadn't even wanted to be at the shower in the first place; it had taken all of Justin's wiles to get him to even consider staying for brunch, including promising him all matter of sexy things in return for his cooperation, and this was the thanks Justin gets? He could so forget about all of it now.

"Oh, my god," Deb laughed, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "That is priceless. God, I wish I had even half the stories about Michael that you do about Justin; but he was always a quiet child. He preferred to stay in his room, reading his comics; at least, until this one got his hands on him." Deb nodded at Brian, who just smirked. "Do, tell us more, because wow, Sunshine, you were quite the ham."

"I do try," Justin smirked, and then took a huge bite of his lamb slider, knowing that, since there was no stopping this train wreck now, he might was well just own it.

"Well, there was this one time, when he was about three-years-old," his mother said, and Justin groaned because he was pretty sure that he knew where this was going. Fuck his life. "And we were at the mall, standing in line, waiting to see Santa." Yup, this was going exactly where Justin thought it was going. "And Craig was handing him pieces of popcorn one at a time as a snack; and I don't know what happened, but Craig must have gotten distracted, or he just wasn't handing them over fast enough; because all of a sudden, Justin frowned and stomped his foot. And then he yelled at the top of his lungs, 'MORE COCKPORN, DADDY!' And I just about died; Craig was so mortified, he didn't know what to do."

"Oh, my God," Justin whined, laying his head on the table as everyone within earshot doubled-over, practically crying with laughter. He was so done with this. "That's it; you are cut off! No more mimosas for you!"

"That right there should have tipped them off a long time ago that you weren't straight, Sunshine," Brian snickered as leaned down to whisper it against his ear. Justin huffed with annoyance and elbowed him in the side, sending him into another fit of laughter.

He was so going to get it when everyone went home.

"Well, that was amusing; but before you begin another story, Mother Taylor," Emmett said, standing up by his chair. "Can, I get everyone's attention please." Emmett paused while everyone quieted down. "First of all, the parents-to-be want to thank you for coming and hope that you are enjoying brunch." He paused again for the cheers that went up. "Now, when you first arrived, you were instructed to pick up a rubber ducky from one of the trays by the door. At this time, I'd like you to grab them, flip them over and see if there is a sun sticker on the bottom of it."

Justin watched as, one by one, the guests found and flipped their ducks over, and then grinned when Jenny let out an excited squeal. She bounced up out of her seat, ran over to Emmett and held it out to him so that he could check it.

"That's the one!" Emmett said, handing it back to her. "You, young lady have won our door prize. Here, you can have that back, and if you'll go right over there, you can choose one of the prizes and take it back to your table."

Justin smiled as Jenny grabbed the duck; and then she bounced over to Justin and hugged and kissed him on the cheek, squealing a 'thank you' as if he'd actually had anything to do with it. She then ran over to the table and almost immediately grabbed the large smiley mug that was filled with various candies; not much of a surprise given her sweet tooth. Although, she did briefly hover over one of the other prizes before grabbing the candy.

"Okay, folks," Emmett continued, smirking at Justin. "We'll take the next thirty minutes or so to finish up brunch – don't worry, there will be food available throughout the party – and then we have some games for us to play. But, until then, I'll hand it back over to Jen for our continued brunch entertainment."

Justin scowled at Emmett, who just smirked at him and sat back down next to Drew; he narrowed his eyes, knowing in that moment that Emmett was definitely trying to get him back for yesterday. He pointed at his friend, and the dragged his finger over his neck in a slicing gesture, letting him know he was in deep shit when this was over; especially when his mother started up again with barely a hitch in her stride.

… … … … …

Justin sat back in his 'throne' as Emmett had dubbed it, likely trying to make up for letting his mother get drunk and tell stories about Justin; and laughed as he watched the current game. He had been participating in most of the games, but as this one was a relay race, he'd had to sit this one out as it was much too difficult for him to run these days.

The object of the game was to do a short dash from the starter line to a table that contained a baby doll wearing a diaper and wrapped in a receiving blanket. Once you were there, you needed to unwrap the baby, take off its diaper, wipe its butt with the provided baby wipes, put on a fresh diaper and then rewrap the doll in the blanket. Then the person had to dash back, tag the next person in line, and it started all over again.

Usually, the game called for two teams, but since there were so many people at his shower, Justin had ended up buying seven dolls instead of the two listed. He also had to put a cap of thirty-five participants as he'd needed to know just how many prizes he needed to buy for the winning team. And when he told them that, well... he wouldn't have been surprised that Brian, and the others who had ran into the media room at the mere mention of games, could have heard it over whatever sport or movie they were watching.

But he'd held firm and first asked for people to step out of the running. And thankfully a few had willingly done so; but not nearly enough to make the thirty-five person cap. So then, he dumped thirty-five pacifiers into a wading pool and let them have at it. That had been pretty funny as well; thankfully, he'd had the presence of mind to have towels on hand and gave them their commemorative shirt before brunch.

And then, once they'd had the contenders, he'd let them choose their own teams of seven as he really didn't want to listen to anymore bitching. A wise idea as it turned out because they, (mostly Lindsay), had just ended up squabbling over that as well, making both Justin and Emmett roll their eyes in exasperation and tell them to either find a team or let someone else play.

From there, it had been a hysterical comedy of errors with people cursing up a storm as they stumbled during their short-distance run to table, only to fumble with the baby and send the wipes and diapers flying everywhere and then stumble their way back, all the while trying to best and sabotage the other teams and…well, he hadn't laughed so hard in forever. And the more that they fumbled; the more determined they were to win.

It had gotten to the point that Deb, the last one in the Luscious Ladies, as Lucille had dubbed them, was clenching her hands into fists, gritting her teeth and glaring at the other teams, trying to intimidate them as she waited for Justin's mom to finish and run back to tag her in, since they were currently in the lead by one person.

Shaking his head, Justin snorted his mom got back to the starting line and had barely touched Deb's hand before Mama Novotny was barreling towards the table and her current victim. Justin winced as she grabbed the baby doll and yanked the blanket off of it, tossing it to the side; and then she ripped the diaper off without any finesse whatsoever. She tossed the diaper over her shoulder and then fumbled with the doll, batting it back and forth in her hands as she tried get a grip on the slippery plastic.

"You're supposed to diaper it, Deb," Lucille yelled unhelpfully, making the gathered crowd snicker. "Not drop it."

"I'm trying; I'm trying," Deb huffed, finally getting a grip on the doll and slamming it onto the table; she grabbed a diaper and made quick work of it as she glanced at the others, cursing when she realized that the table two from the left of her had caught up and they were now nearly neck in neck. "But the little fucker is slippery after all those wiping downs."

"I do hope that you didn't do that to Michael when he was a baby," Lucille drawled, incurring yet more laughter from those surrounding her.

"Because if you did," Yasmeen muttered quietly from Justin's side, where she'd sat down after bowing out due to a back injury. "Things suddenly make a whole lotta sense."

"I'd always just assumed that it was all the times that his mother's smacked him upside the head," Cynthia said, smirking when Justin choked on his punch. "It can't be healthy or safe to get beaten upside the head like that on a daily basis."

"You do make an excellent point," Yasmeen nodded, grimacing when Deb let out another string of expletives as she accidentally tore the tape strip from the diaper in her haste, and had to grab a second one and try again. "His lack of basic comprehension skills would hint at potential brain trauma."

Justin smothered a laugh in his hand, in complete agreement with the women on either side of him, yet not wanting to incur Deb's wrath if she'd overheard that comment. But Deb either wasn't listening, or she had decided to ignore it in her bid for victory. She focused on the new diaper with a ferocious intensity, quickly securing the tape and then expertly wrapping the baby up.

"There! Gotcha, you little bastard," Deb crowed; she set the baby doll down, spun on her heel and made the mad dash back to the start line, her team cheering her on the whole way; and as she reached it, she tagged the first person in line, just beating out the other team by a couple of seconds.

"Please, tell me that she doesn't talk to the kids that way," Yasmeen pleaded, looking to Justin for a reassurance that he couldn't give; he just shook his head as his mom and her team all hugged and congratulated one another.

"She does," Justin said, snickering at Yasmeen's pained expression. "Little shit and fucker are her favorite endearments after asshole."

"No wonder her kid's so screwed up," Yasmeen huffed, shaking her head at Deb; and then Justin felt bad as he'd been mostly joking when he'd said that.

"To be fair," Justin said, suppressing yet another yawn; fuck, he was already tired and he hadn't even done all that much other than sit around. "She doesn't say that to Gus or Jenny. And I doubt that she said anything like that to Michael until he was a teenager and well…"

"Well, he deserved it at that point," Yasmeen snorted, standing up and walking away to get another drink.

Shaking his head, Justin stood as well and stretched, getting ready for the next phase of the party as this was the last of the planned games – unwrapping the presents. Which he couldn't wait to do; he was so done with these all of these games, even if this last one had been a blast. Dropping his arms he crossed the yard and stood next Emmett so they could give out the prizes.

"Can get everyone to come over here and sit down, please," Emmett called out, waving his hand toward the mingling women, and pointing to the tables. "We'd like to hand out the game prizes that way Baby can start opening that massive pile of loot over there."

Everyone laughed and quickly took a seat, leaving only Justin and Emmett standing. Emmett grabbed the last five prizes and put them on the table next to him; and then he grabbed the stack of papers that he'd been going through while they'd played the Diaper Relay and three games of Baby Bingo.

"Before I announce the winners of the Baby Photo Game and the Diaper Cake Game, are there any more outstanding entries?" Emmett asked, looking around at those gathered; and when no one stepped forward he nodded and turned back to his papers. "Good, so let's get on with this then; for the Baby Photo Game, the winner is…Caryn! Come on up here and select a prize."

Justin smiled and clapped as one of his favorite artists from Kinnetik came up; he hugged her and then stood back, grinning when she didn't even hesitate to pick up the gift basket that had assorted teas and a personal teapot in it. As long as he could remember, he'd always seen her sucking down some sort of tea that her brother had sent her from his various travels around the world.

"Caryn managed to get all but two of our guests right," Emmett said; and Justin wasn't all that surprised as she had always had an eye for detail. "And I don't blame her for mixing those two up as our Miss Molly is the spitting image of her mother. Now onto the Diaper Cake; the prize for the most accurate guess goes to Todd, who guessed that there were 105 diapers in the cake. There were actually 102."

Todd grinned and walked up to the table. He took a bit longer to decide, but eventually went with the coffee lover's basket that Justin had had to pry out Brian's hands this morning. It hadn't mattered to Brian that they'd already had all of the same things in their own kitchen; he'd wanted it and it had finally taken Justin promising to give him a blow job later that night before he'd relinquish the basket. Todd scooped up his prize and went to sit down.

"Now onto Baby Bingo," Emmett said, looking at his papers. "For the first winner, we have Kellie. If you'll come on up and pick your prize." Kellie came up, waved at Justin and then picked one of the spa baskets, the one that had all natural products. "And then we have Miss Molly, please come on up and get your prize." Molly chose the mani-pedi basket. "And then finally we have Mr. Gus; is he still here or did he run back into the house?"

"He's back in the media room with his father," Mel said, blatantly ignoring Lindsay's frown. Justin looked between them, wondering if they were fighting again as Lindsay had been in a snit since she'd gotten here. "But I'm pretty sure I can guess which of the remaining gifts he'd prefer."

Everyone laughed as there were only two prizes left -  a spa basket and a candy cake; and it took absolutely no guesses at all to figure out which one a thirteen-year-old boy would prefer. Mel smirked and then got up to get Gus' prize, again ignoring Lindsay's huff. Justin was going to keep an eye on that.

"Well, Miss Mel," Emmett said with a knowing smirk. "You might as well snag them both since you are the winner of Don't Say Baby, Mum's the Word, as you well know. Let that be a lesson to you all – be careful what you say around a lawyer; they hear everything."

Mel laughed and did indeed grab both of the remaining prizes; she walked past Justin to go back to her seat, but he reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her as he knew that Emmett was going to announce the winners of the relay next; and since she'd been part of the winning team, she might as well stay there.

"And finally, the winners of our Diaper Relay," Emmett said, looking around at the confused faces as the table was now empty. "Now, I can tell by some of your faces that you're wondering what prize is left for our lovely winners since our table is empty. But not to worry; it's because I have them right here in my pocket." Em paused and pulled out a stack of gift cards from his shirt pocket. "For our winners, I have here a $50 gift certificate each to Täko in Downtown. So will our Luscious Ladies – Lucille, Deb, Jen, Kellie, Molly, Laurie and Melanie – please, step forward for your prize."

Justin smiled as Emmett handed him the cards to pass out and then walked off to go take care of his other duties; he turned to the first person, which was Kellie. He hugged her and handed her the card and made a mental note to find her to talk to her later. He then repeated the gesture with all the remaining women in the group, smirking as he heard them discussing a potential girls night out to use the cards since 'why should their guys benefit from their hard work?'

"So, now that this is over," Justin said, with a smile. "I do believe that Emmett is getting antsy and we should make our way over to the presents. Although, the layette design station is still open if you haven't had a chance to do one. There are plenty of blank layettes and fabric paints left, so please, feel free to decorate a layette for Sunbeam. I have a feeling I will need each, and every, one of them; and I will greatly appreciate them."

"And don't forget to fill out our Baby Bucket List," Emmett said, pointing to a little carriage that he'd decorated the other night. "There are little booklets there for you to use; write down the one thing that you think a new parent should do or document in the baby's first year. And don't just stick to the obvious things like their first tooth or step, but think of all the little things that are not as obvious. It will help our new parents fill out that baby book."

After that, the crowd parted, some walking over towards the sweets bar and the others gathering around the presents, giving Justin a chance to take a few minutes to unwind. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began kneading his lower back in an effort to ease the tension that had built up there. Even with all the cushions and pillows piled on his 'throne,' sitting up for this long was getting to be a bit uncomfortable.

Sighing, Justin removed his hands, unable to get the right leverage to do much good, and he was just about to open his eyes and walk over to the present pile when familiar arms wrapped around him and strong hands began to massage his back.

"You doing okay, Sunshine?" Brian asked, pressing a kiss against Justin's temple; Justin sighed and melted against his husband, allowing him to take his weight as he continued to rub his lower back. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Justin said, tipping his head up to press a kiss against his husband's neck. "Just tired; and my back's a little stiff from sitting in that chair. I know that Emmett tried to make it as comfortable as possible, but sitting upright for so long is getting harder these days."

"Well, then," Brian said, pulling away and taking Justin's hand. "Let's go open these presents and then we can kick most of these people out of here and you can go into the house and take a nap. How's that?"

"Sounds peachy," Justin said and allowed himself to be led over to the table and his guests.