The trip to Vermont was a trip of a lifetime.  It had started snowing giving Brian and Justin a chance to ski.  Everyone took turns watching Gus so that all got a chance to ski.  Emmett and Daphne took turns with Molly.   Everything had been going great up until the time Mrs. Snow had sent up a sled for Gus’ use.   Justin sat behind Gus for a ride down the beginner’s slope and pushed off.  They were halfway down when a skier showed up out of nowhere and sent them flying.

While Justin managed to keep Gus from being hurt, he wasn’t so lucky himself.  They had to call an ambulance to take them to the nearest regional care facility.  Everything was in pandemonium in the emergency room as Gus was checked out first, and except for crying loudly, it turned out that he had not suffered any injury.  He seemed more concerned about Justin, refusing to leave him.  Justin did his best to reassure the little boy that things would be okay. 

Justin was whisked away for an x-ray and they were able to confirm that Justin suffered from the most common of all skiing injuries where his lower leg and foot twisted outward and put extreme pressure on the Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) on the inside of the knee.  Luckily, he was told that this injury wasn't as serious as it sounds.

Brian was incensed and Justin worried that he would blame the lodge and cancel the contract or worse yet blame him for scaring Gus.  It was Emmett who pointed out the obvious after shooing Brian away.  “Honey, Brian is doing what he always does when you or someone close to him gets hurt.  He’s blaming himself.”

That opened Justin’s eyes, how had he not seen it before?  Not wanting to watch Justin being worked on, yet wanting to keep an eye on Gus Brian decided to leave the room.  On the way out he bumped into the nurse, knocking the tray filled with instruments to be used on Justin’s leg onto the floor.

Everyone turned toward the sound except Gus.  While the nurse went to replace the dropped tray, the doctor asked Brian.  “When was the last time your son had his hearing checked?”

Getting back to the lodge wasn’t easy.  Daphne and Molly would have been happy to take charge of Gus, but Gus wasn’t having any of it.   He clung to Justin who had been given something for his pain while his leg and foot were being put in a cast as well as instructions to see his Pittsburgh doctor to have it switched to a boot in a week.

Emmett was at his wits' end on how to get everyone back until he got word that the Stones had a limo waiting for them downstairs.  It was large enough for Justin to spread out with Gus next to him and plenty of space for everyone else.

Justin ended up sleeping as everyone packed up and got back into the limo to drive back to Pittsburgh rather than fly.  Daphne and Emmett sat together and worked out where to stop for the night, even though they could have driven straight through.  One place they decided to stop at on their way through was Burlington, the home of a Build-A-Bear workshop so that they could have a bear made especially for Gus.

Gus was so excited when they got to the Build-A-Bear workshop, that he had a hard time deciding on a bear.  They had one with fur the color of Justin’s hair that he liked, but then he found one with fur to match his daddy’s hair.  Brian refused to buy two bears after seeing how much the accessories cost.  Then Molly showed Gus a rainbow bear which he had to have.

Brian had a difficult time trying to talk Gus out of getting a dress for his bear and he finally settled for a Miss You t-shirt.  When it came time to pick the heart, Molly and Daphne favored the Magical 3-in- 1 Fairy Sounds, but Gus found them scary and grabbed hold of Justin.  Justin should have stayed in the Limo, but he didn’t want to miss this experience.  Much to everyone's relief Gus finally chose the Heart-Shaped Heartbeat Effect. 

Then it came time for accessories.  Emmett pointed out a Baseball Set which had a ball, bat, and glove which Justin immediately vetoed.  Gus seemed to prefer the fairy wings until he saw the Rainbow Heart Chair Bed.  Once Gus batted his eyes at his daddy everyone knew Gus had won.

About half-way to Pittsburgh, they stopped at a five-star hotel and arranging for a three-bedroom suite for the night. It had been a long day, so Justin and Brian stayed in and relaxed, which was not an easy thing to do while the rest checked out the pool and restaurant. 

It was late the next day when they finally arrived at the loft and started pulling out all their luggage.  Brian pulled out his key to get into the building only the door didn’t open.  He tried again with the same results.  Daphne tried her set and they didn’t work either.  They all tried their keys with no success, then Brian called Ted, who hurried over and slipped his key into the lock.  No luck with that either. 

Just then the apartment manager showed up with a locksmith.  “Sorry, Mr. Kinney.  Somehow some idiot convinced this guy that he needed the locks changed on our building and the guy didn’t verify if the person ordering the change was legit.”

“How was I supposed to know?”  The locksmith asked, sounding so much like Michael.

“He’s going to change all the locks on his dime,” the manager rolled his eyes and demanded.

Justin stood there with a frown on his face.  This was ridiculous, preposterous, nothing like this had happened the first time.  He looked around at his friends, surrounded by the luggage.  “How long is this going to take?”

“It’s done.”  The locksmith got up from where he was working. 

Daphne, after handing Gus off to Brian, and Molly were the first ones in and running up the stairs.  Daphne got to the lower level of the loft and tried her key.  It refused to work.  She leaned over the railing and called down.  “My key isn’t working.”

Brian looked at the locksmith.  “Does that mean all the locks in the building were changed?”

The locksmith winced. 

“Get with it,” the manager of the building ordered.

The locksmith was not happy, but he started from the top and worked his way down cursing all the while.

“Well, think about it.  Someone has cost you a lot of money.  Surely you have some idea who ordered this,” Ted asked.

“I wish I knew.  I didn’t even get paid for all the work I put into this,” The locksmith complained.

“Just goes to show, you can’t trust anyone,” Emmett quipped.

Everyone was tired of the ride back that they pretty much sacked out where they dropped their luggage.  Gus and his new bear were the only one put in his bed.  Emmett took over the sleeping quarter next to Gus’ room.  Molly and Daph took their luggage to the apartment next to the loft before crashing on the beds.

The next morning Gus let everyone know he was hungry, and all other matters were forgotten.  Justin was not surprised when Brian left to find out from the girls the information about Gus’ medical history.   Justin planned to be there when Gus was checked out and thought maybe it was time for Brian to be checked as well.  Hopefully, they would be able to catch the cancer before it got much further.

When Brian came back, he was pissed.  “The girls can’t agree as to the last time Gus saw his doctor.  The only thing they did agree on was the doctor’s name.   The only thing they could talk about was this anniversary party they’re planning.”

“A party?  They haven’t been married a whole year, yet,” Justin replied.

“They’re celebrating the day they met.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”  It didn’t take Justin long to remember the party the most memorial part being that Brian had hit Michael in the jaw.  Justin had never learned why Brian had done that and knew that he most probably wouldn’t learn why this time either.

A visit to Gus pediatrician was scheduled.  On the day they were to go Justin woke up, his heart racing.  He dreamed he had woken up to find himself in Ethan’s bed with Ethan.  The sound of a baby wailing snapped him back and when he finally came to earth it was to see Brian at the end of the bed holding Gus.

“Are you okay?”  Brian asked.

Justin thought about it.  Hell no, he wasn’t, but there was no way he could tell Brian.

“Daph’s got breakfast going.  Let’s take our shower before we leave,” Brian suggested with a wiggling of his brows.

Justin hobbled through the front door to the medical complex where he’d made the appointment to have the cast removed and replaced with a boot.  The good thing was that Gus’ doctor was also a physician at the same complex. 

It stood to reason that Gus’ appointment would be first since he is the most important person.  It didn’t take long to register Gus with the receptionist and then all they had to do was sit and wait to be called.

Gus found the toy chest right away and was enjoying playing when his name was called.  Gus was not a happy camper and he set up a wail to let everyone know, especially when Brian ended up picking him up off the floor.  They followed a nurse down a hallway and into a room with Justin hobbling along behind them. 

Justin sat down in the one chair available, while Brian went around the room pointing out items and pretending to use them on Gus.  Dr. Persou, Gus’ doctor walked in reading her chart, she glanced up and saw Gus in his father’s arms and looked around the room. 

“Mr. Kinney?  I was expecting Gus’ mothers to be here with him,” she said dryly.

“I’m afraid that due to complications Gus’ mothers are unable to be here,” Justin offered as he carefully got up from where he was sitting and held out his hand. 

“And just who are you?”  Gus’ doctor asked.

“Justin Taylor, Gus’ other daddy,” Brian contributed. “Isn’t that right, Sonny Boy?”

“Oh?   Oh!  Come here, Gus Marcus-Peterson,” Dr. Persou ordered, reaching out for Gus.

Gus clung tightly to his daddy and swatted at the doctor.

“Perhaps if your daddy was examined to show you what to expect you’d be okay with it?”  Justin asked Gus who stuck his thumb into his mouth and nodded enthusiastically.

Justin grinned this couldn’t have worked out better if he’d tried.  Now to see how he could get the doctor to go along. 

The doctor looked at Gus and seem to come to a decision and walked out of the room.  Justin and Brian exchanged puzzled looks.  It wasn’t long before Dr. Persou came back with another doctor.

“Since it’s been so long since I’ve seen Gus, I though a complete physical would be warranted.  Mr. Kinney, when was the last time you had one?”  She holds out two blue paper gowns.  “Here put these on.”

 

Justin sat there with a grin on his face, as Brian glared at him.  But the grin disappears when a nurse popped her head in and informed him that his doctor was ready to see him.

 

 

Daphne looked up from her studies when Justin clumped in and took a seat on their sofa.

 

“So?” she asked.

 

Justin held up the papers the doctors had given him.  “Gus has Otis Media.”

 

“An ear infection?  Is that all?”  Daphne asked.

 

“Not just an infection.  Dr. Persou said it was the worse she’d ever seen.  That he should have been in a lot of pain.”

 

“Gus?  He’s the sweetest, happiest child I know.  He never complains.”  Daphne said, then after a second’s thought.  “Well, not a lot anyway.”

 

“Be that as it may, she drained the ear and put tubes in.  Solving that problem.  I can’t believe that we never noticed.”  Justin complained.

 

Daphne sat up straight.  “What about Brian?”

 

Justin leaned over passing her the stack of papers, which had the write up of all the office visits.  “Brian said it was the most invasive of check-ups that he’s ever had.”

 

“They did all this while Gus was there?”  Daphne wanted to know.  Not only had they checked his testicles, but they’d given him a prostate exam.

 

“Dr. Persou was putting tubes in his ears at the time.  Evidently, he didn’t like that and wasn’t paying attention to what Dr. Weiss was doing.”

 

Daphne went through the papers and flipped them over.  “They didn’t find anything.  That’s good right?”

 

Justin shrugged his shoulders while chewing his lower lip.  “I suppose.  But I know he gets it eventually.  I was hoping to find it early.”