Molly ran into Daphne’s arms the moment she got home. 

“So how did it go?” Daphne asked.

“You should have seen it.  Molly was fantastic.  She even recorded it so they can’t make up things,” Justin praised holding up the cell phone that Molly had used.

“So that’s where my phone went,” Daphne said as she snatched it away from Justin.

“Wait. At least let me copy it and send it to Marcus,” Justin said snatching it back.  He hurriedly sent a copy on to Marcus and handed Daphne her phone.

Justin planned to go to Kinnetik and work on the poster for the carnival.  His thoughts went to how much things had changed and the fact that there was so much about this time that he hadn’t been aware of.  This was the time were Brian and hit Michael, a first for him and he wondered what Mikey had said that pushed Brian to that.  Brian was always so careful, fearful that he’d turn into his father.

Not knowing what had gone on during that time made things that did happen now even more surprising.  Like the fact that when he got to Kinnetik and found Brian eating from a bag of chips.

Brian holds up a potato chip.  “Try one. One's not gonna kill you.”

Justin took it and stuffed in his mouth.  “Fuck.  Water! Jesus! You've said it wasn't gonna kill me what the hell is in those things?”

“Chili powder, tabasco, peppers, a touch of sulfuric acid for the extra little kick. Meet our news account. "Hot Potato",” Brian said reading off the back of the bag as he threw a bottle of ice-cold water to Justin.

Justin gulped down half the bottle as he heard a commotion outside Brian’s door.

“I'm sorry Brian, but she insisted,”  Cynthia spoke first.

Right behind her were two people who Justin immediately recognize.

 “Brian, I need to talk to you. The school just called. Peter broke his arm in soccer practice.”  Her voice reminded Justin of Michael’s whining.

“Justin, my sister Claire.”  He didn’t sound too happy about the introduction.

“I have to get to the emergency room right away.”  Claire continued.

“Then what are you doin' here?”  Brian wanted to know.

“Can you help me? Can you look after John?”  Claire pleaded.

Justin forgot about the spicy chips and wondered how Brian was going to handle this.

Brian leaned back in his chair.  “In case you haven't noticed, I'm workin'.”

“Well, I don't know what else to do with him.”

“Stick him in a locker at the bus station. You have heard of a sitter?”  Brian suggested.

“I can't find someone in the middle of the day,”  Claire complained. “Brian please - I don't have time for this.”  Claire was sounding frantic.

Brian looked to Justin, whose eyes went upward before nodding.  All this sort of surprised Justin because on his brief visit to her home he hadn’t gotten the impression that she cared that much for her kids.

“How long will you be?” Brian asked wearily.

“I don't know, but I’ll call as soon as I know.”  Then she turned to John.  “OK, you behave yourself, do you hear me?”

John plopped into the nearest chair.  “You still a fag?”

Brian smiled evilly and holds up the potato chip bag.  “Here have one. Have two.”

Justin laughed as John grabbed a handful and stuffed them into his mouth.

***

Twenty minutes later Justin’s stomach began growling.  Brian suggested they go to the diner.

“Who is this guy?”  John asked.

“He’s my partner,” Brian informed him. 

“Kinda young for you isn’t he?”

Brian pulled Justin close making Justin smile.  “Nope, he’s just right.”

As they entered the diner John asked, “What is this place?”

“It's called the diner,”  Brian said as he pushed him into the booth then pulled Justin into the other side.

Deb showed up smacking her gum.  “Who's the cutie?”

“It's the spawn of Satan of my sister,” Brian lamented.

“I can recognize the family resemblance,”  Deb said looking John up and down.

John leaned forward.  “Is she a drag queen?”

Deb was not happy. 

“Bring him a burger with extra ground glass.  I’ll have the usual.”

“I’ll have a burger, extra fries, and a chocolate malt.  Change John’s order to the same as mine.”  Justin ordered to distract Deb.

When the food arrived, John looked at it suspiciously then insisted, “I wanna go to the arcade in the mall. I go there every day after school.”

“I bet you tell your mom you’re going to choir practice,”  Justin said smugly as he bit into his burger.

John snuck an astonished glance at Justin.

Just then Michael showed up.  If Justin hadn’t been sitting on the inside of the booth he would have left.  Michael had been acting as if nothing had happened. 

Having slid into the booth next to John Michael asked.  “What are you doin' with your nephew?”

“I'm brat-sitting. Michael.”

“Hey John, I'm Brian's best friend. You remember me?”  Michael said as nice as pie.

“Nah.”  John was looking at Michael leerily.

“Why don't you bring him to the store?”  Michael asked Brian then turned back to John.  “I have a comic bookstore- it's just down the street.”

“You got the new Avengers?”  John looked interested.

“I got everything. Why you don't drop by and check it out? I give free samples.”

Justin kept his jaw from dropping.  This was a side of Michael that he’d never seen.  He was actually being nice, something Justin had never witnessed before.

“Can we, Uncle Bri'?”  John sounded excited.

“All of a sudden we're related?”  Brian seemed just as confused as Justin felt.

Michael made it very clear he didn’t want Justin to come along.  Justin gave him an innocent smile when Brian wrapped his arm around Justin making it clear that he was coming with them.

John was acting like a kid in a candy store, going from one section to another.  “Can I have the Spiderman, too?”

Michael nodded which brought a smile to John’s face.

“Don't be so f*cking greedy,”  Brian suggested, while Michael grinned and handed over another comic that he thought John would like.  “What do you say?”

“Thanks, Mike.”

“C'mon!”  Brian finally had enough.  He tossed the comic he’d been looking at aside and grabbed Justin.

  “I don't wanna go!”  John whined.

“We all have to go sometimes,”  Brian said as he held the door to the shop open so they could make their escape.  

Justin followed Brian out assuming that this was the way things had played out the first time and curious to see what happened next.  Seeing Michael like this with John, Justin could understand more why Brian kept Michael around. 

They get back to the loft and go in on the lower level.  Molly was sitting on the sofa reading on her kindle.  Now one thing about Molly is she is not timid.  She took one look at John and asked who he was.

“My nephew, John.  John, this is Justin’s sister, Molly.”

“Who’s Justin?” John asked. 

Brian pulled Justin to him and kissed him before sending a look John’s way that let him know that he should have known.

John, of course, managed to look disgusted which had Molly’s hackles up in no time.   Justin feared what would happen next, but he needn’t have.  Molly’s eyes which had flashed with anger changed.  Then she looked down shyly.  With an innocent smile, she asked John what he had in his hands.

John showed signs of excitement as he showed Molly all the comics he’d conned Michael out of.  Brian went and checked on Gus then headed for the bar area to get him some juice.  John was so into Molly he didn’t notice.  Justin grabbed a bag of chips and a couple of soft drink and took it to where Molly and John were sitting and discussing the comics.  Gus came out of his room and made a beeline for Molly.  He stopped when he saw John. 

“Who dat?”  Gus asked as his dad gave him his juice.

John looked at Gus.  “Who’s the kid?”

“I Gus.”

“Gus who?”

“Gus me.”  Gus pointed to himself while looking at John as if he’s crazy.

The security system went off and Brian checked it.  “John, your mom is here.”

John sighed.  He gathered up all his comics, including the chips and his drink, “Can I have a soda for Peter?”

“Sure,” Justin said as he pulled another drink from the small fridge and held it up. 

John grinned and said thanks.  Brian took him upstairs to the door and met his sister as she came out of the lift dragging Peter with her. 

The phone rang, and Justin answered it as he followed Brian up the stairs.  Brain ushered his sister back out the door and John was showing his brother the things he had in his bag behind her back.  As the lift’s door came down John winked at Brian giving Justin the feeling that accusing Brian of molestation wouldn’t happen.

Brian had an amused look on his face as he turned to Justin. 

“Ted wants us to come over to Mark’s house,” Justin told him.  It wasn’t strange getting a call from Ted since he sometimes called to discuss business, but this time Ted had almost sounded like he was pleading.  Brian had a strange look on his face and Justin wondered what he was thinking about.  Brian seemed just as puzzled as he was.

Brian thought things out and decided.  “Let’s get the kids and go.  Daphne has plans and I really don’t want my sister coming up with another reason to bug me.”

It made sense to Justin, so he went down the stairs and gathered Gus and Molly.  For some reason when they were in the car the kids began chanting ‘road trip’ over and over.   Brian and Justin exchanged looks that said, ‘what the fuck’.

Once they got there Marcus took the kids.  It seemed that he enjoyed their company and was always happy to see them.

Ted was in one corner consoling Emmett.  “Ben just learned that his ex, the one who infected him died.”

“Fuck,” said Brian.  “Where is Ben?

Justin frowned.  He thought back and couldn’t remember anything like this occurring.  But then it had been during his Ethan phase so a lot that had been going on with Michael and Ben hadn’t made his radar.

“He’s at the carriage house with Vic and Hunter.”

That didn’t sound good.  “I’ll go check up on them,” Justin said.  He headed over to the carriage house and up the stairs.  Ben and Vic were sitting at the table and Vic was patting Ben’s arm. “Here, I have chili - you wanna eat?”

“Thank you. I am all right.”

“I'm sorry.”

“For what?”

“For Paul. For you.”

“I didn't expect that so soon. If I'd known, I would have gone to see him more often.”

 “You were busy.”

“Right. It's always an excuse not to visit someone you'd shared for life with, your bed.”

“I'm sure he understood. And forgave you the same way you forgave him.”

“Why am I so goddamn angry at him right now? For getting it, for giving it to me? For not even bothering to take care of himself or watch what he ate? I would tell him nutrition is essential. And exercise, you gotta build up your muscle mass. But it was as if once he knew he had it, he figured I'm gonna die anyway so what the hell difference does it make?”

“Luckily, you're not like that.”

“Riiiight!”

“You do everything you're supposed to do, everything you could possibly do.”

“And in spite of everything, I still ended up in the hospital. Maybe he's right, maybe it doesn't matter.”

Vic took a deep breath.  “It does matter! And most important - you have to believe it does.  I know just how you feel.  It wasn’t that long ago I was in a coma.  Thought it was the end.  When I came out of it I decided that a last hurrah was what I needed.  So, Deb and I took a trip to Italy.  Come to think of it I’m still paying for that trip.” 

Ben looked up and saw Justin.  “Hi, what brings you here?”

“I thought I’d check up on Hunter,” Justin looked around and found the young man in a corner folded upon himself.  Justin went over and squatted down next to Hunter.  “You okay?”

Hunter shook his head.  “He’s right.  I’m diseased and nothing is going to change that.  I might as well give up.”

Sadly, this was not the in your face teenager from before but a scared kid.  Vic had come over and had his hand on Hunter’s shoulder in comfort.  Justin couldn’t help but remember how Vic had spent most of his days in pajamas and a ratty robe.  Now he and Emmett could give Brian a run for his money in the clothing department.  Justin went over to Ben and pulled him to a mirror.  “Look at yourself.  Is this what you want to give up just to waste away?”

Ben looked at himself.  “Hey, anyone wants to go bowling?”