Persistence of Memory
Persistence of Memory
Dedication: To Predec2 – dear friend, your encouragement means the world to me. Thank you!
Summary:
After 513 Brian and Justin keep things going long distance for almost a year. Then one fateful night, at family gathering at Deb's, a comment made by someone in the family throws everyone and everything into a tailspin. After a horrible argument the boys split up for good, severing all ties, and the family is forever fractured. Twelve years later, a 17 year old Gus finds photographs of Brian and Justin together and goes on a quest to find out what happened between the two in the hope of mending the ties that bind them all together. Enter various beloved characters from the original show that tell him their sides of the story.
Prologue
April 2006...
"What the fuck just happened?" That thought was burning itself into his brain to the point that it was a physical pain. He was walking away, out of his life, again. He sounded so incredibly defeated, so exhausted and in such pain when he said "I'm done, Brian...I'm just...done..." that it paralyzed him into immobility. No, wait...he was already stunned into silence long before those words were spoken, due to a thoughtless comment released like a bullet, with a precision of a sharpshooter directly into the target's heart. The irony was that he, the king of spin, master of award winning copy, ad exec extraordinaire, wasn't the one to say the hateful words that rendered him utterly speechless. The irony was that words – his domain, his livelihood – failed him, possibly for the fist time in his entire life. His brain seized to function at the worst possible moment and now...he, Sunshine, believed someone else's lie so absolutely that he WAS. JUST. DONE...
How did it come to this so quickly? How was it possible for the incredible joy of the morning to descend into complete chaos of this evening, in mere moments? This morning, just this morning, they were happy to be back together for the weekend, celebrating the success of Justin's show. They were so excited that the hard work, the misery of the past 11 months, the pain of a long-distance relationship was finally paying off. Justin's first show was such a success that he was offered another one in five months time. Justin was ecstatic about his plans of coming home to Pittsburgh, for good, after the second show – he was so optimistic that after that he would be able to manage his career from Britin. Now, that happiness, the optimism, along with their future was reduced to ash...and he was watching him walk away...again.
Suddenly, an anger borne of helplessness, an anger like like he hasn't felt before completely consumed him. "How could he? After everything they've been through, how could he have so fucking little faith in them, in me? Fuck him! He's done? Fine, so be it!" he thought.
Disclaimer #1: All belongs to Showtime and CowLip. No infringement intended. Thank you.
Disclaimer #2: The title was taken from one of my favorite paintings by Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory.
A/N: Here's my second attempt at a B&J fic. I'm pretty desperate to know what everyone thinks of the concept. I've been thinking of Gus recently and how I wished that Brian's relationship with his son was explored a bit further in the original show. For some reason, this particular idea popped into my head and I couldn't stop thinking of it. I was encouraged to pursue this story, so here it goes.
Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this and remember – reviews are love!