A/N: Bear with me. I think you'll end up liking this part, even though it's weird.

Still Monday July 25, 2005 (99 days until the ginormous family wedding)

The Wedding Night, Romeo and Juliet Style

Brian: I bought the cow, but still haven't gotten the milk. Haven't had the chance to touch the soft milky white skin beneath Justin's clothes, to run my hands along his smooth back as I ram his tight little ass. Not since the wedding. (sighs) Justin should be here already. (under his breath) Fuck, I'm pathetic! Like a kid on Christmas Eve, lying in bed, impatiently awaiting morning, but, in my case, the dead of night.

Brian looks down at the engagement ring Justin had given him—a dark rose gold (that almost looks like pure copper) open Celtic knot ring, with hearts in the knotwork and "You are my heart" inscribed on the inside, which he had moved to his left ring finger as he lay in bed waiting for Justin's return (he had been wearing it on his right hand to distinguish it from a wedding band).

Enter a heavyset blonde nurse.

Brian: Did you leave the ward door open?

Nurse: Yes.

Brian hands her 50 bucks. She takes it at first, but hesitantly. Then she presses the folded bill back into Brian's hand.

Nurse: I fear that the open door will not bring him here.

Brian (anxiously): Why? Did something happen to Justin?

The nurse looks down and shakes her head. Brian, though drained from his first chemotherapy session, manages to rise and make his way over to her, albeit slowly. Brian grabs the nurse. She lifts her eyes. They are wide with fear.

Brian: Out with it! Where's Justin?

Nurse: He's gone! Gone!

Brian nearly collapses. He catches himself before he hits the floor, grabbing the bed frame and pulling himself back to a standing position. He doesn't release the bed frame; in fact, he holds it so tightly that his knuckles turn white. His eyes are dull.

Brian: God is a punk.

Brian lets his head fall.

Nurse: Not God. Justin.

Brian lifts his head and fixes her with a cold stare.

Brian: What the fuck are you muttering about? Is Justin dead or not? I'm about to lose my fucking shit, so skip the games! Answer with a simple yes or no!

Nurse: I saw it with my own eyes. His face bruised. Blood everywhere. I almost fainted.

Brian shakes his head and stares through unseeing eyes, which are beginning to fill with tears.

Brian: No, no, no. No! (The nurse jumps) We were finally together. Even married. Justin…Justin didn't have the chance to wake up or fall asleep in his husband's arms. Not even once.

Nurse (wailing): Oh Bob! Bob! Such a great guy! But you won't be able to bring the night nurses coffee and muffins anymore, will you? Never again!

Brian frowns and turns to face the nurse.

Nurse: Blue…berry, blueberry was my favorite! I don't know where he got them, now I guess I never will, but they were moist, so moist!

Brian's eyes burn with a frightening intensity. The nurse draws back in horror, fearing that he might strike her.

Brian (growls): You're making no sense! Who is Bob and what do he and his muffins have to do with Justin?

Nurse: Bob's been fired, and the cops dragged Justin away! Bob was fired for pushing Justin's little girlfriend, and Justin was taken away for punching Bob.

Brian huffs a laugh and grins.

Brian: Justin actually hit someone? Defending Daphne?

Nurse: Yes, yes! He knocked Bob to the ground, bruising and bloodying his nose!

Brian (smiles shyly, his eyes dancing): Bad boys are hot! (more softly, so softly that the nurse can't quite hear him) Particularly when they have sparkling blue eyes that glitter even more brilliantly in anger, silky blond hair, and creamy-white skin, soft, but resilient. I know quite well what a mean right hook little Sunshine has. So many seeming contradictions…but somehow, everything, every quality, fits…makes perfect sense…

Nurse: Tsk. Tsk. Justin's a monster!

Brian (scoffs): Try an angel. With the patience of a saint. He put up with me, a gruff, hypercritical bastard, for years. My whoring around, my inability to tell him how I felt, my habit of pushing him away any time he got really close…He stuck it out for the 5 years, and the two near death experiences, it took for me to get over all my bullshit, and…and he just agreed to continue putting up with me and my shit for the rest of his life. And eagerly.

Nurse: How can you call a violent beast an angel?

Brian (stares at the nurse blankly): Uh…He's my husband. We're newlyweds, just married today. What the fuck do you expect me to say? That a beautiful talented man like Justin is somehow beneath an undoubtedly overweight man with a bakery hookup? If he hit this Bob guy, Bob deserved it.

Nurse: Will you speak to the hospital's administration on Bob's behalf?

Brian (laughs): Uh, no. No fucking way. (sighs) You might as well shut the ward door now. We won't be consummating our marriage tonight.

Nurse (suddenly feeling compassionate): Lie down; I'll find Justin and bring him to you.

Brian plops onto the bed and scootches back. Then, when the nurse approaches, arranging the blankets and pillows so that he's more comfortable, he slips his ring off and hands it to her.

Brian: If you do find him, please give this to him. Tell him…tell him…actually, (he swallows hard) just give him the ring. He'll understand.

The nurse nods and leaves.

A now 26-year-old Gus cried out, "Dad! That can't be how it happened!"

Brian just shrugged.

Gus complained, "Pa!"

Justin sighed and interjected, "I really wish you'd never outgrown 'Papa.' You make me sound like Charles Ingalls!"

Gus furrowed his brow in confusion. Both he and his three sisters asked, "Who?"

Justin shook his head and laughed. "Never mind."

Gus shrugged and then continued his original complaint/request, "Make Dad tell the story right!"

Justin smiled brightly. "Since when have I ever been able to make your father do anything?"

Brian met Justin's smile with his own, but his was a soft smile. He pulled Justin into his lap sideways, wrapped his arms around Justin, and kissed him deeply. This was met by a chorus of Eewws. Justin tried to break their kiss, but Brian held him fast for another minute, kissing him even more deeply. Only when Justin could no longer hold back a soft moan (which elicited a chorus of disgusted Ohs from the peanut gallery) did Brian let him go, raising his hands in surrender as Justin climbed to his feet.

Gus pleaded, "Could you at least bring it down to an R rating?"

Brian scoffed, "You're all legal. And I've seen your porn. You've got no room to talk."

"Come on, Dad! That is not the same! None of us wants to hear you describing Pa's ass or lamenting not having 'rammed it.'"

Justin frowned. "Hey!"

Brian slapped Justin's ass and reassured him, "Even now, 27 years after I first had the pleasure of ramming your tight little ass (shooting his son a cold stare), it's just as fine."

When the children groaned, Brian sighed. "Ah, Sunshine. How did we ever father fucking Puritans?"

"It's not their DNA. They just fell in with the wrong crowd."

Brian nodded slowly, a grave expression on his face. Then he asked, "So do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

The peanut gallery replied, simultaneously, "Yes!" (though Gus's affirmation was less enthusiastic than that of his sisters.)

*******

Hunter and a very distraught Justin stand in the hospital parking lot talking.

Hunter: You are so cursed, man!

Justin: What was the verdict? I'm guessing it wasn't good.

Hunter: Nope.

Justin (gestures with his hand that Hunter should continue): And?

Hunter: Well, the cops are willing to let you off with a warning, but the hospital staff, particularly the night nurses, were out for blood. They wouldn't stop until the cops made your release conditional on your never returning to the hospital.

Justin (sets his jaw and kicks a trash bin): Fuck! You should have just let them arrest me! Then I could have returned after making bail.

Hunter: There are other hospitals. In fact, there are three others in Pittsburgh alone.

Justin: But none have Brian in them, none but this. I can't go three days without seeing him. Not when he's receiving chemotherapy treatments. No fucking way!

Hunter: The pigs did you a favor! You just can't see it.

Justin: Favor my ass! Every man or woman and their brother can walk into that hospital and see Brian, everyone but me. Mel could go in there and fucking hold his hand, not that she would, but she could. How fair is that? (narrows his eyes) Is this your way of making another play for him? Because I thought you were smitten with Daphne…"

Hunter: Dude, calm down. I'm not making another play for Brian. I am so over him!

Justin (doubtfully): Mmm hmm.

Hunter: If you'll relax and hear me out, I have a plan.

Justin: Unless that plan involves transferring Brian to another hospital tonight, I doubt it will help.

Hunter: Dumbasses never listen.

Justin: Know-it-alls are blind.

Hunter: As I see it, your situation is like this…

Justin: You can't possibly understand my situation.

Justin sits on the curb, his head in his hands.

*******

Justin stopped Brian's retelling of their secret wedding night to add, "Your Uncle Hunter couldn't understand because he had no idea that we'd been married in Canada. I'd been with your dad during his first treatment, so he had no clue why I was so desperate to see him that night. He didn't know that it was our wedding night."

*******

Suddenly, Brian's nurse emerges from the shadows. Hunter jumps. He hadn't heard her approach. Justin is still unaware of her presence.

Nurse: I am Brian Kinney's nurse. I saw you with Justin Taylor earlier. Where is he now?

Hunter (laughs): Over there, crying like a little girl!

*******

Brian and Justin's daughters interrupted their dad, exclaiming, "Crying like a little girl!" Then they exchanged a look that seemed to suggest Uncle Hunter would soon be facing their wrath.

Brian chuckled.

*******

Nurse: Brian's in nearly as bad a shape. Course, he just underwent chemotherapy this afternoon. You, Justin, stand up if you be a man and pull yourself together.

Justin looks up, raising an eyebrow.

Nurse: Brian sent me here.

Justin: How is he? He hasn't developed a fever or experienced any other side effects has he?

Nurse: None other than fatigue. His body's one thing; his mind's another. He's worried about you.

Justin looks down and then back up nervously.

Justin: Does he…does he know that I punched an orderly?

The nurse just nods.

Justin: Did he seem angry or embarrassed by it?

Angry at Justin for getting the orderly fired, the nurse lies.

Nurse: He seemed not only angry and embarrassed but also disappointed.

Justin: Why did I punch him? I'm not usually the violent type. It's just…I was so frustrated. If Brian and I were a heterosexual couple, I wouldn't need to sneak in. If we were and they knew we were engaged, they would probably have simply let me stay the night with the man I love, the man with whom I plan to spend the rest of my life, the man who might not have much life left to spend with me.

Speaking aloud his greatest fear, Justin becomes so upset that his eyes fill with tears, and his voice quivers. The nurse almost confesses the truth so moved is she by his emotion.

Hunter: Dude, don't be so hard on yourself and, please, spare us the melodrama. You're hot, smart, and in love with an awesome guy, your first love even. You are finally back with Brian, and you're engaged. Brian may be sick again, but his chances are good. And on top of that, despite your stupidity, the cops let you off with a warning. You have everything. Stop behaving like a brat, a spoiled child!

Justin is taken aback at first, but then he laughs and wipes the tears away.

Hunter: So you'll sneak in tonight and leave before morning, when the doctors come in. Then Brian can protest your being banned from the hospital. If the hospital administrators don't lift it, he can threaten to switch hospitals. It'll all work out. With the economic downturn we're suffering, they have to give in.

Justin smiles, but then frowns and looks down.

Justin: What if Brian doesn't want to see me? His nurse said…

Nurse (interrupting): I misled you. He wasn't angry, embarrassed, or disappointed. In fact, he looked proud and (coloring) a little turned on.

Hunter (laughs): Now that sounds more like Brian

Justin flushes with pleasure.

Nurse: And…Brian gave me something to give you. He said you'd know what it meant.

Justin rises and approaches the blond woman. She hands him Brian's engagement ring. He takes it, runs his fingers along its surface gently, and then slips it on his thumb (it's too big for his fingers). Then, unconsciously, he draws his fingers absently along Brian's bracelet, which now dons his wrist.

Hunter returns with blue scrubs he'd managed to steal, complete with hat and face mask. Justin quickly puts the shirt and pants on over his clothes. Then Hunter walks back through the hospital doorway and into the lobby. Both are deserted now. He engages the receptionist in conversation, distracting her while Justin enters and sneaks over to the elevator. Once inside, he dons the face mask and hat.

On the third floor, the doors open with a ding, revealing a couple of nurses he's never seen before. He takes a deep breath and begins to walk past them as confidently as he can (head up, back straight). They nod and mutter, "Doctor." He nods in response. When he hears the elevator doors close, he looks back. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees that the nurses are gone. Then, more quickly, he walks through the hallway leading to Brian's room. He keeps his head down and his eyes on the floor, hoping no one will emerge from any of the rooms. He hears the click of a door, and his heart stops. He slowly lifts his head, trying to appear calm, feeling anything but.

He stops breathing when someone grabs him by the arm and pulls him into a room, especially when that someone pushes him up against the back of the door, but is pleasantly surprised to discover that it's Brian. Brian pulls the mask down and brushes his lips, slowly, so slowly, against Justin's. Justin's breath catches in his throat.

Justin grabs Brian by the shoulders, turning and pushing him against the door. Then he slides his hands up to Brian's neck and crushes Brian's lips with his own, kissing him passionately, with the force of his anxiety from not only sneaking in but also Brian's cancer and with the depth of the love he'd felt for Brian as he'd said his vows and when the nurse had given him Brian's ring. Justin kisses him deeper and deeper, until they break apart, panting and trembling with desire.

Gus broke in, "Spare us the gory details, please!"

Gus's sisters had much different reactions.

Before turning to their reactions, let's take a look at them. The twins, aged 20, the product of both Brian and Justin's sperm and Daphne's eggs, had inherited their mother's curls, but, strangely, their father's eye color, hair color, and skin tone. Thus, Zoe, Brian's daughter, had hazel eyes, curly chestnut hair, and olive skin, while Isabelle, or Izzy, had blue eyes, curly blond hair, and ivory skin. The "baby," Kezia, the product of Justin's sperm and Daphne's egg, looked exactly like her mother, except that she had her father's blue eyes and straight, silky hair (though, like her mother's, it was brown).

One might wonder why Daphne was willing to be Brian and Justin's surrogate twice, particularly since she'd had twins the first time. It was simple really. At the time, she wasn't sure she'd ever want to be a mother. An aunt and godmother, yes, but a mother, probably not. She was studying to be a doctor and planned to be a fabulous one. In fact, she'd been seriously considering joining Doctors without Borders, which would make parenthood difficult, perhaps even impossible (and she did just that, a couple of years after receiving her medical degree). The one condition she'd given was that Brian and Justin allow her parents all rights and privileges usually accorded grandparents (that had gotten them off her back about having babies of her own). This was, of course, an informal agreement, but she'd trusted Brian and Justin, and they'd happily held up their end of the bargain.

Zoe, nearly as cynical and just as sharp as her father, asked, "Daddy, how did you know what Papa was feeling as he kissed you? It's kind of presumptuous of you to say that you know how someone else, even Papa, felt."

Brian was about to respond, but Izzy, Zoe's twin, beat him to it (Since she could talk, she'd effectively served as Zoe's heart): "When you're as connected as people in love are, particularly soulmates, which are very like twins (she shot Zoe a bright smile rivaling one of her Papa's) in terms of depth of connection, you can feel the other's emotions almost as strongly as your own."

Kezia, a deeply romantic teenager (she'd just turned 17), even more of a romantic than Izzy, was intensely moved by the scene Brian had described, so much so that she had heard nothing else. She asked, "Daddy, was it really as romantic as you say?"

Brian shrugged. "You'll have to tell me. You and your Papa are better judges of that than I am…"

Justin gently leads Brian to the bed, sits him down, and kneels before him. Then he slips Brian's ring off of his thumb and onto Brian's left ring finger.

Brian (in astonishment): How did you know?

In response, Justin simply smiles, one of his trademarked million-watt smiles. Then he pulls at Brian's hospital gown.

Justin (huskily): Take this off.

Brian complies. Justin slides his hands along Brian's inner thighs, spreading them further apart as he does so. Justin deepthroats Brian's cock in one go. Brian leans back and moans.

Brian: Fuck yeah.

Gus interjected, "Dad! Come on!"

Brian rolled his eyes and muttered, "You're no fun. No fun at all."

Justin laughed and kissed Brian on the cheek.

Brian scoffed, "If you're gonna give me a pity kiss, you might as well make it a good one."

He pulled Justin into his lap so that Justin was straddling him, grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him in for a passionate kiss, slow and so deep. As he plundered Justin's mouth, he slid his hands over Justin's ass and squeezed it. Then he pulled Justin toward him, grinding his rapidly hardening cock against Justin's.

Gus sighed deeply.

Zoe and Izzy rolled their eyes at exactly the same time.

Brian broke their kiss and then mimicked his son, sighing deeply as he spun Justin around on his lap and slid his arms around Justin's waist.

"Back to the story…"

Brian groans.

Brian: You're not leaving already, are you? I must have fucked you into a daze. Those aren't birds singing, but crickets chirping. They are sitting on blades of grass chirping loudly, as they are wont to do when scaring other male crickets away from their tricks.

Justin: You may have fucked me near to oblivion, but fucking, no matter how often or how hard, could never damage my ears. Clearly that is birdsong we hear, not the chirping of crickets. They are tracing circles in the bright sun, not pale moonlight.

Brian harrumphs.

Brian: Clearly my pounding your ass, which nearly rendered you unconscious, not only affected your hearing but also your eyesight. Then again, perhaps it was my rimming you into a puddle. Those aren't the sun's rays but the light of Halley's comet. Didn't Deb say once that the day I got married would be the day Halley's comet reappeared in the sky?

Justin laughs and then sighs. He throws his hands up in surrender.

Justin: If it would please you, let the cops take me away and lock me up for eternity. You're right. I see it so clearly now. The glow in the sky is starlight for sure, but not that of the sun.

Justin climbs back into bed with Brian, nestling his head in Brian's neck.

Justin: I'd much rather stay than go.

Brian frowns.

Brian: No Sunshine, those are birds whose song grates and stings. The poets who claimed that it uplifts were twats, for it's casting you out and causing my mood to sink. Their so-called melody hunts you down as certainly as sirens do. Go now. The sun's light is growing brighter.

Justin rolls to the side, lying back on the bed. Then he sighs.

Justin: At once, more light and more dark.

Brian's nurse bursts in suddenly.

Nurse: The doctor's coming up the elevator.

Justin moves to leave, but pauses, kissing Brian passionately once more. Then he runs out of the room and into the stairwell. Brian follows. He opens the door.

Brian: Are you gone already?

Justin pops his head back around the corner so that Brian can see him and smiles brightly.

Justin: This is going to make one hellava story later when we have kids.

Brian just grins. Then Justin disappears around the corner. Brian stands there until he can no longer hear Justin's footsteps.

Brian asked, "Well, Kezia, what do you think?"

Kezia sighed contentedly and breathed, "Better than Shakespeare…"

The end (of the story within a story)

(the story proper) TBC…