Chapter 11 - Apologies.

Almost an hour later Brian stepped into the loft. He stopped in front of the computer and saw that the webcam on the other side was oriented to the bedroom and he could see a form in the bed. He smiled to himself; Justin was home and was sleeping. He immediately thought that tomorrow morning would be better than the last couple of days. He looked through the emails and saw one from Justin.

"Hi Brian,
Came home at 10:00 pm and spoke with Daph for a bit. I finished all the boards; I'll send them via FedEx to the office tomorrow morning.
Daph told me you were with the guys at Woody's - hope you had a great time.
It's 11:48 pm , I'm tired and I'm going to bed.
Goodnight.
Love
Sunshine.

Brian smiled and wrote a note back:

Sunshine,
Ted brought me home, too exhausted, and I had a discussion with Michael.
Didn't enjoy Woody's, I miss you - how lesbianic is that?
Later.

He went into the bathroom, took a shower, and put on some boxers. He walked into the living room, and looked over at the futon – Daphne was there. He smiled and shook his head. She's really a stalker. He moved toward her, and put the blanket on her. He smiled as Daphne moved a bit and opened her eyes looking at him.

"Hey, your home," whispered Daphne.

"And you're still here," answered Brian.

"Thought you might want some company… how was your day?" asked a sleepy Daphne.

"Peachy."

"That rough?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. Go back to sleep, Daph, it's a school day tomorrow, and if I recall you have a big exam."

"Okay, night Brian."

"Night."

Brian walked toward the steps when he remembered what Justin told him during their conversation. He turned around and knelt down near Daphne again. "Daph, one more thing before you totally go into Morph's arms."

"Hmm?"

"What did you ask Justin?"

"To father my child," was the reply. Brian was out of breath for only a few seconds, but then smiled to himself. Somewhere deep down he knew that would happen one day.

Daphne drifted back to sleep a few minutes later. Brian was awake for a long time, thinking about what Daphne had just told him. She asked Justin to father her child; that was a big step for anyone. It might not be the best time, with Justin in New York and the shows coming up, but maybe she planned to do it in a few months. Maybe it was just an idea.

I always thought that Justin would be a great father – I'd seen him with Gus and JR. He was always available, always the calm one, trying to never raise his voice at my son. No, our son. Yes "our son" because he spent at least the same amount of time with him as me.

Except maybe in the last 6 months.

I remember the evening last year just before the bet with Brandon, that stupid bet. I can't even recall why I did that. I remember standing in front of the mirror in the bedroom, trying on shirt after shirt trying to find the perfect one to make me look hot. Justin was sitting on the dinner table, working on some art, and he told me, "When I was in LA fucking around, it was fun and all, but when I came back and you said to me 'the offer still stands' to move in, I thought that things would be different. I thought that we'd be 'a real couple, like Michael and Ben,' maybe even have the things that they have some day, a house, maybe even a family."

His face looked so sad, so full of pain, like I'd just kicked him out. I wanted to go to him and tell him that I loved him. But I was too afraid. Afraid to lose him for good, afraid to lose my reputation, afraid to lose everything we had tried to put together, because even though I had known since the night I first picked him up that he would be more than just a trick, I was never able to give him what he wanted.

Until Babylon.

I really thought I had lost him that night. And in a fraction of a second my life became clear, I wanted the same things as him. I wanted him, I wanted a house, a family, everything.

Yes, I think Justin will be a good father. He's a loving and caring person; he anticipates children's needs. And most of all he's patient, stubborn, and persistent. Yes, he will be a good father.

When Brian finally fell asleep, it was nearly 4 in the morning.

The next few days were quiet, no calls, no harassment from either Michael or Debbie. For Brian and Daphne it was clear that the little discussion at Woody's was a bombshell, but Daphne was more optimistic, "Maybe Michael finally understood that Justin and you belong together, even when it's difficult between you two." Brian laughed at that.

They dropped the subject about the baby, after spending two evenings talking about it.

In the morning, Daphne woke up in Brian's bed. She had been sleeping on the futon but she moved into Brian's bed when she heard the storm outside. Brian woke up when he heard a noise from someone rustling in the kitchen and quite talking. He looked at the alarm clock; it was 7:00 a.m. He smiled when he looked toward the clock and saw Daphne's form sleeping over the covers. Sensing the bed moving, she looked up at him, and smiled sheepishly.

"Hey sleeping beauty."

"Hey yourself," she replied with a shy smile. "I didn't want to … but … I hate the thunder and all, and I always ended with Justin, so …" she didn't finished her sentence and jumped to another subject "Did you hear someone in the kitchen?"

"Yeah, I heard. Wait, I'm going to …"

But before he could finish, Michael and Ben were standing at the end of the bed with a breakfast tray, which crashed on the floor, once Michael saw Daphne in Brian's bed.

Ben had spent most of the week trying to convince Michael that Brian had changed, and that he should finally apologize to him. At six this morning, Michael woke up and told Ben to get ready in 30 minutes because they were going to make breakfast at Brian's. It was the best thing to do to make amends. Ben told him he thought it wasn't a good idea to sneak in the loft like that, but Michael insisted Brian wouldn't mind. So, they finally sneaked into the loft, fixed breakfast and stepped into the bedroom.

The sound of the tray crashing on the floor brought up another sound.

"Brian, are you ok?" a concerned voice asked.

Michael was uncomfortable.

Brian slightly pissed.

Daphne and Ben were laughing.

"Brian?" came the voice again

"I'm all right; just give me a sec." He turned toward Daphne. "Daphne, dear, I told you it wasn't a good idea to sneak in my bed like you did. And dear, would you just tell Justin I will speak with him in a minute?" He kissed her forehead, and looking up at Michael said, "You, with me in the bathroom, now!"

Once in the bathroom, Brian grabbed his sweatpants and a wifebeater and put them on. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh?"

"I asked, what are you doing here?"

"Huh?"

"Ok, that's an answer Mr. Novotny Bruckner. Ben!"

"Yep?" came the answer from the bedroom

"What are you doing here?"

"I think," gesturing toward Michael, "he's trying to make amends for the other night. But for the moment, he," pointing again toward Michael, "is in shock from seeing you with a woman in your and Justin's bed."

"Yeah well, it's not the first time he would be shocked," Brian replied coldly.

Finally wearing some clothes, Brian stepped out from the bathroom and went to the kitchen, stopping at the table with the computer.

"Morning Sunshine!"

"Morning." Spotting the guys behind Brian, "Hello guys. Daph just told me what happened."

"What do you want? It seems like Michael's run out of words." Brian answered with his tongue in cheek smile.

Once Michael recovered his voice, he ran to the computer. "Justin, Justin, he slept with Daphne, did you know that?"

Ben looked in disbelief at Michael, his eyes shooting daggers, realizing that Michael didn't learn anything from the other night. "Michael, when will you learn it's not your problem?"

"But … " came the usual reply.

At that moment, Daphne had had more than enough of the same routine between those three and finally let out all her anger and barged into the conversation

"Stop it, all of you!" Her intervention grabbed everyone's attention.

"Michael, if you could only learn to butt out sometimes! Things would be much easier." Turning an accusative finger toward Brian, "And you Brian, don't laugh - if you would have told Justin that you loved him from the beginning, or since I don't know when, during the first, the second or before Ethan, you would have fewer problems." Turning to the computer, "And you, Justin, if you would have learned to read through all the Kinney bullshit, you would have known that he's loved you since, well I think always."

She walked to the counter in the kitchen and looked at Ben. "And you Ben, you're too nice and too much of a pacifist for Michael. I don't know how you're doing this!" Satisfied by the shocked looks on everyone's face, she concluded, "Well I've finished, I'm going to clean up the mess Mister 'I'm his best friend' made in the bedroom. Bye Justin."

Before anyone could say anything, she had gone into the bedroom to clean up the mess on the floor.

After an hour at Brian's, Michael understood why Brian wasn't really devastated this time. It was because he was in communication every day with Justin, and he had Daphne as a support team. And he had another support team at his office with Cynthia and Ted, so he was in good hands.

The next two weeks were relatively calm, even if everyone was under a lot of stress.

Daphne spent all her spare time at Brian's loft. The first 2 days Brian told her to head back to her dorm, but she ended up at the loft the next evening.

He thought, 'great another stalker'. She slept on the couch or the futon and tried not to interfere in Brian's life too much. She told Brian that the real reason she was there was that she could see Justin every day and it didn't cost her a cent. Brian laughed at that.

Surprisingly, she got better grades. The silence in the loft and being around Justin and Brian helped her more than studying in the school library while other students talked about their last party.

She was also surprised to see that Brian spent most of his evenings at home, and not at Woody's or Babylon, with everybody else. Sometimes she'd get a call just before seven saying, "Put your jacket on, I'm taking you out for dinner and a drink." They usually finished at the diner, and stopped for ONE drink at Woody's. She knew Brian didn't do those things to please her or Justin; he just didn't want to go back to where he was.

Usually, an evening at the Kinney residence was planned like that: Brian was on his computer, working on some new ad for a client and Daphne was sitting at the dinner table working on her homework. And Justin, on the other end of the webcam, was painting.

One evening, they were all working on their computers, Brian on a new campaign, Daphne on her studies, and Justin trying to explain through Brian's computer something about the boards. Finally, Justin and Brian agreed and Justin knew what he had to modify on the boards to fit the client's demands.

Kinnetik finally closed most of the biggest accounts. The only one that really caused problems was Brown Athletics. Justin was working twice as hard on that one. He also managed to finish all the paintings he had put on hold and had made 5 extra canvases.

The show could take place on time.