Chapter Twelve: Preparing for an adoption and a custody battle

It's Friday morning and Brian is anxious for Justin to return. He had trouble sleeping with him gone, so he has decided to get some more personal work done. It's now 5:00am and he is on his laptop.

Larry had told him about everything he and Justin would have to go through with Gus' custody. Melanie's second parent adoption was nullified when she died, and because Brian was Gus' biological father and had been chosen in the will, Larry just had to file simple papers in court to have Brian's parental rights reinstated. Justin was going to be more difficult. Just because people leave you custody of their children in a will doesn't make it so. It still has to go through the courts. What complicates matters further is that Gus was technically a resident of Canada when his mothers died and Brian and Justin live in the U.S. Larry said he would start all the necessary filing and bring them over to be signed.

To make everything go smoother, Brian is filling out all the appropriate paperwork for Justin to legally change his names through the court system, since their marriage certificate isn't legally recognized in Pennsylvania. This will allow His spouse to get a new driver's license and passport. It will also help with Gus if they all have the same last name.

He has printed the form to get Justin a new social security card, as well as the papers for a passport. Once He has these, Justin can then request a new driver's license.

Luckily Pittsburg is one of the three cities in Pennsylvania that does recognize domestic partnerships, so Brian has printed and starting filling out those papers as well. This will let him put Justin on his insurance, and make sure that they will be allowed to receive information and make decisions at a hospital if one of them was to get sick or need surgery.

He knows that his husband will be very proud of him for taking care of all of this. Brian is proud of himself. He wants to make sure that now that he has made the ultimate commitment to the man he loves, that that man will be taken care of if something should happen to him. He also doesn't want to worry about what will happen to Gus if anything should happen to him. Melanie and Lindsey passing and their preparation have been the wake-up call he needed. He realizes that while he has never wanted to grow old, he doesn't want to die either. He has too much to live for. He has a beautiful son and an amazing husband that he would give his life for in a heartbeat. He never intended to have any of this, but is quickly realizing how happy he is to have it. What was I going to do, try to go to Babylon and pick up tricks when I'm 60? Even being Brian Kinney at some point I would wind up being a laughing stock. I had my fun misspent youth, now I will have a perfect partner to grow old with. I'll just have to work out a little longer and harder to keep up with my younger spouse. Maybe I'll just let Justin continue to slack off, that way he'll start to look older, and I won't have to work at it as much. And they said Brian Kinney couldn't change. I showed them.

Starting to feel worn out from all this work, he decides to try and get a little more sleep if he can so he will be well rested for when Justin gets home. It's only 6:00; maybe I can get a couple of hours of sleep in.

His efforts are short lived, because at exactly 6:43, he is shaken from his slumber by an exuberant little boy. "Daddy are you awake?"

"I am now. What's the matter sonny boy?"

"Auntie Em said that when I woke up we could make pancakes."

"Then how about you go and wake up Auntie Em instead of me."

"But your awake now, don't you want to make pancakes with me Daddy?"

"Not really", he says without thinking.

Gus' eyes start to water up and Brian realizes the error of his ways. "I was just kidding sonny boy. Don't cry. Big boys don't cry. I want to make pancakes, really, I do." If Justin were here he would have said the right thing. Maybe I'm not cut out for this parenting thing after all. Just as he is thinking this, Gus' eyes dry up and he gets excited. Crisis averted. Okay maybe it's not quite as difficult as I thought.

"Come on sonny boy; let's go wake Auntie Em up together. I am getting kind of hungry."

An hour later with a huge mess in the kitchen to clean up, they have all finished their pancakes and Emmett and Ted are ready to leave. Ted has to get to Kinnetic since he's running things while Brian is off.

Brian realizes that he will need to go back to work on Monday, if he plans on taking time off later to go on his and Justin's honeymoon. "Hey Ted, I know I said I would be gone for a couple of weeks, but I'm going to come in next week. Now that we have Gus, Justin and I have to take care of a bunch of legal matters before we can think about going on a honeymoon. I'll need you to handle things for me then."

"Of course Boss, it won't be a problem. I'm sure I'll see your appreciation in my Christmas bonus."

"Teddy, can you drop me off at Babylon on your way to the office. Since I wasn't there last night, I want to check the receipts and make sure everything's been taken care of."

"Hey Emmett, I'm having a weird week. I've been saying a lot of things that I wouldn't normally say."

"Like what, Brian?"

"Thanks! "

"What, I'm not sure I heard you right."

"I seem to have a different outlook ever since Justin came back. It will probably wear of in a week or two, so enjoy it while it lasts. I know that you and Ted both really stepped up when Justin left for New York and when he eventually returned. You're taking over Babylon and Ted managing Kinnetic." He nods in Ted's direction. "You guys along with Michael will always be better friends then I deserve. I'm finally realizing it, and I just wanted to say thanks because I might never say it again."

"Wow Brian, Justin really has changed you. It's a nice change too. We were just doing what friends do for each other. You've been known to help a friend out from time to time, even if you never want credit for it. It is nice to get a thank you though, so I'll take it."

"Hey Sunshine, are you on the road yet?" It's now just after 10:00am and Brian is glad that Justin decided to call.

"The Salvation Army just left. We should be on the road in about 15 minutes."

"Good! I can't wait for you to get home so I can go over everything I got accomplished during your absence."

"Okay, I can't wait. So, do you think you can meet us at Bri-Tin when we get back to town? We'll need you to unlock the stables, so we can store everything. I don't want to put anything in the house until we have Gus' room painted. Maybe you can go through some of the things and decide what you want to do with it all."

"That sounds like a lot of work, but I guess it needs to be done. Just call me when you get about 30 minutes away, and we'll meet you there."

"Great! I better get going. I'll see you later. Love you!"

"I love you too, bye." Brian thought he could actually hear Justin smile whenever he said those three little words and it made him even more certain of his decision to grow up every time he saw his paramour grin.

"Brian, didn't you hear the doorbell?" Michael chastises as he go to see who has shown up.

"Sorry Mikey, I was on the phone with my sweetie [he says wryly] and could of cared less that you have a visitor."

"So good to know you can still be an ass when you want to." He opens the door. "Oh look, the visitor is for you not me."

Brian joins Michael at the door and sees a young man dresses in creased khakis and a nice tucked in polo shirt. He looks at Brian. "Are you Mr. Brian Kinney?"

Brian doesn't like the look of the kid and says, "Who the fuck wants to know?"

The kid takes this as a confirmation and hands him a legal sized envelope. "Mr. Kinney, you've been served."

Larry comes up the walkway just in time to see the kid leaving and Brian saying, "what the hell does he me I'm being served?"

"Brian, what's going on?"

"I'll be damned if I know, but I'm supposedly being served."

Michael is always worried about what the neighbors think of him so he politely asks Brian and Larry to bring the conversation inside. Gus is in the living room watching cartoons so they take their conversation into the kitchen, where Michael begins to clean up while Brian talks to Larry.

"If it's something legal do you want me to look at it, because I'll probably understand it better than you?"

"Yeah, go ahead. With everything going on the last thing I need is someone suing me. I've been a model citizen for the last few months. Just ask my husband. I have no idea what someone could be accusing me of."

"Well let's find out. It's from the law office of Carnegie and Stanford, so whoever it is has a lot of money at their disposal." Larry opens the envelope and pulls out what looks like a very lengthy brief. "It looks like Lindsey's parents are trying to gain custody of Gus. They have a court date already set for a hearing."

"Those fuckers, if they think for one damn second that I'm going to let them anywhere near my son, they can take a quick trip to Hell. They don't have a fucking case do they?"

"I don't know. I'll have to review everything. The main thing they could try to use against you is that you gave up your parental rights in the past."

"I only did that for Lindsey and Melanie. I didn't want to give up my rights, but if I didn't Melanie wouldn't have had any fucking rights to Gus. This is unbelievable. Can we fight it?"

"Of course we can. I was actually bringing over the papers I got from the court. Your parental rights have already been restored. I already have everything together from that. You have done a lot for the community, with charitable contributions; you've supported Gus even when you didn't have parental rights; you are in a committed relationship; you own your own businesses and make a very good living. Lindsey's parents were estranged from her for quite a while and she specifically said she didn't want them around her son. She appointed you as Gus' guardian in the will. I truly believe the burden is on them to prove that you wouldn't be fit."

"What about my past. I was a bit of a deviant there for a while. Can they use that against me.?"

"You've reformed right?"

"Yeah, like I said you can ask my wife."

"I'll have one of our investigators research her parents claim. As a matter of fact I better call him right now, because they have the hearing set for next Wednesday."

"How the fuck did they get a hearing that quick?"

"With minor children the court likes to work fast. It supposed to be in the child's best interest. By the way, in that packet I gave you are the papers that I need you and Justin to fill out, so Justin can legally adopt Gus, assuming we get the current situation under control. I need you to work on your temper, because if you fly off the handle like this in court, it won't look good and it'll strengthen the Peterson's case."

"Don't worry, I'm in advertising. I know when to keep my mouth shut. Those homophobic bastards just better not show up to the funeral tomorrow. If they do I'll have them thrown out by security. They didn't give a shit about Lindsey when she was alive; always trying to convince her that she wasn't really a lesbian. A couple of fucking pricks is what they are."

"I'll get right on this and let you know what we find out, tomorrow at the funeral. Try to take it easy.

Michael, I have the paperwork here for you, if you want to have JR legally adopted by Ben. Just fill it out and sign it. Get it back to me tomorrow if possible and I'll try to get a court date set."

"Thanks Larry, you've been great."