Something about this morning felt particularly peaceful. Russell had woken up earlier than usual to find Timmy sprawled out next to him in bed, over the covers, where they had fallen asleep casually chatting the night before. He smiled to himself and ran a hand softly through Timmy's hair. Yep, he was really here.

Timmy stirred, eyes fluttering gently. "What time is it?"

"6 or something, too early, go back to sleep."

"Mm, no, I need to get up, I missed work yesterday, I was late another day from all this. I'm not setting a good precedent. I need to get home and dressed..."

"If you were still working for me, I wouldn't care."

"I'm not, though."

"You could be."

"Conflict of interest, don't you think?" Timmy's voice came out groggy, half asleep. "Also, a spouse is the person you're supposed to come home and complain about your horrible boss to. Am I to complain to you about yourself?"

Russell backhanded Timmy gently on the arm. "Well, if you're getting up, then get up."

Timmy groaned gently and felt for his glasses haphazardly until Russell leaned across to the nightstand and handed them to him.

"Thank you." Having clear vision, Timmy looked to Russell and gave a faint smile. "Well, then."

A smile back. "Yeah. Well, then."

"I guess this is a real thing now."

"I guess so, yeah."

Timmy sat on the edge of the bed, finding his shoes and setting to putting them on. "I should tell you something I failed to mention last night..."

"Why does that freak me out...?"

Timmy twisted swiftly to look at Russell. "No, nothing serious, but uhm...Mrs. Bingham knows. I sort of had a heart to heart with her before coming to see you yesterday. And I would suppose, in hindsight, despite her promises to the contrary, that she's ensured Mr. Bingham knows as well."

Russell threw back his head. "Ohhhhh, crap."

"Well, Russell, I mean, he was going to find out sooner or later."

"Yeah, but I was kind of hoping for later, I mean..." He sneered. "Well, Adam and Jen know, too."

"What?"

"Adam cornered me yesterday, right before you showed up, he acted like he knew what was going on."

"Yes...he spoke to me briefly as well yesterday and sounded as if he might be on to us."

"So they all know. Who doesn't know? I mean, in the circle?"

Timmy thought. He tilted his head with a sigh. "Liz?"

Russell made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat. "Oh, god, no, puke, Liz can't know about this. After all the crap she put us through, imagine what she'll say." He halted, his jaw dropping in an exaggerated fashion. "Oh my god, that's it! She turned us both gay!"

Timmy stared blankly until Russell backed down with a mild sneer.

"Liz did not turn us both-" Timmy paused a moment, thinking. "No, no, she didn't. And regardless, this isn't the sort of thing we can selectively keep secret. If we're out, we're out. So are we out?"

Russell furrowed his brow heavily. "Yeah, I don't know. "

"Listen, I'm not exactly jumping at the bit to tell everybody about this, but seeing as we've not done a very good job so far at keeping it a secret, I think it best we come clean and get it over with before others do it for us."

"Saturday."

"What?"

"The photo shoot on Saturday, that stupid thing Audrey's doing, the six of us'll be there. That's in like three days."

"That's the day after tomorrow."

"What, seriously!?"

"I don't blame you for being confused, this week has been confusing."

"Fine, two days. Give me two more days to get used to this."

"You married me, how much more used to this can you get?"

Russell groaned, searching for the words. "Come on, Timmy. They know I married you so you could stay in the country. They don't know I fucked you."

Timmy quickly averted his gaze. "Yes, point taken."

Russell took a few moments to look around the room at nothing. They still weren't talking about what happened in the office yesterday. Maybe, they figured, they could just avoid talking about it forever if they played this right.

Timmy had finished with his shoes and stood up, checking his pockets to ensure he wasn't missing anything. "I'll freshen up and I should go."

Russell's eyes scanned Timmy as he walked across the room and entered the bathroom, and he spoke as Timmy went about his business.

"So, I'll see you after work?"

"I think I should go home after work, and so should you. This has been a tiring few days, I need a breather, we can't really do this shuffle daily."

"Used to see each other every day."

"When we were working together it was more convenient, I'm afraid."

Russell tried to search his brain rapidly for a solution to this. "So bring your stuff over here. I've got room, my place is better than your little crap shack anyway and you'll save on rent, you're making less money now, you need to cut back."

"Making considerably more, and I already said I can't just move, that's not going to happen."

"We can't just never see each other."

"Let me figure it out."

"Well, you're still gonna be at the diner, right?"

A flush, a sink running, and Timmy resurfacing. "If we're avoiding going public, the diner might not be the safest place for the next few days. We'll need to lay low."

"But Jeff and Audrey have that baby now, they'll probably barely even be there."

"Adam and Jennifer surely will, and the one brief encounter we had with them already felt awkward enough."

"So you're saying, like, just not see each other until the shoot?"

"That may be the only solution right now. It's only a couple of days."

"I'm just not used to not hanging out. I get a little weird, I guess."

"I'm aware of that. The few times I've gone out of town you've taken to pretending a potted plant was me."

"One time, I did that!"

"And it died. And now we're married. I should be fearing for my life."

"Hey hey hey, I'll water you daily, you just have to remind me once in awhile. How am I supposed to remember to take care of something that can't talk?"

"And with that we establish no pets or children," Timmy remarked with more than a hint of sarcasm as he walked past Russell, checking the nightstand perimeter for the last of his things.

Russell inched up behind him, grabbing his waist. "And by water you daily, I do mean-"

Timmy pulled free. "And on that charming note, I'm off."

Russell followed Timmy's pace to the door with a laugh. "Dude, you know I'm kidding."

Timmy turned suit and met Russell with a gentle smile. "I'll call after work. We'll figure everything out, I promise." He offered a quick kiss, which Russell ensured lasted just a touch longer than intended.

Russell hit Timmy gently on the cheek. "You call me. I love you."

"I love you too, sir."

Jen and Adam were alone at the diner. It had been like this for a couple of days now, and they had been remarking on how strange this was.

"Yeah, once in awhile sure, but every day is kind of weird," noted Adam.

"Well, Jeff and Audrey are so busy. I guess if we ever have kids we'll know what that's like. But Audrey said they might start coming back around after a while, once they're in the swing of things with Shea. Just little outings, stuff like that. I guess we should have expected the group to sort of pull apart once the baby came."

"Somehow I guess I didn't think it would all actually happen. I mean, I knew it would, we've been waiting for Brenda to have the baby and we've been planning the wedding forever, but then it all happens and everything changes. Circle of life. It moves us all..."

"Babe, I swear if you start singing Disney songs, I'm leaving the table."

Adam sunk down a little in his seat.

"And what about Russell, did you talk to him?"

"Yeah, that was weird though."

"Like what kind of weird?"

"Like...I think you're right, weird. Something's up. I saw Timmy, he was going to talk to him. I don't think we're gonna see them for awhile."

Jen sniggered softly. "Like, they're too busy doing it?"

Adam almost laughed but then his face went serious. "No, like I think they might have been fighting, Russell seemed really tense about everything."

"Oh...y'know, if we're going to talk to either of them about this, maybe it's Timmy we should be talking to. Russell always gets a little weird when he's dealing with a love crisis. And that's when it's a normal love crisis, and this isn't exactly normal."

"Yeah, I'm a little worried. I know Russell pretty well and something tells me that realizing something like this about himself this late in life could probably cause a meltdown of catastrophic proportions. I mean, he's devoted his whole life to pursuing women, I mean, his whole life, this could crush him if not handled delicately."

"Are we playing psychologist now?"

"All I'm saying is, Timmy's a nice guy and everything, but Russell...well, he's Russell."

"I don't really understand any of this," said Jen. "This is like a weird sci-fi movie or something. 'In a world where posh young assistants and their satanic bosses collide phallically'-"

A new voice: "May I speak with the two of you, confidentially?"

Jen and Adam looked up to see Timmy hovering over the table, and they nodded in embarrassment as he slipped into the other side of the booth.

"I shouldn't even be here, I went on a whole shpiel with Russell about not coming here for this very reason, but I couldn't help overhearing the not so quiet conversation about my personal affairs."

Jen scrunched up her face awkwardly. "I'm so sorry Timmy, you deserve a lot better than idle gossip."

"No, really, I understand. This situation is a difficult one to know how to approach, and it's coming from a place of genuine caring, I'm sure. But...well, Russell isn't ready to deal with this publicly and frankly, neither am I, but I can see it's already being dealt with by everybody else. So...when you see him next if you could just not let on so strongly that you know. I mean, we're aware that you know, but if we could have a little time. We're going to come clean soon and if you could simply let us handle this in our own way..."

"Absolutely," agreed Jen. "You've got it."

Timmy smiled warmly. "Thank you." He started to get up before Jennifer spoke again.

"Timmy, can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Why? I mean, why Russell? I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have even asked that..."

Timmy sighed and nodded. "No, quite alright, uhm...might I instead reflect a question back?"

"Shoot."

"Why Adam?"

"Because...well..." She looked to Adam in contemplation. "Because he's..." Then to Timmy. "Okay, fair enough. But...Russell?"

"If I could honestly answer that question, my life would make a lot more sense right now. All I know is that I've been in this city for nearing five years, and most of that time has been under Mr. Dunbar."

An awkward look amongst the table.

"That was a terrible choice of words, but you know what I mean. And...listen, when you spend as much time with somebody as I've spent with Russell...and as intimately as I have been forced to...sometimes, you become friends. He's my friend. He cares for me. And I suppose by and by that turned into something else. I can't really explain it any better than that. Isn't that really all the explanation necessary? Isn't that what we all want?"

Jen and Adam stared silently and nodded. Timmy stood with a nod and a smile as he left and Jen and Adam looked to one another, feeling a little badly about themselves.

"Man," said Jen finally, "I'm not sure Russell deserves him."

Adam shrugged. "Maybe not. I don't know. But I know I didn't deserve you, and I got you anyway. The idiots always find the good ones eventually."

"Awh, Adam..." Jen kissed Adam on the cheek and nestled into his shoulder.

"So, I was thinking that for the big family wedding I'd go on Craigslist and rent Mambo some parrot friends, you know, like best-bird-men?"

Jen heaved a sigh. "You really are an idiot. But I love you."

Jeff and Audrey hadn't been out since Shea had arrived. They were in the baby bubble, and they didn't really want to burst it. The baby bubble being the place where nothing truly mattered but the baby - you forgot the outside world in those moments, and everything else disappeared. Jeff was getting a little antsy for outside human interaction, but he hadn't realized just how comfortable the baby bubble would be, and they'd cemented themselves firmly within it this past week.

The baby had gone magically to sleep around an hour ago and the couple had managed to eat a great meal of frozen tv dinners that tasted like cardboard. Now Audrey was back to talking about that stupid photo thing.

"And Francois should be there at 5 to shart shooting."

"Shoot me first," muttered Jeff.

"What's that?"

"Sounds excellent!"

She reached for her purse on the sofa. "So Francois' card is in the front pocket of my purse in case you need anything at all from him-"

"Wait a minute, Francois?"

"...Yes."

"A photographer named Francois. This just keeps getting fruitier and fruitier."

Audrey tossed her purse firmly back onto the sofa. "Oh, okay, now, y'know, Jeff, we should really talk about this."

"About what?"

"About your homophobia."

"About my what?!"

"Now, listen, we have a handful of very dear LGBT friends and I don't think going around using terms like 'fruity' at the first sign of every Frenchly-named photographer is doing their cause any favors!"

"Ah crap, I said one little...who got you on this, huh? Are we on this PC kick again?"

"No, I was just thinking that-"

"You just said 'LGBT'! And for god sake Audrey, we have two gay friends, me and Brad have been cool for years and Brenda just shoved out our kid so pretty sure I'm good with that, and that hardly constitutes a handful."

"We know a...few," Audrey grabbed her purse. "So tired, let's get to bed."

Jeff looked to Audrey suspiciously, annoyance turning to curiosity.

"Auuuudrey."

"Hm?" Innocently rummaging through her purse for an imaginary item.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Audrey rummaged a bit slower and finally settled on pulling out a box of Tic-Tacs.

"Minty fresh," she said, as if having just one-upped him.

He looked at her stony-eyes. "You popped a mint after we ate our crappy tv dinners."

Audrey darted eyes, looking for a way out.

"You know I'll break you woman."

Audrey ground her teeth and grumbled. "Okay, okay, but you have to absolutely unequivocally not let on that I told you, I gave my word."

"Yeah, yeah, been there, done that, carry on."

"Russell and Timmy."

Jeff motioned for her to continue. "Yeah?"

"Well...Jeff, it's serious. I mean, more than just us joking about it behind their backs and a sham wedding making it easier for us to joke about it behind their backs."

Jeff furrowed his brow. "Wait like...like serious, serious? So when I said they were legally gay..."

"They are legally gay, yes, Jeff."

"How the hell would you know this, are you hiding in their bedrooms or something, I haven't seen hide or hair of those guys for days."

Audrey began to look around nervously again. "Timmy...may have...come over...to speak with me."

"With you? Why the hell would he do that?"

"I'm a people person!"

Jeff ignored this. "And he fessed up to it? Why would he want to fess up to it?" He put up a hand. "Before you call me homophobic again, I mean doing stuff with Russell, why the hell anybody ever wants to fess up to that I'll never know."

"Oh come on, you enjoy detailed accounts of his bachelor life sexcapades."

"Not...with Timmy! Oh, God, doesn't this conversation make you as nauseous as it makes me?"

Audrey sat down. "It did, but I'm starting to get my sea legs. Maybe it's good that I told you, so you can get yours before you're face to face with Russell. I know this is...insane, but we should support Russell in this. Timmy's good for him."

Jeff rubbed the back of his neck, his face distorting awkwardly.

"And you know he's a good guy, Jeff, and smart, he's got his head in a good place, Russell sure as hell never knows what he's doing but I think Timmy does and if this is what they're doing now then I have faith in that and so should we." He didn't answer, face still distorted awkwardly. "Jeff? ...Jeff?"

"Who do you think's on top?"

"Jeff!"

"I mean, how does this work exactly? Ah, god, Audrey, you've got me picturing this now, and right before bed, I'm gonna dream about Russell and Timmy doing stuff, why would you do that, huh?"

Audrey stood and started her way to the bedroom.

"Very sensitive, Jeff."

"What? Come on, you can't tell me you haven't thought about this."

"So empathetic, so in touch with your feelings."

"There you go, getting all fruity again."

Closing the bedroom door behind her.

Well, at least Jeff wasn't too torn up by the whole thing.

This evening was calm, but both Russell and Timmy felt an undeniable unease from their respective apartments. A slight pull, as if they should be together, but they weren't about to admit it to one another. They both were in bed. Everything was the same as it ever was, but everything felt different.

Timmy called Russell, as promised.

"How was work?" asked Timmy. Boring, safe question.

"Lame. How's the new job treating ya?"

"Quite well actually, I think I may be promoted fairly soon if things keep going the way they are."

"Geez, you've been there like two weeks."

"Mm, yes, I know. I was with you how long?"

Russell chose to change topics. "So what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Work, home, question life choices, same as usual."

"This is just about the most exciting conversation I've ever had."

"Well, we saw each other this morning, not much to report, I'm afraid. Welcome to married life."

"Yeah..."

Silence. Awkward phone silence.

Russell: "Ever had phone sex?"

"Don't intend to start."

"What are you wearing?"

"Goodnight, Russell."

"Kidding, geez, don't hang up! God, you're so touchy."

Timmy fidgeted in bed. "It's strange, I sort of wish..." His voice trailed off.

"What do you wish?"

"Nothing. I don't know. I have an early morning, I really don't mean to cut this off, but..."

"So I won't see you tomorrow?"

"Day after tomorrow. I think we can handle one day."

"Yeah, okay. This is...this is weird."

"Yes, it is."

"Okay, so...doot doot doot."

"Yes, well..."

More awkward silence.

"Okay, Timmy, you...get some sleep, then. I, uh..." Russell bit a lip, clicked his tongue. Why was this so hard over the phone? "I guess...I love you."

Timmy paused for almost too long, making Russell nervous. Finally: "I love you too, sir."

Timmy would make a habit of saying it this way. It would make strangers look at them uncomfortably, but it stuck.

With the call ended, both men took to sleeping, though neither really slept well. They wouldn't last long this way, they both knew it, but it would take awhile longer to admit it to themselves.