"Hey mom," Greg called after her, and Blythe turned around, "would you be able to ring Rob and Josie for me? Once James has figured out somewhere to eat, and see if they're free to meet up for lunch or dinner?"

"Yeah, of course I will," Blythe smiled, and Greg nodded his appreciation.

"Thanks, mom," Greg smiled, and stayed sitting on his phone for about twenty minutes longer until James walked in, "hey," Greg looked up and focused on James.

"Hey, I think I might've found somewhere to eat, but can I talk to you first?" James asked quietly, and Greg nodded, having an idea of what the conversation may be about; "I've been thinking about what you said before, Greg, and… I think that you may be right…" James' voice dropped to a whisper; "I think that the anorexia is back. I didn't mean for this to happen," James' eyes began watering, "I've tried to stop it. I've tried to fix it myself, to force myself to just snap out of it, but it's not working! I don't know how to stop it on my own! I'm terrified!"

Greg gently shushed James, using his thumb to wipe away the tears threatening to drip down James' face; "this is what we're going to do, okay? We're going to get you in to see a therapist the moment that we figure out what we're going to do, if we're going to move or not, okay? Until then, I'm going to do my best to keep an eye on and support you with your eating, okay? If you need to see someone in the interim, then just let me know and I'll figure something out for you. We're going to get through this James, I promise you,"

James' lips began to quiver with overwhelming emotion, and Greg halted him, "hey, none of that, okay? Stiffen that upper lip. It's all going to be okay, James, I'm not going to go anywhere, you're going to be stuck with me for the rest of our lives. We're going to sort this out, okay? I promise,"

"No hospital though," James stated firmly as he sniffled and wiped the back of his nose.

"No hospital, provided that you don't pull any more stunts like you did, then I will have to take you to hospital regardless of my own personal wishes," Greg amended.

"Never again," James promised.

"Okay, good, why don't you show me this restaurant that you had in mind?" Greg asked, and James pulled out his phone; it was a little bistro type restaurant; the serving sizes looked more like snacks than meals to Greg, but he wasn't about to point that out to James now. "It looks good," Greg nodded, "go show mom,"

James went to show Blythe who agreed and said that she'd ring her brother and sister-in-law and see whether they might be able to give them some advice; lest they otherwise continue living in limbo. James came and sat down next to Greg, who was still playing on his phone while lying down; "I'm nervous," he mumbled.

"Nervous? About what?" Greg asked, still distracted by his phone.

"About these people, I don't know them. What if they think badly about their nephew being with another man?" James mumbled.

"They won't," Greg's response was simple, "they really won't care. These people are different than my father and uncle Henry. Couldn't be more different," James still looked uncomfortable, "just give them a chance, Jimmy. If you don't like them, then we can always leave, okay?" to which James just simply nodded.

About an hour later, James, Greg, and Blythe stepped out of a taxi outside of this little restaurant, Greg seemed a little bit hesitant about walking on the icy pavement, but got across without any incident, and the three of them walked inside. A tall, very overweight man with grey hair and a beard approached them; James hung back behind Greg a little bit, like a shy child. "Gregory!" he had a loud, booming voice, "how are you?" and a black woman who was just as curvy with long, straight, very dark hair came up alongside her husband and smiled widely.

"I'm doing well, uncle Rob and aunty Josie," Greg smiled back, "how are you?"

"We're doing great!" Rob grinned, "I've got to show you some photos of my projects I've been working on. They're going really well,"

"Really? Did you ever finish fixing up that Challenger? Or is it still rotting away in your garage?" Greg joked, and Rob laughed and wiggled his hand side to side to indicate kind of.

"Where's John?" Josie asked, sounding a bit hesitant, after she hugged Blythe hello.

"I left him," Blythe stated flatly. "There was an incident where I finally realised that he was never going to change,"

"I hate to say it, but I'm proud you did that, Blythe, that man changed you for a while there, and we were so worried about him being alone with Greg as a kid, but there was nothing that we could do. We just had to wait and see. Speaking of which, what's with the cane, Greg?" Rob asked, clearly concerned.

"Oh, I had what was essentially a heart attack, but just in my thigh. It happened years ago now. The doctors had to do surgery and cut a huge chunk out of my leg because the muscle died, and it had turned toxic; it was that or cut off my leg entirely. So, because of the missing muscle, my leg is a lot weaker, so that's why I have the cane. The recovery took forever and was absolute hell, ended up breaking Stacy and I up too; but I'm alive, when really, I shouldn't be, so there's that," Greg shrugged, and James' eyebrows shot up for a moment in surprise, it was the first time he'd heard Greg talk about his injury so impassively and without a great deal of detail and complaint.

The five of them sat down and were handed menus, as they continued to talk; "so who's this handsome devil?" Josie grinned, motioning towards James, who blushed and stared down at his hands, feeling incredibly awkward.

"He's Mr. Shy today," Greg laughed, "no, that's James, my partner,"

James' breath hitched slightly as he waited for the inevitable reaction, which he couldn't envision being at all positive. "Well, you got lucky, didn't you, Greg?" Rob grinned, and James glanced up to see that Rob's expression appeared purely genuine, and James felt a shy smile creeping across his face.

"So how long have you two been together? Is there going to be a wedding anytime soon?" Josie asked.

"We've been together for about six months, I'd say?" Greg looked over at James to confirm, "no wedding plans yet though,"

"They've been together officially for about six months," Blythe interrupted with a note of bragging in her tone, "but really I've had them secretly pinned as eventually seeing each other for how they really felt for over twenty years now,"

"How… how did John take the news?" Rob asked cautiously.

"He didn't take it well at all, hence why he's now got multiple restraining orders against him. Henry as well. It was… it was a very, very terrifying time. But we left him behind, didn't we boys?" Blythe answered as quickly as she could, and Rob nodded as though he expected such an answer.

By the time the food came out, James was just relieved that it seemed like firstly; these people did appear to be good, genuine people and not just merely superficial charm with notes of passive-aggression like he'd had from John and Henry, and secondly; that aside from the occasional, friendly question, he was not the centre of attention; they were certainly kind and inclusive with him; but they both appeared to respect that James clearly just wanted to observe and get to know them slowly first. James looked down at his plate he'd just been served and began a process of sectioning off each item into halves and then quartering before he began eating; it was just way too much food. Even though he was absolutely starving and had been thinking about food most of the time recently, he knew that he couldn't eat it all.

Josie watched what James was doing with a sad, knowing smile; and even Rob, who had hardly stopped speaking for the entire meal, went quiet for a moment when he saw James' obsessive, anxious separation and sectioning of the food, how he seemed to analyse it, and how he was eating it, seeming to count his tiny, measured bites of each part of the dish; before announcing quietly that his 'stomach was playing up' so he couldn't keep eating, or the way that Greg was subtly observing him with a look of sadness and helplessness washed over his face. Rob reached out a hand to Josie next to him and gently squeezed her shoulder in a silent show of comfort.

Eventually the topic came up that Blythe, but particularly Greg and James, were very seriously considering making the move to Michigan from where they'd been living in New Jersey, they had quite a few things to organise that would take a while, so they would probably be staying in the hotel for what Greg guessed would probably be a month or so until they could find a place of their own.

"Stay with us," Rob kindly offered, "we'll put Blythe up in the spare room, and the basement is completely finished, it's like a little apartment down there, you two can stay there. We do… have Jenny's kids who live with us… but they're only very little so they shouldn't be any trouble. Please, you can't stay in a hotel room for a month… and if for whatever reason it doesn't work out, the hotel room isn't going to go anywhere…"

"Oh, Rob, are you sure?" Blythe said, and Greg repeated much the same sentiment that they couldn't possibly burden Rob and Josie for that long; yet both Rob and Josie continued to insist until Greg and Blythe backed down, James just sat there silently; feeling and looking quite awkward.

"You're family. And it sounds as though you're going to become family too," Rosie smiled at James, noting the deep sadness filling his eyes; she just wanted to reach out and hug him, but knew that given this man was clearly quite shy; it was probably not the best idea to push him before he was ready. "I've been working in real estate, nothing major, but I might be able to keep an eye out for some deals for you two," she smiled, and Greg reciprocated of course, but Josie felt extra proud when the near silent James smiled back.

By the time that they'd returned to the hotel; James and Greg headed immediately upstairs while Blythe notified the front desk staff that they'd be checking out tomorrow.

"So, we're moving out," James sighed as he sat down on the lounge.

"Seems that way," Greg muttered as he sat down and began undoing his boots; James knew that the weight of the snow boots on Greg's weak leg wore him out and caused a lot of excess pain that otherwise wouldn't be there; "you did good today, you know? You gave them a chance. They like you, James,"

"Yeah, I guess I was worried about that they might have been similar to your dad's side of the family," James muttered.

Greg shook his head, "nah, Rob couldn't be more different than my dad. He really hates my dad actually, if he didn't make it clear enough. See, my dad was in his late twenties and had been put on military placement in Michigan, where he met my mom. Mom was very young and dumb, and well, my grandparents and Rob hated my dad, mainly because of the age thing, but also because of his general attitudes. To be fair, my grandparents hated him, Rob was only 10 at the time so I think he just followed their opinions. But, mom who was well into her rebellious phase snuck out one night to go on a date with him… and wham, bam, thank you ma'am, she's pregnant with me at 15, and she had to drop out of school, she was only in her sophomore year… so she didn't really have any opportunity for any more education down the line; had me when she was not yet sixteen and a half years old, my dad was about 28, nearly 29 at the time. So, they got married, as they had a baby, being me, and it was legal at the time for something like that to go ahead. Apparently, mom cried her whole wedding day and the lead up to it. And the rest is history," Greg mumbled, "she's even crying in her wedding photos,"

"Wait, your mom got pregnant with you at fifteen? Isn't that illegal? Your father should've been put in jail for that alone if he was already a decade into adulthood!" James gasped.

"Different times. They blamed my mom, not my dad, for the pregnancy," Greg muttered, "goddamn boot," as he fixated further onto the boot on his pained leg, "I hate to ask you this, James, but could you help pull it off? I can't really lean over or move my leg to cross it over my good one. Goddamn, I'm not looking forward to these Michigan winters. I think I'll become a hermit living in that basement," Greg grumbled, and then yelped quietly when James managed to yank the boot off, as it pulled on his leg.

"I can't believe it," James muttered, "your mom was so young… I thought she was 63 though?"

"She's sixty. She tells people she's 63 when I'm around because then she doesn't have to deal with the 'shame' at having been an underaged, unwed mother from all those years ago, although I'm surprised people don't assume I'm older and that I'm not her son, but rather her husband or brother- especially with this cane," Greg said, standing up with an effort, leaning heavily on his cane. "I'm making a coffee; do you want one?"

"Sure," James mumbled through his shock shortly before Blythe walked in the door.

"Making coffee mom, do you want one?" Greg asked and she nodded, shivering, and sat down on the couch, relaxing, taking off her own boots and switching on the television as James just stared, Blythe was a victim of sexual abuse from John just like Greg was. Yet, it's their elephant in the room. They're both aware of it for themselves and each other; given Lisa told Blythe what happened, but just ignore it and pretend it didn't happen to themselves or each other. They just dance around it…

"Die Hard is on, Greg. It's just started," Blythe called out, which snapped James from his thoughts.

"Ooh, I love Die Hard… James, come help me with these coffees please," Greg requested as he carried a coffee over to his mom, saw James was carrying the other two cups, so sat down and took a cup from James before settling back and draping his arm over James' shoulder, kissing him affectionately on the cheek, turning and watching the movie; seemingly unaware of the bombshell he'd just dropped on James, because to Greg it is normal, that isn't a bombshell or out of the ordinary, it's just the way that life has gone for his mother and himself at the hands of their husband and father.