Brian POV

God, it’s been 6 months from hell, but it seems that things have slowed down a little. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The day after we had been to the police and the lawyer, we heard that the cops had showed up at the store with a warrant for all of Michael’s books, both for the store and for the comic. He had called Deb, who came over immediately, and while she was there, Michael was served the papers from our lawyer.

We heard this from Mel, who had heard it through her friends at the police station, and from our lawyer. She had called the entire family and they all showed up at the loft to show their support. It was me, Justin, Emmett, Ted, Ben, Hunter, Vic, Mel, Lindz, Gus, Cynthia, Jennifer and Molly at the loft when the banging started. None of us were the least bit surprised when Justin opened the door and Deb stormed in.

She was though, surprised I mean. I think she had figured that we’d be alone. She looked at all the people assembled at the loft and did a double take. She recovered quickly and looked straight at Vic.

“Do you know what they’ve done?”

She was close to tears; we could all hear it in her voice.

“We all know; we knew before they did it and we all support them in it.”

“What? How can you support them in this? What they are doing is wrong; they reported Michael to the cops like he’s some kind of criminal.”

“He is, Deb, what he did is illegal and you can get 4-6 years in jail for it,”

Mel said, and Deb blanched at that.

“Jail?”

“Yeah, Deb, what did you think? That you can just go around stealing money from someone and not get punished for it?”

Ted sounded almost as exasperated as I felt. Justin and I still hadn’t said anything.

“But why couldn’t they have given him more time?”

She was talking like we weren’t even in the room, and I was just about to answer when Ben beat me to it.

“They gave him a month, Deb, and he used that month to bitch and moan about it, not try to do anything about it; he never contacted either of them, other than to try and get them to give up the money; he never made any attempt to get the money together and he never even accepted that he would have to give Justin the money one way or another.”

Deb looked at Ben with her eyes blazing.

“You just abandoned him; just when he needed you the most, you just up and left him.”

“No, I didn’t. I tried for a very long time; I tried talking to him, I tried to get him to sell some of his collectibles to pay off the money, I tried to get him to call Brian or Justin and make a payment plan, but all he ever did was tell me that he had done nothing wrong, that Justin deserved what he got and now that he was back with Brian and they had their own company he didn’t really need the money. He kept saying that Brian would never let Justin do that to him; Brian would give Justin the money and Michael could just pay him back sometime when he had the money, or that Brian would just forget it, like he usually does.”

This was news to Justin and me, and to everyone else it seemed; we were all gaping at Ben.

“And by the way, since Hunter and I moved out, Michael hasn’t tried to contact either one of us even once; and he does have both our cell numbers.”

“But…”

“He told me he would be there for me, he said that he would never abandon me, that he was my father if I wanted him to be, but as soon as I was out the door, he forgot all about me.”

Hunter sounded so hurt; the poor kid had already had the worst luck in the parent department and finally thought that there was some semblance of stability in his life when Michael went and did this to him.

“And since this happened, he hasn’t called me once; before, he called all the time to ask how I was doing, if there was anything he could do, now, nothing.”

Mel sounded both pissed and relieved simultaneously. Deb looked shocked and disappointed and I was hoping that she might begin to see that what Michael had done was wrong.

“I see, so all of you are just going to complain about all the things he hasn’t done for you while he’s been under all this pressure? None of you are going to help him and support him like he has done for you so many times in the past?”

Ok, maybe she’s not going to see the error of Michael’s ways.

“Look, Deb, we are not forgetting what Michael has done for us in the past; we are just commenting on the fact that he is acting like this is somehow not his own doing, like he didn’t do this to himself. And when things don’t go Michael’s way, he tends to forget everybody else around him.”

Emmett sounded very rational, but Deb was having none of it.

“I can’t believe that you two can do this to him, after all he and I did for you when you were young, Brian, and after I took you in when your parents threw you out.”

She was pointing a sharp fingernail in Justin’s face and he backed up a little.

“Deb, you helped me and I will be forever grateful for that, and I think Justin feels the same way, but you can’t honestly believe that it is fair that we pay Michael ten thousand dollars for it?”

She froze at that and her arm fell to her side.

“Besides, it’s not really fair of you to blame this on Brian and Justin. Neither one of them have done anything wrong. Michael stole the money from Justin to punish him for something Michael thinks he did to Brian, even though Brian told him numerous times that Justin didn’t do anything to him, that they did it to each other.”

Lindsay tried to make Deb see reason, but I think she is so blinded by the fact that somebody has actually made Michael take responsibility for his own actions that she can’t see beyond that.

“And Deb, don’t you think that Brian and Justin have been through enough in their lives without being cheated by someone they thought was their friend, someone they actually trusted?”

Mother Taylor was pissed, more pissed than I’ve ever seen her before.

“Michael’s had it at least as hard as they have.”

“Oh, really, how do you figure that?”

“Well he had to grow up without a father.”

Deb sounded like she had found the perfect answer.

“I’m fairly certain that both Brian and Justin wish they had.”

Deb looked like she conceded that point.

“Well, Michael was picked on at school all the time.”

“Yeah, he got picked on, but nobody ever laid a hand on him; I made sure of that, even if it meant that I had to take some of those beatings for him. And don’t get me started on Justin’s high school experience. Michael got picked on because he is a comic book geek, something he chose to be, Justin and I got harassed because we are gay, something we didn’t choose and something we can’t change, even if we wanted to.”

“I know prom was horrible, Brian, but that’s not what we’re talking about.”

“Neither am I. Did you not notice the bruises, the split lips, the burned locker, and the torn sketches while he lived with you?”

I actually think Deb had forgotten about that; she looked like she had to think back before she answered.

“But, I couldn’t afford to put Michael through college, so he had to do with a high school diploma; you have your own business, now.”

“My parents couldn’t afford college either, and even if they could, they would never have paid. I worked my butt of to get a scholarship, and I worked even harder to keep it once I was there. Justin had to loan the money for college from me or he wouldn’t have been able to go, and the only reason he isn’t there anymore is because he decided to fight for what he believe in, a cause you have pounded into his head from the second you met him, by the way. And Michael has his own business, too; he had two, actually, both the store and Rage.”

“But…”

“No buts, Deb. Michael’s had an about average high school experience, but he didn’t have the drive or the intelligence to get good enough grades to get a scholarship, but that is hardly our fault. He dropped out of community college to go work at the Big Q to be able to afford his own place instead of staying with you and finish his education. The only reason he could afford his own store was because he sold a gift I had given him, and now he wants Justin’s money, too; well that’s just too fucking bad, he can’t have it!”

With that, I escorted her body out of the loft, closed and locked the door behind her and turned to the people congregated inside.

“So, anybody hungry?”

There were a few chuckles and the tension in the air lifted a little.

“I could order some take out if you all want to stay?”

Those were the first words out of Justin since Deb had showed up and he looked so hopeful that they’d all say they’d stay.