Leaving the restaurant after handing the waiter her portion of the bill, Joan Kinney moved quickly through the entry way toward the bank of elevators down the corridor. She moved as though she thought the other women, some of whom had only a few years before they'd be using walkers, were hot on her heels. Glancing at the smiling concierge to her left, she didn't think she smiled back but noticed that the man's smile widened a little. It couldn't have been that he knew that she had just seen her son and lied to her companions about it, but it felt that way all the same.

She'd told the other women that she had forgotten something in her room. If only to get a few minutes to herself without their eyes on her in order to make sure that the tops of her ears or her cheeks weren't as red as they felt. She moved quickly across the wide dark-colored runner on the marble floor and hit the call button to the elevator hard enough to think that she'd broken her nail. There wasn't anyone after her and Brian was nowhere to be seen, but she felt his proximity and the proximity of her secret all too close. It had only been last Monday when she'd told one of those same women that she'd just left that Brian was thinking of getting married...this had been said because of the fact that the woman had told her she had seen Brian and a young woman walking together with a baby. That same woman, or spy as Joan called her, had spoken to an unaware Lindsay after Brian had walked away and Lindsay had mentioned in passing that she did in fact agree with the woman's suggestion that the little boy looked just like his father. Looking after Brian as he walked away, the woman had later congratulated Joan on her beautiful grandson. That same woman had promised to keep Joan's secret, what with it being obvious that Brian and this woman were not married.

"You would have told us if there'd been a wedding right Joan?"

The woman, Margaret O'Leary had been her name, had touched Joan's arm as they walked together down an aisle at the supermarket and Joan had switched her shopping basket to that arm in order to put some distance between them.

"It just so happens that they'll be married in the spring."

Not knowing where it came from, Joan had dug herself into another hole. She figured that one had been brought on by the fact that she couldn't stand to think there was something else that Brian hadn't told her about his life.

She remembered the instant horror of thinking that a dead Jack may have had this one on her too and she remembered beating a hasty retreat home to call Claire for confirmation. A solid ten minutes of screaming at Claire to tell her the truth had revealed to Joanie's dismay the fact that Brian not only had a son of more than two years in age, but that Jack had met the baby and had actually lied about going to spend time with him toward the end. Jack had actually spoken to this woman with whom Brian had the child and not once did he breath a word of it to his wife.

"I took care of that bastard, even when he was shitting in his pants toward the end..."

Joanie stabbed at the button for the sixteenth floor and tried to push the scowl off her face as more people came into the elevator. The thought that she would be found out bothered her less than the fact that she had been reminded of the lies and unfaithfulness that her family had laid at her feet. Her husband had been faithless with his dishonesty, her daughter had been faithless with her omissions and complicity, and her son... her son whom she had thought was the one good thing about her horrid existence with Jack Kinney, was faithless to everything that she had ever expected of him.

Joan pulled her purse against her chest and stumbled out on to her floor when the elevator opened. She'd been unsteady enough for a man still in the car to reach out to hold her up and part of her hoped that she had offered him something less than the sneer that she was sure was still plastered on her face.

Finding her cardkey, the woman had pushed at the lock a few times before getting it to open and when she finally did, she collapsed into a chair just inside the door as the sobs pushed through her.

"I wonder what they're doing right now." Debbie spoke absent-mindedly from the back seat of Ben's car as the man guided them back toward Liberty. Debbie had to get to her shift and after dropping her off there, he and Michael would have the uncomfortable silence of pretending that the darker haired man wasn't worried about Brian.

"Well I don't, so don't bother sharing any of your thoughts." Michael sniped a little and settled in against his seat. Only the morning before, he had begged Brian to let up on Justin but he certainly hadn't intended this turn of events. Those two changed their approaches to each other so often that Michael often chided himself for thinking that he had any clue of what was going on between them.

"I think that it's good that they get some time to themselves." Ben turned so that he could see Michael's profile before settling his eyes on the road again. He had been the first to let Michael know that he knew and accepted his feelings for Brian and he and Michael had agreed that for as long as their relationship and Brian's non-relationship with Justin lasted, they would stay in the present and let sleeping dogs lie. "And it'll be good that we all don't have to be so close to the fire for a while."

The threesome having fallen back into the silence that had existed before Debbie spoke up, waved at Lindsay as she sounded her horn behind them and turned off on to the side street that would lead her home. Having cleaned up the glass and blood in the bathroom, they'd locked up and left the loft without so much as a word on what they'd heard.

Dropping Debbie off at the diner, Ben had waited for her to go inside before turning toward Michael. "How do you feel about all this? Honestly...".

Looking up at Ben, Michael had answered as honestly as had been expected of him. "I don't want him to get hurt." The him that Michael spoke of wasn't specified, but Ben was sure that Justin wasn't at the forefront of his lover's thoughts.

Back in the lobby of a hotel in sunny San Francisco, a group of women approached the check-in desk on a mission. Estella Mursby spoke up first and she threw all the harmless charm of a nice old lady into her words. "Sweetheart. I wonder if you could help us with something." Having gotten the young woman's attention she continued. "I know you can't give out room numbers or anything, but we think we saw someone we know earlier and we wanted to know whether he's staying here...the peepers aren't what they were and we just couldn't be sure if it was him." Estella smiled her harmless smile and adjusted her little yellow sun visor a little.

"I'd be happy to tell what I can." The young woman regarded the group of older women and smiled a smile of her own. These women reminded her a little of her nana who had recently passed away and she would have told them anything they wanted to know. After all, how much damage could these sweet old ladies have a hand in stirring up.

"His name is Brian Kinney and we think we saw him in the restaurant." Estella finished and waited.

"We want to know if he'll be here for long or if he's checking out soon." Maggie O'Leary spoke up and Joan would again have appreciated her cunning old spy qualities.

Watching as the woman called up a particular screen on the computer on the counter between them, they waited as she recited the spelling of the last name for confirmation. "K-I-N-N-E-Y. Right?" She'd turned to the group again and they all smiled their toothy dentured smiles in unison.

"Yes, Mr. Kinney is staying with us. He checked in late last night and it looks like he has an open reservation. That means he'll be here for at least the next four days but no check out time has been specified." The young woman smiled again.

"Can you tell us dear if he's staying with his fiancé?" Margaret spoke up again. "I met her once and I'd love to see her again."

"He is sharing the room with someone else, so he probably is." Colleen, the owner of the smile, said and waited as another of the women imposed on her for a little bit more information.

"His mother is staying here too, she's on the same trip with us and they must have gotten their wires crossed because she didn't know that he would be here. Is there any way that we could get in touch with Brian, so that they don't miss each other?"

"Well I suppose it wouldn't do any harm if I gave you the room information just this once." She'd written the room number on a slip of paper and passed it across the counter without once thinking of the many reasons why a couple, a man and his fiancé as she'd been told, might not want Mommy dearest knocking on the door of the love nest. It also hadn't occurred to her to consider why this man's mother wouldn't know he was taking a trip or why they would just have to run into each other in passing. The number 3710 written on the paper she'd slipped across the counter, she smiled a little more thinking that her good deed for the day had been done.

She'd kept her eyes on the group as they walked away and she'd noticed when some minutes later, they were joined by another woman. She had watched as they handed the woman the paper and it was then that she wondered why the woman looked so sick at the thought of what her friends had done for her.

It was only then that Colleen behind the check-in counter had any second thoughts about giving out that confidential information about one of the hotel's guests.

"Where did you get this?" Joan tried to keep her voice calm as the group smiled like hungry hyenas around her.

"We asked at check-in. I just knew it was Brian and I certainly didn't want you two to miss seeing each other. I mean it's just the work of a higher power for you two to be in the same hotel so far away from home. That nice girl over there said that he's staying with his fiancé so maybe his son is here too."

"I know that I'd love to see the baby after everything Maggie said. I'm sure he's just as precious as she said and I'm sure his fiancé is just as pretty." Another of the women spoke up and this was the first time that Joan realized that Maggie O'Leary hadn't kept her "secret" at all and that the group was waiting for a wedding and waiting to meet a pretty blonde fiancé for her perfect son.

...Blonde yes...but not what they expected.

She had let herself tuck the slip of paper with the room number into her purse and let herself be ushered out into the sunlight toward the next tour bus that would take them to Fisherman's Wharf.

Deep breath...What do you smell?

Coconut cream, I think...

It figures, you're always thinking about food...

Not true, sometimes I'm thinking about you.

Justin turned and let the thoughts drift over him again. Where was it that he'd heard these words and when was it that he'd reached this place? He could see the images before him and even though this place looked like the hallway outside the loft, it didn't at the same time. For one, Brian didn't have plants outside the loft...and despite this reality, he certainly didn't have a jungle of plants and vines overgrowing the very doorway to his home or roots growing out of the lock...but then again, if he hadn't expected the plants, why did he have this watering can in hand?

As mildly disturbing as the imagery was, Justin wasn't disturbed and turning over again, these thoughts faded away and the first ones took their place.

He couldn't tell which thoughts came first or second anymore and now the voices were back...

I smell coconut cream...like when I was little and my dad would bring a treat for dessert...my Mom likes coconut cream pie, so he'd get her that kind...

It's not coconut cream pie, so try again...and try not to be so G-rated this time.

I think you're tricking me. It's a pie. I know it... When I was six, I got the chicken pox from a girl in my class. My dad dotted calamine all over my legs and then brought me a pie. I can remember him scooping some of the whipped cream up and dotting it on the tip of my nose...it made me laugh and for a whole second, I didn't itch...I haven't thought about that in a long time...

So then...your parents are to blame for the reason why you can't go ten seconds without thinking about food.

You're wrong...and I'm right about the pie. It's like they say, faces you might forget, names definitely, but not smells...smells mark you and just a little whiff of something and a whole day will come back to you in a flash...I remember that day when I was six, I remember the pie, and I remember cream on my nose...I remember that I didn't itch.

It's not coconut cream pie, so you can give up if you want.

Alright then...I give up. What was it?

I'll give you one last hint...Vic's little meltdown before the wedding...your bottomless pit of a stomach got you a taster's job... you were close with the coconut reference, but it certainly wasn't pie and...

Fuck...I remember...how could I have forgotten about that?

Wasn't a big deal ...

It was a big deal, especially since I've told you that story about my Dad before...I forgot that I'd told you about that... I remember coconut wedding cake frosting on the tip of my nose...you made me laugh too...Don't get so serious, you don't have to worry about me telling anyone about stuff like that, they'd never believe you'd go to such lengths to avoid eating the samples I'd brought for you...

Brian had dotted his nose with the cream frosting again and Justin watched as the man leaned in to lick it off. He'd watched Brian lick away a lot more frosting from a lot more places and he could remember dissolving into giggles as Brian and he continued to kiss and touch and suck.

Twenty-four hours before, they couldn't have been further apart and now...for however long this interlude lasted, there wasn't anything else but these kisses and this sweet cream...

The knocking stirred him from his dream and when he opened his eyes, Justin found that he'd buried his face in the skin of Brian's chest. The man had been looking at the television on the far side of the room and when the knocking started, he'd reached for the remote and muted the volume.

Not much excitement in room 3710, just one man dreaming and another man living the reality of a dream. They'd eaten and then slept, more than slept, but now on the first day of their trip away together, four o'clock had found Justin having a dream brought on by coconut frosted cake for desert and the warm, albeit unbelievable, circumstance of having Brian's fingers wound around his own as he fell asleep next to the man's body.

"Who is it?" Brian shifted a little when he realized that Justin was awake. Pulling away from the warmth of Justin's body, he stood up and crossed the room. Their room service had been delivered and eaten a while ago and they hadn't ordered anything else.

Justin watched the line of Brian's body as the man moved naked toward the bathroom to retrieve a white robe and slip it over his shoulders. He swallowed hard as he remembered licking the last of their dessert off that slip of flesh at the tip of Brian's cock and he remembered swallowing a lot more from that same spot a few minutes later. Settling against the bedding again, Justin had listened to another burst of knocking fill the quiet of the sunny room as these thoughts pulsed through his unbelieving mind.

Standing outside in the hallway, Joan didn't dare announce herself and she instead took in the two sets of different sized plates, two sets of cutlery, and two coffee ringed cups that sat on the large cart outside the door.

Brian and his boy hadn't had much of an appetite at the restaurant from what she could see when they left, but they seemed to have made up for missing breakfast in spades. Hearing footfalls coming toward the door she'd steeled herself and stepped back a little before glancing down the hall to be sure the she wasn't followed.

That annoying group of women had made her afternoon a living hell by nattering on about when Joan was going to go up and talk to Brian and when they would be able to meet his little son and new wife...new wife indeed. It seemed that in an effort to keep from embarrassing Joan with spreading the fact that Brian wasn't married, her friends had thought to do her the favor of telling the story as if the upcoming spring wedding had already happened last spring. The fact that the others hadn't heard had been explained away with the fact that Joan liked her privacy sometimes and no one bothered to question the fact that this woman had historically talked endlessly about her son's work and home and success at every opportunity that she was given.

Not bothering to check the peephole, Brian pulled the door open.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Shocked by his mother's presence, Brian tightened his grip on the edge of the door.

"Nice to see you too Brian." Joan glanced down the hall again and at the accusing little dots of light from the peepholes of the other rooms on the sunny side of the building.

"You didn't answer me." Brian stood solidly blocking the doorway. His hair was tussled, but his robe was securely in place and this time he didn't have to worry about hiding his sweaty skin or his erection from his mother's eyes.

"I'm here on a church retreat and I saw you and your...friend...downstairs at the restaurant earlier. I wanted to know how long you were staying." Joan clutched at her purse uncomfortably. She didn't want a repeat of the last and only time that she met Brian's young man and she certainly realized from Brian's state of undress that she'd practically walked in on the same circumstance that she'd seen on her last visit.

"That's none of your business and how did you get the room number?"

"That's beyond the point Brian." Joan waved the question off. "The point is that I don't want to intrude on your little get away any more than you want me to. I just didn't want us to run into each other unexpectedly or anything. I'm here with a church group and they've seen you and that boy together. The less explaining that I have to do, the happier I'll be about all of this."

Brian huffed a bitter laugh and turned to look over his shoulder into the room. "Worried that we might take to fucking in the lobby or something, huh?"

"You can be just as vulgar as your father."

"One major difference though. Dad didn't like cock. Didn't like pussy either towards the end, right Mom?" Brian sneered wickedly at the woman and waited. Justin grimaced from a few feet away as he heard Brian's words and he sat up a little more in bed. He'd been even more undressed than the last time he met Brian's mother, but he didn't think that there was much danger of her getting passed the doorway or of her wanting to get any closer to Brian.

"Just stay away from me Brian. I've had to deal with a lot in this life but I have always been able to walk around outside of our home life with a lot more dignity than you and your father thought that I had any right to have. I'm asking you to keep that in mind before you flaunt your lifestyle in the face of everything that you didn't help me to build. What little I have carved out for myself, I don't want you and your sinful mess of a life to destroy." She took a step back then and turned to walk away before stopping and finding Brian's face again. "By the way, I know about the baby. I've known about the baby for months and I haven't bothered you about that. We all keep our lives tied up in neat little boxes and I haven't interfered with your life so don't interfere with mine." Joan moved off down the hall with that and she didn't look back as Brian stepped out into the hallway and followed her down to the elevators.

He'd come to stand in front of her as she turned to look at him in silence. "My son was never a secret, Mom. You just didn't have any right to know."

"But your father had every right to? Me who did my best by you has no right to a grandson, but the bastard who beat on you for fun has every right to? I don't want to know about your life Brian and I am asking to keep as much away from me as you possibly can, starting with not letting me see you for the duration of time that I'm stuck in this hotel."

The elevator came just then and Joan stepped forward. She was stopped in her tracks when Brian reached for her arm and held her back. Standing with the hard set of her profile to him, Joan was silent as Brian leaned in close to whisper something in her ear.

Justin, who had gone to the door when Brian went out, looked down the hallway at the two of them. He could see when Brian stopped the woman and he could see when he leaned in close. The anger and the force with which Brian's mother had suddenly spun around and slapped Brian across the face had caused Justin to step back and the noise from the ball of Justin's foot striking the door behind him had gotten Brian's attention. The man lifted his eyes in Justin's direction and despite the slap across his face, that satisfied smile continued to play across Brian's lips as Joanie fled into the elevator.

Standing in the doorway with a sheet around his body, Justin watched Brian come toward him in silence. He watched the man approach and he felt Brian maneuver him back inside before closing the door behind them. "What'd you say to her?" Justin asked his question as he watched the red streaks forming across Brian's left cheek.

"I told her that I used to love her."

He'd known that Brian's code meant he didn't, or rather couldn't, lie about the important stuff. Where others would have offered a bullshit lie to save their skins in an uncomfortable situation, Brian didn't waste his breath.

~To be continued~