New Horizons: Epilogue (10/10)
Title: New Horizons
Fandom: Brothers and Sisters
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Length: ~15,000
Characters: Justin, Kitty, Kevin, Sarah, Nora, and Tommy
Icon: danielle_nahimi
Warning: Contains references to sexual abuse and rape.
Summary: In which Justin leaves rehab, and the family struggles to deal as something disturbing comes to light.
Epilogue
In which everyone is a little bit different
Julia looked surprised as her husband stopped besides the volunteers collecting for a women’s shelter. It wasn’t that Tommy was cheap, exactly, just that she had heard him talk dismissively about philanthropy as a rich man’s pursuit. Getting him to agree to write checks to charities at Christmas was hard enough, without getting him to contribute to things on the spur of the moment.
She was even more surprised when he pulled out a hundred dollar bill and pushed it into the collection can. The young woman holding it smiled in appreciation, and Tommy smiled back. His smiled faded when he saw another woman standing over by an information table, talking to one of the shelter employees. She looked scared in a way he hadn’t seen since that afternoon in the basement with Clare. He sent up a silent prayer that she would be ok.
Julia glanced up at him as they walked slowly away, pushing a sleeping Elizabeth. “Not like you to splash the Benjamins.”
“Benjamins, Julia? Have you been watching MTV Cribs again?” He smiled a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
As Kevin slid his key in the lock he could hear the theme tune to The O.C. He grinned to himself as he opened the door because who would ever have imagined that he would have married a man who loved trash teen television?
He dropped his briefcase on the floor in the hall, and loosened the grey silk tie that Scotty had picked out that morning. He raised his eyebrow at his husband. “Do I not even get a welcome home kiss?”
Scotty smiled lasciviously and crossed the hall in three short strides, sticking his tongue in Kevin’s mouth. Kevin groaned slightly, the tension from his day ebbing away as another kind of tension washed over him.
Kevin froze at the noises coming from the TV. He looked at Scotty. “What is that?”
Scotty glanced at the screen. “Oh, well, the protagonist’s even more troubled older brother comes to visit and, while the protagonist is otherwise occupied with a refugee from Bob Jones University, he tries to force himself on the protagonist’s girl.”
Kevin disentangled himself from Scotty. “Well, if watching rape gets you off.” He turned on his heel and stomped off to the bedroom.
Scotty paused the TV show and followed Kevin into the bedroom. Kevin was lying stretched out on the bed, one arm over his eyes. Scotty watched his husband for a moment and then climbed carefully on to the bed and lay down next to him.
“I’m sorry,” Kevin said, simply. “I forgot for a moment that you didn’t know about Kitty.”
Cooper ran across the sitting room floor and launched himself at Justin, who only just caught him before he crashed into the easel that contained his nephew’s latest artistic creation.
“Nice to see you too, little guy.” Justin smiled at his nephew, before he realised that Cooper’s shirt was covered in paint.
“It’s washable, Justin,” Sarah reassured him, as she threw her keys and cellphone into her bag and scooped up her portfolio folder. “Thanks so much for agreeing to look after Paige and Cooper; this meeting shouldn’t take too long.”
She glanced around her to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, and frowned at the sight of her daughter, who was reading at the table.
“Paige, maybe Justin would like a hello hug?”
“No!” Justin all but shouted. Paige and Sarah both looked at him, surprised. “I mean, Paige doesn’t have to hug or touch anyone she doesn’t want to.”
Paige looked between her mother and uncle and then shook her head and turned her attention back to her book.
Sarah smiled a bittersweet smile. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”