What's In a Name?

Brian was sitting at his desk working. Justin was at work and Gus was with Justin's mother. Lindsay and Melanie were on some dyke retreat so Brian had Gus for the weekend. Jennifer had called and asked if she could take Gus out and Brian had agreed all too happily.

"You shouldn't seem so happy to get rid of him, Brian. Maybe I shouldn't take him out," Jennifer chastised him.

"I wouldn't be so happy to get rid of him if I didn't have a ton of work to do. I have a presentation due Monday morning and it's only half finished. I need it to be quiet around here and that's not possible with a seven year old running around."

"Okay, I'll come get him."

"Thank you so much."

So, an hour later the loft was quiet and Brian was alone to do his work. He concentrated fully on the ad campaign before him. It was total shit and he had to fix it before Monday's client meeting. He’d been working constantly and hadn't really gotten anywhere, when the door buzzer sounded. He looked at the clock. Sure enough, it was time for Gus to come home. Time had simply flown by with little or no result. He sighed heavily and buzzed Jennifer in. She gave Gus a goodbye hug and actually kissed Brian on the cheek. He couldn't help but smile.

"Thank you for letting me take him, Brian. He's an absolute angel."

"Well, anytime you want to, feel free to call." She nodded and smiled.

"Bye, Gus."

"Bye, Gramma Jen," he said, then Jennifer left. Brian shut the door and looked at his son.

"Gramma Jen?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. I figure, she's Justin's mom, and Justin is kind of like my other dad. So that makes her kind of like another Gramma. Besides, I call Debbie Gramma Debbie but she's not really my Gramma."

Brian nodded. "That's true. So, did you have fun with Gramma Jen?" He started to walk over to the couch. Gus followed and they sat together.

"Oh yeah, she's so cool! She took me to all the best places. We went to the museum and the zoo. It was great."

"I'm glad you had a good time. Justin'll be happy to hear you like his mom."

"Gramma Jen told me something and I'd like to know if it's true."

"Okay, shoot." Mentally Brian braced himself for the boy's question.

"She said I'm named after Justin's Teddy Bear." Brian laughed. "What?"

"Well, you sort of are. There are a couple of different people you're named after. You see, I met Justin the night you were born and I took him to the hospital with me to see you. Melanie and Lindsay didn't know what to name you. They couldn't decide between Abraham, which would have been after Melanie's grandpa, or Gus. Well, I couldn't decide either so I looked at Justin and Justin picked Gus. Later on we found out that Gus was the name of his Teddy Bear. So you sort of are named after Justin's Teddy Bear. Then there's the fact that after a little while, I remembered that my great great great grandfather was Angus McKinney. So you're kind of named after him too."

"But I thought your last name was Kinney?"

"It is. You see, Angus was the first Kinney born in America. His parent's last name was McKinney, but they changed it to Kinney so that they wouldn't seem so Irish. Well, their name didn't matter and way back then, Irish people were treated badly. So, when Angus was born, they didn't have any money or food to take care of him so they gave him away. Well, when he found out the truth about his name, he changed it back to McKinney; though his son changed it back to Kinney after his death."

"Oh." Gus was silent for a minute, then looked up at Brian. "Daddy, are you named after anybody?" Brian laughed.

"Sonny boy, I'm going to tell you something that I haven't even told Justin, which means you have to keep it just between us, okay?" Gus nodded and smiled. "This'll be a secret between the Kinney men." Brian smirked when Gus made a little motion like he was zipping his lips shut. "Not only am I named after one person, I'm named after ten people."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, my parents weren't the nicest people and their mistreatment of me started the day I was born. Now, you're the only other person, besides my family, of course, that knows about this. But...my name isn't really Brian."

"It's not?"

"Nope. I just go by Brian. Nobody's noticed that when I print out my name. Brian Aiden Kinney. There's a period after each letter of my first and middle names. It's the same way on my birth certificate."

"Really?"

"Really."

"So that means that each of the letters stands for something, right?" Gus asked. Brian nodded. "What does it stand for?"

"Well, sonny boy. My actual, given, christened, birth certificate name is Benjamin Ryan Ian Aaron Nathaniel Andrew Isaac Daniel Eric Nicholas Kinney. If you take the first initial of all those names, they spell out Brian Aiden, which is what I’ve gone by my whole life."

"No wonder. That's a really long name."

"Yes it is."

"Who are all those people?"

"Well, the first five are my five uncles. Jack's five brothers. The last five are my grandpa Kinney and his four brothers."

"So, why couldn't they just name you after one of them? Or just name you Brian Aiden after the initials instead of making your name so long?"

"Because my parents were very cruel people, even back then."

"Is that why I've never met Gramma Joan?" Gus questioned.  Brian nodded.

"That's exactly the reason, sonny boy. She'd try to take you to church and turn you against me for my disgusting lifestyle or something like that."

Gus looked down and was quiet a minute, then looked up at Brian. "So......you and Uncle Mikey's husband have the same name, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. But don't ever tell him that, okay? I've gone by Brian for so long that I've almost forgotten what my whole name is."

"Well, don't tell Ben this, but I think Brian is a much better name."

"Thanks, sonny boy." Brian hugged his son and they smiled at each other. Just then, Justin came in from work. He smiled at the two men on the couch.

"So, how was your day?"

"I worked," Brian said.

"I spent the day with Gramma Jen," Gus answered excitedly.

"Gramma Jen?" Justin asked.

"That's what he's taken to calling your mother," Brian told the younger man.

"Oh, that's so sweet." Justin blinked a few times and Brian rolled his eyes. He stood and started for the kitchen.

"Drama queen," he muttered as he walked past Justin. Justin glared at him and Gus laughed.

Brian ordered take out and they spent the whole evening talking about their families, the conversation stimulated by Gus' curiosity about his name.

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