Ben returned with a waiter who was a little flustered, several drinks, and apologising profusely.

"I'm so sorry sir. There was a member of the party who was-" Ben cut off the waiter, and Andrew watched, worried about what Ben was about to say. He was a good person, but Andrew hadn't seen him interact with service workers all that much.

"It's okay. You don't need to explain yourself. You have my permission, as well as any of the other Beckett family members to tell them to fuck off. Especially if you're bringing us drinks." Ben's voice was calm, collected, and very polite besides the swear word. Amir reached out, smacking Ben's arm.

"The baby is listening!" Amir scolded, and Ben got a slightly goofy look on his face.

"Ah, apologies. If the baby isn't around, you can swear." Ben said with a wink, and the waiter looked a little flustered as they handed out the drinks to everyone there. She seemed even more awkward when she got to Andrew and Maxwell, but Amir and Jordan stepped in, helping them out by taking the drinks for them and then passing them over to Andrew and Maxwell.

Then, with a little bow, the waiter was gone, and silence hung in the air again.

"You guys don't have to hang out with us." Andrew said, starting the topic with these guys. Andrew didn't expect the viciousness of the stare he got from Amir, nearly jumping as the pregnant man turned his gaze to him, hand resting on his stomach. Andrew flinched, and Maxwell let out a chuckle as Amir harrumphed.

"Don't even try to pull that shit on us." Amir warned, and the fact he swore made Andrew's eyes widen further. Ben's smirk was nearly criminal as he stared down at his bride, proud as hell.

"Hey, what about the baby?" Ben teased, and Amir gave him a look, pushing up his gold rimmed glasses.

"I can get away with saying it. You can't." That sounded about as reasonable as some new mothers sounded, so Andrew decided not to look at that too closely. With all of the hormones in the other man's body, that sounded like a completely reasonable assumption.

"I was just saying that I don't want you to feel like you are obligated to stay here with me, sequestered away from everyone. That is the same for you, Maxy. You have a lot of people who probably want to speak to you. This is your parents' event, and I don't want to hog you all to myself." Andrew felt the air chill as the words left his mouth.

The man on his lap froze, his smile fading slowly in a dangerous way and Andrew glanced around at the others and noticed how they all turned their gaze away from him. Leaving him to suffer in the mess he'd made.

"Andrew Knox." Maxwell started, and Andrew gulped. A shiver of fear ran down his spine. He hadn't even been afraid when his father had shown up, but now he was worried about his livelihood and how he was going to make it through the night. "If you ever suggest that I go back to a party to socialise after you have had a traumatic experience again, I am going to punish you in ways that you won't be able to speak to others about." Maxwell warned.

Andrew shivered. He did wonder what that entailed, but he wasn't dumb enough to push it. Especially not today, when Andrew himself knew that he probably couldn't handle what the other man was suggesting.

"I…I'm sorry for being considerate. I didn't mean to make you upset. I just…I don't want to make you feel like you need to diminish who you are when you're with me. I like you best when you are thriving, and it's okay if you aren't by my side sometimes when you are doing that." Andrew told him, and felt the cold shiver slowly fade.

It was clear that Maxwell understood what he was trying to say, especially when the man turned, putting down the rocks glass that Jordan had held for him to the side, then turned back and grabbed his face. Andrew's face was squished between the smaller man's palms, and Maxwell stared into his gaze intently.

"You stubborn man." Maxwell murmured, squishing his face more. "While I appreciate this kindness that you have, and that your heart is so impossibly big, I want you to inconvenience me. I want you to bother me. I want you to be the reason I have to leave conversations. I haven't had someone that I want them to do that with me before, but I want to brag about you. I'm fine taking some time away from the others. It's not like they didn't witness what fucking happened out there Andy. They all know, and really know who your father is now. They have had about as many terrible interactions with him as you have." Maxwell's grip was a little too tight, scrunching up his lips almost painfully.

Okay." Andrew got out through his scrunched up mouth. It sounded garbled, pathetic, and it forced Maxwell to smile. Along with several of the others.

Richard snorted from where he was sitting, and Maxwell snapped his head around, staring at the other man.

"Do you think you're escaping this conversation, Ricky? Because you aren't, little brother." Richard went pale at the way that Maxwell called him, and Ben let out a boisterous laugh.

"Oh, are we inheriting the Gates family as a whole? This sounds delightful. Mom always wanted a daughter, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have Rose as a daughter-in-law." Ben beamed, turning to Richard. "And another brother isn't going to hurt. Should we hyphenate your name?" Ben teased, looking at both of the Gates children. Andrew chuckled.

"We should." Andrew said through his still scrunched mouth and Maxwell laughed.

"We should speak to May and Ford first though. I don't want to make an enemy of them." Maxwell warned, turning to his blood brother. Rose grumbled.

"I'm the oldest. I've never had an older brother before." She complained. "All I've had is shitty younger brothers. How is this any different?" She wondered out loud and Ben let out another hearty laugh, moving closer to Amir to rest his hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. Amir leaned into the touch.

"Mm, not too much different. As I've only been an older sibling as well, I can't really speak from experience." Ben said with a shrug, and Rose frowned while Maxwell turned to her, giving her a rather serious look.

"It sucks. He tries to micromanage everything." He warned. "I don't understand how Amir deals with him. He never leaves me alone, always questions what I've done, I swear I can never win with him." Maxwell grumbled and Rose stared at him, before a smile crossed her face.

"But Max, you're the baby of the family. You're younger than Andy and Ricky, aren't you?" Rose asked and Maxwell jerked, releasing Andrew's face finally to slide his hands to his shoulders, before he reached for his whiskey again, taking a sip.

"Yeah, and?" He asked, immediately defensive. Rose smirked.

"That means that no matter what, your role isn't changing, until that little one in Amir's stomach makes a grand appearance. Even then, you'll still be the baby. If anything, you're going to have two older siblings micromanaging you." Rose teased, and Richard groaned from the couch.

"Andy escaped it by going to England, but Rose is just as bad. We should take notes." Richard told Maxwell, and Andrew was happy that they had another thing to bond over. Maxwell did not looked pleased to hear that, while Ellis watched the whole interaction with a rather strange expression. It wasn't quite longing, but it couldn't be far off from it.

Andrew let out a soft sigh, watching everyone and felt his hand convulse on Maxwell's back where he was holding him. Maxwell noticed, and turned to face him a little more seriously. He gave him a slightly puzzled look, as if asking Andrew if everything was alright, and Andrew gave a short nod.

"We should, Ricky." Maxwell said, turning to face Richard after he confirmed with Andrew that everything was alright. "So what does that make William?" He asked and without hesitation, Ben responded.

"The black sheep. The man can't seem to find someone like we can, which is strange. Honestly, before Andy came into your life, I was worried that you were the same. But yet, here you are, and Will is going through hearts and beds enough for all of us, and breaking poor Rue's heart." There was a long moment of silence, and Andrew realised that he hadn't seen William or Rue this whole time.

"Did they not come?" Andrew asked and Ben looked tense.

"Apparently they had a crazy fight while getting ready and Rue decided he wasn't coming, and he was going to catch a flight back home." Andrew felt his eyes widen.

"What?" Are you serious?" Andrew asked, the first time he'd heard of this. When he glanced at Maxwell, he could tell that the man had a rather grim look on his face. It was serious, of course it was, if Rue was going back home during Christmas. "Had he planned to go back home already?" Andrew asked before anyone could answer his first question.

Maxwell shook his head slowly, as did Amir.

"I spoke to him just yesterday and he said that he was excited to spend the holidays with us, especially since I'm so far along now." Amir said, sounding pretty upset about the whole thing. Andrew could understand why he would be upset. This was an upsetting situation. The fact that Rue had suddenly left made Andrew wonder if his words had finally gotten through to the man.

"Does Will even know how good of a person Rue is?" Andrew asked quietly and Maxwell gave him a strange look.

"No, but neither do you, Andy." Maxwell told him softly. "Rue hasn't been around enough because he's been arguing with Will so much that you haven't even been able to know how good of a person he is. I just have this sneaking suspicion that this is the end for them." Maxwell let out a heavy sigh, as did Amir and Ben.

They were clearly upset with their brother's decisions, especially when it came to his romantic choices. Andrew couldn't blame them. He could never imagine that if he was in the same position where he was engaged to someone else that he would be running around the same way that William was. Even if it was an engagement to build family ties. Andrew just couldn't see himself doing that.

Then again, he wasn't Will, but still…

"Is Will even here?" Andrew asked and Ben shook his head.

"Too scared to show his face. He knows we'd rip a strip off of him. Plan to swing by his place tomorrow." Ben said, the threat heavy in his voice. Andrew didn't envy the man then. Ben had scared the shit out of him when he first met him, and while they got along well now, he didn't want to be on the other end of that kind of interaction again.