It was a warm September morning when Benjamin Fairbanks Porter was born; he wasn't an entirely expected arrival, surprising his mother just two weeks shy of his due date, something that would become a recurring joke in his family as the one time Ben was actually early to something. Molly Fairbanks and Harrison Porter hadn't expected to have a child out of wedlock, in fact, Molly's pregnancy was plagued by anxiety as she fretted over the fact that the father of her son was indeed married to another woman at the time and even worse, a woman who had no idea she existed. Freesia Washington was the woman back in Napa who trusted her husband, a renowned doctor of psychology, when he set off on any of his frequent business trips without ever knowing that he had another family just four hundred miles away in Topanga. Harrison had told Molly he fully intended to leave Freesia, who may as well have been infertile in his eyes with the years upon years of struggle to have a child they had experienced; it had drove a massive wedge in their marriage and Harrison didn't think he had much more left to give before he called it quits.

Molly started as an affair, the office manager at the firm he visited in Calabasas, California every few weeks, but it quickly grew from a distraction into something much more. A passionate, deeply meaningful love grew between them, coming closer together the further apart he was pushed from Freesia and the news that he would be a father, albeit of his mistress's child, was something he had coveted for years and it instilled a happiness that he finally felt was in his grasp.

However, determined as he conveyed he was to Molly to end his marriage, the time seemed to pass without seeing any proof of this, and as Ben came closer to his first birthday, she presented him an ultimatum. She hadn't wanted to put this kind of pressure on him, afterall, he had been as responsible of a parent as she could have hoped, visiting often and providing her with checks to help pay for the necessary expenses of an infant child. What she was so heartbroken to discover was that the reason he had been so reluctant to do as he promised was that Fressia herself was pregnant with another Porter child. The situation was complicated to put it in the simplest possible terms, and Molly was an absolute wreck. She knew after that it would only be the two of them and that any hopes of being with Harrison in a real way would never happen, not now that his wife was carrying his child. It was the end of their affair and as much resentment as Molly felt towards him, she couldn't blame him for the decision he had chosen.

The next few years were tough; Harrison provided checks every month for Molly to care for herself and her son while she continued to work as an office manager, but her emotional state improved very slowly. Topanga was a close knit community up in the mountains where everyone knew everyone else, and the reactions she received from the neighbors alone was enough to make her sick. Ben didn't understand why his dad never came around anymore, he didn't understand why his mom was so distraught, and years later, even just the memory of those thoughts would make him irate. Molly finally told Ben the truth around his twelfth birthday, and while her explanation was peppered in reasons why he shouldn't hate his father, and why it was the right thing to do, it didn't stop Ben from hating Harrison passionately for what he had done.

Molly and Ben's lives improved dramatically when Molly received a promotion by Ben's sixteenth birthday, and he was able to find a little part time job himself to help support the household, and together, they were okay -- better than okay, they were happy. With the extra income, they were able to take an occasional trip up north to see his grandparents in San Carlos, and make some progress towards saving up for Ben's college education. Of course, Ben had no idea that Harrison was providing checks behind the scenes and that Molly had been depositing the majority of them into that savings account. By the time Ben graduated in 2005, he had a hefty amount waiting for him to pay the tuition at New York University where he intended to study broadcast journalism.

The move was tough on the family, but he adjusted quickly to the independent life. Upon his eighteenth birthday just after he moved in, he treated himself to a legal change of name, dropping Porter and adopting Fairbanks as his last name, using Anthony, his maternal grandfather's name, as his middle. It was a new life with a new name. Living in a small studio apartment, he maintained a part time job outside of his classes to pay his rent, and just as he was about to embark on his junior year, received a call from a man he didn't think even knew who he was anymore. It was Harrison Porter, and Ben had a vague memory of his voice from his childhood, of course it was now much deeper and huskier, the years having taken their toll. He was shocked, and for many minutes he just held the phone to his ear, lips fallen ajar as his brain simply tried to process. As he was told, there were many Ben Porters in the city of New York, but with the change of his name, it made the search much harder. His father was in New York, he was only asking for a few minutes of Ben's time.

Ben, as a very laid back, forgiving person who had only held a single grudge in all his years, felt his heart twist and after some debate, agreed to meet. What he came to be told was the story of their relationship, how Harrison had cared deeply for Molly, how he had a daughter now who looked much like Ben, the guilt that had followed him for years. He looked so differently from the pictures that used to decorate the photo albums at the Fairbanks house, and despite all the resentment that had weighed on him for so many years, he wanted to accept his father. While he would never go as far as to call him dad at this point in time, he wasn't too proud to take the check that Harrison presented him with to help cushion his expenses in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Harrision told him he was proud of what he had done with his life so far, and that he hoped they could keep in touch.

While Ben's emotional journey of reintroducing his father into his life made for an interesting last two years, he did invite him to his graduation in 2009. Later that year, Molly made the move to New York as well to be closer to her son, finding an apartment out in Brooklyn not too far from where Ben was. Academically, Ben wasted no time and applied to Columbia where he soon began his masters program in journalism. It was only a ten month program, and he quietly walked away with his masters by 2010. However, despite his degrees in higher education, this did not help him find a job. He struggled in the field, but he was told he didn't have the thick skin that it took to be a journalist, constantly being told he wasn't good enough for the career he had been set on for so long.

It occurred to him that with these degrees, he was in a good position to teach. The thought of being an instructor for high school students or even college didn't much interest him though, and he sought his elementary teaching credential to be an art instuctor. He had never taken his artistic skill seriously, calling it a hobby that accompanied his much deeper passion for writing, and decided he might as well use it until he could find a more suitable job in his field. He began teaching art to the students of Public School 8 near his apartment in Brooklyn Heights in 2012 and while he claims he's always trying to find another job, he's come to love working with young children so much that he may just stay put a bit longer.