Oliver: Chapter 19: "Choices"
Title: Oliver
Genre: Post-513, Daddy!Fic, Fluff
Summary: Brian and Justin's lives post 513, focusing mainly on raising the newest addition to their family, their son, Oliver.
Timeline: 2013--->
Notes: This story will have 100 'sections', and is based upon the fanfic 100 table, but I'll be rearranging some of it a bit. You can find it here--> Oliver Master Post Table Basically, this story is meant to be a breather for me while I finish my original novel. Each section will be at least 500 words, and with 100 sections.
This story is a thank you for all of you fanfiction readers who have stuck by me for so long. I wanted to give you something back that would be a 'feel good' story. Enjoy!
Thank you to Manda for helping me figure out some of the unlabeled prompts for this story and for proofreading. I really appreciate your encouragement back in November and especially now after I've managed to mess the story up by skipping a couple of chapters while posting. Your help is very loved and needed.
Oliver
Chapter 19: “Choices”
The moment Claire walked out of the office; Brian bolted upright and grabbed their jackets from the closet. He tossed Justin his coat and told him, “We’re going home.”
Justin hopped up from the chair and struggled to pull his winter coat on while, on shaky limbs, he followed Brian out of the office.
“Out to lunch already?” Hunter asked as Brian passed his desk.
“For the rest of the day,” Brian spoke and Justin knew it took effort for him to speak.
Justin didn’t know what to do or say to Brian. He’d seemed to reign in his control while Claire was in the office, but the moment she left, it was obvious that went with her. He could see Brian’s hands shaking as he pulled on his leather gloves and heard his loud breathing as they walked out into the chilly air toward their car. Justin was glad that he’d driven his car today, because he didn’t want to fight about it and he knew that Brian wouldn’t like it if he pointed out that he was too emotional to drive.
“I know your sister is supposed to take him to lunch, but we’re picking Oliver up now,” Brian said.
“Okay,” Justin said, unlocking the Mercedes, not sure if he should’ve agreed to that right away. He shuddered as Brian pulled open the passenger door so hard it caused the car to jerk around. As Brian got inside, slamming the door after him, Justin closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then got inside the car. “Are you sure you want to get Oliver now? Maybe we should go somewhere and…”
“I don’t want to talk about it or…”
“But we need to,” Justin said, turning on the ignition.
Brian gave Justin an annoyed look. “If you’d let me fucking finish my sentence…”
“Sorry,” Justin said quickly, pulling out of the parking space. “Go ahead.”
Brian sighed and looked out his window. “I don’t want to talk about it or think about it without having Oliver there with us when we do. This isn’t about how it could affect me or you, I mean it is, but really it’s about him. He and Gus are the ones this is going to impact the most.”
Justin understood that logic, but he also knew that Brian was extremely angry and he didn’t believe that having Oliver around when Brian let loose would be a good idea. “I know that,” Justin said, “but I don’t want us yelling with him in the same room.”
Brian let out a rumble of breath that sounded a little like a growl. “Yelling? What’s there to yell about?”
“Everything.” Justin stopped at the exit of the car park and glanced at Brian. They were a team, they talked through all the problems they had, but they couldn’t do that if one of them was in denial of their own feelings. They’d worked so hard to get to the place they were now, where Brian talked freely about what he wanted and how he felt, and Justin was scared that this situation would put an end to that. He pulled the car out into the street, headed for Molly’s house, but resolved to take the slower route. He hoped that would give Brian enough time to get some of his anger out before they arrived to pick up their son. “Brian, if you want to get angry… I can take it.”
“What would be the point of that?” Brian asked. “Yeah, I’m fucking pissed at Claire, pissed at John and pissed that I have some fucking blood tie to the bullshit that’s being heaped on us and Grey, but the feeling that’s overwhelming my anger is worry. You didn’t ask for this when you fucking married me and neither one of us imagined this when we decided to have Oliver.”
Justin slid his hand to Brian’s thigh and squeezed it. “You didn’t ask for any of this either. You have a right to be pissed. I’m fucking angry, but not at you and… I don’t even think I’m angry Claire. It’s just that I feel like we don’t have a fucking choice and I don’t like it when I feel like my choices have been made for me.”
“Which is what’s happening,” Brian grumbled. “That bitch knows… she knows that we’ll do it. She knows that we’ll take Gray in.”
Justin swallowed thickly. It was true. Claire had always known the kind of man Brian really was and after she saw him with Oliver, it probably relieved her of any doubts she may have had. Making an executive decision, Justin took the next right, which was also the throughway that led to his mother’s house.
“Where are you going?” Brian asked. “Her turn isn’t for another couple of blocks and you already took the slow route.”
“I know,” Justin said. He looked at Brian. “We’re going to my Mom’s. We both need someone to talk to about this.”
“I told you,” Brian said, “I don’t want to discuss this without…”
“You and I have already had our choices made for us,” Justin interrupted, his hand squeezing Brian’s thigh again. “Isn’t that what you said?”
“Yes, but Oliver…”
“Olivier doesn’t need to be around when we’re talking about this. You may not want to yell about it, but maybe I do.” He really did and he was pretty certain that as soon as he started yelling about it, he’d cry. “I don’t want Oliver to be around me when I’m such a fucking mess, Brian. I’m not telling you that so that you can blame yourself, so please fucking spare us both of you taking the blame for any of this. I really, really, really don’t want to fucking deal with any martyrdom right now. What I want, is to talk about how we’re going to do this, talk about how fucked up it is and hear what you have to say about all of it.”
“With your mother,” Brian said distastefully.
Justin took a left for his mother’s street and huffed a sarcastic laugh. “Don’t act like you don’t treat her like a confessional.”
Brian glared hard. “Apparently it isn’t a confessional she’s told you about it.”
Justin rolled his eyes as he pulled into the long winding driveway of his mother and Tucker’s home. “She’s never said a word, Brian.” He parked and shut off the engine before grabbing Brian’s neck so he’d face him. “Half of the time we argue and you go out ‘to think’, you come home with cat hair all over you. She’s the only person we know that has cats.”
Brian huffed. “Sometimes I go to Mikey’s house.”
Justin smiled slightly. “I know.”
“How do you know that I…”
“Michael always tells me whenever you visit him unexpectedly.” Justin debated telling Brian this, but he figured it wasn’t exactly a secret he cared to keep. In fact, he believed that maybe Brian might find a little comfort in knowing that Justin always knew where he was whenever they’d have a falling out. “As soon as he sees your car unexpectedly pulls up in front of his house or the comic shop and I’m not with you, he’ll text me. He’s also your best friend, so it’s not a big stretch to imagine you’d go there.”
Brian grimaced. “That shithead.”
Justin laughed softly and gave Brian a chaste dry kiss. “Haven’t you ever noticed that he’s almost always texting someone whenever walk in?”
“I’m usually too pissed to be bothered with noticing what he’s doing,” Brian admitted a little reluctantly. “Guess I’ll have to find a new hideout then.”
Justin knew that wasn’t likely to happen. “While you’re pondering where that will be, let’s get inside. I’m ready for some ‘mom time’.”
“Mom time?” Brian asked incredulously, getting out of the vehicle.
“She’s going to know exactly what to say to us to make us feel better. I’m looking forward to that.”
“After you Hulk out, you mean,” Brian asked, walking up the stone path to the front porch.
“Of course,” Justin said and laced his fingers with Brian’s. He knocked on the door with his free hand and spoke softly, “I love you, Brian Kinney. Nothing is ever going to change that.”
“I hope not,” Brian whispered.
TBC in Chapter 20 Gray
(I'm working on this a little. I've been super busy and not labeling some chapters and skipping through three that were supposed to be posted a few chapters back and having to figure out how to get those prompts/plots fitted into the story now is quite the stressful challenge and I haven't exactly been feeling up to dealing with it. Sorry about that. I"ll try to at least figure out Gray and where it ends in the next couple of days, unless my proofreader figures it out before me. *Sighs*)