Oliver: Chapter 20, 21, 22- "Gray" "Outside" and "Sixth Sense"
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!
*
Oliver
Chapter 20: “Gray”
Jennifer had known that Brian and Justin showing up at her home unannounced in the middle of a weekday meant that something big had happened. Her first fear had been Oliver, then Gus, but she knew that Oliver was with Molly and neither one of them would have left either of their sons if there was something wrong with them. Tucker was at school, so she didn’t have his added support when she listened to the reason her son and son-in-law had made the impromptu visit to her home. Tucker’s presence, his silent support, arm wrapped around her waist as the two men asked her to sit down, might have curbed her immediate retort to the news. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“I wish I was,” Justin said, giving her a desperate look.
Or, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if her always soothing support were there beside her, because this… this wasn’t exactly something that she could immediately digest without a little cursing, both audibly and the silent cursing thoughts she had toward Brian’s family. She did feel a little guilty, after all, Claire was dying, but she was protective of both of her sons and especially her grandchildren and she was pissed that Claire had used them all. Jennifer knew that they were both looking to her for wisdom, guidance and assurance, but she was so shocked she really wasn’t sure how to give any to them. She needed to know more. “You haven’t come to ask my opinion on whether or not I think you two should take in Gray.”
“No,” the men spoke in unison.
“We’re going to take him,” Justin added.
Jennifer sighed, feeling mild relief because at least that wasn’t going to be something she would be expected to encourage or discourage. Things made a little more sense then, why they’d come to her. They needed her to help them sort out their own feelings, but also they needed to prepare for the consequences. “You haven’t met him?”
“No,” Brian said. “I told Claire that we’d contact her tonight.”
Jennifer nodded. “I want you both to know that I completely support you, but I need you to do your best to put aside whatever guilt and obligation Claire has put upon you. You need to think of what this will mean for Gray. How old is he?”
“Two,” Justin said, “or Claire said he’ll be three in March, right?” he asked, looking at Brian.
“Yeah, I think so,” Brian said.
“Okay, so let’s think about this from Gray’s perspective. Claire is all he knows as far as parental figures go, right? He was pretty young when John started doing drugs again so he probably sees her as his only parent, his constant, even if he called John ‘Daddy’, right?”
“Yes,” Justin said, “which is one of the many reasons that this is bothering me so much. I know that she wants to do right by Gray and I know that we could be good parents to him, eventually. But we’d be taking him away from the only family he knows.”
“Is he with Claire now?” Jennifer asked.
“No, Social Services have him,” Brian said. “I believe they’re under the impression that Claire is securing him a place to stay with family. She’s been able to visit him at the foster home where they’re keeping him.”
“She wants us to go with her tonight when she takes Gray out for dinner,” Justin added.
“Do the people at Social Services know that you’re a gay couple?” Jennifer asked.
Brian rolled his eyes. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“You know that I don’t think it should matter at all,” Jennifer said, “but they may feel otherwise.”
“Claire told them about us, didn’t she?” Justin asked Brian. “I can’t remember exactly what she said about it.”
“She told them about us,” Brian replied, “remember she said that they knew we already had two children, one of them in our home? So they must know that we’re gay.”
“Oh, right,” Justin grumbled. “I don’t know how I forgot that she’d been hatching her scheme since the night she came out to Britin!”
Jennifer knew that her son was seconds from losing it completely and knew she had to turn the conversation back to Gray. “Did Claire give any indication on how she thinks this will affect Gray? Like what type of personality he has? How this has affected him already?”
“Not much,” Brian said. “She said that he’s well behaved and smart for his age. But if she’s been his parent, she might have been over-indulging.”
“She might have over-indulged just so she could sell him to us,” Justin quipped.
“That’s probably true on both counts,” Jennifer spoke sadly. “I think the biggest problem with this right now is that none of us even know this child. We can guess how he’ll feel being foisted off to you guys, told that you’re going to be his parents, but we don’t know anything about him to make a real guess as to how it will be for him. Because of that, we have no idea how having him in your home is going to affect the family you have now. I know that you feel obligated to do what you can for Gray, but the truth is, if he isn’t comfortable with you, if he doesn’t feel a connection to you or doesn’t do well with Oliver, than he may be better off with another family. He’s been an only child and maybe he’s experienced stuff due to his parents and Claire that you can’t help him deal with. Gray may have a biological connection to you, Brian, but Oliver and Gus are your sons and how Gray may be affected by them and how he’ll affect them is more important than any blood connection he has to you. He may be better off in a home with no other children. My point is, neither of you know any this because you have never met him and know nothing about him.”
“So you think we should go to dinner with them?” Justin asked.
“I think it’d be a good idea. Before that, you need to talk to Claire about what she’s Gray about you. You shouldn’t just show up at whatever restaurant they’re at not knowing whether or not Gray has been told that he may or may not come to live with you. I personally hope that she hasn’t told him anything of the sort because that may make him act differently toward you at first. You’ll want to see if you can have a connection with him before he’s told that Claire can no longer care for him. If he has been told that, he may feel angry and resentful toward you and you may never know if that is something that will one day pass after he’s become a part of your family and feels safe with you, or if he’s behaving that way because he just doesn’t fit in with your family.”
“But if she has told him that we might be his parents, what then?” Brian asked, his tone broken. “How will we know if he’ll ever accept us?”
“It’s possible that in either case, you may not know for a while. Maybe then you both can talk to Social Services and arrange additional meetings, time that you two can spend alone with Gray without Claire around. If he can see that you two are offering him safety, love and a family, which may trump any anger or resentment he may feel about the situation.”
“Oh god,” Justin moaned, shaking his head. “This is totally fucked!”
Brian took Justin’s hands in his and told him firmly, “We’re going to figure this out.”
Justin shook his head. “But I don’t want to. I don’t want this. This whole thing with Gray is a big huge gray area in our lives. I’m just so fucking tired of drama and we were finally living the life we’ve always dreamed to have. Now Claire has fucked everything up.”
“Even if she is dying, that doesn’t give her a free pass for fucking us over like this. We aren’t going to give her that power,” Brian resolved. “This is still our decision and if it isn’t what you want, that means it isn’t what I want, all right?”
“Claire being sick doesn’t give her the right to just expect you two take Gray in,” Jennifer reiterated. “I know that you both feel like that’s the right thing to do, but it may not be and Justin you have every right to feel the way you do.”
“But what about you?” Justin asked, turning toward Brian. “I still haven’t heard you express how pissed you are about this or how much you don’t want this.”
“That’s true, I haven’t,” Brian agreed. “I guess I’m still in shock or something.”
“But that’s the thing,” Justin confessed, “I’m waiting for you to freak out and I’m afraid of what that’s going to do to us when you do.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Brian spoke, frustrated. “I’m not going to go out, get drunk and get my dick sucked by some random guy. I might make a visit to Mikey or go work off my stress at the gym, but you should know by now that I’m not the man I used to be. I sure as fuck wouldn’t be here talking about my feelings with your mother if I was.”
“Okay, okay,” Justin said, nodding. “I’m sorry.”
Jennifer once again felt the need to intervene with where the conversation was leading. “You both need to go to this dinner tonight remembering what is most important and that is the family that you have now and that it may not be right for Gray to be a part of it. I’m sure that if you choose not to take him in, even after you’ve spent time with him, Social Services will want you to remain in contact with him. Claire may have made it sound like Gray will be lost in the system, but you both are too smart to allow that to happen if you still wish to retain a relationship with him without being his parents.”
“She’s right,” Brian told Justin.
They both looked at Jennifer and she could easily see that some of their stress had been eased by her statements. “Now, are you going to take Oliver with you or do you want me to babysit?”
“What do you think?” Brian asked Justin.
“I want to take him,” Justin said. “Gray’s reaction to us comes second to how he is with Oliver. There’s no point in us pursuing a relationship with him if he isn’t good with Oliver.”
“He’s still a toddler, Justin,” Jennifer said gently. “He may not have ever been around any babies. Not that I’m saying how his relationship is with Oliver isn’t important, but you may not get the best reaction from him right away, he might need some time to understand what being around a baby is like.”
Justin nodded and told Brian, “I guess you should give Claire a call.”
TBC
*
Oliver
Chapter 21: “Outside”
Thankfully, Claire had been smart enough to not tell Gray anything about Brian and Justin possibly becoming his parents. When Brian called, she told him a lot about Gray that set he, Justin and Jennifer’s minds at ease. Okay, so they weren’t exactly at ease, but they all felt marginally better once they gained some information about Gray.
Gray had adjusted well to the foster home he was currently living in. They found out that the foster parents were two gay men, one of whom was a client of Kinnetik’s. Brian didn’t relate that information to Claire though; he wasn’t sure he wanted the client to even know that he was related to Gray if he hadn’t yet pondered the connection. The couple was also fostering a one year-old daughter and had a six year-old boy. Grey talked about both children to Claire and when she’d visited him at the home; he seemed to be very attentive with the baby and liked playing with the older boy. This was a good thing, but Brian also knew that it could be bad because Gray would become attached to them and Claire said that the couple already told Social Services that they had no plans to adopt Gray.
As for the reason why Gray was staying in the foster home, Social Services and Claire had sat the boy down and explained to him her situation. Gray did not understand how sick Claire truly was, but because Claire was sick, he was not able to live with her. He was told that in the future he would be placed with a ‘forever family’, because the one he was staying with now was until they could find that family for him. Claire explained that Gray was very confused about how long it would take until a ‘forever family’ was found, but he didn’t appear to be upset about it, as long as he was assured that he would be able to see Claire. Brian did not like that the boy wasn’t told that Claire wouldn’t be around forever, but as of right now, that was not business.
Claire informed Brian that Gray did not refer to John as ‘daddy’ or any other name that a child would call their father. He once had, but it had faded out over the last six months and he only called him by his first name the few times he saw him. Since his arrest, Gray had not asked where John was, he had been there when the police had come to the house and Claire had told him that John was put in jail and Gray hadn’t mentioned the man again. Brian was sure that couldn’t be the end of it, that one day Gray would wonder, but again, that wasn’t his business. Not yet anyway.
Gray attended preschool, but instead of being in a class with other two and three year-olds, he tested higher and was placed with the children who were three and four years-old. His school lasted only a half a day and he loved learning but worried that the school he was attending, a program funded by the state, was not challenging enough for him. Brian bit his lip at that remark because he figured Claire had told him this to try to encourage him to pay for Gray to go to a private school. Brian had no intention of taking the child out of the program he was in if he and Justin took custody of him. It would be hard on Gray to have so many changes in his life and they held residence in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia, so there would be no reason for him to stop attending the public school. If they did take custody of Gray and he seemed to adjust well to the transition, he and Justin would then make the decision whether or not Gray went to a school in Morgantown the next year.
Claire had told Gray about his Uncle Brian, Uncle Justin and their sons Gus and Oliver. She told him that he expressed interest in meeting all of them, but said that was how Gray was. She described him as very friendly and was very excited about them all meeting. All of this information, though nice to have, still wasn’t enough for them. Until the met and interacted with Gray, he and Justin were still just strangers viewing his life from the outside.
Claire had proposed they go to a restaurant that was family friendly, to make Gray feel comfortable, but when she suggested Mc Donald’s, Brian nixed that idea. Not only did he refuse to eat at Mc Donald’s, but Brian didn’t think he’d get an opportunity to really meet Gray if the kid spent most of the time in the play area. They decided upon Aviva, it was an expensive restaurant for being a pizza and pasta place, but the atmosphere was relaxed.
“Oh god, Olly,” Brian groaned. “Did you have to puke on your Dior?”
“Just dab it out with some club soda when we get inside,” Justin suggested, rolling his eyes. “In case it’s escaped your attention, it’s cold outside. His cheeks are already turning red.”
“His cheeks are red because you were pinching him and making faces at him the whole ride.”
“It was either listen to him cry for an hour or listen to him laugh like a maniac. I chose laughter.”
“Which also caused him to puke on his custom made Dior leather and tweed jacket.”
“Why do I always feel like you’re quoting exactly what the description said online whenever you talk about his baby clothes?” Justin asked, rubbing his gloved hands together. “Seriously, it’s cold, let’s go.”
Brian continued to pat the place on Oliver’s jacket gently with a Kleenex. “Maybe because I’m in advertising and I probably wrote it?”
“You did not write anything for Dior,” Justin huffed.
“I’m writing copy for Armani and naming a fragrance, after that, I’ll be able to advertise for anything I want to,” Brian said.
“I’m sure,” Justin drawled, shaking his head. He grabbed a baby wipe from Brian’s stupidly expensive Christmas present and threw it at him. “If it’s leather, the baby wipe will do nothing to it.”
Brian held it between his leather gloved fingers as if it were already soiled. “Baby wipes contain alcohol which could irritate the leather.”
“Oh my god!” Justin laughed. “It would irritate his soft skin, which is more important. But no, you only buy the ridiculously expensive Honest wipes, remember? There isn’t anything harmful for Oliver or the damn jacket. Now wipe it up so we can go inside. Oliver is getting irritated.”
Brian relented and wiped the jacket off. “The leather darkened!” he gasped. “Shit, shit, shit. I told you, it would ruin it.”
Justin punched Brian’s shoulder, handed him the diaper bag and took Oliver’s carrier off the hood of his car. “It got dark because it’s wet, idiot. Look, it’s so cold out here that it’s already drying and is back to its normal black color.” He began to walk toward the entrance. “I swear to god, if you freak out one more time about him soiling his designer clothing I’m going to burn it all and buy him a whole new wardrobe from Wal-Mart.”
“You wouldn’t dare dress our child in that filth!” Brian said. “They donate money to all those causes that…”
“You shop at Target!” Justin interrupted, jerking open the restaurant door and feeling the warmth from within hit him. “I saw the freaking the brand of diapers you bought two days ago.”
“We were out and it was closer than me driving into Pittsburgh to go to…”
“Whatever,” Justin cut Brian off as they reached the hostess. “Hi.”
“Good evening, how many in your party?” the woman asked.
“We’re actually running a little late,” Justin said, “some of our party may be here.”
“Are you the Kinneys or the Wim…” She looked down at the book lying on the podium. “The Wimpiskuglers?”
Justin snorted a laugh. “The Kinneys, we’re definitely the Kinneys.”
The hostess smiled, barely refraining from sharing in on Justin’s laughter. “Follow me please; your party is already seated.”
TBC
*
Oliver
Chapter 22: “Sixth Sense”
Justin couldn’t always say that he was the best judge of character, whether or not that included children or adults, sometimes he got it all wrong. Even though he’d prepared himself to keep his opinion about Gray objective, it seemed after the initial meet and greet, which lasted about two minutes, keeping himself at a distance from Gray was not going to be easy. The kid was adorable, looked enough like Brian and Gus, with slightly darker eyes, to make Justin immediately feel a kinship with him. Plus, his personality was just as cute as his appearance.
“Can I hug you now?” he heard Gray whisper to Brian, who sat beside him.
Justin was in the process of taking Oliver out of his car seat and his movements stilled. He watched as the lanky little boy smiled at Brian’s nodding affirmation and crawled into his lap, his little hands immediately wrapped around Brian’s neck, his chubby little faced pressed against Brian’s cashmere sweater.
“Your shits so soft, Uncle Brian,” he whispered, rubbing his face back and forth.
Justin managed to bring Oliver into his arms, just barely, because the look of shock and then overwhelming love on Brian’s face was hard to miss. Justin had seen this before, with Gus and then with their son Oliver, who was subjected to a huge squeeze from him in reaction to the sight. Justin’s sixth sense, his gut, his heart, whatever label there was to put on his instincts; it rebelled and squashed almost all misgivings he had about the child.
“That’s shirt,” Claire said, emphasizing the letter ‘r’ and her presence.
“Sorry,” Gray said, laughing as he looked up at Brian. “I’m big so I say my awer’s.”
“That’s right,” Claire said proudly. “Can you say Brian like a big boy?”
Gray nodded. “Uncle. Brrrian.”
“Good job,” Brian told him and turned a little so they both could face Justin. “Oliver has an r in his name too, can you say hi to Oliver?”
“He’s a baby still,” Gray said in a thoughtful tone. “He don’t go to school yet. Missy don’t go to school too.”
“Missy is the baby who is staying at his foster home,” Claire explained.
“Hi Oliver,” Gray said, gazing down at the baby with a smile.
Oliver let out a loud laugh and his chubby little hands flew around. Justin’s heart pounded in reaction. “Do you like babies?” he asked Gray.
Gray shifted on Brian’s lap until he scooted between him and Justin. “Oh yeah. An’ I like ponies too.”
Justin laughed. “Ponies?”
“Yeah, I watch the show on Netflix at my while home,” he said. “Jamie likes it too and he wants to be a cowboy who rides a purple pony when he gets big. I want a real pony. It can be brown and white.”
“Jamie is the Bollinger’s son,” Claire told them.
“We got that,” Brian told her. “Have you ever ridden a pony?” he asked Gray.
“Uh-huh, Mawma took me to the zoo and they letted me.”
“Mawma?” Brian asked, eyeing Claire.
Grey pointed over at Claire. “She’s your big sista’.”
“That’s right, she is,” Brian said.
“Do you know what ponies become when they get bigger?” Justin asked while taking Oliver’s jacket off him.
Gray’s face screwed up and he looked like he was thinking very hard. “Horses,” he said, excitedly, bouncing around, his arm elbow clocking Oliver in the chin.
“That’s right,” Justin said, pulling back a little.
“Gray,” Claire called his attention to her. “Do you remember what we talked about? Do you remember what Tanner and James said about Missy? The same goes for Oliver. You have to be very careful around him. Oliver is even smaller than Missy, he can’t even sit up on his own or crawl yet, he’s very fragile, so we have to be still when we’re close to him, okay?”
Gray’s eyes widened and he looked back and forth between Justin and Brian. “I’m sorry.” He then looked at Oliver and made a fist so only his pointer stuck out. He placed his finger in Oliver’s reach and immediately the baby grasped onto it and began to coo. “I’m sorry I’ll be careful, Oliver. I don’t wanna break you.”
Oliver cooed again and Justin told Gray, “I think he accepts your apology. He can’t talk yet, so when he smiles and makes excited noises like that, that means he’s happy.”
“Can I have my finga back now?” Gray asked Oliver.
Brian laughed and helped Gray gently extract his finger from Oliver’s grip. “He’s strong, isn’t he?”
“Uh-huh. Can I have pizza?”
“You can have whatever you want,” Brian told him.
“I want a pony.”
Brian laughed. “No, I mean, what would you like on your pizza?”
Justin couldn’t help sharing an amused look with Claire.
“Cheese.”
“Just cheese?” Brian asked. He flipped open a menu. “They’ve got a lot of toppings you can get besides cheese.”
“If I get just cheese can I have ice cream after?” Gray asked.
“You can have ice cream as long as you eat your pizza,” Brian told him. “But you can also get any toppings you want.”
Gray giggled and put his hands over his mouth. “I just want cheese.”
Brian closed the menu. “Cheese it is. What about you, Justin?”
“If you’ll take Oliver, I’ll look at menu,” Justin said, grinning at Brian as he handed his son over.
“I’m not very hungry tonight,” Claire said, “I think I might just have a slice of pizza.”
Justin and Brian both looked at Claire and could see that she was upset, but neither of them felt the need to comment about it. Justin didn’t like the woman, but he knew that she was probably watching something occur between the four of them that she hoped would happen, but still had to hurt her to see. He also figured that her having a little appetite might also be caused by the cancer. He resolved to have a talk with Claire about her and the details of her illness and treatments. If he and Brian were going to raise Gray, they would need to know how long Gray would have with her.
TBC
AN: I know, I know, you're saying, it can't be this easy. Well, you'd be right. But, the decision was already made, now its up to Brian and Justin to see what happens from this point on. This isn't going to be easy for Gray, but I will try to make the transition fit a little more realistically in my experience. Also, if you see any big or small errors feel free to point them out. I've ran my proofreader crazy with all the sorting of chapters and our eyes hurt.
P.S. I won't update the table until I post the next installment. It confuses me otherwise.