Hello everyone.

My borough is having a scheduled power outage all day tomorrow to repair our generators and re-inforce our power lines, so I'll be posting the chapter today.

Enjoy

With Love

WhoooahKay

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Well, it is Tuesday.

My dad, still has not talked to me.

Oaken, ended up staying at Amber's Sunday night, and last night.

My mom has been obsessively cleaning the house while she's not at work because it's her pensive habit.

Jake has been here the last two night to make sure I'm still alive.

And Connor, although trying to shed light on the very tense house, is so scared shitless of my dad and Oaken right now that it's unfathomable.

Me, since we got home, I have spent all of my time at home, in the basement. One good thing about me going spastic, I can re-do my studio.

I just had to wait until my stitches came out.

But here we are, Tuesday night, at the dinner table, Jake is here with Kelsey, Oaken is actually home, we've been eating for 30 minutes, and no one has said a single word.

"So." Kelsey put her fork down. "This is the most awkward Pate Dinner I've been to, and we've been together for 7 years now." She pursed her lips.

"And, I've been a Pate for 21." Jake nodded. "But, I'm going to assume you didn't ask us for dinner to just sit here and wait for an explosion dad." Jake looked at him.

"You're right." He nodded and set his fork down. "I did not."

"What's up?" Connor shook his head.

"What's up, is that you." He pointed at Jake. "Are getting married. You." He pointed at Oaken. "Are having your first hockey game after the holiday break. You." He pointed at Connor. "Have put someone in the hospital, had multiple basketball games, and are leaving next fall. And I just found out my daughter was pregnant, and that she is the one who destroyed her dance studio, not boys fucking around in my basement." He nodded.

I looked down and sighed.

"And I haven't been here for the majority of it." He shook his head. "So, Hank and I had a meeting today in State College."

"OK?" Oaken shook his head.

"We got offered to run production at for BlackHawk, and we accepted them." He nodded.

"You and Hank love your jobs." Connor shook his head.

"You're right. We do. But we love you guys and Mason more. It's been 7 years, and it's become very clear that I have lost track of what is going on with my family. We are needed, we're tired of missing games and competitions, and not being home on certain holidays. And I am done being left in the dark on what is happening in my children's lives. So, We're keeping our paid 2 weeks, we'll start the Monday after Christmas, and we will have every weekend off. Unless your mother and I go out for a night or a weekend, or its too late for Hank and I to head home, I will be home, every night." He nodded.

"So, you guys are like, home home." Oaken looked at him. "Like, no more traveling?"

"Not unless it's a couple hours away and no longer than a night." He shook his head. "I am home."

Honestly, now I really do feel terrible. Because I know how much they love traveling, and I know they love their jobs, and if Mason and I wouldn't have told them or asked for help, they would still be doing it. He would be talking to me. This, was the straw that broke the camels back.

"Well, I for one am happy." Connor smiled. "I hate it when you guys leave."

"And, it'll be nice to have you in the stands at hockey." Oaken nodded.

"And picking out Tux's." Jake smiled.

"Logan and I are still Ushers right?" Oaken looked at Kelsey.

"Yes." She nodded. "And Connor, Harley, Marcus and Robbie are the groomsmen. Liv, Sadie, Angie and Rachel are my brides maids."

"Honey." My mom rubbed my shoulder. "Is there, anything you want to say?"

I cleared my throat. "Happy you'll be home daddy." I nodded. "Dinner was good mom, can I be excused?"

"Actually Olivia, I think, you and Oaken should talk before you go anywhere, since he's home?" She pursed her lips.

"Mom." Oaken looked at her. "I would rather go down to Old Navy, buy every single pair of jeans in the store, and eat all of them, before I talk to her." He nodded.

"Oaken." Jake nudged him.

"Without a drink too." He shrugged.

I pursed my lips. "Mom?"

"Yes, honey, go." She sighed.

"Thank you." I basically shot up and ran out the back door. In slippers, short, and a t-shirt might I add, and ran through the back gate to Masons.

Normally, I would walk in, but Hank is home and in the kitchen. So this time, I did.

His head shot up from the table, he gave me a funny look, and waved me in.

I took a deep bread and slid the door open.

"Since when do you knock." He shook his head.

I pursed my lips and looked down. "I wasn't sure if I was welcome anymore."

He sighed. "Of course you are Ol. Come here." He slid the chair next to him out and patted it.

I sat down and put my face in my hands.

"I'm going to tell you the same thing I told him. No matter what happens or what you do, it'll never be enough for me to stop loving you Olivia." He shook his head. "Honey you are the only daughter I have, and no matter what happens between you and Mason, it'll always be that way. It's been that way since you ran in to my back yard 13 years ago to ask me to put your clip back in your hair. This doesn't mean that you're not welcome in my house. You're always welcome here. This is just something that is going to take some time for us to deal with." He rubbed my shoulder.

"So you're not completely pissed at me for ruining your job?"

"Olivia you didn't ruin anything." He shook his head. "We were offered this a month ago, we've been highly considering it since. Because of everything that happened between you two and Connor. Just, this, this made us take the chance and do it."

I sighed and nodded.

"He's up stairs." He leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Go, it seems like you need him. Love you."

"Love you." I gave him a small smile, got up, and headed up stairs.

I knocked on his door.

"Busy!" He yelled.

"It's me." I cracked his door open.

He was sprawled on his back in his bed, with an arm behind his head, in his under ware might I add, and actually reading a book.

"Hey." He sat up.

"Hi." I pursed my lips.

"What's the matter?" He closed his book and set it on his night stand.

I scrunched my face. "Can I come lay with you?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Come here." He held his arms out.

I crawled on top of him and he leaned back and wrapped his arms around me. "What's going on?"

"The most tense family dinner imaginable." I buried my face in his chest. "My dad still hasn't talked to me, neither is Oaken, our dads are stopping traveling because of all of us, and Oaken just told my mom that he'd rather buy and eat every pair of jeans in old navy than talk to me."

He rubbed my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. "Oaken is just, well, I don't know. But Ol, your dad is just trying to find the words to say something to you that he's not going to regret later. Now my dad, he just has me, but yours, he's got all boys, and you. Oaken may be the youngest, but you, you're his baby. And, finding out his baby lost a baby with someone he considers a son and that we didn't tell him. Maybe he just doesn't know how to approach you about it. Maybe, you should talk first. Make the first move?"

"Mase he hasn't looked at me since Sunday." I shook my head.

"And my dad has asked me 8 times a day since Sunday how I'm feeling. They're best friends, but so different. Come on babe. Go talk to him."

I sighed and nodded.

He lifted my head and kissed me. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Come on." He smacked my butt. "I'll walk you over."

I climbed off of him. He threw on sweats and a hoodie, slid a hoodie over top of me.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me down stairs. "I'm gonna walk her back over, bears and everything." He nodded.

"Mason, we live in the suburbs with a 6 foot wood fence, and it's winter." Hank shook his head.

"Well, ducks then, she's scared of birds." He shrugged.

"Again, it's winter, migration? It is also 8:00 at night and dark." Hank nodded. "Go."

"Well sue me for not know about Animal Movements." He put a hand in the air and pulled me out the back door.

"Really? Bears and birds?" I shook my head as he pulled me through the gate.

"I didn't know if he'd say no or not. Your father is currently not my biggest fan." He spun me toward him as we got to my back door. "I love you."

"I love you too." I nodded.

"Call me after, so I know you're OK?"

"OK." I leaned up and gave him a kiss.

He gave me a small smile and walked back through the gate.

I walked in side to my mom cleaning up. "I'm sorry." I shook my head.

"You have no reason to be." She looked over from the sink.

"The boys and Kelsey?"

"Connor took Oaken to Amber's, and Jake and Kelsey went home. She asked me to remind you about dress shopping Saturday. Just you and her." She nodded.

I cleared my throat. "Dad?"

"Living room."

I sighed and walked in.

"Now damn it." My dad was leaned forward on a laptop with his glasses on. "How the hell do you work this thing?" He smacked it.

"Do you need help?" I pursed my lips.

He looked up at me. "The thing is a piece of junk."

"It's." I cleared my throat. "It's brand new dad." I nodded and sat on the couch next to his chair. I spun the lap top toward me. "Hockey Terms?" I looked over at him.

"Gotta learn."

"Well, you're in word dad, not on the internet." I pulled up the internet and went to google.

I pulled up a page full of hockey terms and handed it back to him.

"Thank you."

I nodded.

It was quiet for a few minutes.

"Are you still mad at me." I pursed my lips.

"No."

"You know, I didn't mean to disappoint you."

And finally, he looked away from the computer. "What?" He shook his head.

"I didn't mean to disappoint you." I shook my head.

He set the computer on the coffee table. "Come here." He waved me over to him.

I stood up, and he literally pulled me in to his lap and squeezed me so hard.

I wrapped my arms around his back and squeezed too.

"Baby, you could never disappoint me. Neither could your brothers." He shook his head. "Do you guys make some bad decisions, absolutely. But accidents, they happen. Your bad decision, was not telling me."

I sighed and nodded. "I know."

"I just want to know why you didn't tell me." He rubbed my shoulders. "Do I scare you that much, or make it seem like you can't talk to me about things, or-"

"Daddy no." I shook my head.

"Then why Olivia?"

I looked down. "I didn't want you to be mad at me."

He sighed. "Baby, being mad, is just that, being mad." He shook his head. "But I could never be mad enough to not always be here for you. I'm your dad. You make me mad, I make you mad, that's how it works. But I'm not mad, I'm hurt." He nodded. "I hurt for me, I'm hurt for you and Mason. Because I love you both. And this pain that you've been going through, it has to be excruciating. I just wish you would've told me sooner so I could do my best to help you." He wiped my face. "Let me help you. Let us all help you."

I nodded.

"OK." He wrapped his arms around me again and squeezed.

Now, I just have to get Oaken to talk to me.