A/N: Here's chapter 14. Enjoy! I think my timescales are all out so I'm sorry if anything doesn't make sense.
'What are you two up to tonight?' Elliot, now thirteen-years-old, asked his two best friends, who were also thirteen.
'Mason, Dad, Lorraine and I are all going out for dinner to celebrate Lorraine being a member of the family for a year now.' Olivia said that sentence with such sarcasm that it was obvious she still hated Lorraine even after a year. Even after a year, Lorraine still couldn't care less about them and Mason and Olivia couldn't care less about her.
'That should be fun for you!' Elliot laughed at the extent of Olivia's sarcasm. Olivia simply rolled her eyes. Olivia wasn't as rude to Lorraine any more, but Lorraine had learned never to ask her to do anything for her.
'Yes, we're looking forward to Lorraine drinking a tad too much wine' Mason added.
'Have fun!' Elliot joked.
'How's Karen getting on?' Olivia asked. She remembered that it was just over a year since Karen and Stan split up. Olivia and Mason saw their stepmother (if they could still call her that) regularly, but she had a way of hiding her emotions in front of them.
'Erm, she's doing okay. She's been crying quite a bit at Jack's the last week or so.' Elliot answered. 'She still loves your dad, doesn't she?'
'Yeah, she does.' Mason and Olivia replied simultaneously.
'It's gotta be tough on her just now.' Mason added.
'Yeah.' Olivia thought out loud.
---
At a very posh restaurant, Olivia and Mason were sitting at their table, bored out of their skulls, across from Stan and Lorraine.
'How long do you think we're gonna be here for?' Mason whispered to Olivia.
'Who knows. I think we'll be here until she gets drunk!' Olivia responded.
'Hopefully not too much longer then.' Mason joked.
'Mason, Olivia are you going to congratulate us ever?' For some reason, Stan expected his children to be happy for him and Lorraine.
'Congratulations Dad, Lorraine.' Olivia couldn't have sound more hacked off if she'd tried while saying this. Mason could barley contain his laughter at her tone. Thankfully for Olivia, Stan hadn't picked up on her annoyance. He didn't spend enough time with her to know when she sounded annoyed.
'Nice one, Liv!' Mason congratulated his sister on her sarcastic congratulations to their father.
'Did you expect any less from me?' Olivia laughed.
'Can we get the bill please?' Stan asked a waiter.
'Thank god!' Mason sound relieved.
'Do you mind if we go to Elliot's?' Olivia asked her father. She didn't particularly want to stay go home. Not after Lorraine and Stan had both been drinking.
'If you want.' Stan hadn't paid much attention to his daughter's question.
'Okay, see ya!' Mason said, before he and Olivia made a quick escape out the restaurant door. 'Thanks for getting us out of going home. I was trying to. I just couldn't think of a good way to ask!'
'No problem. ' Olivia was also glad they wasn't going home. It was only seven o'clock after all. Mason noticed this size of the bag Olivia was carrying for the first time that evening.
'Hey what's in your bag?'
'Everything we need for staying over at somebody's house. There's no way I'm going home tonight!' Olivia had been planning their escape from the Walker penthouse all day.
'What would I do without you?' Mason laughed.
---
Will and Grace had agreed to let Olivia and Mason sleep on their sofas since there was nowhere for them to sleep in Jack's apartment. Karen, Jack and Elliot had all been in Will and Grace's apartment earlier. It was now the middle of the night and everybody was asleep. Olivia, however, was a light sleeper and would usually wake up at the slightest noise. Tonight, for some strange reason, she was in a deeper sleep than usual. She only woke up once. She could have sworn she heard Will on the telephone at about half-past two in the morning. She thought nothing of it at the time and went back to sleep.
---
The next morning Mason woke up around eight-thirty.
'Hey, Olivia! Are you awake?' Mason whispered just in case Olivia was still asleep.
'Yeah, I'm awake.' Olivia whispered back so as not to wake anyone else in the apartment. 'Did you hear Uncle Will on the telephone at half-past two this morning?'
'No. Why?'
'I could have sworn he was talking to somebody on the phone this morning.'
'There was probably a legal emergency or something.' Mason offered a reason why Will would be on the phone at that hour. As if on cue, Will and Grace both emerged from their bedrooms.
'Morning!' Mason said.
'Hey Uncle Will, were you on the phone at about 2:30 this morning?' Olivia decided to find out whether Will was on the phone or not.
Will exchanged an uneasy glance with Grace before beginning his explanation. 'That's what I need to talk to you about. Would you come and sit at the table please?' Olivia and Mason exchanged confused glances while doing as Will asked them. 'Last night I got a phone call from Lorraine at the hospital. She phoned to tell me that.' Will had to take a deep breath before continuing. 'They told me that your dad died of a heart last night. I'm so sorry.' Will watched as the colour drained from both of the children's faces.
'Does Karen know?' Olivia asked, seemingly out of the blue.
'Not yet.' Will answered her question. Will found it strange that a girl who has just been told that her father is dead immediately thought of her stepmother.' I'm going to tell her soon. I thought it would be best to tell you two now since you already knew I was on the phone in the middle of the night. It would be no use lying to you.'
'I see.' Olivia answered quietly while on the verge of tears. A few second later, she got up and walked through to Grace's bedroom in a daze. When Grace went to go through to get her, Mason stopped Grace from going any further towards her room.
'I'll go.' Mason quietly said. He knew best how to handle Olivia when she was upset. 'Hey.' Mason said as he entered Grace's bedroom to find Olivia sitting in the bed. Mason couldn't think of any better opener.
'Dad's dead.' Olivia stated as if Mason didn't already know.
'I know. It's horrible.' Mason answered to her comment.
'I don't know that it is.' Olivia said, shocking her brother.
'What?' Mason was desperate to know what she was getting at.
'Part of me is upset that he died, but part of me thinks he deserved it for everything he did to us and to Karen. I don't know what part of me to listen to.' Olivia said while sobbing slightly. She'd never forgiven her father for everything he'd done but now he was dead and Olivia didn't really know what to think.
'Why don't you listen to both of them?' Mason suggested after a few minutes of thinking.
'What do you mean?' Olivia sounded confused.
'Well, you can think that he deserved it, but you can mourn him at the same time. He was our dad after all.' Mason understood where Olivia was coming from she said that she thought Stan sort of deserved it. He had treated everybody like crap. Olivia had started to think of the good times they'd had with their dad when they were younger.
'Mason, do you remember when we were three and Dad took us to Disneyland for our summer holidays and all we wanted to do was play on the carousel and Dad kept taking us on even though we'd been riding it for two hours straight?'
'Yeah, and then he took us for ice cream and you dropped yours so Dad gave you his.' Mason added his memory of that great day.
'Yeah!' Olivia laughed at the memory of her crying until her daddy gave her his ice cream. Stan hadn't minded giving her it.
'Those were the good times.' Mason gave his opinion on what it was like when they were younger.
'Where did those times go?' Olivia asked, knowing exactly where they went but just feeling the need to get the question out of her system. Mason shrugged to answer her.
'At least we have one happy memory of our dad.' Mason said a few minutes later. It had just hit him that they would never have the opportunity to make any other happy memories. Olivia would never have the chance to put things right with her dad. Karen and Stan would never have the chance to reconcile. Stan was dead and there was nothing going to bring him back.
A/N: There's chapter 14. I'm sorry if it's not as sad or tear jerking as you would have like it to be. I just wanted Olivia and Mason to see that they did have good times with Stan. Thank you to karengraciewalker and Panema for reviewing the last chapter. Enjoy!