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Chapter 11: Mom/Dad?

Occasionally the weekends that Ollie and Amelia spend with Adam and the times that Oliver would go spend time with Elise would line up and Rory and Logan would get some time alone. That was the case one weekend in October. It was Saturday morning, Ollie and Amelia were with Adam and Oliver was getting ready to go to a Halloween carnival with Elise. Rory and Logan were planning on getting some stuff done for the wedding once he left.

"What if it's not fun?" Oliver asked. He still got nervous every time he went somewhere with Elise. She'd asked Logan about having him overnight, but Oliver insisted that he didn't want to.

"Then you don't have to stay" Logan said. Just then his phone rang. He checked and it was Elise. "I'll be right back" he said and left the room to answer the phone.

Rory came down the stairs and could see Oliver sitting at the kitchen island and she could hear Logan on the phone in the other room.

"What the hell does that mean?" ..... "he's excited, Elise" .... "Right. Work. Why am I not surprised?"..... "he already thinks that you don't care about him. If you don't come when you said you were going to, it's only gonna further convince him of that" ..... "whatever. Bye".... "I'm hanging up because I have to go tell my son that he's not going to do something he was living forward to" .... "I don't care" Logan said and hung up. "Damn it" 

Rory walked into the kitchen to where Oliver was sitting At the island looking at a comic book. "What are you reading?"

"My mom doesn't want to see me" Oliver said

Rory's heart broke. Oliver heard Logan on the phone. "I'm sure that's not true"

"Yes, it is. She hates me and that's why she doesn't want to go to the carnival with me" 

Before Rory could say anything else Logan walked into the kitchen. He told Oliver what Elise had told him: that something came up with work and she was already at the airport headed back to California. Oliver didn't say anything, just went upstairs.

"I hate this" Logan said. He was pissed. His 7 year old was so painfully aware of the fact that his mother abandoned him, and that even now that she was trying to see him, she wasn't making an effort. Elise came to see Oliver when it worked for her. "I hate that she won't make an effort for him, and I hate that he knows that. It's not fair"

"I know" Rory said. Her kids might not see their father every day, but he made it clear in no uncertain terms that he loved them. Every day that he didn't see them, he FaceTimed Rory so he could talk to them. It wasn't fair that Oliver didn't get that.

"And he wanted to go to this thing" Logan said. "For the first time he was actually excited to go somewhere with Elise, and she ruined that"

"Can I take him?" Rory asked. She knew she wasn't his mom, and that she could never replace Elise, but she could try to make a little boy happy by taking him to a carnival. "I mean, I know we have plans and you have to work, but our plans can wait, right?"

"You want to take him to a Halloween carnival?" Logan asked. If he hadn't gotten stuck working on the weekend he would've taken Oliver in a heartbeat, but he'd known that he had to work that day for over a week and he only agreed because Oliver wasn't supposed to be home.

"If that's ok with you" Rory said. "I know I'm not his mom, but if he was looking forward to this carnival, he shouldn't have to miss it"

Logan thought it was a good idea for Rory to take Oliver to the Halloween carnival, so she went upstairs and knocked on his bedroom door.

"What?" Oliver asked

Rory opened the door but stayed in the doorway. "Do you still want to go to that carnival?"