Chapter Twenty Three – A First for the Fourth

There was so much to see. So much to hear. So much to smell. It was like paradise! Now if only he could investigate all of the activity. Unfortunately it didn't seem like Olivia was going to let him do that despite the fact that they were lounging on the grass. He was hardly able to contain his excitement. Even though he was still on the job he kept pacing behind Ben and Olivia, his head swinging every which direction.

"Someone's excited," Ben laughed.

Every so often he could feel warm breath on the back of his neck as Suvi passed back and forth, panting happily as his tongue hung out of his mouth. He and Olivia were both being whapped near constantly by Suvi's tail too.

"Too excited. He's still supposed to be working."

Dogs weren't allowed at the concert, even if they were on the lawn. Suvi was going to have to behave like a service dog and stay on the job for the entire night or they wouldn't be able to stay. Olivia snapped her fingers to catch Suvi's attention and pointed to the ground next to her.

"Sit."

He did as she asked and looked up at her with bright honey eyes. Please would she let him play? Please, please, pretty please with a dog biscuit on top? And some beef gravy?

Olivia smiled sadly and gently rubbed his ears.

"Sorry, buddy. You have to work tonight."

Suvi huffed and lowered himself to the grass before dropping his head onto his front paws. It was disappointing, but he would do what she had asked.

"Is he going to be okay?" Ben asked.

"He'll be fine. We played a lot this morning so he isn't overworked. He'll get over the moping eventually."

"Tough momma."

Olivia rolled her eyes in reply.

"Not that tough. I'm asking him to do what he's supposed to do."

"In a big open field that would be a lot of fun to play in."

He was grinning at her, obviously teasing, so Olivia bumped his shoulder with a smile on her face. Ben returned the bump and rested his hand on hers. Olivia spread her fingers a bit and twined them with his. They stayed that way until the music began. It only took the first half of the opening song for Olivia to realize that Ben had been right. The music was fantastic. With how far back they were there wasn't much to see, so she amused herself, at least visually, with inspecting Ben. She could watch the content, utterly happy look on his face for a long time. Every so often a small smile would slide across his face or he would tip his head back and close his eyes. It was like the music was speaking to his soul. Olivia perched her arms on her upturned knees and rested her head sideways on her arms so she could continue watching his joy. He was so drawn into the music that he had no idea she was watching him. It was actually kind of adorable. When there was a pause between songs he finally looked over at her.

"What is it?"

Olivia lifted her head off her arms, but her smile stayed in place.

"Just watching."

"You're supposed to be listening."

"I can multitask."

The roll of drums signaled the start of the next song. Ben glanced toward the stage and then back at Olivia.

"Maybe you should focus more on listening this time. You'll get more out of it."

She restrained her laughter and turned away from him to listen to the music. Now that he didn't have that peaceful, completely lost in the music look on his face it wasn't quite as fun to watch him anyway. For the next song and a half she listened as he'd requested. She enjoyed it but had to keep preventing herself from looking over at him now that he was focused on the songs again.

A cymbal crashed, and Suvi lurched to his feet and started barking. Eyes immediately turned toward him, Olivia's included. At first Olivia thought the sudden loud noise had bothered him. When he pawed at her leg she knew that wasn't the case.

"Okay," she murmured as she leaned back so she could lie down.

"Liv? You okay?"

"For now."

She wasn't sure how long that would last, but she figured not very. The next few notes were all she heard before they all mushed together into something unintelligible. She didn't have any idea how much time had passed before the music became clear again as the seizure ended. When the drifting notes did register, they were almost painfully loud. She groaned and rolled onto her side. Suvi whined and nudged at her shoulder.

"Olivia? Are you okay?" Ben asked gently as he rubbed her back.

"My head hurts."

She wasn't usually one to complain, but she couldn't come up with another answer. The amount of pain in her head was at a level where she was considering taking some medication without assessing whether it would get better in time. If she were able to sit up enough to actually reach them and take one, that was. At the moment she wasn't sure that would be possible though.

"What can I do?"

"My pills."

That was all she needed to say. They'd gone over what was in Suvi's vest and where each item was located, so he knew exactly where to find the pills and which ones she needed. He pulled a medium sized, cream pill out and slowly helped her sit up. After she'd taken it Ben sat down behind her so she could rest against his chest. She let him hold her up while Suvi dropped his head on her lap. As the pain flared through her head she kept her eyes closed and focused on breathing. Feeling Ben's chest against her back and Suvi's fur under her hand was comforting. When the medication finally kicked in the pain died enough that she felt somewhat functional. She could open her eyes at least. Feeling better, she rubbed Ben's arm and nestled hear head into the crook of his neck. Been slid his arm around her waist and kissed her head. Either she was hurting so bad that she needed his comfort or she was actually relaxing. He really hoped it was more the latter than the former.

They stayed curled up together until the concert ended. If they wanted to leave before the fireworks began they would have to go soon, but neither one really wanted to move.

"Do you want to go?"

"Suvi might be okay."

"What about you? I don't think fireworks will be good for a headache."

"Probably not, but I do want to see them."

Ben personally thought that seeing fireworks while in excruciating pain seriously destroyed the pleasure of watching them, but there really wasn't much point in arguing with her.

"It's your head, Liv. Your head and your dog."

That was very true, but she still wasn't sure what to do. The rational part of her said leave before risking the increase of her headaches or the need to calm Suvi. She was comfortable though, and the thought of moving was not appealing. Her initial plan of seeing how Suvi reacted to the first firework before deciding could be problematic if it triggered both her head and Suvi. One or the other would be hard enough to deal with on its own. If she had to cope with a frantic Suvi while her head was exploding she would probably fail at calming him.

"Are you okay with missing the fireworks?" she asked.

"I'm okay with whatever you want to do."

"Let's go then. Just in case. I'd rather not ruin the night just because I wanted to try and see them."

Missing the fireworks would be disappointing, but she knew it was the right choice. As much as she didn't want her disability to change her life or dictate her choices, the fact of the matter was she would always need to consider it.

"Alright then."

Ben shifted away from her so he could stand up. Once he was on his feet he helped Olivia up and steadied her with an arm around her waist. Suvi followed them both and got to his feet so they could head out.

Thanks to leaving early the drive back to Olivia's apartment wasn't terrible since many people were out watching fireworks or enjoying the holiday with friends. Her headache had died down to almost nothing which made the drive better. She was starting to regret leaving early since she was loving her time with Ben and it was quickly coming to an end. They were only a few blocks from her apartment. Ben parked about a block away, and they walked the remainder of the trip. When they reached her place she really didn't want to open the door. Ben noticed her hesitance and decided to use it to his advantage.

"Hey, Suvi." Olivia's dog looked up at him and wagged his tail a few times. "Do you think I can give Olivia a kiss goodnight?"

He was watching Olivia out of the corner of his eye while he kept most of his attention outwardly on Suvi. A tiny blush blossomed across her face, and she looked down like she always did.

"Do I have to give it to Suvi instead?"

Olivia smiled in amusement but didn't give him any answer. Ben assumed he wasn't going to be able to kiss her unless she relaxed a bit. He had been hoping to do that with the second question, but apparently he was going to need to go one step further. Without hesitating a moment he leaned down so he would be able to kiss Suvi on the top of his head, though it could easily look like he was aiming for the lips. When Olivia realized what he was about to do her eyes went wide. She grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet.

"What are you doing?! You weren't seriously going to kiss him, were you?"

"If I'd had to."

Olivia gaped at him in shock, but Bun simply smiled gently at her.

"Does this mean I get to kiss you instead?"

"I think you could, and it sounds like a far better idea than kissing a dog."

Ben beamed and leaned in to kiss her gently on the mouth. The kiss was light and closed mouthed, but it was still the first time he'd kissed her on the lips. It was a risk he hadn't been willing to take without her permission. Even now that he had it, he hadn't wanted to overstep his bounds by kissing her the way he really wanted to. He was going to have to wait on that no matter how hard it was.

It wasn't the way Olivia wanted him to kiss her either. Deciding to throw caution to the wind she leaned in for another kiss. Ben might have held back, but she didn't. At least not very much. Her arms slid around him as her mouth sought out his, intent on far more strength and intensity. It didn't take much more than brief contact the second time for her hunger to overtake her. Even when she pulled away from the kiss she didn't pull completely away from him. When Ben's eyes met hers they were glowing. He had obviously enjoyed the far more passionate kiss as much as she had.

"Do you want to come in and stay for a little while?"

"Sounds good."

"Good. Just make sure that if you're kissing anyone it's me and not Suvi. I think I could go with another kiss like that at some point."

"Deal," Ben laughed.