Chapter Thirty Eight – How I Met Your Mother

Author's Note: So I am apologizing in advance for Ben's mom. I swear I didn't intend for her to turn out like this. She just took on a life of her own and no matter how hard I tried to fix it, she kept reverting to this. If she was that desperate to be who she ended up, who was I to argue?

"We can seriously play with him?" Chase exclaimed.

"Sure. Go ahead," Olivia told him.

"Come on, Tommy. Grab Jerry."

"What? Hey!" Cole called out as the boys took off with both dogs in tow.

Ben patted his brother's shoulder sympathetically. Apparently Cole didn't even rate asking whether it was okay for his dog to be stolen.

"You would have let him go anyway."

"Yeah, but they could have asked."

"Are you sure it's alright for him to go, Olivia?" Bernard, Ben's father, asked.

"It's fine. He'll check back in on me."

"Because you always need to have someone looking after you I'm sure," Ben's mother, Sheila, said under her breath.

It was loud enough that everyone at the table heard it. Both Ben and Clarissa turned to stare open mouthed at their mother. They knew she had a habit of being judgmental, but neither of them had expected her to be that extreme. Even if she was worried about Ben, she'd gone too far. Ben had suspected his mom wouldn't respect his wish to keep questions and negative comments to a time when Olivia wasn't around, but he hadn't in his wildest dreams thought she would have said something like that. He was nearly struck dumb.

"Mom!" Clarissa cried out.

Olivia's eyes flickered downward, and Ben rested his hand on her knee in support. None of the reactions were going to stop Sheila though.

"I hope you know what you're getting into, Ben."

The way she'd said it was clearly negative. While she hadn't come right out and said why, the meaning was obvious. She was focusing on Olivia's injury and how much she thought Ben would need to be taking care of Olivia, like Olivia was trying to use him for that purpose.

This time it was Bernard's turn to try and rein his wife in.

"That's enough, Sheila. The boy's finally found someone again. You should be happy for him."

"If his judgment weren't lacking again I would be."

"Hell, mom," Ryan nearly growled. "Have you even looked at her? Why are you trying to drive a girl like that way?"

"Totally unimportant, Ryan," Cole muttered.

"Of course it's important! Ben's in a serious relationship with an incredibly hot woman."

Olivia almost curled in on herself. Being told that she shouldn't be involved with Ben and that she was nothing more than a nuisance was bad enough. All of the insecurities from her injury that she'd been attempting to deal with were being thrown in her face and driven in like nails. It was taking everything she had to hold herself together, and the strain was starting to take a toll. To add onto her insecurities about herself, she had to deal with her relationship anxieties too. Ryan had called her relationship with Ben serious, but Olivia still had difficulty even seeing them as a couple sometimes.

Ben knew how much trouble Olivia had with accepting their connection, and he wasn't going to let Ryan's words eat at Olivia too.

"We haven't known each other that long. It's not that serious," Ben said softly in hopes of easing Olivia's nervousness at least a little. So what if his assurances were actually understatements.

He was almost ready to give up on the day and take Olivia home. She didn't deserve this from his mother or anyone else.

"Good. Better chance of you coming to your senses," Sheila sniffed in disgust.

"I'm not leaving her," Ben returned with a glare.

He grabbed for Olivia's hand but before he could even begin to get up and lead her toward his car he noticed her hands were trembling. He lifted them up to take a closer look. It wasn't trembling from nerves or cold but the remnants of her injury flaring up. Normally if she'd noticed the shaking start she would have immediately gotten her medication to try and prevent it from getting worse. Either she hadn't noticed this time or she hadn't wanted to draw attention to the visible sign of her disability.

"Where are your pills?" he asked her softly.

"In my purse in the trunk."

Suvi came bounding over to her side, and she reached out a shaky hand to touch his head before continuing.

"I'll go get them."

"It's fine. Stay here and I'll grab them."

"You see? I told you that's what was happening," Sheila near sneered to her husband.

Ben shot his mother a dark and dangerous look before leaving his siblings to deal with her. They were already on the job and doing well, so he could turn his attention to Olivia.

"Liv, ignore my mom. It's not a big deal for me to get your pills for you. That doesn't make you incapable of looking after yourself."

She still wasn't looking at him so Ben began gently stroking her hair. He hated seeing her like this. Olivia was an incredibly strong woman, and she didn't need to prove that to him.

"We'll just go home now and grab your pills from the car on the way. Okay?" he pressed softly.

Finally she looked up at him. He'd been expecting to see a deep set pain in her dark eyes, but what was staring back at him wasn't pain and sadness. There was fire there.

"Does our fundraising song apply here?" Olivia asked.

A proud smile spread across Ben's face. This was the Olivia he knew was buried somewhere within her. The Olivia that wanted to fight for herself. It was nice to see her back again.

"Definitely."

Olivia turned her attention to Ben's still arguing family. One hand rested on Suvi's head, the other clasped Ben's hand. She listened to them continue for another few moments before breaking in.

"Enough."

The sudden addition of her voice to the fight stilled everyone and all eyes turned toward her. Olivia only focused on one pair. Her eyes locked onto Sheila's, making it clear that the coming message was only for her. The strength showing on her face was greater than it had been since she'd arrived at the park.

"I'm not going to say that you don't know me and therefore have no right to judge me because I think you already know that. So instead I'm going to correct your biggest misconception. I do take care of myself. It might be slightly more challenging for me than it is for you, but I manage. In fact, I do well. If you knew me at all you would never accuse me of leaning on Ben too much. Ask him. He'll tell you that he would rather I lean on him more, but I don't lean on anyone except for Suvi. I never have, and I'm not sure I ever will."

Her piece said Olivia turned Ben's way. She squeezed his hand warmly and offered him a small smile. Despite what she'd said she truly hoped that at some point she would feel comfortable leaning on Ben more.

"I'm ready now."

"Okay."

He stood and pulled her up after him. Since her hands weren't very steady and they weren't going far Olivia decided not to bother putting Suvi's leash on. There wouldn't be any problem getting Suvi to behave on the walk to their car. As the three of them started the trip to the car Clarissa hurried after them.

"Olivia! Ben!"

They both stopped and turned to face her.

"Dad's dealing with Mom, so I figured I would be the one to apologize to you. From all of us. We do want to get to know you. I want to find a way to make this up to you too."

Olivia smiled happily. She had nothing against Clarissa or really any of Ben's family aside from his mother. Dealing with a mother that didn't think much of her wasn't a new experience. She could deal with it, but that didn't mean she wanted to go through all of that again. It was just too familiar, which only made the already painful experience more painful.

"We should try and get your brothers and even your dad together so I can visit again sometime. Maybe come up to the city," Olivia offered.

"We would all like to get together again, and Dad would definitely like to come up to the city. Thank you." She turned to head back to the group before stopping and looking back at Olivia. "Give Mom some time, okay? She'll come around."

"I hope you're right."

The first part of their trip back into New York was just as quiet as the drive out to New Jersey. Ben was trying to figure out what he could possibly say to Olivia to explain why everything had gone wrong. As the silence drew on he became more and more concerned about what was running through her head. He still didn't know what to say to her, but he didn't want to give her more time to think and twist her head around negative feelings.

"I'm really sorry about today, Liv. My mom can be really judgmental and sharp tongued when she's worried, especially about her family. I hadn't expected her to be that bad though. You didn't deserve anything she said. Please know that."

Olivia's eyes flickered toward him, and she smiled weakly. She couldn't have given any clearer response that she didn't believe him. He wasn't so sure he could blame her for not believing him either considering everything his mother had spouted at her.

"Grab my iphone, would you?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, sure."

She pulled his phone out of the cup holder and clicked it on before glancing over at him. Obviously he wanted her to do something that he couldn't while he was driving or he would have grabbed the phone himself.

"Pull up my music files, the artists, and go to "h." Hunter Hayes."

"Okay?" she asked curiously as she clicked around on his cell.

"It should be the last song on there."

There weren't many options so it was easy for Olivia to find the one he was talking about. Simply based on the names she thought she could have identified the one he wanted without his help. The name was "Wanted" after all. She didn't need to wait for him to tell her to hit play. As she listened the words washed over her and soothed the wounds that had been rubbed raw by her meeting with Ben's mother.

Anyone can tell you you're pretty
And you get that all the time, I know you do
But your beauty's deeper than the make-up
And I wanna show you what I see tonight...

When I wrap you up
When I kiss your lips.
I wanna make you feel wanted
And I wanna call you mine
Wanna hold your hand forever
And never let you forget it
'Cause, baby, I, I wanna make you feel wanted

Olivia reached over and tugged Ben's sleeve until she managed to peel his fingers from the steering wheel. That accomplished, she slid her hand into his. Ben glanced her way briefly and gave her hand a squeeze.

"How did you…?"

She didn't finish the question, but Ben understood it anyway. How did he have the song ready? How did he know it was going to be so perfect?

"I've been saving it for a day when I thought you needed it. Today seemed like the perfect day."

"It was the perfect day. Thank you."

"That's what you deserve, Liv. I want to give you all that and more."

So, so much more.