Chapter Thirty Nine – More Than it Seems

In between volunteering at the hospital and rape crisis center the following week Olivia had a chance to meet with Bernard and Clarissa for lunch on separate occasions. Ben had joined her both times. The lunches had gone much better than the initial picnic. She'd actually had a really good time on both outings after they'd gotten past the apparently required apologies. Some of the hesitancy and feelings of inadequacy associated with Ben's family eased after the meetings. Regardless of the fact that neither Clarissa nor Bernard had questioned her ability to take care of herself, it had been nice to prove to both of them that she still had her independence. With Suvi's help she was fully functioning on her own. Necessary or not, she wanted to show them that she wasn't simply using Ben. In the end she thought she'd succeeded. At least she had with everyone except Ben's mother. She really didn't know what to do about that situation, and she honestly didn't want to deal with it either. Chances were she wasn't going to win without a major fight, if she won at all.

With how good the week had gone Olivia was hoping it would carry through to the weekend. She was rather enjoying a nice, relaxing Saturday morning at home. Or at least she had intended for it to be lazy and relaxing. That wasn't always possible with Suvi around. About the last thing he wanted to do that morning was be lazy. So far Olivia hadn't had much luck convincing him that relaxing was a better option than playing. He could be incredibly insistent. He'd won the choice of what to do that day in almost record time. When her phone rang it was a bit of a relief. She hurried to get to it with Suvi hot on her heels, a toy at the ready. Just because she had to answer the phone didn't mean she was going to get away with not playing with him. It was definitely not break time. Oh no. It was play time!

"Benson."

"Hey. It's Ben."

A smile washed across Olivia's face at the sound of his voice.

"Hey."

"Listen, I know this probably isn't exactly what you want to hear…" He paused mid-sentence, totally confused. "What's that noise?"

About halfway through his first sentence Suvi had started pressing his stuffed lion against Olivia's leg and with every impact he managed to squeak it. When it became obvious to Suvi that she was ignoring him he only worked harder. The press and release against her leg picked up speed which made the squeaking come faster as well. Ben had been able to hear it over the phone.

"Suvi's method of being demanding," she replied with a laugh. "You're interrupting his play time."

"How very rude of me. I'll have to apologize to him later."

"A good long game of catch should mollify him. Now what is this thing I don't want to hear?"

"My mom called."

Immediately a lump formed in Olivia's throat, nearly choking her. Ben was right. That really wasn't something that she'd wanted to hear. She had seriously hoped she could get through the weekend without needing to think about Ben's mother. Apparently that wasn't to be.

"What did she say? Something about me I'm sure."

Likely not anything good either.

"Good guess."

Olivia sighed and knelt down so she could wrap an arm around Suvi. He didn't bother dropping his toy, but he did stop squeaking it against her leg. Even though she told herself that she didn't care what his mother said about her, her heart apparently wasn't listening to the little voice in her head.

"It's not as bad as you think, Liv. At least I don't think it is."

"Alright."

"She said she's really ashamed of how she acted at the picnic. Dad and Clarissa probably talked to her since we all had lunch. Mom wants to get to know you and try to make it up to you if she can."

Olivia made an indistinguishable sound of recognition. She didn't want to tell him that it might take quite a bit to make it up to her. It didn't exactly make it better that she figured the only reason Sheila was saying any of this was because her family had guilted her into it.

"Let me preface this with you can feel free to say no, okay? You can even say hell no if you'd like. She was hoping she could come over today."

Olivia sighed again and tipped her head back to rest it against the wall. Meeting Ben's mother again, especially today, did not sound appealing, but she knew it needed to happen. No matter how bad it was going to be, she couldn't avoid it forever. Part of her wanted to prove Sheila wrong despite how awful a second meeting could be. She braced herself for the answer she was about to give. Once she did there was no turning back.

"Okay. You can bring her over here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Last chance to change your mind before you're trapped with a potentially unpleasant house guest."

"I'm sure, Ben." She paused a second before continuing in an amused tone of voice. "And I'm sure I have a boyfriend that will find a way to kick that house guest out if I asked him to."

"Just say the word and I shall wind up my foot."

O . o . O . o . O

"Mom, I'm serious. Olivia has enough going on without you adding to it. If you do or say anything to make her feel demeaned I'm done. Not only will I be kicking you out of her place, I'll be kicking myself out of your life for the most part. I'm not going to lose her," Ben warned his mother as they headed up toward Olivia's apartment.

"I hear you, Ben, and I'm sorry. The whole reason why I'm here is to make it up to you both."

Though she was mainly trying to make up with her son. If doing that meant that she had to try to get to know Olivia and see her in the "real light" the rest of her family insisted she had refused to see at first, then so be it. She would try, though she really wasn't very hopeful.

"You shouldn't have even had to, but at least you're trying."

He was going to have to hope that that was enough. If she behaved herself this time it might be. Regardless of how it turned out he had every intention of standing by Olivia. He knocked lightly on Olivia's door and waited. Instead of being greeted by the sound of footsteps and the door opening he heard the light click of claws on tile followed by scraping on the door. He knew what that meant and turned the handle and pressed inward. As he expected the door opened. Suvi dropped back down onto all fours and watched Ben walk in. There was no way he was going to let just anyone enter his apartment.

"Hey, Suvi," Ben greeted.

Satisfied that the person at the door was on the "okay to come in" list, Suvi trotted back to the living room and hopped up onto the couch. He lay down and settled his head into Olivia's lap. Both Ben and Sheila's eyes followed Suvi's progress to Olivia. Sheila was hardly impressed. Olivia hadn't even bothered to get up and open the door! She wasn't going to get very far convincing Sheila she wasn't using Ben like this.

Ben saw something completely different. Here was his girlfriend sitting on the couch with her head tipped back against the back of the couch even though there had just been a knock at the door, most importantly a knock that likely indicated the woman she might need to impress was here. He moved toward her, and the look on Olivia's face and in her eyes confirmed his suspicions. With Olivia, glassy eyes combined with either pale or flushed skin were usually signs of a recent seizure. The fact that she hadn't gotten up fit with that.

"Liv? Did you have a seizure?" he asked as he knelt in front of her and touched her knee.

"Yeah. My head's still a little out of it."

Ben had seen her struggle to function in the time following a seizure before. She'd told him it was almost like fighting back through a fog sometimes, disorienting and difficult when you were already exhausted. Usually it only happened on the bigger seizures though and with a little rest she recovered quickly enough. This one couldn't have happened too long before they'd arrived.

"Anything I can do?"

"No. I just have to wait for it to pass. You can help yourself to drinks though. Unless you'd like a bottle of water."

She could handle doing that herself. Kind of. At least with Suvi's help she could get them water. That counted as by herself in her mind. Ben agreed with that and wanted to show his mother that even when Olivia wasn't in the best shape she could still handle herself.

"I'll take some water, Liv."

Olivia offered him a small smile of appreciation for that before turning to Suvi.

"Su, bring water."

Suvi hopped off the couch and headed into the kitchen. Olivia always kept a few bottles of water in a box on the floor so Suvi could access them if she needed to take her medication and couldn't get up to get the water herself. It wouldn't be cold, but it would do. Warm water was an okay sacrifice for keeping dog fur out of her refrigerator too. The system worked really well when she needed to use it. Suvi grabbed one of the bottles from the box and trotted back into the living room. He dropped the bottle into Olivia's lap and smiled up at her. She rubbed his head gently then handed the bottle to Ben.

"Thanks."

The look on his mother's face in response to Suvi's retrieval of the water was exactly what Ben had hoped to see. She was watching Olivia with new eyes. In fact, she actually looked slightly impressed. That was a perfect step in the correct direction.

"Sheila, would you like anything?"

"Oh, sure. Water would be fine, Olivia. Thank you."

Olivia gave the order to Suvi again while she tried to hide the smile that wanted to slide across her face. Seeing Suvi work impressed a lot of people, but never to this extent. Sheila had changed her tune drastically from the picnic. If showing Suvi off was all it was going to take to bring Ben's mother around then the task would be far easier than Olivia had expected. When Suvi returned with the water Olivia decided to try and get one more victory in with Sheila. Instead of taking the bottle she directed Suvi toward Ben's mother. Suvi was more than willing to oblige. He trotted over and sat down at Sheila's feet, water bottle in his mouth and tail wagging. Sheila stared at him wide eyed for a moment before turning to stare at Olivia with the exact same expression. It almost made Olivia laugh.

"Hold out your hand. He'll give it to you."

She glanced down at Suvi for a second and then held out her hand like Olivia had told her. That was all Suvi needed. He happily dropped the bottle into her hand and returned to Olivia's side for his reward: a quick ear rub.

"Thank you," Sheila told her.

She stared down at the water without opening it as her mind churned. Olivia was proving to be completely different from what she'd assumed. To try and hide her own unease Sheila twisted the cap off her water and took a sip. She had no idea how to even go about interacting with Olivia now. Of course she still didn't completely trust the other woman with her son yet, even if she had realized Olivia was more than she'd appeared to be at first.

With the remaining fog from her seizure passed, Olivia could easily read the twisting uncertainty covering Sheila's face. Apparently Olivia wasn't the only one that wasn't sure how to interact after the events of the picnic.

"Olivia, I'm sorry. I…"

Deciding to put aside her pride, Olivia raised her hand to stop Sheila's apology. She didn't want it and simply knowing that Ben's mother was sorry was all she needed.

"How about we just start over?"

Ben had sat down next to Olivia on the couch and reached out to grab her hand when he heard her comment. He knew she was special, but he hadn't expected her to be that forgiving. If he was completely honest with himself, he wasn't sure he would be as forgiving as she was being had he been in the same situation.