Chapter Fifteen – Mirror Image

"Hey, Ben? What did you say your girlfriend did?" Cole asked from where he sat in front of his computer.

He, Ben, and their oldest brother, Ryan, were all over at Cole's place for a night of pizza and beer. Little did Ben know that Olivia was doing nearly the same thing. What was more, the conversation was basically the same as well.

"Ben has a girlfriend? When the hell did that happen?"

Ben rolled his eyes and decided not to bother answering Ryan's question. It seriously didn't deserve an answer. Not that he figured ignoring Ryan would prevent the inevitable ribbing that was sure to come.

"She's a consultant with the NYPD."

"Benson, right?"

"Yeah."

Cole clicked once more and looked up at Ben worriedly. He'd wanted to look into this woman in hopes of getting a better idea of who she was. It was the best way he knew of to try and protect his brother. He had been worried about Olivia's motives and personality, but based on what he was seeing now he should have been more concerned about her truthfulness.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, Cole. I'm sure."

"Are you really sure?"

Instead of answering Ben shot Cole an irritated look. He'd said he was sure once. That should be enough.

"And I'm sure this is her," Cole said as he pointed to the image on the screen. "She's not a consultant. She's a detective."

"You're dating a cop?"

"A sex crimes detective," Cole confirmed.

"Sex crimes consultant," Ben corrected.

"Detective first grade Olivia Benson. It's all right here. There are a ton of articles too."

"Could be a different Olivia Benson," Ben reasoned even though he knew it wasn't likely.

"There are pictures."

Ben knew that already, but he was grasping at straws. He didn't want to believe that Olivia had lied to him about what she did for a living. She'd told him about her disability. Why would she have lied about her job? There had to be a reason for what Cole had found.

"Damn," Ryan whistled as he peeked over Cole's shoulder to look at the photo. "How'd you get a girl like that?"

Of course he would say that. He wasn't concerned about the fact that Olivia had apparently lied; he only cared that she was hot. It was Ryan through and through. Ben was still going to ignore him too. He'd found it was the best thing to do with Ryan a long time ago.

"When was the last article published?"

"Give me a sec," Cole returned as he altered his search criteria. "March 2015 it looks like."

Almost two and a half years ago. That fit with what she'd told him. If she had been working for the NYPD when she got hurt she would have had to leave the department. Though wasn't a consultant still technically with the department? He would have to find a way to ask her about everything if he could.

"Ben. Hey," Cole pressed when he noticed his brother had gotten lost in his own head.

"Sorry."

"Did you know about that?"

"No, but the timeline fits."

"What timeline?"

"Ah…" He could tell Ryan and Cole about Olivia's injury to explain her possible departure from the NYPD, but he didn't want to. It didn't seem right to share that information with his brothers. She'd trusted him with that knowledge, and he was going to keep her trust. The story was hers to tell if she wanted to tell it. For now he would give a somewhat vague answer that was still true. "She said she made a lot of changes in her life about two years ago."

Cole seemed to accept that, which was good. He turned his attention back to his computer and started clicking around again. Ben went back to his pizza while trying to ignore what seemed like endless questions from Ryan. His brother definitely wasn't willing to let up on finding out everything he could about Olivia and how they'd met.

"You've got to give me something here," Ryan wheedled.

"No, actually, I don't."

"Either you share or I steal your cell to get her number."

Ben glared at his brother in response. If the threat had come from anyone else he wouldn't have taken it seriously, but this was Ryan. His brother had done shit like that before, and he would totally do it again. That needed to be prevented. There was a good reason why he'd introduced Olivia to Cole and not Ryan. His older brother would probably scare her away with his first sentence. In fact, Ryan probably wouldn't even need a sentence to achieve that. Maybe not even a word.

"We met at Central Park. I haven't known her that long, a few months, that's it. I'm not even sure it could be considered dating yet."

"After a few months?!"

Ben rolled his eyes. He'd expected as much. Again.

"I'm not you, Ryan. I would like my relationships to last, so I'm taking my time."

"That's not taking your time. That's being a snail."

"Forgive me if I don't take dating advice from you," Ben grumbled.

He got along well enough with Ryan, at least in a younger brother being tormented kind of way, but they had very different goals when it came to relationships. It had pretty much always been that way. Neither one of them understood the other's view on love or, in a certain sense, the lack of it. Ben knew that Ryan wouldn't get why he was doing what he was with Olivia, and he wasn't going to argue with his brother about it.

"Uh, Ben?" Cole called out.

"What did you find now?" he asked in exasperation.

Ben had already heard that tone from Cole that evening, and he really wasn't happy to hear it again. Olivia had thought he was full of surprises, but it was turning out that she was too. Not in a particularly good way either.

"A mini bio from a conference she presented at a few weeks ago."

"She told me about the conference."

"She tell you about her credentials and awards?"

"No."

Cole motioned him over and swiveled the laptop around so Ben could see it. A quick glance at the list made it clear how many awards she actually had. She'd said she was an expert in her field, but Ben hadn't thought she was this much of an expert. No wonder she was wanted for the conferences.

"She's really talented," Cole said.

"Yeah. I knew that already."

The pieces were slowly starting to fit together. She must have been hurt when she'd been on the job and had been forced to quit. With all of the awards she'd gotten, that probably hadn't been easy. Somehow she'd managed a new injury and the loss of a job she'd had for sixteen years. It would have beaten most people down, but she didn't seem anything but content with her life. He couldn't help wondering about the cause of her injuries.

"Ben? Ben."

His eyes snapped up to meet Cole's.

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about? You had this blank look on your face."

"Nothing. Sorry."

"Ben?"

"It's nothing, Cole."

He couldn't share his thoughts with Cole without revealing Olivia's disability, and he refused to do that.

"Doubt that," Cole returned.

"It's nothing bad, Cole. Just thinking about her."

"About getting her in bed I'd hope," Ryan called out.

"You're not allowed to kill him, Ben," Cole reminded as he pat his brother's shoulder.

"How about hit him? Kick him? Soak him with a bucket of ice water?"

"That might work."

Smiles split both of their faces.