Chapter Twenty One – Unwanted Meeting

Olivia sighed heavily and shook her head. She was not as amused by Suvi's way of showing his love as Amanda. As Suvi continued to squeak his ball nearly in her ear Amanda was busy laughing. If Olivia hadn't been the one experiencing it she would have thought it was pretty funny too, but she was the one getting a slobbery ball shoved against her face while dealing with the constant sound of squeaking. Suvi was standing on his back legs and had his front ones hanging over her shoulders. With where his head was he could literally lick her nose if he wanted to. He was resting enough of his weight on her that she was sitting slightly bent over.

"Suvi, come on. Get off."

Instead of doing what she'd asked Suvi squeaked the ball against her face even louder than he had before. Olivia rolled her eyes and shoved him backwards so he tumbled off her. It didn't seem to bother Suvi. With all four feet on the ground now, he simply used her back instead of her face.

"He isn't going to give you any peace is he?"

"Not likely."

She could ignore him though. Eventually he would get tired of it and find something else to do. In the end she was right, though it took a bit longer than she'd expected. When he left her alone he wasn't tired of playing and turned his attention to Frannie instead. The two dogs bounded off to start a game of chase while Amanda and Olivia talked.

That was how Ben found them. Since Amanda and Olivia had their backs to him Suvi was the first one to spot him. His head came up and his tail started wagging a mile a minute. Ben held his finger to his lips, hoping that Suvi wouldn't give him away. Of course he was trying to sneak up on two cops. Even if Suvi didn't reveal him he was going to need a lot of luck if he didn't want to be noticed. Luck seemed to be with him though. Neither Amanda nor Olivia noticed his approach, likely assuming the noise he was making was from the dogs. When he reached them he dropped his hands onto Olivia's shoulders. In a flash Olivia had spun around and grabbed his wrists. Her sudden movement had drawn Amanda to her feet too.

"Ben!" Olivia cried out in shock. She punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Don't do that! You're lucky I realized it was you before I flipped you onto the ground."

"Nah, Suvi wouldn't have let you."

"Suvi would have let me do it and then happily licked your face in compensation."

"I'm not sure that's equal compensation."

"Too bad."

He grinned at Amanda and said, "Such a caring person isn't she?"

"I don't really blame her considering what you did. If it were me you would have been in a crumpled heap in a second."

If she'd had her gun she likely would have gone for it too. She might have even drawn on him.

Amanda had never met Ben, but she had a feeling she knew who he was. Olivia's boyfriend would be the only one she wouldn't tear apart for touching her like that. Considering Suvi had let him approach Olivia so easily, it was more proof that he had to be familiar. Suvi was rather protective of Olivia.

"You want to introduce your friend, Liv?" Amanda asked.

Olivia sighed and rubbed at her head. She really hadn't been planning on introducing Ben to anyone from her squad. Her love life, or lack there-of most of the time, was hers to know and theirs to keep their noses out of. The last time they'd all gotten together she hadn't openly admitted that she was seeing anyone. There wasn't really much of a way to avoid telling Amanda now that Ben was standing there next to them though. Even if she didn't call Ben her boyfriend Amanda would easily read between the lines, if she hadn't already.

"Amanda, this is Ben. Ben, Amanda is one of the detectives I used to work with at SVU."

"Hey," Ben greeted and held out his hand for her.

Amanda returned the greeting and shook Ben's hand in return.

"She's not givin' you too hard of a time, is she?" Amanda asked.

Olivia crossed her arms over her chest and grumbled.

"He's the one giving someone a hard time."

Ben wasn't the least bit bothered by that assessment. He simply beamed at Olivia in return like he was proud of driving her crazy. Knowing Ben, he probably was. The more ridiculous of a reply he could come up with the better it was.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Amanda said.

"You have no idea."

"Aw, you like my quirkiness," Ben corrected.

"So you say."

He shook his head and smiled at Amanda almost conspiratorially.

"Don't let her fool you. She enjoys my off the wall comments. They make her smile."

"Or they make me hit you, which is what I'm really close to doing right now."

Amanda grinned at both of them. Their back and forth was rather hysterical, and it seemed really natural too. Olivia had to be used to Ben doing this. Despite her threats, Amanda figured Olivia was a little amused by it too. At least she would have been if Amanda weren't witnessing it. At the moment though, Olivia probably wished Ben were acting a little more normal since it wasn't just the two of them. The walls Olivia used to surround herself with had come down a little bit but not far enough that she would be truly comfortable showing off her boyfriend. She would likely rather deny his existence. Last time she hadn't even admitted that he was her boyfriend. Amanda wasn't sure they had been then, but they were definitely together now.

Olivia spotted the knowing look on Amanda's face and shifted her glare from Ben to her former colleague.

"I didn't say anythin'."

"You're thinking it."

"Thinking what?" Ben asked.

"Nothing," Olivia replied quickly.

"Somehow I don't think that's true. I'm not really sure what makes me say that but something does."

"The speed of her answer," Amanda offered.

"Or telepathy," Ben returned with even more humor.

"Or the evasiveness of her answer."

"Or Suvi told me."

Amanda broke into laughter despite the heated look Olivia was directing at both of them. If the glare had been focused entirely on her Amanda probably would have succumbed to it, but with Olivia's attention split between the two of them and focused more on Ben, Amanda had no problem ignoring the warning. Ben was such an oddball that she was having a hard time picturing him and the rock hard, kickass former detective that was Olivia Benson as a couple. Sure Olivia had changed a lot since she'd gotten Suvi, but it still seemed like an odd match.

"You two are seriously together?"

Olivia's jaw dropped and she stared at her friend for a moment before anger washed over her.

"Amanda!"

Ben wasn't perturbed enough by Olivia's response to Amanda's question to avoid answering it.

"Yeah, amazingly enough, we are."

Olivia groaned and turned away from them. She paced around and threaded her fingers through her hair in frustration. Neither one of them was listening to her. That had to end. She turned back to face both of them, her best "don't screw with me" look on her face.

"You," she stated darkly as she pointed at Amanda, "stop digging. And you," she thrust a finger into Ben's chest and poked him twice. "Stop giving away information about me without my permission."

"It was information about me. I don't need your permission. Besides, while you were over there panicking you missed the rest of what I said. That Suvi and I do make a really strange pair, but you can't stop your heart sometimes."

Olivia groaned and dropped her head against him, beating her forehead against his shoulder. That probably gave away more about their relationship than anything else, but Olivia didn't really care. The cat was already out of the bag so to speak.

"That's even worse, you pain. You do not joke about that with someone from Special Victims. What you just said is not as unrealistic as you might think."

"Seriously?"

"Sadly, yes," Amanda admitted. "If you weren't with Liv and I didn't trust her judgment, you could have easily wound up in interrogation."

"That does not sound like fun."

"She hasn't used her interrogation skills on you yet?"

"I haven't needed to," Olivia told her. "He's pretty forthcoming on his own."

"You're scaring me," Ben said.

"Good. Keep that in mind next time you want to hide something from me."

"I will, but now I have to get back to work. I haven't expected to run into you today."

"Meaning you're already late."

Ben glanced at his cell and winced.

"Yup. Pretty late. I'll see you later."

He squeezed Olivia's hand in farewell, ruffled Suvi's ears, and jogged away. Hopefully he wouldn't wind up getting back to the office too late. Both Suvi and Olivia watched him go, Olivia with a smile and Suvi a wagging tail. Their responses weren't lost on Amanda. When Olivia turned back she found Amanda watching her with a half-smile.

"What?"

"You really like him, don't you?"

"I…" Her face flushed, and she crossed her arms uneasily.

"Never mind. I already know the answer."

"Amanda, we really aren't that close. I don't know where it's going yet. If it's going anywhere."

It was a completely useless argument, but she had to make it anyway. Part of her believed it. She'd experienced the destruction of so many relationships over her life that she could never fully allow herself to believe something could work. There had to be another shoe dropping at some point.

"Say what you want, Liv, but you're lyin' to yourself. I can tell how much you care about him just by lookin' at your face."

"Maybe."

It was the closest Olivia was going to come to admitting that she did like Ben.

"Gotta say, he's interestin'."

That was the release Olivia needed. She relaxed and smiled happily at Amanda.

"That's probably a big understatement."

"You're kiddin'."

"No. Definitely not. That was pretty normal for Ben. I don't think I could understand how his mind works even if I had a guidebook. Not that I think you could ever write a guidebook for his mind."

"He's seriously that out there, huh?"

"Oh yes."

"Still seems odd, but I'm happy for you. Maybe the age old phrase of opposites attract is true."

Amanda thought Ben's personality could really fill in some of the weak places in Olivia. She'd become much more lighthearted and happy since Suvi had come into her life. Having Ben there now would hopefully increase that. After all the pain she'd seen and experienced, Olivia deserved an extra dose of happiness in her life.