Chapter Twenty Nine – Know You're Beautiful

Author's Note – Bet this is the shortest period of time between updates you will ever get with this story. I guess the last few chapters were just way too fun to write. Revising this section was not as fun. No promises I did as well with that as normal. As another side reminder, while based on the timeline Lewis would have happened, he didn't in this story. I started writing it long before that storyline came out, and it would have been far too difficult to change it.

Olivia flipped through the huge stack of CDs Ben had on his shelf. She knew he had all of the songs stored electronically, but he still kept all of the hard copies too. She didn't understand it, but it showed how much he loved music and how much of a part of his life it was at least. It was the first night they hadn't played any music actually. Ben had taken her out to a local basketball court where he was meeting with some friends for a game. They'd been nice enough guys and had let her play for a bit, but she'd preferred to spend her time watching instead. Ben had been pretty good, at least based on the standard of the other players in the group. After the game was over he'd brought her back to his place and made dinner. Just like the game, Olivia had enjoyed dinner too. She'd wanted to help with the dishes afterward, but he'd refused and kicked her out of the kitchen. Instead of arguing she'd started inspecting his living room. That was when she'd found the CDs.

As far as Olivia knew that's what he was still doing, so when she suddenly felt someone touching her back it startled her. She jumped and spun toward him, slapping at his hands automatically.

"Don't do that!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"You nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you were still in the kitchen."

Suvi's nose touched her leg as she spoke, and she gently touched his head in reassurance. He'd obviously picked up on her sudden surprise and wanted to make sure she was okay.

"You're a detective, and I can scare you that easily?"

"Yes."

She had no intention of explaining why either. Ben could figure it out on his own if he really wanted to know. Discussing her assault wasn't something she was comfortable doing. It wasn't something she even wanted to admit had happened. Plus she'd lost some of her awareness of her surroundings in the last year when she hadn't been on the job. When she wasn't outside or in a public place she immediately connected any movement with Suvi.

"I will try not to sneak up on you then," he told her as he slid his arms around her.

"Probably a good idea. I wouldn't want to break your nose by accident."

"You wouldn't dare."

"It wouldn't be intentional."

"Someone has a violent streak."

She shot him a dark look.

"Someone used to be a cop," she corrected harshly.

"Okay, easy. I'm sorry."

Ben had been teasing, but apparently Olivia had taken offense. That wasn't what he had wanted to do at all. He honestly wasn't sure what had bothered her so much either. She looked a little troubled by the sharpness of her response as well.

"I'm sorry too," she whispered. "I didn't mean to jump down your throat."

"Are we good then?"

Olivia hesitated longer than Ben would have liked but she eventually nodded.

"You had all eyes on you today, you know. You were the most beautiful woman in the park," he told her in an attempt to smooth things over.

It didn't work as well as he'd planned.

"Please stop trying to flatter me."

"Flatter you? Liv, I'm telling you the truth. Whenever we had down time their eyes were all on you. A couple shots were missed because they were trying to show off too. Plus, you saw how they all fought to have you on their team."

"I'm nothing special, Ben."

Ben's jaw dropped and he stared at her for a moment.

"You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?"

"Ben…"

"You really don't," he said in amazement.

Olivia rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to argue with him. Before she could get a word out Ben placed a finger over her lips and hushed her. She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes again.

"You're not going to believe whatever I tell you, but I have more luck getting you to listen to something else."

He slipped past her and moved to his computer, which was sitting on the table beside his couch. Olivia sighed and sat down on the couch to pet Suvi while Ben typed away. It took longer than she'd anticipated, but eventually the expected sound of music poured from the speakers. The minute the first "You're insecure" began she recognized the song from the radio, but she couldn't quite remember what it was all about. It all clicked when she heard "You don't know oh-oh." Olivia sighed and dropped her forehead onto her upturned hand for a second before looking up at him.

"You can stop now."

"I'm serious, Liv. That song fits you. You don't see it, but you're beautiful inside and out."

Olivia looked down, embarrassed.

"You're only proving my point."

"Stop."

"Do I have to do like the guy in the song and put it to music so you believe me? Technically I already have, but I can go a step further if I need to. It probably won't be that pleasant for you though. Just because I like music doesn't mean I'd be good at writing it. Of course I've never tried… You've heard me sing already too. That alone should scare you."

Her head dropped again, and her hair swung in front of her face like a shielding curtain. Ben smiled gently. She was so self-conscious about this type of thing that it was adorable, but he couldn't help seeing more connections with the song. He leaned forward, cupped her cheek, and gently lifted his hand to pull her hair out of her face. It basically forced her to glance up at him.

"One of these days I'm going to convince you that what I said is true. You are beautiful, and not just on the outside."

Olivia thought that could take an incredibly long time if he even managed it at all. She'd had years of a different truth being ingrained into her, and even more years of believing it. He was in for a near impossible fight to overcome all of that.

"Okay." What else could she say? "Let's not focus on that tonight please."

"I can do that."

He really had no idea how he was going to be able to convince her anyway. While he was making progress getting her to open up, it wasn't going very quickly. That job definitely wasn't easy, and he strongly suspected it would be the easier part of the process. If there was one thing he wasn't it was a therapist. He would have to find a way though. Somehow.

Ben was about to stroke her hair when he caught something a little out of place. Something black. Slowly cream was added, becoming an ice cream cone with a black cherry on top as Suvi's head rose further upward and into Ben's vision. Olivia's dog had somehow managed to squeeze between them nearly unnoticed. He'd then edged his nose upward until he was almost at eye level with Ben and Olivia. His head swung back and forth between them, completely pleased with his intrusion. Olivia and Ben broke out into laughter at the same time. Ben pulled away as Olivia ruffled Suvi's ears and stretched his face into a literal smile that matched the one they both thought fit his current amusement.

Deciding to put a little bit of space between them again since Suvi had basically taken his, Ben sprawled out on the floor with his back leaning up against the couch. When Olivia finished petting Suvi she scooted over and joined Ben. Suvi watched them for a moment, tail wagging. They looked really comfortable. Yeah, that was not going to last, and he spotted the perfect way to make sure that it didn't. He bounded forward and pounced on Ben's foot.

"Hey!"

Ben tried to pull his foot away, but Suvi had managed to tug the sock partway off already and he wasn't going to let go. Ben could move his foot however he wanted. It wouldn't matter. Suvi was going to get that sock.

"Suvi, stop it," Olivia laughed, but it did no good. He'd freed the sock and was already dancing around Ben's living room shaking it like crazy.

"Hey, you. Give that back!"

Ben lunged across the room in an attempt to grab the sock, but Suvi jumped backwards. He hunkered down on his front paws and wagged his tail tauntingly. The sock was still hanging out of his mouth. It should have been within easy reach, but reaching it wasn't actually that easy. Every time Ben went for it Suvi danced back.

"Sorry, Ben. He has a thing for socks."

"A thing?"

"Yeah. I'll buy you another pair."

There was no way Ben would want it back when Suvi was done with it. Not only would it be disgustingly slobbery, it would probably be misshapen from the manhandling as well. Ben just laughed and shook his head, giving up on the sock.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. He probably enjoys it more than I do."

Based on the way Suvi was playing with it that was definitely true. Nobody but Suvi could have that much fun with a sock. Olivia had even seen him manage to shove his nose inside of one. He'd then proceeded to run around the apartment with it flapping off the end of his face. The number of ways he could play with socks was endless. At least he wasn't pulling them out of her clean laundry anymore. She would much rather sacrifice Ben's socks than her own.