Benji has been working with Ethan from the beginning and, in that time, he's become not just a teammate or comrade, but a companion, a friend, and perhaps more considering everything they've been through.
One can say the same for Luther of course, he's been there from the start as well, but it just isn't the same. It's hard to explain, it just is.
The first time he'd met Ethan was when he wasn't Ethan, but August Walker rather. Walker had been a very focused person. Focused fully on the mission at hand. He was nice enough. But he always had an odd sense about him. Of course, Benji knows now why that was. When Benji first realized who Walker actually was it was obviously a shock. He didn't believe it at first, but then Huntley let Benji and Luther examine the evidence left, very discreetly, in a paper trail that was almost impossible to find, almost.
But then all hell broke loose when someone, unbeknown to them at the time, started shooting at them. After all was said and done, Gabriel had a bullet in his chest, Ethan standing frozen, Benji assumed, in some sort of shock as well, and Huntley was dead. It's all quite blurry now though, perhaps because of how long ago it'd been, ten years.
So much has happened since then, so much so that it's difficult to remember what it was like before. The oddest thing about it is that even now, Benji still barely knows anything about Ethan's life before they'd met. He knows Ethan grew up on a dairy farm thanks to Luther, and that Ethan was in the military at some point before everything else happened, but that's pretty much it. He knows even less about Gabriel himself. He's wanted to ask Ethan more about his other job, an assassin? But every time he tries Ethan either avoids the question or ignores him entirely. Benji never pushes beyond that because frankly, it's not really his business. Besides, when Ethan's ready to talk about it, he will. Benji can't imagine how hard that had to be for Ethan on top of everything else they've been through over the years. So much is different now.
At first, it was Benji doing the crazy stunts like HALO jumping out of a plane at 32,000 feet. But it didn't take Ethan too long to outdo him by hanging off the side of a plane as it was accelerating higher and higher up.
Benji's taught Ethan everything he know when it comes to the IMF and spy skills. And as much as he hates to admit it, Ethan's become a better all-around spy than him. Benji is and always will be however the team's best tech guy, second-best according to Luther, but they both know it's really Benji.
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Luther had ended up at the IMF totally by chance.
He had been enjoying playing hackers for a long time and he had finally gotten caught. Only, he had been offered a job instead of prison. Of course, he had accepted, but he hadn't taken the IMF seriously, ending up getting suspended after hacking the Pentagon... Luther didn't care a bit, he didn't care about all that, until a somewhat lost and blacklisted agent needed him. Luther didn't know what happened on that train. That Agent had been Benji Dunn of course.
Ethan Hunt was a completely different story though. When they'd known Ethan as Walker, he'd seemed arrogant and too sure of himself, except that Luther had perfectly understood that it was a mask, that he was alone, and that he really wanted to be exonerated ... and he had wanted to help him because he realized that he was a good guy even after everything. The complicity had been immediate, the trust too, mostly thanks to Benji's reassurance.
Luther doesn't consider himself to be Ethan's best friend, he thinks that title goes to Benji, but even Benji says it's him. Benji says Luther is Ethan's best friend and he's something more complicated than that, whatever that means….
After all, Benji met Ethan first, he just hadn't known that at the time. It doesn't really matter though. One thing that is for certain is that Benji's always been good at lightening the mood when necessary and Luther's always been good at reading people.
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The first time Will met Ethan he'd had no idea who he was. About 12 years ago Will and his team had been on a recovery mission to obtain something called The Rabit's Foot, which to this day he has no idea what it actually is because they never ended up getting it. When they'd got its location and had obtained it, a man came out of nowhere and gunned down two other members before the fifth member, a young man named Pete, shot Will in the leg. He'd been the mole they didn't know they had in the first place, and apparently, he'd been working with the man who Will never learned the name of. It was the first time Will realized just what job he was in for.
The only reason he survived was so the other two men could have someone to frame. And that's exactly what happened. Thanks to Kittredge it didn't stick, but it had been one hell of a wake-up call that Will has never forgotten.
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Jane had no idea who Ethan was until Will had brought up his concerns about him. Ethan seemed nice enough though, and Luther and Benji trusted him. Will didn't trust Ethan at first. It was only after Jane reassured him that he had given Ethan a chance.
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"Ethan?" Ethan shakes his head clear and turns to Benji. "We may have found something…."