Hank Bennett is the much younger brother of police chief Sam Bennett (young enough to be his son). He has always looked up to Sam, and their relationship is closer to a father/son relationship than a brother/brother relationship. He went through high-school best friends with Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald. While Luis had a steady relationship with childhood sweetheart Beth Wallace, Hank was content to play the field. After graduation, he left Harmony to see the world.

Hank's adventures throughout the world are unknown. His family only knows that he would occasionally venture home, just long enough to drop off some exotic gift to his nephew and nieces. Even Luis doesn't know anything about those years. All that is known is that he got into some trouble with the law, and lost his heart to a woman that he just couldn't hold onto.

Hank returned to town shortly after Sheridan Crane, and ran into her on the road one day. The two started a flirtation, and as things progressed, made plans for a date. Unfortunately, Sheridan was in the middle of a love/hate relationship with his best friend. They hid their attraction from him, and Hank and Sheridan started dating. The two were together for over a year, leading many to assume that it was a boyfriend/girlfriend kind of relationship. Even Hank believed the hype, falling in love with Sheridan, never knowing that it was his friend Luis that she was interested in.

Their relationship hit a major snag when the French drug cartel hired to kill Sheridan found out the dirt on Hank's past, and decided that he would kill Sheridan for them. They blackmailed him with what they knew. When that didn't work, they told Hank taht if he didn't kill Sheridan, they would kill his family. Once the cartel proved to him how easy it would be to kill his nieces, Hank agreed. But he couldn't kill the woman he loved, so he went to the FBI, and they cooked up a plan to make the drug cartel THINK she was dead.

The plan almost bombed when Sheridan almost did die after being buried alive, but luckily, they got to her just in time. When everything came out, Sam told Hank that he was no longer his brother, but Sam changed his mind, and the two made up. Hank was last seen having hot cocoa with Luis, Sheridan, and Sam.