We Were Legends Too

Pairing: eventually H/F

Warnings: Slash

Summary: "And just by being near you, we were legends too."

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The four men sat quietly in the living room of the new house Face had acquired, each lost in his own thoughts. They had just finished another seemingly impossible case; one where they were greatly outnumbered and out armed but they survived and the bad guys were in jail.

Hannibal Smith struck a match and lit the end of his cigar; a soft sigh caught his attention. He looked up to see his Lieutenant staring at him with a dreamy smile on his lips. Hannibal wondered, not for the first time, what those lips would taste like against his own. He sucked in a deep breath of cigar smoke and tried to clear his mind. His eyes glanced around to the other two men in the room. Murdock was sitting on the floor resting his back against the television stand and contemplating his tennis shoes. BA was leaning back on the couch, his eyes closed and his breathing was deep and even but Hannibal could tell he wasn't asleep. Not yet anyway.

He looked back to his Lieutenant and saw that the man was still staring at him. "Something on your mind, Lieutenant?" Hannibal asked softly.

Face blinked as everyone in the room turned their attention to him. "Sir?" he asked hesitantly.

"You've been staring at me for quite a while now," Hannibal explained. "I thought maybe you had something you wanted to say."

Face grinned. "I was just deep in thought, sir."

"About what?" Hannibal pressed as he continued to suck on his cigar.

The Lieutenants grin faded as he got to his feet and began wandering the room. Hannibal watched the younger man fidget with the knick-knacks and photographs on the shelves.

"Face?" Hannibal said softly.

"Yes sir?" Came the reply.

"You're stalling," Hannibal pointed out.

Face spun about and nervously glanced at each of his friends. Murdock was watching him thoughtfully almost as if he knew what his friend was going to say. BA was frowning in a way that made Face want to hurry up and say what he was going to say. Only Hannibal watched him with a completely open mind; not trying to guess what was in his Lieutenants thoughts.

Face swallowed hard then barely whispered. "You."

Hannibal raised an eyebrow as he removed the cigar from his mouth. "I'm sorry?"

"I said I was thinking about you," he repeated a little louder.

Hannibal frowned thoughtfully and placed the cigar back into his mouth. The gears in his mind were racing as he tried to decide if he wanted to know exactly what his Lieutenant had been thinking about him or not.

"I think about you sometimes too Colonel," Murdock stated interrupting the older mans thoughts.

Face grinned as he watched his friend try to cover an awkward moment that had been in the air.

"Sometimes my thoughts are very impure," Murdock purred in a more feminine voice as he batted his eyes at the Colonel.

Hannibal was trying hard to hold back a grin behind his cigar.

"Fool!" BA interjected. "Shut up! You're ruining a perfectly good moment."

Murdock pouted and wrapped his arms around his chest. "That's it, Mudsucker. I'm not telling you about my thoughts about you."

"Good," BA replied. "That'll keep me from wasting energy punching you through a wall!"

Face had relaxed as he watched the interaction between his friends. He was still smiling when he looked over to see Hannibal watching him. He began to tense up again.

"Do we need to be alone for this discussion?" Hannibal asked.

Again, everyone was looking at Face making him nervous. When the meaning behind Hannibal's words sank in he suddenly came to life. "No! It's not those kinds of thoughts," he explained then grinned cheekily. "Not this time anyway."

Hannibal choked a little on the breath of cigar smoke in his throat. "No teasing Lieutenant," he warned.

"I wouldn't dare," Face replied still grinning. "Do you really want to know what I was thinking about?"

Hannibal thought for a moment before nodding. Face took a deep breath and sat down in the chair he had recently vacated. Murdock leaned forward wrapping his arms around his knees. Everyone was waiting to hear what the younger man had to say.

"Every time we go into a seemingly impossible situation I think that we are never going to make it out alive," Face began. "It seems like we are always fighting an uphill battle. Most of the time it's your fault that we get into the situations we do."

"My fault," Hannibal replied innocently. "What do I do?"

Face snorted as Murdock and BA smiled and shook their heads. "What don't you do?" Face retorted. "You and your devil may care attitude and John Wayne impersonations."

"John Wayne? I've never impersonated John Wayne," Hannibal defended.

"Not knowingly," Face agreed. "But… just like the characters he portrayed you have this… reckless abandonment for safety. You forget that we're just human."

"What are you trying to tell me Lieutenant," Hannibal asked cautiously. He rolled the ever shortening cigar between his thumb and forefinger as he watched the younger man through hooded eyes.

"I'm just trying to tell you what I'm thinking," Face replied calmly. "Sometimes… sometimes I wish I could be more like you. I wish I had the ability to lead men through the gates of hell and back and to have them follow me time and time again knowing exactly what was going to happen and not caring because I was going to get them out no matter what."

"Wow," Hannibal blinked in shock. "That's a pretty tall pedestal you have me on."

"Don't worry Colonel," Murdock smiled. "We knocked over that pedestal a long time ago."

"Thanks Murdock," Hannibal smiled.

"Yeah," Face agreed. "And every time you send me into enemy territory the pedestal gets buried deeper and deeper."

"I remember when I first met you," BA spoke for the first time since Face started his story. "I had been in country for almost nine months and had been hopping from unit to unit when I got assigned to you. Do you remember?"

Hannibal nodded and BA continued. "I was at this hooch with Ray and a few other guys that were in your unit. We were drinking and talking about our CO's. I couldn't believe the nonsense they were saying about you. Then you walked through the door. It 'was' just like John Wayne had walked through the door. There was this aura about you. You were the legend. And there you were and it took my breath away."

Hannibal pursed his lips and thought about the things his men were saying. It sounded preposterous to him and yet…

"It's true Colonel," Murdock broke in. "Anyone who was in Nam for more than a day knew who you were and wished that you were their CO. Hell, It got to a point where I could walk into a bar and never have to pay for a drink the whole night. As long as I was talking about you, they were buying."

BA nodded in agreement as Face took up the conversation. "Especially after we got out of that POW camp," he stated. "Some people thought the stories were too good to be true. But we know they're not. I know you hold the scars of truth upon your back. How many canings did you take in that place Hannibal? How many lives did you save?"

Hannibal was beginning to feel uncomfortable now. He got up from his chair walked over to the window and tossed his stub of a cigar into the dirt below. "I'm just a man guys," he said softly.

"You were a legend Colonel," Murdock insisted. "And standing beside you, we were legends too."

Hannibal once again glanced over his men who were watching him intently. "It's getting late. We all need to turn in." With that said he left the room taking his thoughts and the words of his men with him.