It was BA who found out first, he was tinkering around in the motor pool, filling in a bit of down time, when one the mechanics, Baby Dave to all who knew him, slapped him on the back, "Hey, heard about the Ice Queen ditching your buddy there, BA, hell – bet he never saw that one coming!"
BA had turned slowly and fixed the guy with a stare that was obvious in its meaning and Baby's eyes opened wide as the blood drained from his features, "Shit man, I thought you'd know..."
"When?" BA barked, already packing his tools up.
"Monday? Tuesday? Dunno really... It was the day you guys got back from Basra – she'd already gone, left him a note." The mechanic spread his hands as BA shot another look at him, "I know – that's just chicken shit."
"Where'd she go?" BA didn't really care, as far as he was concerned it could never be far enough.
"D.O.D." Baby replied, carefully extracting himself from the situation. He liked BA a lot, but he knew about his temper, and there was no way he wanted to be around if the big guy needed to vent, "She was always on the up, that one." He smiled apologetically and turned to leave the garage, vowing that next time he would just keep his big mouth shut.
BA hefted his tool bag over his shoulder and headed out behind him. "D.O.D..." he muttered to himself as he steered himself towards Hannibal's tent, he really didn't care where she had gone – he'd never liked the bitch and she'd never been right for Face - but it was important because they had a bit of a problem here. Face had got his Dear John letter the day they got back from Basra, Monday, and - here was the bite – none of them had seen him since. Today was Saturday.
Hannibal was out of his seat before BA had finished relaying him the story, "So, where the hell is he then?" he asked, BA could only shrug uselessly. He squeezed the bridge of his nose; they all thought Face was holed up in Sosa's tent these last few days, he'd done it before, they were on seven days down time and Hannibal had just expected him to come home at the very last minute, moaning about his aches and pains and how he hadn't had much sleep at all in the last week. Hannibal didn't like it, but he certainly wasn't going to put a stop to it. At least now Face was with Sosa they knew where he was, knew he wasn't going to get himself into any trouble by messing with someone else's girl and knew they could find him when something came up without having to resort to knocking on random tents. They'd done that once before and afterwards Face had found himself confined to his quarters for the rest of the month.
"Right," Hannibal snapped into action. "Get Murdock, get out and ask around, someone must know something. Try the Officer's Mess," he stalked towards the door, BA on his heels.
"What you gonna do, Boss?
Hannibal's face was grim, "I'm gonna go and see Russ."
In the four minutes it took Hannibal to walk round to Morrison's tent he'd changed his mind backwards and forwards eight separate times. If Face had gone AWOL attempting to chase Sosa state side, telling Morrison was akin to signing Face's discharge papers himself... But then if he hadn't, and Hannibal really, really hoped his lieutenant had more sense than that, well, Russ could open doors and get answers a damn sight faster than Hannibal could.
But then... Morrison had only just started to see Face as an asset and not a liability, he'd taken a long time to work out why Hannibal rated the kid so highly, and he really didn't want to jeopardise that new found respect. But - if Face was in trouble, they'd really need Russ on side. Hannibal rubbed his hands roughly over his face as he made his decision just as Morrison himself stalked around the corner and almost collided with him.
"Hannibal!" Morrison looked surprised to see his old friend, "I was just on my way to see you," his expression darkened slightly, "You heard from Face recently?"
An hour and a half later Hannibal scowled his way back through the camp and into his tent. Murdock and BA jumped to their feet as he entered and could tell from the look on his face that his evening had been more productive than theirs, but not necessarily in a good way.
"Boss?" Murdock prompted as Hannibal poured himself three stiff fingers of scotch.
They waited in silence as their colonel drained his glass in one before he turned and fixed them with a hard stare. "He's fine. He'll be back tonight."
There was obviously more and so they waited, letting Hannibal get round to it in his own time. He stared at the bottom of his empty glass for a long minute before finally continuing, "He's been out with Croxton's boys on a mission. Apparently they were one short and Face stepped up." BA and Murdock traded a surprised glance but nothing could prepare them for what came next. "Croxton's just been on the wire to Russ; he wants Face to transfer – permanently."
As Murdock and BA stood in stunned silence, Hannibal stormed past them and back out into the night air.
