Disclaimer: I own nothing :)
Summary: A strange little study of Face and BA interaction.
Warnings: No ducks were harmed, though some were likely frightened.
Reviews and any constructive criticism would be most gratefully received. Thank you for reading :)
Nice Smile
"You got a nice smile."
Face flinched as the tone; a low growl punctuated with aggression; hit him before the words caught up. He looked up at the speaker once they did register and confusion knitted his brows as he tried to think of a logical reason for BA to be hurling compliments at him. His mind preoccupied by the late hour and the cigars stashed in the van that he'd forgotten to take with him earlier, it took longer than normal for his thought process to navigate the conundrum.
"Ah." he said softly, feeling his eyebrows leap in understanding; Hannibal's little game. The last mission had involved the Colonel going undercover into a corporate retreat where he had learned all manner of horrific team building exercises he'd been keen for them to try once the mission was over and Face had secured a remote luxury cabin to lay low in for a few weeks. Purely for his own amusement, Face was certain, and with some quirky alterations that could only have been conceived in the deepest, jazz-infused parts of Hannibal's brain.
That very morning they had built a raft, though aquatic assault vehicle was probably a better description of the monster they'd fashioned out of the ordinary household materials they'd had to work with, and used it to storm the little island in the middle of the nearby lake. Once the stronghold had been taken from the local army of bewildered ducks, they had moved on the full kit trust falls and nearly lost their lives when they'd all dropped BA even after initially catching him. The third exercise on the list, the least physical, had been the trickiest; each member of the team had to think of something nice to say about each of the others. Hannibal had picked BA to go first and the whole thing had fallen apart the moment he'd turned to Murdock and, after much fidgeting and lip-chewing, declared the pilot was "almost tolerable" when a gag and straightjacket were involved. Murdock had not been impressed. In the chaos that had followed, the exercises had been indefinitely postponed in favour of the rigorous training Hannibal usually subjected them to whenever he had half a chance. BA alone had been excused on the grounds he had some work to do on the van and possibly a mild concussion.
Face had forgotten all about the truncated exercise in his exhaustion but apparently BA had not. And, given that Hannibal's orders, no matter how harebrained, were sacrosanct to the burly mechanic he was apparently determined to complete them no matter how uncomfortable it made him.
Face chuckled softly and shook his head as he resumed his mission to retrieve the cigars and crossed the garage to the van. The thought of Hannibal's disappointed look should Face be unable to produce one first thing in the morning was enough to spur him into action even if he would really much rather just go straight to bed and sleep for the next three years.
"Thanks, BA." he said, flashing his very nicest smile, as he slid the side door open. After rooting around until he had secured his target, he shut the door and turned to bid BA goodnight. The unexpected disapproval on the sergeant's face stopped him short however.
"Not that one."
"That one?" Face asked, frowning slightly as he shifted the cigar box. Most times he found himself subject to BA's intense scrutiny, which thankfully wasn't often, he at least knew why.
"That one's for women and guys you about to con. I mean your real smile."
Face was far too tired to keep up with this bizarre conversation, and was mortified to find himself only capable of parroting BA's words back at him. "Real smile?"
"Yeah, man. Don't use it much, but it's nice." BA said softly as he picked up one of a number of tools laid out on the table before him and started cleaning it with a rag. "I like it. Understand what I'm saying?" he added in such a threatening manner that Face was moved to hold his free hand up in surrender.
"Ah, well, I'm not sure I follow you, but thanks, I appreciate it. My smile is our meal ticket most times so it's always good to hear it's still got a little magic." Face said, hoping to placate the other man and end the conversation so he could get to sleep, but his words appeared to have quite the opposite effect.
"Only seen you use it when you done something nice and think no one knows." BA ground out, not meeting Face's eyes. With every word the screwdriver was cleaned a little more violently.
Face was lost and BA was becoming aggravated. This was not a good combination. He tried to think of something to say to diffuse the situation but apparently took too long. He winced as the screwdriver was set down with enough impact to make the other tools jump.
"You think I'm dumb?"
"No!" Face squawked, his mouth driven to deliver an automatic response before his reeling mind had fully digested the question.
BA snatched up a spanner, assaulting it with the rag for a moment before breaking the uneasy silence. "That time Hannibal thought he lost his glove in the desert, then found it later stuffed down his seat in the van. When he put it back on and gave two thumbs up, you smiled for real."
Face felt his lips tug up in a smile. The half bare-handed Colonel had been a pitiable and foul-tempered beast indeed until he and his left glove had been reunited.
The smile fell abruptly as BA's hand shot out to point a spanner at him. "That's the one. You get it now?"
"Sure I do." he lied, smiling brilliantly. The spanner was jerked back with a growl.
"No ya don't. So, how long'd it take to find that glove after you snuck out to look for it?"
Face felt his eyes bug. "What... I don't..." He forcibly cleared his throat and formed his face into a confused expression. "I don't follow?"
BA rolled his eyes and set to polishing his spanner with a smug half-smirk. "You was gone all night. Took off right after Henderson was wrapped up, and didn't get back til morning, then Hannibal found his glove right after."
"I can't comment on any gloves, but I did have a date with Henderson's lovely secretary. Someone had to comfort the poor girl after she found out her boss was a crook."
"You came back covered in dust and your sleeve was torn. Must've been one wild date."
"What can I say? Secretaries have so many pent-up desires and passions to unleash given the opportunity."
"Quit trying to con me, fool." BA said, pausing as Face let out an indignant splutter before resuming. "And the Fool's koala?"
"Huh?" Okay, he really was bewildered on this one.
"Skippy." BA spoke the name darkly, scowling down at the tool in his hand. "Skippy... Fool don't know the difference between a koala and a kangaroo. Skippy ain't no name for a koala." he muttered, apparently to the spanner, though it did jog Face's memory. The clients had been Australian, and for the duration of that mission, so had Murdock. He had spoken with an accent and carried around a sizeable stuffed koala named Skippy right up until BA had accidentally ripped its head off in irritation half way through the mission. Murdock had shuffled off to sleep that night, shoulders slumped and head down, and for a split-second BA had looked almost apologetic.
"You smiled for real when the fool came running down in the morning, jabbering about magic and the koala had its head stitched back on. You said Shelly must've fixed it for him."
"Ah, yes, Shelly..." Face said dreamily. It was a crime, sometimes, Hannibal's no fraternising with clients rule. He would have loved to have fraternised just once with blonde and buxom Shelly.
"She weren't the one with needle pricks all over her fingers though. You really think we didn't notice?"
Face was jolted cruelly from his mental explorations of Shelly and, caught completely off-guard, did something he had only done a handful of times in his life before. He blushed explosively.
BA giggled, and Face sourly thought it a ridiculous sound as he tried to get his complexion under control.
"Are you saying you actually think I'd go to all the trouble of fixing Murdock's stuffed animals? Me?" he asked, proud at the sheer amount of scorn he was able to inject into his voice under the circumstances.
"No. I'm saying I know you would. And you did."
For a number of reasons, Face decided it would not be in his best interests to continue the denial. A good conman, above all else, knew when it was time to give up on one con and move to another.
"Okay, okay. So I sewed a koala's head back on. You do realise Murdock would have been unbearable otherwise, right? It was simple self-preservation. Besides, you're the one that pulled its head off in the first place."
BA slammed down the spanner. The only indication he felt remotely bad over being rightfully accused of decapitating a stuffed marsupial was that he picked up the very same spanner and began polishing it again. "That ain't the point."
"Well, if you'd have just kept your temper better then I never would have had to do something so ridiculous. I mean, you really should think about maybe seeing someone for that. I could get a few numbers from the nurses next time I'm in the VA if you like? I'm sure they'd have some great recommendations."
BA silenced him with a particularly venomous sort of glare. After a few moments the glare faded and his eyes dropped to the spanner. The rag slowed and the cleaning motions became almost gentle. "Last year, when the Fool gave me flu."
With a supreme effort, Face was able to suppress a smirk. He was almost certain the children BA worked with at the centre had been the guilty parties, but nothing had been able to convince the brawny Sergeant that Murdock was not to blame for his feeling snuffly and rotten for a week and a half. Cue one horrendous patient, a sulky pilot and headaches abound for everyone else.
"You mailed it."
"Hmm?" he asked, the words having been spoken so quietly that he honestly hadn't heard them.
"Mama's card. I was too sick, forgot all about it, but someone sent it so it got to her in time for her birthday. Drove all the way across town to do it so it wouldn't be tracked back any place near where we were holed up. Thought I'd messed up when I called her, was gonna apologise but first thing she did was thank me for the card."
Face squirmed, unable to think of anything intelligent to say. It was possibly the longest speech he'd ever heard BA give, certainly the longest that had remained in non-threatening tones throughout and not been immediately followed by violence. Even if it had been almost completely directed at a spanner, the poignancy was not lost on Face.
"You mailed it. You was smiling for real when I hung up." BA said and held his gaze with a strange mix of accusation and gratitude swirling in his dark eyes. Face was too tired and that look too intense for him to even try and deny it.
He sighed and shrugged expansively. "You would have been upset and believe me, BA, when you pout, everyone pouts."
It was definitely a rare moment, Face decided, as BA let the comment go without retaliation. Instead he set down possibly the cleanest spanner in all of Los Angeles and wiped his hands off on the rag before dropping that too.
"We should head up. S'late and you look terrible."
"Thanks, BA, that's just what I needed to hear." Face said, stifling a yawn and not having to force the sarcasm this time.
They crossed the garage in a few steps and BA reached for the door that would take them back into the cabin. He paused just before opening it, compressing his lips and sending Face a sidelong glance.
"So, you get it now, right? What I meant?"
Face smiled in reply, and apparently it was the right one as BA nodded approvingly and, just for a moment, smiled back.