Never leave a man behind

Warnings: As usual I wasn't very nice to them. Contains mental anguish and rape at later Chapters, If you are a sensitive person better stay away.

Chapter 1

"Hannibal, Murdock's gone."

"What do you mean he's gone?" Face had called him from the phone of the Vette saying he was on his way to meet him.

"I told him I was coming to get him out tonight to go to cinema with me but he's not there and nobody would tell me where he is."

"Calm down Face, he's probably on one of his art courses or something."

"No, they would tell me, we gotta find him."

"Okay, you come over and I call BA. I'm sure he's fine. I talked to him just about two hours ago and he didn't say anything of cinema, maybe he forgot."

"No, he begged me to get him out for the film and has talked of nothing else ever since."

Twenty minutes later they all sat around in Hannibal's apartment.

"I went in disguised as a doctor and was told nothing more than he's not there. I demanded to see his file but they didn't give it to me. I waited for the next shift that started thirty minutes later and tried again, this time as a priest, but again nothing."

"Guess they finally started to recognize you, after all the times you tricked them it was 'bout time."

"No, I don't think that's it. Something happened, I need to get to his file."

"Breaking in at night?"

"No chance, the nurses are always sitting close to the files cabinets."

"Then the files are out of question. How else can we find out?"

"If only I had an inside contact, a nurse or an orderly."

Hannibal grinned. "We can arrange that. Can you forge some papers? John Baker, Vietnam veteran, who snapped during the war is going to move from Washington to LA and will join the facility, well, how fast are you? First thing tomorrow morning?"

"Okay John Baker, I just have to check if I still have a picture of you ready."

"You won't need my picture. You are John Baker."

"Me? You are the actor."

"And you know the place better than me."

"Besides you been acting like a fool for years." BA chuckled. He was sure Murdock was just playing one of his episodes and was hiding somewhere. It was fun to rill Face up.

They were all concerned though as morning came and there had been no word of Murdock.

An ambulance stopped in front of the VA and two orderlies, one elder one with silver hair and one black one with a lot of gold around the neck, got out to open the back door. "Alright Mr. Baker, here's your new home. Let's go."

They wheeled their unresponsive patient through the main door. While BA pushed the wheelchair Hannibal approached the desk.

"I'm supposed to hand Mr. Baker here over to Dr. Richter, in person." He dropped the paper work Face had conjured together at the desk.

"Who? We don't expect any Mr. Baker."

"What? The Veterans Hospital of Washington arranged everything, we came all the way and it did nothing to his mental state, he needs rest and not standing around in a hallway. Now where is Dr. Richter?"

"At a conference, he'll not be back until tomorrow afternoon."

Damn, this didn't go according to plan.

"Let me see those papers….no, I haven't heard of him moving here, anyway, the papers are clear. I'll call some orderlies to take him from here. The papers are saying he's supposed to be put in the A-Wing, he rather looks like a D case. I guess we can find him a room there."

Double damn, Murdock was in the A-Wing, those were the patients who were able to look after themselves mainly. Face had to get into that wing if he was supposed to find out anything.

"Oh no, we just had to drug him up for the journey, he can be real talkative ones it wears off. He also moves without problems. The papers are correct."

"Okay, we'll take it from here." She signed the form and handed it to Hannibal. "you can leave now."

"Sorry, his relatives said we should make sure he's all settled, we'll accompany him to his new room."

"As you want. It may take a while though, we haven't prepared anything."

Within thirty minutes all was set though and Face was left alone in a room just four rooms down from Murdock's. Fear gripped him as the door was locked. He had his lock picks and could let himself out anytime he wanted but still he was feeling uneasy. If it had not been for Murdock he would never have agreed to this. Murdock had once told him that people who were transferred from one hospital to the next were sometimes heavily drugged to keep them quiet, especially if it required flying. He thought it safe to play the unresponsive patient for some time before he started to move around. It was also the best way to be safe from the other thing Murdock had told him about. Newcomers were sometimes drugged too to give them time to adjust without getting manic. He was still sitting in the wheelchair when two orderlies came in.

"Let's move you to the bed Mr. Baker, get comfortable. After a bath to get rid of the dirt from your long journey."

Face realized what they were about to do and decided it was time to prove he was an 'A' case who could help himself. "Nice room."

"Oh, your drugs are wearing off, are they?"

"Drugs?"

"Never mind. Come on Bill, we don't have all day."

He didn't like the guy, somehow he looked mean. "I can do that myself, just give me some minutes at the bathroom."

"I don't think we can allow that until you get accommodated." He was already tugging at his T-shirt as he talked and for a moment Face forgot he was supposed to play the nutcase.

"I said I can do that."

"Getting agitated, isn't he?"

"Sure, here you go." The orderly held out a tablet.

Just where had the drug come from? He was sure not going to swallow anything he didn't know. Just as he tried to find a way to palm the tablet another orderly appeared. He had seen this one before but couldn't place him. Without warning the new orderly jabbed a needle into his arm.

"Why this Ron?"

"I read his file, he has a problem with swallowing drugs, his stomach doesn't take it too kindly. He's to get all drugs by injection and it's advised to surprise him to not let him suffer through the anticipation."

Face himself had written this file and he was sure nothing of that kind was inside. However, he couldn't make much sense of it since his mind was growing fuzzy. The last thing he knew was that the men started to undress him but before panic could really set in his world went black.

With Face hanging in the wheelchair limply it was no problem for the orderlies to bath and change him. They soon were done and left the room.

When Face woke up next his mind seemed to pick up where he had stopped. Men were undressing him. Face kept his eyes closed and stayed still to take in the situation but calmed as he realized he was safely tucked into a bed and it felt as if his clothes, well, probably his, were where they were supposed. He felt the sunlight on his back. 'They even turned me away from the window to not disturb my sleep, looking out for their patients. Well, Murdock never complained.' It dawned on him that this was probably a standard procedure. He was a new patient, or at least that's what they were supposed to believe. Just like being new to prison. There the newcomers were always checked for scars and injuries so that the institution could not be blamed later on. This was probably the same. In his musings and with his eyes still closed he felt something wet on his cheek. 'Yiekes, my own saliva, how embarrassing, always happens when I'm drugged.' He raised his arm to wipe it away but instead hit a spot on the pillow beside his head. 'Damn, just what did they give me, I feel like made of lead.' He tried again but couldn't get his arm to cooperate. Opening his eyes in panic he tried to focus but his arm kept rolling out of his line of vision. Or was it his eyes that kept rolling to the side?

'Damn, what is this? I need to find Murdock, how am I gonna do that? Just calm down Peck, reaction to the drugs, it will wear off in no time.' He tried to calm himself but it wasn't working.

After some minutes he heard the door opening. Relieved to get help he wanted to call out. He opened his mouth but no understandable words came out, just some babbled sounds that didn't make sense.

"Hi there Mr. Baker. How do you feel?"

More babbling without sense. He tried to move his arms and legs instead to show that all was not right.

"Oh, you're not completely with us yet. Just close your eyes and sleep a bit more. Here, let me secure you so you don't fall off the bed." The elderly lady sounded nice but now she was producing some straps from under the mattress and setting out to fix them over Face.

'No, don't!' He screamed with all his might but it was only in his head, no sound came out at all this time. He was however able to struggle, even if it was uncoordinated.

"I need help in here, patient is out of control." The lady screamed and some male orderlies, the same ones he had seen before, appeared. They helped hold him down and soon he was strapped to the bed tightly.

"Just calm down and sleep. I'll check on you in some minutes. Let's go, he was calm when I first came in, maybe we spooked him."

Earlier

When the two orderlies had tucked Face into bed and left the room Ron waited for a bit to not look suspicious and then slowly walked along the aisle and slipped into Face's room. He prepared a syringe while quietly talking to the sleeping figure. He had given him enough sedative to know he would be out for some hours.

"You think I didn't recognize you through your disguises you always wear but I will always recognize you. You almost cost me my job. I have no idea what you are here for but my employer will be so pleased to get a real live victim, at least one of my employers, if you know what I mean. Testing the drug on those nutcases is one thing, but testing on someone who wasn't nuts before is different. You know what? After injecting the test persons as I call them, this men who were "A" cases before tend to end up in the "D" wing, complete vegetables. Only for some time of course, since I'm not working in "D" and can't top them up. I'm really curious to see what it will do to you, without any mental problems to begin with. You deserve being my test object. When you sprung Murdock on my first shift here I was almost sucked. If I lose the job I lose my house. Good thing I have a side income now."He plunged the contents of the syringe into Face's arm, careful to hit the same spot as before so there wouldn't be two injection sides to be discovered. He smiled at his handy work and crept back out of the room to go and call his "employer".

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's afternoon already and we haven't heard of Face, don't like it."

"He'll need some time to establish enough contacts. I'm more worried we haven't heard of Murdock, I hoped he would pop up somewhere."

"How long are we gonna wait?"

"If we haven't heard from Face until this evening I'll go pay him a visit as his concerned relative."

"You did what? Are you completely nuts? I guess your working at the place has done nothing to your upper department."

"But I thought…"

"I highly doubt that you thought. I always told you to look out for testers that can't talk afterwards, people who are not making sense, whom nobody listens too anyway, or best of all who don't talk altogether. Haven't I told you that? And you go and inject a normal person. If you have seen the guy before he's probably there to test the staff, is coming from some organization or worse a state department. How could you have been so stupid."

"But he was out of it when I…"

"I don't want to hear another word of it, stop him from talking ever again, you hear me?"

"But I can't…"

"If I have to come down there to do the job they'll have two deaths to mourn. I want nothing from you than a report that the job is done." With that the man at the other end slammed the phone down.

Ron sunk into the corner of the room. He had just wanted some revenge on the guy but killing him? He couldn't do that. He wasn't a killer. But now his life depended on it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Face had stopped trashing in his bonds after some time. It didn't get him nowhere and he wasn't able to find Murdock in this way. He however tried to focus his eyes or form words but it just wasn't working. It was frustrating and scary. Was it really the drug? Or had he been drugged once too often and really was a nutcase now? But his mind was clear, he could think straight. Well, who said that nut's couldn't, they only couldn't tell anyone about it.

Finally after what felt like hours and probably was the nurse came back.

"Have you calmed down?"

'Yes.' Damn, still not able to form words.

"What's wrong with your eyes son, come on look right at me, now that's strange. Your file sure doesn't say anything about that. Ron, did anyone tell you about his not being able to focus?"

"No."

"Well, let's undo the restrains."

'Finally. I thank you.' This time he didn't even try to talk.

"Okay, here you go. Move your arms up, hmmm, can you claps your hands together?"

Face tried but failed.

"Strange, his file clearly says he's an A-wing case but it hardly looks like."

"Uhm..they said they drugged him up for the journey."

"But that should have left his system by now. I say we move him to D."

"No, let's give him some chance, once he's in D you know they have to assess him and all that before he's given the chance to come back."

"But he needs assistance to be fed and washed and everything, we don't have enough personnel for that."

"Tell you what, my shift is almost over. I want to give him a chance. I'll take care of him this evening and if by tomorrow he's not better we move him, okay?" 'My life depends on getting to this guy, once I have an idea what to do with him.'

"As you want, it's your spare time. Let's put the restrains back, just in case. Don't want him to fall off the bed."

'No. Please, anything but that.'

The duo left the room, The one called Ron walked away while the nurse stayed in front of the room chatting with another one."I tell you something's not right here. We had three cases over the last months who changed from 'A' cases to 'D' cases over night and some weeks later they are back in A wing without much of a change in them, if any change at all. And this one here was moved here from Washington and declared 'A' and now look at him, can't talk, can't coordinate his limbs, just like the others."

"You are funny, maybe some nutcase virus is going around. The three we had before were border cases anyway, they had been moving between the wings before. And this one we never saw before, maybe the file is wrong or they brought the wrong file. You are seeing ghosts."

'Weeks? It can't be. I can't stay like this for weeks. There has to be an explanation to this. Damn, if only I could move normal. Maybe Murdock has been moved to the D-wing too.'

Face could hear voices and tried to concentrate on that before he really went nuts. At least his mind was clear.

"Sir, where are you going? Visiting time is over."

"Sorry ma'm. I wanted to see my nephew. He was moved here just today and I couldn't make it any earlier." 'Damn, Face is always breaking into this joint. Why didn't I check for visiting times.'

'That's Hannibal. Hannibal, I'm here, help me.' Face tried to shout but hardly a sound came out.

"Sorry sir, we have strict times. We can't upset our patients. Why don't you come back tomorrow. Visiting times for the A-wing are ten to eleven in the morning and three to five in the afternoon."

"Can't we make some special for me, he was moved here just today and I want to see how he's doing."

"What's his name?"

"Baker, John Baker."

"Sorry sir, the patient is having a hard time and has just calmed down. I can't risk to upset him again. Please come back tomorrow morning."

"Can't I just have a look at him, through the door, he won't even see me."

"Sorry sir, please come back tomorrow."

"Too bad. Say my greetings to him." Hannibal couldn't risk for her to call more people to suck him from the place. He settled for coming back the next day with a sick feeling in his stomach. Just what had she meant by Face having a hard time?

'No, Hannibal don't go, please, get me out of here.'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you mean waiting for tomorrow? Something is wrong there. We can't let the Faceman be locked away in there and the fool is still missing too."

"Face has his lock picks, he can let himself out if necessary. If we create too much of a commotion we spoil his scam." Hannibal hoped he was right.

"So we just sit around and wait?"

"You got any better ideas, I'm game."

"Why not break in through the window as Face does all the time?"

"That would work for Murdock's room, but he's not home. Face's room has a window to the inner side of the VA, we can't get there."

"Damn."

"You can say that again."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Some time later Ron was back.