Note: I wrote this story for another fandom (Hawaii Five-0) and thought it might be fun to see if it could be adapted to The A-Team…so here we go! Hope it works…fingers crossed!
Face caught a brief glimpse of the culprit, but it was too late.
Before he could stop it, his body was up in the air. It was the down part, however, that did the damage. His head smacked the corner of the end table with a resounding thud. And then there was the audible snap of bones and accompanying searing pain as he landed wrong on the arm he had outstretched to catch himself.
He lay on the floor of the condo trying to focus on breathing through the agony. His vision was beginning to blur as the pounding in his head steadily increased. Reaching up with his good arm he fumbled for the phone.
He just had time to press the buttons and mumble out a weak, "Lieutenant Peck…need help," before his lights went out completely.
"Where the hell is he?" Hannibal fumed, more out of worry than anger. "He's more than an hour late."
Murdock and B.A. remained silent watching as their leader paced back and forth across the room. Face was rarely ever late, and when he was he always called in first.
"And he's not picking up the damn phone. That does it…I'm going over there."
The teammates shared a look as Hannibal grabbed for his keys and made a bee-line for the door.
"It's about time," Murdock sighed. "He was wearing down the floor."
"And wearing on my nerves," B.A. added. "I just hope the Faceman's alright."
Hannibal's heart started to beat faster as he rounded the corner and saw two patrol cars and an ambulance in front of the condo. As his heart sped up so did his new truck, so much so that he had to screech to a halt behind one of the cruisers.
Ever since Face had been shot in the Italian restaurant less than a year earlier the colonel had felt extra protective over his men…especially Face. And though it resulted in a full pardon at the insistence of Attorney General Liepster and Hannibal being appointed the head of his own task force in DC, it had been too close of a call and shook them all to the core.
Face had started dating Carla right after they were no longer working for Stockwell, much to the General's chagrin. But Stockwell had no say in the matter anymore and now that they were no longer at his mercy, they were actually getting along and consulted with him frequently on cases.
Carla had taken her five year old daughter to Disney Land and Face was house sitting for her. It was her residence Hannibal was walking toward when a seemingly unconscious Face was being wheeled out on a gurney.
"How is he, Joe?" Hannibal asked the familiar paramedic.
It was still hard for Hannibal to get used to being himself and not having to use an alias or put an act on front of the world. Before the pardon, the A-Team were infamous…after the pardon they were just plain famous. Everybody knew who they were after Vietnam; the difference now was that they knew the truth about the four men and as a result they were widely respected.
"He's got a nasty bump on his head, colonel, and his arm is broken in at least a couple of places. We're taking him over to DC General."
"Has he said anything?"
"He woke briefly and mumbled something that sounded like 'stupid blonde'," the young EMT answered. "But he was pretty out of it."
Hannibal furrowed his brow. "Can I have a minute with him?" Joe nodded and Hannibal stepped closer to the gurney. "Face…can you hear me, kid?"
Face heard his colonel's voice through the intense fog. He tried to open his eyes, but quickly slammed them shut as the light sent daggers through his skull.
Hannibal saw Face's eyes flutter briefly and heard a low moan escape from his lips.
"That's okay, kid. Just rest easy." It was unnerving to see the con-man so still and so quiet; it reminded him all too well of those days in the hospital after the shooting. He took hold of Face's hand and squeezed. "We can talk later."
Squeezing the hand back weakly Face thought, 'we can talk, but there's no way in hell that I'm gonna tell you what happened.'
TBC…