Rating: M

Type: Angst/Adventure/Supernatural

Pairing: Face/Murdock….but nothing graphic

Summary: Final part of my About Face series in which Templeton struggles to find justice and happiness in a world where things are just not fair!

Warnings/Content: Contains male/male relationship plus attempted rape and drug abuse. While I strongly believe that tolerance is vital and diversity should be embraced and valued if we are all to survive on this little planet, unfortunately some of my characters do not – their views are their own and a reflection of some of the attitudes that sadly still persevere in some places. Also some full-bodied soldier type language.

Author's Notes: In a thread on the messageboard at the A team Shrine, I read that George, T, Dwight and Dirk have been quoted as saying they didn't want the Team to end with a whimper but rather a big violent bang. So this is my attempt at that – handkerchiefs may be useful in the latter stages.

Also I have no experience of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (Thank God!) and though I have researched a little, I am aware I have taken great liberties. Please accept these as plot necessities and not as unquestionable truth – this is the A Team world after all!

Disclaimer: I do not own the A-Team characters and am making no profit from this story, which is a work of fan fiction only.

Thanks to all who have read and commented on the rest of the series. Your input makes it all worthwhile!

ABOUT FACE AND FINAL FAREWELLS

The stark astringent smell of disinfectant caused his nostrils to flare widely but the boy did not notice; he was too busy trying to fight his way out of the grasp of the persistent hands that held him and pulled him through the door. His resistance was ineffective as relentlessly he was moved into the shower area.

Wide eyed with fear, the boy looked about himself. Hopes of rescue skittering through his head – how long before the guards did a round; surely somebody else would come, could he delay his assailants long enough? But deep inside he despaired; what these violent men had in mind would not take long, although its enactment would surely destroy his life. No one would come and even if they did they dare not interfere. He struggled again, letting the blind panic rush through him; it brought new strength to his wiry, juvenile form. But all it earned him, however, was a further cuff across the head which caused his eyes to water and his vision to shimmer sickeningly.

"Robby, Robby, Robby, I told you that smart mouth of yours gonna get you into trouble!" A voice hissed close to his ear as a further blow caused him to slow his struggling. "You little piece of white shit! You didn't follow the rules did you? Step out of line in a place like this and you have to pay. We all been real patient with you but now you are gonna get punished, big time."

The boy felt his arms pinned painfully behind his back. He tried wriggling desperately but there was nothing he could do, he could not stop the overwhelming force pushing him down to his knees, down to the clinically clean white tiles of the shower floor and down to despair. He growled and bucked as he felt other hands, coming

from behind him, fingering along his waist, working to undo his belt and pants.

Inside he screamed – this could not be happening to him! He knew he took risks, he knew that there had always been a chance he would piss somebody off enough that they would take vengeance out on him and with a pretty face like his and a hot body, this sort of punishment had always been on the cards. But he had carried on regardless, choosing to ignore it, forcing away the fear that this would happen because he knew deep down it was too terrifying for him to contemplate the brutal truth; he feared he could not survive such violation; that it would shatter his voluble but brittleconfidence to useless pieces. Nothing in his life before ever had come close to frightening him like this – not his bruised and battering childhood nor his time on the streets, not even his arrests and trips through juvenile hall that had finally lead to this stretch in a proper adult prison. Call it luck or call it skill, he had managed to steer a course dangerously but invigoratingly close to the edge but never over it. He had kept himself safe, in tact, pure even, in a strange sort of way. Now he was out of control and so far over the brink he was hurtling downwards into the abyss.

Robby let out a desperate groan. He was beaten and scared; the fight had left him. He closed his eyes, head bowed on to the tiles, ass exposed as his pants were pulled down low over his hips. He whimpered, shivering in desolation. He was going to suffer whatever they wanted, powerless and alone, in a prison shower, his worse nightmare was about to become vicious, agonised experience.

"Awh guys!"

The kid felt the arms that held him stiffen a little and then they relaxed noticeably. He gulped, trying to make his ears hear over the cruel chattering of his shuddering teeth and his hammering heart. There was shuffling around him as his attackers turned to look towards the door at the owner of this new voice. The boy could not turn as a well-placed knee in the small of his back held him motionless but he recognised the slight whining tone of the newcomer and a small seed of hope germinated deep within.

"Do you mind doing this somewhere else?" The voice drawled. "Only I just finished cleaning here and I haven't really got the time to do it all again when you're done. I mean blood and semen make such a mess and it's so hard to get out of the cracks – ruins the grouting!"

"And you'd know, Peck!" came the voice of the man to the boy's left. It was dripping with scorn and simmering anger.

"Well yeah, I would actually!" The response was bland but fearless and Robby took a shred of strength from it.

"Quite the celebrity fucken janitor, aren't you?"

Robby felt the hands tighten around him once more as the knee in his back moved away. He was picked up and pulled to the side, to be held firmly against the wall, the pipe from the shower pressing painfully into his back. He blinked his eyes to still his wavy vision and the scene settled into focus around him.

He was being held by Leroy and Ali, one on his left, one his right. Their hands were digging into the flesh of his forearms but their attention was concentrated, like his, on the action in front of them. Standing arrogantly there was Rumba; the leader of this particular pack of wolves. His eyes were flashing their anger and Robby sensed the promise of physical action as the big brute's muscles flexed dangerously beneath his ebony skin. Flanking him were Tolly and Terps, his faithful guard dogs, both proudly sporting the prohibited red bandanas decorated with a black dog shape around their left biceps that pronounced them as members of their gang - the Brotherhood of the Black Coyotes. Robby looked past these brainless lumps of testosteronely charged tarmacadam to the door where a very different figure stood.

Templeton Peck was leaning languidly on the handle of his mop. He was dressed in prison fatigues like everyone else except on him they appeared perfectly cut and tailored as if made especially for him. In fact he had the air of someone who had just attended a star-studded Hollywood premier, not finished cleaning a prison bathroom! His silver flecked hair was perfectly precise around handsome, mature features, the lines of which were now slightly more pronounced as they crumpled in irritation. His blue eyes were shining brilliantly with an emotion that Robby found it hard to identify.

Peck sighed deeply. "Look, I don't want any trouble," he began, stepping forward with a sureness that contradicted his words.

"Then you should keep your big mouth shut!" Rumba snapped bristling with threat and moving closer to Peck. "Since you butted in maybe we should make use of your snow white ass as well as the little shit! I hear you take it pretty well for an old queer!"

Rumba moved menacingly forward, his hands coming up and contracting into fists as his eyes fixed on his foe. So fixed were they in fact that he lurched straight on to the end of the mop that Peck was suddenly wielding in front of him like a medieval pikeman! Rumba let out a yelp of surprise which soon deepened into a growl of pain as Peck continued to ram his weapon deep into the soft underbelly area.

There were gasps of surprise and Robby felt the arms around him loosen, giving him the chance he needed. In one fluid motion he slipped loose, threw a blow into Leroy's wobbly gut, pulled up his pants and then turned to take on Ali who was still static with shock over the unforeseen turn of events.

It was a bloody but quick fight. After jamming the mop into Rumba, Peck moved with lightening speed that belied his age, taking out Tolly with quick but well-placed blows to his head and Terps with a precise knee to his privates. Robby landed a few blows on Ali who, once released from his surprise, fought back well, bloodying Robby's nose before the younger man could land a final conscious-shattering fist to Ali's head sending him crashing to the floor, blood running to join that from the others to create an ensanguined river of red meandering lazily along the once pristine drain. Robby fell to his knees, his hand trying impotently to dab away the blood that was erupting from his nose. He gulped in breaths as his sweating body sought to relax following its gruesome experience and his foggy brain looked for explanation.

"Shit," he heard Peck mutter. "I knew I'd end up having to clean this place again!"

He smirked then and turned to see Peck was in a similar position to him; on his knees, hands pressed firmly to ease the pain from the blows he had taken to his belly and back, his forehead resting on the tiles. As Robby watched Peck spat out a mouthful of blood and groaned. "Not another cap gone!" he whined. "And no decent dentist is sight!"

"You all right, Peck?" Robby asked.

Bright eyes lifted to meet his then and a bruised face cracked into a beautiful but bloody smile. "Sure," Peck ran his hand along his mouth to dab at the blood leaking from his split lip. "And you kid?"

Robby nodded. "Fine. Why'd you help me?" he asked.

Peck sighed and slowly eased his throbbing body up and around so he was sitting perched on the lip of the showers. He raised his hands expansively. "I hate it when people dirty what I just cleaned up!" he said with feigned dejection.

Robby shook his head and looked around at the destruction around them. "Gonna be in trouble," he said wistfully.

Peck sighed again. "I guess," he agreed, slowly climbing to his feet and reaching out a supportive hand toward Robby. "Won't be the first time!"

TBC