Title: At Face Value
Note: Liauno sent me the story idea (thanks Lia!) with the basic guidelines and I took it from there.
Not wanting to risk another lecture, Face decided to turn in early. Hannibal's words kept replaying in his head giving him an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Face was well aware that it was his job to scam stuff for the team and that his face was part of his tool kit; it wasn't as if it wasn't anything he didn't already know.
He tossed and turned in the bed trying to figure what exactly had gotten him so rattled. Sure, it hurt having Hannibal point it out to him so bluntly, but his skin had built up some pretty thick layers over the years. He was more embarrassed that he let his guard down and had let his feelings show.
Murdock pretended to be asleep but instead watched his restless friend in the bed across the room until he finally became still and allowed the sleep to take him. Face, in his 21 years of life, had lived through more than most people four times his age would ever experience. He had been abandoned by his parents at a very young age and was raised in a Catholic orphanage. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he survived a brutal stint in a POW camp only to become a wanted man.
'I may be the crazy one, but something tells me you're the most troubled of any of us,' Murdock thought, 'and if you're not, you should be.'
It wasn't long before Face's head began shifting from side to side and he started mumbling something that Murdock couldn't quite make out. "Faceman, I have a feeling you're not in Los Angeles anymore," Murdock said to himself and sighed. It was going to be a long night.
The fists were pounding him all over. He tried to fight back but he was too small to stand a chance. He was flat on his back; his assailant straddled on top of him making it impossible to get away. "Not so pretty now, are you," he sneered. The bully delivered one final blow to his midsection forcing all of the air out of his tiny body before simply getting up and walking away. He rolled onto his side and curled into a tight ball waiting for his breath to return.
There was a flash and then he was running through the front door of a large colonial style house. He stopped at the kitchen where standing before him was a very beautiful woman who reminded him of a blonde Audrey Hepburn. Dressed to perfection in a powder blue dress, her golden hair was pulled back into a smooth ponytail and tied with a ribbon to match. Seeing him standing there, she smiled showing off a row of perfect white teeth between her full red lips. The smile was quickly replaced by a frown as he walked over and she got a closer look at his battered face and blood stained clothes. She took his face between her thumb and forefinger and turned it from side to side looking at him with disgust. Her eyes grew cold and she said in an angry tone, "it will take weeks until you are presentable again. You are of no use to us any longer."
Another flash and he was back inside the orphanage. Tears streamed from his eyes as he looked out the window and watched the car that just dropped him off pull away with another blond-haired, blue-eyed boy in the back seat. "No, don't go," he quietly sobbed; he was all alone.
The moonlight streaming in through the window gave Murdock a good view of his trembling friend. Face was prone to nightmares. In fact, it was rare for him to go more than a couple of days without one. The usual protocol was to let Face ride the dream out and wake up on his own. It was too dangerous to wake him up when he was in this state; he would go into attack mode and lash out at anything near him. The only time they would intervene was when it appeared as if he might injure himself, and even then it would take at least two of them to bring him out of it safely. But now, watching the tears flow from his closed eyes was almost too much for Murdock to bear. He considered breaking procedure but Face beat him to the punch.
Face bolted upright in bed, his heart beating like a jack-hammer in his chest. He looked around the room wildly trying to remember where he was…and hoping to forget where he had just been. His entire body was wet with sweat, but in contrast his throat felt incredibly dry. He locked eyes briefly with Murdock before looking down at his lap.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
"You wanna talk about it."
"No." Not only didn't he want to talk about it, he didn't even want to think about it. Face swiped at his eyes and plastered on the best smile he could manage. "For the record, these aren't tears. It's just awfully hot in here and my eyeballs are sweating."
Murdock chuckled; Face had an answer for everything. "From the looks of it, they got one heck of a workout."
"It was just a bad dream, Murdock." Murdock didn't look convinced. "Really…I'm fine."
"I'm the one living in the loony bin…who am I to judge?"
Both men lay back down though neither one was finding it easy to fall back asleep.
"Face?"
"Yeah?"
"You want Billy to come sleep with you?" He always makes me feel safe."
'If only it were that easy,' Face thought, smiling at Murdock's childlike quality. "That would be great." Playing along, Face patted a spot next to him on the bed and said, "Come here, boy."
Face fell into a peaceful sleep within minutes. "Good job, Billy," Murdock whispered. "Take care of Facey for me tonight."
TBC…