Disclaimer – I do not own anything connected to The A Team, only the o/c is mine.
Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I have writing it :0). Reviews are very welcome.
Warning for language used in the next chapters.
Earlier on in the evening...
The last shots rang out and shouts of "clear" came from three of the team and they all waited for the fourth, but nothing. Hannibal shouted "Murdock are you clear!" again nothing. "Shit" he mumble under his breath.
"Boss his position has been over run, his gun has jammed" Face shouted back. "Shit" he said it a little louder this time. He hated it when one of his plans went tits up and all the more so when it put one of his boys in danger.
Joining back up with the other two men Hannibal assessed the area. He found the imprints of Murdocks well love Chucks in the still softened ground from the storm they had a few days ago. There were other footprints in the same location four maybe five different ones; this was not good, not good at all. Just as he was thinking at least he's got his sidearm with him he noticed it lying under a bush a little further up the track. Shit really not good.
After retrieving the m9 he re-laid what he found to Face and B.A. "Damn! Whats that crazey ass fool got himself into now."
"Boss" Face said. "I'm worried!"
"Me too kid" Hannibal said. They were down in Orange County in the foot hills of the Santa Ana Mountains. Hannibal wasn't worried about Murdock finding his way back; he had been studying maps of the local area just in case air suport was needed so he knew the lay of the land. He was just hoping that those neanderthal's wouldn't catch up with him.
"What's the plan Hannibal?" Face asked. He was worried about Murdock, but he knew how fast the pilot could run and new he wouldn't have problem eluding those thugs. He would show up eventually, probably with a new invisible best friend.
"The plan is to get back to the Holdens. Clayton and his cronies are bound to turn up there." The Holden's were the family that had hired them to stop Clayton trying to to run them off their ranch. He wanted their land and he wasn't gonna stop till he had it. It started with offers to by the land but at very reduced price, when Robert Holden refused the offers Clayton started getting nasty. He threatened the lives of Robert and his wife Rosemary. Then there was the fire that burned one of the stables down, killing two horses one beloning to their thirteen year old daughter. They had called in the police but there was no evidence left, there was no trace of accelerant. The stable was an old wooden building it wouldn't have taken alot to get it going nice and quick. Hannibal's plan had been to confront Clayton on his own land. Hannibal had said he wanted to pull the Rottweiler's tail to see if its bark was worse than its bite.
"Come on Face, B.A lets get moving Murdock will get in contact. Our priority now is the Holden's."
At the Holden's place everyone was waiting either for Murdock to show up or the Claytons. Their wait was a long one. It had been five hours since they had last seen Murdock and Hannibal was starting to think if he'd made the right discision about not going after him. They hadn't seen hide or hair of the Clayton gang like he thought they would. Perhaps he had more smarts than he gave him credit for.
"Hannibal it's getting late, its 11 o'clock and there's been no contact with that fool." B.A said just then the Holden's house phone started to ring.
Dakota parked the car around the back of the house level with the kitchen door. She went around to the passenger side to help James out of the car and up the steps to the kitchen. Once inside she helped him to sit on one of the chairs that served a large kitchen table.
"I won't be a minute the suture kit is up stairs in the bathroom." She said as she left the room.
Once on his own the thought returned to him that he needed to get in contact with Hannibal. He was wondering what had gone down after he was forced to abandon his positon. He hoped the rest of the guys were ok, they had come under heavy fire from the Clayton gang.
Dakota came back in and he noticed she had changed out of the jeans and top she had been wearing into some very fitting jogging bottoms and a t-shirt that was hugging her nicely as well. She put the medical box down on the table and pulled a chair up in front of him and sat down with her knees either side of his, being careful of his bad ankle. She opened the box and pulled out a couple of needles and some thread they were all presterilised and packaged neatly, very professional looking, not the usual cotton thread and sewing needles Hannibal was always using on them. She opened up a syringe that had a needle on the end and drew some liquid out of a little bottle. "This will help with the pain. It's some local anasetic." She said injecting it by the cut.
While they waited for it to take effect she asked him if he remembered any more about what happened to him. He explained to her that he and his friends were helping out the Holdens because they had a problem with the Clayton's who lived a couple of miles down the road from them.
"Wait the Clayton's are after the Holden's land as well?"
"What do you mean as well?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.
"I've had a few run in's with old Hank Clayton myself lately. He's been coming around here asking to buy my property. Each time he asks he gets a little pushier. So I started doing a little research on him but I've been out of town for a few weeks and not been able to do as much as I wanted. I only just found out about the barn fire when I got back yesterday."
"Here let me stitch this then I'll get the file."
"And what were you going to do once you had all the info that you needed." He asked as she threaded the needle.
"I haven't decided yet!" He could feel an immense tension radiating out of her and there was a steely look in her eyes.
Thinking there was more to it that than just the offers he tentatively asked "Have they threatened you personally like they did the Holden's?"
"Yes." She replied hesitantly as she put in the first stitch. "They have, but there's not much they can say or do that'll scare me off."
She finished off the other three stitches in silence. After covering the cut and clearing the suture kit away, she went to her office safe and got out her file on Hank and Jeremy Clayton, handing it to him when she got back to the kitchen. She went to get some cling film from the cupboard and a bag of ice from the fridge "Would you like something to drink? How 'bout a beer?" She enquired.
"A beer would go down a treat." He replied with a smile. She gathered up the beer, ice and cling film and got some pain killers out of the cupboard that was next to the fridge.
"There you go take two of them, they should help with the head ache" He hadn't mentioned a head ache but with a bump like that it was probably pounding like a jack hammer. "Thanks."
He read quietly through the file while she proped his leg onto her lap so she could finally have a look at his ankle. She carefully took off his converse shoe and sock. The ankle was very bruised and swollen. When she gave it a prod he jump about a foot of the chair and squealed like a little girl being attacked by puppies, which had her almost crying with laughter.
"Ahhhh! That's not funny, that hurt!" But he found himself laughing with her dispite the pain because her laugh was so infectious. Finally after calming down she held the ice on it and wrapped it with the cling film, as he finished reading the file and he didn't like what he read one little bit.
"How did you get all this information on Clayton?" He asked her there was information in the file that even Hannibal didn't have, it was game changing info.
"I have some contacts." Is all she would give him.
"I gotta to get in touch with my friends, have you got a phone I can use please?"
"Yep, it's in my coat." She turned to leave but he caught her arm and when she turned he said "Thank you. You didn't have to do what you've done. You find some guy lying at the side of the road and you just bring him into your home and stitch him up like it's an everyday occurrance."
She just smiled at him and left the room.
He couldn't remember any of the guy's numbers a bit of memory loss from the knock to his head he knew it would all come back to him it had happened before, so Kota managed to find the Holden's number for him.
The phone was answered by a familiar voice. "Face?" he asked
"Are you okay? Murdock where are you? Are you okay?"
"Apart for a few cuts and bruises I'm fine Muchacho. I'm on a ranch about fives north of the Holden place." "Face, Face, FACE!" The lieutenant had taken the phone away from his ear while he relayed the information to Hannibal and B.A.
"Yeah Budd"
"I need to talk to Hannibal." He heard the receiver being passed over and a gruff voice asked him "What's your situation Captain?"
"Hey Bossman. I lost the troglodytes, I've busted my ankle, smashed my face into a fence post, was rescued by an angel," he looked up at Kota who had been listening to his side of the conversation and gave her a wink and he was sure he'd seen her blush slightly. "I've been stitched up and had a beer."
"You've been busy." Hannibal said and Murdock could hear the smile in his voice.
"You know me never a boring moment. I've also managed to get my hands on something you may find very interesting."
"Okay let me know your location and we'll come get you."
He gave him the directions to Dakota's ranch and hang up "They're on their way."
