Face awoke to morning sunlight spilling into the room. He smiled as it warmed his cheeks. He slowly sat up, keeping the blanket over his legs. Hannibal was in the barkalounger, reading the newspaper.

Great.

"Good Morning," Hannibal said from behind the Metro section.

Face grunted.

"How are you feeling?"

"It still hurts."

"I assumed that, Face. Is it any better?"

Face sighed, annoyed.

"A little."

Hannibal set the paper in his lap and looked at his friend. Face could tell in his friend's eyes that Hannibal hadn't slept much.

"We need to talk for a minute."

"I'm not really up for one of your speeches, Hannibal."

"I'm not gonna preach to you. I just- I wanted to apologize for the way I've been acting. The thing with Kyle put me on edge a little-"

"A little?"

"All right, it made me paranoid. Being arrested was a wake up call. While I was sitting there alone, I thought about the past two weeks. I kind of went commando on you guys. I think I even scared B.A. a little."

"You scared the hell out of all of us with this last job, Hannibal, and you're damn lucky we got you out before they ran your prints and sent them off to Washington!"

"You're absolutely right, Face."

"This isn't going to go away with one talk. I hope you realize that."

"I didn't expect it to be puppies and sunshine, Lieutenant," Hannibal said, trying to keep his cool.

"You have to listen to us when we're trying to tell you something, Hannibal. You always cut us off when we're trying to tell you something important, and when you do find out, it's usually too late."

Face pushed himself to a sitting position. He didn't want to finish this lying down.

"I tried to tell you at the dairy farm that I was hurting. Even B.A. was complaining about running. B.A. never complains! That should have been a red flag! When I showed Maggie my side when I finally made it back to base, she said that the run probably made the injury worse. I want you to know that."

"Shit. Face, I'm sorry."

Face winced, and his hand immediately went to his side.

"Do you need Maggie?"

Face shook his head.

"I'm okay."

"Listen, I'll get you some coffee, and we can talk more later. Okay?"

Face nodded.

"Thanks."

Hannibal got up and made his way into the dining room. Maggie was coming out of the kitchen in her robe and slippers.

"Good Morning."

Hannibal scrubbed a hand over his unshaven face.

"You look like you didn't sleep much."

"I didn't."

"I heard you talking to Face."

Hannibal nodded.

"It's going to take some time for you two to mend things. It's going to be all right."

Maggie hugged him. He closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her and took her in. He wished he didn't have to leave. He'd stay with her forever. Both of them knew that each visit would be temporary. Hopefully one day, he could come back permanently.

"Coffee?"

"Please."

"I'll bring some to Face, too."

Hannibal nodded and sat down at the table. Maggie returned with two cups of black coffee. She set one down in front of Hannibal, and disappeared into the living room to bring the second to Face.

Hannibal reached out and took the coffee set down in front of him. It had been days since he'd had a good cup, and he closed his eyes in contentment as he took his first sip. It had been a long couple of days. He'd managed to fracture his relationship with Face, scare B.A. and lose Murdock's respect. The Captain hadn't spoken to him after they'd busted him out of jail, and Hannibal didn't blame him one bit.

The front door opened, and Murdock stepped in, wearing running clothes. He didn't say anything to Hannibal as he pulled out a chair to remove his sneakers.

"Murdock."

The Captain didn't look up.

"Can we talk?"

"You can talk, Colonel. I'm not sayin' anything."

Hannibal suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

"We've been friends for almost twenty years, haven't we, Murdock?"

Murdock nodded as he took his left shoe off, and set it on the floor. Hannibal leaned his arms on the table and gripped his coffee cup.

"When we were in 'Nam, there was a point that I thought I'd never see you alive again. That was the point of no return."

Murdock dropped his other shoe and straightened.

"W-what do you mean?"

"I was alone in that dirt cell in the camp after they took you. We hadn't seen B.A. or Face for days. I assumed they were dead. When they took you, and didn't bring you back, that was it. I didn't want to survive that camp if it meant you three weren't getting out alive."

Murdock turned in his chair and looked at Hannibal.

"You were going to kill yourself for us?"

"I was alone in that cell for three weeks. Every night I would sit there, looking down at my pocket knife, getting up the courage to stick it in my chest."

Murdock took in Hannibal's confession. He hadn't expected the Colonel to share something so personal with him, and he wasn't sure how to formulate a response.

"W-What happened?"

Hannibal set down his coffee.

"It was the middle of the night, I think..."

The pocket knife twirled easily in Hannibal's hand. He sat with his back to the dirt wall of his prison. Out of the twelve men in his cell - including his team - he was the only one left.

It had been three weeks since he'd last seen a member of his team. They took Face first, about a month or so ago. B.A. was next. They took Murdock three weeks ago. Hannibal could still hear the Captain screaming in broken Vietnamese as they took him away. He waited for the VC to bring them back, like they'd done before.

No one was returned to the cell.

Hannibal twirled his pocket knife through his fingers every night. He hadn't slept more than an hour or two a night since his team was dragged off, one by one. He assumed they were all dead, and he wasn't going to leave this camp alive with that hanging over him.

He stopped twirling the knife and flicked the switch. The blade was five inches long... just long enough to do some real damage when he stabbed himself in the chest in a few short moments. He'd been through this same ordeal every night for three weeks, but tonight, he'd decided, was the night he would die.

Hannibal mumbled a prayer as he pushed himself weakly to his knees. He gripped the hilt of the knife in his shaky hand, and raised it in the air. This was it. He would finally have penance for the mistakes that led him here.

A series of gunshots froze Hannibal in his position. There was a lot of shouting in Vietnamese, and more gunfire. Hannibal guessed it wasn't the Army coming to save them. As he raised his arm again, he heard a set of feet running toward his dirt prison. He decided right then that he wasn't going to let Charlie be the one to end his life. He would do that himself. He raised the knife quickly, and plunged it into his chest. As he fell onto his side, he saw the cell door open, and someone drop to his knees.

"Hannibal! Can you hear me! Colonel!"

"F-Face..."

"Yeah, it's me... stay with me, Colonel..."

"You're alive..."

"You didn't think these bozos could kill me that easy, could you?"

Hannibal smiled weakly, but his features changed to concern a moment later.

"M-Murdock, B-B.A.-"

"They're laying down cover fire. Come on, we need to get you out of here."

"L-leave me, Lieutenant."

"That's not happening. Let's go."

"I-I'm going to die. I'll h-hold you back-"

"I'm not going to have your death on my conscience, Colonel. You're going to live."

Face managed to get his C.O. into a sitting position, and put Hannibal's arm around his neck. He heaved the Colonel to his feet, and they walked out of the cell and off into the jungle as the fighting in the camp continued.

"I can't believe it," Murdock said, looking into Hannibal's weary eyes.

"You, B.A. and Face... you three... you're my friends. We're all each other has right now. I've forgotten that the past couple of weeks, and I'm sorry for letting you all down."

"You haven't let us down, Hannibal."

Hannibal looked up to see Face standing in the doorway between the dining and living rooms, holding his coffee with two hands.

"How long have you-"

"Long enough to remember that night vividly." Face moved slowly into the room. "We all have a breaking point. Your trigger is when mercenaries pick off your team one by one... just like Charlie did in Vietnam."

No one said anything for a long moment.

"I think we all need a break," Hannibal finally said. "How about we take a couple of weeks off? I think it'll do all of us a world of good."

"That sounds like a hell of a plan, Colonel," Murdock said, grinning.

Hannibal grinned.

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

No one could resist laughing. The road to normalcy was just beginning.

END (epilogue forthcoming)