Act 7, curtains:

Pulling into the driveway of the house, Face saw the curtain drop from the front window.

Before either man could tell her to drive away, Kerry begged,

"Let me come in. Just for a second! I want to say good-bye . . ."

Face looked to Murdock, and realized his friend wouldn't deny her.

The front door was pulled open as the three of them reached it.

"You said forty five minutes, Face!" Hannibal growled. He didn't look startled to see Kerry with them, but that was only because he never looked startled. "You also said you were dropping her off, not bringing her back with you!"

"Easy, Boss," Face soothed. "She just offered to help us out. Make it a bit easier to clear out of here, and save us some time."

Hannibal looked skeptical but didn't waste time protesting any more. "B.A.'s got most of it packed. Face, help him get everything in the van. Murdock, finish up your room. I'll make a last sweep through the house. Since our time table's been bumped up, I expect to be out of here in fifteen minutes."

Both men nodded with military precision.

"Help me upstairs," Murdock said to Kerry, as the other two hurried away.

She followed him. Once in his room, however, she could only stand aside as he packed two duffel bags with his belongings. With the speed and skill he filled the bags, it was evident this wasn't an uncommon event, and she felt out of place.

Murdock zipped his luggage and paused for a moment, glancing around the room.

"I liked this house," he said forlornly. "It might have had ghosts."

Behind him, Kerry frowned and blew her hair out of her face. He spun to her and in two steps was in front of her.

"Hey—don't look like that," he said, running his thumb between her eyebrows to smooth out the wrinkle formed there by her frown. As she relaxed her expression under his touch, he smiled. "There. You're beautiful."

"Thanks," she whispered. "You're pretty hot too."

"Hmm. I'm not sure this outfit has the same flair, nor conveys the same sense of "escaped mental patient" savior-faire as some of my others, but I suppose I can wear it to fool the gentry every now and then."

Kerry managed a half-smile.

"That's not good enough," Murdock ordered. "This escaped mental patient has certain trigger points that set him into an uncontrollable agitation, and half-assed smiles are one of them."

She looked up and saw him with an expression of expectant encouragement on his face.

"Well . . .?" he prompted.

For a second she couldn't respond, then as his expression shifted to even more exaggeration, she truly smiled at him.

"That's better!" he crowed, and kissed her. "You barely avoided setting me off."

Kerry smiled again, but it was dampened quickly. Unable to keep her face to his, she whispered into his chest,

"Will you come back?"

He tightened his hold. "I'll come back. I promise."

Her fingers found the buttons on his vest and fiddled with them for something to concentrate on.

"It's just . . . you're leaving . . . just like you left last time and I never knew where you were. I was always wondering . . ." her voice trailed off, and he thought she was done. To his surprise, she continued sadly, "And now it'll be the same again. I just hate being in limbo, you know?"

Murdock rested his chin on her head, trying to come up with anything to say that would mean something.

"Let's go, crazy man!" B.A. hollered up the stairs. "You gotta cut yer make-out session short—Colonel wants us to get a move on!"

Murdock pulled back and looked her over again. "You're so beautiful. Come on—you heard Bosco! No more of this super hot making out that's not sad or depressing at all!"

She was able to chuckle.

He turned and grabbed his bags, and used them to nudge her out the door and down the stairs.

Traipsing carefully back to the first floor, Kerry knew she should just go. Blow everyone a kiss and head out the door, so they could concentrate on getting out too. But still she hung back, even as B.A. yanked Murdock's bags from him, muttering about foolin' around and wastin' time.

Looking like he knew he should be helping but unsure of what to do because Kerry was still there, Murdock shoved his hands in his pockets and watched the black man start towards the kitchen to head to the garage. Pulling out his cell phone, he looked down on the device as if seeing it for the first time.

"Bosco! Bosco, wait!"

B.A. stopped for the moment.

"Your girlfr-uh, hacker friend. Angel! Angel can rig up another phone, right?" Murdock asked eagerly. "She can set up another phone in the network, right?"

"What?" B.A. replied, startled. Then he shrugged. "I suppose she can. Takes a while though. You know that. With all the firewalls and re-programming chips to route through random towers . . . you know it took her like a month to get these up."

"Three months," Murdock corrected.

"Okay, three months. That's a chunk of time just to get a cell," B.A. said. He cast a critical eye over the pilot and the woman standing beside him. His expression softened and his voice dropped a little. "You know Bossman ain't gonna like you not havin' a phone, fool."

"I'll just blame it on the crazy," Murdock replied, rolling his eyes wildly to indicate it.

B.A. rolled his eyes too in habitual exasperation, then continued walking away.

"Here!" Murdock said, turning to Kerry. He forced the cell phone into her hands. "Keep this—"

"I have a cell, Murdock—"

He shook his head and cut her off. "Not like this one. Keep this one for me. You heard what Bosco said, with the towers and stuff. I can't explain it, but this phone has our numbers and you can call us. I can call you. But only on this phone. Okay?"

Kerry closed her hand tightly over the plastic.

"Most times we can't—don't—pick up right away," he continued. "We return calls. But we can call you. And you have to use this phone to reach us. Don't copy the saved numbers and use them from any other phone—not a cell or landline or anything. That's really bad, and will screw up the system. Okay?"

She nodded, although some of it did just sound crazy.

"And there are some numbers for other people too. They're women—okay?—but not girlfriends or anything. I wouldn't give my girlfriend a phone with a bunch of other girlfriend's contacts in it, would I?" Murdock asked as if she accused him. But before she could answer him, he went on. "Please don't contact them either. We're, uh, supposed to not call anyone else's . . . girlfriend, and if one of them gets a call from you, that would be pretty scary for them."

That didn't make any sense to her, and he saw it on her face. Immediately he pulled her close and whispered close to her ear,

"That would mean someone . . . bad . . . found us, and was using our phones to find them."

"Oh," she replied, then nodded quickly.

"You're on that list now too, so don't answer any call that has an unidentified number. Don't answer if it's one of the women listed. Okay?"

Kerry nodded again, and choked, "O-okay."

Murdock lifted her chin and noted tears in her eyes. He knew he had to wrap this up; passed her he could see the other three waiting for him. But he didn't like leaving on a frightening note. He took a second to thumb away her tears. "And you heard that it'll take a while for me to get a new one. So you can call Face. Everyone keeps their phone on them. Call Face."

She took a breath and nodded once more.

He kept his hand on her chin and kissed her. He heard someone—Faceman, probably—step closer as he did so.

"Fifteen minutes, I said," Hannibal said.

His voice was stern and Murdock released her, but it was Face that said,

"One more minute, Hannibal. Just one more."

Kerry turned and found him behind her.

"Sorry about the crappy date," he said in a quiet voice. "Both of you. I'll make it up to you, when we come back."

Kerry opened her mouth to protest his claim of responsibility again, but a squeeze on her hip from Murdock stopped her. Instead, her free hand found Face's. At the touch, Face looked passed her to Murdock for a sign of approval. When his friend gave a slight nod, he dipped his head and kissed her too.

A long-suffering sigh and retreating footsteps marked B.A.'s exit from the scene. Hannibal's incredulity and growing disapproval was almost a physical presence, but Murdock ignored it. He steadied Kerry as Face pressed in, finding her tongue and stealing her breath.

When Hannibal finally growled a warning low in his throat, Face broke the kiss.

The three stood together one moment longer, then the impatience from Hannibal made it too uncomfortable. Face backed away, squeezing her hand as he did so. Murdock stepped around her, keeping contact as long as possible, then he followed the other two men as they went to the kitchen.

Kerry stood catching her breath for a moment before hurrying out the front door. She knew she had to get the car out of the way so their van could back out of the driveway, and she didn't want to hold them up. She found the keys in the car, and held the phone Murdock gave her tightly as she drove away.

fin.

note: I marked this finished, but more will be on the way. Hannibal's not happy at all with the situation between Murdock, Face, and Kerry, and I can't just ignore his feelings on the subject. I'll post that exploration as a different story, with reference to this one. And B.A.'s got a girlfriend-what? Hey, it's gotta happen. I've got so much going on for them in my head I'm surprised I can function in the real world.

Thanks WriterMonkey0626, Astra68, and danang1970 for reading and sticking with me! I feel behind the times since my penname doesn't have numbers with it . . . :)