Chapter 21

BA returned to the clinic just that moment. "Any word from Face?"

"Nothing. Did you find anything? We came back empty handed."

"Three people told me they had seen Tyler driving into the forest which was uncharacteristic for him before this whole well selling started. Maybe he's meeting his business partner there."

"Too bad all of the goons are behind bars, I would like to chat with them."

"Maybe there's a way we can arrange that," B.A. started.

"What are you talking about, big guy. We already have one team member just about as good as locked up."

"Yeah…I know that, man. But you ain't a wanted man really, and you been on lots of scams with the Faceman."

Hannibal smiled brightly. 'B.A., you're a genius he thought.' Not only would this possibly get them more information, it would also keep Murdock's worried mind occupied. "I bet you could go in there dressed in uniform and arrange to extradite one of those creeps to another prison."

B.A. nodded and pounded his fists together. "Yeah…the B.A. Baracus correctional facility."

Murdock looked skeptical. "I don't know…"

Hannibal clapped him on the back. "But I do…and you'll be great!"

"What we waitin' for…let's hit it."

Within' the hour Murdock was dressed in a police officer's uniform he found stashed in a trunk of costumes Face kept in the back of the van. As they parked down the street from the jail, his heart was doing flip-flops and he wished that Face was there by his side. As he walked down the street, however, he could feel his nervous energy being turned into determination.

It all went down so fast; he walked in there telling some cock-and-bull story about how Zeke Stone was wanted in his county and they actually bought it. Zeke's protests that it was all a set up fell on deaf ears and less than fifteen minutes later they were headed back to the van.

"What…what are you going…to do with me?" Zeke stuttered.

Murdock stopped and slid the van door open. "I wouldn't worry about what I'm going to do with you…but you see the big muscular guy up front?" B.A. smiled an evil grin. "He I would worry about."

They could all hear the loud gulp as Zeke swallowed hard.

Decker was still sitting by Face's side when he once more stirred a couple of hours later. Again he appeared to be having a nightmare, but this time his words were in English.

"I'm sorry, sister. Please don't…no…ow…it wasn't my fault…please."

Decker was about to call for the doctors again when Face's eyes popped open. He didn't like the way they were glassed over or the fear he saw in those fast moving eyes before they slowly focused on him.

'Hospital, she did beat me so bad that I'm in a hospital this time, where is she…no, Decker? Oh right, a dream, Decker, military hospital.'

"How are you feeling Peck?"

How was he feeling? He took stock of his body and noticed a burning sensation in his privates, seemingly going inside. The panic was back in a flash, the stranger with the rubber gloves, he had hurt him, raped him.

Flight instincts kicked in but this time Decker was ready and held him at both shoulders, firmly pressing down. The restraints were also helping in immobilizing Face but Decker couldn't help but notice that despite the obvious panic Face didn't move much, he was far too weak to do so. Even without the restraints and him holding him down he would probably not have been able to scramble up the bed as he had done before.

"Calm down Peck and try not to move, you wouldn't want to rip that catheter out again, would you?"

'Catheter? Rip it out? The nurse at the clinic, it had hurt like hell. No rape then? No rape.' The rest of the energy left him together with the panic and he was laying there boneless. He felt drained and the dizziness was bad. 'They probably have me doped up on whatever drugs they could find.'

"Han'bal?"

"Smith's not here."

'Decker? Oh, yeah, why was his mind so fuzzy?'

His stomach joined in on the fun and did some rollercoaster imitation.

"Gonna….gonna…."

He wanted to turn to his side but was barely able to turn his head before the retching started. There wasn't much inside to come out but the pain was terrible, especially on his abdomen, and the bile burned in his throat.

Decker called for the doctor but there wasn't anything he could do other than wait it out and let the nurse clean him and the bed afterwards. That in itself was terrible on him again because it included being moved and only helped to aggravate his injuries. Face was shaking like a leaf from the strain and from exhaustion. He was beyond recognizing what was going on around him.

"He has a bad reaction to the drugs, either one or several of them. I can't stop the antibiotics if they're supposed to do their job. He has to complete at least four more days, an infection would most likely be fatal in his state. Sedatives are usually milder in terms of side effects than strong painkillers. I have him on a relatively mild painkiller, I was going to introduce him to a heavy one in exchange for the sedative but seeing the effect of the drugs he's on and the way he's out of it I want to change course and rather stick with the mild one plus the sedative. Being awake is not helping him anyway. Since he's your prisoner you can object."

"No, it sounds good. For how long will you put him under? I want to go change clothes and clean up."

"It's difficult to say since he's weak. My guess is four to eight hours, but the four hours is a minimum. The eight hours can be extended depending on his reaction and how much sleep his body adds."

Decker waited until Face was out before he ordered for a guard. "Lieutenant Barnes, I put you in charge of watching this prisoner. I want you to position yourself outside the door. Don't let anyone enter other than me, the doctor or the nurse. They have been introduced to you by person and any change in shift will be announced."

"What about Colonel Lynch and his men? He's in charge of hunting down the A-Team."

"Especially not Lynch, he has let those men escape once too often. I caught Peck and I don't want Lynch anywhere near him before he's secured in a holding cell in a high security facility."

"Yes sir."

Decker left and got to a car that had been brought to the hospital for him. He stopped at a phone booth and called the clinic before continuing to his home.

"I don't know anything else, please, I swear."

"BA, put him down, I think he's telling the truth."

With a little help from BA Zeke had told them that the man behind Tyler is called Lehmann. His grandfather was a high ranking Nazi that had fled Germany after the war and brought a lot of grenades and diamonds to the US. He believed that they were hidden somewhere in the area and therefore had hired Tyler to go digging. He gave them a vague description of the guy and a direction in which he had seen Tyler driving off whenever he wanted to meet Lehmann. It fit with the other information they had, the guy must be hiding somewhere in the forest close to town.

"Let's tie this clown up and send him to the clinic. Then we go scout the area."

"But I told you all I know."

"We'll keep you for further reference muchacho, until the time for warranty has passed."

The first thing they asked when entering the clinic was "Any call?"

"Yes, he called about an hour ago. Said 'he's weak, sick and suffering from nightmares' and then he hung up again."

"BA, toss that clown into an empty room and let's hurry up." Hannibal's mood had not been good to begin with but hearing those news had dampened it even more.

The plan to hurry up had one hitch though, after scouting out the area they found themselves facing a big camp full of militia and what looked to be all kind of modern artillery. The unnumbered helicopter was parked there too, hidden under a shed that was covered with branches and leaves. It was done professionally, the whole camp would be difficult to spot from the air, those people were not joking.

Decker changed and bathed, got some real food and some rest before he returned to the hospital three and a half hours later. He deiced to check in on Crane before going to Peck.

"How are you doing?"

"Much better, thanks. How's Peck?"

"Not so good."

"Will he pull through?"

"I'm not a doctor, I hope so." Decker stood looking out the window.

"He hasn't been conscious enough to say much but I learned a lot from his nightmares. I know he had it rough in Nam but it seems he had a rough childhood too, and then he meets up with Smith and his gang, he's not a lucky one. And he's still calling out for Smith…"

"You never told me what happened between Smith and you."

"It's a long story Crane. I'll better head back to Peck, see you."

Decker was out of the door leaving behind a puzzled Crane. He approached the room where Peck was and found the guard still in front. Through the glass he could see Peck sleep and it looked as if nothing had happened.

"Lieutenant."

"Colonel. The doctor said he wants to see you on your return."

Decker turned and went to the doctor's office.

"Colonel, have a seat. For reasons unknown to me Peck came though after just shy of three hours. He was caught in a nightmare, thrashing in his bonds and calling out for one Hannibal. The sedative hadn't left his system but wasn't working anymore. I was forced to introduce another one to his system resulting in his vitals taking a turn for the worse. I'm especially concerned about his respiratory system. So far the oxygen saturation in his blood is still tolerable but if it goes down more we'll have to react."

"React how?"

"Our next step would be a ventilator."

For the first time since their fallout in Nam, Decker couldn't wait until he saw John 'Hannibal' Smith.

Hannibal, Murdock and B.A. remained well hidden behind some dense trees.

"I see only one option." Hannibal looked at B.A. with a weary smile.

"And I ain't gonna like it, am I?"

"I'm afraid not. We have to get to that chopper and take them by surprise from above."

Murdock let out a quiet 'whoop' of joy eliciting a growl from B.A. "No way, man."

"C'mon, sergeant, Face would do it for you."

B.A. crossed his arms defiantly. "Face ain't afraid to fly."

It was Hannibal's turn to cross his arms in a challenging stance, "I seem to remember a time when Face overcame a fear for you."

"Huh?" B.A. wracked his brain trying to remember.

Decker went back to sit with Crane while Face slept through the next round of sedatives.

"So, colonel, we have some time now."

Decker cocked his head. "Yeah…and?"

"And you want to tell me what went down between you and Smith."

Decker leaned forward and rested his head in his hands. "Lily Monroe went down."

"Excuse me? This whole thing started over some chick?"

The colonel adamantly shook his head. "No…not some chick…a real woman." He paused and closed his eyes drawing up the beautiful redhead's memory. "She was a nurse stationed with our unit at the time."

"You mean that you and Smith were in the same unit?"

Decker nodded. "Sure were…and were good friends too."

"So what happened? You both had your eyes on Lily?"

"Not just our eyes I'm afraid."

Crane grinned sheepishly. "Oh."

"All I know is that one night I came into the barracks and Smith had his hands on Lily…I saw red…and then we fought." Decker chuckled bitterly. "You know, to this day I wonder what got into me. I mean I knew Lily was seeing a few guys. But one thing led to another…he said some things…then I said some things. The friendship was gone and from that moment forward we went out of our way to get on each other's nerves."

"Well that hasn't changed."

'Until maybe now,' Decker thought. "You look tired…get some sleep, pal."

************************************************** *******************
"One of you better tell me what you talkin' about. I don't remember Face overcomin' no fear for me."

"Are your earrings short-circuiting your brain or something?" Murdock teased. "Face could have died that day had we not been there to fish him out."

"Oh that, damn fool coulda said something." BA's words were harsh but his tone was soft and betrayed him.

"We have to wait for nightfall before we make our move. We'll stay here and rest. Saves us extra energy and we can keep an eye on things."

It was just noon and so they settled in, rotating shifts to watch the camp. They were out of earshot but if the wind stood in their direction they could hear part of what was said down there and therefore slowly got the puzzle together. Hannibal took first watch and things went uneventful. What he did learn though, was that the camp was led in a Nazi style and it made him feel sick. He heard pieces of sentences and found out about some bomb and a planed attack but nothing more specific.

BA sat propped up on a tree and thought back to the day Face had rescued him. They had been on a mission in Nam and split up. Hannibal and Murdock went more south while Face and BA had been dropped some clicks north of their position to blow a bridge while Hannibal and Murdock did the same south and then meet up in the middle. The plan was to walk along the river up to a point where the water was shallow, cross the river by walking through it and then get to the LZ at the other side. They were just in time and BA had point, he jumped into the water and started wading to the middle. As he turned around Face was standing there not moving.

'What you doing? Get in them water.'

'The current is way to strong today, we'll get carried away.'

'Just have to swim some part, we'll end up somewhere half a click south, move it.'

'No, it's too risky, our rifles will get wet.'

'We won't need them, fool'll be here any minute. Move it man, he can't land at this side.' While Face was right, the water was far higher and faster than anticipated, they had to get to the other side and the river wasn't very wide. What he didn't know was that the enemy too was waiting at the other side. Before he reached the part of the river where he had to swim shots rang out and BA went down. One shot had hit his shoulder and made him stumble and lose his helmet. The next shot grazed his head and left him out cold, floating face down in the water.

Face ran along the side of the river to catch up with BA. He threw his riffle in the water so it wouldn't be of use to the enemy and did the same with his pack. He then jumped into the water without further thinking, grabbed BA with one arm and a big log that was floating along with the other one and was washed away, struggling to keep BA's and his own head over water.

Murdock had come to the LZ in time to see two men floating and immediately recognized BA's Mohawk. He followed them and when the log Face was holding onto got caught by some rocks Hannibal jumped from the chopper and ran over. The log was caught in the middle of the river and Face just managed to get BA, who was conscious by now but of no big help, close enough to the side so that Hannibal, who stood in the water too, could grab him and haul him to safety. Face however held onto the edge of the log and didn't move.

'C'mon Face we gotta get outta here.'

Face looked at the water and shook his head. 'Can't.'

'What do you mean?'

'I'll get washed away.'

'C'mon now, BA needs to get to the medics. Just swim the short distance.'

'I can't.'

'Get off of it, we gotta move.' Hannibal was at the chopper just loading in BA and yelling back.

Face knew BA needed help and he also knew he was being a coward. He had watched others swim countless times and it looked simple enough. He pushed himself away from the log but his feet couldn't get a hold and he was washed down the river.

Murdock saw everything like in slow motion. Without waiting for Hannibal to hold onto something he took off to follow.

'Murdock, are you crazy?'

'Face is in trouble.'

They got ahead of him and once again Hannibal jumped into the water to fish one of his men out. They arrived at the medics with two patients. When Face regained consciousness two days later and admitted to the team that he couldn't swim nobody knew what to say. As soon as he was up to it Murdock made it his mission to teach Face swimming and within a short time he had become one of the best swimmers of the unit. It also brought the two closer together. Hannibal had just wished Face would have said something earlier.

BA was brought out of his musings by Hannibal and Murdock changing shifts. Here he sat and Face once again lived through one of his fears, the fear of being alone. He was frustrated sitting there with no means to get to Face. They were at the total mercy of Decker and he didn't like it one bit.