Part 5

"How do I look?" It had been a while since Face had preened in the mirror for quite such a long time as he was doing now. He tilted his head, lightly brushing his hand down his slacks to ensure that the crease was just right.

Murdock sat on the bed, his mouth pulled into a bad tempered pout as he fiddled with a book beside him. "I do not believe you are really going to go through with this!"

Peck sniffed. "Cuff links," he muttered and turned to the small box on the dresser beside him.

"Face!" Murdock said. "Are you registering anything up there? The lights are on but somebody has sold the goddamn real estate!"

Peck's features crumpled with concentration as he put on the cuff links. Then he looked back into the mirror. "Aaaah!" he sighed. "Armani, you know – can't beat it!"

Murdock shook his head. "I haven't seen you this far up your own arse since that time you got that fake pardon. Remember what happened then?"

Peck delicately brushed back his hair. "Looking good," he breathed. "Maybe I should have got that hair dye," he muttered critically regarding the grey hairs and anxiously pulling out a few strands.

"Oh please!" Murdock said disgustedly. "Have you heard anything I have said?"

Peck stopped and turned around to eye the other man. "Of course I have!" he said somewhat pompously. "I have just chosen to ignore it. We've been through this already."

"Listen to yourself, Face!" Murdock tried again. "You must see this is a little suspect, no?"

Peck smiled tightly. "I think you've over-reacting Murdock, it's just dinner!"

"I'm over-reacting!" Murdock spluttered. "I'm not the one wearing the five hundred dollar suit!"

Peck snorted and turned back to the mirror. "And doesn't it look good?"

"Yes, it looks goddamn gorgeous!" Murdock snapped. "But that's not the point, is it?"

"Do I detect a touch of jealousy there?" Peck asked infuriating the pilot even more. "Didn't I tell you that nothing is going to happen tonight? I'm just there to get more information."

"Yeah, right!" Murdock spat. "And I'm supposed to believe that after all that tongue sucking I was forced to listen to last night!"

Face snorted again. "Well you won't be listening tonight! You know my methods, Murdock. You always have. Now that I've finally got a little of my confidence back, you suddenly turn into a green eyed monster. I was always this way – you either take it or leave it!"

"And that's it!" Murdock jumped off the bed, his anger forcing his long limbs to act; he stood challengingly in front of Peck, blocking his way, eyes flashing. "How stupid of me – I thought we had so much more than that! Silly me; thinking that I deserved a little loyalty from you!"

"Look Murdock, I don't want to fight. You're spitting on my suit! I'm going out with Lorelei and that's it – live with it!"

Murdock clenched his fists in frustration. "Lorelei!" he spat in disgust. "What sort of a name is that? I tell you what! Iit's a siren's name, that's what it is. A woman who tempts men to their doom!"

Peck snorted, shaking his head in disbelief and moving to the bath room. "We've been through this already. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time telling you – she said her father had a weird sense of humour!" He said dismissively, as he doused himself in aftershave. "And we're going to dinner – no boats involved!"

Murdock slumped on the bed and picked up the book he had left there. Clearing his throat he read out loud;

"I don't know what it could mean, Or why I'm so sad: I find, A fairy-tale, from times unseen, Won't vanish from my mind"

"Shut up Murdock!" Peck shouted from the bath room. "It's just a dull poem!"

"It's a warning that you're just too blind to see Templeton Peck! All right so it's been a long time since a woman came on to you, especially a beautiful one. It makes you feel young again. I understand that but…

"The air is cool and it darkens, And quiet flows the Rhine: The tops of the mountains sparkle, In evening's after-shine."

Peck's head appeared around the door frame, his handsome features masked with fury. "I said shut up Murdock! You're only doing this cos you're jealous! If you keep this up I just might sleep with her just to piss you off!"

It was a cheap shot and Face regretted it instantly as the pilot looked hurt and upset. Peck reached out his hand. "I'm sorry …"

But Murdock shook his head stubbornly, his voice cutting over the other man's feeble attempt at an apology.

"The loveliest of maidens, She's wonderful, sits there, Her golden jewels glisten, She combs her golden hair."

"Goddamn it Murdock!" Peck's anger overcame him. He stalked through the room towards the door. "I am going now!"

Murdock continued relentlessly;

"She combs it with a comb of gold, And sings a song as well: Its strangeness too is old, And casts a powerful spell."

Peck opened the door, his face glowering as he turned back to Murdock.

"It grips the boatman in his boat, With a wild pang of woe: He only looks up to the heights, Can't see the rocks below."

The door slammed and Peck was gone. Murdock chewed his hand nervously as he finished:

"The waves end by swallowing, The boat and its boatman, That's what, by her singing, The Lorelei has done."

The pilot let out a long animal groan.

"Oh Faceyman," he whispered sadly, "You don't know what you're doing, babe!" He snorted but then he pulled himself off the bed. "Well she might be dangerous but I can summon up my own monster. One that's a big, bad mudsucker!" As he spoke, he reached for the phone and dialled a number. "BA?" he said when the phone was picked up at the other end. "We need your help muchado..!"

"BA, watch this bit – it's really cool!"

"You've shown me it fifteen times already!" the big man growled. "And it ain't cool, wasn't cool the first time! Switch it off now, fool! I wanna watch the game's highlights!" But his voice was not as hard or as uncaring as it could have been.

He glanced at the clock – just gone 11.00. It was almost three hours since he had arrived in Murdock's hotel room. He had gotten the pilot's muddled phone call and come straight over, only stopping to pick up Amy on the way. BA had been growling ever since but that was just to hide the concern that he felt – over the year's the pilot had become gradually stronger as his broken psyche sought to mend, his inner strength exerting itself once more. Murdock had pulled himself together winning BA's undying admiration for the way he had re-built his life, even to the extent that he had dealt the best of them all with Hannibal's death. BA knew the pilot's recovery was in no small part due to the support he had found from Face; the conman knew the fragile nature of his lover's mind, which made his actions this night all the more inexplicable. BA again fought down the exasperated flush of anger that rushed through him. It was the same feeling he had felt on the phone hours previously – it was a long time since he had heard Murdock so distressed and torn apart. The big man resisted the urge to thump something; he would save his strength until Peck returned and he better have a damn good reason for screwing up the pilot again – if it was for his own selfish pleasure then BA was going to have to dish out his own particular brand of punishment. Flexing his muscles the big man satisfied himself by sending a frustrated glance toward Amy.

The reporter was sitting quietly on the chair close to the bathroom door, her glassy glance was towards the TV but she was seeing none of the exploits of Butch and Sundance that Murdock was showing them. She smiled sadly at BA, knowing that she shared his disquiet; his disbelief at what the sobbing Murdock had disclosed when they had first arrived. He was quieter now, seemingly engrossed in the cowboy film but his face was still pale, his eyes lacking their normal maniacal glint and his slender hands fiddling nervously with the remote.

"You need another drink, Murdock?" she asked.

The pilot smiled somewhat despondently. "I'm good," he responded. "You guys don't need to stay," he continued hesitantly, brushing at his thinning hair nervously. "I'll be OK – I was just a little …eh.. you know… but I'll be fine now. You guys got other things to do, I know."

BA snorted. "Other things taken care of. I ain't going nowhere, not till I find out what's going on with Faceman!"

"BA's right, Murdock," Amy agreed. "You were really upset – it's not fair that Face should get away with that. We all know that sometimes he's not the most selfless individual in the world but he's out of order this time."

BA slammed one of his big fists into the other. "Man gonna pay!" he growled.

"No," Murdock sighed. "He's got his reasons and they're good ones. He told me I knew what he was like when I got into this and I did. Hell, I've had thirty years to find out haven't I? It's not what he did to me that freaked me out, it's the position he's putting himself in. He's in danger; I can feel it and he won't listen to me."

"All the more reason for us to stay and talk to him too, then!" Amy pressed. "And I can make enquiries about this 'Lorelei' tomorrow at the paper."

"He's a good man," Murdock continued so softly it was difficult to hear his words. "He just needs to be loved, it's a desperate burning deep inside him that I thought I could satisfy but maybe it's too much for any one person. You know how deep he keeps it hidden but once in a while it sneaks out, wells to the surface and he can't keep the little boy inside controlled. Then he's more susceptible than the rest of us, and then he becomes more gullible than the greenest mark. Hannibal knew how to control it, how to keep him safe and I thought I could." He sighed sadly, shaking his head. "It's a long time since a beautiful woman came on to him, I should have guessed he wouldn't be able to resist it – his 'need-to-be-loved gene' is just too powerful."

"Murdock," Amy moved across the room gracefully and sat down on the bed, taking the pilot's hands in her own. "All you say is true and part of an explanation but you can't take the responsibility from him completely. Sure he had a bad childhood, sure he likes to be babied and loved but that does not excuse the fact that he made a commitment to you."

"But this is Face we are talking about!"

"Yes it is! And it's about time he grew up enough to live up to his responsibilities. I love him to bits but what he did to you tonight is just not fair. We, all of us, have allowed him to duck too much, maybe because he was doing it to other people but now he's doing it to you Murdock, one of our own and we won't, we can't, allow him to get away with it."

"She's right, Murdock," BA added. "Ain't that the reason why it took you thirty years to commit in the first place?"

Murdock smiled and squeezed Amy's hands tightly. "She is right but no, BA, you're not," he responded. "It took me thirty years cos I was scared it would turn out to be as good as I hoped it would."

Amy fixed him with a curious stare. "And was it?" she asked, unable to keep the journalist in her under wraps.

Murdock's smile was truly wicked. "Oh yes!" he breathed. "Better than even I imagined which is why I forgive him too much."

Amy was about to ask more but the throaty growl of a powerful engine pulling up outside the window and causing the flimsy motel walls to quiver silenced her.

BA threw a questioning glance at Murdock. "Ain't no rental," he murmured.

Murdock's smile widened even further. "Dodge Viper," he said. "Face rolled up in it earlier. God knows where he scammed it!"

BA shook his head as Amy smirked, "Another boy racer car – he is never going to grow up!" she muttered despairingly.

The click of the key in the lock was followed by the door opening and a greying blond head peering somewhat suspiciously into the room. "BA? Amy?" Face said. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Murdock was upset…" Amy began before BA butted in, cracking his knuckles and moving menacingly towards Peck. "You went out on a date, man! A date!"

Peck stepped back, gulping nervously and raising his hands. "It wasn't a date!" he started.

BA stopped and simply stared, his dark eyes running the length of the man in front of him, taking in the five hundred dollar suit, the expensive footwear, the flash of gold at his cuffs, and most damning of all, the smudge of bright red lipstick on Peck's left cheek.

"All right, I know that it may look that way!" Peck snapped. Catching a glimpse of his face in the mirror he belatedly tried to wipe away the evidence.

BA snorted. "Don't give me your jibber-jabber," he growled. "Known you long enough to know when you lying!" He took another step forward.

"I'm not lying!" Peck retorted, trying for a belligerent tone but stepping back towards the door just in case. "I was working!"

"Working!" BA's voice dripped with incredulity.

"Working?" Amy said.

"Working!" Face repeated more forcefully.

"At dinner with this 'Lorelei' woman?" Amy pressed.

Peck nodded, straightening his jacket, now going for indignation. "Of course – information is power, Amy!"

"And what about lipstick?"

Peck snorted. "For god's sake! I had to probe a little."

"Probe?" Amy repeated. "Would that be with your tongue then?"

Peck skewered her with his most withering stare. "Contrary to popular opinion," he began, somewhat haughtily. "I do not screw everything with a pulse that comes on to me!"

BA let out a growl and Amy held Peck's stare as she bit back. "Oh no? When did that particular change in strategy take place, then?"

"Funny!" Peck spat, his eyes flashing angrily.

Murdock had remained quietly sitting on the bed but now he lifted his hands and stood up, lips pursed as if trying to understand something of great complexity. "Quiet, children," he intoned, steepling his fingers together. "Please, quiet. We gain nothing from this. Instead maybe Templeton would like to share with us the nature of this information that he so altruistically risked everything for." It was said in such a bland tone that anyone who did not know the pilot would have been forgiven for thinking he felt no emotion over the situation but the three people in the room who knew him well understood what his brittle voice hid and could not help but be moved by it. All three looked at him sharply. "I'm waiting," he continued.

Peck gulped. "I… ah ..well.. she…" he stopped, his words stolen from him by the sheer intensity of the pilot's gaze. Only then did Peck truly begin to see what his earlier actions had cost his lover.

"I… ah …well.. she!" Murdock parroted. "Well that was worth destroying a relationship thirty years in the making, wasn't it?" He stood up, moved to the door but stopped in front of Peck.

"Murdock, I…"

"No!" again Murdock's voice was one of command, demanding attention. He gently placed his finger on Peck's lips. "I know the power of your golden tongue, Faceyman. I know you can talk your way out of this and I know that I will forgive you but allow me this pain for it's the only way I have to make you understand just how much you can hurt me by just doing what comes naturally to you." He moved outside.

BA stood up in a flurry of muscle and gold. "Fool needs a friend," he muttered as he followed Murdock out of the room.

Peck stood motionlessly for a whole minute. "You gonna leave me too?" he asked finally.

Amy sighed. "You probably deserve it," she said. "But BA can look after Murdock, I figure maybe I should stay here awhile."

Peck bit his lip and nodded. "I came back early," he began. "Not that it matters now but I didn't enjoy tonight. She was pretty all right and young and full of life but something wasn't right. I missed Murdock." He let out a long groan and sat down on the chair near the bathroom door.

Amy nodded. "You're telling the wrong person," she said. "Murdock needs to hear it."

Face ran his hand through his hair, leant forwards to rest his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. "I was going to but…" he shrugged impotently. Mumbling he looked down at the floor. "Doesn't really matter does it? I did go out with her, I did enjoy the fact that she found me attractive, I maybe even did want her."

"Of course it matters, Face! Christ you're not a saint. Murdock knows you. He'll forgive you."

"She made me feel like an old man. Out of place somehow, ancient … I …" he stopped again. His eyes were moist and wide as they came up to meet Amy's. "I didn't belong." He let out a dry, humourless chuckle. "All my life I've been trying to get into places like that with beautiful women, trying to be accepted. She could have been my ticket in there finally but in the end I didn't even have the balls to take it, to make my dream come true. Guess it's a sign that I really am a failure."

"Face!" Amy's voice was honeyed with genuine affection as she moved to envelope his miserable form in a compassionate embrace. "Maybe it's a sign that you're dreams have changed; that you're growing up!"

He snorted ruefully at that but accepted her support. She gently ran her hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his eyes. "It's about time," she said truthfully.

He nodded. "I didn't want to hurt Murdock. I never meant that."

"I know and he knows too. He's good for you Face and you're good for him."

"I can change; I can be what he wants me to be!" The blue eyes, ingenuous as a child's, were wide with pleading.

Amy shook her head. "He loves you for what you are, why is it so hard for you to believe that, Face? Stop living up to your own legend, you fool nobody except yourself. Accept that you're older, the things you needed in your youth, you do not need now. Accept that you have changed naturally through experience and age but most of all accept that Murdock will love you even though you have changed."

Peck sighed. They were silent for a time. "He'll be OK, won't he?" Face said finally.

"That rather depends on you, Face," Amy moved away. "He's given you his heart, that's very precious and you need to look after it."

Peck nodded. "Never had anybody's heart before, not truly, other things were always more important to people than me." He sighed again. "I wish he hadn't."

Amy smiled. "No you don't."

He matched her smile and doubled it. "OK, maybe not," he conceded. "But it sure makes things difficult!"

"Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, Face! Now come on tell me about this 'Lorelei' woman. Why was she following you?"

"Surely you're not conceding that I did get some useful information this evening?" his eyes twinkled mischievously. "That my whole night wasn't spent in pure hedonistic self satisfaction?"

She smiled, allowing him his small victory – it was but a small price to pay. "I know you Face," she said, shamelessly soothing his wounded ego a little more. "You're a smooth operator and you never give up until you've got what you want. So spill!"

TBC

Authors Notes: LORELEI: According to German legend, there was once a beautiful young maiden, named Lorelei, who threw herself headlong into the river in despair over a faithless lover. Upon her death she was transformed into a siren and could from that time on be heard singing on a rock along the Rhine River, near St. Goar. Her hypnotic music lured sailors to their death. The legend is based on an echoing rock with that name near Sankt Goarshausen, Germany. The translation of the myth used here is Heine's "Die Lorelay" edited by Grey Star.

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID: Murdock's fixation film referred to is the 1969 George Roy Hill film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. (Also appearing in it was Strother Martin who starred in the 1973 film SSSSSSS with a certain Dirk Benedict – small world innit?) I have asked no-body's permission to refer to this film and hope no-body is going to sue me!