Part 2
Amy was awoken from her stupor with the sound of an explosion outside and a commotion from the angry Mexican capturers. How long had she been unconscious? Suddenly the door opened and light shone in so bright that Amy had to squint her eyes because of the brightness. A figure entered the lockup, it seemed like a black shadow against the light.
"Amy!" the voice shouted.
She recognised the voice.
"Face?" Amy said in astonishment. Her voice was hoarse from a dry throat and lack of speech. She could feel tears well in her eyes. They were tears of hope.
"You alright, Amy?" as he bent down to untied her hands he flashed her his smile. It hadn't changed. She put her arms around him and held him so tight, in relief. 'Thank you' she thought.
"Please, untie Amanda now, I can do my feet."
"Who?" Face hadn't noticed the young woman opposite Amy, who was also drowsy from dehydration.
"Amanda, she's my daughter". Amy pointed in her direction. "I think she needs water."
'Amy had a daughter?' He thought. Face in a little state of shock, slung his automatic rifle over his left arm, grabbed the girl and put her in a fireman's lift over his right shoulder and tried to support a weak Amy through the door. Right outside was an army green jeep, with its canopy over it. They climbed into the back and Amy instantly noticed BA in the driving seat.
"Murdock! Now!" Face shouted. And within seconds, an explosion was triggered off in one of the far buildings; Murdock appeared from his cover of another vehicle and jumped into the back of the jeep too.
"Put your foot down Big Guy," he confirmed he was ready to depart.
Face threw Amy a bottle of water. "Here, you two probably need this" and then turned to look back out the jeep ready to fire his automatic rifle.
Amy took one large gulp, quenching her thirst and then passed the water to the young woman, Amanda, who needed it most. She was absolutely dumbfounded; she really didn't know what to say.
"How'd you…?"
"Later, Amy, we'll talk later!"
BA put his foot down and the jeep sped away being followed in hot pursuit by the Mexican renegades. There was so much commotion, men jumping into jeeps, the dust and noise, gunfire and explosions. It looked like chaos from out of the back of the jeep.
She looked at the three men she'd last seen nearly twenty years ago. They had aged, Murdock had maybe put on a little bit of weight and his hair was a little shorter, with flecks of grey, what hair he had left, she couldn't quite tell because he was still wearing a baseball cap and a leather flying jacket, but it was a different jacket. BA had lost the Mohawk; instead his hair was closely shaved all over. Again there were flecks of white. He still had his beard, but it was trimmer, sort of what was in fashion nowadays. He wore slightly less gold on around his neck. And Face, his hair was shorter but the same colour, with only a small amount of distinguishing grey in the sides. Like the others, he had more age lines in his face, but he was still incredibly handsome. If anything he'd changed the least.
"WAIT!" Amy shouted. It suddenly dawned on her that there was someone missing! BA almost put the brakes on but apparently thought better of it, with the enemy closely pursuing. "Where's Hannibal?"
Face looked at her. Murdock looked at her; BA glanced back but then put his eyes back onto the dirt track road. She didn't know.
"He died, Amy." Murdock was the first to speak, "sometime ago." He looked at her with his puppy dog eyes look and put his hand on her knee as if to say but we're all right.
Amy was speechless. The Colonel was dead? She opened her mouth as she was about to ask how, what, where and when, but Face chipped in.
"Can we explain this later?"
"But he's with us Amy, always with us, in spirit. He was only telling me the other day..."
"Murdock, you crazy fool, if I have to tell you one more time, he ain't with us in spirit you mudsucker. I'm gonna feed you my fist, man!" BA growled. The jeep was driving at great speed on a very bumpy dirt track road and it's 5 passengers where being shaken about inside of it.
"See, Murdock, now look what you've gone and done" Face smirked at Murdock.
"And you Faceman, I told you no plane!" BA argued still concentrating on the road in front.
"BA if we'd driven here, Amy might have been dead already. We couldn't take that gamble, I thought I'd explained this to you."
"You didn't even ask me fool. I would've got on a plane, if that fool weren't flying it!"
The bickering had started. The three of them were squabbling like school children again! Amy and Amanda watched in silence but for only a short while.
"Will you guys just knock it off!" Amy shouted, firmly butting in between them. Positioning herself right between Murdock and Face and gave a disapproving look to BA, as if the schoolteacher had just come across the playground to split them up.
The three of them looked at each other. Face even winked at Murdock and Murdock grinned back. BA gave his giggle briefly in the front of the jeep, still concentrating on the road ahead. They were all thinking 'yeah that's Amy all right, she hasn't changed'.
Amy use to be the one that got in the middle of the bickering and split them up. Mainly because she used to get pretty fed up by three grown men squabbling like children and Hannibal would just sit in the van chuckling at them, like it was some sort of entertainment. But weren't they supposed to be friends? Sometimes she just got in there quick enough before it just kicked off. She was never quite sure if it could really get serious sometimes.
The silence was very quickly cut with an explosion right outside the jeep, making them get thrown about inside the jeep.
"Shit, that was close" Face quickly reacted, positioning himself at the back of the jeep and started firing. Murdock jumped into the passenger seat, stuck his head out of the window and started firing his rifle too.
"Amanda, stay right back and stay low," Amy shouted at her. "Don't move, you hear me?" Amanda nodded.
Amy joined Face at the back of the jeep, where a wooden box of grenades was ready for her. There were about twenty in the box.
"Use them wisely, kid," Face grinned.
'Still calling me kid after all this time' Amy thought to herself and took one out of the box pulled the pin and threw it, but not very well. It exploded a little closer to them than they'd liked. Face and Amy ducked down behind the tail of the jeep.
"You're supposed to be aiming for the bad guys behind us!" Face said sarcastically and pointed to the closely pursuing vehicles.
"Give me a break, Face, it's been nearly twenty years since I threw one these things." But she was determined not to let them down. She picked up another grenade, waited patiently for the following vehicle to be in a better position.
"Do I get four or five seconds? Remind me?" she said winking at Face. She pulled the pin and threw the grenade not waiting for the answer. It exploded right under the wheel of the pursuing jeep. The jeep lurched up in the air, rolling over and came crashing down at the side of the road, upside down. The dazed passengers of the vehicle quickly departed their mode of travel before it exploded!
"Yes!" Pulling her fist from the air and smiling at Face.
It wasn't long before they'd eliminated their pursuers and before more could catch up, BA turned off the road and parked it behind some cover of undergrowth. The jeep being the camouflage green wasn't going to be easy to spot but BA and Murdock quickly jumped out anyway and covered the vehicle with branches and camouflage they'd set up earlier that morning and then jumped back into their seats in the jeep.
"Right everybody, lets just sit tight for a minute," Face said to the group. He was in command now. The Lieutenant. He made the orders.
"You don't know how glad I am to see you guys," Amy said with an air of relief in her voice. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." She hugged each of them the best she could in the back of a jeep. It had been too long since she'd last seen them and was so glad to be with them now. She really didn't know how to show it.
"But Hannibal dead, how? Was it in on a mission? What? Tell me you guys!"
"He died of cancer," Face replied. "But you know Hannibal, he wasn't going to let some doctor prod him with needles and give him drugs that would make him live longer, but affect his quality of life. He was on the jazz and he wanted it to stay that way. So he didn't tell us. And was taken from us quite suddenly really". Face sighed. It was probably best Hannibal had done what he'd done. A cure wasn't guaranteed. The cancer had spread apparently and within a couple of months he'd deteriorated rapidly. And to go through chemotherapy just to live a bit longer, but not necessarily be "better" wasn't the way Hannibal had intended to die. He wanted to live by the jazz and die by it.
"When did he die?"
"Eight years ago now. September 1995," Murdock said sadly. BA sat quietly in the front seat of the jeep.
"Eight years!" Amy was stunned. "Why didn't you guys tell me? Why didn't you let me know?" Amy looked at Face as she asked the last part to her questions.
"I tried to get hold of you, for the funeral, but I seemed to come across a dead end. I left messages at the LA Courier for you," Face lied. He hadn't really tried that hard at all. He hadn't been sure, even back then, if he really wanted to see Amy. She'd left a hole in his life. But he realised now, as he looked at her sad face, that he should have tried to find her, she would have wanted to pay her respects to the Colonel. The guys, especially Face, over the years had kept an eye out in the media for Amy, mainly out of interest and to make sure she was doing OK. Amy hadn't worked at the LA Courier for years, she'd gone freelance and Face should have known that but she wasn't going to raise it.
"Yeah and Stockwell" BA growled "that mudsucker had only just given us our pardons before Hannibal had died. He didn't get much of a life, feeling free."
"mmm…Stockwell? You're gonna have to update me on that one? I got snippets, but that's why at one point I really did think you guys were dead!"
The team fell silent. Amy wasn't sure if they were listening for vehicles or signals of the bad guys approaching. But she decided to keep the conversation going, they'd soon tell her to shut up if they needed to.
"Well you guys are looking great."
"Hey, you're not looking so bad yourself, sweetheart," Murdock winked at her in his way.
Amy still had her figure, her hair was still shoulder length, without a hint of grey, thanks to hair colourings today, but like the others age lines showed in her face. But she was still pretty.
"Gosh, I think I need a good shower and some clean clothes, I feel like crap!"
"Its taken Face a few years to get over the fact he's over 50!" BA sniggered. "He's dealing with it better now!"
"That's fine coming from you BA!" Face responded.
"So have you guys retired, as the A Team I mean, or still doing jobs? Have you married, I mean settled down, now you're free so to speak?"
"Well, none of us are married! I mean, Amy, imagine Face married?" Murdock was the first to reply and chuckled with his comments. Face threw him a dirty look.
"So you still haven't changed then?" Amy teased Face, but before he could respond, Murdock carried on.
"We got the pardons a couple of months before Hannibal got sick, we were thinking of carrying on but had to give up any jobs once he became ill. And then well, it didn't quite seem the same without the Colonel. Almost like the Jazz had died with him, so we decided to properly retire after Hannibal's funeral. Admittedly we had been starting to think about hanging up the capes before he died, we weren't exactly getting any younger."
"Ah man, capes? Here we go again!" BA rolled his eyes. "We're not superheroes, you crazy fool!"
"And Stockwell knew we weren't getting any younger, heck he was getting old too! So luckily we weren't on many missions before Hannibal died." Face added. "Also when you become the right side of the law, it doesn't become so appealing to keep breaking it."
"Face, you're always breaking the law" BA growled again.
"Yeah, it really wasn't funny, the bad guys didn't seem to be getting older, and we were." Murdock added, before Face could respond to BA's comment.
"And then when BA couldn't even hold his own, we knew we really were in trouble." Face turned and thumbed a point at BA.
"I can hold my own sucker!"
"Really? What about that time in…"
"Face, you were losing your touch!"
"Guys, guys! Not now, plleeeaase!" Amy interjected and separated them again. There was silence between them briefly.
"Anyway, what about you, Amy? Pretty daughter here, must have a dad?" Face was intrigued; he hadn't spotted a wedding ring on Amy's hand. He winked at the pretty young woman. Amanda smiled back, still silently watching the four of them catch up on old times. She was still feeling sick from the dehydration, but the water that she was slowly drinking was gradually bringing her back to her senses.
"Oh, I never married. Never quite found someone to fit the bill." Amy fidgeted uneasily and laughed trying to make a joke of it. "And besides I was always moving around with my job." Amy had found it hard to find someone anywhere near the four guys she'd hung around with for just eighteen months of her life. They'd either not been strong enough, clever enough, crazy enough or as handsome. No one had ever come close.
"Dad run out on Mom, when I was little, I don't even remember him." Amanda felt she'd chip in, she was starting to feel better and she'd been listening intently. "I'm nineteen in a couple of months." Amy could see all of a sudden Face doing the math. After all he was good with figures! Numbers as well as the feminine kind! He starred at Amy and then looked back at Amanda. She couldn't quite reach to kick Amanda to her shut up, especially without it looking obvious.
"Amanda, the guys don't need to know about this now."
"Hey we've got plenty of time! We're not moving from here yet…go on, kid." Face was intrigued to hear the young woman's story.
"It's been me and Mom since I can remember. Mom doesn't say much about my dad really," Amanda continued. "But she was always telling me when I was little that I have my father's eyes." Shit Amy thought! Amanda was probably unaware that she'd put her size five's right in it!
Face looked at her face and although it was wearing a black eye and a split lip that would heal, her face was pretty. She was pretty like her mother he thought, but there was something familiar about her face. He looked straight into her eyes and starring right back at him were these beautifully bright blue eyes. His eyes. She even had his hair colouring. He turned and looked at Amy. She could see in his face he'd worked it out and he wasn't happy but he held it together. She tried to smile at him as if to say, I was going to tell you. Could Murdock & BA see what he saw? Amy thought. Did they know why she had really left 19 years ago?
"Mom wants me to go to college in LA, so we were supposed to be coming home, until we got in some trouble. She's told me so much about you guys," Amanda continued unaware of her blunder.
"All good I hope," Murdock smiled at her.
"Oh yeah, she told me how great you all are and some of the amazing scams you've pulled off. Murdock's the crazy one but can fly anything," She looked at Murdock and then to Face. "Face was the scammer, pretty much con anything out of anyone," Face gave her a concerned smile, "That's Moms words, not mine!" She added as she saw his expression. "BA just was a genius with machines and Hannibal with his plans! And how Hannibal was always on the jazz! I'm so glad I've got to meet you all. Shame about Hannibal though, would have loved to have met him," Amanda was excited now, talking to the actual guys her Mom had told her all about over the years, almost as if she was now on the jazz.
Face sat there silently in the back of the jeep listening intently to Amanda, but he was staring at Amy, almost like he was burning holes into her skin. Amy could tell he was furious; anger was building beneath his skin. But to the rest of the team, he was hiding it well.
How long they'd all been sitting chatting, was anyone's guess. With a nod from Face, Murdock looked out the window of the jeep, jumped out and went to take a look around. He promptly returned
"Hey Faceman, I think it's clear maybe we should make a move".
BA started the jeep and drove them off down the dirt track road. They travelled pretty much in silence except for Murdock's singing.