Face would have loved nothing more than to get straight up drunk but he also knew it would have been next to impossible with Hannibal and Maggie watching over his every move. Sometimes it just didn't pay to have friends that cared. Maybe that's why Stockwell lived such a solitary life, he thought as he slid into the large bed alone in his room. But, he had Gloria now and she was pregnant which brought up another problem. He was going to have to make an honest woman out of her eventually and for her own safety, it would probably be better to do it sooner rather than later. Having already asked for her hand in marriage, they just had to set the date and pick the place. They'd been though so much together so he'd want to make it special for her. As he feel asleep with the plans he had in his head, he decided that tomorrow, he'd finally set them in motion.

Everyone was elated to find Face in a much better mood the next morning. As they ate breakfast together, he was not only talkative but charismatic as well and Hannibal realized how much he missed that side of his former Lieutenant.

"So," Hannibal said as they got ready to head over to the hospital. "Who are you and what have you done with Face?"

Face tossed the colonel a look before breaking into a smirk. "I admit, I haven't exactly been the easiest man to live with lately."

"Wow!" Hannibal replied with raised eyebrows. "You admit it! Alright, now I know something's going on! What gives?"

"Nothing," Face said amicably. "I just gave everything some thought last night and I reached a couple of conclusions about my life that I didn't necessarily like and I've decided to make some positive changes."

"Really," Hannibal said as Face nodded. "Well that's great, kid. I'm proud of you."

"You don't even know what those changes are yet," Face said with a laugh.

"I don't need to," Hannibal replied evenly. "Just as long as you keep up this attitude, I'll be happy!"

"I'll do my best," Face said following Hannibal out of the suite.

The ables and BA had already gone with Ellen and Maggie downstairs as Face and Hannibal got into the elevator together. "By the way," Face said with a wiry grin. "Once Murdock's released, I thought we could all take a trip. You know, we've been going full steam for a while and I think some down time would do us all some good."

"What did you have in mind?"

"I hear Aspen is beautiful this time of year," Face said with a shrug. "And, they got some great little wedding chapel's."

"Yeah, who'd need that?" Hannibal asked absently as Face chuckled.

"Me and Gloria of course," Face said as it slowly dawned on the colonel what Face had been trying to tell him. "But, don't say anything to anyone else, I don't want it getting back to her. I want it to be a surprise when we get there."

"Sure, kid," Hannibal replied with a broad smile. "Your secret is safe with me."

"Thanks, Hannibal," Face said stepping out of the elevator. Once again, he was surrounded by Stockwell's ables before being swiftly escorted to the heavily window tented car for the ride over the hospital.

"All this security is crazy, Faceman," BA groused. "We always took care ourselves. Don't need no fancy guards!"

"We know, BA," Hannibal said with a knowing smile. "But, this is the way Stockwell's people are used to doing things so we just got to go along with it."

"For now anyway," Face said quietly staring off into the distance. As much as he wanted things to be simpler, he knew that as long as he continued being the head of the EIA, this was going to be a new normal and not just for him but for all of them.

Arriving at the hospital, Maggie got a quick update from the medical staff about Murdock's condition before they went up to the critical care ward. "O'Fallon has already started bringing down the level of sedation and he expects Murdock will wake up sometime today," she said as the elevator came to a stop. "He won't remove the respirator until he makes sure Murdock's breathing on his own."

"We can expect that he will right?" Face asked meeting Maggie's eyes. "I mean, there isn't any reason to believe that he won't be able to breathe on his own?"

"There isn't," Maggie replied with a reassuring nod. "I fully expect that he'll recover from this injury, Face."

"Good," Face said relived. "That's real good."

Ellen nodded as they stepped silently into Murdock's room. Face hung back as his sister took a seat next to her husband and wrapped her hand around his while Maggie looked over the readings of the various medical equipment. "He doesn't look any different from last night," Ellen said looking up as Maggie smiled.

"He may not but he might be able to hear us now that he's not so heavily sedated," she said encouragingly. "You could try talking to him."

Ellen smiled as she brush a few stray hairs from Murdock's forehead before squeezing his hand. "Templeton misses his daddy very much," she said, her voice cracking with emotion as she directed her words directly to Murdock. "And, so do I."

Face squeezed Ellen's shoulders in support as she continued to hold Murdock's hand. Suddenly drawing in a sharp breath, she turned to Face. "Did you see that?"

"What?" he asked looking at Maggie who only shrugged.

"He squeezed my hand!" Ellen said excitedly.