Face wasn't angry as he travelled down the stairs and out the front door; Face was beside himself.
The voices in his head following him all the way down the hill to the lake front. "No!" "Stop!" "Please." He kneeled before the water and put his head in his hands.
He heard them walking toward him; B.A.'s gold announcing their arrival. Face began to unbutton his shirt. The asked him a question, and now he would show them the answer.
He stood and faced his friends, letting his shirt hang open revealing the damage that had been done. "You want to know what happened on my date, well take a good look."
Hannibal, Murdock and B.A. stared at Face in horror. Deep scratches, bite-marks and dark bruises covered his torso. But Face could also see fear in their eyes; fear of finding out what he had done. And that's what made it hurt twice as badly.
"Not too pretty, is it?" he asked sadly, looking down at himself. "It seems the more I said 'no' the angrier she got." Face looked back up at the men before him. "So, to answer your question, no, I didn't force her." He started to shake slightly as he added, "she forced me."
Face started walking back up toward the cabin. He turned his head back and said, "Why couldn't you just leave it alone?"
Nobody said a word; they just hung their heads in shame and waited until he was out of earshot.
"What have we done?" Hannibal asked.
"We messed up bad this time, Hannibal," B.A. said.
"It's like we violated him all over again." Murdock threw his cap to the ground in disgust. "We're supposed to be his family…how could we do that to him? "
"What we gonna do now?"
"We're going to help him through this the best way we can." Hannibal watched the door slam shut behind Face. "I just hope he lets us after today."
Hannibal paced back and forth in front of Face's bedroom door. Every couple of minutes he would put his hand on the doorknob, only to pull it off and start pacing again.
He wanted to talk to Face and to apologize, but how does one say I'm sorry for accusing a person of something like that? There were no words…or at least not any that he could put together at the moment.
Hannibal finally decided to sleep on it…that is if he could actually sleep. In any case, he needed more time to think and Face probably needed some space. Hannibal put his hand on the door and whispered, "Good night, kid," before heading off to his own room.
Face could hear somebody walking back and forth out in the hallway. He could tell it was Hannibal by the pacing of the steps. He considered getting up off the bed and opening the door, but lacked the energy. Besides, what would be the point? It wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't change what had happened to him and it wouldn't change what the team thought of him.
Face's initial reaction was anger when he had been asked if he forced her to have sex. How dare they ask him that?
Anger quickly gave way to sadness and disappointment. Instead of 'how dare they ask him that', he was wondering how they could think he was even capable of such an act.
He'd be the first to admit he was a ladies' man and had seen his fair share of action over the years. That being said, he didn't sleep with every woman he dated and he certainly would never force anybody to do anything. After what he had experienced in Nam, he could never do to another human being what had been done to him. How could they not know that?
Face tried putting himself in their shoes; what would he think if he were one of the guys observing his recent behavior? If he had seen the scratches and bruises or the way he reacted at the store, what would he have concluded? Never in a million years would he have figured out the truth…so why should he expect his friends to have done so?
Face realized that Hannibal, Murdock and B.A. were only acting in response to the evidence before them. And while this didn't take all the hurt away, it helped bring it down to a bearable level.
Now all he had to do was get them to move on and forget that any of this ever happened. It wouldn't be easy but, after all, he was a con-man. And tomorrow morning would begin the toughest con of his life.
TBC…