Authors' Notes: Some good news! We're back on schedule so we'll be posting up chapters sooner now. The next part is wrapped up and we'll be starting on a side story featuring our two favorite Captains, namely Murdock and Charissa. It will be a friendship situation only so don't worry all you Face/Charissa fans she's not leaving our dashing hero for the Crazy Pilot we promise.

Now for this chapter things get a bit hairy for everyone.

It was almost dawn when she and B.A. made it back up to the rooms. She was tired, angry and still reeling from earlier. She was beginning to remember bits and pieces of her and Face's drunken adventures, it was however like trying to fit a puzzle together. She remembered them being oddly very serious at the alter despite the fact they were being married by a very overweight Elvis impersonator and the fact he had cried and she hadn't… but they had been drunk so none of that mattered, right? She shoved the card key into the door of the hotel room and slowly walked inside, trying to be quiet so she wouldn't wake anyone.

Face and Murdock were passed out over Hannibal's bed; the Colonel was watching a movie with the closed-captioning on and the audio on silent. He looked up when he heard the door open and nodded at them, "Good morning. It's four o'clock, where have you been? These two - " He poked Murdock in the foot with his remote, the pilot snorted in his sleep, "-have been back since midnight."

She just about jumped as Hannibal's voice broke the silence in the dimly lit room, "Give me a heartattack. Damn it Hannibal." She sat down on a chair and sighed, "Dancing… and trying to keep the creep from getting too hands on." She muttered eying Face, glad he was asleep, "I feel like he's getting suspicious. I made a call for the warrant though, I need to go pick it up at the desk later." She stretched a little and rubbed her neck, "Everything going okay on their end?"

Hannibal nodded in confirmation, "Face picked up a new suit - said he wrecked the old one in a fight with someone who didn't know when to stop." He smiled wryly, "Murdock is still surprised that they let it pass. He seems to be getting good with the old boys."

B.A. arched a brow, "Sounds like fun." He grunted and kept shooting glares at Charissa, it was obvious something had happened on their end that wasn't very good, "I'm gonna get some shut eye." He gave the Captain a hard stare, "And if you don't tell him, I will. I mean it Girl." He warned before he left the room and went next door to his own.

Charissa swallowed hard and studied Face for a moment as he lay there sleeping peacefully and then slowly looked back at Hannibal, her eyes full of guilt and something else rarely seen in her expression, fear.

Hannibal slowly shut off the movie, turning to face her, calm and collected,"So." he said, in a quiet, parental voice, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

She shifted uncomfortably for a moment or two, her eyes lowering to the floor and then back up again, "Other than I'm in over my head? Not much, oh and if B.A. hadn't noticed that Mugsy and I were no longer on the dance floor at one point I'd probably not be in this room right now and instead be tied to the asshole's bed." She turned a little in her chair and showed Hannibal the bruises that were already blossoming across her right arm.

Hannibal bristled slightly, but kept it under control. As far as he was concerned, Captain Sosa was practically a member of his team - and his team looked out for one another, "Well, I'm glad we finished all right." he said, slowly, "And...so you have a warrent to pick up and an arrest to make today?"

She began to try to remember if she had brought anything long sleeved to wear since she'd have to hide her arm from Face and hoped it was a possible feat. She nodded slowly, "Yup." She said simply and stood slowly, "I need to go see if I have something long sleeved and try to get some rest." She looked at Face for a moment and then back at Hannibal, "Please don't tell him. I don't want him to do something stupid." She hugged herself a moment, wincing as she accidently touched one of the bruises on her arm.

"I don't want him to do it any more than you do." Hannibal raised an eyebrow, "You should go put something cold on those. Maybe take something out of the mini-freezer. Go on." He gently touched her shoulder reassuringly.

She nodded slowly and did as suggested and sighed at how good it felt, "Thank you." She smiled sagely, "I'll see you soon." She promised left the room going down two to the very empty suddenly large hotel room that she had been sharing with Face and crashed for a few hours.

When Face and Murdock finally woke up, a few hours later, Hannibal had ordered breakfast. The Colonel himself had drawn the curtains shut and was taking a brief nap on the other bed, pillows set up to block the light.

Face sighed, stretched, went to wash and left Murdock to sort out breakfast for them.

Charissa slowly woke, she had slept well despite everything and stretched a little as she sat up discovering she hurt in a lot more places than just her arm now as she crept from the bed and eyed her arm in the mirror with a sigh, it looked bad. Her entire upper arm was spotted with blue, purple, red and black. She touched the bruises lightly and winced before going to take a shower. The water felt good as she leaned back into it, turning it just a tad warmer.

After they'd eaten and gotten dressed again, Face and Murdock headed down to their own room, leaving Hannibal asleep on his bed and B.A. off busy with something else.

Face was surprised to find Charissa in their room,"I would've thought you'd go to arrest the guy by now." He said, leaning against the bed, watching her fix her hair, "Mind you, it's not even ten yet..."

She looked up, the brush she was pulling through her hair freezing mid stroke, "I just need to get dressed and I'm going to go pick up the warrant." She informed him as she turned, careful to keep the right arm of her robe down so it didn't flash any of the bruises. She resumed brushing her hair out and then stood and went to the small closet like alcove in the room and pulled out a pair of pants and a long sleeved dress shirt in powder blue.

"All right." Face shrugged, "Listen, Murdock and I have to report back to the Old Boys." he rolled his shoulders back then stood up. "We're going to meet back with Hannibal around...three pm today? Then we're going to split town in the evening so they don't have a chance to find out who we really are. Even though I don't think the mafia would turn us in to the feds, you don't know if the feds are watching the mafia and wondering if we're starting to actually work for them."

Normally she wasn't overly modest around him. She had no issue parading around in her underwear and bra in front of him and even at times did it on purpose just to get what she wanted out of him. But she kept the robe on as she slipped her pants on and turned nodding, "Right… but what about our little problem?" She turned so her right side wasn't visible to him as she removed the robe and began to put her shirt on, wincing a little at how difficult it was.

"What about it? It was a Vegas wedding, Charissa, nobody has to know about it, and it's not like we're gonna marry anybody else so...just say, we married our friendship or something, whatever helps you sleep better at night." He shrugged, turning his back to her as she dressed.

She blinked, he was acting weird… once she got her shirt on and done up she walked over to him, "Okay Face, what's wrong?" She folded her arms, her tone and demeanor very serious as she looked at him with worry in her eyes.

"Nothing." He turned and looked at her, over his shoulder. His expression was blank, "I just...I just want this to be over with, you know? I didn't want things to turn out like this. I'm not saying we're trouble, Charissa, but every time we bump into you somewhere, shit happens and we all get hurt. Why can't we have some kind of normal disfunctional relationship and fight about, I don't know, whether or not IKEA counts as actual furniture?"

She stared at him, her heart stopping for a moment. Her eyes closed for a minute and she took a very deep breath, trying to remain calm, "I'm sorry… " Her jaw was tight as she licked her lips, " but like you said once we're not normal. Our circumstances aren't normal."

He turned around fast, his hands on her upper arms, squeezing, not knowing of her bruises, "We should go someplace in Europe. Small-town. Just a little get away. Not the team, not anybody else, nobody, just you and me and some time to just do stuff and think about things and - are - are you okay?"

She hissed in pain as he gripped her upper arms, "No… my arm, damn it." She shut her eyes tightly her features expressing the sudden pain she was in, "My right arm… it's a little banged up…" She turned her head away from him as she opened her eyes.

"Oh...ah I'm sorry." Face winced a little, letting go. "But listen, what I said, think about that, okay? Give it some thought today and we'll see you tonight." Murdock was waiting at the door as the con-man walked out with him.

"It's okay… and I will," For some reason she suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, "I'm very much for the idea." She admitted as she watched him, "Tonight then." She nodded and gave Murdock a brief weary look, "Face, be safe." Her tone expressed her worry.

"I will." Face smiled back at her before he closed the door. They headed down the hallway, then to the elevator.

"You know today's the most dangerous part of the mission." Murdock said in a quiet, low voice.

"I know."

It's a nice thought, but don't count on it Faceman... not for a while anyways.

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