Reflected Faces
Disclaimer: If you recognize it then I don't own it.
A/N: For Whumptober 2023 #20 "People don't change people, time does." Found Family
Templeton Peck grew up an orphan. He had no family, at least not one that he could remember. He never really fit in or felt like he belonged anywhere. He spent a lot of time looking into the front windows of the houses he'd pass and seeing happy families through the glass as his own lonely face reflected back at him. He didn't like being alone.
That is why he started regularly changing his face, just for the illusion of belonging, no matter how brief it lasted. He learned to change his mannerisms and personality at will. If someone didn't seem to like him then he would just become a different person. Adjusting himself to the people around him became so natural, so second nature, that he didn't always notice himself changing to fit the situation around him.
He easily learned how to manipulate people to get what he wanted. A charming smile here, a pleading look there, and topped off with a beautiful innocent-looking face and he could have practically everything his little heart desired.
Not to say it kept him out of trouble. If anything his incredible skill sets landed him into more trouble than usual. Most times they allowed him to weasel back out of the fire before he got burned. But not always, sometimes he found more trouble than he could handle. Bullies who didn't like his smart mouth, prospective parents who couldn't stand his mischievous and sometimes conniving antics, romantic partners who never stayed, or supposed friends who only pretended to like him long enough to use him to get what they wanted.
That is when his impeccable and impenetrable mask was added to his skill set. Not only could he change who he appeared to be but he could also hide who he really was. Nobody could hurt him, not really, because nobody got to see the real Templeton Peck. Hidden beneath layers of personas and misdirection he protected his battered heart for years. He could get people to spill their deepest darkest secrets with only a few words but he never really opened up himself. He could talk until he was hoarse but never said anything of any meaning. He could be friendly with anyone, putting people at ease with only a smile, but he had no real friends. he could be surrounded by a sea of people but be completely and utterly alone. He told himself that he liked it that way, the distance from others was for the best. He couldn't ever get hurt if nobody ever got close. He enjoyed being alone. He didn't need anybody. He was fine. He didn't believe his own lies as easily as others believed his lying words.
When he entered the Army it was just like another orphanage. It was an institution full of rules and expectations. Both were almost like a family, they taught you, took care of you if sick or hurt, provided food and clothes. but lacked the true form of an actual family. Or so he'd heard, he never really had a real family to compare it to. In the military and growing up as an orphan he had to do what was asked by the powers that be or face punishment. Nobody really wanted to be there but most had nowhere else to go or had been forced there against their wills. There was no mother to dry his tears or father to give advice. Only fellow brothers that he couldn't trust with his heart.
War was hell but so was not having a family.
He turned out to be an unconventional but still a rather effective soldier, as he placed a new mask, which the military helped create, over his face. He could procure almost anything from anywhere as he made connections but not friends, never friends. New skills were added to his arsenal as he became a weapon of war. He could shoot a gun and kill with the best of them.
He had been alone for so long he didn't even know if he knew how to open up and be the real him even if he found somebody that would accept him for who he really was. He had been so many different people for so long that he wasn't sure if he would ever recognize himself in the mirror. Maybe at this point, he didn't even want to anymore.
He saw himself reflected not in a mirror but in the faces of three men. He met a crazy pilot who could be just as many different people as him, a driver with a bad attitude who protected his heart as fiercely from hurt as he did himself, and a Colonel, full of jazz, who had put on just as many new faces over the years as Templeton Peck did.
He found himself in the name Face as he became part of the A-Team. His new team didn't seem to mind his cons or his ever-changing nature. In fact, they valued it as part of who he was. And when something inevitably went wrong with one of his schemes they were right there to help bail him out of trouble even if it was trouble he could have easily avoided. Murdock liked to play along, BA watched their backs with ready fists and Hannibal always had a plan to get them out of trouble. They didn't force him to be one way or make him feel like he really had to change to fit them. He did sometimes just because it was second nature and as easy for him as breathing but they always met him halfway, never making him feel like he wasn't wanted. He could joke and tease with them one minute or cry and rage the next. They never held his vulnerability against him and he never took advantage of any of their own. They had become close. They were more than a team they were friends. They fought and disagreed sometimes but they never abandoned each other. Slowly felt his heart start to open for the first time in years. He had friends he could trust.
Somehow through the broken pieces of himself, he had found a place to belong. He had found his family, maybe not the one he had imagined, and had searched for in strangers' windows his whole life, but something even better. His heart had found a home.