A Mother's Love - Part Two
Sep. 20th, 2011 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_angelsFace's life is turned upside down when a woman claiming to be his mother makes contact with the team. Hannibal/Face, warning for M/M explicit sexual situations.
_____________________
“A mother's love is instinctual, unconditional, and forever.”
- unknown
Hannibal watched until she was out of sight and then lifted his coffee cup to hide his mouth as he spoke, “You coming over here, BA?”
The waiter came by to ask if Hannibal wanted more coffee, he declined but ordered a glass of cold milk and asked for the bill.
“Oh, it’s fine sir,” the waiter told him. “The lady you were with left more than enough to cover the coffee and the milk, could bring you a whole plate of Danish pastries as well if you want?”
Shaking his head, Hannibal managed to damp down his frown and thanked him, looking up as BA; his own forehead creased in thought, came in and slid into the seat recently vacated by Adele.
“Well?” Hannibal asked after BA had had a mouthful of milk.
BA shook his head, “Well, it sure is a bolt from the blue, Hannibal, but,” he looked up, his dark eyes full of compassion, “how desperate must she have been to have to leave her little baby like that, huh?”
Hannibal looked out across the road. He didn’t know how to answer that question, the truth was she hadn’t said she was desperate at all; ‘a change of circumstance’ was how she had described it. Hell, that could have been anything, anything at all. Did it really warrant leaving her dependent child with strangers like that? Abandoning him at the door of an orphanage in the middle of the night – how could anything justify that?
“I don’t know BA; she was hardly forthcoming with her reasons.”
“It’s private man!” BA responded, wiping his milk moustache away. “She’ll tell Face, aint nothing to do with us.”
Staring into his coffee, Hannibal thought about that. Face was his soul mate, he firmly believed that. From the second he first set eyes on him, he knew they were destined to be together, it was like nothing he had ever felt before. And he was right. Within three months Face was in his heart and in his bed and that’s how it had stayed ever since. He knew that Face had fooled around before, slept with plenty of people, both male and female, but for Hannibal, Face was his one and only journey into same sex relationships; he’d never even considered it until he’d set eyes on this man.
They had the closest, most honest relationship of any that Hannibal had ever known. Hannibal knew all about him, knew the things that made him tick and the things that brought him down. Only he knew how much his childhood abandonment had hurt, just how much it had blighted his life every single moment since that fateful day just before his fifth birthday. So, this woman turning up now, how much of that was his business? And how much was Face’s alone?
“Look, boss,” BA had been watching him, “It’s Face’s business, but that don’t mean he aint gonna talk about it with you, huh? Doesn’t mean you can’t help him sort it out.”
Hannibal smiled, “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
“So, when you gonna tell him?”
Pushing his coffee cup away, Hannibal had that look on his face that BA recognised. “Tonight,” he answered unfolding his napkin on the table top, “As soon as we have had the chance to visit your friendly neighbourhood lab technician, right?”
BA watched as Hannibal wrapped Adele’s cup in his napkin and stuffed it into his pocket getting to his feet as BA drained the last of his milk and followed him.
_______________________
“A mother is she who can take the place of all others.”
- Cardinal Mermillod
It was early evening before Face and Murdock got back from the beach both smelling of sun cream, with salt encrusted hair and bodies covered in scrapes and bruises from their surf boards.
Face dumped a pile of pizza boxes in the kitchen as Murdock took the boards off the roof of the car and with a yell of, “Don’t you greedy pigs dare eat all that pizza before I get out of the shower!” disappeared upstairs.
BA looked up from the radio he was repairing as Hannibal turned from the History Channel and their eyes met, “After pizza,” Hannibal told him quietly.
________________________
Pizza was a rowdy affair; Murdock was telling tales of their surfing exploits which just got more and more ludicrous as the night wore on. Face, his hand on Hannibal’s thigh under the table, laughed along and agreed with some of the more incredible stories while constantly encouraging Murdock to be more ridiculous with each tale. “Oh, HM, what about that bald guy! Tell them what he said when you asked if he polished his board with soap...!”
________________________
It was past midnight by the time the pizzas and the beers were finished. Murdock and Face were all for setting up the Xbox in the living room and having a ‘Lips’ tournament, but BA and Hannibal managed to talk them out of it. In the end BA volunteered that both he and Murdock would tidy up, so Hannibal and Face could have an early night.
Face, never one to question getting out of chores, disappeared up the stairs in two seconds flat while Murdock watched BA and Hannibal exchange a long meaningful glance before Hannibal too turned and trudged up the stairs. Murdock followed the boss with his eyes until he disappeared onto the landing and then turned to BA, eyes narrowed in thought.
________________________
The morning dawned bright and sunny and Murdock was out in the garden, hosing down the surfboards and wondering how the first meet for their new job had gone yesterday with BA and Hannibal. It was weird that the boss hadn’t mentioned it at all last night while they were having their pizzas, but then he supposed he and Face were a little hyper; it had been difficult to get a word in edgeways.
Smiling to himself, Murdock thought back to the day at the beach; it had been truly awesome. He’d been disappointed at first that Hannibal and BA had decided not to come, Hannibal had this job thing to go to and when Face’s expression dropped at the thought of cancelling their planned day out, BA had manfully stepped up and offered Hannibal his company. But, on reflection, Murdock conceded, he and Face had probably had much more fun just the two of them on their own – BA and Hannibal could be such stick-in-the-muds sometimes. Speaking of which – Murdock looked up at the sound of voices, raised voices, coming from the kitchen, and switched off the hose to go and investigate.
_________________________
“I’ll tell him when I think it’s the right time!” Hannibal said, clearly struggling to hold on to his patience.
“But that aint for you to decide!” BA snapped back. “The man’s got a right to know, a right to decide what he is going to do about it himself!”
“BA, I think I know him just a little better than you do...”
“Yeah?” BA crossed his arms and Hannibal sighed, “Thing is though, I know you still count yourself as his CO, but sometimes I think you forget you don’t have to run his whole life for him – like you said yesterday to that woman, man’s not a child!”
“I know,” Hannibal’s voice was getting more strained by the second, “and I’m not trying to run his life for him! I’m trying to save him from getting hurt!”
“An’ how’s he supposed to be hurt ‘cept you keepin’ the truth from him?”
“BA,” despite his very best efforts, Hannibal’s voice was getting louder with every sentence, “has it ever occurred to you that she may just be lying? And if she is, then what the hell is the point in upsetting the kid like that for nothing! We get the DNA results back in three days and then we will know the truth for sure. Until then, I’m not saying anything to him.”
BA scowled, “You promised Adele you would tell him,” he accused.
“And I will. I never promised when I’d tell him.”
There was silence for a minute as the two men glared at each other. “You think she’s lyin’?”
Hannibal thought hard before he answered, “I honestly don't know, BA, but what I do know is that I wouldn’t settle at all if I didn’t check it out for him first.”
“So, when Miguel gives us the results from the DNA test, and it’s positive, you’ll tell him for definite then?”Hannibal’s silence as he folded his arms and held BA’s stare was answer enough. “What? Hannibal, man, where is the sense in that? If the test is positive, why the hell wouldn’t you tell him?”
“Does he need this, BA? Does he? Isn’t he fine now, with us? All this time he’s never had a family, but now he’s got us, so why should I tell him?”
The anger was clear in BA’s eyes as he too folded his arms, “You well outta order, boss. You don’t own him; you can’t keep this from him. You don't tell him – I will.”
Now it was time for the anger to flash in Hannibal’s eyes, “You will do nothing of the sort, corporal, do you understand me?” He took a step in, “And if you flout my ruling on this then you and I will start having some serious issues, you got that?”
But BA refused to be intimidated, “I’ll give you until I hear back from Miguel to make up your mind. And then, if it’s positive and you decide not to tell him, let me tell you now. I will. And if that’s gonna be a problem for you boss,” BA shook his head, “then I really don’t care. You got that?”
And before Hannibal even had time to answer, BA turned and stormed out.
In the hall way beyond, Murdock frowned and worried his lip with his teeth. He stood and thought about all he’d overheard for a moment, before heading back outside to finish cleaning the boards.
______________________________
“A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all.”
- Washington Irving
Murdock sat with his back against the fence post and systematically started shredding yet another grass stalk into thin strips. He had a dilemma running around and around in his head and he hated it, hated that Hannibal and BA had been arguing, hated that they were keeping something from Face, and hated that, thanks to his eaves dropping, he had now got himself involved.
The one thing that was clear in his mind, though, was that Face should most definitely not be kept in the dark about all of this. BA was right, this thing affected Face the most, if it was true, it would change his life forever. Surely he had the right to know that? Even now when the facts were not one hundred percent clear? BA was also right about the way that Hannibal treated Face sometimes. Sure he knew the old guy loved him, really loved him, but he did tend to treat Face a bit like a child, like he wasn’t capable of making his own decisions. For the most part Face ignored it and let Hannibal do his own thing, but every now and again Hannibal would over step the mark, make a decision that Face did not appreciate, and then they would end up having the mother of all rows. Murdock frowned; if the DNA test came back positive and Face ever found out that Hannibal had kept this from him, hell, that would be the row to end all others.
So, it was decided that in his head that Face should know what was going on, the only thing he hadn’t worked out yet was who was going to tell him.
________________________________
The sky was streaked in orange and still Murdock didn’t have an answer to his dilemma. His fingers were stained green and there wasn’t a blade of glass still growing anywhere within reaching distance, but he couldn’t go back to the house yet, not until this was straight in his head.
A sudden sound broke into his thoughts and a pair of battered sneakers attached to two tanned legs dressed in cut off jeans thudded onto the grass next to him and then Face was there, plopping down on his backside after vaulting the fence so gracefully, and smiling at Murdock broadly.
“Hey, buddy,” Face sounded happy but Murdock could see the edge of worry in his eyes. “You missed lunch, and dinner, so I brought you these.” He dropped a can of 7-Up in Murdock’s lap and a messily wrapped pack of sandwiches. “Banana,” he told the pilot, watching him carefully, “you like them at the moment, yeah?”
Murdock smiled and nodded, yeah, he liked them at the moment, he found that bananas tended to taste differently over time - you needed to be very careful with them. He popped the can and took a long drink, thinking how typically sweet this was of Face to come and look for him, to realise he hadn’t eaten, to make him his favourite sandwiches, and he shook his head; he hated dilemmas.
They sat in silence as Murdock ate his picnic, smiling as he noticed that Face had cut the sandwiches with the dinosaur cutter they bought at the supermarket last week, and then sat back and watched as Face batted the rolled up ball of tin foil in the palm of his hand, lips counting silently as he went for a new world record.
Eventually, Face tapped just a shade too high and the ball dropped to the ground, landing in and amongst all of Murdock’s shredded grass and he knew his time for thinking had run out. He was right, as Face’s voice, low and quiet and cautious broke the long silence. “So,” there was a pause, “what’s wrong then bud?”
Murdock sighed because, well, that was the thing wasn’t it? There wasn’t anything wrong with him at all, not a scrap, it was all Face, Face who was just sitting there looking tanned and relaxed in his shorts and his old Philly t-shirt and one of Murdock’s baseball caps, curls poking out all around the rim, who didn’t know that his whole life was about to be changed forever...
“You know when you know something,” the words were out of his mouth before he even realised he was speaking, “but the person who should know something doesn’t know something and you don’t know if you should tell them the thing they should know or whether you shouldn’t?” he turned to look at Face, “You know that feeling?”
Face laughed, “I dunno Murdock, I have to say you’ve kind of lost me here...”
Murdock sighed and tried again. “I have these friends right, these two friends,” he turned and studied the sky as it turned from orange to red, “and they know something about another friend of mine.” Face frowned but Murdock; eyes following the roosting birds now, missed it. “The thing is though, they haven’t told him, this other friend, you know and I think they should. I think it’s important. So... the question is Face, shall I tell him? This friend of mine? Or shall I leave it to the other two to sort out? That’s what I’ve been sittin’ here thinking about all day.”
He eventually turned back to Face and his stomach twisted unpleasantly, all trace of Face’s good humour was gone, his eyes were narrowed and concerned. “What do they know about me Murdock?” he asked quietly.
For just a second, Murdock was panicked, but he recovered quickly and just smiled at Face, trying to look and sound sincere. “You?” he laughed, “Oh, Facey, it’s not you! It’s some other friends of mine that I know!”
He laughed again, but even to his own ears he knew it sounded a little high pitched, a little off, and Face just raised an eyebrow at him, “Murdock...” and Murdock just deflated.
“I’m sorry, Face, you need to go and talk to Hannibal, I can’t tell you this. Hannibal’s the one who knows, he’s the one who’s waiting. You have to talk to him.”
“Waiting?” Face frowned at Murdock, “Waiting for what?”
“The test results,” Murdock answered before hastily clapping a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.
“Test results?” now it was Face who was slightly panicked. “Is someone ill? Is Hannibal ill?”
And Murdock rushed to soothe him, “No, Face, don’t worry, really! No one’s ill, it’s DNA results!” and the hand was back over his mouth.
But now Face looked almost angry and turned to look right into Murdock’s eyes, “Seriously, Murdock, you better level with me here, right now...”
There was a tense standoff, Murdock, back pressed against the fence post by the weight of Face’s glare, fingers fidgeting in the shorn grass, “Face...” he pleaded, it was all he could think of to say.
“Come on, James,” Face changed tack, his voice soft and pleading. “You know I would tell you...”
Murdock closed his eyes as he acknowledged how right that statement was and then slumped in defeat and let his eyes slide shut. “Okay,” he whispered, wondering if it was Hannibal or BA who would actually deal the final blow as they killed him, “Hannibal went to see a woman the other day, someone called Adele?” he cracked an eye open to see if Face showed any glimmer of recognition at the name, but there was none. “And anyway,” he closed his eyes again, “well...” he opened them and looked apologetically at Face, “there aint no easy way to say this, Facey...”
“Just say it,” Face ground out.
Murdock shut his eyes again, “Well, I dunno how it happened,” he giggled, “well actually I do, ‘cause I aint daft, but well...”
“Murdock...”
“And it musta been a long time ago since you don’t remember the name and well, you know, Hannibal an’ all that, but...”
“Murdock!” Clenching his fists and jamming them under his chin as he opened his eyes yet again, Murdock met Face’s impatient stare.
He took deep breath, “Well, buddy – it looks like you’re a daddy...”
For almost ten seconds, Face sat and stared at Murdock his expression one of complete and utter shock until he finally managed to persuade his frozen muscles to work, “A dad?” he whispered, “Me?”
Murdock nodded, not sure how Face was taking this just yet. “I heard ‘em arguing about it this morning in the kitchen when you were in the shower,” his words came out in a garbled rush. “BA wanted to tell you, but Hannibal wanted to wait until the tests came back...”
“Who?” Face stuttered.
Murdock shrugged apologetically, “I wasn’t there, bud, it was who Hannibal and BA went to see when we were at the beach.”
Face raised his eyebrows at that. “And Hannibal wasn’t even going to tell me?”
Murdock shook his head.
With a murmured, “Fucking hell!” Face was up on his feet, vaulting back over the fence and jogging across the field towards the house while Murdock just curled up in a ball and let himself flop onto his side, wondering if it was too cold to spend the whole night out in the field.
Next
_____________________
“A mother's love is instinctual, unconditional, and forever.”
- unknown
Hannibal watched until she was out of sight and then lifted his coffee cup to hide his mouth as he spoke, “You coming over here, BA?”
The waiter came by to ask if Hannibal wanted more coffee, he declined but ordered a glass of cold milk and asked for the bill.
“Oh, it’s fine sir,” the waiter told him. “The lady you were with left more than enough to cover the coffee and the milk, could bring you a whole plate of Danish pastries as well if you want?”
Shaking his head, Hannibal managed to damp down his frown and thanked him, looking up as BA; his own forehead creased in thought, came in and slid into the seat recently vacated by Adele.
“Well?” Hannibal asked after BA had had a mouthful of milk.
BA shook his head, “Well, it sure is a bolt from the blue, Hannibal, but,” he looked up, his dark eyes full of compassion, “how desperate must she have been to have to leave her little baby like that, huh?”
Hannibal looked out across the road. He didn’t know how to answer that question, the truth was she hadn’t said she was desperate at all; ‘a change of circumstance’ was how she had described it. Hell, that could have been anything, anything at all. Did it really warrant leaving her dependent child with strangers like that? Abandoning him at the door of an orphanage in the middle of the night – how could anything justify that?
“I don’t know BA; she was hardly forthcoming with her reasons.”
“It’s private man!” BA responded, wiping his milk moustache away. “She’ll tell Face, aint nothing to do with us.”
Staring into his coffee, Hannibal thought about that. Face was his soul mate, he firmly believed that. From the second he first set eyes on him, he knew they were destined to be together, it was like nothing he had ever felt before. And he was right. Within three months Face was in his heart and in his bed and that’s how it had stayed ever since. He knew that Face had fooled around before, slept with plenty of people, both male and female, but for Hannibal, Face was his one and only journey into same sex relationships; he’d never even considered it until he’d set eyes on this man.
They had the closest, most honest relationship of any that Hannibal had ever known. Hannibal knew all about him, knew the things that made him tick and the things that brought him down. Only he knew how much his childhood abandonment had hurt, just how much it had blighted his life every single moment since that fateful day just before his fifth birthday. So, this woman turning up now, how much of that was his business? And how much was Face’s alone?
“Look, boss,” BA had been watching him, “It’s Face’s business, but that don’t mean he aint gonna talk about it with you, huh? Doesn’t mean you can’t help him sort it out.”
Hannibal smiled, “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
“So, when you gonna tell him?”
Pushing his coffee cup away, Hannibal had that look on his face that BA recognised. “Tonight,” he answered unfolding his napkin on the table top, “As soon as we have had the chance to visit your friendly neighbourhood lab technician, right?”
BA watched as Hannibal wrapped Adele’s cup in his napkin and stuffed it into his pocket getting to his feet as BA drained the last of his milk and followed him.
_______________________
“A mother is she who can take the place of all others.”
- Cardinal Mermillod
It was early evening before Face and Murdock got back from the beach both smelling of sun cream, with salt encrusted hair and bodies covered in scrapes and bruises from their surf boards.
Face dumped a pile of pizza boxes in the kitchen as Murdock took the boards off the roof of the car and with a yell of, “Don’t you greedy pigs dare eat all that pizza before I get out of the shower!” disappeared upstairs.
BA looked up from the radio he was repairing as Hannibal turned from the History Channel and their eyes met, “After pizza,” Hannibal told him quietly.
________________________
Pizza was a rowdy affair; Murdock was telling tales of their surfing exploits which just got more and more ludicrous as the night wore on. Face, his hand on Hannibal’s thigh under the table, laughed along and agreed with some of the more incredible stories while constantly encouraging Murdock to be more ridiculous with each tale. “Oh, HM, what about that bald guy! Tell them what he said when you asked if he polished his board with soap...!”
________________________
It was past midnight by the time the pizzas and the beers were finished. Murdock and Face were all for setting up the Xbox in the living room and having a ‘Lips’ tournament, but BA and Hannibal managed to talk them out of it. In the end BA volunteered that both he and Murdock would tidy up, so Hannibal and Face could have an early night.
Face, never one to question getting out of chores, disappeared up the stairs in two seconds flat while Murdock watched BA and Hannibal exchange a long meaningful glance before Hannibal too turned and trudged up the stairs. Murdock followed the boss with his eyes until he disappeared onto the landing and then turned to BA, eyes narrowed in thought.
________________________
The morning dawned bright and sunny and Murdock was out in the garden, hosing down the surfboards and wondering how the first meet for their new job had gone yesterday with BA and Hannibal. It was weird that the boss hadn’t mentioned it at all last night while they were having their pizzas, but then he supposed he and Face were a little hyper; it had been difficult to get a word in edgeways.
Smiling to himself, Murdock thought back to the day at the beach; it had been truly awesome. He’d been disappointed at first that Hannibal and BA had decided not to come, Hannibal had this job thing to go to and when Face’s expression dropped at the thought of cancelling their planned day out, BA had manfully stepped up and offered Hannibal his company. But, on reflection, Murdock conceded, he and Face had probably had much more fun just the two of them on their own – BA and Hannibal could be such stick-in-the-muds sometimes. Speaking of which – Murdock looked up at the sound of voices, raised voices, coming from the kitchen, and switched off the hose to go and investigate.
_________________________
“I’ll tell him when I think it’s the right time!” Hannibal said, clearly struggling to hold on to his patience.
“But that aint for you to decide!” BA snapped back. “The man’s got a right to know, a right to decide what he is going to do about it himself!”
“BA, I think I know him just a little better than you do...”
“Yeah?” BA crossed his arms and Hannibal sighed, “Thing is though, I know you still count yourself as his CO, but sometimes I think you forget you don’t have to run his whole life for him – like you said yesterday to that woman, man’s not a child!”
“I know,” Hannibal’s voice was getting more strained by the second, “and I’m not trying to run his life for him! I’m trying to save him from getting hurt!”
“An’ how’s he supposed to be hurt ‘cept you keepin’ the truth from him?”
“BA,” despite his very best efforts, Hannibal’s voice was getting louder with every sentence, “has it ever occurred to you that she may just be lying? And if she is, then what the hell is the point in upsetting the kid like that for nothing! We get the DNA results back in three days and then we will know the truth for sure. Until then, I’m not saying anything to him.”
BA scowled, “You promised Adele you would tell him,” he accused.
“And I will. I never promised when I’d tell him.”
There was silence for a minute as the two men glared at each other. “You think she’s lyin’?”
Hannibal thought hard before he answered, “I honestly don't know, BA, but what I do know is that I wouldn’t settle at all if I didn’t check it out for him first.”
“So, when Miguel gives us the results from the DNA test, and it’s positive, you’ll tell him for definite then?”Hannibal’s silence as he folded his arms and held BA’s stare was answer enough. “What? Hannibal, man, where is the sense in that? If the test is positive, why the hell wouldn’t you tell him?”
“Does he need this, BA? Does he? Isn’t he fine now, with us? All this time he’s never had a family, but now he’s got us, so why should I tell him?”
The anger was clear in BA’s eyes as he too folded his arms, “You well outta order, boss. You don’t own him; you can’t keep this from him. You don't tell him – I will.”
Now it was time for the anger to flash in Hannibal’s eyes, “You will do nothing of the sort, corporal, do you understand me?” He took a step in, “And if you flout my ruling on this then you and I will start having some serious issues, you got that?”
But BA refused to be intimidated, “I’ll give you until I hear back from Miguel to make up your mind. And then, if it’s positive and you decide not to tell him, let me tell you now. I will. And if that’s gonna be a problem for you boss,” BA shook his head, “then I really don’t care. You got that?”
And before Hannibal even had time to answer, BA turned and stormed out.
In the hall way beyond, Murdock frowned and worried his lip with his teeth. He stood and thought about all he’d overheard for a moment, before heading back outside to finish cleaning the boards.
______________________________
“A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all.”
- Washington Irving
Murdock sat with his back against the fence post and systematically started shredding yet another grass stalk into thin strips. He had a dilemma running around and around in his head and he hated it, hated that Hannibal and BA had been arguing, hated that they were keeping something from Face, and hated that, thanks to his eaves dropping, he had now got himself involved.
The one thing that was clear in his mind, though, was that Face should most definitely not be kept in the dark about all of this. BA was right, this thing affected Face the most, if it was true, it would change his life forever. Surely he had the right to know that? Even now when the facts were not one hundred percent clear? BA was also right about the way that Hannibal treated Face sometimes. Sure he knew the old guy loved him, really loved him, but he did tend to treat Face a bit like a child, like he wasn’t capable of making his own decisions. For the most part Face ignored it and let Hannibal do his own thing, but every now and again Hannibal would over step the mark, make a decision that Face did not appreciate, and then they would end up having the mother of all rows. Murdock frowned; if the DNA test came back positive and Face ever found out that Hannibal had kept this from him, hell, that would be the row to end all others.
So, it was decided that in his head that Face should know what was going on, the only thing he hadn’t worked out yet was who was going to tell him.
________________________________
The sky was streaked in orange and still Murdock didn’t have an answer to his dilemma. His fingers were stained green and there wasn’t a blade of glass still growing anywhere within reaching distance, but he couldn’t go back to the house yet, not until this was straight in his head.
A sudden sound broke into his thoughts and a pair of battered sneakers attached to two tanned legs dressed in cut off jeans thudded onto the grass next to him and then Face was there, plopping down on his backside after vaulting the fence so gracefully, and smiling at Murdock broadly.
“Hey, buddy,” Face sounded happy but Murdock could see the edge of worry in his eyes. “You missed lunch, and dinner, so I brought you these.” He dropped a can of 7-Up in Murdock’s lap and a messily wrapped pack of sandwiches. “Banana,” he told the pilot, watching him carefully, “you like them at the moment, yeah?”
Murdock smiled and nodded, yeah, he liked them at the moment, he found that bananas tended to taste differently over time - you needed to be very careful with them. He popped the can and took a long drink, thinking how typically sweet this was of Face to come and look for him, to realise he hadn’t eaten, to make him his favourite sandwiches, and he shook his head; he hated dilemmas.
They sat in silence as Murdock ate his picnic, smiling as he noticed that Face had cut the sandwiches with the dinosaur cutter they bought at the supermarket last week, and then sat back and watched as Face batted the rolled up ball of tin foil in the palm of his hand, lips counting silently as he went for a new world record.
Eventually, Face tapped just a shade too high and the ball dropped to the ground, landing in and amongst all of Murdock’s shredded grass and he knew his time for thinking had run out. He was right, as Face’s voice, low and quiet and cautious broke the long silence. “So,” there was a pause, “what’s wrong then bud?”
Murdock sighed because, well, that was the thing wasn’t it? There wasn’t anything wrong with him at all, not a scrap, it was all Face, Face who was just sitting there looking tanned and relaxed in his shorts and his old Philly t-shirt and one of Murdock’s baseball caps, curls poking out all around the rim, who didn’t know that his whole life was about to be changed forever...
“You know when you know something,” the words were out of his mouth before he even realised he was speaking, “but the person who should know something doesn’t know something and you don’t know if you should tell them the thing they should know or whether you shouldn’t?” he turned to look at Face, “You know that feeling?”
Face laughed, “I dunno Murdock, I have to say you’ve kind of lost me here...”
Murdock sighed and tried again. “I have these friends right, these two friends,” he turned and studied the sky as it turned from orange to red, “and they know something about another friend of mine.” Face frowned but Murdock; eyes following the roosting birds now, missed it. “The thing is though, they haven’t told him, this other friend, you know and I think they should. I think it’s important. So... the question is Face, shall I tell him? This friend of mine? Or shall I leave it to the other two to sort out? That’s what I’ve been sittin’ here thinking about all day.”
He eventually turned back to Face and his stomach twisted unpleasantly, all trace of Face’s good humour was gone, his eyes were narrowed and concerned. “What do they know about me Murdock?” he asked quietly.
For just a second, Murdock was panicked, but he recovered quickly and just smiled at Face, trying to look and sound sincere. “You?” he laughed, “Oh, Facey, it’s not you! It’s some other friends of mine that I know!”
He laughed again, but even to his own ears he knew it sounded a little high pitched, a little off, and Face just raised an eyebrow at him, “Murdock...” and Murdock just deflated.
“I’m sorry, Face, you need to go and talk to Hannibal, I can’t tell you this. Hannibal’s the one who knows, he’s the one who’s waiting. You have to talk to him.”
“Waiting?” Face frowned at Murdock, “Waiting for what?”
“The test results,” Murdock answered before hastily clapping a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.
“Test results?” now it was Face who was slightly panicked. “Is someone ill? Is Hannibal ill?”
And Murdock rushed to soothe him, “No, Face, don’t worry, really! No one’s ill, it’s DNA results!” and the hand was back over his mouth.
But now Face looked almost angry and turned to look right into Murdock’s eyes, “Seriously, Murdock, you better level with me here, right now...”
There was a tense standoff, Murdock, back pressed against the fence post by the weight of Face’s glare, fingers fidgeting in the shorn grass, “Face...” he pleaded, it was all he could think of to say.
“Come on, James,” Face changed tack, his voice soft and pleading. “You know I would tell you...”
Murdock closed his eyes as he acknowledged how right that statement was and then slumped in defeat and let his eyes slide shut. “Okay,” he whispered, wondering if it was Hannibal or BA who would actually deal the final blow as they killed him, “Hannibal went to see a woman the other day, someone called Adele?” he cracked an eye open to see if Face showed any glimmer of recognition at the name, but there was none. “And anyway,” he closed his eyes again, “well...” he opened them and looked apologetically at Face, “there aint no easy way to say this, Facey...”
“Just say it,” Face ground out.
Murdock shut his eyes again, “Well, I dunno how it happened,” he giggled, “well actually I do, ‘cause I aint daft, but well...”
“Murdock...”
“And it musta been a long time ago since you don’t remember the name and well, you know, Hannibal an’ all that, but...”
“Murdock!” Clenching his fists and jamming them under his chin as he opened his eyes yet again, Murdock met Face’s impatient stare.
He took deep breath, “Well, buddy – it looks like you’re a daddy...”
For almost ten seconds, Face sat and stared at Murdock his expression one of complete and utter shock until he finally managed to persuade his frozen muscles to work, “A dad?” he whispered, “Me?”
Murdock nodded, not sure how Face was taking this just yet. “I heard ‘em arguing about it this morning in the kitchen when you were in the shower,” his words came out in a garbled rush. “BA wanted to tell you, but Hannibal wanted to wait until the tests came back...”
“Who?” Face stuttered.
Murdock shrugged apologetically, “I wasn’t there, bud, it was who Hannibal and BA went to see when we were at the beach.”
Face raised his eyebrows at that. “And Hannibal wasn’t even going to tell me?”
Murdock shook his head.
With a murmured, “Fucking hell!” Face was up on his feet, vaulting back over the fence and jogging across the field towards the house while Murdock just curled up in a ball and let himself flop onto his side, wondering if it was too cold to spend the whole night out in the field.
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