Down, then Back Up

It's not the first time, it won't be the last time. It's just something they've developed. The first few times it was nothing but shouting. B.A's good and shouting and Face is used to it, he can throw back as much as he gets. B.A vents about the drugging and the van and how pissed off he get with them always lying to him. Face knows they really should talk about this for real, but its easier to use the excuse to shout about it.

Face ends up letting it out about the stupid plans and the expectations and the fact that B.A just won't let up about fucking Mexico.

It takes four nights of consecutive arguments for them to fall into a full out brawl. B.A's so much bulkier than Face, and even with all the training and ability, there's still that niggling at the back -they don't really want to hurt each other. But Face wrenches B.A's elbow in a hold, and B.A knocks Face's jaw loose and gives him a black eye and a split lip. They don't talk for four days.

Then it's all blissfully normal for a few weeks. Nothing drastic and Murdock sleeps in the closest to a peaceful manner that the pilot ever really gets. But Face is tense, just waiting for the next explosion. It comes right after a botched mission, and they'd all been expecting it. Murdock hates being tied up, he'd been tied up for nine hours that day and they hadn't been able to get to him before nightfall.

Murdock wakes up screaming, Hannibal is beside him instantly and Face has already been thrown out of the tent by B.A. They'd kept their pants on for this one, because they knew it would get ugly.

Face blames B.A for the charges going off too soon. B.A blames Face for Murdock getting caught. Face throws the first punch. Punching B.A is sometimes like punching a brick wall, but it's twice as satisfying. B.A growls, he grunts and he gets mad, every time a punch lands, he gets madder. It's nothing more than a bar brawl in the middle of the camp, there's no style, there's no hint of training. There's just bare knuckle against flesh and the resounding crack of bone underneath.

They attract a bigger crowd than even Murdock's scream could've woken up, and when Hannibal has Murdock calmed down enough for him to come out of the tent to deal with them, B.A has Face pinned and smacks three punches into his cheek before Hannibal yanks him off.

B.A skulks off to the garage, Murdock drags Face to the medics, Hannibal has to explain the altercation to Morrison; he can't brush it off as a small scrap this time.

Both Baracus and Peck are brought up on reprimands for in house fighting, they're taken off active duty for three weeks and separated for that time. Russ isn't too severe with it, B.A is put on repairs, fixing the jeeps damaged in convoy runs and Face is assigned to iron out the recruits a little. Murdock gets quiet for the three weeks that Face and B.A aren't technically part of the team, although he visits both of them as often as possible. Face has a split on his cheek where B.A's knuckles broke skin and the bruise along his jaw bone is just starting to heel. The most Face managed to inflict on B.A was the guilt of bruising B.A's knuckles.

At the end of the three weeks, they get their first assignment out and Face and B.A are colder to each other than they've ever been before. The mission is almost a complete disaster before Hannibal can pull it all together and get them through it. "Whatever the fuck is your problem, fix it!"

Face and B.A are left in Hannibal's layout room feeling like naughty school children. "You ever notice that there's a vein on his temple that throbs when he gets pissed?" Face doesn't want to talk about it, because that's just how it works. They don't talk about it. They really should, but he's never been very good at accepting the faults that people see in him -he knows what they are already, he doesn't need reminding. And B.A, well, B.A just doesn't do that talking stuff.

"Yeah," the last time B.A talked about anything resembling feelings was when they had him drugged up to fly, and boy did he fly. "He grinds his teeth too." They're quiet for a few more minutes, Face knocking his boots against the filing cabinet that he's sitting on while B.A fiddles with the small toy car on the map. "Sorry 'bout your face, man." The bruises are nearly gone, and it doesn't hurt much any more anyway.

"Yeah, sorry about your knuckles." He says it with a smirk though, because it's just his luck that he'd just split B.A's knuckles with his face. "Next time I'll try not bruise you when you hit me." He knows that it's the tone that makes B.A's shoulders relax a little.

There's no point pretending they won't let it happen again, because it will and they'll do whatever it takes, even if they need to throw down again. If they need to make each other bleed, and hurt, and ache, to keep Murdock where he is, they'll do it. "Next time, we just get drunk afterwards."

"Deal." Because really, being pissed at each other doesn't work very well.

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Disclaimer: The A-Team does not belong to me. They belong to themselves and their creators. No money was made from this.