Face wandered out into the last rays of sun and immediately saw the jeep parked in the dust at the side of the road; he turned and walked over, grinding to a halt as BA rose from the driver's seat. For a second they locked eyes and then Face turned away, obviously deciding the walk would be better than a ride with BA.

"Hey," BA's voice stopped him in his tracks, "wait man, I wanna talk to you."

Face turned on the spot, clearly reluctant but expression as blank as always. "Well, that's a shame 'cause I'm really not in the mood to talk to you Baracus."

BA actually looked disappointed at this and cleared his throat. "Somethin' I need to say to you, LT," he replied, voice low.

Face watched him for a moment, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," BA repeated, "but in the jeep, right?"

They walked to the jeep and both slid in. BA seemed to be taking a moment to get himself together, rubbing his hands up and down his fatigues before finally turning to Face. "Hannibal said what you were gonna do, you know, for the crazy man." Face held his stare as BA shook his head slowly, "You'd do that? You'd get yourself kicked out for him?"

Face shrugged, "He deserves better than that," he said eventually.

"And you don't?" BA countered.

Face slipped back into silence and shifted his gaze to look out of the windshield as BA continued to watch him. "Look, man," he said eventually, "I'm sorry you didn't think you could come to us with this, sorry, you had to try and sort it out on your own." Face nodded and BA took a deep breath, "An' I'm sorry I been such a pain in the ass these last months. Won't happen again."

Finally Face looked back, his eyes meeting BA's steadily. "Thanks, BA," he answered quietly and held out his hand. BA grinned, a huge smile that transformed his entire countenance and grabbed Face's hand with both of his, shaking enthusiastically.

In minutes they were back at the hooch, and during the drive BA had obviously been making an effort to chat, and Face had obviously been making the effort to respond. As soon as they got back, Face got out and BA leaned over to talk to him. "I need to take this jeep back; I'll see you later, right?"

"Sure," Face replied, smile twitching at his lips and BA drove off in a cloud of dust.

He walked up to the door of the hooch and pushed it open, stepping inside and was almost knocked off his feet by the very enthusiastic pilot who launched himself from his cot and clattered into Face shoving him back into the canvas wall. "Oh, god, Face!" Murdock almost choked him with his enthusiasm, "What did you do? What did you do, you idiot you could have got yourself chucked out!"

Face laughed, relief at his miraculous escape finally seeping through, coupled with the ease he always felt at being in Murdock's company. "I didn't though, right, buddy? We both made it okay, thanks to the boss."

Murdock beamed at him, "Yeah, thanks to the boss!"

For a minute they just stood and smiled stupidly at each other, then Murdock's expression suddenly went serious and he stepped back a little so he could look right into Face's eyes. "In the jungle, you know, after we... landed... that Huey," Face smiled Murdock's choice of vocab. "Well, you said," Murdock cleared his throat awkwardly, "You said..." he tailed off, face flushed.

"I said we were friends, yeah? You were my only friend. And I meant it, buddy. We are. You are." they stared at each other again as Murdock blinked away the tears from his eyes, the he grabbed Face's head and kissed him hard on his forehead before pushing him away with the broadest smile that Face had ever seen on another person ever before.

"Oh, Facey!" he said, happiness spilling over into his every word, "We are gonna have such fun!" Face laughed, "This base aint gonna know what hit it!"

Murdock's enthusiasm was catching and Face found himself laughing as he agreed – and wondering if the whole of the US Army was ready for them.