Chapter 11: Epilogue

A brown sedan came barrelling up the drive to the hotel. It screeched to a halt. David was skateboarding outside. His cautious look at the car changed to an expression of delight when the A-Team got out. He skated up to them as they hurried towards the door and almost fell off his board into BA's arms.

"BA! You're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm fine, little brother. What you done to yourself?" He frowned at a plaster cast on David's arm.

"You been trying to win bets with that trick dime?" Hannibal asked, grinning.

"No!" David protested, grinning back. "I came off my board, a couple of days after you left. Broke my wrist."

"Your dad inside?" Hannibal asked, continuing on towards the door. "We can't hang around. Lynch is on our tail."

"Oh he came round here a few days ago. Got all heavy with my dad. And he wouldn't sign my cast. What a dork."

They went inside. Mike was in the lobby talking to a red haired woman. Hannibal froze for a second, fearing she was a fed, but relaxed when Face said, sounding a little awkward, "Ah, hi, Patricia."

"Oh hello, Templeton." She said, frowning a little. "If that's your real name."

"It is, but call me Face."

"Hi guys," Mike said, "I've got your money ready for you."

"Great. And we left a few things behind," Hannibal said. "Lynch didn't confiscate them did he?"

"No, I hid them, let me show you…"

"Well," Patricia said. "You're busy, I'll leave you to it." She shook his hand smiling warmly, and then turned to the team. "You didn't really know Alan at all did you, Face?"

"I'm sorry I had to lie," he said with genuine regret. "It was for a good cause."

"I know. Thank you for what you did, all of you. I was just telling Mike that I've asked if I can organise Alan's funeral when they release his … remains. He hasn't any family. And I want it to be a big funeral, ostentatious even." She gave a weak smile. "Alan would probably hate that. But I don't want people to be allowed to forget what was done to him. What this town, all of us, allowed to happen to him."

"That's good, Patricia," Hannibal said. "I hope the Feds let you do it." She left, saying goodbye in a voice that was wavering a little.

"She's cute." Murdock commented, glancing at Mike.

"She's really nice," Face said. "Single parent too," he added, giving Mike a meaningful look.

"What is this?" Mike asked, amused. "The A-Team dating agency?"

"Well, we'd love to stick around and chat all day," Hannibal said. "But it won't take Lynch much longer to get his cars out of that mud hole…"

"This way." Mike showed them a linen hamper that had their gear hidden in it. They started to unpack it and carry things out to the car. Hannibal ticked it all off a mental checklist, came up short.

"One more thing. The bug on David's jacket."

"I forgot about that!" Mike said, he took Hannibal back to the lobby and pointed out the denim jacket on some coat hooks. Hannibal lifted the collar, uncovering the transmitter pinned underneath.

"I don’t suppose…" Mike smiled. "I don't suppose you'd consider leaving it on and giving me the thing to track it?"

"Every parent's dream, huh?" Hannibal said. "Sorry, Mike, wouldn’t be fair on the boy. Don't worry," he said, reassuringly. "He's a good kid. He'll be fine. Though you should probably have some very serious talks about girls with him. Very soon."

Mike nodded. "Yes, I already have actually. Him falling for that note made me realise he's maybe a little more advanced in that area than I thought."

"Time flies, huh?" Hannibal noticed something pinned to the jacket that made him smile. "He's still got the Sheriff's badge?"

"I think he wants to keep it as a souvenir."

"Spoils of battle." Hannibal said. "Fair enough." The rest of the team and David passed them carrying boxes. Hannibal and Mike followed the others outside, watched them loading the car.

"You'll always be welcome back here." Mike said. "And if you ever need a place to stay," he waved a hand behind him, "I've got plenty of spare rooms."

"Not too many spare I hope, or Face will be very unhappy." Hannibal lit a cigar. "Yeah, we'll be back one day. We'll come and campaign for you when you're running for mayor."

Mike looked up at Hannibal in surprise. "Mayor? Where on earth did that come from?"

Hannibal shrugged. "I just have this feeling you're going to be a big man in this town." He paused. "Metaphorically," he added, looking down with a teasing smile. Mike gave him a wry smile in return.

"I don't know," Mike said, going serious, looked out over Lucasville. "There's still a lot of prejudiced people down there."

"And they just lost their leaders." Hannibal said. "There's decent people too, but they've been too afraid to speak up. Now it's their chance. And it's your chance. You're a tough guy; you don't give in. People need someone like that to get behind. Don't miss this opportunity."

Mike stared at him for a moment. "I… I just want to run a hotel." He said.

"No, what you want is a good life for your son. There's more to that than making money to buy things for him." He looked out over the town again. "It won’t be easy. But I don't think you're afraid of that. You've never had it easy."

"No." Mike said, quietly. "No, I haven't." He was silent a moment, then smiled at Hannibal. "I'll try to live up to your expectations, Colonel."

Over by the car the rest of the team were signing David's cast. As BA signed David said, "I wanted to say sorry to you all, especially you, BA. If I hadn't fallen for their stupid trap you wouldn't have got hurt."

"Don't feel bad," Face said. "I know if I'd got a note like that from a girl when I was fourteen I'd have fallen for it."

"Face," Murdock said. "If you got a note like that now you'd fall for it."

Face bristled and began to protest when David interrupted saying, "I can hear sirens." A moment later the rest of them could too. They looked down the hill, and then realized they were coming from the other direction, the back road they had come in on.

"Lynch." Hannibal said. The team scrambled for the car. BA got behind the wheel and started to gun the engine.

"Wait," Hannibal said, getting back out.

"Hannibal!" Face yelled.

"I didn't sign your cast." Hannibal said, to David, who stared at him and mutely handed him a pen. Hannibal scribbled quickly on the cast and gave back the pen, winked at the boy.

"Hannibal!" Now Murdock was yelling. Lynch's cars were very close now.

"So long, guys. Good luck with everything."

"Hannibal!" BA's stentorian yell was probably audible to the rapidly approaching MPs.

Hannibal finally got into the car, closing the door as BA peeled away.

"Next time you pull that stunt we're leaving you behind!" BA threatened.

The car hurtled off down the hill. Three military police cars pursued it. One pulled up outside the hotel and Lynch jumped out.

"I warned you about the kind of trouble you could get into for associating with those men." Lynch said. He frowned when the Harpers didn’t look remotely intimidated. The FBI had already warned Lynch to back off their main witnesses in a major investigation, so Lynch's bluster was so much hot air to Mike. Lynch turned to go back to his car.

"Colonel Lynch, sir." David called, as Lynch was opening the car door. "Colonel Smith left a message for you." He held out his arm with the cast on it. Lynch frowned and strode back over to him. He read the words on the cast, then growled in frustration and ran back to his car. He sped away in endless, futile pursuit.

"What did he write?" Mike asked. David showed him the cast.

'Lynch, close but no cigar. Better luck next time. Smith.'

end