Title: Incidental Injuries

By: Junkfoodmonkey

Rated: PG

Summary: It's good to offer your friends comfort in a stressful situation, but it can backfire.

Disclaimer: The A-Team doesn't belong to me, I'm not making any money from this.

Incidental Injuries

Here we go again.

“Hannibal! I’m on a plane!”

“It’s worse than that, BA, we’re going down.”

“What? Ah wake up in time for you to get me killed?”

“Sorry, BA.” Hannibal hurried to the cockpit. Face came out of it at the same time.

“He’s trying to find us somewhere soft he says." Face's voice was close to panic. "Hannibal, this is bad! Where is he going to find somewhere soft in the mountains?”

“I don’t know, kid, better strap in.”

“Hannibal!!” BA's enraged yell made Face flinch.

“And try to keep BA calm.” Hannibal went into the cockpit.

“Oh great,” Face muttered, “Keep BA calm, he says. Do I have an entire bottle of Valium?” He wished he did, could do with a couple himself right now. The plane gave a sickening lurch and Face found himself sitting down rather abruptly in the seat next to a glaring BA, who turned to him, ready to yell… and stopped as he saw the look of terror in Face’s eyes. Not fear of him, fear of the situation. So this wasn’t just another one of the many forced landings BA had gone through, sometimes conscious, sometimes not. This time they were really crashing.

Murdock had once said to him, “Any landing you walk away from is a good landing.” Maybe this time they weren’t walking away, maybe this time…

“We really crashing this time?” BA asked quietly, “Crashing like in ‘wreckage’ and ‘no survivors’?” Face gulped a couple of times, nodded, and pulled on his seatbelt with shaking hands.

The plane seemed to stagger in the sky, dropping like a plunging roller coaster, before straightening out again and flying drunkenly on.

“Oh, god almighty,” Face gasped out, not sure if it was an oath or a prayer. He grabbed the armrests in a frantic grip; saw BA doing the same thing beside him. BA didn’t yell but his eyes were huge with terror. Face reached out and touched BA’s hand; if they really were going to die at least they were all together. He felt BA’s large hand enclose his own. There were times in Vietnam, in the jungle, in the camps, the fear of death chilling their bones, they had reached out for the warmth of that tiny contact, the touch of a hand, the comfort it brought as…

“BA!” Face yelled suddenly as BA’s hand tightened around his, agonisingly. BA didn’t respond, his wide eyes staring blankly through Face. The grip went on tightening. “BA, let go!” Face howled, trying to pull his hand away from the crushing grasp. Then the world exploded in screaming metal and flying glass.

Hannibal and Murdock turned to look at each other when the noise and movement stopped. The crushed remains of the stand of trees they had crashed into blocked the cockpit window. They were resting at an angle, but seemed stable.

“You okay?” Hannibal asked, looking at Murdock's rather green face.

“I told you I’d find someplace soft.” Murdock said with a sickly grin. “Now I need to find someplace where I can throw up.”

“Are you hurt?” Hannibal asked, quickly releasing his seat belt.

“Don’t think so,” Murdock un-strapped himself and stood up. “Looks like Lady Luck was my co-pilot again. We’d better check Face and BA.”

They hurried through to the passenger cabin. All of the windows were broken, but the fuselage was intact. BA and Face were still in their seats, BA wasn’t moving, but Face was thrashing around.

“Get him the hell off me!” Face yelled frantically as they came into the cabin. Concerned Hannibal and Murdock sprang to their friends’ aid, baffled at first as to the cause of Face’s distress, until they saw his right hand was trapped in BA’s much larger left. Murdock, adrenaline reaction doing its work, actually started to laugh, a hysterical edge to the sound.

“Aw, Face," Murdock managed through his laughter. "That’s so sweet, you two were holding hands.”

“Hannibal!” Face wailed.

“Looks bad, kid, I think the only way is to amputate, question is, whose hand?”

“Hannibal, it hurts! Get him off me!” Hannibal and Murdock sobered and Hannibal began trying to prise BA’s fingers loose. Murdock meanwhile tried talking to the comatose BA. This got them nowhere fast and Face, with little regard for his own life, began punching BA on the arm.

“Face, you’ll just annoy him.” Hannibal cautioned.

“He’s annoying me! Do something before I start punching him in the head!” Hannibal sighed and took out a syringe of BA’s knock out juice, he didn’t want to drug the sergeant right now, but if it was the only way to make BA relax the death grip he could see no alternative. He held up the syringe and prepared to inject BA when suddenly the big man snapped back to lucidity and grabbed Hannibal's wrist.

“Ain’t gonna put me on no plane!” Face gave a shout of agony and cradled his freed hand against his chest. BA looked around in confusion, let go of Hannibal.

“Where are we?”

“It’s broken, Hannibal! He broke my god damn hand!” Face yelled. "BA, you broke my hand!" BA stared at him, bemused.

"Let me see," Hannibal said, taking the Lieutenant's injured hand, Face gasped as the Colonel examined it. Murdock appeared at his shoulder with the first aid kit and Hannibal started taking out strapping and bandages.

"It is broken, I'm afraid, Face."

"I know it's broken! It feels like a glove full of splinters!" He glared at BA, who had finally figured out what was happening and now had a look of guilt mixed with hot resentment on his face.

"Hey, you guys put me on this plane! Then you crashed it! You lucky ah don't break all your necks!"

"It's not that bad, Face," Hannibal said, in a reassuring tone as he strapped Face's hand up. He gave a grin, trying to calm things down. "You will play the piano again."

"Screw the piano, will I ever pick a lock again?"

A few minutes later Face's broken hand was in a sling and the others started searching the wreckage for everything they could use for what would undoubtedly be a long trek back to civilisation. Face was rummaging in the first aid kit with his left hand.

"Tylenol? That’s the best we have? I need a real painkiller."

"Don't be a baby," Murdock said teasingly. Face glowered at him. "Anyway, you know anything strong just knocks you out."

"Sounds good to me," Face muttered. "BA can carry me." He cast a resentful glance at BA, who was facing away from him, stuffing packs with their supplies. BA's back stiffened at the words and he made an ominous rumbling sound, turned and came over to Face, who looked up at him without flinching. Murdock held his breath as the two men glared at each other, then BA took the first aid kit from Face's knees and went back to put it in one of the packs. Murdock breathed easy again and went off to help Hannibal when he heard the Colonel call him.

Face sat back in his seat, closed his eyes, he could feel himself starting to tremble very slightly. The adrenaline that had surged through his body in reaction to the crash and the pain was starting to wear off, leaving him feeling weak and shaky.

"Faceman." Face opened his eyes to find BA standing by his side, holding in one hand two painkillers and in the other a cup of water. Without speaking, Face took the pills from him, put them in his mouth, then took the cup and washed them down. He handed the empty cup back to BA.

"Faceman," BA said again, seemed to be struggling with himself, his scowl deepening. "Ah'm…sorry. Ah never meant ta hurt ya." His voice was gruff, but Face recognised genuine remorse in his eyes.

"It doesn't hurt too much," Face reassured him, gave a slight smile. Then, looking past the sergeant Face noticed for the first time that BA had only prepared three packs, one of which was much larger than the others. He's going to carry my share, Face realised and suddenly felt ashamed of his anger. He gave BA his full power Smile this time.

"Forget it, BA, no-body's fault." He held out his left hand, and BA took it in his own left, shook it, being very careful not to squeeze at all.

end