"Face!" BA yelled. "Face!" Face vanished into the darkness without looking back. This couldn't be real, could it? BA thought. I have to go after him. Before he gets too far away to find. Can't let him just walk away.

"Leave it, Sergeant," Hannibal said. He started poking the fire aggressively with a charred stick. "He's gone."

BA spun around. "We can't let him go! He'll get his damn fool self killed out there."

"Of course he won't. What the hell do you think is out there?"

"Mountain lions, and bears and..."

"Tigers? Oh my." Hannibal smiled, shook his head.

"This ain't funny, man! It's dangerous!"

"He's armed and he's trained. In two days time he'll be in Vegas, selling his camping gear and buying a ticket to LA."

"Two days? He can't walk from here to Vegas in two days."

"You know anyone better than Face at hitching a ride?"

BA hadn't. But even if Face could manage to get out of the hills safely and back to civilisation, what then?

"Yeah, well, two days after that, he'll be back in Fort Bragg. You gonna let that happen?"

Hannibal looked up at him. "That's his problem. He made that very clear."

BA gaped at him. He'd just let it happen? He couldn't. "He's your problem! You're his CO!"

"And you're his sergeant. So what are you gonna do about it, Sergeant Baracus?"

BA was stymied for a moment. Of course it was part of his job, to protect his officers. Was Hannibal telling him to go after Face? But he'd already stopped BA from decking Face to keep him from leaving. Man, what the heck was the matter with these guys? Can't they say what they mean?

"Okay, I'll go get him." BA stepped away from the fire and grabbed a flashlight and a rifle.

Hannibal stood up and came over to him. "No. What are you going to do? Knock him out and carry him back over your shoulder? You going to carry him over your shoulder every day? Take him prisoner?"

That stopped BA in his tracks. Then he shook his head and started grabbing some ammo for his rifle.

"We'll talk. If I gotta hold you both at gunpoint we'll talk this out, with no arguments. We'll figure it out."

"It's figured out. You can't force him to change his mind." He sounded quieter now, more sad than angry. "This isn't what I wanted, BA, and I shouldn't have gotten mad at him. But he's made up his mind." He put a hand on BA's shoulder. "You have to respect that."

"How can you be so calm? Face is gone! We might never see him again. Not till we see his face on TV when the Army picks him up."

"He might surprise you. He might stay free."

"Not if he tries to get in to see Murdock."

"Murdock might not even be in the VA any more."

BA didn't believe that. What he'd heard about Murdock didn't sound like something that could be fixed in a few weeks. He was still in the VA. And Face would either try to con his way in, or pull some ninja trick and sneak in. And he'd get caught. BA knew it. Because they were just that unlucky.

Except Hannibal. He was the lucky one of the team and his luck rubbed off on the others. But only when they were together. Apart, the influence faded.

He looked at Hannibal, still at his side, but now gazing out into the darkness in the direction Face had gone. He couldn't stop BA going after Face. And what if BA did go? Not to bring Face back, but to go with him? Make sure he didn't get in too much trouble? Then they could both go to LA, both see Murdock. Both get their butts thrown back in jail. That's if they could stand to be together as far as LA. Without Hannibal or Murdock to intervene, they had a tendency to rub each other the wrong way. Not that he didn't love the guy, but a lot of the time he felt like decking him just to shut him up.

"He'll come back."

BA turned to stare at Hannibal. "What?"

"You think this is anything but a... a tantrum?"

"Tantrum?" BA's voice echoed in his ears.

"How many times in 'Nam did you hear him threaten to get a transfer to another unit? Did he ever do it?"

"You saying he's all mouth?"

"I'm saying he says a lot of things and doesn't mean all of them. When he's done sulking, he'll be back."

Sulking.

BA put his flashlight and rifle down. Then he turned, and with a sweeping right hook, punched Hannibal in the jaw knocking him clean off his feet.

Billy went nuts, jumping up and barking frantically. BA stood over the sprawled-out Hannibal, fists raised.

"Get up! You dumb... asshole!"

The fury was back in Hannibal's eyes and he scrambled to his feet. At once he had to block another punch from BA, then dodge back to avoid the follow up.

"Stand down, Sergeant!"

BA almost responded to the voice on instinct. But he remembered Face and he knew what Face's problem was now.

"We're not in the Army now! You kept treating him - both of us - like we is, and he'd had enough, and you were too full of yourself to notice! You decided things for all of us, things that affect all of us and you didn't ask us. You didn't explain nothing', you just decided!"

He landed a punch again, forcing Hannibal back. The dog was still barking like crazy.

"You drove him away. Whatever happens to him is your fault, cos you can't change. You can't see where we are. You can't see where we aren't."

Hannibal's hand shot forward, and grabbed the chain around BA's neck. He pulled out the dog tags from under BA's shirt.

"You're giving me all this 'we're not in the Army now' crap and you're still wearing these? How am I supposed to take anything you say seriously?"

BA snatched the dog tags back and pulled on the chain until it snapped. He threw the tags away into the darkness.

"That's what I think of the Army." BA said it coldly as Hannibal went pale. Hannibal was Army right through. He'd started the rumour himself that he had the words "Property of the US Army" tattooed on his butt. BA had been surprised that to learn it wasn't true.

"I see." Hannibal's response was just as cold. He rubbed his jaw and winced.

BA felt the first twinge of guilt. My god, he'd just attacked Hannibal. Punched him. Knocked him down. Had he gone crazy? Hannibal had been the one officer he'd never felt like punching. Well, not seriously. But in the end was he just like the rest? Just another brass hat when you got past the Jazz? Or was he lost out here too? Not knowing how to be anything but a CO?

"Okay." Hannibal turned to his tent. Just like Face had only a few minutes ago, he started to dismantle it.

"What are you doing?"

"Face is right. We're splitting up eventually, so why wait?"

BA's eyes nearly popped. No. This was insane. This wasn't real. None of this could be real. Face gone. Hannibal going. This must be a dream and he'd wake up with the dog licking his face, any second. Any second... But he didn't wake up. Instead he could only watch helplessly as Hannibal packed his gear.

"You should probably stay here a couple of days," Hannibal said. "In case Face does come back."

"What do we do if he does?"

"Well that's up to you two now, isn't it? Your choice, your decision. You do still remember how to make decisions?"

"You can't walk away, the team..."

"The team is finished." Hannibal had his pack ready now and heaved it onto his shoulders. "Good luck, BA. Don't go to Chicago, or LA. But there are lots of places. Pick one."

"Hannibal!"

Hannibal walked away.