Hannibal hoped the Watkins had come back. As they headed up to the house, he really did hope, deep inside, that they'd come back.

So they could watch.

But he didn't get his wish. When they arrived at the Watkins place, there were still no vehicles in sight and the door stood open just as they'd left it early the previous morning. Hannibal and BA did a quick sweep and found the house empty. They came back outside.

"Murdock," Hannibal said, "take Bonnie inside to collect her belongings. And anything else you want to take, Miss." He nodded back at the house. "You're certain that your family own the property. It's not rented from anyone."

"I'm certain, sir," she said.

"Good. Then go get your stuff. BA, you're with me. Face." He looked at Face sitting in his usual place, in the van, watching out of the open door, still pale and weak. Hannibal had given him the full day and night to rest, but now he wanted to finish their business here and get them all back on the road to LA. "Just take it easy. Keep an eye on him, Tawnia."

The group scattered to their tasks. Hannibal helped BA unload the gear from the back of the van. This was going to be fun.

>o<

Face wished he were stronger, so he could help Hannibal. But the fever had wiped him out, even though it had come down to near normal by this morning.

"Hey, Tawnia," he said, giving her a wan smile, as she took the other back seat in the van. "Seems I've really got the ladies looking out for me these days."

Tawnia just gave him an odd look in return, a bit of a frown.

"Face, I have to talk you to." She glanced towards the house. "About Bonnie."

"Actually," he said, "I was going to talk to you about her. When we get back to LA, I'd be really grateful if you could help her out. You know, help her find some place to live, a job, that kind of thing."

Tawnia frowned again. "Of course I will, but..."

"Look, I know she's not exactly a valley girl; she's not the sort of girl you'd hang out with, but she's a good kid. And heck, she spent half of yesterday telling me how glamorous you are and how she'd love to look like that." He expected her to smile at that, but she kept the serious look.

"Did she ask you if you'd like her to look like that?"

"Huh?"

"You know, was she asking if that's how you would want her to look?"

"I don't know." He'd been pretty out of it for a while, especially in the afternoon. Not really listening properly. To be honest his judgement through the whole of yesterday was suspect. He didn't so much regret what he'd done with Bonnie before the team arrived; he just wasn't sure he'd have done it in a less fevered state. Might have thought a little harder about whether it was a good idea.

Well, too late to worry about it now. What's done is done. It had been short, but sweet, for her too; she'd said as much. Used words like 'wonderful'. Face smiled to recall that. Nice to drift to sleep with a woman telling you how wonderful you are.

"Face," Tawnia said, making him look back at her. She seemed jumpy, hesitant, as if afraid of what she wanted to say next. "Did, um, did Bonnie help you just because she hates her family? Or did you... persuade her?"

"I thought Hannibal said he'd rather you didn't write a story for the paper about this."

"That's not why I'm asking."

"Just general nosiness, eh?"

She actually scowled at him then. "Just answer me, Face, please."

"Okay, don't get all 'reportery' with me," he said, frowning back. "Look, I started out, like you say, persuading her."

"Using your charm."

"I was short of most other weapons, so, yeah."

"So you, um, seduced her."

Face flushed at once. That was a yes and no question. Or no and yes. Well no, he didn't seduce her yesterday, she offered. And he didn't seduce her before that. Planned to maybe, but didn't. So Tawnia could take that judging look off her face.

"I did not seduce her. In fact I... well, I stopped trying to persuade her. It wasn't fair. It was too dangerous for her."

"But she still helped you anyway."

"Maybe she just saw me as the way for her to get out of that house." He looked at it through the windshield. "She helped me, so that I'd help her."

"And you think that's all there is to her feelings for you?"

"Well, maybe she's got kind of a crush on me."

"And you think that's all it is? Nothing stronger?"

"Tawnia, come on, we don't even really know each other."

"No, but..."

But Tawnia didn't get a chance to go on, as Murdock and Bonnie emerged from the house. Bonnie carried only a small stack of paperback books.

"Is that all you want to take?" Tawnia asked as Bonnie climbed back into the van and put the books on the floor in a neat little stack.

"Hey, not everyone has fifteen piece sets of matching luggage," Face said, grinning at Tawnia and winking at Murdock. Bonnie laughed at the joke, but Tawnia didn't. She picked one of the books off the stack.

It looked like one of those romance novels girls were so inexplicably fond off, Face thought. Some guy on the front who'd lost most of his shirt buttons and a girl with a heaving bosom and improbable hair. Tawnia didn't seem to like them though. She shook her head and put the book down with a sigh. Bonnie sat on the floor next to Face's seat.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie asked softly, putting her hand over his. "You're still very pale."

"I'll be okay," he said. "Especially when I see what Hannibal has in store."

>o<

The team and the two women regrouped around the van, a half-hour later. Hannibal stepped to the front, turning his back on the house.

"Our hands are kind of tied here. We can't go and capture the Watkins and hand them to the cops for kidnapping Face, since he can't hang around to give evidence. We can't go after them and kill them. That's not what we're about. But that doesn't mean I'll let them get away with kidnapping and blackmail. What we can do is send them a message."

He strode to the van, reached across the seat and picked up the phone. When Face stared, he grinned.

"I have their number."

"And you really ain't gonna like how we got that number," Murdock said. Face just looked baffled at the look BA and Murdock exchanged.

A moment later Hannibal heard Deke's voice, considerably more subdued than normal.

"Afternoon, weasel brain," Hannibal said. Deke started talking, but Hannibal cut him off. "Yeah, shut the hell up, I'm not interested. I just thought I'd drop you a quick message. I have my man back, and we're all standing in front of your house right now. Why don't you listen up and you'll hear the message?"

He pulled the phone as far as it would go out of the van door and nodded at BA. BA knelt and slammed down the plunger of a detonator.

A second later, explosions roared at the back of the house. All the windows blew out and a terrible tearing, creaking, shrieking of wood and masonry came from the back. The house shuddered and the front of it fell away from them, as the back slid away down the slope, its support beams destroyed by BA's explosives. The front toppled over backwards like a movie flat and went roof first down the slope, crashing and roaring.

BA, Murdock, Tawnia and Bonnie ran forward to see the wreckage that Hannibal could hear still tumbling and smashing through the trees.

Hannibal had only two words to say. A compliment to the man who'd placed the explosives just right.

"Nice, BA."

He turned back to the phone. Four voices were ranting and a couple of dogs were barking.

"Message delivered. Touch one of my team again and next time you'll be inside when your house goes over the cliff. And the girl? She's under the A-Team's protection. Touch her and the same applies. Understood?"

They didn't answer in any coherent fashion and went on raving threats at him. But he suspected that when they came back here and saw what was left of their house, they'd take the message to heart. He'd never hear from the Watkins again.

Hannibal hung up the phone and turned to Face, who at once held out a cigar to him.

"Thanks, Face."

Face lit the cigar and smiled at Hannibal. "Thank you, Colonel."

"No problem, kid." He went serious for a moment. "Nobody messes with the A-Team."

>o<

Murdock kept Tawnia company in her car on the way back to LA and Bonnie sat in his seat in the van. Face, still feeling feeble, dozed for a while, jolting awake when the van bumped over something.

Growing dark outside now. A roadside sign told him they were well on the way to LA, and a glance at his watch made him guess they'd be there by midnight.

"We going to stop for some food?" he asked, stretching.

"Yeah," BA said. "Good idea. And I gotta gas up too."

"Okay," Hannibal agreed. "Watch out for a sign and I'll radio Murdock to be ready to turn off."

Face nodded and turned to Bonnie, who must have been reading one of her books; it lay in her lap now.

"How you doing?"

"I'm fine. I'm so excited. I've never been to Los Angeles before. It will be wonderful."

"Yeah, it's a great place."

"Not as good as Chicago," BA muttered.

"Really missing those ice storms, BA?" Face said.

"Least the ground don't shake in Chicago."

"Ignore him," Face said, reaching out to pat Bonnie's hand. "You soon get used to the earthquakes. I can't sleep if the earth isn't shaking." That made her giggle, which made him smile. She deserved some laughs. Her face turned serious then, and she leaned closer to Face.

"Templeton, is Colonel Smith really not going to go after Ma and my cousins?"

"No, I'm sorry. I told you that we don't kill people, and what else would we do to them if we caught up?" He shook his head. "Hannibal's made his point. Of course, you could always go to the police, with anything you know that could nail them. Press charges for the way they treated you."

She stared at him, shocked at that suggestion and he knew she was too afraid to do that.

"Well, it's up to you, Bonnie. But Hannibal told them you're under the A-Team's protection now. We'll make sure you're safe."

"I know. I know you will." She came off her seat then and kissed him on the cheek, before sitting back down, blushing and hiding her face. Face looked up at the chuckling that came from the front of the van. Hannibal caught his eye in the rear view mirror and winked.

"Good to have you back on the job, Face."

Face smiled, but didn't laugh. Tawnia couldn't be right, surely? Had he done his 'job' a little too well?

>o<

"Are you sure you don't want anything else?" Bonnie asked Face when he finished his scrambled eggs and toast in the diner off the interstate.

"I'm fine," he said. "I guess I still haven't got my appetite back. I'll be okay in a couple of days."

"I have a soup I can make that will help you get your strength back."

"Er, yeah, that's great. You'll have to make me some."

"And give us the recipe," Murdock said, as he picked up his second burger. "It sounds like something that would come in handy in our line of work."

"Ain't that the truth," Face muttered. "Excuse me." He left the table to head to the bathroom. After he washed his hands and came back out of the men's room, he found Tawnia standing there, arms folded, frowning.

"Is there a line for the ladies room?"

"I have to talk to you," she said.

Face glanced over at the table, where the group was now drinking coffee. A cup sat in front of his empty chair and he liked his coffee hot, not lukewarm.

"Can we do this later?"

"No. Face..." She glanced back at the table. "Face, you have to deal with this."

"With what?"

Tawnia threw her hands up in the air. "God, Face, can't you see it? Bonnie is in love with you!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Face scowled at her. Now she was just exaggerating.

"Face, don't you get it? She doesn't think that she just helped you to escape, she thinks... she thinks you two have eloped."

"Eloped? Come on, Tawnia, I know she's kind of a hick, but she's not an idiot." He looked over at the table. Bonnie was watching Face's little tête-à-tête with Tawnia and she had a frown on her face. "Like I said, maybe she has a bit of a crush on me. I'm sure she'll soon get over it."

"Face, she thinks you two ran away together. You're the white knight who saved her from her evil family. I've read plenty of those same books that she likes too."

"I'm not her lover. Not..." Well, that was none of Tawnia's business. Oh hell, could she be right? Women were better at spotting these things. Not that Face was as oblivious as some men were; with his way of working, he couldn't be. But love? No, Tawnia had to be exaggerating.

"She thinks you'll be together when we get back to LA. She probably expects to go home with you tonight."

"What? No. No way she expects that. Even if we were, you know, actually together, well, there's the small matter of me being on the run from the law." He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "God, Tawnia, you're sure about this? I really didn't think... I never meant for her to think that."

"I'm pretty sure." Tawnia sighed. "You have to tell her the truth. It's not fair otherwise. You'd just be leading her on."

"Yeah, I guess." Oh, hell. There was a conversation he didn't feel like he had the strength for. "I don't suppose you could, you know, talk to her."

"No."

"Come on, honey, help a guy out. Might be better coming from another woman."

"Wow, you're so exactly wrong." She laughed, and then went serious again. "Right now she's watching us talking and wondering what's going on between us. If I go and try to tell her that there's no chance of you and her being together, she'll think I'm jealous because she's stolen you away from me."

Face stared at her for a moment before he spoke. "And I thought I actually understood something about women."

Tawnia smiled, sympathetically. She patted Face's arm.

"Think again."