The other three stared at Face as he lowered his empty hand. He only smiled back at them. BA was the first to come back to life. He nodded vigorously.

"Right on, Faceman!" He ripped up his own plane ticket and tossed the pieces away. "We ain't flying."

Face still smiled. "So now you'll go buy a boat ticket home?" BA hesitated a moment. He'd had about enough of boats, Face supposed. They all had. But then BA folded his arms and got his stubborn look on.

"Yeah. Boat ticket."

"Are you both crazy?" Murdock threw up his hands. "Do you know how long that will take? Well, fine! You two take the boat. Hannibal and me will catch that flight and we'll see you in a couple of months."

"I don't think you understand," Face said. "I'm not buying a boat ticket." He looked directly at Hannibal. "I'm just not going back." If they'd stared before, this time their eyes nearly popped.

"Say that again," Murdock said after a moment. "It sounded like you said you're not going back."

"You heard me right. I'm not going back to the States."

"But-"

"No!" Face snapped at Murdock, then regretted his harsh tone. "Sorry. But I've decided not to go back. Not now. Maybe not ever. We've been screwed over by our country for fifteen years and I'm done with it."

"And what... you're going to stay here in Australia?" BA said.

Face shrugged. "For now. The weather's hot, the beer's cold and they speak English." He grinned. "And I've heard things about the women..." Hannibal glared at him at that and Murdock exploded again.

"Face, this is nuts! You can't stay here. I mean..." He stopped, shaking his head, as if looking for a good argument. "Don't you know all the animals here are deadly? The most lethal snakes in the world are Australian. Same goes for the spiders. Even the damn duck-billed platypus is venomous!"

"Shut up, Murdock," BA yelled. "Quit jabbering about animals - this is serious!"

"I am serious! You don't think deadly snakes are serious?"

"Face," Hannibal said, voice quiet, ignoring Murdock and BA's arguing. "We only have tourist visas. They're good for six months. After that the immigration authorities -"

Face interrupted him, laughing. "We evaded the US Army for ten years! Are you telling me we couldn't stay ahead of the Australian immigration authorities?"

"We?" Hannibal said. "You expect us to stay too?"

"Well, BA already tore up his ticket home," Face said. BA shook his head.

"That don't mean I'm not going home. What about my Mama?"

"Come on BA," Face said. "You see her a couple of times a year now. You can go visit her from anywhere in the world. It doesn't have to be from LA."

"Anywhere in the world?" BA said.

"I didn't say I wanted to stay here in Australia forever," Face said. "We're free men. We can go anywhere we want."

"And where's the money for that going to come from?" Hannibal asked.

"I guess we could work," Murdock said, looking thoughtful. "Like the old days." He grinned suddenly. "Yeah! Think of it, there's a whole untapped market. Thugs and bad guys of every nationality, just waiting to have their butts handed to them." He chuckled. "The A-Team goes international! Sounds good to me."

"It sounds crazy!" BA countered. "And it sounds like a heck of a lot of flyin' too, and BA Baracus don't fly."

Murdock looked at Face for support, but Face couldn't say anything right away. Going back to their old job wasn't part of his plan. True they needed an income, but there were more... normal ways of earning money. But he didn't want to shoot Murdock down either, make it harder to get him to come around. So he just smiled and nodded and spoke in a conciliatory tone.

"Well, we have plenty of time to figure out what to do next. We have six months on those visas. Let's use it."

"If we start doing our old job out here we'll get deported inside a month." Hannibal growled it, a growl to rival BA's. "Face, what the hell is the matter with you? Is it about what those Marine bastards did to you? We can help you deal with that."

"It's about a lot more than that!" Face took a deep breath, trying to control his anger. He didn't want this to be an argument, damn it. He was supposed to be persuading them to stay here too. Still, he wasn't going to compromise. "If the rest of you stay, that's great. But if you don't... I'm sorry, that won't change my mind."

"Dammit, Face!" Hannibal flushed and his voice rose. "You're a soldier! A soldier doesn't desert his country."

"It deserted me a long time ago! I'm done with it, Hannibal. I'm done!" Done with running around the edges trying to pretend he belonged. "And I have nobody to go back for."

"What about Ellen?" Murdock said.

"All I can bring her is trouble and danger. She doesn't need anything from me. Everyone that means something to me is right here. And I'd like them to... I'd like you to stay here." An awkward silence followed that outburst. The rest of the team exchanged glances. Were they coming around?

"Face..." Murdock began, but stopped, biting his lip, thoughtful, dubious, not convinced. None of them were. Hannibal least of all. Face looked at Hannibal.

"If you don't want to stay just for me... well, that's okay. But don't forget the promise we made to Baxter. We're going to keep that promise aren't we?"

"Of course," Hannibal said. "I gave my word."

"So do you want to be back home after we've just severely embarrassed the government? Again?"

It was a logical argument. But was logic enough to persuade Hannibal to desert his country? All their years on the run he'd been adamant about one thing. They left the country for jobs, but they always came home. In the early years it had been tempting to skip over the border to Canada, make new lives there. But Hannibal would never even entertain the idea. So logic wasn't enough. But time might be. After all, they didn't have to decide forever right now.

"Give it six months," Face said. "Six months of sunshine and cold beer to work out our next move."

"Six months," Murdock said. He adjusted his baseball cap. "Maybe I could learn how to play cricket."

"Mama could come out here for a visit," BA said. "She'd probably like it. See that weird opera house they got."

Two out of three. Come on, Colonel, Face thought, turning to Hannibal. Make it unanimous. Keep the team together.

"Six months," Hannibal said after a long pause. "We'll stay for six months. We work a couple of jobs, see how that goes. Then we decide about the long term." He looked at Face. "Deal?"

The sound of Murdock tearing up with plane ticket delayed Face's answer, and he had a moment when he wanted to object about "working a couple of jobs". But never let it be said that he wasn't flexible. Everything was negotiable. He smiled at Hannibal and nodded.

"Deal."

~~~~

Kate strolled on the deck of the Meirion. She needed the fresh air after a long session with Dr Galvez. Perhaps the people in charge hoped she'd open up to the doctor, about what she'd been up to off the ship, but she hadn't. Kate had never trusted the doctor-patient privilege around here.

She had a new cabin. They were still tearing her old one to bits to see what else she had hidden in the walls. The new one was bigger, so that was good. Poor little Sammy seemed to be recovering from being dragged around the world and back again. He'd been sulky and off his feed for a few days, but was eating better now.

Everything back to normal. And yes, despite her denial when Stockwell asked, she had missed it. But she felt aimless. Her carefully laid plan had unravelled after all those years of planning. But in the end she could only be glad about that. All that time thinking about putting a bullet in Stockwell's head and when she had the chance she couldn't do it. Even without the complication of letting him live in order to save the A-Team, she couldn't have done it. Perhaps she did have something to talk to Galvez about after all.

But it was good. Did she really want to be a killer? Would Lewis have wanted that? He'd bought that gun all those years ago for protection, not for revenge.

She rubbed her thumb on her wedding ring, back in place on her left hand. She'd taken it from the chain around her neck when she arrived back on the Meirion, needing to feel it back on her finger for a while.

She stopped by the railing and looked out to sea. Westwards, who knew how far off, lay Australia, and the A-Team, unless they had gone home already. Interesting men. She wished she'd had more time to spend with them. Especially the blond one. She chuckled and stroked the wedding ring again.

Sorry, Lewis. But a girl can look, can't she?

A distant noise carried on the wind made her look up. Small dark dots off to the west grew rapidly larger and louder. Kate grinned as her fellow prisoners rushed to the rail, pointing at the helicopters. Baxter appeared at her side.

"They made me a promise," he said. "Looks like they kept it."

"Yes. They seemed like the sort of men who would."

~~~~

They had to have a van of course. With their limited cash the camper van they bought would guarantee plenty of work for BA to bring it up to his high standards. It smelled of seaweed and other more suspicious items but - after some haggling of course, needed to stay in practice - Face handed over the cash, while the sellers took out the last surfboards.

"Where exactly are we going?" BA asked as he drove the van away from the house in the Sydney suburbs.

"Out there," Face said. "The Outback."

"You know - where those deadly snakes and spiders I mentioned hang out," Murdock said.

"I've got a guidebook so we can spot those," Face said.

"Oh good. I'd hate to die not knowing what bit me. That'd be a real shame."

"Just drive," Face said. "Out there." It's a frontier, he thought. Just like home.

"We'd better find some work before our savings run out," Hannibal said.

"It'll be sheep shearing sheason shoon," Murdock said, earning a glare from BA for the silly voice.

"Or BA could wrestle crocodiles," Hannibal suggested.

"BA's scared of crocodiles," Murdock pointed out.

"I am not!"

"Are too."

"Shut up, fool!"

The van drove west, chasing the sun into a new frontier.