Disclaimer: no recognizable characters are mine. I promise to make no money from this and put everyone back nicely where they belong, albeit in a slightly less pristine condition from which I found them.

Just for a bit of background: I am very interested in the scope and limitations of Murdock's medications, and just what they do to him. I'm also interested in Face's involvement and handling of Murdock's condition, and how it affects him personally.

1. In the desert

Murdock was annoying and frustrating, just ask B.A. . . . but he was a genuinely nice guy. And brilliant. And pop culture obsessed. And, craziness aside, the best damn pilot. Ever. Okay, and he tended to use gunpowder as a flavoring agent.

Plus he was on a truckload of medications that worked most of the time, but when they didn't he had hallucinations and breakdowns and once sliced his arms open with a dull box cutter because of the moths he insisted were under his skin—he wept when no one else could see that that wasn't hair on his forearms, but the moths' antennae poking through—but those types of episodes were few and far between.

But focus on the "nice guy" and as long as the meds were keeping the demons at bay, he was just quirky.

The team didn't blame Rio for leaving. Well, they did blame her, but they understood. Face held the grudge the longest, and when Murdock began semi-seeing this new girl, he projected the same shallowness on her and could hardly be in the same room she was.

Murdock called him out on it.

"You're pretty rude, you know."

Face hadn't quite known how to respond to the blunt assessment of his behavior. His first reaction was to defend himself (and subsequently, Murdock too) and give his reasons for disliking her. But with some quick empathetic thinking, he realized that telling Murdock he thought his newest squeeze was going to freak out and leave him in the same depressed boat—the one in which he didn't talk for three to four days straight, remember? And how I found you repeatedly, multiple times, slamming your head into the walls, till you were bruised and bloody, remember, buddy?—that the last one had probably wouldn't be incredibly sensitive to his friend either.

So he sucked it up and gave Kerry a chance. He didn't turn on the faucet of charm as he typically would. He remained slightly cool but civil. To his surprise, he discovered that once again, Murdock had found a woman who laughed at his jokes, ate his cooking with little protest, watched the Three Stooges with him, and got along (as best she could with a stand-offish Templeton Peck) with his three best friends.

She never seemed perplexed about any odd gifts Murdock came up with. That included a diagram of a weasel—"Nature's lustiest animal," she told Face that Murdock explained, and she laughed not at Murdock but with him—and returned the favor with a t-shirt on which was printed,

"Wolverines taste like chicken."

Murdock adored it, trying to analyze it logically. "Is it because we're in Ohio and the Buckeyes versus Michigan Wolverines rivalry is strong, or is it a Sabretooth fan versus Wolverine in the comics, or do actual wolverines actually taste like chicken?"

He posed the quandary frequently, and again, she laughed with him, not at him.

Hannibal and B.A. seemed to like her fine as well. Kerry was pleasant and fun, and from the newsstand she worked in she occasionally bought B.A. motorcycle magazines and once she brought Hannibal cigars; the older man accepted them with surprise but never smoked them because they were vanilla flavored.

She became a semi-part of their lives.

Because he wasn't trying to beguile her, Face eventually realized he was relaxed around her. He wasn't trying to be anyone for her or for the team, and it was nice to just be himself. It was almost as comfortable as he was with Murdock. He still nursed a secret grudge, though.

Then:

Like random times before, the chemicals in Murdock's head went haywire. If he was late taking certain medications, the mania became amped—but this was more. This was like he'd stopped taking his meds altogether and had a full-blown psychotic break. The kind, that if he were still in the hospital setting, would have him in restraints and scheduled for large doses of IV Thorazine and ECT.

Murdock's keening wail snapped Face from sleep. He heard grumbles and feet on the floor and knew the rest of the team was up due to the disturbance as well. Neither B.A. nor Hannibal were quite as good as bringing Murdock back down, though, so they allowed Face to deal with the situation.

He told them to stand ready to help get Kerry out once he got into the room.

When he entered the bedroom where all the commotion was, however, he was surprised to find her sitting on the bed with his howling friend. Murdock had dug gashes into his forearms again and even though she was lighter than the former Ranger, she was doing her best to keep his hands and fingernails away from his face.

Murdock's cries had almost become words, "N-n-no—no—keep—no—"

Face could see but barely hear that she was talking to him in a low voice.

Ignoring the fact that she and Murdock were in bed—Kerry with an oversized shirt as her only clothing, Murdock only in boxers, and never mind that he was only in boxers too—Face immediately joined them and began soothing Murdock has he had done so many times before.

"Murdock—hey, Murdock, buddy—it's okay, I'm here, it's okay—"

He was annoyed that she was telling his friend the same things, and that she still held his wrists. He wrapped Murdock into a bear hug, aware that she didn't have the physical strength to perform that feat, and lowered himself and his now immobile friend to the bed. As typical, Murdock thrashed against him. The pitch in his voice climbed higher.

Kerry kept hold of Murdock's wrists, which prevented him from clawing into himself again, or her, or Face.

Usually laying down and keeping him stationary eventually calmed Murdock down, but when the struggling continued, Hannibal stepped into the room.

Seemingly not fazed by the sight of two half-naked men—one with bloody gouges on his arms—and a half-naked woman collapsed on a bed together, Hannibal strode to the bedside and barked,

"Captain! I need your full attention!"

The undeniable timbre of a superior officer ordering his subordinate seemed to catch Murdock's attention and caused a break in his flailing. In just a few seconds after Hannibal's command, Murdock ceased fighting and his half-worded distress stopped almost completely.

"Sedation tonight," Hannibal told them, his voice still in CO mode. Then he addressed Murdock directly again. "Understand, soldier?"

Unlike the fiend that had just been present, Murdock nodded meekly. With no prodding, he offered his arm, palm up, towards the former Colonel. Cautiously, Kerry allowed his arm free.

Tightening a tourniquet over Murdock's upper arm, Hannibal found a vein, slipped the needle in, re-loosened the tourniquet, and injected the drug. Immediately the tension left Murdock and he slumped against Face.

Kerry took the medical supplies and bandaging Hannibal had also brought in and began cleaning the wounds.

"You should stay with him tonight," Hannibal said.

Face didn't know if it was directed at him or her. Hannibal didn't clarify, and left the room shortly thereafter, closing the door behind him.

Face helped her finishing wrapping Murdock's injured arms. Then, even though Murdock was sedated, because it was habit, he climbed under the blankets beside him. Kerry looked at him curiously, but he dared her without a word to say something—anything. Finally, she lay down too, on Murdock's other side.