Title: The Closet

Summary: A what happened next for the episode Mind Games.

Warnings: Spoilers for Mind Games

"Face," Hannibal tried again. "Can you hear me?"

Face opened his eyes, but kept them focused on the ceiling.

Murdock leaned forward, and reached out toward Face. Face shot his arm up and grabbed Murdock by the wrist.

"Damn, he's not awake," Hannibal said. "B.A., get ready in case he runs."

"Right."

Murdock was trying to pry Face's fingers off of him, while trying to bring him back around. "Face, it's me buddy. C'mon Face…wakey, wakey…my wrist you're gonna breaky, breaky."

Face was fighting against the enemy. He held the wrist tightly, trying with all his might to keep the knife from slashing him again. His assailant began to talk and sounded a lot like…Murdock? Face blinked his eyes as the VC he had a death grip on morphed into his best friend.

Face let go of Murdock as if he was letting go of a hot coal. "M…M…Murdock?"

"The one and only," he replied with a smile while shaking out his hand and trying to get some feeling back. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"No, fool, he was just practicin' his arm wrestling skills," B.A. scoffed.

"In that case, Face wins," Murdock joked.

"Oh God…I'm so sorry…I thought you were…it was so real," Face stammered. He swung his legs over the side of the couch, wincing at the pain in his knee, and moved as if to stand up, but paused as Hannibal put a hand on his shoulder.

"Whoa…where do you think you're going?"

"I think I better go. I'm causing nothing but trouble lately." Face shook off Hannibal's hand and stood up. He swayed on the way up and took a few wobbly steps before B.A. grabbed his arm to steady him.

"Faceman, you one stubborn dude. Now, would you sit back down before you fall back down and I hafta catch you again?"

Face thought about protesting, but he knew B.A. was right. If he tried to leave, he wasn't going to make it very far in his condition. The lack of sleep coupled with a few skipped meals was starting to catch up with him. He allowed himself to be led over to an oversized chair. He sat down gingerly and put his head down in his hands. "I don't know why you guys put up with me."

"Face, I think you're being a little too hard on yourself," Hannibal answered. "I just hope you can forgive us."

Face looked up in shock. "Forgive you? For what? I'm the one whose head doubled in size."

"More like tripled," Murdock joked, and the others nodded in agreement...Face included.

"But seriously," Hannibal said looking Face straight in the eye, "we had no idea about what was happening to you at the VA. We should have realized that something was wrong when you didn't come back, but we figured you were cooling off somewhere."

"You didn't need to go through that again...and for that we will forever be sorry," Murdock added.

"You guys have nothing to apologize for…you didn't know. Besides, if I hadn't gotten all caught up in that pardon nonsense, none of this would have happened! You know the funny thing? I'm not even upset that it wasn't real. I'm more upset that I was so quick to leave you guys." Face hung his head. "What kind of a man does that make me?"

"It makes you human, Faceman!" B.A. exclaimed. Softening his voice he continued, "even though you don't talk about it much, we know you had it rough as a kid. This was your first chance at a normal life and there ain't nothin' wrong with wantin' that. Hell...we wanted it for you too! We didn't look at it as you runnin' out on us, we looked at it as you running toward something somethin' else."

Face looked up with moist eyes; he hadn't expected anything like that to come out of B.A. Of any of the guys, he expected B.A. to be the hardest on him and the last one to understand. Touched by the words, he was rendered speechless.

Also speechless were Hannibal and Murdock, who stood there staring at B.A. in awe.

"What you fools starin' at? What, you think 'cause I don't go flappin' my gums all the time like you three that I don't got anything to say?"

"No...but that was really nice...you big softie you!" Murdock said running over and giving B.A. a hug.

"Get off me, crazy man," B.A. growled. "I may be a softie, but I hit really hard."

Murdock unwrapped his arms and backed up slowly, his hands in front of his face as a shield.

"I thought that's what I wanted...a normal life."

"You thought you wanted a normal life, what do you think now?" Murdock asked.

"I kind of like my life the way it is right now. I mean, sure, I could do without the nightmares...without Decker chasing us...without getting shot at...without getting beat up...without..."

Hannibal cut him off. "Um, I think we get the point."

"But I couldn't do without you guys." Face sagged slightly in the chair and covered his mouth with his hand covering up a yawn.

"Want to know something else you can't do without?" Murdock asked.

"What's that?"

"Sleep!" they all responded.

Face shook his head 'no' while fighting to keep his eyes open. "If I sleep I'm just going to have more nightmares."

Hannibal grabbed a blanket off the couch and put it over Face's lap. "You can't stay awake forever, Face."

"Yeah, man. Don't worry...we got your back."

"And your front and sides, too!" Murdock said, eliciting an irritated look from B.A. "Pardon me, B.A., for trying to make my pal Faceman here feel better."

"Did you have to say the word 'pardon'?" Face moaned, before his eyelids finally became too heavy for him to keep up.

And when the next nightmare came a few hours later, the team was waiting.

The End