Title: The Jungle

Summary: After a mission the real trouble begins for the team and, even if they manage to survive, threatens to tear them apart.

Note: Liauno sent me the story idea (thanks Lia!) with the basic guidelines and I took it from there. :)

Face lay on the cot pondering the cruel irony of how a tiny little pill that was supposed to stop him from getting sick, could still manage to have the same undesirable effect.

Maggie called them Anti-Malaria tablets and cautioned that if they didn't take them they would be susceptible to contracting the dangerous disease while on their latest mission. She had warned them that they may experience mild side effects such as nausea, stomach cramps, headaches and dizziness. Face currently had all of the above and they felt anything but mild.

Still, he knew Malaria was much worse and potentially fatal. And if he had to feel lousy to avoid being dead, he figured it was a fair tradeoff. Besides there were only a couple of rounds left. And by the time he took the next one tomorrow, they would be home.

"Up and at 'em, Lieutenant," Hannibal ordered from the door of Face's hotel room.

"Why? Didn't we already go after 'em and win?" Face groaned. "We're all packed and the plane…"

"Change of plans," Hannibal said, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I'm thinking boat."

"And I'm thinking you lost your mind. Hannibal, I spent all that time getting us a plane, and now you want a boat?"

"Uh-huh," Hannibal nodded, smiling widely.

Face knew that smile; it was his 'on the jazz' smile. That smile also meant that the Colonel had already made up his mind. "These meds are already giving me the spins, and now you want to add the motion of the ocean?"

"It'll be great!" Hannibal beamed while pulling a cigar out of his jacket pocket. "I figured we could use the time to relax and unwind."

The truth was, Hannibal was exhausted and he knew the rest of the team was as well. It had been a particularly difficult case that was twice as long and twice as hard as they had expected. Their task was to free a small town on the coast from a local drug dealer by the name of Juarez who was using their ports to smuggle in drugs while forcing the locals to work for him.

They hadn't anticipated their opponent being as crafty and cunning as he proved to be. It had taken them the better part of a week just to track Juarez and his posse down. From that point on, it was a wicked game of cat and mouse. But once the trap was sent, the rodents took the cheese and were caught.

"Where's your sense of adventure, kid?"

"Where's my sense of adventure?" Face asked incredulously. "Hmmm, let me think." He stood and scratched his head as if he were deep in thought. "Oh yeah, I just spent three weeks running all over South America chasing after Juarez and his slime ball associates. And before that, there hasn't been a week in the last decade in which I have not been either beaten up, shot at, or a combination of both." Face shook his head. "And you ask me where my sense of adventure is! I think I've had my fill, thank you very much!"

Hannibal slapped him on the back happily. "Great, then we're agreed."

"We go by," they both said, but Face's statement ended with "plane" and Hannibal's with "boat".

"Even if I agreed with you…which I don't…where am I going to get us a boat on such short notice?"

"The same way you got us a plane." Hannibal put his hands on his hips in a challenging stance. "I always thought you could get anything, anywhere. Snow in the middle of summer. Water in the middle of the desert." He raised his eyebrows. "A Cadillac in the middle of the jungles of Nam."

Face held his hands up in the air in defeat at the memory. "Damn…why do I have to be so good at what I do? You win…boat it is."

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Face flopped back down onto the bed. "You ever notice that when you say that too early, your plan falls apart before it comes together."

"Have a little faith, Face!"

"Oh I have plenty of faith," he said and then muttered under his breath, "faith that I'm going to live to regret this!"

They left the hotel they were currently staying at bright and early the next morning and started walking toward the shipping agency just outside of town. The town was a little bigger than the one they had just freed from Juarez, but only 15 minutes away, and had served as a good hide out and operation base. Face took the opportunity to fill the others in on the scam he had worked the afternoon before.

"We are business men here for a local conference. Our luggage, which included our plane tickets, was stolen and we are desperate to get back to the states to meet a deadline."

"We got it, Faceman," B.A. smiled happily…too happily for Face's liking.

"Look, I know you're glad we aren't flying, B.A., but would you mind cheering down a little bit. We're supposed to be panicked tourists."

"Relax, Facey," Murdock said. "You're so uptight."

"You would be too if you had to wear this," he whined pulling at his tie. "It must be 200 degrees out here, and I'm in an Armani suit."

"Don't be so dramatic, Face," Hannibal teased. "I bet it hasn't even reached 110 yet."

"Very funny," Face said dryly and they continued walking on in silence. He could feel the sweat trickling down his back. He was sick and tired…literally…of this entire venture. His head ached and his stomach churned; he couldn't remember the last time he felt so drained. If they had only flown back home, he could have been home in bed instead of sweating buckets inside this monkey suit.

Face could see the ship in the distance and he felt queasy just looking at it. He stopped walking and decided to give his plea one last shot. "Look, it's not too late to fly back on that plane I got us. It will get us home ten times faster. I feel lousy as it is, and once we take those pills later I'm really going to be feeling bad."

B.A. snorted. "Hey man. All them times you hit me with a two-by-four didn't exactly feel good. Consider this payback…we ain't flying."

"Sorry, Face," Hannibal said. "You're outnumbered on this one."

"What about Murdock's vote?" Face asked, looking over at the pilot hopefully.

B.A. cleared his throat loudly and took a step toward Murdock who got the hint. Shrugging his shoulders, he said apologetically, "Sorry Facey, but call me Switzerland."

"Switzerland?"

"Yup…Switzerland, 'cause I'm staying neutral on this one."

"Fine," Face sighed. "I'll go talk to my contact and make sure everything is set."

Hannibal gave Face a curious look. "You never did tell us…how'd you manage to get us aboard on such short notice?"

"I simply explained our situation and used my powers of persuasion to convince the agent."

"And this agent," Hannibal grinned knowingly, "what was her name?"

"Maria," Face answered dreamily. "And speak of the devil…or in this case, angel." He straightened his tie as he spotted the beautiful brunette through the window of the agency's main office. Awful as he felt, flirting with Maria had done wonders to ease his pain and he was hoping for some more of that relief right now. "Wait here for my signal."

Face opened the door and took a step inside to see a terrified Maria mouth to him "I'm sorry". Before he had a chance to react, he felt a gun press into his back.

The door was still open; the team only feet away. He had to try and warn them. "It's a trap," he yelled. The butt of the gun slammed into the side of his head and everything went black.

TBC…