Face felt himself fall down into a sitting position on the bed in the apartment he had recently scammed for himself. His face fell into his hands as he tried to stop the tears from fall. Face couldn't allow his emotions to overcome him but they were. Tears were burning in his eyes. Tears that he couldn't let fall. Because if they did all the emotions would come out.

The team where meant to be helping BA at the kids centre today. He was meant to pick Murdock up from the VA hospital in the next hour. If he let his emotions overtake him, Face knew that there would be no way of him getting there. But he couldn't help it.

Even as he tried to bottle them up the tears where falling. It wasn't fair. A phone call should not affect him so much but it had. Or rather the news had affected him. Shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts, Face let some of the tears fall.

A shower would help. Help him to relax and clear his thoughts so he switched the shower on at a high heat and stood there. He didn't know for how long but as he stood there letting the water droplets hit him, the phone rang 5 times. Face never heard it. Too immersed in his own thoughts.

By the time Face got out of the shower, put some clothes on and brushed his hair he had full control of his emotions again. Looking at his watch, Face silently cursed. He was late. BA was going to kill him. Face had promised to be there and now it didn't look like he would be able to get there. Not at this time. Had he really spent the last 4 hours in the shower? Damn it. This was why emotions were never a good thing. They made him think. And when he thought nothing ever mattered except those thoughts. Face could remember times when he'd spent a whole day, thinking about the emotions swirling around inside of him and bottling them up never to resurface again.

He was so selfish. He'd gone and let down the team and a bunch of little kids. That was just worng. His emotional state be damned. Tears of frustration where appearing now in Faces eyes but he rubbed them away angrily. Hannibal always told him bottling all those emotions up wouldn't do him any good. Looked like the jazz filled colonel was right again. Face collapsed on the bed, frustrated at himself. Selfish.

LINE BREAK

"Thanks for pickin' me up, Colonel." Murdock was looking out of the window of the van with a silent sadness about him. Hannibal hadn't been to happy when Murdock had called him that afternoon asking for a pick up. But he was also worried. It wasn't like Face to not pick Murdock up.

"It'd fine, Captain." Hannibal put the van into drive and they started down the busy streets of LA. "See if you can't get a hold of Face, Murdock."

"I've already tried Hannibal. Facey ain't pickin' up." But the crazy pilot still rang the missing lieutenant. When no one picked up, Hannibal frowned. The whole team knew that they had to pick up the phones. A thought crossed Hannibal's mind at that moment but he shook it off almost instantly. Face wouldn't be stupid enough to get himself caught by Decker. No, Face was probably off with some girl. If he was though, well the kid was gonna get a hell of a punishment. Starting with a 20 mile run, Hannibal thought.

When the van pulled up outside of the kids day centre, BA went to greet them. He had a small girl attached to his side, talking about something or other. When he saw that Face wasn't there he told the girl to run back inside and went over to the other two team members.

"Where's Faceman?" Murdock looked sadly at BA, shaking his head to show that he didn't know.

"Haven't seen him, and he isn't answering his phone either." Hannibal lit a cigar, frowning off into the distance.

"Don't think Decker got 'im do ya?"

"No. Not unless the girl Face picked up the other night was one of Decker's honey traps."

"What, Shelly. She wasn't no honey trap. Too nice for that." Murdock said, remembering the blonde haired girl that Face had picked up on the last night of the teams last mission.

"Murdock's right. Face is probably just with her." Murdock looked sad at that. BA wasn't happy about it either, sure he and the fool argued but he still cared. Not that he'd let no one know.

"Yeah. If Face was in trouble I'm sure he'll have called by now. But if he still hasn't phoned by the time we're done here, we're goin' round to his place. Check up on him." Hannibal stated.

Just as Hannibal said this, a little boy ran over to them, asking for help. "Don't worry kiddo. Captain Glue will help you." Murdock said in his craziest voice, making the kid laugh.

"Stop that fool; don't want none of your crazy rubbin' off on these kids." BA growled, following the pilot into the building. Hannibal hung back and phoned Face's apartment again, before following the other two inside wondering all the time where Face was.

LINE BREAK

A headache was forming, making Faces' head pound. Swigging down a couple of pain pills with a glass of water, Face headed for the door. He needed air. Needed something to clear his head. The shower hadn't worked. Only made his emotions come further to the surface. If he was in a more public place, Face couldn't let his emotions show then. Maybe then he'd be able to get them under control.

The overwhelming feel of guilt and grief where the most prominent of Face's emotions. He had wanted to phone the team, tell them what had happened but he couldn't let him see him in this weak state. Face knew he should have at least phoned to apologise for not showing up but he didn't think he would be able to hold the emotions down long enough to make up an excuse.

Cold air hit him as he walked down the street. Face had no idea where he was heading but neither did he care. He just wanted to walk. So that's what he did.

LA was beautiful at this time of day, Face thought aimlessly. The sun was starting to set, casting a deep red glow over the city. There wasn't many people around but Face still used the back alleys, not wanting to see other people. When he had been a kid in LA he had walked the streets like this. He could remember running away once. Face had just walked out of the orphanage one morning and had let his feet take him away. He'd just kept walking then. Bottling his emotions. Keeping his head clear. That was how he dealt with them. He just ran away. Coward.

LINE BREAK

"Facey!" Murdock called as Hannibal used the spare key Face had given him to let the three men inside.

It was dark inside the apartment. Dark and messy. That surprised Hannibal most. Face always told them, when they visited, that they had to put things back where they found things. Wouldn't let them put their feet on the tables or anything. As Murdock had one dubbed him, Face was a neat freak. But the apartment would say otherwise. Steam was evaporating from the open bathroom door, where towels and dirty clothes had been thrown on the floor. The bed was wrinkled but not slept in. It was more like Face had made it when he'd woken up then spent the day lying on top of it. Hannibal was worried.

"Something's wrong, Hannibal." BA grunted, moving his way around the apartment. Hannibal nodded in agreement as he copied the gold covered man. Murdock was doing the same.

By the time the team had finished looking around the apartment for any clue as to where Face was, Hannibal had started to get worried. As, it seemed, had Murdock and BA. The crazy pilot had started to jump up and down on the balls of his feet, filling up with nervous energy. Whereas BA had started to clench and unclench his fists.

"Where is he?" Hannibal said to no one in particular.

"I don't know. But I sure don't like the look of it." BA growled.

"At least we know he wasn't with any girl." Murdock tried to joke but it was obvious he was worried.

"What'd the plan then, Hannibal?" BA asked, turning to face the Colonel.

Before Hannibal had a chance to answer, though. Someone knocked on the door. "Murdock, open it." Hannibal said, grabbing a pistol out of his pocket. BA did the same and they both went to opposite ends of the room. Murdock took out his own pistol and slowly opened the door.