What breaks in a moment may take years to mend. - Swedish Proverbs
Murdock watched as Face headed across the field. Ellen hadn't moved from her vigil, just stood there staring down at the makeshift grave.
Would Face tell her? Somehow, he didn't think so. Not now, anyway. It was still too raw for both of them. No, he'd wait, get the paperwork in order. He'd want to be able to tell her everything he knew. And then he'd go down to Florida, or wherever Ellen decided to live, and tell her in person.
The rest would be up to her.
In the meantime, Murdock had a lot of mea culpas to go through. Despite their words earlier, he wasn't so stupid as to think Face really had forgiven him. It was what Face did, tell people what they wanted to hear regardless of what he was actually thinking. Or feeling. No, Face would go through the motions, try to pretend nothing had really changed between them, make sure the guys didn't notice anything... odd.
He wondered when Face would tell them. He pretty much figured Face would tell Hannibal and ask him to tell the others. He couldn't see Face making the 'grand announcement' to a group, even if it was their group. He wouldn't be able to deal with the reactions. Murdock knew it would start out with surprise, maybe disbelief, then sympathy. That would be the worst. Face wouldn't want that, probably see it as pity and that was one thing he'd never accept.
No, he'd tell Hannibal because the colonel would know exactly how to handle it. Would know how to offer comfort while keeping emotions from getting too high. He'd ask for the facts, make it a 'soft' debriefing, help Face look at it from a more objective point. Most importantly, he'd help Face figure out how to grieve.
And he'd make damn sure Stockwell let him.
It would be okay. Hannibal would know how to deal with Face.
Murdock wasn't sure how any of the guys would deal with him. Hannibal would be pissed, but he'd try to help mend fences. BA might actually pound him instead of just threatening to. Frankie - well, he didn't really care about Frankie. He probably would try to stay out of it completely, pretend nothing had happened.
The important thing was fixing it with his best friend. Try to make sure he still was. If he couldn't do that...
No, he'd just have to keep trying. There wasn't really another choice...