What Frankie Saw by emmastark (R)

[laceymcbain.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE A-TEAM
Pairing: Face/Murdock
Author on LJ: emmastark
Author Website: Her A-Team fics can be found here and here
Why this must be read: I started this month's recs with emmastark and I'm going to end with her as well. Since we're a small fandom and we've only had a month, I've tried to introduce you to a number of resources and authors who will give you reading pleasure. That being said, there are definitely more good A-Team authors out there that I didn't have a chance to rec, but hopefully we'll get another crack at the van sometime. In the meantime, feel free to come and play with us in the fandom because: “Some people get mummies and daddies and teddies and puppies and white picket fences. Others get jazzed Colonels and angry mudsuckas and a big ugly black van with lots of guns in it. I think we’re lucky, myself.” Very lucky!

There are two things that I especially like about this story. First, it has a Face that's slightly on edge after the events of "Family Reunion" ... he's reckless, calculating, and overtly sexual. He's looking for trouble. The team may call it "the jazz", but sometimes they're all flirting with that need for a dangerous life, for excitement, adrenaline. Second, it gives us a glimpse into a private moment between Face and Murdock - a moment no one is meant to see, and what that reveals about both the observer and the observed is something that's at the heart of the A-Team. Above all else, the four men have always been a team, a family of sorts, and they protect one another no matter what. Frankie wants to be part of that, but at best, he'll only ever be on the outside looking in. It's a lovely portrayal of the interaction between the five men told in multiple POV, and even if you don't care for Frankie, you can't help but appreciate his position in this fic.


Don Henley was howling on the jukebox as they went in, and the place was full. Smelled like sweat and sawdust and cheap beer. Lots of guys. Construction workers, maybe.

It figured.

Somebody’d strung big loops of white Christmas lights by the rafters, but it was still pretty dark inside. Clouds of white cigarette smoke drifted over the lights and made everything kind of hazy.

They sat down at a table near the door, except for Face who went toward the bar at the back to order their drinks.

Murdock was acting real jumpy. He was never a real chill kind of guy, cool when it came to it, but... well... the Nighthawk kind of had his own stuff going on. But he’d been acting strange since they’d been in Florida. Stranger. All serious one minute, the way he got sometimes, then... weird.

With normal people, you could just say, like, what’s goin’ on? But the guys had all kinds of old school military stuff going on with them. They never said stuff right out. It was all kind of in codes. Saying one thing, meaning something else that he’d probably never figure out since he wasn’t some macho Army green beret Special Forces veteran who’d ~been~ there.

Not that he was bitter about it or anything.

Read the fic: What Frankie Saw, and let the author know you enjoyed it.

Thanks for riding in the van with me this month! It's been a blast.