I was excited to see the posts, C.A. and what a great cliffy!! You better not wait so long to post, again, though ;)

The Team interactions, and attitudes during the action were spot on. I love it when Hannibal's on the jazz! I especially loved the exit strategy - very A-Teamesque! Are we looking forward to a helicopter chase scene (me hoping - you writer)! I CANNOT wait for the next chapter.

I caught a couple typos, but honestly read right over them - had to find out what happened next. It really sucked when I got to the end of the chapter and now have to wait - call me impatient!One nit, you were shifting POVs some and it saps some of the energy from the action scene.

BTW, I'm way with Viv (love her - did I mention that?) - loved the scene just before they left the cabin. Murdock just has to get the girl (or maybe the girl has to get Murdock;). Really looking forward to the next chapter or two . . . Please, please, please don't wait to long.

Great chapter, CA! I started reading it yesterday, but had too many interruptions to really enjoy it. Glad I gave it up and waited until tonight when the little ones are gone, and I could really concentrate on it!

Lovely scene between Charlie and Murdock;) But I have to admit, I think I enjoyed the following scene between Face and Murdock more. It's those windows into how you see the inner workings of the team that I truly enjoy in fanfic.

The final scene left me wondering what Hannibal has in store for us next. I love that Mr. Wickersham made an appearance. He was always one of my favorites of Hannibal's characters.

Looking forward to the next installment - as usual!

Hey! Great story! I love the way that you have captured the guys behavior and interactions. I look forward to reading the rest of your story!

Great chapter - worth the wait. I love Viv, BTW. Hope you update soon!

Sorry I wasn't able to get back to you sooner. My e-mail addy is pessego70 at yahoo dot com.

Tasha - FF ate your email address, and I'd like to reply without carrying on on my review page. If you write out the words "at" and "dot", it should get past the filter.

I saw your note on the reviews page for “The Protectors of the A-Team”, and would like to address what you had to say.

Fist off, as far as the story being shipped to other groups, I personally know of at least five on the Ning and MSN networks that had the same story details as yours. (At least yours before you began making changes.) The group member was Canadian, did not react well to being told how things with the Veteran’s Administration and the Federal Witness Protection Program were run in the United States (and you did react to my initial critiques of these same details by deleting them, after all), noted that the reader would need to suspend belief about a woman in the Federal Witness Protection Program being hidden out in the VA hospital on Murdock’s floor and wing in order for the two of them to “get together”, so to speak – as your own story related in its initial notes, and this same person quit those five groups in a fit of pique when several members tried giving her ideas to alter her story and make it more believable. This author and story premise made the rounds of these groups (and possibly others as well) just this past fall. If it wasn’t you, I heartily apologize, but I’m sure you can see why I’d think it was. I do know that authors can come up with variations of the same basic story, but that’s an awful lot of coincidences and details that match.

Also, I’m sorry that you felt that my note to IndeMaat regarding your story was an attempt to heckle you. In my note to her, suggesting she look at your story, I told her that she’d have fun with it. You at least knew how to if not spell, to use a spell-checker to proof your work; knew how to use punctuation and other than the initial details of why and how your OC was placed at the VA, you can actually write. If you’ve read some of the chapters in “The Protectors of the A-Team”, you’ll note that she doesn’t always have that luxury. Alison and Tasmin WOULD have had a field day with your initial draft as well. Yes, I did mention you’d deleted critiques and also mentioned that you might be benefitted by her guidance in the right direction. Guess I was right about that, wasn’t I – on both counts, as a matter of fact. If I’d thought your writing was horrendous and your story idea beyond redemption, I wouldn’t have bothered taking the time to leave a note for her – especially after you’d deleted my comments. I would have simply left you to your own devices and made a note to steer clear. I thought you and your story were better than that, and if that’s what you consider bad-mouthing someone, then so be it. You DID listen to what she had to say, you DID revise your story, so I’d imagine it worked out fairly well for you.

I don’t believe there’s anything to take private, but should you feel the need to, my e-mail is . I stated my opinions (way back in November), you deleted them, so I recommended your story to someone who has experience in dealing with guiding authors in the right direction, and you left a return comment (now that you’ve chosen to take that guidance), which I’m now answering. Personally, I’m glad that you took IndeMaat’s advice. She is one of the absolute best in helping people with their writing, and I hope you continue to listen to her and learn from her, because she won’t steer you in the wrong direction.

I read this chapter shortly after I had finished reading a crime thriller where every moment you could take a breather was interrupted by a new development. It fueled my paranoia. Then I read this chapter and at every lull I expected something to happen, and it didn't. After a while I got so used to that that I didn't even register the stranger in the bedroom as a turn of events. ;-)

On hinsight, it of course makes sense for Rick or his crony not to show their ugly snout at the funeral. On the other hand, I was desparate for some action (crime novel withdrawal probably) and found a large part of this chapter a bit of a drag to read through. It's now been a while since I read this chapter, and the only things I really remember from it are the phone call with the Team at the begining and what happened at the house after the funeral. I would hazard a guess and say that everything in between those two events can be cut from the story without losing valuable plot development information.

Well! Definitely one of the top fan fictions around- and I say this not in the sense that this piece of work could be novelised (because clearly there would be some copyright issues involved etc) but in the sense that this work does everything a fanfic SHOULD do- tell a captivating story in the style of the original series with an original flavour. You've sure as hell got that down pat!

I particularly loved the convenience of Murdock's side of the phone conversation re: BA's mater (so quintessentially A-Team and in keeping with the fantastically wince-worthy clichés of the 80s) and the construction of Murdock's personality- a tad crazy, but perhaps a little more lucid that the series under the influence of an interesting and most likeable OC.

A thousand congrats- am looking forwards to more!

I'm quite enjoying this story. It's well-written, though a little more verbose than I usually care for. There's a compliment in that sentence, I'm sure. Still, I can't resist to be nitpicky.

First a few nitpicks about the location of things. 1) Charlie's legs when she's undoing Murdock's pants. The way the two of them were pressed together only a paragraph earlier I found it hard to imagine her hands could even reach the zipper. 2) Murdock's watch. I don't Murdock ever wore a watch on the show. I once noticed he had the mark on his arm people get when they wear a watch while sunbathing, but that was Dwight Schultz's mark, not Murdock's.

Then a nitpick about Charlie and the theory she came up with with her college roommate. This is a bit of en extensive nitpick. In chapter one Charlie dropped out of school at sixteen or seventeen and at seventeen met Rick and clung to him because he was the first person to make her feel loved. I guess it would be possible Charlie went back to school and then to college while she was with Rick, but it seemed she was not a very confident person while in her relationship with Rick. The man theory, however, is the sort of theory single, confident women make up. The theory made up in college thus feels to me like it is out of order with what I had previously learned about Charlie. Also in other aspects Charlie seems to be much more confident than it was mentioned she was in the first chapter.

I'm interested to see if Rick will show up and whether the A-Team will need to come to the rescue.

Another great chapter ~ looking forward to more!

Nice scam. Face's power of persuasion is so great that even during the Cold War he could just walk into the VA and claim to be Russian and no one would blink an eye. ;-)

With the changes you've made in the first chapter, and my own assumption that Charlie was with Rick for less than a decade, I'm guessing this story is set between 1972 and 1976. If it's set later I don't think Charlie could pass for someone that had been a field nurse in Nam (she'd look too young; unless she'd been with Rick for longer than I had guessed).

I don't think, however, that BA would let Murdock borrow his van in exchange for a month's worth of clean laundry. Unless he felt less strongly about either his van or Murdock in the early 70s.
Face never struck me as someone who would aggressively come on to a woman. I just remember him using his smile.

Nice chapter. Great scam.

Enjoyed it! Looking forward to the next chapter.

This story is well-written, and that makes it quite enjoyable to read. I did have to giggle, however, when Murdock's physique was described as that of a swimmer. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong when I picture an Olympic gold medalist in my head after that comment, but I'm not exagerating much when I call Murdock scrawny. He doesn't have particularly well-developed arm and shoulder muscles.

If Charlie likes that kind of man she should have done better moving next door to Face. Which would have also made more sense for as far as I understand the Witness Protection Program. If Torres c.s. posed such a great threat to Charlie that all personal and patients (new and old) would have to have their backgrounds checked, it's likely that the Torreses would pose a threat to here even after trial. That would call for a permanent relocation and new identity for Charlie, and not this temporary custody thing she's got going here. Thus, on being demeed eligable for the witness protection program Charlie would be given a new identity and moved somewhere else where should could start a new life. That new life could for instance start in an apartment that just happens to be next door to one Face happens to have scammed.

In any case, whether her relocation is temporary or permanent, I doubt Charlie would get to keep her current bankcards. At the very least someone should have told her to destroy the bankcards for which Rick Torres receives the bank statements. The comment "Thanks, Rick" made me think she had used a bankcard that Rick had given her. Fair enough, she's unlikely to go out of the VA much to do any shopping, but on the off-chance that she does and she uses her bankcard, Rick would know where to look for her.

Other point, there's no indication when this story is set in A-Team time line, but if Murdock is still at the VA it should be set before 1986/7. Goodfellas is a 1990 movie. A reference to it (by one of the characters) is anachronistic.

Great continuation! I look forward to the next installment.