If These Walls Could Talk

Author's note: Well here we are again. Try as I might, it seems I just can't stay away from adding to this series. In following up the last story, "Comfort and Joy", I decided to do a series of short stories in one, about life and times between the members of the A-Team in Hannibal's apartment before he moves out. Hope everybody enjoys.

1. Crash Landing

From the other side of the bathroom door could be heard the muffled sounds of Hannibal talking to Murdock, and Murdock making a lot of moaning, groaning, yelping noises.

"Hold still, Murdock."

"Ouch! I'm trying, Colonel."

"Hang on, I've almost got it."

"Ah-OW-ouch!"

"It's alright, it's out now."

Murdock could be heard whining like a hurt dog before he responded, "Thanks, Hannibal."

"I think that's all of them."

"Thank God for small favors," Murdock groaned.

The next sound coming from the bathroom was the water running for the tub.

"I'll be right back," Hannibal told Murdock.

"Okay, Colonel," Murdock replied in a winding-down tone, as if it alone spoke volumes about his own exhaustion.

Hannibal opened the door and stepped out into his apartment living room and saw Jean Rhodes seated on the couch, clutching Murdock's leather jacket in her hands as though it were a direct lifeline to him. She'd brought Murdock to his apartment about an hour ago, Murdock had blood on his clothes, she was about out of her mind with panic, and between the two of them he'd gotten a partial story about how it had happened. Hannibal had ordered Murdock into the bathroom to examine him and had ordered Jean to stay in the living room by the phone incase they needed to call the others, he hadn't spoken to her since and she looked ready to hit the ceiling. When she saw Hannibal emerge from the bathroom she sucked in a breath and automatically began to rise from the couch, dreading the bad news.

"He's alright," Hannibal explained, "For the most part anyway, it's nothing serious."

She blinked a few times and her mouth fell open in disbelief, "But all that blood..."

"They were shallow cuts, look worse than they are, he's going to be fine," he assured her.

"I want to see him," Jean started towards the bathroom.

Hannibal grabbed her and stopped her before she could reach the door and he gently pushed her back and explained, "I don't think that'd be a very good idea right now."

"Hannibal…"

"Look, I already cleaned out most of Murdock's wounds but he's going to soak in the tub for a while and make sure everything's cleaned out," he spoke calmly to her and explained, "Now I want you to stay out here while I help him in, got it?"

Jean looked to the floor and said dismissively, "Alright, Hannibal."

He smiled at her and patted her cheek and told you, "You're a good kid, now you stay out here and I'll be back in a minute to give you the gory details."

Jean nodded and hugged Murdock's jacket against her, though Hannibal wasn't sure if she even knew she was holding onto it or not. He went back into the bathroom and shut the door, but it didn't close all the way. As the taps were turned off, Jean took a couple steps forward and was able to look in and see Hannibal holding Murdock under his armpits helping him slowly sit down in the tub; the Captain was already halfway in and up to his chest in bubble bath. The whole time Murdock was making a bunch of little noises of pain, "Oof…eeh! Ahh…yipe! Eek, ahh…" finally he seemed to relax in the hot water.

"You alright, Murdock?" Hannibal asked.

Murdock leaned back against the tub and replied, "Affirmative, Colonel."

"Alright, I'll be outside, yell if you need any help," Hannibal told him.

"Will do," Murdock called as he sank further back against the tub.

Hannibal pulled the door shut and rejoined Jean in the living room, who by now had made her way back to the couch and had set his jacket aside.

"I could've done that," she told him.

Hannibal stopped and stretched and scratched himself before sitting down in his chair and responded, "I know you could've, but I think he prefers it if you don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jean asked.

"Did Murdock tell you how he got hurt?" Hannibal asked.

"No, he just said he had to see you," Jean answered.

"Uh-huh, well apparently what happened was Face had managed to scam him a chopper that he could do some practice moves in, but there was something wrong with the chopper, and Murdock had to bail out. His landing would've been alright, he was low enough to the ground that he didn't have too far to fall, but he hit a piece of ground that was full of jagged rocks, that's how he got those cuts and scrapes…he wouldn't have been so badly off, except when he finally stopped rolling down the hill and came to a complete stop, it was into a thorn bush."

"Oh!" Jean replied.

"You see that's why he came here," Hannibal told her, "A lot of the injuries he got in the crash landing were to the backs of his legs and…" he cleared his throat, "A bit higher up in the same general region. I know it probably doesn't mean much to you, but my men are used to if they suffer personal injuries, having me be the one to examine them. And as it turned out, he still had a few thorns stuck in him, I had to get the tweezers and dig them out."

"Are you sure you got them all?" Jean asked.

"We'll be able to better tell once he's out of the tub," Hannibal said.

Jean bit the inside of one cheek and said, "I suppose I understand then, but I still don't get why I couldn't be in there with him."

Hannibal smiled at her and said, "It's not something I'd expect you to understand, I know that you're an adult and old enough to do anything you've a mind to…and being a woman, you will," he teased her, "But regardless of this fact, I think that Murdock has a hard time seeing you as an adult."

"Why would he do that?" Jean asked.

Hannibal looked at her and he tried not to laugh. She had recently gotten a haircut that left her red hair trimmed down extremely short like a boy's and she was dressed in a cut up T-shirt a size too large and a pair of denim overalls that likewise could've fitted a second person, and on her feet were a pair of red Chuck Taylors that were already seeing a considerable amount of wear and tear.

"I guess you just have a certain kid sister charm to you," he pointed out, "Quite a bit different from most women we see on a regular basis."

"Ah, you mean like those seat cushions Face is always bringing around," she said.

"Something like that, yes," Hannibal told her.

"But you're sure Murdock's going to be okay?" she asked again.

"Well…" Hannibal scratched his chin, "I think he'll need to sit on a pillow for the next couple of days but aside from that, he'll be fine, we just have to remember to check his cuts and make sure they're clean."

"I can do that," Jean said.

"Uh…you'll take the top half," he corrected her, "I'll deal with the rest of what he can't see, or reach."

"Hannibal," Jean reached behind the couch and picked something up from off the inn table. It was a framed Polaroid photograph of a house, more specifically it was a house that Murdock had wanted to buy for the guys so they finally had an official home, one home, one permanent home, no more apartments, no more scammed places, just a house big enough for all of them so they could be together for a change. "Now you said that you thought this would be a great place for the three of you to live at, and it's already been paid for and Face and B.A. are already getting their stuff packed up to move in, so when are you going to be joining them?"

Hannibal seemed to dismiss the question, but finally he told Jean, "I still have a couple of months left on my lease and I'd like to get my deposit back."

Jean laughed and shook her head, "Hannibal, I think it's safe to say your deposit flew out the window a long time ago."

Hannibal shrugged with a small smirk on his face and told her, "The place isn't much but it's been my home since I moved in a few years ago, got a lot of good memories here."

"Plenty of bad as well I'm sure," Jean said.

"Well," Hannibal shrugged again, "Been good, been better, can't complain too much."

"You're actually gonna miss this place when you move?" she asked.

"Could be," he answered as he looked up to the ceiling, "It's certainly beaten alternatives like a cell at Fort Bragg or a bamboo cage at the Hanoi Hilton."

He looked over to the couch when he got no response and saw Jean had shifted her gaze to the floor.

"That was a joke, kid," he told her.

"Oh."

From the bathroom they could hear a sound of something falling followed by Murdock letting out a painful yell.

"Uh-oh," Hannibal got to his feet and told Jean, "I'll be back."

Hannibal put his ear to the bathroom door and called in, "Murdock, you alright?"

"Ow…"

Hannibal opened the door and saw Murdock's body was contorted over the bathtub as he'd apparently slipped and grabbed hold of the side to keep from falling straight to the floor.

"You okay, Captain?"

Murdock had both hands in a white knuckled grip on the side of the tub as he tried to straighten himself up and said slowly, "Yeah, fine, just found that bar of soap the hard way."

Hannibal grabbed a towel off the rack and wrapped it around Murdock as he helped the pilot straighten up and step over the edge of the tub and onto the floor mat.

"Jean still here?" Murdock asked.

"Yeah, she's out in the living room," Hannibal told him.

Murdock made a sound somewhere between a groan and a laugh and said, "I guess I scared her pretty bad earlier, huh?"

"Well I think she got a little shook up," Hannibal tried to downplay it, "But she knows now it wasn't as bad as it looked."

Murdock groaned and Hannibal stopped trying to move him, the pilot pressed his hand against the wall for support as he said, "I guess I should've told her what happened when she came to pick me up…but I…I just didn't feel right discussing it with her, ya know, Colonel?"

Hannibal nodded, "Yeah, I know…"

Murdock huffed and puffed a couple of times, trying to catch his breath and he said, "You know, Colonel, this reminds me a bit of one of your last movies. I don't remember if it was Aquamaniac IV or V, remember the time the Aquamaniac was trying to kill the girl, but instead her boyfriend got in the way and you didn't kill him, but you bit a chunk out of him?"

"Uh-huh," Hannibal answered.

Murdock hissed as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and said, "That's kind of how I feel right now, just like I'm in that movie…the movie…uh oh."

"What's wrong?" Hannibal asked concernedly.

Murdock reached a hand back to where the towel covered his legs and said, "I think a squib just broke."

"Alright, let me see, Murdock," Hannibal said.

Murdock reached both hands behind and started to lift the towel up and sensed Hannibal kneel down to take a look, "How bad is it, Hannibal?"

Hannibal inspected the cuts and the puncture wounds, he felt a particularly wet spot on the back of Murdock's thigh and asked testily, "Here?"

"Yeah, how bad is it? I can take it, oh wait, no I can't," Murdock turned his head one way and then the other depending on if he thought he could stand the news, "No, I can take it, I gotta know…no, no, don't tell me, or if you do tell me, lie a little bit."

"It's alright, Murdock, it's just water," Hannibal told him.

Murdock tried craning his neck back and asked him, "You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Whew," he sighed, "What a relief."

"It's a good thing you keep a spare change of clothes here," Hannibal told him as he stood up, "You won't be able to wear these again."

"You gonna throw them out?" Murdock asked.

Hannibal showed him the bloody pants with the small rips in the back, "Have to do something with them…I'll be back in a minute."

Hannibal took the bloody clothes out and returned a minute later with a fresh change of Murdock's clothes. Once he got dressed, he slowly padded out into the living room where Jean was waiting for him.

"Murdock, are you alright?" she asked as she went over to him and hugged him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Saint," he said, then hissed and told her, "Careful, careful, don't bruise the merchandising."

Jean grabbed the front of his shirt and started to lift it up and said, "I want to see how bad it is."

"Afraid I'll disappoint you," he told her.

Jean looked and saw the cuts on his stomach and chest, by now, looked little worse than cat scratches. "Tell me it's not worse than it looks."

"Naw, it's fine," he assured her.

"Captain," Hannibal said, "Since I don't think you're in the mood for any long car rides right now, what if you two stay over for dinner tonight and relax?"

"Well it's alright with me," Murdock turned to Jean and asked her, "How about you?"

"Is Hannibal cooking?" Jean asked cynically.

"Ha ha," he replied, "Very funny."

"It's still early for dinner though," Murdock noted, "Can we watch the TV for a while?"

"Sure," Hannibal told him.

They went over to the couch, Jean sat down, Murdock started to but let out a small yelp, got back up and grabbed a pillow to place under him first.

"You sure you're alright, Murdock?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he assured her with a small smile, "Just gonna be resembling a pincushion for the next few days."

"Not for the first time either," Hannibal told Jean as he sat down in the chair beside the couch, "But that's a story for another time."

"Yes, preferably when I'm not around to hear it," Murdock replied.