All Quiet on the Eastern Front
Last night Face and Murdock had managed to retrieve a private Gulfstream jet for the A-Team's own personal use. This use being an all night, nonstop flight from Los Angles to New York; Murdock had estimated they would be in New York around the time the sun came up. They still had another hour to go but it looked like they were going to make it on time, surprisingly. The reason for their trip? To an outsider that would be a very long story, to make it short the explanation was simple; they had kidnapped a friend and were flying her home to see her parents for Thanksgiving, and to make sure it was a surprise for the parents, they were arriving a day ahead of the intended schedule. Hannibal had figured it was a good idea for all of them to go; a little change of scenery would do them all some good, and if that scenery just so happened to be 3,000 miles away from Decker and the MPs, then so much the better.
Hannibal looked over to the other side of the cockpit and noticed that their pilot's head was starting to droop and his eyes were like a pair of shutters slammed shut by the wind. He leaned over and nudged the pilot, "Murdock."
"Huh-huh-huh," Murdock opened his eyes and sat up straight, "I can see the road…oh, Hannibal, it's you."
"You okay, Captain?" Hannibal asked, "You sure you'll be able to make it the rest of the flight?"
"Sure, Hannibal," Murdock rubbed one eye with a free hand and said, "We've only got about another 500 miles, no problem."
"If you're sure," Hannibal said as he got up, "But all the same I'm going to go see if I can wake up that copilot of yours incase we need her assistance to get us to New York."
"Yeah, if that's what you want to do, Colonel," Murdock tiredly replied as he returned his attention onto the sky before him.
Hannibal made his way out of the cockpit and into the cabin where the passengers were still asleep and blissfully unaware of their current predicament. He stepped lightly past Face and Amy, who were still leaning against each other as they slept, and past B.A., who had been knocked out twice since they took off, and Hannibal was worried a third time might not be a charm. Finally he reached their other passenger, Jean Rhodes, the whole reason they were making this trip in the first place. In a relatively short time this woman had built up quite a history in association with the A-Team: from missing person to fugitive to free woman, and more recently from Murdock's wife to now ex-wife as now in the eyes of the law and the state of California, theirs had been a marriage that never existed. Rather an overachiever for being so young, Hannibal thought with a small smirk as he tapped the woman on the cheek to wake her up.
"Hmm…what is it, Hannibal?" Jean asked as she snapped awake.
"We're about an hour out of New York," he told her, "Murdock's been at the controls all night, what say you go help him?"
Jean stretched her arms over her head and yawned and nodded, "Alright."
She got up and walked up the aisle to the cockpit and asked as she entered the room, "How's it going, Murdock?"
"Well the movie's been cancelled on account of rain and dinner's going to be late because we're having trouble getting fresh octopus at this altitude, but other than that everything's fine like an aged wine," Murdock answered, then turned his head and looked at her, "How're you?"
"I'm fine," she answered as she sat down beside him and got herself strapped in, "Hannibal says we'll be there in another hour, does that sound right?"
"Somewhere around there," the pilot answered, "Incidentally, how early do your parents get up?"
"Oh I don't know," Jean said as she ran a hand through her hair, "I'm sure whenever we get to the house they ought to be up."
"That's what I said," Murdock told her.
Jean looked over at him and said, "You know, I know this is a little late but I'm starting to rethink this whole visit."
"How come?" Murdock asked.
"I just don't know that I want to be with these people, you know?" Jean asked.
Murdock choked on a laugh that didn't come all the way out and he reminded her, "These aren't strangers off the street, they're your parents."
"They might as well be," Jean told him, "They're strangers to me, I haven't seen them in so long."
"Well that doesn't change anything," Murdock said, "They're still your parents, you're still their daughter."
"I know, but so much has changed since I moved out to L.A.," she replied, "They're not going to know me other than what I look like, what if I don't know them anymore either?"
"Oh that's not going to happen," he assured her.
"Well what happens if they don't like me anymore now that I've come back?" Jean asked, "I mean they're going to know I'm different now."
"That won't happen either," Murdock told her, "They're your parents, they love you no matter what."
"Well there's going to be a lot more of me to deal with than there used to be. I mean what happens if while we're there, I start having flashbacks again?" she asked, "That's not something they can deal with, and I don't want to have to tell them about that."
"Then don't," Murdock said, "It's as easy as that."
Jean thought of something else and asked him, "What about you guys? What if you start having flashbacks? What if you wake up in the middle of the night screaming and get the whole house up?"
"That's an easy situation to avert," Murdock answered, "The guys know how to handle that."
Jean looked to him and asked, "What if I wake up in the night screaming and get everybody up?"
He looked to her through the corner of his eyes and said, "I know how to handle that. Saint, you're worrying all for nothing, everything's going to be fine, you'll see."
"It'll be like staying with strangers," she said, "To tell you the truth, Murdock, I'm probably closer to you and those three wise guys you call friends than my own family, and what does that say about me?"
Murdock smiled at her and said, "You ever hear of the empty nest syndrome?"
"No," Jean said.
"That's something parents go through when their kids grow up and move out and the house suddenly becomes big and empty and lonely," Murdock explained, "Everybody always looks at it from the parent's view, they never think about how the kids are affected at the same time. Everybody sees the kids going out into the world and making their place in it, they never think about how excruciating that experience is, and then coming home again after being gone so long, and facing the changes that have happened in the meantime. I think what you're going through now is something similar. But I'll bet you as soon as you get home and see your folks, everything will be alright."
"I hope you're right, Murdock," Jean replied, the tension evident in her voice.
He was confident about his answer and he told her, "Everything's going to work out just fine, you'll see."
"Assuming the big mudsucker back there doesn't wake up before we land," Jean said.
"Oh don't worry about that," Murdock said, "I've become an expert at landing these babies on a dime at a moment's notice…of course if he starts to wake up we may have to make due with the old heart attack routine."
"The what?" Jean asked.
"Amy can tell you about that one," he told her, "Now, I figure we've got about another hour before we come in for a landing, so why don't you go on back to sleep until then?"
"I don't want to go back to sleep," Jean answered, "I'm not tired anymore."
"I'll bet I can put you to sleep," Murdock said with a small smirk on his face.
"Oh yeah, how?" she asked.
Murdock answered that questioned by belting out in a slow, crooning voice, "Goodnight, sweetheart, all my prayers are for you, goodnight, sweetheart, I'll be watching o'er you." As he sang, he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Jean slump to the side in her seat and her eyes closed, he grinned but fought back the urge to laugh. Worked like a charm every time.
As it turned out, B.A. stayed unconscious for the remainder of the flight, but he woke up when they started to touch down for the landing. Murdock had gotten clearance to land so they didn't have to deal with a sudden parade of airport officials coming out to inspect them, so they sidestepped the old heart attack routine and instead just put the stairs down and let everybody make a break for it to get off the plane before B.A. got loose from his restraints.
"Ladies and gentlemen this is your pilot speaking," Murdock said as he stood up in the cockpit and made his way over to the exit as well, "Thank you for flying Murdock Airlines, please watch your step on the way down and let's get the hell out of here before the mudsucker tries to rip us to pieces," and he and Jean were among the last off the plane.
On the plane they could hear B.A. screaming as he got loose and made his way to the front of the plane and came charging down the stairs and directly at Murdock, screaming at him, "You crazy fool! What did you do, Murdock? I told you I wasn't flying no more, sucker, I'll get you, Murdock!"
Instinctively, Murdock took a step back so he was basically hiding behind Jean, who went to the front of the line and got up in B.A.'s face and pointed to her own, reminding him, "Eye, eye, the eye!"
B.A. stepped to the side and Murdock did the same, dragging Jean along to match every step he took, like a human shield. B.A. got tired of it and told him, "Come over here, Murdock, quit hiding behind her."
"Not until you calm down, B.A.," Murdock told him, "Besides, right now this is the safest place for me to be."
Jean smirked at him and added, "That's right, sucker, you're the offensive, I'm the defensive, and I go deeper than the mat to protect my player."
Murdock stuck his tongue out at B.A. in an 'I told you so' manner, but B.A. told him, "Murdock, you stick your tongue out at me one more time, and I'll rip it out!"
"That would hurt," Murdock noted as he crouched down lower to shield himself against his ex-wife.
"Alright, that's enough out of all of you," Hannibal told them, and addressing B.A. specifically he said, "We're here now, and that's all that matters, and as planned we got here on schedule, something we would not have been able to do if we had driven out here. Now come on, B.A., Jean's parents are waiting on us, let's not disappoint them."
"Uh…" Amy raised her hand and asked Hannibal, "How're we going to get there? We can't all fit in a cab."
"We could all fit in it and just have B.A. push it all the way to the house," Murdock suggested.
B.A. glared at him and growled, Murdock took a step back with his arms wrapped so tightly around Jean's waist that he lifted her off the ground for a couple of seconds.
"I'm sure there's a place nearby where we can rent a car," Hannibal said, "We might only be here for a couple of days but it would still be a lot more convenient than taxis."
"That's for sure," Jean agreed, "You can't ever get one when you need it, and when you don't want them they're everywhere, just like children."
"First," Face said with a slight shiver, "I think it would be a good idea to get the rest of our stuff out of the plane, including our coats." He turned to Jean and said, "You weren't kidding when you said the weather here was different from L.A."
"Yeah, but at least you were packed for this trip," Jean reminded him, "I don't have anything with me."
"Well…" Murdock said, "That's not exactly true." Jean looked at him inquisitively and he explained, "I took the liberty of removing a few things from your closet before I left your house and went to stay with Face," he explained, "It was all part of the plan."
Jean turned and glared at Hannibal and said to him, "I hate to think what would happen if that brain of yours would ever shut down and cease to come up with a plan for everything."
Hannibal just grinned at her and replied, "Well I can promise you as long as I have any say in it, that'll never happen. Alright, since B.A.'s out of the plane now, Face, you and Murdock go and get our stuff, we've got to get the car and get moving if we're going to get to the house on time."
During the drive to the Rhodes' home, Face put the window down on his side of the car and looked out at the scenery passing them by. For all their traveling, he still could never get used to fall and winter in other parts of the country; he looked on in awe at the colored leaves that were still half-covering the trees, the rest laying in piles and clumps on the ground. The grass was half brown and dead, and some parts of the grass had bits of frost on it, he'd known when they got off the plane that it was cold but he didn't know it was that cold here yet. He looked up at the sky as if he was expecting snow to just drop out of nowhere, but the skies were clear and blue and the sun was up and high, causing a sharp glare, so he put on his sunglasses and sat back with Amy, Murdock and Jean, who were all sardined in the backseat, and enjoyed the ride.
Hannibal looked at Jean in the rear mirror and commented to her reflection, "What say you, Jean? Has the place changed since you were last here?"
"A bit," she answered, "Last time I was here it was spring and nothing had really grown back yet. You ain't seen depressing until you've seen bald trees and no flowers for four months."
"I knew there was a reason we stayed in California," Face remarked smartly.
He heard a sharp CLICK noise and turned to see it was Amy snapping pictures with a camera she'd brought with her.
"What're you doing?" he asked.
"I figured if I could get something for a story while we're here," Amy said, "I can write this off as a business trip."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Amy," Jean said, "This may be New York, but we're in a very boring part of it, nothing interesting ever happens around here, that's why I had to get out in the first place."
Amy shrugged nonchalantly and put her camera away, "Oh well, then I'll have something to add to my photo album when I get back home."
Jean pointed up ahead and told Hannibal, "That's it, that's the house!"
As they went up the block, Hannibal gazed out his window at the place; a commonplace two story home in the middle of the street, perfect for the typical American family with a husband and wife and 2.3 children. He noticed the house was slightly smaller than Jean's home back in Los Angeles; which just proved that dirty money could be put to good purposes.
"They didn't know we were coming," Jean said.
"Oh they knew," Hannibal told her, "They just thought it was going to be tomorrow. So this is still going to be a surprise for them." He reached over and hit the car's horn twice, then everybody started to pile out of the car.
Face went around to the trunk to get their bags out, and Hannibal saw the front door open and Mrs. Rhodes, an attractive woman in her mid 40s, come out; she got halfway down the steps and stopped in shock when she saw her daughter, then she ran down to the curb to greet them all.
"Oh my God, Jean!" she exclaimed as she stopped short of colliding with her daughter and hugged her.
"Hi, Mom!" Jean replied as she returned the hug.
Hannibal smiled as he watched this. He hadn't seen Jean's mother for well over a year, but he was pleased to note she seemed to be aging very well. Getting her daughter returned to her had taken off the 20 years losing her had put on, and she appeared to be frozen in the better outcome for the time being.
"Oh!" Mrs. Rhodes pulled back from her daughter and said, "But they said you weren't coming until tomorrow."
Jean turned her head and said in a voice that oozed trouble, "Hannibal."
Hannibal just shrugged with a sly grin on his face and said, "My mistake."
"Mom, you remember everybody," Jean said, "Hannibal, Face, Murdock, B.A."
"And this," Hannibal grabbed Amy by the arm and gave her a little shove to the front to be seen, "Is our friend, Amy Allen, she works for the Los Angeles Courier Express, she's a reporter, on leave and on vacation with the rest of us for the weekend."
"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Allen," Mrs. Rhodes said as she shook Amy's hand, "Come on in, everybody."
Jean, Murdock, Face and B.A. followed her up to the house, Amy and Hannibal remained behind and she told Hannibal, "This is really nice what you did for her."
"Well I have to confess," Hannibal said coyly, "It wasn't just for Jean's benefit."
"It wasn't?" Amy asked.
"No, you see, Amy," Hannibal said, "I don't know if you realize this, but this is going to be the first Thanksgiving Face has ever spent with a family."
Amy blinked, "Really?"
"Yeah, you know he was an orphan," Hannibal said, "So in terms of, for lack of other examples, family holidays, he's had it the worst, Murdock had his grandparents, B.A. had his mother."
"And you?" Amy asked.
"I had a mother too," Hannibal said, "What do you think, I just hatched from an egg one day?"
Amy laughed and said, "You know what I mean. One of these days, Hannibal Smith, I'm going to find out what your history is."
"Well if I may give you a little friendly advice, Miss Allen," Hannibal smirked as he bit down on his cigar, "Don't hold your breath." He chuckled and put his arm around her and said, "Come on, kid, let's see what trouble the others have already gotten into only being here two minutes."