Hello! Wow, it's been a while since I've written. Anyway, I saw The A-Team movie recently(and got it for Christmas!), and absolutely fell in love with Murdock, which is how this came about. The chapters are a little short, but I think that makes them fun. And sweet. I tried to make everything as technical as possible, but somethings I took a few liberties with. It is a story after all. If you're a little confused about anything, just ask, and I'll gladly explain! I don't really know if this is my best writing(probably not), but enjoy regardless.
Captain James H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdock looked around the crowded hospital. People meandered around in pajamas and robes, their hair sticking at odd angles. He walked out of the room where he had just gotten a clean set of scrubs in order to break out of the hospital, laughing quietly to himself at his ingenuity. He remembered the patch on his head and he quickly took it off, his laughter reaching a higher pitch. A man in khakis and a powder blue V-neck grabbed his arm.
"Hey Doc, can you spare some time to help out a vet?" Murdock had no choice but to follow the man. His escape plans could wait for just a minute.
In an obscure examination room, a large black man in jeans and a sleeveless green shirt sat, a bullet wound on his right bicep. Under the wound was a tattoo. A rather large tattoo with the word "Ranger" in a banner in the middle. Murdock began to stitch a lightening bolt to seal it, taking note of the faint smell of gasoline in the room.
"Almost hit your tattoo there. The ol' Ranger tat. Would you think I was crazy if I told you I had one of those?" Murdock's voice was bordering on hysteric.
"There's something wrong with your eyes, man." Bosco "B.A." Baracas told his "doctor".
In the psychiatric ward of the hospital, second year civilian nursing student Aria Linux glanced into the therapy group Captain Murdock was supposed to be in. Her young, bright green eyes roamed the room, not surprised by what she saw. He wasn't there. He never was, continually pulling crack-pot escape plans that either got him hurt or someone on staff. Last month, he had tried to escape by jump starting an ambulance with a defibrillator! That had cost him a thrown back and a few cracked ribs. Not to mention the constant smell of burnt hair and skin. Oh, and the concussion. Aria cringed at the memory.
"Captain Murdock? Murdock?" She began to call through the halls, her long black hair swishing from side to side as her head swiveled in an attempt to find him. She finally spotted him dressed as a doctor with two other men in a room two floors below where he was supposed to be.
"Mr. Murdock, you're not supposed to be off the ward."
"Not while I'm operating, nurse." He continued to finish up the stitching.
"Ward? What ward?" One of the men asked, slightly concerned.
"This man is a patient here. Is he-is he working on you?"
"Don't listen to her, she's crazy. I'm a doctor. I am certified to-"
"Mr. Murdock, you are a patient and if you do not cooperate, I will call security."
"Did you ask for a lightening bolt?" Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck asked Bosco with even more concern.
"I didn't ask for no lightening bolt!"
All of this happened at once, as Aria went to get security. She probably shouldn't have left the two men alone with Captain Murdock, but she had to. She regretted it instantly when she came back to all of them outside the room, arguing about how Murdock had lit one of their arm's on fire. Aria sighed in disbelief and annoyance. Walking up to stop the men from fighting, an older gentleman came up and took the situation into control.
"I see you've all met Mr. Murdock." Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith announced calmly.
"Met him? He lit my arm on fire!" Face shouted outraged.
"He stitched a lighting bolt in mine." Bosco said, seething. Hannibal ignored the other two, and took Murdock by the shoulders.
"Look at me, son. I'm told you're a hell of a chopper pilot."
The best, sir." Murdock said with pride and confidence.
"I'm not gettin' on a chopper with this nut job!" Bosco exclaimed in protest.
"Yea, is this another one of your little 'projects'?" Face shouted indignantly.
In retaliation, Murdock shouted back, "I'm a real soldier, I'm a Ranger baby!" as he patted the arm with his ranger tattoo.
Face looked at him. "I'm worried!"
"I'm a Ranger, sir." Murdock said seriously to Hannibal.
"That's good enough for me."With a smile, Hannibal started towards the exit for the roof.
He explained the situation to the other boys. When Aria learned about what was happening, she ran to catch up, her heart beating fast and hard. She saw the ragtag group of men heading for the medical chopper sitting on the helipad on top of the hospital, and caught up with Colonel Smith.
"Colonel Smith! Colonel Smith!" Her breathing was coming out in little gasps.
"Yes, miss?" He turned around at the sound of his name.
"Colonel Smith. I mean no disrespect, but are you sure this is a good idea, sir?" Hannibal looked at her. "Don't get me wrong, sir. Captain Murdock is a genius when it comes to flying, but he's not mentally stable." At this time, Murdock jumped onto a rotor blade singing "You Spin Me Right Round(Like A Record)". "I just want to look out for him, sir. He's not only my patient, but also a friend."
"Don't worry. We'll take good care of him." He said it so trustingly, that Aria took him for his word and watched as the helicopter flew away. Murdock winked as they lifted off. She smiled back at him.
As she walked back downstairs, she was by a window when she saw a large tan object fly by, crushing a black van parked in front of the hospital. She knew it had been the AC unit on top of the hospital. With a sigh, Aria realized that she was going to miss the crazy pilot's antics and different voices. He would cheer her up some days when she was having problems with school, or just a bad day in general.
They had met a year ago when Aria was assigned to the U.S. military hospital in Mexico. She wanted to work there so bad, for her father. He had been a Ranger as well, and had died during a mission when she was 12, but she was afraid to join the military. So, when she was little, she made up her mind to become a nurse and work in a military hospital so she could work with the military, but not have to join. She wasn't afraid to say she was afraid to join the military.
It was the first place where she would learn her trade after she got out of college and enrolled in nursing school. She loved it in Mexico. The rich culture, the sweltering heat, the veterans that regaled her with stories from their past. There was one that caught her attention. It was an attractive, quirky pilot that talked in so many voices it was hard to keep them straight. He constantly tried to escape using the strangest methods, but was always caught at the last minute. She never really knew why he was there in the first place.
Aria was fascinated with psychology and wanted to go back to school to get her degree in it, and his case just spoke to her. He never explained what had happened, or who the voices were, but he shared their adventures openly. His file said schizophrenic, self-identification tendencies, and PTSD. She trusted what more experienced psychologists had diagnosed him with, but there was something more to Captain Murdock. It seemed to Aria, along with his extreme intelligence, not only in the aviator field, but many others, that he was faking his mentally disabilities. Well, at least some of them to a degree.
They're first encounter was when he tried to make a plane out of a bed frame and sheets for wings. He had been perched atop the roof in between the AC unit and the wall, for a slingshot-like take-off. It had just been pure chance that she had stumbled across him, thanks in part to a seasoned nurse giving her a hint as to where he might be. The sad part was she was the only person looking for him. The other nurses and doctors had just about given up on him.
At first, Murdock tried to convince her to join him. Saying they could go away to the beach together and come back in time for dinner. Aria took one look a the "plane" and politely declined, saying instead that it was almost lunch and he shouldn't fly on an empty stomach, or else he would be miserable trying to find the beach,and then have nothing to eat when he got there, nor any money to buy something to eat either. That convinced him. He cautiously got out of the "plane", eyeing her the whole time, and followed her to the cafeteria to get something to eat. He was given his medication, directly thereafter, and prevented from flying away.
"Oh, you're good, girlie." Murdock had told her as he was lead back to his room by two male nurses. "I'm gonna have to look out for you."
"All in a day's work, Captain Murdock." She had wittily replied. "All in a day's work."
Captain Murdock looked back into the helicopter to see his new team jumping with excitement and whooping with barely restrained joy at having just vanquished an enemy with an ingenious plot by their leader, Hannibal, and due largely in part to his aeronautic expertise. It was in the aftermath that he realized he was free. He didn't have to go to group therapy anymore, or try and escape with, what he thought, were great escape plans. He didn't have to eat that nasty cafeteria food, or take those ridiculous medications they shoved down his throat. No more annoying nurses trying to stop him from escaping. He was free!
But, he was going to miss that one nurse, a nursing student actually. If he remembered right. She was the only one who actually tried to get know him, tried see what was really wrong, and why the voices wouldn't leave him alone. Aria had been the only person to call him captain there. No one had even thought of calling him that, nor wanted to. It was only her, being respectful of his rank and his pride in it. For that, he would never be able to thank her enough. He had been there for 5 years, and in countless other institutions, and in that one year that that girl had been there, the voices spoke less. They even seemed to be more quiet. She was something special, and for a moment, he was sad that he wouldn't see her anymore.
"Are you alright, Captain?" Hannibal asked him as cigar smoke wafted around the cabin.
"Yes sir, bossman!" He responded enthusiastically.
"Good man." Hannibal clapped him on his back. "Good man."
Who knew? Maybe he'd see her again someday? And actually take her with him this time. Just like he had told her the first time they met.