AN: I'm not a medical doctor or anything, so forgive me for any unrealistic details in this chapter or in the future. I, of course, try to make the story as believable as possible.
As usual, I own nothing to do with the A-Team, TV series or movies, or any of the actors involved. (Such a shame)
"Don't ever let them silence you."
"So, you were just walking along and happened to stumble across this woman?" Face asked Murdock as the four teammates waited almost impatiently outside the medical tent while Hernandez operated on the woman; Karina, she said her name was. At least she had remembered that much.
"Basically," Murdock replied as he leaned forward and back on the balls of his feet. "How long does surgery take?"
Hannibal sighed as he puffed on a cigar, his favorite vice, and he blew the smoke out of his mouth. He mostly smoke in celebration or nervous anticiaption; this was obviously the latter. "Depends on a number of things, Murdock. If the bullet is still inside her, Hernandez is going to have to retrieve that, first of all. Once that's done, or the bullet was not inside her, he's going to have to... Well, she's lost a lot of blood, Murdock. Who knows how long she'd been bleeding out before you found her. Once the surgery's over, she'll be connected to an IV drip and pints of blood will be pumped back into her system."
"How?" Murdock nervously scratched the nape of his neck. "I mean, how will they know her blood type?"
"Hernandez has equipment that will tell him that."
Face anxiously rubbed his bottom lip with the tip of his left index finger. "What we need to figure out is if she's a threat to us."
"She's unconscious and can barely move," Murdock pointed out, slightly angry in Karina's defense. "How could she possibly be a threat to us?"
"No, Face is right." Hannibal glanced around at all his men. "She herself is physically no threat to us. That much is clear. But we're going to have to find out why she was shot. There are many enemy camps in this area of the country, as you know. She could have come from one of them as a prisoner and if they're missing her..."
"They may come looking for her," BA finished.
"Precisely. We need to know if she's friend or foe."
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say she's a friend," Murdock muttered and Face readily agreed. (Of course, if it was even remotely female, Face would determinedly state that she was on their side and if not, he could certainly convince her to be.) "I think she's been running for her life. When I went to check on her, she instantly attacked me. Thought I was going to hurt her."
"Wow," Face murmured in open admiration. "Struggling to stay alive and still managing to defend herself? Sounds like a feisty woman."
"Uh-oh," BA mumbled as his eyes fell on Face. "He got that look in his eye. Don't even think it, fool."
"I wasn't thinking anything," Face insisted. "I was just making a statement. A statement which, I might point out, was one of respect and nothing else."
Hannibal sighed and flicked the remainder of his cigar to the ground and smashed it beneath the heel of his boot. "At least we know her name." He sighed again and ran his left hand down his weary face. "You boys go and get some sleep. I'll stay up and wait for the doctor's diagnosis."
"Will it take all night?" Murdock asked quietly as Face and BA gratefully stood to their feet and headed off towards their own respective tents on the opposite end of the compound.
"I honestly don't know, Murdock," Hannibal replied. "But you go get some sleep and I'll let you know how it goes in the morning. She should at least be resting up by then, if nothing else."
Worry passed through Murdock's green eyes and then quickly faded into his usual vacant stare. "Righty-oh, guvnuh!" he muttered in a Cockney accent just before he saluted his boss and marched off to his tent that had been set up between Face's and BA's.
Hannibal sighed as he watched Murdock stride away. Under normal circumstances, Hannibal didn't much have to worry about his favorite pilot unless he hadn't taken his meds in quite some time and that didn't happen too terribly often. Murdock had always been diligent with taking his medication. Usually not for himself, but for the sake of the team he would give his life for.
There had been an expression in Murdock's eyes that Hannibal had never seen in his eyes before, though he'd certainly seen it in Face's eyes plenty of times. The thought startled Hannibal. If this woman survived the gunshot wound and the subsequent loss of blood, Hannibal was going to have to keep an extra careful eye on his pilot.
Murdock had had trouble sleeping before. It came with the territory when one was in the army and and then on the run from the US government for a crime they hadn't committed, not to mention all the nights he'd spent awake in the mental wards he'd been committed to over the years. But tonight's insomnia was different. His mind was churning with thoughts of the poor woman he'd found lying alone and dying in the woods. He couldn't imagine being in her position. Granted, as dangerous as this job was, he probably would one day die in a horrible chopper crash or get shot in the head or something like that. But he most certainly wouldn't be alone when that happened. He would have Faceman and Bosco and the bossman with him. She'd had no one.
Murdock groaned, threw his feet over the side of his cot, and stood up. It was obvious he wasn't going to be getting to bed any time soon. Someone had to worry about that girl. He was the man who had found her; he would be the man to worry about her. From the moment he'd lifted that small, frail body into his arms, he'd taken responsibility for her well-being. If she didn't make it through the night... Murdock really didn't need any more voices cluttering up his head.
Quietly stepping out through his tent's flap, Murdock glanced around him. It was at least past two, maybe three, in the morning, so the camp was eerily silent. He could hear BA snoring loudly in his tent and he shook his head with a fond smile. He strolled past Face's tent, who always slept naked no matter what the circumstances or temperature-Murdock didn't even want to recall how he had discovered that about his teammate as it wasn't very pleasant-and walked quietly through the clustered array of tents that littered his path as he made his way to the medical tent.
Hannibal was leaning back in a folding lawn chair outside the tent, eyes closed, arms folded over his muscular chest, and legs crossed at the ankle. He wasn't snoring like he usually did, which meant he was only dozing. He wasn't in full sleep mode. At least not yet.
Murdock came to a quiet stop next to the chair Hannibal napped in and, of course, the moment he stopped, his right foot crunched loudly on a big green leaf. Hannibal shot up like a banshee, taking Murdock off-guard, and he went sprawling to the ground ungracefully.
"Murdock." Hannibal shook his head and reached down to help Murdock to his feet. "I told you to get some sleep; I would stand watch."
"I couldn't sleep, bossman," Murdock admitted as he dusted himself off from the fall. He was dressed in his usual cartoon pajama pants and a black Batman T-shirt. Sometimes he slept shirtless, sometimes he didn't. It all depended on his mood.
Hannibal nodded in understanding and gestured for him to take a seat in the empty lawn chair next to the one he'd been occupying. Once Murdock had taken a seat, Hannibal reclaimed his. "You're worried, aren't you, Captain?" Hannibal asked.
Murdock nodded. "I don't know why, sir. I don't even know the woman."
"You don't have to know her, Murdock. You wouldn't be human if you weren't concerned about another human's suffering, especially that of a woman."
Murdock nodded in complete understanding. "Is she out of surgery?"
"I don't think so."
"It's not looking good, is it? I mean, the longer a person is in surgery, the less likely it is that they'll make it, right?"
"That's not quite how it works, Murdock."
Just at that moment, Hernandez stepped out of the medical tent, wiping blood off of his hands. That sight certainly didn't set Murdock's mind at ease.
Both Murdock and Hannibal jumped to their feet in unison.
"Well?" Hannibal asked as, next to him, Murdock nervously wrung his hands together.
"Well, as you already know, Karina did lose a lot of blood, but I found some pints of her blood type and pumped some extra pints into her body and she pulled through the surgery just fine. She may be unconscious for a few days and it may take her even longer to regain her memories of the past few days, maybe even the last several weeks, but in the long run she should be just fine."
Both Murdock and Hannibal released collective sighs of relief.
"I'm exhausted," Hernandez muttered with a yawn. "And I have several patients coming in tomorrow for their routine physicals. We'll need to relocate Karina to another tent, along with the IV drip. So, who wants to house her?"
"I will," Murdock instantly volunteered. Hannibal glanced over at him, left brow quirked questioningly into the air, but he voiced no comment. "There's plenty of room in my tent and I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight anyhow, so I'll be able to keep an eye on her."
Hernandez glanced at Hannibal for confirmation and Hannibal nodded an affirmative.
Hannibal and Hernandez were exceedingly careful as they transported Karina from the medical tent to Murdock's tent. Hannibal carried the unconscious woman gently in his arms as Hernandez pushed the IV drip pole along beside him. Murdock shuffled his feet awkwardly as he followed behind them. He sped ahead of them quickly when they reached his tent to hold the flap open for the two other men. They thanked him as they walked insided and headed for the spare cot on the opposite side of the tent from the one Murdock himself slept on. Murdock was grateful that, for once, he had followed through with his promise to himself to straighten up his tent and he'd cleared off the spare cot that very morning.
Hannibal gently laid Karina down on the cot and brushed some tendrils of hair away from her face. She made an unidentifiable noise in the back of her throat and shifted to her left, facing Hannibal and the others.
Hannibal stood to his feet and turned to Murdock. "You'll need to keep an eye on her. At least for awhile. I'm not asking you to stay up all night..."
"You know I don't mind that, boss," Murdock insisted.
"I know." Hannibal placed his hand on Murdock's right shoulder and squeezed. "You're a good man, Murdock. And right now..." Hannibal glanced over at Karina and Murdock's eyes automatically followed his direct line of sight. Hannibal turned back to Murdock. "...this woman needs you, Murdock."
Murdock's eyes locked with Hannibal's and he reached up to scratch the back of his head. "Aw, shucks, bossman, no one's ever needed me before."
Hannibal shook his head with a chuckle. "You know that's not true, Murdock. Your team always needs you; always!" He patted Murdock on the shoulder once more and then quietly left the tent.
Hernandez turned to Murdock to issue some instructions. "I'll be back to check on her condition in the morning, of course, but I'm going to need you to make sure that this little IV drip..." Hernandez bent down and pointed to the long tube that attached the IV pole to the needle that pierced Karina's pale skin. "...does not get pulled out, whether it be from her tossing and turning or for any other reason." Hernandez straightened back up to his feet. "Got that?"
Murdock slammed his feet together and promptly saluted him. "Yes, sir!"
Hernandez nodded with an exasperated sigh and then left the tent as well.
Now left alone with the woman he'd rescued, Murdock sighed and took a moment to observe the sleeping beauty. And she was a beauty, Murdock reluctantly admitted. Her hair was a dark golden-brown color with natural blonde highlights interspersed throughout the strands; her lips were a lush red color with a slight full pout to them that, under any other circumstance, would drive any man, sane or otherwise, to his knees with desire; her body, now draped in a standard backless hospital gown, was undeniably curvy-he'd felt the proof of that when he'd carried her in his arms. He hadn't really gotten to see her eyes, though. Murdock loved a woman's eyes. They could tell a man so much when their lips refused to say a thing.
Without any thought, Murdock reached out and gently ran the pad of his rough thumb over the skin of her forehead. Her skin was soft and clammy, but other than that... She didn't appear to have a fever of any kind.
Karina moaned, her eyes slowly opening, taking Murdock aback; he jumped nearly a foot into the air.
"You..." Karina licked her dry lips. "You're the angel who saved me." Somehow, her small, shaky hand found Murdock's and squeezed. Murdock squeezed back and wondered what the unexpected racing of his pulse meant.
"I ain't no angel," Murdock muttered, glancing shyly down at the floor of his tent.
"Don't..." Karina was quickly fading back into unconsciousness. "You should never let them silence you." And then she was out again, her grip on Murdock's hand loosening just before her hand fell limply to the cot.
