Chapter Seven
Hannibal entered the dressing room in the back of Madrigal's carrying a small paper bag and wearing a shit-eating grin.
Murdock jumped up from the sofa he had been lounging on with Face and scampered over to his colonel.
"Hannibal! Check this out!" He practically screamed with delight and ripped his pants off, revealing his tidy-whities underneath.
A groan emitted from the ashen faced lieutenant on the sofa. "Murdock."
BA stepped out of the restroom and glared at the crazy man. "Fool! Put your pants back on!"
Hannibal continued grinning. "Where'd you get those, Murdock?"
"Face and I went to a specialty shop today," Murdock replied, attempting to put the dress slacks back on. "They're trick pants, with snaps on the side. Neato, huh?"
"So, you settled on a theme, I suppose?"
"Oh, yeah. We decided to…" Murdock began.
"We?" Face interrupted. "There was no 'we', Murdock. And for the record," he continued, looking over at BA. "I want it to be known that I was dragged to that store against my will."
"Sure, sure, Face," Murdock said, still struggling with his pants. "I won't tell them about the pretty salesgirl, or how you gave her tickets to the show."
"What?" BA yelled. "I thought you was on my side, Faceman!"
"Well," Face said, "She, uh, she talked me into it. And gave us a discount on these outfits Murdock insisted on."
"Man!" BA exclaimed and plopped into a chair in front of a dressing table.
"Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted," Murdock continued. "We decided to go with the military theme. It is what we do best, after all."
"That it is," Hannibal agreed, and held up the bag he was holding. "And I've been doing a little shopping myself."
BA glared at the tiny bag. "What's that?"
Hannibal opened the bag and tossed a small ball of blue string to each of his men, keeping one for himself.
"Oh, this is nice," Face said. "We can play cat in the cradle. Murdock will love that."
"It's not yarn, Face," Hannibal said, and shook out his ball.
BA and Face stared at the shimmery blue 'thing' dangling from their colonel's fingers with gaping mouths, while Murdock howled his delight.
"G-strings," Hannibal chuckled. "Aren't they nice?"
"You have got to be kidding me," Face said.
"Hey," Hannibal replied. "You're the one who got us into this mess, remember?"
"Yeah, but we got rid of Danny Finnegan. He's on a slow boat back to Ireland!" Face whined.
"You signed the contract." Hannibal reminded him.
Face crossed his arms over his chest. "I am NOT wearing this!"
Hannibal chuckled some more. "You won't have to – for long."
While Face pouted on the couch, Hannibal and Murdock looked over their purchases. The 'uniforms' consisted of a Navy white dress coat and slacks with the standard dress shirt and tie and an officer's hat to top it off.
"Nice, Murdock," Hannibal said and then clapped his hands to get BA and Face's attention. "Ok guys, here's the deal. It's been a while since we've been in the Army, sharing barracks, showers, etc. We need to feel comfortable around each other. That being said get undressed."
Again, Face and BA stared at Hannibal with gaping mouths.
"Excuse me?" Face finally asked.
"It's either that or the two of you drop right now and give me 50." Hannibal replied.
BA glared at Face. "Faceman, you gonna owe me – BIG TIME when this is over!"
"Come on, guys!" Murdock said, already half undressed. "This'll be fun. Think of it as male bonding."
"Fool!" BA griped. "Male bonding is watching the game. Not gettin' nekkid!"
Hannibal was hanging his safari jacket on the back of a chair. "I'm serious, fellas. We promised Harry we would do this and we are. Strip. That's an order."
In sullen silence, on BA and Face's parts, the four men disrobed. BA's and Murdock's clothes lay in crumpled piles on the floor while Face and Hannibal took time to fold each article neatly.
Soon, they were standing in the middle of the room in their underwear. Camouflaged and burgundy boxers, and black and white BVDS.
"Ok, this is as far as I'm going," Face said, tugging on his burgundy boxers.
"Me too!" BA agreed, keeping a hand on the waistband of his camos.
Hannibal looked over at his two mutinous men. "What are you two going to do when you get on stage? Stand just like you are now, holding your pants up?"
"Yeah," Murdock agreed, now buck naked and prancing around the room.
"Murdock! Do you mind?" Face asked, trying not to look.
Hannibal calmly stepped out of his briefs, crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
Sighing, Face dropped his shorts.
BA fumed silently and glared at the lieutenant. "I want you all to turn around! No lookin'!"
They did as they were told, and after much huffing and puffing BA stepped out of his boxers.
"Can we turn around now?" Murdock asked.
"No, sucker!" BA yelled.
Murdock started snickering. "Oh my god! Face, what is on your ass? Is that a tattoo?"
Face whirled around, covering his behind. "What? Stop looking at my butt!"
Murdock was jumping on his toes and pointing. "You have a tattoo! You!"
"Shut up, Murdock."
Not being able to resist all the commotion, BA turned around. "Faceman, has a tattoo? Of what?"
Murdock snickered some more.
"It's not funny!"
Hannibal pulled a cigar out of his jacket and leaned back on a table. "See? Was that so hard?"
