"Any word on that quake?" Face asked as he passed by Hannibal and B.A. in the hall.
"If I had to guess," Hannibal said, "I'd guess about a 5.5 on the Richter scale."
"You read earthquakes?" Face asked.
"I've lived in a fair share of them," he replied.
Face nodded but it was clear from the look on his face that he thought Hannibal was nuts, and he headed up the stairs and into Jean's room, where she lay on the bed with an icepack wrapped in a towel on her forehead.
"Alright Jean, here ya go," he said as he handed her a bottle of pills and a soda can, "You said cherry coke, right?"
"Yeah," she murmured as she sat up and took them from him. She felt the bottle and shook it, it sounded about empty.
Face shrugged, "Sorry, the hospital's running on empty."
"Nothing new there," Jean said as she opened the bottle and took a couple pills, "California's becoming the junkie capital of the world."
"It's not that," Face started to say, but before he went into that he wanted to get the air cleared between them, "Jean, are you sure you don't remember what happened after the earthquake?"
"I keep telling you, no I don't remember, why do you keep asking me that?" Jean asked, "What happened after the earthquake?"
He couldn't bear to tell her the truth, not the full truth anyway. "We had a fight."
"So we had a fight, so what?" she asked, "We always fight, it's what we do, it's what we've always done, it's that sibling rivalry relationship Murdock's always going on about, that's what we do."
Oh if only he knew for sure that she'd feel the same way about it if she actually remembered the fight.
"Well, anyway," he said, clearing his throat, "It got a little heated and…I just wanted to apologize."
Jean opened her eyes a little wider and remarked, "You apologize? No wonder we had an earthquake."
"How's your head?" he asked.
She shook her head, "Still killing me…what was that you were saying about the hospital?"
"Oh yeah, that, well, apparently…"
Before he could get another word out, they both heard a loud groaning and a minute later Murdock came in also with an icepack on his head.
"What happened to you?" Jean asked.
"Your headache's contagious, now I got it," he said as he went over and collapsed on the other side of the bed.
"That's what I was trying to tell you," Face said, "Apparently it's something going around, that's why the hospital's low on pain medication. It's broken into two groups, people either get minor headaches every day for a whole week, or they get one or two major cases and then it's over."
"So there's a chance this isn't my typical migraine," Jean said quietly, "Thank God for small favors." Then she handed the bottle and her soda can over to Murdock, who took the pills gladly.
In a short amount of time they were both asleep and looked like a set of twins laying alongside each other on the bed, both wearing an icepack.
Hannibal observed this from where he stood at the doorway and commented, "Even when they're in agony they look cute together, what're the odds?"
Face turned around and looked to Hannibal, the look on his face saying what he couldn't at that moment.
"What's the matter, Lieutenant?" he asked.
"Hannibal," Face went over to him, "Something happened before you guys found us today."
"And?" Hannibal asked in his 'judgment reserved until further notice' tone, sounding like he already knew something was up.
Face shook his head, "I didn't know she was sick…"
"Did you hit her again?" Hannibal inquired, the tone of his voice sounding like he already knew that wasn't the case.
"Worse," Face said, "I got mad and I started yelling at her, and I said some things I wish to God I hadn't."
Hannibal shrugged dismissively, "You two are always screaming at each other, that's nothing new."
"Oh…this was," Face told him, "She says she doesn't remember it, I'm hoping that it's true…I don't even know why I said what I did…I just…"
Hannibal reached over and clapped a hand on Face's shoulder assuredly and quoted, " 'I couldn't be jealous of one of them without being jealous of both of them'."
Face let out a huffed sigh and replied hesitantly, "I suppose so."
Hannibal lightly squeezed his shoulder and told him, "It happens."
Face looked at him and asked, "What if she remembers?"
"Take it from someone who knows," Hannibal said, "You're not the first one to put your foot in your mouth where she's concerned, and she knows how to hurt back when she has a mind to, but it all passes."
"With her maybe, but if Murdock finds out…"
Hannibal shook his head, "Murdock wouldn't hold anything against you, you know that, you two have been friends for too long. Unfortunately for Jean, I seriously doubt that Murdock's bond with her is that strong."
By the time the pills wore off and the Captain and honorary corporal woke up, it was night and their headaches were gone but they were still lethargic so they opted to spend the night in bed watching an old movie on TV, one of Buster Keaton's sound films with Jimmy Durante. By the time the movie was over they'd both laughed themselves sick.
"You know," Jean finally said when she was able to take in enough air, "No matter how many times you watch Buster's talking pictures, he never sounds like what you expect him to sound like."
"What do you expect him to sound like?" Murdock asked.
"I don't know, but not that," she replied.
Murdock got on his hands and knees and crawled over to her side of the bed and collapsed beside her laughing, "It sure was funny though."
"Talking Buster is definitely different from silent Buster but they both have their advantages. Now that," Jean pointed to the TV screen, "That's what Hollywood ought to be using $40 million budgets to come up with now, but they're too lazy and too stupid to even bother trying."
Murdock went digging through all the odds and ends scattered over the lid of Jean's trunk and kept digging until he found what he was looking for, Jean's engagement Captain Midnight decoder ring badge.
"Now promise me," he said as he handed it to her, "That when we leave you'll keep this with you at all times and use it if you get in trouble."
"I promise," Jean said mockingly as she raised her right hand.
"Show me your left hand," Murdock said.
She did.
"Now uncross your toes," he added.
Jean just giggled in response.
"I mean it," he told her, "I don't want anything happening to you while we're gone and I don't know it."
"Oh come on, Murdock," Jean said, "What could possibly happen?"
"Hannibal got a call from Stevi's manager this morning," Face told Jean as he followed her over to the ice cream vendor at the edge of the park that the three of them had decided to occupy for a short while before lunch, "In between the bad weather in the Midwest affecting some of the roads and bridges, and Stevi's increasing paranoia, he has been zigzagging all up and down every back alley and secondary road between Tallahassee and Oklahoma City, even going around in circles on occasion just incase they'd wind up being followed. So it sounds like we've bought a couple extra days before her royal weirdness arrives."
"Well that's fine with me," Jean said as she handed some money to the vendor and took three ice cream bars, "Maybe we'll get lucky and her ex boyfriend, whoever he is, will turn in front of a gasoline tanker and get blown to a million billion pieces and you won't even have to watch her."
They went back into the park to find Murdock but, to nobody's surprise, he wasn't where they'd last seen him.
"Alright, where'd he go now?" Jean asked as she started looking around.
"Uh oh," Face said, "Look!"
Jean did and saw a group of kids gathered over by the swing set, and one of the swings had been tossed up and around the bar so the chains had been considerably shortened so the swing only hung about a foot from the top, and in the swing with it pressing against his upper torso like a harness as he zipped back and forth on it was…
"Murdock!" Jean yelled in surprise as she and Face ran over to the swing set to see what the hell was going on.
"What're you doing up there?" Face asked him.
At first they couldn't hear anything coherent over Murdock's excited little 'wheeee!' noises, but then they heard him bellowing down to them, "I'm 'bout to break the world record guys, watch this!"
"Get down from there!" Face told him, "You're gonna hurt yourself!"
"Impossible, Faceman!" Murdock replied, "After all the crashes I've walked away from, this is nothing!"
"Murdock!" Face started to yell, but was cut off by Jean kicking him.
"Here, hold this," she said as she handed him one of the three ice cream bars, then she took a couple steps closer to the swing set and told him, "Alright, Murdock, that's just fine, you stay up there, and I'm…gonna eat your ice cream."
"Don't you dare!" Murdock called down to her.
Jean peeled the wrapper off and raised the ice cream bar to her lips and opened her mouth wide, opening it wider, wider, still wider, almost biting down on the top of the chocolate coated shell. Murdock sighed and on the next push forward threw himself out of the swing, flipped over and landed on his feet like a cat. After which he promptly marched over to Jean, who turned and held the ice cream as far away from his reach as was possible.
"Gimme, gimme," he said trying to reach around her, "Gimme my ice cream bar."
Jean laughed and turned one way and then the other before finally giving in and handing it to him.
"So since it'll be a little longer until we become Stevi's bodyguards and we pretty much have the afternoon to ourselves," Face said, "What do you guys have planned?"
Murdock and Jean looked at each other and then to Face and Murdock said, "Well actually, I figured that maybe today we could make up for the time lost on our date, start earlier in the day."
"Sounds like an idea," Face said, "Got anything in mind?"
"Yeah, but nothing you're old enough to hear," Jean replied.
Once Face returned to the Team's house, he found Hannibal and B.A. in the middle of another one of Hannibal's plans.
"Hannibal, don't you think this is all a bit much?" Face asked as he looked over the diagrams of what was to take place once Stevi arrived.
"Face, this is a high profile case," Hannibal said, "Rock stars are just as likely targets for assassins as politicians are."
"Oh come on, Hannibal, that can't be true," Face remarked, "People like rock stars."
"Anyway," Hannibal said, "We need a place to meet them at to pick Stevi up and take her out in a place that's going to be easy to get in and out of…and it's got to be a place with enough room for us to leave in two vehicles."
"Uh Hannibal," Face raised his hand, "Shouldn't we wait until Murdock's here to discuss the plan?"
"At this stage that won't be necessary," Hannibal told him, "Because the first order of business is we need you to find us two cars that are the exact same makes and models."
"Twin cars?" Face asked, "Why?"
"Because," Hannibal said, "To throw off anybody that might tail us, one car is officially going to go out the main way, that's the decoy, when the real car with Stevi in it is going to take a back way out unseen, to get to our safe house."
Face shrugged but said, "Alright, what kind of car?"
"Something not compact," Hannibal said, "Noticeable but not flashy, we don't want to be too obvious."
"Of course not, we wouldn't want that," Face said condescendingly, then snapped his fingers, "I know, noticeable, why don't we get a couple of white cars, and then we put a strip of colored tape down the side to give it a stripe? That's not flashy but it does draw attention."
Hannibal looked at him like he thought the Lieutenant had lost his mind, "Oh really, Face, why would anybody do that?"
Face just shrugged helplessly.
The phone rang and Hannibal went to answer it, momentarily drawing their discussion to a halt.
"Hello?" he asked, "Hey Murdock, what's hap—" he was cut off in midsentence by whatever the pilot was saying on the other end, "What? Murdock calm down, what happened? You what? You're where?" Hannibal was just about frantic himself as he forced himself to remain calm or at least sound the part as he told the Captain, "Alright, Murdock, just take it easy, we'll be right there."
"What was that about?" Face asked as Hannibal hung up.
"I couldn't get the details out of him," Hannibal said, "All he said was that they were in an accident and Jean's in the hospital."
Hannibal, Face and B.A. about broke the automatic doors down getting into the hospital and rushing over to the front desk to find out what room Jean was in and what had happened. They spent about 30 seconds all talking over each other with the administration nurse when they saw Murdock right around the corner and went over to him, and saw he and Jean were arguing standing on either side of a wheelchair. Jean saw the other three men coming their way and she slapped Murdock's arm and yelled at him, "Why did you call them!?"
"What's going on? What happened?" Hannibal asked as they went over to them, "Jean are you alright?"
"Hannibal, I'm sorry you made the trip for nothing," Jean said, "I'm fine, it's nothing serious, I'm getting checked out right now."
"Well what happened?" B.A. asked.
"You wouldn't believe it," she said, and to Hannibal she explained, "We went to this amusement park and you know that ride the Zipper? The one where the cars go up and they all tilt back and forth and back and forth and back…"
She moved her hand back and forth in time with the words, and Face started to feel seasick so he clamped his hand over hers and told her, "Don't do that."
"Well anyway," Jean said, "We got on it, and they closed the door, started the ride up, we started going up and the car started tilting, and you know those things are about 30 feet tall at the very top? We got about 20 feet up when the car suddenly shifted forward, the door flew open and I fell out. I look up, and Murdock's jumping out of it, of course he makes a better landing than I do."
"How the hell did that happen?" Face asked, "They're supposed to lock those cages."
"Yeah well," Jean shrugged, "Apparently the lock didn't hold."
"How badly were you hurt?" Hannibal asked.
"Landed on my back," Jean said, "But the doctors did the x-rays, nothing wrong with it, just sore from the impact, he said I really lucked out since nothing broke."
"But are you sure it's alright for you to leave?" Face asked.
"Oh sure, they can't have me taking up a bed in a private room," Jean said, "They've got real patients coming in."
Hannibal looked her over from top, down to her feet, and he noticed that for having just been such an unusual and he would wager, frightening ordeal, she wasn't shaky at all.
"You sure you're alright, kid?" he asked.
She nodded, though he noticed her breathing was different, trying not to let out any noises of pain, "Yeah I'm fine, now can we just get out of here? One thing about it, this has been one lousy week for trying to have a date."
"What is it they say about Murphy's Law?" Face asked on the way out, "Anything that can go wrong will?"
"Yeah well if I ever find Murphy," Jean said as they left the hospital, "I'm going to beat him to death with my shoe."
"I still say you ought to sue the amusement park," Face told Jean as he and Murdock were getting her settled onto the bed facedown so Murdock could put some analgesic cream on her back.
"Now why would I be stupid enough to do that?" Jean let out an exhaling groan as she made contact with the mattress beneath her.
"Because, either it was gross negligence on the part of the worker who shut you in, or there's something wrong with that cage, and either way you ought to be compensated for it and the public ought to find out what they did."
"I don't need to sue them for that," Jean said, "50 people saw me fall out of that car, that's counting the people who were in the ones beneath us. They already have enough bad publicity from that. I'm not going to waste my time suing them."
"Why not?" Face wanted to know.
"Because, oof," Jean hissed as she felt her shirt being pulled up in the back, "First of all I don't have the money or the time to waste on a lawyer or on a lawsuit. Secondly, the whole point of suing someone for injuries sustained is so you're compensated for your medical bills, I don't have medical bills."
"Well not now no," Face replied, "But who's to say in a couple months you won't suffer…"
Jean pulled her head up and glared at him and made it clear, "I-said-no."
"Well you might as well," Face told her, "As many trips as you do make to the hospital it'd be nice if somebody else had to foot the bill on them."
Jean squirmed and yelped as she felt the cold ice gel being applied to her already tender back, "That's borrowing trouble, if I tried that then something else would happen and it'd be a lot more severe than this."
"Well if you change your mind…"
"I-won't."
"Alright," Face replied in defeat.
"How's that, hon?" Murdock asked as he reached up and pulled the back of her shirt back down, "That better?"
"I suppose so," she answered.
"Ohh," Murdock groaned as he reached up and awkwardly tried putting his arms around her without touching her back, "That was scary."
"Tell me about it," Jean replied, "Now I have another reason to be scared of heights."
"You were serious about that?" Face asked, "Wait a minute, what about that time we all went on that roller coast over and over and over?"
"Had my eyes closed," Jean answered, "If you can't see how far or how fast you're falling, it's not as bad." She tried moving and groaned, "Oh my poor back. I have more trouble with it than anything."
"So I've noticed," Face commented.
She tried moving again and said to Murdock in a low hiss, "Ohh I wish I could get out of stunt work, at this rate I'll be in worse shape than Evel Knievel before I'm even 30, if I even live that long."
"And you haven't even broken anything yet," Murdock noted.
"And I don't plan to either," Jean remarked, "But then again who does?"
"Maybe I can see the sense in Hannibal's plan, but wouldn't it be smarter to have two different cars instead of two identical ones?" Jean asked as she, Murdock and Face looked over the twin white Monte Carlos.
"Well we're hoping that there won't be much traffic around where we're meeting Stevi so it'd be better off if anybody who notices only sees one car or at least one kind," Face explained, "Better to confuse people that way."
"I suppose so," Jean said, "But are you sure it'll work?"
"Not yet, that's why we're going to test the escape route today," Face answered, "We're gonna split up and see if we can pull off the swap." A slightly disgusted look formed on his face as he added, "Oh that reminds me…" and turned towards her.
"What?" she asked.
"We need someone to sit in for Stevi."
Jean pointed to Murdock.
"That probably won't work since we've decided B.A.'s going to be the one driving her out," Face said.
"Aw come on, Facey, you know the Big Guy and I have a special bond," Murdock said.
"Yeah," Jean said, "Usually his big fat arm wrapped around your throat."
"Hmm, good point," he replied as he felt along his Adam's apple.
"So I have to sit in for this…whatever she is?" Jean asked.
"If you wouldn't mind," Face said, "We need two people in the decoy car, two people in the real car, and somebody's got to stay with the van incase we need backup."
"Well what do I do?" Jean asked.
"Nothing," Face answered.
Jean blinked, "Wow, some job."
"All you have to do is ride with B.A. and see if the getaway plan works," Face told her, "If not, Hannibal's going to have to go back to the drawing board on this one."
"He ought to do that more often in the beginning," she said, "Save him the trouble of rethinking his plans when they go to hell in the middle of the fight."
Jean would've loved to know not only how Hannibal came up with half the plans he did, but also how he knew about half the locations he did that were conveniently out of the way. The man must never sleep, probably when the rest of them were dead to the world he was out exploring every inch of greater California for hiding spots when the Army came sniffing too close.
She didn't even know where the hell they were, they'd gotten in the cars and driven out to a heavily secluded area where there was some kind of run down, abandoned building with an almost underground parking garage. She didn't know what to make of any of it, or why here or how they found this place. The two white cars were placed alongside each other in the garage and waiting for the signal to move out. She and B.A. were in one, and Face and Hannibal were in the other car. Not far off, Murdock waited in the van with the radio on for when Hannibal gave his instructions.
And then, as if a gun had been fired and the noise of the shot had filled the air, they were off and running, so to speak. Hannibal and Face took off for the main road while B.A. drove them through a few back roads mainly constructed of dirt and gravel; after a few miles he finally got them onto a paved road and after a few minutes more, actually got them back onto a main road and back into something resembling traffic.
It was a hell of a way to travel, in her opinion, but apparently that's what paranoia did to people. Well, paranoia mixed with a healthy dose of common sense. Hannibal was smart enough to take a cautious approach to make sure it was impossible for anyone else to get the drop on them; given the lives they led and the enemies they had, it was never a possibility to be too prepared in that regard.
Up ahead Jean saw an intersection and a traffic light, and on the side where the light had turned red, she saw a green car swerve on through illegally and it seemed that the driver made no effort to slow down and was heading towards them; was in fact moving over to the wrong side of the road so it was coming right at them.
"B.A. watch out!" she yelled.
B.A. jerked the wheel to the side to swerve them out of the way but something was wrong; the wheel, finally giving in to his massive grip, locked for the first crucial seconds and only started to turn when it was too late. The car sped towards them and also only turned to the side once it was too late to avoid colliding; and the right side of the green car smashed against the front of the car on the passenger's side.
Jean felt the door on her side finally swing open and she moved back and fell out of the car onto her back. She didn't know how long she'd been in the car after the crash, she didn't know how badly she been hurt, she didn't know anything. The pain was strong enough that for a few minutes she couldn't even see. It took a while before she realized that she wasn't alone and that there were four men standing over her.
"That crazy fool just sideswiped us and took off, Hannibal!" B.A. was explaining, "Sucker had to be on something he didn't even try to stop!"
Hannibal glanced at the damage to the car for a second before crouching down to get a better look at Jean, who hadn't been able to stop screaming in pain since she got out of the car, and with good reason it appeared. Her legs looked like they'd been smashed up in the wreck and bruises were already forming all the way up and down from where her jean shorts cut off clear down to her feet, and while he was sure they felt mangled, it looked like Jean had had a narrow escape that they weren't broken. But even so, she shouldn't have been screaming that much. He tried putting his hands on her to feel for anything broken or out of place but she grabbed at his hands and wouldn't let him. She had no other obvious injuries on her front side, so he knew they'd have to turn her over and get a look at her from the back before they could try moving her.
He had Face and Murdock help him turn her over onto her stomach, Jean had to suck in a couple of short breaths to scream anymore, but as soon as she was rolled over she could hear the horrified gasps that Face and Murdock made when they saw her back. The fact that they hadn't even lifted up her shirt to see the damage told her it was very bad.
"Aw man, Hannibal," B.A. groaned.
Hannibal's voice was an alarming somber as he replied, "I know."
Jean thought getting off of her back would've made some of the pain go away but it hadn't and now any air she was able to take in went right back in alternating between screams and sobs of indescribable agony.
She felt Hannibal kneel down close to her as he told her, "Alright Jean, I need you to listen to me…I need to try fixing your back before we can even try getting you up and to a doctor, you understand?"
She didn't understand what he meant by 'fixing' her back but she managed a short nod.
"Alright…" Hannibal was trailing off as he spoke, he was trying to figure out what he was going to do before he could sound convincing for her benefit, but she knew it. "Alright, Jean, listen…I'm going to try something, I know it hurts now, but to fix your back it's going to hurt even more."
A particularly loud sob got past her, she couldn't imagine the pain being any worse than it already was.
"I know," Hannibal sounded sorry that he had to do this, whatever it was, "And when that happens you're especially going to have every reason to cry. But it has to be done…so just…brace yourself, I'm going to do it on the count of 3."
Jean tried digging her nails into the dirt as if it would give her a better grip against…whatever, was going to happen. Face and Murdock, who both looked a little green around the gills, got down on either side of her and grabbed her by the wrists and hands so she couldn't lash out and hurt anyone else, or herself even worse.
"Alright…" she felt Hannibal's hands placed on her back, "Ready…1…2…"
She didn't know what he did, and for the first few seconds she couldn't even feel it, she just heard a loud, sickening CRUNCH, actually it sounded like several crunches all joined together, and immediately after it was like her whole back had gone numb. But it was quickly replaced with the worst pain she'd ever felt, even worse than before, just as Hannibal had promised. And when that happened, she yelled louder than she could ever remember doing before, replaced a few seconds later by a few higher pitched cries than she had ever made before, and she felt her whole body collapse against the ground.
After a few seconds passed, she felt somebody grab her and as reality slowly started to sink back in she realized it was Hannibal gathering her up into his arms, careful not to touch her back, instead he patted a shoulder as he murmured to her, "Easy, easy…good girl…it's over now."
The pain was still imminent enough that it forced her eyes shut for a few minutes. And through her closed eyes she still saw things, some kind of pattern dancing in front of her shut eyelids, looked like fireworks going off. Then they were replaced with jagged lines going back and forth and falling, and rising up again, and falling again. Then the lines became thicker, and colored, green and blue, maybe a little red as well. By the time she opened her eyes again, everything looked different, the coloring to everything looked darker than usual. That gradually faded away as he eyes adapted to the afternoon light again.
"Alright kid," Hannibal told her, "We're going to move you to the van and get you to a doctor, alright?"
Jean slowly nodded.
"Can you walk?" he asked her.
"I…" she tried to think if she could, "I'll try, just help me up."
Murdock and Face got on either side of her and grabbed her arms, Hannibal got to his feet and helped them get her up. She had to hang on to two of them to maintain her balance but she was able to walk, if only slightly. Hannibal ran on ahead and got the back door open so they could get her settled in and he and B.A. got in the front to get out of there.
Hannibal turned in his seat and watched as they got Jean settled in the middle with Murdock on one side of her and Face on the other and he told her, "If you think you can hold out long enough, we'll get to Bad Rock and have Maggie fix you up."
By this time however, Jean was too far out of it to even pay attention to his question. She had collapsed or passed out, one of the two, leaning against Murdock; he held her against him, careful not to touch her back. Face likewise sat close enough to her so she wouldn't get knocked around much if they hit any bumpy roads and kept his hands pressed high up on her back near her shoulders to try and hold her still for the ride. Hannibal turned back in his seat and told B.A., "Alright, Sergeant, get us out of here."
"Now you guys know I've never been a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry," Face said, "But it is amazing what a couple little white pills can do, isn't it?"
They had managed to get to Maggie's and have her examine Jean. She'd concluded that during the crash Jean had suffered plenty of bruising and found evidence of misaligned vertebrae despite Hannibal's amateur and unorthodox manner of putting her spine back into place; Maggie had been able to get the rest of it put back where it belonged with a couple of very precise movements. But even that couldn't stop Jean's screaming once she was fully conscious again, so Hannibal had twisted Maggie's arm to get her to dope Jean up on a little morphine and temporarily put her out of her misery. Once again Maggie had stressed giving the pills to an admitted addict, especially since in a few days there wasn't going to be anyone around to keep an eye on her; but Hannibal wouldn't take no for an answer since as he pointed out, this was no time to try her out on something different and find out the hard way if she was allergic to methadone. So, Maggie had given in against her better judgment, and the pills had started to take effect before they even got home; and similar to last time, being doped up had made her just plain dopey.
And now, they were back at Jean's house and B.A. was carrying her into the house and she was wriggling and squirming in his grip yelping and whooping and howling like Murdock when he flew planes.
"Don't drop me, B.A.!" she yelled gleefully.
"I ain't gonna drop ya," B.A. told her, and not for the first time, "Why is it you keep saying I'm gonna drop you, but when you go up in a plane with the crazy fool you don't worry about crashing?"
"Because in an airplane you can see the WIDE OPEN SPACES out the windshield!" Jean told him, "There's nothing out there to get caught under the wheels and bring the whole thing crashing down! YOU on the other hand, ANYTHING could trip up those size 14 CLODHOPPERS of yours and then we'll both go down like a set of dominoes." She squirmed and looked over his shoulder and called to Murdock, pointing down to B.A.'s shoes, "Hey Murdock, check it out! Not Bigfoot, TWO Bigfeet!" and she started to howl in laughter again.
B.A. stopped, turned to glare back at the others and growled.
"Oh well," Hannibal said dismissively, "At least she's out of pain for the moment."