They were alone at Jean's house that night; Face, B.A. and Hannibal had all gone back to their own places, and that was fine with them. It gave Murdock a perfect chance to start painting the van for B.A. and he was able to do it in the wide open space of the living room without having to worry about anyone walking in on him. He got it half finished that night and when he was done, they lay against each other on the couch and looked at the Christmas tree in the dark room, the colored lights the only illumination and how they made everything else sparkle and shine.
"Now this is the life," Murdock said, "This is exactly what I've been waiting for all these years. You know, at the V.A. we get in a fake tree and they let the patients all help decorate it, but of course nothing's glass or breakable, and nothing with those metal hangers on them and nothing edible, so it doesn't leave a whole lot to pick from, mainly just gum wrappers and bandages and stuff like that, and then there would always be one guy who tried climbing the tree because he wanted to be the angel on top."
Jean laughed and said, "Seems fitting, considering it's a crazy hospital."
"Yeah, but they were a nice bunch of guys," Murdock told her, "But I like this better."
"So do I," she agreed.
They fell asleep together on the couch, and the next morning after breakfast, Hannibal and Face came to drop in on them. Much to Face's dismay, they were just in time to be the guinea pigs for the fruitcake Jean had baked.
Hannibal just shrugged and said, "Why not? My mother made fruitcake for Christmas, it was good."
Murdock sawed two pieces off of the cake loaf and gave them to the Colonel and the Lieutenant and waited to see what they did. Hannibal bit into his with full force, Face just nibbled a corner piece off, then to make sure he wasn't missing something, he took another bite and he said, to his surprise, "It's actually good."
"I told you," Jean said.
Apparently Hannibal didn't share the sentiment, he looked down at it and said, "Tastes like pound cake…what, no rum?"
"Not in this recipe, that's why it's so light," Jean told him.
Hannibal picked up the cake in the pan and murmured something to Face about filling a little syringe with enough rum to give it that extra flavor and injecting it during the party.
"That's a good idea, we ought to try that with the punch too," Murdock murmured to Jean.
"Oh be quiet," Jean told him.
Hannibal laughed as they engaged in a minor banter, now they were starting to act like a couple who had been married. Face noticed it too but he wasn't as amused by it as Hannibal was, and when they left later that morning he asked the Colonel, "You don't think that if Jean ever lost her temper with Murdock that she'd hit him, do you?"
Hannibal looked at him like he'd lost his mind and said, "Jean? I doubt that very much, Face, out of the four of us she likes him the most, obviously."
"I know," he replied, "I was just wondering…I'm wondering if maybe it's getting time that he moved back in with one of us again."
Hannibal didn't seem to be concerned and he told Face why, "Murdock doesn't seem to have any problem staying on with her for the time being. If he says something then we'll figure out what to do, but I can't see Jean turning on her own husband."
"Ex-husband," Face reminded him, "And you know how those relationships always work out."
"Well that might be," Hannibal conceded, "But Murdock is an adult, he can take care of himself, especially against a woman."
Face laughed dryly and remarked, "Are you forgetting who we're talking about, Hannibal?"
He stopped and looked at Face and asked, "You really think she'd do something to him?"
"I don't know," Face said, "It seems to me that she's short with him today, I don't think I've ever seen her act like that."
Hannibal shrugged and said, "Everybody's entitled to have a bad day now and then. We'll check in with him later to see if everything's going alright."
"B.A., you've really outdone yourself this time," Hannibal told the Sergeant when he went to see him that afternoon, "Murdock's going to love this ring."
"Yeah I guess so," B.A. reluctantly agreed, "Just so long as the crazy fool don't try kissing me when he gets it, if he does I'm gonna bust his jaw."
Hannibal chuckled and asked him, "Incidentally how's that other project coming?"
"That's going to take longer to get done," B.A. said, "By the way, did you get that fool his other ring back?"
"Yeah," Hannibal answered, "He never noticed it was missing."
"Hey Hannibal," B.A. told him, "I'm gonna have to work on this thing straight through for the next couple a' hours before I get to a stopping off place, otherwise it ain't gonna come out right."
Hannibal looked at his watch and said, "I better call Murdock then and tell him we won't be making it for dinner tonight."
"Just as well," B.A. said, "Long as I don't have to eat anything that crazy fool made, it's fine with me. He can't do anything right, Hannibal: he can't cook, he can't swim, he can't drive…only thing he can do right is fly, and that's terrible enough."
The phone rang before Hannibal could pick it up, he answered and was surprised to see that Murdock had beaten him to the punch.
"Hey Murdock, what's up?"
"Colonel…can we reschedule that dinner for another night?"
"That's what I was just getting ready to call you about," Hannibal told him, "We can't make it tonight." He noticed something sounded off in the pilot's tone and he asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Well tonight's not good anyway," Murdock answered, "Jean ain't feeling too well today."
"Sorry to hear that, what's wrong?" Hannibal asked.
"She's sick with a bad headache and had to go to bed," Murdock said, "She's had it most of the day and it just got worse, nothing worked for it, and I think at this rate she'll sleep half the night."
"Hmmm," Hannibal thought and said, "Maybe she's one of those human barometers."
"Huh?"
"I was just hearing on the weather forecast they're expecting us to get hit by a heavy storm tonight," Hannibal said, "What'll probably happen is the minute the downpour starts then it'll go away."
"I don't know," Murdock said, "But I think it'd be better if the house was quiet tonight."
"Sure, Murdock, I understand," Hannibal told him, "We'll see you guys tomorrow."
"What's up, Hannibal?" B.A. asked as the Colonel hung up the phone.
"Jean's sick and the dinner's canceled anyway," Hannibal answered, then he picked the receiver up again and said, "I better call Face and give him the message. I think he said he was going to see Amy about something this afternoon."
Face hung up with Hannibal and went over to the couch and plopped down on it next to Amy who was flipping through a magazine.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"That was Hannibal, Murdock called him, Jean's sick so dinner's off," he answered.
"Too bad," Amy said, "I was looking forward to trying Murdock's…" she giggled, "What is it, deep fried socks or something?"
"Probably," Face agreed.
"Hey Face," Amy grinned slyly at him, "I want to get your opinion on something," she turned the page she was looking at towards him so he could see it wasn't a magazine but a woman's lingerie catalogue. "What do you think?"
"That depends, who's going to wear it?" he asked as he saw the item she'd flipped to, a see-through nightie.
Amy couldn't keep back her laughter as she said, "I just had an idea for a gag gift, what do you think would happen if I got this for Jean and told her it's something to keep Murdock warm at night?"
"The gag would be on you, Amy, Murdock's just crazy enough to wear it," Face told her.
Amy threw her head back laughing.
"Besides, why would you get something like that for Jean?" Face asked.
"Well I was just thinking if those two do get married again," Jean said, "It could be something to wear on their honeymoon."
Face cringed at the thought of that.
"What?" Amy asked.
"You don't know Jean very well," he told her, "The woman doesn't even own a single dress, there's no way in hell she'd ever wear one of those. Just as well, I don't need that mental image burned into my brain."
Amy laughed at him and said, "You are really impossible, Face, you know that?"
"I believe I've been told a time or two," he replied.
Amy made a buzzer sound like he just gave the wrong answer on a game show and said, "Liar, try thousands."
"Not thousands," he told her.
"Not twice," she responded.
Face fought back a laugh and said, "You know Jean was right the first time, before Murdock got stuck with her she said when you got back to town Murdock ought to try his luck with you, I think you two would be perfect together."
"You're only saying that," Amy told him, "Because you know you'll never have me."
"Yeah, so much the better for the next poor jerk," Face teasingly remarked.
Amy picked up one of the pillows on the couch with her free hand and hit him in the head with it.
After Murdock had gotten off the phone with Hannibal, he decided to go upstairs and check on Jean to see if she was still awake and needed anything. She'd complained of a headache shortly after Hannibal and Face had left that morning, she'd taken a couple of pills and figured that would be the end of it. But as the hours passed it only got worse, and between the two of them they tried everything they could think of that should've helped ease the pain. Maybe it was dehydration, so she drank two glasses of water, maybe her head was telling her she was hungry instead of her stomach, so she ate again, maybe she needed more pills, but also Murdock told her that caffeine helped the body break down the painkillers and take effect quicker, so she ate two chocolate bars to go along with it, and nothing.
It got to a point she had a splitting pain running down the middle of her scalp and all across the back of her skull. By the time she had dropped on the floor and was crying in pain, begging Murdock to shoot her to put her out of her misery, he knew that this was no normal headache. He was reluctant to take her to a doctor and he knew she was just as reluctant to go, so they would hold off on that unless she seemed to get worse. Finally he suggested that she just go to bed and sleep it off, if that didn't help then nothing would and he would take her to the hospital. That had been the last he'd heard of her for a while.
It was quiet upstairs, almost too quiet. Murdock crept along to the bedroom and peered in, and was mildly taken aback by what he saw. As a last resort before going to bed for the afternoon, Jean had thought a hot shower might help relieve some of the pain throbbing in her skull. She lay on top of the bed asleep wrapped in only a towel, her hair still in damp spikes, and though she was asleep, every few breaths he could hear a low moan or whimper escape from her lips. The blinds had been closed to keep the sunlight out, though there hadn't been much sun that day and it was already pretty dark in the room. Murdock went over to the bed and very carefully pulled the covers out from under her and got her tucked in without waking her up. He picked up one of the teddy bears from the foot of the bed and placed it loosely in her arm. He wanted to kiss her but didn't dare for all the pain she was in, and right now the only thing that could possibly help her was to sleep. He watched her for a few minutes and then turned and left the room, he'd be back to check on her later.
By the time Jean finally woke up, it was night and the whole room was dark. She panicked initially, trying to figure out what was going on and how long she'd been asleep.
"Good evening," she heard Murdock close by. Even in the dark she was able to make out his silhouette and she sat up on the bed and reached out for him.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"It's 7 o' clock," he answered, "You slept all afternoon. How's your head?"
"My head?" it took her a minute to realize the reason why she'd gone to sleep in the first place, "It's fine now."
"I thought so," Murdock said, "Hannibal said once the rain started that it'd go away."
"Rain?" Jean listened and realized that outside rain was beating down and pounding against the siding of the house.
"It started about half an hour ago," he explained, "But it hasn't really poured until about 10 minutes ago." Murdock put his arms around her because he sensed she was still disoriented and he asked her, "Hannibal was right, wasn't he? It was because of the rain."
Jean nodded, "Every time there's a major change in the weather I get migraines, especially when it rains."
"Well it certainly came at the right time this time," Murdock told her, "You know all week long it's been sunny and warm, well they're saying we're gonna get a cold snap from this, should go down to about 40 degrees tonight."
"That would give anybody a headache," Jean agreed. She pulled away from Murdock and said, "I can't believe I slept all day, I hate this."
"Migraines?" Murdock asked.
"Losing time," Jean answered, "Every time this happens I wind up sleeping half the day and night, all that time lost, because of these stupid headaches."
A chill ran through her body and Murdock could hear her chattering, and he remembered that she didn't have anything on.
"Murdock," Jean said hesitantly, "Why aren't the lights on?"
"Oh…" he was glad for the dark so she couldn't see him blush as he said, "Just a little wishful thinking on my part."
"Huh?"
He laughed nervously and explained, "I was just thinking about if we were still married by this time…"
Jean could almost hear the sheepish grin on his face as he trailed off and she said, "Don't tell me, let me guess," she felt along in the dark until she could feel him and she said, "You've been juggling eggs again."
He laughed and peeled her hand off his stomach and said, "Not quite, though that does remind me…that night you came to see me at the V.A., wound up staying the night."
"And on your bed that was no easy task," Jean replied.
He smiled as he recalled, "The next morning when the nurse came in and found us, and the whole ward was in an uproar."
"For as much trouble as we got in you'd think we actually did something," Jean smirked as she recollected the events of that morning.
"Yeah," Murdock came up behind her and put his arms around her waist, "I keep trying to remember, I don't think anything happened, did it?"
"If it did, I wasn't there," she told him, "It seems to me that somehow we always have a good time doing absolutely nothing."
"Well, not entirely," Murdock said as he leaned down to kiss her.
"Have the others been here?" Jean thought to ask him.
"No, I called them and they're going to come over another night instead," he answered, "Hey, you ready for dinner?"
"I'm really not hungry, Murdock," she said.
"Oh you will be," he told her as he stepped away from her and went around the room to plug in the window lights, "I've got a surprise for you."
"This ought to be good," Jean rolled her eyes, "I better get dressed first."
"Just put your pajamas on, it's not a formal dinner," Murdock told her.
"I hate wearing them," she replied, "I can't be comfortable lounging around in those all day, it just reminds me of all the times I was sick as a kid and stuck in bed."
Murdock turned back to her and inquired, "You were sick a lot?"
"All the time, they tried vaccinating me and that just made it worse, so after the first couple tries they just gave up on that," Jean said, "My mother always said I'd outgrow it, but when you've got the flu 3 times a year for 10 years in a row, you stop believing it long before then. Of course then we found out the winter attack was due to my allergies, that's why they had to wash down the tree. And the kick in the head about that one...you remember she told you about the bowl of candy every year? The joke is I was always too sick to eat any of it until New Year because they said we couldn't chance anything upsetting my stomach again. You see I'm weird like that. And that's also why I never could've lasted in the army, I would've died from the inoculations alone, I managed to slip around that when I enlisted without anybody knowing, but that only worked because I wasn't going to stay anyway."
She tried to explain what she was originally getting at and said, "You see, Murdock, I'm the kind of person that…I've always got to be ready incase something happens, you know? Ready to go at a moment's notice," she laughed and said, "As a kid I always slept in my clothes incase something would happen and I'd have to leave the house in the middle of the night in a hurry…I'm comfortable in my jeans and my shoes, take them away and…that's why I don't like being in the hospital, even if your clothes aren't ruined they take them away and stick you in a paper gown, who the hell can be comfortable in that? It's not about our comfort or our convenience, it's a power move, they take away our clothes, and with it they start to strip away our identity and our freedom, otherwise if nothing else they'd let us wear scrubs like the orderlies, at least then we'd look semi-normal when we tried escaping."
There was no worse feeling in the world than having a crazy person stare at you as if he didn't have the slightest idea what you were talking about.
"They never made you do that in the V.A., did they?"
"Well it's a bit of a preferential thing," he explained, "If you can dress yourself then you're encouraged to wear your regular clothes, if they have to dress you then it's easier just to leave them in their pajamas."
"Yeah, easier," Jean said, "No zippers, few buttons, just pull them on and off, up and down, like a set of oversized swim trunks, not me, if somebody's going to be taking my pants off without my permission they're going to have to do it the hard way."
And now something else was starting to make sense and he said, "That's why you don't wear dresses either."
"Well let's face it, they're not practical for anything," Jean said, "You can't straddle and climb anything in them, your legs have no protection against anything, and one big gust and you'll certainly be a sight to see. And then you add the fact that they're not even comfortable to boot, every one I ever did wear as a kid had to have been all made from the same itchy, choking material. Why anybody would wear them is beyond me."
Murdock laughed a little as he remembered putting on Jacqueline Taylor's wedding dress and his struggle to make a clean getaway in it after leaving Cutter at the altar. "You have a point they're not very practical, especially those long ones you always trip over them."
Okay, so he was willing to concede she had a point. All the same he could tell that despite sleeping for five hours she was still tired and would probably fall asleep before too long in the night. He went over to the dresser and said, "How about a compromise?" he picked up one of his pajama shirts with Mighty Mouse on it and said, "You wear yours if I wear mine?" If they were both dressed for bed then she could hardly see that as being anything related to a power move.
Slowly, Jean reluctantly nodded in agreement.
"Good," he said as he picked his up and headed for the door, "I'll leave you alone to get dressed, yell if you need anything."
He changed out in the hall, since the weather had predicted a cold snap he'd put on one of his warm sets of pajamas with long sleeves and full length pants, and a minute later when Jean came out he saw she was dressed the same way in long dark and light blue pajamas.
"This still feels weird," she told him.
"Well just try to relax," he said as they went downstairs, "We're alone tonight, nobody's coming over, we've got nothing we have to do, so we can just lounge around and be lazy tonight."
They entered the living room and Murdock pushed Jean onto the couch and told her, "Stay here, I'll be back in a minute with our dinner."
Our?
"You haven't eaten either?" she asked.
"No, I figured you'd be getting up soon," he told her, "Now no peeking."
She was almost afraid to ask. Murdock disappeared into the kitchen and she could hear him clattering around in there, and then heard the sizzle of something cooking in the frying pan but she couldn't pick up on the scent. A couple minutes later, he reentered the room carrying a tray with two glasses of milk and two sandwiches that looked like grilled cheese, but didn't smell like it.
"What's that, Murdock?" she asked.
"Grilled peanut butter and pickle sandwiches," he answered.
Jean laughed and said, "You're good."
"I knew you liked them cold so I figured we'd try them like this," Murdock said as he put the tray down beside her, "I knew that'd get your appetite back."
"Oh yeah, how?" she asked as she picked one up and bit into it.
"Same way I knew it would work when you slept for two days in that hotel room, we finally coaxed you awake, with a cheeseburger."
Jean laughed at his comment.
"It's true," he told her, "I knew that would work, nothing will get the salivating juices flowing more than that smell of hot greasy meat with cheese and ketchup, but it's the pickles that are the clencher. There is just something about that aroma of those brine and vinegar soaked cucumbers that slams the olfactory senses awake and sends a red hot bulletin up to the brain that screams WAKE UP, LUNCH!"
Jean laughed and said, "It's really good, thanks. Hey, did you finish getting B.A.'s van painted yet?"
"Yep, sure did," Murdock went over to the corner of the room and picked up the toy van and showed her, "Looks just like the real thing."
"It sure does," she agreed, "He's gonna love that, Murdock."
"Yeah and I figure it'll get plenty of use because he can let the kids at his daycare center play with it," Murdock said as he put it back in its hiding place.
"Okay now explain this to me again," Jean said, "These kids he deals with are about 10 years old, how the hell can you call that a daycare center?"
"Because nobody there works a night shift," Murdock answered.
"You're a nice guy, Murdock," Jean said, "You may know that B.A. likes you despite his daily attempts to choke you, but most people would not put up with half the stuff he does to you."
"It's just the way he is," Murdock told her, "See the big guy has a reputation to maintain and if word got out about how big of a softie he really is, he'd never be able to live it down."
Jean snorted and observed, "He certainly hides it well."
"He tries, but I see through him, you see through him," Murdock said, "Otherwise when he blinks at you, you'd be hitting the ceiling like everybody else."
"If I thought he'd actually clock me, maybe," Jean replied, "But you guys have your own reputation of not hitting women…what's the word for that, chauvinistic?"
"Well in B.A.'s defense if he did that he'd kill them," Murdock explained.
"So noted," Jean said as she traced a circle around her eye, "Now you explain something else to me. You hit B.A. anywhere in his whole body, nothing fazes him, but you hit him in the head and down he goes like a ton of bricks, why is that?"
"I told you," Murdock said, "He's got a soft spot in his head, that's why Hannibal's always able to knock him out with a 2 by 4."
"Yeah well, one of these days that soft head of his is going to be immune to all those beatings, and then where're you going to be?" Jean asked.
"Hopefully far away when Hannibal finds out," Murdock replied humorously.
After they ate they settled on the couch, Jean leaning back against Murdock as they listened to the rain outside and watched the Christmas programs on TV. After a while, Murdock realized that Jean had fallen asleep against him, and he had an idea she'd stay that way for the rest of the night. He knew she seldom slept on her back so with a little careful maneuvering he got her turned around so she had her head resting on his chest and her back pressed into the back cushions on the couch. He reached up and pulled the afghan off the back and draped it over to the two of them and quietly murmured, "Goodnight, darling."
The next day the ground was trying to dry out but since everything was at a significantly lower temperature than usual, it was taking its sweet time, and as such Jean had warned Murdock not to go chasing Billy all through the mud, and if the dog did get out, she told him to let him stay out for the morning, because the last thing she needed was to have to clean his paw prints or Murdock's shoe prints for that matter, off all the floors.
"Well you're in luck," he said as he looked out the front window, "Here come Face and Amy, and you know how particular Face is about looking nice, he's jumping over all the mud puddles."
"What're they doing here?" she asked.
Murdock opened the door to find out, Amy squeezed past him first carrying an armload of small wrapped packages, and Face had a harder time getting past Murdock carrying a couple of much larger presents.
"What's all that?" Jean asked.
Face rolled his eyes and said, "The butcher shop has become more decorative in how he wraps the pork chops, what do you think? These are the presents for Christmas."
"Alright, let me rephrase, what are they doing here?" Jean asked.
"Boy you couldn't be nice to save your life, could you?" Face asked, "We're bringing them over now so they'll be ready for Christmas."
"And what are you doing here?" Jean asked Amy, "I thought you had to work today."
"I called in a sick day," she answered, "I'm entitled to them after the year I've had."
They put the presents under the tree and sat down on the couch with Jean and Murdock as they went over a bunch of little last minute ideas for the party. This turned into a visit that lasted a couple of hours, during which time everybody started to nod off listening to Murdock's plans. Around 11 that morning, they heard a vehicle pull up out front, and a minute later the front door opened and Hannibal came in shouting orders, "Face, Murdock, out to the van, we've got a new client."
Face groaned and Murdock yawned and stretched before getting up, and he asked the Colonel, "What's it this time, Hannibal?"
"Emergency case, kidnapped children," Hannibal explained.
"On our way, Colonel!" Murdock saluted as he and Face ran out to the van in the driveway.
"What's going on, Hannibal?" Amy asked.
"I'll explain later," he said, "First I've got to swing by my place, pick up my makeup kit and get down to the docks, if this is the real deal and it most likely is, we've got to get a plan together and fast."
That didn't stop the women however from giving him the third degree before they let him out the door. Amy wanted to know how he knew it was real, and Jean wanted to know what the hurry was. Hannibal answered the journalist's question first, "Briggs was shipped out to Alaska this morning, Decker's back in office and we've got a sweet deal with him to keep us in the pink until New Year, without him it's unlikely the MPs would have the brains to set this as a trap for us instead." And then in regards to Jean's question he said, "This isn't a matter of ransom, now ransom cases in themselves are a 50/50 chance that the kid will even still be alive when the money's paid, but if they're not asking for money then they're either definitely going to kill that kid, or they've got something worse in mind for them. And whichever is the case, I want to get them back to their mother before Christmas and as soon as possible."
"Good luck," Jean said.
