"Billy, now you be a good boy and come out from under there," Murdock said as he got on his knees and looked under the other hospital bed in Jean's room, "Now don't you argue with me...you stop being so difficult." He started to crawl under the bed until the only thing that could be seen were his shoes as he appeared to be dragged under the bed. There was some indecipherable talk as he continued to argue with his dog, then he crawled out from under the bed as if he was expecting Billy to follow behind him. When he realized he was alone, he turned around on his hands and knees and started yelling under the bed again. He nodded his head vigorously as if he was responding to the dog shaking his head no, "Yes, you come out of there right now," he pointed to the floor in front of him. "Now come on, boy."

Face stood by Jean's bed and they both watched as Murdock tried to get his dog out from under the bed. They had come in that evening to relieve the Rhodes' so they could go down to the cafeteria and get some dinner; the report they'd gotten from the parents was that Jean had fallen back asleep shortly after the team left and she had been out for most of the afternoon. From that they gathered either she would remain asleep for most of the night, or she would be wide awake when everybody else in the hospital was trying to sleep. She had been awake when they went in and stayed that way so far.

"That's a good boy," Murdock said as he picked the dog up in his arms and stood up, "Face, will you take Billy outside and put him in the van for me?"

"Uh, sure, Murdock," Face said as he awkwardly tried to grab Billy and take him from Murdock, but trying to get a hold of something he couldn't see proved difficult, and he knew, looked ridiculous.

"Don't do that!" Jean told him, "You're hurting him."

Face would've loved to know just how she could tell what he was doing wrong, and he also would've loved to know when she started caring if he was hurting Billy or not since by her own admission she hated dogs. But he kept quiet and tried to readjust his hold and carry Billy out without anymore complaints, and he told Murdock, "I'll be back in a minute," and headed out the door.

Hannibal and B.A. came out of the bathroom and Hannibal said to Jean, "Well everything looks normal in there, I don't think anybody's had a chance to come in and bug the place. And if Lynch hasn't come here yet, it could be a safe bet that he's not going to."

"Or he still got his hands full with the fools back there," B.A. replied.

"How's your head, B.A.?" Jean asked him.

"It's alright," he answered. It hadn't come to anybody's surprise that he'd managed to hit his head against the hard tiled floor without so much as a bump or even a scratch.

Jean smirked and said, "They're never going to get that dent out of the floor from when you fainted."

"Hannibal, whatever happened to the recruits that were being brought in for the plane yesterday?" Murdock asked, "What happened to them?"

"Oh you didn't hear, Murdock?" Hannibal asked, "After the MPs made it out to Carter's headquarters, they were able to intercept a semi being brought in, opened up the back and found the recruits inside."

"Really?"

"Yeah, 70 men who barely even look old enough to drive, half dead from the heat and poor ventilation, and all of them carrying drugs and guns and ammo to take over to the drug lords overseas, needless to say the army's psychiatrists are going to have their hands full for a while." Hannibal looked at Jean and told her, "You were right, the retraining program had already started with them, but they're expected to quickly recover and should be able to remember who and what they are soon."

"At least they found some of them before it was too late," Jean said, "What about Burgess though? Did you find out what the deal with him was?"

"Well as it turns out, Burgess wasn't working for Lynch, he was working for Carter, Carter got suspicious and thought that we might be onto him and he sent Burgess out to report if he found anything. It was only by some dumb luck that Lynch managed to keep following after us the whole time."

"Go figure," Murdock commented.

"Hey Hannibal," Jean said and gestured for him to lean over towards her, "I get why you changed the details around when you told my parents what happened, but I don't get why you told them I pushed you out of the way and took the bullet for you."

Hannibal took the cigar out of his mouth and said to her as his only means of explanation, "How do you know that Carter wasn't aiming for me and only hit you by mistake?" From the look on her face he could tell she was starting to consider it, though she obviously wasn't convinced of that, and he added, "He couldn't hit me with the third round either, so I don't know that he wasn't trying to shoot me and just hit you instead. The chip on his shoulder with my name on it had been festering like a wart since you were in kindergarten, I truly think if he was going to try and kill one of us, it would be me; we went back the farthest."

"He shot at you, you shot him," Murdock said, "That was the two shots."

"What?"

"The prophecy," Murdock said, "Two shots will ring out, one will stand, one will fall…that's what the spirits said."

Jean looked at Murdock and said, "You mean this whole time that it was always meant for Hannibal to be the one to kill Carter? It was never supposed to be me?"

"I guess not," Murdock replied and he saw the vexed look on the colonel's face and shrugged helplessly.

Hannibal turned to Jean and said in his self-assured tone, "You see, kid? I told you there was a reason why you couldn't get us off the case, no matter what you did."

"If that ain't a kick in the head, I don't know what is," she said as she lay back against the pillows. She looked worn out already and Hannibal could guess how she felt in between having two holes blown into her, mixed with the painkillers and being stuck in bed all day.

"How're you feeling, kid?" Hannibal asked her.

"Lousy," she answered, "They finally let me have something to drink, but not enough of it, and they're still not letting me eat yet."

Hannibal looked at his watch and told her, "They should've done that before now. Are you sure it's not just a matter of you won't eat what they give you?"

Jean glared at him and asked, "When was the last time you ate lime Jell-O?"

"Point taken," he said.

Jean closed her eyes and heard the men talking amongst themselves and then heard them heading for the door; Hannibal went out first, then B.A., and when Murdock was about to follow, she opened her eyes and called him, he closed the door and went over to the bed.

"Is somebody going to be staying here again tonight?" she asked him.

"Yeah, if you want," he said, "We thought it would be a good idea to make sure nobody comes in during the night who ain't supposed to be here."

"But not B.A.," she shook her head.

Murdock shook his head to match hers and said, "Not if you don't want him to."

"I don't," she answered, "I'm thankful he was here last night, but I'd rather you stayed this time if you don't mind."

"Mind?" he said, "Mind!" he repeated it louder, "Me mind? Of course I don't mind, this'll be fun."

Jean weakly laughed and said, "I can't promise I'll be good company."

"That's alright," he told her, "I can be interesting for the both of us. But would you like it if Face stayed too?" Murdock gestured to the other bed, "I know he's slept in better places but I don't think he'd mind if…"

"No," Jean shook her head, "Just…just you, Murdock."

Murdock nodded in understanding. He really didn't understand but if she didn't want anyone else to stay in the room, he could respect that. In any case, he would be there and that would be enough if something happened in the night; he knew the others would be close by just incase anything went wrong.

"Murdock," Jean pointed to the bed railing and asked him, "Is this absolutely necessary?"

"Oh they just put that up so you don't roll out of bed," he said, "I'm sure I can take it off for you, I've had some practice at that, just like getting out of straightjackets and leather restraints..."

"I'll like it when I can get out of here, I don't like this place," Jean told him, "How long do I have to stay here?"

"What did the doctors say?" Murdock asked as he was in the process of lowering the railing.

"Oh who remembers? They're all alike, they like keeping you here as long as possible," she said, "I want to go home."

"Well as soon as they can give you the green arrow on flying, we'll do it," he told her.

"Murdock, isn't it dangerous for you guys to hang around here?" she asked him, "I mean wouldn't it be easy for somebody to tip off Lynch about where you are since you've been here all day?"

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that," Murdock said, "We have an understanding with the doctors, besides, even if they did come, they'd never catch us…or if they only caught me, they'd just send me back to the V.A., that's about all they can ever do with me because I'm insane and 'I don't know nothing', so I'm in no real danger either way you look at it."

Jean watched him while he worked and she asked him, "Do you really like going back there?"

"Well it's hard to turn down free room and board courtesy of the state, that's one upside to being crazy, you always have a place to live," he said as he managed to take one side of the railing off. He sat down on the edge of the bed and swung his legs up so she and he were positioned alike, he reached over and put his hand on her shoulder and asked her, "Does this hurt?"

"No," she shook her head.

He reached over and put his hand on her other shoulder, "This hurt?"

"No," she shook her head again.

He lowered his hand and touched her arm, "How bout that?"

"Uh-uh."

He raised his hand back to her shoulder and carefully pulled her over to lean against him, "That good?"

Jean nodded.

"Fine," he said, and leaned back against the pillows, "So what do you want to do tonight?"

Jean tilted her head back and said, "How bout if we just sit together and…watch the walls melt?"

Murdock looked down at her and laughed.

Murdock returned to her room later with a change of pajamas for the night and his Bogey bear, whom he insisted get acquainted with her own teddy bear. He picked hers up and played with it like he did with Bogey and asked her, "What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one," Jean said, "At least I never gave him one."

"Oh that's a shame," Murdock clucked his tongue and shook his head, "Going through life without a name. It's terrible how many Teddy Does there are in the world you know."

"Well what kind of name do you think would suit him?" Jean asked.

"Hmmm," Murdock looked the teddy bear over from every angle imaginable and said, "Maybe Humphrey." He held onto her bear with one hand, picked up his bear with the other and said, "Bogey, meet Humphrey, Humphrey, this is Bogey."

"Maybe I should just name him after you," jean suggested with a laugh.

"Me?" Murdock asked, "Are you crazy?"

Jean held up her hand that still had the morphine drip inserted in it, "They're pumping me full of the crazy juice, trying to make me an addict. After those pills, this is a smorgasbord of insanity. I will like it when I can get rid of this too."

"Hmmm," Murdock checked the IV bag to see how much was left in it and he told her, "You'll probably want that for a couple more days."

"Don't they only use these on dying people?" Jean asked.

Murdock shook his head, "Naw, they give them to anybody in extreme pain, and if you didn't have any after being shot in the chest twice, then you're crazier than I am and I don't consider that an easy title to win."

Jean looked at him and asked him, "Murdock, have you ever been shot?"

"Sure I have," he answered.

"Did you almost die?" she asked.

He took his time to answer that one, finally saying, "I don't recall seeing them getting my halo ready, and in a hospital I wouldn't put much faith in seeing the white light either because have you seen how bright those things are they use in the operating room?"

"Well," she told him, "When I got shot, I thought for sure that I was going to die, no offense to your aviation skills, but I just knew we'd never make it in time."

"Well we did," Murdock reminded her, "You're still here," he smiled at her and added, "You can't get away from us that easily, darling, we won't allow it."

She smiled at him weakly and replied, "Thanks, Murdock. I would've died if it wasn't for you."

"Oh I don't know about that," he said, "I think they probably would've stopped you at the pearly gate and sent you back. You know what Hannibal said about Heaven doesn't get crowded, well I think they've got enough Saints there for the time being."

Jean laughed a couple of times but stopped because even on the morphine, the pain managed to cut through her when she did it.

"So tell me about my parents," she said.

"What about them?" Murdock asked.

"About you flying to New York and picking them up and flying them back here," she said.

"Oh that, well," Murdock pointed at her and told her, "Flying definitely runs in your family, your mother's a natural just like you."

"Funny, I never took my mother for being a flyer," she commented, "I don't think she's ever been off the ground."

"Well she took to it like a vulture on a gut wagon," Murdock explained, "They both did, as soon as they heard we found you and I was taking them to you, they jumped into the chopper and off we went."

"You didn't tell them I'd been shot?" Jean asked.

"I told them that we had to go to the hospital, but I didn't tell them why," he said, "I thought it might be better that way because I didn't know what had happened since I left."

"And I know why Hannibal didn't tell them the truth, because they would never want me back if they knew what I really did," Jean said.

"That's not true," Murdock told her.

"He didn't tell them about the people I killed," Jean reminded him, "And I can admit I'm a coward, I don't have it in me to tell them the truth either."

Murdock looked at her sympathetically and took her hand in his and stroked over the top of it with his other hand and told her, "There's an unwritten rule among soldiers, when you go home, you don't talk about what happened in the war, it's just not something that anybody who wasn't there could understand, and that's exactly what happened here."

He felt her hand tighten its grip on his own and that said more to him than anything she could've told him in that instant. He leaned over and kissed her on her forehead and with his free hand stroked over the top of her head. Her eyes rolled back and he could tell the morphine was kicking in and she would be asleep soon again, but she looked up at him and with a small smile on her tired face she said to him, "You're my friend, you're all my friends…"

Murdock smiled at her and said, "I knew we'd bring you around sooner or later."

He went into the bathroom and changed into his pajamas, when he came out, Jean was watching him as he took the pillow and sheet off of the spare bed and instead made his bed on the floor.

"Aren't you going to use the bed?" Jean asked, "It is vacant you know."

"Na that's alright," Murdock told her, "I spend enough time in one of these things anyway, I'll be fine down here."

However, Jean was able to see through that and she confronted him, "Billy came back, didn't he?"

Murdock pushed himself up on his hands so he could see her and he explained, "He won't bother you, I'm going to keep him over here with me tonight."

She seemed to be alright with that and after a little while she fell asleep, and Murdock lay on the floor watching her for a few minutes before he decided it was time for him to go to bed too. But first, he got up and picked up the chair by the bed and went over to the door, he put the chair down and opened the door and called out, "Hannibal, can you come here for a minute?"

Hannibal appeared in the doorway in another one of his disguises, this one as one of the hospital orderlies, "Yeah, Murdock?"

"Colonel, I got the feeling that she don't want any company tonight, so if the door's locked, don't be surprised," Murdock advised him.

Hannibal didn't question him about it though the pilot could tell he wondered momentarily about what was going to happen; and finally he agreed and left the room. Murdock closed the door behind him and stuck the chair's back under the doorknob; there, no pesky late night bed checks from the nosy nurses. Satisfied with that, Murdock went back to his spot on the floor and buried his head under the pillow and cocooned himself up in the sheet and fell asleep alongside Billy.

Murdock about hit the ceiling as he was jolted awake by the screaming. The room was dark and for a minute he thought he was back at the V.A., but he realized he wasn't, and he also knew that Face wasn't here so the yelling wasn't a result of another one of his nightmares. But then what was it? He sat up and looked around the room and even in the dark he got his answer when he saw the figure sitting up in the hospital bed. Jean. Murdock let out a trapped breath of relief as he realized it was just her having a nightmare. He got up to go over and wake her up but suddenly decided against it when he saw her body contorting around on the bed; she twisted and turned and thrashed and flopped over every which way as her screams got louder and louder. Amidst the screaming he could hear the rattle of the tubes from the machines around her, and he realized that she had jerked around so much and so hard that she had ripped out the morphine drip, and she didn't even realize it. Murdock watched this completely dumbstruck, it was as if The Exorcist was actually coming to life here and now. He half expected for Jean to rise up off the bed and float in the air and for her head to spin clear around.

The screams and wails that escaped from Jean's throat and out her mouth didn't sound like they could possibly belong to anything human; her body flipped around so she was facedown at the foot of the bed, and as she sucked in a ragged gasp of air, Murdock thought that the worst was over. But he realized it was only beginning when, as soon as she had the air in her to scream again, Jean threw her head forward and practically slammed her body against the bed and cried out, "Oh-h-h-h God!" Each word carried on for several syllables and she repeated them several times, then threw her head back and screamed, "Dear God help me!" Another scream tore out of her, so loud and so hard that Murdock would've actually thought it possible for her throat to slit from the inside due to the raw strain.

Through this ordeal, Murdock was nothing short of paralyzed; half of him was screaming that he had to get over to the bed and help Jean somehow, he had to wake her up, but he could not move, the other side of him told him what he already knew, she was awake, and she needed not to be helped by him or anyone else. No intervention by any person would benefit her, this was something that needed to run its course and leave her, so, nerve wracking and heartbreaking as it was to witness, he stayed where he was on the floor and watched what happened next.

Jean sucked in another breath and cried out as she collapsed against the bed, "Oh God forgive me! God help me!" Her body rose up on its knees and her head was thrown back as another scream escaped her, and then she fell facedown on the bed and her whole body shook and convulsed as she sobbed uncontrollably. Now it was safe to get up, Murdock got to his feet and went over to the bed and put his hand on her back to see if she would respond to the touch. Nothing, she was completely oblivious to his presence.

A sense of understanding came over Murdock as he realized just what had happened here. One part of it was redemption coming to a person who sought it, was finally able to seek it. Murdock looked up at the dark ceiling and he knew why this had happened; as long as anybody in the trafficking ring remained alive, Jean had had somebody to direct her neverending feed of murderous hatred and anger at, and the hate in her had overridden any feelings she may have had of remorse for her crimes. Now that the ring members were all dead, there was nowhere left for her to turn to take her bloodlust out on, so it had to be removed from her body like a tumor. He had told her once before that he believed in exorcisms, and that was exactly what had happened here; not with a priest, not with the assistance from anybody on God's earth, but the evil force inside of Jean had been driven out of her all the same.

Brutus had been a manmade persona but he was as real as if he was an actual person. He lived inside of Jean and feasted off of her need for revenge; simultaneously he was often the only thing keeping her going but also sucking the life out of her slowly and painfully, like a vampire. Her raw anger was the only thing that kept him alive; now that Grant and Carter were both dead, the hatred in Jean had become still like dead blood, and the emotional mosquito Brutus had drank it all until he had fatally overdosed himself on it. His very existence within Jean had become like a poison that had to be removed if she were to live and to know any kind of peace, and what had just happened was Brutus leaving Jean's body, never to return, to go off somewhere and quietly die alone. Hannibal had been right when he spoke to Jean's parents that first night, Brutus was dead and he would never harm anyone again. Murdock could almost see him as he was cast out of Jean's body, and disappeared from the room; the form of Brutus was like a half developed body snatcher, the details weren't filled in but the overall shape was plain to see, and he was as plain to see as Billy was as he walked through the door and vanished forever.

Good medicine was often of a bitter variety and the initial taste often made the patient question if it truly was best for them. And Murdock knew the same thing had happened here; what had happened to Jean had wracked her body like she had been given ipecac to remove something poisonous from her system. Only here this hadn't merely been a physical exertion, the bulk of the excruciating agony she had been put through was on emotional and spiritual levels as well, and those were always worst to go through, he'd had his own share of them over the years to know; and he'd known plenty of other men at the V.A. who had also gone through the same terrifying ordeals.

Jean's whole body was covered in sweat and any breath that went in or out of her was choked out by the gut wrenching sobs that were tearing through her. Murdock sat down on the edge of the bed beside her and rubbed his hand around in circles on her back and told her consolingly, though he wasn't sure if she could hear him, "It's alright, sweetheart…everything's going to be alright now." He firmly believed it, and knew that when Jean woke up the next morning, she would know it too. Now that the tick had been removed and stopped sucking the blood, the bite would heal and Jean would feel better soon, he was sure of that.

Brutus may have been gone but a little mean streak still remained in Jean. Early the next morning she got into a fight with the nurses that came in; first kicking at the one who insisted on giving her a sponge bath, insisting she could do it herself, and grumbling about when she would be able to take a shower again, and then she got into another fight with the nurse that tried to reinsert her morphine drip. Murdock had been with her all morning and Face had dropped in to visit, despite the staff discouraging it, and once the nurses left the room, Face asked Jean, "Do you really think that's such a good idea?"

"I don't see why not," she said, "I'm going to have to get along without the morphine sooner or later, right? If I stop now I stand less chance of getting addicted to it."

Murdock went over to the TV to find the cartoons and Face tried to make Jean comfortable tucking her in the bed since the sheets had been replaced with clean ones.

"Aren't you in any pain?" Face asked as he fluffed up the pillow behind her head.

"A little," Jean answered, "The doctor said it's safe for me to move around but not comfortable, but then again there are plenty of times when life itself is uncomfortable, like everything else you deal with it and get through it. And I'm sure the same thing will happen here as well."

"Quite a philosophy," Face commented.

"And," Jean stuck her finger in his face as she added, "I'm not going to waste my time with their stupid physical therapy either. Think about it, did they have physical therapy when people got shot in the old west? Hell no, they just sewed them up, gave them some whiskey, kept them in bed for a few days and then it was back to work."

"Hmmm," Murdock said as he went through the channels, "Have to admit she's got a point there, Facey."

"Did I say anything?" Face replied.

Murdock finally found the cartoons and he stepped back from the TV to watch it, and he turned to Face and told him, "You know, Face, I got to thinking about something. You know they got these great action cartoons on Saturday morning now, and I was thinking, imagine if they'd do a cartoon based on us."

"Us?" Face repeated.

"Yeah, think about it, four cartoon versions of us, and Billy, going on missions every week and saving the farmers and the kidnapped girls and stuff like that, with lots of explosions and machine guns." He pointed his fingers like a gun and supplied the sound effects to help give Face a visual aid.

"Or a live action cartoon," Jean suggested.

Murdock's eyes lit up, "Hey yeah! Now that's a great idea! An hour long show of us every Tuesday night, with real explosions and car chases and airplanes and…"

"Oh come on, Murdock," Face cut him off, "Who would watch a TV show about us?"

"Well…" Murdock thought about it, "On one hand, who wouldn't love an invisible dog?"

"He's got a point there," Jean said.

The door opened and Hannibal and B.A. came into the room and went over to the bed. Hannibal was briefly surprised when he saw Jean; the advancing years that had been put on her by the last six months seemed to have fallen off of her during the night and now she looked more like the picture her parents had shown them at the house.

"Well you're looking better, how're you feeling today, kid?" Hannibal asked her.

"I'm doing fine," Jean said and held her arm up to show Hannibal, "See? They already got me off the morphine."

"That's not the way we heard it," Hannibal told her.

"Well those nurses are liars," Jean replied.

"Hey mama, quit giving them a hard time or they' gonna keep you in here longer," B.A. warned her, and pointed with his thumb to Murdock, "Look at that crazy fool, he ain't gotten them to kick him out yet cuz he can't stop acting crazy."

Murdock stood tall and looked like an annoyed cat at that remark and he insisted, "They all love me at the V.A."

B.A. scoffed and grumbled something under his breath.

Murdock wasn't worried about Jean's ability to leave the hospital though. There had been a mutual understanding between the two of them when Jean woke up that morning. She had remembered the events of last night very well, including his being there, but both had agreed that it also was something that would only remain between the two people who had been there to witness it. But after he saw her flop around on the bed the night before like an acrobat, he had no doubt that she would be up and walking soon and able to leave the hospital of her own free will.

Hannibal told Jean that her parents would be coming in soon to see her and that the rest of them were going to get out of the way, but they would be back later to check on her again. Jean avoided eye contact with him or any of them and she said, "It's about time for you guys to disappear again, isn't it?"

"Not until we get you home," Hannibal told her, "Maybe I'm just getting paranoid in my old age," he added cynically, "but I don't trust putting you and your parents on a commercial flight back to New York. Instead we're going to trust Murdock to get you back."

"Oh boy," Murdock said excitedly, and folded his arms and said in a haughty tone, "Thank you for flying Murdock Airlines."

"Shut up, fool," B.A. warned him.

"You luck out, B.A," Jean said jokingly, "There ain't gonna be room in the chopper for all of us."

But B.A. wasn't laughing and instead he was back to his usual growling self as he glared at Hannibal and the others.

"Come on, B.A.," Hannibal said, "Let's get out of here."

"Alright," B.A. turned back to Jean and told her, "We'll see ya later, mama."

Jean waved as they left the room, and once Hannibal closed the door behind them, he turned to the others and said, "So what do you think? In a few more days she'll probably be able to actually check out of here."

"I don't get it," Face said, "I thought the doctors said she would have to stay longer."

"My guess is it's just sheer determination to get out of the hospital," Hannibal commented, "Some people will go to amazing lengths to get as far away from them as possible."

"Well, I always knew there was something about them that I didn't like," Face noted, "Or the people who work in them."

"Oh they're not always so bad," Murdock told Face, "We had this one doctor at the V.A. who I really liked, I mean we got along very well, he spoke my language."

"Uh-huh," Face replied suspiciously, "And what happened to him?"

"Oh, he got himself checked into one of the rooms there after a while," Murdock answered.

"That figures," B.A. said.

"You know that reminds me, Face," Murdock wrapped his arm around Face's back and rested his hand on his shoulder, definitely getting the other man's attention as he said to him, "I know you don't have a lot of free nights when you manage to scam a nice place to bring the ladies home to, but I was wondering whenever you get the time, why don't you stop over at my place and spend the night? We could have a lot of fun, there's a guy there who…"

"We'll talk about it later, Murdock," Face told him as he moved Murdock's hand off his shoulder. He turned and noticed that Hannibal seemed oblivious to the conversation they'd been having, his mind seemed to be somewhere else far away. "Hannibal, you alright?"

Now somebody was home to go with the lights being on. He looked at Face and answered, "Fine…just thinking about something."

"What?" Face asked.

Hannibal smirked as he dug a cigar out of his pocket and answered, "I've got another plan."

"Uh oh," Face couldn't help commenting.

"Yeah," Hannibal replied as he bit down on the cigar, "But I think you're going to like this one, Face."

"Somehow I doubt that, Hannibal," Face told him.

"What'd you have in mind, Colonel?" Murdock asked him.

Author's note: Only one more chapter to go.