3.

"Murdock?" Hannibal called the pilot, who was sitting on the sand, staring vacantly at the sunrise. "Were you here all night long?" The colonel crouched down next to him. He knew it had been so because he had seen him from his window late the night before.

"Did you sleep well?" Murdock grinned and shrugged. "It was a warm night anyway."

Hannibal sighed. "You're out of control, Murdock." He went straight to the point. "You know depriving yourself from sleep is not the answer to your problem-"

"And what is it, then? You know? Because I've been looking for answers half my life and I'm still as lost as the first day we met." He shook his head.

"But you've been doing so well... I thought you had it under control. What happened?" Hannibal wondered almost to himself. "A bullet in your shoulder? The trip back to Nam?"

The captain shook his head. The words were right there but he could not find the way to make them sound coherent enough. He opened his mouth and suddenly he was short of breath. "I was prepared. I-I was ready… The war is over, the ghosts should've been long gone…" He exhaled. "I guess the National Army didn't get my memo: 'Litt'l HM is entering the pool please kiddies, don't make waves,'" he tried to smile but there was no energy in his voice. He had to make an effort to suck in air before going on. "When they shot me I… it took me by surprise… it was really scary… I thought I was gonna die down there…" The last statement came out in a whisper. "Like the general…"

Hannibal laid one hand on Murdock's shoulder. "For a moment I thought so too. But you pulled through, kid; as I knew you would." He could see that his words meant little or nothing to the pilot. In his present state, he did not seem very interested in listening to words of wisdom. Plan B was on its way. "I almost forgot," Hannibal lightened up his tone. "Our friends from Crystal Lake called."

"Are we going fishing now?" Murdock twisted his mouth in a gesture of apathy.

"No, the wildfires are getting closer to the zone and they ask for air support." Hannibal spoke matter-of-factly. "The National Reserves are too busy covering other crucial points and they're short in experienced pilots to assist rescue efforts near the Lake."

"I'm not licensed, they would never let me near a helicopter," Murdock frowned. "Colonel, you didn't say yes, did you?"

Hannibal grinned. "They're waiting for us, with a brand new helicopter just for you. We leave in half an hour."

The captain shook his head, not surprised at all by his colonel's initiative. All those assignments they had been taking lately were mostly to keep him from brooding about his mental state. Sometimes they worked; other times they just bored him to death.

"I'm so glad you could make it, we're up to our ears with this situation." Officer Hermann smiled as she shook Hannibal's hand. She glanced at Murdock and barely recognized him. He had changed that much since the last time they had been there. The pilot was paler and thinner but above all, he looked sad and distant. A different man from the hyperactive practical joker that drove his friends crazy.

They spread a map over a big table and she proceeded to indicate several points. "These are small communities that have been left isolated by the fire. There are six or seven of them around this area. Rescue teams are working with them but there aren't enough units to reach them all or getting them what they need. Although they're not at risk yet, their supplies are going fast. They need food, medicine and water."

"What kind of chopper do you have available?" Murdock asked without taking his eyes off the map. "Wildfire operations and such?" He looked up at the woman, who nodded. "Colonel, besides the supplies, we'll have to carry water to open paths if evacuations are necessary. I'd like to see the cargo and the helicopter now if it's possible." He followed one of the rangers outside.

"Don't worry. He knows what's he's doing." Hannibal gave the officer a smile.

"Yeah, I can see that," she said. "I'll get you another map to take with you."

"We don't need it. He must have figured out his route already," the colonel said proudly before leaving the brief room.

The sky was grey with smoke and clouds, but Murdock skillfully rode the helicopter through them. Hannibal enjoyed every second of the flight, knowing that the pilot was more than confident at what he did. There was no moment of hesitation throughout the entire ordeal, and the landing could not have been smoother.

"The fire is almost under control in this area, but we were running out of supplies. Thank God you came so quickly." The volunteer in charge of organizing the community welcomed them and several others helped to unload the cargo.

"There's another county fifty miles south from here that needs water. We have plenty and ready to be shipped, if you don't mind, that is."

Hannibal and Murdock exchanged glances. "I'll fill the tank and leave in five minutes." The pilot sighed.

Their mission of relief extended from one community after another and over twenty in total. They did not have time for breathers until the day was over and it was too dark to continue. The emergency was over within fifteen hours and the helicopters were finally called to their bases.

The office was quiet again when the colonel and the captain came in. "That was quite something," Murdock leaned back in his chair at the kitchen table. He took a sip of his first cup of coffee in the whole day. Jennifer put a slice of pizza in front of him but the pilot just stared at it.

"D'you still have a headache?" Hannibal asked from his seat across the table.

Murdock grinned and shook his head. "It's been gone since the first flight," before taking a bite. "You knew, right? As always."

"I only knew you needed a catharsis; something to let the steam out. I just facilitated the setting." Hannibal shrugged in mock humility.

"You did more than that," Murdock glared at his colonel. "They thanked me for volunteering ourselves for the mission, no one asked us to come. You called them, didn't you?"

Hannibal just grinned and put a cigar in his mouth. He wouldn't say it aloud, but he was really satisfied that his plan had come together after all.

4.

"So, what happened next?" Face asked Murdock as they sat in the living room pretending to watch the basketball game with BA. The conversation had gotten to an interesting turn when Murdock and Hannibal began to remember the day they met. Face had heard bits of it, but today, the captain was kind of talkative enough to give details and all. "You obeyed him just like that?"

"He was my CO at the moment," Murdock shrugged. "If he had asked me to jump off a cliff I…"

"You would've said 'after you, Colonel,'" Face completed the sentence. "As you always did. So?"

"So, we got there, some weird people came over, unloaded the boxes, and we returned to the base. The rest is history; I became the first and most valuable member of the A-Team. True story."

"Wait a minute, I was the first one to join the team and Face was the second," BA frowned with his eyes still on the TV screen. "You're gonna tell the story, you'd better get it straight, fool."

"I asked Murdock first. He just played hard to get for a while," Hannibal intervened on his way to the kitchen. He could see the group's harmony had returned stronger than ever within the last few days and that made him very happy.

"And after that you never asked him what was in those boxes?" Face shook his head. "Weren't you curious?"

"And I still am, Faceman, but I haven't had the time to ask him about that yet. Short memory, you know." Murdock leaned back on the sofa. "Like yesterday at the VA. I almost did but it was time for my therapy session and then I forgot again."

"Well, why don't you ask him now?" Face dragged Murdock to the kitchen where Hannibal was cooking. "May I? Hannibal, what was in the boxes?"

"That was a long time ago, Lieutenant. I might have forgotten." The colonel enjoyed teasing Face. "But if you want to know. Well, there was this little village near one of our targets. It was caught in cross fire and almost destroyed. I asked for some relief for them but they were not included in that program, so I decided to help them myself. Out of the record, of course." He turned to Murdock. "I asked for you because I liked your style and I knew you wouldn't ask questions."

"More charity stuff? Now it makes sense," Murdock shrugged and went back to the living room with BA.

"Was that it, then?" Face sat at the breakfast table. "Just for out-of-the-blue charity stuff?"

The colonel turned from the stove to the lieutenant and made sure Murdock was out of earshot now. "The cross fire was in part my idea. We had things under control but I called for aerial support anyway. Those chopper boys put their bombs everywhere. I don't think they knew about the village but it made me wonder if they would've cared. Later I learned that Murdock had been with the squad that afternoon. He never knew about what happened in the village and when I inquired the ASHC CO told me that the incident had been classified. Besides, Murdock was already under enough stress to add more weight on his shoulders. The squad had their hands full trying to get him back to his normal routine after his escape from the Hanoi."

"So, you recruited him to do your secret little job, why? As a sort of atonement or something?"

"I'd been after Murdock because he was different to the other pilots I'd interviewed. He was daring and edgy and above all, totally unpredictable. The kind of man that would do his job for the jazz, as BA would put it." Hannibal nodded to Face's smile. "I requested him for that mission because I needed to make sure he hadn't been corrupted by the unkindness of the war. I found him to be more special than I thought."

Face smirked. "Don't you think that he would've helped you more willingly if he had known the rest of the story?"

"If I had known him back then as much as I do now I wouldn't have hesitated a bit, but in those days, you never knew where your real enemy was; besides, I was in enough trouble myself by doing a mission out of the record." Hannibal shrugged. "Anyway, he did the job without questions and stuck to his promise of silence when I asked him to."

"Yeah, that sounds like Murdock." Face said thoughtfully as he stood up and went back to the living room.

Hannibal stared at him, then, he turned to the stove and lit his cigar before he went on cooking. For the first time since their last trip to Vietnam, the team had finally gotten a moment of peace. The colonel could say at last that the case was closed.

The End

Well, thank you for reading my story. I hope you've enjoyed it. See you soon...