"25 bedrooms, a double bed in each room, queen and king sized in some, a couch in some rooms in addition to the bed," Face said in amaze as they wrapped up the grand tour, "How many people could you possibly fit in this house to sleep?"
"However many it is," Murdock told him, "Somehow I doubt we'll get the full amount."
"Alright, Hannibal," Face said, "So what do we do?"
"First thing's first, General Bullen already had the house cleaned before he left, but we're going to go over it again and make sure that everything is perfect. Once we've done that, then we've got to start getting the house ready. We've got to bring the food over, get the tree over here, get everything here, then we're going to go get the people."
"About that," Face spoke up, "Exactly who are we bringing and how are we bringing them, and incidentally how do we know they even want to come in the first place?"
"That," Hannibal told him, "Will all be in due time, Lieutenant, first we've got to get the house ready for everyone to come to. Speaking of which, I've got my own errand to run before everything's ready."
"Oh, what's that?" Face asked.
"About a mile back when we came up here," Hannibal answered as he turned around to face the others, "We passed a little charity thrift store. They're non-profit but all the same I intend to make somebody involved a very rich person." And with that, he turned back for the door and was gone.
"Typical Hannibal," Face complained, "Always talking in riddles and then you can't figure out what he means."
"I knew there was a reason we got along so well," Murdock said.
"Oh brother," B.A. grumbled as he just shook his head.
"Alright, Hannibal's gone, so we gotta get to work," Murdock said, "And Hannibal said to make sure the place is cleaned up. Face, you wanna tackle the upstairs or the downstairs?"
"That's not really fair, is it, Murdock?" he asked cynically, "There are two upstairs'."
"Okay then, maybe each of us can take a floor," Murdock replied, "Or, one of us can take the bedrooms, one of us will work on the bathrooms, and then…"
"I am not cleaning the bathrooms," Face told him.
"Would you rather do the 25 bedrooms?" Murdock asked.
"You know what," Face said, "Let's all start on the first floor and work our way up from there."
"Works for me," Murdock nodded, and left the room.
Face turned to B.A. and said, "Can you believe it? Throwing a Christmas party in the home of a General who'd like nothing more than to mount our heads over his mantel."
"That's Hannibal for you," was all the Sergeant had to say.
"You know," Face leaned over towards the larger man and said confidentially, "I think we could even get Hannibal a room in at the V.A. with this stunt as proof he's crazy."
B.A. just nodded in response. "Only problem is then he and that crazy fool Murdock would be together all the time, and we don't need that."
"Why not?" Face asked.
B.A. gave him an 'are you nuts?' kind of look and pointed out, "First of all, Murdock don't need Hannibal encouraging his crazy jibber jabber all the time. Second of all, Hannibal don't need anymore exposure to that crazy fool than he's already getting, it's not good for him, Murdock rubs off on Hannibal enough as it is, too much."
"Oh come on, B.A., don't you think it's kind of fun watching them brainstorm together?"
"Trash bags, Face?"
"Hey," Face replied, "It worked, didn't it?"
"That's what scares me," B.A. said, "How did Murdock know it would?"
Face only responded with, "How did he talk Hannibal into it?"
"I'm really glad I was able to get you to come with me, Amy," Hannibal said to the young reporter as they walked down the sidewalk towards the thrift store, "I know what I'm looking for for guys, but I need a woman's eye to pick out suitable clothes for the ladies."
"I still don't get what all this is about, Hannibal," Amy told him, "What's going on exactly?"
"What's going on is that we are throwing a Christmas party for the people who need one the most," Hannibal explained, gesturing with his hands as he spoke as though that could help him better explain himself, "These are not the rich upper society snobs Face is always schmoozing and rubbing elbows with, this is not the Hollywood people I work with, this is not people like our clients even though they might enjoy it too."
"So who is it for then?" Amy asked.
"Those in need," Hannibal answered simply, "The poor and destitute, the hungry, the cold, those with kids who aren't going to get anything this year, those with no place to call home; many of our brethren who we served with in the war have since found themselves out on the streets once they returned home. Uncle Sam doesn't particularly care much about you in the services, and he certainly doesn't give a damn about you when you come back home and need a new career and try to transition back to that title of civilian, impossible as it is."
"This is really hitting a nerve for you, isn't it?" Amy asked him.
"Not nearly as much as the fact that precious little is being done to help anyone who needs it because those who can are too busy helping themselves to everything they see," Hannibal said, "Murdock's been telling us part of the east wing of the V.A.'s been starting to fall apart, there's apparently not enough funding to get the repairs made, least of all not all of them."
"Are you kidding?" Amy asked as Hannibal opened the door for her.
"No, it gets better," Hannibal said, "The V.A. hospital here that Murdock's in, is among the best in the state, we've done some checking, others are in far worse conditions: black mold, rats, cockroaches, the roofs falling in, nowhere near enough doctors, patients turned away and sent home to die without medical care…in the years since 'Nam, people have turned over a leaf towards supporting the veterans when they come home, so what's happening to all this support? Where is it? So, I've decided we're going to help liberate some of Murdock's friends from the hospital for a few days as well."
"More mental patients?" Amy asked.
"Not necessarily," Hannibal replied, "There are a lot of walking wounded in that hospital without families or homes of their own, it'd be nice if they could get out to a Christmas party where they're wanted for a change."
"So how do we do this?" Amy asked as she pulled a shopping cart out of a jumble of several other carts all stuck together.
"You get the women's clothes, I'll get the men's," Hannibal said, "We're looking for anything good, nothing tacky, nothing second class."
"Hannibal," Amy felt a need to point out, "This is a thrift store, everything is second best."
"In name only," Hannibal remarked, "Alright, nothing third class. Get anything that you would ever wear, and grab all sizes, we don't know what all we're going to need."
Still not quite sure she got it, Amy went one way, and Hannibal went the other. After a few minutes she already had her cart half full and she took a blazer off the rack and called over to the older man, "It's really obscene, isn't it?"
"What is?" Hannibal asked.
"That people will actually pay $50 for a pair of jeans or a jacket…"
"And what's your wardrobe budget, princess?" Hannibal asked.
Amy went over to Hannibal and smacked him in the back of the head, and she continued with her original comment, "Then for whatever reason, they give this overpriced stuff that's still perfectly new, to a place like this and you can get it for two bucks, what kind of sense does that make?"
"Not much but let's be grateful there are people with more money than brains who could afford this stuff in the first place so we can afford it now," Hannibal said as he looked over a heavy jacket in a size Large, "If more people actually had brains, they'd come here first before going to a mall and paying $300 for this kind of stuff."
"But why would anybody just give this stuff away?" Amy asked, "It all looks brand new."
"Probably because it didn't match their Mercedes," Hannibal answered, "Or it didn't fit, or it was mismarked, or because they didn't want the hassle of trying to return it to the store and didn't want to hold onto something they weren't wearing. Their loss is going to be a lot of somebody else's gain."
"So…" Amy said as she went back to sorting through the clothes on the racks, "How many people are you planning to have at the house?"
"Who bothers with numbers?" Hannibal asked, "However many want to come, however many we can fit in the house, however many we can feed, and I'm making sure we'll have enough for everyone."
"Next question," Amy said, "How are you going to get a hold of all these people and invite them to the house?"
"Ever see M?" Hannibal asked.
"What?"
"Not what, M. That movie with Peter Lorre."
"Long time ago, what's that got to do with anything?" Amy asked.
"How did they get the word out about Lorre's character so everybody on the streets knew to watch for him? Through the Beggars Union."
"There is no such thing today," Amy said.
"No, but sidewalks talk, especially ones where panhandlers and homeless people frequent," Hannibal said, "And what's one more wino in the bunch going to be?"
Amy smirked and shook her head, "Hannibal Smith you are something else."
"Thank you," he smiled.
"I didn't say what," Amy told him.