The next morning, bright and early, Hannibal went to work getting into his makeup and costume and went about presenting himself as a very convincing wino. Then he headed down to the lesser popular parts of town and quickly fit in with the real street people, and very quickly set to work passing the word around about a place he knew of that was having an open house for people like themselves. He even gave them a time and place in which he was planning to head over himself, and would anybody else like to join them?

"The owner and I get along real well," he told them, "We're like that," and crossed two of his fingers, just not the right ones, "We knew each other back in 'Nam, a real swell guy, going all out to help anybody who was in need of a nice Christmas this year. I'm hardly in any position to turn down a nice meal and a place to clean up and sleep, and he promises this is going to be an event for the ages. Can't see any sense in turning him down, who wants to spend Christmas alone? And why not spend it in a place where there'll be plenty of food and everybody can be comfortable?"

His sales pitch went as smooth as silk and it worked so well that he went from one part of the city to another, like the pied piper, spreading his word and collecting more people willing to go, especially those who had children because it meant getting them in and out of the elements for a while and giving them a chance to eat and get warm too. By noon, Hannibal had been all over town, his feet were killing him, and he'd collected over 40 people. He led them all to a bus stop, where an unmarked bus pulled up, and revealed Face was at the wheel.

"Greetings, everybody," he said, "Going to a party?"

"You could say that, son," Hannibal said, still in his wino persona, "You could say that."

"Well you're in luck," Face told them, "Because I'm here as services to one Mr. Will B. Good, who instructed me to pick up the guests for his party right here. Everybody aboard."

It was a tight fit, and when the last of them were on and the doors were shut, Hannibal stood at the front beside the driver and told him as much.

"What did you want, Hannibal?' Face asked, "I couldn't very well get one of the double deckers they use to cruise around Hollywood and look at celebrities' houses. Not on such short notice. Besides, do you have any idea how much attention we would've drawn to ourselves then?"

"Just get us to the house," Hannibal told him, "Murdock went to get the guys from the V.A., we should all meet up around the same time."

"Are you sure about this?" Face asked, "Are we really going to be able to fit everybody?"

"If not," Hannibal said, "We'll just sit it out."

"Ho-ho-ho," Face dryly remarked.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Hannibal said as he began to shed his wino makeup piece by piece, latex extension by latex extension, and told the people on the bus, "If you will look to your right, you will see the house in which everybody will be residing from now throughout Christmas. As the bus comes to a complete stop, everybody watch your step and get off in single file, we have plenty of room, plenty of supplies, there'll be enough of everything for everyone."

The people did look out the windows, and they saw the house, and also a secondary bus in which several men in various stages of their lives were slowly getting out and Murdock was leading the way.

"We're here!" Hannibal called out as he was the first one off the bus.

"Perfect timing, Colonel," Murdock said as he came over to Hannibal, "I'd like you to meet everybody from the V.A.: that's Mike Sampson, Jerry Bateman, Robert Mitchell, they're among the psychiatric wing's top prize patients."

"Murdock," Hannibal said, "There'll be time for that later, right now let's just get everybody off the buses and into the house. People will feel more sociable once they've had a chance to freshen up and eat."

"Oh, sure," Murdock replied.

They heard a commotion from behind them and turned and saw one of the older men had stumbled stepping off the bus and just about fell flat on the ground, but he caught himself at the last minute. Hannibal and Murdock went up to see what was the matter.

"You alright, Mister?" Hannibal asked.

The man, who looked about 10 years older than Hannibal and his body far more well worn than the Colonel's, his skin filthy and his clothes shredding to rags, turned around slowly and said, "Reckon I lost my footing."

The man looked like he hadn't eaten in a while, Hannibal could guess just why he'd lost his balance. Hannibal subtly grabbed the man's arm to keep him balanced and said, "Come on inside, we'll get you set up real fine."

That sounded like a very good deal to the man. "I appreciate that very much, Mister…"

"Smith, Hannibal Smith," he grinned as he helped the older man up to the house, "A fine pleasure, Mister…"

"Deakins," the man said, "Lloyd Deakins. You a…military man, Mr. Smith?"

"Oh yeah," Hannibal answered.

The other man nodded slowly and said, "Served in Korea myself."

Hannibal turned to him and said, "Me too."

Deakins chuckled weakly and commented, "A lifetime ago."

"Oh yeah," the last 13 years alone had been a lifetime in itself for Hannibal and all of his men, "A few lifetimes ago."

The older man's laugh was slightly stronger now as he chuckled and replied, "Ain't it the truth?"

"Come on," Hannibal nodded towards the front door, "We'll get you inside and get you fixed up, get everybody fixed up."

"Right kindly of you, Mr. Smith," Deakins said.

"Believe me," Hannibal told him, "It's my pleasure, and much long overdue."

"Okay everybody," Face said, hoping he could actually be heard over the 50 or so people who had gathered in the house, "We have 25 bedrooms in this house that are free to use, if we need more sleeping space there are some more rooms and we also have some cots down in the basement that we can bring up, there should be plenty of room for everybody. There are also 5 bathrooms so anybody that wants to freshen up, we can show you where they are, we've also taken the liberty of bringing in new clothes, anybody that's in need of any, I'm sure we have something that'll suit you, after that we'll have lunch ready for everyone and then we'll see from there what we're doing, we all hope you'll enjoy your stay here."

Understandably, everybody wanted a crack at the showers first, it was decided the mothers would get their kids washed up first and they'd go on from there. While that was going on, Hannibal went to the kitchen to see how things were going there. Murdock had six large pans on the two stoves all full of potato soup; understandably after a while things had to get watered down but this stuff was rich with egg dumplings, celery, and milk thinning it all down instead of just plain water.

"How's it coming, Murdock?"

"Should be ready soon," Murdock answered as he stirred one of the pots, "Should have plenty for everybody but there definitely ain't gonna be any leftovers, probably plenty of seconds though." He scooped up a spoonful and told the Colonel, "Try this."

Hannibal knew better, he ran it under some cold water first because he knew how much heat the potatoes retained, then he salted it and tasted it.

"Oh yeah, there won't be a drop of that left," he told the Captain, "What about the rolls?"

"All in the oven, just keeping warm," Murdock said.

"How about the drinks for everyone?" Hannibal asked.

"Face is supposed to be working on them," Murdock said, "He said we're getting low on milk though."

"So put powdered milk in with it and stretch it out," Hannibal told him.

"Aye-aye, Colonel," Murdock saluted, "And if we run out of that, we'll switch to evaporated milk."

"We got some?" Hannibal asked.

Murdock nodded, "I took the liberty of buying a few cases…well the tinned cows were good enough for us in the army, weren't they?"

"And they were good enough for us as babies too, and even beyond that," Hannibal added, and recalled the old sponsor ads on television in the golden age, "With all the vitamins growing babies need and easier for their little bodies to digest, doubly safe."

"Keep it up, Colonel, and we're gonna get a letter from the Carnation company," Murdock said, and nodded, "I remember…also remember how everybody used evaporated milk to put in everything: mashed potatoes, meatloaf, tomato soup, pudding, grilled cheese sandwiches, remember the bread being much thicker then too, the cheese as well…boy everything gets skimpier as the years pass, doesn't it? But that sure don't stop the prices from going up-up-up!"

"So it does, Captain, so it does," Hannibal said, "And that's part of the problem for these people, the more time passes, the more the cost of living goes up while salaries and incomes stay at a virtual standstill, and all of a sudden it's not the government's concern how anybody's supposed to catch up at that rate."

Murdock grumbled a few words under his breath and said more clearly, "The government don't seem to be too fond of anybody, does it?"

"I suppose not," Hannibal replied.

"Perfectly ironic then that our paths should happen to cross with these people's," Murdock observed.

Within an hour, their houseguests looked very different, everybody was cleaned up and had traded in their old clothes for some of the newer ones that had been placed in the bedrooms.

"Well, that's a zebra of a different stripe," Murdock noted as he looked around at everybody, who no more now looked like they'd been living on the streets, than if they'd just come from the planet Twilar.

Everybody was gathering or trying to gather in the living room, though it was becoming a bit crowded, especially around the Christmas tree where all the children gathered, wondering when it was going to be decorated. Hannibal took it upon himself to get over to the tree and explain to the children, that with a little adult supervision for the high spots, it was going to be their job to get the tree trimmed and make it look nice and pretty for when Santa Claus came to see them on Christmas Eve night. At this, the children were overjoyed and all talking over each other, all trying to be heard at the same time. Hannibal got them to quiet down and explained there was plenty of time to get the tree done, but they were going to do it that night so they could see the lights better as they got them strung up.

"Oh that's fine, Hannibal, but how're we going to keep them contained all afternoon?" Face asked.

"Very simple, Face," Hannibal grinned, and poked the Lieutenant in the chest, "You are going to entertain them."

"Who, me?"

"I'm sure between the two of you, you and Murdock can think of something to keep the kids occupied."

"Why can't B.A. do it?" Face asked, "He's good with the kids."

"Because I need B.A. to help me with…" Hannibal turned towards the front hall and saw Mr. Deakins quietly slipping out the door. Hannibal said to Face, "I'll be right back," and took off after the older man.

Mr. Deakins was already halfway down the sidewalk when Hannibal jumped off the porch and caught up with him, "Something the matter, Deakins?"

"Mr. Smith," the older man turned towards him and said, "I had to see this for my own eyes to know it was true, and I'm relieved to find that it was…this is a fine thing you're doing for these people," he patted the Colonel encouragingly on the shoulder and said, "Great service for those people in there…not for a wretched old con like me."

"What do you mean?" Hannibal asked firmly.

Deakins looked to him and said, "Mr. Smith you happen to be in the presence of a liar."

"Most people I'm on speaking terms with generally are," Hannibal replied, "Even I tend to be one from time to time."

"You must understand, the people I frequent with, very few have had any military experience, and the ones that do are the younger generation, Vietnam, they don't know me, they don't know my kind. It's kind of nice being thought of as a hero among people, you know? When they don't know that you're a fraud. I never served in Korea…I was drafted like everybody else, and I went to join…" he shook his head, "But they wouldn't take me…outstanding health problems that they decided weren't worth the trouble of sending me halfway around the world on Uncle Sam's dime. Everybody has a story when they wind up on the street, I knew it wouldn't get me anymore sympathy but…former 'war hero' has a better ring to it than 60 year old has-been and never-was…as I'm sure you could understand."

Hannibal merely nodded slowly in response.

"I had to see for myself there were still good people left in this world willing to take a chance on those of us who through various reasons, have no place to truly call home anymore…but…I won't waste anymore of your time."

"Hold it!" Hannibal grabbed the older man by the arm and stopped him, and forced Deakins to look him in the eye as he told him, "Mister, I don't care what you were or what you weren't, I don't care if you were a door-to-door insurance salesman, what you are now is our guest for the holiday, and welcome to everything we've got."

The older man seemed to be overcome by this news and he fell against Hannibal, who just caught him before they both went down and hit the pavement.

"Mr. Smith, you and your friends are the first people in years, outside of my own close-knit companions where you found us, who've ever given me the time of day, let alone showed me any hospitality…"

The older man started wheezing and Hannibal could see his eyes glaze over with a sudden onset of tears. Hannibal put an arm around Deakins' back to support him and led him back to the house. They got up on the porch just as the door opened and B.A. stepped out to see what was going on.

"B.A.," Hannibal said, "Will you help me get Mr. Deakins upstairs and find a room for him? I think he needs to lay down and rest for a while."

"Sure, Hannibal, sure," B.A. held the door for them to get in and then got on the other side of Deakins to help him up the stairs and told him, "Come on, Jack."

"It's Lloyd," he replied.

B.A. nodded solemnly and said, "Come on, Lloyd."

Meanwhile in the living room, Murdock had gotten all the children settled down on the furniture and on the floor and he stood at the opposite end of the room, where a large fake curtain had hastily been put up to cover the doorway leading into the next room, and Murdock stood before it in his pajamas that he'd taken the liberty of putting on over his other clothes, and he told the children, "If everybody will settle down, we will now do for you a live performance of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'." He turned to the curtain and said, "Face, come on out."

"No," a voice replied from behind the curtain, and the children laughed.

"Come on, Faceguy, everybody's waiting."

"Murdock, this is humiliating."

"Face, either you come out yourself or I'm sending everybody in the audience back there to get you."

Hesitantly, the children saw the curtain part and Face stepped out dressed in a granny nightgown with matching bloomers and a rag tied over his hair, and they all broke out laughing. Face turned towards Murdock scowling and asked, "Murdock, why did I have to wear this?"

"Well somebody had to play mama's part, and besides, you lost the toss," Murdock explained.

"Well can we just get this over with?" Face asked.

"Okay, okay," Murdock said, and addressing the audience he recited, "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse," and he proceeded to squeak and chatter his teeth and run his hands over his face like he was smoothing out a set of whiskers.

"Oh brother," Face murmured to himself. He was certainly for giving everybody a better Christmas, but he suddenly got the idea that this was going to be a very long stay for all of them.