With a little help from Hannibal, Murdock was able to explain the current situation to Doctor Richter, who decided not to blow the whistle on Murdock provided he had all the patients back at the V.A. the day after Christmas. Just because they were making progress in their recovery didn't mean they were fully rehabilitated for the outside world again, Murdock fully understood. He also asked again that the doctor stay for the party, but Richter declined and left before dinner.

After dinner, Hannibal and Murdock supervised the kids decorating the tree in the living room, and there was plenty to do. They went through about 800 lights, then about 500 feet of garland, then once that was done they strung up about 200 ornaments and 10 candy canes, the rest Hannibal noted had mysteriously 'disappeared' somewhere. Finally after every single ornament found a place to hang, and the whole thing was coated in five boxes of icicle tinsel, Hannibal took the large colorful star, got on a ladder, put it on top of the tree, and plugged it in with the lights so that it shone brightly and helped light up the whole room, which left everyone in awe.

"You know," Hannibal said to the children as he climbed down from the ladder, "I don't think Santa Claus could find a better looking tree to put presents under when he comes tomorrow night."

One of the little girls tugged on his jacket and he hunched down to speak with her.

"Yes?"

The girl looked at him with skeptical eyes and asked, "Is Santa Claus really real?"

"He will definitely be here tomorrow night, sweetie, I can guarantee you that," Hannibal said, and stood up at his full height again, "I know that a lot of you have been cheated in recent Christmases, and it's not fair, but even a man who can travel the whole world in one night needs help making sure nobody's missed, and since more children come into the world all the time, he has a hard time keeping up. But don't you worry, we put in a special request for an appearance by him and I happen to know he's not going to disappoint any of you tomorrow night. I even requested that he come when you're all still awake so you'll be able to see him for yourselves."

This little bulletin got several of the kids excited. Face couldn't help feeling his heart melt as he looked at them all, knowing that they needed so much, and their families needed so much help, and just hoping that they'd be able to provide it all for them by the time everybody cleared out of the house after the holiday.

Once the tree was done and everybody was settled down, Face and Hannibal went to work setting up a film projector and screen and Face put on the old TV "Christmas Carol" for everybody. For the A-Team it was standing room only as not only were all the chairs and couches in the living room taken up, but most of the floor as well. So Face stood back and watched the unusual little spectacle, it was different…but, okay. Murdock couldn't resist joining in during the middle as the Ghost of Christmas Present danced with Scrooge around the room and sang, "A ve-er-er-eree! A Me-er-er-eree! A very, Merry, Christmas! A ve-er-er-eree! A Me-er-er-eree! A very, Merry, Christmas."

Boy Face was glad now that they all had different jobs to do all night, he'd gladly take being on the phone all night with people coast to coast than have to bunk with the pilot and try sleeping while hearing him bellow that tune out all night.

When the movie was over, the parents in the house decided to get their kids ready for bed, and while Face tried explaining the sleeping arrangements as best as they had figured out, it was decided that all the kids could sleep together in the living room. They could fit a couple on the couch, and the rest on the floor on cots and in sleeping bags. Everybody seemed happy with this arrangement because until they actually did fall asleep they could look at the Christmas tree, which Face had to admit did look pretty amazing, and he guessed it would be a comforting sight to fall asleep by. Once they were all settled down for the night, the adults retreated upstairs to figure out their own sleeping arrangements.

"Okay, B.A. and Murdock are wrapping the toys for the kids," Hannibal told Face later that night after everyone else had gone to bed and it was just the four of them up, "And we're going to start making phone calls."

"Hannibal," Face said, "Why did you trust those two to wrap the gifts?"

"Because B.A. likes kids and Murdock likes anything colorful, they'll get along perfectly for the job."

"Ironically." Face cleared his throat and said, "How many people do you think we're going to be able to get a hold of?"

"I don't know," Hannibal shook his head, "But there are three lines on the general's phone, so I'll bring a second phone in here and we can cover twice as much ground that way."

"Oh joy," Face dryly remarked.

They started calling people at midnight. All different time zones taken into consideration, Face still couldn't believe they were calling up old clients in the middle of the night to inquire if they had any open positions their new friends could find work at. But they did, all night long the two men paced around the room holding the phone in one hand and the receiver at their ear.

"Hello Mr. Rodgers, this is Hannibal Smith, remember we're the people who almost got killed saving your daughter from Jamestown? Yeah, well, I have a favor to ask you..."

"Is this Tracy Richter? It is? Templeton Peck here, how've you been? How's New York? Well actually this isn't exactly a social call…"

"Joe Penhall? Hannibal Smith…yes I know what time it is and I appreciate you have to be up in a few hours, how're the watermelons?"

"Jackie, it's Templeton Peck, how's the only girl I was ever married to? Uh huh, yeah, I know it was just business, and you have no idea how thankful I am for that. Listen, since you've taken over your father's business…"

"Mr. Beller, Hannibal Smith, do you have any positions at your airline that don't require flying experience? Thank you but no it's not for me…no, I never took any official flying lessons either."

"Cal Freeman? Templeton Peck, how's Lone Star Taxi? Well since we do own 10% of the business…are you in need of any additional drivers right now? How about an answering service?"

"Lin! Hannibal Smith here! Congratulations on getting your own restaurant open, how's business? Well that's fantastic, how's the help? Uh huh…would you be in need of any more help?"

"Doug Mayer? Templeton Peck….by any chance would Shana be around? Oh well anyway, I've got a question for you…"

"Mr. Stern, Hannibal Smith, remember us? How's the construction company? Yeah, well, I wanted to ask you if you might have any open positions available…just anything, wouldn't have to be on the scene putting up the buildings."

"Sun Yeng? Templeton Peck, how's Sam? That's great, we're fine…listen, I've got a question…."

"Hey Sandy, it's Hannibal, how's Florida? How's the hotel business? Uh huh…I have an unusual question for you…"

"…I see, well thanks for checking, and Merry Christmas."

"…I will look into it, thanks, and Merry Christmas."

"…Well, if anything does open up, let us know, thanks…oh by the way, Merry Christmas."

"…I appreciate it, thanks a lot, Merry Christmas!"

"…Uh huh, well, thanks anyway, Merry Christmas."

"…Thanks for your time, Merry Christmas."

"…That's terrific, Merry Christmas!"

Four o' clock in the morning, Face was exhausted. He never would've guessed making a bunch of phone calls could be so exhausting.

"So now what're we going to do?" he asked, "We couldn't find enough open positions for everybody and even if we could, are any of them actually going to be qualified?"

"Face," Hannibal responded from where he sat at a table piecing a shredded document back together strip by strip, "Contrary to popular belief, most folks who wind up in these people's conditions don't wind up on the street because they're lazy and never did anything in their lives, very many of them were highly qualified for many years in jobs that simply aren't there anymore. And others just couldn't find any other open positions that were willing to take them. If we can't find something to match people up with, I'm sure we can talk our clients into giving them a little hands on training so they'll make the cut."

"And what about the rest?" Face asked, "Who do we decide gets which jobs?"

"Well once the holiday's over, we're going to get to know everybody more personally and find out what it is they used to do and then we'll figure out who's most qualified for which jobs," Hannibal told him.

"And the others?" Face reiterated.

Hannibal got up from the table and headed over towards the door, "We'll figure something out for everybody, some might take longer than others but that's just the way it is sometimes." He opened the door and caught the outline of somebody out in the hall and he called out, "Who's out there?"

"Nobody you need to worry about, Mr. Smith."

"Hey Deakins," Hannibal greeted the older man who came into view, "What's up?"

"Just got up for a drink of water," he answered, "I got a tongue like leather." He looked at the two Green Berets questioningly and inquired, "What're you two doing up?"

"No rest for the wicked," Hannibal chose for an answer.

Deakins laughed and told him, "I hear that…is there something I can help you with?"

"No thanks," Hannibal said, "We were just getting ready for bed ourselves."

Face let out a sound similar to one a starving man might make when presented with a prime rib dinner and said, "Bed, that sounds very nice." He fell down on the one in the room and closed his eyes and started humming a tune under his breath, then shot up when he realized he was humming 'A very, Merry, Christmas' from the film they saw that night, and he groaned. Now he was going to have that song stuck in his head all night and all the next day.

The next morning, Hannibal put in an appearance at breakfast and even helped cook some of it, but once that was over he went right back to piecing together the shredded papers. He was getting closer to finding out what it was all about, and he knew it, and his patience, great though they were, were starting to wear thin because he was very anxious to figure out what this whole thing was about.

Finally around noon, he got one whole sheet put together out of the whole mess, and he looked its contents over, and he felt like he'd read it wrong. So he read it again, and it said the same thing. This couldn't be right, and yet…he looked at it again, and the answer didn't change any. Hannibal felt numb, he felt like he was in a parallel universe, this couldn't be true, and yet he knew it was. It took him a few minutes to pull himself back together, and when he finally did, he headed to the door, went downstairs and got in the middle of the crowd that had gathered around for lunch, and he whistled and held his hands high in the air to get everybody's attention and he shouted at them, "EVERYBODY, I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!"

Everybody became eerily quiet and looked at him, and he turned one way and the other to address everybody as he said, "The rules of the house have just changed. Feel free to help yourself to anything in the back freezer and the pantry, it's all on the house."

"Hannibal," Face said as he and B.A. and Murdock came over towards the Colonel, "Is everything alright?"

For a short and simple answer, Hannibal commented as he fell back into a chair at the table, "Yes, Lieutenant, everything's fine. Why?"

"Oh no reason," Face replied, "But what was all of that earlier about nobody touch the food, anything we eat we have to replace, remember all that?"

"I changed my mind, Face," Hannibal told him, "I changed my mind is all."

"How come?" B.A. asked.

Hannibal had an unnerving grin on his face as he simply said, "It's Christmas Eve, it's the perfect time for people to change their minds."

"I think Hannibal's finally lost it," Face whispered to the two other men.

B.A. looked towards their leader and replied to the Lieutenant, "I don't think the man ever had it."

"What do you think it's all about?" Face asked.

"Who cares?!" Murdock asked several decibels louder and turned to join the others in the kitchen, "Let's eat!"

"Yes," Hannibal said as he stood up, seeming to be almost in a trance, "Let's do that…let's eat, and we'll stick General Bullen for the bill. Yes sir, I think this is going to be a very Merry Christmas after all."

After lunch it was all downhill until the Christmas party, and all the kids knew it, and they were all ready to bounce off the walls. So, B.A. and Murdock took it upon themselves to find ways to keep the kids entertained until after dinner, which was still several hours away, and while they did that, Face and Hannibal made small talk with the adults to get a feel for what all these people to do and be before they wound up on the streets. True to Hannibal's word, everybody had a story, and some were very similar and others were very different.

And as far as work went, everybody had their own qualifications, and their own reasons why they were no longer in those employments: from factory workers who were laid off and never brought back, or let go when the factories shut down; to mothers who couldn't go back to work waiting tables and had to go into hiding from their ex-husbands and wound up on the streets as a direct result of always having to run and hide; to the mothers who suddenly found themselves with 50% of their income with 100% of the bills to pay after their husbands walked out on them, or died, and they couldn't keep up the rent by themselves anymore; to soldiers who came back from 'Nam fully qualified as soldiers, qualified in warfare and operating Uncle Sam's war machines of destruction, but not for civilian work, who never received the proper psychological help they needed dealing with their demons from the war; to even a former airline pilot who made nearly $90,000 a year, and couldn't go back to his job after a near-crash incident several years ago that left him too traumatized to even set foot back on a plane. Not lazy at all, just traumatized, laid off, forced in a corner, thrown away and forgotten.

After getting everybody's stories, Hannibal addressed their houseguests and told them all, "I haven't quite figured out all the details out yet, but after the holiday, we're going to help all of you guys get back on your feet."

There was a slow sound that went around the room, of surprise, disbelief, shock, awe, nobody could believe what they were hearing.

"I don't know what you can possibly do for us," Doris Healy, one of the younger mothers said, "But you don't know how much I appreciate it."

"Well as it turns out, we have a few friends we can call favors in with," Hannibal answered, "A lot of them own their own little businesses, a lot of them are in need of some new help, the pay isn't much, yet, but it'll be steady work and consistent pay, and they're great people to work for, and you can take it from me, we know."

"How can you do that?" Susan Sutter, one of the other mothers asked.

"Well you see folks," Hannibal addressed the crowd, "You didn't just get invited here by an average bunch of crazy people…you see we're the A-Team."

Now the murmurs of shock and surprise were gradually getting louder as everybody looked around at one another and questioned if they'd heard right.

"Yes, that's correct," Hannibal told them, "The myth lives after all…"

"Funny, you don't look like a bunch of dangerous criminals," Lily Thompson, the mother with one of the youngest children, still on her hip, noted.

Hannibal chuckled and replied, "Well you know what they say about looks aren't everything, even so, you're not wrong."

"Geez, Hannibal," Face murmured to the older man, "What'd you do that for?"

"Face, they were going to find out anyway," Hannibal told him, equally low so nobody else heard them, "Besides, they've been here long enough if any of them were going to turn us in, they would've done it before now."

"Oh yeah?" Face asked, "Have you seen the latest bounty on our heads?"

"That reminds me," Hannibal turned towards the younger man and told him, "That General's got a safe somewhere in this house, I'd stake my reputation on it."

"Can't you stake something of higher value?" Face asked sarcastically.

"I want you to help me find that safe and we're going to crack it," Hannibal told him.

The only thing Face could even think to ask in response was, "WHY?"

If Face thought things were insane in the house, they weren't any better outside. Outside an MP car was slowly driving up the street when the driver was ordered to stop at the curb outside the General's house.

"What's the matter, Colonel?" Captain Crane asked as he hit the brake.

Decker pointed to the house, from which a lot of noise was emanating, and told his captain, "That's General Bullen's house, and I happen to know that the General is out of the country till the beginning of the next year."

Crane looked at the house and guessed, "Maybe he's letting some friends use it while he's gone?"

Decker caught sight of something and pointed towards the driveway where Crane also saw a black and red van and the Colonel responded, "Oh yeah? You still think so?"

Crane looked towards Decker and asked, "What would the A-Team be doing here?"

"That's what we're going to find out," Decker told him.

Crane reached for the radio but Decker told him, "No MPs, we're going to look into this matter ourselves, there're only three of them, we can take them."

Famous last words. The two men got out of the car and went up to the house where they could hear Christmas music leaking out, and just as Decker opened the door, he was just about run down by half a dozen children running past and all of them blowing toy horns and banging toy drums. The colonel and the captain looked to each other, then charged into the house and found themselves in the midst of about 50 people.

"What the hell is going on here?" Decker wanted to know as he pushed past some of them.

"Hannibal, look!" Face pointed.

"Oh great, an uninvited guest," Hannibal noted.

"That's fine, the more the merrier," Murdock said, and moved over towards the other colonel.

"Murdock get back here!" Hannibal told him.

But Murdock had his mind made up. He marched over towards Decker, singing in a very deep voice, "A ve-he-her-her-ee! A me-her-her-her-ee! A ver-y, Merr-y, Christmas!" And out of nowhere, he lunged at Decker and grabbed the man by the arms and used enough force and momentum and oomph to literally lift the colonel off his feet and swing him around, as he repeated, ", "A ve-he-her-her-ee! A me-her-her-her-ee! A ver-y, Merr-y, Christmas!" and repeating his fine trick, swung Decker around again and threw him right into the corner of the living room by the fireplace.

"Cut! Cut! Cut! That was all wrong!" Murdock switched into director mode as he marched over towards Decker and said, "We need to do that take again, and we need to get the special effects department on this fireplace, I want blue blazes that reach clear up to the chimney, and then we throw you in it!"

Well the cat was out of the bag now, so Hannibal, Face and B.A. joined Murdock in the living room to greet their new guest.

"Merry Christmas, Decker, what brings you here?" Hannibal asked smugly.

Decker got back to his feet and regained his bearings, and when he could only see one of Hannibal, he took two steps towards the other colonel and said, "I've got you now, Smith."

"Do you?" Hannibal asked, "I think we've got you."

Shaking off his lightheadedness from hitting the wall, Decker demanded to know, "What in the hell is going on here?"

"A Christmas party," Face answered, "What's the matter, Decker, didn't you ever have them when you were a kid?"

"He was never a kid," Hannibal said, and pointing a finger at Decker he told his men, "This is a leftover from the meat rations."

It was at this time that Crane managed to push past all the other people and come on the scene as well.

"Oh look, we got another one," Hannibal noted, and he strongly advised the captain, "I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you, for the simple matter of we outnumber you 2-1, and even if you would happen to overpower us, you would still be outnumbered, except this time it would be about 25-1, you want to press your luck?"

Instead of answering, Crane demanded to know, "What're you doing here? This is General Bullen's house."

"No kidding," Face replied, feigning disappointment, "I thought this was Madonna's summer rental."

"Smith," Decker faced Hannibal and told him, "You've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do."

Hannibal only replied, "Not nearly as much as your precious general does."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Decker asked.

"It means," Hannibal answered, "That General Bullen has been dipping his fingers into the funds that are supposed to keep the greater California V.A. hospitals up and running in some semblance of 'working order', and that's why they're now falling apart on the patients living there," he pulled out of his jacket the paper that he'd managed to piece and then tape back together for the colonel to see, and while Decker's eyeballs skimmed over it, Hannibal pointed out, "That's how he's paid for this house, that's how an Army General, with no wife, no kids and no friends, could even dream of affording a 25 bedroom, 5 bath house with a pantry loaded with $5,000 worth of caviar. Didn't you ever wonder how he was able to afford all this?"

"And I'll just bet you that's also how he funded his little trip to Hawaii for the holidays too," Face said.

"Colonel?" Crane looked to Decker, to see if he believed this.

"Where'd you get this?" Decker asked.

"Out of his document shredder in his office," Hannibal said, "That after we found the remains of another one in the fireplace that he'd burnt up."

Decker hadn't sustained a headache when he was thrown against the wall, but he had one now, and now he needed to sit down.