Co-pilot
Disclaimer: I don't own the A-Team... The plot is from the episode "The Beast from the Belly of a Boeing", so I don't own that too. What I own are Murdock's thoughts :)
Spoilers: "The Beast from a Belly of a Boeing"
Thank you for all the nice reviews, they really made my day and made me feel much more confident about my writing. You are the best!
I am not going to delete the first chapter, but I am going to rewrite it as soon as I have the time to do so, until then I decided to try another chapter :)
Enjoy!
A loud bang, sometimes that was all it took to end dreams, destroy futures, destroy lives.
It was all Murdock heard before his world went dark. His eyes hurt and he couldn't see!
"My eyes, my eyes", he shouted in panic.
He was blind! Murdock's mind went into overdrive, what if it was permanent?
He couldn't be blind, for gods sake, he was a pilot! If he was blind there would be no more missions. Hannibal may be crazy or daring enough to take a mad man on their missions, but a blind man? Even Hannibal wouldn't do that, he would never risk the lives of his men in such a way.
No more missions, no more flying, just the dull life at the hospital, day in day out.
Murdock knew he could never bare that, he needed his team, they needed him. It had always been that way.
Hell, they needed him right now, they needed him to fly them back to the airport. How was he supposed to do that now?
Murdock backed off in the corner, feeling the solid wall of the plane, using it as reassurance. Desperately he clung to it as his link to reality, with nothing to see through his eyes, worst case scenarios played out in front of his inner eye.
He saw Hannibal, BA, Face, all dead because he crashed. He almost heard their screams as they went down, saw BA's accusing glare, Hannibal's disappointed look and Face, his best buddy, looking at him with disbelieve, than panic, accusing him for his death.
He remembered all the crashes he had, his mind playing them out in vivid pictures in front of his inner eye...
Murdock heard the scumbag that tried to shoot Face go down with a groan. A moment later he felt caring hands touch his chest, he knew it was Face even before he spoke, he just felt it.
"Funny, what getting blind can do to you", he thought.
"Murdock, buddy, you okay?", the Faceman asked, concern evident in his strained voice.
As always his buddies voice managed to snap him out of whatever dark place in his mind he would go.
"My eyes", he complained. He told him what happened, glad to give a part of his responsibility away, glad to have someone else thinking about how the hell they should get out of there.
He could hear the heavy footsteps of BA nearing his corner. Half he expected to be shouted at and called a "crazy fool" for letting himself get shot, but that didn't happen. BA only tried to reassure the pilot, before stomping past him, the irony of the situation completely lost on either guy. Sympathy and concern were the only emotions in BA's voice, he didn't blame Murdock.
The fighting went on, while the Captain sat there on the floor, unable to tell what was going on, hearing the gunfire, but unable to help his boys. Face stayed with him all the time, his comforting presence keeping the blind man in reality.
Suddenly the plane dropped on one side, a bullet had hit the window.
"Hannibal's plan is really going from bad to worse", the pilot thought, thinking about how he had tried to get BA out of his state of shock, when he realized that he was on a plane, how Hannibal's and the Lieutenants cover had been blown and now he was blinded, at least temporarily and they were all fighting not to get pulled out of the plane.
Desperately he clang to one of the passenger seats, hoping, that his friends had found a tight hold too.
As sudden as it began the plane stabilized again. Murdock let out a small sigh of relief, but the tension didn't leave his body yet, not before he knew if his team was al right.
Murdock loved flying, he really did and everybody knew it, but this was different, now he almost understood BA's aero phobia.
It had been his idea to let Hannibal take the controls and he knew it was the only way to get back down. That was why he had suggested it in the first place, because there was no way, that he could get this bird down himself, not seeing anything, but he still could talk his Colonel in.
Still, to do that he had to pull himself together, his Colonel was on the jazz, BA was frightened to death and Face had already resigned into his fate. It kinda was up to him now.
He tried to keep his voice steady as he gave his orders, no need to scare the big guy any more than he already was, and even if it sounded a bit higher than normal it didn't waver to much.
It was bad enough that the Colonel had to land the aircraft, but without autopilot their chances were slim and the pilot knew it. Everything inside the Captain screamed, for him to just grab the controls and bring the plane down, but if the chances that the Colonel got them down safe and sound were 1 to 500 his own chances right now were much worse.
Step by step he told Hannibal what to do, picturing every single step out in his mind.
Step by step Hannibal got a hold of the plane and step by step they neared the ground.
The constant fear of failing his team were getting at Murdock and the danger of being send into the ocean despite Amy's warning wasn't helping at all. It wasn't like he didn't understand the men, hell, if he had been alone, he would probably have asked for them to do it, but with the guys on board, the men who meant more to him than anybody else...
Talking the Colonel in wasn't easy, he didn't have the gut feeling and the understanding of aircraft Murdock had. Slowly the Captain was beginning to sweat, his hands would have been shaking, hadn't he grasped his trousers.
Murdock normally was acting purely on instinct in the air, but the Colonel wasn't as experienced, he needed clear commands, so that was what the pilot tried to give him.
Whenever his instructions weren't plain enough he would know in an instant and correct himself.
All went well until the landing. At first there were no land to be seen and they were slow but surely running out of fuel.
On the inside Murdock panicked, but on the outside he kept up the act.
He couldn't just sit there anymore, so he began to act as the co-pilot. The Colonel seemed to sense his distress, because he slowly began to take control of the things he could take control on, or maybe he just got more confident as the time went on, the Captain couldn't tell.
Things were getting critical, when the Colonel finally spotted the runway, Murdock could have laughed with relief, but not yet, he had to stay focused, they had to bring the bird down first.
They had only one try and Murdock knew it, the pressure on his shoulders suddenly seemed to much for him to bare. He just wished to finally give in and pass out. He was feeling horrible, his eyes hurt incredible, the world seemed to be spinning around him, even if he couldn't see it and he seemed to run low on air. But the pilot couldn't pass out yet, he had to land the plane first, so he kept fighting.
They were nearing the ground, Murdock could feel it, it was now or never, crash or die. The pressure seemed to be getting more by the second.
"I can do it!", he kept telling himself, after all he had been the best pilot in Nam.
Half way through the landing BA finally lost it, Murdock couldn't really tell what was going on, but it seemed the burly Seargent got a hold of his "pilot". Murdock held his breath, this wasn't good at all, but finally Face managed to get the big guy off Hannibal.
There was no way back now, they were out of fuel, they were going to get down NOW. Murdock could no longer hold the concern out of his voice as he was frantically giving his orders, he was sweating uncontrollably now.
It was a real relief, when they finally hit ground and Hannibal managed to keep the bird down. Still they were much to fast, someone had to hit the brakes!
It wasn't as the tower told them just the same thing that Murdock realised, that he had to do that...
He hit down on them as hard as he could, the plane got slower but not enough, he held the breaks firmly in place, they slowed down, but kept rolling on.
They would hit something, the Captain knew it.
Almost the same second the realisation hit Murdock, he heard the Colonel shout: "Okay, get your heads down!" and instantly replied.
He heard glass shattering and screams as they finally came to an halt. Was everybody alright? Did they stop in time to prevent greater damage?
They had, everything was okay.
He breathed a sigh of relief. Now that they were back on the ground again he couldn't help but joke "Maybe they'll let me fly one of these birds, now that I'm not crazy any more."
He knew it could have been a lot worse, yes BA was out of it again, but Face was already making jokes and even without seeing it he could tell, that the Colonel had a wide, maniac smile on his face, as he said "I love it, when a plan comes together!"
I hope you liked it, please review.
I have the next chapter already planned out. It will be about an episode of season two and will at least partly be written in Hannibal's POV.
In said episode there is one scene that really broke my heart, there is one Murdock quote that just makes him seem as small and vulnerable as a little child. And the look in his brown eyes just makes me want to hug him.
If you think you know what episode I am referring to, just review or PM me and whoever gets it right first, gets to say about which episode or scene I should write the next chapter about.