Jean had been shot twice in the chest, the caliber was large but there were no exit wounds through her back, meaning the bullets were still in her. She had started trying to talk but she kept her gaze up, trying not to see what was happening to her; Hannibal could tell she was forcing herself to remain calm to keep the blood from pumping any faster than it already was.
The four men had had plenty of experience in situations like this over the years, the problem was with the memories of what had to be done, also came the memories of how many times a soldier in their unit had died before they could reach a field hospital. Earlier in the day, Face had cleaned out all the bandages and gauze from the first aid kit and carried them in his pockets incase something happened and they couldn't reach the van, they covered the holes with all the gauze pads they had and knew it wouldn't last for long. The only noise that could possibly be heard over the pandemonium was the whirring roar of the helicopter's rotary blades as they continued to spin around.
"I can get us to the hospital in ten minutes!" Murdock told the others, and ran to get the doors open.
"That's great because that's about all the time we've got!" Hannibal replied. Once it was all over he would have plenty of chances to kick himself for actually saying it but at the time he had no forethought of censoring himself for anybody's benefit.
There was nothing to use for a stretcher so they carefully lifted her up and carried her over to the chopper and got in and they took to the sky before Face could even get the door closed.
Jean almost became hysterical when they tried lying her down so they got her settled sitting up, leaning against B.A., who kept her still and both he and Hannibal tried to keep her calm and awake, while Face got on the radio to try and contact the hospital so they would be ready as soon as the chopper landed.
Hannibal was knelt down in front of Jean and he could see the blood had already soaked through the gauze, so he took off his jacket and pressed it against her chest to try and control the bleeding. His own breathing was ragged as he told her, "Alright, Miss Rhodes, just try and stay calm, keep your legs down…just keep breathing, and we'll be at the hospital soon."
Jean closed her eyes and laughed weakly through a closed mouth. She looked at Hannibal and said, "Mr. Smith, you see before you a coward. When I was on top and it was everybody else getting killed, I didn't have a fear in the world…and now I'm dying, and I'm terrified, because I know what awaits me."
Hannibal gently put his hand on her shoulder and gripped it and told her, "You're going to be alright, Murdock's going to get us to the hospital very soon."
"No, I don't think so," she shook her head, "I think my time has finally come. A fitting end for such a pathetic life I suppose." Her own breathing was becoming ragged and she said, "I'm hot…" she started to move her feet, "Take my boots off, get them off."
"I'll get them," Hannibal said, trying to keep her calm and make sure she didn't move much. He grabbed the boots and they practically came right off in his hands, he pulled them off her feet and saw something fell out of them. He felt his bottom jaw drop, lying strewn out on the floor of the chopper was a pile of money. Hannibal grabbed the top note and saw it was a $500 bill, and he looked at Jean.
She shook her head, "I didn't get rid of all that money like I told you, Smith," she told him, "You can't get rid of all the money those people make in the dope business, it's impossible, they make too much to ever spend it all."
And she had kept it in her boots where nobody would look; the boots that were a size too large and that had added three inches to her height, now the men knew why they had. Jean nodded down towards the money and told Hannibal, "There's about $25,000 there, consider that your services paid in full, and tell my mother I love her." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against B.A.'s chest.
Hannibal reached over and gently stroked her cheek, watching her to make sure she was still breathing. She opened her eyes again and tried to look behind her as she said weakly, "B.A….B.A."
"I'm right here, mama," he told her.
"B.A., I want you to do me a favor," Jean told him.
"Anything you say, mama, what is it?" he asked.
"I want you to stay with me until I die," she answered, "When I die, I will make that journey alone, that will be bad enough, but I don't want to be alone until that time comes. I can promise you won't have to do it for long, I'm not going to make it."
Hannibal saw the look on B.A.'s face and knew the bigger man felt the same way he did; they both hoped to God, against all hope, that she was going to make it, and they had to try and convince her she was, because that was all too often the ultimate deciding factor, if the victim themself believed they would survive. They had been through war long enough to see plenty of amazing things, both good and bad, and they had seen time and again just how long someone could last with nothing to go on other than sheer force of will. Many soldiers that should've been laid down in their graves had managed to stay fighting on their feet and live to see another day. But they also knew that there wasn't anything they could say that would make her believe she would survive if she didn't already.
"Don't worry, mama," B.A. told her, "I'll be right there with you the whole way. I'll be there when you wake up."
"I appreciate your sentiment but I know it's not necessary," Jean replied.
Hannibal could see the tears in her eyes and could tell she felt the moment was very close at hand. He couldn't tell if he was crying as well or not, but he felt like somebody had stuck their hand into his chest and ripped his heart out to stomp it to death. How the hell had this gone on so long, she lasted so long, and now it might all be over, this close to getting her home?
Jean looked to the front and saw Hannibal but didn't really look at him as she quoted, "Fate chained me to evil, for that I must pay the penalty." Then she closed her eyes.
Hannibal reached over and put his hands on her arms to get her attention and said, "No kid, don't close your eyes." She wasn't listening so he took a firmer approach and yelled at her, "Dammit kid I don't care if you didn't complete training, I said open your eyes and that is an order, Corporal!"
The spontaneity of that command took everybody by surprise, including Jean who did open her eyes, if only part way, and looked at Hannibal and said, "Corporal?" and laughed weakly and said, "You got the wrong guy, Smith, I never belonged in the army, I've proven that."
"Maybe you don't," Hannibal told her, "But you would've done well there, you've served your country well."
"And they will never know it," she replied.
"So you're just like us," he pointed out, and she didn't know how to respond to that one.
"We're here!" Murdock told them.
"Thank God," Hannibal could hardly hear the words but he knew that he'd actually given voice to them.
As when they'd loaded her in, they carefully lifted her up and carried her out of the chopper and onto a waiting gurney where paramedics were ready to wheel her into the hospital. B.A. followed with them and stayed to the side of the gurney and directly in Jean's line of vision so she could see him as she was taken inside. Hannibal, Face and Murdock followed behind them and watched as Jean was wheeled off to the OR, with B.A. at her side the entire time. Once they disappeared beyond a set of swinging doors, the three men who remained felt all energy drain out of them and were ready to drop.
Hannibal slowly came back around and he turned to speak to Murdock but saw the pilot heading back for the doors. "Murdock, where're you going?"
Murdock stopped only to look back at the colonel and the lieutenant and told them, "I'm going to take the chopper and pick up her parents and bring them here."
Hannibal nodded, "That's a good idea, but be careful!"
Murdock was out the door and gone. Hannibal and Face both felt their bodies shaking and needed to sit down. Hannibal went over to the front desk and got a form to fill out for Jean and they sat down on a bench in the waiting room, and then they went through the most excruciating ordeal in the history of torture, waiting.
One hour dragged by and slowly became two hours, three, four, nobody came out to talk to them, they never heard anything; they stayed where they were as 50 different people came in and out and took their turns waiting before the doctors were ready for them. Outside Hannibal could see it was starting to get dark and it would be night soon. He turned and saw Face had drawn his knees up to his chest, had his face buried in his hands and was nervously rocking back and forth on his end of the bench. Hannibal could hear him mumbling something to himself that sounded like some kind of chant, but Hannibal realized that Face was praying.
"You think the call gets answered after the 500th ring?" Hannibal asked. Face stiffened and slowly looked over at the colonel, who simply said, "There's no sense in both of us losing sleep, why don't you try and rest for a while and I'll wake you up when somebody comes?"
Face was too exhausted to argue, he just slightly nodded his head and tried to get comfortable on his side of the bench, but Hannibal helped him and pulled him over so he was laying against the colonel, a slightly more natural position to fall asleep in than sitting up crooked.
"What if she dies, Hannibal?" Face asked, "Or what if she's already dead and they're just trying to figure out how to tell us? How long's she been in there already?"
"She was shot in the chest, Face, and the bullets didn't come out, it's going to take them a while to get them out and get her stitched up," Hannibal tried to sound reassuring, "You forget it takes a little longer in an actual hospital instead of just using a pair of tweezers and a rag to bite on."
"It's already been so long," Face replied tiredly.
"You know how hospitals do, they can't be rushed for anything, they have to go over every little detail so they don't get sued for malpractice," Hannibal said, "Another thing to consider is they have to operate with B.A. in the room standing three feet away from them, that's definitely going to make them slow down and make sure every little thing's perfect."
Face nodded but Hannibal could see his eyes were closed, and knew he would be asleep before much longer. He was thankful when the kid finally conked out, now he could do all the worrying himself. He preferred it that way.
With one hand Hannibal stroked over the hair on Face's head as the lieutenant slept against him, and with his other hand he consulted his watch which told him it was now nearly eight hours since Jean had been taken into surgery, and still there hadn't been a single word from anybody about how she was doing, if she was going to make it through the procedure. Even Hannibal had to wonder what the hell could be taking them so long in the operating room? He about hit the ceiling when he heard somebody moaning, then realized that it was Face who was starting to wake up.
"How're you feeling, kid?" he asked.
It took Face a minute to remember where they were and he looked at Hannibal and asked, "They haven't brought her out yet?"
Hannibal shrugged.
"Colonel!"
Both men about flew off the bench at Murdock's voice, they saw him coming through the entrance with the Rhodes' behind him, and both of them looked like they'd just been through hell.
"I think I just broke the flying speed record," Murdock said breathlessly as he doubled over and sat down on the bench before he fell down.
"Where is she?" Mrs. Rhodes asked, "Where's our daughter?"
"Is she alright?" Mr. Rhodes asked.
Hannibal hated doing this, he knew it wasn't going to be easy.
"Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes, your daughter is in surgery at the moment," Hannibal told them.
"Surgery, for what?" Mr. Rhodes asked.
"Well…"
Anything Hannibal was about to say got drowned out by Mrs. Rhodes screaming, the men turned around to see what was wrong and they saw B.A. coming into the room dressed in scrubs and a mask, which he was in the process of pulling off.
"It's okay, she made it," he told them, and upon seeing the parents he assured them, "Your daughter's going to be alright."
"Can we see her?" Mrs. Rhodes asked, the desperation in her voice painfully obvious.
"They're taking her up to a private room in the intensive care unit right now," B.A. explained, "But we'll be able to go up there soon and you can see her then."
"Oh thank God," Mrs. Rhodes fell against her husband hysterically.
"What's happened to her, somebody tell me that," Mr. Rhodes demanded.
"We will, but we can't here," Hannibal said, "Come on, we'll find out where they're putting her."
He stepped aside from the others for a moment and asked B.A., "What took so long in there?"
B.A. told Hannibal, "She woke up halfway through the operation, they had to put her under again, and she didn't go back under right away. She also lost so much blood they had to give her two transfusions, the first one practically ran back out." He conveniently left out the part where the surgery actually ended almost an hour ago, but he asked every question imaginable pertaining to the procedure done and regarding how Jean looked after the operation, making sure that nothing right offhand had gone wrong or had been overlooked, and also asked about what they had to look out for now.
One of the doctors had stressed the fact that it was a busy hospital and they needed to clear the operating room for the next patient. B.A. grabbed that doctor by his scrub and his neck and told him, "Look here, Jack, this hospital got 20 operating rooms, and until she leaves this one, she's still your patient and your first priority. You ain't rushing her out of here too soon to clear way for the next one, you gonna make sure ain't nothing wrong with her that you missed before you take her out of here. Cuz if anything happens to her while she' here, I'm gonna rip the M.D. off your name and feed 'em to you, ya got me?"
He also made it clear that nobody on the staff at the hospital was to alert the police about this patient and told them that it was a matter being investigated by the army so the whole matter had to have a tight lid put on it immediately. After he got through explaining, he really didn't think anybody would be stupid enough to try bringing the cops into it.
The A-Team and the Rhodes' were shown to the room where Jean was placed for the night and until further notice. They all felt bad for her parents, especially the mother, who looked like she had aged 20 more years since they last saw her; she had kept herself pulled together on the way up but the closer they came to the hospital room, they could tell she wasn't going to make it. She started to shake with every step that she took and her husband had to hold onto her to support her or else she might've collapsed on the floor.
When she saw her daughter, she screamed. The commandos had had some idea of what to expect, but it hit the Rhodes' like a ton of bricks. They hadn't seen their daughter for six months, they hadn't seen how she had changed. Maybe the shock wouldn't have been so great if they'd been able to see her before, and see first how she had become leaner, almost gaunt compared to that first picture the team had seen of her, and how she'd gained a little color from those days at the hotel pool out in the sun, and how her hair was shorter and darker; if they seen how overall her appearance had changed to a harder looking version of herself before she was shot, it could've made it easier to see her now. But some shock still remained, even for the team, because now she was pale as a sheet, dressed in a hospital gown, and surrounded by machines that she was hooked up to through wires and tubes.
"What happened to her?" Mrs. Rhodes asked before she broke down crying.
Hannibal had wracked his brain trying to figure out how exactly he was going to explain it, and he decided they deserved the truth, just not necessarily the whole truth.
"What happened is your daughter is a hero," he said, and explained, "While in training, she had found out about a trafficking ring that was occurring within the army and she went AWOL to try and find out who was involved."
"And that Brutus was involved, wasn't he?" Mr. Rhodes asked.
"Yes," Hannibal said, "He was a member of the army who had gone rogue and killed off several of the new recruits because they got in the way of his business. And your daughter tracked him for months, gathering evidence against him that would ensure he never saw the light of day again. When we found her, she was just about to blow the whistle on him, but he found out about us and her, and he kidnapped her to make her talk."
Mrs. Rhodes was just about hysterical, "Did he…did he…?"
"No," Hannibal shook his head, "He didn't hurt her, he tried subjecting her to methods of psychological torture instead, that's become a very big thing in recent years." Both of the parents looked sickened by that news, but Hannibal assured them, "It didn't work, she was very resilient and came out of the matter unharmed. She managed to get away and came back to us, and Brutus followed her and there was a fight. She saw him aiming at me, and she pushed me out of the way and took the hit herself."
"Where is he now?" Mr. Rhodes asked, the murder clear in his eyes, the venom in his voice loud and clear.
"Dead," Hannibal answered, "The army found out what was going on and tried to intercept the damage; one of the MPs shot Brutus and killed him, he won't harm anyone ever again, I can promise you that."
Mrs. Rhodes got away from her husband and leaned against the railing on the hospital bed for support as she looked down at her daughter and cried. She reached her hand out to touch her daughter and asked, "Why is she so pale?"
"She lost a lot of blood, mama," B.A. told her, "But don't worry, they gave her a transfusion and pumped her full of new, it's just going to take a while to fill in her color again."
"She looks so different," Mrs. Rhodes said.
Hannibal looked at the young woman in the bed and he saw what the mother saw; he remembered the picture of Jean from a year ago, young, carefree, and now he could see that her parents weren't the only ones aged by this horrible experience. In six months Jean too had aged rapidly and she wore it now on her face, even when she woke up that haunted look would be there, and would most likely never go away. They had all been put through hell, and just because the nightmare was over didn't mean the memories would be for any of them. That's the way it always was with war, even when it was over, you came back and you wore what you had been through
"I want you to know," he told her parents, "When we found her, one of the first things she said was how terrible she felt that she was never able to contact you and let you know where she was. But she knew that if Brutus found out he was being followed, and found out who she was, it could come back to you and she wanted you two kept out of danger. You two obviously did very well raising her, she's a very brave, selfless person, she would have done well in the army because she firmly believes in everything it stands for: loyalty, duty, honor and integrity, that's what she was fighting for out there."
Mr. Rhodes looked like he didn't know whether to be proud or sick, and Mrs. Rhodes just about collapsed over the bed railing as she absentmindedly stroked through Jean's hair and cried, "Oh God, my baby."
Murdock went over to the bed and pulled Mrs. Rhodes away and had her lean on him instead, figuring putting a little distance between the mother and daughter might be a good idea.
"Does she have to be hooked up to all those things?" she asked.
"It's all routine," Face told Mrs. Rhodes and pointed, "They've got her on oxygen now, when she wakes up and they know she can breathe on her own, they'll take her off of that, and this is a morphine drip, that's always a must."
"Which reminds me," Hannibal told the couple, "We better warn you, she may not wake up for a while, and even when she does, she might not know who you are. You see after they bring her out of surgery, first it's a matter of waiting for the anesthesia to wear off, and when that does, then it's the morphine for the pain. When she does wake up the first time she's going to be so hopped up on morphine that she won't even know where she is or what's going on. And she may not for the first few times that she wakes up, eventually she's going to come down off of it and then you'll be able to talk to her. But it's going to take a while."
"In the meantime there're going to be doctors and nurses coming in and out of here all night, trying to wake her up," Murdock told Mrs. Rhodes.
"Well," Mrs. Rhodes tried to pull herself together, "We're going to be here with her."
Hannibal shook his head, "That might not be a good idea. There's a good chance that the army's going to come in here trying to see her and ask her questions, and it'll really be better if you're not around for them to ask questions. Trust me, I was in the army, I know how these guys work, it won't matter that you don't know anything, they'll still try and get some answers out of you. I think it would be better if you two got a room for the night at a hotel nearby, and one of us will be here with your daughter all night, and as soon as anything happens, we'll come get you."
He could tell that this idea didn't set well with them but he knew the odds were good the MPs would find out what had happened and come snooping around. There was always a chance they would find out about somebody else getting shot at the house and being airlifted from the sight, and check every hospital in the area. Now, Hannibal wasn't worried that they would recognize Jean; the first time Lynch saw her, she was in the dark with Murdock's cap pulled down low, the second time she encountered him, he never saw her because he was blinded by a piece of cake, and the third time she had stayed behind him where he could never see her. That wasn't what bothered him, but he didn't like the idea of anybody coming into this room in the night and trying anything; he had a good imagination and could see anybody coming in here with malicious intentions ranging from the MPs to maybe some other member of the ring that had managed to survive or escape. Paranoia was ringing high tonight but until they knew she was out of the woods, he didn't believe in taking any chances, and he didn't want to take any risks with her parents here either.
Mrs. Rhodes was inconsolable and B.A. relieved Murdock since he had a bigger shoulder that could endure more abuse.
"How long did you know she was alive?" Mr. Rhodes asked them.
"For quite a while, the problem was being able to get close enough to her that she knew what was going on and so she wouldn't be in any danger from our appearance," Hannibal answered, "You might say she was in a very delicate position for a long time."
"How long is she going to have to be here?" Mrs. Rhodes asked.
"A while," B.A. told her, "But don't worry, she'll be able to get out of here soon enough. Then you'll be able to take her back home with you."
"Murdock," Hannibal said, "It's getting late, why don't you go with the Rhodes' and help them find a place nearby to stay for the night?"
"Okay, Colonel," Murdock agreed, and went to pull Jean's mother off of B.A. But she wouldn't leave yet, instead she went back over to the bed and ran her hand through Jean's hair and told her daughter, "We'll see you in the morning, baby, okay?" Her husband came and pulled her away and they went with Murdock out the door.
"Oh Mr. Rhodes, before you leave," Hannibal said.
The man stopped in the doorway and looked to the colonel, and he said, "Thank you for finding our daughter and bringing her back to us. You don't know how relieved we are that this whole nightmare is finally over."
"Well that's what we were hired for," Hannibal reached into his pocket and took out the money they'd been paid in the beginning and handed it back to the father and said, "But this one's on us."
Mr. Rhodes looked at the money in his hand and looked at Hannibal and said, "I don't get it."
"Well you might say your daughter and I had a little understanding," Hannibal explained.
Once Murdock had the parents out of the room, Hannibal closed the door behind them and he said, "Alright, B.A., how bad was the damage?"
"Well it wasn't good, Hannibal," B.A. told him, "The ammo he was using when he shot her was .50 caliber, both of them just missed the heart, she's lucky to be alive."
"That explains why it took so long," Hannibal said.
"Yeah, that and I made sure the doctors don't go reporting this mess to the police," B.A. said, and reached into a pocket on his vest and took out a plastic bag with the two bullets in it, "See?"
Face tried to be casual about it, "Well, some people collect fuzzy dice."
"That's nice, B.A., how'd you manage that one?" Hannibal asked.
"I told them the army was investigating the shooting, and though they already know who did it and with what, they still need these for evidence."
"Smart move."
"And now comes the fun part," Face dryly commented, "The recovery."
"And we have to decide who's going to be staying with her tonight," Hannibal added.
"I will," B.A. said, "I told her I'd be here when she wakes up."
"B.A. you know when she does she's not going to know who any of us is," Face reminded him, "She'll be too doped up on the morphine to even know who she is."
"I know," B.A. told him, "But I promised her, and I don't break my word, only suckers' heads."
"Point taken," Face said.
"We'll be close by if you need us," Hannibal said as he and Face headed out the door.
And he doubted very much that he would. Once they had gone, he made sure the door was closed and went back over to the bed. Of course Jean hadn't moved a muscle, it would probably be tomorrow before she could do even that. And he could just imagine the fun when she was healed enough she could start getting up and moving around again, how her body was going to have to readjust to moving this way and that after having two holes blown through it; that was a feeling he had only too much experience with over the years.
"Hey mama," he said, watching to see if there was any indication she could hear him. None, she was still high up in morphine heaven. "Guess after this you ain't gonna have any use for them pills after all," he commented.
B.A. looked back to the door and made sure nobody was coming in, and he looked back at the unconscious woman on the bed; and he reached into the side pocket on his vest and pulled out the teddy bear her mother had given him back at the house. Taking great care to be gentle, he lifted her arm slowly and slipped the teddy bear into the crook of her arm and laid it back down and replaced the blankets over her. He'd been carrying that bear around in his pocket since this whole mess started, and he was glad to finally be rid of it and get it back to its rightful owner. He pulled up a chair and sat down by the bed and watched Jean while she slept, knowing it was a long night ahead and she'd probably never wake up during it, but he was going to be right here watching her incase she would.
Jean woke up around 2 o' clock in the morning. B.A. had been starting to nod off himself when he opened his eyes again and saw Jean's eyes were also open, and looking up at something, possibly the ceiling. Of course he knew Hannibal and Face were right, she was so doped up that if she was aware of anything she'd be on cloud 9 and have no idea what was going on around her.
"Hey mama," he said as he rested his hand on the top of her head, "How' you feeling?"
She surprised him by answering, "It's dark in here."
He did a double take, but maybe it made sense, they couldn't keep her out long enough during the surgery and maybe the morphine wasn't strong enough for her either. She was strangely coherent, she just couldn't focus too well on what was being said to her.
"It's late," he told her, "Everybody's asleep."
"I'm not," she answered.
He laughed and said, "I know you ain't, but everyone else is."
"What everyone else?" She was trying to sit up to look for the others. B.A. pressed down on her shoulder and made her lie still, she might've been numbed for the moment but when she woke up the next day she would pay for trying to move so soon after the kind of surgery she had.
"Hannibal and Faceman and the crazy fool, they're outside trying to sleep," B.A. told her.
Jean's eyes moved and looked around the room and she said, "Billy's here."
"Yeah I know." He could let it slide for once, this time he knew it was the morphine talking.
He saw she was starting to fall asleep again and he let her. He was sure that by tomorrow she'd be up and talking to everybody.
Jean stayed asleep for the rest of the night and all of next morning. She was still asleep when her parents came back to the hospital to see her and she remained asleep clear into the afternoon. Her poor mother, who managed to keep herself pulled together today, watched her every minute and when Jean wouldn't wake up she became nervous and said, "I don't understand what's wrong, why doesn't she wake up?"
"Well it's possible that since she already woke up once," Face said, "That she's been able to figure out what's happened and she kind of collapsed from the relief of knowing it's over. It does happen."
"Another possibility is since her life had become so chaotic and she seemed to run it on an exact routine to make sure she was always two steps ahead of Brutus," Hannibal added, "That this is the first time since she joined the army that she's actually been able to rest. The kind of life she was living, it does take a toll on a person."
Mrs. Rhodes leaned over the bed and stroked Jean's hair and tried talking to her, "Baby, can you hear me?"
They heard a low groan escape from her lips as she moved, she tried turning onto her side and realized she couldn't and returned to lying straight as she was.
"Well, it's a start anyway," Face said.
He and Murdock went over to the bed to take a look as well, and both about jumped back when they saw Jean's eyes start to open. They opened like a doll's eyes, only halfway at first, then closing again, and then fully opening, and she saw the ceiling first, then saw the two men standing beside her, "Murdock! Face!" and by some force she managed to raise the top half of her body up and wrap her arms around the two men before the pain kicked in.
"Whoa!" Face told her, in the same second that Jean started moaning in pain, and he and Murdock were careful to lay her back down as he told her, "You're not quite healed yet."
"You guys are here," she said in amazement, and she looked past them to the big man standing behind them and said, "B.A., you stayed here?"
"I said I would," he told her.
What that meant suddenly hit her, "Then I'm alive?"
"I'll say," Face told her.
Jean's eyes traveled past B.A. and saw Hannibal, "You're here too?"
"And if you're up for another surprise," Hannibal said and pointed, "We've got a couple other people here to see you."
Jean turned and saw the two people coming over to her and her eyes lit up, "MOM! Dad!"
Her parents loosely wrapped their arms around her and hugged her and were both talking to her at once, their words jumbled but the sentiment clear.
"How're you feeling, baby?" her mother asked her.
"Sore," she answered, and then coughed, "I'm thirsty, where's the water?"
"Sorry kid," Hannibal told her, "No water right after surgery, you're only allowed ice for the time being."
"Ice?" she repeated, her tongue thick against her sandpaper mouth, "Fine…Murdock."
"Yeah?"
"Go get a big bag of ice, put it in a bowl and leave it on the radiator for half an hour, then bring it here," she told him, "When can I get out of here?"
"It'll be a while," Hannibal told her.
"I thought hospitals only kept gunshot patients for a few days," Jean said.
"Ordinarily they might, but they pulled two bullets this big," he held his thumb and index finger two inches apart to show her, "Out of you and that's going to take a little longer than usual to heal up."
"Hmmm," Jean laid her head back against the pillows and they thought she might go back to sleep, but she opened her eyes again and said, "Murdock, why did you bring Billy in here? You know the hospital doesn't allow pets."
Mrs. Rhodes looked at her daughter and turned to the men, bright eyed and clearly worried. Face took it upon himself to take her aside and explain to her, "It's a bit of a private joke between us on the team, she's alright."
"Oh," she let out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding in.
Hannibal got the feeling that they were starting to overstay their welcome, so he turned to B.A. and said to him, "While we're here, why don't you pay your mother a visit and see how she's doing?"
"Yeah," B.A. agreed, "That'd be a good idea, I ain't seen my mama in a while."
"What, are we coming too?" Face asked as Hannibal grabbed him by the arm and started to the door.
"Jean," Hannibal called over his shoulder, "We'll be back later to see how you're doing, we'll leave you and your parents alone for the time being to, talk amongst yourselves."
"That's fine with me," Jean said, and by the way she slurred her words, he guessed that the morphine drip was working its narcotic magic again.
They were just about out the door when they heard Jean call them, and they went back in and Hannibal asked her, "What is it?"
"B.A.," Jean tried to move to get a better look at him, but instead he went over to the bed so he was next to her.
"What is it, mama?" he asked her.
"B.A.," she said tiredly, "I just want you to know that I'm very proud of you."
He looked at her like she was the crazy one, "What're you talking about?"
"I mean how you flew in the helicopter," Jean told him, "And you weren't afraid at all."
B.A. turned to the others and asked Hannibal, "What's she talking about?"
Hannibal shrugged and it was obvious he was as clueless as B.A. was.
"Don't you remember, B.A.?" Jean asked, "When I got shot Murdock said he could fly us to the hospital, and we all got in the chopper and you spent the whole time making sure I didn't fall asleep?"
B.A. looked from her, to Hannibal and to Face and Murdock, and he asked them, "We flew?"
Hannibal, Face and Murdock all looked at each other in equal puzzlement. It hadn't occurred to any of them at the time either, but yes, it was obviously true; B.A. Baracus, who would rather die than fly in anything, especially with Murdock as the pilot, had completely forgotten about the fact that they were flying, that Murdock had been flying them in a helicopter.
"We flew!" he repeated as it started to hit him what had happened, "We was in a chopper, and I flew?" He pointed to Murdock and said, "This crazy fool was flying the chopper, and I was in it? I flew in a chopper? I…" his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out and hit the floor, causing the whole room to shake. Jean sat back against the pillows on the bed and laughed.