Murdock had been discharged from the base hospital for a week. He said he was ready to fly again, but he had been grounded for a further three weeks. There hadn't been any missions for the team so they were able to spend time with Murdock, as they knew that a grounded pilot was a troublemaker. B.A. headed back to their quarters from the motor pool, Face was on a date with a nurse he met on Murdock's ward. B.A. looked at Murdock's bunk, but the pilot wasn't on his bunk. B.A. sighed; he knew where the pilot was.
B.A. arrived at the helipad and sure enough he saw Murdock sat in one of the helicopters. He walked over to the pilot who didn't hear him coming.
"What ya doing here fool?"
Murdock jumped and winced; B.A. went to the windscreen of the chopper and faced Murdock.
"You alright?"
"Yep" Murdock held his side until the pain subsided. He saw B.A. watching him eyebrows raised. "I'm ok B.A. really it's just a twinge!"
"You're supposed to be resting fool"
Murdock just smirked at him, and then he looked down at the controls. Then he let out a sigh. "Why did I crash the dam chopper?" Murdock wasn't questioning B.A., but B.A. walked around to the co-pilot seat and sat next to Murdock.
"Look here Murdock, it's not your fault, you were flying over a VC hot spot there was always the danger you could get hit"
Murdock looked up at B.A. smiled and said "that's the first time you haven't called me a fool"
"Well don't go telling anyone fool otherwise I'll break your arm!"
"Hahaha! Nice to see your back to normal I was getting worried after all the nice things you were saying about me!" grinned Murdock, he then carefully got out of the chopper and as he walked back to the quarters he whistled a tune B.A. had never heard before, but that was Murdock.
Face, Murdock and B.A. were laughing and joking in their quarters when Hannibal, and Generals Morrison and Zachary came over. The Lieutenant's and sergeant stood to attention. "At ease boys" said Hannibal.
Zachary stepped forward and beckoned Murdock over. "Now son I have always been impressed with your skills as a pilot, but I am especially proud of how you handled the situation you found yourself in three weeks ago"
"Thank you sir"
"So Morrison and Hannibal have agreed with me and I am pleased to promote you to the rank of Captain." Zachary chuckled when he saw Murdock's surprised expression. He took away Murdock's Lieutenant bars and replaced them with his new Captain bars. Murdock saluted the Generals and Hannibal. When the Generals left B.A. and Face patted him on the back.
"Well done buddy" said Face "I mean sir" Murdock just lightly punched him on the shoulder.
"Well done Captain" added Hannibal. Murdock was beaming from ear to ear.
Murdock still had one more week until he was allowed to fly again. He was lying on his bunk while Hannibal, Face and B.A. were talking about their plan for the mission Morrison had given them. Their pilot was Powell who asked Murdock's advice about the LZ. As they were leaving Murdock let out a sigh not realizing Face still hadn't left yet.
"What's up buddy?"
"Nothing"
"Come on if it was nothing why the sigh?"
"I'm just bored that's all"
"We'll be back by 16:00 hours and Powell is coming back after dropping us off so you can hang out with him"
"Yeah sure, see you later" with that Murdock turned onto his good side, which happened to be facing away from Face. Face just looked at Murdock for a few seconds then left. He felt sorry for Murdock he knew how much he wanted to fly and Murdock probably felt down because ever since his arrival in Vietnam he had been the teams pilot and for the first time he had to sit back and watch someone else fly them.
Murdock looked at his watch for the tenth time in five minutes. The team should be back any minute, he then heard a chopper coming in, but he knew something was wrong. Despite the pain he ran to the helipad and saw Powell fall out of his chopper, the windscreen had smashed and Powell had blood all over his face.
"What happened Powell?"
"LZ came under attack tried to get the team out, but the tail of the Chopper got hit I was lucky to get it back here-" Powell then fainted, Murdock passed him onto a medic took of Powell's helmet and ran for another chopper, he started it up and flew to the LZ. He knew exactly where it was because of Powell asking for his advice.
When Murdock got to the LZ he saw tracer bullets flying everywhere. He spotted the team at the edge of some trees. As he landed they ran over to him.
"Glad to see you again Powell- MURDOCK! What are you doing here" yelled Hannibal,
"Powell got wounded so I came to get you"
Hannibal just shook his head. Murdock was going to get a big telling off and there was nothing he could do, Murdock had disobeyed a direct order grounding him. However he was very glad to see Murdock, he liked Powell, but Murdock was the best pilot on base, even in Vietnam. He turned around when he heard B.A. complaining
"What you doing here fool? You are a crazy pilot normally now your still recovering, I'm gonna hate this flight!"
Murdock just grinned; he figured it was worth getting told off to save his team.
When they landed back at base Murdock spotted General Zachary standing waiting for them.
"Oh boy, here we go"
The team just watched Murdock turn off the control and climb out and walked over to Zachary.
"So Murdock you decided to fly a chopper even though you have been grounded"
"Yes sir, Powell was wounded"
"So you took matters into your own hands and didn't call another pilot and tell them of the situation"
"Yes sir"
B.A. and Face looked at Hannibal, who shook his head. There was nothing he could do, he maybe Murdock's CO when it came to the team, but Zachary was Murdock's flying personnel CO. The team could only watch and see what the outcome would be.
"You have only been a Captain for two weeks! Do you want to demote yourself?"
"No sir"
"Well consider yourself lucky, I am not going to take any action against you, but I will if you don't stay grounded for the remainder of the week. Think you can handle that?"
"Yes sir" Murdock saluted Zachary, Zachary just walked away shaking his head. He wasn't surprised by Murdock's actions, he even admired them, but he had to be hard on him otherwise he would have other pilots disobeying orders. Murdock walked back over to the chopper and breathed a sigh of relief and grinned at the team.
"Looks like you'll have me back as your pilot next week"
"Oh someone help us!" cried Face, Murdock went to punch Face playfully but he ducked and ran around the chopper with Murdock chasing after him.
"Hey! You can't run from a superior officer!"
"Try me!" replied Face.
Hannibal and B.A. just sat grinning to themselves.
"Next week B.A. everything will be back to normal"
"Don't you mean as normal as things can get with that crazy pilot!" came the reply. Hannibal smiled, and watched as Face got Murdock in a headlock, he laughed when he saw Murdock wriggle out and caused Face to fall on the ground.
"I love it when a plan comes together"
Authors note. Well that's the end, hope you enjoyed reading it! Hopefully soon I will be writing some more stories.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!