Murdock came into Stevi's hotel room and told her, "That traffic's going nowhere, which means neither are we."
"Oh dull man," Stevi said.
"Yeah…don't worry though, we're gonna make sure this place is secured that nobody could get in here without us knowing," he told her as he moved over to the windows to make sure they were locked.
Stevi folded her arms and said to his back, "I really appreciate you guys helping me, I'm picking up good energy from you."
Murdock laughed awkwardly and replied, "Thank you, Miss Faith."
"Stevi."
"Okay…thank you, Stevi."
Murdock turned around and saw Stevi going through her closet taking everything off the rack and trying to stuff it all into her suitcase.
"Somebody beat you to the soap and towels?" he asked.
"Huh?" she asked.
Murdock pointed to the hangers.
"No way, they're mine," she said.
"Ah, good thinking," Murdock said.
Murdock picked up one outfit and held it up against himself. It was a black sequined dress with the back out and a matching jacket and…he lifted up the skirt, matching black shorts built in underneath too.
"Nifty," he commented. He looked at it pressed against him and he laughed as he realized it could about fit him.
"I have to finish packing," Stevi told him as she took the dress from him, "When that traffic jam's out I want to be ready to leave."
"Don't mind me," Murdock said, "I'll just make sure the rest of the place is secure and be on my way out."
Stevi turned her attention back to her closet, Murdock went over to the bathroom and pulled the door shut behind him and went over to the window to see if it was accessible from the outside. He stopped when he noticed the air vent high up on the wall. Murdock doubted that anybody could know that Stevi was there, but all the same…he saw a few candles around the bathtub and picked one up and lit it, and stood on the edge of the tub and held the candle up to see if the light reflected off of anything inside the vent. There was nothing, which he took as being a fair sign that there wasn't a hidden camera stashed away in there. He also tried pulling the lid off the vent to see if somebody could try sneaking into the room that way, but it was firmly in place. So the only way somebody could get through there would be it'd have to be an inside job.
Murdock blew out the candle and put it back on the edge of the tub and was about to leave when he heard something outside. He put his ear to the wall and heard the outside door open and heard two people talking. Curious, he bent down and peeked out through the keyhole, and was more than just a little shocked when he saw Stevi standing in the doorway with her arms around a man and the two were getting very hot and heavy very quickly. It was obvious, at least Murdock hoped, that this wasn't the bellboy. He couldn't watch, but then again what choice had he? So he decided to satisfy both sides, he covered one eye as he watched. After getting more than an eyeful of those two about swallowing each other's lips, he stood straight up and chewed his nails as he considered his options. Now he was stuck in the middle of a very delicate situation, and how was he going to remove himself from this equation? Obviously Stevi must've thought he'd already left, or she wouldn't have let…who was that?, inside. He paced around the room and thought about what he was going to do, when the answer came to him and he went to the bathroom window and carefully lifted it up.
"I wonder what's keeping Murdock?" Hannibal looked at his watch, "He was supposed to be back by now."
"You know how Murdock is," Face said, "He's probably all ga-ga star struck over Stevi, maybe I ought to go get him…"
"No," B.A. made it clear, "Because you just as bad as the crazy fool, even worse."
"How's that?" Face asked.
"We all know what you' like around a woman, Face," B.A. told him, "And you know the rules, no getting involved with the clients."
"Well I guess that settles it then," Hannibal said as he took his cigar out of his mouth, "I'll go over and see what's keeping the Captain."
"Oh come on, Hannibal," Face said, "Why do you—AHHHH!"
B.A. and Hannibal turned to see what Face was pointing at and they both almost had a similar reaction when they saw Murdock inching his way along outside their window. Ordinarily that might be mildly surprising, but they knew it was serious because there was no fire escape or balcony outside that window, which meant Murdock was just inching his way along the ledge.
B.A. went over to the window, threw it up, reached out and grabbed Murdock and jerked him in demanding to know, "What's the big idea you crazy fool? You trying to scare us to death or something?"
"B.A.," Hannibal came over to the Sergeant and clapped a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.
"What is it, Hannibal?" B.A. asked.
Hannibal decided to point out, "You're choking him."
B.A. let go of Murdock's throat and asked him again, "What's the idea of messing around out there, Murdock?"
Murdock looked to Hannibal and said only, "Colonel…I think we have a problem."
"Who was in this room with you earlier, Miss Faith?" Hannibal asked, once they'd all gone back to Stevi's room for a little confrontation, and by this time her mystery suitor had long since disappeared.
Stevi shrugged from where she sat on her room's couch and said, "Just my boyfriend, Tony."
"Is there a reason you didn't tell us about him before?" Face asked.
She looked at them like they'd landed down from Mars, "Why should I?"
Murdock smacked himself in the forehead.
Hannibal crouched down so he could make level eye contact with her and explained calmly but firmly, "Miss Faith, if you want us to help you and take your case, then you're going to have to help us and give us all the details about what's going on, now who is Tony?"
"Tony Bianchi, I told you he's my boyfriend," Stevi said.
"How long have you known him?"
"Two months," Stevi said, "He's the longest relationship I've had since Woody."
"Where'd you meet him?" Hannibal asked.
"At the health food store," she said.
"Ah, there's a winner," Face sarcastically commented.
"You just don't get it," Stevi said.
"No, he's just disappointed," B.A. said and got out a small haw of a laugh.
"Does he know about Woody?" Hannibal asked as he stood straight again.
"Uh yeah, I told him about Woody," Stevi said.
"How much?" Hannibal asked.
"Ah…well…I don't know."
"Does he know Woody's stalking you now?"
"I told Tony I don't want to see Woody anymore," Stevi said, "But I haven't told him about this."
"And what," Hannibal raised his foot and placed it on the arm of the couch as he glared down at her, "Do you know about Mr. Bianchi?"
"I know plenty," Stevi insisted, "Ours is a very open relationship, most open one I ever had, we don't make a habit of keeping secrets from each other, I trust him with my life."
"How suiting," Face noted dryly.
"Alright," Hannibal scratched through his white and graying hair, "Have you told him about us? About where you're going?"
Stevi shook her head, "No, I didn't tell him about that."
"Well good," Hannibal said, "The idea is to keep you out of sight, that nobody knows where you are, not even your manager."
"Not Dave?" Stevi asked, "How come?"
"Strictly a precaution," Murdock explained as he sat down beside her on the couch, "He'll be alright, if Woody's coming after you then he's not targeting your manager, but he might tail him to find you."
Stevi nodded slowly in understanding, "Oh, I get it."
"Fine, now that we've got that settled," Hannibal said, "What did you tell Tony when he came here? How did he know to find you here?"
"Well…" Stevi bit down on one of her neon polished nails.
"You told him where you were coming?" Face asked.
"A few times," Stevi answered, "As many times as we went around in circles and stopped off at different places, I had to see him somewhere."
"And he's expecting to see you again later?" Hannibal asked.
Stevi nodded, "I mentioned meeting him at a club later."
Now it was Face who took a turn and hit himself on the forehead.
"You're new at this, aren't you?" Murdock asked her.
Stevi huffed and threw her hands up exasperatedly and said, "I've been cooped up in a car on the road all week, I want to get out and hit the scene."
"That's what Woody's going to be counting on," Hannibal told her, "Everybody knows you're a party animal, and so does he, and he's going to be looking for you at any night club there's the slightest chance you might frequent."
He turned and started to walk away and she scowled at his back through one eye and told him, "I'm not a party animal, I'm a party reptile."
"And after that," Murdock said, "Comes party criminal."
"And then finally," Stevi added, "At 3 o' clock in the morning zonked out on the couch…"
"Party vegetable!" the two said and high fived each other.
Face got a sudden look of dread on his face and turned to B.A. and asked him, "Am I losing my mind or are they bonding?"
B.A. smacked the side of his face in disbelief as he watched the two.
The next time Jean got the hell banged out of her, she'd made up her mind she was just going to raid Murdock's stock of emergency medicinal whiskey, it would have to be easier to get over than this.
How long? How long had it been? Ah…she looked to the clock and watched the second hand tick-tick-tick by, 18 seconds since she'd last looked at it, then 19, 20, 21, 22, 23…she looked down and saw her nails raking back and forth over the top of her wrist, and instead stuck the scratching hand in the crook of her arm so it couldn't move.
Don't need the pills, she kept telling her self, don't need the pills, don't want the pills, want a beer, want something good and strong and stiff…couldn't have both, had to be one or the other, had to give her body time to get the pills out of her system. She never felt this awful on the Hydromorphone…but then again she never took those pills as much as she'd taken these in the last few days, big difference there. Her other wrist started itching so she rubbed it roughly against the denim of her jean shorts. Had to get the morphine out…Murdock would never be allowed off the ground with any drugs in his system, and if she ever wanted to get on the road again she knew the same rules applied to her, maybe even more so, after all Murdock said more crashes involved cars on the ground than planes up in the air, maybe there was a connection.
She was choking on phlegm in her throat, at first she thought it was just a standard withdrawal induced runny nose, but then she felt her face and realized the wet tracks were in the wrong place for that to be it. Damn, when they said dysphoria they weren't kidding. She didn't even know why she was crying other than the fact that she was trying to wait this out and that's what tended to happen during those periods. Ohh she was glad that there wasn't anybody here now to see her like this.
So far she'd done very well, she'd put on a good show for everybody's benefit. Earlier in the day she'd made a phone call to her mother. She always downplayed everything for her mother's benefit so she wouldn't worry, and in fact she'd downplayed it so much, that her mother didn't even know she'd been in an accident, or was in any pain, or on bedrest. So long as her mother didn't know anything was wrong, that was the most important thing; no sense worrying someone 3,000 miles away who couldn't do anything about it. Ask her parents to move out there to be near them, what the hell was she thinking?
Now she was on the floor. It was impossible to get comfortable, she'd tried every position imaginable on the couch, in the chair, even in B.A.'s bed since his room was on the ground floor. Nothing. Then she tried the floor, it had worked before when she couldn't stand being in the bed with Murdock. But all to no avail, she tried the carpeted floor of the living room, the tiled floor of the kitchen, and the wooden floor in the front room, it was simply impossible to get into a comfortable position anywhere. The hot and cold flashes didn't help either, first she'd freeze, but even to cover herself with a light sheet made her burn up and she had to kick it away. She simply couldn't figure it, even when she was shot and on a morphine drip in the hospital, breaking away from it hadn't been this bad. But what was it Hannibal had said? Maggie told him the pills were longer lasting than the IV drips. Go figure. Maybe that was why it was harder now. She didn't know, her mind was swimming.
Her breathing was ragged, she swallowed heavy, there was a lump in her throat, and it felt like her whole body was covered in sweat, and she just knew that she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. How long? How long had it been since she'd taken the last pills? She took two earlier…no, no that wasn't right. After the A-Team had left, she'd gotten up while the numbness was still lasting, taken the bottle of morphine pills, opened the kitchen window, closed her eyes and tossed them out somewhere. She'd find them once she was better and could actually walk outside. Crane had brought her a bottle of extra strength ibuprofen, 500 milligrams in each tablet, she'd taken 1,000 milligrams; nowhere near as strong as morphine, but mental was as important as physical, you could think yourself into anything, so she had to keep telling herself that the fact remained she still had 1,000 milligrams of painkillers coursing through her body, therefore they must work, must have some effect. Maybe they actually had, she didn't know, she hadn't allowed herself to think of that. It helped when you could actually sleep because if you slept you weren't aware of any pain. But she couldn't sleep now and she just knew she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight either.
Her eyes burnt as a fresh batch of hot tears worked their way loose. Even if it were possible, she knew that there wouldn't be anything he could do, but all the same she wished that Murdock was with her. Suffering in silence was just fine so long as you didn't have to suffer alone. She closed her eyes and tried to take her mind off of the pain she was in and how lousy she felt, and she also tried not to think about what Murdock was doing with that woman Stevi Faith.
The seven Trang siblings came charging up the porch steps and threw open the front door and marched in to find Jean and tell her how the job went. V.C. led the way into the dining room and she came to a sudden stop and one by one her brothers all crashed into each other and into her.
"What is it?" Lee asked.
Jimmy jumped up to see past them and he let out a surprised yelp, and one by one everybody fell into place and got an eyeful.
Apparently sometime that day, Jean had climbed up on the dining room table and used it for a bed to fall asleep on and she was wrapped up in a large sheet and practically had her head buried in a pillow. It was a sight none of them had ever seen the like of before, being a family of seven kids they definitely had their share of tightly fitted homes but nobody had ever resorted to bunking on a table.
Slowly they all tiptoed over to the table and V.C. reached out and poked Jean all up and down her body to see if they could get a response out of her. Finally she grunted and grumbled and tried swatting whatever was jabbing at her, then she opened her eyes and realized she had a whole group of people standing over her.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"You a somnambulist or something?" Tommy asked.
V.C. elbowed him sharply in the ribs and told him, "Shaddup, Number One Son."
Jean was awake now, but still so clearly out of it she didn't even realize where she was. It seemed to the others that she must've thought she was in bed, she just lay back against the table and looked up at them and asked again what was going on.
"We did what you said," V.C. told her, and pointed to one of her brothers, "Jackie called in a false lead to Decker and we brought out the whole parade."
"Oh…" she tiredly replied.
"We didn't have time to strip the cars down but we did give them our trademark special," Jason said.
"Go show her," V.C. told the guys.
The six men ran to the front door whooping and hollering like a bunch of idiots at her suggestion. She stayed behind and leaned her head down like she was looking over a mirror and asked Jean, "So how're ya doing, kid?"
"What time is it?" she asked.
V.C. checked her watch and said, "6:45."
"What?" Jean rubbed one eye, "Oh no…" and threw her head back against the pillow.
"What's wrong?" V.C. asked.
"I thought I'd managed to get through later into the night already," she said, "I'm never going to last till tomorrow at this rate. It was all a dream?"
But of course she knew it wasn't all a dream, all that stuff that had been coursing through her mind before she woke up was memories of earlier that day. It was something she'd developed as a kid when she was sick in bed all the time, trying to sleep she couldn't shut off her mind so she wound up replaying the same thing in her mind over and over and over monotonously until she finally dropped off to sleep. Sometimes it followed her into the unconscious and haunted her dreams, just like now. Except, it wasn't all memory…that was another thing, once in a blue moon she could have a dream about being sick and in the dream she'd be worse than she was when she was actually awake. How was that for irony?
"Speaking of which," V.C. said, "What the hell are you doing on this table?"
It was the first time Jean seemed to be aware of that fact, she grumbled and told V.C., "I can't get comfortable, I'm tired of that couch and I can't get comfortable on the floor, I even tried B.A.'s bed with the big dip in it."
V.C. glanced to the ceiling and asked, "What about your own bed?"
"I can't get up there," Jean said, "Not to get down again. I can barely walk, and crawling on my knees is only good if I'm doped to the gills."
V.C. looked at her uncertainly and patted her on the head and asked her, "You eat?"
"Not for a while," Jean said, "Haven't taken any pills either, not since Decker was here."
"What pills?" V.C. asked.
"Don't worry, I switched them with something more mediocre," Jean said as she struggled to keep her eyes open, "I've done this dance with the devil before, I don't wait to let the hooks sink in, though I think I came damn close this time."
They heard the front door slam open and looked to see the six guys come running in rolling six car tires in front of them.
"What's that?" Jean asked.
"A Trang special," Lee said, "The right front tire and the spark plug taken off of each MP sedan while those dopes were inside storming the building."
Jean fell back against the table laughing and commented, "This just ain't Decker's day."
Though for some reason she was suddenly starting to feel better.
"Boy that must be some fire," Murdock said to B.A. as they looked out the window and saw that the traffic down below was still at a standstill and there were still flashing lights everywhere.
"If it was," B.A. told him, "They'd have evacuated all these buildings, this one included."
"Well there's got to be some reason nobody's going anywhere," Murdock said. Then the light bulb went off, he looked to the mud sucker and said, "You don't think it's one of Decker's traps, do you?"
B.A. shook his head, "Decker ain't that smart to involve hundreds of innocent bystanders."
"Good point," Murdock said. He put his hands in his pockets and wandered away from the window and paced around the room where they were all about going stir crazy. He went over to Hannibal who was seated in a chair reading the newspaper and without looking over the paper he asked, "Colonel, you got a minute?"
"Probably more than that, Captain," Hannibal said as he folded up the paper, "What's on your mind?"
"Ah…well," Murdock said as he sat on the arm of the chair, "It's that guy, Tony." He said the name like it was a disease.
Hannibal nodded, "I don't like it either, Murdock."
"Oh it goes beyond not liking it, Hannibal," Murdock tried to explain, "Stevi might be getting a good reading off of him but for the little bit I saw him…" he shook his head, "I don't think his karma's good, Colonel."
"Oh brother," B.A. grumbled, "Don't tell me the crazy fool's gonna start in on that too."
Hannibal placed a protective arm around Murdock and insisted, "There are more things in heaven and earth, B.A., who's to say there isn't something to it? You may note that every time previously when Murdock had a seemingly paranormal prediction or insight into something, he was always right."
"Especially when Decker came poking around," Murdock added.
"Oh that reminds me," Hannibal told the pilot, "You might call Jean later. She had a run-in with him today and sent him chasing his tail."
Murdock smiled proudly and said, "Aw, that's my girl."
"Yeah but in the meantime," Face said, "What about Stevi? Tony already knows she's here, he might come to see her again."
"Then we're just going to have to keep a close eye on her and make sure he doesn't get to her," Hannibal said, "I haven't tried my luck yet but I'd wager I could throw him about as well as I trust him. Though one thing in our favor…"
"What's that?" Face asked.
Hannibal gestured to the window, "That traffic jam downstairs is not letting up, since Tony was able to leave the hotel that means he's walking, and how much trouble can Stevi get into with a pedestrian?"
"That just depends how far out of the jam they can get," Face said.
"Or," Murdock added, "It could mean he's a guest in the hotel too."
"Hmm," Hannibal raised his eyebrows, "We didn't consider that one."
Face got up from his chair and said, "I'll go see if I can find out anything from the woman at the front desk, maybe get a look at the registry."
"Make sure that's all you do," B.A. told him.
B.A. tossed and turned on one of the beds in their room and tried to sleep but the continuous sounds of one crazy fool out in the main room was keeping him awake. Now Hannibal had made it clear he didn't want B.A. drawing any unwanted attention to them by making a big scene as he usually did when Murdock did something the Sergeant considered annoying. Up to a point B.A. was willing to comply; he turned on his side and tried burying his head under the pillows, but there weren't enough to drown out Murdock's incessant ramblings. Finally he got up and went out into the main room and saw Murdock was on the phone. B.A. walked over to Hannibal and asked him, "What's the crazy fool doing?"
"Talking to Jean," Hannibal murmured lowly as he continued to read the paper.
B.A. couldn't make out what Murdock was saying, some kind of half English jibber-jabber he guessed, but whatever it was it sounded like he was saying, "Twa-twa, ducks ducks."
And they must've had a good connection because he could hear Jean on the other end saying into the phone, "I told you before you don't say it like it looks, it's twa-twa, de-a de-a."
"Twa-twa, ducks ducks."
"I told you before it's no ducks!" Jean told him.
"No ducks," Murdock said, "Twa-twa, de-a geese and no ducks."
B.A. turned to Hannibal again and asked, "What the heck is that crazy fool talking about?"
"Just a little precaution incase Decker's listening in," Hannibal explained, "They don't want to say anything incriminating so they're just talking to each other, not about anything."
B.A. blinked a few times and shook his head, he needed to get some sleep, even for Hannibal that didn't make any sense. He walked past Murdock again to head back into the bedroom but stopped and turned back to the pilot as Murdock stopped talking completely and just started making a bunch of kissing sounds into the receiver. He grabbed Murdock by the neck and told him, "Say goodbye and hang up already, fool."
"Goodbye," Murdock croaked into the phone and hung it up.
Hannibal paid them little mind other than to ask, "How's she doing, Murdock?"
"Oh she's coming along steadily," Murdock answered.
The door opened and Face came in and said, "Well I figured out what's causing the traffic jam."
"What?" everybody wanted to know.
"Apparently we missed a loud CRASH earlier," Face said, "Three cars smashed into each other in the middle of the road earlier when people were trying to move out of the way of the fire trucks, the police and paramedics are still trying to get everything sorted out."
"Boy this is a bad place to visit," Murdock said, "Must be all that negative energy."
"Don't you start again, Murdock," B.A. warned him.
"What about Tony Bianchi?" Hannibal asked Face.
"Oh yeah…he's checked into a room three floors under us," Face answered.
"When'd he arrive?" Hannibal asked.
"About an hour after we all got here to meet Stevi," Face said.
"Very convenient," Hannibal noted, "Means that he knew that Stevi's manager's got a separate room from her too, because I doubt he would've done that if Dave had been around."
"We're gonna have to keep an eye on him," Face said.
"We're gonna have to keep an eye on both of them," Hannibal corrected him.
Murdock raised his hand and said, "Colonel, I volunteer to take the first watch."
"What're you gonna do?" B.A. asked.
"How's this for ironic?" Jean asked as she looked down at V.C. who was un-bunching the bottom of her new nightgown she'd helped Jean into, "Murdock buys this thing, something that I'd never get myself and would never wear any other day of my life, and he's not here to see me in it."
V.C. looked up and did a double take when she saw Jean only had one arm in it and the other half was hiked up like a toga. She stood up and helped Jean get into it correctly and commented, "I got one like this at home." Once Jean was finally in it the right way, V.C. walked her back over to the bed and asked her, "Alright, so how long's it been since your last fix?"
Jean glanced at the clock as she got settled on the bed and said, "I think I took the last pills…about 24 hours ago. I was still on them when Murdock and I went to bed last night, but that was the last of that."
"Okay," V.C. was counting on her fingers and said, "So that means by this time you can probably look forward to muscle twitches, hot and cold flashes, sore muscles, stomach cramping, loss of appetite, high blood pressure, elevated body temperature, heavy breathing and restlessness."
"Oh hell V.C.," Jean said, "That means I've been going through withdrawal for 10 years before I ever even took the stuff."
"How about insomnia?" she asked.
"That one I'll grant you," Jean replied, "I have done that one before, and if that's going to happen again, I'm not looking forward to tonight."
"How long did it last the last time?" V.C. asked.
Jean tried to think, "Three days and nights…I think. Murdock tried everything to get me to sleep, nothing worked."
"Obviously something did or you'd be dead by now," V.C. told her.
Jean shook her head, "I don't remember…all I remember is waking up on the floor with him." She looked to the Vietnamese woman and said, "I sound like every other nag who ever got married…but I wish he was here, I hate going through this alone. Even though I know there's nothing that he'd be able to do if he was here."
V.C. stood by the bed and didn't say anything at first, just patted Jean on the head as if trying to sympathize with her.
"So where'd they go this time?" she asked.
"They're playing bodyguard to some crazy rock star," Jean said, "Stevi Faith."
"That chick?" V.C. asked, and scoffed, "Jimmy got all her records, she's a kook."
"Yeah and now she has my husband babysitting her," Jean replied.
"Oh ho," V.C. said mischievously with a devilish look on her face.
"Well anyway," Jean said as she folded her arms against her chest, "At least one of us is out having a good time."
V.C. snorted and said as she sat down by the foot of the bed, "Can't be hard for Murdock, can it? The man's amused by sock puppets."
"That at least is understandable," Jean said tiredly and leaned back against the pillows, "Try an invisible dog."
"A what?" V.C. asked.
Jean pointed over towards the door and said, "Billy."
V.C. looked to the door and back to Jean and said to her, "Tell me again when the last time you took those pills was?"
Jean just laughed and replied, "It's a long story, V.C."
Everybody knew that Stevi was going to try meeting up with Tony again, and it was just a matter of time; also a matter of who would have the better luck getting to the other's room. Murdock had climbed back in through Stevi's bathroom window and was hiding out in the tub to see if he heard anything. He had been debating with himself what he was going to do when and if Tony came back, and finally the idea came to him. It was so crazy, so outlandish, he decided it just had to work, at least he hoped it did. Well, he figured, if it could work for Buster Keaton, why not him?
Finally, his patience seemed to have paid off, he could hear the door opening outside and hear people talking again. He went over to the bathroom door and quietly opened it a crack and looked out and he saw that Tony Bianchi had returned and he and Stevi were going around the room from the TV to the big double bed over to the room's private bar. Stevi picked up a cut crystal decanter of something and was pouring them a couple of drinks and Murdock decided now was the time to act, when they had their backs to him. He quietly opened the door and slinked out and slipped over to the main door and sneaked outside, but didn't fully close the door behind him. He waited a couple of seconds, then gripped the knob, pushed the door open and stepped in.
Now he could see them better, Stevi was dressed for the night in a pair of light blue silk pajamas and gold slippers that altogether made her look like a genie. And Tony Bianchi was a man who appeared to be somewhere in his late 20s, was about as tall as Murdock, only slightly heavier and had a head full of dark hair and a late 5 o' clock shadow that could match. And he was dressed for the night in blue jeans, a black leather jacket and a purple button-up shirt. Maybe Stevi had met him in a health food store but there was something about the guy that didn't seem kosher to Murdock.
He slammed the door shut and they turned to see him, they both looked shocked but for different reasons.
"Murdock!" Stevi exclaimed.
Tony turned to her and asked, "Who is this?"
"Stevi, darling!" Murdock went over to her with open arms, "I got your call, I came as soon as I could, oh darling!" He threw his arms around her and kissed her, taking her totally by surprise, and her boyfriend as well.
He felt the man's hands on his shoulders trying to pull him back from Stevi, but he persisted and made sure Stevi couldn't get a word in edgewise either. He just kept kissing her and anytime they had to break for air he talked over her murmuring a variety of sweet nothings and terms of endearment, everything, "Oh darling" or "Oh baby" or "Oh sweetie".
Stevie's slippers had no traction and her foot slipped out from under her and she started to fall back in his grip, but Murdock refused to break the kiss so he went down with her and more or less wound up pushing her flat against the floor and continued to kiss her repeatedly. He felt Tony's hands on him again and this time he found himself getting yanked to his feet.
"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked.
Murdock looked at him and wouldn't answer, and said only, "I'm with her." He was sure it was going to start something up and if Tony became violent, at least they'd have a reason to restrain him and maybe tie him up somewhere and get to the bottom of this once and for all.
But to Murdock's surprise, Tony said nothing in response to that, only got a weird look on his face and moved for the door and left. Well, it wasn't quite how he'd planned it, but at least it got them rid of Tony for the moment.
After the door closed, Murdock realized Stevi was still lying on the floor, so he knelt down to help her up.
"You alright, Stevi?" he asked as he took her hand and pulled her up to a sitting position.
"Oh…wow…" Stevi said as if she was trying to get a handle on what had just happened, "What was that about?"
What could he tell her? "Well I just thought we'd test the waters and see what kind of reaction we could get out of Tony, he doesn't seem to be the possessive type like Woody."
Stevi half cupped her chin in her hand but she was more tracing her thumb and index finger along the sides of her mouth. Murdock wasn't sure what to make of the look on her face but it looked like something along the lines of just having your mind blown. She reached up and grabbed Murdock and told him, "That was amazing, man."
Uh-oh. Now Murdock realized he'd gotten himself into a fine mess, and ironically it seemed more like the kind Face tended to get himself into.
"Oh, well…" Murdock started to say, trying to think of some way to respond to that.
Stevi pressed a hand against his chest and asked him, "Tell me something, Murdock, do you believe people are supposed to be exclusively monogamous?"
Uh-oh, Murdock felt his eyes bug out a bit when he heard that question. He thought back to Tony's sudden and unusual retreat without question or confrontation, and he remembered Stevi saying that her relationship with him was the most open one she'd ever had, and Murdock was starting to get scared that he knew what that meant.