Murdock lay on the bed in his room with his framed picture of Jean hugged against his chest as he gazed up at the lights in the ceiling fan. Oh he wished they'd get done with this mission soon and could go home. If Jean hadn't been in that wreck, he wouldn't feel so guilty about leaving her home. Of course there wasn't anything wrong with her last time, and the Cong soldiers got her. He shook his head, he couldn't think like that. It was seven months now and nothing like that had happened since. Absentmindedly he felt his fingers tighten and curl around the frame. He'd only spoke to her a couple hours ago, she'd been fine; tired, exhausted, but fine. And, he had to remember, she wasn't alone. She was far from alone, she had seven crazy Vietnamese people in the house with her, if they couldn't keep her safe…well, he didn't want to think about that either.

He wanted to go across the hall and talk to Hannibal, but he wasn't sure that the Colonel would appreciate the late night visit. In the long run it would probably be better if he waited until morning, but he felt very antsy about it.

There was a knock at the door, surely Hannibal wasn't…

The door opened and Face stuck his head in and asked Murdock, "Alright if I come in?"

Murdock nodded and sat up on the bed, "Sure thing, Faceman, what's on your mind, muchacho?"

Face pushed the door open and stepped in wearing his pajamas and padded over to the bed and answered, "Oh, nothing much…just wondered if you wanted a little company?"

"Oh absolutely," Murdock said as he put Jean's photograph on the nightstand, "Say Faceman, why did we have to get a house with 5 bedrooms anyway?"

"Well between you and me," Face said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat back against the pillows, "I think Jean helped talk Hannibal into it, I think she wanted to make sure there was no way you and Stevi would bunk together."

Murdock chuckled and said, "Oh Jean knows me better than that."

"Yeah well I hope Stevi does too," Face replied.

"Oh Stevi and I came to an understanding," Murdock assured him, "No worries there, oh Facial One."

"Well that's good, I'd hate to think what Jean could be like on the rampage if she thought you were cheating on her," Face said.

Murdock said to him, as if just now noticing it for the first time, "You two seem to be getting along better than you usually do."

Face felt his eyebrows raise up, he hoped it didn't show on his face how shocked he felt at that revelation. He'd managed to make it this far without Murdock finding out, he hoped his luck wasn't about to run out now.

"Uh…yeah, I guess we have."

Murdock smiled and said, "I knew you two would come around sooner or later, it just took a little while for you two to get used to each other."

Face felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. That should have been a reassuring statement but instead it just made him feel worse, and he groaned like he was going to be sick.

"What's the matter, Faceman?" Murdock asked, "You's looking a little green."

"Uh…Murdock, there's something I gotta tell you," Face said, might as well get it over with now, there wasn't any point in hiding it anymore, "That day that Jean and I were here and we got stuck in the basement after the earthquake…she and I got into a fight."

"Who won?" Murdock asked.

"Not that kind of fight," Face told him, "I…" he shook his head and told Murdock, "I didn't know that she was having another one of her headaches, I got mad and I just started yelling at her…"

"So what's new?" Murdock asked.

"You don't get it," Face said.

Murdock grabbed Face's hand in his and replied, "Oh sure I do…I told Amy a long time ago Jean just loves to push your buttons, see how far she can push you. You remember the time you hit her? She'd been building up to that one for months."

Face didn't know how to respond. "You seem to be taking all this frighteningly well."

"Faceman, what's the problem? Obviously she's not holding anything against you," Murdock said.

"She doesn't remember what I said to her, that's why," Face said.

"Oh sure she does," Murdock replied, "She told me all about it."

Face turned to the pilot in disbelief, his eyes wide and his entire spine suddenly encased with pins and needles, "She did? When?"

"The night after it happened," Murdock answered.

"What?" Face looked like he might go through the ceiling, "Well why did she tell me she didn't remember it?"

"Because she didn't want you to feel guilty about it," Murdock answered as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

Face groaned and cupped a hand over his face for a few seconds before he said, "Murdock, I…I…"

Murdock held a hand up to cut him off, "Faceman, if Jean don't hold nothing against you, then neither do I, and even if she did, I still wouldn't, so don't worry about it."

He should've been relieved, but he couldn't stop himself asking, "How can you say that?"

"Because I know her, and I know you," Murdock said, "Come on, Face, you'd never intentionally try to hurt a woman, even if she didn't like you…course that hasn't stopped you from making quite a name for yourself in the unintentional category, like the time you smacked her, the time you choked her when you were sleepwalking and thought she was a Cong soldier…"

"Yeah I get it, Murdock," Face told him.

"Well?" Murdock shrugged, "We got through those incidents just fine, and I know she ain't blaming you for anything this time either, so what's the problem?"

"I don't know, I don't know," Face replied as he propped one arm behind his head, "Just seems that lately she's especially been trying to push me."

"For example?" Murdock asked.

"Well, before the quake hit, we were screaming at each other and she started getting on my case about the women I'm involved with," Face said.

"Ah…" Murdock sound like he'd stumbled onto something, "And that hit a nerve?"

"I guess so, but I don't know why," Face replied.

Murdock inched closer to Face's side of the bed and said practically into the Lieutenant's ear, "Hannibal thought that you might be jealous of somebody?"

Face turned to him in shock, "He told you? Does anybody keep anything to themselves anymore or am I the only one left out of everything?"

"Faceman you gotta admit it was getting a little obvious," Murdock said.

That stopped him cold in his tracks. "It was?"

Murdock nodded. Face turned away and grumbled something to himself, he didn't get it.

"Faceman, you worried about losing me?" Murdock asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," Face started to say as he turned his back to the pilot.

"Face, you know I ain't going anywhere," Murdock told him, "After I'm hitched you'll still know where to find me, and you know that I will be back to you guys' house too. Nothing's gonna change."

"They didn't invent marriage for things to stay the same," Face pointed out.

"Well true," Murdock said, "But nothing major is going to change, it'll largely be just like it is now. Ohh…" he reached over and patted Face's hair like a dog and smiled as he watched Face jerk and swat his hands away, "Is that it?"

"Cut it out, will you?" Face smacked his hand away again and turned to look the other way.

Of course Murdock wasn't about to listen to him. He reached over and tried tickling Face behind the ear as he tantalized him as if he was calling a dog, "Oh Facey-wacey…." Face just jerked and elbowed him and tried moving further over to the edge. "Is that what it is, Face?" Murdock asked, half teasingly, and jabbed his finger into several places on Face's back as he asked, "Hmm? You feeling ignored lately?"

"Murdock, stop that!" Face told him as he hit Murdock's hand every time it got near him. But Murdock persisted, he could tell that Face was just about to bust something laughing but was still managing to restrain himself. Murdock threw himself on Face and pinned him down and stuck both sets of fingers up under one armpit and tickled him relentlessly until Face was rolling around under him howling like a banshee. After a couple minutes of that, Face finally managed to pull himself out from under the pilot and he told Murdock, "Stop it…" he was breathing heavy and his words were slightly slurred as he told Murdock, "I think I'm going to throw up."

Murdock got a couple more laughs out before he threw himself down on the bed alongside Face and told him, "If I've been neglecting you lately, I'm sorry, Faceman, but you should've said something. I thought you were still spending every night with something tan and blonde on your arm."

Face got a blank look on his face and his eyes seemed to stare straight ahead at the wall, or past it, and he asked Murdock, "Is that really the type I always take out?"

"What?" Murdock asked.

He thought back to something Jean had said and asked, "Are all the women I go out with blondes?"

"Most of the time," Murdock answered, "Especially anymore, I don't know how you tell them all apart, anymore they all look the same to me, all with the big hair and the long false nails and that heavy eye makeup and..."

"Huh…" Face gritted his teeth, "Maybe she wasn't entirely wrong."

"Who?" Murdock asked.

Face shook his head and said, "Nothing…forget it."

Hannibal had been making the rounds to make sure that everything was status quo and he noticed that Face's room was empty. Well, he had 3 potential ideas where the Lieutenant could be. His first stop was Stevi's room, and he was relieved to find that the rock star was alone, zonked out on top of her bed in a blue floral night gown with her headphones on and her Walkman blasting away all the while she was completely oblivious and unconsciousness. Hannibal backed out of the room and pulled the door shut behind him, and then headed over to Murdock's room.

As soon as he was in the door he was able to see two people in the bed. The light from the moon was pouring in through the window and he could see that it was in fact the Lieutenant and the Captain, and they'd both fallen asleep on top of the covers like Stevi. Hannibal smiled to himself and backed out of the room. Well, that solved that puzzle, and it looked like these two were reestablishing the bond that they'd always had but more recently seemed to be waning between them.

B.A. was snoring loud enough that it sounded like an Air Force jet preparing to touch down, and that was through the door. Hannibal wasn't tired, and even if he was, he knew that somebody would be paying the house a visit sooner or later, and somebody had to be up and ready incase that happened. So he tiptoed down to the first floor and parked himself on the couch in the living room and went through the channels until he found an old horror movie playing. He looked at the clock on the wall: 2:15, he threw his head back and sighed. At least Jean wouldn't be the only one staying up tonight.

Tommy Trang came down the stairs and as he stood in the entranceway between the dining room and the living room he saw Jean asleep in the rocking recliner next to the couch. Well he'd be damned, she finally fell asleep, about time. He went over to the chair and shook her shoulder.

Jean grumbled something to herself and then started pushing him, saying, "Go away, 'Madhouse' comes on at 2, I want to see it."

Tommy looked at his watch just to confirm what he already knew and he shook Jean again and told her, "Jean, it's 7:45."

"What?" she asked as she picked her head up and rubbed her eyes, "It's morning already?"

"Guess you finally conked out after all," he said, "How do you feel?"

"Well I don't feel like I slept," Jean said as she blinked several times, "Guess that's when you know you did it the hard way."

"So how much pain you in today?" he asked.

"I don't know," Jean gripped the arms of the chair hard as she pushed herself to stand, "I'll move around a bit and then get back to you." She turned to him and realizing they were the only two people in the room asked him, "Where is everybody?"

"In the rooms upstairs asleep," he answered.

"Hope they don't touch anything," Jean said, "Course the one to really worry about is B.A. and his room's down here."

Jean's legs wobbled a bit and she started to go down a couple times as the knees bent unexpectedly, but she managed to stay on her feet and managed to straighten herself out.

"I gotta get better than this," she said. She looked down at herself and groaned, "Look at my legs. These bruises are never going to go away, I'm going to be stuck like this forever."

"A while for sure," Tommy agreed, "You ever fall down one of those water meters in the ground?"

"No," Jean shook her head.

"Those bruises can last for about a year," he said.

"Oh swell," she replied as she stumbled into the kitchen.

She managed to make it over to the fridge before she just collapsed against it and started to sink to the floor. Tommy helped her up and she grabbed hold of the handle and yanked the door open.

"Grim," she observed when she noted the contents inside, "The guys went to the store and picked up some things before they left that, I guess they thought it'd be easy for me to take in the living room and eat…but it's looking pretty bare again, of course with seven extra people staying here I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Her legs started to give out again and she started to slink down again, Tommy grabbed her up again and this time propped her up against the side of the icebox.

"Thanks," she grumbled. She rubbed one eye and asked him, "You think that later today one of you guys could go with me out to the store? I need to pick up some stuff. A lot of stuff, B.A. can easily eat about $400 worth of groceries by himself."

"That reminds me," Tommy said to her, "Have you figured out what you're going to do with that money?"

Jean nodded, "Yeah…yeah, I got an idea."

"What is it?" he asked.

V.C. let out a loud disruptive groan as she dropped the grocery bags she'd carried into the house and automatically fell back into a chair and said, "That does it, my spine's collapsed."

"Join the club," Jean said as she waddled in behind her carrying a couple bags herself.

"Remind me again," Stephen said as the guys came in behind them, "Why you had to pick up all this stuff?"

Jean dropped her bags on the table and answered, "Because, every single time that I come into the money that I can afford to refill that big chest freezer, something else always comes up that takes first priority. I got one roast in that freezer dying all over again from loneliness, and an icebox that isn't far behind it."

"Yeah well now you got enough food to feed the army," V.C. told her.

"Suiting enough given that a lot of it gets divided between four Special Forces members," Jean said.

Lee brought up the rear and noted, "I've never seen anybody go into a store and pick up 8 roasts, 10 steaks, 20 pounds of hamburger, 10 pounds of bacon, 10 pounds of pork chops, 2 racks of ribs, 7 packs of chicken breasts, 5 whole fryers, 30 pounds of potatoes…"

"Yeah, it's a start anyway," Jean told him as she headed over to the back pantry.

"$500 worth of groceries," Jackie commented as everybody picked up the bags they'd brought in and followed her, "I'll bet that store's never seen such a haul before or since."

"Maybe if they have one of those Catholic couples with 10 kids…" Jason suggested.

V.C.'s hands were full so she kicked her brother in the seat and told him, "Shaddup Number One Son."

They got into the pantry and found out why Jean had been dead set on getting so much food to put away. Billy kicked the side of the freezer and asked, "What is this, 20 cubic feet?"

"Close enough," Jean replied, "That's when near emptiness really looks pathetic."

"Ah!" Jimmy said, "So that's why after you cleaned out the meat section," he stepped back and came back pushing a grapefruit crate full of boxes of frozen food and piled them on top of each other and handed them to his brother in front of him as he went down the list, "Why you picked up all the frozen pizzas and frozen pies and cakes and the ice cream bars."

"What!?" Billy asked, "No bonbons?"

V.C. grabbed one of the frozen pizza boxes and beat Billy over the head with it and repeated, "Shaddup Number One Son."

"Well thanks for helping me," Jean told V.C., "There's no way I could've gotten all this back here myself."

"That's for damn sure, it about filled up our whole truck," she replied, "And we still have to go out and get all the canned stuff. How much food do you need to keep on hand for those four chuckleheads?"

"Oh it's not just that," Jean said as she swung a large back of meat back to heave it over the top and into the freezer, and in turn wound up about heaving herself over the side. No wonder Murdock panicked when he caught her cleaning this thing. "It's a matter of security. I'm funny like that." She stood straight again and turned to the others as she explained, "Money is nice but you can't eat it. And personally," she picked up the bag of bacon and heaved it in as she added, "I find it very ironic that for the A-Team being 4 fugitives on the run from the military and constantly on the run from Decker, ain't any of them missing any meals, though Murdock looks like he's about to starve to death."

"And you?" Tommy asked.

Jean turned to him and said, "I was out here 3 months before I ever met up with them again. I had enough money for the house, and enough to get by on for a while, I kept the rest stored away incase I needed it…until I found steady work as a stunt driver I went without a few things to make sure I had enough money." She pointed out to the fridge in the kitchen, "Like I told them when they first came out here, the mice were eating better than I was. When you have to you learn to stretch everything out as far as you can. One thing that's usually at an affordable price are those jars of those horrible green olives, try eating them all the time."

"Green olives aren't that bad," Jason said.

"Normal ones, no," Jean replied, "But I'm talking about those awful cheap salad ones that fall apart. A bowl of them can kill your appetite sure as anything. After a while you get sick from drinking in all the vinegar but it still beats going hungry. Now, it's one thing to starve alone, rich people call that dieting, but it's no way to live when you're going to be married, and have three other barracudas here all the time." She turned to V.C. and explained, "Back when you guys were hitting the grocery trucks it was hard as hell to get much of anything to put away. I always told Murdock not to let on to Hannibal how bad it was. The guy didn't want me married to his Captain in the first place, what the hell was he going to say if he thought I was starving his pilot? Well," she jerked a thumb back towards the freezer and said, "He sure as hell can't accuse me of that now."

"Now?" Tommy parroted, "Now, you got enough food in there to last until the next Ice Age."

"Or two weeks with B.A. as a houseguest, whichever occurs first," Jean replied.

"Hannibal, you said that either Woody or Tony was going to follow Stevi out to this house," Face reminded the Colonel that afternoon, "And so far nobody's shown up to give us any trouble yet."

"And you're complaining about that?" Hannibal asked.

"I…" Face stopped as he realized that he was, "Well where could these guys be?"

"Face, we've only been here a little over 24 hours," Hannibal said, "You're gonna have to be patient if you want someone to try and kill you."

"First it was those hicks out in the middle of nowhere, now this," Face said, "Boy, our line of work is sure making an unusual shift." He cringed when he heard Murdock and Stevi's voices traveling down the hall as they were singing again, and he told Hannibal, "And it's starting to get on my nerves."

Hannibal just chuckled and took out a new cigar. He went over to where B.A. was standing by the front window looking out through a pair of binoculars to see what was going on across the street.

"See anything, B.A.?" he asked.

"Not much," he shook his head, "Few people coming and going, nobody stick around to look and linger…Faceman picked the right place this time, for once."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Face asked.

The two of them had just started to get into it when Hannibal showed himself in between the two of them and spoke up louder than both of them, "Children, children please! Each of you go stand in your own corner," he chuckled over his cigar.

"Maybe this is what they mean by being bored stupid," Face commented.

"You're just not used to this change of pace, that's all," Hannibal insisted.

"Maybe," Face said, "Exactly how long do we plan to wait around here for?"

"As long as it takes," Hannibal said, "Sooner or later somebody is going to show up for Stevi."

A couple days dragged on by and there was still no sign of anyone that might be coming for Stevi. For public appearances the five of them carried on with the act that they'd practically perfected their first day in the neighborhood. Murdock and Stevi continued to act like a set of twins, and in the morning and at night Murdock also called home to see how Jean was coming along. He, and in turn the rest of the guys, were nothing short of stunned when word got out that Jean was already heading back to work. She said that she was able to get around well enough for some background work in an army film she was doing, and they'd be filming late into the night and she wouldn't be home incase Murdock would call. By now everybody figured she must've had her own uniform reserved given how many times she'd done this already.

"Hannibal, don't you think if either of those guys was going to come out here of their own accord, they would've done it by now?" Face asked.

Hannibal nodded reluctantly, "Alright…so I was wrong."

"Can we get that in writing?" Murdock asked.

"Maybe we had this planned too well," Hannibal said, "No matter, that's only a minor setback."

"And how would you propose rectifying it?" Face wanted to know.

"Very simply," Hannibal told him, and then went over to Stevi and told her, "I want you to do something, Miss Faith."

"What's that?" she asked.

"I want you to call your boyfriend and tell him to come here to see you, make up any reason, just tell him where you are and to get out here," Hannibal said.

Stevi had had a few days' experience with these guys and she was starting to get in tune with how they thought, and she eyed him suspiciously and said more than asked, "You don't trust him."

"Not really," Hannibal answered simply.

"You think," Stevi pulled her knees up to her chest where she sat on the couch, "You think he's in this with Woody?"

Hannibal merely shrugged and told her, "Only one way to find out, and if we're wrong, we're wrong, but if we're right, then you're better off finding out now."

Stevi looked down at the carpeted floor and said hesitantly, "Yeah, I suppose so." She about swallowed her bottom lip as she put her feet on the floor and stood up and went over to the telephone.

The men all stayed back and remained quiet as they listened to Stevi make a couple minutes' worth of small talk with Tony before dropping where she was and asking him to come out and see her. She wouldn't go into a lot of details but she did specify that she wanted to clear the air with him about a few things. He would be there tonight, and that's when things were going to get interesting.

Decker felt his eyelids started to get heavy and burn and droop. He opened his eyes wide and let them readjust to the overhead lights in his office. He looked to the clock on the wall and saw that it was going on 10:30, he should've been out of here hours ago. He pushed his chair back, stood up, stretched, listened to a couple things in his back pop, and started clearing away the files he'd been looking over to put away for another time. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he'd found himself going through all his files and records again just to make sure nothing had been taken. And nothing was, but with that determined, he then found himself looking over everything to see what in it could've been so interesting for the A-Team to bust in and scavenge through.

There was a knock at the door, and without even stopping to think who it could be he absentmindedly called out, "Come in."

But the knocking continued. Decker turned from facing his filing cabinet and said louder, "Come in!"

But again, the knocking persisted. Decker grumbled to himself as he marched over to the door and threw it open as he shouter, "I SAID COME IN!"

And in stepped Jean Rhodes in a standard MP uniform, helmet included, and she walked right past him and said in passing, "Hey Roddy, what's up?"

He turned his head and watched her as she walked over to his desk and he asked her, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I just thought I'd come and see if you were making any progress yet," Jean answered as she sat down in his chair and started picking up files, "Nope, don't look like nothing new here, just the same…" she gripped a few sheets of paper in one hand and shook them and watched as a triple folded pinup spread fell out and she cocked her head to the side and said sarcastically, "Well look at that…I guess there is some red American men's blood running through your veins eh? Who knew?"

"Miss Rhodes, what the hell are you doing here?" Decker asked as he went over to the desk and hovered over her.

Jean looked up at him and took her helmet off, "You know, Roddy, every time we see each other it's always only business, we never get a chance to just talk, so let's talk."

Decker just now noticed how she was dressed and asked her, "What'd you do? Knock out one of the MPs and hogtie him in a closet in his underwear?"

"Ah, no," Jean answered nonchalantly, "Actually," she stood up and turned around to show him, "This is my costume for a movie I just got done filming for the night, don't it look convincing though? It sure as hell fooled everybody out front."

"Why are you here?" he tried again.

Jean moved to sit down but caught herself halfway to touching down in his chair and said, "You and me got some unfinished business we need to catch up on, remember?"

"What are you talking about?" he wanted to know.

Jean sat down and took a drink from his glass of water and said, "Think back, Roddy, remember about a month ago, you, me and Crane racing out onto a runway in a jeep to blow holes into a DC-9 jet? But it got away, didn't it? It got away and one U.S. Army General Hunt Stockwell got away. He got away and I got a smashed up arm, a ricocheted graze and a husband with a hole blown in his shoulder, you remember all that?"

"What about it?" Decker asked.

"Stockwell's our unfinished business," Jean told him, "Don't you remember you agreed to keep your ears open for when he finally came back to his own country because one thing you and I have in common is we both want this guy and preferably dead. Well it's been a month, Decker, where the hell is he? Where is Stockwell?"