"Huh," Face commented as he looked out the window at the vacant neighborhood they'd come upon, "This place looks familiar."
Murdock stuck his head out the window on his side like a dog and squinted at the row of houses up ahead, "Hey Faceman, ain't this the place we rented when we were watching Stevi?"
"No…" Face looked around, "But you're close, we came to look at one of these houses earlier on for the job."
"How ironic," Hannibal noted. He saw the dot on the screen and said, "Well Jean's got to be around here somewhere, the only question is where?" He turned to the Lieutenant in the back and asked, "Which house did you look at?"
Face pointed to one in the middle of the block.
"Alright, then that's where we're going to look first, it looks the least occupied of all the places here," Hannibal said.
B.A. stopped the van and everybody got out and went up to the house. The door wasn't locked, which they took as a signal to continue, they showed themselves in and quickly tore the house apart on the first and second floors. When that turned up nothing, they met in the kitchen and tried to figure out what to do next.
"Hey Faceman, how is it you didn't want to rent this house for the last job?" Murdock asked.
"It didn't have enough bedrooms," he answered, "Jean specified it had to come with five bedrooms so…"
"But it is similar to the one we took," Hannibal said, and looked behind him, "And the day we decided to rent it, you two got locked in the basement during an earthquake."
The others looked in the same direction he was looking and saw a small hallway leading out the back of the kitchen, they went down it and saw it led to a door that had been triple locked from the outside.
"Ah ha," Hannibal said, "I think we hit the jackpot…B.A.?"
B.A. grabbed the padlock in his massive hand and squeezed it until it was bent completely out of shape and ripped it off the door. After that the other two were a proverbial piece of cake, more so than whenever Hannibal said it. B.A. kicked the door open and the entire middle dented so it would never close right again, and with that the four men took the stairs single file to see what was downstairs awaiting them.
Face felt along the wall for a light switch and found it and flicked it up and looked ahead of him, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"It's Decker!"
"And Crane!" Hannibal added.
That was the first sight that met them: the Colonel and the Captain passed out on the floor, both of them had, sometime before losing consciousness, undone the buttons on their jackets, exposing the white shirts they wore underneath. Looking past them, Hannibal saw Jean several feet behind them, also on the floor, she was curled on her side and had taken it a step further by completely removing her jacket and her white undershirt, instead she slept on the stone dust floor in one of her familiar paper thin army green tank tops.
"Jean!" Murdock yelled as he ran over to her and dropped down beside her.
Face coughed and noted, "The air's thick down here."
"Warm too," Hannibal observed, "Let's get them out of here!"
B.A. grabbed Decker and hauled the unconscious man to his feet and dragged him up the stairs and out the door, Hannibal followed behind with one arm steadying a semi-conscious Crane as the two of them made the slow journey up the stairs.
Murdock stayed behind to make sure nothing was left behind; he gathered up Jean's jacket and her shirt and turned them both inside out to find her decoder ring, it wasn't there. He looked at her laying on the floor and gently rolled her onto her back to see if she'd had it on her and that was why she was wound up so tightly. No bulges stuck out from her shirt, so Murdock, preparing for her to wake up and tear him apart, carefully reached under the waistband on her uniform pants. Any minute he expected to hear a loud SNAP and feel a mousetrap tattooing a curled wire into his hand, but again he came up empty handed. He patted down her legs one at a time and didn't find anything there either. He was just about to go nutty from the search when one last idea came to him. He untied one of her boots since there wasn't room to just stick his hand down in it, and pulled it off slowly, and the ring fell onto the floor. She was nothing if not resourceful.
"You knew we'd find you, didn't you, darling?" he quietly asked her, though he knew there'd be no response.
He heard a set of footsteps coming down the rickety stairs and he turned to see it was Face heading his way.
"Come on," the Lieutenant said, "Let's get her out of here."
Murdock tried to get Jean to come around by tapping her cheek a few times, but there was no response.
"Here Murdock, let me try," Face said, "I think I can get a response out of her."
He leaned over Jean and gave her one good smack across a cheek and before she even opened her eyes, she reached out and gave him an equally sharp one in return.
"See?" he asked, "I told you I'd get a response."
Jean still hadn't opened her eyes yet, she just lay on the floor softly groaning as she ran her hands up through her hair. Murdock hovered directly over her and asked her, "You alright, darling?"
She opened her eyes a slit and looked surprised, "Murdock? The stupid ring actually worked?"
"Come on, darling, we gotta get you outta here," Murdock reached under her and tried to pull her up to a sitting position, "Can you get up?"
"Murdock," Jean tiredly grabbed him by the wrist to get his attention, "Murdock, Stockwell's back, be careful."
Murdock and Face looked to each other, neither saying a word but both seemed to have the same uneasy, ominous thoughts running through their minds based on their identical expressions on their faces.
"Come on, let's get her out of here," Face said.
Murdock pulled her other boot off so she wouldn't be walking lopsided, and helped her up. Face took the jacket and the shirt and followed behind them incase he had to act as catcher as well.
Reaching the ground floor was like a different world entirely, stepping over the threshold they were immediately hit with air that felt at least 10 degrees cooler. They followed Hannibal and the others out the front door, where he and the Sergeant had parked Decker and Crane in the back of the van until further notice as neither man had come around yet.
"Hannibal, I think we got trouble," Face said as they joined him, "Jean says that our friend General Stockwell is back in this jurisdiction."
"Oh he is, is he?" Hannibal replied, "Well we're going to have to do something about that then."
"Hannibal," Jean broke away from Murdock and stumbled over to Hannibal and grabbed two handfuls of his safari jacket, "Can I tell you something?"
"You usually do, what is it, kid?" he asked.
Jean fell against Hannibal and knocked him against the side of the van. He grabbed her to steady her but realized it had been all for show, she leaned into him and murmured so only he could hear, "We went back to the old airstrip where Stockwell's plane took off when he left the country, we were spotted and had to get away. We took Decker's car, I ran into him and we just collided," and she smacked her hands together to emphasize.
Hannibal didn't get it, "So what?"
Jean's face looked ready to pop from trying to hold back a good laugh as she almost deadpanned a response, "I think I cured him of ever having children."
Hannibal found himself throwing his head back and chuckling at her comment.
"And that's what happened," Jean summed everything up for Hannibal once they'd gotten back to her house, after dropping Decker and Crane off somewhere that they could maintain what little dignity they had left in the name of ever pursuing the A-Team, and as such, wouldn't have to be seen by anybody they knew, getting dropped off by the same fugitives they were supposed to be catching.
"Now Stockwell knows that we're gone and he's probably going to put the pieces together and come after you guys," Jean told Hannibal, "You want to yell at me, you want to go Drill Sergeant on me for doing something so damn reckless and stupid, go ahead, I'm ready for it."
Hannibal hadn't said one word since Jean started to explain what had happened in their absence. None of the men had. The others looked to their Colonel to see what his response was going to be.
Hannibal rocked back and forth where he sat and seemed to be taking everything in. He turned to Jean and asked her, "Did Stockwell actually see you?"
"Me?" she replied, "No…whoever the men are working for him, some of them did, but I don't think they put it together…I think they actually thought I was one of the MPs."
"Well you've been playing the part for quite a while now," Face commented.
"Shut up, Faceman," B.A. warned him.
"So you're alright, it's just Decker and Crane who have something to worry about, they can be identified," Hannibal said, "And Stockwell's going to know that they got to his plant…"
"You mean they could be walking around with even bigger targets on their backs than they already have?" Jean asked, "Huh…what do you know? Doesn't feel as good as you think it will."
"Except Stockwell's not going to concern himself with a second rate hot head Colonel who can barely keep his rank and can't even keep his job permanently," Hannibal said, "Like you said, it's going to be us he's after."
"So what do we do?" Face asked, "We don't even know what this guy looks like."
"I do!" Jean spoke up, "I saw him when they boarded the plane, and I saw him when he got off, still in a dark suit wearing those colored sunglasses like all those bad 70s action film villains, got short black hair starting to go white on the sides. I'd know him anywhere."
"Good, we may need you to point him out for us," Hannibal told her, then he turned to address the others and added, "In the meantime, Stockwell's looking for us, we need to lay low for a while until we can figure what his game is…so we'll be staying here for a few days."
Murdock said nothing and merely smiled at that news.
"It's not that I think Stockwell's going to be tearing Los Angeles apart looking for us," Hannibal was explaining to B.A. later in the day, "Whatever he's doing, whatever his racket is, as far as he knows, he's got plenty bigger fish to fry than the four of us."
"Oh yeah?" B.A. asked, "Then why'd he set that plant man in to watch Decker? You know that man's only priority is catching us, it's all connected, Hannibal."
"Could be connected," he replied, "Could not be too."
"Don't start giving me your double talk jibber jabber," B.A. said, "You try confusing me and I'm gonna mess your face up, Hannibal."
"Wouldn't dream of it, B.A.," Hannibal remarked in his condescending 'we're not flying, B.A., don't worry' tone.
"If it ain't us he's after, why's he staking out Decker?" B.A. asked.
"Maybe the two have history together," Hannibal said.
B.A. snorted, "Like you and Decker have history together?"
"You know, B.A., it doesn't take long for those jokes to get old really fast," Hannibal said, sounding annoyed.
B.A.'s only response was one of his unusually high pitched giggles.
In the next room, Face took his ear away from the wall and told Murdock and Jean, "Some things never change."
"Well, I think Hannibal's wrong," Jean said, "Maybe what Stockwell's got planned is to have Decker killed and frame you guys for the murder."
"Why would he do that?" Face asked.
"You wouldn't be able to prove your innocence," Jean said, "And even if you could, they'd still get you for breaking out of Fort Bragg…and if this guy Stockwell is in any kind of position of authority, I'll just bet he'd be very willing to pull your necks off the chopping block if you agreed to do something for him."
Face let out a bitter chuckle, "You overestimate people, Jean."
"And you guys underestimate them, that's the problem," she replied, "We can't seem to find any common ground."
Murdock stood against the counter and just seemed to be biding his time; then as soon as Face left the kitchen, he crept up behind Jean and grabbed her and tried to kiss her.
"I'm not in the mood," Jean said as she elbowed him to put some space between them.
"What's the matter, hon?" Murdock asked, "You're not still upset about what happened this morning, are you?"
"Murdock," Jean turned to him, "This man either shot you himself or had one of his yes-men do it for him, I want his head on a silver platter." Her voice trailed off and lowered as she added, "And there's something else I need to tell you about…later, when we're alone."
"Me?" Murdock asked that night as the two of them lay in bed together, "You think Stockwell's after me?"
"It's the only thing that really made sense," Jean said, "You told me from the start to watch out for this guy because he might be a Spook, and if he is, what's he after? Probably somebody else who knows the Agency, and out of the four chuckleheads in this house, that's only you, the others don't even know that you served with the CIA."
Murdock shook his head, "No that's true, they do not…I never got around to telling them about it, though I almost did not too long ago."
"Murdock," Jean turned to him, "I am worried…"
The pilot was silent for a few seconds and seemed to be deep in thought, and a light bulb went off, "That's why you didn't want to go out on a date last time I was here…incase he'd have a spy watching for me out in the crowds somewhere."
Jean nodded, "I'm sorry."
Murdock crawled over to her side of the bed and slipped one arm around her and asked, "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because I didn't want you to know what I thought was going on," she answered, "I know, I should've, it's all come out anyway."
"You thought you was protecting me by keeping me here away from prying eyes, I understand that," he told her, "And I appreciate it."
Jean grabbed his wrist in her hands and she brought his hand up near her face and she squeezed it with both of her hands and said, her voice distant and her eyes not far off from being the same, "I remember how pale you were, when they brought you in to Maggie's, I remember the blood everywhere…you almost died and you weren't even the intended target. That is irrelevant though, whether Stockwell pulled the trigger himself or not, he's going to pay for what happened."
Murdock pulled her over towards him and patted her on the back comfortingly and told her, "Just leave it alone, darling, Hannibal's going to take care of everything."
Jean nodded glumly and responded, "That's the problem."
"Huh?" Murdock asked.
She shook her head, "Nothing."
"So what do you really think is going on?" Face asked Hannibal later that night when it was just the two of them still up, down in the living room.
"Honestly?" Hannibal asked, "I have no idea."
"Oh that makes me feel better," Face said as he sat down on the arm of the couch, "You don't think Jean could be onto something, do you?"
"That Stockwell's going to bump off Decker and leave us holding the bag for it?" Hannibal shook his head, "I doubt it."
"Well how're we going to catch this guy?" Face wanted to know, "He knows what we look like."
"He could know far more than that," Hannibal replied, "That's what we need to figure out."
"We?" Face asked as he scowled at Hannibal.
Hannibal turned and mockingly returned the stare, and he asked Face, "You ever wonder why Murdock always falls into place as second in command around here when I'm absent?"
"Never gave it a thought," Face smugly answered.
"Because he can come up with plans too," Hannibal told him.
"Ouch," Face cynically commented, "That supposed to hurt, Colonel?"
Hannibal lightly chuckled under his breath. But the next thing they heard was somebody screaming from upstairs.
"Not again," Face said as they jumped off the couch and took for the stairs.
The screams were coming from Jean's room, Hannibal about broke the door in and instantly reached for the light switch. When he hit it, he and Face were horrified to see that Murdock and Jean were struggling against each other on the bed, and Murdock had his hands around Jean's neck in a death grip. Jean was trying to scream but it came out in a choked garble; she reached a hand out and gouged the pilot in the eyes. He screamed and let go of her and she took that opportunity to move away from him. Hannibal and Face ran over to the bed, Hannibal grabbed Jean and all but carried her off the bed and out of the room to put as much distance between she and the Captain as possible, and Face stayed behind to see if Murdock was alright. It was obvious that what had just taken place was not something intentional or even conscious on Murdock's part; Jean had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time as he started to wake up from a nightmare flashing back to something in his past.
"Let go of me!" Jean kicked the air under her as she tried to break loose, "I have to get back in there."
"You need to stay right here," Hannibal replied as he came close to dropping her on the ground feet first, "Murdock's dangerous right now."
"I noticed," Jean told him.
She had a hand around her throat and was gasping for air as she slowly sunk to the floor, her mouth open in a silent gasping scream of pain.
"What happened?" Hannibal asked her.
"I don't know," Jean croaked out, "I was half asleep for a while and when he started flopping on the bed and groaning, I thought it was a dream at first. Then he rolled over to my side and was trying to squeeze the cider out of my Adam's apple."
"Women don't have Adam's apples," Hannibal said.
"Sure we do, see?" Jean tilted her head back to expose her throat, and just for dramatic effect, added a long drawn out 'ahhhhhhh' like she was having her tonsils examined.
"Are you alright, kid?" Hannibal thought to ask.
She nodded, "I think so," she moved to head back into the bedroom and added, "I have to see if he's alright."
Hannibal grabbed her by the back of her night shirt and told her, "Face is in there with him, he'll find out if Murdock's alright, in the meantime you are staying out here."
Jean turned to face him and told him defiantly, "You can't tell me what to do, Hannibal, I'm a grown woman."
"You're not too grown for me to take you over my knee if I see fit," he replied.
Jean pointed towards the bedroom door and said, "That's my husband in there."
"Wrong, that is my Captain in there," Hannibal told her, "And I'm going to be the one who goes back in there, not you."
"You can't stop me," Jean said.
"You wouldn't like me to try, believe me," he warned her.
"This is what I was trying to tell Murdock earlier," Jean exploded at him, "This is the problem, everything is still going to come down to him and his Team, it doesn't make any difference if I'm here or not."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Hannibal wanted to know.
"That's your Captain in there, you're going to march in and take charge, you're going to find out what's wrong with him," Jean mocked him, "Everything is about you, Hannibal, did you ever notice that?"
"I know my Team," he all but growled at her.
"That's exactly the problem," Jean replied, "I told you before, you never wanted us married, hell, you didn't even want to get Murdock out of the V.A., you were perfectly content with leaving him in there to rot because it was convenient to you!"
If there had been any conscious thought to it, there was no way to tell, all the same Hannibal reached back and smacked Jean across the face when she said that. Her immediate response was to retaliate and she backhanded him with enough force he lost his balance and felt his back make contact with the wall behind him. Jean had hardly moved from where she stood, but she was standing her ground, ready for a fight, it was obvious from the fire in her eyes as she glared at him. Hannibal hadn't moved from where he stood leaned against the wall, he knew that it was best he choose his next movements very carefully, Jean had one eye aimed towards his waist, waiting to see which way he'd move.
"I'm sorry, kid," he said somberly.
Jean didn't move except for a slow inhale that came out faster than it went in, "I wish I could say the same. But you know I have a hard time with it, even when I know I'm wrong."
"It's a start," he replied, and gave a small smile. Jean gave a smaller one in return, but it was also a start.
He could visibly see the fight leaving Jean and he deemed it safe to take a step towards her, then another, then he was close enough to grab her and pull her to him so she couldn't lash out and do anything she'd be sorry for later.
"Jean you have to understand and I know you understand, the reason I have to go in is because I know Murdock and I've seen him like this before, I know how to handle him when he's like this."
Jean pulled back from him and almost mournfully replied, "You see that's the problem, Hannibal…you know what's going on, you know how to deal with it…how am I supposed to marry Murdock when I can't even be trusted to help him? You know you're not always going to be here when he gets like this, so I'm going to have to figure out for myself what to do."
"You didn't serve with him, you don't know…"
"But I know Murdock," Jean said, "I've had plenty of time to get accustomed to him inside and out."
Hannibal motioned as if to say 'wait a minute', but no sound came out until he asked her, "Has this happened before?"
"Not Murdock," Jean answered as she shook her head.
"Face," Hannibal remembered.
She nodded, "Kind of funny, isn't it? For a man who's so opposed to getting violent with women, he has a long history of it with me…but Hannibal, if I'm ever going to be remarried to Murdock, then this is something I'm going to have to do, and if I fail, then I fail…there're already a few times I wasn't there for him when I should've been, I intend to now."
Hannibal thought about it for a minute before telling her, "We'll be close by if you need us."
"No eavesdropping," she warned him.
They headed back to the bedroom and saw Face standing by the bed and Murdock was curled in a ball with his knees planted on the mattress under him, slowly rocking back and forth on his knees, seemingly oblivious to everything and everyone around him. Hannibal signaled for Face to come out and leave them alone, and to do it quietly. Face didn't get it, but he left and Jean went in, shut the door, then headed over to the bed.
"I'm back, Murdock," she said.
He turned and looked at her, and told her, "You shouldn't be here."
"My house," she pointed out.
"You know what I mean," he said, "It's not safe."
"Nothing with you guys ever is, has that ever stopped me?" she asked as she climbed on the bed beside him.
Murdock looked down at the bedding, refusing to look up or make eye contact with her. "Jean, I'm sorry."
"Not half as sorry as I'm going to be tomorrow," Jean replied, "So what happened? I know what happened, but what was it?"
Murdock shook his head and said, "It wasn't 'Nam…and it wasn't the V.A. this time either."
That didn't leave a whole lot. Jean took a wild guess, "The CIA?"
Murdock's shoulders tightened and his knuckles whitened as he gripped the covers under him, "Probably something related to it. For a minute I thought…I thought I had Stockwell's throat in my hands."
Jean felt her throat again in remembrance and commented, "By all means, remember that if we run into him."
Murdock inched his way towards the edge of the bed and suggested, "Maybe it'd be better if I slept downstairs."
"The hell you will," Jean said, "Murdock, you remember last year when Face choked me in his sleep because he thought I was a Cong soldier?"
"I wasn't there when it happened," he reminded her.
"Still you remember," she said, "And you remember that not half an hour after that happened, the two of us were asleep together on the floor. If I could trust him after an episode like that, there's no reason I can't trust you."
Murdock sorrowfully hooked an arm around her and told her, "I'm sorry, Saint…I'm sorry."
"Hey, I've been getting it from all sides tonight," she said, trying to lighten the mood, "You know what Hannibal did after he dragged me out of here? He slapped me."
"What!?" Murdock asked, almost laughing.
"He slapped me, like this," Jean said, and tried to demonstrate on herself, "So I slapped him back, like this," and tried to demonstrate the backhand.
Now Murdock was laughing, if only slightly, and he told her, "I think I know you two well enough to know…if Hannibal smacked you then you must've done something to deserve it."
Jean nodded, "You'd be right…and if you'd been there you probably would've taken a turn too…I can really be horrible when I want to."
"You would be, if you ever meant it," Murdock told her and saw her through the corner of his eye, "I happen to know you don't, everybody who knows you knows that."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Jean replied.
Murdock gave her a weak smile and told her, "I am."
Jean scooted on her knees to get closer to Murdock, but he moved away from her.
"What's the matter now?" she asked.
Murdock moved clear over to the other end of the bed and he told her, "You might think it's safe but I'm not sure, and I don't want to hurt you again."
"What's the big deal?" Jean asked.
He turned to her and said, "You don't know what it was like…first I watched you bleeding to death on the floor of my helicopter, last time I pulled you out of the freezer as a life size TV dinner…I can guess what that was like for you having to go through it, but you don't know what it was like for me knowing there wasn't anything I could do either time. And last time, when I thought I'd lost you…"
Jean scooted over towards him again but this time he didn't try to move away. She could see his eyes welling up and knew it was just a matter of time before the dam burst.
He told her, "You were so cold, you were blue, there was no heartbeat, no pulse, there was nothing…I thought I'd lost you for good, I could never forgive myself if we'd been too late…"
Jean wriggled behind him and raised herself up enough so she was a head above him and patted her hands against his shoulders.
"And then we come back here, and you lunge right back into a line of work where you're always getting beat up, I don't like it, Jean, but I can't say anything about it because I know the work we do is even more dangerous…and that's also the problem because whenever you're with us you get beat up even worse." He shook his head grimly and added, "But I never thought that I'd be the one to hurt you."
"It happens," Jean told him, trying to sound dismissive, "If it doesn't happen one way, it happens another, it's inevitable." She dug her nails through his hair and added, "Now if it's been intentional that'd be one thing, but it wasn't, was it?"
He shook his head.
"See?" Jean asked, "Then there's nothing to worry about."
"What if it happens again?" he asked.
"Murdock," Jean said, "Has Face tried choking me again?"
"…No," he said.
"Well there you go," she told him, "And you know I've given him plenty of opportunities to consciously do it."
"I guess you're right," he replied, "But I'm worried."
Jean kissed him on the back of his head and told him, "It'll be alright, you'll see."
A few days later, Jean noticed that with five people in the house, the refrigerator was starting to get empty again, so she, Face and Murdock piled in her car and headed to the grocery store to restock. And naturally when 3 people were buying different groceries, nobody could agree on anything.
"What's wrong with a perfectly good pork tenderloin?" Face wanted to know.
Jean picked it up from the cart and asked, "This blackjack?" and tossed it back into the meat bin, "I can think of better things to waste that kind of money on."
"You're impossible," Face commented.
"That's why I usually do this alone," Jean said, "You know, Face, when you don't have clients you can charge $100,000 per job…"
"Shhhh!" he elbowed her when he thought he saw some people staring at them.
"Then," Jean continued, "You tend to buy only what you can afford, and in my position I've had to learn to get by on very little."
"Hey," Face looked around, "Where's Murdock?"
They both looked around and got the answer when Murdock came up with a large cabbage under each arm like a couple of basketballs.
"Well here's something definitely affordable," he said with a big grin on his face, "Some nice fresh cabbage!"
"Murdock," Jean gave him an annoyed look and told him, "Nobody has ever been that poor or that hungry," and with that she smacked one cabbage out of his grasp and it splattered on the floor.
"What'd you do that for?" Face asked as Murdock went to put the other cabbage back before it became coleslaw-ala-floor as well.
"I hate cabbage," Jean told him, "If the taste ain't bad enough, the stink lingers all through the house for days."
"Well," Face shrugged, "Hard to argue with that logic."
"Hey," Jean reached over and poked Face, "Any idea when we're going to be seeing your girlfriend again?"
"Huh?"
"Amy!" Jean told him.
"She's not…actually she called this morning and said that she'd like to get together at this little diner a few blocks down from here, uh, why don't you come along?"
"Oh you're going to let me be seen in the same public place as you?" Jean sarcastically asked, "Bless you, warden."
Any remark Face might've had was cut off when Murdock came back from another direction, this time wielding a large box of popsicles.
"This guy's practically a polar bear," Face told her, "I remember last winter we had a job in a cold climate and B.A. about lost his mind because we were in an atmosphere of 19 degree weather, 3 with the wind chill, and Murdock wanted ice cream!"
"So?" Jean asked, unfazed.
Face glared at her, "You don't find that weird?"
"What?"
"Why would anybody want ice cream in near subzero temperatures?" Face asked.
"Why would anybody want hot coffee in the dead of summer?" Jean asked.
"Good point," Murdock said, "Makes you wonder who the really crazy one is."
"My vote goes to the coffee drinkers," Jean said, "You'd have to be nuts to like that stuff anyway."
"Stockwell?" Amy repeated the name as she put her coffee cup down, "The name doesn't ring a bell, but I can do some snooping around and see if I come up with anything."
"If you can, we'd really appreciate it," Face said, "We're trying to get some kind of handle on this guy, maybe we can figure out what his game is."
"Anything that's illegal and a multi-million dollar business most likely," Jean commented, though it was muffled over the sucker in her mouth that she'd brought from the grocery store.
"Be quiet," Face told her.
The four of them sat at the counter up at the front of the diner: Face, Amy, Jean and Murdock, the Lieutenant had figured it would be the best seating arrangement, put a little distance between himself and that thing. Face tried talking to Amy but found himself turning to see what the other two were laughing about, and he was sorry he did when he saw the answer was Jean and Murdock were taking turns spinning each other's stool under them and making one another spin around like a record.
When that got tired, Jean picked up her fork and started dragging the teeth across a cloth napkin, making fine indentions in it.
"You saw that movie too, eh?" Murdock asked.
"I think so, only I don't remember the name of it," she replied, "I remember it was one of Hitchcock's…"
Face looked around the diner and told Amy, "You sure know how to pick a quiet spot to talk at, there's hardly anyone here."
"That was the idea," she replied.
In fact since it was so empty, even everyone of the staff who was usually up front was back in the kitchen at that time. So the four of them at the counter were the only ones who noticed the front doors opening and a couple of young men come in.
"Looks like trouble," Jean murmured under her breath to Murdock.
Amy had heard it too and she turned to ask Jean what she meant, and froze when she saw Jean was concealing her fork behind her napkin. She looked to the two men that came in and tried to figure what Jean was aiming at, and it hit her; if it looked like they were going to be trouble, Jean was going to slowly move towards them, and stab one of them with the fork…but she wouldn't…would she? With a heavy feeling in her stomach, Amy realized that there was only one person who could answer that question, only one who could make that decision, and that was one of those two chuckleheads who had just walked in the door.
"Hey!" one yelled at them, "Where is everyone?"
"Ah, they're in the back," Face answered, "They'll be out in a minute."
But a minute passed, and nobody came out, and meanwhile the tension was thick enough it could be cut with.
Click.
Face knew that sound without even turning around, but he did, and he saw one of the two punks had pressed the button on a switchblade.
"I think they supply their own cutlery here," he said by way of Hannibal's unflappable humor.
"Get up," he told them, "All of you, nice and slow, don't try anything funny."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Face commented as they slowly stood up and raised their hands.
"Turn around, slow," the other man told them.
All four obeyed as they were commanded. Jean had one hand in her pocket and she was ordered to take it out, she pulled out the napkin.
"Open it up," the first man told her.
Jean shrugged and made a slow show of unfolded the napkin to show there wasn't anything in it, at the last second she pulled the fork out of it and tried to lunge at one of the men, but he grabbed her by the wrist and was about to cut her when he was hit by a hot cup of coffee that Face had tossed on him. The next thing Face knew, he was struggling with the other man for the knife, which was slowly but surely pointing itself dangerously closer towards him. Murdock had charged into action to take care of the other man so Face didn't get ambushed, and those two were rolling around on the floor with each other.
Amy reached over the counter and grabbed the pot of hot coffee and tossed it on the man Face was fighting with; causing him to drop the knife and howl in pain at the hot water scalding his back. Jean almost casually walked up to the other two fighting on the floor and watched Murdock struggle with the second man; she held out her hand and opened her mouth and let her sucker fall out. She wrapped her hand around the now misshapen sugary sphere, so the stick stuck out at the bottom, then she brought her hand and the sucker up over her head and lunged down, jabbing the man twice in the back with the stick. If she'd actually punctured the skin it was too soon to tell, but it had the desired effect of unleashing sudden and unexpected pain on the man so for a few seconds he forgot about the matter at hand, giving Murdock the upper hand to knock him senseless.
Face's assailant was up for the count again, so Amy broke the coffee pot over his head, but that had even lesser effect than the coffee had, so she ran back towards the counter and he followed her. Amy doubled back at the last second and used the momentum to grab the man by the back of his head and knock it against the counter a couple of times. That succeeded in actually stunning him and after that he slid down to the floor with a gash on the side of his forehead.
One of the cooks came out of the back when they heard the commotion and looked shocked, understandably so. Face told her to call the police and they'd keep an eye on their guests until the cops came. Now that the noise had died down, Amy looked at the man on the floor and looked physically sickened by what she'd done; horrified at her own brutality that she'd been able to display in the heat of the moment.
Jean just stood back admiring the work and told Amy, "Nice job, I think you're learning."
Amy turned to Jean and looked like she was going to go out of her mind as she practically screeched, "Learning what?"
Jean simply answered, "How to survive in the city of dragons, something most of us already had to learn the hard way."