It was a good thing Face had decided they should move Hannibal to a hospital when he did, because shortly after they made that decision, Hannibal started sweating bullets and groaned and moaned in agony like he was being murdered and he was clutching his stomach, and he seemed to turn a shade paler than before. Working quickly and carefully, B.A and Face got him out to the van, but Hannibal got sick twice between the porch steps and the van, fortunately the only thing he had in him to lose was a little water, but still it convinced them all the more that they had to hurry. Jean and Murdock jumped in with the others and they drove to the closest hospital, which was half a mile away from Jean's home. They took only a minute to look around and decide what they must do; when they had a chance, one of them would come back out and move the van so it would still be close by, but not the first thing somebody saw when they went past the hospital parking lot.

When they reached the hospital, B.A. and Face got on either side of Hannibal and helped walk him in while Jean and Murdock ran on ahead to inform the administration nurse of their newest patient. They identified themselves as the Tuttle family, she was Melinda, Murdock was Dwight, Face was Dirk, and Hannibal was their grandpa. As bad as Hannibal was looking right now it didn't take any stretch of the imagination to see him as an older man than he really was.

Hannibal was taken off to the ER by a large orderly and Murdock tried to follow after him but the doctors made it clear that family members weren't allowed to go in. And since nobody wanted their cover blown and Decker called in even sooner than he likely would be, possibly when Hannibal would be in surgery, everybody had to restrain themselves, especially B.A., and fight against the urge to beat some sense into the people running the hospital. B.A. went back the way they'd come in to go move the van, and Face helped Jean and Murdock fill out the forms for Hannibal, and everybody was just biding their time waiting to hear what the doctors found.

"Hannibal's going to be alright, isn't he?" Murdock asked Face. It had been the 10th time in 15 minutes that he had asked it, and everybody's patience were starting to wear thin.

"I'm sure he will, Murdock, you know how Hannibal is," Face replied.

Jean nodded weakly, "He's a tough old bird, Decker would have to bomb him to get rid of him."

Usually Murdock could look any situation dead in the face and never flinch, it was one of the things that made him so unusual; no matter what was going on he always knew how to hold himself together, but this time he was losing it. He didn't make eye contact with the others and tried looking away but they could tell the dam was just about to break. Jean reached over and pulled him towards her; his head on her shoulder, his neck cradled in the crook of her arm, she flicked his baseball cap off and stroked through his hair. She tried to sound convincing as she told him, "Hannibal's going to be alright," but her own voice was breaking and they were both crying in anticipation of the worst case scenario when the doctor came back.

Face was tempted to scream at them both to stop it but he couldn't, he felt the exact same way they did, he just didn't show it as easily. Something was wrong, that much was obvious. Hannibal might've had his share of sick days but he never let on to them, and he was never in as vulnerable a position as they'd all seen him in during the last few days. It was like he wasn't even Hannibal anymore, as if he had been replaced with a shell of his former self. Nobody knew what to make of it, and nobody could help expecting the worst.


It seemed like an eternity before the doctor finally came out to talk to them and she explained that their grandfather needed to have his appendix taken out. It seemed that he'd only started suffering from an appendicitis a couple of hours ago, and that his ongoing fever had been from a pre-existing condition, though they weren't sure yet what it was. In spite of this however, she didn't appear to be worried about additional risks following Hannibal's operation, or the recovery. He was being prepped for surgery and had already been given anesthesia but after the others heavily prodded the subject, they were told they could see him for a minute before he was taken to the OR.

Everybody stayed close to one another, as if nobody dared get more than a few inches away from the others, as if the floor or the walls might open up and swallow one of them if they weren't all right beside each other. Nobody wanted to be here and as much as they had to see Hannibal to know he was still alive, nobody wanted to go past the doors and see how he looked right now either; none of them would admit it but they were all afraid of what they might find.

Face was the first one to enter the room and he couldn't stop the gasp that escaped him. The others got around him to see Hannibal and they were of the same mind. Hannibal had aged 20 years since he'd been taken away to the ER half an hour ago. His eyes were closed, his breathing was slow, something had happened between then and now to make him look very much like an old man, far older than he was or how he had previously looked.

"Hannibal?" Face's voice was shaking as he approached the man on the gurney.

Hannibal opened one eye and looked up, and he weakly smiled at Face, but he didn't say anything.

"Hannibal, how're you feeling?" Murdock asked as he also crowded in on the man.

It took him a few seconds to open his mouth but he answered that he was fine. Then he saw Jean standing over him and he smiled at her.

"You're going to be alright, aren't you, Hannibal?" she asked.

"Oh sure," he answered, already halfway to cloud 9, "I'll be fine."

"That's good," she said, "We've all been worried about you, especially Murdock."

Hannibal closed his eyes and shook his head, "Murdock doesn't have anything to worry about, everything's going to be fine, these things always work out in the end."

Nobody understood what he was saying but they took that as a sign that he was slipping further under sedation. The doctor and a nurse came into the room and told them that they had to leave now.

"Grandpa," Jean said to Hannibal, getting down in his face so she knew she'd have his attention, "We've got to go now but we're going to see you in a little bit, alright?"

Hannibal turned his head to the side and smiled at her. Then he looked back up at the doctor and the nurse and, weakly raising his arm to point at Jean he told them, "This is my granddaughter…she's going to have a baby soon."

Jean's eyes were wide as saucers and her bottom jaw had dropped; and as she looked to the others she found likewise stares being returned at her when he said that.

Hannibal reached around and found Face's hand and gripped it in his own as he further explained to the nurse, "This is my 18 year old daughter, she just got her hair cut, doesn't she look cute?"

Now it was Face's turn to look as confused as all hell, and he was tempted to ask how much stuff they'd given Hannibal.

Next Hannibal found Murdock and added, "This is my son, Billy, nice boy but he thinks he's a dog, you gotta go along with it and humor him." Then he tilted his head back and pointed to B.A., "That's my grandson, Lawrence."

"Alright, Mr. Tuttle," the doctor said as two orderlies came in, "We're going to take you off to the operating room now, so tell your family goodbye."

Hannibal couldn't keep his eyes open anymore, and could barely raise his hand, but he waved to them and called, "Byeeeee."

"We'll be waiting for you, Grandpa," Face told him.

They stayed behind for a minute after he was wheeled out, then they slowly walked out and headed back to the waiting room.

"An appendicitis, that's all it is, I can't believe it," Face said.

"That's not all it is," Murdock replied, "But the doctor didn't seem to be too worried about the other thing, so I guess it means he'll be alright."

"I think I'm going to be sick again," Jean said.

Murdock grabbed her hand and said, "Come on, I saw the bathrooms are down this way."

It took Face a couple of seconds to catch on to what Murdock said, and when he did he followed behind them and said, "Murdock, I don't think that's a good idea." But Murdock was already escorting her into the women's room, and Face waited to hear the screaming start, but there wasn't any, all he heard through the door was Murdock saying, "Excuse me, ladies, my wife's feeling rather poorly."

Face walked away from the door and headed back to where B.A. was sitting in the waiting room. Face started to sit down, but stopped and looked back down the hall where they'd gone.

"What is it, man?" B.A. asked.

Face looked back at B.A. and said, "I just had a disturbing thought, do you think Hannibal might've been right?"

"Right about what?" B.A. asked.

Face jerked his thumb back the way Murdock and Jean had gone and he said, "Jean said Hannibal kept touching her stomach and smiling at her, he thought she was pregnant."

"Man been running a fever for four days, man also said I was his grandson, and you his daughter, so what?" B.A. asked.

Face glanced back to the restroom door and said, "I don't know."


Murdock held the door open as Jean stepped out of the bathroom. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I think so," she replied as they went back to the waiting area.

B.A. and Face sat in two of the chairs in the waiting room, each the exact opposite of the other; B.A. was leaned back in his and about to tip the chair against the wall, Face sat hunched over like he was ready to fall out of his at a moment's notice. When he saw them coming back he got up and asked, "How're you feeling, Jean?"

"I'm better now," she answered.

"Uh, Jean, can I ask you a personal question?" Face asked.

"Sure."

"Okay…well, I don't know if anybody ever told you this, but when you told us that you and Murdock had gotten married, when Hannibal talked to Murdock about it he asked Murdock if you were pregnant."

Jean stared at him with a blank look, a very deadpan expression, and a most uninterested tone as she said only, "Uh-huh," signaling for him to continue with his question.

"Well…are you?" he asked.

Jean turned to look at Murdock but saw that B.A. had also leant an ear into the conversation, now he was leaning forward as well to listen to her answer. She looked at him and snapped, "Is everybody in on this?" B.A. didn't say anything but the slight difference in the look on his face said that he was surprised by her outburst, and he picked up his chair and moved it a couple feet over and away from them.

Jean looked back at Face and said, "Face, I'm going to tell you something and I'm only going to explain this once, so pay attention. In all the history of the world, in all the thousands of years that mankind has been running around this planet, there has only been room in all of it for one miracle child, and I ain't the mama for it."

"I see," he replied sheepishly, "Well thanks for clearing that up."

"Do you believe that, Murdock?" Jean asked as she walked over to him, "Pregnant, me, now that's a bad joke."

Murdock tried to laugh but it was obvious his heart wasn't fully into it. Everybody sat back down and waited for an update from the doctor. Nobody said anything to each other but the noises they made were enough to rattle one another's nerves to the edge; for the most part the only sound any of them made was their own breathing but right now even that sounded ten times louder than before. Murdock tried to hold still in his chair but one leg shook and his foot rattled against the floor so much everybody thought he was going to wear down the ball in his foot to a flat surface.

"How long does it take to remove somebody's appendix?" Jean asked Face finally.

"I don't know," he answered, "Supposed to be a very common procedure, half an hour I guess."

"How long's it been?" she asked.

Face checked his watch and said, "About fifteen minutes."

"And what if there're complications?" Jean asked.

Face didn't want to think about that but he couldn't because much as he tried not to, he couldn't help wondering the same thing. Nobody was willing to admit that Hannibal was not as young as he once was and what laid ahead on that particular road; but right now it felt like the answer had been dropped in their laps at warp speed. And maybe there wasn't a connection, maybe this still would've happened in the way it happened if he was a younger man, they didn't know, but none of them could shake the horrible feeling looming over them that things were only going to get worse.


Hannibal was aware of two things; the first was that he couldn't open his eyes, the second was that he couldn't hear anything. He didn't know where he was but for some reason that didn't bother him. It also didn't really bother him that he couldn't see anybody, because he doubted he would've wanted to anyway. The last thing he could remember was seeing those doctors in the operating room, he was in no mood for playing 20 questions with them when he opened his eyes and they tried to find out how he was responding to whatever they had done.

He liked the quiet and the dark, he doubted he would be there long but in the meantime it gave him a chance to be still and just think. He felt like his mind was spinning, a whole menagerie of memories and thoughts were jammed together like animals on a merry-go-round, and which one would come up and stop first he didn't know. A few memories went past him in a flash: Face, B.A., Murdock, Jean, he didn't know where he was seeing them from but he guessed from when they first got into the hospital, he couldn't make out the background surrounding them but that sounded right. And then the picture changed and everything turned to pitch blackness, followed by a blood curdling scream. Somehow Hannibal knew that this wasn't a dream, it was a memory, he was remembering something that had occurred several years ago.

It was still in the first year since they'd gotten back to L.A. after escaping the stockade, and this was he guessed about the 4th time since Murdock's commitment that they'd busted him out of the V.A. It had been too late in the night to take him back so Hannibal had told Face that Murdock could stay with him at his apartment. What was the worst that could happen? Apparently a 3 A.M. wakeup call from the man in the next bed screaming like a banshee. Hannibal threw on the lights and went over to the other bed and grabbed the man who was about to hit the ceiling and forced him to wake up.

"Murdock!" he was screaming at the man to be heard over his own screaming, "What is it!?"

Murdock got out a couple of shorter, quieter screams, and then reality kicked in, or whatever reality was now for the pilot. He saw Hannibal standing over him and he collapsed against him, grabbing handfuls of the colonel's pajama shirt and using it to wipe his eyes on as he burst into tears.

"Murdock, what's wrong?"

It took Murdock a couple of times before he could be heard coherently, "Hannibal please, don't make me go back to the V.A."

This was still early into Murdock's residing there and he still hadn't gotten used to the place yet. Hannibal also knew that Murdock was still in the midst of perfecting his trick of pretending to take his pills and then disposing of them later, sometimes he couldn't help swallowing whatever medications they were trying to put him on, and he always paid dearly for that because they never did what they were supposed to and had strange effects on him. Any time Murdock could get a heads up on when they were coming for him he especially tried to make sure he didn't actually swallow his pills, but they'd made a couple of unexpected drops and had seen him in one of his worse conditions, under the influence of whatever they'd stuffed down his throat. He knew there were other things that went on there that were also an abomination to mankind; electroshock therapy was apparently making a very popular comeback. Somehow though even that didn't seem as bad as what the medication did to Murdock.

"I'm sorry, Murdock," he said as he took a step back to break Murdock's grip on his shirt, "I wish we didn't have to."

"Can't I just stay here?" Murdock asked, "I won't be in your way."

Hannibal shook his head, "Believe me, Captain, I wish it were that easy."

Murdock wiped the bottom of his hand under one eye and asked, "What about Faceman? Do you think he'd…"

"Murdock, it's not that," Hannibal told him, "You weren't considered responsible for helping us with the bank job in Hanoi because they thought you were insane."

"So?"

"So you're not considered a threat the army needs to watch out for, you're not a fugitive."

"I'd rather be a fugitive than be locked up in that place," Murdock told him, "It can't possibly be as bad as it is there."

Hannibal knew there was something else to the whole thing, the nightmares. Oddly enough, the man had, as far as they knew, very few nightmares either in 'Nam or about it. The last time he could recall it happening was when Murdock had crashed his plane. But he was finding out nightmares were much more frequent for Murdock ever since he'd been committed at the V.A.; not a nightly basis but frequent enough that he held off sleeping whenever he could. Recently the captain had confided in Hannibal that he managed to go one whole week without any sleep but then the doctors caught on and had him forcibly sedated, which left him asleep for two whole days, much to his horror when he found out.

"Murdock, I'm sorry, I wish there was another way around this, but right now there isn't. The word about our last mission is already getting around and when the army hears about it, they're going to start putting two and two together on just how we managed to get over to Brazil to rescue that scientist's daughter. They're going to know we flew over, and they're going to come to the V.A. to see you about it, and if you're not there, then they're going to know."

Murdock suddenly became eerily quiet and he looked down towards the floor. Rising up on his knees, he scooted back on the bed and put some distance between himself and the Colonel.

It was bad enough being considered the bad guy by his own country and the men he served alongside during the war, but if there was anything Hannibal hated, it was having to be the bad guy with his own men. But it was a role he'd had to play more than once already and probably would many more times in the future. He wasn't proud of it but he accepted this as an inevitable fact since he was their leader and if that position would fall on anybody's shoulders, it only made sense that it would be him. He sat down beside Murdock who was looking the other way and reached over to squeeze his shoulder but Murdock moved back again.

"Now I'm sorry, Murdock," he told the captain, "But there's nothing we can do about it right now." He leaned over to see if Murdock would look at him, but he would not. "However…I imagine it'll take the army a few days to get word about the mission…I think it can be arranged to let you stay here for another day."

That made Murdock turn around to look at him. Well, it was a start anyway.

"Now, do you remember what you're going to say when they do come to see you at the hospital?" Hannibal asked.

"Yeah," Murdock slowly answered, "When they come into my room I tell them about how all the little spiders that run up and down the walls all day gather together on the ceiling at night and are planning to cocoon everybody in a massive web when they're all in their beds asleep, and then they can feast off of our flesh and eyeballs for the rest of their lives and the lives of their 500,000 children and grandchildren and great-great grandchildren."

Hannibal clapped his hand on Murdock's shoulder and this time he didn't move away. "Good work, Captain."


That had been so long ago. Murdock had been so young then, hell they all had been; nobody would ever believe that the man he'd been then was the same person that he was now. So much had changed over the years; in time Murdock had managed to fool all the doctors and the nurses, and he'd gotten so he actually liked staying at the V.A., at least that's what he told them, and if he didn't then he had perfected his act for all their benefits. Hannibal would've preferred if they could've gotten Murdock discharged 10 years ago but at the time they just hadn't seen any possible way to make it happen.

Now, thank God, all of that was behind them, now Murdock was legally sane, and he never had to go back to the V.A., a milestone event that made everybody happy…well almost. Hannibal remembered that B.A. always complained whenever Murdock had to stay with him for a week, but other than that there were no complaints about the captain's newfound freedom. Hannibal was happy for Murdock, now at least one of them could hope for a semi-normal life; now Murdock was free to get married, have kids, raise a family.

He remembered when Jean announced that she and Murdock had gotten married, and he remembered the things he'd said to her and now that time had passed he wasn't feeling too proud about most of them. He remembered assuming the worst from her in the beginning, never explicitly saying it but downright accusing her of stringing Murdock along, and with intent or not, of going to be responsible for hurting him someday. And it had happened, he remembered when Murdock announced he wasn't sure he wanted to be married anymore, and when he asked Jean about it all she'd had to say to Hannibal was, "You can say 'I told you so' now." At the time he hadn't realized how awful he'd acted towards her in the beginning, but he'd had plenty of time to think about it now.

What Hannibal really remembered was the night that Jean announced they were going to get their marriage annulled, and the morning after. They'd gone down to the bar and found Murdock there, and he'd seen how upset the captain was, but he knew it would be worse when they were home, in private. He drove them both back to Jean's house and then he, Face and B.A. had left and stayed in a motel for the night, to give them the privacy they needed for what was going to come next. They had gone back to the house early the next morning, and Hannibal decided to see what damage control needed to be done first. He knew that they wouldn't find the place torn up or the furniture destroyed, that was beneath both of them; but when they went through the first floor and didn't see anything wrong or anybody there, Hannibal quietly crept up the stairs, keeping an ear open for any fighting.

The whole house had been quiet as a tomb, and Hannibal didn't know if that was a good sign or not. He came to their bedroom door and saw it was ajar, he still didn't hear anything so he pushed it open and looked in. The sun wouldn't be up for another hour but it was still light enough in the room to see them, and it was a heartbreaking sight. He could see them lying on the bed with their arms wrapped so tightly around one another, they almost looked like conjoined twins they were so closely put together; and even though the room was still dark he could see both of their faces were wet with matching half-dried tear streaks from crying all night. He didn't need to know what had gone on here the night before, he was just glad they'd left them alone for it to happen. But it was obvious how shortsighted he had been when he'd spoken of Murdock being hurt by a mock marriage, in that instant it was very clear that the pain was mutual, and Jean was hurting from it just as much as Murdock was.

Hannibal couldn't help feeling partly responsible for this, even though he knew it was not because of him that they were ending the marriage; they were too smart to let something as petty as a third party or even three third parties be the reason for that. In the beginning he had been against the marriage and had even told Murdock he saw it coming to a crashing halt, and now that it was he wished that it wasn't. For the life of him, he couldn't think of two other people who were more perfect together, who if anybody should be married, they seemed the most likely. Even now he could tell that it wasn't really what either of them wanted, but Murdock had decided it was the best decision for all involved. But even the Captain couldn't act convincing when he'd told them that, Hannibal didn't get why Murdock truly decided they should do this.


Face looked to the end of the waiting room and could see all the way back to the front desk where they'd spoken to the administrative nurse when they brought Hannibal in. "Uh-oh," he said.

"What is it?" B.A. asked.

"See that nurse over there?" Face asked.

B.A. turned his head to see what Face was seeing. At the front desk was a young nurse who they had seen earlier but only briefly, she was looking over something on a chart and she looked apprehensive about it.

"I'll bet you anything she's finding our form for Hannibal," Face said, "The Tuttles be damned, she knows something's up, and you can be sure she's going to be the one to blow the whistle on us to Decker."

They watched and waited to see what she would do. Hannibal was still in surgery so the last thing they needed was a 20-MP escort to Leavenworth right now. But the nurse put the chart down and started sorting through other papers on the desk. Face waited for the moment when she'd pick up the phone and dial a number, but she never did.

"Maybe you're wrong," B.A. said.

Face shook his head, "I don't think so…she can see us so she's not going to call the United States Army with us right here watching her, she's going to wait until we leave this room."

"She can't wait for too long because we'll be gone," B.A. reminded him.

A light bulb went off in Face's head and he realized what it meant, "No, B.A., we're not going to be going anywhere and she knows it…she knows that Hannibal is not going to be leaving this hospital anytime soon. And I don't think it just means the usual three day recovery from an appendectomy, I think she knows that something else is wrong with Hannibal than just what the doctors are telling us."

"Like what?" B.A. asked.

"I don't know…but I'm getting the feeling that he's not going to be leaving the operating room anytime soon," Face told him.

"We'll see about that," B.A. replied.

Face wanted to laugh, "What do you want to do, B.A., assist? We have to wait, that's all there is to it, but I'll tell you something, the minute somebody walks through here I'm going to find out what the holdup is."

B.A. pointed his thumb towards the nurse, "And her?"

"Hannibal's going to be in the hospital overnight, they can't have us taking up the chairs all night, they're probably anticipating we'll stay with him, and that's going to be when she calls the army to let them know that we're here."

B.A. snorted and replied, "Might be a long wait."

"Yeah," Face turned and realized why the waiting room was so quiet, "Hey, Murdock and Jean still aren't back yet. I wonder what's keeping them?"

"I'll go find them," B.A. said as he stood up, "Knowing that crazy fool, Murdock, he probably stuffed a pillow in his shirt and went up to the maternity ward pretending to be in labor."

Face managed a weak smile in reminiscence as he noted, "Wouldn't be the first time."

B.A. went down the corridor checking the doors on his left and right to see if any were open, and watching everybody who walked past him to make sure Murdock wasn't one of them. He stopped in his tracks when he started to pass by one closed door and he heard someone crying, turning around he put his ear near the door and could hear it sounded like Jean. He pushed the door open and the room was dark, he couldn't see Jean but he could hear her, and based on the outlines of the things he could see he guessed this was a utility closet or something of the sort, one of the few semi-private places to find in a hospital.

Apparently Jean had heard the door open and saw the light coming in because she became quiet, and B.A. could hear her get up, it sounded like she was in the far corner of the room where the light wouldn't hit her. He reached for the light switch but nothing happened, she must've taken the bulb out when she came in here. He stepped into the room and shut the door part way so only a sliver of light made its way in, and stepping towards where he sensed Jean was, he asked her, "Hey mama, what's wrong?"

She drew in a shaky inhale and said quietly, "Nothing, B.A.," a weak laugh was wrenched from her as she added, "Just reflecting on what a miserable excuse for a person I am."

He took another step towards her, and heard her take a step away from him. "What're you talking about?" he asked her, "You been around Murdock too long and finally gone crazy too?"

One particularly gut wrenching sob escaped her and immediately B.A. was sorry he'd said anything, he knew how much Jean liked Murdock, she had to since she actually went through and married him. But apparently that wasn't the problem, when she calmed down she told him, "All we're doing is sitting around waiting, waiting for somebody to come out and tell us if Hannibal's alright, if he's going to live or die…I've never been so worried about anyone in my life...and I honestly doubt I'd even feel this bad if it were my own father in the operating room. My own family I could care less about than that man in the operating room right now. What's that say about me?"

Her guard was down and B.A. took advantage of it, he sidestepped around the junk in the room and grabbed her before she could move away from him again. Jean screamed and resisted but he held her tight against him so she couldn't get away, and he felt her collapse against him as she started crying again. He didn't say anything, he wasn't accustomed to it, and there wasn't much to say, but one thought running through his mind at that moment was that this was not his strong suit. Jean always had a hard-as-nails cover surrounding her and few things could chip underneath its surface. As far as he knew, only Murdock had ever been able to do that, but it was all only suspect, he could think something all he wanted, but whatever happened between this girl and that crazy fool was their own business, they never said anything to anybody. All the same, B.A. wondered where the hell Murdock was right now because it should've been him doing this now.

Something touched him and he felt himself become paralyzed. His shoulder was wet and the warm drops trailed down his arm, it felt too familiar. It wasn't tears, it was blood he was feeling, warm blood trickling down his skin, he remembered, Hannibal's blood. He remembered the night they'd escaped from the Federal Building with a couple dozen MPs after them and shooting at them. Hannibal had been hit in the shoulder and another bullet had just grazed his temple, somebody had smiled down on him that night and decided to spare him, another fraction of an inch and his brains would've been blown out. He'd tripped and fallen face down and wasn't getting up; B.A. had called his name as he ran back to get the Colonel, there was no response. B.A. hauled Hannibal to his feet and dragged him along to the van, in that time Hannibal's blood had leaked onto him and was running down his arms. That had been another horrible night, another time when they couldn't get Hannibal to wake up; they'd gotten back to his apartment where once he did wake up he'd be the most comfortable, and they had all sat up half the night waiting to see if he would regain consciousness or not.

His mind returned to the here and now and he heard Jean starting to calm down, he loosed his death grip on her and patted her high on the back as he told her, "It's gonna be okay, mama, ain't nothing wrong with you, it's only so hard now with Hannibal 'cuz he's here. He has a tendency to grow on you and be like a father, whether you want him to or not, trust me."

Jean's voice was still breaking as she pulled away from him and said, "I just want this whole mess to be over."

"Yeah I know," he told her, "It will be soon enough…come on, let's go find Murdock, last thing I need is both of ya falling apart on me."

Jean laughed as she went with him and left the supply closet. They went down the corridor and turned the corner and B.A. saw Murdock heading their way. "Hey man, come over here and get your wife!"

Murdock practically floated over to them and he saw Jean and asked her, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jean insisted, "The doctors still haven't come back yet and nobody's told us anything."

Murdock groaned and put his arm around her and they walked back to the waiting room.

"What is taking so long?" Jean asked, "It's been almost an hour now."

"Maybe there were complications," Face reluctantly admitted.

"What does that mean though?" Jean asked.

"I don't know," he replied, "Maybe his appendix ruptured during the surgery, I don't know…I hate hospitals, I always avoid them as much as possible."

"The only people who don't are the really sick ones," Jean said, "Not sick because they're ill, sick because they consciously decide to come to this place without it being a last resort."

After that everybody tried being quiet and sitting still but nobody was having much luck. Jean leaned against Murdock's ribs and was about asleep, but he felt like he needed to get up and move around or he might really lose it. He looked down at his wife and asked her, "You feeling alright, Jean? You're looking a little pale."

"Mm-hmm," she tiredly murmured.

Murdock heard a terrible noise and about jumped, when he realized it was Jean's stomach growling. "You hungry?"

"Mm-hmm," she repeated as she opened her eyes.

"Come on," he said as he stood up, "Let's go get something to eat."

Jean groaned and said, "I don't want anything from that lousy cafeteria."

"That's alright," Murdock told her, "I saw a vending machine down the hall."

"I already tried it," she said, "It doesn't work."

Murdock looked at her and said, "That never stopped me before." He saw the weird look on her face and asked her, "Didn't I ever tell you about the time I squeezed myself into the back of an ATM machine?"


Hannibal wasn't sure how much time had passed. It was still dark and quiet, and for the time being he still liked that. He was sure those damn doctors were around somewhere just waiting for him to wake up, he would keep them waiting. He'd kept every member of the Los Angeles branch of the Military Police waiting to see him rotting behind bars for over 10 years, this would be nothing. He'd had plenty of time to think back on what had happened the last few months. One thing that his mind kept going back to was Murdock and Jean. He'd tried examining their situation from every possible angle and he still couldn't make any sense of it. They'd gotten married with, so far as he knew, no intention of it being a real marriage, somewhere along the way though it seemed to be developing into one, and now that it was in the process of becoming one, now they were cutting the cord on it and letting it go. And why? Murdock had told him it was so Jean wasn't a liability, so she wouldn't be an additional target on Decker's radar; but she was already involved, she had seen to that the minute she shoved her gun in Decker's stomach and threatened to shoot him. If Murdock hadn't already held the title, Hannibal would've sworn Jean was the crazy one.

No, not crazy, he knew better than that. In so short a time Jean had been exposed to so much death, and had had her own share of responsibility for so many deaths, and had been at the door herself and made her way back, after that Hannibal knew, few things could pose any real threat for someone in that position. She never worried about her own life, every insane thing she did was to ensure their getaway instead. He tried to laugh but it hurt him to try, Jean was the only person he knew who had the nerve to actually get in Decker's face and tell him where to shove it; she wasn't property of the United States army, he couldn't dictate what happened to her, especially since she always had an escape of her own planned and ready to execute at a moment's notice. By now it was impossible for Hannibal to consider what kind of person she might have been if she hadn't been put through the hell she was, the nightmare that had brought them all together in the first place. He'd never tell it to Jean, but it seemed obvious to him that it was just meant to happen, everything that she had been through, everything they'd all had to endure in that time and place, it was all meant to fall into place the way it had. It was a macabre way to look at the way life panned out, but that didn't stop it from being true.

Something else Hannibal remembered was the night that she and Murdock had started filling out the papers to begin the annulment, and Jean had made the joke that she was glad if they had to do this, it was before they had children. He also remembered his own thoughts at that time about how, since Murdock was so good with children, and other people who needed to be dealt with delicately, he would be a good father, that he would be great with children. Aside from B.A., Murdock was probably the most qualified member of the Team to deal with children because he was very childlike himself most of the time.

It had been the age old question, was it real, was it an act, was Murdock insane, was he just playing insane? They'd never really known the answer. Hannibal believed that B.A. was partly right; when Murdock crashed his plane it had shaken him up completely, and he honestly believed the poor man's brain went along for the earthquake. But did it make him insane? He didn't think so. Murdock prided himself on being insane, so Hannibal would never say anything to him, but he always believed Murdock was perfectly sane, just not what some people would call 'normal'. He thought back again to when they first returned to Los Angeles, and Murdock first went into the V.A., he had been so much younger then, he was practically a child himself. Of course, from the eldest person's stance in any group, anyone who's younger is always regarded as a child, but with Murdock it seemed especially true. Yes, Face was the youngest of them all, but he carried himself as a much older, more mature, more sophisticated man, it went with the territory of his work of being a conman and a charmer by nature. But Murdock? No, for all intents and purposes, he was still just a boy, and that was why Hannibal had suggested the problem with their marriage now was that they had both gotten married too young.

That got him to thinking and the merry-go-round started again and all his thoughts started racing around, and he wondered just what it would be like if Murdock did have children. He smiled as he considered the possibilities.