A hum of content could be heard in Hannibal's throat as his head slightly swayed from one side to the other. The doctor had given him a shot for the pain, which the others were surprised to find out he needed when in the beginning he pulled off one leather glove and bit down on it when the doctor started removing the small pieces of metal lodged in his leg. By now, the procedure was already over, all the pieces had been removed, his wounds had been cleaned out and now the doctor was bandaging up his leg correctly, and Hannibal appeared to be halfway to cloud nine from the drugs.
"Does he always do this?" Jean asked Face.
"I've never seen him act like this," Face told her.
"Oh that's just a special cocktail they give the patients when they're really hurting," Murdock explained.
"They use it on you?" she asked.
"Nah, but I've known a lot of the people that get it," he said, "They put a little tranquilizer in with it so you'll sleep like a baby once you get put back in your room."
"Yeah well he's not setting up residency here," Face reminded Murdock, "We're getting him out of here and taking him home."
"Wouldn't that be a hoot though if they'd put him in with Decker?" Jean asked, "Two colonels recuperating side by side."
Face laughed and said, "Oh I could just see that. Incidentally do you know if the place is still surrounded?"
"All the fanfare's dying off now, Bullen left a few minutes ago," Jean said, "All the same it probably wouldn't hurt to steal a few scrubs and masks to make our run for it." When the men looked at her she shook her hands and said, "I'll have them put it on our bill…" looking at Hannibal she added, "And the cost of two pillows."
The men turned back to the bed and saw that Hannibal had fallen asleep, turned on his side and was hugging both the pillows behind his head in a death grip, and they noted he had a big smile on his sleeping face.
"Must be a good cocktail," Jean commented.
"Another satisfied customer," Murdock said.
"I'll just have them put it all on the bill," Jean said, "I'll go get that taken care of."
"Incidentally," Face stopped her before she left, "You got the bill for Hannibal's surgery, didn't you? How much did they charge for the operation?"
"Too damn much, but I'll get it paid," she assured them, "They got half of that blood money already…I don't make a particularly good living in stunts but I do know how to put it away."
Once she left the room, Murdock leaned over to Face and murmured, "Incidentally, Face…"
But the conman already knew what he was getting at, "Yeah I know, Murdock, when we get back to the house I'll give her our share of the money. I'd about forgotten about that."
Both men about hit the ceiling when they heard a sudden noise from the other side of the room and they realized Hannibal was humming something to himself as he turned over in the bed again.
Murdock went over to the bed and said into the colonel's ear, "You feeling alright, Hannibal?"
The colonel's only response was a content 'hmm' sound as he turned over again.
"After last night I guess that tranquilizer wasn't a bad idea," Face said, "At least now we know he'll get some rest."
"And a good thing," Jean added as she reentered the room, "I didn't like him throwing himself into this whole mess only a few days after his surgery, if anything would've happened to him because of it…"
"Oh the Colonel's a tough old bird," Murdock told her, "He's been through far worse, and still he's here."
"There's one thing about this whole mess that still bothers me," Jean said.
"What's that?" Face asked.
Jean took a card out of her pocket and showed it was Jocelyn Watkins' driver's license, "That damn broad wasn't anywhere when we caught those people at the air base, she's still out there somewhere."
"Well you think she's a threat on her own?" Face asked.
"Could be," Jean said, "Maybe not back at the bar, but in her own environment I have no doubt just how deadly she could be. She's in this business just as much as all the others were, and she's one of the only ones left, so what's she going to do? She's not going to quit now, that much is obvious, it's like I told Murdock, no matter how many people you take out of this business, there'll always be more, you can't win against them."
"We can sure as hell try," Murdock replied.
In the end, B.A. had to carry Hannibal out to the van, and as Jean had suggested, they wound up taking the pillows with them because even in his sleep Hannibal wouldn't let go of them. They got him settled in the back and he slept during the whole trip back.
"Did the doctor say anything else?" Face asked during the drive back to Jean's house.
"He said that Hannibal's temperature was a little high but nothing worth worrying about, it's still under 100 degrees," she said, "All usual stuff, said for him to take it easy for the next few days, get plenty of rest, and to change that bandage regularly and keep it clean so he doesn't get an infection."
"I think we can agree that's the last thing we need," Murdock said from where he sat in the backseat with Face, "As so this warning of the doctor's we shall heed."
Face turned and looked at Murdock, but the pilot didn't notice and kept talking, and Face noticed, he was starting to rhyme again. That was something else that hadn't happened since…since B.A. got shot and Murdock broke out for the blood transfusion, again, back when he was in the V.A. He was starting to wonder if maybe their trip out there today and the night before had done more harm than good. Then again, Murdock had been doing this stuff before they went there, but would he be worse now? It would be easier if he could just ask the pilot about these kinds of things but he knew that wasn't an option, especially not with the others around, but he wondered if maybe now that Hannibal was out of the woods, if now they were going to have their hands full with a problem involving Murdock instead.
When they got back to the house, B.A. carried Hannibal up to his room on the second floor and got him settled on the bed and it looked like he'd probably sleep through the rest of the afternoon. Once B.A. left the room, Jean jabbed Murdock in the shoulder and said, "Come on, let's get him undressed."
"Excuse me?" Face asked.
"He's going to sleep for a few hours, might as well get him comfortable," she said, "Besides, those pants are only suitable now for the garbage can, you can't patch up those holes worth a damn."
"I know I can't," he replied.
"No she's right, Faceman, I'll help you," Murdock told Jean as they went over to the bed.
"Hey Murdock," Jean said as she slipped Hannibal's jacket off, "What do you call this kind of jacket he always wears anyway? I don't think I ever heard him say."
"I think it's what they call a safari jacket," Murdock said, "And safari so goodie."
Jean smirked in response to his joke and managed to wrestle Hannibal out of the sleeves and toss the jacket over a chair. In a couple of minutes they had Hannibal stripped down to his boxers and a T-shirt; Murdock checked the bandage and decided it wouldn't need to be changed for a while and they pulled the covers out from under him and back up over him instead.
"You know, he almost looks kind of cute this way," Jean said.
"What, when he's asleep?" Face asked.
"When his mouth is shut," she replied.
A couple hours later, Jean went back to Hannibal's room, pulled down the covers and changed the bandages. Hannibal opened his eyes halfway and looked up at her.
"Hello, Jean," he said tiredly.
"Hey Hannibal, how're you feeling?" she asked.
"I'm doing alright," Hannibal tried to sit up but only fell on his back and kicked his feet up in the air, he held his arm out and said, "Come over here so I can find you."
Jean went over to him and grabbed his hand; he put his weight against her and jerked her down onto the bed beside him. "That's better," he said.
Jean laughed and sat up, "Hannibal…"
"Just a minute, there's something I want to say to you," he told her as he turned on his side to see her.
"What's that?" she asked.
He looked at her and said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier." Jean opened her mouth to talk but Hannibal cut her off, "I know I'm not the easiest person to deal with."
"That's an understatement," she told him.
"Anyway," he said, "I'm glad that you stuck around…I hate to say it but I do think we can benefit from having you as a friend."
She smiled sheepishly and replied, "Thanks."
"You're a good kid," Hannibal told her, "I don't remember if I told you that before or not."
"You did," she said.
"Oh good," he tiredly responded, and Jean could see he was about asleep again.
"Hannibal, I think I better go see how the others are doing," she said to him as she got up.
"Good idea," Hannibal turned on his stomach and pushed himself up on his elbows and knees as he said, his words slurring a bit, "Hello bed, it's Hannibal Smith, I'm coming in there," and he weakly laughed as he burrowed under the covers and went back to sleep.
Jean watched Hannibal for a minute and didn't notice anyone coming into the room, and then suddenly she felt Murdock wrap his arms around her waist and he told her, "He's right you know."
"About what?" she asked.
"We are lucky to have you around," he nuzzled his cheek against hers and said, "I know I am."
"Not in front of him," Jean whispered as she pointed to Hannibal. Murdock let go of her and she turned around to see him and said, "You know I think I liked being married the most during the first week, when it was still a secret from everybody and we had to sneak around to do anything fun."
"Hey, now there's an idea," Murdock said as he got a mischievous look on his face.
"What're you thinking?" she asked.
Murdock grabbed her by the hand and led her out of the room as he told her, "You'll find out."
They left the room and went down the hall and Murdock led her into the bathroom, closed the door behind them with his foot, and grabbed Jean and lifted her over the side of the tub, stepped in beside her and pulled the shower curtain behind them.
"Hannibal's in bed, B.A.'s downstairs working on the van, Face is watching the game on TV, this is one place in the whole house where I know nobody will be walking in on us," he said with a laugh as he kissed her.
"Well this is a new one, but it could be alright," Jean replied as she reached up and put her hands on his shoulders.
For as long as they'd been married and all the privacy they had previously had, they still kissed like a couple of teenagers on their first date; light, soft, awkward, both of them having fun the whole time. Suddenly however the fun came crashing down as a sudden burst of cold water rained down on them. They broke apart and looked at each other and looked up at the showerhead that was on and without either saying a word, plotted revenge over whoever had come into the room to bathe. With a scowl, Murdock pulled the curtain back slightly and saw Face standing by the sink in a robe, he pulled the curtain back into place and reached over to the soap dish and picked up the new white bar of soap and gripped it in his hand like he was a pitcher getting ready to throw the baseball. They stood under the now hot water in anticipation and when Face pulled the curtain back, Murdock swung forward and, taking Face completely by surprise, shoved the bar of soap directly into the lieutenant's mouth, then replaced the curtain.
Hannibal woke up when he felt his thick tongue and realized he was in dire need of a drink. He sat up and saw that the room was dark and for a minute he panicked, where was he? What was going on? What day was it? Then it started to come back to him, but he wondered how long he'd been asleep, and that was when he noticed the house was quiet, and he wondered where everybody was. He threw back the covers and made his way to the door, his leg giving him a little trouble and immediately upon standing he felt a spinning sensation in his head, but he pushed on and made his way out to the hall and saw a light from somewhere downstairs. He made his way down the stairs and when he entered the kitchen and saw B.A. he asked, "What time is it?"
"9:30 man, you' been asleep a long time."
"What time was it when we got home?" Hannibal asked as he went over to the sink and got a glass of water.
"About 1:30, yesterday afternoon," B.A. told him, and seeing the colonel's eyes widen he explained, "You slept through the better part of two days."
Not for the first time but it wasn't an experience he cared to relive anytime again in the near future. He swallowed half the glass's contents and lowered it from his mouth and asked, "Where're the others?"
"Don't know, they went out several hours ago and they ain't been back yet," B.A. answered.
"Hmmm," Hannibal considered what the possibilities for that could be, when they heard the front door open, "Well if that's not them now, then somebody's got the wrong house."
They went out to see what was going on and were surprised to see Face and Murdock come in out of the front hall, each standing on one side of Jean and seemed to be holding her up; her eyes were closed and her head was thrown as far back as was possible.
"You feeling alright, Jean?" Face asked.
Jean tilted her head forward and it slumped down and blood poured out of her mouth when she opened it to speak. Face reached over and pushed her bottom jaw up to close her mouth and said, "Definitely time to change the bandages again."
"What happened?" Hannibal asked.
The captain and the lieutenant looked and saw for the first time that they weren't the only ones in the room. Face answered as he took a small plastic cup out of his pocket, "This time Jean went to the dentist and really had all four wisdom teeth taken out, a real mess."
And speaking of messes, they watched as Murdock stuck his thumb and index finger into Jean's mouth and pulled out four bloody, folded pieces of gauze, took four new pieces of gauze out of the cup, folded them up and stuffed them one by one into the far back of her mouth to bite down on.
"How long were you guys down there?" Hannibal asked.
"About four hours," Face answered, "I'm exhausted."
"You are?" Murdock asked as they led Jean into the living room and had her lie down on the couch, "You weren't the one breathing in nitrous oxide for four hours to dull the sensation of that butcher cutting the teeth out of the gums." He turned to the colonel and said, "Hannibal you should've seen them they were this long," he held his fingers two inches apart, "And black in the middles."
"Yeah I'm really sorry I missed that, Murdock," Hannibal said unenthusiastically.
Jean tried talking but the words were muffled over the gauze. Hannibal went over to her, stuck his own fingers in her mouth and pulled the four gauze squares out and asked, "What'd you say?"
Jean opened her eyes to a slit and said tiredly, "Good thing I was the last person in, everybody else would've taken off running at all the screaming."
"Six shots of Novocain and she could still feel it," Face explained, "She kicked the dentist and bit his assistant twice. Somehow I get the feeling we won't be invited back there anytime soon."
"And now," Murdock said as he refolded the gauze and stuck them back in Jean's mouth, "They said to change the bandages every 15 minutes until the bleeding stops, they estimated about 2 hours."
Jean got out another muffled response as she bit down on the gauze.
"What?!" B.A. asked.
"She said," Murdock told him, "They gave her a list of instructions to follow for the next 24 hours, soft food only, nothing through a straw, take ibuprofen for the pain."
Nobody needed Murdock to interpret the sarcastic grunt that came from Jean at that one. For someone who used to swallow morphine pills all the time, Hannibal doubted that anything non-prescription would even touch the pain she'd be feeling once the gas wore off. But, it wouldn't do her any good in the long run to open that can of worms again, she was just going to have to tough it through the pain this time, and he could tell from the look on her face that she knew it. Already Hannibal could tell the next week was just going to be loads of fun, and rolled his eyes.
Fate must've been smiling down on them because the next morning Jean didn't seem to be feeling any pain. Unfortunately that was overshadowed by the fact that she was heavily down in the mouth due to the doctor's soft food only rule, apparently soft foods were a rarity where the contents of the refrigerator were concerned. Hannibal had gone to the store to get a few things that she'd be able to chew and that he knew everyone else would eat too, but found out after the fact that she wouldn't eat any of them. While the others ate she sat at the table with them, a permanent scowl on her face and one hand balled up against one still slightly swollen and bruised cheek. Hannibal had already had her open her mouth so he could see the damage and he found that both sets of gums were swollen and discolored purple and black from bruising, and he guessed they would stay that way for several weeks while she recovered.
The phone rang and Hannibal offered to get it, while he was gone Jean picked up her glass of milk and commented to Murdock jokingly in a bad Red Skelton, "You can tell he's going to be on this show a long time," and promptly poured the contents of the glass into a potted plant on the counter next to the table.
"Just a minute," Hannibal covered the mouthpiece and called to Jean, "It's the studio, they want to know if you can come down for another audition."
"What?" Jean asked as she got up from the table and took the phone from him, "Hello?"
"Hannibal, she won't pass any audition like she is," Face told him, "Her whole face is swollen from the nose down and you can hardly understand half of what she says."
"I know it," Hannibal replied as he took out an already unwrapped cigar and lit it, "But maybe she'll get lucky and that'll be just what they're looking for."
Jean hung up the phone and suddenly found four sets of eyes trained on her. "What?"
"What'd they say?" Hannibal asked.
"I have an audition at 11 this morning," she said, "They didn't specify what I'll be doing," she looked down at Murdock and said, "I may need to take my lovely assistant down with me again."
Murdock laughed and said, "Sure thing, Saint, I'll go down with ya."
"I still say she won't get it," Face told Hannibal once breakfast was over and they'd left the room, "Right now she looks like a black and blue jack-o-lantern."
"True," Hannibal replied, "But just think what wonders it did for Mel Gibson. Who knows? She's supposed to be playing a crazy soldier, maybe they're specifically looking for freaks."
Jean managed to get out the front door and storm off a few feet before fatigue won her over and she practically fell to her knees. Murdock came running up behind her and helped her back to her feet.
"I sure blew that one," she said, still full of rage and wanting somebody to take it out on but coming up empty.
"You don't know that," Murdock said, "They could still call you."
"Call me? Why would they? I kept falling over my lines and half the time I didn't even say anything," she replied, "Of all the days to have those damn wisdom teeth taken out, why did it have to be yesterday?"
"Could be worse," Murdock told her, "It could've been today."
Jean spun around and hit her head against a palm tree that was growing on the studio property. "I really could've used this job, Murdock, the word going around the rumor mill is the pay is $2000 a week, and this isn't going to be some six-day shoot either, you know what that means?"
"That you'd be making as much now as Buster Keaton back in 1926," Murdock answered.
They heard somebody coming up to them and turned to see one of the men who had been present for Jean's audition and he said, "I'm glad I caught you before you left. We want you to come back in and do the audition again."
"And do what differently?" Jean asked.
The man looked surprised, "Nothing, we want you to do it again exactly as you did before."
Jean and Murdock looked at each other as if this guy was nuts and she asked him, "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Boy I'll never figure out how these auditions work," Murdock commented as he went with her back into the building, "You audition once and they want to see the exact same thing again a second time when they didn't respond to it the first time?"
They returned to the same room which was overcrowded with about a hundred people all sitting down watching the other side of the room where the people auditioning had done their performances. Murdock hadn't been needed for Jean's improvisation this go around because they had two men who were already cast for the film for the actors to go through their lines with; so Murdock sat down alongside the studio zombies and watched as Jean returned to the other side of the room and went through the exact same performance she had 15 minutes ago, half the time not even saying anything, only leering at her would-be costars and grunting and groaning.
There were few props used during the audition but as the two men talked, Jean made a show of going around knocking on the table and kicking its legs before moving over to the men and pestering them by constantly jabbing them in the shoulder or the back of the head and in the middle of their conversation she kicked one of them in the rear. He turned around and she latched her hands onto his throat and then wrapped her arm around his neck as if she was going to snap it like a twig. They struggled and both were grunting but Jean forced him down until he was sprawled out on the floor and not moving. The second man came in and Jean kicked him where it hurt and as he doubled over she grabbed a fistful of his hair and grabbed his jacket and shoved him up against the wall and then knocked him to the floor as well. Of course Murdock knew, as he knew from 30-some years of watching movies, that it was all faked but the important thing was making it look real and that's what Jean was doing here, she was so convincing it was like they'd never left that bar at the state line.
He had been present when the first audition ended and there hadn't been a single audible or visual response from any one of the hundred spectators passing judgment on the actors, so he was just as surprised as Jean was when this time everybody started whooping and applauding.
"What the hell's going on around here?" Jean asked.
The same man that had chased after them outside the studio came over and shook her hand and told her, "That was brilliant."
Jean looked at him still dumbfounded and asked him, "Does that mean I get the job?"
He laughed and told her, "Yes, you were the best we saw all day."
Jean was tempted to ask why then they didn't do anything the first time and save everybody the time and trouble but she decided she didn't want to know the answer.
"So when do I come in to shoot?" she asked.
"Oh we'll call you," he told her.
"Uh-huh, I've heard that one before," she replied.
Murdock came over to her applauding and said, "Jean, that was fantastic."
"Who is this?" the man asked her.
"This is…" Jean stopped and then told him, "This is my husband, he's recently started work as a stunt pilot, now I understand that there are going to be choppers used in this movie?"
"Of course there's choppers, there's always choppers in these kinds of films."
"Alright," Jean said, "Then you'll want him too."
The man, who Jean still didn't know who he was or what his primary function in this place was, turned and looked at the back of Murdock's jacket and said, "Da Nang, now that's interesting."
"What is?" Murdock asked.
"The script is being rewritten and…"
"Rewritten before you start shooting?" Jean asked.
He turned to her and asked, "You know a better time to do it? Anyway," he turned back to Murdock, "Our writers are including a flashback scene that takes place at the NSA station hospital."
Jean noted a change in Murdock's eyes when the man said that, but when asked if he could fly one of those choppers, he answered, sounding a bit numbed, "Yes, I could do that."
Once they left the studio, Jean got up close to Murdock and asked him, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he answered as he walked on.
"Murdock," Jean ran to catch up with him, "Were you…"
He caught on to her question before she could ask it and he shook his head, "No, I didn't handle those pickups and drop offs for the hospital."
Jean just nodded her head and said, "Then…you think you'll be able to fly the choppers?"
"Sure, I can fly anything," Murdock assured her.
"Great, then we're both in business," she said.
"Terrific," Murdock checked his watch and said, "Then I move our first order of business is to find someplace to eat and get some lunch."
Jean was less enthusiastic and pursed her lips so tightly together she about swallowed them completely.
The next day Hannibal woke up and found himself the only well person in a house full of sick people, and he quickly found out that everybody was sick with something different. B.A. was groaning and complaining of a weight pressing against his gut and Hannibal quickly found out had to be put back in bed because of sudden dizzy spells that left the sergeant on the floor after the impact shook the whole room. Face complained of being cold and couldn't eat anything because of a bad stomach. Murdock seemed to be the most well off, or at least he acted as such, he had no actual complaints but he was running a fever, and Jean seemed to take the cake, she was violently ill and couldn't even drink anything because of a throat full of razor blades that pricked every time she breathed, never mind swallowed.
Hannibal realized that he was the only one available to take care of four sick people and quickly put a plan together to actually pull it off. He had B.A. get out of bed long enough to help him move the bed from his room into Face's room; both were double beds and he decided it would be better to put everyone in the same room so he could keep a better eye on them. B.A. and Face were stuck bunking together in one bed and Murdock and Jean were put in the other, and nobody was pleased with the conditions, all of them groaning in unison more than usual.
Making a quick call to Bad Rock for some advice, Hannibal asked Maggie about any current bugs going around and found that a lot of people were coming down with different things but most of them seemed to be short lived with only a 24-hour lifespan. Thank God for small favors. When everybody seemed to be resting at the same time, he took that opportunity to make a run to the drugstore and pick up some things he figured they'd be needing for the next day. He got back in record time and climbed the stairs two at a time to see if anything had happened while he was gone.
Face was the one currently occupying the bathroom to be sick in private, but Hannibal let himself in and ripped the seal off a bottle of medicine he'd picked up at the store. He told Face that it was something new that was supposed to cure upset stomachs, and he convinced the lieutenant to take a dose of it, but immediately after he swallowed it he lost it all over again. Hannibal stayed with him until the heaving passed and then helped him back to bed. Face was still complaining about being cold and Hannibal found out why; with him sharing a bed with B.A., the larger man was taking up most of the covers and Face was getting short sheeted, literally. Hannibal dug around in one of the closets and found some extra bedding and returned and covered the lieutenant with an extra sheet and two flannel blankets, figuring it was safe since Face wasn't running a fever.
"That better?" he asked.
Over his chattering teeth, Face grunted something that Hannibal took as a yes. B.A. was dead to the world so Hannibal went over to the next bed and asked how they were doing. Jean angrily waved him off and Murdock coughed and answered, "I'm doing alright, Colonel."
Hannibal had Murdock comply with another temperature reading and saw that he was still at 101 degrees; he took the wet rag off Murdock's forehead, soaked it and reapplied it. He had a feeling if Jean didn't have to lay flat on her back to try and hold off another bout of nausea as long as possible, she would've rolled over and buried her head under the pillows to avoid having to deal with him.
"Do you need anything?" he asked her.
She opened her eyes the slightest bit and glared at him like a cat about to bite. He smiled and said, "Alright, I'll let you rest, if you need anything I'm sure I'll hear you."
He didn't have to wait long to hear anything. Everything had been quiet for a couple of hours and Hannibal took that as a good sign, but then he heard a crashing noise coming from the bathroom and he ran in to see what was the matter. Apparently the problem was that Jean had gotten out of bed and resided herself to stay on the bathroom floor, and Murdock hadn't been aware of it and tripped over his wife when he went in to get a glass of water. Murdock seemed to be alright, in spite of hitting his head against the tub, but Jean was on the floor moaning and groaning since she was in no condition to scream. Hannibal grabbed her to help her up but immediately let go of her when he felt how dry and rugged her hands had suddenly become.
"Jean, haven't you had anything to drink today?" he asked.
Murdock felt her other hand and cringed, Jean was so dehydrated that her hands felt like fish scales.
Hannibal knew that regular water against a raw throat wouldn't do too many favors for Jean so he got a can of ginger beer from the kitchen, grabbed a second one for Face, and tried to get her to drink it but Jean refused; she pursed her lips together and grunted as she shook her head.
"Jean, you have to drink something," Hannibal told her.
Jean just shook her head again.
"I know, I know," he replied in an agitated voice, "You don't throw up if you don't drink anything, but if you don't I'm going to personally put you in the hospital, you'll wind up there anyway, the dehydration will do a worse number on you than throwing up will."
He had to have Murdock help him but they finally managed to get her to swallow a little of the soda. But immediately after she drank it, Jean got sick again. Murdock stood over her and rubbed her back until the fit of nausea passed and she was able to stand up to rinse her mouth out.
"Try it again," Hannibal said as he handed her the can.
Jean shook her head, "I'm not drinking that stuff again, it's horrible."
"What?" Hannibal looked at the open can and the one he'd brought up for Face, he cracked open the second can and tasted it himself, and immediately looked like he'd bitten into a lemon. "I see what you mean," he said, "I thought this stuff was the same as ginger ale."
Though it pained her to talk, Jean replied, "Shows what you get for thinking."
Murdock had gone back to bed but Jean was content to stay on the floor in the bathroom until the next day; Hannibal had stayed with her and sat on the floor with her head in his lap as she went from burning hot to shivering cold and back to hot again. He tried to get her to keep drinking but unfortunately more of it came back up than stayed down. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms to combat the gooseflesh that had built up, and as he did he noticed something.
"Hey Jean, didn't you get a smallpox vaccination when you joined the army?" he asked, noting the lack of an injection site on either arm.
Jean shook her head and in a voice so weak he almost couldn't hear it she explained, "I got lucky, I knew I wouldn't be there long, so I managed to sidestep most of the shots, nobody ever knew." She opened her eyes and looked up at him as she explained, "I can't take shots, they only make me sicker than whatever they're supposed to shield me against."
"Ah, you're one of those people," he said.
"Yeah," she answered weakly, "I was a kid, my parents got me a chickenpox shot, made me so sick I about died and then on top of it I still got the chickenpox, 300 poxes all over my 3 year old body, you tell me what good that did."
Hannibal looked her over and noted, "Don't see any scars."
"Not where you can see," she replied.
He chuckled, and asked her, "How're you feeling, kid?"
She groaned and answered, "Shoot me, Hannibal, just shoot me, just please kill me."
"Uh-uh-uh," he clicked his tongue at her, "You haven't been married long enough to be talking like that." He looked at his watch and told her, "Come on, kid, let's get you back into bed."
"No," she said quietly, "I just want to stay here…"
"The floor isn't going to be comfortable all night," he told her as he helped her up, "Murdock's got your side of the bed all nice and cold just like you like it, come on, it'll be okay."
By this time it was already starting to get dark out, and no lights were on in the room. Murdock had been lying in bed but he hadn't been asleep; when he saw Hannibal escorting Jean back into the room, he reached over and grabbed the covers and pulled them down for her. Hannibal helped Jean into the bed and pulled the sheets up on her and asked Murdock, "How're you holding up, Captain?"
"Fine, Colonel."
"Uh-huh," Hannibal went over to the other bed to check on the others. B.A. was still out cold and Face looked about there as well, his stomach had quit giving him trouble early on in the afternoon. Hannibal pulled the covers up on Face and asked them, "You boys need anything?"
Face shook his head and got out a quiet, "No," and B.A. just grunted and shook his head as well. Hannibal went back to Murdock's bed and asked if they needed anything, and got the same response.
Once he was gone, Murdock looked over at Jean, who had her eyes squeezed shut and two half dried streaks of tears running down her face from being sick. Murdock peeled the washcloth off his forehead, dipped it in the bowl of ice water on the nightstand, wrung it out and used it to wash Jean's face and eyes, then he put the rag back in the bowl and reached over to her side of the bed to hug her. She pushed against him and quietly said to him, "Don't kiss me," which he only took as a sign to relocate it elsewhere, so he kissed her on the top of her head.
"How're you feeling?" he asked her.
"Awful," she answered.
Murdock nodded sympathetically and told her, "If it is just a 24 hour thing, it shouldn't be much longer now."
"Good," she replied, "As soon as I can find my equilibrium again, I need to get a shower."
He smiled at her and said, "You and me both."
The next day everybody was back to their normal, or as close to normal as they came, selves. B.A. and Face had gone down to the kitchen to make up for the meals they missed out on the day before, and as soon as Jean got up she drank six glasses of water from the bathroom faucet before getting cleaned up. Then when she was done, Murdock went in and got a shower, finding the water already adjusted so it was cool; that was one thing they'd found they could agree on as a married couple.
The subject of clean was a relative one and there were many different meanings to it and many different ways to go about it; this Murdock knew very well, and he was surprised that Jean had come to the same conclusion on personal cleanliness as he did. People often equated hot water with being clean, but that was a different kind of clean, a sterile clean, like a hospital; borderline cold water was a refreshing kind of clean instead, and that was the kind he preferred, and as it turned out, that she preferred too. She'd told him that was one advantage to moving out of New York and out to California, in a relatively warmer climate hot showers were not as much a necessity in the winter.
He turned the water off and reached through the curtain to the towel rack and pulled off one that could've covered a newborn whale, he got wrapped up in it and pulled the curtain back and stepped out and realized Jean was in the bathroom, spitting a mouth full of blue mint mouthwash down the sink's drain.
"You're looking better today," he noted.
Jean looked up and saw his reflection in the mirror and replied, "So are you." She turned and looked at him and laughed.
"What is it?" Murdock asked, looking down to make sure his towel was still holding.
"You," Jean said as she went over to him, "I just can't get over how…how…"
"How what?" he asked.
"How pale you are," Jean said as she squeezed his shoulder and told him, "Oh boy, Murdock, you've got to get out in the sun more often."
"I'm working on it," he told her, "Hey Saint, you feel up to doing something today?"
"Sure, what?" she asked.
"Well I don't know, you said once everything was taken care of we'd have some fun before we both wound up single again. Well, Decker's in the hospital so he can't come after us, the phony Decker is going to rot away in prison for the rest of his life, and we both have improved vastly from our condition yesterday as two walking corpses. I think after all that a little fun is in order."
Jean smiled in anticipation and asked him, "What'd you have in mind?"
