"It's like I said in the beginning," Jean told Hannibal and Face when she woke up the next morning and joined them in the kitchen, "This doesn't change anything."
"I find that a little hard to believe," Face said.
"So what?" she asked, "I didn't ask for your opinion." She looked to Hannibal and explained, "It's like we discussed before, the plan is the same, Murdock will stay here with me for a while, then when he gets tired of that, he'll stay with you, when he gets tired of you, he'll stay with Face, when he gets tired of Face he'll go stay with B.A., and then run full circle back here."
"Murdock will do what?" B.A. asked as he entered the kitchen.
Jean tilted her head back to look at him and said, "You like having him around and you know it."
"According to who?" B.A. asked.
"Whom," she replied.
"What?" was his response.
"He's on second," Face said coyly.
"Who?" B.A. asked.
"He's the first baseman," Face replied.
Hannibal cleared his throat and both men took the hint to shut up, he looked back to Jean and said, "Exactly when was all of this taken care of?"
"When you weren't looking, naturally," Jean answered bluntly, "We didn't want to take a chance on you guys trying to stop us."
"And you think we would've?" Hannibal asked.
"I don't think you can honestly say you wouldn't have at least tried," Jean said, "I won't bother asking. It's like I told you before, Hannibal, I never did this to get in your way, to interfere with the Team, it was never about that, but there's no point in pretending anymore either, Decker knows so it can't do any of us any good now."
Hannibal could tell that it was taking all of Jean's effort to remain civil with them; they'd all had too much to drink last night, except B.A. of course, and none of them had ever had the pleasure of seeing what kind of a person Jean became when she was drunk because she never crossed that line. Maybe she wasn't an angry drunk but, naturally, she was nasty with a hangover, and he could see the unmistakable look in her eyes that said she was in a mood to taste blood. So he let go of the subject and she got up from the table and left the room.
"Well, what do you think, Hannibal?" Face asked when he felt certain she wouldn't pop back in and bite somebody's head off.
"What's done is done, Face," he replied, "She said nothing's different…that may be true, but even if it is, something is going to have to change."
"What's that?" Face asked.
"Hannibal, are you sure about this idea?" Face asked that night as he watched the colonel go around his bedroom, packing up his stuff.
"Yes, Face," he replied, "I've given this a lot of thought and I think it's in everybody's best interests. I have no doubt that Murdock and Jean would've gone through with their annulment anyway, but it doesn't change the fact that we were in the way too much while they were married."
"Right, we were in the way when they were married but now that they're not married we're getting out of the way, why?" Face asked.
"Because," Hannibal replied.
"Because what?"
"Because we should've stayed out of their way the first time," Hannibal said, "It's one thing to come here and visit for a while, but we're starting to put down roots at this house, I want to get back to my apartment."
Face laughed and said, "Boy I'll bet you never thought you'd ever say that."
Hannibal zipped up his bag and told Face, "It's time that we left. These two may not be married anymore but they are going to be living together periodically, they need to be left alone for a while. Besides, it'll be nice to get back into our old routines again."
"True," Face replied, "I'd like having a place again I can take a date home to for the night…" he glanced out the door and added, "Preferably a place where insanity doesn't run freely."
Hannibal chuckled and said, "That's the spirit." He went out into the hall and called down the stairs, "B.A., you ready to go?"
B.A.'s reply was muffled and sounded like it might as well have been coming from down in the basement, but Hannibal and Face were able to decipher the half-coherent response, "Yeah, Hannibal, I got my stuff ready."
Murdock and Jean were at the bottom of the stairs waiting for them and Jean asked them, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay for a while?"
"No thanks, kid," Hannibal said, "If I don't get back to my apartment soon the termites are going to team up with the cockroaches and eat me out of house and home completely, and I've still got three months left on my lease before I can let that happen."
"Well if you change your mind, you know where we are," Murdock said.
"That's right," Hannibal replied.
"Hannibal," Jean stuck her arm out to keep him from getting past her, "Before you leave would you mind if I had a word with you for a minute?"
Hannibal put his bag down and answered, "Certainly not, is this a private matter or a public one?"
"Private," Jean jerked her head towards the door of the downstairs bedroom.
Hannibal shrugged and followed behind her, turning back to the others, "I'll just be a minute."
Jean closed the door behind them and said to Hannibal, "You're leaving because of us."
"Yes," he answered bluntly, "I think we were in your way too much when you were married, I don't know, maybe that was a contributing factor to you guys' decision."
"It wasn't," Jean shook her head, "The clerk at the courthouse told us if we'd dragged our feet much longer we would've been stuck married to each other, and for the time being that just isn't an option."
"I understand," he nodded as he sat at the foot of the bed, "Believe it or not I had a mother once."
Jean seemed to hit on a particular thought and she asked him, "Hannibal, where do you come from?"
He smiled coyly and looked down to the floor, then back at her and said, "I'll tell you someday."
"When?"
"Oh…say when you have your first kid," he answered with a smirk, "Provided I'm even invited to the occasion."
Jean cracked a smile but managed to swallow the laugh that tried to get out, and she asked him, "Can I tell you something, Hannibal? You know the odds are, whenever Murdock and I do remarry, assuming we do…" he nodded, "The odds are pretty good that it'll be the same as it was this time," Jean shook her head, "You guys won't know when it happens."
"Ah, we're not invited then?" he asked.
"It's not that," she said, "It's just that we didn't wait around to get it done the first time, and tell you the truth I don't know that if we had the option to wait the second time around, if I could stay for that."
"Cold feet," Hannibal said, "They tend to stay warm when you run."
"Maybe," she replied, "But…you know it would mean a lot to Murdock if you guys were there when we got married again."
"It'd mean a lot to us too," Hannibal told her.
Jean nodded understandingly and said, "When the time comes, we'll try, Hannibal, we will try, to hold out long enough to let you guys in on it…I mean you know how I am, I'm very low maintenance."
"You are no maintenance," Hannibal replied smartly, "I've been through your closet," he chuckled as he said, "You don't own a single dress, do you?"
Jean ignored his comment and continued, "I'm just saying when we do get married it will be like the last time, very simple, no church wedding, no guests, no fancy clothes, no organ player, no rings, none of that stuff…it'll be as simple of a ceremony as they come…all the same," Hannibal could tell Jean was having trouble explaining the last of it as she struggled to get the whole thing out. "I would like it very much if when that time comes…if you would be present to…to uh…"
Hannibal nodded, "I get it, and I'd be honored." He stood up, went over to Jean and put his arms around her and pulled her close momentarily as he commented, "Every father hopes to be present for his daughter's wedding, and to have the opportunity to give her away."
Jean laughed and told him, "Murdock said that you thought of all of us as your kids."
"He's right," Hannibal answered, then, lowering his gaze to see her face he added, "And that said, I expect you to be on your best behavior while we're gone. Now let's see, that includes eating your Brussels sprouts," Jean grabbed two handfuls of his jacket to support herself as she laughed, "Cleaning your room," she started to slink down as she laughed harder. Hannibal smirked as he added, "And remembering to wash behind your ears." Jean had just about sunk completely to the floor when he grabbed her wrists and pulled her back up and told her, "And if I find out you did not, I'm going to come back here and put a bottle of castor oil down your throat like we used to do with bad little girls in my day, is that understood?"
Jean couldn't talk at first for all her laughing, but she finally managed to choke out, "Yeah I got it."
"Good," Hannibal placed his hands on the sides of her head and kissed the top of it and told her, "I love you, kid."
Jean smiled sheepishly as she replied, "I love you too, Hannibal, thanks for everything." She laughed and said, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" he asked.
"For everything," she said as she pulled away from him, "For getting married without telling you, for not telling you about what happened at the cabin…" she went over to the window and had her back to him as she added, "And I'm sorry for ruining your jacket."
"What?" Hannibal asked.
Jean stared out into the night as she answered, "Remember the flight out to the hospital? Murdock said he could get us there in 10 minutes, and you said that was all the time we had. The bandages had all been soaked through so you took off your jacket and used it to press down on the wounds instead…I never apologized for ruining your jacket with my blood, but I am sorry."
Hannibal stood behind her in shock when he heard that. "You remember that flight?"
"Every minute of it," she said, "Ten minutes never went by so slowly in my whole life."
Hannibal went over to her and put his arm around her and said, "Jean, you don't have any reason to apologize for that, I was trying to keep you alive."
"I know," she replied, "I've never been indebted to anyone for my life before, I gotta tell you it's a weird feeling."
Hannibal smiled and responded, "I know, you get used to it in time."
Jean looked to the clock on the wall and said, "You guys better get going."
"Yeah I guess we ought to," Hannibal agreed as he pulled away from her, "I guess this is going to be a little awkward for all of us."
Jean nodded.
Saying goodbye was nothing new for anybody on the Team but this time it was something different. This time they were not saying goodbye to Murdock before sneaking him back into the V.A., they were saying goodbye to him as they left and he stayed behind at his new home. Now all four of them would be living out in the open, but for some reason parting company this time felt as if they might as well have been a thousand miles apart. Murdock went around hugging everybody goodbye, more than once, and he also kissed Face goodbye, also more than once.
"Come on," Hannibal said as it drew long, "Let's get out of here before the sun comes up."
"Alright," Face said as he opened the door on his side of the van, "We'll be back and see you soon, Murdock."
"Okay, Facey."
Face thought of something else and leaned out the window as he said, "And when I get moved into a new place I'll bring you over so you can see it."
"That'll be great," the pilot replied.
Face started to say something else but only got out "And" before Jean replied, "And if you don't get out of here, I'm going to bust you in the mouth."
Face closed his mouth and pulled his upper body back in the van window. Hannibal and B.A. got in and there was one more round of goodbyes exchanged before B.A. drove them out of there. Face watched Murdock and Jean waving them off until they were too far away to be seen anymore, and he turned around in his seat and asked Hannibal, "Do you think they'll be alright, Hannibal? I mean this is going to be their first time living together alone."
"Say what?" B.A. asked, "Man you starting to sound like the crazy fool."
"No, he's right, B.A.," Hannibal said, "In every marriage it's important that the new couple has the chance to be alone, they're entitled to some privacy, and unfortunately they didn't have that when they were married, so we're going to give it to them now."
"Yeah but I mean this is going to be Murdock's first time left alone with her," Face reminded Hannibal, "What do you think's going to happen?"
Hannibal only smirked and said, "I can just imagine." He laughed at the look on the lieutenant's face and told him, "Murdock's a grown man, he knows what he's doing, he'll be fine."
"I hope so," Face replied, "You remember what he was like the night this whole mess started?"
Hannibal nodded as he thought back to that night at the bar when Murdock broke the news. "I remember, the marriage started off alright, it skidded into a rocky drop but it managed to end on a fairly good note, it's hard to ask for much more than that. One crucial thing we keep overlooking, married, not married, either way you look at it those two get along perfectly, I really don't think this is going to change much of anything."
"I hope you're right, Hannibal," Face told him.
"Well look on the bright side, Face," Hannibal said, "It's not like we're never going to see them again, we're just not going to be on top of them all the time like before. Besides, tomorrow morning we can find out how their first night alone went."
"Why's that?" Face asked.
"Because," Hannibal explained with a knowing smirk, "Bright and early tomorrow morning we're going to swing by and pick them up to give them a ride down to the studio so they can begin filming for the new movie, and when we do that we can grill Murdock for all the details."
"I might've known," Face replied with a small laugh, "They're never going to be able to get away from us, are they?"
"Would you have it any other way?" Hannibal asked in response.
Hannibal had been home in his own apartment for roughly half an hour before the knocking started. He was surprised the door wasn't broken down, it sounded like two people pounding on the door. One thing was for sure, it wasn't Decker fresh out of the hospital, he wouldn't knock on the door, he would just blow it down. Hannibal went over to the front door and peered out through the peephole, and threw the door open to the two people who had been banging on the door with hammers.
"We were lonely!" Murdock announced as he walked into the apartment.
Jean stepped in behind him, slipped the handle of her hammer into a loop in her jeans and told Hannibal, "Hope you don't mind but we decided to come and stay for the night."
"I might've guessed," Hannibal replied as he closed the door behind them, "Actually I'm glad you two showed up, there's something that I need to talk to you about."
"What's that, Colonel?" Murdock asked as he parked himself on the couch, and Jean did the same.
Hannibal went behind the couch, knelt down and came back up holding a brown leather purse by its strap.
"Oh Colonel, no good," Murdock said, "It doesn't match your shoes."
Hannibal managed to keep a straight face as he told them, "When we got here, B.A. started grumbling about having to get his van cleaned out because of all the junk that had accumulated in it over the past couple of weeks, and this was stuffed down behind one of the seats."
"It's that woman's," Jean realized.
"Right," Hannibal said, "Complete with her driver's license…now, it's one thing for a woman to pay no attention to not having her driver's license with her anymore, but no woman," he quickly added to his original statement for Jean's benefit, "Who actually carries a purse, is going to forget that it's been stolen from them."
"So why hasn't she come out of the woodwork to collect hers?" Jean asked.
Hannibal snapped his fingers and pointed at her and said, "That's the million dollar question, there's only one reason I can think of why that woman wouldn't be trying to get this back."
"Because everything in it that can identify her is fake," Murdock said.
"Exactly," Hannibal said, "So if that woman wasn't Jocelyn Watkins, then who is she, and where is she now, and who is she working with?"
"All good questions but no answers," Jean told him, "Not yet anyway, but how do we find out?"
"That's what I'm working on," he said, "When I get it figured out, you'll be the first to know, but Jean, there's something I wanted to ask you."
"What's that?" she asked.
"For knowing as little about this woman as you do, you undoubtedly know more about her than the rest of us do, so I want your professional opinion, do you think she'd have it in her to shoot somebody?"
Jean scoffed, "Come on, Hannibal, even the lowest form of human life can pull a trigger, doesn't take anything to kill someone."
"I'm not asking that," he said, "I'm asking if you think she would actually shoot somebody, or would she stick to her preferred methods of slowly torturing somebody instead?"
Jean thought about it and said, "I don't think I ever saw her with a gun, so I don't know, why?"
"Just thinking," Hannibal said, "If she was going to shoot somebody, who do you think it would be?"
"Out of us?" she asked, "Me, I'm the one that beat her up."
"Well, everybody that she was working with has been caught and is now in prison, so what's she going to be doing now?"
"If she's in any kind of position in the ring she's going to try and build it up again," Jean said, "Take in new recruits."
"Hannibal, how're we going to find out who that is?" Murdock asked.
"I know how, and it's going to coincide nicely with your new work as a stunt chopper pilot."
Murdock glanced over at his passenger and noted she was looking a little pale and he asked her, "You feeling alright, Saint?"
"I'm fine," she replied, "I just hope this works. The studio straps a camera onto the side of this chopper to get air shots, while we have a camera in here with us to take a look at the ground down below…circle over the cabin, Hannibal said, there might be new traffic coming through there that we can follow, he said."
"Well you know what Hannibal's plans are like, but they always have a way of working out," Murdock reminded her.
Jean looked up at the roof of the helicopter and said, "Tell me something, Murdock how did you ever get used to that noise?"
"What noise?" Murdock asked.
Jean jerked a thumb up in the direction of the rotor blades. "I notice that you're not hard of hearing as a result of it."
"What!?" Murdock asked as he leaned over towards her.
Jean slapped him on the arm and laughed.
"Hey look down there," Murdock said, "That's the cabin."
"Yeah, but I'm not seeing anything showing any recent traffic through the place," Jean told him.
"Affirmative on the negative," Murdock said as he picked up the radio, "Hey Hannibal, we're here and seeing nothing, did you guys find anything out yet?"
"Could be," Hannibal replied, "Face checked out the lowlife hall of fame in Nicaragua, turns out there's a guy there called Richard Russo, has a big monopoly on both the drug market and the red light brothels down there, but keeps it all nicely covered and uses some kind of stockbroker front as he zigzags back and forth across the countries."
"Well that fits in nicely with the flight that was heading out there," Murdock said, "But how're we gonna get our hands on this guy?"
"Easily," Hannibal answered, and they could hear his grin on the radio as he explained, "It turns out that Mr. Russo is chartering a private jet to fly him here to meet up with some quote, business associates."
"I'll just bet," Jean commented, "And 5 will get you 10 his associate has blonde hair and likes sharp objects."
"Could be," Hannibal told them, "We're getting a line on where the jet's supposed to be making its landing."
"Don't tell me the air base," Jean said.
"No," Hannibal answered, "A very public airport, where it would be very easy to get lost in a crowd of about ten thousand people."
"Smart," Murdock noted, "Who's ever going to find them that way? When's the flight supposed to come in, Colonel?"
"Two o' clock this afternoon," Hannibal said.
Jean reached over and showed Murdock her watch and he knew that that wasn't too far off. "What're we going to do?" she asked.
Murdock waved her off, signaling for everything to be left to him, and he said into the radio, "Mayday, mayday, our fuel supply has run short and we are going to be making an emergency landing at…what's the airport it's coming to, Hannibal?"
"L.A. International."
"Alright, consider us west bound and down," Murdock said, "We are landing this sucker there." He put the radio down and told Jean, "As soon as we land, yank that camera off the side and shut it off, erase the last couple minutes of it if you can."
"Right," she agreed.
As they reached the airport, Murdock suddenly took them down fast and hard, almost crashing on an unoccupied runway. Jean threw the door open on her side and reached down and grabbed the camera, shut it off and tossed it into the cockpit and she got out with Murdock. They quickly got their hands full with a bunch of angry people who wanted an answer for what the hell was going on, but Murdock gave them a story about the chopper dropping despite his work at the controls to keep it in the air, then they seemed to be out of the frying pan on that one. While a crew was brought in to inspect the helicopter and find the source of the damage, he got both of them out of there and headed to a more crowded area where he figured Hannibal and the others should be arriving at any time.
"You think we'll be able to find them in the middle of all this chaos?" Jean asked Murdock.
"Of course," Murdock said, "All we have to do is keep an eye out for the angry mudsucker and then Hannibal and Face can't be too far off."
Jean looked around and tried to see past the wall of people who were coming in to catch flights and just getting off from them. Then, in the midst of the crowd she recognized B.A.'s mohawk, and from there was able to spot Face near him, but Hannibal on the other hand…
"Murdock, do you see what I see?" Jean asked him.
Murdock looked and said, "I see it but I'm not sure I believe it."
An ugly gray haired woman in a long tattered skirt and a sweater missing its buttons and large clodhopper men's shoes, and smoking a large cigar, walked alongside B.A. and Face and was coming right their way.
"What the hell happened to you?" Jean asked Hannibal.
"Well due to creative differences," he said over his cigar, "I have been let go as the Aquamaniac for the time being."
"Again?" Murdock asked.
Hannibal smiled and added, "However, I was able to get a small role in Area X, your new movie."
"What?!" Jean asked.
Hannibal chuckled at her response.
"I don't right offhand recall a bag lady in the script," Jean said.
"One of the new rewrites," Hannibal explained, "See there's this scene in an alley at night, and this old woman beats a soldier to death when he…"
His description was cut off when Jean pointed behind him and said, "Hannibal, look!"
He turned around, and so did B.A. and Face, and they looked to where Jean was pointing, and a couple hundred feet away they saw a man in a suit and a woman in an army uniform, who they all could identify as the woman from the bar brawl, standing next to the stairs leading down from a landed jet, discussing something as one passed a briefcase to the other.
"What do you think that's about?" Murdock asked.
"I don't know but I'm going to find out," Hannibal said, and he added, "Murdock, you come with me, I've got an idea."
"What's he going to do?" Face asked as they watched the colonel and captain walk off.
"I can guess," Jean said, and when Face looked at her she asked him, "Did you ever see The Cop in Blue Jeans?"
"Huh?" Face asked.
"Watch," Jean pointed.
Face saw Hannibal and Murdock double back on a motorcycle, he didn't even want to know where they got it from, and saw them speed up to the man and the woman, saw Murdock raise himself up and howl victoriously as he snatched the briefcase away from the woman, then saw both men duck down on the bike as they drove under one of the wings.
"They did it!" Jean laughed, then she said to Face, "Come on, they're gonna need our help."
And she was right, right after Hannibal and Murdock made their getaway, shots were fired by two men who had been with the flight crew of the jet. Luckily they were too far away when it happened that they really had to worry about getting hit; but Russo got away to a waiting car and tried to make a speedy getaway. Unfortunately Jean wound up right in its path and Russo showed no signs of trying to swerve to avoid hitting her; so she took the initiative and just as the car would've plowed into her, she jumped up onto the hood and rammed her fist through the windshield, ignoring the glass cutting into her wrist and instead reached clear on through and managed to grab Russo by the hair on his head and jerked it forward.
"I'm going to kill us both if you don't stop this car," she told him.
But Russo snapped his head back out of her grip, and buried his foot into the accelerator. Jean threw herself up onto the roof of the car and reached down to grab the metal door handle on the driver's side. Through no easy feat, Jean managed to keep herself suspended on the roof with a death grip on the door handle through high speeds and the car's sudden swerves and turns, until finally the driver made one move too many and she was thrown off and rolled to a stop by the side of the road.
Meanwhile, Hannibal had managed to skid the motorcycle onto its side when he attempted a sharp turn and both he and Murdock tumbled off of it, and quickly found their hands full with two goons from the plane. Murdock jumped on one and one jumped on Hannibal, each fell to the ground with their captive and both sets of men were rolling around trying to toss the other off of them.
"Amazing," Face said as he and B.A. caught up with them, "It's like a contest between a couple of Mexican jumping beans."
Hannibal managed to slug the man he was stuck with and the man fell back, but before anything else happened they heard a shot go off, and heard Murdock scream, not howl, he was screaming like a wounded animal, and he fell onto the ground, giving his assailant the chance to get up and escape. Or he would've escaped if B.A. hadn't caught up with him and knocked him down, then he hotfooted it over to Murdock who was leaving a nice trail of blood on the ground under him.
"Murdock!" B.A. went over to him and helped him up, quickly looking him over to determine where he'd been hit, "Murdock, you alright?"
Murdock groaned but nodded, "I'm alright, I'm alright…" though he didn't sound convincing.
"Man," B.A. looked down at the blood he'd left behind on the pavement, "Come on, Murdock, we' get you some help."
Murdock groaned as he put a hand on his ribs and grunted, "That would be nice."
Hannibal and Face came running up to them, also trying to figure out what had happened. Murdock pushed their probing hands away, insisting he was fine, he was alright, it wasn't as bad as it looked, and it was looking awful, they could see the whole side of his T-shirt was stained with blood.
"I'm alright," Murdock tried to convince Face as he squirmed under the lieutenant's hands reaching in through his jacket, "I wasn't shot."
"Then what happened?" Face asked.
That was when Hannibal turned and saw Jean laying by the side of the road, half crumpled into a ball, face down. He and B.A. ran over to see what had happened to her, and both were starting to worry because she wasn't moving.
"Jean, Jean!" Hannibal screamed as they reached her.
He knelt down beside her body and gently grabbed her to turn her over, and when she did they heard her moaning as she opened and shut her eyes a few times, and she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the whole front of her T-shirt was also caked in blood. She moaned as she tried sitting up and managed to get out, "Eat your heart out, Nico Giraldi," before she fell back down.
"Take it easy, kid," Hannibal said as he carefully grabbed her and pulled her up, "We'll get you to the hospital."
"No, I don't need a hospital," she replied as she pushed him away, "I'm just a little banged up."
"A little?" B.A. asked.
Hannibal pointed down to the front of her shirt and told her, "Take a look at yourself, kid, you're bleeding!"
Jean looked down and said, "Hmmmm." She looked up at Hannibal and asked, "Where's Murdock? What happened to him?"
"He was shot, he's bleeding too," Hannibal told her.
"No he's not," Jean shook her head as she spotted Murdock and went over to him, "Hey Murdock, they got you too, eh?"
"Can you believe it, Saint?" Murdock asked as he went over to her, nonchalantly ignoring the bloodstain covering the right side of his shirt.
"What happened to your hands?" Jean asked as she grabbed one that was covered in blood, noticing that something was obviously different with his hands than his ribs.
"Looks like the same thing that happened to yours," he replied as he pointed out her own bleeding hand, "That jerk had a knife and tried to aerate me, I got a few pinpricks. When he heard the pop he took off."
"Oh boy, what're the odds?" Jean asked, "A whole pint of perfectly good movie blood gone POOF!"
"Movie blood?" the others asked.
Jean looked back to them and said, "That's right…what, you thought this was real?" she asked as she pointed to her shirt.
"Yes," they answered.
"If it was, you would've heard it," Jean said, not implying the noise they'd heard with Murdock, but that if her blood had been real, she would've been screaming loud enough they all would've known it, "We did this for a kind of shock value, we figured if we got into a fight with these guys, and it looked like we were in really bad shape, then we could take them by surprise because who expects a corpse to jump up swinging?"
"But they popped during the fight when we really weren't planning on it," Murdock added.
"Well there is something to the idea," Hannibal said, "But why didn't you tell us about that earlier?"
"Why didn't you tell us you were coming here as Old Mother Hubbard?" Jean replied.
"Uh-oh," Face said when he heard sirens approaching, "They're playing our song."
"And our man got away again!" Jean realized.
"You mean woman," Hannibal said as he too noted that during the confusion of the scuffle, the woman they'd come out to catch had managed to elude them again.
"This is starting to get old," Jean said.
"Don't worry, we'll catch her," Hannibal told her.
"We better," Jean replied, "Because I'm getting tired of this chick being our Professor Moriarty."
"Come on, let's get out of here," Hannibal said to the others as he saw the police cars starting to pull up back at the airport.
"What about the chopper?" Jean asked.
"Leave it, as far as the studio's concerned, it's being checked up for mechanical error," Hannibal told them as they piled into the van and sped out of there.
"Russo got away too," Jean told Hannibal.
"We'll get him too," Hannibal said, "Face, did you happen to get a look at the car he made off in?"
"Not much but if I had to guess I'd say it was a black 1967 Lincoln Continental," Face offered.
"Correction, one black 1967 Lincoln Continental with a broken windshield," Jean amended as she leaned over the front seat to show Hannibal what she was holding in her hand, "And missing one door handle on the driver's side."
All four men looked at the gray bar of metal she held in her hand and shook their heads in disbelief. Jean explained, "It popped off when I was thrown off the car," and she turned back to Face and asked, "How many 1967 Continentals do you want to bet there are in the Los Angeles district that are short one door handle?"
"I'm sure we can find out," Hannibal replied.
On the way back to the house so Jean and Murdock could clean up and change out of their bloody clothes, Face reached over to the front and tapped Hannibal on the shoulder to get his attention. Hannibal turned back and saw that Murdock and Jean had fallen asleep leaning against each other, and he had to laugh, even covered in blood and looking like a couple of wartime zombies they seemed to fit perfectly with each other.
"I don't think they're going to make it three years till they remarry," Face told Hannibal, "What do you think?"
Hannibal turned back to the front and took a cigar out of his pocket and replied, "I give them six months, maybe three if she cooks."
B.A. caught a glimpse of them in the rear view mirror and asked, "Think it'll work, Hannibal?"
"Well, oh one hand I don't think there's anybody more likely for either of them," Hannibal answered, "It's not every day you meet somebody else who can see your invisible dog."
B.A. glared at Hannibal through the corner of one eye and growled under his breath, Hannibal just laughed in response and said, "They seem stuck with each other any way you look at it."
And he was right. When Jean and Murdock woke up they found out that when the fake blood dried on their clothes and they were leaning against each other, they consequently got stuck to each other, and when they pulled apart it sounded like a couple of Velcro straps being pulled off each other. Hannibal chuckled at the irony that they were completely oblivious to.
