Hannibal watched the news coverage of the helicopter explosion on TV while he waited for the others to come to Jean's house. The fires had been burning for almost an hour, and still there was no clue as to how it had happened or what could have caused it. Hannibal didn't know how, but he did know who, somehow he just knew that Jean had had a part in all of this. He sat in her chair closest to the TV and looked down at the scribbled note gripped in his hand. He'd found the note shortly after arriving at the house and finding Jean gone. She'd left it for him on the dining room table with the lights on, so he couldn't have missed it, he didn't but he wished he had.

Dear Hannibal,

If I'm not back by the time you find this letter, I'll probably either be locked up, or dead. I knew that the four of you were leaving tonight to track down Russo and that woman, even though you all tried keeping me in the dark. I appreciate your concerns, Hannibal, but I'm afraid it was all in vain. We'd forgotten about the other side of this ring, the Air Force, I would've preferred having Murdock with me tonight, but I know he's in his rightful place with the Team, so I'll be flying solo on this one. I already had one scrape with Death tonight, I don't know that I'll be returning this time. Thank you for all that you've done, I love you all very much.

Jean

He crumbled the note and refused to consider the possibilities behind it. He'd arrived at the house a couple of hours ago and immediately went upstairs to wake Jean up and tell her what had happened. Her room and the bathroom were both empty, the bed was made and she was gone. He ran in and out of every room, turning on all the lights, calling her name every step that he took, and then when he doubled back through the dining room he'd found the note. As a Colonel it was his job to keep his head when everybody else panicked, but he was close to doing it himself now as well. He'd gone through the house again trying to determine if anything was missing, anything Jean would've taken with her that would give him any idea what she'd had planned, but there was nothing. There was also, he noticed, no sign of a struggle, nothing to indicate anybody had come in and interrupted her as she was getting ready to leave. He didn't know what any of it meant and he didn't know what to make of it either.

Hannibal heard the van pull up outside and he knew he had to tell the others what had happened, and he wasn't looking forward to it. Murdock was the first one in the house, he practically broke through the door trying to get in, able to talk but he did it so fast they could hardly understand him as he asked, "What's going on, Hannibal? Where is she? What's happened? Is she alright?"

Hannibal gripped Murdock's arms lightly to get his attention and to restrain him from any sudden movements and said calmly, "Try and calm down, Murdock, I don't know what's happened to Jean, she was gone when I got here."

"I trust you saw the news on TV," Face said as he and B.A. stepped into the house behind Murdock.

Hannibal nodded, "Apparently Jean took it upon herself to go off and finish our unfinished business.

A noise escaped Murdock's throat like a whimpering dog and he collapsed in the colonel's arms, as if all strength had suddenly left him. Hannibal wrapped an arm around the pilot and patted his back comfortingly, and with his free hand he pocketed Jean's note before Murdock had a chance to see it.

"By now that place has to be crawling with army insects," Face said, "We wouldn't have a chance to get in there to look for her."

"I doubt she's still there," Hannibal replied, "She probably hightailed it as soon as things went boom."

"So where do we go to look for her now?" Face asked, then turned when he noticed B.A. wasn't saying anything. The sergeant had his head tilted back and his eyes boring holes into the ceiling and Face asked him, "What are you looking at?"

B.A. brought his gaze down to Face and asked him, "Man, don't you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Face replied.

Hannibal looked up to the ceiling and listened as well, so did Face and Murdock, and after a few seconds they heard it, a faint, distant, but unmistakable thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap of a helicopter's rotor.

"You don't think…" Face didn't finish the thought.

Hannibal kept his gaze upward and said, "Let's go find out."

They went out the front door and stood in the front yard looking up at the night sky to see the helicopter as it quickly came into view and was flying overhead, and they noticed, steadily coming down. It was a good thing that this side of town was practically abandoned because they could all imagine how much trouble they'd have on their hands if anybody happened to wake up and see a helicopter landing in the middle of the street at 4 o' clock in the morning.

The chopper came down smoothly but the skids touched down too fast and hit the street harder than was necessary, and Hannibal and Face took this as a good sign because there was only one person they knew who flew like that. The door opened and Jean all but fell out of the cockpit and onto the pavement, and the Team rushed towards her to find out what had happened.

"JEAN, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Hannibal strained to be heard over the chopper's blades.

Jean doubled over and held her stomach but managed to keep from throwing up and nodded. Hannibal turned to Murdock and told him to get in the copter and cut the engine, Murdock saluted and climbed aboard, but as soon as the blades slowed and the noise died down, Murdock jumped out of the cockpit screaming, "Colonel, we got company!"

Crane climbed down from the back seat and held his hands up as he said, "It's alright, he's out."

"Jean, what is going on?" Hannibal asked.

"It's a long story, Hannibal, and I don't have time to explain," Jean told him.

"Well make time," Hannibal replied, "I just spent the last 3 hours wondering if you were dead or alive."

Jean looked like she was going to argue with him, but she gave in and told him about what happened with the choppers, and about Decker and Crane getting her out of jail, and then she told them the other side of what had happened.


Once again, Decker found himself securing a helicopter from his superiors in the middle of the night, with about as much understanding of why he was doing it, as the men he was arguing with in order to get it. Once all of that hassle was dealt with, they were ready to take off, or so he thought, but Jean had to delay the takeoff because she was going to be sick, and she made sure to add that it was again.

"What's the matter with you?" Decker asked.

A brainstorm hit Jean. There wasn't any way Decker could possibly know that she and Murdock weren't married any longer, and he probably wouldn't find it out for some time. So for the time being she could use this little fact to her advantage, for now she could keep the illusion alive that they were still husband and wife, and she decided to have a little fun at Decker's expense. She turned to Decker and said nonchalantly, "I'm not sure, the doctors haven't gotten back to me with the tests yet…but I'm leaning towards morning sickness."

Decker looked like he could've been knocked over with a feather, "What?"

"Remember I told you to give us a few months and we'd settle the problem of the extra room in my house?" Jean patted her stomach lightly and added, "I think we've settled that little matter." And she promptly left to throw up.

Crane found her a few minutes later sitting on the ground and pawing at one eye with the cup of her palm.

"Are you alright, Miss Rhodes?" he asked.

"Allergies," she answered as she rubbed her itchy, watery eye, "Tell me something, Crane, by any chance does fireweed grow around here?"

"I don't know, Miss Rhodes," he answered.

"Insofar as I can tell that's the only thing I've ever been allergic to in my life, breathing in the pollen off of that plant, at least I think that's what it's called," Jean said, "Always makes me so sick."

"And you're not really pregnant, are you?" he asked.

Jean looked up at him and couldn't help smiling, "How did you know?"

"I can usually tell," he answered with a knowing smirk, "And I think I'm getting very good at telling when you say something just to get a rise out of the colonel."

Jean's smile widened and she said, "I really got him with that one, didn't I? Of course…it's obvious that we're going to need the others to get anywhere with this mess, but you realize that regardless of that outcome, I won't be able to let Decker take them in."

"I know it, I just don't know what you plan to do about it," Crane said to her.

"I do," Jean said as she stood up and pointed to the building near the back of the base, "If you would be so kind to escort me to the bathroom, I can get that problem solved very easily."

Crane didn't have any idea what she had planned, but he led her into the brightly lit building and found the restroom and Jean went over to the sink and took a nasal spray bottle out of her jacket pocket and started unscrewing the top on it.

"Exactly what are you doing?" Crane asked her.

Jean looked at his reflection behind her and answered, "I told your colonel that when the A-Team flies anywhere, B.A. has to be drugged, never willingly though mind you, and he's been catching on to a lot of their tricks, so I came up with a new one, he'd never see this one coming." Jean held the bottle up and showed him that it didn't have solution in it, but some white powder. She'd crushed up several of the knockout pills she'd tried to slip Murdock when they first came back to her house and he stayed up all night watching Hannibal. She held the bottle under the faucet and turned the water on so it barely dripped, just enough to fill up the bottle and mix with the powder.

"Again I ask, what are you doing?" Crane asked.

Jean smiled as she screwed the cap back on and said, "I was reading about this guy whose preferred method of killing people was to put cyanide in a nasal spray bottle, and he held it in his hand, covered with a Kleenex," and she pulled one out of her pocket and demonstrated as she continued, "He'd walk down the street, pretend to sneeze, squeeze the bottle so that the cyanide went directly into the face of whatever random person he was passing. And what happens when something sprays you in the face? The immediate natural reaction," she sucked in a noisy, surprised breath, "They inhale the cyanide, collapse immediately and people think they're having a heart attack. So…the same logic applies here, you hold the bottle, let out one big 'achoo', and send a little spritz of liquid knock-out into the poor unsuspecting fool's face…except here it's just a matter of trading one fool for another."

"But how long will it take to work?" Crane asked.

"Oh he'll be awake for the takeoff," Jean said, "But I have a feeling by the time we find the guys that he'll be off in dreamland."

Jean pocketed the bottle and Kleenex, and shifted the position she was standing in slightly, and she felt something. Crane saw the surprised look on her face and asked what it was, she told him to turn around and she reached into the waistband of her jeans and grabbed something and pulled out a stack of bills that was loosely banded together.

"What in the hell?" she asked as she thumbed through the large pile of hundred dollar bills, "Crane, where did you say the cops picked me up?"

"Within a mile of where the choppers exploded," he answered as he turned around and saw what she saw.

"You know, Crane," Jean scratched her head with her other hand as she said, "I don't know why, but I just got the strangest idea I know who's behind what happened tonight."

"Who?"

"Those two jokers that Murdock and I picked up in the bar, remember them?" she asked, "Richardson and Colbert, once Decker got shot we forgot all about those clowns and only focused on bringing down the army's side of the trafficking ring. That's why I'm in this whole mess tonight to begin with."

"They sabotaged their own choppers?" he asked.

"Could be," Jean nodded, "Because they know we set them up, and I'm working alone so I was an easy target, I can't remember where I went after the explosion, but I had to be somewhere near by that they could spot me and figure me in as the perfect scapegoat." She flipped the stack of bills and said, "Killing me would be too easy, but if the authorities were to think I was intentionally blowing up the military's aircraft…well that's terrorism, isn't it? They don't necessarily shoot you for that, instead they probably just let you rot away in a tiny cell somewhere for the rest of your unnatural days…and this would've been all they needed to see to think it was a professional hit on the army. Somehow I lucked out there, either those morons put it in the wrong pocket, or…I don't know. When I get my hands on them…"

Crane waited to hear the rest but she never said it, so he pressed the subject, "Well?"

She looked at him and said, "No, if I say it now that'll make it premeditated, so I'll wait and just kill them when it can be heat of the moment." She handed the money to him and said, "Now just remember when we go out there, when I sneeze, don't breathe."


Crane heard Decker's head thunk back against his seat when the knockout mist finally took effect, by this time they were well off the ground and away from base. He leaned over to the cockpit and asked Jean, "Where're we going?"

"We've got to find the others," she said, "Murdock's more equipped to handle this bird than I am. By now they've probably heard about the explosion and if so, they'll either be out there looking for my charred remains, or…they'd probably still be back at my place. We'll circle back to the blast site first and if we don't find anything there, then we'll head over to my place, in any case I want to make sure that the SWAT team hasn't busted in and raided my home while I'm not there. I don't know exactly what is going on tonight but I'm putting nothing past these psychos."

The smoke was still thick rising in the air and the fires hadn't completely been put out, large patches still glowed bright orange on the ground and could be seen perfectly from their view in the chopper.

"Where the hell is everybody?" Jean asked as she noted there wasn't anyone around anymore.

"There wasn't anything left for them to do," Crane told her, "Until everything's burnt out and cooled down they can't touch anything to even try and figure out what happened."

"Sounds like the city," Jean commented, "Anytime anything needs to be done, just leave everything hanging for about a week before they do anything. Hey Crane, do you have any idea what happened to the men that were here tonight? The ones caught in the explosion."

"Airlifted to a hospital," he said.

"I know that, I was there," she replied, "Do you know if any of them are dead?"

"No," he answered, "I don't."

Jean groaned under her breath and squeezed her eyes shut for a second as she considered those possibilities, and then a whole other set of possibilities occurred to her. Assuming Colbert and Richardson were behind the explosions, the question still remained why would they sabotage their own men? Those choppers were loaded and ready to go, probably a million dollars worth of heroin in them easy, that was a hell of a lot of profit to blow sky high just for a frame job.

"Uh oh," she thought of something else.

"What is it?" Crane asked her.

Jean ran the scenario through her mind once more and the picture became clearer, and she let out a few words that if mentioned in the A-Team's company, probably would've gotten her busted in the mouth. "They didn't know I was coming back, they had those choppers ready to blow at takeoff, they were going to kill their own men, it was only because I'd come back around to kill them myself that they weren't flying the choppers when they blew up. And after that…they must've seen me and figured they had a perfect way out, they leave me in the midst of it to take the rap while they get the hell out of the country."

"Why would they do that?" Crane asked.


"Why indeed?" Hannibal asked Jean when she finished telling them the whole story.

"Well it makes sense if you think about it, Colonel," Murdock said, "These guys have been doing these runs for quite a while, say they transport a million dollars' worth of drugs every mission, they keep a certain percentage of that and they could easily be sitting on twenty or thirty million dollars by now, maybe more. They know it's not going to last forever and their luck is going to run out somewhere so why not stop now while they're 20 million bucks ahead of the game? The heat's on, they know it, they've lost men, they made men lost, it's a blood sport and they're tired of playing, so they're cashing in their chips and getting ready to head out somewhere where nobody's heard of them and nobody's looking for them and they can live rich and peacefully on some island somewhere for the rest of their days."

"At the expense of their partners' lives," Face noted.

Murdock shrugged and replied, "Blood sports usually do come down to solo players, they're not big on teams."

"And that's why they're going to lose now," Hannibal said.

"But how're we going to find them?" Jean asked, "What if they're already gone?"

Hannibal was able to read between the lines as she spoke, Jean wouldn't say it but it was obvious to him anyway that she was worried that if they had already left the country that it was her fault for not figuring out sooner who was behind what was going on, and for all the time wasted that night in coming to the answer.

Murdock must've picked up on it as well because he went over to her and squeezed her shoulder supportively and told her, "Don't worry, Saint, there's not enough distance in the world we can't follow them across, wherever they are we're going to get them, isn't that right, Colonel?"

"Absolutely," Hannibal replied, "But I wouldn't worry, Jean, I doubt they've left yet."

"But Hannibal, they've already got over two hours on us," she said.

"This is true," he said, "But you'll recall the fable of the tortoise and the hare."

"Hannibal, please, we're not in the mood for any of your proverbs," Jean told him.

Hannibal shrugged innocently and responded, "I'm just saying, a good head start doesn't guarantee a clean getaway."

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

"I have an idea where they may be heading," Hannibal explained, "Face and I'll go up with Murdock and get a bird's eye view of the location, you and Crane go with B.A., we'll stay in touch through the radio."

"Go where?" B.A. asked.

"There's a private heliport that operates near the border leading into Mexico, you remember, we made an emergency landing there once when the helicopter we were using got hit and we lost the fuel," Hannibal said.

"Oh yeah I remember that place," Face said, "I remember I managed to talk those people into letting us borrow another chopper for the remainder of the mission."

B.A. made a sour face in remembrance and replied, "Yeah I remember, you knocked me out and I woke up just in time for the crash landing."

"That wasn't a crash, that was just a sudden stop," Murdock told him.

B.A. ignored him and said, "Yeah I know where the place is, Hannibal, I can get us there."

"Good, this time of night there shouldn't be anybody around. So it would be very easy for them to get in and make off with a helicopter, and it wouldn't surprise me if they stashed one of theirs there to hide it out in the open so it'd be ready to go in a moment's notice."

"What about ol' Sleeping Ugly?" Jean asked as she pointed towards Decker in the back of the copter..

"We'll take him with us," Hannibal said, "I'm sure when he wakes up he'll enjoy the view, to say nothing of Murdock's flying capabilities."

Off in the distance they could hear sirens and a minute later could see red and blue lights starting to come up the far end of the road leading into the city.

"Uh oh, looks like somebody called in seeing the chopper," Hannibal said, "Come on, Murdock, let's get out of here."

A quick round of goodbyes was said and Face and Hannibal climbed into the helicopter with the guns in tow that they figured they would need, and Jean stayed back with B.A. and Crane, then at the last minute when the helicopter started to leave the ground, Jean ran up to it and jumped onto the skid and climbed up and got her foot on the threshold when they realized they had a stowaway. The doors hadn't closed yet and Hannibal leaned over from where he sat in the back with Decker and screamed at her, "You can't come with us!"

"You're not stopping me, Hannibal," Jean told him.

Hannibal got as close to her as he could without falling out and said again with heavy emphasis, "YOU CAN'T COME WITH US!"

"THEN THROW ME OFF!" Jean replied, with as much emphasis in her own voice.

However they had already left the ground and he knew he couldn't do that, and he could see the police cars coming up the street and knew going back down wasn't an option either, so with a little difficulty and a lot of careful maneuvering, he and Face managed to get her into the back with Hannibal and the still unconscious Decker, and got the doors closed as Murdock got them over a hundred feet off the ground and turned it around. It was a tight fit and Jean couldn't help commenting on the absurdity of making helicopters to only seat four people, summing it up, "A sedan built to hold four people, that makes sense, but a military copter? What sense does that make?"

"Are you crazy?" Hannibal asked Jean, ignoring her comment.

"Hannibal, I'm in this just as much as the rest of you are, I intend to see it through and I intend to be there when we first land," she said, "Besides, I want to be around when Decker comes to, I think it'll be an interesting incident, and besides, somebody's got to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't try taking you guys in when this is all over, after all," she grinned mischievously and said, "I can't have anything happen to my baby's father…or grandfather for that matter," she looked back at Hannibal.

Hannibal just chuckled at that thought.

"Hey Saint," Murdock called back to her, and she leaned over to see what he wanted and he asked her, "So how exactly did you get that nose spray thing to work? That'll be perfect the next time we gotta lug the big mudsucker with us."

"Yeah, but it'll probably only work once," Face reminded him, "I don't think he'll be dumb enough to let you sneeze on him twice. You'll be lucky if he doesn't kill you for it the first time."

"Hey Hannibal," Face turned in his seat and pointed back to Decker, "How're we going to wake him up? We're going to have enough problems when we find those two idiots without him holding things up."

"I got an idea, let me try," Jean leaned over towards Decker and yelled into his ear, "Hey Decker, get up, Lynch is being brought in to replace you!"

Decker shot up before he could even open his eyes, and a minute later when he did he looked around and grimaced at his newfound company.

"Morning, Decker," Hannibal said with a smirk, "Sleep well?"

"What's going on?" Decker asked.

"What's going on is we're about to trap us two big fat rats," Jean answered, "And when we do, we' gonna carve them up real nice."

Decker looked past her and glared at Hannibal and asked him, "Where did you come from?"

"Well now really, Decker, didn't you have that talk with your parents when you were a kid?" Hannibal asked humorously.

"Oh shut up," he replied.

Jean leaned over to the cockpit and asked Face, "What time is it?"

Face checked his watch and said, "Quarter after four."

"Sun's going to be coming up soon," Jean said, "Let's say we catch these guys at the heliport, is that going to help or hurt us?"

"Well they'll be able to see us, but more importantly we'll be able to see them," Face answered, "So it has to help."

"Seven of us against two of them," Jean said, "Those are some crazy odds."

"Not so crazy as one woman against 12 army personnel smugglers," Hannibal reminded her.

"It worked," she replied.

"Only because the choppers exploded, if that hadn't happened and they hadn't all gotten knocked down and impaled with the debris, what do you think would've happened to you tonight?"

"You read my note, you know what I thought," Jean answered.

"What note?" Murdock asked.

"It's not important," Hannibal responded.

Jean smiled ominously at him and said, "I thought you didn't like any secrets between your Teammates."

"Hannibal?" Murdock said questioningly.

"It's alright, Murdock," Hannibal assured him, "Everything's going to be alright."


Face looked down below and saw the well lit departure path and pointed to a helicopter on the landing pad that had just started spinning its rotor, "There they are!"

Jean leaned over to see what he saw and she asked, taking in the size of the place, "This is a private port? What's a public one look like?"

"Alright everybody," Hannibal said as he picked up his machine gun, "Brace yourselves, and get ready, Murdock, take us down, Face, you get on the radio to B.A. and let him know we've arrived and they're about to takeoff."

"What do I do?" Jean asked him.

"You try and stay out of my way," Hannibal told her, "I don't want to fall back and hit you."

That was easier said than done and Jean was practically in Decker's lap as Hannibal threw the door open on his side and opened fire on the other chopper, managing to blast the windshield into Swiss cheese, though he seemed to miss both men inside, although it quickly altered their plans about flying and they scrambled to get out of the helicopter. Murdock took them down for a landing and everybody jumped out armed and ready for a fight, and they got one.

Richardson and Colbert may have been outnumbered but they hadn't come unprepared; as soon as they hit the ground they returned fire and managed to put a nice straight line of holes into the side of their chopper and Hannibal and Face both found themselves hitting the dirt to avoid being the next target. Murdock covered Face and blasted straight at them, though he missed, whether intentionally as usual or this time just a sudden run of bad luck, was anybody's guess.

Two new lights suddenly made for much confusion before the others were able to see that it was the headlights from B.A.'s van as he drove up very quickly and came to a screeching stop in the middle of the departure zone. He and Crane were out of the van and automatically retaliating against the two trigger happy pilots; unfortunately they soon found out that their competition was larger than they'd originally thought. During the middle of the fight, shots rang out from somewhere behind them and Face and Hannibal both chanced turning around to see what had happened, and saw more men coming their way, all with automatic weapons and no problem using them. For a split second Jean saw the position they'd put themselves in and knew that she had only time to try and help one of them before the trigger was pulled; she ran up behind Face and tackled him to the ground a fraction of a second before the shot rang out and she heard it just fly past her head.

Hannibal turned and saw Face laying facedown on the ground with Jean on top of him and realized what had happened, and he returned his attention to the men in front of him and resumed shooting. B.A. was able to step in and cover Hannibal and deal with the new arrivals.

"You alright, Face?" Jean asked as they started to get up.

"I'm alright," he answered.

"Good, let's kill them!" Jean said.

She was out for blood now and had no bother for a gun anymore. She tackled the first man nearest to her, which turned out to be Richardson, and she threw her weight against him and knocked him to the ground. She straddled his waist and had her hands locked around his throat and was bashing his head against the ground. But after a short while that stopped being fulfilling so she grabbed a fistful of the hair on top of his head and used it to jerk his head up so she could punch him in the jaw with her other hand. He moaned and his head snapped back with a particularly loud, pronounced SNAP and when that happened, she moved up and started kicking him in the ribs until he was screaming. Finally he managed to push her off of him and knock her down instead, but as he got to his feet Face came up and clocked him. Richardson, half dazed, turned on one foot and grabbed Face's hand and squeezed it in a bone-crushing grip; Face looked like he was starting to double over but instead he head-butted Richardson in his stomach and knocked him down again.

Jean got up again, and, convinced that Richardson wasn't going anywhere anytime soon based on the noise he was making and the resemblance he suddenly bore to being reincarnated as a rag, she turned her attention to someone else and the process started again. The second man she tried jumping hadn't been taken by surprise enough that he lost the grip on his gun like Richardson had, and he turned and Jean grabbed the gun as well and a struggle for it ensued. It came to an abrupt end, however, when the man shoved his weight against her and, using her lack of equilibrium to his advantage, brought his M-16 back like a baseball bat about to bunt a ball and used it to smash into both sets of her ribs simultaneously.

The scream that pierced the early morning air took a few seconds to rise to surface as the pain had been numbed initially at the point of impact, but immediately afterward the searing pain hit Jean and she fell back and hit the ground, the front of her shirt immediately coated in blood as she half rolled off her back onto one side to the other, as if her body couldn't decide what it was doing.

"Jean!" Murdock turned when he heard her screams and saw her lying on the ground covered in her own blood and he lost it. He turned his attention back to the man in front of him and used his own rifle to smash him in the face, knocking him out quickly and effectively. Murdock kept the Ruger clutched in one hand as he ran over to where Jean had fallen and felt his blood run cold as he took in the visible damage. "My God…"

Jean's face was contorted in unimaginable pain and she wasn't even able to scream anymore. Her hands tried to touch the front of her shirt but one hand made its way back up to her mouth as she let out a jagged breath that would've been a scream if any sound could've come out, and her whole body was shaking as she tried breathing. Murdock knelt down beside her and tried to figure out what had to be done before they could try moving her to a hospital, Jean sucked in a noisy, ragged breath that left her again almost immediately as she told him, "Not as bad as it looks, blood's fake!"

But the pain sure as hell wasn't and that was what Murdock was focusing on. Somehow he was able to block out the noise of the gunfire as he looked around for another chopper that they could use to airlift her out of there, and he spotted one about a hundred yards away, getting her to it would be the hard part but it had to be done. His ears opened again to the sounds of the firefight and he felt his blood freeze in his veins as one particularly loud shot went off, followed by a short but loud scream, one that he could identify. Jean looked up at him and they said simultaneously in horror, "Hannibal!"

Hannibal was laying on the ground clutching his shoulder, he could feel his blood flowing freely down his arm and over his glove. Another shot went off, it practically exploded in his ear it was so close, but it wasn't aimed at him, it was aimed at the man who shot him. He looked up to see who had fired, and was mildly surprised to see it had been Decker. The other colonel pocketed his gun and came over to him and knelt down beside him and asked, sounding nonchalant, "How're you feeling, Smith?"

Hannibal choked on a pained laugh and said weakly, "Feels like I got a bullet in my shoulder."

The noises from the fighting were starting to die down, and since he couldn't see it for himself, Hannibal took it as a good sign. All of a sudden his eyelids felt like they each weighed 40 pounds and he closed them for a second, then felt somebody slap his face and heard Decker tell him, "Wake up, Smith."

"I've been awake all night," Hannibal tiredly responded, suddenly feeling all strength leaving him, "Let me sleep."

"Not yet," Decker told him, and looking at something or somebody past Hannibal, he nodded his head in that direction. Hannibal heard somebody's footsteps coming towards him, and since he couldn't right off hand identify the sound of that person walking, he assumed it was Crane, and it was.

"Murdock says he can fly them out of here and get to the hospital in about 15 minutes," Crane told Decker, "We just gotta get them loaded up."

"Hear that, Smith?" Decker asked into his ear.

"I'm tired, not deaf," Hannibal answered.

"Can you get up?" Decker asked him.

"Yes I can get up," Hannibal said, still clutching his shoulder as he proceeded to do so, "What do you mean 'them'? Who is 'them'?"

"Rhodes was injured, looks like broken ribs."

"Which ones?" Hannibal asked.

"All of them."

Hannibal cursed under his breath as he looked up at the sky that had gone from pitch dark to dimly gray when he wasn't looking. The sun would be up soon, another day had started, and what a hell of a way to start it.

"Come on, Smith," Decker said as he grabbed Hannibal's good arm.

Hannibal pushed Decker's hand away and insisted, "I can walk myself, thank you very much."

When he was close enough for the others to see, he could also see all the blood drain out of Templeton's face as he ran over to him, "Oh my God, Hannibal!"

"It's alright, just a shoulder wound," Hannibal said, damned if he was going to let on to how bad it really was, even if they didn't believe his front.

"Come on, Hannibal," Face said, "Murdock's gonna get you guys to the hospital."

"I know," Hannibal replied calmly as he went with the lieutenant over to the chopper. He stopped to turn back to Decker and asked, "Care to join us, Roderick?"

"No thanks," Decker answered cynically, "We've got our hands full with the mess here and I've spent enough time in the hospital to last the rest of my life…" he flashed a knowing smirk to Hannibal and added, "I'll catch up to you later."

"I'll hold you to it, Decker," Hannibal replied as he got in the chopper.

This was a much larger helicopter than the one they'd flown out in, so there was plenty of room for everybody to fit in, and they had Jean laying on the floor in the back since she couldn't sit up. Hannibal made his way to the back with her, but first noted B.A.'s unconscious form slumped forward in one of the seats and asked Murdock, "How'd you manage to get him in here?"

"Just those two little magic words, colonel," Murdock answered, "Ah and choo!"

Hannibal chuckled lightly and sat down on the floor beside Jean and asked her, "How ya feeling, kid?"

Jean glared at him through one open eye as if to ask 'are you serious?' Then she noticed the dark red stain overtaking the sleeve of his jacket and said, "You're hit!"

"That's why I'm riding back here with you," Hannibal said, "This is the injured party section only. Murdock's gonna fly us out to the hospital and get both of us patched up." He pulled back his jacket and revealed the half hearted bandage job he'd managed to get done right after he got hit.

Jean closed her eyes halfway through his sentence and with his good arm, Hannibal reached down and pinched Jean to keep her awake, and he told her, "I know you're in a lot of pain, kid, but I need you to do something for me and I know it's going to hurt a lot."

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"Sing," Hannibal answered.

Jean opened her eyes wide to look at him like he'd gone crazy and asked, "What?"

Hannibal pointed to the front and said, "They can't see you from up front, Murdock's gotta know that you're gonna be alright, if you sing then you're going to have to take in air and keep breathing, and as long as you're breathing then they know you're still alive."

"Oh Hannibal," Jean groaned as she closed her eyes.

"No, don't fall asleep yet," he told her, "Now come on, I'm serious."

"Hannibal, I can't think of any songs," Jean told him as she closed her eyes again.

Hannibal pinched her again to keep her eyes open, and he forced himself up and leaned over the back of the seats and said to Murdock, "Murdock, what's that song you sing when you fly?"

"Which one, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"Oh you know, how does it go?" Hannibal recited the first lines he could think of, "Eighty men tried and eighty men died, and now they're buried together along the countryside."

Murdock picked up on the tune and mechanically picked up where the colonel left off, "Now Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man, So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan. He challenged the German to a real dogfight,
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight."

Reluctantly, Face joined in with the song and while they got it started, Hannibal ducked back down to the floor beside Jean and made sure she was awake and also following suit when they came to the next verse:

"That bloody Red Baron was in a fix,

He tried everything but he'd run out of tricks,

Snoopy fired once and he fired twice,

And that bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sight.

"Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more,

The bloody Red Baron was rolling up the score,

Eighty men died trying to end that spree

Of the bloody Red Baron of Germany."

Jean was mouthing the lyrics more than anything, sound was only coming out of her half of the time, but it was enough to keep the others satisfied that she was still with them. Hannibal stopped singing long enough to ask her, "Incidentally, at a choice between the two of us, why did you throw yourself on Face?"

Jean offered a weak smile and replied, "Somehow I figured that you would be alright no matter what happened, Face I'm not as certain about, he's younger and not as experienced, so we gotta look out for him, you on the other hand, they'll never be able to stop you."

Hannibal smiled in return and told her, "You done good, corporal, I commend you," and he leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head, and they resumed singing with the others.

Hannibal was as audible as the rest of them, but his eyelids were growing heavier, and he felt himself growing weaker, and despite his attempts to stay awake, he felt his eyes close, and he didn't have the strength to open them up again, and then slowly, sound became distorted, and then everything went quiet.

Author's note: The lyrics used in this chapter belong to The Royal Guardsmen's song "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron". Interestingly enough in the novelization of the episode "A Small and Deadly War", Murdock sings this instead of the Hearse Song.