The first thing Hannibal saw when he opened his eyes was Maggie standing over him.

"I must still be alive," he tiredly grumbled, "Because there aren't going to be any angels where I'm going when I die."

Maggie smiled and said, "You're a long ways off, Hannibal Smith."

He lay back and started to close his eyes again when something occurred to him and he sat up and asked, "Where'd you come from? What's going on? Where're the others?"

"Shhhh," Maggie told him and added quietly, "You'll wake them."

"Hmm?" Hannibal ignored the pain in his shoulder and turned to the side and saw Face, B.A. and Murdock all slumped together on the couch asleep. By now the sun was up and pouring in through the windows, and Hannibal realized they weren't in the hospital, but at Maggie's house in Bad Rock.

"When did we get here?" he asked.

"About three hours ago," Maggie answered, "You were already unconscious when they brought you in."

"Apparently," Hannibal said as he craned his head down to look at the new bandages covering his shoulder, "Nice work."

"You got lucky," she told him, "Another quarter inch in and you wouldn't have much use of this arm for quite a while. As it is, provided you don't use it too much and take it easy for the next few days, you should be back to your old annoying self within a couple of weeks."

"That's nice," Hannibal yawned, then he thought of something else and asked, "Where's Jean?"

"In the next room, I had to sedate her," Maggie answered.

"Her ribs are broken?"

"No," Maggie shook her head, "She lucked out, not even a fracture, just plenty of bruises, and plenty of pain."

"I knew that already," Hannibal said.

"Yeah well, don't look for it to get any better in the next few days," Maggie told him, "Murdock called in a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"A prescription for Hydromorphone, I agreed to do it because I think he's right."

Hannibal's head was still half swimming so the picture wasn't coming in too clearly, but he was able to see it well enough to remember that Jean had been off those pills for over a year. But he nodded, surprising even himself, and said, "He probably is. I suppose he didn't tell you that she's had a…slight addiction problem."

"He didn't," Maggie replied, "If he had, I wouldn't have given it to him."

Hannibal nodded and said, "Well, I know our society likes to treat addiction and consumption of said addictives as either an all or nothing thing, but I've always seen truly beating addiction as going from drinking whiskey round the clock, to having a beer at dinner without it escalating, not putting all liquor out of sight and mind. This will be her test to see if she rises or falls."

"And if she does?" Maggie asked.

Hannibal looked down at his watch just to simply avoid looking directly at Maggie as he explained, "Jean's got a lot going for her, and she knows it, it was her decision to quit the first time, I think she'll pass, and if she doesn't, Murdock will be there to pick her up. He doesn't think I know it, but he's had some experience there himself, so if anybody can help Jean, it's him."

"Hope you're right, Hannibal," she replied, "Unfortunately I know only too well how many times addictions like these start because they can't be helped in the first place. As much screaming as she did just getting settled on the table, I'd say she's going to have to be doped to the gills just to breathe regularly for the next few days."

"So when…" Hannibal tried moving and felt recoil in his whole shoulder, "When do you recommend we get out of here?"

"In your present conditions?" she asked, sounding slightly shocked, "Not for a couple of days."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," he said.


"So tell me, Murdock," Hannibal said later when the others had woken up, "Why'd you bring us here instead of to the hospital?"

"Are you complaining, Hannibal?" Face asked.

"Not at all, just curious," he responded.

"Well for one thing I figured you'd have a warmer reception towards the doctor that way," Murdock answered, "And besides, it seems to me we've spent enough time in hospitals lately."

"No argument there," Hannibal noted, "This certainly beats the paper gown and those annoying nurses who insist on poking their heads in every hour to make sure you're asleep. How's Jean?"

"Still blissfully knocked out," Murdock answered, "She may not have broken anything but you wouldn't know the difference from the noise she was making earlier, Colonel."

"I'll believe it," he replied, then added in a quieter voice so what he said next was just between the two of them, "But Murdock, do you really think it was a good idea having Maggie fill out a prescription for those morphine pills?"

Murdock looked at the Colonel with a similar expression to if he was facing an interrogation back in the army, and he nodded and said firmly, "Yes, Colonel, I believe it's necessary."

"You realize what could happen," Hannibal said.

Murdock nodded again and said, "I know, but Hannibal I just couldn't justify leaving her in pain, it wouldn't have been right, no matter what happens to her now."

Hannibal nodded, "I know, Murdock." He sat up and noticed that B.A. and Face had left the room and he said to the pilot, "Maggie was telling me that Jean's put on a little weight since she last examined her when she had that concussion, and she says that may have helped Jean because her ribs have a little cushioning to them now."

Murdock nodded sheepishly and told him, "I'd noticed." He met Hannibal's gaze and added, "That's why you thought she was pregnant, wasn't it?"

"Well…I guess even with a 103 degree fever I could notice there was a little more of her than there was when we last saw her," Hannibal said with a coy smile, "Though the others never seemed to catch on, or they just didn't want to say anything."

"Well, I like it," Murdock said, "I wouldn't want a wife that's too skinny."

"True, one of you like that is bad enough," Hannibal joked.

Murdock shot a mock glare back at Hannibal and stuck his tongue out at him.

"Aha!" Hannibal said as he pointed, "That's it, there's the human zipper."

"I'll tell you the truth, Hannibal," Murdock said as he scratched behind one ear, "I think I like her better this way…I don't think she was taking too good of care of herself before."

Hannibal nodded. "One thing I noticed when we first met her was how different she looked compared to the picture her parents had of her, and none of it for the better, I especially noticed all the weight she'd lost since the picture was taken. That, mixed with that dead look in her eyes, made her look two layers short of a skeleton still wearing its skin, at least now she's looking more like an actual person. So tell me, Captain, do you really see the two of you getting married again someday?"

Murdock nodded hopefully and said, "I'd like to, Colonel, I'd like the chance to do things right."

They could hear moans coming from the next room, a sign that Jean had either woken up or at least was near consciousness.

"I think you're going to get your chance," Hannibal told him.

Murdock went into the next room to see what was the matter and he saw Jean lying on the table, trying to move but quickly getting nowhere with it. Maggie had propped her head up slightly so that when she woke up she could sit up to swallow without a risk of choking.

"Hey Saint, how're you feeling?" he asked as he went over to her.

Jean groaned and her whole body shook as every attempted breath was broken down into three or four shorter ragged breaths. She finally managed to get out a weak, "Murdock, get me up."

"Sorry, Saint," he shook his head, "That's not why you're hurting, unfortunately Maggie said your ribs are gonna be like that for a few days before it gets any better."

Jean groaned and flopped her head back against the table.

"Don' worry, don' worry," Murdock said in a deeper, brassier voice as he shook his head and added, "Everyt'ing's okay." He reached into his pocket and took out a pill bottle and showed her, "I got you something that's gonna make you feel better."

Jean saw the label on the bottle and sucked in a pained sob as she tried to breathe first and then speak. Murdock didn't wait to hear what she was trying to say though, he squeezed her hand lightly since it was one of the few places he didn't have to worry about hurting her just by touching her and he said, "It's alright, there's some water on the desk over here, we'll pop a couple of these babies in you and you won't remember where you even are."

"I'm very lucky," Jean said so quietly that he almost missed it.

Murdock turned back from where he was pouring a glass of water from the pitcher on the desk and asked her, "What's that?"

"I said," Jean was able to raise her voice a little higher now, "I'm very lucky, I'm very lucky that you love me, because right now you're holding my life in your hands, and knowing about me what you do, you know that."

Murdock smiled at her as he brought her a glass of water and two pills and told her, "You're going to be fine…you've already beaten yourself up enough to stay off these things, but if you need them, then you need them, there's no point in suffering if you don't have to."

Jean took the glass in one hand and the pills in the other but she didn't take them, her hands shook as she looked down at the pills and Murdock knew from where she was standing, it was like looking down the side of a cliff before plunging off. Like reopening Pandora's Box right after you got the lid nailed down again.

"It'll be alright, Saint," Murdock told her, "I know you, you never really got hooked on these things before, you'll be alright now."

He decided to help her and he took the pills and dropped them onto the back of her tongue and helped steady her hand as she drank the water and waited as she swallowed them.

"Murdock, where's Hannibal? What happened to him?" Jean asked.

"He's alright, he's in the next room," Murdock said, "He's been awake for a couple hours now."

Jean's whole body started shaking and Murdock thought she was going to be sick again, but she shook her head, explaining, "I was just so scared that he wasn't going to make it, when he passed out and we couldn't wake him up, and we weren't anywhere near here yet…"

"I know," Murdock told her, "You stay in this racket as long as we have, it never gets easier to deal with, just after a while you get used to it."

"If he would've died…" Jean started to say.

"But he didn't, Maggie got the bullet out and got him sewed up real nice," Murdock said, "And she said he'll be good as new in a few days, so long as he takes it easy."

"Which he never does," Jean replied.

"He will," Murdock said with a knowing smile, "We'll force him."

Jean smiled in return and tried to laugh but it hurt her too much still. She grabbed the pill bottle and looked at it for a minute, Murdock told her, "Just remember, there's a lot more of you than there is of those, and something that small can't overtake all of that," he pointed to her.

She nodded and said in response, "I hope you're right, Murdock. When're we getting out of here?"


"Hannibal, speaking as a physician I'd like to point out that it is not in your best interest to go tearing off again already," Maggie told the persistent colonel as he stood by the door, waiting for B.A. and Face to get back with Maggie's car and the van.

"I appreciate your professional opinion, Maggie, but I think I'd do a better job recovering back at my own place," Hannibal said, "Here we've got a whole houseful of people, at least once I get back to L.A. I can be alone."

"I'm sorry? I must've missed something," she said to him, "I was under the impression that you were currently staying with Murdock and his wife."

"I was," Hannibal said, "But if I go back to that house with those crazy people then I'm going to be getting bedsores all day with all of them hovering over me making sure I don't so much as breathe wrong, lest it upset my stitches."

Maggie chuckled and told him, "It wouldn't be a bad idea for a couple of days. Keep this up, Hannibal and you'll be able to qualify for a frequent flyer program on my operating table."

Hannibal waved it off dismissively and said, "Ah I've been through worse. They didn't give me the Purple Heart for nothing."

"And where is it?" Maggie asked coyly.

Hannibal chuckled dryly in response and told her, "I don't have it anymore."

"Mm-hmm," she nodded.

A determined look came over Hannibal's face and he walked away from the screen door and asked, "What did you do with that jacket Jean was wearing when they brought her in?"

She watched him tear off into the next room and told him, "It's over the laundry hamper, why? What's the problem?"

"No problem," Hannibal said as he found the discarded jacket and turned it over to find the right side of it, "No problem whatsoever." He turned it inside out and right side out again and pointed to the Purple Heart on the breast pocket and said, "You see that?"

Maggie did a double take, "That's yours?"

"Yup," Hannibal answered as he glanced at her, and added, "And these belong to the others."

"How did…" Maggie started to ask.

"It's a long story," Hannibal told her, "But you know, it's a very funny thing, when we presented them to Jean, she said that they were rightfully ours because we bled for them…well, she'd done plenty of bleeding herself, and for nothing. She almost died, and had no recognition for what she'd done."

"What did she do?" Maggie asked.

He looked at her and said, "That's another long story, one for another time. Incidentally, how is she doing?"

Maggie guffawed and said, "Halfway to cloud 9, Murdock's got her so doped up she can get off the table and walk but she doesn't have the damnedest idea where she is."

Hannibal smiled and said, "Sounds like a satisfied customer."

They heard two vehicles pull up outside and Hannibal called to the next room, "Murdock, get Jean and let's get out of here, B.A.'s back with the van!"

"Be there in a minute, Colonel!" Murdock replied.

Hannibal turned back to the doctor and said, "Sorry to leave so soon, Maggie, but I don't think you really want all the extra company for another day."

She returned his smug grin and said, "Just try and come back sometime without needing me to patch somebody up, okay?"

"You got it," he said as he kissed her.

The front door swung open and Face stepped in, with B.A. not far behind him, "Alright Hannibal, we're back so let's get out of here."

"Where are your manners, Face?" Hannibal asked.

"I left them at the cleaners," Face answered, "Come on, Hannibal, you don't think Decker can put the pieces together that we didn't go to the hospital?"

Hannibal looked at Maggie and flashed a knowing smirk and said, "Somehow I get the idea that Decker's not the problem."

They heard Murdock groan and turned to see him more or less hauling Jean along with him as he said, "Alright, Colonel, I think we're ready to go, we would've been ready sooner but I had to check her pockets and make sure she didn't swipe anything else. Apparently a side effect of those pills is they make her prone to kleptomaniac tendencies, among other things."

Hannibal hunched down to get a better look at Jean and saw one eye rolling around in her head like a labyrinth ball bobbing and swerving down the lined path to avoid falling in the holes between the start and finish, and she had a goofy closed mouth grin on her face like the cat sitting on the biggest canary in the world. He looked up to the pilot and asked him, "How many pills did you give her?"

"Enough that we could get her up without her screaming bloody murder," Murdock answered, "That was the whole point of giving them to her in the first place."

"Never a dull moment," Hannibal noted, "Alright kid, if you…" he stopped when Jean nonchalantly stuck her hand deep into his pocket and started feeling around. He yanked her hand out and said, "If you feel up to taking a little ride, we're going to go home now."

For a few seconds he wasn't sure if she'd heard him, then out of nowhere she let out a loud, "FI-I-I-I-NE!" in response.

Hannibal kept a friendly smile but turned to B.A. and murmured to the sergeant, "Make sure you've got your keys with you."

B.A. took them out of his pocket and held them up for show, and high enough that Jean couldn't grab them when she passed him by.

"Bye, Maggie," Face waved as they headed out the door, and everybody echoed the sentiment on their way out. Maggie stood at the front door and waved them off as they got into the van and left.


"Are you sure you're feeling alright, Hannibal?" Murdock asked during the drive back.

"I've certainly had worse," he answered, "And it looks like it hardly took any stitches at all."

"Well don't be doing that again, man," B.A. said.

Hannibal turned to him and asked, "What?"

"Getting shot," B.A. answered, "You scare us like that again, Hannibal, and I'm gonna kill you."

Hannibal just laughed in response.

After a while, Hannibal noted how quiet things were in the backseat and he turned around to see what was going on and saw Jean had fallen asleep leaning against Murdock, with a big smile on her face. Murdock had one arm carefully slipped around her shoulders to hold her against him while she slept, careful not to touch her ribs, painkillers or no painkillers. Face sat beside them looking straight ahead with a somewhat bored expression on his face, more than anything it seemed obvious he was only being quiet to let them rest. It had been a long last few days and they were all looking forward to getting home and being able to just rest finally.

Once they got back to Jean's house, through the grace of her drug induced form of unconsciousness, Murdock was able to carry her up the stairs to her room to put her to bed, and likewise, Hannibal found himself with a one angry mudsucker escort to his own room.

"Really, B.A., don't you think this is a bit much?" Hannibal asked as they made the trip down the hall to his bedroom.

"No," B.A. answered firmly as he poked Hannibal in the back to move him along, "Maggie said the only way you're gonna heal right is to rest, and if you don't, I'm gonna put you to sleep for a week."

"Well, it's so nice to be wanted," Hannibal cynically remarked as he turned on the lights and went in.

"Get," B.A. said, poking him harder for emphasis.

"Tell me, B.A., have you ever considered becoming a registered nurse?" Hannibal asked as he climbed onto his bed.

B.A. only growled at him in response.

"B.A., bring me the phone," Hannibal said, gesturing piteously to show he couldn't reach it.

"What for?" B.A. asked.

"I need to make a couple of calls," he answered, "We've been AWOL from the film studio for three days, I want to see if when Jean and I have recovered if we're even going to have a job to go back to. And then, I'm going to call Amy's apartment and see if she ever got back home, just how could an assignment in Jakarta last three months?"

B.A. heard a noise from the hallway and went to see what was going on. Face explained that Murdock wanted to get some ice on Jean's ribs to help with the bruising but they couldn't get her to hold still, and he had to go out and pick up a bag of ice. B.A. went into Jean's bedroom to see what was happening and he saw Jean squirming and thrashing around on the bed and laughing as Murdock tried to get her to stay still.

"I don't recall her ever acting like this before," B.A. said to Murdock as he helped tie Jean's wrists to the headboard.

"Well, B.A., I have a theory about that," Murdock told him, "When Jean was first taking those pills, she said it was just to numb herself, but she didn't take them in excess and she never took enough that she lost control, why? She was an assassin on the move, and she worked alone, she had nobody to trust so she had to always rely on herself, so she had to stay in control. Well, now she's got us, so she knows that if she lets herself go, because she's taking a stronger dosage because she's in legitimate pain this time, that she can because we're here to keep an eye on her."

"It better not become a permanent habit," B.A. said.

"I doubt it will," Murdock told him, "You can tell, she doesn't like taking them, I think she'd rather go crazy from the pain than do this."

B.A. looked down at Jean, her eyes were half closed but he could see them spinning around again and she was giggling under her breath like a Gremlin on nitrous oxide.

"Yeah, I can see that," B.A. said, and he poked Murdock and asked, pointing down to Jean, "The other crazies at the hospital like this?"

"On good days," Murdock answered.

"Man," B.A. grumbled as he shook his head, "How long you think she gonna be like that?"

Murdock shrugged and said, "Could be a while, or…it's possible that after a few days the pills are going to stop having an effect on her, and then if that happens we're really going to be in for it."


After a while Jean fell asleep again and it was then when she wasn't moving that Murdock and Face had the best luck trying to ice down her ribs. The restraints B.A. had used to tie her hands and feet to the bed so she couldn't kick or struggle had helped some but they had the least trouble when she was completely unconscious and not aware of anything that was happening.

"You think this is going to help any, Murdock?" Face asked.

"Well it can't hurt any," he replied, "And it makes the most sense to do it now while the bruises are still fresh and while she's heavily medicated and can't feel anything as it is."

"Yeah I guess so, it's just that right now her ribs look like a boysenberry crop," Face said, "I guess we should all be thankful for the drugs."

"For now," Murdock agreed as he leaned over Jean and lightly kissed her on the cheek.

Face stood back and watched this as he debated whether he ought to see how Hannibal was doing, or if he should stay here incase Murdock needed any help. Finally he decided to leave, though he asked before he left, "You gonna be alright by yourself, Murdock?"

The pilot nodded, "I'll be fine, I got everything here."

"Alright, I'll see you later," Face said as he headed out the door.

Murdock pulled a chair up by the bed and sat down as he watched her sleep. He'd say one thing for the drugs, not only did they make it so Jean could sleep, but she seemed to be in a sweet oblivion as she slept; if she was feeling any pain it wasn't coming through for him to detect, and he was something of an expert on that after all his time in the V.A. He checked the ice to make sure it hadn't melted yet and then resided himself to sit by her bedside and watch her as she slept. He leaned over, lightly gripped her hand in his and brought his head down so his touched the side of hers; he had no intention of causing her any further pain if it could be helped and he knew that this was the closest contact he would have with Jean for the next couple of days, so he reveled in having that much at least.


Hannibal had heard Murdock go down the stairs, and since he was presently without his own, big, mean nursemaid, he got up and decided to pay a visit down the hall to see how Jean was doing. It had been a day since they got back to her house and he'd hardly left his bed at all, reason being every time he tried to get up, B.A. or Face and Murdock were there to push him back into it, resonating Maggie's point of taking it easy. If this was taking it easy he'd rather be back in the army dodging enemy fire, at least then he'd be able to relax.

His shoulder let him know the minute he tried standing up and when he started walking. He knew that this was routine and within time would pass, but all the same, for the time being he was doing his damnedest to convince the others that he wasn't feeling any pain, though he knew nobody in their right mind would believe it.

Hannibal came to Jean's doorway and poked his head in, and did a double take, then laughed and said, "Well this is a new one."

He'd already known that Jean was up, he had heard her screaming earlier that morning, a definite sign that more drugs were needed. Well she'd quieted down now, though she was still awake, either that or she had fallen asleep with her eyes open. Jean lay in the center of her bed, her eyes halfway open and staring over at him, and two large pillows placed on either side of her beside her ribs.

"I thought people only did this with babies," Hannibal said as he went over to the bed, "To keep them from falling out of the bed."

Jean tried to move but it was a half hearted effort and she said, "Murdock doesn't want me to move, he thinks it's only going to make me worse."

"I heard you this morning," he said, "I don't know that he's wrong, he give you more pills?"

Jean nodded, and tried to sit up but only fell back against the pillows. "He spent all night in that chair, wouldn't get into bed because he was worried he'd roll over on me in the night and hurt me. I don't like this, Hannibal, it's starting to remind me of when he did this with you."

Hannibal smiled and said, "That's Murdock for you, very self-sacrificial."

"Yeah well I still don't like it," she told him.

"You think that's bad, try having B.A. for a nurse," Hannibal said.

Jean laughed and said, "I'll trade you, anything's gotta be better than having Murdock serenading me half the night with 'Jean Genie'."

Hannibal chuckled in response and said, "That sounds like him."

Jean tried to sit up again, also to no avail, and she asked Hannibal, "How's your shoulder?"

"Oh it's doing fine," he said.

Jean nodded her head to the nightstand where the pill bottle rested. Hannibal got the implication and shook his head, "No thanks, Murdock only got one prescription filled, you're going to need them."

"No I won't," she replied as she managed to pull herself up this time, "For one thing, there are 100 pills in that bottle, and for another, I don't intend to take them much longer."

Hannibal was able to pick up on the unmistakable tone in her voice, "Jean…"

"Hannibal," she replied in a tone matching and mocking his, "It's already going to be hard enough going off the pills now, I don't intend to wait until I'm hooked on them to try it. If that happens, then I'm no good to anybody. Think about it, Hannibal, what would you do if it was one of your men?"

"Honestly?" he asked, then answered, "I'd want them out of pain first and foremost, anything else I would deal with later."

"Alright, say it's later," Jean said to him, "What would you do?"

"Whatever it took," Hannibal told her, "None of them would cease serving a purpose just because they had a problem."

"But addiction is no ordinary problem," Jean reminded him.

"No, you're right, it's not, but that doesn't change anything," Hannibal said, "I'd still be there for them when they needed help, and do everything I could to give it to them."

"Alright," Jean seemed willing to agree with that one, "But what if you couldn't? What if no matter what you did, they couldn't get over it?"

"Kid, you don't get where I am by giving up on people," Hannibal told her, "If I can keep B.A. from trying to kill Murdock on a daily basis I like to think I can pull off just about anything."

Jean nodded and responded, "I suppose you could, if anybody could."

When it seemed their discussion was over, Hannibal turned and headed for the door, but before he left, he heard Jean groan and let out a pained yelp, he turned back and saw she was trying to pull herself up. She pointed to the dresser and told him, "Get those papers on the top."

Hannibal went over to the dresser and picked up the letters from their previous clients and he looked at her questioningly. Jean managed a pained smile as she told him, "I told Decker if there was any way to get you guys a pardon, I'm going to find it…I don't know that it'll work, but it's worth trying, isn't it?"

Hannibal suddenly felt a baseball in his throat he was trying to swallow. He glanced over the letters again and said in agreement, "It's worth trying. But do you really think it'll work?"

"Can't hurt, can it?" Jean asked, "They're all willing to go to the mat, Hannibal, and so am I, whatever it takes, I'm going to find a way to get you guys in the clear."

He felt his heart swelling with pride, he said, "We certainly appreciate your effort, Jean, thanks. This means a lot."

"Don't tell the others, though," Jean told him, "I don't want to get their hopes up incase it doesn't work."

Hannibal nodded as he replaced the letters on the dresser top, "It'll just be between us."

"And Murdock," Jean said.

Hannibal grinned and repeated, "And Murdock."