Author's note: We've come down to the end. I hope everybody had as much fun reading this story as I had writing it, and I'm thankful to all the readers who took the time to review it.
Murdock stayed with Hannibal for two weeks, during which time they both had a good time and reveled in each other's company. Through the first week Murdock had commented on the colonel's apparent lack of a social life outside of his Team, he sorted through the photographs on the coffee table and noted that the only women there were Jean and Amy, and one of Maggie. He inquired about the good doctor but Hannibal waved it off, though Murdock wasn't entirely convinced; he knew there was something going on between the Colonel and the doctor but he wasn't quite sure what, he knew that any visits between the two were few and far between since Hannibal was always here and on call whenever somebody needed him or needed to hire the A-Team.
More than once during the pilot's stay, he woke Hannibal up in the middle of the night to talk to him, about things that for one reason or another, he didn't discuss during the day. Usually he just sat at the foot of the bed while he talked to Hannibal though a few times he crawled in alongside him while trying to get the colonel's opinion on something. Without fail it always happened after Hannibal had managed to fall asleep, but he remained patient with Murdock and answered his questions as best as he could. In hindsight there didn't seem to be anything particularly serious or troubling that was keeping Murdock from sleeping, just a lot of little things built up on his mind that he needed to get out and share with somebody. Hannibal wouldn't go as far to say that Murdock would go crazy if he didn't, but, for lack of a better term, yes, that feeling could make anybody go crazy, and he knew it as well as the next guy.
When Murdock's two weeks with Hannibal were up, he packed his things up again and this time went to stay with Face for an undetermined period of time. He got the grand tour of the new mansion that Face was currently using while its original owner was on vacation on the other side of the hemisphere; and Murdock couldn't resist touching all the expensive knickknacks the place was decorated with, much to Face's chagrin, as well as commenting on the wallpaper, the curtains, the lighting, the tiling of the floor and also what brand of baking soda was kept in the refrigerator. He also couldn't resist rifling through everything in the bedroom closet and taking out Face's suits one by one, running his hands all over them, and throwing them all over the floor just for the fun of seeing the disgruntled looks from the lieutenant as he picked them back up and went on and on about wrinkles and dry cleaners.
"See that's your problem, Faceman," Murdock told him, "You can't wear anything simple, just dress and go, like me," and he demonstrated by striking a pose to show off his clothes.
"That is because you wear the same thing every single day," Face replied.
Murdock made a face like a depressed dog and then regained his normal demeanor and asked, "And what's wrong with that?"
"Never mind," Face said as he hung his clothes up again, "Just try and stay out of the closet, okay?"
"No problem, there's nothing in there I want anyway," Murdock said.
Life with Murdock was certainly never boring, though it was plenty of other things. Face enjoyed having the pilot stay with him but some of Murdock's antics did start to wear his patience thin after a few days, and some became even more of an inconvenience than the dozen or so times he tripped or fell down the stairs whenever Murdock hollered 'don't step on Billy!' One was the time he caught Murdock trying to bathe in the dishwasher and drying his clothes in the microwave. Another was when he tried hanging himself by his knees on the clothes rack bar in the closet, and promptly ripped the whole thing out three seconds later as he fell to the floor. Then, one of the house's added features that amused Murdock to no end was the steam room; one day Face went in and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Murdock had hauled in a sun lounge from outside and was on it fully dressed, wearing black sunglasses and trying to steam a pack of hot dogs for lunch.
A few days later when Murdock found out that Face was free for the night, he ripped the sheets and blankets off the king sized bed and dragged them out to the living room and put them on the floor, explaining they could stay up late and watch the all night monster movie marathon. He parked himself in front of the TV and explained this was how he did as a child when he watched TV and that his grandparents finally had to have the carpeting replaced because he'd worn it thin from where he sat so long watching the westerns.
Face didn't remember the night too well but when he woke up the next morning his back was stiff, he saw scattered pieces of popcorn and empty soda cans on the floor, and…Murdock's bare feet practically sticking in his face. He smacked one foot and when that woke Murdock up, Face got up and started cleaning up the mess from the night before. When he got the covers replaced on the bed, Murdock came hopping into the room and hopped up onto the bed and bounced up and down on the king sized mattress.
"Murdock, will you get off the bed?" Face asked.
"Aw come on, Facey, how're you gonna know the springs are any good if you don't test them out first?" Murdock asked as he continued to jump up and down like he was the trampoline champion of the world.
"Murdock, get off the bed," Face told him sternly.
"Okay," Murdock answered, and jumped on him, causing them both to fall and hit the floor.
"Murdock, get off of me," Face said.
Murdock rolled off of him and said, "Nag nag nag, that's all you ever do, you should've been a wife."
"Speaking from experience?" Face asked.
"Never," he replied as he shook his head, and added haughtily, "I had a perfect wife."
The bedroom door opened and Hannibal walked in unannounced and, seeing the two of them on the floor, commented, "I can't seem to leave you boys alone for a minute, can I?"
"Hey Colonel," Murdock saluted as he smoothed down his hair and straightened his jacket out.
"What're you doing here, Hannibal? For that matter, how did you get in here?" Face asked.
Hannibal smirked and said, "You're not the only one good at picking locks you know."
"Alright, so what're you doing here?" Face asked.
"We've got a new mission," Hannibal told them, "I've already accepted the case on everybody's behalf, we're leaving this afternoon, and Face, I need you to get us a chopper and stock up on B.A.'s night-night drink."
"Where're we going, Colonel? What's the job?" Murdock asked.
Three nights later, Jean had just been getting ready to go to bed early when her phone rang, and it was Face all in a panic. He said that something had gone wrong on their mission and they needed her help and he was coming to pick her up and told her to be ready when he got there in a few minutes. He didn't go into any further details and as soon as Jean hung up the phone she grabbed a gun and went out to the front porch to meet him. A couple minutes later his 'Vette came to a roaring stop at the curb and he ran up to the porch to get her.
"What's happened?" Jean asked as she followed him back to the car.
"These six goons with guns ambushed us, there was a firefight, Murdock grabbed one guy's arm as he fired and so nobody was shot, but he suffered powder burns and he's been blinded."
"Not again!" Jean groaned as she jumped over the side of the car.
"He's alright," Face told her, "But he can't fly us now and we need a new pilot so he said to come and get you."
"That's what he trained me for," Jean said, "I just can't believe that this happened again!"
"I know, I can't believe it either," Face replied as he got them out of there, doing a U-turn and cranking the accelerator up to 100 mph as they got out of the neighborhood, "I'm just glad that we've got a replacement who knows what they're doing this time."
Jean watched as black shadows blurred as they raced past them, she didn't know how long they'd been driving but at the rate Face was going it didn't take them long to get where they were going, which was the runway of a rundown airport that looked like it hadn't been used since the Concorde got its own movie.
"Here?" Jean asked.
"Yeah, it's just up ahead," Face said, "Follow me."
She got out of the car and did follow him, and then came to a sudden stop when she saw that the aircraft on the runway was not a helicopter but a full sized jet. Her eyes widened in shock and she turned to Face and screamed at him, "A 747? A 747, Face!? I can't fly that!"
"It's not a 747, it's a Gulfstream," he corrected her, "And you've got to, Jean, we don't have any choice."
"Face, I never learned how to fly anything other than choppers," she told him, "I can't fly a damn jet!"
But Face was relentless, he grabbed her by the wrist and said, "Hannibal's already in the cockpit with Murdock, he's going to tell you two what to do since Hannibal's already done this once before, you'll be fine but we have to do this, and we've got to get out of here fast because it isn't going to take the MPs long to find out where we are."
"Oh my God," Jean groaned as she considered their options, then she gave in and said, "Alright, I'll do what I can."
"Great, now come on," Face said as he jerked her onto the runway and they ran towards the jet.
Jean ran up the stairs leading directly to the cockpit and called Murdock's name as she reached the top and stepped in, and stood back in shock as she saw Murdock manning the controls in the cockpit and Hannibal standing behind his seat leaning over his shoulder watching him. Both men turned towards her and Murdock said, "Hey Saint, glad you could make it."
"What the hell is going on?" Jean asked.
Hannibal straightened up and took a step over towards her and said, "Jean Rhodes, this is your abduction."
"What?" she asked.
Face bumped into her as he heard the jet's stairs folding up and closing behind him and asked, "We ready to go, Murdock?"
"We have clearance, Clarence," Murdock turned to the empty seat beside him in the cockpit beside him and added in a different voice, "Roger, Roger," then he looked behind him and asked, "What's our vector, Victor?"
"Hannibal," Jean growled as her hands started to curl up into fists, "You better start explaining what the hell is going on and you better do it fast or you're going to be the first person to get brutally murdered in between time zones."
"Now calm down, Jean," Hannibal calmly replied as he explained, "We're taking a little trip and we wanted you to go with us."
"Go where?" Jean asked.
"I think we better continue this discussion in the next room where we can get strapped down," Face said, "We're about to leave ground."
But Jean blocked his way and said, "Go where?"
"We're going to New York," Hannibal told her, "Now come on." He grabbed her by the arm and jerked her towards the curtains separating the cockpit from the cabin, "Murdock, you got everything here?"
Murdock gave them the 'okay' sign and said, "Roger Wilco, over and out, Colonel."
"Come on, Jean," Face said as he helped shove her along, "Let's go sit down."
"I don't want to sit down, I want answers," she said, "What's going on? Why're we going to New York?"
The three of them made a bumpy path down the aisle where Jean saw B.A. knocked out and tied up in one seat, and sitting next to him…
"Hi," Amy waved.
"What're you doing here?" Jean asked.
"Insurance," Face answered.
"Insurance?" Jean repeated.
"Yeah," Hannibal answered as he pushed Jean into another seat and got her buckled in, "We figured he'd be less inclined to kill us if she was around when he woke up."
"You want insurance you should've left Barbie at home and just brought me," Jean said, "I've got an insurance plan to beat them all."
"What's that?" Face asked.
"Very simple," Jean said, "Whenever B.A.'s trying to kill you, just run behind me, and I will remind him of this ugly little incident!" she pointed to the side of her face that had been black and blue for several weeks following his accidental KO'ing her when he was trying to kill Hannibal instead.
Amy didn't get it though. "What's that mean?"
"That's another fun thing you missed out on," Face dryly answered.
"And good thing," Jean added, "If B.A. would've punched her instead he would've killed her."
"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking," they heard Murdock's voice over the speaker, "We are now leaving the ground and are en route from Los Angeles to New York, New York, the city so nice they named it twice and if you think that's ridiculous, just wait'll you see the in-flight movie."
"Alright, Hannibal," Jean said, "Now you tell me what's going on or B.A. waking up's not going to be the thing you have to worry about."
"If you insist," he said, then he turned to his lieutenant and asked, "Face, what day is this?"
"Well it's still before midnight so that makes this Tuesday," Face answered.
"Meaning tomorrow's Wednesday, right?" Hannibal asked.
"Yep, all day," Face told him.
"You see, Jean," Hannibal explained as he turned to her, "This is the last week of November, meaning the day after tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and what we are doing is kidnapping you to take you home and see your parents for the holiday."
Jean did a double take, "Are you serious?"
"I was never more serious," he answered.
"Why?" she asked.
"Well it's been, what, five months since you've seen them?" Hannibal asked, "Seemed like a golden opportunity."
"But why are you guys coming too?" she asked.
"I happen to like your parents," Hannibal said with a hint of cynicism in his voice, "Besides, I thought Amy might want to meet them, and vice versa."
"Now remember, Amy," Face told her, "As far as the Rhodes' are concerned, Jean is not now, nor has she ever been married, especially not to Murdock."
"I get it," Amy replied, "But I don't get it."
"You will," Hannibal said.
"So when do you think we're going to get there?" Jean asked.
"Well Murdock says he can get us from coast to coast between 6 and 7 hours," Face said.
"In L.A. time or New York time?" Jean asked him.
"I figure we ought to be in the Big Apple by 8 o' clock tomorrow at the latest," Hannibal told her.
"There's just one foreseeable problem," Jean told him.
"Oh? What's that?" Hannibal asked.
"Never mind how do you keep a dummy in suspense for 24 hours," Jean pointed over to B.A., "How do you keep a big angry mudsucker unconscious for six hours? One's usually hard enough isn't it?"
"Ordinarily that may be true," Hannibal answered, "But I've been planning ahead on this. You see the other day B.A. was unaware that his milk had been laced with some crushed up No Doze pills, so he's been awake and alert for close to 36 hours, now naturally after a stint like that on his feet, he's got to be exhausted, and another drink laced with sleeping pills can only help."
"What if he wakes up halfway there though?" Jean asked, "You carrying a 2 by 4 in your pocket or something?"
"Something like that," he responded with a smirk.
"Given how hard his head is," Face interjected, "I suggested we try a hammer next time but Hannibal didn't like that plan."
"Of course not," Jean replied, "He'll break the hammer." She unbuckled herself and stood up and said, "I'm going to the cockpit to see if Murdock needs a second pair of eyes."
When she disappeared past the curtains, Amy looked over to Hannibal and said, "This is really nice what you're doing for her, Hannibal, but why are you doing it?"
"Well it gets us out of Decker's path for a while," Hannibal said, "He won't have any idea where to look for us. Besides, our families are all gone, except for B.A.'s mother, but she's out of town for the week, so we figured we might as well spend the day with somebody's family and we know her parents can be trusted."
Amy nodded in understanding but pointed out, "And you don't think they're going to be a little surprised that their daughter suddenly comes home after being gone for half a year?"
"I spoke to them already, they know she's coming but they think she's coming on Thursday, so we get there a day ahead of schedule, they'll still be surprised."
"And…" Amy smiled like she was trying not to laugh as she asked Hannibal, "They know we're all coming?"
"I told her mother we'd be coming with her, their house isn't very big but she said they would find a place to put all of us up. I imagine these last couple of weeks have given Jean plenty of practice in sleeping alone again; her parents don't know that she was married, and I don't think they're old enough to know she's had a man over 10 years her senior sharing her bed for the last few weeks."
"Fair point," Amy said, "Are they ever going to know about it, though?"
"I doubt it," Hannibal answered, "I imagine these aren't the sort of things you discuss with your mother over imported coffee."
Amy nodded and replied, "Gotcha."
"As soon as we land, I'm going to kill Hannibal," Jean told Murdock, "Making me worry the whole way out here and then finding out it's not a chopper I'm expected to fly, it's a damn Gulfstream, and for that matter, why a Gulfstream?"
"Well for one thing it's more believable that one of these babies would be a chartered flight than a Boeing," Murdock answered, "These are not exactly the luxury liners of the air, at best they only hold 16 people so it's still a relatively small aircraft, so we didn't have to go through as many channels to secure it for our trip."
"So exactly how did Hannibal come up with this crazy plan?" Jean wanted to know, "I thought you guys were off on another mission."
"We were," Murdock answered, "Local job, we got finished ahead of schedule and Hannibal told Face to trade in the chopper for a jet because he said we were going to New York."
"I'm still going to strangle him when we touch down," Jean told him.
Murdock took one hand off the controls and waved it off and said, "Don't worry about him, we'll have plenty of chances to fix his little covered wagon."
"You mean red wagon," Jean said.
"They didn't have them when he was a kid," Murdock told her, "Anyway, the Colonel's not the only one with bright ideas, you want to have a little fun with them now?"
"Sure, but how?" Jean asked.
"Watch," Murdock set the controls for auto-pilot and told her, "You stay here, I'll be right back." He got up from his seat and strolled out of the cockpit whistling to himself. Jean watched him disappear past the curtains and waited; there was a brief ruckus from the cabin but she heard somebody coming her way and saw the curtain draw back and saw Face escorting Murdock back into the cockpit.
"Please tell me you're not flying this thing," Face said when he saw Jean sitting at the controls.
"You see somebody else up here?" she asked.
Face glared at Murdock and pointed to the empty seat up front and said, "Murdock, get!"
"Alright, alright," Murdock scowled as he strode back over to the cockpit, "Geez, what's his problem?"
Jean shrugged innocently as Murdock sat down beside her again and regained control of the plane. Once Face disappeared back to the cabin, she looked over at the pilot and said, "Hey Murdock."
"Yeeees?" he asked as he turned to look at her.
Jean turned to look behind her to make sure they were alone and she told him, "Don't let the others know this, but I'm really thankful for you guys doing this for me."
Murdock smiled at her and said, "Nothing to it, darling."
Jean looked at him through the corner of her eye and said, "I get the feeling you knew in advance that this was going to happen."
"Now what would make you say that?" Murdock asked.
"Oh, I'd say by how ever since you went back with Hannibal, you've kept quite a distance from me…I didn't figure it was just because you didn't want our life together dripping all over Hannibal's apartment."
Murdock couldn't resist giggling and he said, "Well, I think Hannibal's right, your parents have had to come to terms with a lot of things, but us together ain't one of them. So I imagine when we stay the night, it'll be the four of us piled in the living room, and you and Amy sharing the bed in your old room."
Jean looked disgusted by that thought and commented as she crossed her arms, "And it'll be just my luck, she's probably the kind of woman that has a two hour nightly beauty ritual and who sticks her cold feet into the other side of the bed and consequently into my back, and she probably snores like a freight train and hogs the covers."
"Well Face does that all the time and I still bunk with him," Murdock told her.
"Fine," Jean said, "Then Amy can sleep with Face, and I'll join you in the dogpile on the floor."
Murdock laughed and returned his attention to the night sky in front of him and said, "Patience, my dear, it's only for a couple of days, and then when we get back to L.A. things will be back to normal, or…as normal as they can get for a crazy person."
"That mean you'll be coming back with me?" Jean asked.
"Of course," he said with a nod of his head.
Jean grinned as if she was showing her teeth for the first time in her life and she said, "Good!" and reached over to hug him.
Murdock squirmed in her grasp and warned her about distracting the pilot; Jean sat back down in her own seat and told him, "I love you."
Murdock smiled and reached over with one hand to pat hers and he replied, "I love you too, darling."
"So when do you figure we'll be in New York?" she asked.
"I figure before 8 tomorrow morning," he answered.
"It's an all night flight, are you sure you'll be able to make it?" she asked him.
"Sure," Murdock told her, "No problem."
"Have you ever done this before?" Jean asked.
"Not often," he confessed, "But I have and I will again, you have nothing to worry about."
"I have the fullest of confidences in you, Murdock," Jean said.
"It's the plane I don't trust," they said in unison.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Don't worry, Saint," Murdock told her, "By the time we head back, I'll have you flying this bird."
"How reassuring," she dryly remarked.
Hannibal still had his watch set for Los Angeles time, and according to it, it was only 12:30, but by this time he was sure they had to have already crossed two time zones. He quietly walked to the cockpit and drawing back the curtain, showed himself in and went up to the pilot to see how things were going.
Murdock whispered as he answered, "Right as the rainforest, Colonel, nothing but smooth sailing so far and I anticipate it'll remain such until we reach New York City."
"That's fine," Hannibal said, then turned and noticed Jean was curled up in the other seat and fast asleep. He turned back to Murdock and asked, "How long's she been asleep?"
"About an hour," Murdock told him.
Hannibal looked at her again and concluded that her current position couldn't be comfortable by any means. "You want me to take her back to the cabin with the others?" he asked.
Murdock nodded, "Sure."
Hannibal quietly unbuckled her seat belt and slipping one arm behind her back and the other under her legs, lifted her up out of the seat and carried her out of the cockpit and back to where the others were likewise blissfully unconscious for the night. He got Jean settled in one of the empty seats and strapped her in incase they hit some bumpy air, then he looked back at the others. B.A. had started to wake up a short while ago so Hannibal gave him a little tap on the head with a custom made blackjack he'd disguised as one of his cigars. With that taken care of he figured they'd have about another hour before the sergeant started to come to again. In the two seats beside him, Face and Amy had fallen asleep leaning against each other, and Hannibal suspected it was also partly to try and conserve body heat. He wasn't sure what the temperature was supposed to be inside of the jet but he noted it was getting cold, they were definitely out of California now.
During the flight, Amy had commented, as if they didn't already know, that going from Los Angeles to New York in the end of November was a climate shock to say the least, and estimated that by now the temperature high for the day must be 50 degrees where they were going. Hannibal pointed out that this wasn't their first time on the east coast, and though he had never been a member of the scouts a day in his life, he always came prepared. They had all packed for a cold wave before they got on the plane, all of course except Jean because she didn't know she'd be going anywhere, but he'd gotten a coat packed away for her as well.
And now, Hannibal pulled two large duffel bags out of their hiding place under one of the seats and opened them up and pulled out a couple of heavy blankets, he draped one over Face and Amy like they were a conjoined statue being prepared for its unveiling. Then he tucked another one around the edges of the unconscious staff sergeant, even though it was obvious he was too out of it to feel anything. He took a third blanket out and covered Jean with it and when he was satisfied that she would be warm enough, he headed back to the cockpit and asked Murdock, "Need a fresh set of eyes, Captain?"
"I can use the company," Murdock replied, reading between the lines of Hannibal's question.
"Are we making good time?" Hannibal asked.
Murdock scoffed and answered, "Hannibal if we made any better time we'd be an X-15 rocket."
Hannibal looked at his watch again and asked, "What time zone do you think we're currently in?"
"Mmmm," Murdock looked out the windshield and said, "If I had to guess, we must be between Mountain and Central time now."
"Meaning at best it's only 2:30 in the morning," Hannibal said, "You sure about that landing time?"
"Give or take, Colonel," Murdock answered, "Don't worry, the sun will be up before we get there, we won't be waking anybody up."
"That's good," Hannibal said, "We're already catching the Rhodes' off guard a day in advance, they don't need this kind of wakeup call."
Hannibal noted the pilot had gone eerily quiet and he glanced over and saw a distant look in Murdock's eyes and inquired, "You alright, Murdock?"
Murdock came back to reality and nodded, explaining, "I was just thinking, first time I made this flight, it was to get Jean's parents to see her in the hospital before she died, and the last time I made this flight, I was taking Jean and her mother home, and she stayed there…this time when we leave she's going to be coming back with us."
Hannibal nodded in understanding and said, "Amazing how much things can change within a year."
Murdock nodded in agreement. He thought back to how much his own life had changed in the last year, undoubtedly his had seen the most changes out of the four of them; from certifiable, institutionalized crazy man who took his freedom wherever he could find it in occasional week long leaves from his hospital room, to 'normal', discharged person who could come and go when and wherever he pleased, and from there to marriage, then annulment, and shot directly onto the hotplate of the army's radar, and now this, and he started to wonder how much things could change within another year. The anticipation made him grin and he started to howl, despite the four passengers asleep back in the cabin.
Hannibal listened for the various noises of the others coming to, but somehow everybody back there seemed to still be asleep. He turned to Murdock and said, "Suppose if we're going to do this, we might as well do it right," and he reached inside his jacket and took out a Walkman and yanked the headphones off and asked Murdock as he pressed the play button, "The Rolling Stones, right?"
"Does the devil hope you guess his name?" Murdock asked with a smirk on his face as the music started.
