"Look," Hannibal said as he turned his wrist and showed the others his watch to make his point, "It's too late in the night to go over to Freemont Psychiatric Ward and bust Frankie Lynn Murdock out tonight, we're going to have to wait until tomorrow when we can get in there and find out what room she's in. I have an idea that she will keep until then." He turned back to Mad Dog and added, "Unless you know something we don't know."
"No," Mad Dog shook his head, "I haven't heard from Frankie in two months since she got committed."
"Well maybe you can help explain this to us," Face suggested, "Exactly how do a bunch of 'sane' people wind up getting institutionalized in the fruitcake factory?"
"I can't explain it," Mad Dog said, "I don't know."
"Well how did you get there?" Murdock asked.
"I told you, you won't get it until you hear the whole story and to do that we need to get Frankie here, she can tell you more than I can."
"Normally we don't go by somebody's word alone when we don't even have the word," Hannibal told him, "However since this is a rather pressing matter, we're willing to make an exception. For the night, you'll stay here, you can bunk with Murdock in his room, I think that would be the best decision for everybody."
Mad Dog glanced over at Murdock whose eyes had lit up like a jack-o-lantern and he had a grin to match, and Mad Dog wondered what he had gotten himself into.
"Hannibal, are you sure this is a good idea?" Face asked as he followed Hannibal to the stairwell in the hall.
"Would you rather have him staying with you?" Hannibal asked.
"We don't know anything about this guy, what if he's dangerous? What if he tries to kill Murdock in the night?" Face asked.
"That's why we're going to take turns standing guard outside the door," Hannibal explained, "You take the first watch, B.A. gets the next shift, and I keep an ear open until dawn. It's as simple as that."
"Oh, simple as that, eh?" Face replied mockingly.
"Face, it'll be fine, trust me."
"Trust you, every time I hear that I always wind up regretting it," Face said.
"You might, but Murdock doesn't," Hannibal told him.
"Hannibal," Face said, "Murdock can look on the bright side of a plane crash."
Murdock had been thrilled to have a roommate for the night. Hannibal advised him not to keep the slumber party going too late since they had work to do first thing in the morning. Once they'd gone off to their separate rooms for the night, Murdock had lent Mad Dog a spare set of his pajamas for something clean to change into for the night. He got an idea that tonight was the first time in a very long time that the young man had had a good hot meal and a hot shower.
To hear Mad Dog talk, he hadn't been restrained excessively while he was locked up but wherever he'd been kept before the V.A. had been more like a prison than the hospital Murdock was staying at. He was just as curious as everyone else to find out what was going on and get to the bottom of it, but he believed Mad Dog when he said they had to find Frankie to get the whole story. It would be like him trying to single handedly explain how the A-Team came to be a gang of wanted fugitives, when he hadn't even been there for the most part. Sure, he could explain part of it, and it would make some sense, but to fully understand it would have to come from the men who had actually been there to tell about it.
When Mad Dog came back in from the bathroom, he looked very different; indeed it would appear this was the first time in quite a while that the young man had been able to get cleaned up. Murdock wondered how he had ever come to be at the V.A., and how nobody had noticed what was going on.
Mad Dog looked around the room as if he was expecting something to jump out at him, and he turned to Murdock and asked, "You sure this is alright?"
"Oh sure, it'll be fine," Murdock answered as he went to unmake the bed for them, "I just love having a roommate. You know they tend to frown on that kind of stuff when you're in a hospital for some reason."
Mad Dog looked around the room as if he was trying to find something to fixate on, and coming up empty he looked back to the pilot and told him, "I don't know what to say…I mean I really don't know what to say."
"Well that's alright, I imagine there'll be plenty to talk about tomorrow once we get your girlfriend here," Murdock said, "So what's she like? Is she a lively one?"
"Well…she used to be, anymore, I don't know," Mad Dog answered. He saw Murdock reaching for the knob on the lamp and he grabbed the pilot's hand and said, "Listen…uh…can the lights stay on?"
"Oh sure, hey look," Murdock pointed over to the window where he had taken the liberty of stringing up a set of plastic luau lights with pineapples and palm trees and plugged them in and turned off the main light, "How's that?"
"Terrific," Mad Dog answered.
He went over to the bed and climbed in on the opposite side from Murdock, both men yanked the covers up high and went through a whole process of tossing, turning, flipping, and doing everything to the pillows short of kneading them like bread, to get comfortable.
"Boy this is nice," Mad Dog said as he settled back against the mattress and pillows.
"Yeah, it sure beats the beds they give us at the hospital, don't it?" Murdock asked.
"Mm-hmm," Mad Dog hummed in his throat as he relaxed.
Murdock half sat up and reached over and stroked over Mad Dog's forehead and smoothed back his damp hair.
"How old are you, M.D.?" he asked.
"Twenty…five," he answered.
Murdock nodded knowingly, "Time tends to get away from ya in the mental hospital, I know, many's a time I have to take out my driver's license to make sure I'm still thirty…twenty…five-six-seven-eight…oh well, doesn't matter."
Mad Dog seemed to be holding his breath, when Murdock didn't say anything further, he exhaled and closed his eyes.
"I hope Frankie's alright," he said.
"Did she come to see you in the hospital before she got locked up?" Murdock asked.
He nodded, "Yeah, got in trouble for it, they caught her staying the night once, fight broke out, I was sure that we were both going to be killed."
"They let her back in after that?" Murdock asked.
"A few times, but she was watched after that, we both were…and then she got put away and I haven't seen her since," Mad Dog explained.
"Well, if all goes according to plan, we ought to all be seeing her tomorrow," Murdock assured him.
"What plan?"
"I don't know, that's Hannibal's specialty, but he always has a plan, and they're usually brilliant."
"Horrible thing, suicide," Hannibal told the nurses at the Freemont Psychiatric Hospital the next morning.
He had gone this time dressed as a police officer and hadn't found any trouble in convincing the staff that he was just that. Of course it didn't hurt any that most of the staff he'd encountered so far were a bunch of young women who looked like they barely graduated from nursing school.
He continued speaking to the nurses, "Of course we can't officially rule it one way or the other until the county coroner gets back with his report, but it seems a pretty open and shut case. We've got his gun, his prints on it, his hand covered in nitrate, an entry wound indicating that he was shot at damn close range, and a note, don't get much simpler than that except if we had it on videotape. All the same, my superiors want me to run down every possible lead and make sure we leave no stone unturned. In his note he mentioned a woman named Frankie Lynn Murdock, said that he must make amends for the horrible wrong he'd done to her two years ago. Either of you ladies have any idea just what that may be?"
"I'm sorry, officer, but we don't know anything about that," one of the nurses, a timid young woman who had trouble looking him in the eye, said as she instead gazed down at her white shoes.
"Well you do have a patient in this hospital by that name, don't you?" Hannibal asked in an accusatory tone.
"Yes, but she's only been here for a couple of months," another nurse answered.
"Well I don't care how long she's been here, it's crucial to my investigation that I talk to this woman, to find out if there's anything behind the suicide note."
The two young women looked at each other and the first one looked back to him and said, "I'm sorry, officer, but we can't bring her to you, the doctor gave specific orders that she remain on bed rest."
"Well then you take me up to see her," Hannibal told them, "Otherwise I'm going to have to run both of you in for obstructing my investigation. Now I don't want to, but that happens to be the law, so please make it easier for all of us and tell me where I can find her."
The second one kept her eyes down on the records on the desk and said, "She's up on the third floor, room 318."
"I'm sure I can find it myself, thank you ladies," Hannibal said smugly as he walked off towards the elevator.
Hannibal got in an empty elevator car and pressed the third floor. When the doors opened up he stepped out and looked left and right at the numbers on the doors as he passed. He came to room 318 and slowly opened the door; the nurses had said Frankie was on bedrest, but what did that prove? For all he knew that woman would come swinging at him like Tarzan or Sabu the Jungle Boy, or maybe he was just too used to Murdock's antics from over the years, but why take any chances?
"Miss Murdock?" he called out as he pushed the door open and looked in.
He needn't have been so careful. The woman in the room was indeed in bed; handcuffed by one wrist to the metal railing of the bed. Hannibal stepped in, closed the door behind him and went over to the bed to get a better look at her. She was young, maybe 22, she had thin blonde hair that looked like it had been cropped off recently, her skin was a touch pale, she looked like she hadn't had any direct exposure to sunlight for a month, she was thin but not quite gaunt, and she was knocked out cold.
"Miss Murdock," he said a bit louder as he pressed his hand against her shoulder and shook her to try rousing her.
But he knew there was no waking her up anytime soon, and there would be no getting any answers out of her for quite a while. He took his walkie talkie out of his police belt, hiding in plain sight he'd had to laugh, and got on it to tell the others, "I found her…she's drugged up right now so she won't be talking."
B.A.'s booming voice came back on the radio, "So what'll we do now, Hannibal?"
"We'll go ahead with the plan as scheduled," Hannibal replied, then turned the walkie talkie off. He stood over the young woman and watched her in her drug induced sleep. He stroked his hand over the top of her head and said quietly, "We'll be seeing you tonight, Frankie." Then he turned to the door and walked out.
Once the elevator opened on the ground floor again, he spotted one of the nurses and demanded to know, "Why didn't you tell me that she is sedated?"
"I can answer that," a doctor said as he came up to them, "Miss Murdock is under my care and she has been sedated for her own protection."
"Protection?" Hannibal scoffed, "How much damage could she cause?"
"She's chained to that bed for a reason, officer," the doctor said condescendingly.
Ooh what Hannibal wouldn't give to use his government manufactured virus strain line on this guy. Still he remained his usual calm, slow burning self and replied, "Well I don't care a frog's behind for your reasons, doc, she's a key witness in my investigation and I will be back to interview her, you have her awake and alert when I come in tomorrow at 10 o' clock sharp."
"That's impo…"
"10 o' clock sharp, doc, or I'll have you thrown in jail for interfering with my investigation. Good day."
"I'd sure like to know how Hannibal comes up with these ideas of his," Face said as he adjusted his orderly uniform.
"As long as they work that's all that matters," B.A. told him.
Face nodded weakly, "I suppose so, but this is just getting a little too cartoony for my liking."
They moved quickly and quietly and made their way in through the back entrance of the hospital and blended in with the other workers. They found a large laundry cart with some fresh towels and sheets in it and B.A. pushed it while Face went on ahead and dictated which rooms they went to.
When Hannibal had gotten back earlier that day, he'd given them the entire layout of the hospital as well as he'd been able to make it. He'd done a good job of a two bit hick cop who found it very easy to get lost around the hospital and it had gotten him brief access to the staff quarters, the laundry room, and the back exit purely for emergencies and only for the personnel of the hospital.
They wheeled the cart into the elevator, went up to the second floor, got off, made a few phony rounds, delivering towels and sheets into patients' rooms, all for show, and then wheeled the cart back into the elevator and went up to the third floor.
"I hope we don't regret this," Face murmured, more to himself than to B.A.
"Hey Face, this' the only way we' gonna find out what's going on," B.A. told him.
"Alright then, I hope I don't regret this," he amended his previous statement.
"I just hope it don't turn out this lady related to Murdock," B.A. told him, It's already bad enough we' getting stuck with three of them, but for two of them to be family, that's worse."
"Oh come on, B.A., look on the bright side, if she is Murdock's family then he might hang over her and leave you alone," Face suggested.
The doors opened on the third floor and they got out and pushed their way along through the hall and came to room 318. They both went in and closed the door behind them, kept the lights off and taking a penlight out of his pocket, Face went over to the bed and shone it on the woman asleep in the bed.
"That's her alright, just as Hannibal described, here B.A., hold this," Face said as he handed his light to the sergeant.
B.A. held the light steady as Face took a lock pick out of his pocket and used it on the handcuffs. After a few seconds the cuff sprang open. "Just like taking candy from a baby," Face said as he pocketed his pick and freed Frankie's wrist, "Ooh boy that's nice and red. Come on, B.A., help me."
B.A. went over to the bed and together they lifted her up and into the laundry cart and covered her up with a pile of towels and sheets.
"We're halfway home," Face told B.A., "Now we just have to get out of here the same way."
They pushed the cart and left the room and headed back towards the elevator. They took it down to the ground floor and without drawing any attention to themselves, made their way to the laundry room; it was empty as this time of night so nobody was around to watch as they fished Frankie out of the cart and slipped a set of scrubs on over her pajamas.
"Are you sure this is gonna work, Face?" B.A. asked.
"I think so," he replied as he wrestled the unconscious woman into a pair of green pants, "Just uh…let me borrow one of your chains, okay?"
"My chains? What for?" B.A. asked.
"I've got an idea," Face said, not sounding as convincing as he felt, which wasn't much better.
When he finished, they left the laundry room and appeared to anybody who saw them to be three colleagues leaving together for the night. Face stood on one side of Frankie and helped hold her up as they walked, and on the other side, B.A.'s massive frame concealed the fact that Frankie was half strung up like a marionette puppet; Face had tied one of B.A.'s chains around her wrist to look like a bracelet, and looped it over so B.A. held onto the other end and tugged on it to keep her other arm up so it looked like she was a normal, conscious person walking out of the hospital with them. They reached the back entrance and made their way out into the night, and once there, B.A. picked Frankie up and they took off running for the ambulance.
"We got her, Hannibal," Face said into his radio as they took off.
"That's fine," Hannibal replied, "We'll be waiting for you."
Face groaned as he signed off and he said to B.A., "I just know that we're going to regret this."
"Hey man," B.A. said, "Ain't you the one always saying to be positive?"
"I am, I'm positive that we're going to regret this," Face told him.
"Hey Face," B.A. growled warningly, "Just remember, related or not, we got enough trouble already so don't be falling head over heels with this mama."
"Oh come on, B.A., give me some credit," Face replied, "Besides, she's not that good looking anyway." He glanced back at the woman in the back of the ambulance and added, "Come to think of it, how anybody could find her attractive is beyond me."
Hannibal, Murdock and Mad Dog were all out in the front anxiously awaiting Face and B.A. to return. They saw the ambulance come up the street with all its lights off and saw it pull around to the back so no nosey neighbors would see anything worth inquiring about. They ran around to the back in time to see Face and B.A. get out and go around to open the back doors.
"How'd it go?" Hannibal asked.
"Off without a hitch, just like you said it would, surprisingly," Face answered.
"I told you it would," Hannibal said, "You ought to believe me by now."
"That remains to be seen, Hannibal, now come on, let's get her inside and wake her up," Face said as B.A. carried Frankie over to the back door.
With everybody trying to get inside at once it was a tight squeeze through the door, B.A. moved to the living room and laid Frankie out on the couch.
"She's cute," Murdock observed.
"Frankie!" Mad Dog couldn't believe it when he set his eyes upon her. He fell down beside the couch and grabbed her, shook her to try and wake her up.
"You won't get anywhere doing that, my friend," Hannibal said as he picked up a glass of water from the dining room table, "If you want to wake her up you'll have to be a little more direct." And he proved his point by tossing the glass of water onto the young woman.
Frankie sputtered and her eyelids flew up and she looked up and saw the four men hovering over her and she screamed and jumped up and demanded to know, "Who are you!?"
"Frankie!" Mad Dog was overcome with relief at seeing her awake and he nearly collapsed on the floor.
She turned to the man who had called her and her eyes widened in disbelief. "Murdoch!" she jumped off the couch and ran over to him and hugged him tight, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Frankie, how're you?" he replied.
"How'd you get out?" she asked, then something hit her, "For that matter, how did I get out?"
"Frankie," Mad Dog gestured to the others and said, "This is the A-Team."
She turned to look at the men and said, "The what?"
"The A-Team, Miss Murdock," Hannibal calmly replied, "That is your name, isn't it?"
"Of course it's my name, but how did you know?" she wanted to know.
Over everybody talking, M.D. managed to get her introduced to the others one by one. The sound of the phone ringing broke through the garbled conversations, and Face left the room to answer it.
"Frankie," Mad Dog said, "You've got to tell the others what happened, they think that they can help us."
Frankie looked at Hannibal, Murdock and B.A. and said, "Help what?"
"Look, lady, the whole reason we busted you out of that psycho ward was because your boyfriend insisted we needed you here to tell us the whole story of how he came to be locked up in the V.A. hospital."
"How did you know about that?" Frankie asked.
"How do you do?" Murdock took a step towards her and shook her hand, "Howling Mad Murdock, V.A.H.P.W. class of '73."
"What?" Frankie asked with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"Veterans Administrative Hospital, Psychiatric Wing," Murdock answered, "You see…" and then everybody started talking over one another again.
Face slammed the receiver back on the hook and marched back into the living room and roared at the top of his lungs, "HANNIBAL!" and that caused the jibber-jabber to die down. When he had the colonel's attention Face said to him, "We need to talk."
"What about?"
"I did some checking on our guest here once I found out that nobody under the name M.D. Murdock served in the military, and I double checked under the revised spelling, still no results, in the military, but I did find out what started this whole mess. I just got off with a source who checked the records, it turns out that 3 years ago in Bakersfield, M.D. Murdoch was arrested for first degree murder, and an insanity defense bought him a one-way ticket to the Freemont hospital we just busted his girlfriend out of."
All eyes were on their two guests now. Hannibal looked at Mad Dog and said, "Alright, there's your other half," he pointed to Frankie, "So start explaining, and my advice to you is to talk fast."