"I don't know about this, Hannibal," Face told the colonel, "Ever since Murdock tried hypnotizing Mad Dog, he just seems to be worse."
"Ah, you noticed that too, eh?" Hannibal asked.
"Frankie was bad enough, there's no way we can be moving around with two grown sized kids tagging along, especially in the condition they're both in now."
"I know, but what choice do we have?" Hannibal replied.
"Can't we leave them somewhere where they won't get in our way and we don't have to worry about them running around the city by themselves?"
"Where would you suggest, Lieutenant?" Hannibal asked, "As few resources as we have to fall back on to hide ourselves when the opportunity arises, I can think of even fewer who would even be willing to take Frankie and Murdoch for us, let alone equipped to deal with them. No, they'll have to stay with us, there's just no choice right now."
"Well I don't like it," Face said, "Mad Dog's just gotten worse, ever since he woke up he's scared of his own damn shadow now. Any little thing and he jumps."
"I know," Hannibal said, "Ought to make sleeping tonight a lot of fun."
Face did a double take and just about lost it, "Oh now wait a minute, don't tell me I have to have him in my bed again."
"I don't care whose bed he's in tonight, Lieutenant," Hannibal told him, "But to answer, no, you should be relieved to know that Murdock's offered to take him for the night."
"He's a glutton for punishment, isn't he?" Face asked.
Hannibal managed a flat laugh before explaining, "I must be too because I'm going to have Frankie bunking with me tonight."
"What? Why?" Face asked.
"Murdock insisted on it, he thinks that it's going to lead to a breakthrough."
"How?"
"Because out of the four of us here I'm the only one truly capable of coming off as a father figure, and Murdock figures that right now that's something she needs, since her own father was never any help he figured close contact to a reasonable facsimile would benefit her now," Hannibal explained, though it was obvious he wasn't entirely convinced of it either.
"Uh…Hannibal, are you sure that's a good idea?" Face asked.
"What's the matter, Face?" Hannibal managed a small smirk as he asked, "You think I won't be able to control myself?"
"What if she doesn't think so?" Face pointed out, "You're old enough to be her father, you're also old enough to be Masterson."
"Hmmmm, hadn't thought of that," Hannibal responded in his usual cynical tone, though Face could tell he was being truthful.
"So what do we do?" Face asked.
"We go ahead with the plan and deal with whatever happens when it happens," Hannibal answered, "Who knows? Maybe Murdock's right."
Face scratched the back of his head and commented, "It sure is scary when you think about it, how often we rely on a guy who talks to sock puppets and invisible animals, to be right about something."
"Yep, but that's what makes it interesting," Hannibal replied.
"Alright, Frankie," Hannibal said once he had the young woman alone in his room with him, "If Masterson still enjoys playing with knives, then I think I need to teach you a few basic combat moves that'll help if he finds out you're back in town and comes at you."
"You're wasting your time, Hannibal," Frankie told him as she folded her arms loosely, "Murdock already tried teaching me that stuff, it didn't work, I can't remember any of it."
"No, he only taught you basic unarmed combat, this is defense against a knife attack, believe me it works," Hannibal replied.
Frankie shrugged her shoulders and asked, "Well, what've I got to lose?" She snorted and added, "This far in the game, I got nothing left to lose. Alright, how do we do this?"
"For one thing, get over here," Hannibal told her. He picked up a magazine Murdock had left on the bed and rolled it up tightly, he handed it to Frankie and told her, "Take this, keep a tight hold on it just like this."
"Hannibal," Frankie said in a half-cynical tone as she did what he said, "Are you teaching me combat defense or how to swat flies?"
"Very funny," he said as he took a knife out of his bag, "Now, this is just a prop from the movie studio, but it'll serve its purpose here. I'm going to be Masterson coming at you, and you are going to fight me off, just as I tell you." He held his other hand up to get her attention and told her, "Now, there are three basic ways to hold a knife that determine how your attacker is going to come at you." He gripped the handle in his hand and held his arm straight out with the knife underhanded and slanted slightly downward, "The slash," he adjusted his grip and raised his arm up with the blade aimed down, "The plunge," he held the knife underhanded with the blade aimed up and finished, "And the thrust."
"So how do you think he killed Alice Arden?" Frankie asked.
"That I'm not sure about," Hannibal said, "But for this demonstration, I'm going to be coming at you," he raised his arm high and said, "And I'm going to go straight for the plunge. You raise your hand you're holding the magazine with and block the attack."
"How?" Frankie asked.
"Keep a grip on that magazine and hit my wrist with it," Hannibal told her, "Ready? Go."
He advanced towards her moving in for the kill, Frankie jerked her arm up and blocked his wrist with the magazine, "Now," he told her, "We're going to try this again and this time I'm going to slash you." They drew back from each other, and he came at her again, this time with his arm low and the knife straight out, Frankie maintained her grip on the magazine and this time brought it down on top of Hannibal's wrist. They halfheartedly struggled with each other for a few seconds before Hannibal said, "Alright, you blocked his initial attack, now what do you do?"
Frankie thought about it for a couple of seconds, then, almost quicker than Hannibal could spot, she sidestepped behind him, hooked the magazine against his throat with her right hand holding it by his left side then hooked her left hand over and grabbed the right side of the magazine and tightened her hold between the magazine and the colonel's neck.
"Very good," he croaked out, and then took one quick moved to the side and threw her over his shoulder and onto the bed. He turned around, rubbing his Adam's apple and asked her, "Where'd you learn that move?"
Frankie shrugged and said, "I've seen a few movies."
"Well, it was a good idea," he told her, "But that is not what you do with somebody pulling a knife on you."
"It isn't?" Frankie asked.
"No, you were close, but that is what you do if you come up behind somebody attacking someone else and they're both on the ground."
"I see," she replied.
"But do keep that in mind," Hannibal told her, "There's nothing saying that Masterson won't attack Mad Dog or someone else he comes across."
"Right," Frankie said as she got up.
"As a matter of fact," Hannibal turned and went to the door, went out into the hall and came back a minute later with Mad Dog behind him, "We're going to try that."
"Try what?" they both asked.
Hannibal glanced back at Mad Dog and then to Frankie and said, "I'm going to teach you a few other moves we learned in combat, coming to the rescue of a third party."
"You think that'll do any good?" Mad Dog asked.
"As we used to say in the Scouts…" Hannibal started to say, but was abruptly cut off.
"You was never in the Scouts," Frankie said.
Hannibal turned on his heel and asked her, "And how would you know that?"
"Come on, Hannibal, you would never make it in the Boy Scouts and you know it," she said, "You fight too dirty to be a Scout."
Hannibal shrugged and said, "Well, can't blame me for trying, but the point is all the same, it's better to be prepared because you never know when it's going to come in handy."
"I trust Murdock has informed you about the sleeping arrangements tonight," Hannibal told Frankie later in the night when Mad Dog had gone back to join Face and the others next door again.
Frankie looked out the window at the street down below and answered, "Yeah he told me. I don't like it."
"Well that's fine," Hannibal said, "Nobody said you had to."
Frankie looked up and down the street as well as she could from the closed window and asked him, "What happens if Decker comes here during the night?"
"He won't," Hannibal answered.
She stepped away from the window and asked, "But what if he does?"
"He won't."
"But what if he does?" Frankie asked again.
"If he does," Hannibal finally said, "We'll clear out of here, Mad Dog's going to stay with Murdock tonight, Face and B.A. are going to alternate keeping watch, and if there's any sign of trouble we're going to bail, so don't worry about it."
"I can't help it, it's what I do best," Frankie told him.
"You need a new hobby, kid," Hannibal said.
"If I ever get my life back, I will," she said.
"It's late," Hannibal observed, "Why don't you get into bed?"
Frankie gritted her teeth and asked him, "Is there anything I ought to know before getting into bed with you?"
"Like what?" he asked.
"Do you snore?"
"A little," he answered.
"You stick your feet into the other side of the bed?"
"Only if they're cold," He said with a coy smirk.
"You a cover hog?" Frankie asked.
"No."
"Good, I am," she told him as she returned the smirk, "And I warn you, Colonel Smith, if I feel one cold foot on my side of the bed, I kick in my sleep."
"I'll remember that," He responded.
Face felt sure that somebody had it in for him; he thought he'd caught a break when Hannibal told him Mad Dog would be spending the night with Murdock. Never once had it occurred to the lieutenant that this meant he was stuck bunking with B.A. for the night. It wasn't anything new for him, they'd all traded off on sleeping arrangements over the years, but it never got any easier to put up with. It was bad enough B.A. took up most of the covers when he was asleep, but then there was always the problem of hoping he didn't roll over on you in his sleep. And Face, being among the lightest on the Team, was constantly reminded of this little fact given that if it happened, there was no way in hell he could push the sergeant off of him. Perhaps that was the reason why he wasn't getting any sleep tonight, that is on top of the fact that it was his watch for any army personnel. No matter, he didn't need to be standing by the window for that, as long as he was awake he could keep an ear open for any cars coming up towards the hotel. Of course it didn't help his inability to sleep that the sound of B.A.'s snoring could wake up people all the way over in Cleveland. But for some reason, Face got the feeling he wasn't the only one losing sleep tonight.
He held his breath and listened, directly into his right ear was B.A.'s buzz saw snoring, but over on the other side of the room was the even breathing of one person, another person couldn't be heard which meant he was still awake and controlling how evened out his breathing was. Face pulled himself up to a sitting position and looked over, and saw Mad Dog turned on his side with his back to Face's view, but Murdock was flat on his back looking up at the ceiling and twisting his ball cap in his hands.
"Murdock?" he whispered as he slipped out of the bed and went over to the other one, "You alright, Murdock?"
Murdock didn't seem surprised that Face was awake, or if he was he didn't show it, he just answered nonchalantly, "Yeah Faceman, just thinking."
"What about?" Face asked.
Murdock pried the fingers from one hand off his cap and fit the tip of his thumb and his index finger into his mouth and bit down on them as he answered, still gazing up to the ceiling, "Peter Pan."
"What about it?" Face asked.
"Well, I was trying to read it earlier but the back pages are gone so I can't find out how it ends," Murdock told him.
Face sighed and hung his head low, never mind the fact that Murdock must've read that book a thousand times between when he was a kid and now, for some reason that fact never registered with the pilot, "Don't tell me, B.A.'s been eating your books again?"
"Well that doesn't matter right now," Murdock said, "I've been thinking about something else."
"What?" Face felt sure whatever it was was worth dreading already.
"Decker."
"And…there's a connection in the two?" Face asked.
"Yeah, maybe," Murdock said, finally turning his eyes to look at the lieutenant hovering to his side, "I've been trying to think of a way that we could…well, I mean…you remember the part where Peter Pan convinces the pirates that he is Captain Hook, and that the real Captain Hook is a codfish?"
Face nodded and quickly caught on, "You mean try something like that?"
"Well sort of," Murdock sat up and explained, "What if we could figure a way to tap into the radios on all the MPs cars, and convince them that Decker was ordering them to turn around and head somewhere away from us? Just think how useful something like that would be."
"Yeah but how would you pull it off?" Face asked, "Especially to do it and make sure the real Decker didn't find out?"
"That's the only part I haven't figured out yet," Murdock told him.
Face laughed quietly and said, humoring the pilot, "Alright, Murdock, if you get the answer, let me know, I'm going back to bed."
"Night, Face," Murdock quietly called after the lieutenant as he resumed staring at the ceiling and tried to think.
Everybody got through the night without any problems, both Frankie and Mad Dog slept the whole night through, but Mad Dog slept later than the rest the next morning. And once he woke up it was just déjà vu all over again; everybody had gone into the room to make sure he was even still alive, and once they got him up, he saw the people hovering over him and screamed and fell off the bed and onto the floor and assumed a death grip on the first thing he found, which once again was B.A.'s leg.
"Hey man, get him off me!" B.A. said.
Frankie, Murdock and Face all grabbed him and pulled him back and again the whole bunch of them fell onto the floor.
"Apparently some things never change," Hannibal noted.
And if things had seemed bad before, they were only worse now. It took forever to get Mad Dog calmed down and even then he was hardly recognizable from the last few days; now he was so scared out of his mind he'd jump at anything and refused to be left alone. Hannibal managed to get a word alone with Face for a brief moment and stressed the urgency of getting Mad Dog to see Dr. Richter or any psychiatrist for that matter, fast. Face just nodded in response, whatever had happened, and he wasn't talking about it, Mad Dog was only getting worse.
"Now just take it easy, M.D.," Murdock told him as he and Frankie tried to get him to relax, "We're all here, nothing's gonna happen."
"That's right," Frankie added, "Nothing's gonna happen."
Murdock reached into his pocket and pulled out his coconut and started murmuring to it, "What do you think, CC?" He put it to his ear like a seashell and listened to it respond, and he asked it, "Do you think that's the best thing to do?" He put it to his ear again and nodded.
"I'll bite, what's it say?" Frankie asked.
"CC says we ought to get our stuff packed up and check out of here," Murdock said as he pocketed his coconut, "If the army's still sniffing around then they're not going to go away and must be dealt with head on, and if they've gone away then we're as safe now as we're gonna be."
"But what're we going to do?" Frankie asked, "Where're we going to go?"
Murdock looked to the door to make sure nobody was overhearing them, and he leaned over to the others and reminded them, "Remember we've got to find a place we can pick up a wedding dress and a skull mask. We do have work to do you know."
That seemed to snap Mad Dog part way back to reality and he and Frankie looked to each other and nodded and started going over their plan with Murdock.
By the late morning, Mad Dog had noticeably calmed down but he was still jumpy, and he all but clung to somebody's side at all times. Hannibal had agreed it was time to check out, but everybody went one at a time to get the van reloaded since they had it parked a 10 minute walk away from the hotel where nobody would find it. And, to avoid drawing any extra attention to themselves, they all went out and came back in from the fire escape outside the window of Murdock's room.
Soon it had just come down to Hannibal and B.A. getting the last minute details packed up in their room, and Face and Mad Dog in Murdock's. For the time being Face had gotten stuck with Mad Dog hanging around him, and it didn't take long for it to wear the conman's patience thin.
"Mad Dog, would you mind stepping back, please?" he asked as he slammed his suitcase shut.
"Sorry."
"Well that's all of my stuff, where's yours?" Face asked.
"Uh…I think Frankie packed ours all up," Mad Dog said.
"Well would you mind checking the room next door? I'd hate to get out of here and then find out we left something behind."
Mad Dog looked to the door hesitantly and asked Face, "Would you go with me?"
That was it, that was the last straw. "Never mind, I'll go look myself!" Face said.
"Well can I go with you?" Mad Dog asked as he followed behind him.
"Oh, be my guest!" Face said as he threw their door open.
They got out into the hall and moved over to the elevator that had just landed on their floor. The doors popped open and Face felt his eyes grow wide as he came face to face with Colonel Decker.
Decker didn't show as much reaction but it was obvious he was just as surprised to see him, and his lips curled into an unnerving smirk, "Templeton Peck."
Acting on a blind instinct, Face drew his arm back and punched Decker's lights out, knocking him back against the MP that rode up with him. The two men ran over into Hannibal's room and Face broke the bad news in one breath, "We gotta get out, Decker's here!"
"Oh great, come on," Hannibal said as one by one they all went out the window and down the fire escape.
"I don't get it, how'd they find us?" Face asked.
"Somebody must've reported seeing us," Hannibal said, "Whatever it is fortunately they didn't call out everybody, or they'd have the whole hotel surrounded."
They hit the ground running just as they heard somebody shooting at them. It was nearing noon which meant a lot of traffic in the streets, both vehicular and pedestrian, a great chance to get lost in a crowd so long as you didn't get blocked out by a row of cars moving at 2 miles an hour. Murdock and Frankie had just made their way back to the hotel when the others came running towards them and Hannibal gave the heads up, "Get to the van, Decker's here!"
And they were off and running, unfortunately, somehow, Decker and his men quickly got to the hotel's outside as well and were chasing after them. Fortunately the pursuit was on foot, which gave the A-Team a few more options, because the MPs couldn't take a lot of chances firing into a crowded area. At one point Murdock figured he'd gotten enough distance between himself and the MPs and he ducked behind a parked car and pulled Frankie behind it with him.
"What're we stopping for?" she screamed at him.
Murdock looked back at the approaching MPs, and Decker, and he said, "You know something, Frankie cous, I just realized there's a big difference in Decker, and the MPs following him."
"What's that?" she asked.
"All the MPs wear helmets, but Decker doesn't," Murdock said as he reached into his pocket, "And that's unfortunate for him, because that leaves his soft head vulnerable to trauma." He delivered and windup and a pitch and tossed the coconut at Decker and somehow managed to hit the colonel directly in the head with it, slowing him down for a few seconds.
"Let's go!" Murdock grabbed Frankie by the arm and resumed running.
Face and Hannibal were neck and neck trying to get past the stream of people that filled up the street, and they both just barely managed to avoid running into a white haired old woman. But when Decker came running up behind them, the old woman didn't take kindly to him charging at her and she swung her purse and beat him in the head with it; and he didn't know what she had in it but he guessed it must've been a miniature anvil because a splitting pain spread out all through his head and he was starting to see stars.
"Take it easy, lady!" he said as his feet and knees turned to jelly and he collapsed in the middle of the street with the space right behind his eyeballs throbbing.
The A-Team and their new friends made it to the van and piled in two at a time.
"Hit it, B.A.!" Hannibal told the sergeant.
They sped out of there before anybody had a chance to try chasing after them and in a matter of very few seconds, left the MPs in their dust.
"That was a little too close for my comfort," Face said as he huffed and puffed trying to catch his breath.
"Whine, whine, whine, that's all you ever do, Faceman," Murdock told him dramatically, "How about the fact that I had to leave my new friend CC behind and in the evil clutches of Decker? She sacrificed herself so we could get away."
"She?" Face repeated, "Murdock, a coconut can't be a girl."
"Well how would you know?" Murdock replied with his nose turned up, "Have you ever asked them?"
Frankie leaned over to the front, hit Hannibal in the shoulder a couple of times and when he turned around she asked him, "We just manage to escape with our lives intact and these two are arguing over a coconut?"
"I told you before, stick around us long enough and soon you won't even question it," Hannibal told her.
"Alright, Hannibal, where do we go from here?" B.A. asked.
"Hmmm, good question," Hannibal replied, "I'll let you know when I think of something."
"Well think faster," B.A. told him.
Hannibal turned in his seat slightly to look at the people in the backseat. Frankie and M.D. were staring out the window at the scenery rushing past them, both of them were similar expressions on their faces though Frankie's was the blanker of the two, and Hannibal thought that he knew just what was going through Frankie's mind. He'd never asked her about that postcard she'd burnt back at the island hotel. Whatever she had started to say to her parents, it had been the only way they'd get word from her there, there was no phone service on the island. Whatever it was had been left behind to the flames, but that didn't mean whatever Frankie had had to say was out of her now.
It seemed to Hannibal that she was looking past all of this, past all of the buildings, all the people, all the cars, looking past all the office buildings and the shops and the fast food diners as they sped past them at 70 miles an hour, and looking straight past all of it to her home back in Cranston. Seeing her house, the same house that she had only been too eager to leave two months ago in favor of committal at a hospital; the same house where her parents were still living now, seeing them most of all. Seeing them and knowing that the last thin they would be expecting would be for her to suddenly reappear in their lives, with what, questions? Accusations? Whatever it was, he knew nothing could prepare them for the shock of her suddenly turning back up on their doorstep. And, a sinking feeling in Hannibal's stomach akin to swallowing a rock told him that if Frankie did go back to that house, she wouldn't be going there to speak to her parents. Given what he knew about them from his own meeting with them, it wouldn't surprise Hannibal if Frankie planned to go back to that house and kill both of her parents if she got the chance. He turned back in his seat and looked at the road ahead, they'd make sure she didn't get that chance.