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"Sugar...da da da da da dum... oh honey honey." Murdock sang melodically from his seat beside Face, "You're my candy girl...and you got me wanting you."

B.A turned from his place at the wheel, eyes deadest on the hatted man who waited in a fidgeting manner for Face to release him from the straight jacket he was currently wrapped into. He took a breath, about to release the next lyric when B.A's eyes narrowed in on him.

"Keep singin' and you'll be wantin' outta my van."

Murdock looked at him out of the corner of his eye with a pouty look on his face, "Well, some people just don't have any appreciation for my many talents, do they Faceman?" After getting no response, Murdock rolled his eyes and let out a small whine, "C'mon, Faceman...what's takin' you so long on this?"

"I'm going as fast as I can, Murdock. Look, they've got this down pretty tight, okay?" He laughed out of anything better to do and raised his eyebrows at the measures an orderly would go to hold their captain down. "What'd you do to get into one of these anyway, Murdock?...You know what, never mind. I don't want to know."

"No, I wasn't doing anything, and you gotta trust me on this one. Look, I was sitting down, in my room last night. Same night when you guys came to pick me up. Doing nothin' but watching the little ants that come through the little window walk in a little line. And they..." Murdock jerked around wildly in his straight jacket to profess the amount of force they'd used, "...wrestled me down on the bed and strapped me in this outfit!"

"Hey, sit still. Could it of been because you refused to take your night pill again, Murdock?"

Murdock went cold and narrowed his eyes, "I was blind, but now I see, you s-s-snake..." Murdock hissed out his last word and Face couldn't help but smile.

Laughing at his melodramatics, Face continued, "They told me you'd only be awake for another few minutes when I was giving them your release papers. Said they had to force you to take your lights out pill again."

"If you'd just go to sleep at your curfew, Captain Murdock." Murdock mocked in a high-pitched voice which brought on a few deep laughs from Hannibal as he brought a cigar to his mouth.

"Glad you find this all so funny, I'm the one that has to undo all of this for him."

With a final tug, Face released him of his hellish binds and Murdock threw his arms in the air in victory.

"Thank you, Kimosabe!"

High-heels clacked against sterile tile and a hand traced the sterile wall. Feeling faint, Nurse Belinda felt herself leaning to one side. Her first day and already she was becoming the bearer of bad news to Dr. Richter.

She bit her bottom lip, thrusting the door open and interrupted a session. She gasped and felt the regret wash over her in a tsunami just as Dr. Richter looked up. She put her manicured hands to her face at her mistake and shook, "Oh, no! I'm so sorry, Dr. Richter. I-"

Dr. Richter released a sigh, shaking his head as he put a finger up to his current patient, Seymour Jenkins, and motioned for her to leave the office. Putting both hands into his pockets, he followed her streak of shame out of the room and removed his glasses after shutting the door behind him in the hall.

"What is it, Nurse? Please, just make this quick."

"I'm so sorry, Dr. Richter! I-I.."

"Nurse, it's alright. It's fine, I understand you're new and the first day in a psychiatric ward can be, well...overwhelming...at times. Just calmly tell me what's the matter and I'm sure we can-"

"Captain M.H Murdock, sir...He's...he's gone, Doctor. His release papers say he was supposed to be transported to another hospital for blood testing and examinations by the U.S military- but I checked there and..."

Dr. Richter's obvious shock was symptomized by a pale face and shaking fingers as he put his glasses back to his face, "Wh-What? No, this...that can't be right. Who took him? Did you I.D him?"

"Nurse Joy says he was a young sort of man, uh-uh, good looking and...and in a doctors coat, of course. Blondish hair? Blue eyes? Suave looking."

Dr. Richter suddenly stopped shaking, all color returned and then some. His cheeks a fiery shade of red, his eyes narrowed and he whispered, "No...not them. Damn it. I told them..." He took a breath, shook his head and looked back up to the nurse before him, "I-...Thank you, Nurse."

"Oh, no, not at all, Doctor. I just read the file stating you were performing antidepressant trials on Captain M.H Murdock this morning, and when I went to deliver them-...well, I knew it'd be a problem if the military was unaware of Captain Murdock's trial. I mean, an unsupervised and uncontrolled detox in his mental condition would be-"

Feeling his nerves shaking inside, Dr. Richter closed his eyes and waved for her to stop.

"Yes, yes, Nurse. I'm fully aware, I'll be handling it. Everything's...under control."

She bowed her head slightly, embarrassed at her nervous ramblings and excused herself, clutching the file tighter in her hands as she turned to leave.

"Nurse? May I have that file, please? I'll have to make contact with the uh... 'military' later."

"Oh, yes, Doctor. Absolutely. I'm sorry again."

And with a quick turn on her heels, Nurse Belinda faded again into the white sterile walls of the VA with her white sterile uniform, silently going over in her head every other job offer she'd declined for this.

Dr. Richter, file in hand, turned back around into the office and looked at the man sitting still like a statue in the same position he'd left him in. He relieved a sigh and put a hand to his shoulder, "Seymour, let's just...we'll meet up same time next week."

"Uh..Y-Yeah, sure, Doc."

Seymour stood, wringing his hands and moved slowly to the door.

Usually, Dr. Richter would've called in an orderly or two to escort Mr. Seymour Jenkins, but at the moment, his mind was spinning with anger and confusion and when he picked up the phone, he wasn't requesting orderlies.

"Hannibal Smith...what've you done?"

"All the way to Texas, that's right." Hannibal replied, nodding, "The money was given in full, all in advance."

B.A smiled to himself, "Hey, not too far to drive, right Hannibal?"

"That's right B.A." Hannibal replied with a small nod towards him as he looked back to the other two passengers with a quick wink.

Murdock sat up a little straighter, a twinkle in his eye at the motion- this meant he got to fly.

Freedom- he could almost feel it and taste it. He'd imagined it tasted somewhere between a marshmallow and shaving cream. Bubbly with a soft and smooth texture and the sweet taste of sugar- just like clouds.

Sitting back in an act to cover up his jolt of excitement, he looked out he window while ignoring B.A's glance in the rear view mirror.

"So, let me get this straight, because I think my thoughts are as twisted as Murdock's right now. This lady came to you because she suspects her husband kidnapped her best friend's husband who used to be a cop. He kidnapped his wife's best friend's husband because he caught him up in a burglary one time." Face repeated the story slowly, "And she's a rich and lonely housewife...how did she get a hold of us?"

"You answered that yourself. She's a rich and lonely housewife."

Face gave a dark smile, folding his arms and shrugging, "Alright, so how much did she give us? A piece, I mean."

"I believe it splits to about thirty thousand a piece."

Face almost choked, eyes wide, "Well then, you'll hear no more complaints from me. If we watch ourselves and do this whole job clean- we might each walk away with something."

"I ain't keepin' my hopes up. There's always a reason why we ain't makin' any money." B.A replied sourly, face screwed up in an irate expression he'd had since Hannibal had called him about the case.

"B.A, you know what it sounds like you need to me? A little rest. Why don't you let me take over?" Hannibal urged, bringing the cigar from his lips, "Just pull over into this side street here."

B.A reluctantly, pulled to the side of the road and put the van into park

"And I'll just take the wh-"

The sound of an airplane over passing cut Hannibal's words short. He cleared his throat and tried again but B.A shook his head, sitting up straighter and about to put the van back into drive.

"Uh, uh. No way, Hannibal, you gonna trick me again. You said we was gonna drive!"

"Well, we are driving..."

A pin-prick in the neck and his head was once again using the horn of the car as a pillow.

"...to the airport." Hannibal finished his previous sentence with a smile and opened the car door, "Alright, Face, help me load him to the back."

Face jumped from the van after sliding the door back, lifting his legs as Hannibal grabbed his shoulders roughly and threw him into the seat beside Murdock who looked him over carefully, "H-He better be all the way knocked out. If he wakes up, I'm gonna be the one that takes the first few hits."

"Murdock, how many times have we done this?" Hannibal asked, cocking an eyebrow at his suddenly inquisitive attitude.

Wiping his hands against his coat, Hannibal closed the sliding door and slid into the driver's seat as Face slid into the passenger seat.

"I'm just saying...just saying. Billy almost didn't survive last time, you know. Just narrowly escaped and it took me weeks to find him again! He could smell B.A on my jacket every time I went looking for him!"

Hannibal smiled at the usual imaginative banter, and if he snuck a look at face, he'd imagine he'd be doing the same.

"Don't get me started about Thunder."

"We won't." Face replied quickly, cutting the anecdote short as Murdock folded his arms and looked out the window in a silent game of twenty questions with himself- the main question being; Where were they?

After making a turn around a hanger, Murdock was assured in himself that he knew and smiled at the helicopter before him.

"Ready to go, Murdock?"

"Always ready, Colonel." Murdock murmured jumping from the van as Face and Hannibal moved to get B.A

"Go ahead and get her ready, Captain. We're coming up the rear."

Flicking three switches and pushing a button before placing the headset onto his head, Murdock sat still, foot tapping against the floor.

As Hannibal and Face clambered aboard, struggling to pull B.A aboard, Murdock announced quickly, "Please take your seats and fasten your seatbelts. We'll be departing ASAP."

Pushing his lips together, eyes scanning the controls, he nodded once to himself, "Yup...lookin' good...okay..."

"Ready to go when you are, Murdock." Hannibal said, releasing a breath and wiping a small line of sweat from his brow.

"Si, Capitan!"

Hesitation struck just as he reached for the throttle.

Gunfire, explosions, enemy aircraft.

'Basil? Basil!'

Murdock swallowed, hands releasing the throttle and taking in a silent shaky breath.

"Murdock? Any trouble?"

Murdock turned an eye to Hannibal who didn't look concerned- so he hadn't seen. Just noticed the delay.

"No! None at all, Colonel." Murdock replied quickly with an air that said 'what the hell are you even talking about?' "Just checking everything once over..."

"Then let's get in the air- we don't want to waste too much time."

Murdock nodded once, replaced his hands on the throttle and cleared his throat when the thoughts came back from a dark alley he'd shut off so long ago, sealed the thoughts into a vault and pretended the memories didn't exist.

So what was happening?

What was this panic suddenly inside him? The anxiety and the sickly feeling crawling from the pit of his stomach?

'These are...someone else's memories. Sure, that sounds crazy enough! I'm crazy. I'm crazy. I'm crazy.' Like a mantra, Murdock resulted to singing it over and over as he outwardly, began a musical number involving any opera that came to mind- loud enough to throw the thoughts back again.

He also pretended to have no recollection of any 'Murdock' and instead pretended to be called Jean Pierre, the flying acrobat extraordinaire.

It was just crazy enough to distract himself and fend off any questions Hannibal or Face might come back around with for the slight hesitation in his grip on the throttle and the shaking in his fingers.