In the episode The Sound of Thunder the finale of Season 4 Murdock was shot! How did the A Team get out of Vietnam? Did the plane even have any gas? My thoughts on what might have happened.

I don't own anything.

No Warnings No Slash

Eye of the Storm: Part 1

Murdock tried hard to give the impression that he had it all together.

He didn't. He was bleeding.

He had to bite the inside of his cheek hard to keep his eyes from crossing. He hated getting shot and what was it about his left shoulder that was so attractive to bullets. His shoulder was screaming as he griped the helicopter controls fighting with them to stay on course. He knew that Face was sitting to his left with wide eyes and white knuckles.

"We're close now." Murdock tilted his head in Face's direction his voice thin and tense.

Face said a prayer and held on tight. The helicopter was dropping out of the sky faster than he thought it should be. He kept his eyes on the pilot. Murdock had the controls in a death grip. His expression was the polar opposite to the happy carefree one he usually wore when flying. He was focused and determined beads of sweat formed on his brow from exertion but Face noted he was not panicking which made Face feel slightly better.

The ground was coming fast. Murdock held the controls as tight as he could doing his best to slow their decent. The bird wasn't helping. 'It was probably damaged when it got shot too.' He thought frustrated. He didn't know if he was going to be able to fly the plane out of here and it scared him, thinking it might be his fault that they were stuck in Vietnam.

They hit the ground harder then he would have liked to, causing them to bounce up again. Murdock couldn't help but howl as the impact jarred his arm and shot pain threw his shoulder.

The chopper bounced once and then came to rest with a thud in the clearing where they had hid the plane.

Face opened one eye and then the other, wary of what catastrophe he might find. He was relieved to see they had landed safely and Murdock was even with a pained expression quickly and deftly flipping switches and pressing buttons to shut off the helicopter off.

Face snapped back into action when he heard Hannibal calling for him and Murdock to get a move on. The lieutenant jumped down out of the helicopter, Hannibal, B.A. and Tia were already getting into the plane.

B.A. looked mad. "Come on, let's go! I wanna get out of here!" To the other's surprise Face ran to the other side of the chopper.

Murdock had sat back in his seat with his eyes closed. All the color seemed to have drained out of his face. He looked like his hat and jacket were swallowing his thin frame. Face had anticipated that the pilot might need help, but he didn't expect what he saw. He didn't look good.

"You ok Murdock?" Face asked but he didn't get a response from the younger man.

"What's the hold up?" Hannibal called leaning out the plane door.

"Murdock's been shot." Face shouted back surprised the Colonel hadn't noticed.

"What!" Hannibal exclaimed "I thought it was a rough ride but I thought it was because of the chopper."

B.A. was suddenly behind Hannibal in the door way and they hurried to Face's side. Tia stood back nervous and overwhelmed. She looked around fearful that they might be ambushed at any moment.

Face put his hand on the pilot's unwounded shoulder and gently shook the pilot back to consciousness. "Come on Murdock."

Murdock opened his eyes "I'm going I'm going I'm going" He chanted under his breath as he started to get out of the chopper.

"Murdock I think you should stay put." Face started but it was too late. Murdock was already stepping out of the chopper. Luckily Face, Hannibal, and B.A. were there just as he did because his first step would have been a painful one if they hadn't been.

As one unsteady foot hit the ground the rest of him seemed to want to follow. Face caught him by his shoulder and stopped him from falling out of the Helicopter. Hannibal helped Face get Murdock back into the seat.

Murdock gave Face a very stern look, one that Face hadn't expected to see from the wobbly man.

"What are you doing?" the pilot asked quietly. The question was ignored as the team went to work checking the wounded man over.

"In the shoulder again, Captain?" Hannibal winced out of sympathy. He knew that shoulder wounds though not usually fatal if treated were painful and took a lot of therapy if not surgery to fix. He knew that Murdock had had a rough time after the last time he was shot trying to get back the full range of motion in his shoulder.

"How bad Hannibal?" B.A. asked looking over Hannibal's shoulder as he examined the wound.

"Still bleeding…It's a thru and thru. That's good the bullet's not still in him." Hannibal said seeing the exit hole in the back of Murdock's boomer jacket and the bullet hole in the seat where the pilot had been sitting. Hannibal knew of course that what was dangerous was the fabric that the bullet took in with it when it went thru Murdock's shoulder.

"We'll need to clean, disinfect it and stitch it up. There's a first aid kit on the general's plane, right?" Hannibal questioned.

"I'm sure there's something, but…" Face with a pained expression asked the question that everyone was thinking. "Hannibal how are we going to get out of here?"

B.A. grimaced remembering the last time Murdock had been shot. He'd gotten really sick, B.A. worried that that might happen again. If it did their options for Murdock and themselves would be slim.

Hannibal was quiet and looked at his men and then back to Murdock. He needed to know if Murdock could get them in the air or not. Time was a factor.

"Maybe we could find a boat out of here." B.A. said hopefully.

Face agreed. "I don't think he's going to be able to fly us Colonel."

"Well, all he'd have to do was get us up and then land when we got there" Hannibal thought optimistically. "We could probably keep it in the air. Let's get him in the plane and get him cleaned up. As long as infection doesn't set in it's only his shoulder that's hurt. We can do the arm work for him."

Murdock who'd been sitting there quiet and uncharacteristically serious as they examined him looked at them quizzically as they now tried to help him out of the plane.

"What are you doing?" He resisted their help pulling back and away from them holding on to his left arm to try and keep the pain from exploding in his wounded shoulder again.

"Come on crazy man you need to get out of the helicopter." B.A. didn't have time for any of Murdock's foolishness.

"No, what I think is that I need to get this bird back in the air." Murdock inexplicably turned back to the controls and started flipping switches and pushing buttons to the team's befuddlement.

"What?" Face looked at his friend. "Murdock, come on stop playing around, this is serious."

Murdock turned sharply back to the team."This is no joke lieutenant." His directness caught the other's off guard. "Look I've dropped you off now I need to go back for the others."

"What others, you crazy fool? Now come on you need to get patched up." B.A. couldn't stand it when the pilot acted like a crazy person.

"The others still back there in the still in the jungle....wounded. I can't just leave them there can I?" Murdock said with surprising desperation in his voice.

Hannibal sadly realized what was going on. He'd been worried something like this might happen. He spoke to the pilot evenly. "Captain you're wounded yourself you need to go get checked out be a medic. Let another pilot take the chopper back to pick up the men."

"Colonel there is no one else." Murdock's pleading eyes were heartbreaking. Hannibal felt the younger man was remembering every chopper that crashed in Nam, in that moment.

Face tried to bring his friend back to reality. "Murdock you're not thinking straight. You're hurt." he reiterated.

"Well I would have stuck a cork in this hole and been up in the air by now if you hadn't stopped me!" Murdock spat angrily. "There are men back there!"

B.A. stepped up to the pilot. "There are no men." He said gruffly as Face and Hannibal tried to not think about how they'd left Fulbright. "Now get out of the Helicopter before I take you out." Murdock glared at B.A. and then at the chopper's instruments they kept blurring every time he tried to check them.

"No" was all Murdock could manage to say he was still losing blood and was starting to feel light headed.

They all knew that during the War the pilot would do everything in his power to get all the soldiers out. He always pushed himself hard and this time, even though the men were only in his mind, was no exception.

Hannibal watched carefully and saw the moment that Murdock's will power waivered. "Now B.A." Hannibal gave the order and the large Sergeant was able to pull the skinny pilot's right arm around his shoulders and put his own arm around the injured man's waist and ease him out of the helicopter.

"no no no." Murdock weakly sputtered looking despondently back at the helicopter as B.A. led him quickly to the plane.

"Lay him down in the aisle." Hannibal ordered as Face went to the front and grabbed the first aid kit from the cockpit.

B.A. grabbed a couple pillows down from an over head storage compartment and put them under Murdock's head then went to stand guard outside the plane.

Face brought the large first aid kit back and set it down next to Murdock.

Hannibal helped Murdock take off his bomber jacket as Murdock winced, grimaced, and groaned. Placing the beloved jacket aside Hannibal took a large silver pair of scissors from Face. Leaning over Murdock with the scissors Murdock's eyes got big and fearful. "Is there no way to save it Colonel?"

Hannibal sympathetically explained. "It's beyond saving Captain the t-shirt has to go." It was odd Hannibal thought that the shirt should say 'All things come to an end' as he cut up the sleeve and carefully around the wounded shoulder.

Once the bloody shirt was peeled off and disposed of Hannibal had Murdock lay on his side so he could clean the shoulder. He first wiped off the blood that ran down Murdock's chest and back with a wet cloth. The water was cold and Murdock tensed at the first touch. "Relax Murdock." Face prompted, they all knew this was the easy part.

After washing his own hands and a long pair of tweezers in alcohol Hannibal began probing the wound for anything that could cause infection. Murdock sucked in a hitched breath and squeezed his watering eyes tight.

"Be strong Captain." Hannibal instructed. Once he was satisfied that there were no fragments of t shirt or jacket he poured alcohol over the entrance wound. Murdock breathed heavily as the alcohol burned.

"Did, did you check the the coordinates?" Murdock hissed thru clenched teeth.

"What coordinates Captain?" Hannibal asked as he poured alcohol over the exit wound.

"The the ones you g-gave the pilot you found to fly the helicopter back." Murdock breathed thru the pain.

Face hitched a confused eyebrow at Hannibal. The Colonel wasn't as confused he had always been good at following the pilot's random thoughts. "Yes we checked them, we just heard over the radio that the pickup was a success the helicopter is on its way back now." One corner of Murdock's mouth turned up into a lopsided smiled and Face thought his crazy friend looked relieved.

Hannibal was trying to keep pressure on the wound with gauze but they all knew the wound wasn't going to stop bleeding on its own. Face knew the look Hannibal was giving him and he pulled out the needle and thread. "We are really going to have to thank the General for keeping such a well stocked kit."

Face disposed of the gauze Hannibal had been using as the older man disinfected the needle and thread and his hands again.

Face looked down at his friend. Murdock looked extremely uncomfortable his head even with the pillows propping it up was at an odd angle as he lay on his side. "This will be over soon Murdock hang in there." Face knelt down to feel Murdock's forehead, he wasn't feverish in fact he was more cold and clammy than anything else.

Murdock was feeling woozy, his eyes wouldn't focus, and his eyelids got heavy. Half conscious he made a soft whimpering noise as Hannibal got started. He didn't stay conscious after a couple stitches, which Hannibal felt was a blessing. He didn't want cause his friend more pain, even if he was only trying to help.

After stitching both sides and pouring more alcohol over the wound, Hannibal wrapped and then taped the shoulder. Face wiped the sweat off of Murdock's forehead. Murdock stayed sleeping as Hannibal found some blankets. He and Face laid Murdock down on one blanket hoping it would cushion his shoulder better than the floor. They then covered Murdock with the other before they stepped out of the plane for some air.

B.A. stood outside with Tia, they turned when Hannibal and Face stepped out into the sun. "How is he?" B.A. asked.

"Good, sleeping…" Hannibal saw the look on B.A.'s face. "It's not like last time he's doing well."

"Except for the fact that he thinks it's 1969 and the War's still on." Face interjected.

"Like the other time he was shot in the shoulder…" B.A. recalled. They all remembered…

Murdock was flying pickup. There were lots of wounded soldiers, lots of enemy fire and helicopters were dropping out of the sky like wounded ducks. Murdock had always been the best pilot a guy could hope to get to fly him but that day Murdock proved it tenfold. He had picked up a unit and came under fire during takeoff. It had been a group of Vietnamese farmers with shotguns and stolen weapons. The helicopter windshield had been damaged by enemy fire during the previous run so when one of the farmer's shots was aimed just right it burst thru the glass. Murdock took the bullet in his shoulder plus the shards of the windshield sliced him and stuck in him all over. Still he got the chopper up and flew the bird back to base.

Hannibal and his team had been there that day helping get the wounded off the choppers. Hannibal remembered a scene much like the one he'd seen today. The young pilot was badly wounded but was determined to go back for more men. The medics argued with him to no avail. He said as long as his bird flew he was going back and amazingly he did twice more before Hannibal found him passed out bent over in the pilot's seat and he and B.A. had to carry him to the medical tent carefully, wary of the pieces of glass that were stuck in the young man.

"That crazy fool…" B.A. reminisced.

"Best damn pilot we had during the War." Face added.

"Just goes to remind you fellas you can't keep a good pilot on the ground." Hannibal mused. He was confident if they gave Murdock a little time he'd fly them out of the predicament they were in.

TBC….

Thank you for reading!