"Well, of all the Christmas lunches I've eaten I can safely say that was one of them." Hannibal said, flopping down onto a sofa in the rec room.

"It wasn't that bad," Face said. "I mean in comparison to..." He grimaced. "One or two I've had."

"Note to self," Murdock said, into his dictation recorder, "Next Christmas, don't get trapped in a snowbound research station north of the Arctic Circle."

Hannibal looked at Decker, who had gone to the window.

"Not gonna make a remark about where we'll be spending next Christmas, Decker? You really must be full of the Christmas spirit."

Decker turned away from looking outside into the darkness.

"I don't like to gloat," he said.

"Yes you do!"

Decker scowled at Hannibal and looked outside again. He lit one of his gift cigarettes.

"Are you still looking for that wolf? It's gone, Decker."

"I'm telling you I saw movement out there before."

"Oh, you're paranoid. And you're not gonna see anything in the dark."

Decker sighed, seemed to see the sense in that. He went and sat down on a sofa beside BA.

"Watch it, man." BA snapped. He had all his gold laid out on a towel on the sofa and had started polishing it with a soft cloth.

"That's what you're going to do this afternoon, BA? Polish your gold?" Hannibal asked, winding up his clockwork elephant. "You should relax."

"This is relaxing. And everyone else gets to use their gifts, why not me?"

Hannibal shrugged and ran the elephant across a table top, caught it before it charged off the edge. Face had snuggled down in his chair, pulled a blanket around himself and was reading the story Murdock had written for him. Murdock kept dictating random notes into his recorder. Decker had his cigarettes. "Fair enough, BA. Whatever floats your boat I guess."

"That stuff stinks." Decker said glancing at the metal polish.

"Ain't nobody forcing you to sit there." BA scowled at Decker. "Anyway, you shouldn't be smoking around it."

Decker got off the couch and went back to the window.

"Why are you still wearing all that jewellery anyway?"

BA frowned, as if he didn't understand the question. "It's my gold."

"But why are you wearing it here? It takes you at least a half hour to put it all on and what's the point? I mean I assume you wear it to impress women, and there aren't any here."

"Women?" BA stared at Decker. The other three were looking at him now too. "Man, how'd you get to be a colonel when you so dumb?"

Hannibal smirked at Decker's outraged expression.

"If the gold was about impressing women it's Face who would be wearing it." Murdock said. Face just gave a smug grin.

"Hey, I got all the gold I need to attract women right here." He ran a hand through his hair.

BA gave him the usual disgusted scowl. Murdock made some gagging noises, then looked thoughtful and spoke into his recorder again.

"Note to self: when we get home buy a lot of gold jewellery or dye hair." He looked around at the others then, a frown on his face. Then he smiled a small smile. "Speaking of hair, you guys seriously need a trim."

"Yeah, I'd noticed that," Hannibal agreed.

"Ooh, Rod," Murdock said, going over to Decker at the window, "Say 'get your hair cut' into this." He held up the recorder. "Go on, maximum gravel."

Decker just glared at him. Murdock sighed. "Spoilsport. Okay, fellas, I'm gonna be the barber. Wait there." Murdock ran out and several minutes later he came back carrying a kitchen chair with a couple of folded bed sheets on the seat. A small mirror, a pair of scissors, an electric razor and a comb sat on top of the sheet. He'd found a white hospital gown from the infirmary and wore it over his plaid shirt.

Is this part of the act? Hannibal wondered. I mean he's right we need haircuts, but to jump from that to barber Murdock in five minutes flat. That's... crazy.

"Okay, boys, form an orderly line," Murdock said, laying out a sheet on the floor and positioning the chair in the middle of it. No one rushed to jump into the seat.

"Guys?"

"You think I'm letting you wave a pair of scissors around my head you're even crazier than I thought." BA growled.

Murdock sighed. "Face?"

"Are you kidding? You think I let just anyone touch the hair?"

"Come on, please. Just a light trim? I mean think of the spring. Do you want to meet Shila looking some kind of hippie?"

Meeting Shila, huh? Hannibal thought, seeing Face's thoughtful expression. Typical that Face was trying a remote control conquest. Oh well, if it kept his mind occupied.

"Oh, okay then." Face got up. "But I'm telling you, a light trim, that's all." He sat in the chair and Murdock swathed him in a sheet.

"Of course, if we were smart," Murdock said. "We'd do like the astronauts do and shave our heads." A flick of his thumb and the electric razor buzzed. Face moved so fast he was across the room before anyone saw him get up.

Murdock grinned and turned off the razor. "Just kidding," he said. Face scowled at him.

"Murdock..."

"Look, I'm putting it down! Just a joke."

"Give it to BA." Face said. Murdock rolled his eyes, but handed the razor to BA. Face came back and sat in the chair warily. Decker watching from the window looked as nervous as Face when Murdock raised the scissors. But as promised Murdock snipped very carefully. BA, grumbling to himself, carried on polishing.

"Did you see the match last night, sir?" Murdock asked. Hannibal grinned, Face just looked baffled.

"Huh?"

"I thought Hurst played well, sir."

"Murdock, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I thought Hurst played well." Murdock repeated.

"Okay, I'm done." Face said, getting up. He gave Murdock a strange look as he pulled the sheet off. "Decker, your turn."

Decker gave a long suffering look but replaced Face in the chair. Murdock started to snip away around the back of Decker's neck. Decker looked very tense, Hannibal thought.

"I prefer to watch Palace nowadays," Murdock said, mysteriously.

"Quit the jibber jabber and cut the man's hair, fool," BA said, as he worked on an especially intricate gold chain. Murdock at once got an offended look on his face.

"I didn't want to be a barber anyway," he muttered. Here we go, Hannibal thought as Murdock went on. "I wanted to be a lumberjack."

"Oh, no, please, Murdock," Face pleaded.

"Don't even think about it, fool!" BA growled.

Murdock ignored them both. "Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia." He pulled off the hospital gown, revealing his red plaid shirt.

"The giant redwood, the larch, the fir, the mighty Scots pine. With my best girlie by my side. We'd sing... sing... sing!"

"I'm warning you fool, you start singin' I start swingin'." BA slapped a fist into the palm of his other hand.

But nothing stopped Murdock once he was in full flow. He took a deep breath.

"I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay. I sleep all night and I work all day."

BA came up off the couch roaring and Murdock ran for it. BA chased him out of the room. Murdock's voice faded away.

"I cut down trees, I skip and jump..."

Hannibal chuckled, looking at the bemused Decker. Then he turned to Face who was watching the door Murdock and BA had run out of. "Okay, Face," he said, with a grin. "Do you want to finish off Decker?"

"I'm not that desperate yet." Face shot back, that response automatic now to anything with even a suggestion of a double entendre. Hannibal grinned, got up and found the scissors Murdock had discarded when he ran.

~~~~

At almost one a.m. that night Hannibal was still awake and reading 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', when he heard a soft knock on his bedroom door.

"Hannibal, it's me. You still up?" Face called.

Hannibal put down his book. "Yeah, come in."

Face slipped into the room and closed the door. He was still fully dressed. He looked anxious in the dim light of Hannibal's bedside lamp.

"Hey, Hannibal. Sorry, it's late, I know."

"That's okay. What's on your mind, kid?" He smiled. "Hope you're not here to tell me you are that desperate."

"No." Face summoned up a faint smile. He started to pace about. "I'm worried about Murdock."

Hannibal wanted to swear and he wanted to smile, both at the same time.

"Worried?"

"He was pretty hyper today. Almost..." Face bit his lip, didn't finish.

"It's Christmas day, Face," Hannibal said. "He gets like this every Christmas, you know that."

"I... I guess." Face said.

He was pretty excited and like you say, hyper. But I..." Hannibal paused. "I wouldn't say he was manic." And Hannibal hated himself right then as he dropped the word 'manic' into Face's head.

"No, I guess not. Not actually manic. I suppose." Face sounded doubtful.

"He'll be fine, Face," Hannibal said, in a reassuring voice. "Now why don't you go get some sleep?"

"Okay, Colonel." Face gave a ghost of a smile. "Happy Chris -" He stopped and gasped at the sound from outside. A long, lonely baying.

The howl of a wolf.

Wide-eyed, Face looked back at Hannibal who shrugged.

"Looks like our friend didn't leave after all."