"Captain! I've been wanting to talk to you. But man, I've been so busy this last month or so you just wouldn't believe it. Hey, it's a real nice country you've got here. All this snow, wow, it's great! If only I'd brought my skis. Not that I have any skis. Ooh, I wanted to ask, do you Mounties always wear the red tunic and the hat and stuff? Are you wearing them now? I dressed as a Mountie once for a costume party. Man I had to beat the women away with a stick! Do you get the same effect? It's really good to finally talk with you! Have you got a favourite chilli recipe?"

There was a long silence and then Baker's voice came through.

"Captain Murdock?"

Murdock grinned. Out the corner of his eye he could see Decker lurking in the corridor nearby.

"That's me, in the flesh. And in a couple of layers of flannel."

"Right. I just wanted to check you were, um -"

"Not a dog?"

"Yes." Baker's voice got as frosty as the weather.

"I'm not. Not today anyhow. I can't believe BA said that! But he's pretty crazy obviously. When he's feeling better I'm gonna put him on report and make him clean the bathroom with a toothbrush."

"Right. Well I'm glad you're -"

"Not a dog?"

"Okay, glad you're okay." He gave a soft laugh suddenly and when he spoke it was in a warmer tone. "I'm also glad I found out you're not a dog. You see if your food there had started to run very low I would have suggested to Colonel Smith that the kindest thing was putting you to sleep before you started to suffer."

Murdock didn't know whether to laugh or be shocked.

"Wow," he said. "Okay, for the record. Murdock. Pretty hairy, but not, in fact, a dog."

"I'll make a note."

Murdock signed off and left the radio room, passing Decker outside the door.

"Nice guy, for a cop."

He went on past and into the kitchen. So that cat had clawed its way out of the bag. Oh well, Murdock hadn't thought it would last this long, they'd been lucky, frankly. But his little chat with Baker had let him add another brick to Decker's wall of wondering about Murdock. A wall of wondering? Did that make sense? A wonder wall? Never mind.

Time to put together the ingredients for the chilli. He couldn't do it justice of course, not with all frozen, canned, dried or pickled ingredients. But he was damn sure he could still make a better chilli than Decker. He grinned. Decker, the prince of chilli.

He started searching the cupboards. No, if Decker's father was the king of chilli, then his mom was the queen of chilli and therefore Decker was the Jack of chilli. Which made Murdock the Joker he supposed. Chillies would make a great suit for cards! A red suit of course, with little pictures of chillies on the cards. What else? Apples would make a good suit. God he could eat an apple right now. All cool and crispy and delicious. What else. Mushrooms? He liked that. One more. Lemons? Chickens? Eggs? Onions? Cups, forks, spoons. The Ace of spoons?

Decker came in, all bundled up in layers of clothes, barely able to fasten his coat over it all.

"It's still snowing." Murdock said.

"It's been snowing for a week." Decker said, scowling at him.

"I know. Just saying."

"Right. Well I'll take out the garbage, refuel the generator and clear away some snow." He pulled on his gloves and picked up the full garbage bag that waited at the exterior door. Murdock watched him pick up the handgun and leave with the garbage bag in one hand and the gun in the other.

As the door closed Murdock went over to the window and watched until Decker had dumped the garbage and was inside the generator shed. He sighed and went back to his chilli.

~~~~

Murdock knew there was a reason he'd been wanting to get on the radio. And at one-fifteen the next morning he remembered what it was.

"Hi, are you Shila? I'm Murdock."

"Oh, hello. Captain Baker told me about you." She sounded cautious.

"Yeah, I know, lame attempt to pretend I'm not here. Even lamer attempt to pretend I'm a dog. Woof, woof. How dumb are we?" He laughed and was pleased when she did too.

"How are the patients?" Shila asked.

"Doing okay. Sleeping. You know Face is so cute when he sleeps, I wish you could see him."

He was sure he heard her sigh.

"Your army sent us some wanted posters of the A-Team. So I do know what Templeton looks like."

"He's cute isn't he, I'm right aren't I?

"I... guess so." She sounded embarrassed now he thought.

"So what do you get up to all night, Shila? I mean when you're not talking to Face?"

"Oh, there's plenty of paperwork to do. Or..." he hesitated a moment. "Well sometimes, if all the work is done, I do some writing."

"Writing? Like stories?" Murdock smiled in delight.

"Yes." Now she really sounded embarrassed. "Just silly really."

"Not at all! That's what I've been doing up here!" Murdock was thrilled. "A fellow writer! So what are you working on?"

"Oh, some stories. You would just think they're silly."

"Honey, in comparison to some of what I've written I'll bet nothing you've done can even approach silly."

"I'd really like to write a novel one day," she said and sighed.

"Do it!"

"Captain, you really are crazy." She laughed.

Hold that thought. "I sure am! So if I can write one then I know you can! Go for it. Have you got a story? Tell me all about it." Murdock settled into his chair. The door was open so he could hear anyone shouting for him. He had his coffee. He was set for the night.

~~~~

"You were talking to Shila?" Face croaked weakly as Murdock helped him sit up and gave him a steaming bowl.

"Yeah. She's great. We had such a laugh." Off Face's annoyed look he waved a hand. "Hey, don't go all green eyed monster on me. It was just a friendly chat about writing."

"She writes?" Face looked down at the bowl he held. "What the hell is this?"

"Chilli. Yeah, didn't she tell you about that? But don't worry; I totally talked you up the whole time. Kept saying how cute you were." He grinned. "So she probably thinks I fancy you now."

Face frowned at Murdock then tried a cautious spoonful of chilli. "How come she never mentioned her writing to me?"

"I don't know. How's the chilli?"

"Not half bad actually."

Murdock's face fell. This one was Decker's chilli. Oh well, they had agreed to play the game and stick by the rules. He slipped a notepad out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"Ok, I need to ask you some questions about the chilli. You'll have to give marks out of ten."

~~~~

It might have been the chilli or it might have been jealousy, but whatever it was, in the early hours of January the fourth Face felt able to drag himself into the radio room. He was wrapped in two blankets and wearing a couple of sweaters under that. His face was unshaven and stubbly, his hair lank and greasy and his eyes red and puffy. He was glad Shila had a nice picture of him right now and not the real thing.

"Templeton! You should be in bed," Shila said, sounding worried when she heard his voice.

"I'm fine," Face said. He coughed a bit, sipped some water. "I'm fine." He smiled. Perhaps the 'brave little soldier' thing was just the right approach here. She'd be wishing she could come and lay her cool hand on his fevered brow. "Happy new year anyway. Bit late, sorry."

"And to you. Er... Templeton, did you talk to Captain Baker a few days ago?"

Uh-oh. Face thought.

"Yeah, I had a little chat." He cringed. Not entirely accurate.

"It's just, well he warned me about you."

"Oh he did, huh?" Warned? Face didn't like that. Okay he'd been kind of a jerk on New Year's Eve, but there was no reason to go around warning people about him.

"He said I should be careful of you. That you're probably only talking to me to get some information to help you later, or that..." he voice went quiet. "That you'll try and talk me into helping you escape in the spring. You know, that you'll charm me and... well he warned me."

For a moment Face didn't know how to respond. Part of him loved it. She'd been warned off, that meant he was the bad boy and Baker was like her Dad trying to keep them apart. On the other hand he didn't want her to get into trouble over him.

"Shila, I promise. I'm not after anything from you, except just what we have now, okay?"

"Oh, okay. Good." Was that disappointment he heard in her voice? "Now, shouldn't you go to bed?"

What and let Murdock come in and take over? I think not.

"Tell me about your stories."