Cabin Fever

Hannibal crossed the 31st of January off the calendar in the rec room. He'd never been so glad to see the end of a month in his entire life. He wandered over to the bookcase, found the copy of Where Eagles Dare and sat down, looking for his place.

On one of the sofas Face and Murdock were leaning on each other, abandoned books on their laps. Both men were fast asleep. Murdock had been on 'power watch' as they'd started calling it, the night before and Face had stayed up most of the night with him. Hannibal wondered if Face was worried about Murdock being on his own all night, or if he was worried Murdock was working his own brand of charm on Shila.

Decker came into the room hugging himself and rubbing his arms.

"It's freezing in here," he growled. "What is it? Somewhere around absolute zero?"

"Don't be silly, Decker. Absolute zero is a theoretical state, when all atomic movement stops." Hannibal had been studying some of the science books in the library.

Decker looked at Face and Murdock then back at Hannibal.

"Your point being?"

Hannibal just shrugged. "Put on a sweater. And another pair of socks. And a scarf. And a hat." He glanced over at Murdock who was wearing his furry hat with its spaniel like ear flaps.

Decker didn't move. He looked at Face and Murdock again.

"If those were my men I'd give them extra PT."

Hannibal frowned at Decker. "What's that supposed to mean? You implying they're out of shape?"

"I'm not implying anything. I'm saying they're flabby."

"Hey, Face, Murdock, Decker just called you guys fat," Hannibal said, loudly. Face and Murdock both woke up, blinking at Hannibal, puzzled.

"When did they last take any exercise?" Decker asked. "When did you?"

"I didn't know there were any bees around here," Hannibal said, rolling his eyes. "How'd you get one in your bonnet, Decker?"

"Who called us fat?" Murdock asked.

"Hey, I've been sick," Face said.

"So has Baracus, but he's back in the gym lifting weights."

Their gym was a storage room they'd taken most of the boxes out of and put in the exercise equipment. They had two exercise bikes, a multi gym, which BA mostly sneered at, a rack of free weights and a bench. Hannibal realised with a stab of guilt that he'd not been in there since getting sick on New Year's Day.

"You might have a point, Decker," Hannibal conceded. He looked at Face and Murdock. They weren't looking as toned as normal. As for himself, well, he couldn't deny that he'd gone up a notch on his belt.

"Okay, a new roster," Hannibal said. "Exercise session every day, two guys at a time." Decker looked satisfied and walked out of the room.

"Want me to spot you, Face?" Murdock offered.

Hannibal shook his head. Nope, they needed a less friendly pairing. Those two would spend too much time talking and not enough working. They needed some real competition. BA was already getting on with his routine, so Hannibal would just let him be. Hannibal would like to partner up with Decker himself, just to beat him, but it might be better to - he smiled suddenly. Oh, it would certainly be better to put Face and Decker together. It could be very useful indeed. They seemed to be getting on pretty well, there had to be a way to turn that to the team's advantage.

"I'll partner Murdock," Hannibal said. Murdock just nodded and shrugged.

"Aw, Hannibal, no, please!" Face pleaded. "Don't trade me to Decker!"

"Sorry, kid." Hannibal grinned. "Has to be one of us. You drew the short straw."

"Straws? I never saw any straws." Face folded his arms and sat back, looking sulky.

"'sides," Murdock said. "He never gets the short one. He palms that and uses his extra long emergency straw."

BA walked in, with a few sheets of paper in his hand and a worried expression on his face.

"BA, you won't believe what Hannibal's just done to me!" Face said.

"Face, you're good at math," BA said. "Can you check some figures for me? Then we gotta have a meeting. I think we're in trouble."

~~~~

Sitting at the kitchen table Face pored over BA's papers then looked up.

"Your sums look right to me, BA."

BA didn't look happy with the confirmation. He took the papers and pen back from Face.

"The diesel fuel just ain't gonna hold out." BA said. "We keep using it at the current rate we'll run out before the end of February. I've tried everything I can to make the generator use the fuel slower, more efficient, but it ain't working. We have to start cutting back on the power we use, real serious now. I already turned off the heat in the greenhouse."

"Aw, man, there goes the fresh food." Murdock sighed. "Better pull up what's salvageable."

"Okay," Hannibal said. "What else can we do?"

"Use the incinerator more for heat," Decker said.

"How much wood is left?" Hannibal tried to remember how much he'd seen last time he was in there. "After that's gone we'll need to start chopping up the furniture. So much for leaving the place the way we found it. Any more suggestions?"

"Only heat the bedrooms at night," BA said, "No need to be in 'em during the day. And we double up, start sharing, so there's fewer rooms to heat even at night."

"Okay, yeah," Hannibal said. "We have a man up all night, so the other four of us can stay in two bedrooms. We'll move the beds in there tonight."

"So much for privacy," Face muttered.

"Restrict the time spent on the radio," Decker suggested. Face looked alarmed at once.

"Oh, come on, the radio can't use that much power."

"And the fool can quit using an electric typewriter for his dumb books," BA said.

"Dumb?" Murdock protested at once.

"Here." BA tossed his pen to Murdock. "You can use this instead. And stay in the rec room. No sense in heating the office just for you to sit in there pretending you're Stephen King."

"What?" Murdock looked outraged. "I do not pretend to be Stephen King!" He folded his arms and scowled. "I pretend to be Ray Bradbury!"

~~~~

"I'm just sayin', the man was the best heavyweight fighter there ever was, he can call himself whatever the heck he likes."

BA glared across the dining room table at Hannibal. Hannibal studied his cards and looked up at BA.

"And I'm saying, that I can see why he changed his last name, because of that whole slave name idea, but why change Cassius? His parents named him Cassius, why's that not good enough for him?"

"I suppose your parents named you Hannibal?" BA countered.

"Ah, that's different, that's a nickname, nobody has to call me that."

Face sighed loudly.

"Are we playing poker here?" He'd heard the Cassius Clay argument before. When people spent this much time together they started to repeat themselves. And Hannibal and BA had been having this particular discussion since Face had met them. Decker watched Hannibal and BA like a man at a tennis match. Murdock built a small fort with his poker chips. Outside the wind howled in the darkness.

"So I guess it wouldn't bother you if I was to start calling you John?" BA demanded of Hannibal.

"Well..." Hannibal hesitated, but rallied. "No, it wouldn't bother me at all, Bosco."

"And if I started calling you Alvin?" BA turned the scowl on Face. Face looked up with the air of an innocent bystander suddenly dragged into a fight he wanted nothing to do with.

"Hey, I agree with you, BA. A man should be able to call himself whatever he likes, whatever his reasons."

"Well you would say that, Templeton," Hannibal said. He sighed, sat back. "Well here we all are. The A-Team, John, Alvin, Bosco and..." He looked at Murdock; who suddenly wasn't there. "Murdock?"

In a moment Murdock popped back up from under the table. He gave a wide smile. "Sorry, fellas, dropped my chips. What were we talking about?"

Decker frowned. "What's with his name anyway? Why don't you use it?"

"You - um - know it, do you, Decker?" Face asked.

"Of course, it's in his records. It's -"

"Don't say it!" Face said urgently.

"Why not?" Decker asked, sounding baffled.

"It's just best if you don't say it," Hannibal said. He glanced at Face, gave him the quickest of quick winks. "I'm not cleaning up that mess again."

"Mess?"

"Yeah, they always trash the place." Face played along.

"They who?" Decker was leaning forward now.

Murdock jumped up. "I think it's time for some snacks." He tossed down his cards. "C'mon, Decker, kitchen. I'll make the sandwiches; you do the chips and drinks." Murdock hurried off towards the kitchen. Decker shrugged and followed him. BA got up and went into the rec room.

"I wonder if Decker has a nickname," Face said. He grinned. "I mean aside from Rod. Maybe we should give him one." He pulled all the cards over to him and stacked them, started shuffling.

"You could ask him while you're working out together," Hannibal suggested.

"Yeah, and do let me thank you one more time for that."

"Ah, there's method in my madness." Hannibal leaned back in his chair and glanced through the open door from the dining room into the kitchen. Decker was up at the far end of the room. Hannibal spoke again, leaning forward, voice very low.

"I want you to see what you can get on him, Face. There has to be something we can use against him. Use the old Faceman magic. Charm him."

Face snorted. "Next you'll be telling me to seduce him."

Hannibal's eyebrows shot up. "Well if you do then get it on tape." He grinned.

"Very funny," Face said, cutting the pack of cards.

"Hey, whatever works, right?"

"I don't think he's that desperate yet," Face said scowling.

"Face, he's been 'that desperate' since before we arrived here." Hannibal smirked and Face just shook his head and clicked his tongue. Hannibal went to the door though to the rec room. "You coming back, BA?"

In a moment BA wandered through reading a book. "This guy Denethor needs poundin'." He declared. He put Return of the King down, walked though the room and out the door to the corridor, heading for the bathroom.

Face and Hannibal looked at each other.

"He's still reading that?" Face said.

Hannibal shrugged.

"Well, I guess it is about gold jewellery."

Next

Previous

Cabin Fever Index

Long Stories Index

Home

Send Me Feedback

© Elizabeth Charles 2006