VIGIL
Title: Vigil
Author: lamardeuse
E-Mail: poutinette@canada.com
Rating: PG
Pairing: F/M
Website:
http://poutinette.tripod.com/ateam/index.htm
Disclaimer: The A‑Team
does not belong to me, but if they did I would ply them with eggnog and mulled
wine until they did my bidding. All
characters, alarums, excursions and concepts belong to Stephen J Cannell and
Frank Lupo.
Warnings:
Language, slash (implied).
Summary: A response to Cathy Fisher’s challenge to
write a story around the lyrics of a Christmas song or carol without mentioning
the lyrics or title directly in the story.
Christmas Day,
1970
7:04 a.m.
He’d been hearing
choppers all night.
Only problem was,
there hadn’t been any choppers. None
that were flying outside his own head, anyway.
He tried not to
think of all the things that only existed in his head now. The list kept getting longer.
He’d limped out
here before dawn, wrapped himself up in the blanket from his hospital bed and
counted the stars as they disappeared.
The sun was starting to gain in strength after popping up over the
horizon, but clouds were threatening to obscure it. Too late, you bastards, he thought, too late; I know it’s there,
and you can’t kill it, no matter how hard you try. It’ll be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, even if
you never let me see it again.
He squeezed his
eyes shut, pressed the heels of his hands into the lids.
Shit.
A nurse emerged from
the Quonset hut that served as the recovery ward with some white pills and a
glass of water, watched him while he swallowed the medicine down like a good
little boy.
When she left, he
spit them into his hand and shoved them into his pocket. Would’ve been nice to be able to throw them
on the ground; Vietnam could do with a coupla snowflakes on Christmas day.
For some reason,
that struck him as funny, and he started laughing. The kid sitting on the other end of the bench glanced at him out
of the corner of his eye.
“You OK, Cap?”
the fella asked. He was healing from a
leg wound too; wouldn’t be long before he was sent back into the green.
“Peachy,” grated
Murdock, reaching into his shirt pocket for a Lucky Strike. He held the pack out to the corporal, who
smiled and took it from him.
“Thanks,” he
said. “My mom sent me some stuff. I’ll trade ya a couple of her cookies.”
“Whut kind?”
“Gingerbread.”
“Fuckin’ A,” the
pilot murmured, sticking the cigarette between his lips and lighting up.
When he heard the
chopper this time, he didn’t bother to look up. Either it was there or it wasn’t.
“Hey!” the kid
exclaimed. “I bet that’s the mail.”
It was
there. Whaddaya know. He dared a glance at the landing pad. Now that he was paying more attention to the
Huey, he realized the engines weren’t sounding all that great. In fact, they sounded like a five-hundred
pound guy trying to run the last few yards of a marathon. The door gunner was hanging out the side,
and from where they were sitting it was just possible to make out the look of
fear in his eyes.
The corporal had
picked up on it. “What d’you suppose is
wrong?”
About six feet
up, the gunner jumped. He hit the
ground and tucked into a roll, then scrambled off the pad. The chopper rose for a sec with the loss of
his weight, then dropped like an anvil.
The rotors let out a screaming sigh of relief as the skids slammed down.
Four guys ran for
the ship and started unloading crates.
Twenty minutes later,
they were still unloading.
“It’s like Mary
Poppins’ frickin’ handbag,” marvelled the corporal.
When the bay was
finally empty, the gunner jumped back on with a six-pack of Blue Ribbon under
his arm. He broke open one of the
bottles just as the chopper leapt back into the sky.
One of the grunts
who had been doing the unloading walked toward them, pushing a gurney groaning
with booty. “Merry Christmas,
boys. Our brave gimps get first pick. What’s your poison?”
“What’ve you
got?” asked the corporal, beaming like a six-year old being given the run of
the candy store.
“Shit, we got
everything. Those crazy bastards loaded
up their Huey with beer, bourbon, pretzels, chips, chocolate, and a few dozen
back issues of Playboy. I wouldn’t be
surprised if there’s a real girl in one a’ them crates.”
“And the mail?”
“Next chopper, he
said. It’s comin’ in a couple of
minutes.”
“Oh.” Murdock didn’t miss the sound of
disappointment in the kid’s voice.
“Well, what do you want, Cap?”
What I want, he
thought, wasn’t on that ship either.
“Go for the bourbon, kid.
That’ll put us in the holiday mood.”
“You got it,”
grinned the private, who handed them a bottle, then headed to the ward to play
Santa there.
The two of them
sat together, puffing on their cigarettes and swapping the whiskey back and
forth.
“You expectin’ a
Christmas card?” Murdock ventured, surprised he wanted to know the answer.
The corporal
looked at him, then took another swig.
“My girlfriend. She’s a little confused
about how long it takes stuff to get here.
Thinks Vietnam is just around the corner, on account of she sees it on
TV every night.”
The kid’s
bitterness was something Murdock could understand. “Nobody knows how far away we are,” he muttered. “Not even us.”
The corporal
nodded, stared at something only he could see.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m on the goddamned moon.”
They raised their
eyes as the next bird descended.
This one sounded
fine, and Murdock listened to the music of the engine and the rotors working to
defy gravity. He missed being up
there. Things were easier the further
you got from the ground.
Two fat canvas
sacks came out of this chopper, and Murdock hoped the dumb broad had mailed her
card in time for it to be sitting in one of them.
He shook his
head. Not her fault. Not anyone’s fault. It was a pain in the ass not having anybody
to blame. He’d stopped believing in God
when he was five, so he couldn’t even go there.
“What you waitin’
for, Cap?”
Murdock took a
final long drag of his first cigarette, then used the still-burning end to
light a second one. “I’m waitin’ for my
present.”
“You sit on
Santa’s knee?” chuckled the kid.
“Damn! I knew I forgot something.”
Maybe he could
blame Santa Claus, the pilot reflected.
That SOB had a lot to answer for.
Would a hog take him all the way to the North Pole? If he refueled in Seoul, then took the Great
Circle route...
“Hey! Is one of you Templeton Peck?”
Murdock sucked in
a breath. “He ain’t back yet.”
“You in his
unit?”
He paused. “Yeah.
I guess.”
“Close enough,”
the guy told him, and thrust a clipboard and a pen at him. “Sign anywhere.”
Murdock signed.
The grunt raised
an arm. “Over here.” Three huge crates were deposited in front of
the pilot, and then they were alone again.
“Holy crap,” the
corporal whistled admiringly. “You hit
the jackpot.” He eyed Murdock
mischievously. “You think we should
open them?”
“No.” He stared at the crates, wondered if this
was all he was going to have of him.
“Yes.”
“I’ll get a
crowbar,” the kid grinned, pushing himself to his feet and limping off.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“I’ll be damned.”
“Probably.”
“Let’s set them
up.”
Murdock pursed
his lips. “What if it rains?”
“We’ll get some
fellas to help us move them inside.”
The kid turned pleading eyes to him.
Murdock flung his
cigarette on the ground, stubbed it out with a vicious grind of his boot. “All right, all right.” He heaved himself off the bench and his knees
kissed the red dirt.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The third chopper
was wounded. Badly.
He knew they were
on it.
The corporal was
reading his card for the hundredth time, but he tore his gaze away from his
girl’s perfect penmanship to watch.
Watching was all
Murdock could do. He clenched his
hands, half expecting to feel the solid comfort of the stick. Instead, his fingers gripped air, and his
nails dug into his palms.
Shit.
Smoke fanned out
behind the ship, escaping from the engine compartment.
Trim, trim,
fucking trim, she’s coming in too fast, watch the angle--
Beside him, he
heard the corporal reciting a prayer.
Face’d like that. He never
mentioned it, but Murdock could see his nose scrunch up whenever the pilot said
something irreligious. He loved making
him do that, did it on purpose sometimes.
The rage boiled
up in him then. He’d always been too
angry to be a good Christian. No, he
thought, not like this, like you’re in the stands at a goddamned football game. On your feet. For them.
He rose as the
slick descended. The earth beckoned to
the dying bird, arms reaching to ensnare it in a murderous embrace.
He started
running. There was no pain.
A truck passed
him, the tank it was hauling loaded with fire retardant.
They were going to
have a white Christmas after all.
Fifty feet,
forty, thirty, too fast, too fast, but he would’ve done the same thing, get her
on the ground before the whole thing explodes--
The ground
slapped the chopper hard. The skids
bowed out, absorbing the shock. He held
his breath as the blades flexed slightly, then rebounded before they had a
chance to slice into the tail. Murdock
could hear the sickening whine of the rotors as they powered down, the shouts
of the guys as they poured out of the open doors. He saw BA, the beautiful mudsucker, and Ray, and Morty, and--
“Where’s Hannibal
and Face?” he yelled.
“Gettin’ the
pilots out. They both wounded.” BA’s arms tried to hold him still. “Fool,
get back! You know that chopper’s ‘bout
to cook off!”
The truck began
spraying the engine compartment. He
could see the flames licking up around the rotors.
“C’mon!” Ray hollered.
Wait wait wait--
There. First Face, then Hannibal, emerged from the
cockpit with the two fellas slung over their backs. Murdock ran forward to help them manhandle the guys out the side.
Face’s eyes met
his.
“My hero,” Face
said.
Murdock stumbled
then, and strong arms caught him.
“Hand ‘im over,
LT. You can hold up the fool.”
As they hobbled away
from the now-smoldering slick, whiteness fell to cover them all.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Christmas Day,
1970
9:30 p.m.
Murdock drained
the last of the bourbon. The
corporal--Jerry--had been invited back to their hooch after the pilot had told
them about the prayers.
The seven of them
sat sprawled in sling chairs and on bunks, in companionable silence. They sat and stared at the display, arranged
by Face and Morty, in one corner of the tent.
“Sorry we opened
‘em, shur,” Jerry slurred. He’d be
puking into a latrine before the morning.
“That’s all
right, Corporal,” Face replied. “I
think they brought us luck.”
“Got ‘em wet,
though.”
Face
grunted. “They’ll dry out.” He pushed himself to his feet, sauntered
over and squatted down in front of the Virgin Mary. His hand rose, and his fingers brushed gently over her delicate,
serene features.
Murdock flashed
on the sensation of Face’s hand over his heart, as they lay together in the
dark of a Saigon night three months ago. The fingers lightly combing through
the hair on his chest, then pressing into the hollows between his ribs.
“There,” Face had
whispered. “There.”
The sacred and
the profane. Definitions he’d always
thought meant nothing, until he met Face.
Because Face was
both of those things, and much, much more.
Maybe they all
were.
“Which one’s
Jesus again?” he drawled.
Face’s nose
scrunched, and Murdock grinned. It was
a merry Christmas after all.
End