THE PARTY

This is a sequel to 'Hello, Nice to Meet You'.

Arriving back at Nighthawk HQ after dropping off the greaseball, the
Nighthawks decided it was time to celebrate.  Murdock told them
they would first have to degrease HQ before any party could begin.  It
would be the very first time that the Nighthawk HQ would be free of
grease.  The Nighthawks choose to clean up the place instead of resting
after their exhausting mission.  They were still too elated over losing the
Frankster.

"Let's hope they keep him forever," one of them yelled from down
the hall.

"We're going to party hearty," another one said.

Murdock, who was still feeling bad about dropping off his friend
Frankie on his other friend Face, but he had to consider the welfare and
safety of his nighthawks.  Besides, Frankie's grease was even getting in
 his hair!  It takes a lot of Tree's coffee to get the grease out of it too.

"Sir, I have to report that HQ is almost free of grease.  We did lose
two Nighthawks though.  The went down into the bowels of HQ and
haven't returned."  stated Sparks

"Then send some more in after them!"  Murdock said worriedly.

 Sparks lowered her head in a tribute to them.  "We did sir, and lost
two more nighthawks."

"Someday we'll go down there and find all our lost Nighthawks.  It's
a shame that Frankie lost the blueprints to this place.  It would sure
come in handy right about now in locating our missing Nighthawks."
Murdock said with a sigh.

With HQ finally degreased, the Nighthawks prepared the main
room (the largest in HQ) for the big party.  Invitations were sent out to
everyone to attend.  Murdock hoped that Hannibal and BA would show up.
He also hoped that Faceman wasn't too upset with him.  Nightcrawler forgot
 to leave the, keys to the handcuffs, with the TEMPs.   Streamers
were hung everywhere.  So were the balloons.  Champagne was brought out
and chilled.  Murdock can’t remember the last time he saw so many
happy faces.  It was moments now before the guests would start arriving,
so Murdock decided to give his Nighthawks a little talk.

"Nighthawks,"  Murdock began,  "we completed a very scary and
dangerous mission.  I knew some of you wouldn’t be coming back and the
 ones that did come back, wouldn’t know who came back, for if they did, then
the ones who didn’t come back, would come back and the ones that
did come back, wouldn’t be gone, but the ones who are here, did come here
and lets hope they got some pumpkin pie."

As usual, the Nighthawks just scratched their heads and assumed
that one day they would understand what their leader was talking about
when he gave his famous speeches.

******************************************************************************

The guests soon were pouring into HQ.  Hannibal made it and he
brought Maggie Smith with him.  He had been seeing quite a bit of her
lately.  BA came too.  Though he did quite a bit of grumbling about
Murdock being a crazy fool, and his Nighthawks weren’t much better.  They all took
this as a compliment, since all Nighthawks strive to be just like
their leader.

Murdock  looked around the room and hoped to see a glimpse of
Faceman.  He would be very disappointed if Face didn’t come.  The doorbell
rang and Murdock raced to get it.  It was Face!  He had three of the
TEMPs by his side.

Murdock jumped up and hugged him.  "Oh Face, I’m so glad you
came."

Face pushed Murdock off of him and straightened his tie.
"Murdock, not here!  We’ll save that for later.  By the way, are we going to be
having ‘shorts inspections’ tonight?  I told my companions here that we
would and they couldn’t wait to come."

"Yes, oh Facial one.  I think that can be arranged.  In a few hours,
we’ll kick the younger ones out and have a little ‘shorts inspection’
going on."  Murdock looked Face up and down, "Did you wear the
briefs?  The black ones that I like so well?"

Face put a finger to his lips in a signal for Murdock to be quiet.
"Murdock, I said not here!"  Face whispered.   Then speaking in a
normal voice he said, "Now, I believe I have a bone to pick with you
Murdock.  It involves the underhanded, craziness, and lunacy of you and your
Nighthawks.  How could you do that to me?  Your old friend?  I
mean  really, Murdock.  Frankie?  What did I ever do to you?"

Murdock looked down and shuffled his feet.  "Oh Face,  I know
we’re friends and all, but I had to think of my Nighthawks.  The poor
things were constantly in the hospital.  Besides, grease is good for
cleaning all those mirrors you have in TEMP HQ.  So come on now, let's go
join the party and later on for your pleasure and mine, we'll have a
'shorts inspection'.  Who knows, maybe this time BA will join us.  He has
some new briefs he's been wanting to show us."  Murdock said with a
mischievous wink.

*******************************************************************


"Hold it right there!"  Sparks exclaimed as she rushed over to the
new guests to the Nighthawk celebration.  She eyed the TEMP's
suspiciously and quickly glanced behind them to make sure that
they hadn't brought anything with them.

"What?!?"  Murdock asked in alarm.  His second in command
seemed flustered about something.  "Tree didn't make any coffee
for the party did she?"  Murdock looked around the room expecting
the worse, "Did Thunder get into the kitchen again?"

"No, no, nothing like that"  Sparks assured him.  She continued to
eye the TEMP's.  "I just thought it would be a friendly gesture to
welcome our newest guest with a special greeting."  Welcoming
the TEMP's was the last thing on her mind, but she didn't want to
upset their fearless leader.

"Oh?"  Murdock said I confusion.  "I don't know of any special
greeting, did I miss something?"  he asked.  He looked over at his
longtime friend Face and shrugged his shoulders.  "I guess your
real lucky tonight Faceguy,  my beloved Nighthawks planned
something special."

"Really,"  one of the TEMP's said dryly.

"I'll just bet,"  said the second TEMP.

"Is it legal,"  Said the last of the TEMP's.

"Now, now my little TEMP's, Murdock is my friend after all,"  THE
MAN scolded, "I am sure he wouldn't do anything to harm me or
my entourage."

One of Face's followers stepped forward and cleared her throat,
"Ah.... sir.... did you forget about the hot tub?"  Javelin said with
obvious devotion to THE MAN.

Face stepped closer to his lovely associate and took her chin in
his hand, "I'm sure that was an accident my dear Javelin," he said
in a husky seductive tone.  He smiled and he felt Javelin sway
towards him.  He leaned down closer and breathed a sign, "Could
you try to forget the upheaval  the Nighthawks caused just as a
sign of good faith."  He leaned even closer till he was only a
heartbeat away, "Could you do it for me?" he whispered.

The world moved for Javelin and she could barely realize that THE
MAN had released her.  The other two TEMP's reflexively stepped
forward to keep their associate from falling.  It was all she could do
to stay upright, THE MAN had that effect on all of them, when he
focused his charms there was no denying him.

Sparks shook her head and cleared her throat.  "If ya don't mind, I'd
like to get this over with"  She turned back to the groups and
spotted two fellow Nighthawks that she felt she could trust,
"Maydock, Space Cadet, get over here!"  she called out above the
noise of the party.

The two excited Nighthawks jogged over to the little group and
saluted smartly.  "Reporting as ordered,"  they said in unison.
When they spotted the TEMP's they took a step back.  For a
moment they both thought that they would have to explain their
part in the mission.  Dread turned to relief when they both realized
that there was something else afoot.

"Now if everyone will come with me,"  Sparks commented as she
headed for the bedrooms.  What she had planned was considered
a greeting in some countries, but here in the states is was more
commonly known as frisking a suspect.

*************************************************************

Face graciously followed Sparks; the TEMPs walked loyally behind him,
grumbling.  Serenity looked over at her two compatriots.  She spoke so
softly that only the other two could hear.  "I have a bad feeling about
this -- these Nighthawks are trouble.  They’re up to something."

"Me too," Teach nodded her agreement.  "I don’t think Murdock is in on it
-- he’s a good guy.  THE MAN sees nothing wrong, Murdock either; but,
you’re right, this isn’t good."

"I tried to tell him this was creepy, but he wouldn’t listen," Javelin
started.  "I hate it when he does that."  She put her hand up to her chin
where he had touched her.

Her friends looked at her shocked.  "What’s wrong with you girl?"
Serenity asked, the image of her companion in such proximity to their
leader.

"Not THAT -- HIS attention I don’t mind.  Believe me -- I don’t mind the
attention at all.  No, what I hate is when HE doesn’t listen and then HE
deliberately says just the right words and does just the right thing to
shut me up."  She sighed.

Glancing to be sure that it wouldn’t be seen Teach said, "I’m glad we
took extra precautions, though."  She removed a small device from her
pocket.

"Back up," Javelin and Serenity whispered in unison, both smirking.

"We’ll just have to be sure that he’s all right," Serenity smiled.

The three watched carefully as they followed Sparks, Murdock, and Face
down the hall.  Space Cadet and Maydock walked several feet behind them.
They glanced into rooms as they passed. There was quite a lot of
merriment being made roundabout.  Nighthawks sat watching great Murdock
episodes, others wore wild party hats and spoke to thin air, and there
was one hanging from a chandelier -- the TEMPtresses found none of this
surprising.  They did appreciate humor and these were some of the
funniest people around, even if their intentions were not always
trustworthy.  But was that so completely different from the TEMPs
themselves at times?

They were lead to a large room -- it looked like it had once been a
bedroom, but all the furniture had been removed.  As they started to move
in Javelin snagged Face’s sleeve and moved around in front of him.  Teach
moved to his right and Serenity to his left.

"What is this?" he complained.

"SOP, sir," Teach replied.  He sighed indulgently.  The three TEMPtresses
carefully inspected the room as they moved in.

"I’m sorry, Murdock," Face started.  "They’re just overly cautious."  His
tone was slightly scolding.  They smiled innocently back at him before
moving out of the way so that he could pass into the room.

"It’s okay, Faceguy," Murdock started as he looked over his associates.
Sparks, Space Cadet, and Maydock were eyeing the TEMPtresses
suspiciously.  He could tell that they were rather distrustful of them
and vice versa.  "I know what you mean."  Both sides felt that they were
doing the best they could to attend their chosen leaders.  He just wished
that they could get along.  He supposed that they should have had the
party at Baying Wolves HQ, but ... maybe next time.  Murdock wondered for
a moment why Javelin, a loyal Nighthawk, but even MORE loyal TEMP, was so
suspicious: she seemed disturbed.

Face was thinking much the same thing.  He studied Serenity, Teach, and
Javelin.  He was moved by their devotion and concern for his well-being,
but he trusted Murdock; the two men had been through hell together and
they had survived it.  He wondered what might be at the root of their
concerns -- they too trusted Murdock.  He glanced over at the Nighthawks.
They were lovely ladies too.  The only difference he saw between them
and his TEMPtresses was that the Nighthawks had chosen Murdock; they kept
him company and helped him through tough times when Face, himself,
couldn't be there, for that he was grateful to them.

"We have some SOP’s of our own," Sparks announced, gesturing the other
Nighthawks.  They started to frisk the TEMPs.

"I BEG your PARDON!"

"EXCUSE ME!"

"Don’t touch ME!"

"Are all TEMPs such touch-me-nots?" Maydock asked innocently.

"It just depends on who’s doing the touching," Serenity answered sweetly.

Murdock didn’t even want to think along those lines and shook the head
from his thought before waving Face closer.  "I got this great new
helicopter you have got to see.  Hannibal’s waitin’ and I’ll take y’all
for a spin.  You gotta see downtown L.A. at light speed."

Face raised HIS eyebrows.  "Light speed?"  Just then the doors to the
next room opened and Hannibal stepped out, flanked on either side by
PLANers.  Thunderbird stood on his right and Leo Lizard on his left.

Face turned to the group of Nighthawks and TEMPs congregated behind them.
"Why don’t you ladies stay here and have a nice little chat?  You know,
work out some differences."

"There are all kinds of board games in the closet over there," Murdock
put in helpfully.

"BUT ..." Sparks and Javelin started together.  Murdock shook his head
and Face held out his hand.

"Aht!" THE MAN interrupted.  "Be good," he said, looking directly at
Javelin.  HE smiled over at Serenity and Teach.  He smiled at the
Nighthawks and turned back to his team members.  With that HE, Murdock,
Hannibal and the PLANers left.  Nighthawks and TEMPtresses stared,
horrified, at each other.

"Oh, NO!" Space Cadet said as something occurred to her.

"We’re not THAT bad," Serenity complained.

"We’re really quite charming when you get to know us," Teach added.

"NO!"  Maydock interrupted.  She and Sparks shared a look.

"We ... had a little ... surprise planned for you guys," Sparks said
calmly.

"I really don’t like the sound of this," Javelin groaned.

"What?" Serenity asked quickly.

"We’re locked in here, now.  And any second ..." Sparks started.  As if
on cue, tiles slipped open in the ceiling and the room was flooded with
nitrous-oxide (a.k.a. laughing gas).  Before very long at all, they were
all ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING.


*******************************************************************

The trip into light speed was over before it even began, since light 
speed is much faster than the earth rotates.  Hannibal sent the Planners 
home since they had another party to go to.  He decided to stay and see 
if any one needed help with shorts' inspections.

"No, Hannibal.  I think we have the shorts' inspections covered.  But 
you can help, because we have some young Nighthawks here who will need  
baby-sitter when the party gets hot.  For some strange reason our little 
Thunderbird recommended you for the position of baby-sitter.  I hope she 
won't be too hard on you."  Murdock said with a wink.

"Nighthawk HQ looks quite impressive without all the grease," Face said 
matter of factly.  "Well Murdock ole buddy, you did a nice job here."

"It wasn't just me, Faceman.  The Nighthawks had some help.  Billy and 
Thunder did a lot of work.  Which makes me suspicious.  Those two never 
help without ulterior motives." Murdock said as he looked at Billy and 
Thunder.  He wondered what they had in store for him.

Sparks clapped her hands in hopes of getting everyone’s attention.  
"Okay everyone, it's 'shorts inspection' time.  TEMPs would you like 
some on the job training for this?  We'll let you experiment with THE 
MAN if you like."

Immediately, the three TEMPS stumbled all over themselves to line up for 
this task. They  ran the Nighthawks over doing so.  "It's a dirty job, 
but someone has to do it!" they all yelled in unison. 

Sparks  picked herself up from the floor.  "I’ll take that as a yes.  
Okay, you three follow us into the ‘special room.'  Space Cadet is a 
trainee, so you’ll come also.  Murdock and Face are the fortunate 
recipients of the inspection.  I’m afraid this will take all night, so 
you all can pass the time as you like.  Billy and Thunder will be your 
hosts for the rest of the evening.  Just make sure they don’t have any 
caffeine." 

Some of the other Nighthawks were miffed, "Hey, what about us?  It’s our 
turn to join in.  Come on everyone, let’s find another way in."

Range spoke up, "I know, let’s have Thunder and Waco show us the secret 
way in.  They found one last year when we were looking for the lost 
Nighthawks who went down the endless hall."

"Great, let’s go!" they all cried in unison.

Soon they found out why Billy and Thunder had helped clean up HQ.  They 
found an endless maze of tunnels in HQ and were looking for an 
opportunity to take the Nighthawks down there and leave them to fend for 
themselves.  Tree vowed to make a special pot of coffee for their 
invisible friends.  That is, IF they ever returned.

Little did any of the Nighthawks realize, but Frankie was slowly making 
his way back to Nighthawks HQ.  He had been following Faceman and longed 
to be back in the bedroom with him,  handcuffs and all. 
*******************************************************************


Finally ..... the long awaited ending to "The Party".  I had to wait for
Sparks return from the blessed arrival of the smallest "Nighthawk".

"The Party"

Excitement grew as the group entered the "special room".  Sparks looked
over at the TEMP's and felt a strange kinship as she watched them drool
over THE MAN.  Despite their differences they had so much in common.
Both groups idolized their respective leaders.  She looked back at
Murdock and Face, "Just stand in the center of the room, and we'll do the
rest." she instructed.

"You're going to like this"  Murdock said smiling in anticipation, "Spark's
here is an expert 'short's inspector', she practices all the time, day and
night."

"Doesn't she get tired?"  Face asked.  He was impressed by the
dedication of the Nighthawk second-in-command.   Hopefully the three
TEMPtresses that he brought with him would learn a valuable lesson
that they would bring back to their own Headquarters.

"Nah,"  Murdock drawled with a thick Texas accent, "seems to keep her
happy."  Murdock looked over at Face, "And being the loving leader
that I am, I try to let her do it as often as possible, just to keep her
happy."

As the two leaders talked, Sparks went to the 'secret cabinet' in the
'special room'.  Opening it up she pulled out several 'special towels'.  She
strolled over to Space and the TEMP's and gave each of them a 'special
towel'.  "I don't think that I have to explain what this is for" she
commented as she glanced at an already drooling Space Cadet.

With the preparations complete, Sparks took position behind Murdock.
"Now if everyone will pay attention, we can begin."  she said while
grinning broadly.  She stretched her fingers several times then slipped
them in the waist band of Murdocks shorts,  "First the insertion"  Sparks
instructed, the TEMP's and Space gathered close to get a good view of
the procedure.  "See how you slide your fingers smoothly under the
band of the shorts."  She paused for a moment so her students could get
a good view of the proper position.  She could feel Murdock shiver
slightly from the skin to skin contact.  *Oh yes* she thought to herself,
*this class was going to take a long time.*

Outside the Nighthawk Headquarters, Frankie Santana was attempting to
break in.  He trudged through the grounds with confident because he
was sure that he knew about all the Nighthawk defense system.  He
didn't realize that there were some additions put up by overzealous
Nighthawks that would prevent his return.  Little did he know that he
was about to be swatted like a bug.

Murdock was weak in the knee's by the time Sparks finished her
instruction.  She did a wonderful job inspecting.  Poor Space, there was
no way that she could hope to compare to the expertise that he had just
experienced.  He glanced over at the TEMP's and realized that they had
enjoyed what they saw.  Ole' Faceman better watch out, his ladies looked
as if they liked what they had seen.   He glanced over at Face and found
him watching with envy.  "Now that was an inspection, don't you think
Faceman?"  Murdock asked his friend.

"Maybe Sparks should show my TEMPtresses one more time,"  Face
said with enthusiasm, "this time she can show them on me."

"But...." one TEMPtress argued.

"Not fair .... "  the second TEMPtress complained.

"It's our turn ..... " the last TEMPtress objected.

"Now, now," Sparks said calmly, "a little more instruction never hurts
anyone."  She wasn't about to lose the opportunity to inspect THE
MAN's shorts.  She was after all the expert.  Nothing like giving the
leader of the TEMP's something to compare his TEMPtresses with.
"Space, you go ahead and start with our leader while I give our friends
another lesson."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you,"  Space Cadet blurted out with
excitement.  She started to rub her hands together to warm them up.  She
took her place behind Murdock and leaned close to his ear, "Be kind sir,
this is my first time."  she whispered.

Murdock smiled.  "I'm sure you'll do all right.", he said warmly, "And
you'll get better with practice."  Although he couldn't see her face, he
knew that she was smiling.  His beloved Nighthawks always tried so hard
to please him.  "Go ahead, get started," he encouraged.

Space slipped her fingers under his waistband as she had been
instructed and she heard a moan of delight.  She wasn't sure if the moan
came from her, or from THE MAN, who was being treated to an
inspection of his own.  It didn't matter, the world had just grown smaller,
all she could feel was the warm inviting flesh at her fingertips.

The rest of the Nighthawks wandered in the maze of tunnels under the
HQ.  They had found several Nighthawks that had been missing for
ages, and they all joined up into one large wandering group.  "This is
getting old,"  Tree complained, "I bet all of us could use a nice strong
cup of coffee."  She didn't seem to notice that the others groaned in
unison at her suggestion.

"There has to be some way out of this maze," one of the Nighthawks
signed hopelessly.  They had been wandering for what seemed like
hours and hours.  In reality it has only been about 20 minutes, but a
Nighthawk spent very little time in reality so there was no way to know
for sure how long they were lost.

"Look," another Nighthawk exclaimed in excitement.  "There's a light up
ahead."   The poor lost Nighthawks took off at a trot towards the light at
the end of the tunnel.  They all reasoned that it was almost over, after all
a light at the end of the tunnel was a good thing.

Upstairs, THE MAN was enjoying the best 'short's inspection' he had
ever received in his life.  He felt as if he were going to melt into his shoes.
There was something about the Nighthawks that always excited him,
there was something about their overactive imaginations that gave them
the edge.  Face glanced over at Murdock.  He seemed to be enjoying the
ministering of the "trainee".  He just hoped his ladies did as well.

Space was just getting to the front of Murdocks shorts when alarms
started to wail.  With her hands still firmly holding onto Murdocks
shorts, she jumped back in alarm.  She stumbled and fell back, pulling an
equally surprised Murdock down on top of her.  Surprise turned to
delight as she realized that it wasn't such a bad position to be in.

"We're under Frankie attack,"  Sparks called out in alarm, "Space, get out
from under our leader and get to your post!"

Space grumbled and moaned as she wiggled out from under Murdock.
She imagined at least a hundred different ways to kill Santana for
interrupting her first "inspection".

"No need to be alarmed"  Face said calmly, "I'll just go out and talk to
Frankie, then send him back to TEMP HQ."  He immediately put his hand
up to silence the objections forming on the lips of his TEMPtresses.  He
didn't understand all the fuss, when they got to know Frankie they would
learn to love him just as he did.  He was THE MAN after all.  It was his
decision to keep Frankie.  His TEMP's would learn to accept his
decisions.  "I've got to be going anyway, we need our beauty sleep"

Sparks and Space looked visibly relieved as Face and his entourage left
the HQ.  Shortly after the alarm went off the other Nighthawks had
returned from their adventure in the tunnels.  They brought with them
the news that "There was a light at the end of the tunnel", which no one
really understood, but that didn't discourage the Nighthawks.  The
TEMPtresses had remained quiet and brooding after being informed that
they were taking Frankie back to the TEMP HQ.  Oh well, life goes on, in
an ever changing reality that is the A-Team.

- - - The End - - -