A hearty hello and wonderful welcome to you all!
I hope you enjoy this, it's based off a dream I had. Well no, this is my dream, just with a few less purple hippos called Sandra. (I joke of course... I left Sandra in)Umm.. basically blame my subconscious for everything :D

1

The shell hit, and for a split second, I thought it hadn't exploded. Then the ground shifted beneath me, and, for that brief moment, I could see the expanse of the battlefield below me; I watched the toy soldiers running, the smoke chasing them, pulling at their ankles, and dragging them back. Moreover, I could see the crater below, the one that I was falling into.

That's when it caught up to me; the noise, the smell… the pain. I felt the wind smash into my left side with all the force of a hundred bullets and I was spiralling into the wasteland I'd learnt to call home.

I slammed into the mud feeling an eruption of pain as my right side took the impact. I felt the give of my ribs breaking beneath me. My breaths were shallow as I fought the cough, building in my chest as my lungs fought against the mud I knew I was breathing in. Somewhere behind the ringing in my ears, I heard feet running through the mud and a muddle of shouts and arms came from above, engulfing me in blackness.

The next thing I was aware of was the jolting ride in the back of a truck. Every slight dip in the road sent shockwaves of pain through my entire body.

"Jo? Jo, you awake?"

I opened my eyes as best I could to see the fuzzy face of my brother, John, grinning down at me. I blinked a few times and after a moment of testing the muscles in my face, I finally returned the smile.

"How bad is it?' I croaked, trying to lift my head to look down at my body but I felt gentle hands pushing down on my shoulders.

"I really wouldn't do that if I were you," he grinned his usual grimace. "It's not too bad, but… well. You do have a shell's worth of shrapnel making its home in your ribcage."

I groaned, unsubtly hinting I would like him to shut up. Straight away.

"Not to mention the gash across your stomach, it goes right from your…" he trailed off as he finally clocked on to my expression. "Its fine, you'll be fine. Of course you will."

"If I walk away from this we really need to have a discussion about your bedside manner," I grumbled half-heartedly.

John smirked back at me and sat back, moving out of my sight. "You should probably get some rest now, before the morphine wears off."

I could still hear the level of amusement in his voice.

"This is all just a joke to you isn't it?" I tried to laugh but my ribs ached with the movement.

"You were spectacular; you looked incredibly graceful as you flew through the air…."

I smiled and let my left arm flail until I managed to hit him, making him laugh even harder.

The truck rolled to a sudden stop and I lurched into John, coughing with the pain that the sudden movement evoked.

"Careful." John winced as he held my shoulders down. "Bloody hell you look awful."

"How… how could I possibly survive this without your encouragement?" I coughed out.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the back of the truck swung open and strong arms were carrying me from the truck towards one of the tents. I was vaguely aware of John shouting something but I couldn't hear over the sound of the panic as the other injured soldiers were unloaded from the trucks, most of them in a far worse condition than I was.

"Get him on the bed, one of the nurses will see to him in a minute."

The barked order was obeyed and I found myself laid, with relative gentleness, onto one of the dozen beds on the ward. Shouts surrounded me and the smell of blood was almost more intense there than it had been in the trenches.

I let myself sink further into the clean sheets waiting for someone to tell me what to do next. I don't know how long it was I was lying there, it felt like hours but I suppose it was barely a minute, when John ducked through the flap with a half grin smeared into the mud on his face, he looked about as bothered as he ever had when he'd had a snipers rifle pointed at him. Coincidentally he'd worn the same expression when I was ten and he'd taken me to a pier for my birthday. I vaguely wondered if he ever used his facial muscles. He scanned the tent until his eyes rested on me and he swerved his way over to me through the throng of activity.

"Jo, they're sending me back," he dropped heavily onto the bed swinging his feet up. "I tried to tell them I needed to stay but that nurse is a right-" he stopped, the muscles in his jaw speaking prominently enough for him. So he did use those muscles.

"Make yourself comfortable, don't mind me." I rolled my eyes as his uniform shed mud across my (previously) nice clean bed. "Why does that matter?" I asked, finally registering what he was saying. "You're not injured; you can get back to the lads."

"And leave you on your own in a hospital?" He gave a short laugh. "You do realise they'll kill me faster than Fritz if I leave you here."

I must have been staring at him with an expression of confusion because he rolled his eyes fondly and ruffled my hair the way he always used to when we were kids.

"You promised me when I let you join up you wouldn't get hurt; you're my little…" he dropped his voice to a whisper, "you're my little sister." He nudged my shoulder. "You're our little brother now, don't you forget that,"

He laughed again, the way he always did when he was worried but wouldn't let it show. "Look I have to go now, before I end up court-martialled for looking after my little brother." He grinned and leant forward so he was whispering in my ear. "Just watch out for the doctors, the dark haired one looks just your type," he laughed as I just raised my eyebrows to him. "Oh, and you might want to remember to keep your shirt on-"

I think he was about to say something else but a doctor approached the bed and John straightened up with a wink at me. I looked from him to the dark haired surgeon who was standing with a slightly amused expression on his - admittedly gorgeous - face. My eyes flicked back to John and as I did the gears in my brain clicked and I felt my eyes widen. John fought back a laugh as he saw my sudden panic.

"I tried to warn you," he was biting his lip to keep his voice steady. "Look after yourself Jo-Jo." With that he was gone, pushing past the doctor, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

I stared after him; the idiot was just going to leave me here! He was going to pay if I ever got out of this.

I turned back to the doctor. Young, handsome… Why did he have to be so damn attractive? I couldn't have had a less gorgeous doctor, could I? That was just asking too much. And I knew I probably shouldn't ask… I had to let this honestly adorable man take care of me without letting him know that I was actually a girl…

How could this possibly go wrong?