Hogan Tells a Story-

Summary: Carter get's injured and so while Lebeau leads off the patrols Hogan tells Carter a story while Newkirk tends to the wounds.

…

The mission had gone awry and Carter was injured. Before we could even set the explosives a patrol came by and spotted us. Not our faces just our silhouettes.

"Hey you there halt!" one shouted at the four of us.

I ordered my men to retreat. They stuck together though. Then the patrol started firing. It wasn't a bullet that got Carter. He was running next to me with Lebeau and Newkirk behind us. I should have warned him. I jumped over the barbed wire. Carter hadn't seen it. I saw him fall and nearly get trampled by Newkirk.

He let out a small stifled yelp. Newkirk knew better than to scold him this time. He knew Carter was hurt. If Carter wasn't he'd just call him clumsy, pull him to his feet and off we'd go. But not in this instance. There was a cut from his ankle to his knee. I couldn't tell how deep it was though. The barbed wire must have caught on him and tore his leg up as he fell. We heard the patrol not far behind us. Newkirk pulled Carter over his shoulder. No way the man would be able to walk with that kind of pain let alone the wound.

"Mon Colonel, I'll lead them away, you take care of Andrew." Lebeau took out his pistol and began to run away.

"Lebeau no shooting unless it's absolutely necessary." I warned and he nodded in return. I quickly covered the blood stained snow with branches and more snow, covered our foot prints and followed Newkirk to a cave where we would take care of Carter.

I heard the patrol pass by us, no doubt following Lebeau's foot prints in the snow. If they had dogs they would have easily found the blood and found us. But thankfully they didn't have any.

I looked on as Newkirk tore the leg of the pants open to look at the wound. It was fairly deep but Newkirk was working quickly so I was sure Carter would be okay. He winced very often as Newkirk tried to clean away the blood and get a better look before he wrapped it.

"'e'll need some stitched, Sir." I hear Newkirk say. I looked over. He pulled out a needle and thread he often carried with him incase someone tore a sleeve out here on the branches. He could sew it up so the piece of cloth didn't tear off completely and get found by any German patrols.

I saw Carter look up. "You mean…" He was panting. "You're going to… use that to sew me up?" He asked half nervous. I looked over at Newkirk who already had the needle threaded.

"Sorry, mate, I can't let you bleed to death. I know it isn't the kind of medical thread that should be used, but it's better than nothin'." He took hold of Carter's leg and as carefully as he could proceeded to stitch up the wound. It was a deep gash. Newkirk put the needle through once. I heard Carter gasp as the needle went through the tender skin.

I decided to keep his mind off of it. "Hey Andrew," I took his hand.

He looked at me, one eye closed from the pain.

"How about a distraction?" I caught a glimpse of a faint smile just before Newkirk put the needle through again and he winced in pain.

He nodded slightly.

I smiled. "Alright." Now I had to think of something. "Uhm…"

I felt him watching me then gasp again as Newkirk put the needle through. I looked up and saw Newkirk watching me. "A s-story?" I hear the young man's voice ask.

"Alright, a story, what kind?" I asked quietly.

A mischievous smile went across his face even through the pain. "How about, you're worst high school experience."

He had to pick that. "You don't want to hear about my best experience?"

"That too." He said then a soft laugh. "The best for last."

I smiled. He was spunkier than he seemed, especially now when he was injured and bleeding something terrible. "Alright fine." I knew Newkirk was interested too.

…

[Story Mode Begins]

…

I'd heard the rumors about it, but was it really THAT bad. High school; Freshman year; the point of no return. At least that's what the seniors had told me. I never really believed them, until I got there. I stood on the steps ready for anything I might endure on my first day of high school. Little did I know that evil lurked in those hall ways.

I stood looking up at the intimidating building. I was the shortest kid in my class and the scrawniest. I watched as everyone; giants, walked passed me. Even the smallest girl in my class was taller than me. I sighed and climbed the stairs. They should make a law about schools being too big. I got lost on my way to every class, and on the way OUT of the school, thus causing me to miss my bus and call mom to come get me. It happened to be raining that day. However she couldn't for another hour or so. I then had to wait around the school until she showed up. This repeated itself for nearly a week and finally during my time waiting I learned the school grounds and made some friends (the janitor mainly). There were bullies sure who picked at me but nothing serious. That soon ended after I set a trap for them. I wasn't overly athletic and I wasn't really a brain either. But one thing I knew was pranks.

I had had enough of the bullies picking on everyone. I set a trap for them, you see I-

"Colonel…"

[Story Mode Interrupted]

I looked at Andrew. "What?"

"That doesn't sound that bad." He said

"E's right, I think your skipping out on us." Newkirk agreed placing the needle through the skin once more. I felt Carter's grip tighten on my hand as it went through.

"Oh… alright…" I was hoping I could avoid that.

[Story Mode Continues]

There was this dance that the school was holding in honor of the new school year. There were plenty of pretty girls I could go with and I wanted to pick one. But it was just too hard. I was a Freshman at this time. The day of the announcement of the rhythmic ceremony I went to Lilly, she was a Senior I had gotten to know. She was tall, beautiful, blonde locks the works. I went to her at lunch and asked her. "Lilly you wanna go to the dance with me?" Of course I just had to be going through puberty at the time and my voice cracked and squeaked as I asked. I'm pretty sure that turned her off.

She said. "Sorry Bobby, I'm going with someone else."

I knew this wasn't the case. I could tell she would be embarrassed to go with me. My suspicion was confirmed when a senior jock came up and asked her to the dance and she accepted right there in front of me.

I moved on to the next girl on my list. Yes, I actually had a list. I asked every girl I knew, and even the ones I didn't know. This is how I learned my spy skills. I secretly learned and eavesdropped on them so I would find out if I had a chance. This is also how I learned that girls were so shallow. At least most of them. The most embarrassing moments when I was asking… or well trying to ask the girls out, happened in this order.

Angelina; I met her just after gym, big mistake. I had been trying to get more athletic, and I had worked up quite a sweat along with an odor. She must have thought I smelled like that al the time and immediately turned me down before I even asked. "Wait come back!" I called in a high pitched cracking squeaky voice that I hated so much. She didn't.

Katrina; I asked her right after lunch. I was talking and trying to ask her out. But she had this weird look on her face all the while. "So you wanna go?" I finished, my voice only cracked a little this time. She didn't say anything. Then as if she was yanked back into reality she shook her head and looked at me. "What?" she asked. "You wanna go to the dance with me?" she turned and so casually said. "No." then walked away. Turns out I had food in my teeth and lots of it.

Then there was Mercedes. I met her by the water fountain. "You wanna go to the dance with me?" I asked in the deepest voice I had. I leaned to my side onto the water fountain. Big mistake. It wasn't until I felt wet that I looked down. I had leaned on the button and turned on the water and spilled it all over the front of my pants. Classic. She started laughing and pointed at me bring attention to me. I was the laughing stock of the entire school for the next week.

The dance was the very next night. I only had one more chance to ask anyone out. However I'd asked everyone I knew. I was sitting on the stairs of the school waiting for my mom to pick me up because I had forgotten to catch the bus… again. A girl came up to me. Her name was Mable. I looked up and jerked away.

"Um hi…" Her stereotypical braces, freckles, pig tails and overly stretched out sweater was an instant turn off. It wasn't until later that I learned how shallow I could be. "You wanna go to the dance."

I knew what she wanted and I wanted to go too. But not with her. I ended up turning her down. She didn't seem to care. In fact she wound up going with the captain of the chess team. And I sat at home alone on he sofa spending time with my Aunt Matilda, learning to knit. It was then that I realized I should have accepted Mable's offer. I would have had a good time I was sure of it. Boy did I ever learn a lesson.

[Story Mode End]

"And that was my worst experience during high school." I finished solemnly.

"So you weren't always a ladies man." Carter pointed out. Newkirk, who was smiling, was wrapping the leg now in his torn up shirt. He was running out of material though and I gave him my shirt to use.

I heard Carter laugh a bit. I looked down at him. He was pretty pale but he'd calmed down considerably. He was probably tired. I wondered where Lebeau was. Carter giggled again.

"What's so funny?" I asked laughing lightly.

"Imagining you with a high pitched, squeaky, cracking, puberty voice." He said with another chuckle.

Of course he'd find that funny. There goes my pride.

"Colonel?"

I looked down at Andrew whom we had covered in our coats to keep him warm. "Yeah?"

"What about your BEST time in High school?" His voice was quiet and sleepy.

I had forgotten about that. I thought he just wanted to hear how much of a loser I was in my freshman year. "Well…"

"Mon Colonel." It was Lebeau. He was back.

I turned. "What took you so long?" I asked as he approached.

"Sorry, I had to hide out a bit and wait until they were gone. Then I kind of got lost. I went back to camp but you weren't back yet so I came back out here to look for you."

I shook my head. "You should have stayed there. We would have headed back eventually anyway."

Lebeau shook his head. "The patrol thinks it was the underground and are contacting Hochstetter."

"Great." Just our luck.

"I came back to get you." Lebeau said.

"Carter can't walk." Newkirk pointed out, indicating the now nearly asleep man.

"We'll carry him." I said lifting the man off the ground. Newkirk grabbed him and we hauled him back to camp. He fell asleep on the way there.

Lucky for us Hochstetter didn't show up with a surprise inspection. For the next week Carter stayed in bed with the 'flu' and avoided having to walk too much. He recovered smoothly which was good news for us. He still had a bit of a limp but he was healing well. It would be a while before he went on any huge missions for a while.

I want to take care of my men and keep them happy even if it means telling them my worst high school experience. Too bad I never got the chance to tell him my best experience and show him I didn't stay a loser. But something tells me he knows that. He just wanted to tease me. According to Newkirk Carter made him tell him about the first time he ever got behind a wheel. I wonder what Carter is up to I should warn the others in case he tries to get them to tell him their worst experiences of some kind. Part of me wonders if he knows all along that about the experience, has his suspicions or just picks topics at random. Who knows… maybe he's comparing them with his own. I'm looking into this.

…

[AN] Hope you liked it. I'm thinking about making these stories a kind of 'series'. Please R&R.