Copyright 12/17 by Kirby's Cowgirl
Fan-Fiction based on TV Show Combat! Copyright Selmur Production, Inc, ABC, Image
Productions etc.
Disclaimer: Combat! and its characters do not belong to me, this WWII story is a piece of fan-fiction and I am not being compensated in any tangible way for this story.
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Caje, already running, saw Saunders gesturing to him to "Move It!" He nearly fell when Doc's hand closed around his leg.
"Help me!" Doc cried.
The scout hunkered down, jammed his hands on the bleeding wound where the new medic ordered. The man had had such an iron grip on his leg he couldn't have gotten loose without hurting him. He didn't know much about the new guy. He was quiet and soft spoken. He was a farm boy from Arkansas, and he and Littlejohn had hit it right off. They were all still raw from the loss of Walton the week before.
The new Doc frantically fumbled thru his rucksack. "Kirby!" he barked as the BAR man stumbled by. "Hold This!" The IV bottle was thrust into the Irishman's hand before he could protest. He dropped to his knees and cradled the BAR across them as he held the bottle up as the new medic ordered.
Saunders looked to see that it was not Caje covering the flank, but Littlejohn and one of his new recruits. Black. Gray? What the hell? All he remembered was that the kid's name was a color. And if Caje wasn't doing his job, that meant that he was hit. He wanted to be sick, choked down the bile rising in his throat.
"Doc, I got to go!" Caje hissed. The despair in the man's eyes made him relent. He saw that Littlejohn and one of the new kids were covering them.
"Hang on, kid." Kirby said, winking at the wounded recruit. "We'll get you patched up and out of here in no time." He gave Caje a quick look that told him he better catch that damn IV bottle if he had to throw it to him, then went back to watching the perimeter.
"There's Grady." Caje said as a BAR boomed.
Kirby shot Caje a what the hell? look, the realized he'd been telling the new guy. He didn't think the man had seen action before, and they had had a recruit panic and start shooting at their re-inforcements, before McCall and Billy had knocked him down. He knew their new medic was afraid, but it didn't seem that his fear was for himself.
Hall's squad overtook them and in a few minutes the shooting was over. They could hear Hall yelling to Saunders. Then Grady yelling to his squad mates as they checked the dead Krauts.
"Thanks guys." The new Doc mumbled, as he stuffed another wad of packing under Caje's hands. "I better check and see if anybody else is hit."
"No sweat, Doc." Caje said, wanting to do something to take the frightened worry from the man's face.
"You can go, Kirby, if Caje can hold that bottle 'til I find a limb to prop it on." Doc said, stumbling to his feet.
Kirby handed the bottle off to Caje, sending a worried glance after their new medic. He liked the guy, and he didn't want to. He hadn't really cared for Walton, but it had bothered him when he died. He didn't want to be close to anybody. If something happened to that damn Cajun - he bit his jaw.
"Where the hell were you?" Saunders barked as Kirby headed his way. "How bad is Caje hit?"
Before Kirby could open his mouth, they heard some yelling, then Caje trying to intervene, and turned to see Doc punch the newest recruit. "Grey. His name was Grey." Saunders thought to himself. The one who had been helping Littlejohn was Blecker. All these damn new men just seemed to run together anymore. Had his new, mild mannered medic snapped after seeing his first action?
Kirby laughed his ass off. Hall was grinning. McCall was looking at the medic in shock, and Littlejohn seemed to be trying to apologize to the new Doc.
"You idiot! If you ever step on one of my patients again, I will kill you!" Doc bellowed.
"I like him." Hall said to Saunders. At the glare Saunders send his way, "Cut him some slack."
"Sarge." Billy said, "Sarge, please -" he shut up at the glare Saunders transferred to him, and seemed on the verge of crying.
"Chip." Hall said, his voice low, "It's his first time out. He's scared and confused, but it looks to me like he did a hell of a job."
Saunders watched Littlejohn snap a tree limb off, jam it in the ground, and prop the IV bottle on it, seem to ask Doc if that was satisfactory. And then he realized that the blood all down Caje's hands was not his own. He had thought the scout had had his hands blown apart. He felt his gut unclench. The new medic had commandeered his BAR man and his scout to help with a wounded man?
Kirby growled something at Blecker when he started to get up, and Littlejohn said something as well. Whatever the big man had added to Kirby's warning made Billy's eyes go wide with shock.
"Doc!" Saunders called, pretending not to see the warning look that Hall gave him, "I got enough trouble with Krauts. Try not to punch anybody in the squad out! And next time you need some help, don't use my scout and my BAR man!"