Disclaimer: The Rat Patrol is not my property. They come out to play sometimes, then I send them home.

Author's note: This is for tullyfan and churchlady63.

Scarfest

By Suzie2b

Hitch opened his shirt to expose his left shoulder. "Yeah, well I'll see your bullet wound and raise you an arrow in the shoulder."

Tully pushed his already unbuttoned shirt aside. "See this one? That's the knife wound I got when we were escaping that German convoy after we got captured."

Moffitt walked into the tent the four members of the Rat Patrol were sharing and eyed the two privates curiously. "What's going on?"

"We're comparing scars."

"You're … what?"

Hitch grinned. "We're comparing our battle scars, sarge."

Tully nodded. He pulled up his pant leg and said, "I got this one in Samawah when that car blew up."

"That one doesn't count. You didn't get it from the enemy."

"Well, that little girl wasn't the enemy, but it was a grenade that did it … so it counts."

Hitch pointed out a scar nearly "dead" center on his abdomen. "This is from the shrapnel that German doctor took out."

Tully stripped off his shirt and pointed to the scar on his upper left arm. "This is from when Dietrich's men blew me off the jeep."

Hitch indicated a scar from a bullet on one arm. "Got this one when we blew up that oil pipe line."

Not to be outdone, Tully stood and dropped his pants. He pointed to the side of his right thigh and said, "Bullet when we were getting out of that German POW camp after Troy and Moffitt went in to stop the timer on the wakeup horns. I could've bled to death if it hit the artery."

Moffitt rolled his eyes with a sigh and walked out.

The "scarfest" went on for a while longer before Troy walked in on his half-dressed men. "Have you seen…" He stopped in his tracks and said, "What in the heck's going on here?"

Tully said, "We're … um … comparing war wounds, sarge."

Troy's eyebrows went up. "I suppose this shouldn't surprise me." He pointed to a scar on Tully's abdomen. "Moffitt took that bullet out of you."

Tully nodded. "Yep."

Troy then noticed a scar on Hitch's left thigh. "Where'd that one come from?"

Hitch blushed. "That one doesn't count."

"And why doesn't it count?"

Hitch sighed. "It's from when I got caught in bed with another guy's girlfriend. He tried to stab me, but caught me in the leg when I rolled away."

"He stabbed you in the leg? What was he aiming for? No, never mind. I don't want to know."

Tully laughed. "When did that happen?"

Hitch sighed. "A few months back when we were at that base in Ahmim."

"That's why you were limping for a few days. You told me you twisted your knee."

Hitch sighed. "It wasn't bad … didn't even need stitches. I just didn't want to admit what happened."

Troy grinned and shook his head. Then he suddenly started to unbuttoned his shirt. "Did you guys ever see this one?" He showed them a scar from a bullet in his side. "I got that when we got ambushed going to meet that Arab agent."

Tully nodded. "Wasn't that when the agent turned out to be a teenager that was arrested by Dietrich?"

"That's the one."

Hitch turned around and said, "See that scar under my left shoulder? That's from shrapnel I took in that raid in Algiers."

A short time later Moffitt again walked in. He was speechless as he stared at the three half-dressed men.

Troy grinned. "What? It's not like you don't have scars that tell a story."

Moffitt regained his composer and smiled. He removed his beret and indicated a scar on his forehead. "There is this one. I got it when I was about to be executed for espionage."

Hitch chuckled. "Ah come on. You can do better than that."

Moffitt stalled, not sure he wanted to partake in this little "contest". Then he finally gave in and reached up to start unbuttoning his shirt. "Well, there is this one. I've been told that Troy and Hitch had to go to Captain Dietrich's camp to get me some blood…"