I wrote this a while ago - only just noticed the FF .net finally has an "A Few Good Men" section.


He bolted upright in the bed, breathing hard. It took several minutes to remind himself that it was all a dream, that he was here safe in his own apartment. A glance at the clock told him it was nearly time to get up for work, so he threw back the covers and got up, staggering to the bathroom, still half asleep. He looked at himself in the mirror—a big man, military haircut, stubble grown over his jaw. The only thing missing was the dog tags that he no longer had the right to wear.

Dawson gripped the sides of the sink. He bore Caffee no ill will—the man had tried, harder than Dawson had believed him capable of. But in the end, the military tribunal had made the only decision available to them, and had determined that he, Dawson, had acted in a manner unbecoming a United States Marine. Orders or no orders, he'd had no business in that room, perpetrating cruelty on a man who never should have been accepted into the Corps in the first place. He told himself that he was fine with it, worked his construction job with the best of his ability, occasionally corresponded with Downey, who was struggling with civilian life.

But night after night, the nightmare came, and he found himself thrashing in his sleep, suffocating on a rag as two strong men held him down. He was out of the Corps, but Willy Santiago wasn't out of him.