AN: We (Sierra Sutherwinds and I) present another collaboration for your enjoyment. The story idea is by me, with the main writing done by Sierra.

Chapter One: Explosions

Hogan entered a room without windows and just one door. His men were waiting for him. "I'm all right," he said to their expectant looks. Hogan heard the key in the lock and inwardly sighed. They wanted to make sure that he and his men would stay in one place. He took a seat between Carter and LeBeau in the only couch while Kinch leaned against the wall.

Hogan looked around. "How about you, guys?"

"Bruises," LeBeau said.

"Bruises and scratches," Carter said, showing him the band aid around his right index finger.

"Kinch?"

The sergeant smiled and nodded. "Black eye and a nice headache. And you?"

"Most of the above, except for the band aid," Hogan grinned. Then, he frowned, as a familiar British accent was noticeably missing from his men's chorus. "Where's Newkirk?"

"They haven't brought him yet," Kinch said.

"He went before me." Hogan began to pace around. "What's going on here?" He hated not knowing all the answers. The world had suddenly gone upside down and waiting was all they could do to pass the time.

"It's been a very strange day," LeBeau said. "Nothing has gone as we planned it."

"That last-minute job took us out of our routine," Kinch nodded in agreement.

"We should be covered by an insurance against freak accidents, don't you think?" Carter frowned. "This kind of medical attention must cost a fortune."

"The explosion wasn't our fault, so the bills are on them, Carter." Hogan walked all the way to one side of the room and then, turned towards the opposite. "Nobody could have expected that we would be injured at that railroad in the tunnel. Naturally, I don't think Klink knows any more about this than we do when he sent us on that work detail."

"The Krauts will blame it on the underground," Kinch said.

"But they would tell us if-" Carter left his sentence unfinished when LeBeau jumped and covered his mouth.

"Walls have ears, remember?" Hogan whispered. He gathered his men as close as possible. "Something's going on. That explosion wasn't from our side."

"What do you say?" Kinch asked.

"Someone else's underground?" Carter stared at the others. "How many sides does this war have?"

LeBeau shook his head. "One too many." He turned to Hogan. "But, if the sabotage didn't come from the Allies, who else is there left?"

"Someone that hates railroad tunnels," Kinch shrugged.

"Well we're lucky that the explosives were so few. Just a little more than that and we'd be sitting in front of the pearly gates of Heaven." Carter stood up too. "Why is Newkirk taking so long?"

For once, Hogan would not dismiss Carter's concern. They had been in the middle of an explosion and escaped with bruises and scratches. Medical help had been fast and proper for all of them. There should not be any complication. "They locked us up in here, we have to wait."

As if Hogan had called them with his thoughts, Klink and a doctor came into the room. The Kommandant was quite relieved to see his prisoners up and walking.

"Gentlemen, I'm glad to tell you that you've been cleared off. Sergeant Schultz will come in a minute to take you back to the Stalag."

"We're still one man shy, sir. I won't leave without all my men accounted for." Hogan looked at the doctor with an uneasy feeling in his gut.

"Colonel Hogan? I'm Doctor König. I personally attended to Corporal Newkirk." The man spoke with an unreadable face. "He required emergency surgery to fix a compound fracture in his ankle."

"Compound fracture? He just had a sprained ankle!" Carter stepped forward, completely surprised at hearing the news.

"And what's that about emergency surgery? I'm his superior officer, shouldn't you ask for my permission?" Hogan asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"They asked, and I am the superior officer here." Klink did not show any anger; he just gave them the facts.

"It was a bad fracture, we had to act immediately or he would have lost his leg."

Carter turned to LeBeau and Kinch and he could see that they were just as puzzled and indignant as he was. Newkirk had come with them in the same truck. They were all joking and walking without any problem. When the doctors separated them into different examination rooms, he should have known that something was not right. "We should have stayed together," he grimaced.

Hogan couldn't agree more. He had a bad feeling about this but there wasn't much he could do without causing an incident, which was something that their operation would not tolerate at all. Keeping a low profile was the only way to protect what they had done so far. Hogan desisted of any more protests from his men.

"Can I see my man before we leave?"

"I'm sorry, but he's still in Recovery. We'll call Kommandant Klink as soon as he wakes up from the anesthesia."

LeBeau rolled his eyes. "Ça sent le roussi," he said intently aloud. [1]

While Carter didn't understand what his friend had just said, he agreed regardless. "You got the words out of my mouth."

"Colonel Klink, I've never begged you for favors," Hogan said.

"I'm sorry, Hogan, but my hands are tied. I'll keep communications open to keep you informed. I'm sure Corporal Newkirk will be fine and back in the Stalag by tomorrow morning." He turned to the doctor for approval but he got nothing.

Hogan signed to his men for them to calm down. They would not insubordinate against him, no matter how frustrated they were. Schultz came five minutes later and took them all in a quiet line. The waiting would continue in the barracks.

HHH

"Kinch," Hogan said while he opened the trap under the bunk. "Go downstairs. Ask around if anyone knows about that explosion in the railroad. I want names."

"How about Newkirk?"

"You may ask to the hospital but be careful. We don't want anyone telling Klink that someone else is getting interested in the Englander." With that, Kinch headed below into the tunnels.

Hogan turned around. Carter and LeBeau were standing behind him as though waiting for him to solve all their problems. Hogan had never felt so helpless before.

"You look tired. Go to sleep. We had a rough morning." He did not wait for replies. He rushed into his office to pretend that he was busy while waiting for some news to arrive from the hospital.

HHH

The phone rang in Klink's office. Earlier Hogan had connected the coffee pot/transmitter to listen in on anything that might be coming from the Kommandantur. Only this time, he did not call his men in to listen with him.

The conversation was short and direct. Klink did not say much, but instead he listened and answered with a concise Yes during every two seconds interval. But it was the last sentence that was rather disturbing.

"I see... You've done as much as you can and I thank you for that... Yes... Yes... I'll talk to them right away... Yes... I'm very sorry too."

Hogan sat back and put his thoughts in order. Whatever Klink had heard on the other end of the telephone couldn't be good news. For a moment, he allowed himself to lose control. This can't be happening... He's not dead... he can't be... A knock on the door took him back.

"Klink is coming, sir," Carter said. He looked troubled too.

Hogan's men were too intuitive. Whatever was happening or had happened to Newkirk, they already knew it would not be good. They saw the Kommandant enter without much protocol and he walked directly into Hogan's office. He quietly closed the door behind him.

Neither man wanted to sit. They stared at each other eager to read their minds if they only could. Finally, Klink spoke up.

"Hogan, I'm afraid that the news about your man in the hospital is not good at all."

The colonel tried to look surprised. "What went wrong?"

"Apparently, Newkirk had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and they can't wake him up."

Hogan took a deep breath. Through his head passed ideas, speculations and angry words against those Krauts. Surely, their ineptitude had a lot to do with what happened to Newkirk. He did not talk for a minute to allow himself time to calm down.

"Is he in a coma?" He kept his voice down, while forcing himself to keep it from breaking in front of Klink.

"That's the word they used." Klink looked terribly awkward. He was not used to being the bearer of bad news, much less to be the one consoling people in times of trouble.

"Would they let me see him now?"

"I've made the arrangements. Schultz will drive you to the hospital tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning?" Hogan's neutral tone began to fade. He was too upset to care much about the respect of ranks. "He could be dead by then!"

"I've done as much as I could. That's the situation and yelling at each other is not going to change it." He turned to the door but stopped before opening it. "I trust you'll make sure that your men observe discipline at all times."

Hogan tightened his jaw and counted to ten. "We'll behave accordingly to the circumstances, sir."

With that, Klink left the barracks and walked back to his office.

HHH

Fortunately, getting into the hospital did not represent a challenge. They had been breaking into buildings for a long time. Hogan and Carter had disguised themselves as orderlies in night shift. They walked without a problem to the main desk. Carter watched around while Hogan checked the files for Newkirk's room number. Curiously, he had been assigned to a single room.

"Maybe Colonel Klink asked for it. He likes us," Carter said.

Hogan could refute that reasoning. They were prisoners of war. There should be no privileges or special treatment. If a prisoner's injuries warranted placement in a hospital, it was very likely that he would end up in a general salon with other prisoners.

"Let's just see if he's all right and get out of here." Hogan led the way to the elevators.

The room was the last one on the right. As they had expected, there was a guard sitting by the door. Hogan was still elaborating a plan to jump that hurdle when Carter stepped forward.

"Excuse me, sir. I'm an orderly here. See? Orderly." He showed his fake ID tag to the guard and smiled, while speaking in his German accent. "Me and my friend here are supposed to put some order in that room. I know it's a little late but with all the activity around, this is the only time and-"

Hogan could not decide whether to disarm the guard before he gave the alarm or to run in a hurry. At the moment, the second option looked really tempting. To his amazement, the guard not only opened the door for them, he also smiled.

"Unbelievable," the colonel whispered to his friend.

The room was quiet, as expected. Except for the IV that was next to the bed, there wasn't a lot of medical equipment around. Carter got closer to make sure they were in the right place. To his relief, he could see that it was indeed Newkirk. His eyes were closed, and his features were relaxed. To the naked eye, it was hard to tell how bad his condition was.

Carter shrugged. "He looks asleep."

"He's asleep," Hogan said. He looked more carefully. Newkirk's right foot was in a case, but besides that he looked rather well. "It's just that he's not ready to wake up."

"Can't we take him with us? I don't like this place at all," Carter said, looking around nervously.

"Me neither. But maybe it's better for him. He's safe here."

"Is he? He came with a sprained ankle. You saw it, I saw it. Something's very wrong." Carter shook his head. "What are we going to do if he doesn't come to?"

"Let's not anticipate anything. We'll give these doctors a chance. If he's not better in a couple of days, I'll start making waves."

"Like what, Colonel?"

"This might be Newkirk's ticket out of here." Hogan shrugged. "I'll break the Geneva Convention treaty in their heads until they send him home."

Carter almost smiled. Almost. He was too upset about the entire situation. He knew that if LeBeau and Kinch were with them, they would feel like him too. Either way he looked at it, they would still lose Newkirk. At least, sending him home would be better than leaving him in that horrible German hospital.

"Visiting hours are over. Let's go," Hogan said, pulling at Carter's sleeve. "C'mon, I have a pass granted for tomorrow, and you and LeBeau could come at night. We won't leave him alone."

"No way, we'll stick with Newkirk all the way." Carter squeezed Newkirk's hand reassuringly. Please get better soon, Peter! Life at the Stalag wouldn't be the same without you!

Hogan took a last look at his corporal and stroked his hair. "We're here, Newkirk. We're with you."

[1] "I smell a rat."