Where in the world is everybody! I haven't been on here in 2 years, and I am sooooo ashamed D: All my fave authors are either writing about Glee or Super Natural or The Hunger Games. Lol. Wow, it's been a while. Well this here is a BoB story. I apparently wrote it in 2010. But I totally forgot about it. So, I took it out, brushed it up a little and this is what Im posting. Haha, Im a little rusty, I guess. (Though I wasn't the best writer to begin with .) Anyways, maybe it's a little too present for BoB stories now. Since lots of the usual BoB writers aren't writing them anymore. But I wanted to post it anyways cause I still love them :) Let me know how you guys have been too btw!
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING.
He couldn't sleep. He just kept turning back and forth in his bunk. He didn't know why it was so unusually quiet tonight. On any other night you'd hear Guarnere and Martin snoring. Or Hoob and Luz leading a conversation with the other guys 'bout girls and all the stupidest things they've done. Then there's Tipper sleep talking about some cat he lost when he was 16. There just weren't any talking or gambling or storytelling tonight. Everyone was too tired to interact. All of this tiredness was due to Captain Sobel. As usual.
He quietly got off his bunk, trying not wake Lipton who was on the bottom. He put on his boots and jacket and walked out. The sky was clear tonight, only a few scattered stars. He kept going until he reached the end of the barracks. He sat there for a while, letting the breeze gently hit his face. There were footsteps and he looked up. It was Captain Sobel.
They sat there for 5 minutes before Sobel took a deep breath and broke the silence.
"I just wanted him to shove me."
"Sir?" he said beyond confused.
"I just wanted him to push me. Not physically but mentally. He never prepared me for the real world, you know? Once I took that step out, I was knocked three steps back."
He was beginning to understand.
"I mean, I was raised in Chicago. I lived in a tough neighborhood. There were mean people and criminals and bad things on every corner. I was always picked on or beat up or laughed at. I was always wishing my dad would help me. But he loved those alcohol bottles more than he loved me. He would only give me this disappointed look. 'Fight your own battles' he said." Sobel was staring at the dark sky.
"I did wanna fight my own battle, I just didn't know how. So why couldn't he teach me? If he would've given me that needed push then I wouldn't come home with a black eye or a bloody nose or a busted lip. Maybe I could've avoided getting into trouble in the first place. I wouldn't have been afraid of anything…"
By the time Sobel was done talking, he was shaking and his deep sighs echoed into the night. He watched as his CO slowly tear down his own walls. Who would've thought Herbert Sobel had this side to him. For the past couple of months, all he did was agree on what the guys said about Sobel. That he's a scared piece of shit and that he should die and go to hell. Now all he wants to do is give this man a break.
"I guess that's why I'm so hard on you guys." Sobel spoke up again, looking him in his eyes.
"When I failed, I didn't have the strength to try again because I didn't have support. So, when you guys trip running Curahee, you knew you had to get up. I didn't care if you guys would like me or not, I was going to do anything to make you want to get up again. But my intentions are good. I want to make sure that when you do fall, you won't be as weak as me. But with the lack of support I had …I just didn't know the extent of pushing people. And I'm sorry."
"By all the complaints, I'm not doing so well, huh?" Sobel snorted and looked at him. He laughed quietly but he didn't answer him.
"You know, I really do admire Lt. Winters. Though, I won't give him the satisfaction of knowing that." Sobel said smirking.
"He supports Easy Company. I'm the push, he's the pull. You guys have a balance. That's why you're the best of the 101st."
A silence passed over them.
"I never really hated you, sir. I mean, it's not entirely your fault." He told him truthfully.
"You're just trying to prepare us for all of this. And when the other men finally stop being stubborn, they'll learn to appreciate it. You're still learning too. You're in the same position as us, you're just misunderstood."
Sobel slowly nodded and smiled.
"Your name's Roe, Eugene Roe, right?"
"Yes it is, sir." Roe answered.
"Medic?"
Roe smiled and nodded.
"I'm actually quite scared of combat. Blood and guts and bullet, the whole idea is iffy. And you wanna risk your life saving others …I envy you."
Roe silently took in this compliment.
"And believe it or not, if I had to do this whole thing again, there's no other company I'd rather do this with than Easy." Sobel grinned proudly in the dark.
He patted Roe on the shoulders and started toward his room.
"Oh, and Roe? Let's keep all of this between us. I don't want the other guys to call me an even bigger pansy now."
"Understandable, sir." Roe replied back as Sobel turned and left.
Roe was getting tired, so he finally headed back. That entire conversation came so fast, it was almost a blur. But he got the answer to the one question that has plagued his mind for the last 14 months.
Why was Captain Sobel so bitter?
He's been broken so many times in different ways and by different people. The jagged edges that make up Herbert Sobel were so sharp that you only had to pass by it once and you'd find yourself missing a body part. But with a little time and help, that body part can be sewed back on and Sobel's jagged edges? …can be smoothen out.
