Hello wonderful readers! This is for the Billy Nelson fans out there! Please R&R! Tissue alert! No slash, just comradely love. It helps if you have watched the episode "The Celebrity" to understand part of the conversation. This is the revised version, so there are some differences from the other one.
Disclaimer: never have owned them, probably never will. It's really too bad, Saunders would look so neat in a tux... A girl can dream... Oh, PM me if there is an episode where he does wear a tux, that would be a dream come true!
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
He seemed to know it right away. When he looked into his eyes, when the wounded soldier looked back. As he struggled to talk. He must have known as it happened, and it was evident he knew now.
"Sarge," the soldier heaved a breath, eyes wide in pain. His breaths were short and sounded wet and tired, laboriously executed. "I didn't- you aren't hit are ya?" he coughed. The other man glance over at the dead Kraut, rifle still smoking in hand as he lay sprawled out on the ground. The man's own gun felt hot and heavy in his hands, several of its bullets having been used to take down the enemy.
"Nah, Billy, I'm fine. See? You saved my life. Easy, easy." He pushed the anxious boy down. Billy blinked "Sarge…." His eyes. They were so afraid, childlike almost. So tired, and done with war and fighting, constant barrage, constant death, "I'm scared."
"You'll be okay. Don't try and move, Doc will be here soon. Don't talk."
"Sarge, I wannto…" his words slurred, "wannto see Mother. And wannto see my kid brother…. Wannto-aghhh!" he writhed. The Sarge tried to quiet him, but he kept on with his ranting, "Oh, I want to see home, 'gain, and Evelyn, and my Dad!" he was crying, "m'scared to die."
"You're not going to die, Billy." The Sarge felt a tear on his cheek, running down the side of his nose. Billy's dad had died months ago. "You'll see, everything will be fine. And I bet you'll get one of them fine purple hearts, and a one-way ticket stateside. Lucky duck. And, of course, you'll get to see everybody again. Don't worry, you're gonna see all those guys back home, and they'll buy you drinks and you'll get to play-act like your side hurts you, just to show off. And all those girls will follow you… course you'll be with Evelyn, but it's a dandy thought. It'll be swell, just wait. Doc will patch you up nice and tight, and you'll get yourself back on your feet in no time. You'll be able to tell the story to your kid brother."
"You were...listenin' that night? With Littlejohn? When Packer was here?" Billy's face was covered in sweat, and blood flowed from his side with horrible abundance.
"Yeah. And I think it'll be just like that, just like you said it was for your friend."
"You do?" his face became taught with pain. Billy was fading faster than Saunders would have liked. In truth, he didn't want him to be fading at all.
"Yup." the Sarge brushed Billy's hair out of his eyes.
"But Sarge," a tear slid out of the corner of Billy's eye, "Hurts. Bad." He coughed again, blood this time.
"I know it does." Sarge had to lean close to the kid to hear his next words.
"W-hats… your first name…" he whispered. "I never knew it. Me… an' an' t'he guys…. Always called you… 'Sarge.' Wanna know th' name of the man…. I died for…" he grinned weakly, still obviously halfway through the door of sanity and delirium, "not that im braggin' or anythin'."
Saunders heart broke a little. "Chip. My name's Chip. Your not gonna die, kid." He took his hand, "Billy?"
"Mmmm?"
"What did your kid brother call you?" I have to keep the kid talking, keep him awake, though by then he'd screamed for the medics several times now. He was more afraid then, than he have ever been, afraid for this innocent life that was going so quickly.
"Will. Thas' what he called me. Will. He's, uh… thirteen, I think… don' r'member. Gotta write'a'letter…" his eyes began to roll up into his head, and Saunders snapped to attention, slapping Billy's face wildly.
"Billy, wake up, you can't sleep! Billy," He cried, panicked, "can I call you Will?"
"Yeah…" he exhaled harshly, going out of focus again.
"Will!" the Sarge slapped him harder.
Billy's eyes were suddenly very focused.
"Chip…? Can I call you that? C'n I call you Chip?" he asked.
Saunders nodded, clenching the smaller hand in his own desperately.
"Chip, you're eyes are very blue…." He smiled, all attentions suddenly on Saunders face, especially his eyes, "Chip, m'not afraid anymore."
Then the Sarge knew, the boy he was is gone.
He knew.
