All characters belong to Tony Grounds and the BBC. I've just borrowed them for some fun.

Brize Norton, October 2013

She strides out of the terminal towards her platoon. They clock her presence immediately, falling silent and into line. "Can it really take you massive cockwombles this long to get into your sections for a bleedin' photograph?"

She surveys the assembled platoon, pleased at what she sees until she notices the replacement medic has just rolled his eyes. "What'ya rollin' your eyes at, medic?"

Slightly surprised at being called out by the tiny, female, cockney and very young looking Captain, he replies, "Cockwomble, ma'am"

She stares at the medic, all humour gone from her eyes. "For the benefit of our alleged new medic, who are we?"

With a deafening roar, the platoon reply "The Under Fives, ma'am"

"And why d'ya think we're called that, medic?

Starting to feel decidedly uncomfortable he struggles to come up with something having only been in their presence for a few minutes. "Erm, I don't know ma'am"

"Come on medic, you can surely do better than that. Take a look around you"

Now looking visibly uncomfortable, he looks at the platoon, noticing for the first time just how young they are and realising he's at least 5 years older than most of them. "Erm. They look young, ma'am?"

"And every one of them is in my charge, so if you can't cut it as our medic and as part of the team, then I have no hesitation in lobbin' you out of the plane. Is that understood?"

Feeling about three-foot tall, rather than his actual six foot one, and realising he hasn't made the best of first impressions he simply answers, "yes ma'am".

As Captain Molly Dawes takes her place with the platoon for the photograph, she glances across at the new medic, meeting his brown eyes for a second before she faces the camera.

-OG-

Hercules

Sat in the Hercules, Private Charles James quietly berates himself for cocking up that all important first impression with his new Captain. He has worked so hard to sort himself out over the past eighteen months since realising he was in real danger of pissing away everything and everyone one in his life. Born and raised by loving parents, in the beautiful city of Bath, he had a privileged childhood; his only real sadness growing up was a lack of siblings. He was bright, sporty and popular and did well at private school, securing a place at Oxford to read English Literature. It all started to go wrong during his gap year and he completely lost his way during his first year at university, eventually dropping out and spending the best part of the next five years travelling, partying and drinking far too much. Eventually his parents staged an intervention after he nearly got himself killed through sheer drunken stupidity in Thailand. They brought him home, sobered him up and strongly encouraged him to get a job and some purpose into his life. Remembering how much he'd enjoyed the sense of belonging as a cadet in the ACF, and feeling the need for some strong discipline he'd decided that he would follow in his uncle's footsteps and join the army. He'd done well in his basic training and had decided to train to become a combat medic, which he's excelled at so far. This is his first active deployment and he's worried that he has just let his nerves get the better of him and acted like a bit of a prat.

Captain Dawes watches over 2 Section from her position at the front of the plane. It has been hard work getting 2 Section and the other 3 sections in the platoon ready for this deployment. They've become a good team, but they are so very young. She couldn't believe her shitting bad lack when Lance Corporal Daniels, their experienced medic, had broken his leg during the last week of pre-deployment training. Her experience of three previous tours has taught her how important the medic is to the success of the platoon. She knows that this tour is the replacement medic's first active deployment and it is always hard fitting into an established group, but she'd expected a bit more maturity based on his service file and age. She also wonders why someone who is obviously well educated and from a posh background is a private in the British Army. She reflects on how different his background has probably been to hers. As the eldest of six kids, growing up in, in a chaotic council flat in East Ham, she's had to work incredibly hard for everything she has achieved in the Army over the last twelve years. She's fast-tracked through the army ranks, after being identified as officer material during her first tour in Iraq, when she was also awarded the Military Cross.

She checks her watch. "Right. Hour outside Bastion. All don your full protective clothin' includin' 'elmets."

-OG-