"Temperature's 101, doctor."

"Dammit."

Trapper sighed angrily, glaring at the patient. Just yesterday, Corporal Stroker'd been fine… Eating, joking and even playing poker, but today it had taken a turn for the worse. At the moment, he was unconscious do to sedatives they had been giving him. Trapper couldn't make sense of him. One minute the kid was fine, the next he had a fever of 105 and was having a romantic evening with thin air. The doctor chewed on the cap of his pen, and slowly drifted off into a day dream (or shall I say "night dream", considering it was about two in the morning).

The patient stopped breathing.

Trapper bolted to his feet. "Kellye! Give me some adrenaline!"

He rushed to the patient. "Common, dammit… You're not gonna die on my watch."

> > >

"Ha! I told you I could stay on him!" Leslie smiled smugly. "And you say you're the best rider in the family."

John McIntyre stuck his tongue out at his younger sister. "Well, he's going easy on you."

"Naw… I'm just talented." The six-year old girl winked for good measure, thoroughly enjoying her brother humiliation. "Bwacky-Jacky just likes me better."

"You keep calling him that, and we'll see who he likes better."

"Bwacky-Jacky, Bwacky-Jacky Bwacky-Jacky!"

John looked expectantly for the horse's buck. "Traitor." He hissed so softly that his sister, who was still gloating wouldn't hear.

"-You can't even stay on him, and here I am… A little, innocent GIRL, and he's acting as placid as a foal!"

"You? Innocent? You were BORN a mass murderer!"

"I was not!" The superior smirk was wiped off Leslie's face and replaced by a pout.

"Tell that to that little mouse!"

"I FOUND HIM DEAD!" The pig-tailed girl banged her fist down in anger onto the horse's neck. John cackled in glee as Black-Jack, which was the colt's proper name, exploded into a series of bucks.

"Nice to see you back on the good side." He whispered to the horse, who was still bucking though Leslie was getting up off the ground.

"At least I stayed on longer than you ever could." The little girl attempted to regain some of her pride.

"That's it." John glared at his sister. "I'm gonna get on him and stay in that saddle! I swear! Nothing'll get me out of it!"

Leslie sniggered. "Will you leave me your comic books in your will?"

A glare silenced her.

The boy approached the horse, who had now moved on from bucking to grazing. In one fluid motion, he swung on. Black-Jack attempted to get him off with a vengeance. He bucked and reared and twisted, but John stayed as cool as a cucumber. Leslie looked with growing admiration to her brother, who seemed to not even notice the horse's antics.

In the middle of one particularly vicious buck, the girth snapped. The saddle flew through the air, still between John's knees. The boy landed with a sickening thud, feet still in the stirrups. He looked up with a dazed grin and whooped in pleasure.

"I did it! I stayed in the saddle! I showed you!"

> > >

Corporal Dan Stroker did make it through Trapper's shift. He didn't through Hawkeye's, though. This time, Trapper didn't smile. He didn't gloat. He wasn't proud. Sure, he did it… He got the kid through his shift. He kept his word.

Somehow, it didn't matter, anymore.

> > >

AN: This is Sotto. Right now I've got writer's block on 101, so I'll be trying this out. This is a collection one shots about the character's childhood experience with animals. In each one, there'll be some sort of a connection between the memory and the reality… All of these stories are true and about someone in my family. I do realize that the show, book and movie make no mention of Trapper have a sister, but they never say he's an only child, eh? Eh? Eh? (Winks and nudges) Also, I do realize that since Trapper's from Boston, it's unlikely that he ever had a horse, but it's not impossible, eh? Eh? Eh? (More winks and nudges)

Please review!