This is fan fic and not for profit. No copyright infringement intended.
Take the Point
They were going to mess around and lose this damn War.
She was mad. She was scared. The fact that yet another of her and Kirby's dates had been cancelled by the Germans was of little consequence now. She didn't even know if he was alive. "Do not even think that" she told herself fiercely. If she broke down and started crying, she'd be in real trouble. She'd been waiting for him, he'd gotten a pass. They'd actually done things by the book this time. The Krauts hadn't read her and Kirby's book though. The damn War didn't care about being in love, destroying people's lives, or anything -
She'd been waiting in the little town they were supposed to meet in. The first day he hadn't come, she'd just told herself he'd been delayed, that he'd get there. The second day, she'd heard that the Germans had broken thru the line and the Americans were being pushed back. That morning, soldiers had started coming thru the town, retreating.
Many of the townspeople were running too. Her French was passable enough. She decided she'd steal some women's clothing and stay as long as she could and gather intelligence.
She wasn't paying any attention when the Army truck slowed to a crawl beside her, and the Sergeant in the passengers stuck his head out the window and yelled, "Get in the truck!"
Alex pulled her pass from her pocket and held it up. She wasn't opening her mouth. They might assume she was a Kraut spy. She didn't think they'd shoot her on sight, but she wasn't taking any chances.
"Kid, you think the Germans care you're takin' a break from the War? Get your damn ass in the truck!" the Sergeant bellowed.
Alex scurried to do as she was told.
The BAR man sitting next to her in the truck poked her in the side. "Got a smoke?"
She shook her head. As long as she kept quiet, her hair stayed in her helmet, and she just let herself blend in, she was ok. She doubted any of these boys would hurt her. But their hard bitten Sergeant, well, he was another matter. He was like Saunders on steroids.
There was a horrid loud noise, and then it was like a carnival ride. The truck went up in the air, tilted crazily, and turned over. Alex tried to grab onto the frame, and then she was crushed under a mass of bodies. More loud noises, more explosions. Screaming men. "Got to get out! Got to get out!" she told herself. They were taking fire, the truck was a target. She had to get away from it. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe.
"SHIT!" somebody was cussing and crying at the same time. Bodies were thrown off of her. Everybody was yelling, but her ears started ringing and then, she couldn't hear anything AT ALL. She knew she was hurt, but pushed the pain away. There was no one to help her.
The Sergeant grabbed the BAR man and shook him, and Alex realized he was dead. All the guys who had fallen on her were dead. She had to get out. She had to have that BAR. She crawled out from under the BAR man and started trying to get his harness off.
The Sergeant was shaking the BAR man, crying. For just a second she thought he was going to slug her. Then he yelled something at her, and she touched her ears and shook her head. He ripped the harness off the kid and threw it at her. Alex dragged it over her head, knocking her helmet off, dislodging her hair, but the Sergeant was getting the kids dogtag, and wasn't looking. He squeezed the kids shoulder again, then started yelling at her.
He finally seemed to realize that she couldn't hear him at all and the light in the truck was so bad, she couldn't read his lips. He pointed, told her to do something. What the hell! If she didn't get out of the damn truck, she was never going to ride Sandy again. She was going to die, and she was thinking about her horse back on the ranch and not Kirby. She wanted to cover up her ears and cry. She bit down on the inside of her jaw until it bled, and jumped out of the truck, running in the direction the Sergeant had said.
She made it to the treeline, dropped to her stomach and crawled. Every part of her body hurt. God. Her guys did this every day. This damn gun weighed a ton. Her own modified BAR was lighter, easier to manage. How in the hell did Kirby manage?
It seemed like she crawled for an hour. She'd lost all sense of time. She just knew she was exhausted, and had to rest. She slid in next to a tree, wiped her face off. She was thirsty. Her head hurt so badly she wanted to vomit. Last time it had been hours before she could hear again. She could not let herself go to sleep. That would surely mean death.
She'd give herself twenty minutes she decided. She should be able to judge that by the shade from the trees. It was too long, but she'd been running on sheer adrenaline all day. When she crashed, it was going to be hard. Then she heard someone crying. Her ears were working again, slightly. She pointed the BAR at the noise, waited. Five GI's stepped into sight. They were walking upright. The one in the lead froze when he saw her. She gestured "DOWN" sharply, and when he didn't move, she aimed the BAR at him and reinforced her point. He dropped to his stomach. The ones behind him followed suit. She made a slashing noise across her throat, and a second later, the crying stopped.
Great. Just frigging great. They were raw recruits. She needed a hardcore Sergeant like Saunders. She was an expert riflewoman and at home in the woods. She could follow orders. How in the hell was she going to get these babies to follow her when she wasn't sure what to do herself? She had to keep them alive until she could hand them off to somebody else.
"You're a –" one of them looked at her in shock.
"Corporal." Alex supplied.
"But you're a -"
"Corporal." Alex interrupted, and glared at the kid. One of the few advantages of being in S2 was that she could masquerade in any lower rank she chose.
He winked at her. God, he was a smartass. Just like Kirby. She felt like somebody had punched her. She could not let herself cry. She could not let them see how terrified she was.
There was a path, but Alex stayed in the woods adjacent to it. Just far enough away that it would have been too much effort to set a trip wire, she hoped. She'd told the kids to stay behind her, she'd told them to be quiet. The grumbling was starting though. She was pretty sure she could take two of them down, but she couldn't fight all of them. She wasn't Saunders. And she didn't need to fight with them, she needed them to listen to her.
They didn't know how to be quiet in the woods. She and Candace could glide noiselessly thru the brush. Tall Feather had said that her best friend moved like a deer - The explosion had her dropping to the ground, and turning back to see all the kids looking at the road. Four kids."Damn!" she'd already lost one. She couldn't walk point, watch them, and guard the rear at the same time.
One of the kids started to move toward the road, and she had the BAR on him instantly. No more being nice. "You do what the hell I tell you to, and you do it fast!" Alex snarled at him." I said, Stay behind me, and BE QUIET!"
"I thought we were supposed to get Ronnie's tags." One of the babies said, tears in his eyes.
"We'll tell somebody when we get back." Alex said to mollify him. She wasn't going to attempt to explain that there might not be any tags left, and she wasn't going to risk getting caught in another booby trap. If Ronnie wasn't dead, he was dying. If she'd had a medic's bag, she could have shot him full of morphine.
They walked and walked, and walked some more. Occasionally they heard gunfire, but never too close. And then Alex saw the bodies, and signaled down. She counted four drops in her head, and sighed with relief. Nothing like having one of your buddies get killed in front of you to make you realize you better follow orders.
She scanned the area. Seven American bodies. She'd make sure they were all dead before moving on. She had to have water, she needed the BAR man's ammo. She wanted the medic's bag, but if she couldn't get it, she'd leave it. She put her recruits to watching the perimeter, slithered in on her stomach, dragging the BAR alongside her. No way she was risking putting it down and not being able to get back to it.
She grabbed a canteen and drank. She checked the pulse in the BAR man's neck, even though she knew all of them were dead. Grabbed his extra magazines, even ejected the one in the rifle. The kids were going to pack ammo for her, and if they complained, one of them was getting smacked with a rifle butt. Hard enough to get the point across, but not hard enough to do any damage.
She signaled to one of the kids and he crawled over to her, and took the ammo she thrust at him. This was taking forever. She took the ammo, the canteens, and secured the medic's bag, split the plunder among her squad. She couldn't make herself remove dogtags. Littlejohn and McCall would have accomplished the task in half the time.
He was going to die today. He was never going to see his Mother again. If the damn War was ever over, he'd planned to go back home and help her. Having three sons in the service was rough on her. He would never wrestle with his younger brothers again, all of them in a big pile with the dog, or get to see The Brat grow up. The pain was almost unbearable. He'd been shot before, why did it hurt so damn bad this time? He needed to yell at Kirby to – to what? His mind went blank. Caje had taken the first hit, and Doc, ignoring Saunders yell to "STAY PUT!" had been next as he dragged the scout to cover.
His own wound was high in his chest, and probably fatal. The way Doc had been feverishly working over Caje, ignoring his own head wound, he figured the three of them were done for. He should have had someone knock Doc out and gotten Littlejohn to carry him, while McCall and Kirby covered them. He could have backed them up with his Tommy as long as he was able. Now, they were all going to die here in this god forsaken place.
He'd seen Littlejohn fall to the ground several minutes ago, but now the giant was firing again. They were low on ammo. It was only a matter of time.
Kirby wiped the sweat from his eyes. "Damn. It wasn't fair." He had finally gotten back together with Alex, and they'd had a couple brief interludes that had convinced him of two things. He couldn't live without her, and he was going to spend the rest of his life trying to learn how to be a cowboy. And he hated horses. And now all of them were going to die today. Littlejohn wasn't going to get to go home and marry his sweetheart who was waiting on him -
"You are dead, Americans!" the German voice was so tauntingly close. But too far for Kirby to waste ammo on.
McCall didn't know if it was sweat, or tears of anger and frustration that he was trying to brush away. Maybe it was better that he couldn't remember much. He hoped his wife was still alive. He hoped she'd remarry and have a wonderful life -
And then a BAR cut loose. Nothing but the BAR, then it seemed like minutes later, sporadic fire from three, no four Garands. They had some help. But it wasn't enough. The riflemen were inexperienced, the BAR man seemed to be in charge. Kirby could barely hear the yelling, a cuss word every other word. That sounded a lot like Sergeant Hall. But that was not Grady on the BAR.
Four Krauts charged them and he automatically shot. He didn't know who took them down. It didn't matter. Then, "Hold your fire! We're comin' in!"
Five GI's burst from cover and he couldn't make out what the BAR man was yelling, but he'd stopped cussing.
"Shit." Alex said, as she dropped into Littlejohn's foxhole. "How bad are you hit?"
"What the hell are you doin' out here?" The giant said, trying to grin at her.
"Long story, sweetie." Alex wiggled on her stomach over to him, and whipped her bayonet from its sheath.
"Leave it." Littlejohn ordered. "It's stopped bleeding for now. I threw some sulfa on it."
"Can you walk?" she asked him worriedly, scanning out of the foxhole.
"You find me a crutch, I can walk." He assured her.
"I won't leave you."
"The Sarge and Caje are hit. Pretty bad, I think. Doc got hit when he went after Caje." He took a long breath. "Go to Kirby, I'll cover you."
"I think we got all of them, but we need to get out of here." Alex bit her lip. "I'll check on Saunders." The kid who'd dropped into the Sarge's foxhole was signaling frantically to her. "Cover me, LJ! I'm goin' there first!" she pointed to McCall's position and burst out running erratically. Littlejohn sprayed cover fire for her until he realized no one was shooting at her, and he was down to his last clip.
The kid who'd dropped into McCall's foxhole threw a medic's bag at her, and Littlejohn realized why she'd detoured there first. He was not going to be responsible for getting Alex and the rest of his squad mates killed. He would stay here with the Sarge and Caje. They could leave him some extra ammo and he would hold on as long as he could. Maybe they could get some help back to him before it was too late. The thought of never seeing his sweet Mavey again made him groan. Her father had been right though. He had refused to let them get married before Littlejohn shipped out. The one and only time he had refused Mavis anything. And no amount of tears or tantrums had changed his mind. And when Jimmy had refused to elope, he had gotten the same thing.
"Jimmy and Mavis sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" the old taunt from elementary school came back to him, and he bit back a sob. Mavey's Dad had been right though. Mavey wanted Jimmy and his babies. Bunches of babies, she'd told him. He wasn't too sure about any babies, as small as Mavey was, but he hadn't argued with her.
"What the hell are you doin' here?" Saunders choked out, groaning.
"Can nobody in my squad say they're glad to see me?" Alex tried to grin at him, as she ripped his shirt open. "Cover." She told the kid, who was watching her, pointing behind them.
"I don't understand."
"They may try to flank us. You watch the tree line. If you see anything, you signal McCall." She pointed. "And you cut loose, you hear me?"
He nodded, changing position.
"Alex, I'm done for. Get Kirby to punch Doc out, that's the only way he'll leave Caje and me." Saunders gritted his teeth. "Make Littlejohn go with you. Leave me a Garand and some ammo. Maybe you can get some help back." He choked.
"Blondie, shut up." Alex looked in dismay at the thru and thru. " Help me pick him up." she told the kid. "I need you to hold him while I wrap this bandage. " She watched to see that McCall and the kid in the foxhole with him were covering the flank.
"Dammit." Saunders choked out. "You are the most infuriating woman! Leave me -"
"Blondie, this is not a combat area. " she glanced at the kid. "I don't hear any shooting, do you?" When he shook his head, "I am in command here. So just shut up."
"Get Kirby over here, he'll listen to me."
"I doubt it." Alex said cheerfully, yanking the bandage hard. Saunders groaned, choked out "bitch," and then he passed out.
"I don't think he meant that." The kid said worriedly, as he helped Alex ease Saunders to the ground.
"Oh he meant it. And I meant to hurt him. He's pissed off now, he'll keep fighting." She took a long breath, wiped her bloody hands in the dirt. "Keep watchin' the flank." And darted out of the foxhole again.
"Alex, get down!" McCall yelled, trying to pull her into the foxhole.
"Show these kids how to make stretchers. Two of them."
"Alex -"
"They're good kids. They'll do what you tell them. They just don't know anything and they've got to learn fast. We've got to get the hell out of here, and we ain't leavin' anybody! And cut a crutch for Littlejohn!" She ran for Doc and Caje.
Doc had blood smeared all down the side of his face, and his helmet was a mass of sheared metal. He was crying and praying, holding pressure on Caje's wound.
"DOC! DOC!" Alex said, carefully shaking his arm. If he punched her, Kirby would kill him, whether it was an accident or not. He finally glanced at her.
"Not leavin'." He said, tears pouring.
"We're ALL leavin'. Understand? ALL of us." She waited until he nodded. "I have to check your head." When he started to protest, "Doc, you're going to have to walk. I don't want to leave YOU, but I will. I need you to help me. You keep holdin' pressure on Caje while I check your head, then we'll both work on him."
"No supplies." He choked out.
"I've got a bag." She tried to ease the helmet off his head, then realized she couldn't. "Oh, god, Doc, I can't get it off!"
"It's ok, Alex." He slurred. "I'll make it. You get 'ol Caje out of here." He tried to grin at her. "Just throw some sulfa in the hole."
She nodded, trying to choke back her own tears. God, she was going to lose the three of them. What would that do to the rest of the guys?
"Kirby's gonna shit." Doc said, grinning at her, and she realized just how out of it he was. He would never have said anything like that to her if he'd been functional. All the guys were overly protective of her, even Saunders.
"Marie!" Caje said as she pressed more packing in his wound. "Marie, I love you."
"I love you too, sweetheart." Alex answered him in French, praying she had said it right. Switching back to English. "I need you to hang on. You can not die today, do you understand me? Kirby will fall apart if something happens to you."
Caje groaned, and lapsed back into unconsciousness.
"You done good, kiddo." Doc squeezed her arm and she looked at all the blood running down it. His, Caje's, Saunders, and some of Littlejohn's, all mingled together. The squad as one. "Who's Marie?"
"His wife." Alex said absently.
"Damn he's as close mouthed as the Sarge."
"That's alright. Kirby talks enough for everybody." Alex turned her head so he wouldn't see her tears. His head was a mess. She had no business asking him to walk. Did Saunders feel like this when he had to make hard choices?
Two of her recruits set a stretcher down at the top of the foxhole. "Do what Doc tells you." She told them. "Get Caje on the stretcher, and then get Doc out of the hole. And be careful." She waited until they nodded, before she bolted out and finally headed for Kirby.
"Holy shit." Kirby said, as she dropped down in his foxhole with him. "I love you, but I don't want you here." He didn't even look at her as he kept scanning the tree line.
"Same here." Alex told him. "We're gonna have to make a run for it."
"More like a slow walk." He shot her a grin. "How green are those kids with you?"
"First time out." She swallowed hard. "We may have to leave Doc. I can't spare McCall to carry him."
Kirby looked at the tears streaming down her filthy face, reached over and laid his hand on her cheek. "If we need to, you, me, and Littlejohn will cover the rear. McCall can carry Doc. We won't worry about it 'til we have to."
"I love you." Alex told him, swiping at her eyes. "Damn, we missed another date."
"That's next week." Kirby told her, eyes on the treeline.
"It was supposed to be three days ago." She sighed.
"What the hell day is it then?" Kirby glanced at her raw recruits loading Saunders and Caje on stretchers under Doc's orders, and McCall getting Littlejohn to his feet with the crutch he'd cut for him.
"I guess it's the 17th? " She shook her head, whipped a map out. "There was a field hospital here. Three days ago. We lost so damn much ground. We've got to get there." She thrust the map at him. "I'm on the point. McCall after me. You cover -"
"Let McCall take the point." Kirby slid the map in his pocket.
"I'm a point man. McCall's a rifleman."
Kirby wanted to argue with her, but knew she was right. "Be careful." He told her, as they climbed out of the hole.
"I love you." She told him again, grinning at the shocked looks she got from her "kids".
"I'm on point. McCall next. Then the stretchers . Then Doc, Littlejohn, and Kirby's the getaway man. Share your ammo. No talking. " The look she gave the recruits let them know she meant it. "I'm proud of you for what you've done. You're good soldiers, all of you." She glanced down at Saunders on the stretcher, saw he was conscious again, and spared him a grin before moving out.
Alex was moving too fast. Kirby swiped at the sweat running down his face. He knew the stretcher bearers were running on pure adrenalin. Doc was staggering, and Littlejohn had turned completely white. He knew Alex was scared, he knew she wanted some ground between them and the dead Krauts. He was going to overrule her and call a rest break, if she got mad, well -
She signaled "halt" and he breathed a sigh of relief. Doc and Littlejohn crumpled to the ground together. The stretcher bearers carefully set the stretchers down, and rubbed their backs. "Perimeter!" Alex yelled, motioning to two of them. McCall had already stepped apart, and was on alert.
"Honey," Kirby said quietly, "We've got to slow down. I know you're scared, so am I."
"I know." Alex said, reaching to rub her own back.
"That damn gun's too heavy for you." Kirby frowned. "You could hand it off to McCall."
"McCall's not as good as me." Alex said, at the exact same time McCall said, "Alex is better with a BAR than I am."
She smiled at him, not realizing he had heard her. "You're better with a Garand than I am. I hate the damn things."
"I'll stay with Doc and Littlejohn." McCall said, "You need to keep those kids movin'. Caje needs a hospital." Doc had crawled over and was checking bandages. Littlejohn was checking his own thigh.
Alex shook her head. "We're staying together as long as possible. If we have to, Kirbs, Littlejohn and me will be the rear guard. I need you to get these kids and Doc to the hospital."
McCall looked like he wanted to argue, saw the look on Kirby's face and shut his mouth. He wasn't going to add to Alex's distress.
Alex froze when she heard the gunfire behind her, then turned and ran back toward it. "Get those kids out of here!' she yelled at McCall.
McCall let the stretchers go by him, and started after Alex. He was not leaving the rest of his buddies. Then he saw Kirby and Littlejohn both motioning at him to GO! They needed Alex's rifle. She wouldn't leave unless they knocked her out, and they had nobody to carry her. He turned and ran back after the kids. Maybe he could find some help.
"Get up, Doc!" Alex yelled at him. "Littlejohn, get him movin'! Get OUT of here!"
Littlejohn, ignoring his own leg wound, yanked Doc to his feet, and propelled him down the trail. Alex ran backwards, spraying cover fire for them.
Kirby saw Alex go down, and he swore his heart stopped. Without her, there was nothing. He charged the Germans, spraying bullets everywhere. And then he realized she was still backing him up, and heard her screaming at him. "KIRBY! KIRBY! DAMMIT! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
She wasn't dead. He ducked behind a tree, not realizing he was grinning manically. He made his way back to her carefully, leaned down and kissed her. "You're my life. You don't even know how much I love you. You scared the hell out of me!" he winked at her. "Where are you hit?"
"I stepped in a damn hole." The tears of frustration on her face almost made him laugh. "I think my leg's broken. If you laugh at me, I'm gonna kick your ass."
He kissed her again. "Give me some ammo. I'll take care of some Krauts and be back for you."
Sergeant Beckley decided that he had not seen Kirby just passionately kiss another GI before he tore off after the Germans again. He signaled positions to his men.
Alex swung her BAR around when she heard them coming. "My BAR man's out there! Don't shoot HIM!"
The voice was female? Beckley swallowed hard. Stumbling into a wounded Saunders and Caje was bad enough, and he'd thought he was going to have to slug an exhausted McCall to keep him from trying to come back to help. His medic had taken charge, thrusting a bottle of plasma in McCall's hand and ordering him to monitor it as it dripped into Caje.
"You hit?" Beckley asked as he crawled to Alex, wondering what he was supposed to do, and then he realized her leg was down in a deep hole. "Broke?"
"I think so. I'm sorry!" she swallowed hard. "Did McCall get my wounded thru?"
She was apologizing for being hurt. She'd said, her wounded. Evidently she was willing to take responsibility for all of this.
"Yes ma'am." Beckley said. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to call her. "One of my men can carry you -" he stopped. His men hadn't seen a woman in months. "I'll carry you."
"I think I can walk if somebody helps me. I dumped enough on you with all the wounded, I'm sorry to be so clumsy."
Beckley saw his men and Kirby easing back toward them. "Travis, take the BAR." He stopped himself barely, from saying" from her."
"Trade me." Alex said, sliding the BAR harness over her head. "I have to have a rifle."
Travis shot a look at Sergeant Beckley, saw his slight nod. He laid both the rifles down and helped pull Alex from the hole and carefully sit her down. Alex, biting her jaw to keep from screaming while Beckley checked her leg, watched as Travis caressed the BAR. It was something she'd noticed all the BAR men did.
"Is it broken?" Kirby asked Beckley worriedly, even as he kept his eyes on the treeline. "I'll carry her -"
"Her knees blown up like a balloon already." Beckley sighed. "I'm not sure. I'll carry her -"
"I'll walk if you get me up." Alex interrupted. "You don't need to lose another rifle. Can that kid Travis handle a BAR?"
"Yeah, he's pretty good." Beckley said, easing her to her feet, noticing her face grow even more pale. "I'm carrying you. Get over it." He swung her up in his arms. "Kirby, you and Travis -"
"I got the rear. Nobody's getting past me." Kirby said. "Just get my girl back."
"Be careful, Kirbs." Alex said. She didn't know this Sergeant. He wasn't Saunders. She better play by the rules to be safe, no matter how much she wanted to tell him she loved him. If they lost Caje, Doc, and Saunders, and Kirby had to go to another squad - she bit her lip.
"I'm sorry, ma'am." Beckley said, misunderstanding. "We'll get you back as quick as we can. That knee has to hurt."
Littlejohn was holding Alex's hand, and he looked like he'd been crying. "They just gave her another shot." He whispered to Kirby. "She's in a lot of pain, and she's said some crazy stuff."
Kirby sat down carefully in the chair on the other side of the bed. "I wish they'd let us know something about Doc. He's got to be ok -" he bit his lip, looked at Littlejohn, tears welling in his own eyes.
"She thinks about things different than we do." The giant said. "And I don't know how to tell her she didn't do anything wrong."
"Me either." Kirby very gently laid his hand on her shoulder. "Did the Dr. say anything?"
"For her to relax and stop worrying about everybody else. He did say that Caje wasn't gonna die, did they tell you?"
Kirby let out a long sigh and his shoulders slumped, and Littlejohn realized they hadn't. "He keeps asking for his wife. I don't know what the hell to tell him." He swiped at his eyes. "I didn't even know he was married, did you?"
Littlejohn shook his head, reached for his crutches. " I had to trade with McCall. I couldn't listen to him crying. That's just not Caje. I'll let you have some privacy." He tried to gently untangle his hand from Alex's.
"Don't wake her up." Kirby shook his head at him. "McCall is still with Caje. He said he'd come and get me, if -" he let his voice trail off. "You sure Caje is gonna make it?"
"Unless they lied to her." Littlejohn mouthed at him, and Kirby slumped back in his chair, tears starting.
"I should have made her give that gun to McCall."
" You start tryin' to make that woman do anything, you're gonna be in a world of hurt."
Kirby swiped the tears from his face, remembering back about a hundred years ago when Jinglebob had told him something similar. "You don't make a mule or a woman do anything. You ask them, nicely. Or you just may be paying for it the rest of your life." He sighed. "I'd rather she was mad at me. She really tore her knee up. At least her leg isn't broken."
"How bad did the Lieutenant chew you out?"
Kirby shrugged. "You wouldn't believe how those kids took up for me. I don't know what Alex told them before they found us, but they said they wanted to call General Taggart and one of them said something that made Hanley turn green. It must have been some kind of code, but he just told them to get cleaned up and get some rest while he sorted everything out on the radio."
"I don't have to worry about you gettin' court martialed?" When Kirby shook his head, Littlejohn started to grin. "Who's Patty?"
Kirby shook his head. "Don't have a clue."
"Well evidently, Patty is going to marry Doc, but neither one of them know it. And Caje is gonna marry Ruthie."
"I guess Al doesn't know Caje is married either." Kirby couldn't stop his own grin forming. "Caje and my sister? Where does she come up with this stuff?"
" She and Mavey are making banana pudding instead of wedding cake. And she said something about the Lieutenant that I couldn't understand."
"I can imagine." Kirby shook his head. "Man, I wish she didn't hate him so much."
They both drifted in their own thoughts for awhile, then they heard voices speaking in French. "That sounds like McCall." Kirby said.
Littlejohn realized that the voice answering Caje did sound familiar. He shot Kirby a confused look. "You mean all this time he spoke French and he never said anything?"
Kirby shook his head in puzzlement, and got up to see. McCall had his hand on Caje's wrist, and the two of them were having a rapid fire conversation. When they finally stopped, Kirby looked at McCall strangely. "How come you didn't tell the Sarge you speak French? All this time –" the look on the man's face stopped him.
"I don't speak French, Kirby. You need to get some sleep." McCall looked at him like he was nuts. "And you might want to grab a shower. I know Alex loves you, but you're filthy."
Caje asked something, and McCall answered him, still speaking French. Kirby just shook his head and went back to Alex.
Saunders groaned, tried to open his eyes.
"Just take it easy, Saunders." He knew the voice but he couldn't place it. "You're in the hospital. All your men made it back. Just rest."
Saunders groaned again, and lapsed back into unconsciousness.
"He lost a lot of blood." The nurse looked at Hanley. "He'll be alright, it's just going to be awhile."
Hanley nodded, leaned back in his chair.
It seemed like hours later when Saunders stirred again. "Damn that woman."
Hanley agreed with him, but he didn't realize he was grinning.
"Lieutenant?" Saunders blinked, tried to get his eyes to focus.
"It's alright, Saunders. You're in the hospital. Everybody made it back."
"Damn that woman. I'm going to strangle her."
Hanley chuckled. "You might want to re-think threatening an officer. Though I do agree with you."
"Caje?" Saunders asked, trying to sit up.
"Caje is going to be fine. Littlejohn just had a flesh wound."
"Doc." Saunders groaned, tears forming in his eyes.
"We're still waiting to hear about Doc. They took him to the rear. Don't give up on him yet."
"Everybody else ok?"
"Alex stepped in a hole and messed up her knee, but she'll be ok in a couple weeks. Kirby and McCall didn't get a scratch, and those kids came thru just fine too."
"It's not Kirby's fault." Saunders forced the words out. "Alex tried to pull rank on me, and I know she did it with the guys -"
"It's not Kirby's fault that anybody got shot." Hanley was trying to keep a straight face. "Don't worry, Saunders, none of your men are in trouble. Try and get some rest."
"Sir? " When Brockmeyer didn't get any response, "Sir?" he lightly tapped Hanley on the shoulder.
Hanley jumped, startled. He hadn't really been asleep, just lost in his thoughts.
"They said Doc came thru the surgery just fine. He's already sitting up in bed demanding to get back to his squad." Brockmeyer grinned at him. "You told me to wake you when the message came thru."
Hanley raked his hand across his eyes. "What time is it?"
"0200."
"I can't wake everybody in the hospital up." Hanley sighed. It would just have to wait. He didn't know what time it had been when one of the nurses threatened to have him thrown out if he didn't leave.
He heard a woman crying. He was dreaming again. Morphine always made him float off somewhere. Sometimes to wonderful places. Sometimes to hell. He heard a woman crying. That was Alex. Crying because Kirby had had to go back to the line. "No." he tried to shake the fuzziness from his head. She might shed a few tears, but she wouldn't cry like that because her man had had to go back to the War. She was a soldier. And then it hit him. Doc was dead. And she was blaming herself. As mad as he was at her, he couldn't let her do it. Doc was dead because he had disobeyed Saunders orders AGAIN! rushing out into the field of fire to aid an injured soldier. Doc was dead because he was a brave, wonderful, compassionate man.
Saunders choked back his own tears, stuffed his fist in his mouth and bit it hard. He was not going to hold Alex West while she cried. The hell he wasn't. It was his fault that Doc was dead. He should have slugged him the first time he'd disobeyed orders and gone to aid an injured soldier. He shook his head. Punching Doc might well have gotten him his own ass handed back to him on a platter. At first he had had no idea what a brawler his mild mannered medic was. Until the day a careless recruit had stepped on one of Doc's patients. Doc had laid him cold with one well placed punch. The squad had looked at him in stunned shock, except for Kirby, who'd laughed his ass off.
He could barely make out what Alex was saying. He hadn't realized she'd lost a recruit. He knew he'd never forget the first kid he'd lost. Sometimes he had nightmares about all the kids he'd lost. They all ran together and their heads got pasted on the wrong bodies - he'd wake up sweating. He did not want that happening to Alex, pain in the ass she might be. Kirby, under orders, would have left Saunders to die. He might not have liked it, but he would have done it. He might even have left Caje, since Alex was involved. None of them would have left Doc though. Saunders knew he needed to say something to Alex. "Thank you for saving my life," seemed inadequate. It would destroy his Mother and The Brat if anything happened to him.
He'd only been half conscious when Beckley's medic had jammed a needle in his arm, and he'd heard the man mutter, "Dammit, Saunders, you might have run out of luck this time." He hadn't been afraid back in the firefight. He'd already accepted he was dying. But when Alex had given him some hope - He did not want to die. His family needed him. His men - Hall was the only Sergeant who would have Kirby, and he already had a BAR man. Nobody else would understand that even though Littlejohn was big and sometimes clumsy, he would never let you down when you really needed him. Doc would have been court martialed for disobeying orders. After McCall had cracked, nobody else would risk having him in their squad. Sending the man home or to a desk job would finish him off. And Caje - Caje would never fit in anywhere else. Too many of the other guys still didn't trust him because he was different -
"Well, honey," a voice with a slight Arkansas twang said, "The sad truth out here is if kids don't follow orders, they die. Nobody expected you to walk point, babysit, and guard the rear. The Sarge has all of us to help him, and we still lose kids. Don't be blaming yourself."
Saunders choked back a sob. He would know that voice anywhere. He staggered around the corner.
Doc was sitting on Alex's bed with her in his arms, talking quietly to her. "Hey, Sarge, I don't think you're supposed to be out of bed." The devil actually winked at him. His head was bandaged, and he had some deep gouges on his face, but he'd been having a conversation with Alex. He wasn't going to be a vegetable.
"Doc –" Saunders started, and choked. He was going to break down into tears himself.
"You ok, Blondie?" Alex asked.
"I swear." One of the nurses said as she rounded the corner. "I will be glad to get rid of you." She glared at Saunders. " None of your men do what they're told. You're worse than they are. He - " she pointed at Doc, "cried because they wouldn't let him leave on the first truck back here after he'd just had major surgery!"
"I didn't really -" Doc stopped, looked sheepish.
"Did you tell your lady friend what you DID?"
"She's not my lady." Doc said. "She's a lady, and she's a friend, but she belongs to somebody else."
Alex brushed the tears off her face and laughed. "What did you do?"
"Nothing." Doc said.
"He left the hospital. He snuck a ride on a truck. They couldn't find him anywhere." The nurse crossed her arms and glared at Doc, then turned to Saunders. "I will be so glad to ship your squad out of here. The giant won't stay in bed. The Frenchman cries all the time. And your damn Lieutenant is constantly underfoot running between all of you."
"We need to go sit with Caje!" Alex said, sliding toward the side of the bed.
"You need to lie still and rest that knee. And you two need to be in bed." The nurse glared at Saunders. "Do I need to get a couple orderlies to take you, or can you get there by yourself?
"Alex, it's not your fault -" Saunders started, then wondered what he was trying to say.
"I knew it." The nurse said, grabbing him as he started to crumple. "ORDERLY!"
When Saunders came to, he was in a bed, between Littlejohn and Caje. And both of his hands were restrained. He gritted his teeth, cussed under his breath.
"Me too, Sarge." Littlejohn said, and grinned at him. Saunders figured the damn nurse had had all of them tied down. Well, it wasn't the first time.
The crying was what had woke him up. He looked over perplexed at Caje. Doc's bed was pushed up almost against it, and the medic had his hand on the scout's arm, talking to him softly.
"It's not the poor guy's fault." A voice came from a bed across the room. "They finally figured out they got some bad medicine. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with me, but I couldn't stop bawlin'."
Saunders blinked, finally managed to focus on the voice. The man was a Major in S2, if he wasn't mistaken. He knew that people in intelligence were everywhere, an officer usually wouldn't have been in a ward full of enlisted men.
"He must really love his wife." The voice continued. And then he said something in French. Saunders didn't have clue what, but it seemed soft and soothing, and Caje's sobs quieted.
"Thank you." Saunders mouthed at the Major, and the man just nodded at him.
"He got really upset when your man had to leave." The Major said. "As long as he has a French speaking voice talking to him, he's ok."
"Huh?" Saunders asked, confused.
"McCall speaks French, Sarge. Really good." Littlejohn said. "I don't think he even knew he was doing it."
"Damn." Saunders thought, sinking back into his pillow. He had had no idea that Caje was married. He suspected that Kirby and Alex might be, but he wasn't getting involved in that. How many secrets did they all keep from each other?