Here's another one, yet instead of this one being a missing scene, it's my take on a scene that's totally in the show. It's the ending for The Flame Grows Higher, which has always been a favorite of mine.
All the spoken lines from when Klink says- "Sergeant, Colonel Hogan"- and on? Those are directly from the show. I own nothing at all. :)
Klink read the communique over several times, completely unable to believe his eyes. After that disaster with the fire-not to mention the screaming over the walkie-talkie-he had been certain that General Burkhalter would have his head for the entire fiasco, once again blaming him.
Yet a commendation?
For Schultz?
He simply couldn't believe it, and he couldn't believe that Schultz had won it honorably. Honestly, he sometimes wondered if Schultz wasn't bribing the prisoners to make him look good in front of people, for it seemed to happen a ridiculous amount.
Then his gaze lit upon a note that Burkhalter had added for him, and his eyes bugged once more. A combat unit? The Russian Front?! Did the General even remember who Schultz was? Surely he did! Surely he was joking!
That would be a death sentence even for a far younger and fitter man.
No. Klink shook his head to physically rid himself of the ramifications. He would not send anyone there, much less a colleague and sometimes friend. Schultz was a father of five, after all. What would his children do?
Hogan was a fool. Making Schultz look that good in front of the Gestapo? What was he thinking?! Did he want the man killed?
No, it couldn't be. The portly sergeant had established quite a rapport with the prisoners since even before he'd been promoted. Surely Hogan didn't want him gone.
Klink scowled, getting ready to rip up the paper, bothered with his Senior POW officer. The infuriating man had not been forthcoming when answering questions about the fire, and Sergeant Schultz had agreed with him every step of the way, declaring and repeating several times that he knew nothing.
Well, something had happened, and Klink was tired of being left out of the happenings in his own camp-
He paused suddenly in his actions, his frown quivering as a thought struck him. Perhaps there was a way to get them to tell him, or at least get back at them ...
A positively diabolical smile lit his face at the ramifications. Yes. It just might work ...
"Langenscheidt!" He bellowed, and the corporal entered almost instantly from where he had been guarding the door. "Bring me Sergeant Schultz and Colonel Hogan this instant!"
"Jawohl, Herr kommandant!" The younger man saluted and left rapidly, leaving Klink to think his plan over, tapping the communique against the desk as he did so.
He absently wondered how the smug American would react to the news. He felt as though he could guess what Schultz would do, but hoped that Hogan would at least be blindsided by the news. Otherwise he wouldn't know how to get them right where he wanted them ... so to speak.
He didn't have long to wait though, as the American was barging through his door moments later without so much as a knock, Schultz puffing at his heels.
"You wanted to see us, Kommandant?"
"Yes." He stood smoothly, holding the paper slightly tilted away from them, making certain that the nosy American couldn't read it before he announced it (again). "Sergeant, Colonel Hogan, I have called you to hear a special communication by General Burkhalter."
"But- but, but- but I have done nothing!" Schultz immediately spluttered, panicked, "I am not guilty!"
"You haven't heard it yet!" He scowled for good measure at the blubbering Sergeant, always annoyed at the man's propensity to declare his innocence and idiocy when Klink was attempting to be dramatic. "At the suggestion of the Gestapo, Sergeant Schultz is hereby commended for efficiency in the performance of his duty."
"But I'm not guilty!" Schultz repeated it, and Klink saw Hogan grin slightly as he intervened,
"Of course you are, Schultz! Guilty of efficiency in guarding us while we were fighting the fire!"
Realization began dawning on Schultz's face, rippling his cheeks with slight relief before Klink interrupted, feeling only a little bad for having to scare him again, "Just a moment, the General has also added a note to me! 'Shouldn't a good man like Sergeant Schultz be transferred to a combat unit? I leave it to your discretion' …" He paused for effect, gauged the reactions of the men before him as he grinned quite happily, "More good news, eh Schultz?"
Hogan's eyes went wide for a split second, with shock and another emotion that Klink couldn't define, then narrowed to watch Schultz. His smile never left his face, though, looking as smug as ever.
There was an almost imperceptible pause as the sergeant took a breath, his eyes watering as he replied in a small voice, "I'm so happy, ... I could cry."
A little bubble of guilt popped in Klink's heart at the expression on his emotional sergeant's face. Truly the General was mad to think of sending him to that immediate death. Yet Klink held his ground, refusing to back down or stop smiling.
Klink waited to see Hogan defend him, or perhaps ask if the General was feeling well. He waited.
Yet he was now the one to be shocked and horrified as the American grinned fully and flippantly, "Good luck, Schultz! Some of those new panzer units are fun, especially at the Russian Front." The American's gaze never left the sergeant as he finished with twinkling eyes, "I understand that they have a tank in your size now!"
"Please, Colonel Hogan!" Schultz looked as though he would promptly be needing to use the trash bin by Klink's desk.
Klink was horrified, however. Whatever he had expected his prisoner to do, it hadn't been this. This was betrayal! Klink had planned on stringing them out a little as his Sergeant begged not to go and the American inexplicably defended him. ... Hogan always defended him!
But this?
He'd recently learned the expression from Hogan, "to kick a man when he is down," but never had he seen it so ruthlessly applied. It was a fact that Hogan and his men created many problems. Yet it was also a fact that it was (for some reason) a lot calmer when Schultz was around.
"You'd like to see him out of here wouldn't you, Hogan?" He moved forward swiftly, unable to believe that the American could be so flippant with another man's life, enemy or not.
"Well, I- I wouldn't-" The Colonel began, obviously beginning to backtrack.
"So you can make a shambles of our famous discipline here at Stalag XIII!" Klink said the words automatically, as it was something he always referred to. But he couldn't believe that the man would so callously dismiss the life of Schultz.
It was Schultz, of course, but he was a good man! Klink had thought that they were friends in their own way, and yet now he could see that truly, all was fair in love and war.
"it's uncanny the way he gets into a man's mind!" Hogan's tone had gone up, and Klink felt it grate against his nerves.
How he could be so open about his obvious dismissal of Schultz's life?!
"Hogan, you are an open book to me!" He said it, trying to put meaning behind it, but found that he couldn't. It came out as though he supposed he knew everything about the American Colonel, yet he had just discovered that he really knew nothing. "I'm sorry Sergeant Schultz, you cannot be transferred. We need you here."
At least Schultz was happy, his face lighting up with a ready smile even as Hogan muttered.
"Tough luck, Schultz."
He looked at them both for a moment longer before quickly saluting, unable to stand the tension that had filled the room. "Dis-missed!"
"Jawohl, Herr Kommandant!" The smile left Schultz's face then as he promptly returned the salute, with Hogan repeating it sloppily. Then the slimy American pranced out as though he hadn't just thrown his friend under a car knowing that neither would survive.
Klink caught Schultz's eye as the sergeant closed the door, and the man made a face, as if he were hiding something, and were terrified that Klink knew it.
But Klink didn't know. He didn't understand at all.
He had thought that he'd understood the relationship between his Senior POW and his Sergeant of the Guard ... but it was now obvious that he didn't. It was easy to forget sometimes, but Hogan really was the enemy.
He distantly heard the door close through his cracked window, and could hear the two of them leaving. He was ready to forget them both as he began to rip the note from Burkhalter, only to pause as the sergeant spoke quietly.
"Colonel Hogan, ... I saw what you did." So Schultz had noticed. Klink had almost been afraid that he hadn't, and yet he felt worse for Schultz now. Surely the poor man must feel as though he lost a friend, just as Klink had fe- "Danke."
The Kommandant's waterfall of thoughts halted with that one word, the sincerity and the smile both bleeding through to confuse him. He didn't even have time to wonder why Schultz would thank Hogan after what he'd done when the American replied,
"Schultz, I dunno how you'd get through this war without me." Hogan's voice was smiling as well, and sounded completely genuine, deepening Klink's frown.
"I don't know." Schultz agreed with a sigh, even as Klink began to go over their previous conversation in his mind, scouring for something he'd apparently missed. "... Colonel Hogan, if you ever escape …"
"Yeah, Schultz?" Hogan sounded amused, and Klink heard a fondness in his voice that reminded him of the American's shocked look at his earlier announcement to them both.
"Be a good fellow, and take me with you." The sentiment was simple and sincere, and Klink heard a clear laugh in reply, swallowing the response from the Colonel.
Klink could almost feel the emotion in the air as the two of them moved out of hearing range, and sat at his desk in shock, attempting to understand what had happened.
It was only moments later when the answer hit him, and a smile twitched at his lips.
He'd been played again.
And for the first time, ... he didn't mind.
So, this turned out much longer than the first one, but I hope you liked it. I just love that scene so much, and I guess without the laugh track, it could be a lot more serious.
Then again, so could a lot of the show.
Poor Schultz. He gets so emotionally abused so often, that I love those moments when the guys stick up for him. ... Hence these two chapters ... I think they stick up for him a lot. :)
'Til next time, guys. Pass all suggestions my way, please.
