a/n: Thank you guys for the great response and thank you to every one of you who reviewed! I linked a picture of the necklace Caroline's dad gave her on my profile in case some of you wanted to see it! This one is for my girl Kirsten (dockfangirl) whom I fangirl with everyday. We kill each other with feels. She's the Damon to my Alaric. :)
The man screams as she pours the alcohol on his arm. He's loud enough to wake the entire base and she soothes him as she begins to wrap up his burn. He has just been caught on the edges of a grenade bomb and just misses getting blown to bits. His name is Matt and he explains the fear that he felt just before he thought his life was ending. He cries softly as he speaks to Caroline, careful to keep his tears hidden from his fellow soldiers.
"I enlisted because I wasn't afraid to die." He whispers through his tears. "I was ready to die for our country. But now," He breathes deeply as he pauses. "I can't remember why I ever thought that in the first place."
She finishes wrapping his arm and lets her hand linger there. "You're strong. Stronger than you can imagine. Either way you're a hero." She sees his face relax and the tears have dried and she softly smiles at him.
"You have a beautiful smile Miss Forbes." She almost rolls her eyes at the compliment but instead smiles and looks over at Elena who is watching with a playful smile from three beds away. Caroline pats his arm and tells him to get some rest before she heads over to Elena.
"You have an admirer." Elena says quietly as she changes the clothes on a man. He moved at her every touch, he looked exhausted, groggy, weak and Caroline frowned as she saw the condition he was in.
"The morphine is apparently too strong for him." Caroline says, making sure he can't hear. "Are you ready for the night shift?" Caroline asks, trying to stir the conversation away from her.
"No, not here in France." Elena says nonchalantly, keeping her eyes strained on the patient below her. "Don't you worry, Caroline." She tried to protest when Elena paused. "Don't. You just go back to the tents and get your rest. Tomorrow is a new day." Elena finally looks up and sheepishly smiles at the blonde in front of her.
Caroline hesitates for just a moment, but the exhaustion her body feels causes her to back up. She thinks of sleep and how nice it must be in a real bed instead of the cot she's been sleeping on for weeks now. But she settles for her cot because her eyes are drooping as she's walking to the tent not far from the tent for the wounded.
It is then when she sees him standing outside one of the tents as a guard. She almost misses him in her state of tiredness. Almost. Her mysterious soldier from before.
She stands up straighter now and walks with what she hopes is more confidence. She only glances once, maybe twice to see if he's watching. He is. She can't see the emotion in his face due to the lack of light but somehow she knows it isn't as different as it was before. Dangerous, mysterious. When she remembers the look in his eyes she speeds up her pace. She can see the nurses tent in front of her. It's so close but it couldn't be more far away. She glances back once more to find that he's switching with another man there. He's tall, but not quite as tall, he is muscular but he looks gentle and she relaxes as she finally reaches the tent and steps into her cot for the rest that she has been longing for.
It soon becomes the night she never gets through. Tossing and turning on the uncomfortable surface. Restless nights had been no stranger to her these past few weeks. Audible cries had tortured her thoughts every night since joined. She hears the screaming, the painful cries and cringes. She shuts her eyes tight, trying her best to block them out just for one night.
Caroline sits up and looks to the cot next to her where Elena would be sleeping if she didn't have the night shift. She wonders how much time has passed, how much time she spent cursing the night for not allowing her to fall asleep once again. The girl across from her is snoring loudly and Caroline envies her ability to sleep in the madness.
She sighs deeply and throws her blanket away from her, baring her skin for the chill air of the night. She steps into her shoes and wears her coat as she makes her way out of the tent. She pushes open the tent and sees some of the soldiers standing guard around each tent. Even though this goes against protocol, she can't bring her exhausted self to care enough so she decides to take a walk figuring that if no one sees her she should be fine.
She walks slowly around the tent and pretends as if she's walking back to help the injured people but instead, when no one's looking, she turns to the right instead of going straight. She finds herself between two tents and finds that she's just walking around in circles. There isn't much elsewhere she can go. When she makes another turn she runs into a hard figure. Her forehead hitting the man's cheekbone.
"Oh." She says surprised as she rubs her forehead. When she removes her hand she sees that the figure she just ran into happened to be the mysterious soldier. Her encounters with him had been humiliating all day.
"Hello again, Love." He says as he rubs his cheek with his free hand. The other holds his gun. He stares at her baffled face, her mouth slightly agape and he smirks. "You shouldn't be out this late. Not unless you're working in the infirmary tent. But I'm afraid by the looks of it, you're defying basic protocol." He watches her throat bob as she swallows and looks to the ground.
"I needed some fresh air." Caroline says lamely. She is all too aware of his hard stare. He makes no attempts at hiding the fact that he's searching for her eyes each time she looks away.
He nods understandably. "It's not safe, but something tells me you don't care." She stares at him with a wary look in her eyes waiting for him to continue. "Make no mistake, sweetheart. You should be very afraid." His tone turns dark and menacing. His voice holds a husky tone as he speaks. She went from finding it fearful and enticing, to finding it laughable.
She scoffs and rolls her eyes. "With all of the big strong men out here, what reason do I have to be afraid?" She says with a caustic tone as she tries to sidestep him. He moves in front of her and chuckles.
He smirks, actually finding her mockery amusing. "Quite disparaging there aren't we?"
She whispers a meek and quiet "Excuse me." As she tries to sidestep him again and this time he lets her. He turns to look at her as she walks away and she can feel his stare burning holes into the back of her head. She turns around and watches him swing his gun around his back as he runs to catch up. Caroline turns to her front and ignores him.
"Why don't you allow me to walk you back?" When he receives no answer he decides to continue. "We wouldn't want you to have another run in with someone other than me. They might not be as understanding as I am." She scoffs, and embarrassingly trips and loses her balance. He catches her arm to steady her. "Or perhaps I should just walk with you to ensure that you don't fall. You seem to be quite the clumsy one."
Caroline begins to imagine all the ways she wants to die right now to escape this moment. He only laughs as she clears her throat. "Well if you insist." She whispers, crossing her arms figuring that if she were to say or do anything else she might humiliate herself further. She had embarrassed herself far too much today. She notices that he has yet to remove his arm from her elbow. He guides her to the nurse's tent. She hadn't noticed how far away she was until he walked her back.
"Caroline!" She hears Elena's voice call her name. She almost ignores Elena for the sole reason of not wanting the soldier to know her name but decided against it. She stops and turns to her friend. His arm slowly grazes down hers before he pulls it away once he reaches her wrist. He doesn't miss the way her breath hitches. His hand is still hovering next to hers as Elena catches up. "My shift just ended." Elena says as she eyes the man next to her friend. "Were you having trouble sleeping again?" Elena asks worriedly.
Caroline nods and ignores the raised eyebrows Elena throws at her. The silence is broken when he speaks up. "It appears you have some sleep to catch up on." He faces Caroline as his index finger outstretches to reach her hand. His fingers wrap around hers as he lifts her hand to his lips. "Good night, Caroline." He places a soft kiss to her knuckles and suddenly she is no longer cold as the heat rushes up her arms and to her cheeks. He smiles at both girls. A smile that appears so innocent because of his dimples. If you weren't paying close attention, you wouldn't notice that the look behind his eyes is everything but innocent.
Caroline was paying close attention.
"You're really not going to tell me your mysterious soldier's name?" Elena asked as they dressed for their shifts today.
Caroline sighed. "I don't know it." She had tried to explain this all morning but her friend hadn't believed her. "Everything about him tells me he's dangerous anyway. I won't be speaking to him for the remainder of our time here anyway."
"I think he's charming." Elena shrugs as she puts on her shoes and Caroline scoffs.
They make their way towards the tent where the screams are much louder today. They watch as men are carried in one by one. The other nurses are scrambling to help and one runs to their sleeping tent to call the others.
"What happened?" Caroline shouted after her but she kept running trying to rally up all of the nurses to go help. Caroline and Elena rushed to the tent and saw the depression inside. There were cries of pain and many of the men shouted.
One other nurse is now walking next to them as she carries gauze in her hands and speaks, "The allies were crossing the English channel to invade the beaches of Normandy. They're bringing in the injured."
Caroline and Elena both immediately get to work helping everyone around them. It's crowded and she feels as if she can't breathe, she can't see. She just does. She doesn't think as she rushes to help as many injured soldiers as she can.
She holds in her tears as she witnesses the chaos before her. She has always been aware of the tragic events that happen in war but this has been the first time a tragedy this large has occurred since her arrival. She touches her necklace subconsciously and replays her father's words. For safe keeping. For luck. She prays that her necklace brings not just her, but the soldiers luck to make it out of this war alive.
One man grabs her wrist as she walks past him. "Please." He whispers. She leans closer to him to inspect his wounds. He points to his chest which is covered by gauze and other fabrics. She lifts it slightly and gasps.
"Oh my god." She whispers. He has deep gaping scratches all along his chest. In most places, his skin has been completely ripped off.
In cases like these, not many know what to do. She wondered why he had been ignored and she now knows. They probably thought he was a lost cause and she's disgusted at this fact. The least a person could do is try and make him comfortable. He winces as she removes the fabric completely. She grabs clean gauze to wrap around his body. The man winces at each touch.
His eyes droop shut as she finishes. He whispers, "Thank you." He can barely choke it out but she understands what he's trying to say. She begins to clean up the minor wounds on his arms.
She lingers longer than she should, staring at the man lying beneath her. Her eyebrows furrow and she shakes her head dismissing her thoughts.
When she turns to go help the others she spots Matt who has now been moved to another cot across the room. He is wincing and shouting at the nurses for being too rough. She makes her way over to him and tells the nurse working on him that she'll take over.
He opens his eyes and smiles as he sees her. "Miss Forbes, the nurse with the beautiful smile." She rolls her eyes and eyes his new wounds. She furrows her brows.
"Why are these fresh? What on earth were you even doing out there?" She asks. The creases in his forehead tell her that he doesn't understand. "You were supposed to be resting in here from your wounds yesterday. How did you-" She trails off not understanding how he had ever been involved in the invasion.
"I was here all night." Matt says sounding sure of himself.
"Then where did these come from?" She points to the scratches on his face as another nurse bumps into his waste next to him. She apologizes frantically as he cringes and shoos her off. Caroline raises her eyebrows and lifts his shirt to see that there are more wounds on the side of his waist.
They are large, gaping scratches similar to the other man but not quite as serious. She couldn't have missed these yesterday. It was impossible to miss these. She shakes her head slowly, confused more than ever. She starts to clean the blood surrounding the scratch as Matt grimaces and shuts his eyes tight.
" No. No. No." She whispers to herself repeatedly. She swallows deeply as she runs through the possibilities. Elena begins to tend to another man's wounds next to Matt.
"This is a catastrophe." Elena whispers. "What weapons were used on some of these men?" She looks at Caroline who is still shaking her head.
"Caroline. Some of these injuries," She pauses and looks at the wound on Matt. "Injuries like his, they don't even look like gun wounds."
A doctor walks over to the man Elena is helping. He holds his hand against his wrist and looks at Elena and shakes his head with a solemn look. Elena nods and covers him with a dark green blanket.
Caroline looks up at Elena who is staring at her with a scared, confused look. Her eyes move across the room where she spots the soldier from last night. He is watching everything around him with a blank stare as another man leans into his ear to speak. He sees Caroline across the room and doesn't remove his eyes from hers. It's as if he's trying to hold eye contact with her for as long as he can. It takes almost everything she can to pull her eyes away from his and back to Elena, though she can feel his gaze on her as she watches her friend.
Caroline looks back down at Matt who appears to be trying his hardest to not scream as she cleans his wounds. She momentarily stops cleaning and stares at his wound. When she looks back up at Elena she opens her mouth as her brain tries to form words.
"Elena," she whispers, "These aren't gun wounds and they aren't knife wounds either." She pulls her deep stare away from the man lying lifeless beneath her friend. "This is an animal attack."
a/n: This is actually one of my favorite chapters to write so I hope you guys liked it. I hope it didn't seem forced because I was just itching to get to the parts I was excited to write. Please review! Whether it is good or bad. I enjoy constructive criticism and honesty. :)
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I also got nominated for nicest blog for the klaroline awards on tumblr. It'd be cool if you guys with tumblr voted :)
