I forgot to put in the AN that this would be early enough that Carter has not arrived yet, sorry Carter fans!


CHAPTER 2

In the early morning, Hogan was up and stoking the potbelly stove in the main room of the barracks as the men slowly got up and dressed for roll call. The barracks guard would arrive any minute so there was a bit of a scramble as men got their clothing on. The colonel turned in time to see Newkirk drawing his uniform sweater on. The man was skin and bones. Even across the room he could see him shivering already.

"Excuse me, Colonel." The short Frenchman politely nudged him aside to get a battered coffeepot onto the top of the stove. "I apologize, but no one will be happy if there is no coffee when we get back inside."

"Sorry, didn't mean to impede progress. Thank you for making the coffee, Corporal LeBeau." Hogan stepped back. "Where do you get your supply?"

"Mostly Red Cross packages." LeBeau bustled about then went to grab his own coat and scarf. "We keep the coffee all together, it's just easier than each guy trying to make his own."

"Makes sense." Hogan noted that even if LeBeau was tiny compared to all the other men, he still looked strong enough. His head barely reached Hogan's shoulder though. "I heard you cooked too. I'm trying to get some better rations. I know there's really not enough to go around right now."

LeBeau started to speak up but a heavily accented voice cut in. "Well, it's good fer you to notice that. There's never enough food but we do manage, don't we boys?" Newkirk was giving Hogan a dark look. "No one here goes 'ungry less we all do."

"I wasn't implying anything other..." Hogan trailed off as the man had already turned aside to begin chastising another prisoner who'd crawled back into his bunk. He shut up and listened as Newkirk's combination of badgering and cajoling got the tired looking young man onto his feet.

Before he could catch Newkirk's attention to try to clarify his comments, the barrack's door banged open and the guard began bellowing at them all in German and broken English. Hogan headed towards the doorway but paused when the guard zeroed in on the smaller LeBeau to wave his rifle while shouting.

Just as Hogan started to try to make his way over, he saw Newkirk push his way towards the door himself, his shoulder knocking LeBeau out of his way carelessly. He then bumped into the guard. "Sorry, Fritz.. why're you always in me way, go on, raus, raus!" The Cockney accent didn't mesh well with German words. "Schnell Fritz..." Newkirk mimicked the guard's own words and waved his arms about in a mockery.

Even Hogan knew it was a poor idea for a joke. Apparently the guard felt the same and used the butt of the rifle to knock the Englishman towards the door with a sharp thump in his ribcage. "Roll call! Raus, Englander!"

"Hey now, I'm goin! Don't be all shovin' me!" Newkirk snapped at the guard while moving along. He drew his coat further around himself as he stepped through the door, pushing LeBeau ahead of him now.

Hogan blinked as he went through the door himself. Somehow in the mass of confusion caused by Newkirk's antics, almost all the men had made it outside. He walked down the line to take his place at the end. Newkirk was standing next to him, yelling at the guards and barking laughter as some of the others tried to mess up the count by calling out numbers in German.

"Newkirk! Quiet down." Hogan raised his voice slightly. "Quiet down, men!" Most of the noise stopped and he tucked his hands deeper into his pockets. The last thing they needed was one man getting the whole group into trouble. He'd have to chat with him about encouraging behavior that might call punishment down on the whole barracks.

"Right-o sir." Newkirk eyed him sideways with a bit of sour amusement. "Wouldn't want to make any ruckus for the Germans, then."

"I said... quiet." Hogan glared at the younger man and watched him smirk back. The American colonel was not used to having direct orders mocked by anyone. Most of the RAF he'd served with were extremely good about protocol. Of course, he'd dealt mostly with fellow officers. When he gave a harsh look, generally the man realized he was in trouble.

He glanced aside at the man a few more times. He couldn't seem to stand still, rocking back and forth while huddling inside the greatcoat. When he put his hands up to tug the lapels higher up around his ears, Hogan could see his arms shaking violently with cold. Even though Hogan only wore a flight jacket, he wasn't feeling the chill that badly. He looked at LeBeau next to Newkirk and saw him stamping his feet but not shaking with cold like his friend. A quick survey confirmed that Kinch was right, the Englishman was feeling the cold worse than anyone else.

By the time Klink had come out to receive the report, Hogan was growing alarmed. Newkirk had stopped moving around and now stood still except for the violent shaking. He'd wrapped both arms around himself and had his eyes closed as he waited. "Hang in there, Newkirk."

The blue eyes opened to glare at him. "I'm fine." Touchy was right. Hogan shut up and simply hoped that they would be dismissed quickly.

To Hogan's frustration, Klink had some sort of discussion with the barracks' guards before he finally dismissed them. Then the barrack's guard had to come back to them to dismiss the prisoners as well. The men all stumbled their way inside, many voicing complaints on the way.

Inside the hut, the stove had brought the temperatures up slightly and everyone settled around it trying to warm up. Hogan was given a seat next to the stove and he warmed his hands up while surreptitiously checking to see where everyone ended up. He wasn't surprised when the little Frenchman ended up next to the stove as well, but watched Newkirk settle in at the outside ring next to Kinch on a lower bunk. The man was shuddering with cold but shook his head when Kinchloe spoke to him, obviously trying to pretend that he was still 'fine'.

Hogan leaned back in the chair and then looked around the crowded room before 'spotting' Kinch in the back. He stood up awkwardly and then waved at a surprised Newkirk. "Hey, sorry, Newkirk, can you swap seats with me, I need to talk to Kinch... just for a couple minutes? Thanks." Without waiting for a reply, he began edging between people to make his way back.

To his relief, Newkirk simply looked confused and nodded back. "Sure." He stumbled a few times before he made it up to Hogan's abandoned seat. Hands reached out on the way, steadying him from falling. Once he was settled into the chair, he began chatting with LeBeau and some of the others.

Hogan tugged his jacket closer around himself as he took a seat on the edge of the bunk next to Kinchloe. After a moment, Kinch raised an eyebrow. "Well? What was it you wanted, sir?"

"Hmm?" Hogan looked over. "Oh, I wanted to get Newkirk next to the stove. He was half-frozen."

Kinch furrowed his brow looking over to Newkirk and back to Hogan again. "But..." His expression cleared. "Well now, that was as slick a con as I've seen."

"After what you said, I doubt he would have just let me put him there because he was cold." Kinch nodded and Hogan continued. "You can call it, Operation Win Friends if you want."

"That was a good first round, and I'd definitely say you won it outright." Kinch smiled. "I think you may work out just fine after all."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Later on I'm going to go try to work the same kind of subtle magic on Klink. Rations are going to have to improve, it's too cold for anyone to survive on so little." Hogan leaned back, wrapping his hands around one knee. He looked at Kinchloe with curiosity. "So since I'm supposed to be talking to you, why are you defending him so much?"

"Because he's my friend." Kinch folded his hands together and looked at them. "Sir, I was the first black POW in this camp. You have no idea how it was when I got here. Everyone was either scared of me or hated me. Even the other prisoners didn't know how to deal with me." He gave Hogan a little half smile. "You may have noticed, I'm not a small person either."

"I did seem to pick up something about that, about when I had to look up to see your face." Hogan nodded for Kinch to continue.

"Well, the first three days I was here, this one scrawny English dude made it his purpose in life to make me miserable. Followed me around and made sniping comments to me, walked in front of me to make me have to stop dead to keep from stepping on him... just a general nuisance. Finally after three days of harassment, he stopped right in front of me and just started insulting me with everything he had. I finally had had it, you know? This little twerp pushed my buttons too long and I just let him have it. Punched him right in the eye and knocked him flying onto his ass in the snow."

"Well, that certainly sounds like a friendship started in love." Hogan quieted as Kinch shook his head.

"Well, yeah. But there we were, me standing there looking at him and waiting for a mob to form up and come after me... him sitting on the ground looking at me. Then suddenly he gets this huge grin and waves at all the other guys gathered up and says 'See? He ain't no monster! He only 'it me the one time!' and people start laughing about it. Next thing I know, he's got an arm up around my shoulders and he's going at it to someone else about what a good bloke I must be, since the other guy tried to beat him up way more when he met him." Kinch laughed softly. "He had a black eye for two weeks. All because he wanted to prove that the big scary black man wasn't any different from any of the rest of them." He sobered. "He put himself on the line, just to make friends for me. Because that's what Peter does."

Hogan thought it over. He watched the Englishman telling a story that involved a lot of arm waving to his friends over by the stove. From what he could tell, he had stopped the worst of his shivering. "So he thinks his job is to take care of everyone in the camp. He's not going to give me his position very easily."

Kinch coughed and leaned closer. "He's not going to give you that position... ever. I would advise you to try to get him to trust that you'll take care of the men yourself and let him continue to do his own version at the same time. He doesn't want to be in charge. He just wants his friends to be as safe as possible. You show that you're going to think of the men first, and he'll come around."

"Thanks Kinch. I'm really glad to have you on my side."

Kinch raised an eyebrow again. "Who says I'm on your side? That implies I think you're opposing Newkirk. You're not enemies. One thing we all have to remember here in Stalag 13 is that the Germans are the enemy. Not fellow prisoners."

"You're right, of course." Hogan stood up and straightened his jacket. "Speaking of enemies... I should go now and try to catch our commandant in a good mood. I'll see you later." He headed for the door, speaking quietly to various men on the way. He tried to open and shut the door as quickly as possible to avoid letting in too much cold air.

Walking across the compound, he thought about how complex this entire thing was turning out to be. From the men he'd met so far, he thought that he would have the cream of the crop once things smoothed out. He thought back to the smirk of a reply to his first order to Newkirk and sighed. "IF things smooth out..."


end chapter 2