CHAPTER 1 PART 2

Apollo, the youngest member of his squad, trudged his way over to the medical tent. It was about a half a mile away, and they were well accustomed to him being there. Yes, his injury hurt, but no, not as bad as he played it off to be.

Don't think him a coward, though; he was always eager to fight for his country. He had his reasons as to why he loved going to the nurses tent. He looked over at the countryside he was walking by; the vast, green, open fields of European land; many squads were stationed in houses and barns in this area, just like his was. The vineyards spread across the French countryside were abosolutely beautiful in every sense of the word; he wished he and Nurse Ema were visiting this country under better circumstances...

The nurse's tent came into his sights; he walked at a sped up pace. He smiled; he was only 19, and he was quite sure he didn't understand love yet, but he knew she made him very happy, and he hoped he made her just as happy as she did him.

He walked into the tent to be greeted by a pale skinned nurse with chestnut brown hair, sitting at a metal desk between two divisions of the medical tent; she wasn't a very excitable person towards most people, but he noticed how she brightened up around him. She hadn't noticed him yet; she munching on her favorite snacks to drown out the other two nurses; one was a mousey girl that looked like that agent Officer Armando was with, and the other was sort of a crow-like girl who always claimed to be a great theif. They were both loud and were always having fun, and Ema wasn't from that branch of the tree.

He walked up to the desk; the other the mousey-girl was pushing the crow-girl around on a gurney like a car. Ema just had her head turned the other way and she was violently chewing on her snacks.

Apollo waited for her to notice him; he thought to himself Who's in charge here!? Finally, he decided to speak up. "U-um, hey, Ema."

She quickly turned her head with a grin; "Oh, hey, Pollo! I was wondering why you weren't hurt yet today!" He really liked her nickname for him.

It's only 9 o'clock in the morning...am I really that bad about coming over here? He scratched the back of his head. "Y-yeahh...I-I hurt my leg again."

She smiled. "Hold on, let me get the bandage kit." She reached into her desk and began searching around a messy drawer; Apollo began contemplating his surroundings.

It was a tent with room for 12 total, 6 on each half of the tent that was divided in two. The sun shined through the white fabric; there were red medical crosses on each side of the tent. There was no floor, only the ground beneath their feet. The other two nurses each handled one of the two halves, and Ema sat at the metal desk that was between them, and she handled smaller injuries that needed attention. Other than the four of them, it was empty; the French countryside they were all stationed in until further noticed had been very quiet as of recently.

She set the bandage kit on top of her desk and slid the drawer shut. SLAM!

The crow-girl and the mousey-girl slammed their gurney into the side of Ema's desk. "OOPS!" The mousey girl who was pushing the cart looked down in shame.

"Maya! What the hell? Be careful! We have an injured soldier here!" Maya. The mousey-girl must be named Maya. The crow-girl, who was still sitting on top of the gurney, had a cheeky grin plastered across her face. "Ema? This is Pollo, isn't it?"

Ema put her finger up to her mouth. "Um..." Apollo extended his hand. "Hello, I'm Pvt. Justice. And you are?"

She lightly shook his hand back. "Kay Faraday." That cheeky grin spread back across her face. "You should really hear the way that Ema talks about you, Pollo." She put her voice into a mockingly high voice; "Oh, Kay and Maya! Pollo is such a hunk! I just love his hair! He's so handsome!" Ema picked up her bag of snacks and chased her fellow nurses off by throwing the chocolate candies at them, as they rode off in the gurney in laughter. She got back and blushed. "So..."

Apollo scratched the back of his head, blushing as well. "Y-Yeahh..."

She quickly changed the subject. "Well, we should get your leg bandaged up, shouldn't we?"

He smiled. "Yeah, we should."

He put his leg up on a chair and she pulled up his left pant leg; she looked at it. "Oh, it should be alright, it's just a flesh wound." It appeared to be skin-deep, a minor scrape that had already finished bleeding; she pulled out a large bandage, as the scrape went all up and down his calf, and began wrapping it. When she was done, she tapped his bandage lightly with her index finger. "Poof. All done!"

He got up and walked around on it. "Thanks, Ema. I'll be seeing you around."

She waved goodbye with a smile; "Bye, Pollo!"

He turned and walked out of the medical tent, and thoughts of Ema couldn't leave his mind during the long, lonely walk to the farm. When he came back to the farmhouse, he smelled an appetizing smell and began the slightly drool; he looked into the breakfast nook window to see Commander Gant, Officer Armando and the mysterious lady who looked like Maya being served breakfast. The smell of their food alone was more satisfying than Armstrong's cooking.

He walked into the barn to find 3 haybales surrounding a crate, and the rest of his unit were playing a game of 21. He took a seat by Larry, who was Pvt. Wright's bunkmate; he didn't like him at all. His bunkmate, Sgt. Gumshoe, was seated by Pvt. Wright, and bunkmates Pvt. Lang and Pvt. Armstrong were seated by each other, to no one's surprise. Apollo and Gumshoe spent many sleepless nights listening to them in the stall beside them. They made a promise to make sure that one of the others got put by those two. Lt. Edgeworth, as the squad leader, got his own stall, and there were two empty ones. The military took the horses that used to occupy them.

"Deal me in." Lang threw him two cards as he sat by Pvt. Butz. "See, Polly here has everything figured out! He hurts himself everyday just to go down to see the nurses at the medical tent! Tell me, Polly, have you boinked one of the nurses yet?"

Apollo turned red at the way Larry said that; How dare he talk about Ema that way! "N-No!" Butz just laughed and patted him on the back. Ughh, it was going to be yet another long day with these men.