I don't own anything.
The Legionnaire
-Chapter Three:
"As the Commander of NERV, I order you to drop that weapon."
"After all that I've done, do you really think I'll do that?"
"As your father. . ."
"Oh, it's way too late for that."
(:ii:)
Shinji jerked awake and took in his surroundings wildly. There was no light. Where was he? "Chief?" Shinji twisted and stared at the young man on the cot beside his. He was barely visible in the gloom.
"Dogsong! What the fuck is going on?"
"Calm down, Chief," Martin stated. Pain flared throughout Shinji's body and he crashed back onto his cot with a roar of pain. "Nurse!" Shinji tried wildly to push himself back up, but his right arm was held firmly in place. Strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and he pivoted, bringing his left fist up into his attacker. The man fell back with a cry. "Chief!" Shinji stared at Martin. "Calm down. We're okay." Lights flickered on and Shinji looked around the tent.
"Where are we?" Shinji gritted out. The pain in his chest was getting worse.
"You're in a UN field hospital." Shinji turned and saw that the speaker was a young woman in scrubs. She kneeled by the man Shinji had knocked out. "Jack! Wake up, Jack!"
"Was that necessary?" Martin asked.
"Don't surprise me," Shinji stated as he looked around more carefully. His and Dogsong's cots were only two of what looked like a few hundred.
"Lay back down," ordered the woman, a nurse? "You just got out of surgery a few hours ago and you might reopen your stitches."
"Fine." Shinji laid back down and watched as the nurse finally got the big man to wake up. He stood slowly, pinching his nose in an attempt to staunch the blood flow.
"You broke my nose!"
"You surprise me," Shinji replied flatly. He looked back at Martin. "What happened?"
"You don't remember?" Martin asked. Shinji frowned, the only thing he could remember was a fireball.
"I remember going to the checkpoint and a car pulling up, than there's a fireball."
"We got blown up," Martin stated. Shinji growled in annoyance and touched his face. Through the bandages he could feel that at least he still had two eyes and a nose. He wiggled his fingers and glanced at his right arm. He still had two arms, but his right arm was in a cast from fingers to his shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Making sure I still have two of everything I'm supposed to," Shinji gritted. His body was killing him. He wiggled his toe and frowned. He glanced down and saw only one bulge in the blanket covering his lower body.
"Uh. . .Chief?"
"Dogsong, do I have two feet?" Shinji felt his body beginning to shake. "I have two, right?"
"You lost a leg, Chief," Martin stated. Shinji's stomach rebelled and he lurched onto his left side, emptying what little was in his stomach. "Chief? Nurse!"
"No," Shinji rasped. "I'm okay." He rolled onto his back and pushed himself back up into a sitting position. He pulled the blanket away and stared at the bloodied bandages wrapped around his leg. "Oh my God."
"Nurse!"
"I'm fine damn it!" Shinji snapped. The nurse was already by his side.
"Just lay back," she ordered gently as she pressed on Shinji's shoulder. Shinji ran his hand through his short hair and froze as his finger tips ran across puckered skin strung together with thick wire. He carefully laid back and laid his good arm by his side. Suddenly he didn't want to move for fear of finding something else wrong with him. "I'm just going to give you something to help you calm down."
"I lost a leg," Shinji repeated. The nurse nodded absently as she filled a needle. Shinji felt the sting in the crook of his arm. The world went dark around the edges again and than finally went completely dark.
(:ii:)
Martin glanced up as a tall Arabic man stopped in front of his cot. "You're Martin Dogsong?"
"Yeah," Martin replied. "Who are you?"
"I'm Doctor Fahad Ayoob," the man stated. "I was the one who operated on your Chief Sergeant."
"You saved his life?" Martin asked.
"I just patched him up," Fahad replied. "I heard there was a little bit of excitement last night."
"Chief punched out one of your orderlies," Martin stated. He glanced over at the sleeping man. "The nurse put him back out and he hasn't moved since."
"I see," Fahad replied. He stepped between their cots and nudged the Chief's soldier. The wounded soldier jerked upright sharply, one hand snatched as Fahad's scrubs. "Easy there Chief, I'm a friend." Shinji stared at the man uncertainly for a moment and than laid back down with a muffled groan of pain. "You need to relax, Chief. You'll tear open all your stitches."
"Who are you?" Shinji demanded.
"I'm a doctor here," Fahad replied. "You're doctor to be exact. Do you mind if I check your wounds?"
"Fine." Martin watched as the doctor helped Shinji pull up his gown.
"Oh my God."
"You're not helping," Shinji growled, shooting Martin a sour look.
"Sorry Chief." Martin had to look away.
"Everything's intact," Fahad stated. "I half expected at least half of these to have reopened after that stunt you pulled last night."
"I don't like being surprised," Shinji replied. Martin nodded and reached for the bandages covering the Chief's face. "What all's wrong with me?"
"Aside from the obvious, not much," Fahad replied. "You only had a few first degree burns on your face that we wanted to keep clean. They've healed up pretty well, but your eyebrows may never be the same. There's also a hole in your skull."
"I could have you that," Martin stated. Shinji shot him another sour look as he bowed his head to let the doctor examine the back of his skull.
"Normally I'd make you wear a ridiculous little helmet to protect the soft spot, but I doubt you're going to be up and moving for a while," Fahad stated. "You seem to be healing well enough, so I'm going to schedule a surgery to close that hole soon."
"Alright." Fahad straightened up. "How do you feel?"
"Like a car blew up in my face."
"That's to be expected," Fahad stated. He turned to Martin. "What about you?"
"My leg is itching like crazy," Martin stated. "And how much longer do I have to wear this damn sling?" Fahad took the clipboard from the end of Martin's cot and flipped through it.
"I'd give the sling a few more days," he stated. "When your shoulder popped out it strained the muscles, but nothing tore. Consider yourself lucky."
"If you say so Doc."
(:ii:)
Alison Morgan frowned as she walked towards her next patient. The man glanced up and his eyes widened as they came to rest on her. "Oh, no. Not you again."
"You're one of my patients," Alison stated. "Consider yourself lucky."
"People keep telling me that I should," Martin stated. Alison checked his clipboard and noted, with some relief, that nothing was required at the moment. She really didn't want to hear him whine today. "Doctor Horaki will be in to see you soon." She moved to the next patient. His eyes were closed, but she had heard about what he did to Nicolai.
"Mister Yamamoto?" His eyes opened sharply and turned on her.
"Scared?" Martin asked. Alison considered beating the smart mouthed little bastard over the head with his own bedpan. She rose above the temptation and pushed her cart up to the other man's cot.
"I just need to change your I.V."
"Fine." Alison pulled the new I.V. bag from her cart and set about swapping it for the old one.
"At least he doesn't complain," she commented.
"He's the Chief," Martin replied as if it just made perfect sense.
"You may want to practice more," Shinji commented. Alison glanced down and frowned as she noticed blood pooling in the crook of his elbow.
"Damn it." She didn't even bother looking at Martin. She just knew that he'd be grinning smugly. "All done." Shinji looked down at his elbow and nodded before closing his eyes again. Alison frowned and turned back to the loud-mouthed legionnaire.
"I heard you already pissed of Doctor Horaki," she stated.
"She started the argument," Martin shot back. "It's not my fault she won't allow herself to even consider things from my point of view."
"She's a nice woman and she likes working with patients," Alison stated. "Play nice and she'll work with you, so that I don't have to put up with you."
"You're no Florence Nightingale," Martin commented.
"You'd have pissed her off too," Alison shot back.
"Hey. . ."
"Probably. Now shut the hell up." The both fell silent and glanced at the Chief Sergeant. He opened one eye and managed to glare at both of them with it. "Some people are trying to recover."
"Sorry," Martin squeaked.
"I have more patients to see," Alison added.
(:ii:)
Hikari made her way into the tent and frowned as she noticed her patient bickering with his nurse. The Chief Sergeant gave them a quiet dressing down and that promptly ended whatever they were arguing about. "Hello Martin." Martin turned and grinned at her.
"Hey Doc."
"How are you feeling?" Hikari asked.
"Pretty good," Martin replied. Hikari glanced at the older man beside Martin. He was slumbering again.
"What's this I heard about fighting?"
"Well. . ."
"He surprised me," Yamamoto cut in. He opened his eyes and stared at her. "French isn't your natural language, is it?"
"Well, no," Hikari admitted. "All the same, I happened to think that I speak pretty good French for someone who picked it up a few months ago."
"True," Yamamoto replied.
"You're in the Foreign Legion, right?" Hikari asked. Yamamoto nodded. "So French isn't your first language?"
"Fourth," Yamamoto stated. "My first language was Japanese." Hikari stared at him. With his bright blue eyes, Japanese wouldn't have been her first guess.
"I'm Japanese too," Hikari replied. "I'm Doctor Hikari Horaki."
"Shinji Yamamoto," the Chief replied as he extended his left arm with a small smile. Hikari began to reach forward when her body jerked back. Her thoughts were all the way back to the middle of her seventh year of school, to a young man with blue eyes and a small, nervous smile. A young man named Shinji.
"Oh my God."
(:ii:)
Martin watched as the doctor sped out of the tent. "I guess the nurse should have told you not to piss off the Doctor."
"I have that affect of woman," Shinji replied as he lay back down.
"I thought you were popular with women," Martin stated.
"That's just bullshit that Chieu makes up," Shinji replied. "I haven't had a girlfriend in years."
"Oh." Martin frowned as he considered that. "How come Sergeant Chieu keeps saying that you have girlfriends all over the place?"
"I have one night stands all over the place," Shinji stated. "Chieu was raised in a really religious family. He thinks it's not right to have sex with a girl you aren't in a relationship with."
"Bummer."
"What's that mean?"
(:ii:)
Fahad watched as his fellow doctor almost sprinted out of the tent. "Hikari?" She turned and stared at him. "Are you okay?"
"I know Shinji Yamamoto."
"The Chief Sergeant?" Fahad asked.
"He's a murderer." Fahad sighed and rubbed his temples.
"We have got to do something about this attitude about soldiers that seems to have suddenly popped up," he stated in annoyance. Hikari stared at him in confusion for a minute.
"What?" Realization dawned on her face. "No! That's not what I mean! I know Shinji Yamamoto. His name is really Shinji Ikari."
"I'm not sure I see where you're going with this," Fahad admitted.
"I went to school with him," Hikari stated. "He killed his girlfriend and his dad, than he disappeared."
"Ah," Fahad stated. He frowned as he considered what to say. "Well, I guess that does make him a murderer."
-End
(:ii:)
-Author's notes. I know this one's kind of short again. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I write chapters until they're done. Sometimes that just doesn't take too long.