AN: This author gratefully acknowledges ColHogan's suggestions regarding Kinch's religion.

Chapter Eight: Reactions

For the longest time, Hogan glanced back and forth between his men. Though they had all been gathered around the coffee pot, listening to the conversation that had just occurred in Klink's office, Hogan noticed that LeBeau and Kinch had moved away from Newkirk and Carter to the end of the room that was by the window. If we had a pin you'd be able to hear it drop Hogan thought to himself. He noticed that his two human men had very wide eyes, and thought LeBeau looked as if he might faint any second.

Suddenly, and very roughly, LeBeau grabbed Hogan's arm, pulled him across the room and stood in front of him, as though he was protecting his commanding officer. At the same time he saw that Kinch was making the sign of the cross and holding up his crucifix against them.

"Mon Dieu, Carter et Newkirk sont vampyres!" LeBeau rapidly exclaimed. Stepping out from behind his corporal, Hogan didn't think it was possible for him to be any paler, or any more wide-eyed. Yet, he seemed to become increasingly both every second. It's a good thing Carter and Newkirk don't have any blood on or with them at the moment—we all know how LeBeau feels about that Hogan thought to himself. Still, he positioned himself in order to catch him in case he did faint….LeBeau came around five minutes later, and he found himself lying on Hogan's lower bunk. By the time he had awakened, he saw Newkirk and Carter were leaning against the wall opposite the window, and he saw that Kinch was talking in hushed tones with his commanding officer.

Upon seeing his corporal regain consciousness, Hogan approached him and asked, "How are you feeling now? You passed out for a couple minutes."

"Much better, mon Colonel. Except I think I must be seeing things. For a second there I thought that Carter and Newkirk were vampyres." Hogan saw LeBeau's attention shift from him to the men that he had just mentioned. His eyes once again became wide as he realized that his sight wasn't deceiving him.

"Now don't you be doing that again," Newkirk told LeBeau as he saw that he was getting ready to faint for the second time.

"Are you sure this isn't just some trick?" Kinch asked them, trying to make light of the whole situation. He knew that if he was the fainting type like LeBeau, he would not be standing there asking that question.

"No Kinch, we're vampires alright," Carter informed him. He looked at Newkirk, hoping that he would take the lead in explaining everything. He was glad to see that his friend did exactly that.

"I'm sure you must 'ave some questions….What is it that you want to know?"

"Some questions might be an understatement," Kinch and LeBeau said at the same time.

Newkirk sighed before launching into his explanation, which was the same one that he had told his commanding officer just the previous day. He explained how and when he and Carter had changed into vampires, the powers that they possessed—and finally, but very hesitantly, the real truth of what had gone on the previous night at Colonel Magerlein's house. He left out the part about the hidden vials of blood that were located by the tree stump, but knew that they deserved to hear about his and Carter's attack on the Gestapo agent. However, he still wasn't ready to reveal the truth behind the radio message that Carter had received a little over a week ago. 'Opefully I'll never 'ave to he thought to himself. At the same time, his mind drifted to his Kommandant, and the agreement that they had made all those months ago.

Just like Newkirk had predicted, Kinch and LeBeau didn't take the news very well. Just like Hogan had done since yesterday, their expressions changed from curiosity to fear. LeBeau especially seemed to be taking the news worse than Kinch. Quickly getting out of Hogan's bunk, he grabbed his commanding officer by the arm again and stood in front of him.

"Get your filthy vampyre hands away from mon Colonel! How do we know that you won't attack him the same way you did to Magerlein last night!" LeBeau exclaimed, but this time he was more angry than fearful.

"LeBeau!" Hogan couldn't believe the words that had just come from his corporal. "How can you say that about your friends?" Hogan tried his best to put aside his own feelings about his men at the moment. It was one thing to have his own negative feelings about them, but as the leader of his team the last thing he needed was his men figuratively taking up arms against one another. "After all, if we turn against each other then the Krauts have won. United we stand, divided we fall."

"I am sorry, mon Colonel. But what am I supposed to say? That everything is the same as before?" LeBeau asked, crossing his arms and turning slightly away from Carter and Newkirk, though he didn't bother to look at Hogan.

"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to agree with LeBeau here. It's just not normal." Kinch nodded in agreement. "Besides, what about the old legend of vampires not having souls?"

"But it is the same," Carter pleaded with misty eyes, fighting to hold back the tears again.

"Kinch, our bodies may 'ave died a while back but we still 'ave souls. We're not evil monsters." He then added, "But Andrew's right. We've been vampires all along, and 'ave we ever given you reason to fear or mistrust us?"

There was silence for several seemingly long minutes, as all three human men thought about what Newkirk had just said. Even Hogan had to admit that his corporal's statement was correct. I suppose if they wanted to make meals out of us they would have done so by now he thought to himself. He slowly allowed a small smile to appear as this truth was finally beginning to sink in.

Kinch was the first one to speak up. "Well, it certainly explains why you two have been acting odd all last week, and sneaking off to talk together." He thought that it might have had something to do with the radio message that he had relayed to Hogan give to Carter, but at the moment he didn't feel like pressing his luck in asking about it. As Hogan's second-in-command he also realized how important it was in keeping the team together, and the last thing he wanted was for either or both Newkirk and Carter to shut down about what was going on. He saw both men nod their heads at his assessment.

"I just need to know one thing—have you ever read our minds?" LeBeau asked.

"If we ever want to know 'ow to cook good food, we'll just directly ask you 'ow to make some fish-and-chips," Newkirk replied sarcastically.

LeBeau huffed, "I will take that as a 'no.'"

"It's too bad that we're not the only ones in the barracks. I mean, I wouldn't mind never having to eat cardboard again."

"Carter, what sort of foods can a vampire taste?" LeBeau asked. He knew that the other men in the barracks would grow suspicious if they never saw Carter and Newkirk eating again. However, since he had always considered himself a master chef, the last thing he wanted was to have his food described as tasting like cardboard.

"Anything that's really spicy," Carter informed his friend.

"Or anything that's sweet, like sugar. It 'elps mimic the body's natural blood sugar," Newkirk added. He was glad to see LeBeau turning to Kinch and asking him to ask for the requested items in the next package from London.

The rest of the day seemed to go by very quickly, as Newkirk and Carter slowly and patiently answered every question that Kinch and LeBeau asked of them. They knew how hard Hogan was still taking the news by his own, new questions, even though, to their great relief and happiness, he finally seemed to be coming around to this new reality. That night, LeBeau added two and three extra lumps of sugar to Newkirk's and Carter's coffee, respectively. He smiled to himself as they informed him that it was the best cups they had ever drunk.

Even though Hogan was beginning to come around, he still had a couple of deeply-held, nagging doubts about his two men. In addition to the earlier fear and suspicion, he began to wonder what would happen if their hunger ever overtook them when they were performing a mission, or how their need for the necessary substance could be used against them as a new form of torture. He noticed that Kinch and LeBeau also still had their negative feelings by the way that they would sometimes look at them. Turning in for the evening, Hogan could only hope that unlike the previous night, he wouldn't have any additional nightmares.

Hogan found himself standing outside Colonel Magerlein's house, exactly as he had twenty-four hours ago. He found that the events of the previous night were again unfolding, but this time they seemed to be happening in slow motion. Every action was exactly the same as it had actually occurred, except for one difference. Magerlein raised his gun, and he raised his. The shots again went off simultaneously, but this time Magerlein's bullet found its target.

It was then that the dream returned to normal speed. Carter made his way to Magerlein extremely quickly, and finished off the Colonel. At the same time, Newkirk fell backwards, holding his hand over his heart. Hogan barely had time to catch him before his head would have hit the floor.

"I'm sorry sir, but the bloody Kraut was too fast for me….I know you 'aven't completely accepted me and Carter as vampires, but now you won't 'ave to worry about that." With that, Hogan watched as his corporal's body quickly faded to dust.

Hogan let the tears fall freely down his face. He looked at his hands, which were still holding some of the dust that used to be his corporal's body. "I don't care about that!" Hogan looked over at Carter, who had by this time had stood up and immediately realized what had happened when he saw the dust that lay in his commanding officer's hands. Through his own wet eyes, he could see that Carter was also crying. "I don't care that he was a vampire—he was NOT a monster; he was one of my men! He just can't be dead, he can't be!" Turning back to the dust that was still in his hands, Hogan whispered "I honestly don't care."

"Sir, wake up. We heard you screaming in your sleep. Is everything alright?"

Hogan hadn't been aware of the fact that he had been tossing and turning during his nightmare, or that he had actually been yelling the words that he had just said while asleep. He quickly opened his eyes, and saw that all four of his men were standing in his quarters, except for Kinch who was sitting on his bunk and was gently shaking his commanding officer's shoulder.

"You mean, I was sleeping? Newkirk isn't really dead?"

"Of course he's not. He's right over there," Kinch said pointing to Newkirk, who was standing nearby.

Hogan brushed his cheeks with one hand, and found that he had been crying in his sleep as well. Normally he would have felt embarrassed by all of this, but at the moment he didn't care. He was too busy feeling relieved that all of his men were still alive. He asked Carter and Newkirk to sit down at the end of his bunk, which they did after Kinch had gotten up. Sitting up, he began to tell all of them the dream that he just had.

"I feel so foolish and selfish, and I mean what I said in my dream. I honestly don't care what you are, or the fact that you're both vampires. I would never be able to forgive myself if one of you—if any of you died," he said, moving his arm to encompass the entire room and all of the men that were in it. "Can you ever forgive me for what I said earlier today?"

"Of course we can," Carter and Newkirk both said at the same time.

"I mean, we probably wouldn't have felt any differently if we were in your shoes," Carter added with his usual smile. "We understand how great this whole thing is, how powerful our secret must seem." Newkirk nodded in agreement.

After a couple of moments, Kinch spoke up and asked his commanding officer "What do you want us to tell the others? I'm sure we weren't the only ones that woke up to your screaming."

"Tell them the truth—that it was just a bad dream, nothing more. I'm sure after all this time they're probably used to me having nightmares…. But there's something I forgot to ask you about earlier. We all know that Colonel Magerlein knew your secret, but do you think that this Sergeant Faust is a danger to you two as well?" All four men looked at their commanding officer with worried expressions. They had been so caught up in Carter and Newkirk revealing themselves that they had completely forgotten about the Gestapo agent who was present at the party the previous night.

"I don't know sir. If 'e really is a 'Unter we shouldn't radio London about 'im—the last thing we need is the whole world knowing our secret. 'E may 'ave been drunk, but we'll need to keep an eye on 'im."

"I suppose you're right—it would be best to take things one day at a time," Hogan replied while yawning. "Good night."

After his men had left, Hogan's last waking thought before falling asleep was Maybe after the war ends I'll be able to go back to having dreams again. He found that sleep came easily, and that he had neither good dreams but fortunately no unpleasant nightmares either.

Even though Carter and Newkirk had pretended to be asleep, they both knew that their Kommandant deserved to hear the truth, as much as he might not like it. It was part of their agreement that they had made with him all those months ago—neither one of them would tell anybody each other's terrible secret, and in exchange they had promised to protect one another, even if they were on opposite sides during the war. They all realized that the last thing they needed was one of the Furher's scientists performing some sort of crazy experiment on them, if the stories that they were beginning to hear had any truth to them. Either that or they knew that they could be killed on the spot by anybody who was crazy enough to believe their secret. To this end they had even promised to get Klink to America after the war, if worse should come to worse. They waited until they were positive that Kinch and LeBeau were asleep, and then they very quietly slipped over to the Kommandantur's office.

"Do you really think we should tell him?" Carter asked.

"'E may be a Kraut, but 'e has a right to know so 'e can protect 'imself. Wouldn't you want 'im to tell you if the roles were reversed?"

"I suppose so. But still, I'm not too comfortable about this." With that, they quietly slipped inside Klink's private quarters, since the door was unlocked.

Slowly making their way over to Klink's bed, Newkirk turned on the light and gently shook his Kommandant's shoulder. "Sir, wake up. We 'ave something to tell you."

Very sleepily, he mumbled "What is it now Newkirk? I know you may be hungry but I don't have any blood for you. I'll try to get some tomorrow."

"It's not about that. It's about Colonel Hogan, and Kinch and LeBeau. You see sir, they know," Carter informed him.

Upon hearing those words, the words that he had hoped to never hear, Klink quickly sat up in bed. He saw that Carter and Newkirk were sitting on the edge of his bed, and they saw that even though he was still sleepy he was completely terrified. "They know? Do they know about me as well?"

"No, but you know it may be only a matter of time. I remember our agreement sir—we still promise not to tell them," Newkirk reminded his Kommandant.

"But why do they know?" Thinking for a moment, Klink asked, "Is it about Colonel Magerlein?"

Newkirk let out an inaudible sigh as he realized that he had to play his cards right. It was one thing to tell Klink that they were responsible for the attack, if need be, since he knew that Klink would have been in as much danger from the Colonel as he and Carter had been if his secret had gotten out. However, it was quite another thing to let him know that they could enter and leave the camp at will. He realized that if Klink knew they could do that, he would be able to figure out that Hogan could do it as well, which would only support everybody's suspicions that he was Papa Bear.

"We didn't kill 'im, if that's what you mean. We 'onestly don't know 'ow 'e died any more than what Colonel Hogan told us. But we were afraid that 'e would come back with the papers and arrest us both. We 'ad to let the Gov'nor know."

"And how did Colonel Hogan take the news?" Even though Klink tried to act calm, he was feeling anything but.

"He was fearful and suspicious at first, but he finally came around just now. I mean, you should have heard him describe the nightmares that he had before he realized that nothing had changed between us and him," Carter said, taking over the conversation from Newkirk.

"What do you think I should do about it?" Klink asked, looking back and forth between his two prisoners. He quickly added, "I suppose Kinch or LeBeau must have told you about Sergeant Faust at the officer's party last night. Do you think he's a danger to us as well?"

"They didn't tell us much, but 'e could be. We'll all need to keep our eyes on 'im," Newkirk said protectively. He knew that both Carter and Klink looked up to him regarding their secrets, and he had and would always do his best to protect them.

Carter spoke up about Klink's first question "Well, I think it's pretty easy, but we need to know one thing. When was the last time that Eagle was free?"

"You know I don't do that anymore," Klink said, wincing at the very sound of his other name. Quickly, his thoughts turned to the events that had occurred and followed after the Great War. He remembered how ambitious he was, how brash and strong-willed he felt at the prospect of fighting for his great nation. He had signed up like the patriotic young man that he was, but he could never have imagined the events that would quickly follow. Soon after the war had ended, he had been taking a late evening walk one day when he had been attacked by an unknown creature, and had quickly been rushed to the hospital when a passing-by couple had found him severely injured on the sidewalk. After he had recovered from his injuries and been discharged, he considered himself fortunate to be alive.

The months passed, and he often thought about that fateful night. He was deeply ashamed at what he had become, and what Eagle wanted to do. He remembered the years when he used to terrorize the countryside every month, and how hard he had worked at getting his condition under control. Even though Newkirk was British and Carter was American, he was glad when Newkirk had read his mind soon after he had become a prisoner and understood how lonely and afraid he was. It was Newkirk, with Carter's permission once he had arrived, who had told Klink about their secret, and he saw how relieved Klink was to see that he had a sort of kindred spirit in the both of them. Still, Klink vowed that Eagle would never again get the better of him, and he worked hard every day to keep himself under control, even if meant letting Hochstetter and Burkhalter bully him around sometimes. He was not like the man of his youth, the man who had been changed during that fateful night and whose emotions and attitudes were always present in Eagle. At the same time, he had accepted what he was, and every once in a while would cautiously allow Eagle to be free. It had always been a balancing act, a sort of Jekyll-and-Hyde relationship between both sides of himself.

However, Newkirk persistently repeated, taking over from Carter, "Sir, you need to tell us, because you need to keep a low profile for the time being. When was the last time that Eagle was free?"

Klink hung his head while replying, "A week ago. It made me feel warm all over—the ground underneath my feet and the last quarter moon up above. I just wish that there weren't so many patrols around, like it was before the war. But you're right—I understand that I need to lay low for a while."

Newkirk and Carter were glad to see that Klink understood, and they quietly made their way back to their barracks. The Kommandant fell back asleep, dreaming about the woods that were situated outside of his Stalag.

"It's kinda funny though," Carter whispered to his friend.

"What's funny?" Newkirk asked, giving him a strange look.

"I mean, all this time Colonel Hogan thought that he was the one with all the secrets. But we're not in Stalag 12, or 14. We're all in Stalag 13."

Newkirk could only shake his head in amused disbelief and chuckle "Yeah, lucky number thirteen." Immediately before they headed back inside their barracks, both men found themselves thinking about their sleeping werewolf Kommandant.