No man left behind
Clay blew out another breath, willing himself to keep going. He stopped for a moment and readjusted the body on his shoulders, dropping the weight lower to ease the aching in his back. He heard the security guards yelling, and stopped while they rushed over after realizing he was one of theirs. He heard one of them calling for a medic and trying to get his attention. He heard. And yet none of it felt...real. it felt as though he was standing outside of his body watching everything happen. He wanted to move, wanted to listen to what they were saying to him, to answer, but he couldn't. The whirlwind of faces mixed with heat exhaustion and the toll that the last few days had taken on his body spun his head in circles. Then he felt the weight being lifted off of him, and panic took over.
"N…..no! NO! S…!" Clay stammered, finally able to move as the out of body experience ended, and his mind seemingly collided back with his body. With things beginning to feel normal again came pain. Sharp and stabbing, Clay turned his head to the source, expecting to see a knife sticking in his flesh.
"Hey. Hey! Clay! I need you to relax, your on the base, your safe!" Commander Blackburn said, trying to calm the man. He was obviously concussed and very out of it. Clay heard the voice and his mind finally decided to cooperate, and he registered it as that of Blackburn. Even just the slight movement of his head caused it to pound as though someone had his skull in a compactor.
"Can you hear me Spenser? Let's get you checked out by a doctor, ok?" Blackburn said.
"...'m….f...fine…" Clay said, becoming more aware of his surroundings for a moment. He looked to where they had laid Sonny onto the stretcher, and were peeling the blood soaked clothes off of his body.
"Ok, let's let a doctor tell us that for sure. Clay? Get me another medic! Clay!" He heard his name called, but as quickly as the snap of awareness had come, it was gone again, and the Commanders face faded to black. Blackburn caught the young soldier and gently lowered him to the ground. He pulled his helmet off and looked on as the medics checked his vitals under his beat red sunburnt skin.
"He's having a heat stroke, we need to get him cooled down as quickly as possible. Let's go!" The lead doctor said. They carefully lifted him onto a stretcher, then rushed the two soldiers off towards the base hospital. As they sprinted away with them, they passed the remaining members of Bravo team.
"How'd they get here? What's wrong with them?" Ray asked as they crowded Eric.
"From what the guard said, Spenser came in with Sonny on his shoulders." Blackburn said, and watched the surprise on their faces.
"How bad?" Jason asked.
"Sonny took a bullet to the abdomen. They said it looked like he had lost a lot of blood. Clay had hyperthermia and what looked like a few broken bones. His clothes were torn like he'd been run through a shredder. Must've found some nasty thorn bushes." Eric said.
"You mean to tell me that the kid carried Sonny...Sonny the whole way here from wherever they were? We lost them about 10 hours from base, it's a miracle it didn't take them longer to get back." Trent said, saying what everyone was thinking. It's not that they thought Clay was weak, but more that they knew from team training that Sonny was 218 pounds of sheer muscle, and the hardest of the group to lift.
"And knowing Quinn, he probably pitched a fit to." Ellis said, shaking her head.
"Spenser probably had to knock him out to even get Sonny to let him carry him." Davis said with a small laugh.
"Talk about going through hell!" Brock said.
"Their home now. Everything will be fine." Jason said, trying to reassure himself just as much as the rest of them.
Later…
Sonny took a deep breath, his brain soon registering a change in smells as the fog that had been hanging in his head for the last few days finally begun to clear. He quickly realized he was no longer in the desert, as he now felt cushions under him, and felt the cool light of a hospital room. Hospital room? Spenser must've gotten us back. But how? He wasn't doin' too hot himself..where is he? Spen…. Thoughts raged through the soldiers mind as he remembered the kids cherry red skin, slurred speech, and how yet he somehow wasn't sweating a drop. Instinct told him he had to check on the younger man, make sure his team was ok. He pushed himself up, trying to sit up straight when a stabbing pain flooded his abdomen, filling his head with dizziness and a nauseating pounding. His sudden movement and deep grunt of pain brought the focus of the person to his right in the chair.
"Easy now, take it easy. Your back at base." Sonny sighed, and laid his head back against the pillow, recognizing the voice. He wanted to respond, but that would first require the pain to ease a bit, and the worry to stop doing laps in his head. He had one hand over the bandage on his stomach where beneath it lay a bullet hole situated perfectly between his rows of abs, directly center mass. With the other, he reached up and pushed a small button he knew would be on his IV, sending a fresh dose of pain meds into his bloodstream. He started to relax as the pain was dulled by the medication. He looked around him, then finally answered.
"Spenser?" He asked, trying to settle back into the soft mattress.
"Clay? You know how he is… he's tough. He'll be just fine." Davis said stiffly.
"Now I may be the muscle of the team, but that don't mean I can't tell when someone's lyin'. Come on now Davis!" Sonny said in an annoyed voice.
"A few broken ribs, shattered shoulder blade, and a concussion." Davis replied after a pause of awkward silence when a nurse walked in to check his stats.
"There's something you ain't tellin' me." Sonny said, a hearing an edge of disguise in her voice.
"The doctors can't get him to wake up." She said with a sigh.
"What do you mean? It's just a few broken bones right? What's wrong with him?" Sonny asked, confused.
"He has a history of high fevers, and this is the third time he's spiked a fever of 104°F or higher. The doctors are worried there could be internal damage this time. You two were literally being cooked alive out there. His skin is so burnt that it blistered. They've been waiting for you to wake up so they could ask you questions about…. Everything. Fact of the matter is, we're all kind of dumbfounded about what happened after you went down. Do you remember anything?" She asked. Sonny paused as his tired mind quickly took him back to the mission, the fire fight. They had been on a recon mission to recover the remaining members of Delta Team after they had gotten separated in the rocky Taliban mountain terrain.
"Sniper!" Sonny heard the frantic yell from Clay who was behind him. They pair was on overwatch, making sure their men were safe. Before he could dive out of the way, time slowed, and he felt the bullet tear a hole in his vest, then the same in his stomach. He felt his knees buckle, and soon the sand was all around him. Sonny heard his name screamed with panic, and Clays face materialized above him.
"Bravo one this is Bravo six, do you read?" Clay yelled into the comms. Nothing but static answered.
"Bravo one come in!" Nothing.
"TOC, this is Bravo six, we've got a man down!" Clay yelled. He pulled his gloves off, waded them into a ball, and after gracelessly ripping off Sonny's vest, he pressed then hard onto the new bullet hole. Sonny groaned, noises fading in and out.
"God….h...hate getting shot! So….d..damn annoying!" Sonny said over the pain that was vibrating through his stomach.
"I swear to god your the weirdest person I've ever met!" Clay shook his head at the Texans remark. He was spilling blood, and he's annoyed by it? Then suddenly, everything around them went silent. No more gun fire. Sonny managed to pick his head up and look around them. The enemy was gone….but so was their team. They had left, not knowing two of their men were missing. Now they were all alone in the desert with only a little water between the two of them..
"Look who's awake! Welcome home." Sonny was snapped out of his daydream when the door opened and Jason, Ray, and Eric walked in. "How're you feeling?" Commander asked.
"Like I just spent a week lost in the desert with a bullet hole in my stomach." Sonny said, his mind quickly returning to Spenser. As if on cue, a doctor walked in.
"Hello Mr. Quinn, good to see you awake. How are you feeling?" Dr. Hoskins asked.
"Pain meds sure are a blessing is all I can say. And please, call me Sonny. Mr. Quinn is my father." Sonny replied, eliciting a smirk and a few eye rolls from his teammates.
"Alright then. Well Sonny, you sure got lucky. The bullet was armor piercing, and a large caliber at that. Safe to say if you guys were out there any longer, there's a really good chance that you would have bled out." The doctor said.
"Guess it's a good thing the kid got us back here then." Sonny said, trying to act unfazed.
"It looked like you had some pretty sturdy bandages on when you came in. Where'd you get them from? You didn't have Derek." Ray asked curiously.
"Clay said he had stuck them in his bag that morning on a hunch. Something told him he would need it." Sonny answered.
"How far did you travel in a day?" Davis asked.
"Yea and how?" Jason asked.
"Was he injured right away?" Eric asked next, adding to the barrage of questions. Sonny wanted to answer, but he could feel his eyelids getting heavy, and his head beginning to swim with pain.
"We…..w..went as f..far as we c...could. I walked fo...r… some...o…." Sonny said, fighting the fatigue as much as he could. Dr. Hoskins quickly walked over at the sound of the slowed speech. He checked his vitals, then looked at the people around the bed.
"Alright that's enough questions for now. He needs to rest." Dr. Hoskins said, looking warily at the monitors.
"Is everything ok doc?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow when he saw the look on the doctors face.
"I'm….f..f...fine." Sonny said with an annoyed tone.
"You know, I'm really starting to hate that line." Blackburn said.
"His blood pressure is plummeting due to blood loss. He had a transfusion during surgery, now he needs to rest and let it circulate. Get a fresh line of fluids in here." the doctor said. The team backed up and watched as the nurse did as directed. Sonny watched as the tube was replaced on his IV. He felt himself slipping more and more, and finally decided to give in. Just before his eyes closed completely, he saw his teammates come over one by one and wish him well. For the first time in a few days, he could let himself sleep and know he would be safe.
Later…
Sonny woke a few hours later to an empty room. He looked around, then looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearing 2am, and the doctors would have just switched to the night shift. He was about to go back to sleep when he heard a conversation through the curtain to his room. It was hushed, as to not wake the patients, so he was only able to catch bits and pieces of it. The first voice he heard was that of Dr. Hoskins, and the one responding had to be Blackburn. He began to listen more intently when he heard Clays name mentioned.
"Room 23."
"How bad?"
"...still hasn't woken up."
"Has the fever gone down?"
"Slightly. It's at 100 now."
"...still not good."
Sonny's thoughts raced with the new information. The kid had to wake up. Sure, they had had a bit of a rocky relationship in the beginning, mainly because he had a huge ego….maybe both of them did. But this, this was different. He'd seen the kid go down before, but he always fought to the bitter end. Even out there in the desert when they were separated from their team, and Sonny was bleeding out. Clay wouldn't give up. Not on himself or Sonny. He had seen it in his eyes. Come on Clay.
"...if he doesn't wake up soon, that's a sign that there could be significant damage to his organs."
"Heaven forbid that happens, what would be the next step?"
"We would have to induce a coma so we could use more drastic measure to bring his temperature down." there was a moment of silence as all listening parties took in what they had just heard.
"Hopefully it won't come to that."
"Hopefully...thanks doc."
Sonny listened as the hall soon went quiet, as the sound of boots on tile got farther and farther away. For a while he lay staring at the pattern on the ceiling, his thoughts running wild. Those bastards! I'll make them pay for this if I have to do it with my bare hands! To many brothers dyin' over here. I'll find 'em. The heavy pain meds clouded his judgment, flooding him with erratic thoughts, and causing him to act on them. He pushed himself slowly into a sitting position. He gritted his teeth, then yanked the IV out of his arm, watching the fluids continue to flow from the needle. He then turned to the other side, and did the same with the IV in the opposite arm and hand. He glanced down at the patches on his chest that were monitoring his heart. This wasn't his first time breaking out of a hospital before he was allowed or ready to leave. He stood up on shaky legs, steading himself on the side of the bed. He looked behind him to ensure no one else was in the room, the skilfully flipped a dial or two and turned the machine off. Once he was sure no alarms would go off, he pulled the leads off of his chest. Then he turned, and stumbled out into the hallway, anger filing him more when he couldn't even stand straight.
As he got further down the oddly still hallway, logic seemed to catch up and override the anger that had controlled his thought just moments ago. He could see where the end of the hallway opened into the main lobby, soon followed by the exit that would lead him out into dusty climate of the base. With the newfound awareness came the pain. A lot of it. He felt a warm liquids running down his stomach, and looked down to see a fresh trail of blood.
"Sonny?! What the…?!" Ray exclaimed in shock. He blinked, making sure the sight in front of him really was happening. Sonny was walking towards him with a dazed and confused look on his face, and blood soaking the front of hospital gown. He got the man's side just in time to help lower him to the ground.
"Hey! I need some help over here!" He shouted, waiting for someone to respond. Seconds later, two nurses sprinted over when they saw what was happening. One grabbed a stretcher when he saw the blood. Ray looked up to see that Sonny was somehow still conscious.
"Hey! Keep looking at me! What on earth were you thinking?!" He asked. Sonny shrugged his shoulders. The nurses tried to asses the damage as they wheeled him quickly back to his room with Ray in tow.
"I don't think he was. Not clearly anyway." One of the nurses said as they came into the room, motioning to the bag of meds that was supposed to last a lot longer than it had. Sonny lay still as they pulled off the soiled bandage and cleaned the area to look at the damage.
"Looks like he ripped the staples out of his intestines. After that, the stitches didn't stand a chance. Looks like it's back to surgery for you. Page Dr. Hoskins." The nurse said, looking at Sonny.
"What the heck man?! Seriously, what possibly went through your mind that made you think this was a good idea?" Ray asked with disbelief, annoyance, and a hint of worry.
"Clay… it's bad. They...they did this to him! I have to find… them!" He said.
"We will Sonny! As a team! That's how we do things around here, remember? Not alone, and especially not with a bullet hole that's not healed yet! Dammit Sonny, we need you alive, so stop screwing around and get yourself better!" Ray said, anguish filling his voice. As much as he loved his job, he hated this part. He hated hospitals.
"Don't worry 'bout me." Sonny replied groggily. Ray shook his head and watched as they wheeled him away.
Later…
Beep...beep…beep…
What the? Is that…..Sonny?!
Beep...beep...beep…
Its...its an IED!
Beep...beep...beep…
"He's waking up!" Clay looked around him, his brain desperately trying to catch up with his surroundings. He tried to move, but his shoulder and head protested, causing him to lay as still as possible, groaning at the bright white lights in the room.
"Clay. Hey man, welcome back." Clay scrunched his brow. That sounds like… Jason. Where am I?
"Relax. Your in the base hospital." Jason said, as if he could hear his thoughts.
"How...Is..is Sonny…?" Clay finally managed to get out a few words, pulling away the oxygen mask with a stiff hand.
"Alive and well, thanks to you. How much do you remember?" Jason asked curiously.
"The mission… Sonny getting shot. You guys leaving without..us. Seems ironic if u ask me. And...and now I'm...here." Clay replied, still confused. Jason flinched at the words, feeling guilt from a situation he knew he couldn't have controlled.
"So you don't remember how you got back to base?" Jason asked. Clay shook his head in response.
"I guess you were pretty out of it. The guards at the front gate were about to shoot you when they finally saw your camo and that flag. You stumbled in with Sonny on your shoulders. That took some grit." Jason explained.
"I.. I kind of remember Blackburn talking to me. How long were we out there?" He asked.
"Eight days. From what we gathered from Sonny, which isn't much, at least 3 of those days, you guys were in the thick of Taliban territory. Nothing short of a miracle that you got both of you back here alive." the older man said. They both took a moment to let everything sink in.
"What...what happened out there? I mean, how'd we get seperated? I tried my comms but...nothing happened." Clay inquired. He was doing his very best to not assign blame, but honestly, he felt a little betrayed. There was a good reason for it. Right? He watched Jason chew on the inside of his lip, something he did every time he knew he had to admit he had made a mistake, which everyone knew he avoided. But then, they all did. After a long sigh, Jason answered.
"We finally got Sullivan and Red, got them loaded, and they- they started coming out of nowhere. Red was messed up bad, sun made him delirious. He came at me, got me good and somehow ripped my comms out. By the time I realized it was gone, Ray was already calling for you guys. You didn't answer, and I thought maybe...I don't know, I knew we had to go. Had to practically drag Ray into the truck. It...It was my call. And it's my fault your in this bed." Jason said, nearly choking on the last line. He couldn't look at the kid. He had heard the doctors. He almost died. Another one on him. What was wrong with him. Clay processed it all in his mind, studying the Chief's face, the hair that looked like it had greyed even more in the last few days.
"All cards on the table, everything that happened? It sucked. A lot. There were a few times when I didn't think we'd both get back, if at all. But I never questioned you. Neither of us did." Clay said. Jason looked up finally, and from the sincerity on the kids face, he knew it was the truth.
"That doesn't mean Sonny won't let you have it." Clay said with a hint of a smirk.
"Don't I know it!" Jason laughed.
Four days later…
Clay scanned the desert around them, keeping his breathing hushed. The area was crawling with Taliban, and with Sonny's condition getting worse, they couldn't afford to be spotted. He looked up at the sky, and counted how high the sun sat, calculating what time it was. Three more hours until they would finally have the cover of night, until they would finally be safe to move, until they would be comfortable. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Then his eyes caught up with his senses as he spotted the group of four Taliban men walking towards them. He tried to stay calm, and slowly lowered his hand to his weapon. Just when he thought they would be fine, he heard them men start shouting and pointing at them. Clay cursed, the grabbed Sonny and pulled his arm around him.
"Wh...what?" Sonny muttered.
"Shit! We gotta move! Come on, we gotta go." Clay answered, and took them both to their feet in one swift move. As the pair made an effort to run, bullets kicked dust in their face. Clay spun sideways, firing behind behind them, desperately trying to hit a target.
"S...save…the...a..amo!" Sonny yelled over the bullets whizzing around them.
"The amount of amo we have won't matter if were dead!" He yelled back, then finally saw what they were running for. A large rock pile with the perfect divot behind it. Clay threw Sonny behind it as gently as he could in the heat of the moment. Once he saw that he was out of the line of fire, he turned to see how many were still pursuing them. He thanked God when he saw that he had managed to cut the number in half, but then stopped when he saw that they were now coming faster. He fired another round as the men got closer, halving the number once again. The last one charged him, and Clay raised his gun to fire, panic and anger filling him when he felt it jam. He tossed it next to Sonny, knowing he'd have to take care of this the old fashioned way. As the man got closer, he somehow managed to knock the gun from the opponents hands, and catch him on the side of the face with his fist. The two battled fiercely, blood from both parties dripping onto ground. What Clay forgot was how much the exhaustion had kicked in, and was quickly overpowered by the native. He felt hands wrap around his neck, and then he was lifted off the ground. He felt himself fly backward and slam into the rocks behind him. He could hear his bones snapping as he soon hit the ground with a thud. He fought consciousness from the impact of his head on the rocks, trying to figure out which of the barrels he was staring down would be the one that killed him. As expected, there was soon a loud bang.
Clays eyes flew open, and he shot up straight in the hospital bed, wires and blankets flying everywhere.
"Woah! Easy man! Take it easy." Ray said with surprise, looking at the young soldier who was sweating profusely with a look of terror in his eyes. As he started to get his bearings, he groaned in pain and reached for his shoulder. Ray quickly helped guide him back to the pillows, and fixed the disheveled bed.
"What's happening up there?" Ray asked calmly.
"What do you mean?" Clay asked, closing his eyes and shortly and trying to slow his breathing.
"You were having a night terror. What was happening?" Ray asked again. Clay studied Ray's expression. He had the same steady, sure look as usual. He was the rock of the team, the one that was always level headed and there, ready for anything. Clay knew there was nothing he could say that would catch the man off guard, but still he hesitated. And even in the awkward moments of silence, he could see the man waiting patiently, his calm and collected expression wavering not once.
"We was back in the desert. Those Taliban guys found us. I killed three, but the one still got to us. I tried to fight him off, but he was stronger. I could hear my bones snapping, then his gun. He could be killed me, but he hesitated. Something….something kept him from doing it." Clay said, spilling it all. Ray listened quietly, but inside his blood boiled.
"How'd you get away?" Ray asked, trying to keep him talking.
"I…I didn't. Sonny shot him. Saved my life."
"And then you returned the favor." Ray answered.
"I guess so." Clay said, rubbing his forehead and trying to relax, his mind still raging. There was a few moments of quiet before the door opened, and Dr. Hoskins walked in.
"Good, your awake! How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Uh...good.." Clay answered, slowly getting a grip. Ray looked on from the corner.
"Good. I'm going to check you over, and if everything looks ok, you'll be released." Hoskins said. Clay nodded his response, and did as he was told for the entire exam.
"Well Mr. Spencer, your healing nicely. No traces of the fever left. Now, you won't be able to return to duty until that shoulder heals up, but you won't be in here, and you'll be able to help out your team around the base." the doctor said. Clay smiled and looked around. Ray returned the smile, happy that at least one of the two was out of the woods. A nurse came in and unhooked Clay from the monitors and carefully removed his IV's. He then signed and filled out a pile of papers, and happily walked out of the hospital with Ray next to him. They stepped out of the front doors into the dusty climate once of again. Ray walked down the path, pausing when he finally realised Clay wasn't following him. He turned around to see the man standing stock still, hands in his pockets, staring off into space. Ray walked back to him with a confused and slightly concerned look on his face. We're they sure he was ready to leave?
"Clay? You good man?" Ray asked curiously.
"Huh? Uh...yea. Yea, no I'm good. It's just.. It's the first time I've been outside since everything. Shouldn't be this difficult." Clay said, starting to walk again. Ray nodded, then led them on their way again. They walked a little farther into the base, into the more populated area, when another team jogged past them from behind. Clay nearly jumped out of his skin, freezing up. He looked at them again. Each time he blinked, the scene around him changed from a bustling base full of soldiers, to the middle of a dead silent desert, with Sonny's blood still running down his side, soaking into Clays torn shirt. The string of explicits flowed into his mind as the moment where they stumbled through the patch of pickers in an effort to move before they were spotted replayed itself in his brain.
"Hey. Look at me, your safe. Your not out there anymore. Take a deep breath." Ray said, putting a careful hand on Clays good shoulder, trying to ground him. Ray knew exactly how Clay was feeling right now, and he hated it. He wished there was more he could do for the kid, but knew he just needed time. Clay eventually nodded, and blew out a breath, his eyes opening to show him that he was indeed safe on the base. Now if only he could stop shaking.
Later…
"Sure feels good to be back in here! Where to?" Sonny asked, flopping down into his usual chair around the table in ops, ignoring the twinge of pain the reckless move earned him. He looked over at Clay, who was fusing with the strap of the sling across the back of his neck, sitting right on top of a row of stitches that were itching like crazy. He nodded his agreement, to busy with his fixing the itch to say anything.
"It's good to have you two back. Didn't feel the same. And neither of you are leaving this base until I get a clean bill of health from Dr. Hoskins and Dr. Wilson." Blackburn said. Ray leaned back in the chair, waiting for the fit that was sure to follow from Sonny. Sure enough, Sonny's brow scrunched, and he nearly spit out his toothpick.
"Dr. Wilson? Why the heck do I gotta get cleared by her? I didn't the last three times I was shot!" Sonny protested.
"Because those times didn't involve you losing half the blood in your body after getting seemingly left behind by your team. And also because I said so." He answered the stubborn soldier. Those words still made Jason wince slightly. Before Sonny could run his mouth anymore, Clay cut in.
"This all for us?" he asked, pausing his twitching momentarily to point at the large model of the desert hills on the table in front of them. He could feel eyes watching him from behind but ignored them.
"Yea. We spent almost every night in here, trying to figure out where you could be, even though it was pretty pointless." Ray replied.
"How the hell is a model going to help us find them? Have we forgotten this is the desert? We don't have a big enough table for all the ground we need to cover!" Trent pointed out, saying what they had all been thinking for the last hours that they'd spent staring at it.
"Why don't we send out a drone, see if we can't get a view on them since we can't get a clear satellite image." Brock suggested, rubbing his forehead with fatigue. They were exhausted. They had been staring at the model and racking their brains trying to find a way to get their men back. So far, nothing.
"Clay for the love of god stop messing with your shoulder! You keep picking at those stitches and I promise you I will tape your hands to this table!" Davis said, interrupting the story to scold the soldier, who finally stopped with a huff of annoyance.
"Because that's Taliban territory. It wouldn't last minutes." Mandy said, exasperated.
"Winds in the desert are the highest they've been since we got here. Even if they do have somewhere to hunker down, they could still suffocate on sand. We don't have time to sit and stare at this stupid replica!" Ray shook his head.
"We have no idea where they are, and definitely not enough resources to just blindly look for them." Blackburn said.
"So that's it? We just let them die out there?!" Jason asked, racked with guilt. The room went silent at the question, and stayed that way when Hayes slammed his fist on the table, and stormed out.
Jason looked down at the purple and green bruises that wrapped around the knuckle of his pinkie finger and down the side of his hand. He looked at the two men sitting across from him, as if to make sure that they were indeed back, and alive, and that he hadn't been the cause of their deaths. He couldn't have handled that.
"Well boys, as much as I'd love to have Bravo Three and Six back, I can't allow it. Dr. Wilson is ready for you. Sonny, your up first, Clay you'll wait outside." Commander said. Sonny made it very clear on the way out that that was the last place he wanted to go. Clay figure Sonny had the complaining department covered, and more than that, his head hurt and he didn't have the energy for it.
The two men walked towards the shrinks office. Clay was a few steps behind, and the awkward silence hung over them like the thick humidity in the Afghan air. Sonny finally decided to slow down. This was the first time the two of them had been alone and in their right minds since the desert. He wasn't one for emotions, but this needed to happen.
"Alright look, you know I'm not good at all this. I know I bust your balls a lot, but your a damn good soldier, and you showed it. Even after you were hurt, there was a determination in your eyes. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you." Sonny said after a while. Clay wanted to interject, but he knew this was rare.
"What was that thing we said at the beginning of all this? No man left behind, right? And besides, this is a brotherhood. I got your six not matter how many times you throw your socks on the floor and fumigate the entire cabin." Clay said, ending it with a smile. Sonny pulled mock offenses, but they were soon laughing together once again, and finally the world seemed balanced again.