Tully Pettigrew sipped at her water and slumped beside a rock. The whole desert was crawling with Nazi trucks and patrols and hiding herself every time she heard a vehicle coming had gotten her into place with more and more patrols until she'd accidentally stumbled across an entire town under German control.

In hindsight, it would have been smarter to go in the opposite direction of the Nazi patrols...but now she was doing her best to dodge the constant sweeps and patrols of men who looked dehydrated and miserable. Somehow she'd walked straight into German territory.

"I'm so dumb," she muttered and scooched along the rocks and the boulders until she stumbled, literally, across a man. He looked sun-baked, with blistered skin, and his arm pinned beneath a boulder, blood oozed sluggishly out of the wound and had dried into sand and rock around it. Given the scuff marks on the sand and rocks and the fact that he looked like a piece of turkey jerky, Tully had to guess that he had been left out here for a while. Given that he wasn't within shouting distance of the base...he must have already tried to call for help.

He wasn't dead, but he didn't even flinch when she set her fingers at his pulse point.

"First things first," she muttered and set out trying to wake him up. Patting his face down with a damp rag a few times seemed to help, getting his eyelids to flicker, and she squeezed the water from the rag into his mouth. It took a few minutes, but eventually, his eyes opened. Fluttering open and revealing dark brown eyes. "Howdy," she offered him a smile when he gave a faint noise of alarm. "Don't worry, I'll have you out in a jiffy."

He made another noise of protest until Tully hoisted her water bottle up and gave it a shake. He went quiet as she tilted his head up and helped him sip down a few gulps, taking care to keep him from guzzling dangerously.

"You're in a bit of trouble, buddy," she told him, patting him down for other breaks and sprains. His left ankle was twisted as a truly ugly angle, and she wished she'd waited to wake him up before probing at it. He gave an ugly cry as she produced her split and taped him up. A doctor would have to take a look at him, but she could set it. The last thing to do would be to move the boulder and she had no idea how to move it without taking the arm off. The pressure from the boulder was keeping him from bleeding out. The arm didn't look crushed, just pinned enough to puncture the uniform and skin. It was pretty bad though.

His eyes were on her the whole time as she prepared a make-shift tourniquet, in between giving him sips of water and feeding him a bite or two from the bread she'd packed for a snack. The taste of sourdough bread didn't seem to offend him too much, so she took that as a win. It took a few minutes to wrap his shoulder as tightly as she could manage to reduce the blood loss when she finally unpinned him.

It took even more time to figure out how she was going to move the boulder and by the time she had, the man was conscious enough to speak.

"Fraulein?" He asked… as she edged around the boulder.

"Yeah?"

He asked her a few questions in German and what limited German she knew, mostly the basics for tourists, wasn't enough to answer him.

"I don't speak German, pal." She said and made a shushing gesture as she prepared to heave the boulder. He gave a biting cry before the support stones she'd placed around the bottom of the boulder caught it, and lifted clear. Tully jerked her head to the side, and he obeyed the order and yanked himself free. His arm hung limply, and by the time he'd moved enough, he was whimpering.

"Time to get you clear, pal!" Tully gasped for breath as she dropped the boulder back to the now hid her backpack, and moving everything around, she leaned down and maneuvered the trembling soldier onto her back. With his injuries, a fireman's carry was out, and she used his abandoned rifle to support his weight as she moved steadily away from the boulder field to the road leading up to the base.

He didn't stop crying, but the blood wasn't flowing heavily enough to justify jostling him with a run. It was strange, but not the first time she'd had to carry a man away from a puddle of his own blood.

Why she was bothering, she didn't think about too much until someone caught sight of them and the alarm on the base was raised. By this point, the sun had dipped below the horizon and the desert was getting cold, and she hardly protested as a bunch of soldiers held her up.

"He needs a doctor," she said, moving her head to the side to give them a look at the man clinging to her shoulders.

"Wolfgang?" One of the soldiers asks, his voice rising in shock.

"Wolfgang?" Tully peered at him, "Really? Your name is Wolfgang?" Then she turned to the men. "DOCTOR! NOW!" SCHNELL!" One man bolted toward the gates, and the soldiers rushed her alone until a few men approached with a stretcher. Grateful for the help, she let the other soldiers pull him off and settle him on the stretcher before rushing him toward the town.

Tully took a few deep breaths, another few steps, and then collapsed to her knees as the exhaustion of the day finally caught up with her.

"Fraulein?" One of the soldiers, confused and hesitant, waved a hand in front of her face.

"It's been a long day," she said, and stared down at her bloodstained hands, they were shaking faintly and she just had enough time to admire how bizarre it was before another voice caught her attention.

"Fraulein?" This voice was deeper and more authoritative and she looked up. "Are you alright?" He was tall, with a lean handsome build that his uniform was settled over in a comfortable manner. Tully gave a faint smile.

"He needs a doctor, the boulder was pinning him but also keeping him from bleeding too badly. I think his ankle was snapped, but it was hard to tell with the boot in the way." She gave a laugh.

"Fraulein?" Now he sounded worried. The men around them shuffled nervously.

"I'm fine, I'm fine...I can't stop shaking." She tried to gesture but ended up squeezing her hands into fists as her whole body trembled. "Wow, low blood sugar does that to people," she said slowly. "I need a snack. Who are you?"

"I am Hauptmann Hans Dietrich," he frowned at her and Tully took a series of slow, steady breaths before pushing herself to her feet.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." She staggered, missing a step and fell right into the captain's chest. "Oh, shit! Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm good." He caught her easily. "Wow, beef stroganoff noodle arms. Nice."

He snapped a few things in German, and before Tully could register what was happening, he had hoisted her into his arms. She blinked rapidly.

"I'm fine."

"You are hysterical," he said shortly, moving into the town at a brisk, officious pace.

"This is not hysteria," she was still shaking. "This is high-adrenaline and low, blood sugar. I need water, sleep, and a nap….a snack. I need water, sleep, and a snack. I'm not convincing you, am I?"

"No," he replied, and he seemed to be smiling.

"Please stop smiling, and don't treat me like a damsel. I just carted a man twice my size a mile and half after digging him out from beneath a boulder and saving his arm from amputation. It took me most of an afternoon, and just because I can't stop shaking now doesn't mean I don't have the capability to fight you."

"Fight me?" Now he sounded amused and it wasn't a trick of the dim light.

"Yeah," Tully said, feeling very much like she should move but couldn't. "I'll fight you any day of the week and twice on Sundays since you're going to doubt me."

"There is no need," he said, and the soldiers they passed were smiling oddly as he maneuvered her into a room filled with nurses and medical supplies.

"Sure there is," she felt calmer now that she saw a few women hustle over as the man barked orders rapidly. "If I can kick-flip an alligator then I can sure toss you on your ass, noodle arms and all."

"I will speak with you in the morning." He lowered her onto a cot, and nurses fluttered over.

"I'll fight you then," she promised, and promptly passed out.

Captain Dietrich stared at the young woman for a few more seconds and set her strangely stiff hat on a hook. The nurses were hard at work, and the girl was completely out of it.

"Sir?" Corporal Lang appeared, "Sergeant Wolfgang is in surgery, sir."

"Very good, when the doctor is finished, have him come to my quarters. I will speak to him."

"It looks like the American saved his life," Corporal Lang said, also staring at the woman before the nurses pushed them out and set up a privacy screen.

"Yes, it does."

"Why did she save him, sir? Who is she?"

"I do not know...I will ask when she is awake."

"I thought she was badly injured when she collapsed," Lang said, and Dietrich nodded in agreement. "It was rather frightening."

"It was sudden." Dietrich had never known an American to collapse like that in front of their enemies unless they were truly too injured to move anymore. It was actually deeply impressive that she had carted an injured man so far until her strength finally gave out. "Have men follow their tracks and see where they came from and where Sergeant Wolfgang went missing." he had been on edge, thinking that Wolfgang's disappearance had been tied to the Rat Patrol and not a genuine error. How the American woman had come across his man as well as gotten this far without being noticed, when she clearly wasn't trained, was a question for when the young woman woke up.