Copyright 10/19 Kirby's Cowgirl
Fan-Fiction based on TV Show Combat! Copyright Selmur Production, Inc, ABC, Image
Productions etc.
Disclaimer: Combat! and its characters do not belong to me, this WWII story is a piece of fan-fiction and I am not being compensated in any tangible way for this story.
The Middle Aged Blues
Chip reached across his desk to get another page of the report he was reading and the twinge in his leg nearly made him groan out loud. It had been raining for a solid week, and the damp set off pains in parts of his body that he didn't know he had. He rubbed his leg ruefully, looking at the photos on his desk, and smiled. Cass, the wife he still adored after sixteen years. Patrick, their fifteen year old son, named after Cass's first husband, lost in the War. He'd insisted. She'd cried. She'd gotten him back by naming their daughter Anne, three years later. They'd both cried then.
The next photo was of his baby sister and her family. Louise had married a widowed, distant cousin of Littlejohn's, that she'd met at he and Mavis's wedding, and it never failed to amaze Chip how happy she was. She and her husband had four kids of their own, plus the daughter from his previous marriage.
He finally eased to his feet, holding onto his desk, and retrieved the errant page. It felt like he would be back to walking with his cane for awhile.
He looked at the next photo on his desk, taken at a squad reunion. He couldn't remember how many years ago it had been. It was at Alex and Kirby's, and everyone was still alive then. He brushed at the tears that started leaking from his eyes. His Mother was sitting with Mom Kopacheck and Mom West on the front row. Littlejohn's Mom hadn't made it that year. His Mother, never one to cause any trouble, had had a heart attack and died on the plant floor a week before she was due to retire. Mom Kopacheck had died in her sleep the year after that. She hadn't been sick, and she was her normal kind self up until then end.
But Mom West… She and Mrs. Lewis, the woman he'd lived next door to all his growing up years, and his Mother's best friend, had both descended into full scale dementia. Lynn Lewis, married to his brother Joey, had had to quit her job and move back to Illinois to care for her mother. Joey had given up the post at Fort Hood that he loved, to be with his wife. Thankfully, both of Littlejohn's parents were still alive, and still farming, though on a much smaller scale.
Mom West had turned into an angry hateful woman, and she'd gotten worse after Mom K had died. Only Alex and Kate could reason with her at all. Three years ago Alex had had to leave the reunion at Littlejohn's farm early because of an episode with her mother in law. Two years ago, it had been she and Kirby's turn to host, and they'd had to cancel because any change in routine caused major problems with Mom West. No one else had enough room for all the wives and assorted family that now came with the squad. Littlejohn and Mavis had hosted two years in a row. Kirby had come without Alex, but he spent so much time on the phone that Chip had hardly seen him.
They hadn't even had a reunion this past summer. Caje and Ruthie usually spent spring and summer on Kirby and Alex's ranch, and fall and winter in the swamp running their tour boat business. But both of Caje's parents were ill, and they had pretty much moved to Louisiana permanently. All of them were dealing with what Doc had dubbed "the middle age blues." Doc was the same kind, wonderful man he'd always been. It was next to impossible for him to get away from his medical practice in rural Arkansas. He worked so hard that Patty had to chase him down with his meals to get him to eat. But he loved being a Doctor and he loved his patients. They may not have had much money, but he and Patty were a well loved and appreciated part of the community.
"Chip?" Cass's voice at the door made him look up.
"Come to take me to lunch?" he teased, and then he really looked at her. She was crying.
"The kids?" He jumped up and closed the distance to her, and she shook her head. He folded his arms around her. If the kids were ok - something had to have happened to Alex. Danger was ever present on the ranch. Louise's husband's first wife had been killed by a dairy bull.
"It's Jimmy." She said, and choked, burying her face in his shoulder. All the wives in the squad absolutely adored Littlejohn, which still puzzled Saunders. He'd thought that Caje, with his accent, would have been the one they were nuts over. But it was big, quiet, Littlejohn, that they were always the first to greet whenever they got together. And it was Littlejohn that they hugged the hardest when it was time to leave.
Pete started to close Chip's office door, and Cass put out a hand to stop him. "I'm sorry." She managed.
Chip folded his arms more tightly around her. What in the hell had happened to Littlejohn?
"The tractor rolled over on him." Pete said, and looked like he was going to start crying himself. He and Pam and their three children were frequent guests at the reunions, and he knew everyone. "He's still alive, but it's really bad. You need to go, Chip."
"I packed your clothes." Cass said, swiping at her eyes.
"I'll have to -" Chip started.
"I cleared it with the man as soon as Pam called me." Pete said. "Told him family emergency. You can just make the train if you hustle. Pam's waiting in the car for you. You know I'll help Cass and the kids."
"Ok, Pete. Thanks." Chip said, clapping him on the shoulder as he and Cass headed outside.
"It's really bad." Cass managed, as they headed for the waiting car. "The specialist won't come. Mavis has offered him enough money to buy two states and he said he's not coming to some po-dunk hospital to try and save a man who's already dead. Jimmy is in too bad a shape to move." She choked. "Louise and Harry were headed for the hospital, she said they'd get the kids out of school and they can manage the farm for a few days without them."
"I'm so sorry, Chip." Pam said, as he and Cass got in the car.
He just nodded to her. He didn't trust himself to speak.
"Chip…" Cass bit her lip, and he knew he wasn't going to like what came next. "Once you get Jimmy settled, you go and - You go kick Kirby's ass." She choked. "Alex said that she hadn't even spoken to him in three months and he has a girlfriend."
Chip just looked at her in absolute shock. Littlejohn probably dying - And Kirby had lost his damn mind.
"Maybe we should just leave the kids with Pete, and you and I can go kick Kirby's ass." Pam said, glancing at Cass, and she was not kidding. The thought of them terrorizing a Vegas casino would have made Chip laugh out loud if he wasn't so worried about Littlejohn.
"Did anybody call him?" he managed. Kirby, with all his Vegas connections, would probably have more luck getting a surgeon to fly to in and help Littlejohn.
"Alex said he's sleeping with his secretary and she won't put thru any of her calls, so she gave up. Mom West is horrible. They need to just give up and put her in a home. But Alex feels like she has to look after her. She and Candace and Mavis have been taking turns with the girls on the road to give her a little bit of a break. They were hoping that the top ten for the rodeo association would be horses that they rode or trained."
Chip didn't have a clue why running a horse around some barrels set up in an arena was such a big deal, but it was Mavis Littlejohn's entire life. That and Jimmy, and Betty, their daughter. He swallowed hard. What in the hell was he going to do if the big guy died?
He hugged Cass and Pam good bye, promised to call the minute he knew anything, and got on the train. When the train pulled into Chattanooga, they had a thirty minute stop, and he headed for the phones.
The ringing jarred Kirby awake. He hunted around and finally found the phone. Very few people had the number to his private line in the penthouse.
"Kirby?" Saunders voice roused him into action, and he groaned as he sat up.
"Hey, Sarge! What's up?" he didn't realize he was slurring his words. He hurt so damn bad.
Great. Just frigging great. He was drunk. Chip bit back his frustration. When had Kirby started drinking again? "Littlejohn's hurt and I need some help." He said.
"Shit." Kirby said, instantly awake. He panted as he fought down the nausea.
"I need you to find a surgeon and get him to Nebraska. Mavis offered some specialist a boatload of money to come, but he turned her down. All the squad will chip in -"
"I don't give a damn about the money." Kirby choked out. "What in the hell happened to the big moose?"
"They said the tractor turned over on him."
"Shit." Kirby said again. "I'm on it, Sarge. I'll get the best surgeon I can, if I have to hogtie him and drag him there."
"Thanks, Kirby." Saunders said, trying to tamp down his frustration.
"Tell the big guy -" Kirby choked. "Hell, tell him hang in there. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Ok." Saunders said, and headed back to the train.
Kirby pulled his little black book from his nightstand, and made a few phone calls. Jeff Pendleton was the top rated surgeon in the country. He tried to blow Kirby off when he offered him money, so Kirby just resorted to blackmail. He knew too much for his own good, and one of these days it was going to get him killed. He told the surgeon he'd pick him up in two hours at the airport. As soon as he hung up the phone, he was miserably sick. He stumbled to his feet, called his pilot and told him to get the plane ready, that he was on his way. He was a better than average aviator himself, but he didn't think he would be able to handle the plane.
Someone knocked on the door, and it was his old secretary, with a breakfast tray. "Bill." She said, looking at him worriedly. "They told me what happened. Are you ok?"
His life had seemed to start going to hell when she retired three years ago. The young pretty girl he'd hired to take her place did a good enough job. But she flirted with him constantly, and Kirby wasn't interested. He and Alex - he stopped. He didn't even know when he'd talked to Alex. Their trouble making daughter Beth had told him that they'd be home the last time he'd flown back to the ranch, and they hadn't been. If Littlejohn died, Alex would never forgive him.
"Littlejohn's hurt." Kirby said, grabbing the juice off the tray. He had to get the nasty taste out of his mouth, and he couldn't even look at the coffee.
"You want me to pack your clothes?" she said instantly, sitting the tray down.
Kirby shoved the papers he had in his hand in his briefcase. "I can buy anything I need. I've gotta hurry."
"Bill, you're bleeding!"
"Not bad." He glanced at the blood oozing thru his shirt before he pulled his suit coat on over it. "I've had a hell of a lot worse."
"Bill." She said, as they headed for the elevator. Then, "Never mind."
"Ok, Harriet, spit it out." He said tiredly, leaning against the wall.
She handed him a handful of wadded up papers that she pulled from the pocket in her dress. "Messages from Alex that you didn't get."
"What?" Kirby looked at her in confusion.
"That girl was the best in the secretarial pool. I knew she had designs on you but I figured she'd give up when she saw you weren't interested." Harriet looked like she was going to cry.
"Shit." Kirby said. That was why Alex was always mad at him on the very rare occasions that he managed to speak to her. He thought it had been - He stopped. It couldn't have been six months since he'd seen his wife. And hell, when had he even spoken to her? It was impossible to have a conversation with Mom West around, and he had taken over more and more responsibility with the casino as time went by.
"Bill." Harriet said, catching his uninjured arm. "You're in no shape to drive, much less fly."
"The plane will be ready at the airstrip." Kirby said.
"I'll ride with you." Harriet said.
"Thanks." Kirby said. He had to get Littlejohn some help before the big guy - He swallowed hard.
Pendleton was standing in the overhang of the airport office, and he did not look happy. Kirby stumbled inside to use the facilities and splash some water on his face, while they refueled the plane. He knew Pendleton thought he was drunk. He wished he was. He should not have left the hospital. They'd tried to keep him, but hospitals brought back bad memories of the War and gave him nightmares.
"Let's go." Kirby told the surgeon, gesturing him toward the plane.
"I don't appreciate being blackmailed." Pendleton said thru clenched teeth.
"Well maybe you should behave yourself and not do things you shouldn't." Kirby said easily. He couldn't believe he'd said it. Of course, he wasn't capable of beating the crap out of the guy at the moment, and he needed him fully functional. But afterwards …
"I'll do the best I can for your friend, but like I told his wife, there's not much hope. That hospital doesn't have up to date facilities. I'm not a magician."
"All I ask is that you try." Kirby said thru gritted teeth.
There was another delay when they landed at the airfield closest to Littlejohn's town. There was no taxi service available. Kirby had to call the local car dealership and tell them to bring him a truck. The man who answered the phone wanted to argue with him until Kirby told him that he wanted a new truck with all the bells and whistles and that he'd pay cash for it. The girls went thru two trucks a year rodeoing.
…
Saunders had started hobbling to the hospital with his suitcase from the train station. Cass had brought him his cane or he wouldn't have been able to do that. An old farmer with a load of pigs in the back of his truck stopped and offered him a ride, and they smelled so bad, that Chip almost told him no thanks. But he wanted to get to Littlejohn to at least speak to him, if the big guy was still alive. Kirby had said that he would get a surgeon, but he was drunk. There was no way of knowing if he would be able to find one, much less get them there. Chip climbed in the truck.
Mavis was sitting in a chair in the hallway, and she'd cried so much her entire face was swollen. She threw her arms around him and hugged him.
"Any change?" Chip asked softly.
She shook her head. "Dad's down in the administration office trying to find a surgeon. What is wrong with these people Chip? They just refuse to come and help. I told that damn Pendleton I would build him an entire state of the art clinic if he would try to help Jimmy."
"Kirby said he'd get somebody." Chip said, sitting down with her and keeping a firm grip on her. She looked like she was going to collapse.
"Kirby is not exactly -" Mavis started.
"We got here as fast as we could." Kirby's voice cut her off.
"Where's my patient?" The man behind him asked.
"Who are you?" Mavis whispered.
"Jeff Pendleton. I believe you told me I was going to burn in hell earlier today." He said, without a trace of a smile, as he headed for the nurses desk.
They whisked Jimmy down the hall, and the glimpse of him that Saunders got told him just how bad it was.
"Thank you Kirby!" Mavis said, hugging him.
Saunders saw him cringe, and then he untangled himself from Mavis as fast as he could and threw up in the trash can.
"SHIT!" Mavis said, seeing the blood dripping on the floor. "Nurse!" she screamed, running for the nurses station.
"Kirby, what the hell!" Saunders grabbed him when he missed the chair he was trying to sit in, and eased him down in the floor.
"I'm ok, Sarge." Kirby choked out. He had sweat beading on his forehead and looked like he was going to pass out. "Don't upset Mavis anymore."
A nurse appeared, followed by two orderlies dragging a gurney. They hustled Kirby unto it and whisked him into an exam room.
"I thought he was drunk." Mavis said, and burst into tears again.
Chip wrapped his arms around her, wishing none of this was happening. It seemed like an hour later when a Doctor came out and told them that Kirby had been stabbed, and he'd ripped all his stitches out.
"Oh, God!" Mavis said.
"Jimmy?" Mark Mumford hurried up the hall toward his daughter. He looked like he'd aged twenty years since Chip had last seen him.
"Kirby got the Doctor here! I thought he was drunk! Oh, Daddy, somebody stabbed him!" Mavis started wailing loudly, and Chip handed her off to her Father.
"How bad is he?" he asked the Doctor thru clenched teeth. If he lost Kirby and Littlejohn on the same day - he swallowed hard. He'd thought, after the War, they were out of danger.
"He shouldn't have left the hospital, and he's lost a lot of blood." The young Doctor raked his hand thru his hair. "He keeps asking for his Sergeant, and he's upset about somebody being dead. I think he's having a flashback to the War."
"It's me he wants." Saunders stood up. "Can I see him?"
"Of course." The Doctor gestured Saunders in front of him. "If you could calm him down, that would help greatly."
Saunders pulled a chair next to the gurney that Kirby was lying on with his eyes closed. "Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" he demanded gruffly.
"Alex was right." The noise Kirby made sounded like a sob. "She always told me I'd get myself shanked in that damn casino. Parker's dead."
It took Saunders a few seconds to remember that Parker was the head of security for the casino. When he'd caught a card counter, Kirby had rewarded him with a fishing trip with Caje in the bayou. That happened to be the week that Chip had taken Patrick down to visit and they'd all gone out on the boat together. Though Parker had claimed to be happy to have a break from his family, he had a wallet full of photos of his wife and three little girls, that he showed everyone.
"I'm sorry, Kirby." Saunders stumbled over the words. They were so inadequate and he'd said them so many damn times before.
"Some things never change." A familiar voice with an Arkansas twang said from behind him.
"Doc!" Chip turned and hugged his old friend. "How in the hell did you get here?"
"I have connections." Doc said. "And a sweet little wife who shoots people who annoy her. She got me a ride with a crop duster that we know." He didn't tell Chip that he'd done emergency surgery on the man's wife on their kitchen table and saved her life. Or that they'd had a bumpy landing in the field right next to the hospital.
"Just like old times." Kirby managed, and tried to grin at Doc, but didn't succeed. "You've got to help me, Doc." He said, and tears started leaking down his face.
"You got stabbed." Doc said, looking in dismay at Kirby's ripped shirt and all the blood on the floor that an orderly was in the process of cleaning up.
"Yeah. Alex was right. I'll be ok though." Kirby swallowed hard. "We've got to get the big guy fixed up. Then can you please come home with me and help me explain to Alex the mess I've made." He stopped, seemed to be struggling for words.
"You need to rest." His Doctor said gently. "They shouldn't have discharged you from the hospital in the first place."
"I discharged myself." Kirby said. Then, looking at Doc, " I HAVE to go outside." He sat up, panting, holding onto the IV pole. "You need to help the big guy -"
"It's ok, Kirby." Doc said gently, sliding an arm around his waist, and unlocking the IV stand. At a look from Doc, Saunders caught Kirby's uninjured arm.
"You can't -" the young Doctor started.
"Sorry, Kid. I have to go outside. I can't stay in here." Kirby choked out.
"Vet." Doc said, seeing the younger Doctor's confusion. "We can't be closed up too long."
"God, I need a cigarette." Kirby said as the three of them sat down on a bench in front of the hospital.
"Want me to go find you one?" Saunders asked, starting to get up. He'd quit when Cass was pregnant, because the smoke made her nauseous. Kirby needed something, and nicotine was preferable to liquor.
"Nah. Alex wouldn't let me in the house if I started smoking again." Kirby swallowed hard. "God, I have made a mess of things." He swiped at his eyes. "Doc, I didn't - I swear I haven't -" he choked.
"Let's just get Littlejohn fixed up." Doc said, clapping him on the knee. "Can you drink a Coke? Have you had anything to eat?"
"God, no food." Kirby said, and looked like he was going to be sick again.
"I'll see if I can find a Coke machine." Saunders said, standing up.
"Thanks, Chip." Kirby said. After Saunders had left, he looked at Doc. "Alex will never speak to me again if Littlejohn dies."
Doc slapped him on the knee. "Let me guess, that pretty little blonde secretary?"
"I didn't encourage her, I swear I didn't." Kirby gulped. "I thought she'd give up when she saw I wasn't interested." He swiped the sweat from his forehead. "But hell, I'm rich now, I'm a catch." He groaned out loud. "Alex and I share things that no one else could imagine -"
"Like shooting a whole squad of Germans." Doc cut him off. "Patty still has nightmares about that sometimes."
"None of it was her fault -"
"I don't think any of this is your fault either." Doc looked at him sternly. "We'll get thru it. We always have."