Convalescence
Disclaimer: Zack and Ivy's family members for the most part I made up, but only the family and Gene Locksley are my original creation, everything else belongs to DIC. I recall Darren being used as Zack and Ivy's surname so I use it here. Also Zack's parrot was something inspired by Shipwreck's bird in GI Joe and their little sisters and baby brother were inspired by Red Witch's characters in her fanfic Misfit Chronicles.
~ ~ ~ ~
October 2143: May Darren threaded through the halls of the Bayside Armed Forces Hospital overlooking the picturesque San Francisco Bay. She was about thirty years old, auburn haired with the sort of build one would find on a female gym instructor, long and slim yet muscular. She worked as a registered nurse at Saint Christopher's Children's Hospital until the war broke out in 2139 and, feeling fairly patriotic, she enlisted and was commissioned her services as a nurse to the US Army.
She walked around on the porch, the one facing an open, grassy knoll atop a hill overlooking the bay. She knew that a particular patient spent a vast majority of his time up there. And sure enough, she was right. She saw a wheel chair facing the fresh breeze from the bay and in it sat Gene Locksley, wearing a brown robe over his pajama bottoms and an undershirt. Around his neck hung a pair of dog tags on a metal chain and bags hung under his eyes.
"Not sleeping well, are we Gene?" May said, chirpily.
"You should know by now to talk into my right ear, my left isn't working properly." Locksley replied.
"I was talking into your right ear, smart guy." May replied, "What's bothering you?"
"I need to go back." Gene replied.
"Back to where? Back into combat?" May asked.
"My fellow Marines are out there fighting and dying, and I need to be with them." Gene replied.
"Gene, you have a perforated left ear drum, you can't even stand straight, let alone move properly." May replied.
To this Gene Locksley stood up, shakily, damn near falling over his own feet. He caught himself on a nearby support beam and managed half a dozen shaky steps before May half carried him into his wheel chair.
"So where are you going after this?" May asked.
"If possible back into the field, but I'll settle for the No. 5 Barracks right next to the bay with the MPs. Maybe I'll hitch a ride over to the Pacific."
"Gene you try that and I'll personally send my niece and nephew to hunt you down." May replied, as she went on about her rounds.
As she did, she had half a mind to check out her patient's planned housing area after her shift ended.
~ ~ ~ ~
May Darren walked through the No. 5 Barracks and her opinion that the place was not fit for habitation was growing by the minute. The dry wall on the first floor was cracking, dirty laundry was strewn about the various barracks rooms, the offices were untidy and the walls were painted in that awful shade of brown that was enough to induce fits of depression.
But it was the cockroaches that came flooding out of the drains in the barracks that made May Darren declare that no patient of hers was going to be billeted in as unhealthy, unsafe, and certainly unsanitary an environment such as No. 5 Barracks.
"And you call yourselves Marines." She muttered, after chewing out the 2nd Lieutenant that was in charge of the barracks for letting the building be barely livable.
May Darren cared about all of her patients but this one in particular was special. On the hospital ship from Guadalcanal he had actually attempted to sneak aboard the supply skimmer to get sent back to the Island. She had caught him before he even got out of his bunk because his step was so shaky. There was an indomitable fighting spirit in the man however, one that wouldn't let him give up. She only wished it would show itself in more constructive ways than trying to go AWOL when he could barely walk.
Still, she had to admire his willpower, and his almost dogged loyalty to his fellow Marines. She in fact overheard him try to comfort a wounded Marine who had lost both of his legs at Guadalcanal. What he needed was a place where he could really heal, a family environment, a sort of home away from home. She immediately brightened and walked off to the nearest payphone.
~ ~ ~ ~
"You heard correctly Corporal, you're being discharged from the hospital to a private residence." Corpsman Nathan Lin replied.
"I don't know of any private residence here that I'm billeted to." Gene Locksley replied, now smartly attired in his working khakis, his garrison cover tucked under one arm.
"I do." May Darren replied.
"Ma'am?" Locksley replied, "Could you please explain why the address for my discharge is 3512 Steiner Avenue? I've never even heard of the place."
"I have. Follow me Corporal." May Darren replied, in as business like a manner as possible.
"Yes ma'am." A puzzled Gene Locksley replied. He had recovered enough to walk around on his own, but still could not hear out of his left ear.
The car drove down a few winding side streets and stopped at a two story house with a large station wagon and a Jeep Wrangler in the parking lot. "Oh, my niece must be home."
May opened the door and shouted, "Kids, come meet our guest."
"Awk Polly want a Prozac! Call my doctor! Call my lawyer! They're insane!" a red Amazonian parrot came flying through the house and right over Locksley's head.
Three little girls, about eleven years old, identically clad in pink t- shirts with black denim jeans ran after the parrot, they all had short blonde hair and blue eyes, "Come back here birdie!"
They all stopped when they saw Gene Locksley for the first time. "Wow, are you in the Army?"
Gene smiled, despite himself, "No I'm in the Marine Corps."
"Isn't that part of the Army or something?" the triplets asked in unison. As Gene was to discover, the rambunctious triplets had an annoying tendency to speak in unison.
"No." Gene replied, slightly miffed, but who could blame them, they were just three little girls.
"I'm Toya."
"I'm Trisha."
"I'm Jade."
"Will you three stop antagonizing our guest?" said a young woman from the top of a staircase.
She was a slim red head in her early twenties, built almost like her aunt, but not as tall as her aunt's 6'1" and about even with Locksley's 5'8". "Ivy, I want you to meet our guest."
Ivy smiled wryly and said, "Hi."
"Hi, I'm Gene Locksley, United Systems Marine Corps." He said, shaking her hand.
Just then, a blonde haired young man, about eighteen years old, walked into the kitchen wearing blue jeans and an olive green Army shirt with staff sergeant stripes on it.
"Zack, meet our guest, Gene Locksley." May replied, as she turned to Gene she said, "And if I hear you say United Systems Marine Corps after your name again, I'll have you scrubbing latrines for a week."
"Zack was in the Army for about a year in North Africa." Ivy replied, "Until they found out he could better serve in the Army Encryption Unit around here, then they sent him home."
"What about you? Where did you serve?" Zack asked.
Gene Locksley put his duffel bag down on the sofa and said, "I was all over the place, I was in China, Hong Kong, Hawaii......"
His voice trailed off as he continued, "And finally Guadalcanal."
"Well Gene, dinner's in half an hour, so in the mean time make yourself at home. Ivy, could you please show our guest his room." May replied.
Gene picked up his duffel bag and followed Ivy up the staircase. "Are your sisters always this crazy?"
"You have no idea. Imagine having three little sisters who have genius level IQ's but have the emotional level of...."
BAM! A loud bang could be heard from downstairs that made Locksley jump to the floor and open his mouth, exhaling loudly as he covered his ears. "...You're average hyperactive preteen." Ivy continued as Locksley stood back up again, looking slightly sheepish.
"Learned that at Guadalcanal." He replied, "What the hell was that?"
"Probably the Triplets messing around with chemicals again." Ivy replied.
"Ivy! I thought that you confiscated the Triplets chemistry lab." Mrs. Darren yelled from downstairs.
"I did, mom! They must've got another one." Ivy replied.
Suddenly a tiny blur crawled between Ivy's legs. Almost before anyone could react the blur raced towards the staircase. Gene Locksley caught the fast crawling toddler with ease. He handed the two year old to Ivy. The little baby looked at Gene with a puzzled face, "Gaaahhh?"
"This is Claudius, my baby brother." Ivy said. As the baby wriggled his little hands, they grasped Gene's garrison cap.
Ivy incredulously watched as Locksley took his cap, and put it on the toddler's head, "Now you look like a real leatherneck." Locksley grinned.
"'neck." the baby said.
"This is Gene." Ivy said.
Gene smiled and shifted the weight of his duffel bag as he opened the door to a room Ivy indicated. The baby gurgled happily as Ivy put him in his playpen and handed Gene his cap.
"Your room's over there." Ivy indicated.
"Thanks." Gene Locksley replied.
He closed the door and changed into a pair of blue jeans with a black USMC t-shirt. "You can take the man out of the Corps, but you can't take the Corps out of the man. Gunny, you sure hit the nail on the head with that one straightaway."
He put on a pair of shoes and walked downstairs into the living room where Zack was watching the Discovery Channel. He took a look at the screen for a few moments and then realized what an exhausting day he had just had and fell asleep.
Sleep did not bring the rest that he thought it would bring. Instead it brought about images of fog, a pervasive, creeping fog that muffled sound, blurred perception and merged past and present in a hideous mélange that invaded the very peace that Gene Locksley sought.
Only the occasional gunshot penetrated the fog. In the fog he could see Marines, but it was impossible for the shit scared boys that eyed him were all dead. It was as if he were leading the march of the dead. Screams penetrated the fog, unearthly zombie moans punctuated this symphony of screams.
Over the din a distinct sentence rose, shouted by one of the dying Marines, "God damn you Gene Locksley!!!!"
Then suddenly a hand clamped over his shoulder. Gene Locksley's eyes opened with a start and he turned to see Ivy kneeling beside the couch, "Gene, dinner's ready." Gene Locksley got up, though he was awake he could still here the shooting and the screams of his fellow Marines, the brothers he was unable to rescue.
"Gene I wanna go home." Spud said, as if his pleading lips were beside Gene Locksley's tortured right ear.
This was the other battle Gene Locksley fought, the battle against his emotional wounds. It was a battle that he could never leave, for if he chose to forget it, who would remember those Marines who had died not for the United Systems or for Earth's safety but for the man next to them in the line. The only question was, would Gene Locksley win this fight?
Disclaimer: Zack and Ivy's family members for the most part I made up, but only the family and Gene Locksley are my original creation, everything else belongs to DIC. I recall Darren being used as Zack and Ivy's surname so I use it here. Also Zack's parrot was something inspired by Shipwreck's bird in GI Joe and their little sisters and baby brother were inspired by Red Witch's characters in her fanfic Misfit Chronicles.
~ ~ ~ ~
October 2143: May Darren threaded through the halls of the Bayside Armed Forces Hospital overlooking the picturesque San Francisco Bay. She was about thirty years old, auburn haired with the sort of build one would find on a female gym instructor, long and slim yet muscular. She worked as a registered nurse at Saint Christopher's Children's Hospital until the war broke out in 2139 and, feeling fairly patriotic, she enlisted and was commissioned her services as a nurse to the US Army.
She walked around on the porch, the one facing an open, grassy knoll atop a hill overlooking the bay. She knew that a particular patient spent a vast majority of his time up there. And sure enough, she was right. She saw a wheel chair facing the fresh breeze from the bay and in it sat Gene Locksley, wearing a brown robe over his pajama bottoms and an undershirt. Around his neck hung a pair of dog tags on a metal chain and bags hung under his eyes.
"Not sleeping well, are we Gene?" May said, chirpily.
"You should know by now to talk into my right ear, my left isn't working properly." Locksley replied.
"I was talking into your right ear, smart guy." May replied, "What's bothering you?"
"I need to go back." Gene replied.
"Back to where? Back into combat?" May asked.
"My fellow Marines are out there fighting and dying, and I need to be with them." Gene replied.
"Gene, you have a perforated left ear drum, you can't even stand straight, let alone move properly." May replied.
To this Gene Locksley stood up, shakily, damn near falling over his own feet. He caught himself on a nearby support beam and managed half a dozen shaky steps before May half carried him into his wheel chair.
"So where are you going after this?" May asked.
"If possible back into the field, but I'll settle for the No. 5 Barracks right next to the bay with the MPs. Maybe I'll hitch a ride over to the Pacific."
"Gene you try that and I'll personally send my niece and nephew to hunt you down." May replied, as she went on about her rounds.
As she did, she had half a mind to check out her patient's planned housing area after her shift ended.
~ ~ ~ ~
May Darren walked through the No. 5 Barracks and her opinion that the place was not fit for habitation was growing by the minute. The dry wall on the first floor was cracking, dirty laundry was strewn about the various barracks rooms, the offices were untidy and the walls were painted in that awful shade of brown that was enough to induce fits of depression.
But it was the cockroaches that came flooding out of the drains in the barracks that made May Darren declare that no patient of hers was going to be billeted in as unhealthy, unsafe, and certainly unsanitary an environment such as No. 5 Barracks.
"And you call yourselves Marines." She muttered, after chewing out the 2nd Lieutenant that was in charge of the barracks for letting the building be barely livable.
May Darren cared about all of her patients but this one in particular was special. On the hospital ship from Guadalcanal he had actually attempted to sneak aboard the supply skimmer to get sent back to the Island. She had caught him before he even got out of his bunk because his step was so shaky. There was an indomitable fighting spirit in the man however, one that wouldn't let him give up. She only wished it would show itself in more constructive ways than trying to go AWOL when he could barely walk.
Still, she had to admire his willpower, and his almost dogged loyalty to his fellow Marines. She in fact overheard him try to comfort a wounded Marine who had lost both of his legs at Guadalcanal. What he needed was a place where he could really heal, a family environment, a sort of home away from home. She immediately brightened and walked off to the nearest payphone.
~ ~ ~ ~
"You heard correctly Corporal, you're being discharged from the hospital to a private residence." Corpsman Nathan Lin replied.
"I don't know of any private residence here that I'm billeted to." Gene Locksley replied, now smartly attired in his working khakis, his garrison cover tucked under one arm.
"I do." May Darren replied.
"Ma'am?" Locksley replied, "Could you please explain why the address for my discharge is 3512 Steiner Avenue? I've never even heard of the place."
"I have. Follow me Corporal." May Darren replied, in as business like a manner as possible.
"Yes ma'am." A puzzled Gene Locksley replied. He had recovered enough to walk around on his own, but still could not hear out of his left ear.
The car drove down a few winding side streets and stopped at a two story house with a large station wagon and a Jeep Wrangler in the parking lot. "Oh, my niece must be home."
May opened the door and shouted, "Kids, come meet our guest."
"Awk Polly want a Prozac! Call my doctor! Call my lawyer! They're insane!" a red Amazonian parrot came flying through the house and right over Locksley's head.
Three little girls, about eleven years old, identically clad in pink t- shirts with black denim jeans ran after the parrot, they all had short blonde hair and blue eyes, "Come back here birdie!"
They all stopped when they saw Gene Locksley for the first time. "Wow, are you in the Army?"
Gene smiled, despite himself, "No I'm in the Marine Corps."
"Isn't that part of the Army or something?" the triplets asked in unison. As Gene was to discover, the rambunctious triplets had an annoying tendency to speak in unison.
"No." Gene replied, slightly miffed, but who could blame them, they were just three little girls.
"I'm Toya."
"I'm Trisha."
"I'm Jade."
"Will you three stop antagonizing our guest?" said a young woman from the top of a staircase.
She was a slim red head in her early twenties, built almost like her aunt, but not as tall as her aunt's 6'1" and about even with Locksley's 5'8". "Ivy, I want you to meet our guest."
Ivy smiled wryly and said, "Hi."
"Hi, I'm Gene Locksley, United Systems Marine Corps." He said, shaking her hand.
Just then, a blonde haired young man, about eighteen years old, walked into the kitchen wearing blue jeans and an olive green Army shirt with staff sergeant stripes on it.
"Zack, meet our guest, Gene Locksley." May replied, as she turned to Gene she said, "And if I hear you say United Systems Marine Corps after your name again, I'll have you scrubbing latrines for a week."
"Zack was in the Army for about a year in North Africa." Ivy replied, "Until they found out he could better serve in the Army Encryption Unit around here, then they sent him home."
"What about you? Where did you serve?" Zack asked.
Gene Locksley put his duffel bag down on the sofa and said, "I was all over the place, I was in China, Hong Kong, Hawaii......"
His voice trailed off as he continued, "And finally Guadalcanal."
"Well Gene, dinner's in half an hour, so in the mean time make yourself at home. Ivy, could you please show our guest his room." May replied.
Gene picked up his duffel bag and followed Ivy up the staircase. "Are your sisters always this crazy?"
"You have no idea. Imagine having three little sisters who have genius level IQ's but have the emotional level of...."
BAM! A loud bang could be heard from downstairs that made Locksley jump to the floor and open his mouth, exhaling loudly as he covered his ears. "...You're average hyperactive preteen." Ivy continued as Locksley stood back up again, looking slightly sheepish.
"Learned that at Guadalcanal." He replied, "What the hell was that?"
"Probably the Triplets messing around with chemicals again." Ivy replied.
"Ivy! I thought that you confiscated the Triplets chemistry lab." Mrs. Darren yelled from downstairs.
"I did, mom! They must've got another one." Ivy replied.
Suddenly a tiny blur crawled between Ivy's legs. Almost before anyone could react the blur raced towards the staircase. Gene Locksley caught the fast crawling toddler with ease. He handed the two year old to Ivy. The little baby looked at Gene with a puzzled face, "Gaaahhh?"
"This is Claudius, my baby brother." Ivy said. As the baby wriggled his little hands, they grasped Gene's garrison cap.
Ivy incredulously watched as Locksley took his cap, and put it on the toddler's head, "Now you look like a real leatherneck." Locksley grinned.
"'neck." the baby said.
"This is Gene." Ivy said.
Gene smiled and shifted the weight of his duffel bag as he opened the door to a room Ivy indicated. The baby gurgled happily as Ivy put him in his playpen and handed Gene his cap.
"Your room's over there." Ivy indicated.
"Thanks." Gene Locksley replied.
He closed the door and changed into a pair of blue jeans with a black USMC t-shirt. "You can take the man out of the Corps, but you can't take the Corps out of the man. Gunny, you sure hit the nail on the head with that one straightaway."
He put on a pair of shoes and walked downstairs into the living room where Zack was watching the Discovery Channel. He took a look at the screen for a few moments and then realized what an exhausting day he had just had and fell asleep.
Sleep did not bring the rest that he thought it would bring. Instead it brought about images of fog, a pervasive, creeping fog that muffled sound, blurred perception and merged past and present in a hideous mélange that invaded the very peace that Gene Locksley sought.
Only the occasional gunshot penetrated the fog. In the fog he could see Marines, but it was impossible for the shit scared boys that eyed him were all dead. It was as if he were leading the march of the dead. Screams penetrated the fog, unearthly zombie moans punctuated this symphony of screams.
Over the din a distinct sentence rose, shouted by one of the dying Marines, "God damn you Gene Locksley!!!!"
Then suddenly a hand clamped over his shoulder. Gene Locksley's eyes opened with a start and he turned to see Ivy kneeling beside the couch, "Gene, dinner's ready." Gene Locksley got up, though he was awake he could still here the shooting and the screams of his fellow Marines, the brothers he was unable to rescue.
"Gene I wanna go home." Spud said, as if his pleading lips were beside Gene Locksley's tortured right ear.
This was the other battle Gene Locksley fought, the battle against his emotional wounds. It was a battle that he could never leave, for if he chose to forget it, who would remember those Marines who had died not for the United Systems or for Earth's safety but for the man next to them in the line. The only question was, would Gene Locksley win this fight?