Chapter 6:Anger and Despair

 TJ stormed down the bases hallways to the communications room. A few of the older men knew to stay out of his way. The last time someone had tried to impede TJ's path the poor man had been thrown through a window. Reaching the doors TJ entered into a large room fill with men monitoring communication equipment of all sorts. TJ surveyed the room for a moment before his eyes landed on an unsuspecting young man who was tending to his duty in the com. relay station. TJ walked up to the man and spun him around so that he could stare straight into the man's face.

"What's your name, soldier?" TJ asked in a steady calm voice that just hid the smoldering anger that had brewed up in him.

"S... Stevens, sir." The man replied.

"Stevens, did or did not this base receive a report of an ambush at 0400 this morning?" TJ said in the same cold cutting voice.

"Yyyeesss, sir. I... I received a report at that time. The 504th Infantry if I remember right." Stevens nervously answered. He had been sleepy and that had been right at the end of his shift before he had an eight-hour break/sleep.

"And did you receive a request for reinforcements from the 504th at 0600?" TJ questioned. By now TJ was half yelling at the cowering Stevens who was straining his memory to remember the details to the questions that TJ was asking. Though he had never met "The Lone Wolf" as TJ was called among the men his reputation for his fighting skills and short temper were well known among the men.

"I wasn't on duty then, sir." Stevens said with a quiver in his voice. Stevens was a big man but then so had the man TJ had sent through the window.

TJ threw his hands on Stevens, grabbed his shirt, and hauled Stevens to his feet. With a piercing stare TJ growled, "Then get me the man who was." TJ released Stevens who quickly went to fetch the man who he had relieved earlier.

Gibber was the poor soul who had to answer TJ's angry questions

"Yes sir, I did get that request at 0600." Gibber answered as steadily as he could.

"And how about at 0800, 0930, 1100, 1330? DID YOU GET THOSE REQUESTS?" TJ yelled at Gibber drawing the full attention of all in the room.

"Sir, there were several requests during that time period."

"Answer the bloody question, soldier." TJ growled at the man in a low menacing tone.

"Yes, sir I believe that requests were made." Gibbers answered.

"By whom?"

"I can't remember sir. The 504th were one of them I think." Gibber hastily added the last part after seeing the look in TJ's eyes change from a hard cold to a furious inferno.

"One? ALL OF THEM WERE FROM THE 504th!" TJ roared at the man after picking him up by the collar and slamming him against a nearby wall.

For most in the room this served as a good reminder to stay on TJ's good side or at least stay out of his way when he was pissed off. It wasn't every day that a 5' 10" man lifted someone that was 6' 3" and close to 250 lbs off of his feet.

"WHY WEREN'T REINFORCEMENTS SENT?" TJ shouted at Gibber.

"I I I don't know, sir. I I I passed the request up to Captain Gregory." Gibber managed to say before TJ released him and stormed out the door.

TJ went to the Captain's office and just slammed the door open walking in on the good Captain Gregory and his topless secretary who was entertaining the Captain with a lap dance.

"Out." TJ said with a point with his finger. The surprised woman hastily covered herself with her shirt and exited the Captain's office.

TJ slammed the door shut and turned to face the annoyed Captain. However it was the Captain who was taken back by TJ's hard expression.

"Can you be helped?" Gregory asked.

"Why wasn't help sent to the 504th patrol?" TJ asked in response to the Captain's question.

"I was busy you know." Gregory said in an annoyed tone.

"Answer the question." TJ spat back.

"I don't have to answer to you, Sergeant."

"Answer the fucking question, you WestPoint piece of shit." TJ yelled at Gregory who stood up in his chair and slammed his hands down on the desk.

"When I get done with you you'll be done with boy." Gregory yelled back at TJ.

"Don't boy me. Why weren't men sent out?"

"I was busy."

Outside everything came to a stop as the sound of shattering glass filled everyone's ears and turned their attention towards Captain Gregory who had just been given a free flight curtsy of TJ airlines through his office's window. This surprised everyone greatly for the Captain was a beefy man and he had been thrown a good 10 feet before he had hit the ground. However it was not so much a surprise when the Captain's thrower emerged from the Captain's office.

TJ climbed out onto the lawn that the Captain lay groaning on.

"You were busy for a full 10 hours, heh? 19 men are dead because of you, you fat yellow bastard." TJ told the Captain. "Put him in the brig. Not the fluffy officer one, the private's brig." TJ ordered two nearby soldiers.

"You can't do this to me." Gregory started.

"Yes I can. I here by strip you of rank and charge you with treason for the failure of helping out a unit by sending reinforcements." TJ said in a voice of disgust. Watching the men take Gregory away TJ went to file his report, charges against Gregory and begin the grim business of writing letters to families telling them why their sons were in body bags.

Spinelli picked up the newspaper and checked the international news. The biggest story was still the complete wiping out of the 504th patrol. The 504th had been so severely battered that it had been disbanded and reabsorbed into the larger units in Iraq. But the latest news was that the 504th unit had been wiped out because of some Captain name Gregory who had been having affairs with his various secretaries. Unfortunately not much else had been found out since it was a "military affair."

Spinelli sighed. She would have to ask Gus about what could happen to this Captain Gregory. But she would have to wait for him to get back.

Currently she was alone in the house. Gretchen and Vince were out on a date while Mikey and Gus were down at the local neighborhood theatre leaving her all alone.

Alone. That was how Spinelli had been feeling the last few days. For some reason TJ leaving hadn't been so bad when compared to now. Before Spinelli could dream and hope that he would come back. Perhaps not come back to her but just come back so that she could be near him again, hear his voice, stare into his soft brown eyes but now she couldn't even hope to do those things as a friend. He was dead, gone forever and it was all Captain Gregory's fault. Spinelli crumpled the paper to exert her anger at the man. She hoped that he was somehow killed as punishment. Denying her of TJ was a good enough reason to hang a man in Spinelli's mind.

Gretchen had told her to move on but Spinelli wasn't going to. She went to her room and opened the album again. How could she move on if she didn't have anything to move forwards towards? How could she move on from her friend that she had had since kindergarten, the same person she had loved since heaven only knew when. Slowly as Spinelli flipped through the photo album the tears came and trickled down her cheeks to her chin before they fell into her lap.

Spinelli stopped to look at one picture in particular. It was a picture of TJ and herself at a picnic they had had with the gang during the spring break of their senior year. TJ was giving Spinelli a piggyback ride and had his arms around her. She in turn had her arms round his front so that she could hang on. The thing that made this picture special was that TJ had a smile on his face. He had rarely smiled during their last year together but that picture was how Spinelli was going to remember TJ. Not the war hero or as the infamous Prankster Prince but as the smiling young man who had held her heart back then and still did.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review. The next chapter title is called Suicide Talk. You'll never guess who will be thinking about such things and of the complications to come.