Chapter 10: Medal Stories

"Oh." was the simple response from everyone. They had no idea that TJ was seeing a lot of action.

Trying to find something else to talk about Spinelli picked up TJ's vest and looked at it. All along the upper right side several medals were pinned to the vest. "What are all of these?" Spinelli asked feeling that it would be a safe topic to talk about.

TJ took the vest and looked at the medals a moment before passing the vest around for the others to see. "My medals or decorations. 7 Purple Hearts."

Gus cringed at that comment and cringed again when he saw the seven hearts hanging from the vest.

"What is it Gus?" Vince asked.

"Ya, and what's this Purple Heart thingy awarded for anyway?" Spinelli asked.

"Care to explain Gus?" TJ said giving the floor to Gus.

"Well, the Purple Heart is awarded to people who get wounded in action. Normally you got to be hurt fairly spectacularly like get shot to get one." Gus explained.

"Oh." Everyone said and turned their attention back to TJ or more specifically his scars.

"Yup, let's see. I got one for this one," TJ pointed to one of the bullet scars on his left bicep. "Another for the one in my shoulder and another for my hand. And this one," TJ pointed to his other scar on his left bicep. TJ then turned around and showed his back to everyone, which revealed one big thin scar that was on his right shoulder blade and ran parallel with his spine. "I got this beauty from shrapnel. Tore clean through my pack and into my shoulder. The tip poked out the front of me. It's injuries like that when you drink."

TJ turned back around to face the others and to seat himself properly. "I got this one for the scar on my cheek. I got this at Blood Cry." TJ said the last part with bit of anger and guilt riding his voice. Sensing the unease Mikey was the first to act.

"What about the others?"

"I have 3 Medals of Honor and 2 Silver Crosses."

"Dude." Gus exclaimed.

"What?" Everyone asked together.

"You're only given the Medal of Honor for doing something above and beyond the call of duty and the Silver Cross is the second highest honor you can get. You only get those for doing something really great." Gus explained with great earnest.

"Get the medal and you're a hero, get the cross and you're a legend. That's what my old sarge use to tell me and I guess it's true. I got my first cross for carrying a wounded man 5 clicks"

"Miles" Gus interjected for everyone else's benefit.

"To the nearest field hospital. I got shot in the right calf and had to hobble the last click. They also gave me another Purple Heart as well. They gave me the second for surviving Blood Cry." TJ said the said the last part with a gruff voice and unconsciously started to play with his dog tags and locket.

Vince looked around for something to break the uneasiness in the room. Everyone could tell that TJ had bad memories from whatever happened at Blood Cry as he called it. Looking at the clock Vince saw that it was a little past two in the afternoon. Making the suggestion to go out for a late lunch/ early dinner the group started to get ready to go out, which would give Vince a few moments alone with Gretchen.

A/N: Down to business, I want to take some time to sort out some of the confusion.

To Iggytheiccyiguana, Two sheets of paper. Okay, take a block of wood 3 inches thick and place it against your head. Drive a nail into it. You see the nail stopped ½ an inch from your head. When you tell the story you say the nail stopped ½ inch from your head instead of it went in 2 ½ inches. I'm saying only 2 sheets of paper were untouched by the bullet that went through the rest of the pile. Get it? For lilvickiryan, they are all in college and going on to senior year making them about 21-22. They all live at TJ's. If you read back, I say that TJ enlisted after high school or roughly around 18. P.S. to you and politicalprincess; I check out that site you sent me and became very confused. I'll have another look at it but the color clashes make it hard to concentrate and navigate around. Noelle; and anyone else interested in updates, I update when I can but I'm very busy with all my extra courses and sports as well as writing. I generally will get one or two chaps up during the week depending on homework and I'll try to update daily on the weekends or at least give out a nice long chapter. Now to TJ's eyes. First off the last time I saw Recess was in 98. Second by looking at TJ's picture here I can see that he has a light brown hair color. Here's where my reason for his brown eyes come in. Assuming his parents were a blond with blue eyes and a maroon with brown eyes. The blond would either recessive and the brown hair would come up or be co dominate and just tint the brown leaving TJ's light brown hair. Unfortunately I can't find a good picture of these guys eyes so I went with genetics. The blue eye gene is a recessive gene coming up only if the partner is also blue eyed. So the blue would not show up in TJ's eyes. I made then brown since he's of American/European descant. This is to everyone in general: Sorry for not making it more dramatic and those they did not recognize each other. But I ask you to honestly say to yourselves that you could spot a friend you haven't seen for over 4 years and has changed physically ie TJ had a nice big scar down one cheek.

I think that is all and should cover the major confusion you have been talking about. If you have any more questions just say so.