Dislcaimer: Sadly, anything from Blackadder doesn't belong to me.
Author's note: Well I haven't updated this in a while:D And i wasn't intending to either, but I just suddenly realised that I had never inlcuded Melchett! and I thought that he deserved a say after everything. So he's getting it. :)
When Melchett had first given the orders to go over the top, it had almost seemed like a joke. It didn't seem like a serious idea- why, he had ordered it so many times in the past, and some way or another those lads had always got out of it. Safely tucked away in a warm, comfortable room it had been too hard for him to imagine them out there. He wasn't a particularly empathetic person. Besides; fighting was what the war was all about! What was the point of coming all the way to the frontline, if you weren't going to do anything once you were there?
Well, he would be the only one viable to answer that question now.
He had thought that sending Darling over the top was...a gift of some kind, allowing him to feel that sense of patriotism that had been stolen from him. Darling had cried- something Melchett had mistaken for joy, not horror- but he had not complained. Melchett wondered on that now. Poor Darling.
He had recieved a call from George. Partly just to tell him that everyone but him was dead; but also to blame. Melchett had replaced the phone in its cradle, muttering to himself that George had no right to be blaming him, that it was his job to give orders, and the mens duty to follow them. For a while, he had actually believed his own words.
When he started to begin doubting his words, he told himself that their deaths were no considerable loss anyway. Darling was about as emasculate as a man could get without actually becoming a woman, Baldric had no brain cells to speak of and Blackadder had shot his beautiful speckled Jim. And that was plain unforgivable. But eventually, Melchett had come to the dismal conclusion that he had sat, happy and safe, while sending others to die and the thought didn't sit well with him.
Melchett had justified not following his men by reminding himself that it was not his job- but in reality he had been weak, and scared. He was all for beating the Germans, and fighting with honour and GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! But it was nasty out there, in no man's land, with gunfire and shells and dirt and blood: he had been told so. However with the death of these three men- and however many more he had sent to their deaths- weighing on his concsience, going over the top didn't seem such a big concern.
Melchett shook his head and returned to his feeble battle plans. It was worthless to worry about these things. But George's words struck a chord in him; stung him deep down.
"Do you know what I said before we went over the top? That I was scared. And at first, I felt ashamed. But now I've realised that I went over the top, and I fought and I lived. And I am ten times the man you'll ever be. Just like they are. They might be dead, but they died brave men."
Melchett was not going to die a brave man. And that thought did not sit well with him.
I hope that this fits in with the rest :S I guess its kind of an epilogue as well as Melchys POV. Plz R&R and tell me what you think, and thanks to every1 who has reviewed in the past, you've all been so kind:D