Tully felt like falling on the ground in defeat, he'd never felt so hopeless in all his life. Hitch lay on a blanket that he was dragging behind him and he knew that he had to find water and shelter soon. He stopped for a moment and stood over his friend trying to give him some momentary shade with his shadow against the sun, "Come on Tully, get with it." He told himself. He grabbed the front corners of the blanket and proceeded on. One foot in front of the other, left, right, left, right. This mantra rang in his head as he stubbornly continued.

It seemed like an eternity before the sun sank and the desert began to cool off, "Hitch?" Tully asked not expecting to receive an answer. Hitch mumbled something and tossed fitfully, in a second Tully was beside him trying to calm him down. "It's okay buddy, it's alright." His words seemed to calm Hitch and he quieted down. "Don't want you makin' your wound worse."

Now that the sun was gone, it had become quite cold. Tully was glad that he had the blanket and wrapped Hitch in it like a burrito. He then lay beside him trying to offer his body heat. He didn't mean to fall asleep but between pulling Hitch and the past days had taken its toll.

"Tully."

Tully was immediately awake but didn't show it or move. He didn't recognize the voice, it wasn't his sergeants or Germans. It sounded American but then again it could be some kind of kraut trick, "Tully." The person said again, this time more persistent.

Tully slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring up at a young man with bright blue eyes and hair the lightest yellow he'd ever seen, he wasn't wearing any uniform either. Just some sort of strange clothes, "Who-?"

The man cut him off, "Hurry, there's a patrol heading your way." He bent down and picked up Hitch who was still oblivious to the world around him.

Tully started to protest but for some reason, he didn't feel that this man was a threat.

"My name's Gabe, my jeep is parked just over there." He nodded to an army jeep sitting a few feet away. Tully wondered how he hadn't heard the noise, he'd trained himself to wake up to the slightest sound so a jeep should have awoken him the minute it came close to him. He also wondered how non-army personnel managed to get ahold of an army jeep. He opened his mouth to ask a question but was cut off.

"Your friend will be alright, your base is only a few miles from here." Gently they placed him in the back and Gabe climbed into the driver's seat and Tully slid into the passenger's seat, "Here," He handed Tully a canteen of water and Tully took a few grateful swallows and then managed to get some down Hitch's throat. The rumbling of half-tracks signaled the patrol coming upon them, "Hold on." Gabe said. He stepped on the gas and they shot forward kicking up spurts of sand.

It seemed that they were practically flying across the desert and in no time they had left the patrol far behind. A bit of sand blew into Tully's eyes and he closed them and rubbed them trying to get the bothersome grains out, he felt the jeep start to slow down and glanced over at Gabe to see what was going on. To his shock and disbelief Gabe was no longer there, by now the jeep had come to a halt and he looked around trying to figure out what had happened to their benefactor.

He checked on Hitch to make sure he was okay and then hopped out to check around, besides the jeep tracks, there were no impressions in the sand that could have been made by his body falling out or even footprints, Tully made a double check hoping to spot something but still nothing.

It was too dangerous to shout so he slowly made his way back to the jeep. He peered into the distance and he was rewarded by sight of their camp.

...

"Halt!" The guard shouted raising his rifle, "State your presence or be shot!"

"Just me Jace."

"Tully!" The guard exclaimed surprised, "We heard you'd been captured!"

Tully grinned tiredly, "Heard right, but we escaped. Can you take the jeep to the motor pool, Hitch is wounded and I need to get him to the hospital."

"Sure, George, take over for me for a sec."

Tully scooped up Hitch and carefully made his way to the medical tent. In a few minutes, Hitch had been whisked away from him and rolled into the emergency room, a doctor stayed behind to check up on the weary private, "Hmm, you seem pretty fit other than a few bruises on your ribs and arms. Take it easy for the next few days and make sure to get a lot of rest."

"When will my friend be out of surgery?"

"At the most, two hours, he was wounded but he's very lucky. And don't think you'll be waiting that entire time, you go get some sleep or I'll personally see to it."

Tully smiled and headed out, "Tully!" He turned and saw Troy and Moffitt running toward him, "Thank God you're back, we were just about to head out when Jace told us you made it back, how's Hitch?"

"Just went into surgery, the doctor said he was lucky. Uh, Sarge, I got a question." They nodded and he suddenly felt like an idiot as he told them the story about Gabe and his mysterious disappearance.

Moffitt stroked his chin, "Sounds to me like you were visited by an angel." He was met with incredulous stares, "Well, Tully you said the man's name was Gabe right?" Tully nodded, "There was an angel in the Bible by the name of Gabriel, and I've heard of encounters that sound like yours. Besides, do you have a better answer?"

"No, angel it is then."

It was apparent to the Sergeants that Tully was beat so they let him go get some sleep and waited for Hitch to come out of surgery.

...

Hitch slowly became aware of his surroundings and of a soft gentle voice talking to him quietly, "-and of course I didn't think that was actually possible so I had to go try it for myself, I took a beautiful swan dive off of the loft and landed headfirst into the hay pile. And I was right, you can't dive into a shallow pile of hay. Ma was real scared when Pa brought me in with my scalp bleeding but when she was sure I wasn't too seriously hurt and figured out what I'd done, she sure let me have it."

"Sounds like somethin' you'd do." Hitch rasped.

Tully came into his view and sighed with relief, "How're you doin' buddy?"

"Thirsty." A cup was placed against his lips and he took a few careful sips, "Thanks, how long have I been out?"

"Well, if you count since the time you collapsed, I'd say four days."

Hitch sucked on his cheek and Tully saw the familiar gleam, "Doc said you'd be in bed for a week, and he also told me to take it easy so I am here to make sure you follow his orders."

Hitch groaned but his attention was quickly caught by a pretty nurse coming toward him, "And how are you doing today Mr. Hitchcock?" She asked taking his temperature. Tully rolled his eyes as Hitch pulled his hurting little boy facade, "Oh you poor thing." She murmured patting his hand. "I'll have to come to see you more often."

"Yeah, that would make me feel a little better. It's awful hard to be away from home and you remind me so much of Rita." The nurse blushed thinking he meant Rita Hayworth and quickly hurried off.

"Who's Rita?" Asked Tully.

"My pet goose."

~W~

This turned out a lot longer than expected but I hope you like it😅

Also, the Bible never gives a description of Gabriel but I'm just giving a generic description of what angels are usually thought to look like.