"You wanted to see me sir?" I asked aloud to Colonel Sink as I stood at attention in his cabin, having him look down at my folder once more as he looked up at me after a moment or two of silence. I had some thought as to why I was there: the incident with Toye. He must have heard me telling Liebgott and Winters about my concerns with him going back out into the field because of his sickness. Maybe Captain Sobel saw my note and thought it was a step out of line, and he was now getting me in trouble.
"That I did." Colonel Sink said aloud, having me then hear the door behind me open and close. I stayed still, keeping my eyes to the front as I saw from the side Captain Sobel stand next to me and salute the Colonel. He looked just as fierce as I saw him with Easy Company in training: a stern look on his face and a jawline that could make any man shake in their boots. I felt a wave of fear coming through me as Colonel Sink kept talking.
"I was informed by your Captain that you requested to keep Private Toye from going through the rest of his training because of his condition, is this correct?" He asked me as I kept my eyes ahead of him, having me take a somewhat big breath before answering him.
"Yes sir." I replied, "Private Toye was not fit enough to go into training and his physical health would have been in danger if he returned to combat."
"Private Toye did not need to have any kind of medical attention, sir." Captain Sobel said from his spot next to me, having me feel a sudden urge of hate coming from him since I went against his order, indirectly. A part of me wanted to yell at him that he was not right in this, but I had to hold my tongue and keep my place. I was a nurse, nothing more.
"He ran 3 miles after receiving a bad case of food poisoning sir, in which his body had no choice but to act in the way it did in order to take out the food poison in his body." I calmly explained to Colonel Sink, who kept his eyes on me as I went on, "With his condition, going through more training would have left him in more of a medical risk than ever. He needed rest, sir."
"It was still uncalled for to have him out of training without my personal consent." Captain Sobel countered back, his eyes were still on Colonel Sink, but I could tell he was about to get this personal on me, making me his own personal target.
"It's the duty of a nurse to give aid to a soldier and if necessary stop the soldier from doing anything that would bring a risk to his or her health." I declared aloud to Colonel Sink, my voice was a bit bolder and with a hint go annoyance since I thought of this argument as ridiculous. I watched Colonel Sink look from Sobel to me, and back at him, for at least a moment or two before he then spoke up again.
"I asked you here specifically because I have watched your work in the medical wing here at Camp Toccoa, and you are exceeding far beyond our own expectations. I was giving praise from Lieutenant Winters himself on making you a second combat medic alongside Eugene Roe." He explained, having me freeze in my spot and I tried so hard not to give into my real emotions from what I was feeling.
"Sir." Captain Sobel started, having me hear a hint of shock in his voice though he tried to compose himself, "With all due respect."
"In which I won't receive it," Colonel Sink said back to him immediately, having me see Sobel go quiet, "I'm going to have to rethink the fact that you were really considering asking me to punish a medical nurse, whom has had medical experience for about 5 years, for letting a private rest from extensive exercise?" I heard nothing from his rant, having me wonder what was going on in his head at that moment. Was it fear? Or maybe it was an embarrassment, I had no clue. But I remained composed, trying to hide the fact that I wanted to celebrate my own personal victory.
"She had made a valuable and needed decision, even if it was without your own personal consent. At this point in the war, I would rather have more soldiers alive and healthy than fewer soldiers who died from something that could have been fixed easily, including rest." Colonel Sink continued as he got up from his desk, looking from Captain Sobel over to me and having me see him give me an intense stare.
"I am still going to take into consideration having you train with the Easy Company men in combat and survival, but for now continue your work in the medical cabin, and let you Captain know for now on if there is another medical issue with a Private. Understand?" he asked me, his voice was no longer stern but cooler with the same intense leadership tone behind it. I saluted him then.
"Yes sir." I replied, having me see him nod his head at me once.
"Dismissed." I walked out of the cabin without looking at the Captain, whom I could tell was giving me looks of death as I went back out into the open air and saw the cool sun in the blue sky. I sighed in relief, wanting to take in a deep breath in thoughts that I was in trouble. But far from it.
"Oi, Red!" I heard ahead of me, having me see The Easy Company boys looking over in my direction. It made me feel the warmth as they were using a new nickname on me, though I was still wondering why they chose Red over anything else. I walked over to them, my hands still shaking from the recent events that just happened and I smiled at them. We met in the middle of the clearing, all of us in a cluster and they were watching me.
"Bull told us that he saw you go into the Colonel's cabin." Luz explained, "What happened in there?"
"Yeah and why was Sobel in there with you?" Liebgott asked me, his voice was less interested in why I was there and more along the lines of annoyed that I was left in the cabin with Sobel. He didn't look too pleased about it as if it bothered him.
"He was trying to punish me for helping Toye out with his sickness," I explained to the group of boys, having me see them shake their heads in retaliation and disapproval.
"That's bullshit!" Toye said aloud, having me grin from his antics, "I was sick because of that bastard in there!"
"Cool it Toye." Malarky said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder to hold him back from being too hotheaded, "What did Sink say anyways?"
"He let me go with a warning." I replied to him, having me see the rest of the boys look at me in pure shock. Even Liebgott was shocked from standing next to Bull, "But he also is thinking of promoting me."
"Promoting you?" Webster asked with a raised eyebrow, having me nod my head at him.
"All be damned." Luz said in his signature grin, "To what? Being his personal medic for now on?" The boys laughed from his remark, having me smirk as well from the sheer thought. I would ever take any kind of promotion that left me to the personal nurse of Colonel Sink.
"Combat nurse." I said aloud, having the whole group whoop and cheer from hearing the news. I felt a hug or two from the boys as a congratulations and approval for what they heard.
"Way to go, Red. You'll be shooting sharp for sure." Bull praised me as he gave me a side hug, having me feel the warmth from it.
"This coming from the guy who knows how to shoot guns better than the rest of us." Frank Perconte said in a snorting tone, having the rest of the boys erupt in laughter. It felt good to talk to the boys in a way that I had no fear in how they were viewing me. I was slowing becoming one of them now, one of the men of Easy Company though I was far from being as much as a soldier than they were becoming.
"Come on boys, let's go tell Doc the good news. I bet he's going to love it!" Luz said in a grin, having me see Bull smack him on the back of the head as the group walked, me towards the back with Liebgott. I still felt a bit off with the whole situation with Captain Sobel, having me feel as though I was about to be personally pushed by him from just hearing the venom in his voice to try and bring me down. No wonder the other boys at Easy Company didn't like him at all, and I only got a small taste of it.
"You think about taking the promotion?" Liebgott asked me under his breath so that I could only hear it.
"Maybe, though I need to think about it some more." I replied, then looking over at him and seeing a rather bitter look on his own face.
"Liebgott?" I asked him, shoving him with my shoulder and see him look over his shoulder back at the cabin once more, having me look as well and notice that it was Captain Sobel who was coming out of the cabin with his own bitter look on his face and he looked like he was about to slam his fist into a wall.
"He didn't do anything to you while you were in there, did he?" He finally asked, looking back in front of us and having me see the sourness on his face. Wait a minute, he was worried about me, in there with the Captain? I was a bit shocked to hear that, having me stare at him intently as we walked with the rest of the group a bit ahead of us.
"Why would he? Colonel Sink was right there." I explained to him shortly, having me see him shake his head in bitterness.
"Yeah, but he personally wanted to make sure you were punished right?" He asked me, pressing into the subject that I didn't want to think about anymore. I sighed, grabbing his jacket and having the both of us spot, staring at each other and having me see the heat in his eyes and how he too wanted to punch a wall.
"Liebgott, nothing happened in thereā¦.and I don't think anything else is going to happen at all since he is, in fact, a Captain." I reassured him in my hushed tone, having me watch me as I explained to him, "And if he does try to find some kind of way to punish me, he's gonna have to try as hard as hell."
"You sound so sure of yourself there, Red." He murmured to him, having me grin at him and release his jacket from my grasp.
"I'm no pushover for anyone, Liebgott." I reminded him, about to walk away and rejoin he group that was about outside the medic cabin.
"Joe." He said, having me look over my shoulder at him, seeing my bangs fly in the wind across my face. He walked over to join me as we walked together.
"Call me Joe."
"You'd think they would learn anytime soon." I heard another nurse, Bethany, say aloud as I looked up from my spot at the back of the medic cabin. She was looking over another soldier, who went deaf after a defected gun went off close to his ear and he could no longer hear. He was trying to hard to understand what we were saying, I could tell in the frantic look on his face and how he was grasping her hand to get her to talk to him. But she knew he was deaf, gone and without any noise in his ears.
"Soldiers are going deaf left and right, and the next thing you know they'll walk right onto a landline without even hearing the calls from their company." Bethany explained as she walked away from the soldier who was now just quiet, looking at the ceiling with his own doom looking over him. Bethany was in her mid fifties, one of the eldest nurses that were also a veteran to army nursing. She went through more in World War One as a young nurse and she saw ally hat happened in front of her from her spot in the hospital. I had more respect for her than I ever thought I would since she showed me knowledge and kindness on the nursing side of this whole new adventure.
"How many men do you think have gone deaf from the war?" I asked her out of curiosity.
"Too much for my liking." She replied, having me think to myself for a moment or two. It was, in fact, bad that soldiers were dying left and right because they are going deaf and not being able to hear or understand what was around them. They had no way of communication, no way to talking to having someone be able to talk to them. It made me wonder, how could we fix that, and how can we prevent even more deaths. For some reason, I thought of my brother and how he too was deaf and needed help with communication. Then it hit me, like a ton of bricks.
"Bethany, what would you think of helping me with deaf soldiers and teaching them a language?"
