Manfredi cried into his microphone, "man down! Repeat, Skipper is down! Johnson we need you NOW."
Kowalski looked around the room. There was destruction everywhere. Everywhere except where Skipper lay. "Manfredi! Even in his crazed state, Rico is avoiding the area where Skipper is! That's the safest spot in the room!"
Both men ran to Skipper. They could at least make sure he was okay, before they tried to stop Rico. Kowalski put his ear down by Skipper's mouth and put two fingers on his throat, while Manfredi started ripping Skipper's shirt with a knife. "He's still alive. Where's Johnson?"
"Right here!" Johnson ran through the door. Without a pause, he opened his medkit and began tending to Skipper. "The gunman in the hall is alive, but he's going to be in a world of hurt for a long time. Where are the other two gunmen?"
"Behind the overturned table, but Rico has...dealt with them." Johnson paused to look at Manfredi, who shrugged. "We don't know if they're alive or dead. At the very least, they're unconscious."
"Well, I'll take care of Skipper. You two try to calm Rico down. Even from here I can see he's been injured."
Manfredi and Kowalski looked at each other, then looked a Rico. He was still laughing and whooping insanely. "Easier said than done," Kowalski muttered.
The two made their way cautiously toward Rico. "Calm down, Rico." "It's okay, Rico." "Skipper is going to be fine." "Give us the mallet, Rico."
"KABOOM! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Come on, Rico. Don't make us hurt you."
Suddenly a loud commanding voice rang through the mess hall. "RICO! STAND DOWN, SOLDIER!"
Rico stopped. He turned toward the voice. Kowalski and Manfredi also turned. There was Skipper, leaning on Johnson. He looked very pale, but that did little to dim the anger in his eyes. "I said, stand down. NOW!"
The mallet slipped from Rico's hand, clattering harmlessly on the floor. "Kippah?" Rico smiled and softly repeated, "Kippah". He swayed a little before crumpling to the floor. A moment later, his strength spent, Skipper lost consciousness and slumped against Johnson.
*/*/*/
Skipper opened his eyes. It took the briefest of moments to realize that he was in a hospital room. He felt a warm weight next to him and on him. He looked down and saw Rico. The younger man was wearing only pajama bottoms. There was a bandage wrapped around his abdomen and another around his right arm. He was sitting on the edge of a chair, but his chest and head were on the bed. His right arm was draped protectively over Skipper's stomach.
He vaguely remembered what happened in the mess hall. The last thing he clearly remembered was the pain of the gunshot and slamming into Rico. After that, things were fuzzy. He heard Rico scream his name. Somewhere in his memory were the sounds of Rico whimpering and the gunmen laughing. He thought the others showed up. Well, they much have because he kinda remembered leaning on Johnson as he saw the destruction that Rico had wrought. And he knew it was his voice that stopped it all.
Rico had listened to him. The man who listened to no one else, listened to him. He was glad that he could stop Rico. It was a good thing to remember in case this happened again. Rico could be controlled and he was the man who could do it. Perhaps the only one who could.
The other three walked into the room. Skipper brought a finger up to his lips.
"He came here the moment he woke up," Johnson said quietly. "We thought it best to not upset him again. He's been asleep here for about an hour now."
"We hoped you wouldn't mind, " Manfredi added.
"Give me a status report on the gunmen."
"Alive but unconscious," Kowalski responded. "As Johnson put it, they'll be 'in a world of hurt' for some time to come."
"And Rico?"
Johnson replied, "his injuries are minor. A couple of weeks and he'll be ready to destroy stuff again."
"And...?" He didn't need to say more, because they knew what he was asking about.
Manfredi said, "the Commander wanted to talk to you about that when you're better."
"You're not going to let them take Rico away, are you," Kowalski asked.
Skipper could see the anxious look on the face of his second-in-command. In fact, all of them looked anxious. Skipper smiled. They had really come together as a team. They looked out for each other; worried about each other.
Skipper rested his hand on Rico's head. In his sleep Rico smiled and made happy gurgling noises. Crazed psycho-path or not, Rico was a part of this team. They were all a part of this team and he wasn't going to let anyone break up his team.
"No. No one is going to take him away. No man gets left behind."
The End
Thanks for reading! ^_^