It took a split second for John to make his decision and after barking orders to a medic who had arrived after the attack had begun, John turned his focus to the soldier calling out for help.
Mentally he counted to three, but physically he was running before his mind started to say one and kneeling beside Ben before he could reach five.
The other men in his patrol unit moved a second after him; securing the streets, checking for injured people and searching for would be attackers. All this was streaming through the back of John's mind as he immediately switched from soldier to doctor and began working to save his fellow soldier.
His hands moved swiftly as he did everything he could so Ben would be stable enough to make it back to the base hospital, all the while making sure to tell Ben that he had done the right thing and that he was going to be fine.
When the med-evac arrived, John watched from where he knelt as Ben was stretchered across to the jeep and he didn't see the flash from the sniper's scope.
As the pain flooded through his shoulder, he felt one of the medic's applying pressure. It almost felt like he was looking at the whole scene from the outside of his body.
A/N: I'd like to take a minute to thank a guest reviewer who pointed out something I didn't know about the use of the word Taliban. According to them (and they got this information from a family member who works in the military) the word Taliban can be translated to the word 'student', so if you were to go to Afghanistan and ask for a member of the Taliban, they would call on their son. As a result I won't be using that work in that context again.
Unfortunately this guest didn't sign in or don't have an account so I can't send them a private message. All I can do is say thank-you for the information here and hope that they get the message.