Final chapter! Okay, so there is an epilogue too, but yes, the story is coming to a end. Chapter 20 was a bit short, because just before posting I decided I needed to rewrite some of this chapter.

Chapter 21

At Stalag 13, the morning roll call had gone remarkably well. With Hogan firmly back in control of the prisoners, Klink could relax slightly. It led to a long-winded speech about last minute cleaning and tasks around the camp and a caution for all the prisoners to be on their best behavior for the general's visit. Normally Hogan would already have some sort of scheme going to discredit Klink or get information. This time all he wanted was to get Newkirk back safely.

By midday, anticipation was making the men restless all over again. Hogan sent his team out to reassure everyone and privately lamented the fact that the missing one was also one of the best at lightening the mood in the camp. Without the cheeky Newkirk around to pull pranks and tweak the German guards, it was a bit harder for Hogan to keep the positive mood intact.

When Burkhalter's car appeared at the gate, there was a rush to get the information directly to Hogan and he was all but shoved out of the barracks towards the kommandantur. Before he was halfway across the compound, the general and his aide were exiting the car and prisoners were drifting in that direction as subtly as possible. LeBeau appeared at Hogan's elbow and gave him a push.

"Hurry! Do they have Newkirk?" The Frenchman was giving him little pats and shoves in an attempt to make him walk faster.

Hogan tried to gesture for him to wait and was ignored. "LeBeau, go back to the barracks." Kinch walked up, hands deep in his jacket pockets trying to look casual. Hogan rolled his eyes. "Guys, you can't go in with me."

"We're not, we... uhh..." Kinch tried to think of a good reason to be there.

Carter's voice piped up from behind Hogan. "We just want to see Newkirk!"

Hogan sighed and exchanged a look with Kinch. "Take them back to the barracks."

They all turned as a series of shouts erupted from several prisoners at once. Hogan twisted in time to see Newkirk stepping out of the car, one of Burkhalter's guards pulling him towards the offices impatiently. Newkirk raised his hands at the other prisoners to reassure them, inadvertently showing that he was in chains. The bruises covering more than half of his face startled Hogan, although no one else seemed to react.

Kinch elbowed LeBeau and reached to corral Carter as well. "Come on, Louis, I bet Newkirk will appreciate tea when he gets to come to the barracks." He shooed them towards the barracks, motioning for the nearer prisoners to back off as well.

Hogan continued to the offices, thanking all the powers that he had a second-in-command as competent as Kinch. Newkirk hadn't waited, although his guard didn't seem to give him an option anyway. By the time Hogan burst through Klink's office door with his usual blasé, everyone was arrayed in the room.

"Colonel Klink, I just needed a moment..." Hogan paused in his usual mock surprise, becoming slightly startled when two armed guards turned on him. "Easy boys... Colonel Hogan, Senior POW here... I was just coming to check on my man."

"Stand down." Burkhalter almost looked pleased to see Hogan, in contrast to Klink who was trying to gesture the American back out. "Colonel Hogan... what happened to your eye? First I find this one in such a state and now you as well? Klink, have you been brutalizing the POWs?" The evident humor in Burkhalter's voice made it clear to everyone with half a brain that he was joking.

Klink, predictably, paniced and began to protest. "Of course not, General Burkhalter, I would never abuse the prisoners, herr general."

Newkirk spoke up brightly from the far corner. "Of course not, herr general, Kommandant Klink just loans us out for other officers to brutalize."

"Quiet you!" Klink shook a fist at Newkirk who cowered away theatrically. Klink paled and jerked his hand down, looking at the general in dismay. "I promise you, General Burkhalter, I have always abided by the letter of the law! I follow the Geneva Convention. Didn't I call you for assistance as soon as I realized that Major-General Hendrich was abusing his position?"

"Would've been better if you 'ad reported 'im as soon as he was abusing the prisoners, in my mind." quipped Newkirk.

Burkhalter turned a glare towards the Englishman. "That will be quite enough from you."

"Yes, herr general, apologies, herr general." Newkirk cast his eyes on the floor and stood quietly.

Now the general turned to Hogan with a sigh. "I suppose I should return your corporal to you, Colonel Hogan. He has behaved quite well, overall." Burkhalter turned to eye the corporal for a second. "I would not suggest you give him leave to speak freely however."

Hogan affected a surprised expression. "You mean he asked permission before he spoke freely? I can't usually get him to shut up." Hogan leaned in to speak in a stage whisper. "What's your secret? How'd you get him to not talk back to you?"

Burkhalter leaned back in his chair with a satisfied air. "I intimidate him." When Hogan made a sound of disbelief, Burkhalter elaborated. "I threatened to shoot him."

Hogan beamed and looked around to Newkirk. "I can do that. Newkirk, you'll behave or I'll shoot you!"

Newkirk seemed less than amused as he deadpanned back at his commanding officer. "You can't threaten to shoot me, you don't 'ave a gun."

Hogan's face fell and he turned to Klink. "Sir, request permission to carry a gun! I promise only to use it to intimidate Newkirk!"

"Request denied! Hogan, get out of my office!" Klink was trying to take control of his office again.

Pouting slightly, Hogan turned back to Burkhalter. "With your permission, general, I'll take custody of Corporal Newkirk. Even if he is cheeky, we've gotten rather used to having him around." He motioned to Newkirk's bound wrists. "You can keep the chains though, we have plenty of those."

Chuckling, Burkhalter motioned to the more stocky guard to free the Englishman. "Gladly. I will be well rid of him, he's a pest." He eyed Newkirk for a moment as he was being unchained. "I have kept my promise, so we are even, yes, corporal? You saved my life and I brought you back to Stalag 13."

"Yes herr general, thank you." Newkirk's eyes flicked from Burkhalter to Hogan and back, hoping the colonel wouldn't mention anything.

Hogan narrowed his eyes. "Wait, he saved your life? He..." Hogan's finger pointed at a chastened Newkirk. "Saved your..." The finger traveled to point at the general. "Life? As in he acted to save you?"

"Blimey, General Burkhalter, I did ask you not to tell Colonel Hogan and now you've gone and gotten me in trouble! Now 'e's going to court martial me and shoot me!" protested Newkirk.

Burkhalter looked very satisfied. "Colonel Hogan can't shoot you. He doesn't have a gun, remember?"

Brightening, Newkirk accepted that. "Oh. Right-o then!" He started across the room and stopped to look at the guard who'd been next to him. "One question, herr general?" He pointed at the guard. "What IS 'is name, anyway? 'e never would tell me."

Burkhalter looked at the guard with confusion and then back at Newkirk. "His name is Hermann."

Newkirk's lips twitched slightly. He blinked and looked at Herman and then back at Burkhalter. "Heh..." The slight chuckle became an outright laugh rather quickly.

He was still laughing when Hogan took him by an arm to push him out of the office. "I'll just take him... obviously, it's been a terrible strain on the poor man... he's gone hysterical..."

The aide spoke for the first time since Hogan had walked in. "No, no.. he's much much louder when he's hysterical."

"Yes well..." Hogan shoved the corporal through the door. "With your permission, kommandant... general..." He dodged through and shut the door behind them. "Shhh..."

"Sorry..." Newkirk didn't seem all that sorry. "It's just..." He waved both hands about elaborately. "Herman! Ha..."

"You know, Newkirk, I did miss you." Hogan drew him in close as they left the offices and headed across the compound. "Are you okay? You look terrible."

"You don't look all that stellar yourself, sir." Newkirk looked at his black eye. "Who punched you?"

"I walked into a door. Who punched you?" Hogan was eyeing the brilliant colors of bruising across the man's face.

"Oh... everyone." Newkirk smiled, and even though it was crooked, it was almost the same sarcastic Cockney as always.

"Well, you're going to have to tell me the whole story and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again." said Hogan grimly.

"Can't... he's bloody well dead. Hendrich and Otto both. Burkhalter 'ad them both shot." Newkirk's face went still as he spoke and Hogan decided not to press him right away about what had happened regarding that.

"Okay, we'll talk about that later... right now, there's some people who want to see you." Hogan opened the barracks door and stepped back to let everyone inside mob their friend. He felt just a little bit like a fraud, bringing the lost sheep back into the fold as if he'd had anything to do with the whole thing. But not one of the team seemed concerned.

The mass of voices clamored at the Englishman, mixing questions with welcomes and cheerful insults alike. Newkirk stepped backwards, startled by the people rushing at him and trying to cover his fear. A hand on his back let Hogan feel the mild tremor before he controlled it.

Hogan flipped his free hand at the crowd, smiling as he shooed at them. "Settle down, guys. Don't knock the poor guy down. Make a space at the table."

Newkirk twisted to look at him as he was helpfully shoved onto the bench. "Colonel! I need some paper! Burkhalter 'as been meeting with all kinds of German officials and I've got so much information in me head! I need to write it all down!"

Hogan immediately snapped fingers at the other POWs. "Someone get him pen and paper. Pipe down, don't distract him until he gets this stuff written down." He glanced over to the door but Olson had already gone to crack it open to stand watch.

Before Hogan could ask questions about what sort of information it was, Olson spoke up quietly. "Sir… Burkhalter is making that inspection tour."

Hogan grabbed up his cap that he'd set aside. "Time for me to go play with the Germans a little. Kinch, take whatever he writes and get it in code. If we head for Barracks 2, dump it all into the tunnel and act innocent." He stepped outside quickly. Putting on both his crush cap and his clueless cheerful expression, he headed for the little group of German officers. "Hey, can I help?" Inwardly, he enjoyed the looks of annoyance from his captors. Outwardly, his expression never changed, the eager harmless POW who always seemed to be in the way, apologizing each time. Hogan would manage to steer the group away from the sensitive areas of his operation.

H H H H

It was Carter who dodged away and brought the requested paper and pencil. Newkirk didn't even thank him, just sat at the table and began to write as quickly as possible. "I 'ave all this information up in my 'ead." The pencil tapped against his own temple. "I just 'ave to write it down or I'll start forgetting it all and I can't sleep because I keep forgetting bits if I sleep!"

Carter nodded, trying to understand. "Okay, what do you need from..."

Newkirk waved his hands frantically over his head and bent back over his paper, writing even more quickly. "Shhh shhhh! You're gonna mix me all up!" His eyes glued to the paper, he filled the first sheet and shoved it aside to begin on the next sheet. He mumbled under his breath, stopping and starting over repeatedly.

Kinch took one of the filled pages and then let out a soft whistle. "These are the plans for troops movements in this entire sector... and here's a list of all the supply routes..." His eyes flicked over to see Newkirk push aside another full page and Carter took it quietly to bring over. A few seconds to scan it and Kinch took a breath. "We need to get this in code to get all of this to London." He turned to Olson manning the barracks door watching for guards. "If anyone heads this way, sound off, we'd all be shot if the Krauts catch us with this stuff written down." Kinch settled to begin transcribing the information into code.

Carter stepped away, unsure how to help and even less sure that Newkirk wanted him anywhere near him still. He could see the lines of exhaustion written on the Englishman's face as he frantically wrote out the notes. His lips moved as he muttered under his breath.

LeBeau silently put a cup of broth next to Newkirk's elbow and watched him pick it up to drink absently while still writing with his other hand. The bruises showed up rather starkly but as he had a further chance to look, most of them had already begun to fade to different colors.

The Frenchman moved to stand by Carter looking worried. "He looks exhausted."

Carter agreed quietly. "But at least he's back. That's the important part."

H H H H

Later that day, after seeing the general and his entourage out of the main gate, Hogan returned to find Newkirk hunched even lower over the table. The pencil's frantic scratching had slowed and he was faltering. He scribbled a few words and his head drooped lower for a moment before he jerked it up again and the pencil scratched out another phrase or two before stuttering to stop again.

Kinch headed down into the tunnel to begin sending the tactical information to London at a gesture from Hogan. When Newkirk's eyes closed and his face sagged down far enough that his nose nearly touched the paper, Carter's face turned to Hogan with a pleading expression.

Hogan nodded reassuringly. He reached to put one hand on Newkirk's shoulder as gently as possible. Newkirk's head jerked slightly and Hogan bent to speak softly. "Shhh, it's alright. It's all done. You're done, you wrote all of it down." He didn't know that for certain, but he could see the last half page of writing was nonsense and Newkirk was short-circuiting his brain trying to squeeze some last information out of it. "Relax, you're done with it. You did just fine."

"Sorry..." mumbled Newkirk as he gave in and rested his face on the table. "Sorry guv'ner... tried... I t-think... I don't..." His voice faded as his body relaxed into a limp heap. "Don't..."

Hogan smiled as Newkirk began to snore softly. He reached to slide the last paper out from under him and handed it off to Carter. "Take it to Kinch, tell him to send whatever he can make sense of."

"Yessir..." Carter rushed to obey, climbing down into the tunnel quickly.

LeBeau bent to look at the sleeping face. "Mon colonel, we should put him to bed. He's so exhausted."

"Yeah, we can just get him into Carter's bunk. I have the feeling he's going to sleep for days." With Olson and LeBeau's assistance, Hogan gently sat Newkirk upright and then tilted him back to lift his torso while they got his legs untangled from the bench. Getting him laid out in Carter's lower bunk, Hogan stepped back and let LeBeau cover him with a blanket. The relaxed face reassured Hogan that he was sleeping peacefully for now.

LeBeau stepped back. "We should get his jacket off later on if he doesn't wake up." He frowned and reached back in to tilt Newkirk's face to the side and examined him. "I don't think any of these are fresh. But he had a broken rib when Hendrich took him away."

Hogan nodded. "We'll let Wilson look him over. At least right now, Newkirk isn't likely to protest an exam."

LeBeau nodded and tried to smile at the quip. "I will go bring him here, mon colonel." He slipped out of the barracks.

Olson settled at the table and looked at Hogan. "Well, sir, it's been a very exciting week or two and I for one think we all need a few days off." He tilted his head at the barracks door. "Don't let LeBeau fool you either, sir. He's been worrying himself sick. Once old Newkirk is up and about again, there's going to be some very loud shouting matches between them two."

Hogan smiled. "That'll be a sound for sore ears, Olson. It'll be a sign things really are back to normal."

End

There will also be a epilogue. Thank you all for sticking with this all the way to the end.