Kinch, Newkirk, Carter, and LeBeau stood inside Hogan's room, as they planned their next move to save their operation from being discovered and themselves from a firing squad. All four, though, needed yet to simmer down after what Matthews had said about Hogan.
"Gov'nor's Adolf Hitler in disguise; I'll Adolf Hitler your sorry, no good Yankee behind right into a death camp!" Newkirk hissed, his arms crossed.
"How can he say such horrible things about Colonel?!" Carter cried clenching his fists tight. He was furious and could just not understand how someone could say such foul, ill things about his commanding officer. A commanding officer so humane, kind, humble, well groomed, and respected. Hogan was looked up to by many in camp and in the Underground; he was a role model for everyone.
"I'll slit his throat, so he never speaks, again." LeBeau said, as he mimicked slicing his throat and made a noise imitating it.
"We're not killing anybody...no matter how much we wish to." Kinch said, holding back from snarling. What Matthews had said about Hogan had been enough for him to snap himself and beat the man to death.
"Kinch, now I know how Colonel feels about fighting amongst others, but this guy needs payback, this time." Newkirk cried.
"Oui, mon ami; no one should get away for saying such horrid things about the Colonel." LeBeau sneered.
"I have to agree with them, Kinch. We can't let him slide by for this one. We gotta defend Colonel's honor." Carter added.
"Boy, I wish he were here to see me wipe that smug look of his right off his face." Newkirk snarled.
"You're forgetting Colonel did not, under any circumstances, like fighting." Kinch said, as if he could literally hear his commanding officer speaking to him once again. He sure wished he was there, right now. Hogan would know what to do; about Matthews and saving the operation and all of them from calamity.
"What if we publicly humiliate him?" LeBeau asked, trying to think of an idea. All four of them would never go against Hogan's rules and policies, but this time they all wanted payback, and they were determined to do it in some way that even their commanding officer would have been alright with it.
"That could work, Louis, but what would we do?" Carter asked.
"We would have to dig up some good dirt on that Yank." Newkirk said.
"A fear he might have, perhaps." Kinch suggested, trying to think. Even he wanted revenge for what the American officer had called Hogan.
"All I know, is that his has to be good enough that even we can get Klink, Schultz, the rest of the guards, and even the gestapo guard outside of the front gate to laugh at him." Newkirk said.
The four men continued to sit there and think of what they would plan for their little 'friend' for calling Hogan such foul, ill things. For the moment...they were stuck.
Another week had passed by, and Klink had assigned one person to clean their assigned barracks. It was LeBeau's turn, today. Newkirk, Kinch, and Carter sat at the table drinking coffee and socializing, while the rest of the men were minding their own business. Matthews was watching LeBeau and giving him a hard time for cleaning.
"Well, looks like Klink knows what good the French are for. He's not as stupid as he appears to be." Matthews chuckled, standing over the little Frenchman. Matthews had taken off his jacket and hung it up on a hook on his bunk from it being a little hot inside.
LeBeau glared quickly at the American and started cursing softly in French, as he continued sweeping the floor.
Everyone was glad, when a prisoner came in and called Matthews out of the barracks.
"Colonel Matthews, Kommandant Klink wants to see you." The prisoner said.
"Well, hot dog; wonder what old Baldy wants." Matthews said, grinning. He put on his crush cap and made his way out of the barracks to go see what Klink wanted from him.
LeBeau continued sweeping the floor, when he accidentally knocked off Mathews jacket, having his wallet fall out, as the jacket fell to the ground. The Frenchman hung up the jacket and grabbed the wallet. Deciding to see what it held within it, he started snooping around, making watch every once and a while to make sure Matthews had not come back in, yet. Newkirk soon noticed what LeBeau was doing and at first did not mind, until about thirty seconds afterwards, when it finally sunk in at what he was doing. He shot up and hurried to LeBeau.
"What do you think you're doing, Louis? You want that Yank to come in here and beat you to a ruddy pulp?" Newkirk exclaimed.
"Well, hello; what do we have here?" LeBeau sneered, grabbing something out of Matthews's wallet. It was a white card of some sort, but Newkirk could not tell what it was.
"Louis, put that back where you found it! How do you think the Gov'nor would react, if he were here and knew you were snooping through other prisoners' privacy?" Newkirk warned.
"How would the Colonel feel to know that we have a Kraut living in the barracks?" LeBeau asked.
"What,"
LeBeau leaned over and showed the Englishman the card. Newkirk, now interested, grabbed hold of the card and read it out loud.
"Gestapo Hammelburg Headquarters; Captain Hans Freitag. Commanding officer Major Wolfgang Hochstetter." Newkirk said, now intrigued with LeBeau's finding.
"What are you two talking about?" Kinch asked, worried his friends were getting themselves into trouble.
LeBeau put the wallet back into Matthews's jacket pocket where it had been, as if it had never fallen off the hook, and followed Newkirk over to where he was handing Kinch the identification card.
"It's a gestapo ID card; Louis found it in our 'friend's' wallet." Newkirk said, giving a slight evil grin.
"Well, this could serve to benefit us." Kinch said, smiling.
"Oh, we've got that Kraut red handed, now." LeBeau said, rubbing his hands together and smiling menacingly.
"I knew something was fishy about him the moment I laid eyes on him." Newkirk said, smug.
"I knew the minute he accused us of working for the Germans." Carter replied.
Kinch stuffed the card in his pockets, LeBeau hurried back to his broom and started sweeping, again, and Newkirk sat back down, as soon as they heard the doorknob clicking. Matthews walked back in and made his way over to his bunk and lay down on it. LeBeau had to move away from Matthews to another part of the barracks. He made his way to the stove, even though he had finished sweeping that area, and acted as if there was dirt still there, anyways.
"Blind, Tiny; looks like it takes twice for you to get something right." Matthews cackled.
"Minuscule; Je vous montrerai petit, lorsque vous êtes placé devant un peloton d'exécution, aimer yah nazi, le colonel Hogan haïr, excuse désolé pour un être humain diable." LeBeau snarled.
Matthews glared at LeBeau, then went back to reading his magazine.
The guys watched Matthews suspiciously for a little longer before turning to their own quiet conversation.
"Do you think Colonel will wake up soon? It's already been a month, since he got hurt." Carter said, worried.
"I don't know, Carter; I wish I could give you an answer." Kinch said, taking a sip of coffee.
"I was sure he would've at least shown some sort of progress by now." Newkirk sighed, sadly.
LeBeau had finished cleaning and sat down besides Newkirk with his own cup of coffee.
"Maybe tonight will be different, when we go see him." LeBeau said, trying to be optimistic.
Carter sighed.
"I wish I could come along." Carter said, sadly. It was his night to stay back and keep an eye on everything.
"I know, Andrew, but who else is going to do the Gov'nor's paperwork?" Newkirk asked.
The excuse they had come up with for why someone had to stay behind while the rest went to visit Hogan was that his paperwork needed to be done, so it would not begin to pile up.
Carter sighed.
"Yeah, I guess." Carter sadly said, looking down at the table.
The rest of the men felt bad for doing this to Carter, but it was necessary. With Hochstetter, Burkhalter, and Klink on their tail, they needed someone back to keep an eye on the operation and other prisoners to make sure nothing bad happened.
Wilson came in with his med bag and walked over towards Kinch, Newkirk, LeBeau, and Carter.
"Kinch, you wanted to see me?" Wilson asked.
"Yeah, I wanted to see you regarding Colonel Hogan." Kinch said, gesturing to Hogan's room.
The two men walked off into Hogan's room. Kinch turned on a light in his quarters, and Wilson shut the door, so the two could speak freely in private.
"Something wrong with the operation, Kinch?" Wilson asked, softly.
"No...not now, anyways." Kinch answered.
"Then what is it you wanted to see me about?"
"Joe, I want you to stay here with Carter, while Louis, Peter, and I go visit Colonel at the hospital, tonight. We just found out that Matthews is a gestapo agent in disguise as a prisoner sent here by Hochstetter. My guess is that he's here to find proof of our operation going on in Stalag 13."
"You gotta be kidding me."
Kinch grabbed out the ID card and showed Wilson.
"Incredible...but why does Sergeant Carter have to stay behind?" Wilson asked.
"One of us has to stay here to maintain safety with everything going on. If two are here keeping eye on things, the better." Kinch said.
"Well, Olsen and I can do that for you, so Carter can go." Wilson said.
"Joe, you don't need to do that. You have enough on your plate already being camp medic."
"Kinch, I'm doing this as a friend. You four need to be with Colonel Hogan, now. He needs all of you there with him."
"You think so?"
"I know so."
Kinch smiled and nodded.
"You're a good man, Joe."
Wilson nodded.
"Don't worry; Olsen and I will make sure that Kraut stays in his place. We'll send Schultz on him, if he starts getting out of line." Wilson answered.
Kinch nodded and the two of them walked back out after turning off Hogan's light. Matthews had gone out of the barracks, when the two of them got back out into the main area.
"Carter, Wilson is gonna stay behind and do the paperwork. You still wanna come along tonight?" Kinch asked, smiling. He was still making caution, just in case Matthews was near by somewhere.
"Boy, do I ever!" Carter cheered.
Kinch continued smiling and sat down at the table with the three of his friends, as Wilson and Olsen sat down on a bunk and began going over what they would do for tonight.
"Boy, I can't wait to see the Colonel." LeBeau said, squirming.
"Why; can't wait to tell him about Barbara?" Newkirk asked, a little annoyed.
"She's the light of the moon, Pierre! I tell you I've never met such a magnificent girl in all my life." LeBeau said, swooning over the Underground agent.
"She's Hochstetter's niece; you want your future uncle in law to be him?" Kinch asked.
"We can over look Hochstetter with how strong our love is." LeBeau replied, smug.
"Blimey, Louis; if exposing the operation doesn't kill yah, it'll be Major Hochstetter for finding out you're madly in love with his niece." Newkirk grumbled.
Evening came by soon enough, and Kinch, Carter, Newkirk, LeBeau, and Klink had all left camp to go to the hospital. As the four men visited with their commanding officer, Klink and Dr. Klaussner were discussing what to do further regarding Hogan's condition.
Carter, Newkirk, Kinch, and LeBeau entered into Hogan's room and smiled seeing their commanding officer, again. LeBeau, carrying flowers, put them into Hogan's vase sitting on his nightstand, then stood behind the chair that Carter was sitting in. Newkirk sat besides Hogan's legs holding his left hand, and Kinch stood behind him.
"Hi, Gov'nor...it's us, again." Newkirk said, softly.
"I'm here, too, Colonel." Carter said, smiling.
"So am I, Colonel." Kinch added.
"Don't forget me." LeBeau chimed in.
"Don't worry; Wilson and Olsen are back at camp making sure everything's alright with the gestapo and Matthews." Kinch said. Just saying Matthews's name was enough to make the four of them taste bile in their throats.
"I know you hate violence, sir, but I wish for once you would put that rule aside and let me sock him one in the mouth. He ever calls you 'Adolf Hitler' again, I promise yah that rule won't be followed." Newkirk said, snarling towards Matthews.
"I'm glad you weren't there, Colonel. We all were pretty angry that night. I was tempted to poison his food the next morning...I didn't, though." LeBeau said.
"I don't know how one can talk so ill of you, sir; it just doesn't make sense to me." Carter told Hogan.
"I'm gonna go see and find out if anything changed with Colonel." Kinch said, heading towards the door.
"See yah later, mate." Newkirk said, waving bye.
Kinch headed into the hallways and closed the door.
"Take him off life support?!" Klink asked, in shock.
Dr. Klaussner nodded sadly.
"Dr. Klaussner, surely you don't mean that." Klink gasped.
"I wish I didn't mean it, Kommandant. Colonel Hogan's condition has not changed for a little over a month, now. His lungs are weak, and he does not respond to any treatment that we've given him so far. I've called some of the best doctors in Berlin to see if we could transfer him there for better treatment, and even they do not know if they can do anything more for Colonel Hogan. His body will eventually shut down and cease to work anymore the longer he stays in his coma." Dr. Klaussner sadly spoke.
Kinch was walking towards Dr. Klaussner, when he started hearing he and Klink discussing Hogan. He decided to lean against the wall out of sight and listen in on what they were discussing.
"There must be some method of treatment or medicine you have yet to try still, Doctor." Klink said, hoping there was one, at least.
Dr. Klaussner shook his head.
"I have done everything possible for Colonel Hogan; injections, operations, antibiotics, intravenous fluids, blood transfusions, they all respond the same way. He's suffering, Kommandant; do you think Colonel Hogan would want to spend the rest of his life like this?"
Klink was silent. He knew how lively Hogan was. He was energetic, always moving around, social, outgoing...he was anything from what he was now. He knew his Senior POW Officer would hate to live the rest of his life the way he was now, but killing him...it was unimaginable.
The old Kommandant gulped and finally gave his answer.
"I'll give it some consideration, Doctor." Klink quivered.
Kinch gaped and hurried back to Hogan's room. He entered in and rushed to his friends, who were socializing with their sleeping colonel.
"They wanna take Colonel off life support." Kinch gasped, out of breath from running.
"What?!" LeBeau, Newkirk, and Carter all exclaimed.
"I overheard Dr. Klaussner and Kommandant discussing it. Both he and Kommandant are considering ending Colonel's life." Kinch explained.
"No! Colonel, no!" Carter wailed. He wrapped his arms around Hogan's body and started sobbing into his chest. Losing his commanding officer and best friend was too much for him to handle.
"Come on, Gov'nor; show them their wrong, sir. Do something...anything, Gov'nor!" Newkirk pleaded, holding Hogan's hand tighter.
No response.
Newkirk sighed.
LeBeau was chewing his fingers from anxiety shaking his body, and Kinch was hanging his head. The four of them felt like as if they had failed their commanding officer. Hogan had always been there to protect and save them from any type of harm. Now the tables had turned, and they could not even do the same for him.
"Please, Gov'nor...open your eyes, Colonel...we need you...we miss you...we want you to come back to us, Gov'nor...please, just open your eyes, Gov'nor." Newkirk begged, fighting back tears. He closed his eyes and hung his head in shame. He felt it was all his fault. The Englishman felt it was his fault for Hogan's life now on the line. "I'm...so sorry, Gov'nor…" He choked, still closing his eyes.
None of them were aware of what happened next. The hand Newkirk was holding, it slowly wiggled its fingers and gently closed its grasp on Newkirk's hand squeezing it gently. Newkirk opened his eyes and gasped.
"Colonel...Gov'nor, can you hear me?!" Newkirk pleaded, hoping it was not just his imagination.
Hogan's hand slowly again squeezed Newkirk's hand gently, as if he were trying to tell him that everything was going to be okay.
"Louis, get Dr. Klaussner, quick!" Newkirk cried.
Carter was sitting back normal, again. He, LeBeau, and Kinch all looked at Newkirk with concern.
"Why, what's wrong, buddy?" Carter asked, worried.
"Colonel...he squeezed my hand...he can hear us, Louis!" Newkirk cheered.
LeBeau grew a huge smile and ran towards the door.
"That a way, Colonel; I knew you could do it, sir." Kinch said, beaming.
"Come on, Colonel! You got it, boy!" Carter cheered.
"Come back to us, sir...you got it now, Gov'nor...come back to us, now." Newkirk encouraged.
"Dr. Klaussner! Dr. Klaussner, Kommandant, hurry!" LeBeau cried.
Dr. Klaussner and Klink were soon enough in Hogan's room.
"What is it; what's wrong?" Dr. Klaussner asked, worried.
"Colonel, Doctor; he squeezed my hand." Newkirk said, smiling.
Dr. Klaussner hurried to Hogan's left side and gently took his hand away from Newkirk's.
"Robert, it's Dr. Klaussner...I'm caring for you...your men are here with you, and so is your Kommandant...can you hear us, Robert?" Dr. Klaussner asked.
Nothing happened for about thirty seconds, before Hogan's hand closed on Dr. Klaussner's and squeezed it tight.
"Do something, if you can hear me, Robert." Dr. Klaussner begged.
Klink was standing near the door shaking. He was praying to God that Hogan was coming around, now.
After thirty seconds of nothing, Hogan's hand on his belly starting wiggling its fingers a little bit. They gently tapped Hogan's belly then relaxed, again.
Dr. Klaussner handed Hogan's hand back to Newkirk, again.
"Robert, squeeze Newkirk's hand, if you can hear me." Dr. Klaussner ordered.
Hogan's hand, again, slowly closed and squeezed Newkirk's hand gently.
"He squeezed it, sir." Newkirk said.
"What's it mean, Dr. Klaussner? Is it good, is it bad, what?" Klink pleaded.
Dr. Klaussner slowly rose to his feet and looked all of Hogan's men straight in the eye. The four men stared at Dr. Klaussner for what felt like forever to them. The silence and the straight face the old doctor kept was killing them.
"Blimey, say something, Dr. Klaussner!" Newkirk begged.
Dr. Klaussner suddenly grew a small smile on his face.
"It's a good sign that Colonel Hogan's regaining consciousness." Dr. Klaussner said.
"So, does it mean he's gonna make it?" LeBeau asked, hoping for a positive answer.
"He's not in the clear yet, but his chances of recovering are higher, now."
The four men looked to one another smiling and cheered.
Klink sighed with relief and put a hand on his chest.
Dr. Klaussner and Klink headed out into the hallways to let Hogan's men finish their visit with their commanding officer.
"Colonel, I knew you could do it! I knew it the whole time!" LeBeau said, smiling proudly.
"You got it, Colonel; the rest of the way, now." Kinch said, smiling, too.
"Gov'nor, you just open your eyes, now. You got a few pretty nurses taken care of yah I bet you're just dying to see." Newkirk said, grinning.
"Oh, you can tell him about pretty nurses, but I can't tell him about Barbara?" LeBeau asked, smug.
Kinch smirked and patted LeBeau's shoulder gently.
"Come back to us, Colonel. I know you can do it, buddy! Come home, Colonel." Carter said, smiling.
"You got it, Gov'nor...I know you've got it." Newkirk said, smiling. For the first time in over a month, Newkirk did not feel a single ounce of guilt inside him. Instead, he felt hope.