A/N: I don't own Hogan's Heroes or any of its characters!

LeBeau grinned as he spun Pauline in his arms. He'd finally been able to graduate, after so long of studying.

"I'm so proud of you, Louis," Pauline said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

Pride swelled inside him, still grinning as he looked up at her. "And I'll do everything I can to keep doing it," LeBeau said, knowing full well what this meant. Vaguely, he wondered when he'd be required to join the military, though he didn't say so to Pauline. The last thing he wanted now was to worry her. "Just think of all the new recipes I've been meaning to make for you. All those flavors of croissants…"

As he continued talking, Pauline smiled at him. She knew he couldn't wait to get started, especially now that there was time to start cooking more. She couldn't imagine what it'd be like for him to have to wait much longer to show her the recipes he'd been talking about for so long.


LeBeau startled as he was pulled from sleep, as the memory of a gunshot lingered in his ears. Had Schultz had reason to shoot someone? Or was he not just dreaming that the others were in danger? Would he be pulled from bed next, to be shot? Or had a mission gone wrong?

As he opened his eyes and sat up, he looked around the room, confused for a moment. This wasn't Stalag 13, there weren't bunks in the room, just the bed he was sitting on and other bedroom furniture.

There was someone in bed with him, too, a woman. He relaxed slightly when he realized who she was- Pauline, who'd waited on him to return home. He didn't deserve her, not with the nightmares and everything.

"Louis?" Pauline asked, sleep filling her voice as she stirred. She sat up, looking at him with so much worry that he almost couldn't bear it. "Is everything alright?"

LeBeau nodded. "Oui, mon amour," he whispered, though he still felt unsettled. If he were honest with himself, he hadn't felt completely calm since he'd found out he'd be sent out to fight. It only got worse when he was in the POW camp, and he got to care for the others in his little family. "Go back to sleep."

Pauline shook her head. "What's got you all tense?" she asked, her voice quiet.

LeBeau sighed. He hadn't talked much about the camp, about the others since he'd come home two months before. There hadn't been a lot of reason to, at least in his own mind. Talking about them, and his own part in the war, could put them at risk of being found out, and who knew what kind of trouble they'd find themselves in?

"I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me," LeBeau said, his voice quiet. That wasn't true, not by a long shot, but anything to get her to worry less about him was worth it.

Pauline looked at him for just a moment, her eyebrows raised. There'd been something… different since he'd made it back home. He hadn't been this private, didn't have the tendency to tense up at small things before he left.

Something had changed in that war, and she was aware of it. It felt like LeBeau had built up a wall between him and the rest of the world, one he wouldn't- or maybe couldn't- break down.

"I'm going to worry anyway. Because you're mine too, alright?" Pauline said. When LeBeau didn't answer, she continued. "I worry there's something big you're not telling me. That you're not the same person that left all those years ago."

LeBeau closed his eyes. How could he explain the war? How ready he'd been to fight at a moment's notice, to go on a mission? Add in the fact that he also knew that every mission could've been the last one, that there was a very real possibility that he could've not made it back home, and he didn't know how to explain at all. It had killed the man he'd been, something he almost didn't realize the extent of until he got home.

"I'm not who I was," was all LeBeau had to say in response. After everything, how could he have been the same person? He didn't have the slightest idea how to get back to who he'd been before the war.

Pauline nodded, reaching out to cup his cheek. "I know," she said, earning a soft laugh from LeBeau. "What's so funny?"

"Didn't need to say something if you already knew," he said softly, shifting to kiss her hand before opening his eyes to look at her. "I missed you. Being home and…"
He trailed off, not knowing how to finish what he was saying. He could've been home, starting his career as a chef, figuring things out with her. Military service was required, though, and without his studies, that meant that he couldn't stay here.

"I missed you too," she told him, her voice soft.

LeBeau smiled a bit, wrapping an arm around her. "Don't let me leave for that long again," he said, not wanting to let her go if he could help it.

"I wouldn't dream of it," she told him as she leaned into his side.

He relaxed, knowing that she wouldn't let him just disappear. Maybe this was exactly what he was waiting for when he came home.