Title: Musing on a Bullet
Word Count: 772
Challenge: Puncture/Laceration over at
2dozenowiesRating: PG-13
Genre:
Characters/Pairings: Winters and Nixon
Summary: Winters thinking about when he do hit, then Nixon finds out Winters was hit in part 3
Author's Notes: I hope you like it. It’s not very long and it’s Winters/Nixon once more. It goes with But He Wasn’t and The Bitter Chill of Winter: A Christmas in Bastogne it goes with Carentan. I hope you like it. Please tell me with you think.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. You never expose your position without a reason. And showing up Staryer is not a reason; Winters chastised himself as Doc Roe pulled out the last of the bullet. Winters just looked at it in the dish. It looked so innocent. Just a glob of metal but when stained red, from his blood… all because he had to show off and one up Staryer in his own way. All because…
All because he still remembered how Nix had described him to Harry. When they first met Nix had said he had no flaws, no vices, and no sense of humor. Was that what Nix thought of him. He had all three…
Everyone has flaws; you have to, to be human. That’s part of what it is to be human. His own flaws were his pride and his stubbornness. He has let them run unchecked to much. His pride had forced a show down with Sobel because he knew he was the better man and he almost lost Easy completely…if the NCOs hadn’t taken a foolish risk…had the Colonel not intervened…my pride got me in that mess and their selflessness got me out. So much for no flaws Nix.
Vices…what are my Vices…they’re not the normal ones, the ones everyone understands, I don’t smoke, or drink…no, for me it’s being the best…I have to be the best and only the best will measure up in my eyes. That’s why I had to show up Sobel, he isn’t the best, neither is Staryer. The NCOs are working on it and so is Harry. As for Nix…he has a way with maps and information, of getting what he needs when he needs. Not that many tanks had gotten off the beaches and he, as a Lieutenant, had gotten two of them for me. Staryer had said that his request had been denied but Nix got them…some how.
“Sir…Sir…Lieutenant?”
Winters looked up from the bullet and his thoughts to see his leg all wrapped, “Doc”
“Do you think you can stay off it?”
No...Not and try and to measure up.
***
“Lieutenant Nixon, you were right sir, we found the papers right where you said they’d be”
“Good” Nixon said as he took the papers. They were all written in Germen of course, and his Germen wasn’t that good. He’d have to run them to a translator after he was done. “Do you know where Division is Private?”
“Yes sir”
“Good, wait here,” Nixon ordered as he pulled out the maps that were mix in with all the other papers and compared them with the battalion maps of what they had found to see if they had missed anything only partly hearing the sounds around him.
“…about Easy’s…”
“…the new one…
“…I’m not a CO”
“…a sniper…”
Dick…hit…by a sniper…
Winters in a dark ally. Blood gushing from his chest as Doc Roe is trying to save him. Winters is just looking up at the sky as the life drains out of him.
Not Dick. His feet where moving before he even noticed he had moved and he was now half way down the street and heading to the aid station…and Dick…hit by a sniper…snipers go for head shots…
Dick slumped again the ally wall, a smear of blood showing were he slid down. His face relaxed, lifelessly staring forward with only a small hole in his forehead to show anything wrong, with a priest standing him over giving him last rights.
No not Dick. He ran pass Compton, Welsh, Speirs, Malarkey, Luz, Lipton, and others getting strange looks but he didn’t care.
Winters on a table covered in blood. A surgeon was cutting into him as Roe held his hand. Winters was blankly stared up, his face pale, eyes closed.
He almost ran Perconte over but he still didn’t care. He had to get to the aid station…to…
Winters standing on the road into Carentan shouting for the men to move, bullets flying pass…one, two, the third striking home sending him down covered in blood the same color as his hair…and he’s too far away, he can’t get there in time…
The first thing he sees upon entering the aid station is a spot of red hair just visible over Doc’s shoulders. The next thing he knows he is standing next to Roe looking at Dick…a wrap around his leg and a surprised look in his eyes… he’s fine, Dick’s fine.
Nix wills himself to be calm taking a drink from his never empty flask before he talks, trying to keep his voice normal, “So, heard you got hit.”
The End.