for Danny

[soldieringlife]

[ continued from herePrior headed towards the waterfall, rather than the ocean - he'd got into the habit of swimming there after his leg was injured in the dinosaur attack, since the fresh water didn't sting. Also, it was a bit more private - the beach was practically a public thoroughfare, what with insane Americans running about ("jogging") and

Comments

[irish_airman]

Danny's torn up behind him, knowing that he's done wrong, not sure how to fix it. Talking's what he does, what he's always done and when the boys on the bird had been hurting, it had been a shared expirience and he'd known where to go from there.

But now, it's just beyond his reach. He can't help it if he can't touch it and he can't quite get his fingers around it. For now, he just sucks on his cigarette, floundering.

"Hoq long were you there?" he asked suddenly, "In the hospital, I mean. How long did they keep you?

[soldieringlife]

Americans liked to talk. They would talk at the slightest opportunity about anything and everything. They talked as catharsis, as distraction, to connect, to disconnect. Prior had learned that much since he'd been here. But he was British, and the British weren't much given to baring their souls. It had been ages before Rivers could get anything out of him - and that was long after he had regained his ability to speak.

Facts were easy, though, and this question he could answer. "Five months," he said. "July to November of 1917. I went back to France the following spring."

[irish_airman]

It was mostly a condition that made you need to think that you had at least a marginal handle on all the things that could go wrong in the world. If you could talk through it, then maybe you could live through it too.

"Shit," Danny said, fiddling with his cigarrett, "We weren't even in England a year."

[soldieringlife]

Prior couldn't keep his temper for much longer. "For heaven's sake, Daly, haven't you ever met someone with shellshock before?" he said impatiently. "It's not like I have leprosy. There were dozens of men worse off than I was, anyway. As my psychiatrist never ceased to remind me."