He watched her go into the clinic and smiled as he turned around to wander the camp. He wasn't used to not having a
purpose at all, and he really didn't have one here other than act as an unofficial liaison between the ones that were
blending in, the ones who were injured, and the civilians of the Red Cross.
Not exactly what he signed up for when he enlisted in the army, that was for sure. He left the politics and diplomacy to
everyone else But he'd deal with it because that was his new assignment, ensure the peace between the doves and
the hawks. Besides, wasn't like this job didn't have its advantages. Work on his tan, improve relations...the view wasn't
bad, conversation was top notch....
"Hey." Swanson, the 'accountant,' said, clapping him on the back coming out of the tent. "When you pick a vacation
spot, you really pick a vacation spot."
Hector laughed. "No pool, no beach, no drinks with those tiny umbrellas...how do you figure?"
"Well, we don't have to shoot anything for once. People aren't shooting at us for once." Swanson said, returning the
laugh. "And shit, if I had doctors like this when I was going through the Army physical, I mighta enjoyed it more."
"Didn't know Sam was your type." Hector kidded him.
Swanson laughed. "Oh that's a good one. I swear, the French one, give her time, she'll come a crawling to the Swan-
man." Hector shook his head.
"Oh yeah, I can see that." Hector said.
"Then there's the English one..."
"She's got a thing about soldiers." He said, maybe a little too quickly. "Don't go there."
"Gotta go somewhere."
"Stick to snails and frogs, away from fish and chips." Hector said neutrally. Swanson gave him a look.
"We're only here for a couple of days, man." Swanson said, almost sympathetically.
"Yeah, I know."
"So what did you find out?"
Andi finished the inoculation shot she was applying and then looked up at Suzette.
"Bed 14's a bit dehydrated." She pressed a bit of cotton against the prick she'd left on the child's arm and gave him a
reassuring smile. "All better, bebe." She told him switching from English to his own dialect without thought.
"I mean about the soldiers." Suzette stated. "You had lunch with the tall one. What did he say?"
"That Mr. Snuffles scares him." Andi answered mildly, securing the cotton in place with a band-aid and sending the
child on his way as she motioned the next one forward.
Suzette snorted. Only the French could snort so elegantly and yet enthusiastically, Andi thought.
"About him. About them. About what they're doing here. What they're going to do when they decide to stay."
"Ah." Andi nodded as she changed out the needle. "You mean his evil scheme for camp domination, given
bombastically while dangling a hero over a pool of molten ore?"
"Stop it." Suzette chided, wagging a finger with a smile. "You know what I mean. He must have said something."
"I do know what you mean." Andi looked up as she pressed cotton to the child's arm. Her eyes were angry even though
her voice was so mild and calm they could have been discussing the weather. "And it's none of your business. We
talked about our childhoods."
"Calmly." Suzette's eyes were wide with surprise and she made soothing, vague motions with her hands. "You spent a
long time with him. I was curious only."
Andi held her eyes and answered: "I know exactly why you were asking, Suz." She looked back down as she put
another band-aid in place, gave a reassuring smile, and motioned the next child in line forward. "Any questions Sam
has, he can ask them himself. Of Sergeant Garrett. We had lunch, I showed him around the camp. And we talked.
About things normal, civilized people talk about."
Perhaps the last was a lie. Did most 'normal, civilized' people talk about assassination and the moral ground of whether
a doctor should let someone die from personal standpoints? Within the first fifteen minutes of an introductory
conversation? Suzette watched her for several minutes in silence.
"You don't talk about your childhood." Suzette finally offered and Andi gave a soft smile, setting the needle aside as
she pressed the last prick with cotton.
"No." She agreed.
Suzette was quiet while she put the last band-aid in place and sent the child on her way. Then the French doctor
moved over to help her with the clean up.
"But you talked to him?"
"He asked." Andi shrugged. Suzette made a thoughtful noise. Andi dumped the used needles into the sealed container
and pulled off her gloves.
"You like him." Suzette stated quietly. Looking worried. Andi gave the other woman a squeeze on the shoulder.
"Don't." She warned. "Don't you dare start worrying about me. I do like him. He seems like a good man. But so are Mike
and Sam and Duncan and Vasil. You know I don't get romantic."
"With anyone." Suzette had been sidetracked by one of her favorite subjects now and she rolled her eyes as she
picked up the waste bin. "Not in all the time I have known you. Oh, so friendly and never anything more. It would relax
you, you know. To find a man. Mike is very fond of you and he was a Navy SEAL if you really had to have an American
soldier."
Andi rolled her eyes this time and chuckled as she gathered up the rest of the supplies and the bio-waste box and
joined Suzette in putting everything away.
"Sure he was." She agreed dryly, knowing Suzette was guessing as much as they all always did. "And Mike's my friend.
I don't need to - relax that way."
"Friends make the best lovers" Suzette corrected. "And only a woman that's never relaxed can say she doesn't need
to."
"I don't need to." Andi gave a shrug and a smile. "And if Mike's so great, why don't you sleep with him?"
"Yeah." Mike agreed, walking into the tent. Apparently just coming in on the conversation from the look on his face. He
shot Suzette a laughing look. "Why don't you sleep with me?"
"Because you never ask." She purred satisfied and Andi laughed before turning to Mike.
"Need something or just cutting in on the gossip?"
"Gossip." Mike dead panned before smiling and gesturing over his shoulder. "Dinner's almost over and, not that its
worth it, but I thought I'd give you ladies a chance to grab some. Was going to volunteer to finish up for you but," he
glanced around. "Looks like I'm off the hook on that one."
"I've got rounds." Andi quickly supplied. Suzette caught her arm and gave it a squeeze.
"The sun shines through you. No skipping meals. Men do not like a bony woman."
"I eat." Andi protested.
"I like bony women." Mike stated.
Suzette just blew out a dismissive sound and started for the entrance, bringing Andi with her.
"We will eat, we will sit with the nurses and decide who of our new volunteers are the most attractive, and we will be
silly."
"Mike?" Andi tried but Mike shook his head and held up his hands.
"Hey, you're my friend, but don't ask me to get in the middle of pure evil that way.”
"My hero." Andi snorted, making a catch for a tent pole in only a half acted attempt to save herself. But Suzette was
quicker and Andi found herself pulled out of the safety of her tent and hauled to the mess tent by a very determined,
shorter female version of Napoleon.
"I really do need finish my rounds." She tried one last time and Suzette waved her free hand dismissively.
"Do them after dark. We have judgments to weigh on new men first."
"Lucky me." Andi grumbled. Thinking that she really was going to have earned Hector's visit later tonight.
If he came at all.
"So here's what I think." Said a Swedish internist who had cornered Hector. "I think your government..."
Hector just let the man talk. Or more correctly, ramble and complain. After all, it wasn't like Hector had a true dominant
say in how his government worked, or how his country was run. Especially the military. But this man seemed to think
that he did. And it wasn't like he hadn't tried to tell the Swede that. But the Swede assumed because he was American,
and America was a democracy, that he ran the country or something.
In fact the Swede, not all that pro-American, was working up to blaming Hector for World War One, never mind he
wasn't born. Somehow Hector was responsible. But Hector just kept nodding gravely at the man, his eyes slowly glazing
over, but he appeared in an abstract way to be listening.
"And then there was slavery...."
Oh boy. "Hey, look. Elvis!" Hector said and pointed vaguely off to the left. Confused, the Swede looked, giving Hector
the chance to slip away and duck behind a tent. This liaison thing completely sucked. He was all for freedom of speech,
but did everyone have to practice it on him?
Okay, so he might be an intruder, but he wasn't the enemy! What exactly did he have to do to convince these people
of that? Put on a peace t shirt and sing kum by yah? He'd go to check on his guys, and the French doctor would nearly
be shooting daggers at him with her eyes.
Seemed the only ones who didn't mind his presence were the kids and, well, Andi. His mood improved a bit thinking of
the tall English doctor from Zaire...
He managed to avoid the internist by hanging around the other Americans, and some of the Canadians, joined a game
of pick up basket ball, radioed back to base to give updates and receive news. Of course none of it was encouraging,
but for the time being his chalk was out of commission. Someone had to stick around here after all, and the last thing
he wanted was to be thrown with a new group of guys and get himself killed.
He made his rounds through the clinic tent, even managed to talk to the Rangers. Unseen for the moment, because
the last thing he wanted was a lecture from Mike on, well, anything. He looked around a bit and smiled, then headed
over to the back of the tent.
"Even you're not tall enough for that." Hector said with a quiet chuckle to Andi, who was stretching for a box. Heck, he
had to stretch for it, and he was taller, as he did so and handed it to her.