Suzette snuck another look at the taller woman working next to her.
"Stop it." Andi commented calmly, going through the box of gauze and dividing it into the trauma kits they regularly
restocked. Suz made a clicking noise with her tongue and went back to counting needles. Molly, one of the nurses
nearby, looked up from the tourniquets she was dividing up.
"What?" She asked.
"Not you.." Andi clarified without looking up. "Her." A slim hand gestured in Suz's direction.
"Uh huh." Molly commented mystified but used to the odd interaction between the Brit and the French woman.
Suz shot another look at Andi.
"Stop it." Andi commented mildly, leaning down to get another box.
"What?" Molly asked. Andi gestured and didn't answer. Molly's lips drew down and she put her hands on her hips.
"Would you two stop that? You have no idea how annoying it is to miss an entire conversation that's going on
telepathically."
Andi let out a laugh and straightened up, hands full.
"Sorry, Molly. Suz disapproves of me at the moment, which is okay. But she's worrying too and that's a bit
unnecessary."
"Unnecessary?" Suz crossed her arms and glared. "Unnecessary? If it is so unnecessary for me then why are you
humming so happy."
"I'm not humming." Andi disagreed. Molly looked from one to the other and commented:
"She's not humming."
Suzette made a face.
"Yes, she is. Inside. I can hear it."
"Can you?" Andi asked, moving on to the next row. "And what am I humming?"
"Something Gaelic." Suz snapped absently. Shaking a finger at her friend. "I know you are up to something. And I tell
you now it is not good."
"I'm not up to anything." Andi remarked. "And its not Gaelic." Even if it was and she was lying.
"You are kind of different." Molly remarked, looking at Andi closely.
"See?!" Suz exploded, hands in the air.
Andi made a face and shook her head.
"It’s called being happy, Molly. I don't do it often. Right now I am and I'm trying to stay that way as long as possible.
Which means not thinking very hard about why I'm happy."
"It’s that soldier." Molly grinned. "What?" she asked when the other two women looked at her in surprise. "Its not like
everyone didn't hear about you kicking his butt at basketball. And he's awfully cute. If you like tall, dark, handsome
men built like they were special ordered to induce drooling."
"He's trouble." Suz stated flatly.
"That's part of the fun." Molly chirped.
"I did not beat him at basketball." Andi pointed out calmly and Molly gave a wave of her hand that indicated that was
hardly the point.
"It will be good to see the back of him." Suzette opinionated, giving Andi a particularly dark stare.
"He does have a nice backside." Molly commented cheerfully and Andi gave her a look of wide eyed surprise that
turned into tumble of laughter so surprising she had to stop what she was doing and cover her face with her hands.
Suzette threw up her hands in exasperation.
"Is everyone mad? He's a soldier! A killer!"
"Wow." Molly managed. "Its not like we're going to marry him, Suz. When did you get so picky about cute guys?"
Suzette pointed at Andi who had picked up her box of bandages again and was watching her for the same answer.
"I got picky when they decided to hurt someone like her." She snapped.
"So I think she likes me. I can tell. She finds a reason to always be near me."
"Keep dreaming, buddy." Hector said to Mark, sitting by his cot in a spare chair with his feet up on a modified foot
locker.
"Hey, dreams become reality you know."
"Yeah, in the demented mind of the delusional." Hector said with a chuckle. "That one...does not like soldiers."
"Maybe she just doesn't like you." Mark pointed out. "I swear she's stalking me."
"She's a doctor. Its her job to be in this tent." Hector said, becoming quickly amused by the whole thing. "And its not
like you're up and about making it difficult for you to find her." He was talking, and he was on subject, even making
sense, but his mind was completely not anywhere near Mark and his infatuation with one of the doctors.
"I could." Mark said. "They're actually encouraging me to."
"Then why don't you get off your ass?" Hector teased.
"Because if I did, how could I possibly lay here all helpless waiting for my doctor?"
"Actually your doctor is Mike, and he doesn't think you're that cute."
"Yeah I know." Mark said. "But when he's not here and the other one is, I try to call attention to myself."
"Glory hound." Hector said and Mark laughed.
"So what have you been doing?" Mark asked, since he hadn't seen Hector skulking around the tent as much as he
had been.
"Keeping out of trouble for the most part."
"Got a doc of your own?"
"Come on." Hector said, avoiding the question, but definitely wanting to be out of here before Sam came in. "Let's go
for a walk before I get in trouble." Andi was just too private a situation to discuss with joviality common to brothers in
arms. He just couldn't do it.
Andi shook her head.
"No one's trying to hurt me." She stated mildly in response to Suzette's accusation and Molly's sudden look of wide
eyed horror. For the chipper nurse it was one thing to joke around about the soldiers among them and quite another
to think of actually being too close to any of them. "Stop scaring the new girls." Andi told Suzette.
"At least she has the common sense to be scared." Suzette answered firmly. Molly looked from one doctor to another
and saw, for all the french woman's vehemence, the English doctor looked mild and unconcerned. She relaxed a bit.
"So are we going to challenge them to a game of basketball?" She perked and Andi laughed. Suzette scowled but
didn't say anything.
"Getting more." Andi set aside the empty box and did a mental count. "How many more boxes do you think we'll need?"
"Two?" Molly guessed and Andi nodded, thinking the same thing.
"You're going to check on the operation?" Suzette asked, not looking at Andi.
"Yeah." Andi answered and Suzette looked up and met her eyes.
"You'll tell us how he's doing?" She asked and the same worry for a borderline patient was in her eyes that was in
Andi's own. Say what she might about soldiers, Clancy was still one of their charges and they were all worried about
him.
"Yeah." Andi answered softly. "Yeah, I'll let you know."
Suzette nodded and went back to stocking and Andi made her way over to the edge of the tent and ducked out,
squinting slightly in the sudden difference between cool shadow and hot African sun. Before she went to the stock tent
she walked over to the more secure building they'd set up for all the emergencies and operations.
The interior was dark when she ducked in but past the netting lights were on bright. In a strange way it reminded Andi
of some of her time as an intern, peeking in on operations to watch competent doctors work and learn first hand.
Though she was capable of it in a pinch, surgery wasn't her area of expertise but Mike was the best the camp had.
Possibly the best in all of Africa. And, from a clear distance, she watched him work now, his movement steady and
unhurried and perfectly controlled. He had a CD player he usually used but it was silent now and the only sound was
the respirator and the various monitors. And the occasional clink of metal being dropped into the dish next to where
Mike worked. He looked up while one of the nurses ran suction and their eyes met for a minute. It told her everything
she needed to know and she gave a slight nod before he went back to work and she let herself out of the building.
Once outside, she took a moment and put her back against the wall next to the door, tipping her head back and
closing her eyes. Letting out a soft exhale.
Mike had made Hector a promise. And it didn't matter if it was an impossible one. He intended to keep it.
Mark and Hector had managed to get themselves by the OR tent, where they watched through a tiny screened window
put there for air circulation rather than view. Of course, they had no idea what was happening, everyone looked busy
and they could see Clancy's chest move as the team worked.
Then Hector saw Andi and gave Mark the canteen and headed over to her.
There was more than a little awkwardness there, oh yeah. Everything seemed a little different in the brightness of an
afternoon sun as opposed to early morning cool in the barracks tent. But he smiled at her lightly. "Hey." He said, then
glanced at the building. "Tell me honestly. How are they doing in there?"
Andi opened her eyes but didn't move from where she was leaning.
"Hey." She answered softly, giving him a fleeting smile. And found it easier to concentrate on his question and what
was going on inside the OR than on the more complex 'what nows' that kept wanting to surface inside her. Which left
her with how to answer Hector's question in the first place. She was quiet for a moment as she tried to organize it.
Because she wasn't going to lie to him.
"He was bad when he came in." Which wasn't anything Hector didn't already know. "We had to stabilize him before we
could even do anything." She met his eyes. "He's still not good. But he's still fighting and Mike is the very best there is.
Clancy couldn't get better care if you flew him to Germany." She'd already prayed. And she was usually careful to not
be presumptuous in her prayers. Sometimes - it was better if they just went Home instead of being tied to this earth.
But - how could she pray anything but that he stay when Hector's eyes went so dark and hidden every time he worried
about his fellow soldier? She reached out. Rested her fingers gently over his heart. "Mike's the best. He'll give Clancy
a fighting chance. He promised you he would."
Hector nodded as he looked past her into the tent. He didn't know what he was seeing, but he knew he felt helpless. "I
know. I know." He said and turned his eyes back to her. "Two of those bullets were mine." He said, and realized how
that almost sounded. "Not from me. For me. He threw himself in front of the line, stupid, stupid move. He thought he
had a good shot, and he did. He did take it. But god..the price." Those shots that Clancy had been able to take had
saved the rest of them though. Clancy had been the best shot in their chalk. No one else could take shots like him
and actually make them.
It was what they did. Andi recognized it, but hearing about it - and seeing the consequences - just drove it home. They
died, physically put their bodies in the way and took the attacks, so others wouldn't have to. Time after time after time.
Looking at Hector, suspecting that he'd trade places with Clancy in a heartbeat, she realized with a sharp thump to
her heart what caring about him, in any way, would mean. Her hand didn't move away from his heart though.
"Does he have family?" She asked softly.
"Yeah." Hector said, nodding. "Parents, a brother, a fiancee. They're supposed to get married at the end of the
year...." He trailed off as his eye caught movement in the tent. People were getting frantic, voices still low and calm,
but the movements were much more rushed and intense. Hector held his breath as he watched. "What's happening?
Oh god...no..."