Author's Note

After deep consideration, I realized that that was a fucking terrible ending. Fuck that. I can do better. SO! We're not done yet. We're still going. And since I can't put this Author's note on the bottom and the top, I'm gonna throw a real quick thing here:
PM if interested in proofreading for story flow and such as.

Enjoy!

Chapter 7 (Rewrite)

Saddle Arabia

August, 2012

Fourteen years later

“He’s gonna be fine! Just keep pressure on that wound!” Jake shouted over the roar of the battlefield around him. He turned from the private in front of him, screaming to be heard around the street they were on. “I need a goddamn medic!”

Jake turned around, and his eyes fell on a man a dozen or so feet away. The man waved. He was the medic, Kyle “Doc” Crawford. They were separated by an open road at least ten feet wide. Bullets ricocheted off the road as an unseen assailant let loose, keeping the men pinned. Jake nodded to the medic.

“Covering fire!” He screamed as he leaned out, opening fire down the road.

The enemy gunfire ceased for a brief moment, but it was enough for the medic to be able to slip across the road unharmed. As soon as the medic was safe, Jake pulled back into cover, and the enemy fire resumed. He ran over to the medic, kneeling beside the wounded man. The medic began treating the man’s leg, explaining to Jake what was going on.

“He’s been shot in the leg, I need Anvil to keep pressure on his leg here. Nab, keep him awake and alert.”

“Got it.” Jake nodded, turned to the man’s face. “Hey, Barley. Stay with me, alright? We’re just gonna chat while Doc does his magic, alright?”

“God dammit, Nab. It hurts so damn much.” Barley groaned.

“Hey, don’t worry about that. Just talk to me. Alright? We’re just gonna talk.” Barley nodded. “Good. Tell me about home. Where are you from?”

Barley glanced down at the medics hands, currently soaked red. He shook his head, and looked back to McNab.

“I uh… I’m from AppleloosAAH!” He screamed out in pain as the medic found a particularly painful spot. McNab held him down, still trying to keep his mind away from his wounds.

“Hey, look at me. Got any family?”

“I’ve got a daughter, but... ugh… we left on bad terms. We… Oh god, Nab. I ain’t ever gonna get to apologize to her. The last thing she’s gonna remember of her old man is our argument.”

“Hey, don’t think about that. Alright? What’s she like?”

“She’s sixteen. She was… a bit of an accident. Me and my wife had her when we were still dating. We were eighteen when we she was born. But she’s my little girl, even if we didn’t plan to have her when we did.” The man smiled. “She’s got the sweetest brown eyes, and long… brown… hair…”

The man’s eyes fell closed, and his body went limp. McNab’s head swung over to the medic, ice in his stomach. The medic shook his head.

“He’s just unconscious. We’ve stopped the bleeding, and I’ve given him some fluids to keep him alive. But he’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get back to the FOB right fuckin’ now, or he’s gonna die.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.” Jake nodded to the medic, and grabbed his radio. “This is 2-1 Sierra Lima. I need an RTO to my position. I’m on the north-east side of the road under the two story building’s awning. Over.”

“2-1 Sierra Lima, this is 1-2 Romeo Tango Oscar. On my way. Out.”

Jake stared down at the man’s form in front of him. The medic looked over, and nodded his head.

“He’s gonna be fine. He’ll get to go home and be with his daughter soon.”

Jake nodded absently, still staring at the man. He didn’t hear the medic, his thoughts were racing already.

“Make way! Move it! Get the fuck out of the way!” Doc screamed as they brought Barley into the base on a stretcher. Jake held onto the back of the stretcher, barking orders just like the medic.

Two nearby privates ran forward and pulled the flap to the medical tent open, and Jake and Doc ran inside, Jake giving a nod of thanks to the men as they passed.

“Set him right over there. Red! Get the hell over here!” Doc called.

From farther down the tent, another uniformed man ran over. Much like Doc, he bore the same medical patch on his shoulder of two serpents intertwining a winged sword. Red nodded to Jake as he set Barley’s stretcher on the cot.

“Thank you, Sergeant. We’ll take it from here.”

Jake nodded and backed away slightly, but still staying close just in case. He watched with bated breath as they removed the field dressings. He cringed internally as he saw the bloody gash. The medics, with practiced ease, didn’t even flinch as they immediately got to work cleaning the wound. Much to Jake’s relief, the wound was actually much smaller than he thought once they’d cleaned off all the excess blood. Red injected his leg with another shot of painkillers before Doc pulled the bullet out with medical tongs. Red then reached back over and inserted something rather odd looking into the wound.

“Is that… a tampon?” Jake asked. Doc grinned.

“Yeah. These little bastards are perfect for these kind of wounds. They’re small when you put them in, but then they expand to fill the hole. Super absorbent, too.”

Jake just nodded, deciding not to dwell on the subject too much. The two medics silently finished wrapping the wound, standing back and nodding to each other when they were done. Doc looked up at Jake, and smiled.

“He’s gonna be alright, Sergeant. Just a little rest and he should be back on his feet soon. He’ll get to see his little girl again.”

Jake nodded silently, sitting on the cot next to the man. The medics looked at each other and shrugged. Doc leaned down to start cleaning up, and Red waved him off as he was still in full field gear.

“Go get changed, I’ll take care of this.”

“Thanks, Red.” Doc said. “Sergeant, I’m going to go get out my gear. I’m suggesting you do the same.”

Jake nodded absentmindedly.

“Alright.” He stared at Barley for several silent moments before he seemingly understood what he actually said. He shook his head. “Yeah, I’ll just… Yeah. Let’s go.”

Doc watched, not even trying to conceal his concern for Jake anymore.

“Nab, are you alright?” Doc asked.

Jake froze at the flap of the tent, his gaze falling to the sandy ground outside. He turned to face Doc, and shook his head earnestly.

“I don’t know.”

Doc nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Jake nodded and left the tent, the intense sun of the Saddle Arabian desert assaulting his eyes. He cussed under his breath, loud enough for Doc to hear.

“God I fuckin’ hate this place.”

“You sure stick around a lot for someone who hates it so much.”

Jake elected not to respond, instead keeping silent as he walked forward. He and Doc were in the barracks tent, and Jake lifted the tent before letting Doc on first. He ducked in after, but was quickly hit by the onslaught of concerns for Barley that were directed at Doc. Doc grinned to all the men assembled, and answered simply.

“He’ll be fine. It wasn’t too serious, and he should be able to go home and see his daughter.”

The men assembled cheered heartily and clapped Doc on the back before heading out of the tent, off to do whatever it is they do in their spare time. Jake grinned weakly as the men gave him their various thanks for his help in saving Barley. As the last man shuffled out, the sergeant let the grin fall, and his shoulders sagged with an uncharacteristic weight. Doc watched him as he all but collapsed onto his cot, throwing his equipment onto the ground before falling back against his pillow.

“Nab… I know it ain’t my place, but when Barley started talking about his girl back home, you got real uncomfortable. So… I was just wondering… If you had a daughter back home too.”

“No, Doc. I don’t have a daughter.” Jake called, unmoving from his spot on the cot.

“Is it a sister?”

Jake paused and shrug as he sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the cot.

“...I guess you could call her that.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister, Nab.”

“I don’t. I’ve just got this girl back home. She’s a few years younger than me, and I met her when I was still on the police force back home. I’m gonna cut a lot out and just say that due to a series of events, I started seeing her as the little sister I never had. And I trusted her enough to teach her how to fight, since she was getting bullied.

“Then I get sent to reserves training, and part way through it I get call from her sister and she tells me she’s gotten wrapped up in all kinds of trouble. I get the XO to let me leave to deal with it, somehow, and when I get there I see a police officer pull up outside the house. Apparently, he was responding to a call of domestic violence at the house. We go in, him right behind me, and we see the girl slap the shit out of her sister.”

“Damn…” Doc gasped. Jake nodded.

“And as it turned out, in addition to this incident, a warrant for her arrest had been issued that day after a parent reported gang violence at their child's school, and was able to name her assailant as Luna. Uh… she’s the girl who slapped her sister. Anyway…” Jake sighed. “The officer arrests her and takes her into the station. I go to the station to give my statement, and I… I dunno. I just felt so betrayed. I’d never trusted anyone that much, and she just… walked right over me. I wanted to get away from it all. So I enlisted full time. And when my time to reenlist came up, I hadn’t found it in me to forgive her yet. So I just signed on for another tour of duty. Reenlistment time again, and I stayed again. I think you can see where that takes us to now.”

Jake shook his head.

“But I guess… I guess seeing Barley like that, with a disturbingly similar circumstance to my own… I dunno. I just pictured myself in his situation. How I’d never get to reunite with Luna. Maybe she’s changed, maybe she hasn’t. But I’d never know if I just let myself die out here.”

Jake fell silent, staring out the clear plastic sheet sewn into the tent to act as a window, watching the men outside. Doc shook his head.

“Jake, I’m not a therapist, but I definitely think it would do you good to see this girl again.” Doc walked in front of Jake and sat on the opposite cot. Jake nodded slowly. Doc internally sighed in relief, happy to see his friend was still listening to reason. “How many leave days do you have?”

Jake shrugged. “Sixty I think.”

“...Are you serious?”

Jake nodded.

“Have you been deployed for that long?”

“I just don’t take leave days. Where would I go, anyway?”

“Jake… Under my medical recommendation, take your fucking leave time.”

Jake nodded.

“I’ll talk to the XO about it.”

“No, we’re doing it right now.”

“Doc we can’t just go bother him whenever.”

“You think he wants to be writing those reports right now? He’ll take any excuse he can get to not do paperwork.”

“Doc…” Jake all but begged. B

But it was too late. Doc had already ducked out of the tent and was on his way to the XO’s tent. Jake sighed and followed him out, futilely begging him to stop.

“Doc, come on. Just let it go. I can handle this on my own.”

“I’ve known you for three years now, Jake. No you can’t. You’ll just put it off the minute I leave.”

“I swear I won’t.” Jake started to get more desperate as Doc rounded the corner and was only a few feet from the XO’s tent. “Kyle, come on, man. Kyle.”

Doc ignored him as he swung the tent flap open. Inside, Captain Grey sat staring at his laptop, pausing only to look up at the two that had just entered his tent. They threw crisp salutes, Jake’s being a bit more wild as he remembered almost too late to do that when entering the XO’s tent.

“Should I be worried why one of my medics and a Staff Sergeant just barged into my tent unannounced?” He asked. Doc spoke first, lowering his hand as he did so.

“Sir, Staff Sergeant McNab has something to talk to you about.” He said. The captain just stared at him for a moment before turning to McNab.

“What is going on here, Sergeant?”

Jake lowered his hand, and sighed reluctantly.

“Corporal Crawford has advised that I take some leave time and return stateside for a brief period.”

Captain Grey looked between the two, and shook his head tiredly.

“One of you is going to tell me what the hell is going on right now before I make you both run PT bare ass naked.”

“Sir, permission to speak freely.” Jake asked. The captain laughed sarcastically.

“Oh I think that ship sailed when you two just waltzed right in here to tell me I’m going to be getting paperwork on my desk tomorrow when you fill out your leave request. So what is this all about?”

“Well… do you remember back in ‘98, when we were still in training with the reserves back in Canterlot?” Jake asked. The captain nodded. “Right, well, do you remember when I had to take emergency leave back then?” The captain nodded again. “Well… That was for me to go deal with a probably back home with… my little sister.” Jake glanced at Doc as he said the last part. Captain Grey either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“I remember, but how the hell is this even remotely relevant to right now?”

“His sister got arrested fourteen years ago and he hasn’t spoken to her since.” Doc interjected. Jake whipped his head over to Doc. Doc shrugged. “You weren’t gonna say it.”

“Would you just let me speak?”

“Hey!” The captain snapped his fingers loudly, jarring to two back to him. “So you’re saying you’re requesting leave to go see your sister get out of jail?”

“Well… that’s the thing, sir. I never actually found out what happened to her after she was arrested.” Jake winced as the what he just said finally hit him. The captain stared him down for quite a long time, a scowl on his face as he did so. After an uncomfortable amount of time for the two enlisted men, the officer finally spoke.

“Is this the same sister who called you, scared?”

“That’s the other sister, sir.”

Captain Grey nodded.

“And what happened to this other sister?”

“...She got hit by the other sister and arrested for gang violence.”

“Did she now? Interesting.” Captain Grey pondered aloud. “Now, did you not keep in contact with the one in prison or the other one? Or both?”

“Both, sir.”

Captain Grey nodded again, dragging the silence out for as long as he could before speaking.

“When I granted that leave to you, do you know what I said to you at the time?”

Jake felt his heart drop, and he nodded silently.

“And what was it, Sergeant?”

“‘Keep her safe.’”

“You can’t really do that if you don’t keep in contact, can you?”

“No, sir.”

“No. You can’t.” The captain grinned sarcastically, and Jake could see the real anger that boiled beneath. “So what has possessed you to change that now?”

“When Private Barley got hit today… He started talking about his daughter back home, and how he’d gotten into an argument with her before his deployment. He was talking about how he was scared he’d never been able to apologize to her himself. He was scared he was gonna die before he could talk to her again. And I don’t want that to happen to me, sir.”

The sarcasm was gone from Captain Grey’s face as he stared at McNab for a long time. Eventually, without speaking, he reached into the drawers of his field desk and pulled out a leave form and handed it to McNab.

“Have this filled out by chow tonight and I’ll get it approved tomorrow.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Mhm. Now, get the hell out of my tent.”

“Yes, sir.” The two men choroused as they saluted and left the tent.

Neither man spoke, Jake’s thoughts were racing. He’d be home in a few days, and he’d get to talk to Luna and Celestia. Suddenly, his thoughts came to a grinding halt.

...Where do they live?

He realized that he had no idea where the two lived. He mentally berated himself as he realized that in his years of brooding, he never got to know if they moved at all. I’m such a fuckin’ idiot. He thought to himself. Maybe he’d need to put a few more days on that leave request. He was gonna have to make some calls first.

“Hey, Nab.” Doc nudged Jake, rousing him from his thoughts. “Red just texted me. Barley’s awake. Wanna go visit him?”

“Yeah. I just wanna make sure he’s alright.”

“Alright.” Doc smiled and nodded.

They turned and headed towards the medical tent. Doc raised the flap, letting Jake go in first. Barley turned his head and cheering softly.

“Hey. Look who it is. Guess I gotta thank you for saving my life or something, don’t I?” He called.

“I’d rather you didn’t. I’d have to do something first.”

“Well then in that case, I wasn’t talking to you. So thanks, Doc.” Barley grinned.

“No problem, Barley.” Doc said as he walked past. “Now behave, ladies.”

“Fuck you.”

“Uhuh.”

After Doc walked to the back of the tent and met with Red, Jake and Barley were left alone. Barley looked up at Jake, still grinning.

“In all honesty, I’ve gotta thank you, man. I got a chance to call my little girl back home. We had a pretty good chat. I guess while I was bleeding and trying to talk to you, I had my little come to Jesus moment and realized that I was being immature.” He grinned. “Wouldn’t have done it without you talking to me.”

Jake grinned.

“Well, I’ve gotta thank you too. I’m taking a leave of absence to go him and visit with an old friend of mine. We left on pretty bad terms, too, and I haven’t talked to her in… fourteen years?”

“Jesus, Nab. Wait long enough?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m just… trying to fix my mistakes. Better late than never, right?”

Barley nodded softly.

“Always.”

Jake shook his head.

“Well, I just wanted to check in on you. Gotta get back on your feet so we can send you to get shot at again.”

Barley chuckled.

“I’ll do that.” Barley nodded. “Take care, Nab.”

Jake nodded.

“I will.”