Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan, year 1

XV

The next morning, right after breakfast, Kris, as usual, brought his meal to his brother. The Viking was eating more, and solid food. Between his damaged left shoulder and his still weak right forearm, he found it difficult to eat on his own, which annoyed the hell out of him when he had the energy to rant.

Thanks to Cook's care, both physical and psychological, he was much better. Lin had reminded him that a pair of balls was not necessary to be a soldier, as she was testament to it. He had replied that even if that was true, he was glad to have kept his, as he preferred their non-warlike use. She had laughed. Apparently, the bigger problem was the murders. But Cook was working on it.

He hardly had any bandages on his face, now, apart from his cheekbone, and his two borage-blue eyes were visible again, the left surrounded by a beautiful shiner.

That morning, Cook had brewed him a herbal tea heavy with valerian so he would sleep a lot. The more he slept, the faster he healed.. He also had made him fried eggs, sunny side up, with a slice of fresh pineapple. And Kris had fed him while telling him of his dance the night before, which made him laugh.
- You didn't dare...
- You bet I did! He was getting aggravating. And what an asshole. You should have seen his face: red, sweating, embarrassed... I had a lot of fun. It reminded me of the Military Academy in Baden. Mmh, I can see you're getting tired. Rest well and I'll see you tonight, with dinner.
- Thanks Kris.

He came out of his brother's room, directly onto the arcades. This room is one of the few to have a French window, and not a solid wooden door, hence its choice as a sick room.

And Ketchup obtained permission from Lin to plant vines at the base of the posts, so the wounded would have something pleasing in front of their eyes. She chose a bougainvillea and a jasmine with quite a heady perfume. Lin had some already mature plants delivered and Erk, when he is not asleep, sees from his bed, facing the door, clusters of bracts in a beautiful very vibrant Tyrian pink.

Kris came out of the room, his brother called him, he started turning to him and, at that moment, white-faced, he did an about-face again towards Lullaby and the bounty hunter – who were in the yard, out from the mess hall – yelling "No!". Sanchez was so surprised he dropped the weapon with which he had intended – which betrayed him to the prescient warrior – to shoot Kris. What a dumbass of a gunslinger...

Lullaby drew faster than the Man with No Name (you know, the cowboy played by Clint Eastwood) and shot Kris. This action, more impulsive than anything else, had surprised him and he had not been able to "know" about it beforehand. And behind him was his brother lying in his bed, unable to move.

So, instead of throwing himself to the ground, he got in the path of the bullet. And when he fell, half in the room, half under the arcades, Erk screamed his name and tried to get out of bed. Doc, in the next room, jumped at the gunshot and saw the giant's legs twitching under the sheet as he tried to stand up. She grabbed an injector, rushed over and hop! Nighty night Viking!

Then, she saw Kris on the ground. Without even wondering if lead was still flying, she threw herself at his side. This action allowed us, dumbstruck spectators as we unwittingly were, to come out of our paralysis and throw ourselves on the two perpetrators.

We violently stripped Lullaby of her gun, handcuffed her behind her back and tied her to the ugly metal bench in front of Lin's desk. We were even less considerate to Sanchez. Stig threw him a uppercut to the chin, sending him backwards, half-stunned. Then he was handcuffed, too, but lying on the ground because he couldn't stand up nor sit.

Lin came out of her office at the gunshot, didn't even try to stop Stig. She rushed over to Kris. And stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him alive and well, wide awake, on the ground, half undressed by the doctor, his pants mid-thigh. And behind him on his bed, his brother with his eyelids at half-mast when he was wide awake just before.
- May I know what's going on? she asked with a voice of steel.
- Depends what you want to know, Lin. Whether I'm going to make it or not, how did I end up on the ground...
- Stop your bullshit, Hellason! she inveighed. He tried to lay low.
- All right. Well, I was coming out of the room, Erik asked me something so I turned, then sensed Sanchez's intent and stopped him but Lullaby...
- Higgins, Lin said flatly.
- Pardon? Oh! So Higgins shot me and I wanted to block the bullet going straight at him.
- And you stopped it with you hip. How come you are not only conscious but also being a jerk? and Lin was almost smiling.

Kris laughed, then pull out of his pocket a little old-fashioned real paper book and threw it to her. She caught it easily. It has been shot through, slowing the bullet before it bit his hip, sparing him a nasty wound and causing him to bleed a little.

Lin looked at the soft cover and gave a hearty laugh, which surprised the heck out of us and at the same time made us feel good. We hadn't had a lot of fun this last week.
- The Kama Sutra! You owe your life to the Kama Sutra! Ah! Can't say your vice will be the death of you, now, can we? You've got a fucking lot of luck, Kris!
- Oh, I've got a hole and I'm bleeding, right? I'm injured, still!

But he was laughing saying that. Then Doc got mad because he was moving too much while talking.
- Enough for now! You Hellason brothers are insufferable! Not one worth more than the other!

She noticed Tito who'd come close.
- Tito, take him to the exam room. And since Kris wanted to walk, she added: He must not put his foot to the ground until I've seen the wound.

Tito stared at Kris who was trying to pull his pants up again, then gave him a big predatory smile.
- What do you prefer? Princess or fireman?
- Huh? he said cleverly, taken by surprise.

Doc laughed as she went to make sure her injection hadn't hurt the Viking because she had been a bit frantic in dosing him to make sure he wouldn't hurt himself.

Kris being silent, Tito lifted him like a newlywed carrying his new wife through their bedroom door for the first time. The Icelander blushed, then decided to play Tito's game to the hilt and went limp, almost liquid, closing his eyes as if he'd fainted. Tito groaned and transferred him to his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Kris grumbled and starting struggling. Then he let a out a little cry and stopped, cursing. While messing around with the Albanian, he had forgotten his injury.
- Are you OK, Kris?
- Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just drop... put me down on the table so we can be done.

In the end, it was nothing even if, indeed, Kris is injured, the 9mm bullet went through the little book and penetrated the flesh of the blond on half a centimeter. So, he's got a hole, he's bled and he's got a bandage. But, as Doc says, it's nothing, he can walk, so apart from running like a headless chicken in the mountains, he can work.

Lin grumbled a little, because she may have had three Lts, not one of them is able-bodied.

After dinner, she told me, half joking:
- See, Archer, I have three Lieutenants. That should give me six arms and six legs, right? And no! Actually, I have three and a half legs and three arms.
- Well, not really, Erk has no leg injuries.
- Maybe so, but right now he can't walk. Then Kris is limping, so three and a half legs.
- Fine. As for the arms, it would be more like four and a half arms, since Erk can use his right arm a little.
- OK, if you want to quibble...
- Sounds like you're a little under the weather, Lin.

She sighed.
- Let's say being a commander isolates you. And that, without the brothers, I feel even more isolated. I'll tell you a secret, Archer. You see, I have known those two idiots since their birth: I've changed them, gave them their bath, even fed them their bottle... I was their babysitter when we were still in Iceland. And as I was always at their home, I sort of educated them, too. We understand each other so well that, with them, commanding is less... lonely.

She looked at her hands, seeming lost in her thoughts for a long while. We were sitting on the metal bench under the arcades, it was dark, the outside lights were off. Then:
- Say, Archer, would... I don't want to be alone tonight, is that possible?

I was surprised out of my skin. Didn't expect that. And although her eyes were invisible, and unreadable, the tone of her voice told me a lot.

So I said yes.