Perseverance (The Resident FF) by Frances51163

CHAPTER EIGHT: War Story

Devon looked over at his friend and could see the topic genuinely was not one he wished to discuss. Although he was extremely grateful for the opportunity to hear about his mentor' past the look of torment in the mans' eyes cautioned him and he tried to dissuade Eric from continuing. Unfortunately, as he found out to his regret, once started on a story the former always finished. Sending Conrad a look of apology he found himself staring into haunted brown eyes.

"Look this is obviously something ye all know about so there's no need to go over it for my benefit," the first year Resident made one last attempt to derail the conversation
"Hey this isn't just for you," Eric said becoming serious, "we figure if we tell it often enough Conrad here will eventually accept that he did nothing wrong."
"He's right," Danny concurred quietly.
"So the war was only in its' early years. We were involved in an op known as Operation Outreach in 2003," Eric began to set the picture, "we were based in south eastern Afghanistan. Militants were starting to re-establish a grip on the territory. The plan was to clear the area."
"The bigger objective was to create a post for humanitarian aid," Danny added helpfully.
"Our patrol was just a routine one, as routine as any patrol can be in a war zone anyway. The operation was still a day off so the usual patrols were kept up so that we would take the militants by surprise. Sergeant insisted the Squad take a fifteen minute break. Corporal Hawkins requested that the patrol continued. Sergeant held his ground. We took the break and nothing happened. Made it back to camp in one piece."
"So ...," Devon was trying to work out why Conrad was upset.
"From then on Sergeant had it in for Conrad. Figured he questioned his authority in front of the men."
"He didn't," Danny clarified, "he spoke to Sergeant off to the side quietly. We only knew what he was asking because it was the same thing going through all our minds."
"But nothing happened so what was the big deal?"
"That's the cross Sergeant tried to nail Conrad to. He maintained he didn't do anything wrong and he didn't place us in danger. He made a formal complaint against Conrad," Danny explained.

"The Op started next day. We were about two hours in and had cleared two of our sections without sustaining casualties. We approached a small settlement with only six houses. Intel was that it had been deserted by the Taliban two months before. There were no signs of life as we approached," Eric paused a moment as if to steel himself then continued after a sidelong glance at the silent fair haired man beside him, "we moved past the rear of the first two buildings fine. They were empty. Sergeant was on point. As we approached the next building all hell broke loose. Sergeant froze. We soon had incoming fire from the other four buildings. Conrad took charge when it became clear Sergeant couldn't handle the situation. He started to run away but Conrad knocked him out - to save his life. After an hour and a half we had lost one man."
"When we made it to the last two buildings things went to hell," Danny took up the story.
"Should have kept an eye on him," Conrad spoke sadly.
"Sergeant came around at some stage and retrieved his weapon," Danny continued before Devon could interrupt, "he headed straight into the last building with guns blazing. By that stage incoming fire had decreased significantly and we figured we were only dealing with two militants. Pretty soon it was over."

Devon looked at his three companions as silence descended, each man lost back in time. The Waitress came over to clear the table and once the task was complete the first year Resident ordered a round of beers. Still no one spoke as the beers were delivered.

"When firing ceased we scoped the last two buildings," Eric eventually continued, "turned out Sergeant took out one militant when he went in firing."
"Sure did!" Conrad shook his head angrily then took a sip of beer.
"Thing is Sergeant didn't just kill the militant," Eric explained but then stopped.
"He ...," Devon began only to stop, he didn't want to ask if the man mutilated the body but that's what sprang to mind.
"No. He didn't do anything to the militant," Danny had followed the civilians' train of thought, "he did something worse. He killed ten children when he went in firing ........ turned out they'd been abducted the night before."
"Damn," Devon felt his stomach churn as his salad threatened to make a re-appearance.
"Youngest was six. Oldest nine," Conrad stood up quickly, pushing Eric out of the way, and barely made it to the toilet cubicle before vomiting.
"Why does Conrad feel it's his fault?" Devon frowned as he watched the hasty departure.
"He figures he should have tied Sergeant up," Danny replied, "heck he was kind of busy under suppression fire getting the wounded man to safety."
"He was seriously wounded and needed Medevac," Danny put in as he peeled the label off his beer bottle, "Conrad looked after him. There's a period known as the Golden Hour in which time a Soldier being medevaced out has a higher chance of surviving. Luckily there was a helicopter fifteen mikes out."
"Mikes'?"
"Sorry," Eric smiled, "minutes."
"The Soldier okay?"
"Yeah. Turned out we had another casualty though."
"Who?"
"Guess," Eric urged.
"Conrad?"
"Yeah. He never said a damn thing. All the time he was in charge, making sure we all had enough ammunition and water as well as monitoring the wounded man. And that was after he had walked into the building where those kids were. He wouldn't let us in. He checked to see if any child survived but of course they hadn't."
"So how did ye find out he was hurt?"
"Medevac was five mikes out. Conrad let me and Danny with the wounded man and was checking the men again when all of a sudden he just went down. Turned out a bullet had gone in just above the bullet proof vest."
"Long story short he was medevaced out as well. We never saw him again until after we got home and we had to give evidence at the inquiry into what went down," Danny sighed, "for a while there it wasn't looking good. The formal complaint Sergeant had put in against Conrad was used against him."
"But ye all knew what went down," Devon was nonplussed, "shouldn't it have been straight forward?"
"You would like to think so but Sergeant not acting properly didn't go down well. It didn't look good," Erics' anger was palpable, "luckily it got sorted out and in the end Conrad was cleared of any wrongdoing."
"Sounds like he deserved a medal instead of being made a scapegoat."
"Funny you should say that," Danny started grinning genuinely for the first time.
"What?"
"He was given one. Turns out he was shot when he was bringing Harley, the wounded man, to safety."
"Well I'm glad."
"He would never tell you that," Eric admitted.
"No he wouldn't."

Conrad stood in front of the washbasin and loosened the first few buttons of his shirt. The tie had been discarded as soon as they sat down in the cubicle. Pouring some cool water on his face helped with the weakness which had overcome him after he emptied his miniscule stomach contents. He was glad he was the only patron. He did not need to be seen at his worst. Rinsing his hands he turned off the water wishing he could leave. He knew however that would raise alarm bells so he told himself to calm down and just make it through another thirty minutes. After that he felt he could make an excuse to head off, whether or not Devon stayed. Deep down he knew his friend was trying to find out more about him to help him but he never liked anyone helping him and he figured that was never going to change. The door opening behind him made him straighten his shoulders and walking past the other patron he resolved to keep his thoughts and problems to himself.

tbc