Not all war & heartbreak

Chapter 7

⬆️Thai Lester(commander)⬆️

The last few weeks were uneventful. Elliott and Leo were still together and were getting much more comfortable. Leo had agreed to come back to Wyoming with Elliott at the end of their deployment, which would be in about a week.

"Hey baby how was training?" Elliott asked as he kissed Leo on the cheek. Leo smiled, "good love, yours?" "My side is still killing me but I'll get through it." Elliott smiles up at him. "Let's go shower shall we?" Leo asked. Elliott nodded and they both headed towards the showers. The other men were already there, Elliott walked into a stall and Leo walked into the one next to him.

The rest of the day consisted of cuddling and getting to know each other more. "Ok ok so you don't like ham?!" Leo asked Elliott with a face of disgust. Elliott smiled and shook his head, "how could you." Leo acted fake offended. Elliott just shrugged, Leo giggled and pounced on Elliott they went flying off the bed and play wrested on the floor. Elliott lost though because he couldn't catch his breath, "I-i can't breath!" Elliott yelled through laughs. The other men had been sitting around playing cards or talking but were now laughing at their childish commanders. When things had died down and they were back on the bed, everyone back to what they were doing. Their commander walked in with two other soldiers by her side. All the soldiers got up in record time and saluted. She began walking towards Elliott and Leo who were standing on each side of the bed. "Sergeant temro." Elliott nodded with a worried look on his face. The room was silent and you could cut the tension with a knife. "Yes ma'am." "Your dog. Winter is it?" Elliott breath hitches and he nodded once, too choked up to say anything. "We think she is very sick and would like you to come take a look at her." "Y-yes ma'am." Elliott still couldn't breath. "But one more thing Sargent. Forty, one of the other dogs won't let anyone near him. But we think you can get him to back off." She smiled comfortingly at him then walked away. Elliott looked down at the floor, trying to hold back tears, then began to walk out of the room, Leo right behind him.

When they got to the kennels where the dogs were held they noticed a large crowd of soldiers and heard dogs yipping and barking. Elliott sprinted towards the group and pushed through them. He saw a large black dog, forty standing above winter, he was growling and bearing his teeth. Winter was panting hard and her eyes were lidded. Her breaths were slow and labored and the soldiers were trying to walk towards her causing forty to bare his teeth. "Back off everyone!" Elliott yelled and held up his hand. "Yeah and what if we dont dog boy?" One soldier spat back. "He said back off soldier!" Leo yelled harshly. Everyone backed up, and others lost interest and left. Elliott slowly approached the dogs and sat on the dirt ground and held out his hand. "C'mer forty. Here boy." He said in a gentle voice. Fortys growls became quieter when he finally came towards Elliot's hand. Elliott rubber his chin for a bit, "can I take a look at her boy? It'll be ok I promise." He whispered. Forty laid down on his stomach and backed off, allowing Elliott to get close to winter. Elliott crawled towards her and placed a hand on her face. She licked him then laid her head back down. "It'll be ok girl." One of the soldiers brought Elliott the k-9 first aid kit and Elliott checked her. When he was done he stood up, almost in tears. "S-She needs a vet. She's really sick, I can only assume organ failure from being exposed to so many bombs and radiation." Elliott said quietly. The commander nodded and had two men pick up winter and one get forty back into his kennel. "Temro!" Commander motioned for him to come with her. "You can either have someone at home pay for her to fly back to wherever and get medical help, or we can put her down here. It will be humane soldier." She said, clearly affected by this. "Yeah." Elliott whispered, he broke down right there and burst out in tears. Commander Lester hugged him for a while until Elliott could muster up the courage to say, "she won't make it back to Wyoming and even if she did it wouldn't be fair to her. We need to put her down." Lester nodded then walked out, Elliott followed behind....