Brothers In Blood: For Country

Doctor, Something Funny's Going On...

Scud had laced a torn piece of his shirt through the bullet wound and was the designated driver. Custer rode shotgun with his leg propped up on the dash, and Mac rode in the back with Jack so Jack could monitor him.
“Watch for flecks of red around the mouth, bleeding from the ears, movements that stop suddenly, stuff that just don’t seem right. I’ll be there right behind you guys, but in case something happens, tell the doctor just what the facts about the wounds, and give him these, so they can check for poisons and crap like that.” Those had been GD’s parting orders before loading Scud’s body into the backseat of his car. Rachel and Jennie would follow in Mista D’s Hummer.
The trip to the hospital was uneventful, and the check-ins were routine. The doctor’s praised GD’s work, even though it was hardly professional. Mac was required to stay overnight so the doctor’s could watch him, and the tests for poison came back negative. Everyone else was given a clean bill of health and encouraged to go home and sleep. GD pulled the doctor aside.
“Listen, Doc, we found him, unconscious. Just run an MRI just to be sure, okay?” The doctor nodded, then noticed that the waiting room had been converted into a sort of bedroom. GD touched his shoulder and explained, “See Doc, when one of our boys gets himself hurt or has to spend the night in the hospital or something, all of us who can make it come and wait for him.” Rachel saw them talking and raced up.
“Doctor Hernandez, is there a chance I could get a cot put in Kevin McNaughton’s room? Please?” The doctor nodded, sympathetically. “I’ll see what I can do, ma’am. Why don’t you go in and wait?”
She peeked into the room and saw Mac sitting up, touching his face lightly. His fingers found the slash wound and followed it from his hairline, across the center of his brow and to the opposite point of his jaw. he gave a half grin and a weak laugh before he noticed her standing there. “Hey, baby, what’s up with you?” They had let him wash the dried blood out of his mouth, so his smile wouldn’t disturb any visitors. Rachel walked over to the bed and he reached for her hand.
“How are you feeling?”
He stretched his arms. “Oh, none the worse for wear, a little banged up and GD’s sewing hasn’t improved since the War, but I’m okay. How ‘bout you?”
She gave an exasperated sigh. “You’re the one who got shot at, stabbed, this-that-and-the-other-thing, and you’re asking me how I’m doing? Why don’t you worry about yourself?”
“Because I want you to be happy, to make sure you’re safe and everything’s alright with you. Besides, don’t need anyone worrying about me, especially not you.” he kissed her hand.
“Why shouldn’t I be worried about you? I love you?”
“Because, lovely lady, when you’re worrying about someone, you’re not happy. And that makes me not happy, which slows the healing process, and that makes you more worried. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” His face brightened and he reached for his personal stuff on the chair beside the bed. “Turn the other way for a second, please, Rachel?” He quickly pulled on his shorts and pulled a small box out of his other pants. She heard him getting out of bed and turned around to tell him to get back in. “Kevin, back to bed! The doctor said-” His lips got in the way of saying anything else. He pulled back and got down on one knee. A flicker of pain crossed his face and she reached out a hand to comfort him. He brushed it back and looked up at her. “Rachel, I’ve got a question to ask you, love.” He lifted up the box and opened it. “I know war isn’t always the best circumstances for something like this, but I gotta ask.” His face was pleading. “Rachel, what’s your last name?” She burst out laughing and threw her thin arms around his neck. She kissed him and looked him in the eye.
“I wish it was McNaughton.”
“Rachel, will you marry me?”
“you already know the answer to that.”
“Guess I do.”
He picked her up, felt the blood running down his back and didn’t care. Mac had found someone to care about. Too bad Whip didn’t live to see it. Jack and Mista D stood at the door and watched, and waited. After a few minutes of kissing, Mista D came in with the cot. “Alright kids, is time fo’ som’ sleepin’. And it’ll be in separate beds until we gets youse inta church. Got dat, Brotha Mac?”
“Right D, that’s right.” Mac let go of Rachel and grabbed the cot. “Mine,” he pointed to the cot, then to the bed. “Hers.” Jack stepped in, threw Mac onto the hospital bed and pinned him there. Mac tried to fight, but Mista D applied the shoulder pressure points and he relaxed.
Rachel stroked his cheek. “Listen, you big ape, if you don’t stay in that bed, we’ll never make it to church, now will we? Then I’ll get away, and you don’t want that. Now be a good boy and go to sleep.” She kissed his forehead then retreated to the cot. Jack dragged a chair in and positioned it near the door, facing it as was their habit. “Alright, you two birds, get some sleep before they kick you out.”
Scud felt someone touching his hand, the wounded one, the one he said didn‘t need a doctor poking at. He woke up and looked around. He took in the waiting room and identified two new faces clumped together across from him. But if they were over there, who was touching him? he glanced down and saw a little girl, no more than three, pushing at the makeshift bandage, while her parents were zoned out at the TV.
he reached down and picked her up. She looked up at his face, then back down at the hand. Again she reached for the bandage. he lifted it to push her hand back, but when her fragile fingers brushed his bare skin, it felt like electricity was flowing through his body. She withdrew her hand and smiled at him. She reached for his face and brushed it too, with the same result. She smiled again, then vanished. Her weight was gone from his lap, her entire being was gone like it had never existed. The two people across the room were gone too, and the TV was off. His leg was still warm where she had been sitting and his hands were still positioned like he had been holding her. And his hand didn’t hurt any more.
he ripped the bandage away and put his finger where the hole had been. It was completely healed, with no sign that anything had ever happened to it. Joe noticed his friend’s bewilderment, and asked him. “You okay Scud? Want the doctor to take a look at that hand of yours?”
Scud stood up and walked over to him. “Just need you to look at it, Joe, just tell me I’m not crazy.” he told the whole story, from when he woke up to when she disappeared. Joe looked quizzically at him. “There hasn’t been anyone in here since we got here.”
“than how do you explain that?” He shook his healed hand at Joe. “How did this happen?” Joe looked him in the eye. “Gotta be an act of God, Adam.”
Mista D and Rachel came out of Mac’s room around 7:30 the next morning. he heard the story of Scud’s healing and raised his hands in praise. “Thank you, mighty merciful Lord! Mac‘s bruises almost all healed up, he‘s juss a little collad up, but he okay!” he almost started singing, but noticed the nurses gesturing for quiet. “Boys, Mac’s goin’ in for a MRI now, so we’s gona be heya fo a while longa. Accommodations okay wid everyone or you ladies want something more comfortable? Uncle’ll pay fo a hotel, no questions asked.” The girls said they would stay, then GD remembered he had a body in his car.
“Flash!” he ran down the stairs to his car and brought Flash back up. Custer explained the situation to one of the doctors who examined the body and said he would notify them when they could come down and take the body for burial. They wheeled Flash away for an autopsy.
Mac’s scan was quick. “Not much in there to see, huh, Brotha?” Custer joked. He was Mac’s escort down to the cafeteria where everyone had camped since Jack woke up and demanded food. They were almost there when Mac stopped Custer. There was a mischievous glint in his eye. “Remember McMurphy?” Custer laughed and took hold of Mac’s shoulder.
Everyone at the table turned to say hi when they came in, and Rachel ran up to him and hugged him. Jack took one look and put his head down on the table. GD started laughing silently, and Jennie punched him. Mista D suppressed a smirk. Joe got up and left so he wouldn’t give it away. Scud was completely clueless and just stared. When Mac didn’t react, Rachel stepped back and looked at him and was horrified. His mouth was open, he walked and acted like a zombie, his face and eyes a complete blank. Custer made an attempt to explain.
“They really don’t understand what happened,” he said, “its a freak. He was in the machi-he hehehe.” He couldn’t hold back any more. As he burst out laughing, Mac quickly kissed her, then smacked Custer in the back of the head. “You screwed it up! You’re not supposed to say anything, just look down and shake your head!”
Rachel started punching him, her face all screwed up at having been tricked. He caught her hands and pulled her closer. “Had you goin’ there for a while, huh, baby?” Jennie called him a jerk from across the room. Mac retorted, “Well, ma’am, it ain’t your approval I’m looking for, now is it?” he looked down at Rachel and gave her puppy dog eyes. “I is sowwy, Miss Wachel, will you stiw mawwy me?”
She tried to glare at him, but found it impossible. She let herself go and fell against him. “Of course, you bastard, but do that again and I’m leaving you, hear me?”
“I hear you, Rachel, and I understand. No more.” He touched her cheek. “No more.” Then he remembered the others, still sitting at the table. “hey boys, thanks for waiting. We can leave now if you want.” GD pulled Jennie’s chair out and helped her up. “What the doctor say, Mac?” Mac ran his fingers through his hair. “Doc said that I was fine, some internal injuries, but nothing life threatening. Head’s fine, no damage done. Can’t figure out why exactly I passed out, they nthink it may have just been stress and exhaustion.” Rachel put her hand on his shoulder and grinned. “Oh, now that can’t be the reason.” As they walked out, Mac glanced over at D. “Think you’d mind doing a wedding next week, D?” “I would be honad, Mista McNaughton. Will you want Flash theya, or you want da weddin’ afta da funeral?”
“Open casket, D, open casket.”
Rachel looked at him. “Isn’t that a little morbid, having a dead man at a wedding?” Mac stopped and let go of her hand. Jennie stepped in to support her. “What? Isn‘t a body kind of a downer for a wedding?”
“Even after all the stuff you’ve seen, you still don’t seem to get it.” Mac gestured to the men standing around them. “Every one of these boys has played a huge part in each one’s life. We’re brothers in blood and in war, baby, baptized and raised by fire together as one unit. Even in death we still got to respect that bond. Look.” He rolled up his sleeve and the others did the same. She saw the scar, the eagle and the lightning on each of them.
GD took over. “Girls, a body may be a downer for most people, but not having all the remaining boys there when Mac ties the knot would be disrespectful. We don’t disrespect our bond, unless one turns traitor, like what happened with Whip. He broke the bond, the oath we took in the jungle. Flash being there won’t be a downer for those who actually knew him, know us and respect who he was in relation to us. Brotherhood is for eternity, till death do we part and treasure the memories until the end of time. That’s why Flash’s gonna have an open coffin, and he’s gonna be up there just like we was for his wedding and for mine and Jennie’s, like Whip’s, Custer’s three, like we was for Jack’s and Mista D’s. We was there for beginnings and the ends, always there for each other. You take one, you take all of us. That’s just the way it goes.”
Jack put his arm around Mac’s shoulder, Custer did the same for Joe and GD, and Scud and Mista D jumped in to hold them all together. Mac looked at Rachel. “For better or worse, baby, these my family now and forever, and that stiff back in the morgue is my brother. This is what love’s all about, Rachel, supporting each other, running alongside, fighting together against something that threatens one. One for all and all for one, always faithful. That okay with you?” Rachel looked at the group, then just at Mac. “Do you guys babysit?” The men looked at Mac, for an explanation. Mac glanced at them, then back at Rachel. “She’s got two little boys, guys, two little boys that I still got to meet. They my kids now, no matter who their father was, and from here on, we leaving her past behind her. Come here, Rachel, Jennie.” The women came to the line. “This is family, and now its coming together.”