Charging Into the Fray

The Deed Is All

The platoon had been sent back to Coronado, they had lost their Officer-in-Charge and Platoon Chief plus six other operators were in critical condition. Ben was moving up to become the new Chief, but Hal was passed over in favor of another officer. Lieutenant Vincent Rome, had spent most of his time as an administrator, Command had never assigned him to an active platoon due to 'conflicting personality types'. They were this first command and had to break him in while the six recovered. Three of the injured SEALs have been recovered and were on the mend.

Rome's sense of initiative only applied to giving out orders, he hadn't participated in exercises unless the higher-ups were watching and didn't take any of their concerns seriously.

Jace was going to UC San Diego Medical Center, the base hospital was undermanned due to most military medical personnel being overseas so he was picking up the three remaining SEALs. They had no family nearby so Julian volunteered to pick them up and let Reese stay at his place while he recovered.

Thank God that Abigail was visiting her parents in L.A.

He was helping Reese get up, he had taken shrapnel from an RPG from the ambush. They removed all of the pieces from his back and hip, but his recovery was complex. Jace wheeled him to the desk to go through his papers and pick up his pain meds.

Jace felt pressure in his chest, ever since he had started picking up and dropping off his teammates he couldn't help but think of what went wrong in Iraq. The signs he missed, what he could've done better. The older platoon members kept telling him that he wasn't at fault, that it was war.

Ever since the Bulfati Operation he had trouble sleeping, he was restless. He kept cleaning and practiced reassembling his pistols before he went to bed, at first it helped him calm down but he started sleeping with them on his nightstand. He felt like he was still trapped in the valley, it had gotten worse since the ambush.

Even worse, the memory of his mother and sister's deaths had resurfaced. He remembered the gunfire, the motion of the car flipping over and crashing. He remembered Kelly's scream, his mother holding them tightly together. He felt them stop breathing; he begged them to open their eyes, not to leave him. Julian recalled how the world went dark as he heard the ambulances and police arrive.

He focused on wheeling Dave out, not noticing one of the nurses looking at him curiously.

Back at his apartment, he had his pullout sofa bed ready and had picked up takeout. Jace stared at his bedroom ceiling, looking at the fan. He thought about the Chinooks that saved his teammates but left him behind.

over the next few weeks, he trained with the platoon, practicing his skills as a sniper and corpsman. He needed more experience as a Corpsman before he could attend the SOIDC course.

While he waited for Reese to finish his last physical therapy session, Jace practiced a suture technique.

"Are you a doctor?"

Jace looked up and saw a nurse looking at him from her workstation. She was about his age, wearing light blue scrubs.

"N-no, I'm a hospital corpsman," Julian answered, uncertain why this woman was paying attention to him. "I'm in the Navy."

"Well you do that as well as any attending I've seen," said the woman.

"I've had practice," replied Jace. "Unfortunately a lot of the time it was on an actual person."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said the Nurse. "I'm Kathleen."

"Julian."

"Is that one of your Navy Buddies in there?"