Old Wounds Ch. 02

*authors note*

I just wanted to thank y'all for your feedback from the first chapter. I started writing this and didn't know if you guys would like it at all, and I guess you do, so here you go!

Once again, this is purely fiction, written for entertainment, but with that being said, everything I write has some of me or something from my life in it, so if you don't like my stories, you probably won't like me much.

Thank you all for your continued support, both on this story, and on "It'll Never Happen," that story is far from over, so just keep patient and the next chapter will be out before you know it.

Chapter 2

"Where the hell are we even going?" A private asked me.

Yes, I was a section leader, and usually the chain of command goes team leader, squad leader, THEN section leader, but since I was young, about the same age as most of the guys, and since I thought myself pretty friendly and approachable, a lot of the guys came to me for things, which I didn't mind in the slightest, since it took some of the load off the team and squad leaders, and since I liked feeling like I was still a part of things and not just behind the scenes.

"I could tell you, but it would make absolutely no sense, and you would just get confused and pissed off, so I'd rather not, but that's up to you private." I joked.

We were on patrol, moving as sections, as a part of a two platoon patrol. Each platoon is broken into two sections, and since there's four main cardinal directions from any given point, we tended to use a section to patrol each one off the FOB. We were headed north today.

"Well shit Sargeant," the kid thought for a moment. "Fuck it, lay it on me."

"Well first, around the FOB and anyone who outranks me, I'm sergeant, but when we're out here it's just Richardson or Snake." I paused to light a smoke and offer him one, which he gladly took. "We're headed about fifteen clicks north to the mountain, there's supposed to be a little outfit of op-for and a weapons cache there, but it's hidden inside and we can't seem to find it. The thermal on the drones are picking up nothing, but we've got good intel it's there, so we're the hide and seek team who got the lucky card to look for it. That's why we're combat heavy right now."

"Well fuckin a. I'd rather the bastards not have stuff they can kill us with so let's go kill them with our stuff we can kill them with before they kill us with their killing stuff." He said with a laugh. It was good to see morale wasn't low.

"Couldn't have put it better myself kid." I laughed

Not long after that conversation we stopped to pop open some MREs and have a quick bite to eat. It was around noon and everyone was exhausted from humping all day.

Right when we were about done with lunch we heard what sounded like a mini explosion and we all turned our heads to look at Murphy, the first squad alpha team leader. He didn't say anything at first, just had a pained expression on his face.

"What the fuck was that Murph?" I asked.

"God damn these motha fuckin MREs makin me spew more shit than a politician giving a three day speech!" He exploded.

"So you're saying you shit yourself?" I said, barely containing my laughter.

"I have indeed shit myself." He said with his own laugh.

"Welp, let's break here for an hour, twenty five percent security, y'all figure it out. I'm gonna take Murph here down to that little creek over there. One of y'all come with to keep watch."

"Oh fuck off I can change my own drawers." He drawled, being from Georgia.

"Oh fuck off you shit yourself, someone's gotta wipe ya." I said with a wink.

Man there really was nothing more sick and more gay than a straight dude in the Army.

**

I woke up and couldn't help but chuckle to myself. That was definitely one of the better days on deployment. Barely any contact, and the weapons cache was full. They must have been out and about because there were only two hajis guarding the place. I think maybe five rounds went off total. Quick and easy. It was always good to get to joke around like that

**

It had been a week since Katie came over and it seemed like me and her were on good terms again. She made it seem like we were never on bad terms, but her sister had another thing to say about it. I still hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Katie about how I hurt her, but I knew I had to do it soon, since I wasn't sure when I would be leaving again.

I had been working out every day since I had been home. I started slow, more so doing just some rehab work trying to get my body back to normal, but apparently I was a quick healer, and soon I was doing actual work outs like I used to. My physical therapist couldn't believe how far I had come, and honestly neither could I. I had to fly down to Fort Drum in New York in a week to get checked out by an Army Doc, and he would decide if I was fit to return to duty. I was starting to get excited, but also was dreading having to leave.

It was a Sunday, and we had nothing to do, so when Jason said we should all head out to the island, who was I to complain? I snuffed out my cigarette on the railing of the back deck, put the butt in the coffee can, and headed back inside to pack a few things. I was out in the garage loading up a cooler when my mom came out to say hi before she headed off to work. She drew the short end of the stick at the hospital this week and had nights and weekends. This was her last shift before she had two days off, then back to the normal day shift.

"Headed to the creek?" She asked with a knowing smile.

"Actually no ma, we're headed out to the island for some partying."

"I always hated when y'all would go out there. No service, nobody around. What if someone got hurt?"

"There was always enough of us, so the chances of everyone getting hurt and nobody being able to drive to the hospital was slim."

"You know that doesn't change anything. I'm still your mother and I still worry."

"I'm pretty sure I've been in worse situations." I said with a chuckle.

"Not funny Matt." She shot back with a stern look.

"I'm sorry Ma." I said as I got up to give her a hug before she left.

I went upstairs to grab some extra clothes and my wallet before heading out. As I headed back down the hallway towards the stairs I stopped in front of Kyle's room. Making a last minute decision, I busted open his door and started yelling.

"Hey Runt! Get your ass out of bed! We got shit to do!" I yelled in my best Drill Sergeant voice.

"Hey what, what's up? What the fuck!" He yelled, still half asleep as he rolled out of bed.

"We got shit to do dumbass!" I yelled back trying to hide my grin.

"Fuck. Ok. Calm down I'm coming. What are we doing?"

I had to laugh at how he had absolutely no idea what time it was, absolutely no idea what we were going to be doing, but he still didn't hesitate getting up and going. He'd definitely make a good soldier I mused to myself.

"Goin to the island. You're coming along. Get your shit and get ready. I'll be outside."

"Gimme five."

"Roger. Don't be late Runt!"

With that I headed back downstairs. I knew my little brother looked up to me, and all in all he was a cool kid, so it didn't bother me any dragging him along. Plus, I could slip the kid a beer or two and he'd be on cloud nine. Just don't tell Momma.

By the time I had the truck fired up and the cooler loaded in the back, Kyle came walking out the front door. I put the truck in reverse and started slowly rolling away. Throwing his arms up in the air in frustration he took off running towards me, throwing his bag in the bed as he got close, then throwing himself in the bed right after.

As I started to pick up speed he opened the slider window and slid in, cursing me the whole time. I could help but laugh at the kid. He may have been only fifteen, but I swear he had the mouth of someone who's spent years in the Army.

It only took us a few minutes to get up to Lake Superior as our little town wasn't very far from it to begin with. As I pulled into the boat launch parking lot, I saw Jason already had the boat in the water and Jack was loading up the grill and a cooler. Shutting off my truck Kyle and I grabbed our cooler and put it on the boat.

It wasn't long after we were settled in that Todd and Danny came pulling in and shut the truck down next to mine. We had already moved the boat over to another dock to open up the launch for anyone who needed it, so we just popped the top on a beer and lounged around waiting for Katie and Allison.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was peeking its way through the few clouds that blocked it at that moment, and you could feel the excess warmth when it hit you. After all the time I spent in the desert, sweltering in the dry heat, it was nice to get a day with some humidity and sub hundred temperatures to grace the day.

The birds were chirping, singing their happy little songs, the waves were audibly rolling off the rocks along the shore, and the wind was gently rustling the leaves on the trees. I couldn't have asked for a better day

We were already a beer a piece deep, opening up our second when Katie's Jeep pulled in and parked next to our trucks. As soon as their doors opened and they stepped out, we all had to have a laugh at Kyle's expense. Since he was a freshman at the same time Allison had been a senior, he'd had a huge crush on her. Can't really blame the kid, but we all had to laugh about it.

Allison was a bombshell in her own way. Long red hair, milky white skin with a few freckles here and there, and a totally stacked body that had every guy drooling over her. We even caught a couple of the guys looking at her too. She knew it, and she reveled in it. She really was a little show off.

Kyle's mouth was quite literally hanging open at the sight. I leaned over, made a big show of closing it for him, and handed him a beer hoping it would calm him down some.

"You tell mom..." I started.

"Yea yea I know, you'll skin me alive, wear me as a coat and deny any of it."

"Good. Not quit staring and be a normal kid for Christ's sake."

The girls didn't have anything to bring with them other than a little beach bag, so it didn't take them long at all to get loaded up, and before long we were headed towards the little island that sat about a mile off the shore. There wasn't much on the island, most of it was rock, but there was a little cut on the back side facing away from land that had a sandy shallow part and a little beach, with some grass growing behind it.

The little cut was hidden from the rest of the island, and was out of sight from the shore. As far as we knew, nobody else even knew it was there. At some point in high school we had drug out a pair of picnic tables and a little fire pit for the sand. It was our own little hang out.

The ride over to the island didn't take long at all, and before we knew it we were hanging around in the shallow waters in the cut, drinking some beers and tossing around a football. We had some beach themed country music on the speakers, and everyone was just in a lighter mood.

Everyone always says Lake Superior is cold, which it is, but in the summer heat, it wasn't bad if you were from around here. If you came up from the south and jumped in, you'd probably not enjoy it all that much, but up here the water was nice and warm to us.

Without even thinking about it, I took off my shirt and ran headlong into the water. Soon everyone had followed suit and we were all either treading around or floating on some sort of floatie, depending on what you grabbed from the boat.

After awhile, everyone started to either chill down, need a new beer, or need some food so we all climbed out of the water and went to dry off before Danny would light a fire and I would light up the grill for burgers.

"Hey! Snake! You Swiss cheese lookin motha fucka! Get yer ass over here!" I heard Jason call out from the boat.

When he said that, everyone turned to look at me to see what he meant. I was confused as well so I looked down and realized that without my shirt on, you could see all my wounds. As I looked down I could hear Danny and Jack laugh, and heard a gasp from Allison and Katie. I guess I kind of did look like Swiss cheese being pockmarked with holes like I unfortunately was.

"Shit, you right. I do kinda look like some of that Swiss cheese." I laughed, "though I'd say I'm a little more tan!"

Even though every time I mentioned a wound or something like that, Allison and Katie would get really concerned, they too couldn't help but laugh at my comeback and soon we were all consumed by laughter.

I was over at the grill when Katie came up behind me and almost scared the living shit out of me.

"Swiss cheese eh?" She said, her face showing a stern look, but I could see she was trying not to laugh.

"Well, I wouldn't say I look like Swiss cheese, but I would say that if you laid me and some of it down on a plate, you wouldn't know which one you were lookin at." I joked.

"Not funny Matt." She shot back at me, although she was laughing at it.

It was then I took a second to take a long pull of my beer, and over the top of the bottle I studied Katie. While her sister was a bombshell, she was a knockout. We all knew it, but that was that. She had long wavy dirty blonde hair that came down almost to the top of her butt, amazing D cup breasts, a waist that was impossibly hourglass shaped, a butt that could kill, and long toned legs. She had the body of an angel, of pure perfection, and every guy was knocked down a peg when she was around even though when she wasn't in a bathing suit she was always in clothes that hid her figure. Well, hid her figure as much as her figure would allow.

"I'd have to say it's pretty funny. Gotta lighten up Katie. It happened. It's in the past. I'm still kickin ain't I?

"Well yea, but it still happened."

"It did, but I signed up for it. I coulda gotten out of the zone after my first tour when I got injured but I chose to go back. Just left it lie, because I'm a hundred percent fine now."

"I'll try. But I'm still going to worry Matt." She said as she put her hand on my arm and walked past me to grab herself another beer.

I turned back to the grill to flip over the burgers and put some garlic salt on them. Everyone always said I made the best burgers ever, so I was always in charge of the grill whether I wanted to be or not. Oh well. It's not like I really minded anyhow.

When the burgers were done, and everyone had their plate, I sat down next to Kyle and Danny at one of the picnic tables and handed my brother another beer. I usually only let him have one, maybe two, and today was one of the two times. He looked at me with that excited little kid grin, like he was six years old and just found out where Mommy hides the sweets.

It was shaping up to be a nice relaxing night. Everyone was having a good time. We all had some lawn chairs pulled up into a circle around the fire and we were chatting and listening to the music. It didn't take long until the conversation turned to me, and what was going to happen now.

"So, Snake." Todd started, "how long ya back for? Where ya goin next?"

"Well, I got an appointment with an Army Doc in New York in a week, he'll decide if I'm clear for duty or not. If he says I'm a go, I'll probably come back here for a few more days, pack my shit and head back across the pond to finish out my tour with my unit. They're only over there for another 6 months, so it'll be a short one. After that I've only got a few months left on my contract then who knows?"

After I said I was going back, Katie got up and stomped off to the back of the little cut and disappeared around the rock face. I knew where she was going, so I wasn't too worried about her.

"You really want to go back?" Allison asked.

"I've only ever known overseas my whole time in the army. I was stateside for training then I pretty much went right over. Plus I don't wanna leave my guys over there."

"I get that," she said. "But like, you could die."

"Hell, I'm Swiss cheese remember? If they ain't killed me yet they ain't goin to." I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"What happens if you aren't cleared for duty." Jason asked.

"Then I'm not too sure. It depends on how long the doc thinks it'll be until I am. Since I'm so close to getting my DD214, they might just medically discharge me if they think the recovery time is too long. They don't wanna have to keep paying me plus paying my medical bills. If the recovery time is only like a month then they'll probably keep me along for the ride."

"What do you think it'll be?" Todd asked.

"Well, I think I'll pass it. But then again I can't say for sure what they'll think. I don't really feel much pain when I work out. Maybe a little in the knee."

"Would a little pain be enough to not clear you?"

"Shit, I don't know. They'll clear you even though you still have some bullshit, but they'll hold you if you're perfectly fine. Army Docs make no sense to me."

"Do you want to be cleared?" Allison asked.

"I don't know." I took a sip of my beer. "Part of me wants nothing more than to get back to my guys. Part of me wants nothing more than to stay here and finally settle down."

"The hell you mean finally?" Danny chimed in, "you're still young man. Enjoy the tom fuckery of life."

That got everyone laughing. While the conversation drifted to other things I realized I was out of beer. As I got up to get a new one I also realized that Katie had never come back, so I grabbed one for me, and one for her and went to go hunt her down.

I walked through the little cut in the rock face, and climbed up the side until I got to the top. Then I followed the beaten down path to the other side of the small island where there was a cliff that went down into about thirty feet of water where we all used to jump off when we were younger.

As I neared the edge I found Katie sitting with her feet dangling over the edge, staring off into the night at the lights of the town on the shore. She didn't say anything as I sat down next to her, nor did she say anything when I handed her the beer. She just opened it and took a long pull.

"Hey." I said, unsure of how to start the conversation.

"What?" She asked shortly.

"What's wrong Katie Kat?" I asked, using the nickname I gave her when we were young.

"Oh fuck off Matt!" She snapped. "You're just going to leave again. Why the fuck does it even matter?"

"What the fuck Katie?" I snapped back, "why are you so pissed off at me for joining? We all knew I was going to."

"Yea. Well what we all didn't know was that when you left you'd cut all communication with us. Leave us in the dark for months, even years at a time. Not tell us when you were hurt. Not call us when you came home."

"I had my reasons for leaving the way I did. But you're right Katie. I should have kept in touch. My reasons didn't mean Jack shit."

"And what were those reasons? Hmmm? I hope they were good enough to piss over all your friends."

"I just said they didn't mean shit. I was wrong."

"No no Matt. Tell me. Let me hear what grand ole reason you had for vanishing."

"It's not important Katie."

"The fuck it isn't!" She snapped again, "there's gotta be a good reason you abandoned all your friends."

"I just had to get out." I said very unconvincingly.

"Why? Why'd you have to leave?"

"I was broken." I finally admitted.

"The fuck do you mean you were broken?"

"I was still hurting over Mary."

"That slut? I told you time and time again she was no good for you."

"Well I thought she was."

"She cheated on you twice with two different people. You were together for like three months. How could it have hurt you bad enough you had to cut ties with me, someone who really cares about you?"