Tea and Sympathy - A Rat Patrol Fanfic
I tumble from the Jeep on legs too shaky to support my weight and sit, staring at the sand for minutes that seem to stretch out into eternity. Everything is so quiet that the ringing in my ears is almost enough to make me scream, just so I can hear some other sound. I don't know how long he's been standing there before I notice.
"Take this," he says gently, handing me a cup, and I take it without conscious thought.
It warms my stiff, cold hands, and I curl my fingers around the comforting weight, holding it to my face. Taking a deep breath, I am surprised by the way it catches in my chest. Shock, I think to myself. I'm still not quite recovered from the battle. Putting the cup to my lips, I take a cautious sip. Tea. Strange how a simple cup of steeped herbs is able to make everything else seem far away, and the here and now a safe place. The tea reminds me of home-moist and earthy-a subtle hint of sweetness from the sugar disk melting in the bottom of the cup. I shiver, and he drapes a blanket over my shoulders, then takes a seat beside me.
"Cheers," he says, raising his cup.
My laugh is brittle as I clink my cup against his. "Cheers."
"That certainly was a close one, wasn't it?"
I wonder how he can be so infuriatingly calm as I brush tentatively at the singed skin on my cheek. "Yeah."
A round from one of the tanks had passed so close to my head that it had scorched my face-it had come within inches of taking my head off. Another foot to the left and it would have cleared me, but taken his legs right out from under him - a fact that seems to have entirely escaped his notice.
"Thank you, Tully," he says.
"For what?"
"For being my wheelman." His eyes express his sincerity. "Troy wasn't, as you Americans say, 'just blowing smoke' when he said you are the best."
Embarrassed by the compliment, I feel my face heat. "You're a great gunner," I mumble over the rim of my cup, "and we make a good team."
"Those tanks were a bit of a surprise, what?" He laughs, "I'd much rather take on a regiment of half tracks than go up against one of those lumbering monstrosities again."
The laugh bubbles up and out of me, dispelling my fear and tension like sun through fog. "There's a reason we harry just the trucks."
"And we have discovered that the hard way this evening."
A Jeep leaps the dune, and in minutes Sergeant Troy and Hitch have joined us.
Troy takes one look at us and shakes his head. “Rough mission?”
“Nothin’ we couldn’t handle,” I reply.
"Tea?" Moffitt offers them, smiling.
"No, thanks," they chorus.
"Suit yourselves," I say. "You don't know what you're missing."