Lieutenant Sad Eyes, Reporting for Misery (HBO War: Generation Kill, Nate)

[lillian]

Note: this story is based solely on the characters depicted in the HBO miniseries and has no relation to the actual people the show was inspired by.

**the devil pups/kids mentioned are Cpl Evan "Q-tip" Stafford and PFC John Christeson - both over 18, just relatively young and inexperienced. I'd like to think that they were put in the Command vehicle with Nate and Gunny for this reason. Ergo, they are their devil pups.

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I'm having some writers block with my other stories at the moment, but Nate’s eyes are always something to wax poetic about so here's this. Also can we talk about that nose? 

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Doc Bryan kept a continuous, rotating watch on all his men. A limp there, a cough here – most times they came and found him, whining about their torn-up feet or a weird rash and Doc just sat them down and pulled out his gloves. Marines were babies, but he knew that going in. A highly-trained SARC, he'd had the choice of SEALs or Recon, and he'd picked the devil dogs. He'd figured that they might need a bit more help staying alive.

Brad had dragged Ray over – “He won’t stop sneezing. Fix him, Doc, before I fix him myself.” 

It was an easy fix. A box of antihistamines and a very pointed lecture about the consequences if someone were to be potentially abusing uppers while taking a downer. Brad heard, even if Ray didn’t. Doc could almost hear the screech-cursing and the sound of a bottle of Ripped Fuel capsules being poured into the dirt.

Their Lieutenant was trickier. Gunny Mike had warned him that the LT chronically tended towards martyrdom. He was always giving his rations away to the two devil pups that bounced around the back of his truck if they looked at him with big eyes. He took most watches and seemed to operate on less than forty mikes of sleep at all times. 

He was naturally sneezy, Doc had noticed, with little fits here and there that didn’t seem to bother him, but these had been increasing in frequency and intensity over the past few days. 

Day Five of the invasion, Doc clocked the LT’s eyes. A startling pink against sea-glass green, rimmed angry-looking red, he squinted beneath the visor of his helmet. Added to sunburnt cheeks and bridge of the nose, a hoarse voice, and a serious case of the sniffles, the LT was starting to look miserable. Well, more miserable than he already did, as the idealism was slowly crushed out of him by the futile violence and innate bureaucratic incompetence of the USMC.

“ehtt’tchnxxt–sheww!” the LT pinch-rubbed his nose, blinking against the harsh sunlight. He was alone in his truck, sitting half-way in the door, Gunny presumably having herded the kids off for some extra training.

Doc had been waiting to approach until what seemed like the end of his fit, but as he crossed the camp towards the Command vehicle, LT’s head ducked again over the map in his lap, trembling with a needy “nng’xxt!... n’xxt–choo!”

Oh well. Pride was a lost cause for all of them at this point.

“Gesundheit,” Doc said shortly, hoisting his medical bag up on his shoulder. 

LT gave him a resigned smile. “I knew you’d come find me. Did Mike say something to you?” 

“No, sir, you’ve become a bit conspicuous.” 

LT’s smile widened, and he ducked his head. No officer had the right to look so damn bashful, Doc thought, shoving down the protective warmth that fluttered up in his chest. The LT looked like the kid he was, plucked out of Ivy League undergrad in overcast New England and thrown into combat command in the fucking desert. No wonder Gunny kept such a close eye on him. 

“hep’ngxxt–cheh!” He sniffled, not sounding too congested yet. “Excuse me. I can’t seem to stop sneezing.” He knuckled the corner of his left eye very gently, as if he knew Doc would tell him off. Which he did. Then:

“Helmet off, sir, I need to get a look at your eyes.” Doc snapped on a pair of gloves and gently took hold of the LT’s chin once he’d removed his Kevlar. 

“They itch,” the LT said unnecessarily. 

“I can see that.” Doc frowned. “Have you had a reaction like this before?”

“They were bothering me at Mathilda – just my eyes though. Now I…” he trailed off, rubbing his nose, as Doc stepped back and took off his gloves. 

LT tried and failed to hold back a frustrated-sounding “mm’ngxxt- choo!”

“Have the sniffles, yeah. Seems like the usual irritation from the wind and sand, and now you’ve got allergies on top of that. I’ll give you some drops and some antihistamines, and that should clear things up.” 

LT grimaced. 

“Hey,” Doc said more softly than usual. Officers had to be coddled sometimes. “You’re not the only one. Person’s apparently trying to murder all of 2-1 Alpha by sneezing them off the road.” 

LT smiled a little at that. 

“We need you well, sir, or we’re fucked.” 

LT nodded, accepting his orders.

_Fin_

Edited April 17 by lillian
refining

[solitaire-au]

I’m melting from how lovely this is! 🥰

I don’t know if you want to put it in this fic or consider it for the future, but perhaps Doc needs medical attention himself at some point.
 

What would he do? What would the others do?

[lillian]

7 hours ago, solitaire-au said:

I’m melting from how lovely this is! 🥰

I don’t know if you want to put it in this fic or consider it for the future, but perhaps Doc needs medical attention himself at some point.
 

What would he do? What would the others do?

Ooooh that's such a good idea! I think there'd be this push and pull of "I can take care of myself I've got work to do" and "I am useless to my men if I am incapacitated so I must accept help for the good of all." I think the others would be scared to help him at first in case he yells at them, but then take their task very seriously and really enjoy helping him out. Maybe Doc is even tiredly directing them to parts of his med kit to use and they're so excited to be useful and learning a new skill. The Recon Marines are honestly just a bunch of nerds.

Hmm... What should we do to him? Which characters do you want to see in starring roles?**

**Stiney, who I haven't featured yet, is kind of Doc's unofficial assistant. He's on his team and Doc just grabs him for help with things. He isn't a prominent personality in terms of screen time but I did clock him reading a book by Noam Chomsky in one scene so that's interesting. I'll look into him more and see if I can get enough to write from.

ALSO a big part of Doc's character is insubordination -- he keeps his moustache, he speaks frankly, he calls a Captain "you dumb motherfucker, sir" the list goes on... he can kind of get away with it because he's technically borrowed from the US Navy so he doesn't have to follow all the standards, and he knows that if anyone is stupid enough to actually "fire" him the whole platoon would be screwed. He's such an interesting character. 

Edited April 10 by lillian

[lillian]

@solitaire-au I know it's in your queue but I hope you watch GK soon! I love bouncing ideas back and forth with you!