*~*Gerard's POV*~*

I woke up, slightly cold, and various parts of my body aching. I was curled up on my side, and when I rolled to my back, I almost rolled over someone's hand. I looked up at the sky, the sun was barely making its way over the horizon. I looked around, a group of men surrounding me, just like when I went to bed last night.
Pierre and David were laying as close as they could to what was a dying fire last night, and what was officially nothing but a pile of ash now. I rubbed my eyes, groaning about being awake. I didn't want to be awake, not after yesterday. I was hoping it had all been a dream, but it wasn't. It happened, and I killed a man, and felt bad about it, even though Pierre tried to convince me that I did nothing wrong.
I sat up, and pushed myself off the ground. I threw my blanket on top of Pierre and David, and started weaving my way through the cluster of sleeping men.
Not a lot of people were awake, I noticed, as I made my way to the middle of the camp. The medics were awake, I only know that because I saw Ray rushing between tents, and some of the officers were up, too, but that was about it. I wondered if the cooks were up yet, I was really hungry. I was willing to even make my food to eat, if I could.
I saw General Christopher walking from his own tent, one of the few that had been set up yesterday, and into one of the tents for the injured. I debated on following him, since it was also the tent Ray went into, but I decided I didn't want to be brandished a stalker. I walked around aimlessly for a while, not sure where to go. Finally, I decided on waiting outside the tent I saw Ray go in, hoping to catch him and ask him if he's slept.
I was waiting a while, hearing the sounds of snoring, coughing, and complaining from inside the tent.
Ray came out, carrying a tray that had bandages, and something to stop infections, there were old, used, bandages on there too, which were dried with blood.
"Ray," I said, walking in step next to him. He jumped a little, clearly not expecting anyone to talk to him. "Have you slept at all?" I asked, noticing some bags under his eyes, which weren't as definite yesterday.
Ray shrugged, "Little naps here and there. I can't really sleep, there's only a handful of us, and they're complaining about pain no one can control." He sounded annoyed, and I frowned, empathizing with him. He seemed overworked, and knowing from experience, he wasn't good with working with little sleep. He wasn't good at a lot when he was tired.
"How's Jared?" I asked, "have you seen him?"
"Jared's alive, barely," Ray said, and I bit my bottom lip. "I was just in changing his bandages. He's drifting in and out of consciousness. Now, in fact, he's sleeping."
"Can I see him?" I asked, I wanted to see with my own eyes that he was alive, and even say goodbye if he was going to die. I was sentimental like that.
"I can't really stop you," Ray said, and we stopped outside the medic tent.
"I listen to you, though, when you're not being stupid." I smiled at him, and he rolled his eyes.
"You can if you want, but if he's asleep, let him sleep, dammit. Christopher keeps going in there and waking him up, I don't think he's slept either."
"He seems to be attached to Jared," I noted, which was weird considering how much the two seemed to hate each other any other day.
"I can't explain to you why," Ray said, "I got to get back to work. You take it easy, I don't need you somehow getting sick."
"Can do," I said, turning on my heel to go back into the tent Ray had come out of not long ago. I headed in, careful of where I walked. There were probably over a hundred men laying on the ground, complaining about some form of pain. I scanned my eyes over the crowd, looking for the familiar facial features of Jared, and quickly finding General Christopher sitting next to him, it was a wonder I didn't notice him earlier with the person sitting next to him.
"Hello sir," I said as I made my way over, careful to keep my voice down a little. Jared close to the front of the tent, which made it easier to get to him.
"Way," General Christopher said simply, "what are you doing here?"
"Just visiting a friend," I said, not liking the way his eyes turned to do what looked like they were analyzing me. "Ray said it wasn't good."
"Ray may be a good doctor, but he doesn't know Jared. He can survive anything." General Christopher sounded so sure of himself. He looked down at Jared one more time before standing up. "I'll leave you two to talk. Farewell."
Jared's eyes opened as I took General Christopher's spot next to him. Jared had his jacket off, and had a blanket over his lap. He looked up at me, and smiled, which looked forced but still had the same signature Jared look to it.
"I'm pretty beat up, eh?" Jared asked and I nodded. "You get hurt?" I shook my head and he closed his eyes again. "Good."
"How's the pain?" I asked, not really sure what else to say. I wasn't good with dealing with certain things, and this was one of those moments. When Lindsey was giving birth to Bandit, I couldn't think of anything to say to her to cheer her up, so I kept asking about the pain, or if she was glad we were having a baby, and she got very annoyed with me very quickly.
"I've felt worse," Jared coughed, and opened his eyes again.
"You have to make it, okay, you have to," I said suddenly, "you can't die, okay? Promise me."
"Oh, Way, I'm not going anywhere," Jared said with a smirk before his eyes closed again. I heard his breathing even, and I realized he had fallen asleep in ten seconds flat, a talent I really wish I had.
"You better not."
I took one last look around the tent, taking in the sight of all the injured and possibly dying before I made my way back out of the tent, weaving around people who were sprawled out, seemingly uncaring. I didn't recognize too many of the faces, most of them being the ones who would ignore me, and only acknowledge me with a simple nod of the head, nothing more. I felt bad for them, I did, they didn't deserve what had happened to them, well maybe some of the jerks did, but they were few in numbers. I exited the tent, and stood outside, not really sure what to do with myself. More people were awake now, and I saw a steady smoke stack rising from the other side of the camp, maybe someone was going to cook some food for us, my stomach growled at the thought.
Walking over, I had the thought of checking in on Pierre, to see if he was still asleep, or if his shoulder was hurting anymore than it was last night. I stopped mid-step on my way to the food, and pondered my next step. Pierre, or food. I decided Pierre was slightly more important than food, he could keep me company and he really did need more than just David telling him to stop trying to use his bad arm. I walked over to where the group of us were sleeping last night, frowning when I saw Pierre sitting up with David's arm around him, David's head on his shoulder. I didn't move forward, or say anything, not really sure what to do. I saw both of their shoulders shaking, being the observant man I was, and started walking back towards the food, leaving them alone. Seb or Jeff would be walking around, I didn't see them around the two, they were practically alone, and they would be enough to keep me company for a while. They were good folk, I didn't have a problem with them.
Outside of the makeshift kitchen was a line forming for food, which I walked to the back of, I wanted some food. My stomach growled again, and I grinned sheepishly at myself, no one paying any attention to me. I stood on my tip toes, looking for a bald head that would stick out compared to the rest, Jeff's head was incredibly pale, it reminded me of snow, and it made him easy to spot in crowds. I saw a glimpse of his head, walking in another direction, alone. I focused in on where he was going, to keep track of where he was so I could approach him after I had my food to talk to, and to keep me company, I wasn't good with being alone.
"Hey Way, oh that rhymes," a voice said behind me, and I turned around to see Pierre walking towards me, no David in sight. His face was a reddish color, fading and hardly noticeable, but like I said, I was observant.
"Way rhymes with a lot of things," I said, moving back to be in line next to him. There were only a handful of people behind me, it wouldn't make much difference to me, as long as I got food. "I'm surprised you're just noticing it this now."
"A little slow in the head," Pierre said, smiling slightly. I grinned, but couldn't think of anything else to say. His hair was sticking up, and it was one of the few times, I noticed, that I'd seen so many people out of uniform, or not fixing their coats or wearing their caps. It was strange. I was still in uniform, for the most part. My jacket was torn at the bottom and on the sleeves, but I didn't really care, it was old and worn out.
"So, what are we doing today?" I asked after we moved ahead in the line a little, the silence becoming too uncomfortable to handle. I didn't do well with silence and being alone, I was social, I needed human interaction.
"Probably finishing setting up the camp, and trying to restore some normality," Pierre tried shrugging and his face contorted in pain. I raised a finger at him, clicking my tongue, and he just chuckled. "You and David are out to make my life miserable, aren't you?"
"Just because we care about you," I answered simply. "Sleep well last night?"
"Somewhat, it was cold, and my body aches, but it's not like I expected the ground to feel like a nice feather bed, I'd be silly to think that. What about you? You were up early? Something bothering you?"
"I was up at the time we'd normally wake up," I said, "I think..." I added as an afterthought. I shrugged, and stepped forward, "I was okay. I ache too, but that's nothing new, it's pretty normal lately, doesn't bother me much anymore."
"Have you checked on Jared? Did Ray get any sleep?" Pierre asked as soon as we were at the front of the line, both reaching out for our bowls, which were warm when they were handed to us. It was porridge, nothing special, but it didn't matter, it was like heaven to me as I ate the first spoonful.
"Jared's okay, I spoke to him a little. General Christopher was in there when I went in, Ray said he's been in there a lot. Ray hasn't slept much, he thinks he's invincible and doesn't need sleep. The man is dedicated to his work, though, which makes him good at what he does."
"You're pretty dedicated yourself. In my time, I haven't seen so many new soldiers willingly go to the front line of battle, they normally leave that for the 'more experienced' ones, even some of them go farther back. The front line can be scary."
"So can being behind people I'm afraid I'll shoot one of our men in the back of the head or something," I said a little embarrassed and Pierre laughed.
"Don't worry, hasn't happened to any of us yet."
"Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean I won't be the first to do so," I said and Pierre laughed again. We found a nice spot to sit, there was a fallen tree, which made for a good seat. We sat and ate our food in silence, enjoying each other's company. I can say, I really do like having Pierre to talk to, he's a great man, and with my other two friends here busy or dying he was great at keeping one's spirits up, even with just a simple word.