When Vaughtar gripped Hirsch's arm he screamed.
"Ow! DAMN Goliath! Let go, your hands are like vice grips," he yelled as he struggled in the gargoyles iron grip. When he let go of Hirsch, the marine fell back on his butt, in the snow. He reached into his vest and pulled a tourniquet.
He slid his arm through the loop and used his teeth to pull it tight, stemming the blood flow to his wound. Hirsch then re-applied a new bandage and tape.
"Thanks though..." he said with a shrug to Vaughtar, "I should be fine until we RTB."
At the same time Wolfe was bandaging Natasha's shoulder, the wound looked foul, but she barely flinched, she is tough. Once finished he patted her good shoulder, not hard to cause any pain, but hard enough to be a bit of a playful jerk.
"Your good!" he said with a grin, "next time don't run near one of my grenades, they're bad for your health, like smoking!" he said looking to Hirsch who was already smoking a cigarette.
Hirsch handed Wolfe four penicillin, which he took with water, Hirsch just chewed his up.
"I had to take penicillin once when I was a kid, in lieu of a rabies shot, I got attacked by thirty seven squirrels," he said nonchalantly.
"What did you do to provoke them?" Wolfe asked.
*****16 years ago*****
A young barefoot Hirsch stood twenty yards away from a tree that had a family of squirrels living in it. He leveled his BB gun at the nearest one, placed his finger on the trigger and-
"JOESEPH! You leaves those animals alone! Come inside and do your homework!"
"Yes momma," he said turning around and slowly shuffled toward his back door. When his mother went back inside he turned, ran to the tree and fired a BB at the nearest squirrel. The BB hit the rodent in the side, startled, it ran up the tree.
Hirsch began to laugh with glee knowing he hit the squirrel, his laughter stopped when dozens of squirrels descended the tree and began bounding for him.
He screamed and threw the BB gun at the horde of tree rodents, and ran screaming with his arms in the air. The thing about 9 year olds is they don't run very fast. The squirrels caught up to him and began biting and scratching. Hirsch fell to the ground writhing in pain as thirty seven squirrels attacked. When a blast of white cold foam washed over the little boy, the squirrels ran off, Hirsch looked up to see his scowling mother holding a fire extinguisher.
"Heh.... Hey mom....um.... I love you?"
***** present day*****
Hirsch stared at Wolfe.
"I was... Minding my own business, I swear." he stammered.
"Somehow I don't believe you," Wolfe remarked.
After Wolfes hand was re- bandaged, he turned to Shanon.
"Hey don't worry bout it beautiful, I'll be right as rain once we get back to base, besides, my wound doesn't need stitching." he said indicating his hand. When he grabbed the snabbit, it's needle like fur had penetrated through Wolfes glove and into his hand.
"We shouldn't let our guard down though," remarked Wolfe.
"Vaughtar, could you do some ariel reconnaissance for us? Just need you to fly a pereimeter around the area, let us know if you spot anything."