"GET THE MUNITIONS PACKAGE TO SITE 14 ASAP!!! ...... Ooook, whats next Corporal?"

The captain looked to his side to prepare himself for the next thing on his list. Being in a war-zone was not the best place for mental acuity but making the list daily helped with getting through the day without too much of a hassle. Cpt. Bimillah had been here for the last 7 months and had tired of the country within the first week. in the privacy of his mind, he was proud to admit that, even though he was in this stressful environment he had only taken 3 aspirins in his entire time here.

The first had been after his first assistant had been shot by a sniper in his second week during a random inspection in his own base camp. Hi immediate reaction to order all officers to requisition Kevlar neck plates and all soldiers on base to wear their helmets when out in the open. His next reaction was to demolish an entire bottle of scotch and top it off with an aspirin and sleep for 12 hours.

The second aspirin had been taken exactly 13 hours after the first one to help with the massive hangover he had the next morning. The hangover also led to him controlling his drinking habit over the remaining duration of his stay in this country.

The third one was taken in response to the incident report regarding 'that' psychopath.

"Well sir, considering you just had you daily shouting match with your lover, I thought your meeting with the 'medic' would fit into the next slot quite neatly."

The captain gave the corporal his usual 'if-looks-could-kill' expression before realizing what the second half of what had just been said sank in. Oh, how he missed his first assistant, god bless his soul. He had been helpful, understanding, and best of all didn't lace every other line of conversation with subtle barbs of misguided humor. Scooting over the fact that she had just alluded to the supply officer in charge being his lover, he began preparing himself to meet the 'medic'.

Even though the medical building was 20 feet away, Bimillah suddenly wanted time-stopping abilities. But knowing god wouldn't be impulsive like that, he resigned himself to the meeting and took out the folder from the safe in his desk and began to move towards the next task of the day.

He strode purposefully to the medical supplies door where he knew the 'medic' spent all her time, the corporal following about 2 steps behind him. As he reached the door, he knocked on it twice before waiting for a few seconds. Then he pushed the door open and walked in.

He hadn't even laid eyes on the 'medic' when he felt goosebumps erupt on his skin. Pushing aside the feeling he looked around trying to find the 'medic' but saw no one. He even looked towards the other end of the room where the morgue was. As he walked towards that area with his assistant in tow, he noticed a body on one of the examining table with sheet covering it and the feet and the tag on a big toe sticking out from under the sheet.

"Corporal, I don't recall any dead bodies being reported in the last week, do you?"

The corporal shook her head in confirmation.

It had been an uneventful week, his favorite kind and he wanted to keep that going. But now that hope was being threatened with this unexplained body. For a moment he thought that the 'medic' may have done something which would require him to start popping aspirins like skittles.

As the two of them took a few more step towards the examining table, they stopped in shock as the body suddenly sat upright leaving its head lying in the same position. The sheet covered where the neck had been sliced clean off and the severed head was now in plain view staring sightlessly up at the ceiling.

The silence was deafening until the headless sheet-covered torso began turning towards the visitors. The captain flinched while the corporal decided that now was the best time to begin her practice to crack glass with her voice. Alongside this new practice, she also drew her sidearm and took aim at the headless corpse.

Cpt. Bimillah, to his credit, thought much faster and realized the truth of the matter almost immediately and began enjoying his assistant's distress and noted that her safety was on. He relaxed and said, "Well, thank you very much for that scare Doctor, I'll be sure to cherish the memory" as he looked gloatingly at the corporal.

There was a quiet laugh at that and the sheet was whipped away by an unseen hand as Dr. Rashida revealed herself from under the sheet. As the corporal finally regained her composure and put away her Beretta while taking on progressively deeper hues of red on her cheeks , the captain quickly examined the haphazard frame sitting on the doctor' shoulders which when complemented with the sheet, made it look like a headless torso. As he looked towards what he thought was the severed head, Dr. Rashida quickly picked it up and began clearing away the setup, chuckling quietly all the time. As she continued, the giggles finally stopped and she said.

"You can stop ogling me now captain and get to whatever it is you came for. I need to go and develop the photos of your reactions in the dark room."

The captain thought he heard something at the end of that and also thought the head looked suspiciously realistic, but decided not to pursue either matter, choosing instead to hand over the folder which he had nearly crumpled up completely when he had flinched earlier.

"Yes well, this was to be handed to you with instructions to transfer you back home with an honorable discharge. I trust you don't need me to help you pack?"

"Oh, you'd like to get rid of me, would you? No, I don't need your help captain but I assure you, you will begin to miss me very soon and will almost regret offering to help me pack. Maybe you aspirin count will double without me here, or even triple. What is this?" She said in her usual quiet, humorous voice.

As he listened to her, the usual conflicting emotions began roiling within him. She had this ability to terrify him, arouse him and make him worry all at once. It wasn't intentional or her part and he knew that but the combination of her voice, the things she said and her petite body got to him every time they had conversed.

She had her jet black hair in a boy cut and her cherubic face belied the terror she wielded over all her patients. Her body though was kind of mismatched yet oddly seductive. She was 5'2" and a size 1 though her assets were almost non-existent, something which she used as a trap if anyone was foolish enough to comment on the fact. Below the waist was almost the opposite as she had the most graceful and loin-stirring legs the captain had ever seen and he had seen quite a few.

She had said but three sentences and already he was tearing his hair off mentally wondering what the hell she meant or how she even knew about the aspirin, while also wondering how her legs would look with no pants on.

Quickly shaking free of these thoughts, he said, "I have no clue but I have arranged a seat for you on the next flight back home, First class, Complements of my boss who, by the way, is the one who gave me that folder to give to you. I hope you have a safe journey and hope you'll look me up if you're ever in my part of town." Internally, he was shouting at himself to shut the hell up as his initial plan had been to simply come in hand over the folder and leave.

Dr. Rashida seemed to barely listen to him, as she had already opened up the folder and begun reading.

"......requisite condition is......... only criteria...........oooooh....... wonder who's in charge....?"

She had begun muttering as she finished reading and reached under her desk and grabbed a duffel bag. She kept it next to her feet and then reached into a cabinet nearby before pulling out a steel bedpan. She continued muttering incoherently as she took out a bottle from the miscellaneous chemicals nearby and poured it into the bedpan. Then she put the folder into the bedpan and lugged the bedpan carefully onto the examination table she had just been lying on a few minutes ago. Lastly she picked up the duffel bag and slung it on her shoulder and calmly walked past the two soldiers who simply watched all of this in silence.

When she reached the door, she opened the door and turned around while looking at the captain and corporal expectantly. After a a few more seconds of staring while holding the door open she finally said, "WELL, COME ON, you don't want to die, do you?"

At this, both of the dumbstruck soldiers looked at each other and then ran out the door while Dr. Rashida held the door open for a bit longer. Once Cpt. Bimillah was out in the open, he turned around to see Dr. Rashida toss an unopened bottle at the bed pan in the room. As he watched the bottle sail through the air, he could have sworn he saw the bottle separate into two halves neatly almost as if they has been cut and held together with glue. As the bottle and its contents landed in the bedpan, he squinted his eyes and rubbed them quickly because now he seemed to see a silhouette of something in the bedpan where nothing was previously.

And then the door closed, and he was now looking into the dark brown eyes of Dr. Rashida.

"I wonder what you were looking at....." the quiet voice said.

"N..nothing, not a damn thing......" he hurriedly stammered as he recalled his suspicions about the realistic 'fake' severed head which he had not gotten a good look at.

"Thats good." the doctor said contentedly. "Well, seeya." and with that she turned and began walking towards the motor pool.

"OH GOD, was that terrifying" the corporal said once she confirmed the doctor was out of earshot.

"Thank god your safety was on."

"Glad I was mistaken about that." she said.

"Mistaken?... What do you mean?"

"Well, she's always freaked me out, sir and I always leave my safety off. Thank god I had it on "

"Yes, I saw your safety when you were screaming and it was on....... wait, you're telling me you pulled the trigger?"

She blushed and said "Yes, several times...... while I was still screaming."

Cpt. Bimillah stared at his assistant incredulously for a moment and then looked towards where the motor pool lay, his expression now thoughtful. "Bloody hell" he said under his breath and then looked down at the tent which had formed on his pants. Now it was his turn to blush and he hurriedly walked back to the command building with his still blushing assistant.

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Sorry about the short chapters previously, but I find it difficult to go on typing after about 1.2k words as my attention drifts easily.

It's probably going to take some time for me to get the next few chapters out due to work and formatting issues.

It's going to start heating up after 1 more chapters. Hope the slow start hasn't put any of you off this story.