Read When Tony Met Adam (Short Story) for Free Online Page B

canteen—because he clearly
wasn’t
fine.
    “Welcome back,” Jenk said.
    “Did I go somewhere?” Tony asked, taking a second sip of water, and this time swallowing it. Jesus, his throat was on fire, and his head throbbed with every beat of his heart.
    “Every now and then you vacate the premises,” Jenk told him, trying to hide his concern as he checked the wound that was now festering on Tony’s leg. “The vacating isn’t the problem. The problem is when you wake up and try to audition for
So You Think You Can Dance.”
    “Shit,” Tony whispered again, as Dan Gillman appeared beside Jenk, taking a look at Tony’s injury. Unlike Jenkins, he didn’t manage to conceal his apprehension as he took over the bandaging effort. He could hear the sound of gunfire in the not-too-distant distance. Clearly they were in the middle of mixing it up with the bad guys again. “I’m sorry.”
    “We’re the ones who’re sorry,” Jenk told him, as he used a wet rag to wipe what looked like blood from Tony’s face. Yes, ow, he’d definitely scraped himself when he’d come in for a landing. “But we just don’t have the manpower to keep you from hurting yourself every time you try to get up.”
    “Where’s Lopez when you need him?” Dan muttered.
    “Just do the best you can,” Jenk murmured back.
    “You should tie my hands and feet,” Tony said, and the look Jenk gave him would have been comical had they been damn near anywhere else in the world instead of the motherfucking middle of nowhere, in the mountainsbetween Afghanistan and Pakistan.
    Dan, however, looked as if he was considering it—tying Tony up to keep him from making a ruckus or just being a distraction. But the way he shook his head no was a strong clue as to just how much trouble they were in, considering Tony couldn’t crawl, let alone walk.
    The nearest hospital was a helo ride away.
    Or a long, dangerous hike through mountains filled with an enemy intent upon taking various and sundry parts from their dead bodies as souvenirs.
    That same enemy had rocket launchers that made calling for a helicopter extraction a virtual impossibility.
    “What we need to do,” Jenk said, “is get you out of here.”
    “We both know that’s not going to happen,” Tony said.
    “So what do you suggest, Vlachic?” Dan asked. “We just let you die?”
    Tony caught Dan’s wrist with a hand that felt ridiculously weak. He could barely make a fist. “Anything you try is going to get you killed, too.”
    “If we stay,” Dan pointed out, “we’ll run out of ammo. They know where we are, and they know why we’re here. They know one of us is injured, too.”
    If that was the case, they were pretty much screwed.
    “Then leave me,” Tony begged. “And go. Please …”
    “We’re not going to leave you,” Jenk said.
    Tony pushed himself up into a sitting position while Jenk and Dan made noise about him staying down. But he ignored them and forced his shaking muscles to work. “Leave me set up with an M60. I’ll create a diversion so that the team can go—”
    “We’re not leaving you,” Jenk said again.
    “Mark,” Tony said, using Jenkins’s rarely used first name. “Look me in the eye and tell me that I’m not going to die. That if I don’t get to a hospital—”
    “We’re not going to let you die,” Jenk said.
    “Not the same thing,” Tony pointed out.
    “Close enough,” Jenk countered, then ended the conversation by scrambling away.
    Which left Tony alone with Dan, who wasn’t his first choice when it came to picking a confidant. But time was running out.
    “I know I’m not supposed to talk about this,” Tony told his teammate. “But the world’s going foggy again and … I need you to do me a favor when you get back to the States.”
    “You don’t need to—” Dan started, but Tony cut him off.
    “I do,” he said. “Because you don’t even know his fucking name, and I’m in love with him, God, I really am, Dan. I know