"Raus! Raus! Time for roll call!" The men in Barracks 2 all grumbled. "You don't need to yell Schultzie," Newkirk said. "We're all here. Is this really necessary?" "Yeah, Schultz," chimed in LeBeau. "I've had a long night. You would not believe the girls I met!" Schultz chucked. "You jolly jokers! There's no way you could do that. Is there?"

As Schultz stood there worrying Colonel Hogan stepped out from his room. "You heard the man. It's time for roll call," Hogan said, giving his men a discreet nod. Everyone started heading out except for Carter, who lagged by the door.

"Hey mate, didn't you hear the Colonel? We have to head outside for roll call." Carter had been acting strangely lately, and Newkirk was getting worried. He hadn't been playing cards with Newkirk, and that was a shame in itself, because he was the only one who would play with him and he barely talked to him, unless it was absolutely necessary. Newkirk couldn't even remember the last time they'd had a proper conversation. It appeared that Carter only wanted to spend time with LeBeau. When Newkirk tried to ask LeBeau about him all LeBeau would say was something about how it was typical for an Englishman not to see something that was right under his nose.

"Uh, yeah, I heard him. I just wanted to say something real quick. I mean if that's okay with you, of course. 'Cause if it's not I could just talk to you later or something, if that's all right with you." Carter stood there fidgeting.

And then there was that. Whenever Carter did talk to him, he sounded afraid. Like Newkirk was going to chew him out or something. Which, of course, Newkirk had done on occasion, but only when there was a reason, and Carter hadn't done anything too daft lately.

"Of course it's all right with me. I didn't really feel like heading out there right now anyway. Got to keep those Krauts on their toes," Newkirk said with a grin, nudging Carter with his elbow. Carter frowned and turned away. "Why don't we head to the Colonel's room? We won't have to listen to Schultz yelling then."

Newkirk lead Carter to Hogan's room and closed the door behind them. "Now what's been bugging you?"

"Well, promise you won't hate me for this, cause I've been feeling this way for a while now, and I don't think it's just a phase or anything. And I've talked to LeBeau and he told me I should tell you, but I really wasn't sure, but then again you know what they say about the French and all, so I figured I better do what he says, cause he's really smart, or at least way smarter than me, and-"

"Good lord Andrew! Just spit it out! We can't stay in here forever. The colonel can only cover for us for so long." He really hadn't missed Carter's rambling though.

"It's just that we've been friends so long, and I don't really want to mess that up. And I don't want to mess up this set up either. Boy would Colonel Hogan be mad."

"If you don't hurry this up, then the war's going to be over, and we won't even have the chance to be mates anymore. What are you trying to say?"

"I'm just trying to say that I like you Peter!" Carter turned to the wall, his back facing Newkirk. Newkirk stared at Carter's back, unable to believe what he heard. He put his hand on Carter's back.

"Calm down Andrew. It's okay mate. Can you just face me? I can't talk to someone's back." Carter turned around and Newkirk could see that he was very upset. "Did LeBeau tell you to do this?"

"Yeah," Carter looked down and sniffled. "I knew I shouldn't have listened to him! What a bunch of baloney, I shouldn't have told anyone, not even LeBeau. Even if the French are supposed to be good with romance. Boy, I should've known not to say anything."

"Andrew! Andrew! Calm down!" Newkirk gently shook Carter's shoulder, trying to get him to stop rambling. "What else did LeBeau say when you told him?"

"Well first he talked a lot about how it was great that I came to him, because the French are the best when it comes to romance, and all that stuff. Then he just asked me some questions, like how long I had liked you, and stuff like that."

"But he didn't say anything about me and how he thought I would react?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so at least. I'm really sorry. I promise I'll just mind my own business now and I'll leave you alone! I won't even talk to you unless I have to! Of course I'll have to talk to you on missions and stuff, cause Colonel Hogan would be pretty suspicious if I didn't, but I promise you that I won't for any other reason!"

Newkirk mentally groaned. He had royally messed this up and he had to start fixing it soon. "Andrew, I'm not mad at you. If anything I'm mad at LeBeau. But of course he's French, and you know how they can be with all of their romance. I was just asking if he mentioned me because of a conversation I had with him a few weeks ago. I had a pretty similar problem, and I wanted to get his opinion. Bloody lot of help he was though."

"Yeah, I figured you liked someone else," Carter look at the ground in disappointment. "Was it that girl from the last mission? You two seemed like you hit it off pretty fast. And I knew there was no way you like me anyway. I mean, I'm not a beautiful girl for starters, and-"

Newkirk rolled his eyes. Once again Carter hadn't let him finish and ended up with the wrong idea. "Andrew would you just let me finish? Stop jumping to conclusions! You really think I liked that girl? I'm bloody queer Andrew! Did you really think I was just going to let all the men in the camp know?"

"Oh." Carter stood there, kicking his feet around. "Well you sure don't seem so, the way you and LeBeau go on about girls and stuff."

"Andrew, you really are daft. LeBeau knows. We've been here the longest, way before you, or even the Colonel got here, and there's some things that's just hard to keep from a guy after you've spent so much time together." Newkirk looked at the ground. "I guess it's a good thing you told me that you liked me. But it's a ruddy shame that I didn't get the chance to tell you how I felt first." He shook his head. "LeBeau's never going to let me live it down."

"You mean… you like me too?"

Newkirk patted Carters shoulder. "Of course mate." He looked down sheepishly. "I was actually planning on telling you soon. I guess there's no need to worry about that anymore. But, uh, I guess we better be heading out soon. I think we left the Colonel covering for us a bit too long, and they're bound to be heading in here soon, asking what we've been doing and all," Newkirk said, blushing.

"Boy, I bet so. We're probably going to get a real yelling at when we go out there." Carter looked up at Newkirk shyly. "Um, so does that mean we're a thing?"

Newkirk couldn't take much more of this. If Carter kept acting like this, his face would probably stay red for the rest of his life. "Of course Andrew. That's what two people do when they like each other. Let's just keep it on the down low for now though. LeBeau should be okay with it, but I really don't know how the others would take it."

"Sure! Yeah, that's great!" Carter had a huge grin covering his face.

"Well come on then," Newkirk said, shoving Carter towards the door. "We've been in here long enough. Schultz is probably having a heart attack this very minute."

"I hope not. Can you imagine having to train another guard to deal with us? It'd be impossible."

"Where have you two been?" Hogan whispered angrily, as they walked out of the Barracks. "I had to convince Schultz that you two lost something, and that was pretty hard considering there's not enough room to lose in anything in the Barracks!"

"Sorry Colonel. Andrew here just had a question about the next mission, and it happened to be very important. I didn't want another mess on our hands sir." Newkirk tried his best to look like a good little solider, but by Hogan's expression, he could tell he was failing miserably.

"Whatever it was that was going on in there, I don't want a repeat, you hear me?"

"You got it boy, I mean Colonel!" Hogan shook his head at Carter. "Well you two better head to your spots, Klink's headed over, and you've caused enough trouble for one day."

"Right away sir." Newkirk saluted and they both headed to their spots. LeBeau looked at Newkirk questioningly and Newkirk gave him a wink. He had quite the story to tell the Frenchman later.