A/N: I'm trying to get out of the angsty mood I've been in for forever that's keeping me from effectively writing anything. So tell me what you think!!

Night Light

The row Carwood Lipton had decided to occupy was empty save for his own weary self and Doc Roe curled sleeping at the very end of it several feet to the left of him. He couldn't say he wasn't relieved to be alone as he didn't think he could possible handle speaking to any of the men at just that moment; his head was too full of racing thoughts.

He kept going back to what Lieutenant – no Captain – Speirs had said before he went hunting for HQ. For the life of him he couldn't see how Speirs could possibly think he'd been the leader the company had desperately needed while Dike was in charge. If that were so wouldn't the indecisive man have listened to him more?

"Penny for your thoughts, Lipton?" Carwood looked over with a start to find Ron Speirs sitting next to him, a vaguely amused smile barely gracing his handsome face.

"Oh no, sir. Happy hunting, sir?" To his slight alarm, Speirs began to frown.

"No, Lipton, not hunting. Hunting implies the possibility of failure. I go killing." Lipton was way too exhausted to suppress the snort that rose up.

"Yeah, sir, and I guess when you were a kid you didn't wet the bed, but the bed wet itself out of fear?" Speirs smirked and rested his forearms on the railing in front of them.

"Now you're getting it, Lipton. You know," Speirs said after a short pause during which he seemed to savor the sound of the Sisters' gentle singing, "the only reason I slept with a night-light as a child was because the dark was afraid of me."

"…Jesus, sir."

-End-