Wolfe in love with a nurse who’s in love with Barnes? 👀👀👀
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I imagine Wolfe is the type to know you're in love with Barnes.
It is his job to overseer the platoon's comings and goings.
He gets it.
I think he's the type to be fully aware of it; like, the man's quietly noticed, he's assessed it, and in a sense he really carefully swerves around the fact like a slithering eel navigating dangerous, jagged rocks in an undercurrent, swimming to the desired location. Heck, he might even awkwardly joke around the fact you've developed your (one sided?) affections as a way of friendly, inoffensive small talk like someone who's read a page or two from the 'How to establish good communication with your infantrymen' manual guide; Wolfe would be here engaging in banter around that bit of reality like he doesn't care who you have feelings for in your down time so long as it doesn't affect your work performance. In a way, he does have teensy, tinsy upper hand over Barnes the way he's probably never had before nowadays, though. A teensy, tinsy upper hand over you. One of these weeks, months or even within a year he figures, Barnes is going to be unable to help himself and do something bad. Well, a bad thing he cannot easily get back from because that man does bad constantly.
And Wolfe might just let it escalate.
He lets it escalate pretty often, but this time, with a sense of decidedness.
His own haphazard cowardice and lack of spine coming rather in handy as he just tactically lets the next war crime in tow take place, or turns a blind eye to (yet another) illegal killing in a line up of many others --- he might testify in Barnes's favor...or hey, if he feels like it, might just testify against him all while pretending he'll have the man's back. Nah. He wouldn't do that. Testifying against Barnes means that he'd paint himself as even more of an inadequate leader for not being able to control the Sergeant who's also simultaneously absolutely necessary for the survival of this outfit, but he sure loves pondering it and weighing the idea in the back of his mind; the notion that he could basically do whatever. That he has that sort of power over someone more powerful than himself. He's damn afraid of that man. That man's eyes alone make his blood freeze up, but Wolfe is a weirdly patient man in his own way. Wolfe can wait. If this ill perceived love of yours doesn't extinguish and die down naturally once you inadvertedly, he figures, realize that Barnes is no good and a messed up, cold, callous man who's only true mistress is war, he can always step in. If you don't 'grow out of it', he can always write down a real discreet report concerning the fact that Barnes is a bad egg. That while an exemplary, experienced soldier, he has a propensity for extreme violence. A negative impact on collective morale and all that. Might just mail it to the higher ups to get the man away from you. Have him suffer legal ramifications. Have him penalized in some shape, way or form real covertly. Or he might just wait and do nothing; there's a saying after all. He doesn't recall who said it. Could be Lao Tze or Confucius; Sit by the river and the water will bring you the corpses of your enemies all on its own.
Barnes is on a warpath to his own destruction.
Sure, the platoon vastly depends on him and Elias.
Man might just get himself killed or captured and once he does...well, it's not that Wolfe would rejoice per se. He might just anxiously chuckle a little, privately, to himself. You know, in that way the brainy kid who was occasionally pushed around might when the bully ends up in detention. Then, he might get scared because he'll feverishly ponder what the fuck he'll even do without Barnes; who will keep all these men in tow. Shit. Well, shit. But, one thing is for certain; His path to you would be open then. You'd grieve. You'd cry. Heck, you might even be devastated and emotionally closed off. Barnes might've even had a hand in ruining whatever positive outlook you had of him, but then again, Wolfe doesn't count on it. He knows how people in love can be. They see no flaws and even if they see them, they like what they see. He knows, because he loves you even though love another person to the degree he's willing to ignore it and work around it. He could be there, making you an offer you cannot refuse. Telling you how you don't want to fly back home empty handed, especially not in this distressed state of mind. How you need somebody. So, why can't that somebody be a friend? It's the 1960's after all. You might've been a servicewoman, but what all families want is for their little girls to settle down. So, he could write them. He could write his folks too. Tell them all about you. Man might even outright say it is preferable to be with someone who loves you more than you love them. Sure, he packages it as a dumb joke, but deep down he really means it. Do you genuinely want to cauterize soldier's gangrenous wounds for years and years to come and watch men like Barnes die over and over and over? Because there's always going to be men like Barnes. And you'll never be able to talk them out of their own destruction. Is that preferable to you? Instead of having someone take care of you?
You leave Vietnam wearing Lt. Mark Wolfe's signet class ring.