crazyforkasey-blog

[crazyforkasey-blog]

Dear Nixon

Dear @dontirrigateme I am your secret santa. I really really tried to write a Mclung fic, but I just couldnt get word on paper, so instead here is a Nixon piece.

I wrote this some years ago and it is a part of a multichapter fic.

The Girls in this fic is some brave modern day soldiers that had were killed in Afghanistan and travled through time to meet our dear boys.

If you like it I will post the entire fic a soon as posible

All my love from Denmark

"Nixon, Nix, wake up, we are moving out, Germany my friend" Welsh was kicking the cot Nixon was sleeping on

Easy Company and the rest of the 506th were heading for the Bavarian alps.

Nixon rolled off the cot and looked at his reflection in the mirror on the wall, he looked like hell. He had tried to quit drinking, but had failed, and he had run out of Vat 69 and had been forced to drink the local stuff, as he called it.

Nixon walked across the square and into the post office "Ah, Captain Nixon, what can I do for you?" private Vest asked him

"I am looking for a particular brand of Whiskey" Nixon looked Vest square in the eye

"Vat 69, well it won't be cheap sir" Vest said to Nixon

"That won't be a problem" Nixon told the young private, he needed that whiskey, so if he had to pay out of his ears for it, he would.

The two men was interrupted by Janovec, who informed them 350,000 Germans had just surrender

Nixon started to leave the post office, when Vest stopped him "Sir, I got a couple of letters for you here" Vest handed Nixon two letters. One was from his wife and the other from his parents.

The letter from his wife had to be the dear Lewis letter Charlie had told him about.

Nixon opened the letter, he read it as he walked across the square, it was indeed the letter he had been expecting. He knew it was coming and he knew he hadn't been faithful to Cathy, especially not since Normandy, but he still felt like a failure.

Nixon headed for regimental HQ, eager to share the news with Charlie, but then he remembered, he couldn't, because of his fucking drunken mistake. Nixon would never forgive himself for hitting a woman, and not only a woman, but the woman whom he loved with all of his soul.

Before he reached HQ, the order to get on the truck came, private Christenson clapped his hands and told the men to move out.

Nixon climbed in the back of a Jeep and sat down sulking. Winters was driving and Emma was in the passenger seat.

Someone started to sing Blood upon the risers and the large convoy moved out. The Convoy scrambled through Germany.

Somewhere around Nuremberg, they stopped for the night and the officers first priorities was finding sleeping arrangements for the men.

Speirs walked into a house with Liebgott and Dana hot on his heels. Speirs told Liebgott to tell the family they had five minutes to get out and not to come back before the Americans had left.

Dana stood quietly in the corner and watched Liebgott and Speirs yelling at the family.

Dana didn't even feel guilty about kicking the family out of their house, these people were responsible for the suffering she and six million other people had been through, so no she didn't care, she just wanted them gone.

So did Speirs, after the family left he pulled her close "Are we good or as good as we're going to be?" he asked her

"Yeah, we're good" Dana said

The regiment stayed for one night and moved out. The regiment continued south on the autobahn, as the convoy moved south, the 350,000 Germans, who had surrendered, walked in columns in the grass between the lanes, they were heading north. Winters was impressed with how the Germans still marched with pride, even though they were defeated.

Webster, who's truck was driving in front of the jeep with Nixon in it, got on his feet and started to yell at the Germans "Hey you, yeah that's right, you stupid kraut bastard, say hello to Ford and General fucking Motors, you stupid fascist pigs, look at you, you have horses what were you thinking?" At this point Ramirez had enough of Webster's yelling

Ramirez pulled him down on the bench "That's not enough Webster, give it a rest"

Camilla, who was on that same truck, hid a smile, she knew they would find out soon enough, why they were there to fight.

However Webster wasn't thru "Dragging our ass halfway around the world, interrupting our lives and for what? You ignorant servile scum, what the fuck are we doing here?"

Without knowing it, Webster had just put a voice to Nixon's feelings toward the Germans and the war.

…..

Landsberg, Germany

Easy and the rest of the 506th pulled into the small town of Landsberg, Winters immediately sent out some patrols, in case they were staying there for the night.

Dog would stay in town and Easy would patrol the woods. Speirs nodded and yelled out Easy, the men and Dana gathered around Speirs, who told which platoon to go where.

Dana looked at her husband, she was still, so very much in love with him and she couldn't imagine living without him. Dana still feared that one day she and the rest of the girls would be sent back to their own time and she would lose the love she had finally found.

The patrol was walking through the woods, it was Erie quiet. Dana had Shifty and McClung as lead scouts and Bull and O'Keeffe brought up the rear.

Bull noticed O'Keeffe was jumpy and gave him a hard time about it, telling him they could hear his heart pound all the way in Arkansas.

Perconte was looking around "Hey George, kind of reminds you Bastogne"

Luz looked at Perco and rolled his eyes "Yeah, now that you mention it, except of course there is no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren't fucking exploding from Kraut artillery, but yeah Frank, other than that it's a lot like Bastogne"

Frank was glad his best buddy agreed "Yeah"

Luz took a drag of his cigarette "Bull smack him for me please" and Bull did just that

Dana ordered the men to settle down, she knew what they would stumble upon and she knew they were getting close, the woods were all quiet and it seemed like, even all the animals had left this part of the woods.

O Keefe made a remark about how quiet it was and Perconte agreed with him. Dana was still waiting for them to find the camp, which she knew from her history books was a sub camp of the Dachau concentration camp.

The patrol walked into a clearing and there it was, the Camp, the men all became quiet and Christenson lost his lunch.

Dana turned to Perconte, who was the best runner "Go get my husband, Nixon, Winters, Emma and do not let Nixon get here without Captain Kahne.

Perco ran and Dana walked up to the fence and tried to talk to the prisoners, but they wouldn't talk to her and she realized it was because of her uniform, so she removed her helmet and let down her hair, that made the difference, some of the men cried and some called out the names of their daughters and wife's.

…

Perconte ran into town and asked for Winters and Speirs, no one knew where they were and Frank was getting desperate, he knew if he came back without the officers Dana had ordered him to bring out to the camp, he was a dead man.

Finally he found Winters and Emma "Major Winters, ma'am, we found something on the patrol and ahh, we came across this…"

"What, what Frank, Frank what is it?" Winters asked him

Frank was frantic, he didn't have words to describe, what it was they had found "I don't know Sir, I don't know"

Emma knew exactly what it was Dana and her men had found. She dropped her head and waited for Franks breathing to slow down, once she was convinced Frank wasn't panicking, she looked at the two men "Frank go get Camilla and Roe, tell her it's time and she needs her hunger kit, she will know what you mean"

Emma then turned around and the first sergeant she noticed was first sergeant Talbert "Tab go get Nixon and Charlie and tell them to get here on the double, tell Charlie why we fight and she will know what to do"

Talbert ran off and Emma looked at her husband "You and need to have a little talk"

Emma led Winters into the building, which served as HQ "she put her hands on her hips and started to pace " Ok, in 1942 the Nazi's came up with the final solution, they were going to eliminate all, Jews, Jehovah witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, anyone who didn't fit into the idea of the Arian race. They put them into camps and worked them to death or gassed them and then burned the bodies, it's a camp like that third platoon has discovered in the woods, so be prepared, it's going to be ugly, rough and a lot of men are going to break down"

Emma turned and looked at her husband. Winters looked startled and a little pale "Yeah, ok, let's go see what it's all about"

When they walked out of the HQ, the other officers were waiting for them. Charlie, Emma and Camilla were looking at each other and nodding, they knew exactly what they had to do, once they got there and it was going to be the hardest thing they would ever have to do.

The remainder of the second battalion was ordered onto trucks, and when the battalion pulled up to the Camp, Winters knew nothing would ever have prepared him for the sight that met them.

Skeleton-like men were gathered around the fence and the gate to the camp. They were all wearing striped clothing, most of which was torn and worn. Their heads were shaved and most of them were missing most of their teeth, the whole camp was wrapped in a stench of death, rotten corpses and general decay.

Winters stepped off the jeep, he was about to order Christenson to cut the chain that held the gate together, preventing the prisoners from escaping.

"Stop, Major Winters, sir" Camilla stepped forward

"We have to make sure these people stay in the camp, they can't wander off and scatter. They probably have typhus, cholera and other cottages diseases, we need to keep them here and Sir no one feeds them, if we starting giving them food they will eat themselves to death, we have to put them on a special diet, only food with live bacteria, like sour kraut, yoghurt, quark and such"

Winters nodded and ordered Christenson to open the gate. Winters walked in with the men following him and he realized he needed a translator, so he could talk to the prisoners and send for Liebgott.

Nixon walked next to Winters with Charlie hot on his heels, she knew what the place would do to Lew and wanted to be near him when he finally realized why they were fighting the Germans.

Nixon stared at the men emerging through the smoke from the burning buildings, some carrying what looked like death bodies. Nixon was paralyzed, the amount of emotion that ran through him at that very moment was indescribable, and he felt helpless, shocked, rage against the Germans, sadness and sorrow.

What these people had been through, couldn't even be described and it made his problems seem insignificant.

Nixon turned around and there she was, his reason for existing, the woman who made it worth living and he had done the most unforgivable thing a man could ever do and here she was, just looking at her, made Nixon feel like it was all going to be ok.

Charlie looked at Nixon and opened her arms to him. Nixon almost ran into her arms and he was a mess.

Charlie just held him and whispered to him "It's ok, it's all going to be ok" Charlie had tears running down her cheeks. Nixon pulled away a little and brushed the tears of her face "I am sorry, I am sorry, I promise, no more drinking and no more rage"

Charlie looked at him "We are not ok yet, but we will be, just hang in there" Charlie started to walk away.

Nixon looked at her back "Charlie, now I know what you meant, when you said, I would know soon enough why we were here"

Charlie stopped for a second and then continued walking.

Winters and Emma were talking to one of the prisoners, Liebgott translated. Emma already knew what the man would tell them, and he confirmed what she already knew.

Camilla came running "Winters, hey Em, can you get the men to rally around me? So I can tell them what to do"

Winters looked at Emma "Get it done, I need to call Sink"

Emma got a hold of Speirs and McMillan, they found the commander of Fox and the battalion gathered around the Easy Doc.

"Look, we need to triage these men, those who can walk, those who need assistance walking or need to be carried and last those who are dead. The live inmates need to be placed by the gate, leave the dead in the huts, they will buried tomorrow, ok boys move out"

Camilla started with men already gathered at the gate. Camilla spoke German and Russian, courtesy of the West Point language courses.

She had her trusted stethoscope, and she was examining a man, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, Camilla looked up. Lipton looked down at her, she squeezed his hand "I am ok, I can handle this"

Lipton nodded and continued his walk around the camp, everywhere he looked there were dead bodies and smoking remains of buildings. He stumbled upon Malarkey, who was looking at one of the dead bodies wrist and they both noticed the tattoo. All of the men in the camp had tattoos, they had been branded like cattle.

This camp was nothing like Lipton had ever even imagined, he couldn't comprehend how such evil existed, what kind of sick minds had planned the extermination of a whole religion, this was genocide, like never seen before.

Dana was helping the men triage the prisoners, she felt like she was about to vomit, the stench in the camp was overwhelming and nothing had prepared her for this, for seeing an actual concentration camp.

Speirs walked by and noticed his tough ass wife looking pale and fragile and he knew he had to get her out of there "Dana why don't you go and help unload the trucks"

Dana looked at Ron and gave him a grateful smile and walked towards the trucks the 326th medical unit had brought with them.

Dana started to help and she noticed Sink, Winters Nixon, Emma, Charlie and Doctor Kent walk towards Camilla.

Camilla was talking to one of the polish prisoners in Russian, when she heard Sink address her "Lieutenant Hamlin"

Camilla turned around "Sir" she said and saluted Sink

"This here is Doctor Kent, he is the regimental surgeon" Sink introduced the two doctors to each other.

"We already met, however last time I saw you, you didn't know who you were and you went AWOL from my hospital" Kent smiled at Camilla

"Yeah, sorry about that, I needed to get back to my boys" Camilla blushed slightly

"So tell me what do we got here" Kent asked Camilla

"Well, all of them are starving, 99 percent of the men have cholera and typhus and they all have some sort of respiratory tract infection, pneumonia mostly, I need blankets, cots, antibiotics, food with life bacteria in it, clothes, every medicine you can think of, plasma, saltwater, disinfection, you name I need, and a bunch of nurses would be awesome" Camilla told Kent

"Well, you can have whatever I got on these truck and I can some of your men scrounge for supplies at the local hospital" Kent said

"Awesome and yes, do you by any chance have any coca cola with you?" Camilla asked

"Why would you need coca cola, for these men?" Kent asked

"Oh, the coke was for me" Camilla winked and got on with her work.

Pretty soon the 326th took over from the second battalion and in no time tents were pitched and the nurses, medics and the two doctors were working hard.

Dana and Emma poked their heads into the tent Camilla was working in, she just looked at them and motioned for them to leave, one thing was for her to risk infection, but she wouldn't let her friends catch anything.

…..

Nixon and Charlie were sitting in the living room in Charlie's billet, she shared a small house with Camilla, who was working out at the camp and Charlie wasn't expecting her home anytime soon.

Charlie was looking at a jittery Nixon who needed a drink and Charlie wouldn't let him, she had sat him down and told him he wasn't leaving the house until he was sober.

Charlie knew he could do it, he did once when she first met him and by god, she was going to sober him up again.

Emma was sitting on the couch in the living room of her and Dick's billet, she was going thru some paperwork when her husband walked in, she couldn't help but smile and winters walked over and sat down next to her and pulled her close to him and kissed her on top of her head. He needed to be close to her after what they experienced today and after what he just heard from Division HQ

"I just heard from Division HQ, that the Russians liberated a larger camp, ten times bigger with ovens…"

Emma looked at her amazing husband "I know Auschwitz, horrible place" Emma sighed

"The towns' people claim they didn't know about the camp, that we are exaggerating" Emma said

"Well they are going to find out tomorrow. Taylor just declared Martial Law and every able body between the age of 14 and 80 are going to help bury the bodies"

Emma looked at Winters "Serves them right" was all she said

…..

The next morning a very tired Charlie drove Nixon out to the camp, the people from town were already working on burying the dead.

Charlie could tell Nixon still had a hard time dealing with what he had seen "You need to accept the fact this has happened and live with it, knowing you fought for those who lived through this. This is why we fight"

Nixon knew he found the reason for his war and his reason for being sober through the rest of it.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

Reblog if you write fanfic and would be totally down with your followers coming into you askbox and talking to you about your fic

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Luck of the Irish

Chapter 8

After the defense of the Island, and Winters run in with an SS company. Winters was promoted to Battalion XO. Nixon, Winters and I were all quartered in a farm house not far from the Schoonderlogt estate.

I just woke up when I heard a commotion from the room next to me and Nixon cry out “That's my own piss for christ sake” And I heard Winters chuckle before the door to my room swung open and Winters kicked the leg of my bed.

"Get up, we are needed at Regiment" he said

"Go away, they just want to throw more paperwork at me" I pouted

"Come on , they want back at regiment, let's go, something's up, Strayer's order" Winters was slightly pissed off by my unwillingness to get out of bed.

"Ok go ahead, I'll be right there" I mumbled down in my pillow.

"Now, we only have ten minutes" Winters said as he turned to walk out the door, he stopped half way.

"Don't make me get Welsh up here" Winters smirked.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nix was ranting about how he thought the campaign in Holland should continue.

"I mean, we are the only unit in the group who have the Germans on the German side of the Rhine, If we had taken Antwerp, and I am not saying that would have been easy, we would be over the River, well supplied and have the Krauts on their heels, now if I can Ike on the Phone, are you two listening to me?" Nix asked

I had spaced out while he was talking, and Winters was used to Nix's ranting, so he just let him rant.

"Oh honey, we are hanging on every word" I cooed to Nix.

They walked into the HQ, Heyliger was already there.

"They called you too" Winters asked him

"Yeah, whatever is going on Sink is not happy" Heyliger told him.

"Nixon, Heyliger, Christensen" Sink called out and motioned them over

"Meet colonel Dobie of the British first Airborne, Captain Nixon and Lieutenant Christenson is our second battalion S2's, first lieutenant Moose Heyliger"

Dobie did a double take of the pretty Lieutenant, now there was a pretty woman, wondering how she made it into the Airborne.

"The Brits lost 8000 men, when Market-Garden fell on its ass, which is why Colonel Dobie has been tasked with coordinating some kind of rescue operation for the red devils who are trapped at Arnhem side" Sink told Nixon, Heyliger and me.

"The Dutch resistances are harboring 140 of my chaps here, just outside a Jerry held town just 15 miles north of the river, they make their way to the river bank and assemble by the woods here tonight" Dobie said and pointed to a place on the map placed before them.

"Pick a team from Easy company and get them back across the Rhine as fast as possible" Strayer said

"A hundred and forty men" Nixon said

"The Canadian engineers have supplied six boats, the rendezvous point is on isolated land, and I swam it myself last night. At approximately 00.30 hours I will signal the V for victory with a hand-held red torch, that would be a hand-held red flashlight," Dobie pointed to the RP. On a map on the wall and turned to Nixon and I.

"All right we call this operation Pegasus, ok Bob your second battalion is on the spot, get it done" Sink said to Strayer.

Strayer turned to Nixon "Captain Nixon assist Colonel Dobie in any way possible, you need anything at all you come to me" Strayer said to Nixon

"I can hardly ask for more" Dobie said

Dobie, Heyliger and Nixon were discussing the details of the operation; I had heard rumors about the mad colonel from Arnhem. He didn't seem like a man who made rash decisions, but then again he did swim the Rhine and the water was freezing this time of year.

I nudged Nix, "Maybe we should take a look at the maps" I whispered to him, I had chosen to stay quiet, I hadn't figured out what the colonels take on women in the army yet.

"Enemy dispositions map are in the S2, we should take a look at that" Nix led the group to the S2 section of the HQ.

I dumped my tired body down into my desk chair and sighed, the group gathered around the table, "Do you have an opinion on this operation, or are you just another pretty face" Dobie asked her

"No… I mean yes…I mean" I looked at Nix; I wasn't sure how to get out of the verbal mess I just made.

"What the Lieutenant is trying to say is, that she does have an opinion on all this, just like she has an opinion on everything else that goes on around here" Nix laughed.

"Hey, be nice" I smiled to Nix

"So what's your take on this" Dobie asked me

"Well we need to execute fast, speed is the key and are you absolutely sure about Intel?" I was skeptical.

"Positive and I know my men, they will be ready by the time we get there" Dobie smiled, yah she was a hard ass, and he was sure she earned her rank the hard way

We discussed how many men to a boat and which men should be on the patrol.

Around noon we parted and I decided to get some lunch at the mess. I knew Harry should be done with drills and the platoon leaders were summoned to HQ for a meeting after lunch.

I stopped my jeep in front of the mess and when I turned in my seat, I felt someone take my hand. I turned my head and looked into the eyes of Harry. He helped me out of the jeep and held my hand as we walked into the mess.

After filling my tray I sat down next to Chuck and Talbert. I missed my boys, but not being on the frontlines constantly had its benefits. I wasn’t in constant flight or fight mode, which made me more calm and less likely to fight with Harry.

“So I hear we are crossing the Rhine, is that true?” Talbert asked me

I silently swore under my breath, that little fucker Perconte had been at HQ and now he was running his mouth.

“I can’t tell you Tab, you know that” I said and nudged my favorite Easy man.

“Yeah that’s what I thought, you know..you've been holding out on us ever since you moved up to your chums at battalion staff” Tab said and winked at me.

I finished my meal and stayed for a while shooting the breeze with the guys.

Harry and I took my jeep and drove back to HQ. The platoon leaders were briefed on the mission and it was decided that Harry’s platoon was the one in the lead.

Harry and Heyliger left to get the men ready for the operation, this included drilling with the boats.

I looked after the jeep as the two men drove off. “Hey, turn that frown upside down,” Nixon said and motioned for me to follow him. We walked back into the office we shared and I plumbed down in my chair and sighed

“Why are your knickers in twist?” Nixon asked me

“Well it’s just…Just do you remember the last time Harry had to row across a body of water?” I said

Nixon let out a small chuckle. Are you talking about… I nodded and smiled.

Aldbourne may 1944

In an attempt to be romantic after our return from Normandy Harry had rented a row boat at a lake some miles outside Aldbourne. It was a perfect end of summer day and I had packed a picnic basket and we were looking forward to just spending a Sunday together.

Harry helped me into the boat like a perfect gentleman and he started to row. After a while he pulled in the oars and we laid down in the bottom of the boat snuggling together while Harry read from a book of poems he had borrowed from Winters. In a fit of passion he stood up and started to recite a poem and he lost his balance, prompting me to sit up and the boat turned over dunking us both under water.

Harry had somehow got tangled in the oar fork and I had to dive to help him get untangled. We swam to shore and crawled up to a patch of grass where we sprawled out both out of breath, when Harry turned his head and looked at me that day, that’s when I knew I loved him and that I was looking into the eyes of my future.

“Yeah he is still kind of touchy about that day” Nixon smirked.

At 00.30 Welsh assembled his men and was ready to cross the Rhine.

The boats were barely large enough to fit a handful of men at a time, and the crossing had to be done in complete silence. Welsh climbed into one of the first boats, his heart hammering as the cold water of the Rhine lapped against the edges.

Welsh sat at the front, his eyes scanning the shore for any sign of the enemy. Beside him Heyliger whispered, his voice barely audible over the soft splash of the oars. “Stay low. If they spot us, it’s over.”

Welsh nodded, his pulse quickening as the far shore came into view. The faint outline of the British position was barely visible through the trees. He could feel the tension radiating from every man around him, the unspoken knowledge that any mistake could mean death.

When they got to shore, they jumped out of the boats and secured the line.

Heyliger hooked up with Welsh and Dobie.

"I got the 30 caliber on the left flank" She said

Moose looked down the Line "Move it down another ten feet" He said and Welsh did as ordered.

He came back after moving the .30 Caliber and Moose looked at Dobie "So Colonel where are they" Moose said

Dobie pointed to the hedgerow, and said "Leicester" and in response got the word "Square"

"Come on in" Dobie said and suddenly 140 Brits appeared along the Line

A man came up and greeted Dobie and Moose "I never thought I be so glad to see a bloody yank" he said 

The British paratroopers were a ragged group, their faces gaunt and uniforms tattered. Despite their exhaustion, they greeted Easy Company with quiet gratitude, their relief palpable as they prepared to evacuate

Back on friendly soil, the men of Easy Company and the rescued British paratroopers shared a rare moment of camaraderie. Despite the exhaustion and losses, there was a quiet sense of triumph.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

I will always find you

Warning: This is the camp chapter, so beware

Chapter 14

Jo

I had heard rumors about these camps, but never actually seen one. The stench, the emaciated men, the dead that still remained in the huts. If any of the men didn’t know what they were fighting for they knew it now.

I looked around the camp, most of the young soldiers walking around were in shock, the horrors of the third reich presented to them in the most horrific way.

The surroundings had an eerie quietness about it. There were no birds chirping and no sounds from animals. Even the wind didn’t dare blowing around this place, it was like a scene from a horror movie.

I felt my stomach churn and I walked past two of the soldiers from easy company, who were looking at corpses in a ditch, I heard them comment on how the men had been branded like cattle.

I heard the rumble of trucks and the prisoners who could still walk flowed through the gate. When the trucks stopped they crowded around the trucks and the men distributed what food they had been able to scrunge in town to the hungry prisoners.

A couple of jeeps pulled up and Sink and the regimental surgeon got out taking in the scene before their eyes.

Sink called Winters over and Nix followed him.

“This here is Major Barfield the regimental surgeon” Sink said 

“Look these men are starving, if we keep feeding them, they will eat themselves to dead, we have to get back in the camp, so we can monitor their food intake” Barfield said

I looked at Nix. He couldn't believe what he just heard, but knew that the Doctor was right. It didn’t feel right, but it needed to be done.

Nix

Perconte came running into town announcing that the patrol found something that he was unable to describe. I hoped in a jeep with Dick and we followed Percontes direction and the sight that met us had us all starring in horror

Winters nodded and ordered Christenson to open the gate. Winters walked in with the men following him and he realized he needed a translator, so he could talk to the prisoners and send for Liebgott.

I stared at the men emerging through the smoke from the burning buildings, some carrying what looked like death bodies. I felt paralyzed, the amount of emotion that ran through me at that very moment was indescribable, and I felt helpless, shocked, rage against the Germans, sadness and sorrow.

What these people had been through, couldn't even be described and it made my problems seem insignificant.

Winters called for a translator and Liebgott translated what the prisoner told us. Evidently this was some sort of camp for unwanted people, people who didn’t fit into the nazi’s ideology. Mostly jews and political prisoners.

Sink showed up with the regimental surgeon and the prisoners were ordered back in the camp.

After wrapping things up at the camp I drove back to town. I met a pissed off Speirs, he was dragging Anna behind him, she just smiled, she knew like I did that the captain needed to yell and possibly shoot something and she would guide him in the right direction, making sure that Speirs wouldn’t hurt someone.

I walked back to the house I was billeted at and when I went to reach for the door knob I heard someone cry on the other side of the door. I leaned my forehead against the door for a few seconds before opening it. Jo was on my bed sobbing, fat tears rolling down her face. I gathered her in my arms. Holding her so she could let all sorrow she felt leave her system.

Jo

Something inside me broke and I had to leave the camp before I had a mental breakdown in front of the men. I wanted to cry and scream. How, how could this happen and how could the people living in town let this happen.

I hitched a ride back to town and headed for Nix’s room, when I got there I collapsed on the bed and let myself fall apart.

I heard the door open and Nix lifted me onto his lap and he just held me and let me cry.

I kept asking why? why? and all he could say was that he didn’t know.

Nix 

I just let her cry and when she fell asleep I tucked her in and went in search of a drink.

I was sitting on the couch in the living room of  Dick's billet, with a drink in my hand

"I just heard from Division HQ, that the Russians liberated a larger camp, ten times bigger with ovens…" Dick told me

"The towns' people claim they didn't know about the camp, that we are exaggerating" I told him

"Well they are going to find out tomorrow. Taylor just declared Martial Law and every able body between the age of 14 and 80 are going to help bury the bodies"

I looked at Winters "Serves them right" was all I said

“How is Jo coping” he asked

“Not well” I said

“Did she ever receive new orders after Varsity” he asked me

“She was told to follow the 506th and she would receive new orders when the brass had figured out where to send her, seems like she has a price on her head and they want her to be safe here with us for now” I gulped down the rest of my drink, gave Dick a mock salute and walked back to my room.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

I will always find you

Warning: smut and depression

Chapter 13

Jo

I once swore that I would never set foot in France again. The country held many bad memories. Memories of friends and fellow agents being captured and tortured by the Germans, memories of female SOE agents who had disappeared without a trace nacht und nebel that's what the Germans called the prisoners they wanted disappear.

However, here I was once again.

They called it Operation Varsity, the Anglo-American-Canadian effort, led by, to cross the northern Rhine river and from there enter Northern germany. The OSS had decided to send four teams of two, with Operation Varsity to infiltrate and report from behind enemy lines.

I was at the airfield getting ready to climb into the stick, when we were told to stand down, we had to wait for an observer from the 506th, who along with 3 other officers from the 101st had been assigned by Maxwell Taylor as observers, had been delayed due to some admin mix up.

I sat down and once again (or for the 10th time) checked my equipment and supply, when a jeep pulled up and I looked up and saw that the observer we had been waiting for was no other than Nix.

The order came to load the plane and Nix was assigned as jumpmaster to the stick that would carry me over the Rhine.

Nix

I had been assigned as jumpmaster to the stick. So one by one I helped the paratroopers onto the C47. When the last Trooper to board the plane took my hand a familiar sensation overcame me and when I looked into the eyes of the trooper I realized it was Jo.

“Jesus, what the hell are you doing here” I asked her when she sat down

“The OSS decided to send four teams and I was picked” she answered 

The engine roared and any further conversation was rendered useless.

It was a daytime jump, so I opted to take the door off, that way I my mind I would have a better chance of getting Jo of the plane if we were hit.

When we neared the objective I yelled out motioned for the men to "stand up, hook on, and sound of for equipment check"

I waited for the green light to come on; seconds after they got the green light, the plane took a direct hit over the drop zone.

I grabbed Jo and threw her out of the plane and I followed her. The jerk of the canopy opening was a reassuring sensation and only one other canopy deployed before the plane crashed killing everyone who was on board.

Once I hit the ground and had freed myself from the harness, I sought out Jo. I found her walking around the crashed glider which had carried the vehicle and radio she was supposed to use for the OSS operation.

Jo

Fuck, fuck, fucking hell. The glider which had carried the equipment we needed for our operation had crashed, wrecking everything inside it. 

“Guess I am done here” I mumbled 

“You and me both,” Nix said as he stepped up beside me.

“Want a ride back to France?” He asked me.

I shrugged “Might as well” I said

So we were flown back over the Rhine.

Once we were back in camp Nix and locked ourselves in his room, I could tell he had some stuff to work through. 

“Nix I am really” Before I could say sorry Nix had me pinned up against the door kissing me and I could feel all his pent up emotion in his kiss.

His hand grabbed my waist and he turned me around, his arm snaked around my waist and before I knew what happened my trousers and underwear were down around my knees. I heard the distinct sound of Nix ripping the buttons of his fly open and I felt him rubbing the tip of his cock against the slickness of my moist slit.

“Tell me if you need me to stop” He whispered against my ear

I just moaned and wiggled my ass against him.

He plunged deep inside me, pumping in and out and I could feel my orgasm building, this was going to be hard and fast. I heard Nix groan behind me and I knew he was close to his own climax, so when he groaned out again and told me that better come, I released my orgasm and Nix followed right behind me.

We stood there against the door for a few seconds before Nix picked me up and threw me on his bed. I got underdressed wiggling around in the bed. Nix got in and pulled me close to him.

I woke up a few hours later and through the door I heard Nix having a conversation with Winters.

"What do you think I should write to the parents?" Nixon asked his friend

"Did you hear what I said Nix, you been demoted" Winters asked him

"Demoted, yeah got it, because I don't know how to tell them their kids never even made it out of the god damn plane," Nixon retorted

"You tell them what you always tell them, their sons died as heroes," Winters told him

"You really still believe that?" asked Winters

"Yeah, yeah I do, don't you?" Winters asked Nixon

I knew Nix had lost a part of himself these past few months, but listening to his despirited voice almost broke something inside me.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

Luck of the irish

Chapter 7

This was it after months of scrubbed missions, we were finally going to jump into occupied Holland.

I had been in mission briefings for what seemed like weeks instead of days. Nixon and I had gone over the intel again and again with the rest of regiment and battalion S3 and S4. In my mind it seemed too good to be true and I knew that if Montgomery and Patton could just put their petty rivalry aside they could find a safer way into Germany instead of this gamble, with questionable intelligence.

2nd Battalion was gathered in Hangar used for briefings at the airfield.

"As you can see, this is called Operation Market-Garden, Market being the airborne operation and Garden the ground operation, in terms of airborne divisions involved, this is even bigger than Normandy. We are dropping deep into occupied Holland, the allied objective is to take this road here between Arnhem and Eindhoven, and so the two British armored units can move up toward Arnhem. Our job is going to be to liberate Eindhoven, stay there and wait for the tanks" Winters said and when he finished Nixon took over.

"The entire European advance has been put on hold to relocate resources for this operation, it's Montgomery's personal plan, we will be under British Command" I said.

There was a lot of moaning and complaining,

 "The good news is, if this works, these tanks will be over the Rhine into Germany that could end the war and get us home by Christmas. It will be a day time jump, Intelligence doesn't expect much opposition, they think the krauts in Holland are mostly old men and kids, and we should take them by surprise. In any case say goodbye to England, I don't think they are going to call this one of" Nixon said

The men started to pile out of the tent after the briefing ended; the officers lingered around and went over the operation one more time, just to be absolutely sure they were prepared for whatever could happen.

I stood bent over a map, when I felt a hand on my lower back. I turned around and Harry had me trapped between the table and him. I took a quick look around the hanger and when I saw we were alone I kissed him and leaned into him. Harry pulled me close and we just stood there savoring the moment.

“I want you to be safe and not take any chances” Harry said and for once I didn’t argue, I just nodded and sent up a silent prayer that we both would survive this push into Holland.

 September 17, 1944

The roar of C-47 engines filled the  beautiful end-of-summer day, with a clear blue sky. I clutched my rifle tightly as the green light turned on. The men in my stick, tense and focused, filed out of the plane, the rush of cold air hitting them as they jumped into. Operation Market Garden was a go

Once over Holland we encountered some anti aircraft fire, but once over the DZ everything went smooth.

The landing field was freshly plowed, and the only problem the battalion had was to get off the field fast enough, to avoid getting hit by gliders and falling equipment

The March order had Dog Company in the lead, with Easy, HQ and Fox following them.

I hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb the impact, and took a quick breath to gather my bearings. Around me, men were landing, quickly rallying together in the Dutch countryside. 

 As we moved through the fields, the ground beneath them softened with mud and rain, but the men’s focus stayed sharp. Our mission was to secure a critical bridge near Eindhoven. The stakes couldn’t be higher. When we reached Eindhoven a celebration broke out, the residents crowded the streets and women were throwing themselves at the men. I found Harry and grabbed his hand and dragged him towards a vantage point, where Winters and Buck stood trying to get an overview of the situation.

Nixon soon joined us and all of us flipped our collars in case of snipers.

We moved through the crowd and came across a group of residents who were chanting and in the middle of the crowd a woman on her knees was crying and pleading while a man was cutting her long hair off. I took a step closer and Harry instantly knew what my intentions were, he grabbed the sleeve of my uniform and pulled me to him.

“Don’t” he whispered

I tried to wrest free from his hold, but he just strengthened his grasp.

A tall man in a worn suit came up behind us and Nixon asked what was going on.

“It’s the women who slept with the Germans, they are lucky the men who collaborated were shot," he said. 

The man introduced himself as the leader of the resistance and offered to help us anyway he could. Nixon and I followed him and we met up with the local resistance group to get whatever intelligence we could.

When night came orders came down to dig in at the outskirts of town.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn was breaking as Easy Company approached the bridge, only to find it heavily guarded by German soldiers. Winters gave quick, clear orders, dividing the men into teams to surround the area.

A firefight erupted as we approached, bullets ripping through the air.The bridge was a battleground, with explosions echoing off the metal structure and smoke filling the air. 

I darted from my cover,  as we advanced. The Germans were falling back, and the battalion surged forward, taking control of the bridge’s southern side.

As the men settled in for the night, I found myself tucked in between Nixon and Harry by a small campfire, each of them silently taking in the victory they’d won. It was a bitter reminder, though, that the battle was far from over. The news had reached them earlier that not all parts of Market Garden were going as planned. The 82nd and 1st Airborne were facing resistance far stronger than anticipated, and the drive to secure the bridges would be longer and bloodier than we had hoped.

The next day, the battalion moved onward, encountering fierce resistance as they attempted to secure the surrounding areas. Each fight was brutal, every inch gained came at a cost. 

September 22 1944

Second battalion caught up with each other in Uden. I went out to find Winters, I wanted to know how the rest of the Regiment was doing, and I found him at the CP.

"Good you are here" Colonel Sink said.

"What's going on" I asked Nixon

"We are taking Veghel and moving south" Colonel Sink informed them and continued to explain the mission.

I was observing the attack from behind two parked Jeeps.

Nixon was standing beside her, they were hoping everything would go smooth, and then suddenly I heard a loud ping and noticed Nixon had hit the deck.

Winters and I was on him immediately "Oh god Nix are you ok" I said

"Yeah I am fine, I am ok, am I ok, stop looking at me like that" Lew said.

Nixon had been hit by a bullet; it had gone through his helmet, but only left a burn mark on his forehead.

The men got loaded into the back of trucks and the battalion retreated.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

To all my american girlies, LGTBQ+ peeps and anyone else who might feel unsafe worried or having anxiety attacks after Tuesdays election, just know that the danish girls and women will stand by your side.

My Blog will always be a safe haven, judgement free and a place to went.

Just reach out!

If anyone takes offence to this sorry, but I believe in love and caring for your neighbor

[crazyforkasey-blog]

I will always find you

To all my american girlies, LGTBQ+ peeps and anyone else who might feel unsafe worried or having anxiety attacks after Tuesdays election, just know that the danish girls and women will stand by your side.

My Blog will always be a safe haven, judgement free and a place to went.

Just reach out!

If anyone takes offence to this sorry, but I believe in love and caring for your neighbor

Chapter 12

Nix

I walked into Easy CP, which was located in the middle of Hagenau. The building was marked by war and in the living room only a few scattered pieces of furniture had been left by the previous occupants. 

Lipton sat on the couch covered in a blanket Luz had draped over him, to help him stay warm while he tried to recover from pneumonia. Speirs came barreling through the door with his arms full of his most recent loot and Anna was hot on his heels mumbling how Speirs was a looting bastard and how she refused to partake in his looting.

Webster and a fresh faced lieutenant entered the room and when I asked the lieutenant when he graduated West Point he somewhat ashamed said June 6th of last year. I snickered and told him not to get hurt.

Winters motioned for Speirs and I to follow him down to the river that ran through town. Regiment wanted a patrol for prisoners and I told Speirs that I should be able to scrounge up some boats.

I noticed a movement in an archway and a smiling Jo was  waving at me, so I excused myself and walked towards her.

Jo

There he was, I had actually missed him. The war was dwindling down and I felt like I might actually survive. Recently I had let my thoughts wander to what my life would look like after the war and recently my vision of the future had begun to include Lewis.

When he turned and looked at me I gave him a small wave and he walked towards me. I opened my arms and hugged him close to me, when I let go of me he put his hand on my cheek and gave me a gentle kiss.

“You are going to cross the river right?” I asked him

“Yeah, the regiment wants a prisoner snatch and now some poor souls are going to cross and I bet that water is cold” he said.

“Yeah probably is” I answered and turned and looked at the German outpost near the opposite bank.

Nix grabbed my hands and dragged me towards HQ. When we stepped inside Luz handed me a cup of coffee and I stepped into the adjacent room and looked over the maps Nix had laid out on the dining room table.

“How are you going to cross” I asked Nix

“I secured some rubber boats,” He answered.

We looked at the maps and made a plan for the patrol and when Winters and Speirs was satisfied that the execution would be as safe as possible they left to go and brief the men going on the patrol.

Nix.

Winters and Speirs left Jo and I alone. Jo looked tired  and I took her hand and dragged her up the stairs. I found an empty room with a bed with cleanish sheets. I pushed her inside and started to undress her.

“It’s not that I don't think that a little hanky panky could be fun, but I am not really in the mood” Jo said, but didn’t make a move to stop me.

“That would be fun, but darling we are just going to sleep” I told her

I tucked Jo into bed and laid down next to her, I pulled her close and closed my eyes, and felt the familiar sense of peace that always followed when I held her close.

Jo

I opened my eyes and looked at my wrist watch. I had slept for a few hours. The place previously occupied by Nix was empty, so I got dressed and walked downstairs. I scrunched up a cup of coffee and I asked Luz where everybody was, he told me they were down by the river to observe how the patrol was going.

At that moment I heard gunfire and I ran down to the point where I knew Winters and Nix would be observing from.

The boats reached the shore and the shouts for a medic rung through the night. Jackson had been wounded by his own grenade. I followed the men down to the basement, but sadly the young private didn’t survive.

What a waste of life this late in the war.

I turned and left the basement, once outside I propped myself up against the barrier of sandbags and lit a cigarette.

“What a cluster fuck” Anna said 

I turned and looked at my friend “You don't say” I answered.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Final Chapter

Chapter 21

Zell Am See

At dawn on May 9, the ragtag convoy arrived at Zell Am See. Around the lake stood numerous mansions. The civilians and the German soldiers stood in amazement and stared at the ragtag soldiers. How did these bustards defeat them?

Winters and Katie were walking along the lakeshore. It was a beautiful day and Winters couldn't wait to jump into the lake and go for his morning swim.

"So did you give him an answer yet?" Katie asked Winters

"No I told him I would think about it," He told her and handed her his towel and jumped in the lake

The previous day Sink had approached Dick and offered him a promotion if he stayed in the army. Winters told Sink he would think about it. He wasn't too keen on the idea, all he really wanted was to go home to Pennsylvania and find a quiet place to live the rest of his life.

Katie heard footsteps behind her and turned around to find a hangover Nixon standing behind her

"Hey Nix, what can I do for you" Katie asked him and motioned for him to sit down

Nix sat down and handed Katie the package he was holding

"Oh great, we ran into the regimental photographer he told us he had a bunch of photos of easy company and we traded them for a couple of lugers" Katie opened the package and the first photo she pulled out was one of Winters and Nixon together

"I can't believe how handsome you were" A voice behind Nixon said

Nixon turned and grabbed Lane and pulled her into his lap "Hey that's not fair" He said and kissed her

The group returned to the hotel they stayed in, and sat down on the terrace. Dani, Speirs and Welsh joined them. Welsh told everybody that he was going home to Kitty. Speirs and Dani told everybody that they would stay in the army and all of them knew that Lane and Nix would return to New Jersey. The only ones who were undecided were Katie and Dick.

The sun was shining and the group was sunbathing. There wasn't a lot to do. After accepting the surrender of the Germans in the area and ordering all weapons to be collected at the local school and church and inspecting the camp for the POWs, Winters and Katie had little to do and that went for the men as well. Either displaced persons or locals willing to work for food or cigarettes did the activities of daily living.

The men spend a great deal of their time either swimming, playing sports, or doing close order drills.

The last task Winters had done was sorting out the German and American equipment that was no longer needed for combat and it was shipped to storage facilities in France.

It should have been the perfect summer for the men and women attached to second battalion and the first couple of weeks they loved it. Then the frustration with the army bureaucracy set in, they were bored, they were drinking too much and they wanted to go home.

Shifty had won the points drawing and he handed in his paperwork and gathered his loot. He showed up on the sun deck of the hotel where the officers were gathered and said his goodbyes. Lane hugged him and walked back into the hotel and Katie and Mia looked at him "Don't take it personal, she sucks at goodbyes" one by one the officers shook Shifty hand and he saluted them and got on board the waiting truck. The truck was hit by a passing G.I truck and an injured Shifty didn't get home until months after the comrades he left behind.

Adding to the problems of frustration and anger caused by the points system, was the combination of too much booze, too many pistols and too many captured vehicles.

There were many road accidents and there were seventy wrecks in the first three weeks in Austria, twenty men were killed and nearly one hundred injured.

Dani and Grant were driving a couple of privates to a roadblock one night. Dani went with him, Dani and Speirs, thought the world of Grant. They were talking about an incident, which had occurred during D. Day, the young private in the jeep didn't get it, he was a replacement who had joined them in Germany. He never met the infamous Bill Guarnere.

They were about a hundred yards from the roadblock, when they encountered a drunken G.I.

The G.I was standing with a pistol in his hand and two dead Germans at his feet. He had stopped the Germans and demanded Gas, because he was out, the two Germans didn't understand him and when they resisted he shot them dead.

A British S2 happened to drive by. He and his sergeant got out of the jeep they were driving, to check out what was going on, the drunk had pointed at them with his gun and told them to back off.

At that moment Grant and Dani came driving past. The drunk took a shot at Dani, but he missed her by three inches.

The British S2 made a move to disarm the drunk. The G.I turned on him and shot him and his sergeant, both of them died on the spot.

Before Dani could stop him, Grant was out of the jeep and he ran towards the G.I who turned and shot him in the Brain.

Dani screamed and shot the G.I in the knee and the shoulder with her side arm, she made sure he would live to be tortured by E. Company.

A jeep with Luz and Perconte drove by, they didn't stop, they just continued into town and when they told Speirs what happened, he and Foley got in a jeep and drove to the hospital and Katie got in the jeep with them and they drove towards the scene.

A jeep came racing past them and Speirs recognized Dani and turned around he sped all the way back and the two jeeps arrived at the same time.

Katie ran into the hospital and started to bark orders, she then escorted the stretcher with Grant on it to the O.R

Speirs started to follow, but Dani stopped him "Don't, he is in good hands, Katie know what she is doing she did part of her residency in neuro and she is the best in the field and they have an excellent brain surgeon on staff here"

The Drunk had been brought to Company HQ and was still alive, but he was about to wish he wasn't. The E. Company men was milling around him swearing revenge, it turned out the culprit had tried to rape a girl in Zell am See, just an hour before he shot Grant.

Luz walked thru the door to the hospital and found Speirs "We can't find the weapon," he whispered to him

Speirs got on his feet, Speirs rushed into HQ and shouted at the prisoner "Where is the weapon?"

"What weapon?" the prisoner spit out.

Speirs pulled his gun, reversed his grip to hold it by the barrel and hit the man right in the temple with the butt "When you talk to an officer you say sir " The man was escorted to the brick, where he was beaten until his blood ran.

Nixon, Lane and Dani were waiting for Speirs outside the room. Nixon looked at the two officers "Grant is gonna make it" he told them

Lane let out a breath she had been holding and shook her head; she grabbed Dani by the arm and dragged her out of the hotel and towards the lake.

"Ok let it out" Lane told Dani and waited for Dani to yell and curse

Dani just put her hands on her hips and started to pace "Goddamn son of a…how the hell…why the hell…oh god I can't believe it"

Dani never got any further "Hunt you should have shot him" Sink saluted the two girls and left

Lane looked after the regimental commander and laughed "What the hell"

Dani hugged Lane "You want to get drunk" She asked him

"Ah ha" Lane said

Lane and Mia stepped into the local Bier Keller and found half the company there. Mia was sitting on Lipton's lap. They were happy and they had their future planned out. Lane looked around the group of men. Yeah most of the men would have a bright future and if they took advantage of the G.I bill, they would do well.

Nixon and Winters stepped into the place and found the men. Nixon grabbed Lane and kissed her. "Dick and Katie are going to New Jersey with us"

Lane kissed him back and smiled. Yeah things were going to be ok. They would be ok. They would be family forever a Band of Brothers.

….

At the end of July the Company was transferred to France, the only veteran left was the long-suffering Webster.

Winters, Speirs, Nixon and the girls were still with the division and were waiting to get rotated home.

In August Katie and Mia were rotated home.

Nixon Winters, Speirs and Dani was sent to Berlin with 82nd airborne and Dani and Speirs fell in love with the town.

In November 101st was inactivated and Nixon and Winters were dismissed from the army and went home and Dani and Speirs were rotated back to fort Bragg.

The war was over and now civilian life awaited.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 20

Germany May 1944

One could say many mean things about the Nazi's, but they sure knew how to build highways or the autobahn. Second battalion was driving through Germany, somewhere around ChiemSee they ran into the tail of the French armored division. The French had been on the regiment's left flank appearing and disappearing, Winters suspected the French were looting their way through Germany.

Their commanding officer General Leclerc had been the first to enter Paris and now he wanted to be the first to enter Berchtesgaden.

Around midday, second battalion ran into a roadblock over a ravine and they were now waiting for help.

Winters and Nixon were leaning against a jeep enjoying the sun "When are we expecting the engineers to arrive?" Winters asked Nixon

"Half an hour ago" Nixon said

Winters and Nixon continued to gripe about how the battalion was stuck and how the SS wasn't going to let them waltz into Berchtesgaden.

Speirs, who's limited patience had been tested, by the wait and Dani, who had gone into complete ADD mode and was bugging the living crap out of the whole company, walked up to the two officers "If you are looking for another way up the mountain, Easy willing and ready"

Winters opened his eyes and looked at Speirs "Duly noted, I already recommended you to Colonel Sink"

"Terrific let's go find out where Hitler lived" Speirs was already on his way back to his company

"Ron, we are not sure what is up there and the colonel don't want us to take any unnecessary risks," Winters told the already edgy commander of Easy

Ron let out an annoyed sigh "So the French are going to beat us to the Eagles Nest?"

At that very moment Colonel Sink pulled up in a jeep, he saluted the officers "Gents, I just had a conversation with general Leclerc, he told me he was first into Paris and by god he wanted to be first into Berchtesgaden, I told him I understood his point"

Sink took a deep drag of his cigarette and looked at Winters "Now you fire up second battalion and out flank that French son of bitch and if you succeed reserve Berchtesgaden Hof for regimental HQ"

Winters saluted Sink "Yes Sir"

Sink left and Winters looked at Speirs "I want Easy in the lead assemble your men at the Autobahn"

Speirs nodded "Yes Sir"

Easy led the battalion on a backtrack to the Autobahn, then East to Bad Reichenhall, another blown bridge stopped them and the battalion had to spend the night on the Trucks.

Lane was wandering around; her walk led her to the edge of the lake. She sat down and sighed, she was recapping her war from England to Normandy. The trip down hell's highway, to the cold, cold hell of Bastogne, last patrol in Alsace and now she was enjoying the spring in Germany. It had been some eventful years and she wouldn't change a thing even if she could, well maybe somethings…

The sound of approaching footsteps alarmed Lane and she pulled her sidearm, she smiled when she saw who it was, it was Nixon.

"Jesus woman…put down your gun" Nixon sat down next to Lane

Lane smiled and put her gun back in its holster "What are you doing here" Lane asked Nixon

"I was looking for you…I have something to ask you…what do you think you will be doing after the war" Nixon asked Lane

Lane bit her lip, what would she be doing after the war? She wanted to keep working with intelligence; she would want to keep doing what she was good at. Lane knew she couldn't go back to being a proper young lady, heck she didn't know if she even wanted to go back home again.

Nixon looked at Lane, he knew she changed. Lane wasn't the timid girl she once was, she was a strong and independent woman, the war had saved Lane from the future her mother had planned for her.

Lane looked at Lew "I don't know I think I might want to stay in the army or work with intelligence or something like that…maybe travel the world"

The sound of laughter reached them. Nixon smiled and took Lane's hand "Lane I love you, I love you more than anything in the world, I can't imagine living without you"

Lane looked into Nixon's eyes "Lew please..."

Nixon interrupted Lane "Lane Amelia Easterday will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

Lane choked and she could feel tears in her eyes, could she marry Lew? She wasn't sure, she looked into his eyes, and she knew that this was exactly what she wanted to do. Lew was home, Lew was everything she needed.

"Yes, yes of course I'll marry you" Lane kissed Nixon. She felt something cold on her finger. It was a beautiful engagement Round Brilliant Ribbon Ring.

"Where did you get this, oh Lewis it's perfect" Lane kissed Nixon again

"I been carrying it since England, I bought it in London" Nixon pulled Lane to him and they sat in silence and watched the last of the sun set behind the mountains

Berchtesgaden, May 5th 1945.

2nd battalion rolled into Berchtesgaden. The streets were empty and white flags and papers were flying everywhere.

A jeep carrying Winters, Nixon, Welsh, Lane and Dani was the first vehicle in the convoy, they drove past the Haupt Bahn hof Hitler build and down thru Haniel strasse, and stopped in front of the Berchtesgaden Hof.

Welsh, Nixon, Lane, Dani and Winters walked in, as they entered through the front door of the hotel, the service personnel disappeared around the corner.

They walked through the lobby and into the main dining room, a waiter was putting together a large silverware set, in a four foot long velvet lined leather suitcase.

The waiter ran out of the back door when he saw them coming. Welsh looked at the silverware "kitty would love this, how many brides get a wedding present from Hitler, You want to take half? I can't carry it all, and you know however comes in here, after is going to take everything that isn't nailed down" Welsh was scooping the silverware into his helmet.

Winters picked up a knife and looked at it, he then turned to Katie "What do you say, want a present from Hitler?"

"Sure, I'll take half" Katie said, she really wasn't interested in the silverware, it was the art she knew Goring had stashed somewhere that interested her.

Speirs walked in with two privates and Dani right on his heels. He walked over and tried to pick up a piece of the silverware, Welsh slapped him over his fingers and Dani just looked at him and smirked "hey you looting bastard, I am going to live in an European antique store as it is, leave the silverware for Dick and Welsh"

Speirs looked at Dani, he knew Dani hated looting, but the way he looked at it, if she didn't like the stuff he sent home, they could always sell it.

Winters Ordered F Company to set up roadblocks and guard at the hotel, and Easy would go via the Obersalzberg and capture the Eagles Nest.

"Speirs, at Obersalzberg, find accommodation for the men before you take Eagles Nest," Winters told the captain.

Malarkey, Popeye and More ran up the mountain, while the rest of the men drove below them screaming Currahee.

Once the company reached the Obersalzberg, they took in the scenery. The Berghaus, where Hitler lived was bombed and so were the Hotel close by, the SS barracks was unharmed and Easy had no problem occupying them. Speirs and Dani chose a sumptuous house perched on the side of the mountain overlooking Berchtesgaden and so did the other officers and sergeants, Dani and Mia ended up being neighbors.

Winters chose a home of some Nazi officials and sent his S4 to the place to tell the people who lived there, they had fifteen minutes to get out. The S4 returned and told Katie that the people refused to leave.

Katie patted the young man on the shoulder "Let me show you how to evict people"

Katie got in jeep and drove up to the house with the S4 by her side. She knocked on the door and a fat German man opened it.

Katie looked at the man "we are moving in now, get the fuck out" She said and pushed the door open and walked in, the people left and Katie didn't see them again.

After getting, the accommodations settled. Easy climbed up the mountain to the Eagles Nest. It was a two-hour climb up the road the Nazis had built. It was the most beautiful mountain road in the world, and the men had a view of the Koenigs See.

Speirs and Dani drove up the mountain; there were times when Dani figured the jeep wouldn't make it with the 25 % rises on the way up.

When they reached the parking lot in front the tunnel which led to the gold plated elevator, Speirs turned and looked at her "Stay here, we don't know what's in there"

Malarkey, Moore, Popeye, Grant and Speirs looked up at the Eagles Nest and walked through the tunnel leading to the gold plated elevator. The tunnel had a rounded vault ceiling. The stone used to build the tunnel was carved out of the mountain by the German workers, when they reached the end of the tunnel they turned right, a gate blocked the entrance to the circular room from which you could enter the elevator.

Speirs discovered that the elevator wasn't working, more than likely it had been sabotaged by the SS as they were fleeing. Speirs ordered the men to hike up the mountain.

Malarkey, Moore and the rest ran up the trail to Eagles Nest and entered the small stone cottage via the entrance from the end of the trail. They walked through the hall and opened the doors to the panorama room. Malarkey had his M1 loaded and ready to shoot the Nazi's. The room had large panorama windows, big enough for a soldier to stand in, the room was furnished with dark wooden furniture and in the center was a large round table.

A German General had shot himself and lay dead behind the Sofa. Speirs who was a little vary of the whole Situation, which seemed to be too easy, he reached for his gun when a loud pop sounded, and it turned out to be Malarkey popping the cork of a champagne bottle. Speirs sighed annoyed and ordered Grant to get the Girls.

Dani, Lane, and Mia hiked up the mountain and walked into the Eagles nest. The small stone cottage was beautiful, but Dani's favorite room was Eva Braun's wood panel tea room which led out to the deck, with a view of the Koenig's see and the Watzman.

Welsh was already tipsy and Speirs and Dani were drunk. Speirs had the telltale sign of him being intoxicated; his eyes were glassy.

Dani, Lane, Mia, Welsh, Speirs and Nixon were sitting on the deck chairs and Speirs was trying to name all the Nazi top dogs "No god damn listen Hitler, Hitler, No Hitler, Himmler, Goering," He didn't succeed, he was too drunk.

Nixon and Lane were both drunk, which didn't surprise Winters when he walked out on the Deck with Lipton and Katie following him.

Winters smiled, his officers deserved this celebration after everything they had been through the last couple of years.

Winters, Lipton and Katie sat down and joined the celebration.

…

That night Dani was walking around Berchtesgaden, she was walking up Salzburger strasse, walking past the Salzberg Werk she stopped and stared down at the river, the old Brauhaus was down on the left and she smiled. The weather was mild and she could smell the mountain and all the flowers in the air.

Halfway up the hill to Alte Nontal, which led past the old koenigs schloss and to the old town center, a car drove past her at high speed and then stopped. Dani pulled her side arm, it was twilight and she had no way of telling who was in the car.

Pointing the gun at the soldier, who stepped out of the car, she ordered him to put his hands over his head, "You know darling, I like it when a woman take charge, but lower your weapon, it's not like I am going to harm you"

Dani let out her breath "God damn it Ron, you scared the shit out of me" Dani walked over and got in the car.

Ron got in the driver seat, he turned and looked at Dani" Where do you want to go?" he asked her

"Koenig See," She said and they drove off. In front of the old police station he turned the car around and headed back down Salzburger Strasse and turned right on Bergwerk strasse and a couple of miles down the road turned left onto Konigseer strasse.

Ron parked the car in front of the old koenig see Hotel and hand in hand, they walked down to the lake. The lake was calm and Dani sat down, pulled her boots and socks off, and stuck her feet into the cold clear lake. She sighed and laid down on her back. Speirs sat down next to her and stared out over the lake.

"You know I've been thinking about what we are going to do after the war and I think I am going to stay in the army," Speirs said and looked at Dani.

Dani closed her eyes "I know, and I am ok with that"

Ron looked at Dani, she was the most amazing, crazy woman he had ever met and he knew he would love her forever.

Speirs pulled her to him "Marry me he mumbled into her hair

Dani smiled and kissed "Yeah I'll marry you"

May 7th Berchtesgaden.

"The German army has surrendered" Winters walked into the house he shared with Katie.

Katie looked at Winters "I know" and smiled, she walked over and kissed him

Nixon and Lane walked into the house and saw Katie kissing Winters "We, stop, get a room" Lane snickered

"We did, you're in it," Katie told her

"The German army surrendered, and congratulations" Winters told the two officers, Nixon smiled and pulled Lane close and kissed her "Finally" he mumbled into her neck.

The word spread across Berchtesgaden. Dani and Ron decided to have a little celebration of their own, they were popping champagne bottles and throwing the bottles out of the French doors, and occasionally an Easy Company member would drop by and celebrate with them.

Soon there was a large pile of empty bottles outside of the window and Ron got the bright idea to shoot the top of the bottles. The two officers were having a blast, when a very pissed off Talbert barged through the door, ready to shoot the men who had disobeyed the orders the two guilty officers had sent out yesterday. No more shooting of weapons and especially not German weapons, the gun in Dani's hand was a Luger.

Lipton and Mia celebrated V.E day walking around Berchtesgaden old town center, they found an open bier garden, almost in the town center and ordered a victory meal.

On May 8th the battalion moved out to Zell Am See.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 19

Germany April 1945

"Janovec, Janovec" Speirs walked up the stairs calling out for the private who was in possession of his recent loot.

On his way up the stairs he ran into Dani, "You might not want to…" Dani didn't get to finish her sentence, Speirs just stormed past her

"Well it's your own ding dang fault then" Dani mumbled and walked outside

Dani stepped outside and turned her face up towards the sun. The 101st airborne was more or less an occupation force only sending out harassing patrols. The weather was nice and the war was almost over, at least it felt that way.

Further down the street Katie and Mia were talking to Winters and Lipton. Mia noticed Dani watching them and she gave her a small wave and Dani waved back, she took a step towards the group, but was almost knocked over by Speirs who was storming out of the door.

"I did not need to see that" Speirs said

"I told you not to go up there" Dani smiled

Speirs followed Dani and when they reached the group Speirs turned to Winters "I thought Eisenhower issued and order of fraternization" Speirs grumbled

"I know, but if you haven't noticed there are too many DP's and too many GI's with too much money" Winters said and saluted his men and walked off.

Katie sighed and motioned for Mia to follow her, the hospital was busy to many drunk GI*s and too many motor vehicles. Every day they send some poor bastard to the Evac hospital. Katie knew she had to talk to Sink about the problem.

A jeep came speeding down the small road and stopped beside Dani, Katie and Mia. A soldier jumped out of the jeep and removed her sunglasses

"Lane" Mia jumped up and down

"I sure am glad to see you" Katie hugged Lane and Dani smiled and hugged lane

Lane looked at the girls, they looked happier and healthier than the last time she saw them. The sun and the good German food had done wonders for them.

"It's not that I am not glad to see you, but where is Nixon" Lane asked the girls

"Giving a current event lecture" Dani told her and motioned towards the town square.

Lane waved at the girls and headed towards the square. When she reached the square she stopped and hid behind a fountain, it gave her the opportunity to study Nixon. He looked like hell. He had been drinking, Lane could tell by his tussled, sloppy look, he looked like had worn the same clothes for weeks, not bothering to change or wash.

Luz noticed Lane and started to say something, but Lane shook her head, she wasn't ready to face Nixon yet.

"Has begun to assemble food packages stateside, to those European families in dire need, which must be all of them…So write to your family and remind them to donate it will be much appreciated" Nixon looked at the men, some were listening to him and others were looking at something behind the fountain.

Nixon looked back down at his clipboard "I am sure you all will be happy to hear that Oklahoma is still playing on Broadway"

The men were all gleeful and Luz started to sing the chorus from Oklahoma motioned for the men to stop halfway through the chorus. Poor O'Keefe who sat in front of him performed a solo in his light voice.

Christenson asked the poor replacement if he was sitting on his bayonet and made a joke about how he should leave the singing to Luz. Unless he wanted to sing a duet with Luz.

Nixon smiled and continued "Rita Hayworth is getting married...Abbott and Costello" Nixon turned a few pages over.

"War time news that the Resistance in the Ruhr pocket is grumbling looks like there might be a breakout in Remagen. Apparently, the Krauts forgot to blow up one of their bridges when they headed back over the Rhine. I guess the boys in the 17th Airborne did alright after all" Lane could hear the relief in Nixon's voice.

"We would be in the Berlin if it was us instead of them, "Luz said

"If it was us the war would be over and we would all be state side" Lane stepped out from behind the fountain.

Nixon dropped the cliff board and in step, he swiped Lane off her feet, hugged her close to him, and gave her a deep kiss. "Oh god sweet heart…oh I missed you so much," He whispered to her

Lane hugged him back "I missed you too"

Lane took Nixon's hand and dragged him towards the house Lane shared with Dani. Lane dragged him into her bedroom and started to take off Nixon's dirty uniform. Nixon pulled at Lane's shirt, his hands were shaking and Lane had to help him.

"Come on, you need a bath and afterwards we are going to talk about your drinking" Lane told Nixon, who just nodded, he was willing to agree to anything as long as Lane would stay with him.

On April 18th 325,000 Germans surrendered and that sent the 101st Airborne en route to Bavaria as allied headquarters attached the division to the seventh army in southern Germany in its advance to secure Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. No one knew if Hitler actually intended to fortify the Bavarian Alps, but Eisenhower wasn't taking any chances.

The sight of the Germans who had surrendered was magnificent; they still marched in the middle of the Autobahn.

The four girls shared a jeep. They were all talking about what they were going to do once the war was over.

Katie and Mia agreed that they would both continue to work with wounded

Vets' once stateside. Lane knew she wanted to continue to work with intelligence, maybe for the OSS.

Dani sighed she didn't knew what she wanted to do "I don't know I think I will stay in the army"

The convoy stopped in Buchloe for the night. The first thing Winters did was to gather his officers; the standard operating procedure was to dispatch reconnaissance patrols whenever the battalion stopped.

"I want to send out some patrols, I want Dog here in town and Easy and fox in the woods” Winters said and Speirs and Lipton saluted him

"Easy takes the north-west 1st and 2nd platoon in the woods 3rd swing around" Speirs told his officer and Lipton called out for Talbert in order to get it done.

The patrol was walking through the woods. It was Erie quiet. Bull noticed O'Keeffe was jumpy and gave him a hard time about it, telling him they could hear his heart pound all the way in Arkansas.

Perconte was looking around "Hey George, kind of reminds you Bastogne"

Luz looked at Perco and rolled his eyes "Yeah, now that you mention it, except of course there is no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren't fucking exploding from Kraut artillery, but yeah Frank, other than that it's a lot like Bastogne"

Frank was glad his best buddy agreed "Yeah"

Luz took a drag of his cigarette "Bull smack him for me please" and Bull did just that

Bull ordered the men to settle down, the woods were all quiet and it seemed like, even all the animals had left this part of the woods.

O Keefe made a remark about how quiet it was and Perconte agreed with him. It was scary and it felt like a scene from a horror movie. 

The patrol walked into a clearing and there it was, the Camp, the men all became quiet and Christenson lost his lunch.

Bull turned to Perconte, who was the best runner "Go get Speirs, Nixon, Winters, Katie and do not let Nixon get here without Captain Easterday.

Perco ran off towards town. 

…

Perconte ran into town and asked for Winters and Speirs, no one knew where they were and Frank was getting desperate, he knew if he came back without the officers Bull had ordered him to bring out to the camp, he was a dead man.

Finally, he found Winters "Major Winters, we found something on the patrol and ahh, we came across this…"

"What, what Frank, Frank what is it?" Winters asked him

Frank was frantic, he didn't have words to describe, what it was they had found "I don't know Sir, I don't know"

The officer and the remainder of the second battalion were ordered onto trucks, and when the battalion pulled up to the Camp, Winters knew nothing would ever have prepared him for the sight that met them.

Skeleton-like men gathered around the fence and the gate to the camp. They were all wearing striped clothing, most of which was torn and worn. Their heads shaved and most of them were missing most of their teeth, the whole camp wrapped in a stench of death, rotten corpses and general decay.

Winters stepped off the jeep, he was about to order Christenson to cut the chain that held the gate together, preventing the prisoners from escaping.

"Stop, Major Winters, sir" Mia stepped forward

"We have to make sure these people stay in the camp, they can't wander off and scatter. They probably have typhus, cholera and other contagious diseases, we need to keep them here and Sir no one feeds them, if we starting giving them food they will eat themselves to death, we have to put them on a special diet, only food with live bacteria, like sour kraut, yogurt, quark and such"

Winters nodded and ordered Christenson to open the gate. Winters walked in with the men following him and he realized he needed a translator, so he could talk to the prisoners and send for Liebgott.

Nixon walked next to Winters with Lane hot on his heels, she knew what the place would do to Lew and wanted to be near him when he finally realized why they were fighting the Germans.

Nixon stared at the men emerging through the smoke from the burning buildings, some carrying what looked like death bodies. Nixon was paralyzed, the amount of emotion that ran through him at that very moment was indescribable, and he felt helpless, shocked, rage against the Germans, sadness and sorrow.

What these people had been through, couldn't even be described and it made his problems seem insignificant.

Nixon turned around and there she was, his reason for existing, the woman who made it worth living and he had done the most unforgivable thing a man could ever do and here she was, just looking at her, made Nixon feel like it was all going to be ok.

The men were helping the starved men and handed them blankets and spare rations. Mia tried to stop the men and finally Katie ordered the men to stop. Finally she had enough.

Winters, Lane and Nixon were talking to one of the prisoners,

Liebgott asked the questions and translated "he said the guards left this morning, they burned some of the barracks with prisoners still inside them… alive"

"Jesus Christ" Nixon mumbled

Liebgott listened to the prisoner and translated "Some of the prisoners tried to stop them, and the guards shot them, they didn't have enough ammunition to kill all the prisoners, so they shot as many as they could, then locked the gate and headed south.

"Someone in town must have told them we were coming" Nixon said

"I don't think so," someone said

Winters told Liebgott to ask what the place was and why the prisoners were there. The prisoner told them that it was a camp for unwanted people, Jews, gypsies, poles and so on. At that very moment every officer gathered around the young man knew why they were fighting, why they had given up their life to travel halfway around the world to fight.

Katie came running "Winters, can you get the men to rally around me? So I can tell them what to do"

Winters looked at Speirs "Get it done, I need to call Sink"

Speirs got a hold of Welsh, Lipton and McMillan, they found the commander of Fox and the battalion gathered around the Easy Doc.

"Look, we need to triage these men, those who can walk, those who can wait to get treatment, and those who need urgent treatment and lastly those who are dead. The live inmates need to be placed by the gate, leave the dead in the huts, they will buried tomorrow, ok boys move out"

Katie, Dani and Mia started with men already gathered at the gate.

Mia had her trusted stethoscope, and she was examining a man, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, Mia looked up. Lipton looked down at her, she squeezed his hand "I am ok, I can handle this"

This camp was nothing like Lipton had ever even imagined, he couldn't comprehend how such evil existed, what kind of sick minds had planned the extermination of a whole religion, this was genocide, like never seen before.

Dani started to help with triage and she noticed Sink, Winters Nixon, Katie, Lane and Doctor Kent walk towards Mia.

Mia was talking to one of the polish prisoners, when she heard Sink address her "Lieutenant MacKall"

Mia turned around "Sir" she said and saluted Sink

"This here is Doctor Kent, he is the regimental surgeon" Sink introduced the two doctors to each other.

"So tell me what do we got here," Kent asked Katie

"Well, all of them are starving, 99 percent of the men have cholera and typhus and they all have some sort of respiratory tract infection, pneumonia mostly. I need blankets, cots, antibiotics, food with life bacteria in it, clothes, every medicine you can think of, plasma, saltwater, disinfection, you name I need, and a bunch of nurses would be awesome" Katie told Kent

"Well, you can have whatever I got on these truck and I can some of your men scrounge for supplies at the local hospital" Kent said

Pretty soon, the 326th took over from second battalion and in no time tents were pitched and the nurses, medics and the two doctors were working hard.

Lane poked her head into the tent Mia, Dani and Katie were working in. They just looked at her and motioned for her to leave. One thing was for them to risk infection, but they wouldn't let their friends catch anything.

…..

Nixon and Lane were sitting in the living room in Lane's billet, she shared a small house with Mia and Katie, who was working out at the camp and Lane wasn't expecting her home anytime soon.

Lane was looking at a jittery Nixon who needed a drink and Lane wouldn't let him, she had sat him down and told him he wasn't leaving the house until he was sober.

Lane knew he could do it, he did once when she first met him and by god, she was going to sober him up again.

Katie, who had returned to town to find some papers, was sitting on the couch in the living room of her and Dick's billet. She was going through the paperwork when her husband walked in, she couldn't help but smile and winters walked over, sat down next to her, pulled her close to him, and kissed her on top of her head. He needed to be close to her after what they experienced today and after what he just heard from Division HQ

"I just heard from Division HQ, that the Russians liberated a larger camp, ten times bigger with ovens…"

"The towns' people claim they didn't know about the camp, that we are exaggerating" Katie said

"Well they are going to find out tomorrow. Taylor just declared Martial Law and every able body between the age of 14 and 80 are going to help bury the bodies"

Katie looked at Winters "Serves them right" was all she said

…..

The next morning a very tired Lane drove Nixon out to the camp, the people from town were already working on burying the dead.

Lane could tell Nixon still had a hard time dealing with what he had seen "You need to accept the fact this has happened and live with it, knowing you fought for those who lived through this. This is why we fight"

Nixon knew he found the reason for his war and his reason for being sober through the rest of it.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 18

February 1945 somewhere in France

Easy Company Where orders on board the 40-and 8s the French rail boxcars that held forty men or eight horses. The weather was sunny and warm. The 40 and 8s were knee-deep in straw, there was plenty to eat and nobody was shooting at them.

Winters, Nixon who were drunk as a skunk, Katie and Dani were gathered around the rail depot.

Nixon pulled out a small box "Before I forget, Colonel Sink has been unhappy with the appearance of your uniform, says it's not befitting your rank" Nixon threw Winters a small box.

Winters looked at Katie who shrugged, she had no idea what the S3 officer was talking about.

Winters opened his box and revealed what was in it "Oak leaves" Winters said

Nixon jumped to attention and gave Winters a small salute.

The train ride lasted 18 hours and Dani was getting jumpy. She had a surprise for Speirs in her footlocker; it was his Christmas present. She just never got the chance to give it to him, with them being in Bastogne and all.

In Mourmelon, the company was billeted in green twelve-man tents. Once again, Dani was sharing a tent with Katie and Mia. The nurse and the doctor were busy at the hospital, so Dani spent most of her time with the men and Speirs.

The first task was to get clean. There were showers, although the water was lukewarm at best. However, for the men and women who had not had a shower since leaving Mourmelon ten weeks ago it was heaven.

Dani and Mia were standing outside waiting for the men to finish on occasion when they yelled for them to hurry the heck up.

Once the last man, who was a poor private from D Company was done Mia and Dani hurried in. Dani just stepped into the shower with her uniform on and started to strip. The dirt mixed with blood of her killed and wounded friend mixed with the water. A flood of dirty water ran down Dani.

Mia looked over at Dani and noticed the dirty water, she nodded towards Dani's legs and Dani looked down at the water that ran down her legs and down the drain, in a way it was very therapeutic and Dani felt refreshed and cleansed by the time she stepped out of the shower.

With the peace and comfort of Mourmelon came the task of integrating the new replacements into the company. The replacements arrived, duffel bags slung over their shoulders. Full of piss and vinegar ready to jump into Berlin and take on Jerry.

Winters was sitting at his desk at HQ, he was grumbling and Katie who was half-asleep on the couch swore she heard him let out a few choice words.

"Dick what's wrong" Katie asked him

"I need to bolster up my staff, but I can't figure out what way to go," Winters answered. He let out a sigh and put his hands behind his head.

With Welsh serving as battalion S3, his choice of officers for the XO position were limited. He could promote Cox and let him take the position as XO, but that would mean he had to reel in Speirs and that was not something he wanted to do.

Now McMillan from D. Company, now there was an officer, you knew you were talking to a man when you talked to him. McMillan was a great leader and he was there for the men the whole time.

…

Nixon's drinking problems didn't go unnoticed at Regiment. Sink sought out Winters.

"I have a problem Dick" Sink said and sat on the chair in front of Winters desk.

Winters knew what would come next so it was no surprise when Sink told him that Nixon was drunk all the time "I mean, I certainly knock down a few myself at night and when off duty, I can't get any damn work out of him. How did you find him to work with?"

"Well Nixon and I get along very well" Winters told Sink and thought it was funny as hell, that Sink was complaining about Nixon's drinking when Sinks nickname was bourbon Bob.

"Well you can have him back, hell every time I need him he is here anyways, so you might as well keep him" Sink left and Winters now had to tell Nixon about his demotion.

Operation varsity...The 101st thought it would be theirs, but at the last minute it was given to the 17th airborne. Sink decided to send Nixon along as an observer.

Nixon was jumpmaster and in the first seat by the door on his plane. As they took off, they could see the boys from Easy yelling and giving them the V sign.

Nixon opted to remove the door after take-off; he was looking out the door, so he could see when they reached the drop zone.

Nixon motioned for the men to "stand up, hook on, and sound of for equipment check"

Nixon waited for the green light to come on; seconds after they got the green light, the plane took a direct hit over the drop zone.

Nixon grabbed the man next to him and threw himself and the man out of the plane, all he could think about was getting to safety.

Both their chutes opened and they watched how the plane crashed, only one other soldier had made it out.

When they arrived at the assembly, point Nixon informed the CO of the battalion what happened and returned to the CP to drink himself to sleep.

Nixon was sent back over the Rhine and flown back to Mourmelon.

On the way back, just a little outside the camp, he drove past Mia and Lipton, "Was that Captain Nixon?" Mia asked Lipton

"I think so," Lipton said

"What the hell is he doing in his harness?" Mia asked

"I don't know, but let's find out" Lipton said and started to walk back towards camp

Nixon didn't speak a word on the way back to camp; he was thinking about Lane and all the men who died in vain. When he drove into camp, he almost hit Speirs and his most recent loot.

Nixon just got out and walked inside his billet, he went straight for the booze.

"Do you really think that is the answer?" Mia, who had followed asked him

"Yep" was all Nixon said

"I don't and if you don't talk to me, you are going to be a very lonely soldier soon" Mia took off her helmet and started to shrug off her jacket.

"I just don't know what I am doing here anymore, why do we fight, can you tell me that?" Nixon asked her

Mia shrugged. I don't know, but I have a feeling we will find out soon enough.

Dick walked into the room, Mia picked up her jacket, she gave Winters a look that said I tried, but failed. Winters looked at the drink Nixon had just poured and then looked at Mia, who just threw her hand up, to motion she wanted to stay out of whatever was coming and then she left.

"So you are making combat jumps with the 17th, while I am in supply briefings all morning"

Nixon started to take off his boots "Yeah lucky me"

"Well congratulations, you are probably the only officer in the 101st with three stars over your jump wings"

Nixon just looked at winters "Yeah I never fired my weapon in combat ha"

"Really? Never not even with all the action we seen?" Winters asked him

"Not a round" Nixon said and walked over and poured himself another drink

"So, how did it go this morning? The Jump?" Winters asked

"Great, fantastic, we took a direct hit over the drop zone, I got out, and two others got out" Nixon said

"And the rest of the boys?" Winters asked

"They blew up over Germany somewhere, boom" Nixon said

"Yeah, I am sorry" Winters answered him

"About what?" Nixon asked

"About the boys' tough situation" Winters answered

"Oh yeah the boys, yeah terrible, oh well it wasn't me" Nixon said

At this point Nixon took his drink and gulped it down.

"The real tragedy is, they also lost their CO, so guess who gets to write all the letters home?" Nixon threw his empty bottle in a bucket beside the door to the living room and walked through it.

Dick followed him; Nixon scrounged for some more Vat 69 and found some in a near empty bottle.

He then sat down on a chair; Winters turned and looked at him "I got a visit from Colonel Sink this morning"

"Yeah, how is the good colonel" Nixon asked

"Concerned, still drinking nothing but the Vat 69," Winters answered him

"Nothing but the finest for Mrs. Nixon's baby boy" Nixon said and saluted Winters with his drink

"Is that a problem at regiment?" Winters asked him

"What? this? Is that what he said? I just don't like up there" Nixon asked him

"Good, you be glad to hear Sink is transferring you back down to battalion S3" Winters told Nixon

"What do you think I should write to the parents?" Nixon asked his friend

"Did you hear what I said Nix, you been demoted" Winters asked him

"Demoted, yeah got it, because I don't know how to tell them their kids never even made it out of the god damn plane," Nixon retorted

"You tell them what you always tell them, their sons died as heroes," Winters told him

"You really still believe that?" asked Winters

"Yeah, yeah I do, don't you?" Winters asked Nixon

…

As March ended, so did the pleasant stay at the old garrison. The men of the 101st climbed back onto the trucks, this time bound for the west bank of the Rhine, the last obstacle to the heartland of Germany.

A couple of days later and for Nixon a couple of bottles later, Speirs, Dani, Welsh, Lipton, Mia and Nixon were gathered in the living room of Nixon's billet.

The boys were playing poker, well the boys and Mia, and she was cleaning them out. Welsh and Speirs were talking about how they couldn't believe it, how Ike was going to let the Russians get Berlin.

Nixon was running out of Vat 69 and suddenly got up "Deal me out" he said and walked out

Welsh looked around at the others "Are we waiting on him again?"

"Yeah, we're waiting" Lipton said

Nixon walked out of the house, it was pouring rain, he was officially out of Vat69. It was pouring rain. Nixon didn't notice, he was numb and he wallowed in the feeling he was drinking to keep himself from feeling his loss.

His loss of purpose, of the love of his life and the loss of control over his own life. He picked up a garbage can and threw it through the window causing the owner to open the window and scream Wie ist da.

A MP patrol pulled up. Nixon felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned his head and looked into the eyes of Dani, and she motioned for him to follow her. Dani led Nixon into his room and got him out of his wet clothes.

"Do you think she will be back?" Nixon asked

"I know she will," Dani answered, not sure if she was lying or not.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 17

"Dick…Dick…Hey wait…DICK" Katie called after the captain, but he didn't turn around or even acknowledge her.

The reason Winters was walking away from regimental HQ in a hurry. Well he wanted to get out of there before he said or did something he would later regret.

Captain Winters was pissed off. After thirty-six days in the cold, snow covered Belgian forest, with constant contact with the enemy, the 101st were told they were going into reserve and that they would get a much-needed break. However, orders changed and now Winters had to send his battalion to Alsace to what if Lane and Nixon was right, would be another German attack.

Katie caught up with Winters, Speirs, Dani, McMillan, Nixon and Lane. She could tell Dani was pissed and Speirs just looked distant. McMillan listened to what Winters had to say, but was distant as well.

Lane mumbled under her breath "Doesn't the Army have someone else to plug the gaps?"

Dani looked at Lane and smiled "I don't know, you are the S3, you tell me"

Lane smiled; it was nice to have the old cheeky Dani back. Lane had worried about her since the trip to Aldbourne and at one point she was afraid they would have to send Dani off the lines while in Bastogne. Dani pushed through and came out stronger in the end.

The men lugged their belongings on to the deuce and half's that would take them 160 Miles to Drulingen. Heavy layers of snow covered the ground, the roads were slippery and the convoy crawled its way. The trip took thirty-six butt-numbing hours in truck build for functionality, not comfort.

As soon as they arrived in Drulingen, Sink sent the division to Hochenfeld and onwards to a small town called Wilkensheim, the consolation was that it was supposed to be a quiet sector.

The Moder River, normally thirty to forty feet wide was now swollen with snowmelt and in many places, it was as wide as a football field in width and swiftly flowing with brown muddy water.

The men had roofs over their heads and the foxhole hell in Bastogne was now just an unpleasant memory. Showers were set up and Red Cross clubs set up. The men enjoyed the relative peace. Contact patrols were still sent out and the air rippled with incoming and outgoing artillery shells.

A week later Mia and Katie were sitting in Katie's office at the aid station, they were talking about the war and what all they had been through.

Katie sighed "Well we so far we have jumped into Holland with the British 2nd army and stayed there for 73 Days, then been surrounded in Bastogne for 30 days, and now we are in Alsace to stop the Germans, this old war was mighty rough at times"

Mia sipped the last of her glass with her drink in it "I think we are getting there, I think we might make it through and I can't wait to go back home, I miss my brothers"

Katie smiled "I…" Before she could continue, Winters and a platoon from Fox Company barged through the door.

"Captain Hendrick" Winters shouted

Katie got on her feet "Yeah what we got, what happened?"

The lieutenant who had led the patrol answered, "We ran into a German strongpoint, machine guns and mortars…one killed six wounded"

Mia, Dani and Katie got to work, it took most of the night and by the time they were done they were exhausted. Katie walked towards second battalion HQ, she was tired and she needed to see and feel Winters. If she had her way, she would never leave his side again. Katie knew she had to talk about what had happened to her in Bastogne and Dani had tried to get her to open up, but she wasn't ready to talk yet.

Katie found Dani, Speirs, Lane, Nixon and the man she was dying to see at the HQ. She could hear someone talking and then someone laughing. Katie opened the door and walked in; she discovered why her friends were laughing. The army had finally send them winter shoe packs, arctic socks, felt insoles and six thousand yards of white cloth, enough to make two thousand snowsuits.

"We could have used them six weeks ago in Bastogne," Winters mumbled

Dani who had been feeling up Speirs "Just be glad we got them at all, they could have shipped it to the pacific" Dani got on her feet and Speirs followed. She walked over and hugged Katie "We are still going to talk"

Katie nodded "Yeah, I know"

Lane looked at Winters and Katie, they both looked tired and Lane knew they needed some peace and quiet "Nix Babe let's go"

Nixon started to protest, but then he realized what Lane was doing "Yeah let's go"

Winters looked up from the pile of paper on his desk "Nix are we heading out tomorrow?"

Nixon confirmed and Winters sighed, he was in dire need of some competent officers His S1 was ok, But his S2 who was Welsh was not yet back, he had no S3 because sink had snatched Nixon up to regiment after Hester had been promoted and appointed division G2. His S4 had wandered off the line at Noville and been AWOL since.

Winters put in a battlefield commission for Lipton and Sink approved.

Katie leaned against Winters desk and watched him work for a while, Winters finally looked up "Why don't you go to bed, sweetheart you look like you could need a good night's sleep"

Katie hugged Winters "You know what? You look like you need some sleep to" Katie took the papers Winters held in his right hand and put them on the desk. She turned down the lights and dragged Winters back to his bedroom. Katie closed the door and locked it.

"I need you to make love to me" Katie walked over and started to unbutton Winters shirt.

Winters was happy to oblige and he undressed Katie slowly and laid her down on the bed "Are you absolutely sure" He asked her.

Katie nodded, she wanted him and she needed intimacy.

A little while later after Katie had her head on Winters chest, winters was gently stroking Katie's upper arm. Katie scooted closer to him and sighed, "I love you, you do know that right?" Katie looked up at Winters

Winters kissed the top of Katie's head "I know, I love you too Honey, but Katie you have to talk about Bastogne and if you won't talk to me, then talk to Dani or Lane or whoever, just don't keep it in, I can tell it's eating at you"

Katie gently kissed Winters hand "I will, I promise"

…..

The next day 506th moved to Haguenau. Sink deployed the regiment forward with first battalion on the left and second on the right. third battalion went into reserve and they got some much-needed rest.

Rolling into Haguenau, Easy was greeted by a familiar face. Webster returned from the hospital, he was walking from truck to truck asking about men who had been killed or wounded, he stopped by first platoon's truck and attempted to climb on board.

Dani looked at him "Where the fuck have you been?"

"The hospital" Webster replied

"You must have liked that hospital, we left Holland four months ago," Liebgott told Webster.

"I wasn't there the whole time, there was rehabilitation and the replacement depot" Webster started

Dani coughed, turned and looked at Webster with red eyes "I am sure you tried to bust out and help us in Bastogne"

"I don't know, how I would have done that, Ma'am," Webster said

"Funny, because a lot of other men found a way" Dani looked at Webster with murder in her eyes.

Dani turned and shuddered; she had pneumonia and was freezing and shaking. Dani looked over at Foley "Foley…"

The young lieutenant knew Dani wanted to get rid of Webster "Second platoon Webster"

The truck stopped and the platoon and Webster jumped off "Spread out until I know where we are going" Malarkey ordered.

A shell went flying over the platoon. Malarkey just stopped and looked at it. Webster threw himself to the ground, Malarkey turned and looked at him "what's wrong Webster, nervous in the service"

Malarkey smirked and turned around; Webster got on his feet, "no sorry" 

"Come on Webster let's go talk to captain Speirs" Malarkey walked towards the CP and Webster followed him.

"Captain Speirs, what happened to Captain Winters?" Webster asked him

"He is running the whole Battalion now" Malarkey shrugged and opened the door to the CP

The CP. was bustling; Luz was fussing over Lipton. Luz looked at Dani and motioned for her to sit down on the couch Lipton was sitting on. Dani sat down and sighed.

Speirs came walking in to the room "Will the two of you go and sack out there are some beds with fresh sheets in the back"

Lipton coughed and started to get up from the couch "Just trying to make myself useful"

Dani got on her feet she was a little unsteady and when she tried to take a step her legs gave away under her, she let out a small shriek, Speirs turned around and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder he carried her into a bedroom and gently laid her down on a bed

"Stay here…I am going to find Mia or Katie" Speirs gave her a stern look and Dani just nodded.

Speirs walked back down stairs and found Winters and Nixon bent over a table with maps over the area on it. Lane walked into the CP followed by two replacement lieutenants "Dick, Nix…lieutenant Fitzpatrick, Lieutenant Jones"

Winters usually took time to meet and asses the new officers, but he didn't even look up from the map when the two men walked into the room "Fitzpatrick Fox Company, jones you are with Easy dismissed"

The two young men just looked at each other and looked at Lane for directions, Lane shrugged and called for Luz "George show these two rookies to Fox and Easy"

The three men disappeared and Lane walked over to Nixon and Winters "What got the two of you so worked up?"

"Sink wants a patrol. I am going to give this one to Fox Company…Ron mind relaying the order?" Winters asked Speirs

Speirs nodded and walked out of the CP. He headed towards Fox HQ. Speirs found the lieutenant "Cox" he greeted the man

"Speirs…What can I do for you? Where is that pretty gal of yours?" Cox asked

"Sick, she's down with a nasty case of pneumonia" Speirs sat down on a chair; Cox handed him a glass of whiskey and sat down on the opposite side of the large desk.

"Pity, I like Lieutenant Hunt…you lucked out, she is something else" Cox raised his glass.

Ron raised his glass as well "She is something alright"

The two men drank in silence and Ron put down his empty glass on the desk in front of him "Sink wants a patrol and Winters want Fox to handle it"

Cox swore under his breath "Why?"

Speirs shrugged he didn't know what good the patrol would do. He walked towards the aid station; before he got there, a shell hit and killed Bill Kiehn. Speirs followed Roe to the hospital and found Mia. She was busy treating chest colds and trench foot, side effects from the month in the cold forest.

"Mia…I need you or Katie to come to battalion HQ and check out Dani and Lip, they both got pneumonia"

Mia stopped and turned around "What…Why wasn't I told"

"We've been a little busy, but now you know half an hour McKall" Speirs told Mia and hurried out of the aid station.

Mia found Katie and told her about Speirs visit. Katie handed Roe the case of plasma she was holding and packed a bag and followed Mia to HQ. When they arrived Speirs looked up from the maps, he and a handful of officers were studying and pointed towards the back.

Walking up the stairs Katie thought about the last few months, they sure been through a lot Toccoa and dry Georgia heat seemed like another life. Katie felt like war was all she knew. Dick wouldn't stay in the army or at least she didn't think he would. Katie had a nagging feeling that Dani would stay in, she had a whole new spring in her step and Dani looked like the Dani she knew from basic training.

When she opened the door to the room Dani and Lipton were in, she almost fainted, the smell of fever, dirt and sweat met her. Katie stepped in and closed the door; she looked at the two sleeping soldiers, and knew this was going to take a while.

Speirs searched the HQ, he had seen Katie and Mia walk in, but he hadn't seen either of them since. He walked upstairs and almost bumped into Mia who came walking out of a bedroom with her arms full of dirty sheets and clothes.

"How are they doing?" He asked her

Mia stopped and looked at Speirs, He looked like he aged five years in the last two months "They are ok, they are clean and Katie just poured them both a big snaps and they just need to sleep"

Speirs shook his head "Snaps, is that the best you can do, they need penicillin and real medicine, not alcohol…I can't even…"

Mia dropped the dirty clothes on the floor and pointed at Speirs "Hey that is the love of my life in there and I trust Katie, so get your shit together Speirs and go scare some replacements" Mia picked up the laundry and stomped of mumbling something about how Speirs was a son of a bitch.

Well that went well Speirs thought and knocked on the door; he pushed the door open and looked at Dani and Lip. They were sleeping and Dani did look a lot better so maybe Mia was right.

….

The next morning news of what had happened with the replacement officer from Fox Company spread through the CP. Cox had let Fitzpatrick go on the patrol and he had stepped on a schue mine and died from shock and blood loss.

Winters ripped Cox a new one, but he was also upset with himself, he shouldn't have let Fitzpatrick join Fox without speaking to him first.

Katie found Winters at the battalion HQ. Winters was frustrated on a number of levels, He had been acting battalion commander for a while, but he was still only a Captain which placed him at a disadvantage when decisions needed to be made involving other battalions in the division. He was pissed at Cox and at himself.

"Dick…you can't blame yourself, it will eat at you" Katie put her arms around Winters and hugged him

Winters hugged her back "I know…"

Winters didn't get to say anymore, outside they heard the tell-tale sounds of someone fighting and then Dani's voice "You are a sorry excuse for a company commander you son of a bitch, that boy's death is on you"

Someone responded and then they heard Dani yelling" Let go of me, sergeant Talbert, let me go"

Katie and Winters ran outside, they noticed Speirs coming running as well and Talbert holding Dani back.

Speirs took Dani from Talbert and dismissed Cox. Katie just looked at Dani with a look on her face that said what the hell.

Dani pulled away from Speirs. Winters Looked at Dani "Care to explain?"

"Son of bitch…Cox…Cox was there on , He could have saved me from the Germans" Dani turned and walked away

Before anyone could react, Cox was on the ground, blood running down his face from his broken nose. Everybody turned to Speirs, who just took a step back and held up his hands, signaling he didn't do anything.

"Goddamn son of a bitch…" Katie mumbled under her breath and clutched her hand to her chest; she was the one who knocked the Lieutenant to the ground. No way was he going to get away with leaving her friend to the krauts. When Katie heard what Dani said, she had gone numb and before she even knew, she was doing she felt her hand connect with Cox's face.

Winters shook his head, this was a mess, he knew he had to transfer Cox and it would be a pain to find a replacement. Winters took a look at the officers gathered in front of CP. Dani was pissed and still looked sick, Speirs looked like he was going to kill Cox, and who could blame him. Nix was grinning like an idiot

Winters sighed, "Alright…Lane take Cox to the aid station, and I will speak with him later"

He then turned around and put his arm around Katie's shoulders "Come on slugger, let's get Mia to take a look at your hand and Dani get back to bed"

Dani coughed and nodded, Speirs looked at Nixon "I'll be back in five minutes"

Nix followed Winters into the CP "I hate to break the mood, but regiment want a patrol to cross the river and grab a few prisoners"

Winters ran his hands through his hair a few times and then turned and looked at Katie. Mia was bandaging her hand and she nodded that she would be ok. Her hand was just bruised and not broken, she flexed her fingers, she would be sore for a few days, but she would still be able to operate.

Nixon and Winters stepped out of the CP, Speirs and Lane joined them

"He wants us to cross the river?" Winters asked the two S3, Lane and Nixon had been promoted right after Bastogne.

"Yeah, I bet that water is cold" Nixon said

"Should be able to get you some boats," Lane said

They all heard some shell being fired and Lane and Winters looked up at the sky.

"It had to be a full moon, so much for the cover of darkness, it's going to leave the patrol exposed" Winters was not happy.

Lane, Winters and Nixon walked back to the CP

Winter removed his helmet "Listen up, regiment want a patrol for prisoners,"

Dani who was on her way up stairs stopped, turned, and looked at Lane with her fever-glazed eyes, she wanted to know what was going on, she knew she could not lead the patrol, but she still wanted to know what was going on

Speirs looked at her "Bed… now, that's an order"

The men in the room looked at the S3 officers with a look on their faces that said why, why should we risk our lives at this point in the war.

"Hey, this one comes straight from Colonel Sink, so it's not our idea" Lane said and motioned between Nixon and herself.

Winters laid out a map across the grand piano in the room "Since the river is the main line of resistance, we are going to have to cross it to get to them," Winters told Speirs.

Speirs looked at Winters and asked, "What do we need to do?"

"There is a threes storage building on the enemy side, up the embankment, we know it's occupied, you can have fifteen men, think very hard about who you want to lead the patrol, you need a lead scout and a translator, I will have the entire battalion on recovering fire" Winters gave Speirs a stern look.

"When?" Speirs asked

"Tonight at zero one hundred"

"Yes, sir," Speirs replied.

Lane looked around the room, the men and officers all looked like they were on the verge of breaking down and she got on her feet "I'll go, I can do it, just give me the remainder of third platoon and Malarkey's second"

Speirs and Winters looked at her and the both shook their heads "No"

"I can do it, I am just not another pretty face, I got this and since it's a S3 op, I am going"

Nixon sighed; he was going to need a bottle of the VAT 69 tonight if he was going to survive Lane risking her life for the bullshit mission.

Winters looked at Speirs "I want this as safe and fooled proof as possible"

Nixon looked at him "don't take any chances on this one, we are too far along for that"

Lane turned to a replacement. Lane and Nixon hadn't had the privilege of meeting Jones yet "Who are you?" She asked him

"Lieutenant Jones, Ma'am" he answered

Lane looked at Nixon "Right our West Pointer" Nixon said

Lane looked at the lieutenant "When did you graduate" she asked him

"June 6th, Ma'am" he said

"June 6th of last year?" Lane said with a surprised look on her face

"D. Day, yes ma'am" Jones said and knew Lane had taken an instant dislike to him

Nixon and Lane let out a small laugh "ok, don't get hurt" Nixon said and pushed Lane out of the room.

Nixon led Lane outside and walked down to the river "Lane…" He started

Lane looked at Nixon, he looked as battle worn as the rest of the men and he still hadn't shaved "Don't Lew, I am doing this, I am the one here…who is most ready to do this, the rest of you need rest. I won't let them send a noncom who will fuck this up, I can do this, don't worry I will be back in no time"

Nixon hugged Lane "I know, I still don't like it though"

Lane hugged him back "I know, I will be fine"

The Men and Lane were ordered to gather at CP at 1700. Lane knew she was late, the were filling the room and they looked around to see who would be leading the patrol

The men were passing out cigarettes; the new lieutenant was standing by the door.

"No way…can't he be leading" Grant said

Babe shrugged "I don't know what they decided"

"Not on his what first day here" Grant said

"Do you see any other officers here?" Liebgott asked

Cobb, Alley and two others walked into the room. McClung looked at Cobb who was pissed

"What?" he asked

"They call you up to?" McClung asked Alley

Alley asked who was in charge of the bullshit and turned and looked at Jones, as he was going to be leading the mission.

"No he ain't" Grant replied

"Well if he ain't, it's you Chuck, shifty or Moe," Babe said

"That would be better" Liebgott said anyone would be better than the replacement officer, who would get many good men killed.

Winters walked into the room followed by Lane and Martin

"Gentlemen as you can see, we have assembled 15 of you for the prisoner snatch tonight at 01.00, just a couple of points…we have secured four rubber boats to get you across the . Captain Easterday will lead the patrol" Winters told the men

The men let out a collective sigh, they would have someone who knew what they were doing leading them.

Winters went on " The whole battalion will cover your withdraw, identifying target and plan fire for them, when we hear these whistles we open up fire so don't blow them until you're back in the boat with your prisoners"

Winters went on to explain the technicalities of the mission and finally dismissed the men

Lane walked back to the house that housed the men who were going on the patrol. The men were preparing. Lane took of her helmet and looked around the room "Ok remember nothing shines and nothing rattles"

Lane looked around at the men in the basement not a single word was spoken, every man was preparing for what was a head and each of them wondered if they would make it back. The Patrol was unnecessary in Lane's opinion and the only thing they would accomplish was to get one or more of the veterans killed.

Each of them were sitting in silence, deep in thought. Some were praying, some were repeating the objective for the mission over and over again

Half an hour before they were set to off from the riverbank, Lane got on her feet "Come on boys let's get this snafu patrol over and done with"

The men got on their feet, picked up their weapons and shuffled out of the basement and towards the riverbank. Along the way, their fellow company members greeted them

Lane got in the first boat, the rest of the men followed, and they set off towards the enemy side of the river.

A couple of men fell in the river and the patrol was now short three men.

When they landed on the opposite bank Lane spread out her men, the sound of beating hearts, ragged breaths were deafening, and the tension was palpable.

Lane stopped for 30 seconds and got her shit together and then moved the patrol forward

Jackson, sweet young innocent Jackson, threw a grenade into the building and stepped in the door before it exploded.

He was screaming in agony. Webster yelled at the Germans, it was complete chaos and Lane had a hard time getting her men back to the boats.

Lane wanted to be the last one in the boat and she urged her men on, just before she stepped back in the boat a shot rang out.

Lane felt like something tore through her chest and she fell face first down into the boat, the men started to scream and a prisoner who the men thought wouldn't make it, got left on the shore.

"Shit" Martin mumbled when he felt Lane fall across his lap. Then he felt Lane's warm blood on his fingers, this wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.

Once back on their own side of the river, the men carried Lane and Jackson back to the basement. On their way there, Mia joined them and she ran alongside Lane's stretcher, she tried to get the men to carry Lane and Jackson to the hospital, but the men were panicking, there was no reasoning with them.

"Roe" Mia called out once they were inside the basement.

Doc started to treat Jackson, but he knew he was a goner. Roe turned to Mia "How is she doing?" he asked Mia

Mia removed the blanket and when she saw what they were dealing with, she knew it was only a matter of time before Lane would bleed out, she motioned for Spina to help her and they got Lane to the aid station.

"Katie…Doc, we need you" Mia called out.

Katie came running down the hall; she looked at Lane's wound and knew she had to operate on Lane at the aid station and if it was serious enough, she had to be transferred to a MASH unit.

….

Nixon and Winters heard the shot and ran toward the building where the men were gathered. A group carrying someone on a stretcher ran past the two officers. When the two officers entered the basement, the men became quiet and they all turned and looked at Winters.

Winters removed his helmet "Who got hurt?" Winters asked

Martin looked up at Winters and then his eyes shifted to Nixon, his eyes were misty "Jackson was KIA…and the Captain, Lane she…was wounded, she took one to the lung" Martin said

The sound of a helmet hitting the floor broke the dead silence in the basement "No, No, Nooooo" Nixon repeated the word repeatedly and before anyone could say anything Nixon ran out of the basement.

Winters followed his friend out of the basement, he saw Nixon running towards the aid station and Winters followed. Winters ran past Speirs and asked him to follow him.

Nixon burst through the doors and looked around, he headed for the room where could hear Katie barking orders.

A pair of strong hands stopped him "Sir…please don't make me force you out of here" Lipton looked at Nixon.

Nixon tried to push past the first sergeant, but Winters and Speirs stopped him "Nix don't" Winters told his friend and forced Nixon down onto a chair.

An hour later, most Easy Company was at the aid station or had dropped by at one time to check if there was any news. Nixon had not said anything he was drinking himself numb. Speirs and winters flanked him, so he wouldn't cause any problems. Dani had gone back to bed, she was still sick, the snaps and strudel hadn't cured her as it had Lipton.

…

Katie and a young medic, who had only been a month away from finishing his surgical internship, were working on Lane. The Captain was a tough one and Katie knew if it had been anyone else, the person would have been dead by now.

After what seemed like days, but had been hours they closed up and Katie knew it was up to God and Lane now, she had done what she could.

Katie thanked the medic, who just gave her a small tired smile. Katie walked out of the impromptu OP, and saw the people gathered there. Her eyes sought out Winters, he looked at her, she nodded, and Winters let out a breath.

Nixon looked and tried to get on his feet, but was unable to stand on his own, Speirs had to support him "How is she?" Nixon asked

Katie gave Nixon a small smile "She…it's up to god and Lane now…just be gentle when you go back there"

Nixon stumbled towards the back. Winters stopped "Nix…Lew go sleep I'll watch her for you"

Nixon knew Winters was right, he knew Lane would kill him if she saw him now "Yeah…just let me know if something happens"

Winters nodded "I will, don't worry"

….

Dani had enough of staying in bed and she decided to find Speirs, she found him by the river

She arrived at the same time as Sink and Colonel Harper of the 327th glider infantry regiment.

Sink had a little too much to drink and he ordered Winters to dispatch another patrol to capture additional prisoners.

Nixon and Winters exchanged a confused look, the order made absolutely no sense, Winters decided to ignore the order.

A second patrol would only result in additional casualties. The freshly fallen snow along the riverbanks turned into ice in no time during the day, which meant the Germans would hear the patrol a mile away.

Winters just said yes sir.

Winters looked at Nixon "Why the hell did he want another patrol?"

"Well the two prisoners you snatched talked about everything, OB, supply trouble, Hitler's favorite color, nothing that gets us across the river, I don't what to tell you Dick" Nixon shrugged.

Nixon told Winters "Well, Sinks been on the horn all day bragging and now he wants to show off, you gave him a successful patrol and now he wants another"

Winter let out a spiteful laugh "Successful"

They were so close to the ending and men were still dying.

Speirs came up to the small group "Dick the men are mustered, I am ready to brief them, same rooster as last night, well almost, well mostly"

"No, No I'll do it" Dick turned and walked toward the building

….

Winters gathered the men "Listen up, Colonel Sink wants another patrol tonight" Winters said

The men let out a collective groan, Winters went on to brief the men about the patrol

"Won't we be changing the plan at all?" Martin asked him

"We will be crossing at 02.00 instead of 01.00," Winters said.

There was a loud thud and Winters looked at his watch "The outpost we hit last night just went up in Smoke, tomorrow I will hand Sink a report stating we were unable to secure any prisoners, look alive we are moving of line"

Winters looked at the men "Get good night's sleep"

Winters turned and looked at Lipton "A word first sergeant" Winters motioned for Lipton to follow him.

Speirs turned and looked at Lieutenant Jones "Jones, join us at the company CP"

…

"Congratulations, you are here by discharged from the US Army and awarded a battlefield commission" Winters handed Lipton a set of second lieutenants bars.

Mia, who had been called to CP, came running thru the room and threw herself at Lipton "Congrats C, you so deserve it"

She then turned and looked Welsh, who had returned to the company "Harry, didn't expect to see you back so soon, I was expecting you, to nurse that scratch of yours for another month or two" she said and hugged Welsh, who picked her off the floor.

"No, I couldn't live without you anymore" Welsh said and winked at Mia.

Winters turned to Lieutenant Jones, "Regiment has seen fit to promote you to first lieutenant, congratulations they want you on their staff"

Jones shook Winters hand; Jones knew the battalion commander wanted him gone, because he couldn't use an inexperienced combat leader

Easy Company was moving on. Lane would not be going with them and Nixon was drinking himself stupid every night.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 16

Dani knew she had to find Malarkey. Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere and Buck Compton had been some of Don's closest friends. She found him in a foxhole with Rod Bain. Bain nodded and climbed out when Dani motioned for him to take a walk; she needed to talk to Don alone.

"Hey Malark," Dani greeted Malarkey and sat down beside him. Don's beard had grown quite a bit and she thought he looked like one of the merry men from Robin Hood.

Malarkey didn't answer the Lieutenant, he was thinking about his options. One shot... that's all it would take. One shot and he could be out of there. Accidents happen all the time, so why not now, why not here, it could just as well be him than someone else.

"What are you thinking Don?" Dani asked the quiet Sergeant. Winters had promoted him to staff sergeant after Guarnere was wounded.

"Just…how…hell everybody finds a way out of here, intentionally or not. Hoobler shoots himself in the leg. Toye and Bill, gets blown to bits and Buck…well I guess he got blown to bits as well just in a different way" Malarkey looked at his hands as they were shaking.

Dani pulled out her P38 and handed it to Malarkey "You are right... one shot Malark, it's all it takes"

Malarkey just handed the gun back, he thought he had been tough growing up in Astoria, got tougher on Currahee, on the road to Atlanta lugging the sixty-five pound mortar all the way.

"I just. I just thought I was tougher than this…LT…I thought we were tougher than this. Jumping into Normandy in the dark, you surviving getting captured and then surviving Holland for seventy day, I Dunno"

"Look Don, we just have to stuff all that pain in the musette bag and keep walking…maybe the Lucky SOB's are the ones that are gone. We lost a lot of Toccoa men since those days in Georgia, but we push one Don…we push on, just hang tough" Dani patted Malarkey on the bag and walked towards the CP.

Dani was almost at the CP when a barrage started. She dived into the nearest foxhole; she landed on top of Lipton and Mia. They watched as Luz snaked his way towards the foxhole Muck and Penkala shared, a shell hit a dead ringer in the foxhole and Muck and Penkala were gone.

Luz got his feet and Jumped in with Mia, Lip and Dani "Muck and Penkala…Muck and Penkala, they are dead"

They all sat still and waited for the Germans to cease-fire. Dani ran back to the foxhole and jumped in with Don, she knew Roe would be there in no time to tell Don about what happened to his two best friends.

Roe dug his hands deeper into his pockets, stopped on the edge of the foxhole, and crouched down "Malark, I'm sorry, but it's Skip" he said, "He is dead Penkala too"

Dani could tell Malarkey went completely numb and she put her arms around Malarkey

"How did…it..Happen" Malarkey's voice was nothing but a whisper

"Bout a 100 yard down the line. A major shelling. Muck and Penkala were caught out in the open, and then finally found a hole. Luz had been running around during the blitz too. Muck and Penkala yelled for him to get in their foxhole" Roe paused and looked at Dani, she nodded and Roe continued, "Luz is down in the snow, snaking his way toward them and-boom-direct hit on the foxhole. Shell found them as if it had eyes"

Roe handed Malarkey the cross of some broken rosary "He would want you to have it" Roe said and then disappeared

Dani sat for a while with Don who just stared at the cross. She climbed out of the foxhole and came back a while later "Malarkey, Uh winters wants to know if you want to come and spend a couple of days with him at HQ. Help out there, be a runner"

She hoped Malarkey would take the offer, just a few hours away from the front line could alter a man's depressed mind.

Malarkey just shook his head "No…I…I'm gonna stay the guys need me"

Dani gave him a little smile and walked back to CP, she respected Don's choice, it was the right one.

...

Easy was through playing games with the Germans in Foy. The other companies in the regiment had tried to attack Foy and had been forced to retreat. The Germans were bringing up trucks and Tanks. Winters figured it was now or never and the company swept the woods left and right. It was time to head straight into Foy.

Two things about the attack worried Dani. She was sitting in a foxhole with Lipton, talking about the attack "First we have to charge across an open field of snow, against an enemy that's entrenched with buildings and trees, secondly fucking foxhole Norman is going to lead the attack, that fucker got no combat experience, he is going to get us all killed"

Lipton knew she was right and he knew he had to talk to Winters. Lipton waited a few hours before he headed towards CP. He meet Mia on the way, she hollered for him to stop

"Hey C where are you headed?" Mia asked him

"CP, I need to talk to Winters…Dike…he is not really all there" Lipton looked at Mia for confirmation, he knew he was doing the right thing, he just needed Mia to know it too.

"Yeah…you should, but C don't get your hopes up" Mia kissed him on the cheek.

Lipton carried on. When he arrived at the CP he noticed Lane and Nixon were pouring over some maps and Katie was sitting quietly in a corner mumbling something that sounded like freaking moron.

Winters walked by and looked at Lipton who was smoking, a habit he had picked up after the shelling that killed Muck and Penkala. Mia had told him it was a nasty habit, but it helped him calm down.

"Lip…I didn't figure you for a smoking man" Winters said and walked back into the CP

"Neither did I" Lip mumbled while he tried to put the cigarette out.

Winters handed a piece of paper to a runner "D. Company, Lieutenant Speirs, Patrol order"

Winters crouched down and looked at a cup with coffee in it on a small fire "So"

Lip stood behind him "We have been watching Foy, not much activity"

Winters picked up the cup and stood up "Want a coffee"

Lipton shook his head "No thank you sir"

Winters sat down besides Katie and gave her small smile; Katie just scowled at him and turned her head.

"How is Easy status?" Winters asked

"The men are good, they are prepared…I am going to be leading second platoon tomorrow, they are probably the weakest after losing, Toye and Guarnere, Muck and Penkala, But all in all I have every confidence in the men sir" Lipton said

"Good..Good" Winters took a sip of his hot coffee

Lipton hesitated and drew in a deep breath " But on the other hand I have no confidence in our CO, Sir"

Katie looked at Winters "Told you so" she mumbled

"Lieutenant Dike is an Empty uniform Captain, he is just…he is not there, Sir" Lipton waited for Winters to respond

"Well he is gonna be there tomorrow" Winters said with a stern voice, he knew Lip was right, he just couldn't let a sergeant question his decisions

"Yes sir, I understand he is going to be there physically, But tomorrow is going to be the real deal and he is going to have to lead those men. He is going to have to make decisions Sir and I..I got to tell you sir I think he is going to get a lot of Easy company men killed" Lipton hoped he got the message across, but he knew Winters couldn't replace Dike, he was a favor to someone up at division.

"Thank you, that will be all first sergeant" Winters looked at Katie "Guess someone shares your concern"

"Guess so, you know Dick, you should make Speirs head of Easy, bet he could take the town with less casualties than most men here" Katie knew that Speirs was a great combat leader.

…

Winters was feeding Dike Instructions like a coach to a rookie quarterback. He told he was relying on him to get it done.

3rd and 2nd platoon moved out. Covering fire opened. A smoke barrage was laid down in front of the buildings the Germans used for defensive positions. They headed across the field. 3rd went in on a frontal attack and were in an orchard about a hundred yards from the buildings when the smoke lifted, they were taking heavy fire and had lots of casualties. 2nd flanked in from west.

Dike yelled for Shames to keep it tight and Keep moving were heard from Lipton.

Dike got confused when he couldn't find Foley and his platoon. He yelled for Easy company to hold up and soon the attack was falling apart; Dani was stuck with Dike behind a haystack. Dike had frozen and flat out refused to lead the charge.

"Does he know Hay isn't bullet proof?" Luz mumbled

Lipton stopped 2nd platoon and Dike ordered Luz to get Foley on the horn.

From the rear Winters was going nuts yelling and screaming for them to move on. Dike ordered the men to fall back and then Froze, sitting still, not making any decisions. The men were running left and right and Dani, shames, Foley and Lipton tried to keep them together.

They were screaming at Dike, Who kept saying "I don't know…I don't know…I don't Know"

Winters was trying to get Dike on the phone, it was chaos. Winters watched what was going on in front of him and finally he had enough

Winters was running towards the battle before him eager to get Easy to safety "You gotta keep moving, keep moving forward" he yelled

"Dick get back here" Katie shouted

"Dick, Dick, Captain Winters, you do not go out there, you are the battalion commander, get back here, now Dick I understand your attachment to Easy Company…" Sink shouted at Winters

Dick just blazed past him "Speirs, get yourself on over here, get down there and relief Dike and take that attack down on in"

…..

Dani turned her head and saw her future husband run through the field, he jumped over an exploding mortar and ran down to Dike and told him he was relieved.

"First sergeant Lipton, What do we got?" Speirs screamed

"Sir most of the company are spread out here" Lipton pointed towards the town "First platoon tried an in and around, they pinned down by a sniper, I believe he is in the bombed out building here" Lipton pointed to a building with a caved in roof.

"Ok I want mortars and Garnate launchers on that building until it's gone, when it's gone I want 1st to go straight in. Forget going around, everybody follow me" Speirs got up and sprinted towards town

Luz looked at her and Dani just smiled "That's my man" she smiled and followed the new CO to Foy.

Lipton and Speirs had taken cover behind a bombed out building "What do you see Lipton"

"Infantry, a lot of infantry" Lip told him

"I Company is supposed to be on the other side of town, can you see them?" Speirs asked Lip

No, Sir, I am afraid they are gonna slip away, if we don't connect with them" Lip said

"Right, wait here" Speirs ran towards a small wall and jumped over it, he connected with I and came right back.

Dani looked at him; she knew Speirs had guts, but man that was hot.

….

The attack was over, and the whole regiment was celebrating, when a shot rang out and a man fell down.

The men all took cover and suddenly the whole town was quiet.

Lane, Lipton, Dani and Shifty took cover behind a building. Lipton quickly spotted the sniper. Dani and Lane looked at each other and nodded, "Building on the right, second floor don't miss Shifty" Dani said and took off running to the right and Lane went to the left, Shifty got the sniper

Dani smiled until she felt a slap on the back of her head, Katie looked at her " What the hell is wrong with you, Speirs is about to bust a vein?" Katie told Dani and pointed towards a pissed off Speirs.

Easy took Noville and the Rachamps. In Rachamps, the company spent the night in the convent.

Speirs walked over and Pulled Dani behind a building "I can't even…"

Dani kissed Speirs "You don't have to, I've been through hell and back in that forest. At one point I thought I was going to die in a foxhole in a frozen hell, but you know what Ron? Seeing Malarkey push through after Mucks death and seeing you run through town, gave me back the confidence I lost somewhere in Normandy, when those Germans punched the living daylight out of me. I won't…I can't go back to being half living and half dead I am going to push through and hang tough, get used to it"

Dani turned and walked away, finding Luz. Speirs looked at the happy reunion between the two friends. Dani smiled and laughed at something Luz said. Speirs knew right there and then Dani was going to be all right and she could survive anything.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 15

"Katie, oh god sweetheart I thought I lost you" Winters hugged Katie like he was never going to let her go.

"I love you" was all Katie said and hugged Winters back, she clung on to him, never wanting to let him go.

Winters started to ask Katie about what had happened while they been captured "Not now Dick I can't talk about it, not here, not right now"

Winters nodded, he knew that something had to be buried if you wanted to survive the present

The men stopped and looked at the scene unfolding before them. It was nice to see two people so in love in the middle of the miserable frozen hell. The cameras turned to the couple, but Katie let go of Dick when she noticed it, she didn't want the attention or the questions that would follow.

Katie looked at the men and smiled "I guess you didn't follow Taylors order to shave"

The men laughed and one by one, they hurried over and hugged the doctor. They were all glad to have her back. Winters would be happy again and at this point most of the men realized Winters was a big part of the fact they were alive.

"I have some news for you boys….you guys are making headlines at home…they are calling you heroes…the battered bastards of Bastogne" Katie waited for the men's response. She knew most of them didn't feel like heroes.

Malarkey looked at her "Well I don't think most of us feel like heroes…just cold"

"I know Don and I have a feeling most of you are tired and running out of patience…and look, more snow" Katie walked over and put her arm around Malarkey and he put his arms around her "Good to see you Doc" Malarkey mumbled.

Winters turned to Joe "What are you doing here?"

Joe looked at Winters "I want to head back to the line, sir"

Winters shook his head "You don't have to do that, get back to the aid station, get yourself healed up"

Joe Shook his head "I really want to head back to the fellows sir"

"Alright, go on then" Winters motioned toward the grub line

…..

Dani had been over by Dogs line trying to avoid the cameras, came running through the forest and grabbed Katie. She grabbed her friend and hugged the living daylight out of her "I never thought I would see you again"

Katie looked at Dani, she noticed her friend looked pale, she had dark circles around her eyes and Dani had lost a lot of weight during their time in the forest.

"Is tall, dark and scary not looking after you" Katie asked Dani

"He is trying" Dani said and walked towards the grub line

Dani linked her arm thru Joes and walked with him to get some bean soup. Guarnere approached them

Bill greeted Joe and then he noticed Dani "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes" Bill looked at Dani, she looked like hell.

Dani punched Bill playfully in the arm.

Bill turned to Joe "What are you doing here?"

Joe shrugged "I had to make sure you were on top of things"

Bill smirked "I am on top of things, I tied me own boots once last week, all by me self" Bill and Joe laughed.

A replacement who hadn't met Dani yet, because she was hiding from Dike and the cameras over by Dog Company's line looked at Dani, "What's with all the broads in this Company?"

Joe looked at the replacement "What's that" he asked

"That's Webb, a replacement," Skip told him

"Really, I thought it some guy I have known for two years and I forgot his face" Toye retorted

"Joe got hit in the arm, a New Year's Eve gift from the Luftwaffe," A Penkala told the replacement

"Have a lot of you been injured" The replacement asked

Lane who was skipping the line, smacked the poor guy upside his head "It's called wounded peanut, injured is when you fall out of a tree or something"

Katie who had gotten her grub and sat down on a log with Mia and Katie on each side of her, smiled when Skip turned and told the Kid "Don't worry there is enough grab flying around here, you are about to get dinged sometime"

Skip decided to guide the replacement through the Company's wounded list "almost every single of these guys and girls has been hit a least once"

Skip looked around "except for Alley he is a two timer, he landed on broken glass in Normandy and got peppered by a potato masher in Holland, Bull he got an piece of exploding tank in Holland, now Luz and Lane here, they never been hit, lucky bastards"

Luz looked at skip, who had never been wounded himself "Takes one to know one, Skip" he retorted

Skip just continued "consider us blessed, now Liebgott, the scrawny little guy, he got pinged in the neck in Holland"

Liebgott pulled down on his scarf so Webb could see his scar "And next to him, that other skinny little guy, that's Popeye, he got shot in his scrawny little butt in Normandy"

Skip then turned to Buck "And Buck got shot in his rather large butt in Holland" Buck pointed to where he was hit.

"It's kind of an Easy company tradition getting shot in the ass," Penkala mumbled.

Skip then looked at the Katie, Mia, Lane and Dani "And then there are the pretty edition to the company, now Captain Hendrick, she got hit by a flying piece of bridge in Holland"

Skip continued "Lieutenant Hunt…well let's just say she met the Germans upfront and in Person"

Dani gave Skip a grateful smile; she didn't really want all the new men to know about her run in with the Germans on D-day

Skip then turned to Lip "even first sergeant Lipton here he got a couple tank shell burst in Carentan, he took one to the face, the other almost took out his nuts"

Guarnere smirked, winked at Mia, and then turned to Lipton "How are those nuts?"

Before Lipton could respond, Mia smirked back at Guarnere "Very well Sergeant, thanks for asking.

That earned, a blushing Lipton a slap on the back and a few laughs.

…..

On January 3rd Winters decided to pull 2nd and 3rd Platoon out of the advanced position. He wanted them back in their old positions, perched in their woods overlooking Foy. Winters had no reserves to fill the flanks if the Germans got past them they would be fighting on three sides

Winters left 1st platoon attached to Dog Company, which like most of the company in the 101st was down to 50 percent or less strength. Dog Company needed help maintaining the MLR, Dani offered to stay with first platoon and Buck took charge of third platoon.

This way Dani could stay with Speirs and Buck would get a small break.

Christenson. Perconte and a replacement were sharing a foxhole. First and second platoon walked by, the men teased the guys, "don't drink too much" and Malarkey walked by and pointed his rifle at them, "don't accept, if he offers you a cigarette"

The replacement looked at Christenson "What are they talking about"

"Speirs, lieutenant Speirs," Christenson told the replacement

"The stories about Speirs, is probably just bullshit anyways" Christenson was toying with his machine gun.

"What stories? What stories" the replacement asked

Perconte looked at him "Speirs shot one of his men for being drunk"

"That's unbelievable," the replacement said

"And another one about him giving cigarettes to twenty POV before shooting them" Christenson continued

"Well I heard it was more like thirty," Perconte said between brushing his teeth

None of the men had heard Dani and Speirs sneaking up on them "Christenson, I got the name right, it is Christenson right?" Speirs asked the scared soldier.

"Yes sir" Christenson answered

"What are you men doing out here" Speirs asked the men

Dani was hanging back and none of the men in the foxhole had yet noticed her, she was trying not to laugh at the frightened look on the men's faces.

"Watching the line, Sir" Christenson answered

"Well, keep up the good work and while you are at it, you might want to reinforce your cover" Speirs motioned to the foxhole, which was in a poor state

"Actually, lieutenant Dike said, not to bother we are only going to be here one day" Perconte said

"Lieutenant Dike said not to bother, well then forget what I said, carry on" Ron got on his feet and started to walk away, he turned "Anyone care for a smoke"

Dani stepped out from the shadows "Don't mess with my men" She gave Speirs a stern look and Speirs just shook his head and walked off.

Dani shook her head "Everybody ok here?" The three men nodded and Dani walked off in the direction Speirs had disappeared to.

She found him in his foxhole, he was smoking and when he saw Dani a big smile appeared on his face, Dani jumped down in the foxhole "Don't mess with my boys, you scare the shit out of them" Dani scolded him.

"I didn't do anything just talking" Speirs smirked

"Yeah, whatever you say" Dani cuddled up to Speirs and she fell asleep.

…

The lead unit decided to take a short cut across the open field to get to the foxholes before dark, the other units followed and the Germans spotted them.

When the men ducked into the woods, they noticed that the German had zeroed artillery in on the position. There were shell holes and branches from tree bursts all around the foxholes. The shells were big, indicating heavy artillery.

Joe jumped into his foxhole to work on strengthening it "Argh, you gotta be fucking kidding me, someone's gonna die, someone's gonna fucking die, look at this shit, one of those first battalion fuckers took a shit in my foxhole"

Guarnere was looking around at the mass destruction "They took a shit in everybody's foxhole; I don't think they wanted to spend much time above ground"

Mia, Shames, Buck and Lipton was standing in a circle talking, Lipton was explaining to them what he had observed in Foy, "They are just waiting for us to reoccupy our position" Buck said

"It's our job to hold the line here, we got pretty good foxholes, we just need to strengthened our covers" Lipton told the other officers

Shames chimed in "If they got us zeroed in maybe we should…"

Buck interrupted him "We hold the line here, sergeant Lipton is right, we are gonna strengthen our covers and we are gonna hang in, we are not gonna fall back" Buck let out a small laugh and yelled "Right lieutenant" to Dike who was standing ten feet away from the group

"Fine, you all take care of it; I gotta go talk to regiment" Dike walked off and disappeared once again.

Mia and Lipton were working on strengthening their foxhole, when a barrage began. Lipton and Mia ran through the woods yelling to the men to take cover, before them finally jumping into a small open hole, someone had started to dig and then abandoned.

Mia heard Buck yelling, "In coming G'down take cover"

Lipton was on top of Mia, who was shaking, this was worse than anything they had experienced before.

The shells were set to explode on impact, creating tree bursts that flung shrapnel and knifelike shards of wood in all directions. Pines snapped in half and slammed to the snow with thumps, limbs flying crazily. The ground exploded, dirt shooting up like geysers, the men were running around looking for cover.

Buck kept running around yelling "Get down, find some cover"

Toye was in the open, shouting orders to his men to take cover, a shell exploded just above him. Shrapnel all but tore off his right leg and hit him in the stomach, chest and both arms.

Suddenly the shelling stopped. All through the woods men were calling out for a medic, Mia started to get on her feet, Lipton got of her "You head for the foxhole, it's gonna start again"

Mia ran toward their foxhole trying to block out the calls for a medic, she knew Lipton was right

Toye voices was heard "Gotta get up…Gotta get up"

Hearing his old friend Guarnere jumped to his rescue and just as he started to drag Joe towards his foxhole. Guarnere were playing right into the Germans hands. The shelling started again, a shell burst over Guarnere's head. Shrapnel tore into his right leg, mangling it. After a few minutes, the shelling ceased.

Mia and Lipton ran out of their foxhole, halfway to Joe and Bill they encountered Dike.

Dike shouted to Lipton "First Sergeant Lipton, you get things organized here and I'll go for help" And with that he left.

Lipton was shocked, Mia turned and looked at Dike's retreating form "Lieutenant Dike, get back here, Dike…" Mia shook her head "Fucker" she mumbled.

Mia and Lipton ran toward the Panicked voice of Buck calling "medic…medic"

Buck came roaring past them, he was heading towards the CP, he was completely exposed to incoming fire. Liebgott, Luz, and Alley, tackled him and dragged him into a foxhole. Buck had had enough and he couldn't take it anymore.

Mia came to a skidding hold and threw herself down next to Toye" its ok Joe, It's gonna be ok"

Malarkey was shocked to see what happened to his two friends "What can I do to help?" He asked Dani, Mia and Roe, who had shown up two minutes before.

Mia was trying to tie a tourniquet around what was left of Joe's leg.

"Take it Easy Joe, you're going to be ok" Malarkey tried to comfort his friend.

A jeep had come up from the rear and wound its way through the trees, Mia and Malarkey put Joe on a stretcher and lifted it on to the hood of the jeep

Joe asked Malarkey for a cigarette, trying to comfort his friend, who kept saying it was going to be ok, as if he was saying it would make it all ok. Malarkey put a cigarette in Joes mouth and lit it, Joe took a deep drag and blew out the smoke

Joe looked at Malarkey "what's a guy gotta do to die" Joe asked

Malarkey sniffled and said, "I Dunno Joe, I Dunno"

Guarnere was sitting next to him shaking, he looked up at Lipton "eh Lip, they got old Guarnere this time"

Bill was put on a stretcher and just before they walked away with him, he said, "Hey Joe, I told I would beat you back to the states"

Joe Toye was in a lot of pain, and Camilla tried to ease his pain, best she could with her limited supply of morphine.

Katie came running to the scene and threw herself down on the ground next to Joe "Hey Joe, you don't look too hot" She nudged him; Joe just smiled, and looked away.

Katie looked over her shoulder, Luz came walking up to her, and Katie knew she would never forget his shocked expression, when he saw Joe on the ground.

Katie put a hand on his shoulder and turned him away from the scene "Luz, how is Buck?"

"Fine, but you should probably go talk to him," Luz said and walked away, it was too much for him to see his friend on the ground.

Katie walked over and sat down next to Buck "Buck, how is that trench foot of yours?" she asked him

Buck wouldn't look Katie in the eye, he knew what she was doing and he was grateful for it, she wasn't going to talk to him about what he just witnessed, but she was giving him away out.

Buck just looked at Katie with big empty eyes, Katie motioned for him to stand up and she walked Buck to a jeep "Let me handle this, you just go and don't come back until you are ready"

Katie hugged Buck and the jeep drove off, Katie found battalion CP and informed Winters, she had sent Buck off the line with a bad case of trench foot

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 14

German Field Hospital Somewhere in Belgium

"Captain Hendrick…Doc Hendrick…Can you come here for a second" A young nurse called out for Katie.

It was Christmas Eve and the German Hospital was overcrowded. Katie did the best she could for the German soldier, but she never talked or got close with them, not as she had done with her American Patients, her friends.

Katie missed Winters, she would dream of him at night. She longed for him and she needed him more than her next breath.

Katie walked towards the young nurse; suddenly the German commander blocked her path.

"Ah Doctor Hendrick…Kommen Sie mit…Bitte" The Commander motioned for Katie to follow him

Katie followed him into his office, the commander closed the door, Katie swallowed, she was afraid he heard how she helped Mia escape.

"Doctor, one of your nurses has gone missing…Do you…how do you say, have a finger in the escape act" The commander sat down in his desk chair.

Katie swallowed hard "I don't know what you are talking about I didn't even know a nurse was missing" Katie bit her cheek. Mia must have made it since the commander decided to interrogate Katie.

"Are you absolutely sure you don't know anything about this flucht…escape?" The commander got on his feet.

The commander walked over to Katie. Being young and away from home, he couldn't help but being attracted to the young doctor, she was a beauty.

Katie looked at the commander. He was a poster boy for the Nazi's he was tall, slender and blond with blue eyes. Katie hated the commander, he never hurt her, but she knew he was playing her. He wanted something from her and she had a feeling it was her in his bed and that was why he had been so nice these past few weeks.

"I don't know anything" Katie looked the commander right in the eyes

"You know what I think you are lying" the commander walked over, lifted Katie's hair away from her neck, and kissed the spot right behind her ear.

Katie shuddered and the commander took it for lust not the fright it actually was, he grabbed her hand and kissed her. Katie tried to fight him off. When he pulled back, Katie spit him in the face.

That turned out to be a big mistake, the commander slapped her hard across the face, the door opened and a soldier stepped in, the commander stepped away from Katie. The commander looked at the young soldier

"WAS" his eyes never leaving Katie?

"Haupt sturmbahn fuhrer Schmidt" The young soldier stepped away and a German SS soldier stepped in the room.

The commander stepped up to the young soldier and whispered something in his ear and the young man grabbed Katie and pulled him alongside of him. He stopped in front of a cell. Katie started to protest she knew no one made out of the cell a live.

…

Christmas Eve, somewhere in a cold forest in Belgium

Dani sat in a crowded foxhole with Malarkey, Muck, Penkala and Bain. Malarkey passed out Lucky stripes.

Dani was shaking like oak leaves and she missed Ron. It was Christmas Eve and she was supposed to be with the people she loved, not sitting in a foxhole freezing her ass off.

It was quiet and the only sound was some guys coughing, which had become as common as breathing.

Suddenly the Germans started to sing Silent night, the sound traveled over the snow. Dani closed her eyes and started to sing as well and the men in the foxhole became quiet. Dani opened her eyes and saw the men all staring at her.

"What" she asked

Malarkey shook his head "You should sing more often that was amazing, merry Christmas lieutenant"

Dani blushed "Merry Christmas boys"

….

December 26th somewhere in a holding cell in Belgium

Katie was going insane; she knew all the signs from her psych classes. She was hallucinating and she was itching all over and she was sure she heard voices. Katie crept into the corner of the cell.

The door to the cell opened and a soothing voice sounded, "Ok, its ok, it's over"

Katie looked at the soldier standing in the door and sighed with relief, it was over, and by the look of his uniform, he was a part of Patton's third army.

The Soldier picked up Katie, carried her up to the hospital ward, and put her on the bed. Katie passed out, the next time she woke up, she saw the German soldiers were gone and replaced by Brits and Americans.

One of the young nurses stopped when she noticed Katie was awake "Oh Doctor…oh I can't believe it, you are awake" The nurse motioned for one of the doctors to come over and examine Katie

"Doctor Kent" Katie mumbled and let the other doctor look her over. Katie knew she was ok physically, she was just dehydrated and starved, but emotionally she was beat, she felt like she lost a part of herself somewhere between the beating and the cell.

….

A frozen forest in Belgium, December 31st

"Glen Miller's plane has gone down somewhere over the channel" Roe brought back news from town.

"Wow…Can't believe we won't hear any new music from that guy again" Malarkey mumbled and returned to watch the line.

"Well I got some more news…Patton has liberated the 326th" The 3rd army had penetrated the German lines and had rolled into town, the circle was broken and Easy would finally be resupplied and the wounded would finally be evacuated.

Roe ran off, he needed to tell Winters. Roe knocked on the tent pole at the CP, Winters looked up at him "Doc…what can I do for you" Winters asked

"Well, sir, I just wanted to…the 326th was liberated by Patton

Winters starred at Roe "Is there any…is there any news about the…"

Roe knew Winters wanted to know if he had heard anything about Katie "No sir, Nothing"

Winters sighed "Ok, thank you for the news and Doc if you hear anything…"

"You will be the first to know" Roe turned and walked back to the foxhole he shared with Spina, he hoped the nice doctor was ok.

The tarp over the foxhole lifted and Mia slid into the foxhole "Is it me or is Dike the biggest moron on the face of the earth"

Roe and Spina looked at Mia. Mia never complained so Foxhole Norman must have screwed up "What…never mind…the 326th has been liberated" Roe told Mia

Mia just smiled and snuggled up in her blanket. She was happy but she wondered what shape Katie would be in when she showed up.

Mia heard Dani run by the foxhole just as a barrage started. Dani was shouting at the men trying to get them to take cover, she pushed the men into the foxhole. A German plane swooped low and fired an anti personnel bomb. Toye pushed Dani out of the way and in return, he took some shrapnel to the wrist.

"Oh god Toye, I am so sorry are you ok" Dani was crouched by Toye's side and she was almost crying.

"Damn it…don't worry about me Lt, just remember to tell Speirs how I saved your life" Toye joked

Spina came running and he patched Joe up. Malarkey and Luz was standing by the Jeep joking with Joe "You lucky SOB"

"Hey Malark I will be back" Joe said and the jeep took off.

Dani stood and looked after the jeep as it disappeared. She felt guilty she looked at the small crowd gathered around her.

Luz walked over and hugged Dani "Don't worry Lt, he will be back"

Dani nodded and sniffled "I know"

Dani looked up and noticed Speirs standing a few feet away, if looks could kill Luz would have been dead.

Speirs held his hand out and Dani walked over and put her hand in his. Speirs walked Dani back to her foxhole and jumped in and then grabbed Dani by the waist and lifted her into the frozen hole.

Speirs pulled Dani close "I thought I told you to stay away from Luz" he mumbled into her hair

Dani sniffled into Speirs' chest and nodded. Speirs just held Dani tight and waited for her to calm down. He knew she felt guilty for getting Toye hurt even though she had nothing to do with it, But Dani was sensitive and he knew she just needed to feel like it was ok and that she was forgiven.

A few minutes later Dani felt a different presence in the foxhole, she looked up, Luz, Malarkey and Muck were all there. Speirs looked at Dani and then at Luz "Behave" and then he disappeared into the snow-covered forest.

Luz looked at the other soldiers in the foxhole "How does he always just show up and disappear without anyone noticing, he always know when you need him Lt"

Dani sighed, "I know, he is just…"

"Scary, we know," Muck joked.

"You know what," Malarkey asked

"No" Muck said and waited for his friend to continue

"It's new year's eve," Malarkey said

Dani looked at the men, in all the madness they forgot a year ago, they all celebrated the New Year in England Warm, wild and all the food you could eat; now they sat in their foxholes talking quietly. Buck jumped in the foxhole and wished them all a happy New Year.

"Buck can we fire off some mortars rounds," Malarkey asked

"You got ammo?" Buck asked

"Yeah" Malarkey waited for the response from his friend

Buck looked at Dani "I don't know, what do you say Dani?"

Dani looked at the men; they looked like boys waiting for permission to fire off firecrackers on 4 July.

"Oh go ahead" Dani smiled

The boys scurried out of the foxhole and fired off six rounds, just to let the Germans know it was not over yet.

On January 2nd Easy was called upon to push the Germans back through the Bulge. Easy were sent to clear the Bois Jacques,  third platoon were moving out, they met little resistance, at one point, Buck stopped and ordered Malarkey to squad down, and he placed a map over on his back.

Buck and Lipton were discussing where they were, and which way to proceed.

"That means, we must be right here," Buck said and tapped Malarkey on the back of the head.

Malarkey protested "Hey take it easy"

"Quit whining, or I will nail it to your head," Buck said

Guarnere snickered "You should, it's made of wood"

Dani and Lipton was walking next to each other "Man I glad to be out of my foxhole, at least I keep warm walking" Lipton said

Dani looked at him "I don't know Lip, I don't like it, it's only a thousand yard attack, and we already had casualties, I don't like it"

Easy reached the MLR and dug in. Darkness was setting in; defensive positions were set for the night. A German soldier came roaring through the woods on horseback, like something out of legend of sleepy hollow, he scared the hell out of everybody there. He encountered a patrol and did a one eighty turn and headed back. Hoobler pumped three rounds in the soldiers back, the soldier fell off the horse and Hoobler finally got his luger.

The company dug in as best they could, Dani was swearing and cursing. Lipton finally decided to help her and shifty dig in.

"Hey Lip thanks for the help" Shifty was grateful for the help, Dani had always been petite, but after weeks in the forest, she was now weak and she looked pale and sick. Speirs checked in on her occasionally, but there was nothing anybody could do, without rations and water Dani would not get better.

Buck moved from foxhole to foxhole to check on the men asking if they were ok and telling them to keep moving. When he reached Lipton and Dani, he motioned for them to follow him

Where is Dike?" Buck asked

Dani shrugged "He is around"

"Can you be a little more specific there?" Buck asked her

"Not really Buck" Dani told him

"God damn it, I didn't see him coming through the woods, and I haven't seen him all day. I have figure how we ended up" Buck said

"Two wounded" Lipton told him

"Who?" Buck asked Lipton

"Browns and Stevens" Lipton said

"Damit, Where is Dike? Where the hell does he ever go?" Buck was pissed off, and damn near his breaking point, a missing CO was a big problem

Malarkey and Shifty was digging a foxhole next to Dani and Lipton's, the two of them retorted, "I don't know, but I wish he stay the hell there, and it would be nice if he took lieutenant Shames with him"

Lipton knew talk like that could lower morale, and he told the two men to shut up.

A gun went off nearby and a soldier screamed. Hoobler had been fiddling with his luger in his pocket and accidently shot himself. He was squirming in the snow, the blood gushing from the main artery in the right thigh.

"Help me, help me, oh god help me," He cried

Mia came running thru the forest and skidded to a halt when she saw what she had to deal with "Ok, we need to get him to the aid station" Mia was working frantically, but she knew Hoobler was a going to die and he did at the aid station alone in the night.

Lipton, Mia and Dani walked back to CP to report the incident, Lipton were telling Winter, Nixon and Lane how they couldn't find the artery underneath the layers of clothes Hoobler had been wearing

Nixon looked at Lipton, "Oh hell Lip, you cut that main artery in the leg and that's… that's it"

Lip looked at Dani and the rest of the officers" I am going to head back, to make sure the boys are alright." Lip turned and disappeared into the falling snow.

Winters looked at Dani "Where is Dike?"

Dani shrugged, yeah where the company commander was, that was the big question "I don't know, why you want to talk to him"?

"No, I just expected to hear this kind of news from him" Winters gave Dani a stern look

"Well, if I see him, I will send him your way" Dani said

Peacock, Shames, Buck, Lipton, Welsh were gathered around Dike, he was trying to hand out orders, but everything that came out of his mouth made absolutely no sense.

Buck asked him what formation to use while dug in, and he got some crazy answer about how Dike would clarify that with him at a later time.

Dani shook her head; Dike wasn't a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader, because he made no decisions at all.

Dani and Lipton took a walk, to make sure the men were secure for the night. They found Liebgott, Bill, Malarkey, Skip and Talbert in a foxhole.

Lipton walked up to them "Hey boys, what's you doing"

Skip looked at Lipton and Dani "Nothing, just sitting here singing Dike's praises"

Lipton and Dani sat down on the side of the foxhole, Lipton looked at the men "Yeah well, I would hate to be a replacement officer coming in here, getting thrown in with a group of guys, who have known each other for what two years? Who has been in combat together since Normandy, is he just supposed to show up and lead them? How does a guy do that, how could anyone really earn the respect of the toughest, most dedicated, professional sons of bitches in the ETO? So if you ask me a guy would have to march of to Berlin and come back with Hitler's mustache or something"

Lipton got serious again "Anyway, you all do your jobs and we will be fine" Lipton got up and so did Dana

Dani put her arm around Lipton's shoulder "How do you do it?" she asked him

"How do I do what?" Lipton asked

"All ways know what to say" Dani answered him

"I don't know, I just say what I think they need to hear, I don't always believe it, but we need to protect the integrity of the company" Lipton stared into the horizon

Mia walked up to Lipton and grabbed him "I am going to steal this one away for the night"

Dani nodded "Ok, goodnight" She looked after the couple she sighed and decided to seek out Speirs

…

Winters, Lane and Nixon were gathered at the CP, they were also discussing Dike.

"You know what Dike's problem is don't you? He is just one of those arrogant rich jerks from Yale" Winters teased Nixon and Lane.

Lane looked at Winters "oh god, another one of those"

Lane was sitting on Nixon's lap, she was freezing, and she wasn't looking forward to walking the line in three hours.

Winters continued, "Division isn't going to let me replace him, just because I got a bad feeling about him, even if they would, who would I put in his place? Shames, he have seen to many war movies, he thinks he has to yell all the time"

Winters continued "Peacock? God bless him, no one tries harder, but he is not fit to take the men into combat, I sure as hell isn't going to make him company CO, when I don't want him as a platoon leader"

"How about Compton" Nixon asked him

"Buck is the only real choice, but I want Easy to have at least one experienced platoon leader, not that it matter anyway, because I can't get rid of Dike"

Nixon looked at Winters "well we all know who you like to have around Easy, problem it isn't your job anymore"

Lane nodded in agreement, Nixon and Winters looked at each other, and they knew Lane was right, but Dike was a favor to someone at division and he was sent to Easy to get some combat experience under his belt before moving on.

The truth was, Buck had changed since he got back from the hospital, and he was more serious. Lane was walking the line, the men were reinforcing their foxholes and Buck was talking to his men, telling them not to do anything stupid.

Dani was sitting, talking to Luz and Skip, when Buck showed up, and gave them don't do anything-stupid speech.

Skip looked at them after they left "Don't do anything stupid; who the hell is he talking to? A bunch of morons who volunteer to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, don't do anything stupid, can you get any more stupid than that?"

Skip continued to tell a story about how he once swam across the Niagara River, and how Faye, his girl gave him hell, when he mentioned Faye, Luz, Dani sang out "The sweet Faye Tanner"

Lane walked on, she found Lipton sitting in a foxhole and Dike was standing on the edge, it seemed like they were talking, when Dike suddenly turned and walked away.

"What was that about?" Lane asked Lipton.

"He wanted to know where I was from" Lipton said

The group went silent; they all tried not to think about home, it was too hard…

…

The next morning Nixon and Lane were sleeping in a foxhole, when a jeep stopped and a runner yelled for Captain Easterday and Captain Nixon.

Nixon woke up and shushed the runner, so he wouldn't wake Lane, she was sick, but refused to go to the aid station.

Nixon grabbed the piece of paper the runner was handing him and dismissed him. Nixon read the paper and knew he had a solution to one of Dick's leadership problems.

Nixon walked around the CP and found Dick drinking coffee, he poured himself a cup and said "good morning" and held up the piece of paper

Winters looked at Lew "Eviction notice?" he asked him

Lew laughed a little "Not quite, but I think, I got something that will help you, with your leadership problem"

Winters smiled "Dike is being transferred?"

"No, I can't help you with that, but division has decided to pluck one officer from each regiment, who have served in the heroic defense of Bastogne and send them back to the states on a thirty day furlough. Get them out banging the drum for the war bond drive, that sort of thing, turn out I been plucked" Nixon handed Dick the order

"That's great, good for you, but how in the world does you leaving help me?" Dick asked him

"Well I am not going, I have already seen the states, I grew up there that's why I came to Europe. I just wish they told me there was a war going on. The point is this thing is wasted on me, but I am sure we can find an officer somewhere in this battalion who can use a long trip home" Nixon and Winters just nodded at each other.

"If you even consider sending one of my girls home, I will kill you both in your sleep" Lane breezed past the two officers, in the end Peacock was the one they sent home, and the men were glad to see him go.

….

Sink, Nixon, Winters, and Lane was in CP "If the Camera comes by here remember to smile for the folks back home"

"Why" Nixon asked Sink

"Hell if I know" Sink said

Lane was coughing bad, "Maybe you should stay away from the camera," Sink told her.

"Ok, Captain Nixon what do we have waiting for us in Foy" Sink asked him

Nixon started to explain what he and Lane had spotted in Foy, when Winters excused himself, he had seen two soldiers get out of a jeep and one of them was the love of his life.

[crazyforkasey-blog]

When we met

Chapter 13

A soldier ran through the forest. For the people standing outside it looked like the soldier was being chased by the devil himself. The soldier kept looking over his shoulder, as if he was expecting someone to follow him

The forest was covered in fog and it was quiet, Erie quiet. The only sound was the sound of feet running away from something dangerous.

A patrol crouched behind a fallen tree watched as the soldier ran towards the MLR.

"What the hell is he doing?" Hoobler whispered to Heffron

"I don't know…why don't you ask him?" Heffron nudged Hoobler.

As the soldier closed in, Hoobler stood up and pointed his rifle at the running soldier and that was when he realized the soldier was unarmed.

"Kommen Sie her schnell" Hoobler spoke the words he heard Winters use when he captured a German POW.

The soldier raised his arms "Please don't shoot, I am unarmed and I am American"

Christenson got on his feet "Jesus…Lieutenant McKall is that you"

"Yes, oh god yes Easy company…thank you" Mia said and dropped to her knees

"Let's get her back to Easy CP and let Lipton take care of her" Peacock turned to the nearest soldier "Sergeant Randleman take the lieutenant back" Peacock ordered

Bull nodded and picked up Mia who had passed out. Bull carried Mia the 200 yards back to CP, and knocked on the tent pole.

Winters, Nixon, Lane and Dani all looked up. First Lane noticed how tired Bull looked and then she noticed the bundle of clothes the sergeant was holding.

"Oh god…oh Sergeant just drop her off here" Lane motioned towards the makeshift cot she was sitting on.

Bull gently laid Mia down and nodded "I am going to get the first sergeant he is going to want to be here when she wakes up.

The officers gave Bull a vague dismissal and they all turned to Mia. "

"We might want to get Roe here," Nixon said and Lane looked at her boyfriend and smiled, he was right they needed Roe and then Mia needed Lipton.

The officers heard the sound of shuffling feet and turned around; Roe was standing just outside the CP with his hands buried deep in his pockets.

"You needed a medic," Roe said

"Yeah, Doc…ah…Mia…" Lane didn't get any further before she was pushed aside and Roe was crouched next to the cot.

Roe looked at the brave nurse; Mia had a special place in the Cajuns heart, despite his attempts to keep everyone at arm's length.

The medic gave Mia a full examination; well he did his best to do so, and concluded that she was ok, just exhausted and in need of food and fluids.

The next sound the officers heard was the sound of sprinting feet and then a knock and then the sound of a desperate man asking where the love of his life was. When Lipton saw the condition Mia was in, he dropped to his knees, bowed his head, and prayed.

Lipton picked up Mia and cuddled her into his arms; he sat down on the makeshift cot and just held her. Lipton felt someone staring at him; he lifted his gaze and looked right into the sad blue eyes of Winters. Lipton realized that Mia's condition gave Winters an idea of how the rest of the 326th was treated.

Winters looked at the scene before him and sighed. He was happy for Lipton he really was, but it made him Miss Katie even more and it made him worry even more.

The sound of shots fired sounded through the fog and suddenly Peacock came running through the fog.

Lane looked at the young Lieutenant, "Where the hell is the rest of the patrol?" Lane asked him.

"We came across…" Peacock didn't get any further, Lane did a 180 looking for Lew "Nix…where the hell did he go?" she asked no one in particular

"I believe he left as soon as I arrived" Lipton told Lane

Lane sighed, the sight of Mia, Winters despair and Lipton's worry had chased him off.

…

Nixon wandered through the forest, he made sure he could hear the voices of the other officers at all times he just needed a moment to gather his thoughts and to calm down and not reach for his flask. All of a sudden, he heard gunshots and then Peacock came running past him.

Nixon ran towards where he heard the shots came from, he encountered the patrol before they knew it a soldier fell down wounded and Luz called Easy CP for a jeep. Roe was trying to patch the wounded up, the best he could.

"Martin…MARTIN, What's going on?" Nixon called out

"They got Julian," Martin answered

"He is still alive," Heffron cried out

"We don't know that" Martin replied

"We gotta go get him," Heffron continued

"Did you hit an OP or their line" Nixon asked Martin

"Their line" Martin answered

"We gotta go get Julian back" Babe was desperate by now

"No fall back" Nixon said and motioned towards the CP

"We lost Peacock," Christenson told Nixon

"No he is back at the CP, getting his ass chewed by Captain Easterday," Nixon told the boys

Suddenly the Germans started to fire again and Nixon ordered the boys to fall back again

Nixon thought to himself that it was a strange time. There were two kinds of officers back the CP right now, one was the bravest he had ever met the other the biggest screw up of all times.

Nixon walk towards the CP and all of a sudden he heard a woman chewing someone's ass

"I trusted you with three of my best men and you ran at the first sight of trouble?" Dani was two minutes away from killing Peacock.

"Now. Now lieutenant" Winters tried to interfere

"Don't even…just don't" Dani pointed her finger in Winters direction.

Nixon leaned over and nudged Lane "Would you go and get Ron and tell him to haul ass here"

Lane nodded and headed towards Dog Company. Dani continued her rant and didn't stop until Speirs showed up and dragged her away

The men who went on the patrol gathered right outside the CP, they were silent and the mood was at an all-time low.

Lipton felt Mia stir in his arms. She opened her eyes and kissed him; she leaned her head against Lipton's shoulder and whispered, "Is she gone?"

"Yes" Lipton whispered back

"Good…Good…I love you, you know that right?" Mia said

"I know" Lipton replied

Winters sat down next to the couple on the cot "Mia what about…what about Katie" Winters asked

Mia looked at Winters "Oh she is alright, pissed as ever but she is doing fine"

"You sure I mean did they treat you ok" Winters asked

Mia looked at Winters if he only knew the strength of Katie, he would be surprised "Katie put her foot down when we were captured and she of course got her way, as always"

Katie had been a vital force in keeping the peace between the Germans and Americans, she had put her neck on the line several times, but everything had turned out alright in the end.

Mia told all of this to Winters who just nodded and got up and walked out and sat down amongst the men.

Winters looked around at the battle hardened veterans and realized how lucky they all were to be alive and amongst friends.

Martins gave him a rundown of what had happened on the patrol "thank you sergeant"

Mia pushed away from Lipton and walked out of the CP, she still felt weak but she sensed Babe needed her; Mia sat down next to Babe and held him tight. She looked at the two medics "Get him secure for the night will yeah"

Roe nodded and walked Babe towards his foxhole

That night the officers and Lipton all stayed at the CP, they told Mia about what had been going on, everything from Toye's trench foot to Roe's trouble with morphine.

The next morning the fog finally lifted and they were resupplied. Mia insisted on going into town with Roe to pick up supplies.

Mia was horrified by what she witnessed in town and at the makeshift hospital in the church, she wanted to stay and help but Roe made sure she got on the jeep.

Mia found Dani and jumped down in her foxhole "Hey stranger…"

Dani looked at Mia "hello yourself"

The two girls sat in silence; the two of them had something they shared. The Germans had captured them both. Dani shuddered by the thought of what had happened to her while she was captured.

"Did they…did they hurt you" Dani asked Mia

Mia knew what had happened to Dani while she was held captive and she wasn't sure what to say, no, they never hurt the nurses or the doctors but that was only because the Germans needed them.

"No never" Mia answered

"Good…Good" Dani shrugged

The two girls sat in silence and a couple of hours after the sunset Lane ran by the foxhole; she just waved and headed for the OP.

Lane had seen Buck heading towards the outpost containing Guarnere and Babe with a crazy look in his eyes, when she approached, she heard Buck say, "Now we know how they felt"

"What…who" babe asked

"The legionnaires when the watched the Huns and the gods…the Visy gods"

Buck was pale as ever and he was shaking, Lane stopped and listened, waiting for Buck to continue

Guarnere looked at Buck "the Visy Gods…Jesus Christ"

Buck continued "the barbarians, the came sweeping thru here, right thru these trees" Buck pointed at the trees across the clearing "To burn down Rome"

"That's a hell of a long ride," Guarnere said

"What's college like" Babe asked Buck

Lane decided to step in "The best fucking time of your life Heffron"

"Buck come on let's find your foxhole buddy" Lane escorted Buck back to his foxhole, she helped him in and sat down next to him

"You know I can't remember what it's like," Buck said

"What Buck?" Lane asked him

"College" Buck answered

Lane thought about what he said and realized she forgot what college was like as well.

The next morning the barbarians did attack but Easy held the line per usual.

…

Christmas day was a miserable one for everyone, the company lined up to get a cup of Joe's bean soup. Sink showed up just as they were all getting ready to Eat.

"They were about ready to sit down for Christmas dinner with turkey and hooch down a division CP, damn if I don't like Joes rancid ass beans better, hello Easy Company"

The men mumbled hello back

Sink continued to read General McAuliffe's Christmas message ending with the word nuts.

Later Lane found Buck in his foxhole, he told her his girl dumped him and Lane could tell Buck was about to fly off the handle. Lane flagged down Malarkey and made sure he stayed with Buck for the night.

Lane set out to find Nixon and stumbled across four officers crouched around a fire. Lane was about to give them a piece of her mind when a barrage started. Welsh got hurt and he was taken off the Line.

Lane shook her head it seemed like everybody was going crazy, but Lane realized she thrived amongst the madness.