Swindon, September 1943
"Welcome to England" said Donald Malarkey as he disembarked the SS Samaria on which him and his men had been cooped up on for the past two weeks on their crossing from New York to England. The dockyard was windy and smelt of the sea, not that anybody minded the slight smell of fish when the wind hit their faces, much different from what conditions they had been bunking in.
"Shurrup Malarkey let's find the rest of 2nd Platoon" said Warren Muck walking past Don, who quickly followed in his friend's footsteps.
Surprisingly for Malarkey and Muck they managed to find the rest of their platoon easily and were ushered onto the long line of Army vehicles waiting to move them to their base. The men now knew that they were in England but they still didn't know where they were, nobody knew either, even the officers who knew where they were heading didn't know where they were. Lieutenant Winters had said to them that they would be billeted together in the army barracks but that the officers would be put up sooner or later in people's homes if they were willing to share their home and spare bedrooms.
"Hey Malarkey, where we at?" asked on if the men in second platoon, whose voice it was he couldn't be sure but it sounded like Eugene Roe, one of Easy's medics and who most people would call the finest medic, a hard-faced man who liked getting the job done but didn't get to involved in the men.
"Aldbourne, according to that sign" shouted back Malarkey and only a few moments later did the trucks start stopping and the men were told to move as quickly as possible to the barracks which they received from their platoon commander. The men were grateful when they got to eat some grub that night.
"Hey Skip, Skip, I'll be damned look at that, a broad" said Malarkey excitedly to Muck who was looking in the other direction only to attract the attention of the thirty men around him who all turned their heads and attention on the young woman crossing their base and heading for the officer's mess.
"Do you think she's lost?" Asked Frank Perconte as he looked on at her, many of the men shrugged their shoulders and carried on walking as they were tired from their day travelling.
"I guess we'll find out in the morning fellas" said William Guarnere as he barged passed them to get to his bed, no matter how uncomfortable he wanted his sleep, he could run Currahee no problem but he didn't like being transported and shipped for two weeks straight.
The Officer's Mess, early September 1943
Lieutenant Kingsley arrived late for her sitting but not too late that she couldn't just slip on the end of the queue unnoticed by the rest of the American Officers, she surveyed them and they spoke quietly, most were a pasty colour with dark rings under their eyes, she looked around once more at them and she failed to spot another woman, the realisation must have been evident on her face as her knight in shining armour came to greet her.
"Lieutenant Kingsley, I apologise for not coming to find you, I've found the travelling tiring these passed few days" said a large man with a head of thick brown hair and a definitive jawline, she frowned in confusion at the man in front of her, she truly had no idea who he was. "Oh, I am making a poor job of this, I'm Lieutenant Nixon regimental S2 and for your benefit friends with your new platoon leader" he said to her flashing her a charming smile as she smiled slightly, it didn't reach her eyes, it barely even lifted her cheeks but it was one of thanks nonetheless.
"Thank you, Nixon" she said as she was plated up with her dinner, it looked sad on her plate but she wasn't about to complain.
"Come I'll introduce you two, makes tomorrow less of a shock" he smiled at her, he followed her looking directly down at her plate as she was perfectly aware that every eye in the room was upon her, and the gazes weren't all friendly. "Dick, I found your nurse" said Nixon to the red haired man seated alone who looked up from his food quickly to greet the woman who would be serving with him.
"Richard Winters, Rebecca Kingsley?" he asked her as he moved along the bench he sat on to make room for her, as soon as she sat down opposite Nixon she shook Dick's hand, keen to make a good impression upon him.
"That's right" she smiled at him "Nixon, I didn't quite get your name" she said to him as she took her first bite of food.
"Lewis, Lewis Nixon" he said to her and she nodded at him politely, which he returned as her hands were full of her cutlery.
"This is so much better than spam" said Rebecca as she swallowed her first bite of food, smiling to herself, she noticed that Richard and Lewis exchanged glances as she said that much to her confusion, a slight frown creasing her forehead.
"You've been eating spam?" asked Lewis looking at her, his thick eyebrow raising as he dug back into his own dinner, he too was grateful for the food, food at this point was food army standard or not.
"We didn't get roast dinners in Africa" she said flatly to him, an amused smirk upon her face as Richard's head turned to look at her.
"You were in Africa?" asked Richard as he finished his measly meal wiping his mouth and leaning back on his chair as they still had fifteen minutes left of their sitting to kill.
"Oh yeah, I got back a few weeks ago, but hospital food may as well be spam for all I know" she said before filling her mouth again and shrugging "where are you from Lieutenant?" she asked Dick.
"Pennsylvania, you?" asked Dick eyeing up the woman in front of him, he couldn't deny that she was lovely to look at, even for a man starved of female presence she was a looker in every sense, she talked like a soldier, about spam rather brashly but her mannerisms were far from brutish she held her knife and fork delicately and correctly, only taking small bites at a time and her voice was incredibly polite, but none of that mattered to him but it was noticeable, he wondered if she was capable and found himself judging her because she was a woman, he'd not trained with her, he didn't know if she was strong enough, mentally or physically, but he reprimanded himself, this woman had seen combat, more than he could say and she was still standing.
"I'm from Scotland originally but I moved to London when I was sixteen, hence the slightly strange accent" she said with a light smile on her face "and you Nixon, I'm terrible with American accents you must excuse me" she said apologising for herself a hint of laughter in her voice and her blushing
"Don't worry yourself, it's a large country, New York, although I did study at Yale" he said offhandedly, an impressed face graced Rebecca's features, she knew that Yale was a good university to attend, but that also meant that Nixon was far from poor if she understood correctly.
The rest of the fifteen minutes was spent talking quietly between the three of them, Rebecca did not tell them much more about herself but she got to know the basics of the two men pretty quickly. They were good men from good families and she liked them although she could tell that Richard was assessing her as watched her and spoke to her, she found the both of them charming and reminded her of her own friends before the war. She knew since she was joining an all male platoon that if anything went wrong she would be blamed heavily for it and she was not prepared to take the blame for men making mistakes in training when she'd done it in real life before, and that platoon was under the command of Richard Winters and knew that she was a great risk on his head, she knew he was just doing his job, but she was only doing hers.
"...so report at zero nine hundred hours" said Winters as they headed in different directions to their barracks "oh and Kingsley, watch out for Captain Sobel" he said to her with a tight smile on his face, Lewis bade her a goodnight too before he too followed Richard to their quarters, Rebecca however made her way back to her billet. When she'd arrived they'd placed her in a family home which had been unoccupied and taken over by the Americans, she was thankful for that.
The next day
That night Rebecca slept well enough, and arose early enough to have a shower and breakfast before she was due to report, the people of Aldbourne were used to seeing her in her uniform, the increase of activity in the area worried her, the children of Aldbourne were not street savvy and what she saw she could have seen coming. A child skipped along the road just as an American jeep came around the corner knocking her clean over, she was left crying in the middle of the road surrounded by clueless looking soldiers, Rebecca ran across the road to find the child. She could see the driver arguing with one of the soldiers.
"Move, everybody move out of the way please" commanded Rebecca as she knelt next to the child, she had her medical bag on her, the basics she liked to keep with her and what she didn't get restocked enough, what she didn't have was any splints or crutches. "It's okay sweetheart, what's your name then?" she asked the child calmly as she prodded and assessed her leg.
"Violet, miss" replied the child still sobbing and wiping her eyes as she looked at Rebecca.
"Violet, now that's a lovely name, can you point your toes for me Violet?" asked Rebecca, Violet tried to but found ot very painful and winced when she pointed it too much "does that hurt, darling?" she asked as Violet once again nodded, Rebecca also made her move her toes up to the ceiling to flex her foot and push her foot to either side, Rebecca quickly assessed that she'd sprained her ankle as she had fallen and her leg was just badly bruised. "Where do your parents live, Violet?" asked Rebecca kindly.
"They, they have the butcher's shop...my, my mum is going to kill me" she sobbed and the men around her gasped at such a statement.
"Because healthcare is so expensive, you Private go fetch me her mother please whilst I get this little one to the aid station" said Rebecca calmly before picking the child up, she was about twelve years old and around five foot tall. The private ran in the direction of the Butcher's shop, it was visible at the end of the street and it wasn't long before the mother arrived.
"Oh, my child, my child what happened?" asked Violet's mother looking at Rebecca as she lifted Violet into the jeep next to her daughter, the mother had tears in her eyes.
"Violet here was skipping across the road when our young driver came around the corner, he couldn't see her and he accidently hit Violet when he did so" explained Rebecca "I think that Violet has at least sprained her ankle and at most broken her ankle, I'll take her to the aid station, you don't have to pay that way, I think we owe you that" said Rebecca calmly.
"Thank you, my dear girl" said Violet's mother as she clasped onto Rebecca's hands, the same driver started to get into the jeep before he was stopped by Rebecca, her hand pulled his shirt back and gave him a sharp look before climbing into the front seat and driving the Jeep herself to the aid station, she had twenty minutes before she was supposed to report.
Upon arriving at the temporary aid station, she found a few medics loitering who had arrived early "Corporal, I have a young girl who's probably broken her ankle, she was hit by one of our drivers as she was crossing the road, I need her leg potted and her on crutches" ordered Rebecca looking him in the eye, the Corporal was stunned for a minute until he snapped into action.
"Yes ma'am" he said carrying Violet to the nearest bed with her mother following her and Rebecca standing at the end of the bed. "Ma'am, I think this is just a sprain I don't think that this will need any more than six weeks in pot before she should come back" said the medic, looking up at Rebecca for a second for her approval.
"I think you're dead right Corporal, and since we have no X-Rays yet, we'll pot it and give Violet here some crutches" said Rebecca praising the Corporal for his quick assessment, "So Violet, we'll put your ankle in pot and your mother will bring you back here in six weeks' time for us to take the pot off, putting a pot on doesn't hurt a single bit, you'll be feeling much better soon" she said as she collected the equipment she need from the storeroom and laid it out on a table. It was five minutes to nine when they had finished and Violet hobbled out of the Aid Station with her mother following in her wake after profusely thanking both the Corporal and Rebecca.
"I have to go now, I'll see you around Corporal" said Rebecca as she casually dismissed him, as he saluted her and watched her jog off in a different direction. He didn't know who she was, why she was there or how she got to be in the service, but he saw that she was an excellent nurse, she'd gathered that that was what she was as she was able to pot the girl with no trouble.
Reporting for duty
At nine on the dot did Rebecca arrive to report for the day to Captain Sobel who as she had been warned was in a foul, foul mood. "YOU ARE AT THE POSITION OF ATTENTION!" shouted Captain Sobel from where he walked and paced in front of the men assembled. Rebecca made sure she was rigid as he walked past her as she stood next to the other officers. As she moved her eyes amongst the company she spotted the medic she had worked with earlier at the Aid Station.
"Today we are going on exercise" shouted Sobel although not as loud as he had shouted before "and we'll be putting our new medic to the test" he added in his normally loud talking voice, everything about the man was loud, his presence was loud, his voice was loud, his pride was loud, and there was something that Rebecca didn't like about him. "Lieutenant Kingsley, has joined our company, she will be training with us from now on, dismissed, you have five minutes to grab your gear" he said as the platoon commanders commanded their men to fallout.
"New medic?" exclaimed and questioned Malarkey.
"More importantly, she?" said Skip.
"She'll be useless, probably slept her way here" commented Cobb.
Rebecca ran to grab her stuff, fully webbed up in under two minutes and was first back to the command post, she looked around at the men gathered, they were all huddled together pointing and murmuring, Rebecca internally rolled her eyes, it was always the same everywhere she went. The next men to assemble huddled elsewhere, nobody approached her.
Soon enough the men got going, they were walking through the woods headed by Sobel with first platoon and second platoon followed him headed by Lieutenant Winters. Rebecca walked at the side of the platoon where she would usually do so on operation with easy access to everybody, she could see the other medic from earlier on the other side of second, sending glances at her every now and again then shaking his head. When first platoon split off from second the men then started talking more, she smiled to herself almost laughing at them arguing between themselves at who was going to ask her.
"Lieutenant" somebody asked, both Richard and Rebecca turned their heads towards them, and Winters nodded at Rebecca as the man was looking at her and not Winters.
"Yes, Private" she said to him, her voice inviting.
"Who are you, miss?" he asked her before looking straight down at her feet.
"When speaking to a female officer you say ma'am, let's try that again Private," said Rebecca to which most of them men reacted to, she could see some of them looking at her.
"Who are you, ma'am?" asked the Private again emphasising 'ma'am' comically much to the amusement of the men around him, Rebecca rolled her eyes, for now that was the best she was going to get.
"You've already been told, Private, I am Lieutenant Kingsley, I am your new combat nurse" she said "whoa are you soldier?" she asked him.
"Cobb" he said before once again emphasising "ma'am" when he added her title on the end. Rebecca rolled her eyes at him.
"If you're going to do that every time you address me I can tell you who will get bored first soldier" said Rebecca rolling her eyes at him before focussing herself forward again. The men were once again muttering beside her as they walked, the woods were narrowing so forcing them all together more tightly, but then men still wouldn't go near her.
The rest of the exercise ran smoothly, they all managed to get to their objectives on time, but Sobel wasn't letting up that easily not on Rebecca.
"Lieutenant, I am surprised to see you're not out of breath, don't worry it will be much harder out in the field for you, believe you me" he said to her, mocking her where she stood and took off her helmet. She snapped to attention in front of him.
"All due respect sir I think I'll manage" she said to him, not looking him in the eye and a frustrated Sobel wandered off, the man from earlier and the people around him all looked at Rebecca with sympathetic gazes, they knew what would come next.
"Boy, you'll pay for that Lieutenant" laughed some of the men and they too wandered off to find some grub.
Rebecca looked around at their smiling faces, how much longer until they too learnt the harsh reality of war.