Disclaimer: I don't own anything; I mean no disrespect whatsoever to the men portrayed in the miniseries.
A/N: Just a little something I came up with while I was sitting here watching the Band of Brothers marathon (two weeks in a row, how awesome is that?). What Buck said really stood out to me, so I decided to analyze it. Please review! I hope everyone who lives in the U.S. had a great Fourth of July weekend!
He answers to "Doc" and "Roe," even though he doesn't always think he deserves the automatic label they've attached to him. He's a combat medic, not a goddamn doctor or surgeon—he hasn't been to medical school, he's only doing what they taught him to do when they shoved the armband at him back in basic.
Sometimes, Eugene thinks half the company doesn't know what the hell his first name is.
But he always makes a point of knowing theirs. Because if the worst should happen, it's the name printed on the tags he pries from around their necks as he mutters a silent prayer.
Eugene doesn't bother with the nicknames he's heard bouncing around from foxhole to foxhole as the soldiers try to keep warm. Nicknames mean familiarity and friendship, memories and inside jokes—and when friendship is scattered across the snow broken, bleeding, and dying, he doesn't want to have to think about it.
If there's anything he's learned by becoming "Doc," it's that nothing here is ever permanent.