Author's note!
i do not own any of the saving private ryan charachers, only the ones i make up for this story. thanks for reading! please review!
Captain John Miller stood staring over Omaha Beach. The ocean dyed crimson, and the blood soaked sand seemed to make all the dark bodies stand out eerily. He let out his breath through clenched teeth as he struggled too get his hand to stop shaking. He took a swig from his canine, but most of the water spilled down his sweaty uniform. Not that he really cared. Suddenly he jumped hearing Lt. Colonel Anderson yelling his name.
"Captain Miller!"
Miller turned away from the disheartening scene in front of him and to the grandpa-faced old man, who had earned everyone's respect by just baring the title of Lt. Colonel.
"Miller, I have an especially daunting task for you and a squad of your choosing," he said coming to a slow stop in front of Miller.
"Yes sir?" said Miller taking his helmet off out of respect for his commander.
"This mission is straight from the top, John," he said with a careful tone.
"Yes sir?" said Miller again. "What is it?"
He gave Miller a hard look then said, "A Private in 101st airborne division named Private Francis Ryan had 3 brothers."
"Had sir?" Miller asked quietly.
"Yes. They died and Private Ryan has a golden ticket home."
Miller nodded knowingly. He never had brothers, but he had a mother and knew what his mother would feel if he died, so he felt for Ryan.
"How many Rangers do I get?" asked Miller.
"Get a technical sergeant, and 6 men."
Miller took a quick headcount then said, "Sir squads are normally made up of 9 men aren't they?"
At that a small smile inched its way across the Lt. Colonel's face.
"Yes," he said. "I have your last man…"
Miller nodded, but looked confused at the Colonel's expression. He noticed and said, "You'll see Miller. You'll see."
He led Miller across the base the Americans had set up overlooking the beach. When they were about halfway to the Colonel's base of operation, men stared yelling and some were yelling 'fight, fight, fight!'
"Oh no…" said Lt. Colonel. "Miller, come on!" He started to run.
The man moved fast for one of the oldest men on the entire beach. Miller was right behind him as the Colonel ran to the big group of men gathered. "Break it up!!" yelled the Colonel and other ranking officers.
There was a tall, muscular, soldier getting the crap beat out of him by a slighter, smaller soldier. The taller soldier got in a good punch in the chest which seemed to stop the other man for a few seconds, but he came back with a vengeance. He seemed to fly across the small open space between them and threw a few good punches before the tall man elbowed him in the ribs doubling him over.
As the fight continued, Miller wasn't surprised to see most of the Charlie company was in the circle of yelling men, and again not to his surprise, Richard Reiben, Stanly Mellish, and Adrian Caparzo were right in front. They were cheering like the rest until they saw Miller. Caparzo saw him first and immediately jumped into the circle, grabbing one of the men's arms.
"Caparzo what are you doing?!" yelled Reiben accompanied by a chorus of other men annoyed that Caparzo was disturbing the fight.
Caparzo didn't have time to answer because the soldier who's arm he grabbed elbowed him in the nose making blood pour out. At that moment Reiben, Mellish and half the Charlie company decided that they didn't want an all out riot so they dove in to help. In a few seconds they had both men subdued. The tall, muscular man looked considerably worse with a bloody nose, split lip and a bruise already forming around his eye and cheek.
While Reiben was having no trouble holding the tall man back, Mellish and Caparzo were having considerable problems holding the short soldier back."Let me go!" he yelled in a somewhat feminine voice. "I'm gonna rip his balls off!"
"Easy soldier!" yelled Mellish. "Reiben, a little help?"
Reiben glanced at the tall man. "Go get cleaned up."
The soldier nodded but as he turned to leave, his opponent yelled, "Wait! I want you to see who beat the shit out of you!" The soldier turned back as the short man wrenched his arm free of Mellish's grasp. The thing that happened next surprised everyone but Lt. Colonel Anderson. The Private pulled his helmet off letting beautiful, long, straight, black hair fall around his shoulders.
All the men let go of the women like she had some sort of contagious disease. Her hair fell to her lower back and it looked so thick, the men wondered how it all fit into her helmet. Her crow black hair contrasted sharply with her piercing blue eyes that looked like they were staring straight through the tall soldier she had been fighting and winning against a few seconds ago. He, on the other hand, looked like he was about to explode.
Now it was Reiben who was having the problem holding the soldier back. At that moment the Lieutenant decided to step in."Private, take a walk," he said dismissing the tall, bruised man. When he didn't move, he Lieutenant glared at him and said, "Leave before the only thing you will be doing is scrubbing this entire beach with a toothbrush!"
The private glared once more at the 5"7' woman in front of him, then turned and shoved his way though the crowd.
"That goes for everyone here!" he yelled.
The men quickly dispersed until only the Lieutenant, Miller, Reiben, Mellish, Caparzo and the woman were left. The Lieutenant glared at the three male privates. "That goes for all of you too."
They glanced at their Captain then turned and walked away toward their gear. Lt. Colonel Anderson turned back to Miller who was looking over the woman quizzically.
"Meet your 9th private, Miller," he said smiling.
Miller turned to him, his eyes wide. "But sir she is… well…"
"A woman," finished the Private.
"She isn't just a woman, Miller. She is good with her fists and she's a damn good shot, and I'm sure she would love to assist you in finding John Ryan," he added the last part and glanced at her.
She nodded then turned back to Miller.
"I'm Private First Class Lewis. Harper Lewis. B.A.R. gunner/ sharpshooter sir," she said. She seemed pleased with herself.
"Ok," Miller said throwing a glance at Lt. Colonel Anderson who laughed.
"It will be fine Miller. She'll fit right in with your men."
Miller scoffed and said "Yes sir," as he saluted him and turned and walked toward his team. Lewis did the same thing then fell into step next to Miller. She kept up easily despite her short stature.
He glanced down at her out of the side of his eyes. She was really beautiful and it was an odd thing to see her in such a terrible, war torn country side. She had high cheekbones, and full lips that curved up in the corners. This made her look somewhat comical since it looked like she was smiling all the time. Her eyes were bluer than he had ever seen, but light blue rather than sapphire. She noticed him and said, "So is your squad-"
"Accepting?" Miller asked finishing her sentence.
She laughed and said, "Yes sir."
"Well no. Not particularly. They actually like to keep their group small."
"Great," she said glaring at her feet.
"That doesn't mean its impossible to be part of our squad. Its just going to be… a challenge."
A smile spread across the private's face. "That I can deal with," she said glancing at her new commanding officer. He allowed a small smile to grace his futures, then said, "I need to go get a new translator. His name is Corporal Timothy Upham. He-" but Lewis interrupted him with a sigh. She immediately realized her mistake and said, "sorry sir."
"You know Upham, private?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.
"Um… yes sir," she said unsurely.
Miller waited. "Did you want to tell me about it?"
Lewis hesitated then said, "Upham is my brother in law. He married my sister." She looked up at Miller unsure. Miller sighed and said, "Reiben is going to have a field day with this. Horvath! Get over here!"
The slightly overweight Technical Sergeant came to Miller quickly.
"Yes sir?" he asked doing a double take at Lewis.
"Mike we have a new mission, and Lewis is assigned to come with us," he said indicating Harper with a nod. "Take her to wade and get her cleaned up. We are taking Wade, Mellish, Caparzo, Reiben, Jackson, you and Harper. Go get them ready."
Then the captain was gone back into the crowd of people to find Harper's brother in law. She
glanced up a Horvath and said, "So the Captain said the squad isn't really all that-"
"Accepting?" finished Horvath.
"Yes, actually…" she said smiling.
Horvath smiled down at Harper then looked back at the 5 men sitting in a group across the field. He sighed and said, "Oh Reiben is going to have a field day with this."