HELLO MY AMAZING AND LOYAL READERS. I'M SORRY THAT THIS HAS TAKEN SO LONG, BUT I HAD JUST REACHED A PLACE WHERE I WASN'T HAPPY WITH THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS AND DIRECTION OF THE STORY. IF YOU WERE READING THE ORIGINAL, I HOPE THAT YOU WILL FIND THIS REVAMP TO BE BETTER. I PULLED FROM THE ORIGINAL, SO PLEASE IGNORE YOUR SENSE OF DE-JA-VU. THERE ARE CHANGES THAT YOU MAY MISS IF YOU JUST SKIP THROUGH THE PARTS YOU RECOGNIZE. PLEASE ENJOY THIS NEWLY REVAMPED VERSION OF TAYLOR MADE, AND BE SURE TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

AVA POV

It is a prickly, nerve-wracking feeling to have two dozen members of the opposite sex staring at you in stunned silence while you make a bunk and try to pretend that everything is normal. It was a feeling I had expected, but it was unnerving nonetheless. Still, I'd vowed to make the most of this opportunity or die trying.

"What the hell are you doing in here, honey? Is this a joke? There ain't no skirts in the Airborne," smirked a square-jawed Philadelphian from one of the bunks nearest me.

The derisive snorts and laughter that followed indicated that Philly spoke for the majority. The rush to judgement and blatant sexism, while not terribly surprising, annoyed me and caught the last trigger on a quick temper and a sharp tongue that had a habit of getting me into trouble.

"Really? Then what are you doing here, pretty boy? A USO tour?"

His jaw clenched. Other jaws dropped. A large man named Bull, or so I would later learn, chuckled openly as he chewed on a cigar. From the bunk on my other side, a dark set of eyes regarded me coolly, waiting to see what would happen next. After a tense moment, my inner voice reminded me that I would soon be dependent on these men for survival, and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. I stepped up beside Philly and held out my hand.

"My name is Ava Taylor. I transferred from a hospital in the Pacific. Why don't we call a truce for now? At least until I have a chance to prove myself. Then you can pass all the judgement you want."

He looked at me for a long minute as the room held its breath, then he stood and shook my hand, flashing a bright smile.

"Fair enough, Ava Taylor. Fair enough. And not that I don't love 'pretty boy,' but my name is Bill Guarnere."

"You sure? Pretty boy seems a better fit," I prodded, and he retorted that he liked a dame with some sass to her. "Oh, then you're gonna love me."

"I just might at that, Doll."

He spent the remainder of the evening introducing me to the rest of Easy Company. They were polite and curious, if a little skeptical, but most were at least willing to give me the chance to prove myself. That night, I lay my head down and said a brief prayer that I wouldn't embarrass myself or my family, and I rolled over to go to sleep. Beside me, a deep voice reached out from the space between my bunk and that of the dark-eyed cynic I'd come to know as Joe Toye.

"I hope you know what you're getting yourself into, Princess. This ain't no summer camp."

JOE POV

My immediate impression of Ava Taylor was that she had beautiful eyes. In fact, as far as I could see, she had beautiful everything. Not that it mattered because I was surrounded by handsome, outgoing, flirtatious paratrooper-hopefuls and compared to many of them, I was... reserved. Certainly not a ladies' man anyway. Hell, Talbert would probably be kissing her before the night was over. He could talk his tongue into a lady's mouth faster than Sobel could revoke a weekend pass, and at least as often.

Then, as Bill spoke, it registered that we weren't at some pub, but in the barracks. What the hell was she doing here? Besides, if her attitude was any indication, she might be a lot to deal with. I stayed quiet as I watched the situation play out and it wasn't long before my initial prediction came true. The boys asked questions and, of course, some began to flirt. It was easy to see that she was going to be trouble. It couldn't be a good idea to have a woman in the company. She couldn't possibly handle the physical demands, and she'd be a distraction to the men. If, by some miracle, she made it through training and went to war, she'd panic under fire or at the first sign of the horrors of war and, of course, arouse the protective instincts of the men. They'd wind up too worried about protecting her to take care of themselves or the objectives. Some would probably wind up wounded or dead.

Before the night was over, I'd made up my mind to keep my distance from pretty little Ava Taylor... no matter how beautiful her eyes were.

AVA POV

Lieutenant Sobel wasted little time in welcoming me at formation the following morning. I'd heard stories, but the weasel-faced officer in front of me seemed eager to outdo them all.

"Easy Company, as you may have noticed, we have a new addition among us. Ava Taylor is just in from the Pacific on her whirlwind tour of the Army Air Corps, and she has convinced someone up the chain that she had what it takes to become a paratrooper. I, of course, think this is bullshit and fully expect her to be gone in short order. However, while she is here, I would advise her to keep her legs closed and you to avoid interacting with her at all costs. You have no idea where she had been. If her presence distracts you in any way, or if she attempts to seduce you, inform me immediately so that I can take appropriate measures. In any case, I'm sure that the skirt will be back in the kitchen before long anyway. Still, in celebration of her arrival, all passes are revoked. Now, change into your PT gear. We're running Currahee."

The men around me grumbled as we entered the barracks, at least until I stripped down to my T-shirt and underwear to pull on my PT shorts. Luz, Easy Company comedian, let out a low whistle of appreciation.

"Hey fellas, do you think this qualifies as seduction? Should I report her to Sobel already?"

"I don't know about seduction, Luz, but it damned sure qualifies as a distraction," came a familiar, self-assured voice from the doorway, and I turned, pulling my PT shorts over my hips, toward the grinning face of my college best friend and reason for being assigned to Easy. He stepped in and gave me an appreciative once-over before speaking again. "How are you holding up, Blue Eyes? You know, if your uncle knew you were stripping down in front of these men, he'd have a heart attack. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you."

"Well then, don't tell him," I shrugged, returning his smile. "Took me forever to convince him to let me come here, and we certainly wouldn't want to give the old man a heart attack while he has a war to fight. Besides, I'm a grown woman now."

"Don't I know it," Lewis Nixon laughed. "I just came by to remind you that I'm here for you to vent to if Sobel starts getting to you, 'cause I'd hate to see that infamous, pretty little mouth of yours get you into trouble. I know that much hasn't changed since I saw you last. I'd hug you, but I wouldn't want the boys to think you were getting all cozy with an officer."

He winked at me, chuckling when I blushed. No one could make me blush quite like Lewis Nixon, and it was a title he had relished since the day we met.

"Yeah. We wouldn't want that," I responded flatly.

"Take care of her, boys," he commanded. Then, just before he stepped back outside for the run, he caught my eyes again and added, "You look really good, Av."

Then he was gone, leaving behind only the butterflies that had always appeared when he was around.

"You too, Nix," I muttered to myself, not pleased that a year away had done little to lessen his charm. Still, I tried to shake it off and moved toward the door before I noticed the curious eyes around me. The question, when it finally did come, came not from George or Bill, or even Tab. It came instead from my cynical bunk neighbor.

"You and the lieutenant got something going on that we should know about, Princess?"

"Friendship, Joe. Believe it or not, I do have friends. We were at Yale together."

His voice followed behind me as we stepped outside and moved toward formation at the base of the hill.

"Didn't look like you were just friends."

"Well, we are. He's married to an old classmate of ours."

"But you have a thing for him."

I noticed that he wasn't phrasing questions. I also noticed an edge to his tone. The guys walking with us were staring on in silent curiosity at the unusual exchange. Joe Toye was rarely this talkative or this interested in other people's business, or so I was later told. Nobody was quite sure what to make of it.

"No, Joe. I don't. And I don't see why you'd care if I did, or why I'm even having this conversation."

"I don't care. Just wondering what you are really doing here. Yale. The Pacific. Officer buddies. What are you slumming down here with us for? What's in it for you?"

I shook my head in annoyance and broke into a jog at the base of the hill, throwing back only, "Just the pleasure of your company, Joe."

I kept my distance from him as we ran. I wasn't much in the mood for story-telling. He'd find out soon enough anyway. They all would. If I'd learned anything during my time in the Army, it was that camp gossip spread like a rumor at a southern beauty parlor. I was surprised it hadn't already made the rounds. I could hear them whispering as we ran the hill, trying to decide what salacious secret I was hiding. As far as I was concerned, they could make all the assumptions they wanted. I was happy to remain a bit of a mystery, but Nix caught me before I made it back to the barracks.

"Are you going to tell them the truth?"

"Why? I don't care what stories they make up. I'm sure they'll find out the truth at some point anyway. What's the point?"

"What if Sobel comes through on one of his inspections and dumps your footlocker for all the boys to see? Don't you think they're going to wonder why you have...?"

"I'll deal with it, Nix. I'm just not ready to deal with it right this minute."

He sighed, and I could tell he was resisting the urge to argue. Finally, he gave me a quick hug and waved me on my way. The room grew silent the moment I walked in and sat down on my bunk. They had seen my second exchange with Nix, and there was little doubt what the now-quiet topic had been. Expectant eyes were all around me. Some were curious, others distrustful. Joe sat on my footlocker with his arms crossed, an angry expression lining his face as though I were a personal spy for Hitler himself. Across from me, Bill sat down on his bunk, clearly trying to ease some of the suspicious tension.

"So, what gives? What are you really doing here, Ava? Where'd you come from? If we're gonna be a company, and trust each other with our lives, we gotta know."

There was nothing accusatory in his tone, but I hesitated just long enough for someone to add, "Yeah, who'd you sleep with?"

"Shut the fuck up!" Bill snapped, turning back to me, but another voice broke in. Toye's.

"Yeah. I thought nurses were lieutenants, which means that you should be with the other officers. So, either you slept with someone over there and had to get away from them, so they transferred you, or maybe you and Lieutenant Nixon are just trying to cover your tracks. Must've been someone higher up than that though, or they'd have just discharged you. Maybe you're a spy for Sobel, looking for ways to get us in trouble. Or you lied, and you weren't a nurse in some hospital anywhere, and you polished somebody's brass to get here and land yourself a paratrooper's paycheck..."

"You don't even fucking know me!" I exploded, interrupting his speculation. "And, for your information, I am not a whore!"

"So you say," he sneered, jumping up to defend himself as I flew at him, flipping the footlocker and spilling its contents across the floor.

I dove for him as he leapt up, but Bill's arms held me firmly as he shouted, "Enough! Both of you!"

I kept struggling until, of all people, Roy Cobb stepped up beside Joe and looked down into my rage-filled eyes.

"You," he said quietly. "You saw action."

Twenty faces looked back and forth between us, including Joe Toye. Bill finally released me and I straightened my hair and clothing before stooping to clean up my personal belongings.

"You too?"

He knelt beside me and began handing me things as he confirmed, "North Africa with the infantry. And a torpedoed troop ship on the way home, for good measure. Brother?" He nodded toward the bit of scrap metal and the folded American flag that always lay at the top of my locker.

"Yeah, Roy. I saw action. And no," I answered, pulling my dog tags from beneath my shirt so that he could see the delicate ring that hung with them. "Fiancé."

"I'm sorry, Av. Were you there? I mean, were you stationed together? You were in the Pacific, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we were together. Right to the end."

Above me, Luz's voice was solemn as he broke into our bubble, asking quietly, "Where were you, Ava?"

I looked up, and I could see in his eyes that he was waiting for me to confirm his suspicion.

"Pearl Harbor," I said at last, and it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. "I was... we were stationed at Hickam Field with the bombers."

Now Joe spoke up, incredulous, demanding, "Wait, why was a nurse stationed at Hickam? You said..."

"No," I answered wearily, standing with Roy as he handed me the last of my belongings from the floor. "You said I was a nurse. I said I came from a hospital."

I ran my thumb over the shiny black box as I accepted it, feeling the impression of the gold-embossed lettering, and looked up at Roy. He nodded as if he already knew the memories that were running through my mind.

"When you're ready to talk about it, I'll be here to listen."

Bill, still standing within reach in case Joe and I tried to kill each other again, slipped an arm around my shoulder and squeezed me affectionately, nodding toward the box in my hand.

"He must've been a brave man to receive a Bronze Star."

I smiled softly at his genuine effort to comfort me and pecked him lightly on the cheek.

"Thank you, Bill, and he was an incredibly brave man, but the Bronze Star is actually mine."

"Yours, sweetheart? What did... you know what?" he stopped, squeezing me again and then releasing me to lay down on my bunk. "Cobb's right. You can tell us about it when you're ready. Still, I gotta admit, that makes me feel a helluva lot better about you being here."

I giggled and smacked him with my pillow, chasing him back to his own bunk before turning to get comfortable. From his bunk, Joe's eyes burned into me and when I met them, I could see a storm of regret and apology in them, but I'd spent enough time in the rain. I closed my eyes and willed myself to go to sleep.