I do not own Band of Brothers and mean no dishonor to the real men of Easy Company nor do I imply to know what they went through or what it is like to fight a war

AN: hey guys, so I got to the part where Easy's headed back to England and had problems working that into the way I want this story to go so I had to rewrite the first part

Chapter one: A girl in drop zone

Sophie was marching through Normandy, being the only women in her company made her hope for a bit of quiet in the woods, when all of sudden the night sky was alight with fire. The flak was shooting at planes, hitting some sending them spiraling down on fire. At first she thought they were bombers until she noticed another thing: there was something in the sky.

"Parachutes!" She thought and then realized another thing; she was right in their drop zone.

"Mist." She cursed in German. What was she supposed to do now? As a medic she did not carry a rifle and had left the fire arm she had back at the base thinking she was save.

She hurried from the road into the forest hoping to make her way back to base before she was caught.

She did not get very far before she heard a sound right above her looking up she saw a soldier hanging in a tree. He was looking at her and struggling to free himself. He did not seem to be armed with a gun which she guessed was her luck.

She stopped and he began to struggle with the risers again.

"I help you." She softly called up to him there were still other German soldiers on patrol in this woods and she did not wish for their attention. They would not ask questions before shooting if they saw her with an enemy soldier.

His eyes were focused on the Red Cross on her Wehrmacht uniform looking scared.

She found a branch thick enough to carry her weight close enough to the ground and started to pull herself up.

She was quite agile and got to the man fast. Pulling out her knife he struggled too much for her to safely cut him loose.

"Calm. I help." She told him again gesturing to the strings she began to cut him loose once he was calm enough. He was by now hanging sidewards and she feared him falling would not only injure him but also make the Germans notice them.

"Your hand. I help." It was the only thing she knew to say with her limited knowledge of the language. Hesitantly he took her outreached hand and she pulled him so he could grab unto a branch. With him secured she cut through the rest of the ropes so he was free.

Before he could say or do anything she climbed down. She ran for her life sure he would kill her cursing herself for helping him. She was a medic with the Wehrmacht. What was she thinking?

She ran without really looking anywhere but ahead – a big mistake she painfully learned as she was tackled sideways to the ground. She felt her cheek burn as it scraped over the floor and her helmet was knocked off revealing her long red hair. Her attacker froze for a second giving her time to turn her body around and knock the knife from his hands though he recovered quick enough to secure her again afterwards. She struggled and squirmed but he was too heavy plus he had her legs fixed with his and was holding her wrists in one of his strong hands. She stopped struggling and simply lay there looking into his dark eyes. Her breath was going fast, chest heaving against his with every breath she took and she was sure he could feel her heart hammering. She had never been so scared in her life. Not even when she was still a nurse on the Eastern Front.

"Who are you?" He asked though he did not seem to expect an answer.

"My name is Sophie." She told him in her heavy German accent she really did not speak English all that well.

"You are German." It was not a question as her accent had already spoken for itself but she nodded nevertheless.

"They have women in the Wehrmacht?" he was still confused how a woman came to be in the Nazi uniform. She needed a moment to understand him.

"Needed medic… I chosen." She answered carefully hoping that was what he was asking for. She was desperate to save her life.

'What will he do now?' she thought as he did not say anything for a while only studying her. Then he took a deep breath seemingly coming to a decision.

Standing up he carefully positioned himself so that she could not attack him and pulled her up by her upper arm. He then retrieved the knife though he did not threaten her with it. He simply put it away.

"Well consider yourself a POW. You will come with me." He pulled her along by her upper arm he had yet to release and they walked in silence for a while. Sophie was glad to be still alive but also trying to find a way to escape. As much as she did not wish for Hitler to win this war she also did not want to be killed and she was sure she would die. Where would they leave POWs during an invasion?

"Sainte- Marie du Mont. You know where that is?" He asked suddenly.

Damn there went her chances of simply freeing herself and running to headquarters. They were headed straight for her company!

She reluctantly pointed in the right direction.

"Then let's get moving." He pulled her further along. But she noticed that his grip relaxed slightly as she did not make a move to escape.

Seeing her chance she took it. Pulling her arm free with a twist she turned and ran before he could react. She was fast that was what got her placed with a company as a medic rather than staying back in the Lazarett with the other nurses, where she had been before coming to France.

She ran feeling her muscles and her lungs burn but not stopping. Where to go? Where to go? She could not go to Sainte-Marie du Mont. The Americans would be there. Then she remembered the men at Brecourt manor. She had met them while checking up on the men at the outposts. She hoped she would be safe there until she figured out what to do. Maybe they could reach an officer on the radio who could tell her what to do.

She adjusted her course slightly and slowed down a bit. No need to be caught unaware a second time that night. Good thing too as she heard the sound of guns fill the air again it was a melody she quickly got tired of.

She crept forward staying low in the bushes and reached another road just as it got quiet again safe for the whining of a dying animal. A horse if she was not mistaken. Her family owned two for their little farm and her father and uncle worked with them. She recognized the sound from when one fell and broke a leg. They had had to shoot it and low and behold in that moment a single shot was fired and the whining stopped. Crawling on her belly now she reached the bushes that separated her from the road.

Slowly she moved a few leaves hoping not to rustle them and chanced squinting through. A group of men stood there, they too were Americans. One seemed to be scolding another though she did not understand the words. Lying around them were dead Germans and two horses. She fought the urge to cry. She was no stranger to death and destruction in this war. On the Eastern Front you learn fast. But back than she was at the aid station not in the middle of it she had only seen the results. And France had been quite peaceful until now.

When the soldiers left she waited for them to get far enough away before she left her hiding place. She wanted to at least make sure the families learned of their fate. She knew how her family felt when her brother got sick and the packages returned. Luckily her brother was only sick and was sent to rehabilitation close to her hometown so they were able to meet up with him, the families of these men would not be as lucky.

She crept on and when the sun rose she arrived at Brecourt manor at the same time artillery started. She made sure she was clearly seen as a German and approached the trench closest to her. The closest soldiers, manning an MG nodded at her and pointed her towards the commando post. The only woman in the company was known by all, so they did not ask questions.

She saluted the commanding officer who was busy getting coordinates via radio and directing the cannons to be fired at the beach.

When he took a break to breathe Sophie made herself known. "Sir, I was cut off from my company tonight. I was making rounds on the outposts when paratroopers landed all around me. I was unable to return to Ste. Marie-du-Mont."

The man mustered her she had not met him before. "I do not believe we have met before, Miss. But I have heard of you, only good things." He told her with a smile. "Apparently the men stationed here scattered during the night – cowards all of them – so Col. Von der Heydte sent us here. I believe it would be best for you to head for Carentan. It's where the rest of the 6th is gathering and they'll need a medic."

She nodded. "How will I get there?" it was a long way from Brécourt manor to Carentan especially since the Americans were crawling around.

"Just wait here Ms Meier. You can go with the next runner." He smiled indulgingly. It was something she often encountered with the older commanders such as Cpt. Brückner. She was young, only 19, and with her petite form she woke their instinct to protect. Many older officers behaved fatherly while the younger men tried to flirt with her. Then there were some that treated her poorly, sneering at her. She tried to avoid them.

Captain Brückner offered her a chair which she gladly accepted and turned back to his radio operator ordering him to contact the Oberstleutnant.

While watching she thought of the happenings of the night. She was a medic with the Wehrmacht but she had come to hate the regime when she learnt some truths. Hitler winning this war was a no go to her and she knew with the Americans now entering France that the end of the Reich would come. But she was still a medic saving life was second nature to her. So what to do? She looked around the commando post as if it was able to help her come to a decision. And it did. Her eyes focused on a map. Furrowing her brows she looked closer. It was a map with every German battery position throughout the Contentin Peninsula.

She smiled a plan forming in her head she rested her head against the wall and nodded off.

She was woken not long after by gunshots. She looked at her watch 0900 in the morning, June 6th 1944. The fighting for another battery began.

Sophie let herself fall to the floor. Looking around she was the only one in CP so she took the map and documents and put them in a case, she also took a pencil and scribbled a radio code on the back of one of the maps. The she closed the case positioning it so it would be found and crept out. Keeping her head down she tried to orientate herself in the chaos around her. Soldiers were moving around her, moving for the cannons and the MGs. Trying to keep from panicking she tried to find out where the attack was coming from. It seemed to come from every direction. She moved towards her right treating wounded soldiers where she could. She slipped into her medic state of mind and blended everything else out.

When she lost yet another man she allowed herself to look up and saw three men out of the trench running towards the manor. A shout in English and the men dropped. She closed her eyes fighting tears.

But she had another problem: the Americans were in the trench and seemed to have positioned themselves in the hedgerow. There was no way out for her. For the x time in the last twenty four hours she was scared for her life.

Glancing around her she saw men killed by a grenade, one took a bullet to the head. But everyone was dead and she covered in blood and mud. Coming to a decision she prayed her luck would hold. Freeing her hair from her bun she laid down pulling a dead man across her upper body and letting her hair cover her face as she turned on her stomach her face to the side. The dead weight made it difficult to breath but she hoped it would cover the movement of her chest.

The sound of boots thumping on the ground clued her in that someone was coming. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe quietly through her nose. The footsteps stopped quite close to her.

"Shit, Lieutenant, that's a broad. " She felt eyes on her and fought not to tense.

"She's a medic." A pleasant voice spoke next and she felt someone move closer to her touching the red cross armband lightly and she held her breath.

"Looks like the jerry tried to protect her and threw himself on top of her." He seemed awed that a German would do that. She needed air so she carefully started breathing again though it seemed the one who had touched her had straightened again.

"Fuckin' lot of good that did! She's still dead. What were they thinking sending a broad to the front?" a gruff voice said. That hit a nerve. She was tired of hearing that one, she had proven her worth but men still did not get it.

"Enough about the girl now, we need to secure the last gun." The pleasant voice cut in turning the men's attention back to the task at hand. She lay unmoving while they waited for reinforcements. Sometime later more men approached and she heard the voice of the man from last night. He seemed to ask the lieutenant something and there was movement again, then the sound of guns and silence.

"Pull back." She understood the order and hoped she got through this. The men around her moved away though one seemed to stay behind. A final shot and a cry and the last man moved away leaving her with the dead bodies of her fellow German soldiers. Once she was sure she was in the clear she started moving. Pulling the body off of her she noticed for the first time it was Captain Brückner, he must have been on his way back to CP when the grenade was thrown into the trench. She took a deep breath to collect herself and moved to identify the other men.

Once she had finished with that she moved out. Third battalion was at Carentan and that was where her Obertleuntnant was as well. The Colonel would take her in, he was a kind man, at least to her.

Covered in blood and mud and very tired she began the long trek to Carentan.

AN: I wrote this story in remembrance of my great uncle who was a soldier in WW II and died last week. I just felt the need to write down the stories he and my grandmother told me so some of what Sophie does or remembers from home are actually stories from my family history others are purely fiction, as is Sophie. Although some are supplemented by what I researched myself as my grandmother was only 10 when the war ended and my great Uncle was reluctant to tell details and I understand and respect it. I try to be as historically correct as I can be but some will be adjusted for the stories sake.