OhEmGeee, quickest update ever! I'm really in to writing this story! Whoop. Thanking to captain ty for reviewing, it was lovely.

I own nothing of Band of Brothers but I probably own all the characters you don't recognise.

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Martha felt a sense of warmth when she arrived back home. Her mother was cooking in the kitchen, a vegetable soup she was sure, and her father was sitting in the living room reading a paper. In his own words, he had already served in one war 'He bloody hell wasn't going to get back in that hell again'. Her father looked up at her as she walked through the door.

"You were out for a long time poppet." Her father said sucking casually on his pipe.

"I know, Helen stopped and chatted to me."

"Ah," Her father said with a smile, "Say no more."

"Got the things you wanted to Martha?" Her mother asked from the kitchen.

"Yes Mum, I got the stamps and some more paper." Martha said taking of her coat.

"Good, good. Lunch will be about half an hour dear." Her mother said with a weary smile.

Martha nodded and made her way upstairs to her bedroom, where she sat at the desk and placed her things down. As quick as flash everything was laid out and she was ready to start planning her letter, her best fountain pen grasped loosely in her hand. She wrote her letters like an author wrote a novel. She planned out things first, a worked on for hours at a time. She wanted to make sure it was absolutely perfect before she sent it out.

Martha breathed in slowly and began to write her mock letter. It would take her hours until she was finished, she wanted to make sure it had the right levels of emotion and the right amount of information in it. She cleared her mind the best she could (That soldier from earlier just refused to get out of her mind), and carried on writing.

Dearest Edward,

You cannot have guessed how excited I was to receive I reply from you. It would be a lie to say I haven't been worried about you.

She paused, placing her pen in between her lips for a second before continuing.

However much I am worried about you though, it is overthrown by how proud I am of you. Pride just swells in my chest when people mention you and believe me, they do. Although their sons, nephews and friends have gone off to fight in this horrible war, they still mention you whenever we chat.

Martha paused and reread what she had written. She wrinkled her nose at some bits.

However much I am worried about you though, it is overthrown by how proud I am of you. Pride just swells in my chest wheneverpeople someone mentions you and believe me, they domention you a lot. Although their sons, nephews and friends have gone off to fight in this horrible war, they still mention you whenever we chat talk.

She smiled to herself, thinking that it was much better now.

It was lovely hearing from you although I had to read it out to mother and father which was a slight challenge with the use of language you had put. After all, would it hurt you to tone down the swearing a touch? I had to keep improvising which was very annoying.

Martha grinned slightly. In all honesty she hoped he didn't tone down the swearing, it added to the amusement of the letter. But still she had to remain the bossy younger sister in her letters.

As I have told you before, I have been keeping up to date with the war the best I can. It does confuse me quite a bit but father has been helping me out. There's not a day that goes by when he doesn't mention you, with pride of course. Mother is exactly the same, always telling her friends how much of a man you are growing up to be. Of course she still refuses to acknowledge you're an adult, you'll always be her little boy just like I will always be her little girl.

She smiled sadly at this. She could remember the countless times Edward had tried to prove himself to be an adult to mother but she would never let go the memory of him being a new born baby.

"Martha! Lunch is ready!" Martha's mother called up.

"I'm coming!" Martha replied, standing up.

Her letter could wait until after lunch. She walked down stairs and in to the kitchen, where the small table was set for three. She sat at her place as her mother served the meal of vegetable soup and bread. She smiled at her parents as they sat and placed her hands together as her father said a small prayer for her brother. Her family wasn't overly religious but there was a time and place for everything.

They ate, a small conversation going back and forth. Martha was mostly silent, trying to come up with the words for her letter when her mother got her attention.

"Martha, are you listening to me?"

"Sorry mum, what were you saying?" Martha apologised.

"I need you to go down and check on Judy Matthews." Her mother said in a sympathetic tone.

"...Sorry to ask but whom is Judy Matthews?" Martha asked confused.

"Martha," Her mother said in an accusing voice, "You went to school with her remember! Brown hair, brown eyes...large nose."

"Oh," Martha said in realisation, "Moody Judy. That's what we use to call her. She was a right miserable b-"

"You better be saying baby Martha." Her father said in a serious voice.

"Of course I was dad; she was a miserable baby at school."

"Well that was in the past Martha, her husband Tony died a couple of weeks ago but she only found out today. I would go and give my condolences but you did know her better...well at least I thought you did."

"Alright, I'll do it." Martha said with a sigh.

Even though she didn't know Judy well, she knew it was the right thing to do. She would hope Judy would do the same with her if Edward died. Martha shivered at the thought. She didn't know what she would do without Edward.

Lunch continued without much more conversation and when Martha was finished, her mother sent her away quickly.

Martha sighed, the letter will have to wait I guess.

---

Meeting Judy was not the most wonderful time she had. Judy was in hysterics, just as Martha anticipated and she wanted Martha to stay with her for a couple of minutes.

She said minutes but it turned out to be hours.

Four hours to be exact. Whenever Martha tried to get out, Judy would let another batch of tears roll and Martha just felt guilty. She knew caring too much would never get her anywhere.

She listened to stories about Tony for hours. By the end of it all, she was sure that she knew every detail of his life. Like his favourite colour was Red, his favourite place to be was in Glasgow and that his favourite type of dog was a golden Labrador.

Finally Martha managed to get away, only thanks to another person arriving and giving their condolences. Judy had managed to swap Martha with this person instead. Martha sighed frustratingly as she walked back to her home. Now she had to get ready to go to the pub with Helen and two other people. Two other people that she couldn't even remember their names!

Martha stormed back in to her house, greeted quickly by her parents before loudly stomping to her room. She looked through her wardrobe and sighed. She was useless in these things. She was useless in everything! The only thing she felt confident in was writing letters and writing letters only. She had tried to write a novel but it didn't flow right. She growled slightly as she went through her clothes. She frowned. She really wasn't looking forward to tonight. She knew if she didn't dress up enough, Helen would nag her and she really didn't want that.

Martha eyes fell upon one of her favourite dresses. It wasn't flashy or fancy but it was a bit nicer than her regular outfits. It was a pale yellow dress with a v neck, which didn't go too long. Black buttons lined down the front of the dress. The dress went down to her knees and the sleeves almost reached her elbows. It fitted on her nicely too, and contrasted well with her brown hair. It didn't go so well with her murky green eyes but she didn't mind. It was hard to find a colour that went with her eyes anyway. She nodded to herself and changed her outfit. She then sat in front of the mirror on her table and run some fingers through her hair. She couldn't be bothered to do anything to it. Instead she put on some red lipstick and left it at that. She changed her shoes to her white heels and then went downstairs.

"You look lovely dear," Her mother said with a wide smile, "what's the occasion?"

"I'm going down to the pub with Helen and few of her friends." Martha said getting her coat and bag.

"That's nice," Her mother commented, "Have a nice time okay?"

"I'll try." Martha said with a forced smile.

----

Martha somehow managed to squeeze in to the pub. It was packed, to no surprise, with regulars and soldiers. She had to squeeze past many of them to get to the table where Helen was at.

"Martha!" Helen greeted motioning to the seat across from her, "Sit down! Fred was just telling me the funniest story..."

Martha inwardly groaned. She could tell she was going to have a horrible evening already.

"Oh really?" Martha said with fake enthusiasm.

She looked at Fred and James. They were both quite good looking but she knew the sort. They would be friendly to her but they would always find someone better in somehow. It didn't matter though; they seemed to only have eyes for Helen.

Helen went on to repeat what Fred said, bursting out with laughter at the end. Martha laughed with her, although it was entirely forced. She found herself thirsty and dying to get away from the table so Martha excused herself as she went up to the bar. There she saw Alfred, the friendly barman.

"Having a tough night?" He asked her as she walked over.

"You could say that." Martha said with the first genuine smile of the night.

"Water?" He offered her.

Martha nodded and gave him some money towards it. She leaned on the bar, looking over at Helen and the boys. They seemed to be enjoying themselves without her company. She smiled sadly. She knew what to expect, it wasn't any different to the usual.

"You sure look miserable," Someone said to her right, "It's the not best look for a lovely young lady."

Martha blushed slightly at turned to the person talking to her. Her jaw dropped slightly. It was the soldier from earlier. He still had the same grin from earlier. He was still making her blush furiously.

"And how would you know?" Martha asked, hoping her voice wouldn't crack or something.

"I'm an intelligence officer," He said leaning in closer, "I know everything."

"Then what's my name." Martha asked with a playful smile.

"Everything except that," He grinned wider, "Maybe you could tell me."

"But you're meant to be an intelligence officer, you know everything." Martha said playfully.

Then Martha did something that shocked herself. She thanked Alfred, took her glass of water and walked back to her seat. She couldn't believe she just did that. She somehow managed not to fall to pieces. She actually acted...mysterious. It wasn't like her at all but maybe it was a side of her she had never seen before. She liked this side of her very much.

"What are you grinning at?" Helen asked with a curious look.

"Something," Martha grinned, "Wonderful."

----

Martha arrived home quite early, not to the surprise of anyone. She said goodnight to her parents before going up to her room. She changed for bed and brushed her teeth. She then sat down at her desk and wrote more of her letter. After an hour or so, she was done and proud of herself. She would have to write it up neatly tomorrow but that didn't bother her.

Dearest Edward,

You cannot have guessed how excited I was to receive I reply from you. It would be a lie to say I haven't been worried about you. However much I am worried about you though, it is overthrown by how proud I am of you. Pride just swells in my chest whenever someone mentions you and believe me, they mention you a lot. Although their sons, nephews and friends have gone off to fight in this horrible war, they still mention you whenever we talk.

It was lovely hearing from you although I had to read it out to mother and father which was a slight challenge with the use of language you had put. After all, would it hurt you to tone down the swearing a touch? I had to keep improvising which was very annoying.

As I have told you before, I have been keeping up to date with the war the best I can. It does confuse me quite a bit but father has been helping me out. There's not a day that goes by when he doesn't mention you, with pride of course. Mother is exactly the same, always telling her friends how much of a man you are growing up to be. Of course she still refuses to acknowledge you're an adult, you'll always be her little boy just like I will always be her little girl.

I must thank you for your letters, however infrequent they are, because without them I would feel lost. To not hear from you is almost painful but your letters keep me as happy as possible. I also feel like I'm with you, experiencing the things you see. I can imagine Charlie sitting next to you, telling you a story about his siblings and how they use to fool his mother, and I can see Johnny rolling his eyes at you both but laughing anyway. If you can, please send my regards to those boys, through your letters I feel like I know them and they have somehow also become my brothers.

The village is doing very well, everybody is fine and healthy. Helen sends her love as does Edith Brown. She is most interested whenever you are talked about in the conversation. I have no idea why of course. I wish I could tell you more but I'm unsure of what I can tell you through these letters. I think I can tell you that some soldiers have arrived here, from a different country. Not much is known yet but they seem friendly enough. In fact one has already tried to get Helen. I of course, have not had as much attention. I know you're probably glad of this news, seeing as you would, in your words 'beat anyone who laid a hand on my sister'.

Enough about me though, you are the person that occupies my mind now. I pray every night, as does mother and father, for your safety through this war. I cannot begin to imagine the things you see, the destruction and death, but I can hope that you come out healthy and happy.

Unfortunately there is not much more I can add, other than, I love you forever and always. I hope I will be able to run in to my big brother's arms soon, and tell you myself, how proud I am of you.

Love, forever and always,

Martha

xxx

She smiled down at her letter as she read it through. A yawn escaped and she looked over at the clock, seeing that it was definitely time for bed. She crawled in to bed and only one thing occupied her mind.

Well, one person.

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