DISCLAIMER: No disrespect to the real Band of Brothers and what they accomplished. I own nothing except Alana and Sara
Big thanks to those of you who reviewed and put on alerts for the story. Those of you who have read my other works may find this one slower and told in a different way. Don't lose heart out there, we will get to the romance, but I believe good things come to those who wait and anticipation adds to the enjoyment. Keep the reviews coming, that's how all writers improve their stories and I'm no different.
I think a cookie should be given to ber1719; she got the mystery man correct. Way to go.
Chapter 2
The pounding at her door alerted her that it was morning and that she had overslept. Guess it was a good thing it was Sunday morning.
"Coming, you can stop trying to knock the door down."
Slowly she rolled from the bed, wincing not only at her sore body, but the reflection in the mirror. There was going to be no way to hide the bruise and explanations would be demanded.
When she opened the door, Sara was there with a huge smile on her face that slowly faded when she saw Lana's face.
"Oh my God, what happened, did you run into something?"
Lana laughed and headed back to the bed, "yeah my face hit someone's hand. But let's just say I was lucky with only this. Some Soldier came along and stopped the man from doing much worse." Pausing she frowned over at the jacket in the chair, "you know, I don't even know his name."
"Whose name don't you know, man who attacked you or the one who saved you?"
"Okay, you really need to keep up, the man who saved me of course. I just wish I knew so if nothing else I could return his jacket to him." And give him a personal thank you.
Sara sat down beside her and quickly examined her face. "Well you won't go to work till this fades enough to cover with make-up. Do you want me to ask around and see if I can find out who he was?"
Lana shook her head, "please don't I would be so embarrassed if someone found out."
Sara bit her lip in concentration, "I got it, you would recognize him if you met him again right?"
Again the negative shake of her head, "the light was so dim I could barely see him, but I'll never forget his eyes, they were so cold." The shiver that passed through her couldn't be controlled. She could still she the almost glowing intensity that had been in his eyes, almost as if they were lit from within.
"Well maybe I could just ask Lew, he seems to know a lot of people."
"Yeah well maybe…if it's just Lew that you talk to that might be okay just don't tell him the details alright, just say I saw someone I might be interested in getting to know. Oh yes, speaking of Lew, how did your night with him go. You guys were pretty close when I left."
The glow that lit Sara's face was unmistakable. She was in love and she'd only spent one night with the man. Lana listened to her friend talk about what a wonderful person he was, how funny, how handsome, in fact she expected to hear that he could turn water to wine just by smiling at it. He had certainly turned her friend into a mushy ball of goo.
But with Sara doing all the talking it gave Lana time to think. She really would like to return the Soldier's jacket, but right now she had no idea where to start. She'd lied to Sara in that she would recognize him if she saw him again. He had been too attractive to just forget, but the coldness in his eyes concerned her. What a shame it would be if a man that looked like he did was just too cold to feel.
Containing her sigh, she focused back on her friend and Sara's new obsession named Lewis Nixon.
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His temper had reached a new high point. For the last three days he'd torn Aldbourne apart looking for her with no success. They were leaving today so his search would have to wait till he returned to England.
He was aware that people were passing him wishing him luck on the jump and he could only assume he was providing the correct responses, but then again no one was really paying attention. He was so lost in his own thoughts about what could have happened to her and why she had been so hard to find. After all, a woman with that color of hair shouldn't have been forgettable, but apparently this one was. It was almost as if she had gone into hiding.
He was moving through the equipment check of his chalk like a man asleep, relying on his training to carry him through without errors. When he reached the final man he released the breath he had been holding which in turn released some of the tension in his shoulders. That's when he felt it, the hair at the back of his neck was standing on end; he was being watched.
Jerking his head up, his eyes locked with hers instantly. She was standing between Colonel Sink and Nixon with a notebook in her hands and dressed in ODs. From across the way he saw her ice blue eyes widen in surprise then quickly move to fear. Then she quickly slipped to stand behind Nixon blocking his view.
What the hell was she doing here? Better question was what the hell was she doing wearing ODs and working for Sink?
With those questions pounding through his brain he didn't even realize he had started to walk toward her till he ran straight into Dick Winters.
Dick grunted at the collision and started to make a joke of it till he looked at the man who had run into him. The look on his face was one of deep concentration that had nothing to do with what was going on around him. While having never been overly friendly and outgoing, he had never completely lost focus of his surroundings.
Dick waved his hand in front of his face to gain his attention. "You okay?"
The hand in front of his face brought him back to the present causing him to shake his head. "No not really. I've been trying to find someone for the last few days with no success and now I've just seen them only to lose them again. I guess that face to face will have to wait till later, oh yeah, sorry about bumping into you."
Dick frowned and looked around them, the planes were in the process of loading up and there was no time to really do anything, but maybe, "hey if you give me his name I'll ask around, Nix seems to know everyone I'm sure he can get you two together."
Jerking his head up, he focused hard on Dick, "I never said it was a man and that's been part of the problem." Then like a flash an idea came to the front of his addled brain. "Hey you may know her name; she was sitting with you at the dance."
Dick smiled, this was going to be easier than he'd thought, "her name is Lana and she's a friend of Nix's. Dick quickly held his hands up in defense when he saw the look on the other man's face. "Seriously, they are just friends; Nix is much more interested in Lana's friend Sara.
He felt himself relax at Dick's words, but when Dick said he would probably be seeing her sooner rather than later, his whole body went on alert. What exactly had that meant?
Dick drew his attention when he hit him in the arm and told him he'd see him on the ground. He knew he responded to him with good luck or something along those lines or at least he hoped that was what he'd said. He had to get his head back in the game or he was going to get either himself or someone else killed.
Trying to suppress the anger he was feeling he glanced back to where he had last seen her, no surprise that she was long gone. The look of total fear on her face when she realized who he was had him totally confused. Why would she be afraid? He'd never done anything except try to help her.
Shaking his head as he headed back toward his plane he tried to sort out his own feelings, why was he angry? Was it at her or at the situation itself? Damn that would have to wait, but he was going to find out what was going on.
Lana pushed away from the building she'd been hiding behind when she heard the first few planes take off. It had taken a while for her heart to slow down. The last person she'd expected to see today was him. Then to have him look at her the same way he'd looked at Davy, well that was even more confusing. Why was he mad at her, did he blame her?
Sighing she started to the long walk back to the office. Sink had wanted some last minute things packed for the trip. What a day, going through the interrogation by Nixon had been exhausting. She should have known that he would question her, but he still didn't know anything, she'd just lied and told him she'd been sick. He'd looked at her like he didn't believe her, but luckily Sink had shown up and distracted him.
She was so tired of lying, and would have given anything to tell the truth, to Nix or anyone for that matter. Dropping into her chair behind her desk she realized there could be no end to the lies, if the truth came out she risked losing everything and she wasn't sure she was ready to face that.
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"It's okay, just let it out, you'll feel better when you get it out of your system." Lana tried her best to keep a sympathetic tone in her voice, but having watched Sara puke her guts out all night, it was hard not to laugh. Especially when Sara had made fun of her prior to them boarding the ship for the channel crossing, she couldn't help it if she was afraid of water.
When Sara recovered enough to stand she gave Lana an evil look. "This is so unfair, you are supposed to be the one who is sick not me. I like water, but no I'm the one bent over the railing."
Shrugging Lana leaned over the rail to look at the water below. "I'm sorry, I was actually pretty sure I would be the one who was sick too. Just call it luck that I'm not. But try to look at the bright side, we go ashore in the morning and you'll be back on dry land."
"Oh I know, but somewhere out there Nix has jumped and who knows how long it'll take to find out if he's okay or not."
Lana pulled her friend in for a hug. "Don't you worry about Lewis Nixon; I get the strong feeling that he will survive this whole thing without a scratch on him. Now come on and let's try to get some rest, who knows when we might get another chance."
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D-Day +3 found him walking among his men taking a silent count of the missing, wounded or killed. They still hadn't accounted for all the personnel from the jump and he wasn't really sure that they ever would.
Dropping down next to a wall he took a moment to take off his helmet and run his hands through his hair. Brecourt had been bad, but the results would have been worse had they not taken out the guns. They would be moving out in the next few hours and he'd heard they were heading for Carentan; apparently there was no rest for the wicked.
The arrival of a convoy of trucks drew his attention. The back of the lead truck dropped open and a very small Soldier dropped out the back and began to spin in circles obviously lost. This must be the group of support personnel he'd heard were coming. He was enjoying the show when he saw another Soldier drop down next to the smaller one and place a hand on his shoulder. The arrival of Colonel Sink changed the humor of the situation when the taller Soldier removed their helmet to reveal white blond hair.
He felt the anger starting to rise in him again. Apparently Dick had been correct when he said that he would be seeing her sooner than expected. What had him upset right now was there was no way to get close to her without drawing unwanted attention. Dropping his helmet back on his head and grabbing his weapon he decided it was time to leave the area before he did something stupid.
Lana shifted again on the wooden bench that was passing as a seat. It seemed they had been transferred from one truck to another over the last three days without stopping. Right now she didn't care what she sat on as long as it wasn't moving.
The teeth jarring stop signaled the end of the journey. Thankfully this time when she looked out the back of the truck all she could see was 101st patches. This really was the end. She had to laugh as she watched Sara practically jump out of the back of the truck and begin to spin in circles like a lost puppy. She hadn't seen her move that fast since they left the landing craft and Sara felt she had to kiss the shore, simply because it wasn't moving.
Grabbing their bags she tried to calm Sara down, knowing it would be useless till she found out if Nixon was okay or not.
"Glad ya'll could finally join us."
Lana turned to find Colonel Sink standing behind her with a huge grin on his face. She found it hard not to hug the man, she was just so grateful he was okay.
"Yes sir, three days later and we're finally here. Where do you need us?"
Colonel Sink started to answer when he became distracted by something over her shoulder.
"Well if Nixon would untangle himself from LTC Strayer's secretary maybe we could all get some work done."
Lana turned in time to see Sara and Nix break apart, just in time for Lana to replace her, hugging Nix for all she was worth.
The loud 'humph' from behind them brought them all back into focus.
"Well if you ladies are done molesting my intelligence officer maybe we can get to work. Nix, if it's not too much trouble, could you take Miss Gillium down to see LTC Strayer while I have a word with Miss Meyer?"
Lana smiled and waved as her friends left turning back to Sink and getting a sinking feeling when she saw the serious look on his face.
"Lana, I'm going to ask you something and before you answer, know that you will be doing Nix and me a great service."
The cold shiver that passed down her spine alerted her to what he was going to ask even before the words left his mouth. So instead of waiting for him to say it, she cut him off with her answer.
"Sir, I'll translate, or do whatever it is that is required to assist. I just ask that we keep what I'm doing between the three of us. If people found out there would be questions that would be asked and I'm not ready for that."
Sink nodded, "we can keep it close hold. You are one strong young lady and I promise to keep you safe."
Lana laid her hand on his arm and squeezed. "Thank you sir, but don't make promises that we don't know can be kept."
Taking her bag she headed off the command post to get settled.
Okay ladies, I've done it again and left you hanging on who he is. I'm sure that Chapter 3 will reveal who he is, hope everyone enjoys the story so far. Most of you will probably guess or cheat and read ber1719's review.