I don't usually update this fast, but I want you all to see some development of the characters and their relationships (and the beginning of them!). Enjoy (and review!)

Chapter Two: Introductions.

Sarah slowly drifted out of sleep. Jasmine. Her hair smelt like jasmine. She could feel a small smile forming on her face. Oh that was satisfying. She took a deep breath. No cough. No wheezing. Smooth, relaxed. She turned onto her side and buried her head in the pillow. Clean sheets, it has been a while. Stretching her limbs in all directions, she felt a release of pressure in her muscles and joints. The smile kept growing.

She took in the smell of the fresh cotton sheets, and it reminded her of home. Home. I wonder how everyone is doing? It had been months since she last wrote. She still remembered the date of her last letter. February 18, 1944. The day her brother died.

She had sent a couple of photos since then, but no words. It just all seemed so fruitless. What was she to say? "Hi, how's it going? I'm doing fine." She couldn't bear to lie to her family, but she knew that she also couldn't tell them how she was really feeling either. It wasn't fair to them. What could they do when they were thousands of miles away? No, it wasn't fair.

It may seem odd, but at the beginning the war hadn't been that bad. She hadn't formed any emotional connections to anyone, and so as heartless as it sounds, the death didn't bother her as much as it should have. Maybe it all just seemed too surreal. Maybe no connections meant it had little impact on reality.

And at the end of the day she was good at what she did. Some days she could even have said that she enjoyed it. And those around her noticed. One by one, they started talking to her. Asking for her opinion. Her advice. Her support. And then she was just like one of them. No more jokes about her sexuality. No more jokes about breaking her nails. Because she was better than all of them. And they knew it.

But she didn't remind them of it. There was no need to. She wasn't there to antagonise people, and as cold as she came off on the surface, she did want to make those connections. Make friends. Even if it meant opening the door to the pain that would eventually come with it. No, she wasn't heartless. She knew that she would never be able to survive the war without making those connections.

In the end it wasn't surprising at all to everyone when she was called into Regimental Headquarters that day. Though she had to admit that she was a bit surprised when she was told what for. Commonwealth Special Forces? She had no idea what it was. But they had an idea about her. She still remembered Ryan's words to her that day.

"I had expected you to be shorter, Sergeant Price."

"Most people do, Captain. They figure my mouth makes up for my lack of height."

The Captain chuckled. "We've heard good things about you." He approached Sarah. "A lot of good things. So much so, in fact, that I've been sent here to personally extend an invitation to join a new unit."

She remembered how she raised her eyebrow at him and cocked her head. It had really blown her away that she was being approached for a unit. No, in fact it has completely freaked the shit out of her. But she didn't need long to think about it. She could tell just by meeting and talking with Ryan for that short while that it was the right thing to do.

Fast forward a few months. And here she was. Sarah Price, that intimidating, independent woman, snuggling with her pillow. She couldn't help by giggle at the ridiculousness of it.

At that point she heard a pounding on her door. "Saz! You up yet?"

Roo.

More pounding. "Seriously, I'm coming in if you don't answer me."

"I doubt answering you would stop you." She called out.

The door opened and in walked Roo. She hid her head under a pillow.

"Wake up, sunshine!"

She cracked open an eye and peered out at him from underneath the hiding place. "Leave me alone. I'm being lazy. Ryan said I could be lazy. You got a problem, take it up with him."

He bent over a looked at her. "Change of plans. We have to dress in our one's and go to some meeting. Intelligence mumbo jumbo. I dunno. In any case -"

He stood at the end of the bed and ripped the sheets off her.

" – you need to start moving."

She launched herself out of bed and stood face to face with Roo. "Good thing you're my best friend or else I'd have to gouge your eyes out."

"Well, with the thoughts I'm thinking after checking out those legs of yours, you might want to anyway." He titled his head and stared at her up and down. "Seriously, Saz, if I didn't like you so much you'd leave me no choice but to seduce you."

She snorted. "Alright, get out." She shooed him towards the door. "Out! I'll meet you outside in ten minutes." She went to shut the door and stopped. "Please don't get into any trouble."

Roo feigned innocence. "Who, me?"

She shut the door and shook her head. She started to comb her hair. And then she thought back to the first time she met Roo. It wasn't exactly love at first sight. She had joined Captain Ryan and they arrived at a bar in the middle of Cairo. It was sweltering hot, and all she wanted was a beer. She had wandered up to the bar, only to have a young, blonde haired man stand in her way. He stared at her up and down with a smirk on his face. She had seen this look before.

"What's a gorgeous woman like you doing in a place like this."

And there it was. Always the same. No, I'm not interested, she remembers thinking. She side stepped him, and continued to make her way to the bar.

"Why so cold, sweetie?" Sweetie?

She turned to face him. "Yeah, I'm not your sweetie, so back off."

"Hey, hey –"

At this point Ryan stepped forward. "I wouldn't go there, if I were you."

The young man looked at Ryan. "Yeah, or what?" He turned back around to Sarah. "Seriously, honey," he placed his hand on her waist, "you don't know what you missi –"

She curled her fist and felt it punch forward. And all of a sudden he was doubled over, his breathing raspy and sharp. She had wanted to continue to the bar, but Ryan's laugh stopped her. She looked at him with a confused look on her face.

"Sergeant Price," Ryan pulled on the collar of the man to straighten him up. "Meet one of your fellow troopers, James Clarke. Although we prefer to call him Roo."

Sarah chuckled at the memory. It was hard to believe that she was now best friends with such a womaniser. Any woman he grew to like, he wouldn't touch. Hard to believe that once upon a time he was engaged. Whatever had happened meant that the boy now definitely had some issues.

She burst out of the office and towards her room. The speed of her walk was matched by the speed in which the thoughts were flying around in her head. So much to do! Great timing Ryan.

Captain Ryan had been summoned to attend a meeting at Stirling Lines. Effective immediately, she was in charge of the troopers. And that meant work. Lots of work. Right now, she had to complete the post-battles reports for Ryan, and then she had to read through a rather large pile of material to do with their training with Easy Company over the next month. On top of that, she had to summarise it for the rest of the troopers, and then organise their kits, and then –

– papers were flying everywhere. Her reflexes kicked in an attempt to rescue the falling folders but it was too late. And then her limbs decided to join in on the fun. She fell forward and knocked her head against something particularly solid.

"Shit, shit, shit. Would you watch where you are going? Seriously, what the hell are you doing? Start paying attention to what is happening around you, now I have to try and get all of this stuff in order, and I have so much fucking stuff to do, and then you just walk straight into me..." She looked up to the moron that walked into her and saw the chevrons on his collar. Shit. He was a Captain.

She bolted up and stood straight. "My apologies, Sir."

"It's fine, Lieutenant. Let's collect all of this up, shall we?" She looked down and saw a twinkle in his eye. She glared at him and then started recollecting the papers.

Son of a bitch. Oh god, I can't believe I just did that. What was I thinking. Crap! She could feel the heat rising up her collar, and she became well aware of the fact that he had noticed how flustered she was. She looked at him, and he had a crooked smile planted on his face. She got more annoyed.

"You have quite the hard head." He chuckled as he gave her back the last pile of strewn papers.

"You can talk." She replied curtly. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I have a lot of work to do." And with that she walked off, completely infuriated at the man that had witnessed her out of sorts. Dammit!

Winters looked on in awe of the woman that had just walked in to him. He had been watching on in amusement as he watched Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye argue about where you could buy the best Philadelphia Cheesesteak. Apparently it was quite the important debate. Completely in her own world, she rounded the corner and had smacked straight into him. He couldn't help but be entertained at the sight of limbs and papers flying everywhere. And it was clear that that annoyed her. The look on her face when she realised that he was a Captain was pure horror, and that just made him more amused.

He grinned at her. "You have quite the hard head." He chuckled quietly but it was clear that she had noticed it, and he could tell that she was starting to blush.

He handed her the last of the papers, which she snapped out of his hands. "You can talk." She blurted out. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I have a lot of work to do." And with that she wandered off, just as quickly as she had arrived.

Winters couldn't help but look on as she stormed past Bill and Joe. The woman was clearly on a mission. He followed her and he was well aware of the grin planted on his face. But it was all too amusing. He had managed to, even for a brief moment in time, crack that hard exterior of hers, and he was thoroughly intrigued. His eyes flicked back to Bill and Joe, who were also looking on in amusement. But at him. He knew he couldn't hide the look on his face, and so he kept on grinning, shrugged at them, and then wandered off.

Sarah was still stuck on the battle reports. She had done them before, but it was never easy to have to sit down and relive them all. Ryan always laughed at her because she insisted on being so detailed with them, but she felt that it was important to be. She didn't want to provide an incorrect report and have that potentially cause inconsistencies in future operations. Ultimately, if she did a terrible job it could lead to some poor kid's death. And she didn't want that.

Deep in thought, she didn't even notice that Roo had come into her room until she felt his hand on her shoulder. She turned and smiled at him.

"Saz, I've come to take you away from this life of administration, and to the world of men drinking beer in a bar."

She laughed. "Oh, you make it sound so appetising. Sorry, I really have to get these finished."

"Oh come on, Saz, you know as well as I do that those things aren't due any time soon." He pulled a chair up to the table and sat down. "I'm about to get all emotional, so don't get scared now. I've noticed the last couple of weeks that you've been pulling away from us all, you're constantly in that little world of yours. Seriously, what's happening with you? You're making me worried, who's going to be my wingman if you keep locking yourself away feeling sorry for yourself?"

She sighed and looked at him. "Honestly, I've just been thinking about home. I know I should write but..."

"... but it's hard. I understand Saz. Have you tried to just write something, anything?"

She shook her head. "I just sit there, staring at the paper. Ever since Charles died, it just seems like anything I want to say just doesn't matter."

He patted her on the shoulder. "Keep trying, you'll get there. Who knows, maybe if you come down a few beers with me at the bar tonight you'll get the epiphany you need?" He gave her a big grin. "Come on, man, you know you want to."

She laughed again. "This is why I like you so much, Roo. You have your priorities straight."

Roo was right. Sarah was having a fantastic time. It was good to just wind down, and have a good laugh. And the Easy Company boys were good value. She had already spent a significant amount of time chatting with George Lutz, who was quite the character. It was awful, but she could tell he was quite enamoured with her, and she probably shouldn't have kept talking to him. But he just made her laugh, and in the end, that was what she wanted to do tonight.

All of a sudden she could hear raised voices behind her. She swung around and saw Mouse in full flight, arms everywhere, having quite the fist fight with an American soldier. In a matter of seconds more troopers and soldiers had joined into the brawl. The rest, were all standing on chairs and tables and yelling at the sight of it. Animals.

She launched herself towards the pack of men, and started pulling them apart. She could see Mouse buried in the middle, and as she pulled more men off each other, she felt a fist connect with her jaw. She felt the pain fire up the side of her face, and felt the taste of blood in her mouth. Well great. She could see on the other side another American soldier wrenching men off each other. All of a sudden they were face to face, and she noticed it was the Captain she had run into today. Well, fucking great.

With the brawl over, she turned to face the troopers. "What the hell do you think you are all doing?" She bellowed. The bar suddenly got very quiet.

"As much as you all might like to enjoy reminding everyone here that you're men, having to put up with such bull shit isn't something that I consider an enjoyable evening."

"Saz, you don't understand..." Mouse began.

"Shut your mouth and stand at attention. All of you." She glared at them all, and then turned to Mouse. "And it's Lieutenant." She stretched herself to her full height, looked at them all, and lowered her voice. "You know that I have high standards as to the behaviour of troopers, and tonight is no exception. I'm extremely disappointed in you all. I don't care what started it, acting like a pack of animals is no way to settle whatever was said."

She spoke louder. "Thanks to the boys here, all troopers in this bar are to immediately head back to the rooms. And if I catch any one of you outside of your rooms for the rest of the night, there will be hell to pay. You got that?" She saw some nods. "Now, move!"

Watching them all leave the bar, she became aware of the audience she had, and could feel the trickle of blood down her chin. She motioned towards the bar and smiled. "Well, don't let me stop you all."

She walked outside to get some fresh air. Closing her eyes, she took a number of deep breaths to help settle her pounding heart. Idiots.

"That was quite impressive, Lieutenant." She glanced to her left to see her 'favourite' Captain standing next to her. He gave her a handkerchief from out of his pocket. "Here," he motioned to the cut lip.

She took it from him, and stuck it on her lip, which had now become quite puffy. "Thanks."

He stuck his hand out. "We haven't formally meet yet. Captain Dick Winters."

Looking at him closely, she took his hand and shook it. "Well, if we're being formal about it, I'm Lieutenant Hera Parihe." She chuckled at the confused look on his face. "I'm Maori. Sarah Price is the English transliteration of my name. But if it makes it easier for you, just call me Saz." She tilted her head and smiled. "I'd best be off. I have some troopers to check on. See you around, Captain."

Nodding, he gave her a small smile. For the first time, he felt quite comfortable with being called Captain.

Cheers all! :)