Disclaimer: I do not own Band of Brothers, nor do I intend any disrespect towards the real men. This is a work of fiction, taking the mini series as a starting point.

Guess I was on a bit of a roll! Two chapters at once, I fear I might be spoiling you.

Leiden, May 1940

Lectures had been cancelled. Katrien had arrived at the faculty that bright morning at 9am with the rest of her classmates only to be turned away again by the professor and some of the custodians.

"All teaching has been suspended until further notice." Dr. Kaufmann had told them as he stood at the doorway of the lecture theatre addressing the jostling crowd which had gathered in the atrium of the university. Katrien noticed the custodians locking the doors of all the other classrooms littered around her, as tweed clad professors left the building, clutching briefcases filled with lessons they would never teach. She'd heard the rumours building for weeks, but had defied them to actually materialise. The rumours which she had dismissed every time she heard them. "It's the 20th century. That kind of thing can't happen" she told everyone who tried to discuss them with her. Now she wasn't so certain.

"I only know as much as you do about what's going on in our country at the moment." Dr. Kaufmann sighed as he addressed a heckle which had been thrown at him from the crowd of students. "At any rate, the University has seen fit to shut down for a short time until matters have been resolved. Any further questions have to be addressed to the university administration. I don't know anything more. I suggest you all go back to your families at this moment in time. Keep calm. I'm sure this will all be resolved very soon. Don't think you're all getting out of discussing Luther's The Freedom of a Christian that easily." He smiled weakly as the crowd began to disperse until there was only Katrien left and a small group of young men debating something angrily in the corner. Dr. Kaufmann sat down on marble staircase to the left of the classroom where he had spent most of his adult life. Katrien watched as he took off his round black rimmed glasses and rubbed them half-heartedly on his trouser leg.

She coughed nervously as she approached. "Dr. Kaufman?"

He looked up wearily, replacing his glasses. Upon seeing who it was, his face broke into a watery smile. "Ms. Maartens. What can I do for you at this rather unorthodox end to the term?"

"I know we both have bigger things to think about at the moment. It's just…" she broke off gesturing at the briefcase in her hand. "I have my assignment on Thomas Aquinas. I spent quite a lot of time on it and I just wondered whether you could take it in?"

"Of course!" He jumped up. "Nothing is more important that Thomas Aquinas." She fished the sheets of careful handwriting from her bag.

"Thank you, sir." He took them from her and scanned the first page. For the first time she noticed the grey hairs peppering the black hair near his temples. He nodded approvingly. "Very good, Ms. Maartens." He placed it carefully in his bag and picked up his hat from the stair beside him. "I'll try and get it back to you soon." He moved off towards the exit, and then paused. "I've been told that this suspension is only temporary, but I really don't know what's going to happen. Please, take care of yourself, and God willing we'll all be back in that room discussing theology again soon." He took a deep breath and looked all around the airy atrium listening to the sounds of doors closing and feet falling on stairs as the last of the faculty exited the building, memorising the marble busts which watched over them, as if trying to absorb everything from that place into him before exiting and not looking back. Katrien stood still for a moment trying to gather her thoughts before turning to leave.

"Katrien?"

She turned. One of the boys in the group in the corner was approaching her. She knew him vaguely from her theology class. Joost, he sat in front of her and had blonde hair and a half moon scar behind his left ear and always debated with such anger it seemed as though a concept had personally offended him.

"Are you going to see Pieter?"

She gave a slight nod. "I suppose. I'm assuming his class will have been cancelled as well."

"Can you give him this for me?" He held out a piece of paper torn from his notebook, carefully folded into tiny square.

***

Pieter was waiting for her by the statue of a long forgotten rector of the university, the same place they always met when classes changed over. He looked harassed, he had rolled the sleeves up of his navy sweater and the back of his hair was sticking up slightly where he kept running his hand through it. Katrien found herself moving quicker through the crowds of confused students to get to him.

"Pieter!" He turned towards her and his expression brightened briefly as he saw who it was. He grabber her hand fiercely pulling her towards him and kissed her hard on her forehead.

"Pieter, what's going on? I just went to theology and Dr. Kauffmann said that the university is shutting down."

He set his mouth in a grim line and shook his head. "Nobody knows what's going on exactly. They have a wireless in the custodian's room at the medical faculty, and we crowded in to listen to it. It's complete chaos, nobody has any clue what's happening, but I think, I think that Germany might have invaded." He wasn't even looking at her while he said it, but was focussed on some point in the middle distance.

Katrien felt her stomach twist grotesquely. All the rumours which had been floating around, of an imminent invasion, of a war, were real. "But…we're neutral! We've always been neutral! And we've maintained that even when Hitler has been ransacking the rest of Europe."

"I know that!" Pieter was still gripping her hand tightly but his mind was still elsewhere. "Wait what's this?" He turned her palm up to face him revealing the square of paper which Katrien had pressed into her hand after Joost had handed it to her.

"Oh, it's for you. Joost de Vries, you know, from theology asked me to give it to you." He'd already grabbed it from him and was scanning it anxiously.

"I have to go." He picked up his books from the ground beside him and tucked them under his arm. He started to go leaving Katrien standing alone by the statute in an almost empty quad. "But…" She began to protest feebly.

He stopped and ran back to her. He took her hand tightly in his own and looked her straight in the eyes. "Go home. I'll stop by later, OK?"

He kissed her again, this time on the lips and smiled at her as they broke apart. "I love you, you know that. This is all going to be OK."

He released her hand and took off leaving her standing there in complete confusion. She wanted to believe him when he said it was going to be alright, but the truth was, the hand that clutched hers was a sweaty and as clammy as her own.

***

Her bike was the last one left in the cycle park. She picked it up, placing her case in the front basket and headed for home. Even though the sun was out, she kept her cardigan on, feeling chilled right through to her bone. The streets were practically deserted. On any other day cancelled lectures would have sent a stream of excited students out into the sun on bicycles, whistling at each other as they headed to the park or down to the canal. Katrien must have passed only four or five other people on her way back, all walking with a purpose, some carrying suitcases. As she arrived back at her house, she passed two girls leaving the house with satchels overflowing with clothes. She walked straight through the common room where unusually, no-one acknowledged her with a smile and a wave. It was completely empty save for a group of five girls huddled around the wireless in the corner. She headed up the stairs where one girl was sitting sobbing quietly while two other girls tried to calm her down and burst into her room calling "Annemarie?" to find her roommate throwing belongings into a battered brown suitcase.

"Hi Katrien." She said, but didn't stop flying around the room picking up a notebook, a gramophone record, the glass vial of perfume which always sat on her bedside table. "I'm trying to get the next train back to Amsterdam. I take it you've heard? Everything that's been said the past few days has been true. Germany's invaded. No one knows for sure what's happening. All that's certain is that German fighter planes have been flying over Holland all day. I've heard rumours that foot soldiers are on their way, and that paratroopers have already landed. I don't know, I just know I need to get back to my family." She slammed the suitcase closed emphatically and surveyed the small room with its two iron framed beds, identical desks and wardrobes. The china saucer which served as a makeshift ashtray when the two girls had shared covert cigarettes away from the prying eyes of their landlady. The newspaper cuttings of Hollywood film stars and the Dutch royal family which they had put up together. Annemarie's perpetually unmade bed.

"What are you going to do Katrien?"

Katrien shrugged. "I don't know. This is all just too fast."

Annemarie crossed the room to where she stood and hugged her hard. "This is all going to fine. Sooner or later we're going to be back here. I just need to be with my family right now. If I were you I'd do the same."

Katrien stroked the frizzy blonde hair of her roommate which she had helped her tame into plaits just a few hours earlier. She swallowed a massive lump which had been forming in her throat.

"I've left this month's rent on my dresser. Can you give it to Mrs. Grotius for me? And tell her I'm sorry." Annemarie picked up her suitcase and school satchel and surveyed the room one more time. "We'll see each other soon, I promise." She hugged Katrien again. "Look after yourself."

And then she was gone. Katrien sank down onto her bed and looked at the empty half of the room, listening to the panicked voices of the other girls around her, muted by the walls which separated them. She felt completely alone, like her whole world had been just been upended and all the contents tipped out – like she did now with her handbag scrabbling around for coins. She ran down the stairs again, bypassing the phone which was in the hallway. A queue of about five or six girls had formed behind it twisting their hands anxiously and pleading the girl in front to hurry up. She sped straight out the front door and across the street into a completely deserted café where the owner was wiping down the surface of the bar and another young boy was stacking chairs. "We're closed." He yelled.

"Henk, it's me. Can I please use the phone?"

The white haired owner looked up. "Oh it's you. Slice of apple cake, yes, the usual?"

"No Henk, just the phone." She looked pleadingly at him. Today was not the day for joking around. He bit his lip and looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully as if considering this request.

"I'll tell you what. You can use the phone if you buy a slice of my delicious apple cake." He waved the cake stand towards her and wiggled his eyebrows enticingly.

She threw her hands up. "Sure." He grinned and gestured behind the bar. She ran behind it and grabbed it jabbing the handset towards her ear and spinning the dial anxiously, listening to the ringing sound, stomach twisting.

When the familiar voice answered, she felt her knees collapse, and she crouched down behind the bar amongst the cups and saucers. melted. "Daddy" she coughed out, relieved, reverting to her old name for him. She hadn't called him that for years.

"Darling." The voice on the other end sounded equally relieved.

"What's going on?" She could feel tears pricking the back of her eyes. "The university has shut down, hundreds of students are leaving. What should I do?"

Her father could hear the panic in her voice. "Shhhh, Katrien. Everything will be fine." She felt an involuntary sob escape her. She could see her father, gold rimmed glasses, greying moustache sitting clutching the phone to his ear in the tall backed leather chair in his study. She ached to be there with him now, sitting in the cushy armchair in the corner reading while his fountain pen scratched out letters at his desk. She wanted to be gathered up into his arms, she wanted to be there listening to the wireless with him after dinner, perching on the arm of his chair pointing out the answers to crosswords clue.

"I'm coming home."

"Darling. I miss you so much, but I can't let you come home. I keep hearing more and more reports of German soldiers marching into our country. The last thing I want is them to run into my beautiful, talented daughter as she makes her way home to me from university. Stay right where you are until everything has calmed down. Then I will come and meet you in Leiden myself and we'll go home together. In just a few days. That's all."

Katrien sniffed and shook her head although she knew he couldn't see her. "No, I want to be with you now."

"I know you're frightened." She clutched the handset tighter willing herself to climb down the line and emerge in her father's study in Rotterdam. "Please stay clam and stay in Leiden. There will be other girls staying with Mrs. Grotius won't there? And Pieter will still be there. Stay there, please, for just a few days and then I'll come for you. Don't worry about me, I'll have Reina with me." She thought fondly of their elderly housekeeper who had all but raised her after he mother died.

"Yes, Daddy. But only if you don't worry about me."

He chuckled softly. "That's impossible, sweetheart. How can I not worry about my only daughter when she's miles away from me? But this is the best thing, I promise. It's too dangerous to travel right now. At least this way I know where you are and who you're with."

He paused.

"Just know that I love you so much, Katrien. You've made me so proud. You have so much potential, so much to do. You can do anything you want Katrien, and you will. You're beautiful, you're intelligent and one day you're going to do something incredible. Don't let anyone or anything tell you differently."

"This sounds like you're saying goodbye Daddy. Don't be stupid. I'll see you in a few days."

Her father didn't answer. "I love you." He said again, before he hung up the phone.

Later, Katrien would often think that he'd known he wouldn't be picking her up in a few days. He'd known something was going to happen.

* **

It was after 10 o'clock by the time Pieter finally came. "You know you shouldn't be here." Katrien had whispered as she hurried him up the stairs. "You know the rules: No male visitors after 6pm. Mrs. Grotius would kill us both if she saw you."

"Things are different now." He whispered as soon as they were in her room.

After she had got off the phone with her father she had come back and sat in her room, listening to the sounds of more and more girls leaving. She had picked at the skin around her thumb nail. She had drank a cup of tea. She had taken down her hair, then pulled it back in a barrette and then finally let it fall around her shoulders. She ironed the blouse she planned to wear tomorrow. She ate a very subdued dinner with the other girls who had stayed. Finally, she had sat down to begin work on an essay due for next week. She didn't even know why. It was unlikely that class would even still be on.

"Where have you been?" she asked Pieter. He sighed as he pulled off his sweater.

"Just. Around." He rubbed the back of his head and smiled at her. "Come here. You're beautiful. And why are you writing that essay for Professor Ziegler?" He grabbed her hand and pulled her down to sit beside him on the bed. He kissed her temple and put his arm around her. They sat in silence for a while hearing the faint hum of airplane engines from afar.

"The Dutch army has been fighting hard." Pieter said suddenly. "But the Germans are threatening to bomb us if we don't surrender."

Katrien smoothed down the back of his hair absentmindedly.

"They wouldn't though." She sighed and recited the same thing she'd been saying for the past few weeks, the same excuse. "It's the 20th century. That kind of thing wouldn't happen." As soon as it left her mouth it sounded feeble.

For the second time in week, she was going to be proved wrong.