Author's Note: I spent a couple hours last night watching a few of the episodes, so hopefully I'm a bit more accurate with this. Please review, apparently I've been writing this so far for negotiator24, not that I mind. But I know others are reading too, so just leave some kind of review. Even if its just "Love it. Update soon." it'd make a world of difference for me. Reviews are my heroine, feed the addiction!
Disclaimer: I do not own Band of Brothers. The men from Easy Company own themselves and anyone else you know or recognize aren't mine. Colette and her family are creations of my imagination. Please use your own and don't steal my characters.
Kudos to: negotiator24 again for the review. Sorry about the cliffie, just think that it could've been worse. ;-)
Dedication: To the men and women who serve our country each and everyday. Thank you and God bless.
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Blah. French untranslated
Blah. French translations
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Chapter Two
Carentan, France
June, 1944
Iris paid no attention to the four soldiers standing just outside the small shed that she and Colette were hiding in, guns up and ready to fire them to Hong Kong and back. Instead, Iris was more worried about how pale her sister had become and the effort it took for her to breathe. Her green eyes were wide and her hand was at her chest.
Starting at a young age Colette had always been prone to asthma and panic attacks. While she was still younger, they would happen three or four times a month if not more. Anything seemed to throw her into an attack. Luckily though as Colette got older she seemed to almost grow out of them. But Iris could clearly remember the days when suddenly out of the blue Cole would start having trouble breathing and their parents would drop everything to calm her. As Iris fell to the floor seconds after her sister did, she tried to remember what her parents had always done to calm her.
"Breathe Cole! Think happy thoughts. Like puppies. Kittens. Daisies!" Iris clutched Colette's hands in hers and rubbed them soothingly. " Deep breath in and out."
Colette nodded her head and let it drop onto Iris' shoulder as she tried to calm her breathing. Iris looked up to see the soldiers had dropped their guns and were watching them. She forced herself to look away from them and focused back on her sister. Colette's shoulders shook as she finally brought herself back to calm down. Iris wrapped her arms around her comfortingly and let her head fall with a sigh.
"Thank you," Colette whispered, giving her sister a tight hug. Iris simply nodded her head with closed eyes.
Footsteps on the floor made them both look up and they noticed that all but two of the soldiers had left. The taller of the two had climbed into the shed and was walking towards them slowly. He had left his gun with the other man and had his hands up in surrender.
"Vous parlez l'anglais?" You speak English?
Iris wanted to laugh as the French came from the man. He sounded like he was trying to speak while eating mashed potatoes at the same time. Not a very flattering way of putting it, but true none the less. She wondered what she would sound like trying to speak English and doubted she would sound much better.
Colette nudged her younger sister in gut with her elbow with a frown before turning back to the soldier. "I do, a bit."
The man nodded and started to question her. Iris looked between her sister and the man as they talked between themselves for a few minutes. She could tell that Cole was having a hard time with her English but somehow the man seemed to understand everything she was saying.
Her attention turned to the other soldier who stood just outside the shed on guard. Most of the gun fire had stopped along with the bombing. Yet, the man was still scanning the streets and buildings for the Germans. The radio pack on his back was speaking, but apparently it had nothing to do with him as he ignored it. He reminded her of Dimitri in a way. Tall, dark brown hair, a face that Iris was sure laughed at just about everything, and kind eyes. Iris looked away as memories of Dimitri and Luc came back to her painfully.
The thought of never seeing either of them hurt deeply. Iris couldn't even start to understand how her sister held herself together everyday. Dimitri was just like another member of the family to her. The older brother that Luc, someone that understood Iris' need to stand on her own two feet, and another son to their parents. But it was different for Colette. Dimitri was the man that she would spend the rest of her life with, and Iris truly believed that if Dimitri really was dead, Colette would never move on in life. Not completely at least. He meant too much to her just to pick up and move on from.
Iris was startled out of her thoughts as Colette gave a laugh and got to her feet with the help of the soldier. She looked down at a confused Iris with a grin and held out a hand for her.
"How does England sound?" she asked, pulling her sister to her feet gently.
"Full of bloody wankers," Iris answered as they started to follow the soldier out of the shed and into the street. Her knee protested as she put her full weight on it, but Iris was determined to not show weakness in front of the soldiers, not to mention her sister.
She was surprised when the soldier, that had been talking with Cole, turned around and held his hand out to her. "David Webster," he said.
Iris hesitated a split second and stared at his outstretched hand before grabbing it with one of hers. His hand was rough and dirt covered but she didn't notice much. She was too busy attempting to think of something smart to say, like Colette would have done.
"Iris," she muttered quietly, mentally berating herself for sounding stupid. None the less, David gave her a grin and said something in English before starting back down the street. As they followed behind him, Iris finally got a chance to see the full extent of damage of the town.
The pharmacy front had been blown out, as had many of the other store fronts. Bullet holes marred many of the homes, and some windows had been shot out. Corners of buildings had been completely blown away and as the small group passed the house she and Colette had only an hour before been locked into, Iris was shocked to find half of the house collapsed. She stopped in front of it and tried to remember what part of the house her broom closet had been in. Her stomach hurt when she found that if Colette hadn't managed to break them out of the house, she would probably be dead.
"Was it yours?"
The voice beside her caused Iris to jump in surprise. She looked over to see the other soldier standing a few feet away form her, gesturing towards the house. A frown came over her face as she tried to understand what he was saying. He noticed and walked towards her and pointed at the house again.
"Is it yours?" He pointed between the house and Iris until she realized what he was asking.
"No," she said. She shook her head fervently, "Not mine."
For a second Iris was worried she had said the wrong word, but the soldier nodded in understanding. He looked up the street to where David and Colette stood a little ways up waiting for them. "We'd better hurry up," he said kindly and waited for Iris to take one last look at the house that had served as a prison for a day. She looked at the broken windows and the jagged edges of the floor boards hanging in air from the top floor before turning her back on it and walking beside the soldier with a small limp.
The two walked in silence a little farther behind Colette and David who continued to talk like long lost friends. Iris took in all the damage of the town and once again thanked god that Colette had managed to save them from it. She wondered what their house looked like and hoped that because it was on the outside of town it would be mostly still intact. Or at least livable.
"I'm George Luz," the soldier said, breaking the silence that had hung over them. He seemed to think about it before speaking again. "Luz, actually."
He looked over at Iris and waited for her to speak. She thanked him mentally for not making hand gestures to himself like some Americans did, it always made Iris laugh out loud. Mostly that ended up in offending them, and she thought it would be best not to offend any of the American soldiers.
"Luz?" she asked, a bit confused as to what he wanted to be called. A grin spread across his face as he nodded. "Iris," she said. She was happy to hear that her voice sounded stronger then when David had asked her.
Luz opened his mouth to say more but as the four rounded the corner, they found themselves in the main square. Iris was stunned to see the number of soldiers that had come to her small town. Debris was everywhere as were the scattered bodies of both Germans and what Iris guessed were other Americans. A few buildings were smoldering while others were still caught on fire.
Colette stopped a bit ahead of her and called out her name, motioning for Iris to stay close. David walked across the remains of the battered square to an almost untouched house. He stepped aside and let Colette in before him, stopping to say something to Luz before following Iris' sister inside.
"Stay there!" Colette called quickly before the door shut and Iris was left out on the street with Luz.
"Yes, Oh Mighty Great One," Iris muttered before gingerly lowering herself onto the street, resting her back against the wall. She stretched out her injured knee into the street and pulled the other to her chest and propped her chin on it. Her light blue tattered skirt hung limply from her frame, and Iris was glad that she always wore short leggings beneath her skirts so she could run if need be.
Luz gave a heavy sigh and shouldered off the radio pack and set it down on the ground before sitting on the street beside Iris. He rummaged around in his jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Iris frowned and shook her head as Luz offered her one and he simply shrugged and lit on for himself. The two sat in a comfortable silence as they watched the square come back to life slowly.
Medics were gathering up the wounded and brought them past Iris and Luz into the house that Iris assumed was their aid station. More locals were coming out of their homes and some men were helping to clear the streets of debris so that army jeeps could go through. A couple women had followed the medics in the house to help with the wounded and if Iris had any stomach for blood, she would have volunteered to help.
After a few minutes more soldiers came and sat down with them, conversing about the battle. Some noticed Iris and gave her odd looks, but most didn't seem to notice or care she was there. It suited her fine, her English was horrible and she'd rather not make a fool of herself in front of all of the Americans.
The door swung open from the inside and Iris looked up to see a happy Colette walk down the steps and sat herself next to her sister.
"How's the knee?" she asked, smoothing out the edges of her gray, knee length dress.
Iris gave a shrug. It still hurt horribly, but she wasn't going to complain. She'd had worse, and many of the men around her needed medical attention more urgently than she did. "It's fine."
Colette gave a nod and stared down the street. Iris was itching to ask about what had gone on in the house, but didn't want to press her sister for information. She was sure that it had to be good news, Cole hadn't come out of the house crying, so that had to count for something.
"I got us a job," Colette said, still looking away from her sister.
A grin spread out over Iris' face. A job meant some way of getting her mind off of everything that was going on. No more thoughts of Luc and Dimitri and whether or not they were alive. Not if it was something that would keep her busy enough to simply crash into bed at night.
"What kind of job?" she asked, leaning forward and ignoring the pain in her knee in excitement.
"You have to promise to understand that this is the only way we'll be safe from the Nazis," Colette begged. Iris' stomach dropped at the look of pleading her sister was throwing at her.
"Okay," she promised uncertainly. This wasn't sounding as such a great idea as Iris had hoped.
Colette took a deep breath and focused her eyes on the skyline just above her sisters head. "I hope you like to cook."
Author's Note: Mk. Wow, long chapter. Almost six pages, go me. I changed the title, may not seem like it, but it fits the story better than the old one. Don't try to understand it, most of you won't until later on. I'll try to update again tomorrow, but I give no promises. I only got one done today because I'm home with the flu. Yay. So, please review and I'll update again soon. I hope.
