The next two chapters were written as one, but I thought it might be better for me to try be a bit more consistent with my chapter lengths! Enjoy, and please review. I'd be keen to hear people's thoughts about Sarah.

Chapter Four: The Fixer

Aldbourne, August 26th 1944

It had been just over a week since the troopers had arrived in Aldbourne. It was weird, but the week had been more complicated and stressful that being out in the field. Maybe it was because killing was well, simple. It was all about three things: exhale, squeeze the trigger, release. But attempting to build relationships with people? Yeah, that was a bit harder.

It had been nice to have some company the previous morning, in the form of someone that she considered to be a new friend. Sarah had always found it hard to make new friends, but she fully admitted that it was her own fault. She could be extremely distrusting. But there was a way that Dick presented himself, and interacted with those around him, that put her at ease.

She had thought about the best way to approach Bill in order to chat with him about the brawl. She really hoped she wasn't making the wrong decision. With men, the majority of the time they got into a brawl just well, because. But ultimately she felt that she couldn't risk it if the fight had actually been about something important. So, it was better in the end to potentially make a fool of herself in front of this soldier, instead of leaving it to fester.

While some would question her returning to the scene of the crime to talk to Bill, the fact that there was plenty of liquor available to help grease the cogs made it the perfect location. She entered into the pub and immediately spotted Bill, who was rather conveniently located at the end of the bar. As she stepped a bit further into the smoky room, a few soldiers turned around to look at her. She had to admit that she was beginning to squirm with the attention of it, particularly with some making comments about the bruising on her chin and jaw.

Just as the attention of it all started to give her cause to second guess her plan of attack, a saviour in the form of none other than George Luz appeared in front of her. "Hello there, Lieutenant Price. Are you here for some liquor," he leaned in, "or just to visit me?"

She laughed loudly. "I tell you what, you get me a pint and I'll publicly agree that it is the latter."

"You're on."

Sarah wound up spending most of the night drinking with the Easy boys. And she could tell that she was feeling the effects of the alcohol. She was light headed, flushed, and blissfully happy. It must have been quite a different sight for some of the boys to behold. She had Luz sitting across the table from her, flashing her with that admittedly gorgeous grin, and another pint in her hand. How did I let myself get so drunk? She peered over at Bill, who was still sitting at the end of the he was surrounded by a few other soldiers, and she wasn't particularly keen to approach him with such an audience. Who would've thought I was such a coward?

"Why the long face, sunshine?"

She looked at Luz in disbelief. "Did you seriously just call me sunshine?"

For the first time in his life Luz was speechless. A look of sheer horror crossed his face and she had to admit that she found this ability to intimidate the men amusing. A voice called from the other side of the room, "When I called her sweetie I got a fist to my balls, so I'd be watching it if I were you!"

She rolled her eyes, and waved her hand dismissively in Roo's direction. "Oh shush and get back to your hounding of the local ladies." She glanced over her shoulder and saw him doing just that, shook her head, and chuckled. "I hope you're not like that, Luz."

"Me? Oh never, I swear. I only reserve my attention to the most deserving." His eyes twinkled as he looked at her. What are you doing, Price? Don't lead him along.

She nervously avoided his gaze and spied Bill, who was now all alone. This is my chance. She looked back at George, who was still peering at her. "Luz, I believe I have taken up far too much of your time this fine evening."

"Oh, I don't think it would have been as fine if I hadn't have spent it with you." I so walked right into that one.

"Still, I suspect that some of the ladies here have become rather jealous of me." She motioned over to Roo, who was preoccupied with two young women in the corner of the room. "I don't suppose you could go check on my buddy over there, could you?" She leaned into Luz and lowered her voice. "He tends to get himself into trouble when it comes to women." She chuckled.

Luz looked a bit disappointed but she attempted to soften the blow by giving him a big smile. He immediately brightened up a bit. "Anything, Lieutenant."

"I owe you a pint, Luz." And with that she picked up what was remaining of her beer, patted him on the shoulder, and headed over to Bill.

The pub was filled with noise and laughter, and Sarah hated to descend on Bill with such a serious topic to discuss. Still, it had to be done, even if having to have that conversation was clearly making her squirm. She slid into the chair next to Bill, and he looked up at her. "What are you drinking tonight?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Well, I'll be damned if a broad buys me a drink."

"What about a Lieutenant, then?"

He continued peering at her. "Whisky."

She motioned to the bartender and pointed at the empty glass in front of Bill. "Fill 'er up." As the bartender was walking away, she picked up her glass, and downed the remnants of her pint. "This too, thanks." She slid the glass down the polished wood, and turned to Bill. "So where are you from, Sergeant Guarnere?"

"South Philly. You?"

"Small country called New Zealand. You heard of it?"

"To be honest with you, no."

She laughed. "Most people haven't." The bartender arrived with their drinks and she took a rather large gulp of her beer. She hadn't felt this awkward in quite some time. Lord, even my hands are sweating. This is ridiculous!

Bill's voice snapped her out of her self-loathing. "Look 'ere, Lieutenant. I don't mean to be rude, but is there a reason why you're sitting here with me right now?"

"Christ, Dick was right, you do cut straight to the chase." She gave him a smile. "I like it."

"Aye, well you know ol' Guarnere doesn't like to disappoint."

"It's about the brawl the other night with Mouse. You know. The small one."

"Yeah, what about it."

She took a quiet breath and looked at him intensely. "Mouse ain't telling me what was said. The fact that he isn't saying anything to me, makes me think that it was about more than just you boys having a bit too much to drink, if you know what I mean."

He continued staring at her with those dark eyes of his. Oh boy, this is like getting blood from a stone.

She decided to change tact. "I'll be honest with you, I can't be bothered putting up with bullshit. Now, if me and my men here gotta fight along side you boys, you need to cut the crap. I'm not stupid enough to think that none of the men here will die out there, but I'm damned if I'll let you stubborn bastards add to the tally. So tell me what he said."

She drew in her breath sharply and watched for his reaction. Over his shoulder she saw Dick come into the bar with Lewis Nixon, who she had had some dealings with in her intelligence briefing. Dick spotted her and noticed she was with Bill, gave her a small nod, and then headed in the other direction. Bill slouched back and gave her a look.

"There was a conversation about military service running in families. He was going on and on about how no-one in his family had ever died in any war, like he was some fucking god." He leaned into her. "And so I decided to call your trooper a few names. He thought he would do the same, but he made a few about my family. You don't make comments about my family."

She looked at him intently and thought. His body language seemed quite hostile, which made her think that there was more to the story than he was letting on. He was clearly still quite riled up about it. "And?"

"Hm." He jerked his head back and frowned at her. "My brother. He made a comment about my brother."

She lowered her eyes at him. What would I do if someone made a comment about my brother? And then it dawned on her. "When?"

He knew what she meant. "Just before the jump into Normandy. Fucking Monte Cassino, wherever the fuck that is." He shook his head and took a drink.

"Italy." She stared into her drink. "It's in Italy."

She could feel his eyes fixed on her. "When for you?" His voice was softer and quieter.

"February 18. Worst day of my life."

"I hear that."

"I'm sorry Mouse was such a bastard."

"Ah, look, you're right, he is a bastard." Bill told her. She looked up at him, laughed, and shook her head. "But don't worry about it. I say enough bad things in my time to know it ain't done on purpose."

They both tipped back their glasses and drank the rest of their drinks. "Refill?" She asked Bill.

"It's on me, Lieutenant."

Aldbourne, August 30th 1944

It was late at night, and the boys were in the middle of an exercise. There had been a few tactics lectures this week, and the decision had been made to put it into practice. Because Ryan had returned a couple of days before, and she had taught the lessons, she was left with Nixon to design the exercise, deliver the mission objectives, and to wait for it to be done. And it annoyed the crap out of her.

"Last time I checked I was attached to you lot as well." She grumbled at Nixon, who was sitting next to her.

"Hey now, I don't make the rules."

"You know what I mean, Nix. Both of us should be out there getting used to the two groups interacting. How the hell are we supposed to do it when we actually jump?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, not much you can do it about it."

He was right. But it still annoyed her.

"Be honest with yourself." He turned and grinned at her. "You just want to be out there with your gun."

She chuckled inwardly. "You're probably right."

"Or you know, showing George Luz how amazing you are."

She stopped and looked at him. "Excuse me?"

"I'm an Intelligence Officer. You don't really think that I wouldn't have noticed how his eyes follow you around the room?"

Son of a bitch. "Right."

He raised his eyebrows at her.

"What?" She said to him.

"Well," he said, "how do you feel about him?"

"Are you seriously asking me that question?" She looked at Nix and his face answered her. "You are seriously asking me that question. He's a friend; he makes me laugh."

"Ah-huh."

"Don't start."

He held his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, hey, promise I won't tell a soul."

She turned and glared at him. "Tell a soul about what? There isn't anything to tell them about!"

"Gee, kid, who would have thought it was so easy to wind you up." She looked at the grin forming on his face. Dammit! I took the bait. "I think I may have found your weakness."

She sighed. He was right, in a way. She definitely didn't do relationships with men well. Friendships were fine, but anything more than that really freaked her out. More often than not she got herself into trouble because what she deemed as a normal friendship with a man was seen differently from the other side. Case and point: George Luz. But why should her having a laugh and a beer mean that she wants to jump into bed with them? Her only hope was to act completely stoic all of the time, and that wasn't something she really wanted to do. Maybe I should cut out the alcohol like Dick. She definitely didn't do herself any favours once she got a few pints into her.

All of a sudden Nix and Sarah were interrupted by that one, terrifying word. "MEDIC!" Medic? She looked at Nix. "Shit!" She stood up quickly and looked to where the voices were coming from and saw a group of soldiers running out of the darkness toward her. She turned to Nix to tell him to find someone, but he was already running off in the other direction.

She pushed forward and saw Winters in front, followed by a group of men carrying a wounded soldier. She looked at Winters. "Who?" He looked behind her, and she saw Ryan being carried by a couple of soldiers. "Son of a bitch."

She lead them into the mess which was the closest building to them. Clearing off a table, they put Ryan down and she was able to see where the wound was. The shoulder, close to the collar bone. She grabbed Roo's hand and pushed it onto the wound. "Keep the pressure on. Where's Eugene?"

"We hadn't finished the exercise. I sent Malarkey and Bull to find the others." Dick said from behind her.

She turned and looked at Dick. "Well," she could hear Ryan breathing in pain, "how the hell did this happen? This is an exercise, you're not supposed to try and kill each other!"

One of the replacements, whom she didn't know his name, stepped forward. "I-I'm sorry, ma'm." He stammered. "The bayonet. I-I..." She could feel the anger growing as it filled her body tensed. Her breathing became shallow.

"What. What?! You thought you should run around with the fucking bayonet attached to your rifle? In an exercise for christ's sake? What kind of stupid little moron are you? Did they just find you on the side of the road?"

Dick put his hand on her shoulder. "Sarah, don't."

"Don't what, Captain." She made sure she put particular emphasis on that last word. "It is about time someone around here told you Easy boys to get your shit together. 'Cause as far as I can tell, you sure as hell ain't man enough to do it." She glared at Dick.

She turned her back on Dick and knelt into Ryan. "How you doing, mate?"

"Just a graze, my friend."

She snorted. "Yeah looks that way. Son of a bitch. You're back for two days and look at what you did to yourself." She looked at the blood seeping out from underneath Roo's hand, and dripping onto the table. She put her hand on Roo's back and leaned into him.

At that point a doctor burst into the room with a nurse, and Nixon wasn't too far behind. She stepped away from the table with Roo, whose tough hand had been replaced by the soft hand of the nurse. And she watched. Her body still full of rage, she felt Roo's arm around her shoulder. "Saz, he's just a kid. He didn't meant to do it."

She looked at Roo. "I know. But what will we do without Ryan?"

Dick watched on as the doctor worked on Captain Ryan. He looked at Sarah, who was leaning on Sergeant Clarke, and grimaced. He really hadn't expected the reaction she had gotten. That said though, it was clear that she was very close to Captain Ryan. And Sergeant Clarke?

The way she was standing, leaning into Sergeant Clarke, who in turn had his arm around her shoulder, made Dick feel peculiar. He shook his head. Enough.

He turned to the men who were still in the mess. "Alright, boys. I need you to form up into your platoons and join Sergeant Malarkey and Sergeant Randleman in rounding up the rest of the boys. Once they are all back on base and accounted for, you are dismissed for the rest of the night."

The boys shuffled their way quietly out of the mess. Nix came up behind him and looked at him curiously. "You alright there, Dick?"

"Mm," was his only answer.

"She'll calm down."

Dick looked up at Nix, and secretly damned him for knowing him too well. "Lieutenant Price? Oh, I'm not too worried about that."

"Sure, Dick, sure."

At that point the Doctor turned to Dick and Nix, and asked for their assistance in carrying Captain Ryan to the hospital. "Roo, can you instead help Nix." Sarah interrupted. The two of them put Ryan across onto a stretcher, and carried him out of the room.

Sarah turned to Dick. Outwardly she looked relatively calm, but he could see in her eyes that she was still full of rage. "Look, I'm sorry. Easy is a great company, otherwise we wouldn't have been attached to you."

"It's fine, I –"

"Sorry, I need to go."

Despite her clearly still being angry, Dick was surprised at the brush off. In fact, he had to admit that he felt a little bit hurt by it. When that woman wants to sting, she knows how to do it.

Eindhoven craziness next! Does Sarah get herself into boy trouble? Just you wait and see!