As the first two weeks in Albourne went by, Easy and the other companies got into a routine of regular PT, field training exercises, classroom activities, and long marches.

"Hey, I mean, at least there's not a damn mountain to climb, right?" Bill said to the table as they ate dinner at mess.

A few men grunted in response as they inhaled their food, or what the servers called food. Today it was more of a slop of gravy over questionable meat and potatoes, but no one complained as it was warm and the cooler November weather everyone enjoyed the hot meal.

Malarkey said, "And at least we don't have guard duty here."

The men responded again, nodding, George nudged Jean in the side, "Yea, you get what three to four nights back without staying out for watch?"

Jean looked at him and nodded agreeing.

She was relieved to not have guard duty as she was able to take space from Lieutenant Speirs. While she knew that there was something in her that was attracted to him, she had made a fool of herself in front of him too many times. And losing her focus on a superior officer was not going to do her any favors, especially if anyone found out.

And yes, it was nice that she didn't have to stay up when she was exhausted multiple nights a week. But since coming to Albourne, she still hadn't heard from her family. She would take guard duty every night of the week if she knew what was going on. She had even gone to Winters to ask about the company mail and if there were issues with receiving or sending since she was close to 8 weeks without hearing anything.

Winters hadn't heard anything, but said he would ask around and see what might be causing delays since he said that his mail had been fine, receiving a letter from his folks just the other day.

George was one of the only ones that Jean had told about the lack of letters, but most of the men had noticed the slight withdraw of Jean from activities and her lack of coming out. She loved the men in Easy, but her ties to her family are what kept her going through nursing school in the states, and what had gotten her through Camp Toccoa until she had made friends with George and the other men. They had always been there to support her, and losing contact with them for so long had begun to wear down on Jean.

As the men finished up their meal, they began to talk about what they would do with their weekend since they finally had a free weekend night without a Friday night march. It was only Thursday, but they could only hope that Sobel wouldn't schedule anything in the next day.

Jean chuckled at a few jokes the men made as they walked to town, each man walking to his quartered house. As the smaller group got to Jean's house, she gave Roe a quick nudge as she walked up to her house as the men said goodnight.

Her and Roe had become closer as they were in Albourne. Sobel had gotten it in his head that even though Jean was not a medic, her nursing training meant that she should spend less time with the entire company, and more with Roe and Spina. She would help with stocking shelves, going through medical files, and starting next week, she was to help with field training for the rest of the company on battlefield wounds and with vaccinations.

Jean was more than happy to help Roe and Spina, but she also knew it was just another tactic to remove her from spending any time with her other friends. She tried to continue to stay positive, but between not seeing the men as much because of Sobel's plan and since she didn't bunk with them, she was falling into Sobel's trap of isolation.

As much as she was feeling left out of the company, it also gave her a drive to prove Sobel wrong. It had been a game between the two of them since her first day in Sink's office when Sobel had flat out refused her into Easy. Much to his dismay, he learned that Sink approved of her in Easy, therefore unless she did something to gain her kicked out of the Airborne, she was in Easy.

As Jean opened the front door and entered to the house, she was welcomed by the same homey smell of strong tea and stale biscuits. Mr. Morgan had a habit of telling her that he would provide her with meals when she needed them, but that his tea and biscuits were off limits. But every night when she would arrive, there was a kettle of tea with just enough for one cup, and always a few biscuits out.

Smiling as she walked to the kitchen and grabbed a biscuit, she walked upstairs to her room. Pulling off her boots, barely unlacing them, she took off her jacket and laid down on her bed.

Thinking that she just needed to lay and relax for a few minutes before she would bathe and get ready for bed, exhaustion took a hold of her as she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.


The next night, a Friday night movie was showing at mess hall, where Jean and a few others were there watching John Wayne talk with some pretty actress.

As Jean laughed at one of Georges impersonations, she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

Looking up, she saw one of Sobel's new runners holding a stack of envelopes.

"Um, Private Murphy, these are yours." The runner stumbled over his words. "I... Sobel had... These are yours. They were lost and all came in today."

At that, he all but threw the papers into Jean's lap and turned around and walked quickly out of the hall.

"What the hell was that about?" George asked.

Jean turned back from looking at the runner and back to George before looking at the papers. "I have no idea..."

But as she looked closely at the letters in the light from the movie projector, she saw the handwriting of her father most the envelopes that held letters. Letters that she hadn't received in almost two months.

She also noticed that some of the mail looked like it had been opened and taped shut.

George was looking over her shoulder as she opened the first couple, relieved that her family had been writing her.

She opened a few of the letters, and they were normal letters, her dad talking about work, her grandfather asking about how things were with her, and her grandmother gossiping about the other old ladies in town.

Jean smiled as she sifted through the letters, but then became concerned as her family's tone got serious and they kept asking in letters if everything was alright and that they hadn't heard from her in a while.

Then her heart sank as she saw a letter addressed from her grandmother. Her grandmother never addressed letters. She would always write a note inside, but her dad always addressed them.

Opening the letter, one that wasn't already opened, she held her breath as she read the awful words on the page.

Tears began to fill her eyes as her chest began to shake.

My Dear Jean,

We still don't know if you are getting our letters as we haven't heard from you, but we can only hope that you get this. Your father was in an accident. He was taking an extra night shift and it was raining. He was hit by another car on Fuller St. They took him to the hospital, but they weren't able to help him. Jean, your father passed just after the accident-

Jean couldn't read anymore of the letter. Frantically moving through the letters, she dropped a few on the ground, making noise as a few other nearby soldiers shushed at her.

Ignoring them completely, Jean went on to find 3 more letters from her grandparents and 2 letters from a local attorney from her town.

Opening up one, she tried to look through the jargon in front of her and realized that they had sent a summarized version of her father's will. More tears came to her eyes as Jean began to panic.

Ripping the next one open, she let out a sob as she saw that her father had passed almost 3 weeks ago. The service had been the day that she left the states.

"No, this isn't right..." Jean mumbled to herself as she tried to look through more letters, hoping to find that this was all a gag.

"Hey there Sunshine," George started. "What happened?"

Looking at her hands and up to George, she couldn't make the words come out.

George slowly reached over to the letter in her hands and looked over a few lines.

A large frown plastered on his face as he looked from the letter to Jean.

"Okay, let's get you outta here, yeah?" he coaxed.

Jean mumbled something incoherent as she nodded, trying to grab all of the letters but dropping even more in her attempt in the dark room with blurry vision.

George grabbed the majority of the letters and placed them in a stack into his friend's hands.

"Alright, hun, let's go, okay?"

Getting up with George guiding her, Jean sniffled as she followed him out the back door, not looking at her surroundings or anyone that might have seen her.

Out in the evening, the sun was just setting. George, not knowing what to do or say, saw a few men from Easy company just down the street and tried to motion to them to come over.

Seeing George make ridiculous hand movements trying to be subtle, Jean saw a few men coming over. Malarkey, Muck, Penkala, and Roe were all starting to come over the the two.

"George," Jean started, "I... I..." She lost her words, not knowing what to say.

"Hey, it'll be alright, Sunshine, okay?" George said, hoping that it would somehow help.

Jean just silently nodded and began to walk away from the approaching men and toward town.

"Hey, Sunshine! Lutz! What are you two doing? We thought you ditched us for the damn movie again." Malarky laughed, not having seen Jean's face yet.

Muck, seeing George's solemn face and Jean trying to rub away her tears smacked Don in the arm and pointed to Jean.

"Jean." Roe began. " You alright, cherie?"

Jean, seeing as she wouldn't be able to leave without acknowledging the men, sniffed back her tears as much as she could before raising her head to speak.

"Hi guys." At that, she met her friends eyes and stumbled before continuing. "Um, I just uh... My father died."

Her words stopped after that, not able to say more.

Looking down again, Jean began to shuffle the letters in her hands.

"Jesus, Sunshine..." Penkala remarked, then went silent.

Walking forward immediately, Roe came in and grabbed her shoulders, turning them toward her and wrapped his arms around her.

At the contact of her friend, and realizing that this was all happening, she broke down.

As her sobs wracked her body, Gene didn't let go. He just whispered in French in her ear. His voice giving her a calming sensation as her knees felt like they would give way.

The other men whispered to George, asking all that he knew, and he explained that it seemed like there was a large backlog of her letters. None of them knew what to make of it.

As Jean began to calm down, she pulled back from Gene. "I got snot all over you." she said softly. "Sorry."

Gene just smiled softly and shook his head. "Nothing I can't handle, cherie."

She nodded at him and looked at the stack of letters in her hands. The reminder that she had now lost both parents. She wouldn't be able to say goodbye to her father. Hear him laugh again, or tell her stories about her mother. It was all gone.

The men began to straighten up and Jean saw that Winters was approaching their awkward group.

As the silent group saluted their commanding officer, he noticed Jean's tear stained face.

"Men," he welcomed. "Jean, what's happened?"

Jean looked at the ground, not wanting her CO to see her in such a weak state.

"Jean's father died, sir." George filled in quietly. "She just found out."

Winter nodded. "Are those your letters, Jean?" trying to get the woman to speak to him.

Jean nodded, "Yes, sir."

"A runner came into the movie and dropped the stack in her lap before high-tailing out. Said Sobel's name and something or other, said there were lost, but now they're not. Something like that." George said to Winters while still watching Jean.

Winters looked sharply at George. "You said it was a runner? Who handed her everything?"

George looked up in surprise at Winters quick questions. "Yes, sir. Looked like one of the new guys, uh, Swanson, Swanberg, something like that I think."

Winters nodded and turned back to Jean.

"Jean, with the death of a family member, soldiers get 3 days of bereavement where they can take the time to go home and see their family." Winters started. "But being abroad, you wouldn't make it home and back in less than a week at least. I don't know if you'll be able to go home. I'm truly sorry, Jean."

Jean nodded, knowing the policy as one of the other privates in E had lost a grandfather when they were still stationed at Toccoa.

"I understand, sir." Jean said in a monotoned voice.

"But since we can't send you home for the funeral, you can take your break off of any duties and all training for the next week." Winters offered.

"The funeral already happened anyway." Jean said in defeat. "It was two weeks ago."

Winters brow and the other men's faces turned to confusion. Looking at George for answers as Jean had gone quiet.

Jean looked up to see the faces of 5 confused soldiers in front of her. As George tried to start, Jean cut in.

"The letters are all old. He died 3 weeks ago and the funeral already happened." Jean said with as much strength as she could, trying to remember the letters she had read without falling apart. "He died just a week before we left. His funeral was the day we took off to come to England."

Silence fell around the men, all realizing what that meant.

"Wait, so if you'd have gotten the letters on time, you could've gone home at least for the funeral and caught the next ship out." Malarkey exclaimed.

George hit Malarkey on the arm and leaned in, "No shit, idiot."

Looking at Jean, Malarkey realized that she did in fact already realize this. The fact that she could've made it and seen her family, and grieve with them did not escape her. But it was because she hadn't been receiving any letters that meant she missed everything.

Winters walked to Jean and took a soft hold of her forearm. "I'm very sorry for your loss Jean. I'll do my best to figure this out."

With that, Winters nodded at the rest of the men and walked to the officers barracks with a quick step and a small scowl on his face.

Muck looked to Penkala who shrugged, not knowing what their CO was going to "figure out."

As George started to talk, Jean cut him off. "George, I'm just gonna go home"

Not wanting to push her, but not fully understanding what she meant, George's eyes scrunched up and his brow furrowed.

"I mean home to Mr. Morgan's." Jean clarified.

"Oh, right." George said, "Okay, well, we can all walk with ya, Jean."

"No!" Jean said quickly. "I just don't-I'm fine. I just need my own time. Please"

The 5 remaining men nodded. Gene looking into her eyes, trying to make sure that she was okay to be on her own.

As he looked at her, Jean felt he was searching for her soul, but just nodded curtly to them and left without any more questions or comments.

Hearing the men begin to talk amongst themselves in hushed tones as she marched away, Jean felt her resolve crumbling. As she got closer to her billeted house, she felt herself wanting to collapse. She gained speed as she got closer, and once she got in the front door, she bolted up to her room. Upon entering, she closed the door and fell beside it, dropping the letters and losing her tears again.

Slipping in and out of consciousness, Jean crawled to her bed, grabbing as many letters as she could with her. As she laid in bed, she tried to read the letters in their entirely. Cementing her father's last words to her in her head, knowing that she could never see him again. As the words blurred together, Jean slowly fell asleep, surrounded by papers and engulfed in a stream of tears and defeat.

Author's Note: So sorry for the long delay! I hate when life gets in the way of writing. Special thanks to all that reviewed :) It really gives me the confidence and push to keep going. I know that this was a darker chapter, but it will all help shape Jean to the person she needs to be going forward. Hope you enjoyed it!