Disclaimer: Hi, I don't own any of the franchise of Band of Brothers. I have the utmost respect for the men of Easy Company and all those that have served. I mean no disrespect to those men. This story is for entertainment purposes only and is based only off the portrayal of the actors from the miniseries. Only Anna Cohen and any other original characters that may crop up in this story are mine.

Till the End of the Line

Chapter 10: Overshot

France, June 1944

It felt so good to have found Buck now we just had to find the rest of the company and find exactly where we had actually ended up. I now hoped that Marie, Val, Matron and Doc Green had all found somebody and at least were in the safety of an armed American soldier, whether they be for the 101st or the 82nd. I didn't want to imagine any of them alone, lost and without a weapon with the enemy completely surrounding us. We'd moved further into the wooded area when we heard some more movement, Buck immediately motioned for us to move behind a large trunk and readied his gun. I took out the clicker and began clicking it to see if it was a friend; it was a better way of finding out whether someone was friendly than shouting flash-thunder.

"Flash." I knew that voice anywhere and I was so relieved to hear it again, Joe had landed safely and we'd found each other quickly.

"Thunder, Liebgott get your ass over here." Buck replied and sure enough Joe came scurrying behind the tree followed by Popeye. It was a relief that neither of them were injured. "Cohen have you got a map of the area?"

"Here." I replied as I scrambled into one of the supply bags and produced a map; Buck took it however it was that dark you couldn't really make out much. I searched through my packs to see if I could find a torch, but Joe beat me to the punch and produced a lighter.

"You're gonna have to crowd round so the light isn't seen." Buck said and the three of us huddled around trying to reduce the light as Buck studied the map. "Damn, we're way off course. We need to head south, everyone keep your eyes peeled for any sort of landmark. Liebgott take point."

We moved quietly away from the open fields and further into the forested area, every now and then our pathway was lit up as artillery was shot up or a plane fell down from the sky, its burning shell lighting up part of the forest. It was a little while into the walk that Joe signalled for us to stop; Buck silently joined him further up the pathway before signalling for us to hide in the cover of a small ditch. Popeye was about to ask what was going on, but Buck shushed him as shortly after a group of German soldiers passed by laughing. Back home when Joe would take me to or from work he'd occasionally teach me a bit of German, granted I wasn't very good at it but I knew what they had said.

"Dumb Americans."

"The way that one cried was pathetic."

"And his friend thought he could save him."

Joe looked like he was about to launch himself up there and take out however many there were out by himself. I put a hand on his shoulder which made him turn his attention away from the road and to me, his eyes were ablaze with a fury I had never seen, I mouthed the words don't to him and shook my head. He relaxed somewhat but he was scowling for the rest of the time we spent in that ditch.

"The coast is clear." Buck whispered as he momentarily poked his head out of cover as the voices went faint, before he jumped up out of the ditch with the rest of us following suite.

"Joe." I whispered trying to get him to calm down was generally a hard task, but even I was infuriated by those words.

"I'm fine." And with that he took point again so I couldn't persist with questioning him about it. That was luckily the last encounter we had with any German soldiers, but the start of the unlucky encounters with some American soldiers. It was around an old farmhouse where we found two unfortunate souls; one had his parachute caught in a tree and by the looks of it had been shot multiple times Buck was searching his corpse for extra ammunition and other supplies. The other unlucky soldier had been at least able to land correctly, but looked to have been trying to save the other soldier from his fate. I couldn't quite bring myself to look through his stuff, even though his extra supplies would go to better use with us than left here, it just felt so improper like desecrating a grave.

"You ok Annie?" Popeye asked as he came over to grab some extra ammunition, I looked at him momentarily before turning to the dead soldier. He still had his eyes open that seemed to stare straight into my soul. "Annie, he'd want us to take the supplies and put them to better use."

"Yeah, yeah I guess you're right there." I mumbled and went to look through his medical supplies but again I my gaze was drawn to his eyes. I sighed trying to convince myself to do this, the more supplies I could get my hands on the better prepared I would be down the line. I closed the soldier's eyes saying a small prayer before searching his supply bag for his medical kit. After I took it Buck came over and took the soldier's dog tags so that his family could be informed of his passing.

"We've just got a little further to go." Buck stated as he consulted the map once more and then we were on our way again, Joe still taking point. It was just before sunrise that we had finally managed to arrive in the town of Saint Marie du Mont, there wasn't many of the Airborne there yet but if their jump had gone as well as ours had they were probably all over the place and it would take time to regroup. The one thing that had been set up in the town was the field hospital which already looked to be busy.

"Looks like my work is already starting." I stated as Joe sat down with his back up against a mound of dirt, Popeye followed suite while Buck left to talk with some higher ups further into town.

"You need some rest." Joe stated as he patted the ground next to him before lighting a cigarette, and then he offered me one which I took graciously.

"While I'd love a sit down, I can't just let some poor bloke suffer when I could be helping him." I replied besides within that field hospital the others could have made it safely.

"Don't overdo it." He said and it was nice for once to have someone be worried about your wellbeing, as it was always my job to worry.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." And with that I headed on over to the tent praying to God that the others had made it safely. As I got nearer the sounds of pained groans got loader which made me hurry up more, there was definitely work to be done. "How can I help?" I asked as I entered throwing down some of the extra supplies onto a table that had been shoved into the corner.

"Annie! Oh thank God you've made it!" Marie exclaimed as she ran over before pulling me into a hug, I was so relieved to see her but then I properly looked at her and saw she was covered in blood. "Oh none of this is my blood, don't worry."

"I'm guessing you need some help here." I stated as I took off my helmet and laid it on the table, there was only another two medics in the tent both tending to several soldiers who were constantly groaning in pain.

"The more help we can get the better we are." One of the other medics replied he was currently bandaging the head of one of the soldiers who looked as though he'd been hit by some shrapnel in the face. I approached one of the soldiers who was in need of some attention, he had some severe burns on his arms and face.

"Hi there I'm Anna, this may hurt a bit but you'll be alright." I said smiling slightly in a reassuring manner as I started to remove part of his shirt sleeve out of the burnt skin as he hissed in pain.

"I'm so stupid." He muttered as I gave him so reprieve from removing the shirt.

"Honey, you're not stupid."

"I got dragged into a fire by my parachute when I should have got it into control." He grumbled I mean it was an easy thing to happen especially with all the planes that had been shot out of the sky.

"Don't blame yourself, that landing was total chaos, more than half the regiment are lost." I assured before I resumed treating his arms and then moved onto the burns on the right side of his face, luckily for him the burns would heal nicely they'd leave some scars for sure but other than that he'd be fine. "Right all done, wasn't so bad right?"

"Thank you." He said trying to smile a bit but the pain from the burns hampered his ability to do so. I would have talked to him for longer to make him feel better, but there was more work to be done. There was a continuous stream of wounded men being brought in, some had similar burns to the first soldier I'd treated, some needed bullets removing from them and others had shrapnel littered in their body. There were one or two cases of men with fully amputated limbs and one or two that needed one limb removing because there was no hope in recovering it.

"How are you coping?" Marie asked there was a temporary reprieve as all the patients we had, had been seen to. We were still waiting on the arrival of Val, Matron and Doc Green.

"Yeah, I think I'd be a lot happier if the others got their asses here." I replied as took a drag of the cigarette I had lit, the pair of us were sat outside of the tent within earshot if we were needed. A couple of other medics from different companies had made their way here and the four of us that had initially been treating people were given a much needed break. "How are you coping?"

"Yeah I'm worried about the others as well. I'd have thought at least we'd meet up as we'd jumped out the same plane." She answered as she rubbed her forehead before sighing loudly. "I mean Doc Green had to tend to Cobb right before we jumped out the plane, so I guess he jumped later than any of us, or he didn't jump at all."

"Yeah Val jumped before me, but only a couple of people in front of me same with Gene. But I didn't see her at all, I was just lucky Buck found me."

"Yeah some guys from Abel company found me and we managed to avoid any unnecessary firefights." She explained I hoped the others had been found by any of our soldiers and were on their way here, thinking of anything but that was just too depressing. "Think George is alright?"

"I hope so, I don't really want to think about the alternative." I answered I wouldn't know either way until the assault was over and we had a direct supply line to the front or whenever we'd be brought back to England. "How do you think Johnny is getting on in the Pacific?"

"I like to think he's doing alright." She replied. "It'd have been nice to see him before our jump, but I can't really complain that much about it."

A couple more hours of treating the incoming wounded and having mini breaks, the arrival of Lieutenant Winters, Toye, Guarnere and Malark was a welcomed sight, especially since Matron arrived along with them.

"Thank the Lord, you're alright." I exclaimed as she entered the medical tent stowing her medical supplies on the same table I had done previously.

"Who's made it?" she asked as she immediately got to work on a soldier with a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his thigh.

"So far it's me, you and Marie." I replied as I handed her some bandages to use on him.

"I'm sure the others will make it back soon." She stated I hoped she was right about that. "We all might as well enjoy the quiet before Val arrives with her loud mouth."

Another hour or so passed since she arrived and we were then graced with the presence of Lieutenant Winters.

"Lieutenant, what can we do for you?" Matron asked as we all saluted if we could and weren't currently seeing to a patient.

"I lost some medical supplies in the jump, is there any chance I can get a resupply?" he asked I think everyone had lost something in the jump, the leg bags seemed to have been an awful idea.

"Don't worry Lieutenant; we've got quite a bit of extras." Matron replied motioning for him to come over to the table that everyone seemed to be dumping extra supplies on. "Take what you need, just bring it back if it goes unused. There's no telling when we're going to get a resupply."

"Thank you, you're all doing an excellent job." He thanked before leaving the tent and leaving us to tend to some more soldiers. It was at least an hour later, sometime just after midday when Popeye was brought into the hospital.

"What happened?" I asked as Popeye was taken off the stretcher and put onto a free bed; clearly his injury was on his back as he was laid down on his front.

"I'm real sorry 'bout this." Popeye kept saying as we gathered up supplies to treat him, he'd been shot in the ass…not something I'd thought we'd be treating but there's always a first for things.

"Honey, its fine."

"Just promise us, once we patch you up you don't stick your ass out and get shot again." Matron added luckily for him the bullet hadn't lodged that far in and it was an easy extraction with little interior damage.

"I promise is it bad?" he asked as Matron finished cleaning the wound out and requested the bandages to wrap the wound up.

"I mean I've seen worse today, but you ain't going to be able to properly sit down for a while." I answered smiling at him reassuringly he'd have to be sent back to England, but he'd at least live to tell a very bizarre tale.

"There we go all done, that wasn't so bad was it?" Matron asked as she put the bandages back with the best of the supplies and carefully pulled the bed covers over him. "You'll be sent back to England to recover, but I'm sure you'll be back with us in no time."

"Thank you." He said he sounded somewhat disheartened by the fact he was being sent back to England, maybe he thought he was failing Easy by being sent back, but if he stayed and his wound got infected it could end a lot worse for him. As our focus had been with Popeye for most the time it had taken our minds of Val and Doc Green who had still not shown up and now with the most of the Company filing it, it was getting a lot more concerning they hadn't shown up.

"Cohen, you deserve a break." Matron stated as I'd been in the process of cleaning up some of the supplies all the while my mind was wandering elsewhere. Marie took over from me as I headed out of the tent and sat down just outside to make sure if I was needed I could immediately run back in.

"What's up?" I was shaken from my thoughts when Joe sat down next to me offering me some of the rations he was currently eating. I declined even though I was starting to get hungry.

"Val and Doc Green have yet to show up, I thought they may have made it by now especially since both Gene and Spina have made it here." I replied rubbing my temples to relieve the headache that was starting to come on.

"I'm sure they're fine and they'll get here any second now."

"I think that's wishful thinking." I muttered after Gene and Spina had showed up the little bit of me that had been thinking they were fine was slowly slipping away and now all I could think was they'd been captured or killed, especially since they we're unarmed.

"Annie, believe they are alright and they will be." He insisted before taking my hand and placing his rations in my hand. "You need to worry about yourself."

"Thank you." I muttered as I bit into what I assumed was some form of cracker or bread. "How'd the attack on the garrison go?"

"It went fine, other than Popeye took a shot to the ass." He answered before he then gave me a brief description of what had gone down. "Malarkey is lucky to be alive; you should have seen him run out into the line of fire to try and find a damn luger."

"Lord, he is lucky. Next time I see him he's getting clocked on the head."

"Then he may avoid you for a while." Joe laughed though that probably would be true. Surely he knew how stupid that was of him to run into the line of fire just to find a damn gun, someone nearly needed to talk to both him and Hoobler about their quest to find this gun. "Toye was one lucky son of a bitch too, escaped two grenade blasts."

"Jeez, and you said it went fine." I said finally finishing the ration which was probably the worst thing I'd eaten in my life. He shrugged as he lighted one of his cigarettes.

"I mean no one died."

"But there was nearly three deaths." I argued which just made him shrug again.

"Like I said, no one died." He replied I sighed sure I guess we had to take small victories where we could and losing nobody was one them, even if Popeye was being shipped back to England.

Author's Notes:

Hi guys, I hope you have liked the story so far and have enjoyed this chapter. I'm actually having so much fun writing this, and have so many different ideas on what I could do. Any suggestions/reviews are much appreciated as it is always helpful when writing the next chapter. I think I've got some good ideas coming up in the next few chapters, well I really hope they're good anyway. And we are finally into the war; the next chapter will definitely start Carentan and then probably the next one after that will be back to Aldbourne.