Chapter 12

Joann's POV

We were all celebrating Sobel's leave the way he would have wanted us not to—going to the pub and getting roaring drunk.

"Hey Malark, you got a deck of cards?" Bill asked, pulling out the chair next to me. Malark, who was sitting across from me and listening to some story Muck was telling, absent-mindedly pulled the deck from his pocket and tossed them to Bill.

"What are you going to play?" I asked.

"I," Bill started, shuffling the cards, "am going to properly teach you how to play poker, so that you no longer get pushed around by the guys."

"It's a random time for you to be doing this, what happened that makes this necessary?" I asked, surprised over the suddenness of his actions.

"Nothin', don't worry about it."

"No. What happened? I haven't seen you this wound up in ages."

Bill sighed. "Some Fox company boys were poking fun at how easy it would be to take advantage of you. So I figured that if I was with you, they wouldn't try nothin'."

"I can take care of myself, Bill, you know that right?"

"Just, humour me, ok? That and you seriously need to learn how to play poker."

"Alright, where did you plan on starting?"

"Hey, Joann, come dance with me!" Grant called out, beckoning me with his goofy smile.

"The locals not giving you the time of day, Chuck?"

"Of course they are, I just figured I should spend some time with my favorite Easy Company girl." He winked.

"I'm the only Easy Company girl. My sister got moved to battalion"

"I didn't mean her, I was talking about Skinny." We both chuckled.

"Oh, really? And what would Skinny think if I told him you called him a girl?"

"You wouldn't dare." Skinny and Grant had an ongoing competition that was pretty much a "who could annoy the other more" contest.

"I would, and then you would wake up with garden snakes in your boots."

Before he could respond, Alley came up and took over dancing with me.

"Why, the natives must really not be biting if the grand James Alley is dancing with poor little me."

"Ah, shove it, you should be glad to have the pleasure of dancing with me."

"I should?" I asked as I pushed away and walked to the bar, shooting Alley a wink and a smile to show I was joking before ordering another beer.

"And so then, some big general came over and started watching, but this time, none of our hits missed." Malarkey was telling some story to the machine gunners. I, having been there originally, and now, after hearing it a thousand times, was tired of the story. But I nodded and laughed at all the right places, just to appease him.

"Hey Jo," Liebgott leaned in from his spot by my side, "wanna play darts?"

"01? Starting 301, 1 pack?" I set the stakes.

"You're on."

I lost, but barely. Definitely only by a little bit. OK, I lost by a lot. But that's not the point.

"Hey, I've got a brand new back in the barracks, and I was thinking of turning in anyways, so I'll dig em' out and hide them under your pillow, ok?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Lieb smiled up at me from his seat at one of the tables, a beer in his hand.

"Bye, boys, see you all tomorrow." I waved to the men sitting around various tables.

"Bye, Jo." A few called back, most carried on their conversations and drinking.

"Oh, right! Hey! Jo! Let me walk you back, yeah?" Lieb jumped up from his seat, nearly knocking over Webster.

"Yeah, sure."

It was a short walk back to base, and to our barracks. I dug out the pack of cigarettes from my foot locker, and walked over to where Joe was taking off his boots and jacket to hand them to him. Joe stood up really fast when I got near him.

"Here you go, but know that I plan on winning them back tomorrow."

"Of course you are." He winked, giving me his cheeky smile as he let his fingers linger on mine before taking the pack and tossing it on the bed.

"Hey, Jo, can I ask you a question?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course."

"Can I kiss you?"

"What?" My stomach was tied in knots, and my heart was beating really fast. Did he just ask that?

He took a step closer to me. "Can I kiss you? Because I'd really like to."

I looked up in his brown eyes. I could have sworn my heart was going to beat right out my chest. I hadn't been this nervous since I had to give a speech in front of my entire school in 11th grade.

Not trusting my voice, I just nodded.

He took another step, raising his hand to my cheek, tucking a stray hair back behind my ear. How cliché, I thought.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion, his lips on mine, soft and warm. His hands now on my waist, mine find their way up to his shoulders. Then more passion, as his tongue prodded by lips in request for entrance. But I pulled away, not wanting to open my eyes, not wanting to have this just be a dream. Joe can't like me like that. No, I was just supposed to have a senseless crush and nothing was to come of it, because soon we'd be going off to war and…

"I can't do this, Joe, I'm sorry." I couldn't raise my eyes to look at him, but suddenly I was aware of the absence of his hands on my waist, "but, we're going to invade Europe probably soon, and what if something happens to you, to me?"

"Then we'll die knowing we were loved by each other. Besides, nothing's going to happen to us. After everything Sobel put us through?"

"We're not invincible, Joe, the Germans have guns and mortars and tanks, and…" by now I had worked myself into hysteria.

"Shh, Joann, it'll all be ok, I promise." Lieb pulled me into him, hugging me as tight as he could, mostly to comfort me, but also to hide his own worried expression and the thoughts behind it.

Guess who finally decided to update after like... what? 4 weeks? Yeah... sorry 'bout that. It was mostly motivation issues.

Oh! yes! so something finally happens between these two? Unfortunately, this will be all for a while, because she is right-there is a war going on!

So please review? I'll give you ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles and yumminess, yeah? :)