A/N: Thank you to all of the people who have replied. I really appreciate it and it lets me know that I haven't lost my touch yet. Lol Here is another chapter. I hope you like it.

Present

My daughter looks at me like she is half horrified that there was ever a time where I was without my glasses. She knows how bad my eyesight is without them, but she also knows how good they are if I have them on; I can see a blood drop the size of a pen head when tracking a deer.

"What happened? I mean you not having your glasses on isn't something that I would ever consider a good idea," she says.

I smile slightly before I say, "It was rough for a few weeks. People would have to walk into a two and a half radius from me before I could see them clearly. The only good thing is I was good at figuring out who a person was by their body shape and the color of their hair and stuff like that, which is why I was able to tell when the guy I fought came into the tent. He was the biggest man in the place, so it was a bit obvious."

"Alright, I know that something had to have happened during that time. I mean there is no way you could shoot, so what happened?"

I smile even more. "Well a few days later I was supposed to practice with my sniper rifle…"

Sixteen Years Ago

I looked at the captain the best I could; more or less you could say I was squinting. I was also wishing I could cover my ears.

"What do you mean you can't shoot Private?" he practically bellowed at me. "You are a sniper and from what I've heard and seen, you are a damn good one, so what is the problem?"

"Sir, I am a good sniper but the problem is that's only if I have my glasses," I tried to explain to him, while not having a heart attack. "See my glasses kind of got crushed the other day during hand to hand combat training. I can't see without my glasses. It would not be a good idea to have me shooting at anything right now Sir."

From what I could see, and it wasn't much, it looked like the captain was thinking over what I had just said. However, he was really just counting to ten before he blew up.

"Your eyesight can't be that bad Private!" he practically bellowed at me. "If it was you'd never even be able to make it as a sniper. No pair of glasses would correct that! Now take your rifle and get up there and shoot! Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir," I told him. I was actually cringing inside. This was going to be very bad. Part of me wondered if I did a bad job if they wouldn't let me be a sniper anymore. It was too late now though, I had to shoot and there was nothing I could do about it.

I sighed and grabbed my Springfield, loaded it, and then I got ready to fire. I couldn't see worth a damn. All I could see was where my target was and even that was fuzzy. All I could do was try to aim at what my eyes were telling me was the middle of the target and pray that it would work. I steadied myself and then lightly squeezed the trigger. I couldn't see if I hit anything or not, so I lowered my rifle and looked at the captain. He looked like someone had just smacked him.

"Did I hit anything?" I asked before I could contain myself.

He looked at me and then asked, "You really can't see can you?"

"No sir."

"Have you ordered a new pair?" he asked me.

"Yes sir, three days ago," I told him.

"I'll speak to the supplies sergeant about rushing to get them for you, and in the meantime I don't want you shooting at anything. Is that understood Private?"

"Yes sir."

"Well go," he told me. "The next thing you have is practice runs on the beaches, so go get ready."

I saluted him and then left quickly. I knew I had a little time before the practice runs, so I was heading to my tent to relax and maybe write a letter or two, but first I was making a stop to see if any letters had come in for me.

"Any letters for Private McNeal, Antony?" I asked when I got there.

"Let me check," said a man. From the voice I knew it was the regular person who was there that I usually talked to. He looked at me and said, "You have two letters. Here they are."

I took them and said thanks to the man. Then I hurried back to my tent. When I got in there I checked to see who they were from. One was from Daniel, and the other was from Jessie. From the size of hers I guessed one was from my family as well. I decided to open Daniel's first. I squinted slightly as I tried to read it. I had never realized his handwriting was this bad before. I had a feeling that even if I did have my glasses, I would have trouble reading it. While I could read without my glasses, it wasn't perfect. It was blurred enough to make things slightly fuzzy and his handwriting didn't help, so I set out the task of reading his letter.

April 17, 1944

Antony,

It's great to hear from you. It's been really boring here since I don't have you to talk to and James isn't here to drive up the wall. Now the only person left is the CO and well bothering him ain't the smartest thing to do, you know?

I'm glad you don't have to worry about James anymore. He is insane if he decided to go and jump out of an airplane, but that just means it will be even more unlikely that we ever have to deal with him again.

I don't know if it would be a good idea for me to be in your company when I go over there. Granted, I would like to be in your company but if I ended up in there I think we would be both skinned alive. Your CO sounds like he wouldn't put up with us.

Was the training over there as bad as he said it would be? I can't imagine it being that bad, but you never know. I can be wrong, I hope I'm not. I think we will both end up dead if it is…and it makes me wonder if you'll still be alive by the time this letter gets to you. Oh another thing, the CO keeps talking about getting us ready to go over there, so I imagine we will be over there soon. So maybe by the time you get this I might be over there and I'll be talking to you. Well I have to go, bye.

Daniel

His letter left a nice feeling inside of me. It meant that maybe he would be over here soon. I liked that idea. I almost started on a letter back to him but I remembered the other letters I got. I opened the envelope and began to read the letter from Jessie.

April 20, 1944

Antony McNeal,

It's good to hear from you and know that you are alright. I hope that your training won't be that bad. I am sure you will be able to handle it though. You are strong; even some guys aren't this strong.

I've sent the letter to your family and have just received one back from them. I didn't look at it but I have a feeling they aren't happy about your decision. Good luck though, and keep safe!

Jessie Taylor

I let out a sigh, now was the time to face the music. I put Jessie's letter a side and picked up the one from my family. My grandmother's neat handwriting looked up at me and I began to read it.

April 16, 1944

Alice,

I can't believe you did this to us. You are a young lady, not some boy. You have never been this impulsive before, so why have you started now?

I'm sorry I had to put the paper down and walk away for a moment to calm myself. I guess I can understand your desire to help out and I can also understand why you didn't try to be a nurse. However, I still can't believe you would take this big of a risk. Do you know what will happen to you if you are caught? What if you are behind enemy lines and a German finds out that you are a woman? Do you think that they won't try anything? Even our own American boys might try something if they are desperate enough.

It is so risky for you to do this and I wish you would just come home, but I know you won't. My prayers are with you and I hope everything will be alright. Just be safe and don't let anyone find out. Come back to us.

I haven't told your father or brother about this. All they know is that you've gone off to help in another school. If your father knew I know he would go looking for you and that would cause more harm than good. Also if your brother found out he would get this crazy idea in his head to join up. You already know how much he wants to already, but he's only 16. He's too young to join something like that.

Anyway like I said be safe and know that I love you,

Your Grandmother

That letter just about killed me. She had brought all my fears and worries back to the surface when I had tried so hard to push them away. For once I began to have doubts but then I thought about all that had happened and why I was here. I had not gotten the hell beaten out of me for nothing. I was going to stick with this for as long as I could.

I was about to start writing when I heard someone knocking on my tent.

"Antony, are you in there?" I heard Wade's voice call.

"Eh, yeah," I called out to him as I hurried to put the letters in a place where they couldn't be found.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure," I said as I finally hid them and turned around to face him.

"I was just coming to see how those injuries were coming along," he told me and stepped into my tent.

"So you make house calls?" I asked with a smirk.

He smiled slightly and said, "Sometimes."

"So doc what do you want me to do?"

"Have a seat so I can have a look."

I did as he asked and waited. He stepped towards me and looked at the bruise on my eye. It had faded but it still looked nasty. After he looked at that he looked at my leg. It was bad to but it was also fading.

"They are healing well," he told me. "I'm not going to bother with your nose because that's going to take a little while to heal."

"Alright thank you doc," I told him. "But can I ask you a favor?"

He looked at me as if he was slightly curious and slightly wary. "What is it?" he asked cautiously.

"Tell me the real reason why you are here," I told him. "It doesn't take a genius, or a doctor, to know that bruises will heal and it really doesn't take one to know that it's going to take a while for a broken nose to heal, especially if the person who has the broken nose is a veteran for having them."

He folded his arms in front of him defensively and didn't say anything for a moment. "If you must know it's because I needed something to do," he told me. "I can't stand it when I am not doing something."

I smirked and said, "Don't let any officer hear you say that. They might think that they aren't pushing us hard enough and then you may be the one needing a medic, doc."

He laughed and shook his head. I laughed along with him and then it suddenly hit me. I had only been around this guy a few times but really he wasn't half bad. I could actually see myself becoming friends with him.

"You've told me what you do for a living but where do you come from? If you don't mind me asking, of course," I asked him after the laughing had calmed down.

He looked at me a moment as if he was deciding to trust me before he spoke. "San Diego, California. What about you?"

"Well I don't exactly live in a city or town, but I do live near a small town in Montana," I told him.

An uncomfortable silence came over us as each one tried to figure out what to say next. Finally I realized I would have to do some more talking here.

"I live out in the country," I told him. "My home is back in the middle of the woods. It's quiet there, not a lot of people are around. It's was hard to live in a dorm when I went to college because I'm not used to being around so many people, but it's much worse here. Here there is no such thing as privacy."

He smiled slightly and nodded. "I know what you mean," he said. "It makes me a little uncomfortable because everything you do here is everyone's business. At least one other person knows about what you've done. What else is it like where you live?"

"Well like I said it's kind of secluded. The only school around is quite a way from my home. On top of that the only store around is a long drive away," I began to tell him. "We would only go in about once every two weeks getting what little extras we needed. Other than that my family mostly lived off of what we had at home. We grew our own food or hunted. My father taught me to shoot when I was 9. This is part of the reason why I'm so good at shooting now, granted he's a better shot than I am. I've caused him a lot of stress." I laughed and shook my head at this thought. A lot would be an understatement but I couldn't tell Irwin all that had happened.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a smile.

I smiled and said, "Well when I first went to school I wasn't doing so well. I couldn't see the board and at first the teachers just assumed I didn't know how to read. When they talked to my grandma, she about had a fit because she had taught me to read a long time before I ever even went to go to school. She handed me a book and had me read it in front of the teachers. It was rather advanced for my age, so the teachers knew for sure that it wasn't because I didn't know how to read. The school had someone come and examine my eyes. When they told my dad that I needed glasses, he was less than pleased. He was furious when they told him how much they would cost. My grandma talked him into getting them but it was rough for a while because they were so expensive. When I wanted to go to college I about gave him a heart attack. I was just lucky that I had gotten a scholarship. If I hadn't there was no way I could have gone."

"You were a costly child weren't you?" Irwin asked amused.

"Yeah, unfortunately but I couldn't help it. I mean it's not like I asked to have glasses permanently stuck to my face," I said while nodding.

"You did ask to go to college though," he pointed out.

"True but I had scholarships, and I wanted more from my life than what was being offered to me there. Yes I love the location where I live at but it's very behind with the times. I want more for myself than that."

"I can understand that," he said, "but you said you had wanted to become a teacher, why? There isn't much there for people."

I looked at him; it was a good question, one that I hadn't asked before. I thought for a moment before I spoke. "You know I've never asked myself that before, but I do see your point. I guess now that I think about it, even though I wanted more for myself I had decided that meant I wanted to do something for myself on the inside. See not a lot of kids where I come from get very far and part of that is because no one thinks they can make it far. I want to be at least one person who believes that they can and help them believe that they can to. I just want to help them I guess."

"I guess that makes some since," he said. "Did you get a chance to teach before you came over here?"

I shook my head. "No I didn't," I told him. "Thinks kind of happened fast. I graduated from college, came home, tried to find a job and then Pearl Harbor happened. I didn't have time to look for a job I was too busy with my family and deciding what to do."

Wade, who seemed to be a little more comfortable around me now, responded quickly. "I understand what you mean. I was only in practice a year before I was drafted."

I shook my head once again. This war seemed to screw up everyone's life. Then I wondered how much it would screw up my own. If I was to get caught…I shook my head again. I wasn't going to let myself think about that, I was going to go over there and do what needed to be done. That thought triggered a memory. I had to be out on the beach for practice runs. I looked at my watch. I had about ten minutes to get my but down there.

"Aww hell!" I cursed.

"What?" he asked surprised at my sudden outburst.

"I've got practice runs down at the beach in ten minutes!" I told him as I grabbed my gear and began to put it on. As I did it started to rain. "Aw, you got to be kidding me!"

"Good luck," he told me as he began to leave.

"What you don't have them?" I asked him.

"No, my company already got them in earlier today."

"Lucky duck," I said just as I finished getting everything on. It had to be the quickest I had ever done it. "Well I'll see you later…well that's if my CO doesn't kill me first."

He laughed slightly and shook his head. "Yeah I'll see you later, and good luck," he told me again. Then I took off running to the beach.

A/N: Once again, I hope you liked the chapter. Um, I hope Wade was in character once again. I'm still having trouble putting my finger on him. I'll have to watch the movie if I get the chance. Okay, I do have one question. Do you want one more chapter with Wade and my character's relationship developing, or do you want Daniel to come into the next chapter? I'm trying to decide which one, but you guys have to let me know.