Author's Note:
Thanks again Straight Edge Queen for another review! Your reviews really inspire me to keep on writing :)
Whew! This was a difficult chapter to write! Sorry if I'm not that great at writing out battle scenes. More strong language in this chapter because of the dialogue from the show. Thanks for reading!
Normandy, France
June 6 – 7th 1944
Winters gathered everyone around outside the bushes and trees that hid them all well from the field. The trenches were just up ahead but were out of the protection of the tree line. Marie's adrenaline started making her restless; although she was terrified she was itching to get going with Brécourt Manor.
"Okay, just weapons and ammo, drop anything else." Winters ordered. He looked over at Buck. "Compton, second squad."
"Yes, sir."
"Okay, you heard the word, let's move, let's move." Lipton said in a hushed voice.
They ran across the tree line and past what looked like someone's garden. There was a farmhouse on the far side of the field that was supposedly housing Germans. They took cover before the field and watched as the Germans marched around, guarding their guns and trucks. Malarkey and Marie both took cover next to a large tree with Buck and Winters huddled beside them. Compton peeked out of cover, then drew his head back in.
"MG 42s." He reported.
"I'll draw their fire from the right to the truck. Take two men and head for the left." Winters instructed.
Lipton and two men started shooting out into the field for covering fire.
This was it, it has begun. Marie thought.
The Germans now alerted started to shoot into the trees where they were taking cover. Marie covered her head as bullets whizzed past them, splintering the bark from the trees. Buck chose Malarkey and Guarnere to go take care of the first gun. Marie sat up and started to follow them.
"Stay back, Marie!" Winters yelled over all the commotion. She halted, doing as she was told. She wanted to follow Malarkey, but Winters told her to stay put for the moment until he gave her the all clear. Marie followed Winters, Hall, Plesha and Ranney down the middle of the field and into the nearby trench. Running out in the open was terrifying, Marie thought for sure that she was going to get hit. As she ran, her heart was thumping in her head the entire time.
Buck's squad had started shooting from the right flank, drawing the attention of the Germans. When the fire had finally ceased it was time to make another mad dash across the field and head closer to the guns. Marie took a deep breath and followed the men across the field, sprinting as fast as she could. A German was no more than ten feet away from them as they quickly approached, but Buck took him out with his machine gun. Malarkey and Guarnere were behind them as the covering fire shot off when they made their sprint over to the trench. Malarkey pulled out a grenade and threw it inside the upcoming trench, two Germans were firing a machine gun down there. So much was happening at once that Marie couldn't wrap her head around every detail. She just followed everyone, dumbly, around the fray, hoping for the best.
Marie took a flying leap inside the trench and landed roughly on her side. She gathered herself and noticed that someone was crying out in pain. Marie frantically glanced around, trying to locate the source of the cries.
"Who's hit?" Marie yelled out.
"Over here!" She heard Buck's voice call from a little further down the trench. She ran over to see Popeye lying on his stomach, whimpering in pain. Buck was standing protectively over him, reloading his rifle. "Where you hit, Pop?"
"I can't believe they fucked up my ass, sir." Popeye cried.
"Your ass?" Buck echoed, looking down at the soldier, slightly amused.
"Let me see, Popeye." Marie said, kneeling down beside him. She took out a pair of scissors from her pack and quickly started to a little hole in the back of his pants, not caring about his modesty, but about his safety. She inspected the wound. "It's a clean shot, you'll be fine." She said, pulling out some sulfa powder from her pack. She patched him up as fast as she could, bandaging the wound after applying the sulfa. She quickly took out a syrette from her pack and gave him a small shot of morphine.
"He's going to need to crawl back to battalion." Winters said to Marie and Buck. "Can you do that?" He addressed Popeye.
Popeye nodded. Buck and Winters helped him out of the trench while an escort helped him make it back. The two men were already making their way down the trench when Joe Toye caught up to Marie. They were on the move to the one of the big guns. Winters turned his head to order both Toye and Marie to keep going when he saw a German grenade being tossed right at their feet.
"Joe! Marie! Look out!" Winters shouted. In an instant, Toye wrapped his arms around Marie as he dove and practically flipping them both over to avoid the explosion. The grenade went off, causing dirt and dust to be kicked up all over the trench, Toye's body shielding her from the debris.
They both sat up after it was safe. "Are you okay? Jesus, I owe you my life!" Marie said breathlessly. He only nodded, looking stunned. His rifle took the brunt of the grenade, making him be weaponless. Marie saw Malarkey further down the trench, looking at her with concerned eyes. Marie and Toye made their way down the trench, meeting up with Buck, Winters, and Malarkey. Marie was ordered to stay behind as the men scrambled to the big gun and took it out. Marie waited, frustrated because waiting was all she seemed to be doing since the whole thing started.
After it was safe, Marie followed them, keeping her ears out for anything calling out 'medic.' There was so much chaos going on around her that it was hard to concentrate on multiple things at the same time. The group took cover under one of the big guns that had been taken out, firing their weapons at the Germans and getting ready to make their way to the next set of guns. Malarkey started to reload his rifle hastily, and had his eyes set on one of the dead Germans lying across the field.
"I think one of those dead krauts has a luger!" He announced. Before anyone could say anything, he bolted out in the open toward the body.
"Christ!"
"Jesus!"
Marie heard some soldiers exclaim as he ran out of cover. Marie couldn't believe that he was doing this, just to get a luger. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she worried for her friend's life.
"Don!" She screamed.
"Malarkey, you idiot! Get back here!" She heard Winters yell. She never heard Winters even mutter harsh words or any kind of insult like that before.
Marie watched Malarkey make his way to the dead German, she held her breath in fear the entire time, praying that he wouldn't get hit. He came sliding to a stop next to the body and started to search.
"Now you stop firing?" A soldier exclaimed next to her. She hadn't realized that the Germans had ceased fire when Malarkey ran out in the open.
"Christ, they must think he's a medic or something!" Plesha exclaimed.
"He's gonna need a goddamned medic!" Guarnere snapped.
Marie's eyes followed to the farmhouse where a lot of Germans were stationed. They had huge machine guns ready to fire upon Malarkey as they came to realize that he wasn't a medic. Malarkey got up and dashed back toward cover.
"Run, Malarkey!" Marie screamed again.
Marie watched in horror as the machine guns fired at him, missing him by mere inches as he ran and dodged across the field. The men were all calling him back as he approached the cover of the 105 gun. Malarkey had made it by some miracle, and leaped back into cover. Marie caught him and pulled him up against the sandbags. She wanted to beat the hell out of him for what he did, but she felt too relieved that he was safe. She held him there with shaky hands as he tried to catch his breath.
Guarnere was still firing at the Germans by the hedgerow. The others did the same, but the Germans machine guns still pounded against their cover.
"You get your freakin' luger, you stupid mick?" Guarnere shouted over the gunfire. Malarkey didn't look like he took any offense, he still was trying to catch his breath from the near death experience that he'd had.
"Never do that again." Marie said fiercely to Malarkey, pulling at his lapels and leaning close to his face so he'd understand the severity of what he'd done. Winters ran over to them. They were all taking cover from the guns now, not firing at the Germans. They were ready to take out the next gun, but they needed the TNT, and were stuck in this position as the Germans continued to rain heavy fire on them.
They were stuck in the same place for about an hour. Marie watched as the boys fired their weapons, running low on ammo. Marie knew that they couldn't sit and wait too much longer, it was getting more and more dangerous the longer they stayed. Marie started to worry about Lipton, she hadn't seen him since Brécourt started.
"Where's Lipton with that TNT?" Winters asked.
"Don't know, sir." Guarnere answered.
Hall came then by pure coincidence, carrying some TNT himself. Marie saw that Cleveland Petty had suddenly collapsed a few feet from them, taking a bullet to the neck. She dashed over to him, and pulled his limp body to cover. She pressed her palm up against his neck to slow down the bleeding, but she saw in his eyes that he'd already been killed. He didn't even have a pulse. She looked back at Winters and shook her head.
Hall and Winters went and took out the next gun, he had sent everyone off so they could get moving again. Marie was going to follow them when she saw two more soldiers collapsing in the field. Soldiers were dropping either dead or injured all over the place and she'd only managed to patch up two people so far. Despite what Winters told her earlier about being 'Johnny-on-the-spot' when it came to running and treating wounded soldiers, he had ordered her to stay behind for most of the operation.
Another soldier collapsed right before he made it to the trench. Marie peeked over the trench and saw him laying face down a few feet from her. She pulled herself up, and swung a leg over to climb out of the trench, when she felt herself being pulled down.
"Stay down, Marie!" She heard Winters say from behind her. She turned and looked into his blue eyes. She felt a bit of annoyance and defiance raising up inside her; he kept changing his mind on what she should do.
"But you told me to-" Marie started to protest.
"Just come with me!" Winters started to pull her along to the next gun. Winters and Hall disabled it without a problem but they all found themselves being pinned down by the German fire. Malarkey set up his mortar tube and fired round after round on them, with Buck doing the same.
Marie found herself waiting again, wanting to beg Winters to let her go back and at least give those men some morphine if they were still alive. But she knew Winters wouldn't let her. She knew he was just trying to protect her, but she wanted to be treated like everyone else as a soldier, not because of her sex.
"Running a little low on ammo, sir." Buck shouted at Winters above the gunfire.
"How 'bout you, Malarkey?" Winters asked.
"Okay!" Malarkey replied, not taking his eyes off where he was firing.
"Think you got enough to take out the third gun?" Winters asked them.
"We'll soon find out, Dick. Malarkey, let's go. Toye, cover!" Buck ordered, taking Malarkey away to run to the big gun. Toye shot at the Germans, drawing their attention away from Buck and Malarkey.
Marie watched as they got pinned down again. There was only one more gun, but they kept getting stuck every time they got close. Marie felt someone tap on her helmet, she looked over to see Toye pointing in the direction where Buck and Malarkey had run.
"We're almost there, Hun!" He yelled over the gunfire. He grabbed onto her BDU collar and lifted her up to her feet. He led her all the way to the third gun to join everyone else. Marie let herself be dragged alone, still feeling dazed by all the gunfire and constant activity.
As Toye and Marie came to meet up, she saw by the expression on their faces that they were frustrated with being pinned down again.
"We've reached a stalemate. Hours of fighting, and we can't get to the last gun after knocking out all the others!" Malarkey told Marie, his voice ringing with irritation. This was dragging on longer than they all suspected.
As if on cue, Lieutenant Speirs appeared, along with some of his men, and Barbara. He had ammo draped around his neck, and looked fiercely determined to reach the fourth gun.
Barbara squatted beside Marie, a wild look of adrenaline in her pale blue eyes. Marie could barely recognize the girl that she'd come to know at Toccoa.
At least she wasn't ordered to stay behind.
"I told you we'd be your backup!" Barbara said to Marie. Before Marie could even comprehend what was happening, Marie watched as Speirs led his soldiers right out into the open and toward the fourth gun.
In the middle of it all, Lipton had finally arrived, bringing the TNT at last. Marie was relieved to see that he was okay. Before she knew it, they started to withdraw, unable to get enough reinforcements to take out the rest of the Germans, and for running low on ammunition. Brécourt Manor was a success, although Winters would have Easy return after a day's rest to finish the job. They stayed in the farmhouse for a day, picking off what they could and finalizing Brécourt. They had left with twelve German POWs. Easy had only two wounded and four killed, although Marie felt bothered by the four deaths because she felt that she could've done something for them. Hall had been killed Winters would later tell her, only adding to her frustration of not being able to do anything to help. She thought of Hall and his large, sympathetic eyes.
Despite feeling bitter than Winters had held her back, Marie was just happy to still be alive.
They were back with battalion in some abandoned "bombed-out village" as Malarkey described it. It was dark out, about 20:00 hours. They only had an hour of rest to get food before they were moving out again. Marie was inside one of the trucks under a tarp, joining some of the guys as Malarkey attempted to make them all something to eat. Marie hadn't noticed how hungry she was until Malarkey had started to make the rationed food. It didn't smell very appetizing, but Marie was too starving to care. Her stomach growled with anticipation the whole time she was in the truck.
Malarkey thumbed at his helmet that was sitting on his lap as he cooked their meal. He had a picture of Bernice tucked inside. Marie studied the photograph, feeling the familiar mixed feelings return. She shook the thoughts out of her head.
You're being ridiculous, Marie. She scolded herself.
"Jesus Christ, get me out of here!" Liebgott grumbled, climbing out of the truck, his voice interrupting Marie's thoughts. Guarnere quickly closed the tarp behind him. Marie guessed that he couldn't take the smell anymore.
"How we doin' Malark?" Guarnere asked, growing impatient.
Malarkey tested the food, bringing it to his lips and tasting it. "We're doing good." Malarkey showed the food to Buck.
" 'Doing good?' How the hell do you know about cooking, you're Irish." Buck said with a smirk.
Marie couldn't help but giggle. She looked over at Lip whom was sitting next to her, but he looked distant. He sat there in the truck, being extra quiet. Her smile faded as she studied him. She hoped he was all right.
"Sir, if you have a reservation some place else, I'd be happy to go." Malarkey replied, pouring some of the food in his mess kit. He passed the food around, Marie held out her mess kit and watched as the food was poured inside. Marie couldn't tell if it was beans, or something mixed with beans as she looked down at the brown, runny concoction.
All of them started to laugh, mostly at how bad the food smelled. Marie started to eat it quickly, not giving herself anytime to savor how it tasted. She was far too hungry to pay attention to the taste, she only needed something to fill up her belly.
"See? She likes it." Malarkey laughed, pointing at Marie.
"Jesus Christ, give me some air." Guarnere said, sticking his head out. Everyone laughed again, all except Lipton. Marie watched as Lip held his mess kit in his hands, but he didn't eat.
Before Marie could ask him what was wrong, Winters stuck his head inside the tarp.
"Evening." He greeted.
"Hello, sir." Guarnere replied.
"Something die in here?" Winters asked, making a face. Everyone chuckled again.
"Yeah, Malarkey's ass." Toye joked. The laughter erupted again, Marie almost choked on her food as she laughed along with them.
"Any word on Lieutenant Meehan, sir?" Buck asked, growing serious.
"No, not yet." Winters sighed.
"Don't that make you our commanding officer, sir?" Guarnere asked.
"Yeah, it does."
Toye extended his hand, holding a bottle of wine out to Winters. "Sir." He said, gesturing to him.
"The Lieutenant don't drink." Guarnere reminded Joe.
"It's been a day of firsts." Winters said, taking a sip of the wine right from the bottle. "Don't you think, Guarnere?"
"Yes sir."
"Carry on." Winters told them. Everyone told him goodnight. "And sergeant?" Winters added, without fully pulling his head out.
"Sir?" Guarnere questioned.
"I'm not a Quaker." Winters said, leaving them. Everyone erupted with laughter. In the middle of all the laughter, Marie turned her attention back to Lipton.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Hun. Just exhausted." He replied in a tired voice.
"I don't blame you, there." Marie chuckled. "Get some sleep, Lipton. You worked hard out there." She patted him on the shoulder, putting her mess kit down.
"Damn, you really scarfed that down." Toye said to her, looking at her empty mess kit.
"Told you I was an all right cook." Malarkey chimed.
"Oh please. Hun will eat anything you cook." Buck said, winking at Marie. Marie stuck out her tongue at him, but cracking a smile afterward. She rubbed her drowsy eyes, the heavy exhaustion returning.
"Time for some shut eye, huh?" Buck said with a smile.
Marie nodded, noticing that Lipton was falling asleep too. Marie leaned her head against Malarkey's shoulder, shifting in her spot to get comfortable enough so she could fall asleep.
Everyone said their goodnights while Marie closed her eyes, feeling herself start to drift off to sleep. Marie couldn't help but think of Emilia and Muck. There were so many others still missing from Easy Company. She wanted to talk about it, but she didn't want to bring up the subject and down the men's spirits. This had been the first time they'd had a laugh in days.
Some of the men fell asleep and started to snore. Marie was too worried to fall asleep right away, her thoughts still on Emilia and Muck, and on what Barbara had told her about Diana.
"Still not asleep?" She heard Malarkey whisper to her.
"I'm worried about Skip and Em." Marie responded in a tired whisper. Malarkey was silent, Marie knew that he was dreadfully worried about them too. "Barb told me that Diana's plane went down, there's a good chance she's dead. I'm afraid that-" She couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence. She let her voice trail off.
"I'm sure they're all right, Hun. There's a lot of guys still missing. They'll show up." Malarkey assured her.
"I hope you're right, Don." Marie whispered.
With that being said, Marie forced her eyes shut and struggled to fall asleep. She finally managed to fall asleep, she dreamed of plane crashes, grenades, and of Malarkey running out in a open field in the middle of crossfire.
