A/N: Delays, delays! My, my, I hope I didn't lose all of my readers because I haven't updated in a while.
OH IT'S TOO GRUESOME! School starts in ONE WEEK! AHH! And I have three honors classes. THREE:screams:
But, my trusty readers will keep me happy, right :D
The next day, I received a message from one of the battalion runners that I had to see Colonel Sanders...I mean Sink ASAP. I really didn't care what he had to say to me this time around, since it was about 6:30 in the morning, and I didn't get to bed until 3:30. What can I say, I was excited.
I finally gave in and threw on a black skirt and a white button up. Brushed out the waves in my hair and ran out, or shuffled out to say the least, the door. The sun was barely peaking out behind the thick layer of clouds in the sky. As I walked, I noticed the boys out in the barren field, standing at attention. They must've been lectured on something. But I was intrigued; Sink could wait a couple of minutes. So I edged in closer to the barbwire fence that separated the base from the field. I could see the new lieutenant Meehan that replaced Sobel months ago, briefing the men.
"The jump will take place promptly at 0900 hours tomorrow." I overheard him say. Hmm, a jump? Well, the only Military-esque jump I've ever witnessed was when I went to the air shows back home. The Air Force would come out and jump out in pretty little parachutes that made my little brother squeal. He loves airplanes and parachutes. I remember him climbing up the big oak tree in our front yard, making plane noises and dropping G.I Joes with parts of plastic bags tied them out of the tree. They never floated, they just fell straight down.
"Don't screw this up, boys. General Eisenhower, General Taylor and Prime Minister Churchill will be here, " The boys whistled at the mention of the big wigs, "And we'll show them that Easy Company, is the best damn company in the entire regiment. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir!" The boys cheered.
"Good." Lieutenant Meehan smirked, "Now, today we're gonna learn about the.." I started to walk away. Suddenly, Meehan teaching wasn't that intriguing anymore. And I had to hurry up to the Ol' Colonel, or he might blow a gasket.
I reached to HQ and walked to Sink's office, where his shrimp of an orderly escorted me in.
"Um, you wanted to see me, sir?" I asked, Sink turned away from his paperwork to address me.
"Yes, sit down Megan." I sat down in the hardwood chair in front of Sink's desk, as he shuffled through some stacks of paper. I heard him mumble some incoherent things, until he palmed the paper.
"Jenkins!" Sink yelled.
"Yes, sir?" The shrimpy orderly asked.
"Jenkins, where's the paperwork for Ms. Stein?" Sink barked. Jenkins jumped and leapt to his desk. In exactly three milliseconds, that boy was already inside the damn office with a dark brown folder.
"Here it is, sir." Jenkins chirped, placing the folder on the desk. He stood next to Sink, waiting for a pat on the head. Sink looked up momentarily at Jenkins.
"That's all, private." He growled. Jenkins frowned, and slumped out of the room. I stifled back a laugh, as Sink flipped through the folder's contents.
"Ah, yes. Megan. Today we are going to discuss your place in this damn war. Now currently, your in Aldabourne." Yeah, no shit Sherlock. Goddamn, do I really have to do this before I have my coffee?
"But, with a little help from me and Major Horton, the Red Cross has decided that a woman with your kind of experience doesn't seem fit to stay here in England." Sink said. There was a knock at the door.
"Sir. Ms. Lewis is here to see you." Jenkins peeped.
"Um, Berch." Marge corrected, walking around the shripmy man, "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yes, sit down, Marge." The Colonel ordered. I looked at Marge, as she sat in the chair next to me. She looked just as puzzled as I did, "Now, I was just talking with Megan about her placement in the war effort. That's why you're here too, Marge. The Airborne deserves the two best nurses in the Red Cross. And you both fill the credentials." Marge and I looked at each other, then back at Sink. If I'm the BEST that the Red Cross can do, then they've lost their touch. But I've gotten better; I've been snooping inside the hospital. And I've come across some medical resource books. All those nights that I've stayed up reading, were reading those books. If I'm going to be trusted with other people's lives, I gotta know my stuff.
"Sir, does that mean we have to jump with the men?" Marge asked, shaking slightly. That's a good question. I can barely fly in an airplane without freaking out at least once. Let alone jump out of one.
"No, that would be too dangerous for you two." Sink sighed. I tried my best to hold back a snort. But I still managed to make some sort of odd noise, "For the invasion, you will be attached to the 329th Infantry Division. Shortly after that, you will then, either be attached to the 101st or the 82nd Airborne. Which ever the Red cross sees fit." I seemed to be speechless, since Marge did all of the talking. I knew exactly what invasion he was talking about.
"Sir, when is this said invasion?" Marge asked, with a twinge of fear in her voice.
"The date is unconfirmed as of right now. But it could be next week, Next month, two months from that. That is why you'll be shipping out in three days." Now, that snapped me out of my funk.
"Three days, sir?" I asked.
"Three days. That gives you long enough to educate your replacements. They should be here anytime now." Sink declared. I opened my mouth to protest, but Marge beat me. She was still hell-bent on the invasion.
"Sir, for the invasion, will we be armed?"
"I'm not sure. You may get a pistol, but that'll be it." Marge looked ill. I probably looked worse. I felt worse; I know that for sure, "I will have more details of your departure tomorrow. That is all, ladies. You may leave." Marge and I snapped out of our dazed position, and jumped up out of our seats. We left the room and walked back to the hospital in utter silence.
We got halfway there, when Marge finally spoke up.
"They're giving us three days. Three days. Three damn days. Three freaking days. Three..." Marge growled.
"Ok Marge, you've established the fact that we only have three fucking days left in Aldabourne. I fucking get it." I exclaimed. Marge looked taken aback, "Sorry, It's just...god damnit." I sighed. We walked in a grim silence all the way back. When we walked inside, we were greeted by the gaggle of girls in the kitchen. Doreen thrusted a cup of coffee into my hands. I looked up at her.
"I know how you get." She replied simply.
"So, what did the good colonel want?" Cindy asked. I gulped down the atrocious coffee. Marge looked ready to heave.
"What?" Cindy said, "Was it that bad?"
"You have no idea." I breathed.
"They're making us field nurses, for the Airborne. But first we'll be dropped into god knows where, with god knows what kind of men, and only armed with our medical bags." Marge heaved. The girls looked deathly pale.
"Oh, but this is the best part. We have to leave in three days, and we get to educate our replacements." I said sarcastically.
"When...when are the new girls arriving?" Lily asked softly.
"Anytime now." I replied. I reached for the coffee pot, and realized that there was none left. I sighed, "God, this is a nightmare." And walked out of the hospital. I smacked dab into two figures. One huffed, and the other screeched. I stumbled back.
"Damnit." I cried. The thing I ran into gasped shamefully. I looked up, and was face to face with two young girls. Hello replacements.
"Excuse me, were looking for Marge Berch and Megan Stein?" The one I didn't hit piped up, in a British accent.
"You're looking at 'em. Well, one of them. I'm Megan." I held out my hand. The one I didn't toppled over, shook my hand vigrisouly. The other snorted.
"Bloody yank." She spat in a wicked Scottish accent. She stepped around me, and headed inside the building. The other one, who seems to be the nicer of the two, defended her acquaintance.
"She doesn't mean that. She's just ticked because they only gave us four days to leave our old location. It was in our own village." The blonde haired girl explained, "I'm Belle."
"Marge is inside, follow me." I instructed. Belle was close on my heels as I walked through the hospital. The girls were chatting away, when we entered the room. They were all introducing themselves. When Doreen introduced herself, she quickly added.
"Oh, and you must've meet Megan, since you look like you've just been by a car." I snorted, the girl looked agitated.
"Yes, I have." The angry redhead said. Belle gave her a look, and she sighed, "My name's Loraine."
"Well, this has just been a delightful morning, hasn't it?" I laughed sarcastically. I received many agitated looks, "Ok, have to get more coffee."
As you can suspect, the morning was just the beginning. The rest of the day was just as horrible, if not worse, as the morning was. Because, right after I finally got the boy I wanted, I have to leave him in three days. If that's not cruel, I don't know what is.
I waited till it was dark out, to go speak with Dick. For one, I had to cart around two newbie's all freaking day, and I didn't care too much for that. I went to the house he was staying in, a small little two-story grocery store. Apparently, the family lives upstairs, the food lives downstairs. Sorta like Luke's from "Gilmore Girls".
I didn't want to knock, since the lights were out. They might've been asleep, even if it was 8:30. So I started throwing rocks at a random window with the lights on. With my luck, it'd probably be the people he's living with. The window quickly flew open, and a man's body hung out the window.
"Who's there?" He called out.
"Harry?" I whispered slashed yelled.
"Megan?" Harry whispered slashed yelled back.
"Where's Dick? I need to talk to him."
"Hold on." Harry leaned back inside, and started pointing to the window. The light went out in the room. The grocery store door swung open.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Dick asked.
"Nothing." I said quickly, "Well, no. It's just...I need to talk to you."
"So I've heard." He smirked
"Well, as you know, I am a nurse. And we are in a war." I started to pace around in front of him.
"Again, so I've heard."
"And in this war, Nurses are supposed to do things."
"Really?" He said sarcastically.
"And some nurses are fortunate enough to stay here in England. And some, like me and Marge, are unfortunate enough to be made the Airborne's own field nurses, where we will be dropped in an undisclosed location in which we will take part in one of the largest allied invasions in military history." I said quickly, pacing, and then stopping, to see his reaction. He looked serious, well, he always looked serious. But this was the most serious I had seen him, and it was scaring me.
"They're making you jump with us, aren't they?" He asked.
"Only if they strap me on someone's back, cause I sure as hell ain't jumping out of an airplane on my own." I said.
"So, what exactly are you doing?"
"Sink said that Marge and me are first hooking up with the 329th until they get tired of us, and then we'll later hook up with the 101st or the 82nd. Which ever they see fit."
"When are you leaving?" I took a deep breath.
"What?"
"When are you leaving?" He asked slower.
"...three days." I said quietly.
"What?"
"I said, Three days." I sighed. He made a face and turned around. He scratched his head, and continued to not face me. He finally turned around to me.
"How long have you known?" He huffed.
"Since this morning." I replied quietly, "Dick, I'm so sorry. If I could choose not to go, I would do it in an instant."
"You have nothing to be sorry for." He said quietly, "I've got an early day tomorrow." He turned around and walked inside. I saw the bedroom light come on, and Harry looked down at the street. He waved, and I walked away.
I walked down the street, feeling utterly horrible. Until someone grabbed my shoulder. I gasped loudly, and whipped around. I took a huge sigh of relief.
"Oh, it's you."
"Did I scare you?" Dick asked.
"Oh, it was only a minor heart attack, but it's ok." I joked, "Why'd you come back?"
"I talked to Harry, and he told me," He took me by the waist, "that I shouldn't waste the last three days I'm gonna have with you sulking in a cramped bed room with another man." I smiled; I always knew Harry was a cool guy.
"So that means?"
"That means, that for the rest of the night, were gonna do stuff."
"Do what?" I laughed, "It's 9:00 in Aldabourne. Everything is closed, or..." He cut me off, be kissing me softly.
"Well, there's one thing." I noted, he laughed. He kissed me again, and I rolled one of 12 other rather large weights off my stomach. Just 11 more an I might just end up with only one ulcer.
Well, I said the day was horrible. But, I didn't say the night turned out bad.
OH! AN END TO CHAPTER 12!
