Those that follow my author profile know that I've been working on an Avengers OC story (you should check it out if you're an MCU fan!), so I've been trying to balance out the updates there with some updates here while I'm feeling active. Thank you, as always, for your kind reviews! I squeal a little bit every time someone else talks about Nora like she's a real person.


Chapter Twelve

Nora groaned as she lowered herself to the ground next to Luz, who was speaking quietly to Winters. They'd holed up in a barn for the evening and the men were all buzzing around, looking for places to crash.

"Hey Price, there's a pile of hay up there with your name on it." Webster called, pointing to a loft above his head.

"She's allergic, Webster." Luz retorted with a blunt look. Nora elbowed him, not appreciating his tone. It was kind of Webster to try and reserve the best spot for her.

"I'm not allergic." She argued. "It just gives me hives."

"Otherwise known as being allergic." Luz said. Nora rolled her eyes and chose not to engage any further on the matter. Talbert came over and sat with them, followed by the dog that had eagerly greeted everyone when they entered the barn. Nora greeted the animal with the kind of excited gasp that intentionally riles up dogs, and it climbed over her legs, getting as close to her face as possible. Luz lured it away from licking her face by pulling out a small piece of jerky and feeding it.

"This is one hell of a dog, Tab." Luz said. Tab threw a bone that he'd found across the room, and the dog followed it.

"What'd you call him, Tab?" Dick asked. Nora studied his face, secretly trying to determine if he was a dog person or a cat person.

"Trigger." Tab responded.

"That's good. Trigger. I like that." Luz decided, shoving a cracker into his mouth and offering one to Nora, who gladly accepted.

"Anything on this?" Tab asked, gesturing to the phone they were waiting by.

"Nope, it's all quiet." Luz replied. Tab opened his mouth to respond, but the doors to the barn suddenly burst open, causing everyone to jump to their feet.

"We've got penetration!" someone was shouting as a soldier was carried in with blood on his face.

"It's Alley!" Some of the men chorused, rushing to help carry the man. Nora pushed through them. This was definitely the result of a grenade.

"Get him on the table." She commanded. "Easy, though! Easy."

The men did as they were told and gathered around the table, telling Alley to hold on and that it would be okay.

"Tab, I need my kit." Nora said. The man rushed over to where they'd just been sitting and grabbed it for her. "Boyle, go get Doc Roe."

After receiving her kit, she pulled out morphine, sulfa, and antiseptics - it looked like he'd mostly been burned, with just a few pieces of embedded shrapnel. He would need to go to the hospital to get those out, but for now, she could stop the bleeding and treat the burns. She took his chin and flashed a light in his eyes. They were dilated from being out in the dark, but it didn't look like he'd sustained any serious head injuries.

"Alley, just look at my face, okay?" She told him soothingly as she worked. "You're gonna be just fine."

"Where was it?" Dick was asking the men from behind her shoulder.

"The crossroads." Liebgott answered.

"They never would've known we were there if it wasn't for your loud mouth -" someone began, but Nora interrupted them sharply.

"Winters, how about taking this conversation elsewhere." She suggested, trying to keep her tone light as Alley continued to watch her face. He needed to hear soothing words right now, not chaos and finger-pointing.

"Right. Lipton, assemble first squad and have them meet me outside." Winters ordered. Lipton shouted the orders, and most of the men ran out. Boyle and Liebgott stayed behind to help, and Roe arrived, assessing the situation.

"You should go with them." Nora told him, having decided that she would be okay as long as she had some helping hands. Roe hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"That leg needs to be elevated." He said, "And you gotta get sulfa powder on that bleeding first."

"We can handle it. Go."

Roe ran off again, and Nora had Boyle elevate the leg while Liebgott sprinkled the sulfa on. Thankfully, the shrapnel in his leg hadn't nicked the femoral artery.

"Not too much." Nora cautioned Liebgott on the sulfa as she began bandaging the leg. After she managed to bandage the two largest wounds, she bound up the cut on his forehead and took to treating some of the burns. She tried to speak to him as much as possible, but he was in shock and unresponsive. Still, the assurances were worth something, so she continued.

After about 45 minutes, he was stable enough for them to load him in a jeep. Nora climbed into the back with him, leaning over him so that he could still see her face and hear her voice. He had attempted to speak a couple of times by now, but she'd quieted him, not wanting him to over-exert himself in his shock. As they were pulling away in the direction of the nearest aid station, Nora prayed that whatever activity was going on in the night wouldn't affect their travel.


When Nora returned from the aid station with Liebgott and Boyle, it was morning and the other men had gone out as reinforcements for first squad. It must have turned into a much larger conflict than expected, and she hoped that there were no casualties. The three of them hadn't even gone back into the barn, simply jumping out of the jeep and heading on foot to the crossroads.

When she got there, the field was littered with wounded men - 22 in total. By the time Nora had gotten to the third or fourth one, the conflict had died down and E Company had come out on top. Dead and wounded S.S. soldiers were everywhere, and the survivors were being rounded up as prisoners. As Nora worked on one wounded soldier, she noticed Liebgott laying on his stomach, firing at a wounded German soldier across the field who was desperately trying to crawl away. The taste of bile swelled into her mouth at the sight, and she called for Winters, who went to intervene after she nodded in that direction.

Hours later, after all the wounded were stabilized and loaded onto stretchers, Nora sighed and pulled herself up to sit on the back of a jeep next to Malarkey. He offered her his canteen and she drank from it with a grateful nod. Another night that all of them had gone without sleep.

"Alley?" He asked, his voice uncertain.

"He'll be okay." Nora assured him. "We had to take him to the aid station, or else he wouldn't have lasted until morning. They got him to a hospital, so they'll be able to fix him up just fine."

"Word is that the Germans have been trying to retreat from this area, so we should have a couple days of rest." Malarkey told her.

"That would be wonderful, but I'm not holding my breath." Nora replied, capping the canteen and giving it back to him.


As much as she'd wanted to be wrong, the rest period had been short-lived. They had gone to battalion HQ to await new orders while the higher-ups discussed strategy. To Nora's surprise, Dick Winters was now one of those higher-ups. She hadn't known how to take the news. On the one hand, everyone knew it would happen sooner or later. On the other hand, it was hard for any of them to picture themselves trusting a new C.O. as much as Winters. However, Moose Heyliger seemed as worthy a candidate as anyone, and he was accepted rather quickly by the company, despite being an outsider.

Nora didn't have much interaction with Heyliger until he pulled her aside one evening. They were preparing to go on a nighttime mission - the first Heyliger would be leading - with the British to free some of their men who had become POWs. Nora was excited but also nervous to be coordinating with the British men. Would E Company work as seamlessly with them as they did alone? She was pondering this when Heyliger pulled her aside.

"I'm having you sit this one out." He told her, getting straight to the point. Nora hadn't been expecting this and was quiet for a long moment as she combed through the last week in her mind, trying to find out what she'd done wrong.

"Can I ask why?" She finally asked, coming up with nothing on her own.

"It's a stealth mission, so I don't want to bring more men than I need to," He told her, "and I think we can make do with Roe."

That wasn't really an explanation, Nora thought. She wasn't sure why she was so bothered - she and Roe took turns doing things all the time. She'd just sat out of a battle two days ago without any qualms. But she wasn't sitting it out to help someone else - to do something else - this time. She was just sitting it out. Besides, she knew how many men were going on this mission. Without her, the infantry-to-medic ratio was going to be skewed. If it went south, Roe would be overwhelmed.

"I've discussed it with Winters. You'll stay here at battalion." He repeated with a note of finality. Nora wanted to argue, but she couldn't bring herself to. She didn't hate Heyliger, and she didn't want to start their working relationship off on the wrong foot. She nodded, stepping away.

"Good luck."


Nora entered Nixon and Winters' quarters and went up the stairs after they called for her to come in. They had a nice place set up in the attic, where Winters was currently sitting behind his typewriter, and Nix was downing a glass of Vat69.

"Got any more of that?" Nora asked, nodding at the glass. Nixon smiled and went to pour her some.

"Everything okay?" Winters asked, eyeing her. She could ask him the same thing - he looked miserable. Nora accepted the glass from Nix and took a swig, grimacing.

"This is what you've been drinking this whole time?" She asked, her tone incredulous. Nix laughed. Pulling up a chair for her, which she accepted. The room was quiet for a minute. The two men watched her sip from the tumbler, waiting.

"Did you tell Heyliger to bench me?" She finally asked, staring into the glass.

"I told him to do what he thought was best." Dick said, his tone allowing no apologies, though his gaze was sympathetic. "Easy Company isn't mine anymore. I've got to let him take command."

Nora was silent, contemplating.

"He's from another company," Nix reminded her, trying to be helpful. "He hasn't had the time to get to know you - to see you in action."

"It's not that he doesn't like you. He's just trying to wrap his head around how to handle it. It took me a while to come around, too. Remember?" Dick agreed. This was true. But she had spent all of the time and energy required to get him there. And he had come around. And now she had to start over? She was going to have to prove herself to every new officer she met for the duration of the war? She'd known this would be the case, of course, going in. But it hit harder now - now that she'd made so much ground and was being forced to take two steps back.

"I understand." She said finally. She wanted to say more. To point out that the ratio of infantrymen-to-medics that Heyliger was using was questionable. But Dick was right - he had to set boundaries and let Heyliger figure things out for himself. And she needed to take matters into her own hands and show the new C.O. that he could trust her.

"Just keep doing the best you can and don't worry about it." Dick advised. "I'll talk to Heyliger though; vouch for you as much as I can."

"Thanks." Nora said with a soft smile.


Nora had just gotten back to her quarters and settled into bed when the knock came. She'd been out late celebrating the successful mission with everyone. It had been uncomfortable listening to them talk about it, and she hadn't stayed long, but she of course wanted to celebrate the safe return of all of the men. The mission had gone so well that they hadn't needed a medic at all, and for that, she was relieved, even if it meant admitting that Heyliger might have been right.

Nora opened the door to a panicked young replacement, whose name she regrettably hadn't learned just yet, and he beckoned her to come with him. She ran after him, pausing only to grab her medical kit and leaving her jacket and helmet behind. They stopped at a patch of dirt near the railroad tracks where a medical evac vehicle was already waiting with open doors. She went around to the back to see Winters, Welsh, and Roe trying to get Heyliger onto a stretcher.

"Where's he hit?" She asked, breathless.

"One in the leg, one in the abdomen, and two in the chest." Roe announced. Nora's heart thumped hard against her chest. It didn't sound good. "Did you give him morphine?" He asked the men.

"Yeah." Winters replied.

"How much?" Nora asked, noticing that the markers weren't on his jacket.

"I can't remember. Two, three syrettes maybe?" Winters asked, obviously frazzled.

"Three syrettes maybe?" Roe repeated, "Jesus Christ, were you trying to kill him?"

"Moose, stay with me. Try and stay awake. I'm right here with you." Nora spoke to the barely-conscious man, trying to drown out the sound of Dick's panic and Roe's anger.

"You don't think it might be important to let me know how much mediation the man has had, huh?" Roe continued as they lifted the stretcher up and slid it into the ambulance.

"I'm sorry, Doc." Winters said.

"Sure is a good thing he's a big man," Roe said as Winters gave Nora a hand-up to help her into the ambulance. "Maybe he'll stand a chance."

Nora could've choked him for saying such a thing right in front of Heyliger, who was probably keen to at least some of what was happening around him.

"He was in a lot of pain, doc. We didn't know what to do." Welsh told him.

"Yeah, well you oughta." Roe snapped. "You are officers. You are grown-ups. You oughta know."

"Roe, enough. Shut those doors, and let's get this damn thing moving." Nora chided. Winters closed up the back doors and the drivers pulled out. Nora and Roe shifted to continue working on the gunshot wounds.

"How's the leg?" Nora asked as her hands moved quickly to stop the bleeding on his chest. He didn't respond, and when she glanced up at him, he was shaking his head. The femoral artery was hit. Nora's hands shook a bit, but she kept working as Roe put a tourniquet on the leg. With as much blood as he would've already lost from that artery, not to mention the amount of morphine he was given, it was unlikely that they would make it to the hospital. They continued to work in silence.


Thanks again for reading! The next chapter should be longer and will definitely have some Speirs and Nora interaction! Also, what's the verdict? - is Dick Winters a dog person or a cat person?