Dog Tags

After about two hours Miller went around waking his squad up. Jackson was first to wake and he looked down at the still sleeping Maila, curled up in his arms.

"Have a good night?" Reiben sneered as he walked past them. Jackson ignored him and put a hand on the side of Maila's face.

"Maila, Mai" he whispered and her eyes slowly blinked open.

"Huh" she mumbled.

"We're heading out" Jackson said sitting up and stretching. Maila shivered as Jackson got up, all the heat they'd radiated seeping away as they parted. She stood and yawned, stretching her arms into the air. She closed her eyes and as she opened them she saw Fish, Wade, Upham, Jackson and Reiben all looking at her.

"What?" she asked.

"You have a very nice… stomach" Upham said and Fish hit his arm.

Maila blushed and pulled her top down.

"Put something on Ryan, before you freeze" Horvath smiled and threw her long sleeved top and jacket at her.

"Yes sir" she said pulling the items on.

Outside her company and a few others were sitting around a small fire, busy passing plates around was Maria. Maila looked and saw sausages, bacon, egg and beans pilled high on the plates.

"Oh my god" she said as she sat next to Jackson and Wade.

"I know heaven right" Jackson said as he put a plate into her lap. She looked down at the food.

"What ya waitin for chick?" Fish said as he dug into the beans.

Maila tentatively started to eat; she only ate two sausages, two pieces of bacon and a few spoonfuls of beans but the men around her consumed plate after plate after plate. She looked around and saw Upham sitting on his own. She got up and walked over to him.

"Hey duce, you had something to eat?" she asked and he nodded.

"Yes, thank you" he said.

"So, you think I have a nice stomach" she smiled and Upham immediately blushed.

"I'm sorry Tim" she laughed and then the Captain came over to them.

"We're moving out" he said and they nodded.

Maila sighed as they continued to walk. The Captain wanted them in a single file formation so it meant that they were too far away to talk to each other. They walked all day and into the night, Maila looked into the dark sky and watched as every noun and again light shone from explosions in the distance. It never failed to make her jump; she looked up ahead and could faintly see the red cross on Wade's pack. She then looked behind her and saw Fish, he was looking at the ground so didn't see her looking at him.

In the morning they got to another base camp, they walked past a fallen aircraft and Maila ran her hand along the metal as she walked past.

"Do you think this is one of the planes we saw being taken down the other night?" she asked and Horvath stopped behind her.

"Could be" he said and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on"

"God, what's that smell?" Fish said as the gang walked further into the camp.

"It ain't me" Maila said scrunching her nose.

"No you smell of honeysuckle sweat heart" Fish said moving closer to her hair and she laughed and batted him away.

"Medic, my friends bleeding. He needs a tourniquet" one soldier in the distance shouted.

"Wade!"

"Yes Sir" Wade said jogging to the Captain's side.

"See what you can do"

"Yes Sir" he said.

"I'll help you" Maila said following him.

Wade immediately went over to a man who looked like he was in serious trouble. Maila looked around and saw a man who had a deep slash in his side, it would only need cleaning and stitching so she picked up a medical bag and went over to him.

"Hey" she smiled down at the man.

"Hey now ain't that just the prettiest smile I ever saw on a Medic" the man said and Maila laughed.

"I'm not a medic" she said getting things she'd need out the bag.

"Well you're my saving angel" he said and Maila took her helmet off.

"Flattery Sir, will get you nowhere" she said pulling the old dressing back. He grabbed her hand and placed it to his lips, giving her a gentle kiss.

"The names Kimerly, George Kimerly" he said

"Ryan, Maila Ryan" she replied "Now stay still while I fix you" she said and he rested his head back. He winced slightly when she poured some wash on the wound and then there were a few swears when the needle went into his skin.

"Right" she said after a few minutes. "You're all done, nice meeting you George"

"You've made my day Miss Ryan" George said and Maila walked over towards Wade. He was working on a man and Reiben was standing two men away from him.

"Reiben smell that leg right there, find out if its south of cheese" Wade said and Maila couldn't help but smile. Wade caught her smile and tried to suppress his own smirk. Maila watched as Reiben tentatively bent down and took a whiff, he quickly recoiled and nodded to Wade. He then scarpered.

"Maila, give us a hand" Wade said and she knelt down.

"What do I need to do?" she asked.

"Pin him down" Wade said and Maila looked at the man, it looked like he was asleep. She frowned. "Just hold him still" Wade said and Maila did so.

Wade had barely put the forceps into the wound before the man yelled and tried to lash out at him.

"Hey, hey, he's trying to help you" Maila said.

"It fucking hurts" the soldier cried.

"Just hold on" Maila said.

She looked at Wade, his concentration made his tongue stick out. Maila smiled and relaxed as the soldier slowly stopped struggling and let Wade work.

"There all done" Wade said leaning back on his heels and wiping his hands on a cloth.

"We make one hell of a team Irwin" Maila smiled and gave the Medic a high five. He passed her the cloth and she slowly wiped her hands of the blood. She then looked around and saw her company sitting around a box, intrigued she decided to see what they were doing. She soon wished she hadn't as when she got closer she could see they were rifling through dog tags, looking for her brother.

"Where is this son of a bitch?" Jackson said.

Reiben then had a go about Jackson mixing up piles and then Jackson had a go back.

Annoyed, cross, upset, angry, sad.

Was just a few things that Maila was feeling, she walked back over to Wade and slumped next to him as he was stitching a bloke up.

"What's up?" he asked her.

"They're going through dog tags as if their poker chips" she said and Wade frowned. He looked over her shoulder and then handed her the needle and thread.

"Finish this for me" he said.

Maila watched as he got up and went over to the group around the box. After watching him gather the tags together she looked down and carried on where Wade left off. A tear rolled down her cheek as she tried to concentrate. She was glad that the soldier was asleep, that way no one would see her tears.

Having collected the tags together Wade came back over and looked at Maila's patch work.

"Looks good" he said and Maila looked at him.

"Hey, hey" Wade whispered and Maila started to cry again. Wade pulled her into a hug and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Its okay, your okay" Wade said soothingly.

After a while she pulled back. "Thanks Wade" she said and he nodded.

Then making both Maila and Wade smile the Captain started talking to a man that was having trouble with his hearing. Wade lead Maila over to the others and they watched too see if their Captain could come up with gold.

"Your going to have to speak up sir, a German grenade went of right by my head!" the soldier said.

"Got it, do you know Private Ryan?" Miller asked.

"WHO?" the soldier asked, shouting.

"Private Ryan, Private James Ryan" Miller said and Maila sniggered and Wade gave her an elbow in the ribs. "What, sounds like he's talking to my Nana" she laughed and the lads all smiled.

"Jimmy Ryan?"

"James, James Francis Ryan" Miller shouted.

"No, no, no, James Francis Ryan" the man said, Maila stepped forward. Did this guy know where her brother was?

"Alright, someone get me something to write on. A pencil" Miller said and Upham rushed foreword.

The troop moved from the table and towards Miller. Now the Captain was talking, not shouting, Maila couldn't hear what he was saying but she could hear the man's replies.

"Yeah off course I know him sir, yeah; yeah we missed our drop zone by about 20 miles. Ended up by Bumville or some damn place. Him me and a couple of others were coming here to the rally point, ran into a Colonel who was gathering up men to go to, Ramelle. To babysit a bridge, that's all I know sir"

"Great, great thank you. Thank you!" Miller shouted.

"Assemble on me" Miller said as he walked through the middle of his squad. He sat down at the table and they all surrounded him. He laid a map out and everyone looked at it.

"Ramelle. We're here, there" the Cap said pointing "Ramelle is on the MerderetRiver just to the south west of us"

"Know anything about this bridge he was talking about Captain?" Sarge asked.

"Yep, the target has always been Cherbourg. We can't push on Paris without deep water port…" Miller said while getting his compass out. He held it out in front of him and the whole squad looked at his shaking hand. The needle on the compass was having a hard time telling which direction was which.

"Rommel knows that so he's gonna try to get his armour across the Merderet river anywhere he can" Miller continued. Reiben who was kneeling next to Maila looked at her and then back at the Captain's shaking hand.

"That way he can hit our invasion forces in the flank and make a big right turn to Cherbourg. That makes any village on that river with an intact bridge sold gold estate" Miller then paused and watched his shaking hand like the rest of the squad was doing. Maila suddenly reached out and took his shaking hand in her own.

"But we get to rest before scooting out, right?" she asked with raised eyebrows and a hopeful look in her eyes.

Miller looked around at everyone and then down at his and Maila's hands again.

"Yes, yeah alright. We head out at first light" he said patting the top of Maila's hand and then recoiling his back.

Hey Ryan Readers :) Just lettin ya know that I won't be updating a lot till Friday as I'm back at college and I don't have a lot of time. Thanks so much for reading and please review! You can say anything you want and I'll give you a shout out.

MayDayxxx