A/N: Thank you for your review, Padme4000! No worries for missing a review, as life happens. I'm still stoked that you're still reading, reviewing and following!

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We headed down the old dirt road, that was mostly mud than dirt. As we moved toward battalion's assembly area, we passed by a group of guarded German soldiers. The American soldiers waved to us as we came into view. One of the men saw Winters and saluted, "Morning, sir! Battalion sure will be happy to see you guys!"

"Where?" Dick questioned.

The private replied, "At the farm, sir." The soldier pointed us in the direction, which was further up the road. Winters nodded his thanks, and led us onward.

Malarkey shouted to all of the German soldiers in an Irish accent, "Top of the mornin' to you boys! Enjoying the war?" The men around him laughed as they continued walking. Malarkey stepped closely to a soldier, sitting secluded from the rest. He asked in a mocking voice, "Where you from son?" He laughed, and started to walk on, clearly not expecting an answer.

"Eugene, Oregon," the secluded man replied.

"Eugene? You gotta be kidding me! Popeye, you hear this?" Malarkey walked closer to the man as he explained, "I'm from Astoria!"

I continued to walk with the rest of the men, no longer interested in what Malarkey was up to with the German man.

I was walking directly behind Winters. We turned onto the main stretch for the farmhouse. There were makeshift barricades set up, so we aptly walked around them.

When we reached the wall of the farmhouse, I heard a couple familiar voices shouting at us, "Oh, Easy Company! Good to see you!" I glanced over to see Liebgott talking to the rest of the men, as I continued to follow Dick toward the rest of the officers, the ones that we could see from the entrance.

Dick stopped for a moment and spotted Compton. We headed over, and Compton saw our approach. He said, "Hey boss. Kate. How you doing? What's going on?"

Winters didn't wait. He asked, "What's the hold up?"

"Not sure," Buck replied truthfully.

No sooner were the words uttered, was there a massive explosion heard in the outlying fields from our assembly.

Buck added casually, "Five will get you ten, it's got something to do with that."

"Yeah," was all Dick could say. I looked up at him with a furrowed brow. Something wasn't right, as he was so reserved. I couldn't tell if he was thinking, plotting, or a little of both.

Buck looked at him. "It's good to see you, Dick." Buck turned to me, extending his hand. He smiled as he said, "Kate."

I smiled, shaking his hand. "Buck."

Dick returned the gesture. "Yeah, you too, Buck. What's the situation?"

Compton inhaled sharply before stating, "Ah, not good. 90% of the men are still unaccounted for."

Winters asked, "Lieutenant Meehan?" I looked at Buck, awaiting his reply.

Buck shook his head, sadly, "No. No one's seen him, or anyone from his plane." Buck studied Dick for a moment before asking, "You know, if he is missing, wouldn't that put you in line to be the next commander of Easy?"

The thought never occurred to me. My eyes shot straight to Dick, who looked at me, then back to Buck. He didn't say a word, which made me wonder if he was trying to avoid the question or not. Dick looked casually over his left shoulder, and spotted another familiar officer. "Hey, Lieutenant Speirs."

Speirs walked up and shook our hands. Something about Speirs made me uncomfortable. It wasn't the same uncomfortable feeling that I would have with Sobel, but more of the feeling that he was staring into my soul, almost as though he knew everything that I had ever done wrong. He was also quite reserved, more so than Dick, and that might be the contributing factor of my uneasiness.

"How many men from Dog Company got assembled?" Dick said, breaking my thoughts about Speirs.

"A handful, maybe 20," Speirs replied dutifully.

Dick questioned, "Are you the only officer that made it?"

"So far. Still waiting for orders," he stated. Speirs watched as Buck tossed some cigarettes to another member of Easy. Speirs immediately asked, "Hey, you got some cigarettes?"

Buck glanced at him, then to Dick and me. He pulled out another pack of unopened cigarettes and handed them off. Speirs took the pack and without saying a word, he walked away.

Buck scoffed, "Hey, keep the pack!" I couldn't help but laugh as we stood there watching him with an amused awe, as Speirs continued to walk away from us.

Shaking his head, Buck looked at us. He asked, "I bet you want to rest a bit? Do you have any water?"

I shook my head and Buck handed me his canteen. We meandered over to a nice shady spot and sat down. Buck reclined into the long grass, pulling out his handgun as he started to polish it. Dick and I just sat there on the grass next to him, side by side, sharing the canteen full of water.

"Have you seen Lieutenant Meehan?" a young private asked as he approached us.

Buck didn't look up at him, but continued to polish his handgun. "No, not yet."

The man replied, "Well, Major Strayer wants Easy Company's CO up front."

Buck glanced up at Winters. "Well, I guess that means you, Dick."

Winters looked down at Buck, then to me. He smiled as he handed me the canteen. He stood up and followed the young private to the place Strayer was.

A loud blast was heard behind us and I flinched. It was so close, it rattled my insides. Buck cursed under his breath, as he scooted down a little further. I chuckled.

He looked up at me. "How was your jump, Kate?"

I swallowed the warm water. "Oh, you know. It was fun."

"Being a little facetious, I see," he chuckled.

I looked down at him with a smirk. "Maybe. How was yours?"

Buck repeated, "Oh, you know..."

I leaned back into the long grass next to him. I sighed as my body tried to relax a little. I was so bruised and I had numerous cuts from all of the branches, that I didn't notice them until now. I didn't have to look to know that I had them on my face too.

Buck asked me, "How'd you get the cuts?"

Peering at my hands seeing the cuts, I replied, "I got them from a tree."

Buck sat up a little to see my face. "A tree?"

"You don't believe me," I pointed out, as I sat up next to him.

"Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you but they are all over your face and neck too," he stated. He looked at me, searching for the truth, as if I were joking.

I nodded as I stated, "I kind of figured that out for myself."

He chuckled a little. "You're serious...you got those from a tree?"

I nodded again as I explained, "I landed in a tree and fought to get out of it."

Buck asked, "What happened?"

I replied simply, "The tree won."

Buck couldn't contain his laughter anymore. He let out a good rumble of laughs. I felt awkward as I didn't think it was that funny, but I wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment much longer as Dick came for us.

He raised an eyebrow at Buck's hysterics, then looked at me. "We've got to assemble the men. We have a mission."