Claire would never get tired of the view. She was sitting outside the large mansion on the large steps next to Lew and Harry. Dick walked up and leaned on the railing.

"I've made up my mind," Harry spoke after a moment. "I've got the points; I'm going home to Kitty."

"Harry, don't you think Kitty's run off with some 4-F by now?" Lew teased.

"Son of a Bitch, that's not even funny," Harry said smirking. He knew that Lew was joking.

"Nah, she's waiting for you. If it's real, she won't give up on it," Claire assured.

"Didn't realize you were such a romantic Claire," Lew spoke.

"I'm full of surprises," she said. "But, Harry, in the end, it's up to you. Go or stay… your choice."

"How can I tell that I skipped the chance to come home so that I can go jump on Tokyo?" Harry asked.

"So don't tell her. She's waited for you for two years. We'll be to Tokyo and back in two years, three at most," Lew replied.

"Such a man answer," Claire mumbled under her breath. No one heard her.

"You know, it'll be over before you even get there," Harry countered. "Truth is, you'll be here for six months waiting here and I'll be back in Wilkes-Barry making babies."

"A mental image I really didn't want," Claire stated teasingly.

"You haven't told them?" Dick asked Lew.

"Told us what?" She asked cautiously.

"Couldn't get them to shut up long enough."

"Tell us what?!" Claire urged.

"Guts and Glory applied for a transfer," Lew answered.

"You did what?" She asked in disbelief.

"The 13th Airborne is heading out to the Pacific right away," Dick explained. "If I'm going, I want to get it over with."

"You're leaving?" She repeated.

"Are you in on this?" Harry asked Lew.

"I can't let him go by himself. He doesn't know where it is," Lew answered.

Suddenly, the air around her felt tight.

"Both of you?" She asked in an low voice. "You're leaving the men?"

"They don't need me anymore," Dick stated.

Yes, they do. Of course they do.

Nothing ever came of the transfer. It disappeared almost as quickly as it came. It was a small moment of panic that was unnecessary. Dick and Lew would be staying with the 506th. Dick would continue to watch over soldiers with no enemy to fight and an abundance of alcohol. Needless to say, the injuries Claire had to deal with were from the numerous drunken scuffles that broke out between the men.

Claire rode in the front of the ambulance next to McGuire. They received the call about five minutes ago and they were almost at their destination. Just ahead she saw the crashed jeep in the ditch. The driver pulled up and Claire hopped out. Webster was there holding a bandage to Private Janovec's shoulder.

"McGuire, check on the driver," she ordered. He moved quickly.

Claire ran over to Janovec. She knew immediately from the twisted angle of his neck that he was dead. It must've snapped in the crash.

"Webster, you can take your hand off his shoulder," she told him softly. Webster looked down at her, sadness upon the realization that he'd been trying to save a dead man. "Go grab the stretcher from the ambulance. McGuire, how's the driver?"

"Unconscious but…" He was caught off by the driver coughing. "Shit."

Claire ran around the jeep and the driver was coughing out blood, a lot of blood. He'd hit the steering wheel and by the looks of it, broke his ribs.

"Webster! I need the stretcher now!" She barked.

Webster and the ambulance driver returned with two stretchers.

"Drop one. He's the priority," she ordered. They listened and came running to her. "McGuire, we need to make this quick and gentle." He nodded. "On three. One, two… now!"

They lifted the driver up onto the stretcher. He was still making choking noises and coughing up blood.

"Webster, I'll take over for you. You and McGuire get Janovec on the other stretcher," she ordered. "MOVE!"

She took the handles from Webster and she and the ambulance driver brought the patient to the ambulance. Webster and McGuire followed behind with Janovec's body.

"Webster up front," she barked. He did as she ordered.

Once they were all in, the driver put the ambulance in drive and they took off down the road. The driver made choking noises, the blood streaming out of his mouth.

"The rib must've punctured a lung," she deduced. He was choking on his own blood. By the chevrons on his sleeve, she could tell he was a Corporal. "You're going to be alright, Corporal. Just stay with me."

Claire knew she was lying to him. She'd lied to many dead men before.

The corporal looked at her with sad fearful eyes. He studied her, like the last thing he wanted to see was an American woman. She gave him the best smile she could, hoping that she made his last thought a good one.

His breath was coming out in wheezes while more blood dribbled down his cheeks, until finally nothing. His body went slack, with his glazed eyes wide open.

Numb, Claire closed his eyes and then took off his tag. Jack Stevens. The war is over here, but she was still watching men die.

When they pulled up to the aid station, Ron and Wilkes were there. Claire put on that same tough mask she always did and climbed out of the ambulance, fully aware that her uniform was once again spattered with blood.

"What's the status?" Wilkes asked.

"Two dead," she answered keeping herself cool, calm, and collected. She'd rolled out Janovec's stretcher to show Ron. "Corporal Jack Stevens died from his wounds in the ambulance and Private Janovec…"

She was cut off by Dick running up.

"What happened?" Dick asked.

"Private Janovec was dead when we got there," She finished informed them. She covered Janovec's pale face with a blanket.

"Seventy-five points," Webster said in a low voice. Only Claire seemed to have heard. Oh God.

"What?" Ron asked.

"He was ten points short," Webster elaborated.

The war was over. The death was supposed to stop, at least for now. Claire kept the steely expression on her face. She didn't know Janovec all that well, but he was one of their men. He was young, had a whole life ahead of him. Corporal Stevens wasn't from Easy, she didn't know him, but he had one of the safest jobs in the damn army and even that wasn't enough. How would their parents deal with knowing that their sons were killed when it was supposed to be peacetime?

Ten points.

They'd done enough haven't they?

Claire was leaving the aid station feeling more dejected than she had before. It had only been a week since the announcement that the 101st was going to the Pacific. In that time, Janovec had died, Corporal Stevens had died, and she'd heard about Shifty's accident. It seemed like some sort of grim omen of what was coming for them in Tokyo.

On her walk back to the mansion, a new clean uniform on her back, Claire bumped into Eugene, Luz, Malarkey, Talbert, and Liebgott.

"Hey, Russ, where're you headed?" Luz asked.

"Back to my room to get some shut eye," she answered.

"We're heading down to the lake. Gotta take free time when it comes," Malarkey explained.

"You should come," Eugene suggested.

"Yeah. None of us've seen much of you lately," Luz stated. He was right, Claire was spending a lot of her time at the aid station. She saw them in training, but given Claire's new rank, she wasn't required to do much of the physical training. She wasn't sure how having the Captain rank would change things. "Well… Doc has."

The last bit made Claire involuntarily redden. Why are you doing that?

"I could use a stroll," she agreed.

They walked down to the lake silently. She knew they would've heard about Janovec by now. Claire, however was not going to bring it up unless they did.

She sat at the edge of the very long dock, her feet dangling over the edge. She was sandwiched between Luz and Eugene. Talbert was off to the side with Malarkey and Liebgott next to him.

It was a warm beautiful day. She still hadn't gotten used to the absolutely breathtaking mountain view. The crystal blue water sparkled in the sun. The bayou and the swimming hole back home were brown. The ocean they crossed two years ago was a dark blue. She'd never seen water like this.

"Ten points, can you believe that?" Luz finally broke silence. "He was missing ten points and now he's dead. Christ, yesterday I was at the checkpoint and some fucking Kraut soldier comes through because he's discharged. He gets to go home, and we're stuck here waiting to go to another goddamn war."

"Yeah, all he had to do was lose," Malarkey agreed bitterly. "Meanwhile our guys are still dying."

Damn points.

Claire stared out at the water, drifting back to the dark place she visited often. Janovec's lifeless face drifted across her mind. The thought about Corporal Stevens coughing up blood and dying slowly and painfully. They were more names on Claire's endlessly long list of the dead.

Meehan.

Quinn.

Green.

Richardson.

Evans.

Melville.

Lémaire.

Sowosko.

Webb.

Milton.

Hoobler.

Penkala.

Jackson.

Janovec.

Stevens.

Muck…

And too many more.

Claire felt Eugene's hand on top of hers. She looked over into his puzzled brown eyes.

Are you okay? His eyes seemed to ask.

I'm okay. She responded with a small nod a small smile on the corners of her mouth.

She didn't move her hand and neither did he.

"…have, Russ?" She caught the tail end of the question. She looked away from Eugene, he moved his hand back.

"Hm?" She asked.

"How many points do you have?" Liebgott asked. "You've gotta have enough."

She hesitated. She didn't want to tell them that she had enough, but was choosing to stay. She was an officer, but she wasn't like the other ones. It wasn't like if Ron or Dick went home, they were leaders. The men needed them. She was a nurse. She wasn't the one leading them into battle.

"Doesn't matter," Claire told them with a shrug.

"You have enough?"

"Nurses remain on duty for the whole war plus six months," Eugene explained for her. "Don't get early discharge."

"Not unless you're wounded or killed," she added. "Just like soldiers." Her mind drifted back to Eleanor. She hadn't let herself think about her friend for a long time.

Just another name on a casualty list.

"Jesus…"

"Army needs nurses," she shrugged. "We're valued assets, I guess. And, except for me, aren't many who are in the direct line of fire. The closest they get is in a field hospital."

Not many of the soldiers truly understood the role of nurses in the war, not unless they actually saw them in action.

"All I can say is, I'll be glad when all this is done," Talbert spoke.

"Here, here," Luz agreed.

She couldn't agree more.

They sat quietly. She knew they were all thinking the same thing: Why can't I go home? Three years was a long time to be gone. She couldn't imagine what it was like for them. They had families, sweethearts, lives waiting for them. Despite being in this beautiful place surrounded by mountains and crystalline water, it didn't compare to being home. She'd take her house in Breaux Bridge surrounded by her family any day, even if it had been six years since it was destroyed.

It was a melancholy feeling. No one wanted to go back to war. Certainly not to one that would take them even further from home.

"We should go back," Talbert voiced. "It's almost chow time."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to miss eating dried up spuds once again," Liebgott replied sarcastically.

"Maybe the hunting party got something good," Claire said optimistically. Though she doubted it. They got up from the dock and started on the trek back.

A few days later, about a week and a half after the initial announcement, Claire was sitting on the steps overlooking the lake. The sun was just starting to set, streaks of pink and orange coloured the fading blue sky. She had her journal in her hand currently detailing every single thing about the scenery to James. He would've loved it here, not to live but maybe to visit. James had always been comfortable living in Breaux Bridge. Had it not been for the fire that destroyed their home and took their father, James would've grown old there. He never wanted to join the military, but he had no choice. Then he found another home, more comfort, and then it was too late.

"Claire."

Claire's gaze left the description of the mountains and she looked up to see Lew peering down at her. She couldn't help but notice how he, Ron, Dick, and Harry had been avoiding her all day.

"Lew," she replied. "So, why've y'all been avoiding me all day?"

Lew plopped down next to her, though he was still a considerable distance away. He handed her a piece of paper. Claire knew almost immediately what it was. Reassignment papers.

"They're sending me back stateside," she said in disbelief. She shook her head and folded the paper in half. "No, I'm not going anywhere. There's still a war going on."

"Claire… this is non-negotiable," he broke it to her. "The order comes straight from General Taylor. Brass doesn't want to risk sending a woman to battle in the Pacific."

"Didn't stop them from sending Eleanor," Claire replied harshly.

"Yeah, and look at how that turned out," he responded. "The Japs don't respect Geneva Conventions; you'd have a bright red target painted on your head."

"So will any other medic," she pointed out.

"Claire… I didn't want to tell you this but… you're the only one that made it."

She stopped. "What?"

"Out of the three nurses sent to the line, you're the only one still alive. The other one was killed in Manila back in February," he explained.

Claire took in a sharp breath.

"You're the last one."

"You agree with the order, don't you?" She deduced.

Lew remained quiet for a beat.

"I want you to be safe," he finally said. "We all want you to be safe."

"Don't you think I want that for all of you?" She asked harshly. She was angry, more than angry, she was furious. "There are men who want to go home but can't, send one of them. Not me."

"There's no talking your way out of this one," Lew told her. "You've done your job. No one can tell you otherwise. You've gone further than anyone expected. But you know as well as I do that orders are orders."

And she did know. She hated this. She hated this and all she wanted to do was yell at General Taylor until she was blue in the face, but she'd been around long enough to know that it would do nothing.

"When do I leave?" She asked still unable to look at him.

"Tomorrow, eleven-hundred."

So soon?

There was no way of getting out of this.

"You'll take a boat from France to England and then fly to New York with some of the patients that are being transferred," he continued explaining.

She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Who knows?" She asked.

"Sink, obviously, but in the battalion it's just me, Dick, Speirs, and Harry."

"And you drew the short straw, huh?"

"Coin toss actually," he replied jokingly. Claire frowned.

"How can I leave you?" She asked. "How can I be safe back home while you're all off fighting Japs?"

"Trust me, Claire, they want you safe just as much as I do."

She didn't want to be safe. She didn't want to go home. She wanted to be with her boys, her family. But Lew was right, orders were orders. She couldn't talk herself out of this one. Her war, which really started on December 7th 1941 in New Orleans, was ending in Zell Am See in June 1945. She would remain in the Army Nurses Corps, but she wouldn't be on the line anymore.

"I wish I could say I'm sorry about this but I'm not. You can't see it now, but this is a good thing."

"The only good thing would be if the Japs surrendered tomorrow and we could all go home," she said bitterly.

"Wouldn't that be a treat," he replied.

The news weighed heavily on her shoulders. She hated this. She hated it more than being moved in Bastogne. Easy Company had already lost most of the original Toccoa men. Claire had been with them for three years. They were her family. It was terrifying to think that she would have to go through this without them.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please, let me know what you think.