Christmas Eve 1944
** JOE POV **
Fuck, it was cold. Cold, dark and foggy. When people talked about Hell freezing over, this must be what they were picturing. We were surrounded on all sides with the weather preventing any supply drops, and the fucking Germans were really enjoying lighting up our position like the Fourth of fucking July. I also noticed that my already top-notch cursing abilities seemed to increase the colder I got. I sighed and refastened my pants, lighting a cigarette as I returned from my bathroom break.
"I managed to sweet talk Nixon out of a coffee ration," Katie-Lynn told me, grinning proudly as I jumped back into the foxhole beside her. I raised my eyebrows, accepting the steaming cup from her hands.
"Oh? And how did you do that?"
"Gave him a peek at my breasts," she replied coolly, and I choked, almost spitting coffee across the snow.
"What?"
She laughed and patted me on the back to make sure I wasn't going to choke to death.
"Joe, seriously? I mentioned I was looking for some and he offered. He's got a ton of it. It's not like he drinks it most of the time anyway. I wouldn't flash an officer just to get you a cup of coffee."
"Good. Wait, you wouldn't do that for me?"
She buried her face in her palm and shook her head, muttering, "Joe, I swear. You're impossible. Why do I even bother with you?"
I chuckled and she peered at me from behind her fingers, trying to fight her smile. I loved that smile. I leaned back against the side of the foxhole and watched her, which I knew drove her crazy. It always made her self-conscious and she would blush and begin nervously fumbling or playing with her fingers, just as she was doing now. I reached out and caught her by the wrist and tugged her toward me. She sucked in a breath when she met my eyes, and then crawled into my lap, leaning into me as our body heat comingled. My mind raced with less than pure thoughts and, with her ear pressed to my chest, she could hear my pounding heart. She looked up at me, turning her body to face me and straddling my lap, resting her hands against my chest.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, baby. I'm fine."
She didn't look convinced. I traced my finger down the line of her jaw, noticing the way she shivered, not from cold, but from my touch. There was something flickering behind her eyes that shot heat through me, and I shifted at the growing tightness in my trousers. The unintentional movement against her own sensitivity elicited a small moan from her that surprised both of us. My hands slid to her ass and pressed her hips into mine again, both of us hissing at the sensation.
"God, Kaylee, why the fuck do we have to be here in…?"
She silenced me with a kiss, tangling her fingers in my hair and slipping her tongue against mine, demanding that I kiss her back. I allowed her dominance for a moment before sliding my hand into her hair, giving her a light tug to let her know that I was taking over. She hissed my name as I latched onto the sensitive skin just below her collar, shifting my hips against hers again as I ran my thumb over the purplish mark I had left behind on her neck.
I was lost in her kiss again, and the subtle movements of her hips against mine, when the sky lit up and the ground began to shake around us. I ripped my mouth from hers and tucked her body underneath mine. I heard a scream that sounded like Lieutenant Welsh, and then Winters was calling for Doc and the world finally stopped rattling. I looked down and met her wide eyes.
"You okay, babe?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Fucking Nazis. First we have to listen to them singing half the fucking night and then they can't even give us Christmas off from the fucking fireworks show? I was busy, dammit!" I couldn't help it. I laughed. She looked at me in surprise and raised an eyebrow, demanding, "And what the hell are you laughing at."
We sat back up and I pulled her back into my arms as she stared at me, waiting for an answer.
"I hate to inform you, baby, but you have been around me entirely too long. My dirty mouth is rubbing off on you."
"Well, it was until the damn Nazis interrupted us."
January 3, 1944
** KATIE-LYNN POV **
My week had not improved much, nor had my mood.
The Christmas Eve shelling was a direct result of Welsh's unwise decision to start a small fire in an area that he had deemed "a dell," assuming that the depression was low enough to keep the Germans from seeing it. He had been wrong. His leg wound was serious, but he would live.
Hoobler offered to take my watch that night with Rader so that I could spend a little time with Joe, whose mood had been worsening by the day. We relished those moments of closeness, even when nothing happened between us, and Hoobler thought his little Christmas gift would boost morale. It had, until the shelling interrupted everything, reminding us that we were still stuck in these God-forsaken woods. Then came the news that Bastogne had been bombed and the aid station destroyed.
The world brightened a bit after Patton broke through on the 26th, bringing in some supplies and allowing us to evacuate wounded, but we got bombed again on New Year's Eve, killing a man and wounding Joe Toye for the third time. Dike remained useless. The world remained frozen. Joe and I remained each other's main source of comfort.
Joe was on watch at the outpost, and I was dozing slightly in our foxhole when I heard the pop of a gunshot and sat straight up. In a nearby hole, I could hear Buck asking if it was a sniper, and Shifty saying that it hadn't been a rifle. My mind raced through the possibilities. Suicidal replacement. German hostage taker. Accident. Someone being stupid and firing off rounds.
"Aww, Jesus, it's Hoob! He's shot!" Hashey was screaming.
"Sniper?" Buck asked, his body on combat alert since he'd returned from being shot in Holland.
"No, no. He shot himself!"
Oh dear God. I was out of the hole and racing toward him as I heard Perconte begin screaming for a medic. Doc was beside us in an instant, seemingly appearing from nowhere as he always did, ripping at Hoob's trousers and trying to find where the blood was coming from.
"I'm sorry! It just went off! I wasn't playing with it or nothing! It hurts like a sonofabitch! I think I hit bone!"
Hashey explained that they'd been moving over some barbed wire and the gun had caught on it, firing a round into Hoob's thigh. I looked at the blood pooling around him, mentally imagining the bullet's path. His femoral artery. Doc couldn't do anything, although I could see him working frantically. When the realization sunk in, I pulled his head into my lap and tried my best to calm him as I fought off my own tears.
"Hoob, baby, I need you to breathe. Breathe and calm down. I'm right here with you."
"I'm scared, Kaylee. I didn't mean to…"
"I know. We all know, sweetheart. Hashey told us. It wasn't your fault. You're too good a shot to hit yourself in the leg on purpose."
That drew a small, weak smile, but his face was pale. So very pale. And he was shivering now from the blood loss. Buck tucked his jacket around him and I held him close, trying to will my body heat into him.
"I'm sorry my Christmas present didn't work out, Kaylee."
"It did, sweetheart. Sweetest thing you could have done for me."
"Don't let go of me, Kaylee. Please."
His voice was hardly above a whisper. I could feel his body relaxing against mine, and his once racing heartbeat slow and then stop against my hand. I looked down at his closed eyes. He could have been sleeping, but I knew better. Buck caught Doc's attention, and his eyes confirmed what I already knew. I squeezed my own eyes shut, finally allowing the tears to slip out.
"I won't, Hoob. I promise."
** JOE POV **
I heard about Hoob, and about Katie-Lynn, but I couldn't go to comfort her until I was off duty at the outpost. From somewhere beside me, I heard Toye's gruff voice tell one of the correspondent cameras that "we didn't need to be fucking rescued by Patton," and I smiled. He'd left the aid station, and when Winters tried to talk him into going back, he was insistent on staying with his company. Morale might be low, but we hadn't lost our pride.
"Hey, Toye, come here a minute."
"What's up, Joe?" He dropped down next to me and shook my hand.
"Good to have you back, man. Guess you heard about Hoob?" He nodded grimly, so I continued. "I can't get off guard duty until we move back to our old positions this afternoon, so I was wondering if you'd go check on Kaylee for me. She was holding him, and the guys are saying she took it rough. Besides, she will be happy to see you back."
"Sure, of course. I'm sure she'll be alright, Joe. She's tough as nails. But I'll go check on her."
I knew she'd be happy to see him so that might at least help her feel better, and I was relieved to see her tucked under his arm when I finally got off of guard duty as we prepared to move back to our position above Foy. She was clearly still upset, but seemed relaxed with him and I felt myself smiling at the sight. There was no jealousy with Toye. He was like her protective older brother, ready to put a hurt on anyone who made his baby sister cry, including me. He caught my eye and gave her a squeeze, pointing in my direction as I walked over to them, and the sight of her teary eyes cracked my heart. I opened my arms and she all but fell into them, wrapping her around my neck as though I might disappear if she let go.
"I'm so sorry, baby."
"I couldn't do anything to help him," she sobbed, and her tears felt like acid against my neck. I hated it when she cried.
"I know. I heard what happened. But you did help him. You were there to comfort him, and now he will be looking out for you, just like always."
She took a deep, shuddering breath and looked up at me.
"That's what Joe and Bill said."
"Yeah? Well, great minds think alike I guess."
"Things just need to get better, Joe. I'm tired of our boys getting wounded and killed. I don't want to lose anyone else."
