Hello again, my dear readers! I'm back! :)

Firstly, I apologise to all of you for waiting so long for the next chapter. But, I also want to thank those who took time to review this story: amelie girard.3892 (Thank you very much and welcome to the story! It would be really nice to hear from you again. :)), bethrodrigues.77 ( Thank you! I'm glad to hear that you like Jess and the way she deals with things :) Well, I got some new ideas for this story, so expect a big twist in one of the following chapters. ;) As for Jess and Mike coming back to Easy unscathed... well, you'll soon come across a not so pleasant surprise...), Amanda (You're welcome. ;) By the way, thank you for the sweet review!) and Dustori (Oh, thank you! I had a wonderful time on the trip... And now I hope that you'll enjoy the latest chapter. :)). Your reviews and support really mean much to me.

I also have a little surprise for you. I wanted to approach this story through the eyes of another character - and so I wrote the whole chapter in Doc Roe's POV. :)

And one more thing... this is from me to you, on my birthday. ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Band of Brothers. This is purely of entertainment. It is based on the HBO miniseries and no disrespect is meant towards the real men of Easy Company.

The heaven's gates won't open up for me

With these broken wings I'm fallin'

All I see is you...

Nickelback, "Savin' Me"


Chapter Twenty-Nine: Dark Reminders


Where is she?

Grasping the strap of my bag, I gazed at the field outside the village. I could see the greenish silhouette of her plane, which was standing firmly on the ground. However, I couldn't see her. Although minutes had passed, she wasn't showing up, and neither was that British paratrooper, Sullivan. For some reason, they were still somewhere out there.

"Hey, Doc. Waitin' for Prichard, huh?"

I suddenly turned around and saw Heffron standing behind me. I had no idea how I hadn't hear him coming.

"Well... yeah", I replied.

"I'm sure she's fine."

That was something I really wanted to believe in. But, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get rid of all the concern. Since sergeant Randleman had told me that she had flown back to Nuenen to save that replacement, I couldn't stop thinking about what was going on out there. I felt wound up like a spring, on its very limits and waiting... for anything.

Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I glanced at Heffron. "You think so?"

"I'm ready to bet." He stuck a cigarette in his mouth. And then he opened his lighter and tried to make it work. "Give her a couple of more minutes and you'll have your little moment together."

What? Without a single warning, heat begun rising in my cheeks. But, I did my best not to do anything reckless. Nobody actually knew the truth about Jessica and me. And I hoped that it could somehow stay that way.

"What do you mean?", I asked, pretending to be surprised.

"Oh, you think I haven't noticed?" He arched his eyebrows. "I saw the way you look at her, whenever she walks past ya. You can't stop smilin' for the next ten minutes." It didn't last long when he grinned. But, that grin vanished as I furrowed my brow at him. "Jesus, don't look at me like that. You should be happy that she can't send ya a friggin' 'Dear John' letter! Unlike that Doris of mine..."

At that moment, I was sure that even the tips of my ears had become red. I sent him a long glare, before I muttered: "Heffron..."

I didn't have a chance to say anything else, because a long, terrified shout came from the distance. It was just one word. However, it was that one word which I secretly hoped never to hear again.

"MEEEEDIIIIC!"

Goddamnit... In the next second, I was already running through the village, towards the source of that shout. As my bag kept hitting my hip, I passed an old cart and sprinted down the road. Soon after, I stopped and waited for the second call.

For a second, I could hear only my heart thumping. And then it came, twice as loud than before. Actually, it seemed as if it was coming behind the nearby house. Grasping my bag, I ran past the corner. That was when I saw Malarkey, Luz and Sullivan, kneeling beside a fence. Malarkey looked almost sickly pale as he held someone in his arms – someone who had been hit. My jaw clenched the moment I saw blood on the ground.

I dashed to their side, wrenching out a pack of sulfa out of my bag. And then I spotted long strands of hair, sprawled over Malarkey's arm. They where almost the same shade as his, red like flames.

It was her.

It was really her.

I could have sworn that my heart plummeted and crashed into the ground. My knees suddenly gave out and I plonked myself beside her.

It took me a moment to snap out of it. And it took me another one to see that she was unconscious, and that she had been shot in the stomach. Sullivan was right beside her, struggling to keep the pressure on her wound. However, the crimson kept seeping between his fingers and down her shirt.

"I'll get the Jeep", Luz muttered. He sprung up on his feet before he sprinted to the centre of the village.

"What happened?", I asked. Nudging Malarkey out of my way, I placed two fingers on her neck and felt her pulse. In the meantime, nobody said a single word, which made me shout even louder: "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"

"Jerries", Sullivan replied hastily, "They shot at us during lift off." His gaze shifted from the wound he was pressing to me. And then he shook his head. "I... I didn't know that she was hit until we landed..."

I swallowed thickly just by imagining it. Brushing that thought aside, I shoved my hands in my bag, taking out bandages and gauze.

"Sullivan, move yo hands, I gotta see..."

However, I trailed off when I noticed something strange. Although Sullivan was holding both of his hands over the wound, she was still losing a lot of blood. The small red puddle I was kneeling in seemed to be slowly growing in front of my eyes. However, the wound on her stomach wasn't the source of it.

Where the heck it all that comin' from?, I muttered, gawking down. It didn't last long when the answer came to me. And it was enough to make my chest tight with dread. Oh, Jesus, no...

"Turn 'er on the side", I snapped at Sullivan, "Do it!"

He quickly listened. Grasping Jess, he turned her on her side. Just a second later, I heard Malarkey whispering:

"Jesus fuckin' Christ..."

I was on the edge of saying the same thing. There was a second wound on her back - an entry wound, to be precise. The goddamn bullet had gone straight through her.

"Hey, what are you doing?", Sullivan asked, when I grabbed the hem of her jacket.

"Whaddya think I'm doin'?", I retorted.

I tugged her jacket up, and then her shirt, exposing her pale skin. I couldn't help but wince when I saw the hole, made by a large round. Pouring some sulphur on the wound, I pressed a gauze over it. And then I grabbed a long strip of bandage and begun wrapping it around her. As soon as I finished, I pulled it hard, tying it off.

That was when Jess came round. She cracked her eyes open with a gasp. A moment later, she yelped in pain, making my heart constrict.

"Oh, God, that hurts...!", she muttered through her clenched teeth.

"You'll be okay, Jess", Sullivan said somewhere beside me, "Trust me."

I silently cursed myself. I wished I could sit next to her now, holding her close. I wanted to tell her to hang tough. But, I couldn't. Instead of looking at her face, I had to focus on my hands and try to stop her from bleeding out.

Pressing another gauze against her stomach, I wrapped a new bandage around it. And then I reached for the syrette beside me. But, I didn't have time to grasp it, because someone grabbed my sleeve. I soon found out that it was her hand.

"I've... messed it up now...", she breathed out, looking straight at me. She was so pale, that her skin seemed almost grayish.

"You didn't mess up nothin'." I didn't know what made me say this, but I soon added: "How are ya feelin'?"

"Hurt... cold." She bit her lip, grasping my sleeve tighter. I could see tears welling up in her eyes when she whispered: "Gene, I... I'm so scared..."

"Don't be." I grasped her hand in return. Hoping to soother her, I knotted my fingers through hers and gave her a quick squeeze. "I gotcha."

She parted her lips, wishing to say something more. However, instead of that, I felt her grasp weakening in mine.

"No, no, no... don't you dare!" I leaned closer and cupped her face with my hands. "Don't you dare dyin' on me... look at me! Jess, you gotta look at me!"

I patted her cheek, trying to make her stay with me. But, her eyes were becoming darker by the second. It seemed as if the lights behind them had started to fade.

Feeling bile rising up in my throat, I touched her neck and searched for a pulse. In the meantime, I could hear Sullivan bellowing from the top of his voice:

"WHERE'S THE DAMN JEEP?!"

XXX

I clenched my hand into a tight fist and hit the wall hard. However, all I did was making my knuckles hurt. I swore when my skin stung like mad.

It had taken the Jeep almost forever to reach the Aid station. As soon as Luz spotted the flag with the red cross, he hit the break and the entire vehicle screeched to a halt. It didn't last long when a nurse ran into the street. She helped Sullivan and me get Jess out of the Jeep and carry her inside – and that was the last time I had seen her.

I didn't leave after that.

I couldn't just turn around after everything and get back to Easy. I had to find out if Jessica would be all right. And so I waited, pacing near the Aid station and gazing at the front door from time to time. I saw a few more wounded men being carried inside, but the nurse who had helped Sullivan and me was nowhere to be seen.

Jess's gonna be okay. She has ta be okay... I whispered those words to convince myself. But, then I remembered her wounds and her yelps – and I felt doubt and dread washing through me. She had been barely breathing when the Jeep got to its destination. Her heat was so quiet, that I could hardly hear it. Unfortunately, with all the training I had had, I knew that her chances weren't big.

That was why I hardly dared to hope. I didn't want to hope, just to find out that it was all for nothing.

Jeez... I winced when my knuckles stung again. One of them had a short, but nasty cut. With a long, frustrated sigh, I took out some spare bandage out of my pocket. And then I wrapped it around my hand a few times. As I was trying to tie it off, I turned around and checked what was going on behind me.

Luz had gone to get some more smokes. But, Sullivan was still nearby. Actually, he hadn't moved an inch since we had carried Jess inside. He was sitting on the pavement, with his back against the wall of the Aid station, and his head in his hands.

I slowly went to the place he was sitting. However, after just a few steps, somebody bumped into me.

That was someone from Easy. However, it wasn't Luz.

"Oh, sorry, Doc." Guarnere stepped back. But, then he sent me a bewildered look. "Gee, you look like shit..."

I stared at him for a moment. This wasn't good.

"What are you doin' here?"

"I was on a goddamn patrol 'till now. I just stopped to see if Bull's okay." That was when he frowned and added: "By the way, are you all right?"

"Yeah", I lied, "I'm fine."

He didn't buy it. But, that wasn't the worst thing that happened. A few seconds later, Guarnere's gaze went down to my OD's. Following the direction he was looking at, I couldn't help but swallow hard. My hands, sleeves and knees were smeared in crimson stains. All of them looked like dark reminders of the last person I had tried to save.

However, Guarnere didn't have a clue who that was. And I dreaded the moment he would find out the answer. As his gaze moved up to my face, he furrowed his brow again.

"Doc, what happened?"

"Nothin'." I tried to walk past him, but he stood right in my way.

"Well, that Nothin' guy sure was bleedin' a lot", he said in his thick accent. "Now, seriously, who's hurt?"

This ain't gonna end well. I could already guess what was coming. However, there was no way to escape this. All I could do was hold my ground and confess:

"She's hit."

I didn't have to explain who was she exactly. It took Guarnere a split-second to figure out. Before I knew it, colour seemed to have begun retreating from his face. Eventually, the only shade left behind was grey. Judging by his expression, he must have been struck dumb. But, I was wrong. He didn't remain quiet for too long. His eyes suddenly widened before he barked:

"She's WHAT?"

Damnit, here it goes. "The Germans shot her... on the flight back from Nuenen." That was when the grey colour decided to pull back, too. "Guarnere, why don't you take a seat somewhere and...?"

"I don't need a fuckin' chair!", he snarled at me. Yup, he was about to go completely ballistic. "How the hell did that happen to her? Where is she now?"

"They begun preparin' her fo surgery when we brought her in." The sound of the word 'surgery' made something tighten in my chest again. It took me all my strength not to imagine her in that room, on the makeshift operating table. "Sullivan and I... we've been waitin' here for hours. But, nobody's sayin' nothin'."

"Nobody? Holy Christ..." All of a sudden, Guarnere begun staring at the wall beside him. And then he muttered: "I knew it. I just knew it."

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"What I mean is that she's utterly nuts!", he said bitterly.

That was when Sullivan moved. He raised his head, sending the sergeant a long and piercing gaze. He had obviously heard everything.

Truth be told, I had never seen that British trooper as angry as this. He had clenched his fists so hard, that his knuckles turned almost yellow.

"Don't you ever say that", he said in a low, almost threatening tone.

"And why not? It's the damn truth." Brushing Sullivan's sulking aside, Guarnere lit himself a cigarette. After a long drag, he let out a puff of smoke. "Look, I told 'er not to go back there. I told 'er that it would be nuts to fly there for a second time. But, no! She just had to get up in the goddamn air and get herself pinged!" The corner of his lips quivered as he added: "She just loves gettin' into the line of fire, ain't she?"

"Hey, she didn't ask the Jerries to aim at us!", Sullivan shouted, slowly getting back to his feet.

"Well, they wouldn't shake their goddamn hands with ya and let ya fly away, would they?", Guarnere retorted. After another drag from his cigarette, he glanced at Sullivan in a not so friendly way. "You're one of them Brits, aren't ya?"

"Aye", he replied stiffly, "I am."

"I can tell. Ya sound like Jess's fella countryman." Guarnere eyed him for a moment. And then he made a few steps closer. "You can say whatever you want, kid, but that ain't gonna change the facts. She doesn't run away from any trouble. She flies head-first in it, whenever she gets her chance. Mark my words..." He pointed at the closed door of the Aid station with his thumb. "...she got exactly what she asked for!"

"You son of a..."

I barely managed to move when Sullivan came closer. A moment later, he grabbed Guarnere's shoulder. I heard a dull sound as he pinned the sergeant against the brick wall, which made him drop his cigarette.

"Listen, I don't care if you're an ally here or not", Sullivan said, glaring at Guarnere, "But, if I hear that from you one more time, I'll rip out your damn..."

"Hey!", a familiar voice shouted, "Break it up! Break it up!"

Sullivan almost growled when Luz grabbed him, pulling him away from Guarnere. The sergeant took a chance and went at Sullivan, with his fist ready to fly forward. But, I was faster. I snatched his arm before he got the chance to make his punch.

"Jesus, are two you trying to kill yourselves?", Luz exclaimed, "What would the brass say about this?"

"Luz, shut your yap!", Guarnere snarled, trying to get out of my grasp.

"That's really nice. You should tell that to Denham when he sees you!"

All of a sudden, Guarnere stopped struggling. In the meantime, my jaw dropped to the pavement. Well, almost.

"What?", Sullivan, who had rooted to his spot, glanced over his shoulder. "Denham's coming here?"

"No, he'll visit the rest of Easy, in the village." It didn't last long when Luz frowned. "I've got a message from the guys. And..."

As he trailed off, a few more creases emerged on his forehead. Whatever he was about to say, it wasn't good.

"And?", Guarnere repeated, hurrying Luz to move on.

With not much choice left, Luz sighed. That was when he added:

"We're moving out in two hours."

XXX

When we got back to the company, there was already a hustle in the village. Men were picking up their belongings in a hurry and heading for the trucks, which were waiting on the nearby road. Sergeant Martin was standing near one of them and watching the preparations for moving out.

The moment our Jeep stopped, Guarnere hopped on the ground and went in his direction.

"Hey, Johnny! Where are we goin'?"

I noticed that Martin shrugged. "Somewhere south. It looks like Market Garden went completely haywire. We're basically retreating, but Nixon said that we might be heading into more fuckin' tanks. Can you believe that?"

"Jesus Christ..."

Martin said something more, but I didn't hear the rest. Holding my bag tightly, I got out of the Jeep and moved away.

I was feeling so numb, that I found it hard to describe it. Everything around me seemed as if it was happening to someone else, and not me. All I had in my mind was Jessica's face when I had left her in the Aid station.

Barely twenty-four hours ago, we had been smiling to each other. I kissed her before she climbed in her plane and took off. And now I had her blood covering my hands.

With no warning, I felt tears stinging in my eyes. I quickly bowed my head and gazed at the ground, so that nobody could see me like this.

Don't think about that now. Just don't. I tried to somehow get those images of her out of my head. In spite of everything, I was still needed here, in Easy. That was the reason I was here in the first place – rushing to help my comrades whenever they called for me. In the end, I had to grit my teeth and do my job. Keeping away and avoiding that would just be selfish.

I was so occupied with my thoughts, that I barely noticed two boots appearing in my view. And then a strange accent came.

"Roe?"

Fighting back tears, I raised my head. I blinked in surprise when I saw Sullivan standing beside me. He watched me for a few moments before he asked:

"May I have a word?"

For a second, I thought about shaking my head and going away. But, instead, I just shrugged.

"Sure", I muttered.

"Come with me."

Excuse me? I sent him a confused look. However, Sullivan didn't explain anything. He moved a few steps forward and waited for me to keep up. Not knowing what else to do, I wiped my hands against my trousers and went after him.

"I want to ask you something." As we walked down the village road, Sullivan's jaw clenched. What had happened to Jess obviously hit him hard. He soon moved his gaze to me and added: "You're the company's medic since Georgia, aren't you?"

I curtly nodded. "Yeah."

"And you've been taking care of the wounded from the moment you touched the French soil?", he asked, making me nod again, "Did someone have similar wounds to Jess's?"

It took me just a second to remember. And I felt my hands slowly clenching into fists again. The blood could be wiped away quickly, but that couldn't be done with the memories, too.

"Yeah", I replied, "Four of 'em."

"Did they make it?"

I shook my head. "Nobody made it to the Aid station on time. She did, but the odds ain't in her favour."

"But, there still is a chance, even a small one", Sullivan insisted.

I furrowed my brow at him. "Why are ya askin' me this?"

"Because Denham is the one who stands behind all of this." Sullivan's gaze seemed to have turned to ice. He might have hated the colonel almost as Jess did. "Aye, he might not have been shooting at us out there, but he's still responsible. If it hadn't been for him, she would be in England now, making bloody tea and listening to the radio about all these things."

I waited for him to continue. And he did that soon after, in a slightly lower voice.

"If she makes it, Roe... he won't hesitate to send her to another mission. He'll send her to her death if that could help him progress in this war. That's why we need to stop that from happening."

"We?" My eyes suddenly widened in disbelief. "Sullivan, I ain't gonna take part in those goddamn plans of yours. I'm a medic, fo chrissake!"

"But, Jess trusts you", Sullivan said, giving me a solemn look, "She told me that herself. And I'm sure that you want to keep her safe and away from this hellhole as much as I do." That was when he stopped to his tracks. "Isn't that what you medics wish for? To save as much lives as you can here?"

Perhaps he was right. However, I couldn't get rid of all the doubts. Sullivan was a newcomer, a replacement. And he wasn't even an American. Although he had experienced combat, he still wasn't aware of the risks that his plan involved. It would be almost like walking on thin ice – with Denham lurking somewhere underneath it.

"I need help from a few lads in Easy", Sullivan added, "But, I've just been assigned here and I still don't know most of them. That's where you'll help me. I need you to talk to them and persuade them that this is necessary." After a few silent seconds, he frowned again. "And if Jess doesn't make it, we still need to put a stop to Denham. He won't get away with this now."

One of my eyebrows slowly raised. "Who do you have in mind?"

"Where can I find Shifty Powers?"

Powers? It took me a few moments to look around. And then I spotted him. He was standing at one of the nearby houses, talking to captain Winters.

"There he is", I said, quickly pointing at that direction.

"Thank you." With a quick pat on the shoulder, Sullivan moved away - in the completely opposite way.

While he was treading up the road, I forced myself to make a few more steps. I moved to a rumbling truck, where a part of the second platoon was already sitting. But, I didn't join them. Instead, I stopped at the left front wheel. And then I reached in my pocket, taking out a long, dark string.

It was far from a rosary, but it could do it for now. Wrapping the string firmly around my fingers, I closed my eyes and muttered a quiet prayer for Jess. I prayed to God not to take her away... not yet. Although He might have more important things to do at this moment, I also prayed that He would find time and listen to an ordinary medic like me.