THIS CHAPTER IS A BIT SHORT. SORRY ABOUT THAT, BUT I PROMISED TO KEEP UPDATING AND I WANTED TO GET THIS UP. I ALSO WANTED TO THANK THE REVIEWER WHO TOOK THE TIME TO TELL ME THAT THIS STORY WASN'T QUITE WHAT SHE WAS LOOKING FOR. ALTHOUGH I AM PROUD OF THIS STORY, I RESPECT YOUR OPINION AND UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE GETTING AT. THIS STORY WAS NEVER INTENDED TO BE THE TYPE OF STORY YOU DESCRIBED, BUT I AM WORKING ON SOME STORIES THAT DO FALL A LITTLE MORE INTO THAT CATEGORY. I HOPE THAT YOU WILL KEEP TRACK OF MY WORK AND THAT YOU FIND SOMETHING MORE TO YOUR LIKING IN THE FUTURE. IN THE MEAN TIME, I HOPE YOU WILL KEEP EXPLORING THIS FORUM BECAUSE THERE ARE A NUMBER OF FABULOUS WRITERS WHO HAVE POSTED SOME STORIES LIKE THE ONE YOU WANT TO READ. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR REVIEW. YOU ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT TO MY WRITING AS THE POSITIVE REVIEWS.

TO THOSE OF YOU THAT DO ENJOY THIS STORY, PLEASE ENJOY THIS CHAPTER AND STAY TUNED... I'M STILL DECIDING WHERE THIS IS GOING. :)

**JOE POV**

"So, we're doing this. Right? We're taking everyone's name out except for Shifty and Katie-Lynn?"

The group around me nodded in agreement. We had heard that there was to be a lottery on the anniversary of D-Day, and that one person from each company would receive an immediate discharge and a trip home, regardless of how many points they had. We had begun regular physical training and combat drills again, and we had a pretty good idea of what that meant. We were all waiting for the brass to confirm our suspicion that Easy Company and the 101st Airborne would be redeployed and there were a good number of Normandy veterans who still didn't have enough points to go home.

One of those was Shifty Powers. He didn't have any medals to show and he had never been wounded, but you would be hard-pressed to find a man more respected among our company or to count the number of lives he had saved with his sharp eyes and his rifle. After hearing that he was not only short the 85 points required for discharge, but short by 15 points, the rest of the men got together and made a decision. We would ask our COs to withdraw our names from the lottery without letting Shifty know. The agreement had been made when Don spoke up beside me and pointed out what I hoped that no one had noticed.

"Where is Katie-Lynn?" I shoved my hands into my pockets and stared at the ground as everyone looked around. I could feel Don's eyes burning into me, waiting on me to respond. He finally demanded, "You didn't tell her about this, did you? What are you doing, Joe?"

"If she doesn't know, then she can't take her name out. I didn't think anyone would have a problem with that. Especially you."

"Do you have any idea how pissed off she is going to be? She would never agree to this and you know it."

"Then she doesn't need to find out," Bull interjected. "Joe's right. It should be Shifty or her. I'm not too keen on the idea of our Kaylee going to the Pacific, no matter how tough she is. She'd never agree to this on her own, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

A chorus of agreement came behind him, and I looked back at Don.

"So, we're doing this. Right? We're taking everyone's name out except for Shifty and Katie-Lynn?"

Don sighed and assented, "Yeah. I'm with you. She'll be furious if she ever finds out, but I damned sure don't want her going to the Pacific if there is a way to prevent it. God, I hope that she doesn't find out."

**KATIE-LYNN POV**

I hugged Shifty Powers as soon as we were dismissed from formation. There had been a D-Day anniversary lottery, and he was going home. I knew that he'd been well short of the point requirements, although he tried not to show that he was concerned, and the look on his face when Spiers had announced his name was priceless, and there was no reason for him to ever know that his name had been the only one in the helmet. When Welsh had mentioned that others had been willingly removing their names, I was not surprised and quickly added my name to the list. He would be missed, but he deserved this, and it did a lot for the morale of a company who was waiting on pins and needles to find out what was next for us. Spiers wasted no more time in letting us know. We were going to be redeployed to the Pacific. Shifty hugged me back and whispered for me to be careful, take care of Joe, and visit Virginia when the war was over. I kissed his cheek and watched him get into a jeep to go fill out his paperwork.

Then I went to find Joe. I was rounding the corner of a building when I heard he and Talbert. It sounded like they were arguing, and I was prepared to break it up, but the words brought me up short.

"I'm telling you, Joe, there was only one name in that helmet and it was Shifty's. I mean, I'm happy he is going home, but she must have found out somehow and took her name out."

"Dammit! Who told her? We all agreed that we would keep her out of it. She couldn't make the choice if we took it away from her! At least we had a chance to send her home! Get her out of here!"

I shoved my hands in my pockets as I approached so that I could suppress the urge to punch them both, but my clenched jaw gave me away, and I could see the "oh shit" look on Talbert's face when he saw me over Joe's shoulder.

"I'm sorry that you weren't able to get rid of me, Joe. You know, when Welsh came to me about the lottery, I just figured that the reason I didn't know about the plan was because everyone had been taking their names out on their own. I didn't realize that you had led some kind of plot to get me out of here."

He ducked his head a moment, then shook it and looked back up, reaching out for me. I took a step backward.

"Kaylee, please. That's not what I meant."

"Oh? Well, let's see. What are my choices here? On one hand, you and the rest of this company conspired to send me home because you didn't want me here. On the other hand, you knew that the company was getting together to talk about Shifty being 15 points short and you purposely didn't tell me because you knew that I would take my name out. Neither of those are really thrilling prospects, Joe."

Talbert cleared his throat uncomfortably and edged away from us until he apparently felt safe enough to break into a jog. I shot daggers into his back with my eyes until Joe spoke again.

"Look, I knew you would be pissed, but can you really blame us? We just want you safe! We've all been watching those films from the Pacific. I just don't know if I can take this worrying about losing you anymore. So, yes, I purposely didn't tell you about the plan. If you want to be mad at me, then fine. Be mad. I love you. I want you safe. So fucking what?"

"You were trying to take away my choice! You lied to me!"

We were both screaming now.

"We didn't do anything different than what we did to Shifty! What you did to Shifty! It was out of love! Fuck! If you can't see that, then I don't know what the hell to tell you! I'm done talking about this. I'm sorry if your pride got hurt, but I will not apologize for wanting to see you headed back home, safe and waiting for me to walk through the door and start our life! But lucky you. You're still here and you get to head on out to the checkpoint with Chuck. Maybe we'll both live to regret this argument." His words struck me in the gut, but he left me no time to reply, brushing past me with his teeth grinding. As he walked away, he added, "Do me a favor and don't be a bitch to Chuck at the checkpoint. He wasn't all that happy about not telling you the truth, but he did it as a favor to me. And don't get shot while you're out proving me wrong."