First of all - I can't believe I just wrote the epilogue for my first fanfic ever, The Paratroopers.

I don't got much else to say than thank you by all my heart who stayed with me to the end :')

Thanks to the 12, 062 readers, to the 93 reviewers, to the 16 that follows this story and the 13 who have favorited it :)

I hope that many more will read this and hopefully like it!

-As I've said before, I will edit this as soon as I find the time so please turn back at some time and see :)

Keep calm and hang tough! :-*

CURRAHEE!

Yours sincerely,

LovingBOBThePacific/Camilla :3

Epilogue:

Several years later: The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial – Normandy, France:

"Come on!"

A now grown, seventeen year old Olivia Mae ran through the green grass like the little child she had been when she had got to know the men that would become her heroes and brothers for life.

"Jesus Christ, Olivia Mae, wait you hear!"

Wild Bill Guarnere smiled at his comrade Joe Toye's frustrated outburst after the now almost grown up girl they had found as a nine and a half year old in the forest of Normandy on June 6 1944. Olivia was now seventeen, almost a grown up, independent woman, but a much protected one of that. She had been watched with Joe's hawk eyes ever since she came back to the States in 1945. Bill rolled his eyes when he thought about that Joe was more strict and careful whenever they met some boys on Olivia's age on the street than he was with men looking after his own girl.

Gonorrhea heard his friend sigh beside him "Some day she will fall and I won't be able to reach out and catch her like I used to, we used to. Damned crutches!"

Bill smiled sadly, taking a look behind him where their families walked, with a distance between them to give the three of them some space to think and also to pay their respects.

He put a hand on his friend's shoulder as they looked out over the many thousand white crosses, on the same time watching their little girl who now was a beautiful woman walking delicately around all the graves, reading every name, every message on the crosses.

"She might fall but she will rise again 'cuz that's how we raised her to do, didn't we?" Bill asked with a smirk on his face.

The two of them were still young, the both of them engaged and were soon to be married with the girl of their dreams. Only the crutches and missing limbs made them look old and broken.

Joe smiled on of them rare smiles "Yeah, we did, didn't we?"

Olivia had changed dramatically after the war. Her mood changed. One week she was a wreck, leaving Joe, the Toye family and her family of Easy forever worried. And another week she would be their little sunshine. But she never forgot to write every each and one of her brothers. Some times she spent more of her time writing than spending time on her school and homework.

"Goddammit, where did she go now?"

Bill let out a low chuckle as they both looked around for the Easy Company Princess. Joe twirled around the best he could on his crutches, facing his close friend like an angry bull "You think this is funny, Bill? What if they catch her, huh?"

Bill sighed, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder "Joe..."

"What if the fucking bastards catch her?"

"Joe..."

"Fucking Nazi's..."

"Joe!"

Bill shook his buddy, making him come back to reality "They're gone, bud. They're all gone or is being chased down. Don't worry, no one's going to hurt Livy. Not again. They'd be damned if they hurt the battered bastards of Bastogne's princess."

His attempt to make Joe smile succeeded as Joe replied sadly "You're right...I'm sorry, I...god damn it, you know how I feel, Bill."

At that Joe turned around, beginning to hobble forward on his crutches in his search for the little girl that really wasn't that little anymore.

Bill looked worried at his friend's back before he joined his friend in his search.

Joe had those kind of incidents at least one time every time Livy was out of his reach. But it wasn't only him and he wasn't the worst. All of the fellas had those kind of incidents, including Bill.

They both hobbled around for a bit before they found her stand stiffly in front of one of the crosses, making Bill and Joe become worried. What had she found that made her react and look like she had seen a ghost?

When they came closer, they could see her face was totally pale and her hands were shaking. Her brown hair were being gently moved around by the wind, some of it hiding her beautiful eyes.

But when they came even closer they could see silent tears run down her cheeks.

Both men wrapped their arm around her from each side and looked sadly down at the cross, reading;

John D. Hall

PFC Radioman

Able Company, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne

World War 2

March 24 1922

June 6 1944

Bill and Joe both stubbornly tried to keep the tears back from falling by the thought, and loving memory of the man...boy they had called Cowboy.

John had been killed at Brecourt Manor but for Livy it had been her first loss though she hadn't even met the guy.

"Hiya Cowboy!" Bill had yelled at John through the gunfire from his own and the Germans gunfire, he remembered. Wild Bill had been surprised when Hall got the guts to answer back, "Shut your fucking guinea trap, Gonorrhea!".

Olivia stared at the grave stone, thinking back once again on everything she had been through. Automatically, her hand moved down to her side where she had got shot by 'Hinkel' as Skip, Don and Penk had named the German. It was nothing more than a wrinkle now after all these years but the painful and joyful memories were still there and would forever remain.

She felt a sudden pain in her heart when she thought about Skip and Penk. On Hoob and Eugene, Kenneth and Harold Webb, Bill Kiehn and Francis Mellet, on Herron and Sowosko, on Janovec and John from the 82nd, James Miller and James Campbell, Julian and Dukeman, on Lt. Meehan. On mom and dad, Mary and Daniel. Matthew and Mr.Hórg. Renée and Van Klinken.

There were many others, these were only few who never got to experience the world without war. Olivia thought about each man and woman, alive or dead every single day. She was sure she most not likely would be alive if they hadn't found her and taken her with them. She wouldn't have.

"We pull upon the risers..." Bill started singing silently in his thick Philly accent.

"We fall upon the grass..." Joe joined as both men tugged their little girl closer to them.

Suddenly her mouth opened, and to their surprise, she sung the next line of the song.

"We never land upon our feet, we always hit our ass..."

Olivia snickered silently, remembering how bad particularly Bill and Joe had tried to keep her away from swearing people or swearwords ever since she came home.

"Highty-tighty, Christ-almighty, who the hell are we?" all three of them chimed in.

"Zim-zim, goddamn, we're airborne infantry..."

Olivia had always known, but it became clearer and clearer as she stood there with two of her guardians on each side of her; From that day she had been found and to this day, she had a bond with these men, nothing or no one could break. Not even death...

They were her band of brothers...