Chapter 17: VE Day

Summary:

The Captain returns and the war begins to wrap up. Easy makes a frightening discovery.

Notes:

the holocaust is shown in some detail. hope you like the last few chapters.

Thanks to Lillian's medic work on him while he was held captive, Kara was in ok shape. A few days in a field hospital and Kara was almost back to fighting shape. It was April now. When Kara was captured was early February. Sure felt longer Kara thought.

His return was used to boost morale. The hero captured and rescued in a daring mission to Hitler's secret bunkers was a huge allied victory in the media. Kara received visits from reporters from all the allied countries. Even world leaders and generals were stopping by.

General Lane and Winston Churchill both came to welcome Kara back to friendly territory. His family wrote letters to him when they found out he was alive. Lena wrote and called multiple times. Lena moved to Midvale with his parents, unable to run L-Corp in her distress. Sam and Jack had been running it since his disappearance.

Kara I couldn't believe it when I saw the car pull up. It had the allied stars on it and a man dressed in a formal uniform. Alex was over with your parents when they came. They knocked on the door and I was hoping that he would tell me you were just injured and coming home. I broke down before he could finish his sentence. My whole life shattered. You are the only person I could imagine having a life with, and without you what was I to do? Life became a haze after that. They didn't even have anything of you to bring home. We buried an empty grave. I'm not sure what we should do with it now. I'm so relieved to have you again. I'm so sorry everything you had to go through the past few months. They haven't let out many details but maybe one day you might tell me.

Always and forever

Lena

In the coming days, the world was shocked to find out that Hitler, the fierce dictator of the Third Reich, was dead. The world simply awaited their surrender.

By the first week of May, Kara was back with Easy company. He was welcomed with open arms, and a celebration at the closest bar. Mike, Winn, Dick and Brainy paid for anything Kara wanted and were at his back everywhere he went.

"We are glad to have you back mister Danvers. It was difficult without you" Querl sat next to Kara at the bar.

Mike nodded.

"It's true. After the mission failed, allied brass wanted to call you KIA and be done with it. We wanted to hunt Lex down and see for ourselves if you were really gone. Once we took Austria, they wanted us to do a double check of the Eagle's Nest"

Winn butted in after knocking out his drink "And that's how we found those tunnels. We searched for hours. Lex wasn't prepared for anyone to figure him out. If I could frame the look on his face when we found him"

The others all laughed in agreement.

Dick raised his glass. "I say a toast to Kara, for coming back from the dead"

The group raised their glasses "Kara!"

They sat in their own little world the rest of the night.

The town they were in was quiet but had suffered a lot of damage, so clean up had begun. As Kara sat with a few other members of Easy company, Winn came rushing over frantically. When he got to them he was out of breath.

Winn was hunched over, then pulled himself up and said the words they had all been waiting for.

"Germany surrendered. Its Victory in Europe day boys" Winn had a wide smile on, putting an arm around Kara's shoulder.

Though they were not in any of the large cities that were holding huge celebrations, the small town still celebrated in its own way. The residents seemed far more relieved than the soldiers.

With the war in Europe over, there was no doubt that Easy would be sent to the pacific. They simply waited for the word from the higher ups and they were gone.

Until then, Easy would be performing guard duty and running checkpoints until they were ordered to leave.

Why Kara and a few others were out hunting instead of simply eating in the mess, he had no clue. Yet here they were in the middle of the Austrian wilderness.

"With all your stomping Robin, the only thing we're gonna catch is a cold" Mike whispered

Dick looked sheepish "Sorry"

As they moved forward, Kara spotted a buck running to their left. Kara called for his companions and they were off. They stumbled upon something much worse.

In front of them was a camp, much of it smoldering or still ablaze. It was cut off from the forest by a fence, its gate chained closed. Kara moved to the gate and shot the chains off.

"Robin, go back to camp, tell em what we found, now" Dick nodded and ran off.

Moving into the camp with guns drawn, Kara could see movement. A man, dressed in a striped prisoners uniform came out from one of the few buildings still standing. He was thin, to the point you could count his bones. The men moved forward. Kara called for one of the men that spoke german and said to ask the man questions.

The prisoner began to tell the translator that when the Germans were escaping, they ran out of bullets so they set everything on fire and locked the gate. When asked who these people were he said "Musicians, artists, Everyone who didn't fit."

Kara looked out over the camp as more people came out from their hiding places, looking much the same as the first man they met.

The sights, the smells, and the stories of these people, would haunt Kara for the rest of his life. No one slept well that night.