A/N: On our way to the Samaria, at last! This chapter could have the subtitle of: In which Alice gets salty over not getting a window seat. Also, enjoy these fun times while they last because the next five chapters are extremely heavy.


Chapter Thirty-Three


If such things were actually visible, Alice knew the entire company would've been able to see steam coming out of her ears, so furious was she. Not twenty-four hours before they were set to leave Camp Mackall, and Sobel had managed to screw up the largest, most important maneuver of any of the wargames they had played all summer. They'd come out with a ninety-five percent casualty rate. Easy had been disgraced.

Now, in the afternoon of a Wednesday in early September, they were finished. The army had decided the 101st Airborne looked good enough for combat. Or, good enough to move to the next, at least. Alice knew their destination; New York City, then boarding a troop ship, and sailing across the Atlantic to England. If it hadn't been for her fury with Sobel's incompetence, she would've been in high spirits. After all, with Easy heading to England, she didn't have to worry about them being sent to the Pacific. If they'd been sent East, she would've had to join a new Company in a new Division of paratroopers destined for the Western Front.

As Alice hauled her large duffle bag towards the row of trucks, she tried not to let her fury show on her face. In the distance she could hear Sobel's snapping voice. Over the past few months in Camp Mackall, she and Sobel had come to a sort of stalemate where neither particularly wanted to see the other. Given her place in Colonel Sink's good graces, he couldn't do too much to get in her way other than leaving her as a casualty on every maneuver she accompanied him on. She hoped to avoid him even further.

The truck ride to the train they'd be taking didn't last long. She had ridden with the officers of Easy, Dog, and Fox. Once they reached the station, she let her bag get stowed and boarded the train.

She, Dick, and Harry found a quiet end of a train car, good for four people. To her annoyance, Harry grabbed the window. He just winked at her, so she decided to abandon them for the enlisted.

"Sure you won't join us?" Dick asked.

Alice shook her head. "Not right now. If I can't find a good spot with Easy, I may come back. I want to check in on them. Save me a seat, though."

Large windows lined the train cars, letting in a flood of natural light. Men crowded every inch of the train. She passed by a handful of Dog Company men and nodded to them. They returned the gesture. She found it almost funny that a little over a year ago, D Company had hated her guts. Now they accepted her presence.

She ran into some men of Easy's Third Platoon, but they were so busy chatting they didn't even notice her. The train still hadn't started moving. She just kept going. Two train cars later, she heard Second Platoon before even seeing them.

"My money's on England," Malarkey proclaimed. He picked his way over Skip's legs to reach the inner seat along the window. "I think we get to see the Limeys."

"I'd rather be an England than somewhere like frickin' North Africa, that's for sure," Bill chirped back. He sat on a seat face into the train car, sandwiched between Toye on his right and Johnny and Bull on his left. A cigarette dangled from his mouth.

George, across the car on the other inward facing seats, just shrugged. "Anything's better than the pacific. Those islands are too hot." He offered a cigarette to Lipton at his right, but the man declined. He lit his own.

"I wonder if English broads dance as good as ours," Bill added. "Or maybe do a bit more than dancing. Who don't love a man in uniform?"

The men laughed at his insinuation. Alice just kept leaning in the door of the car, watching them in amusement. While the flirts had never fully stopped with the men in Easy, they'd certainly toned it back. She had first noticed it when they left Toccoa, and started training around other regiments. At Mackall, there were so many people not from the 506th that they'd mostly dropped anything that could be seen as demeaning to her. She'd been extremely impressed with them, once she'd noticed. It seemed to be an unspoken rule that if anyone not from Easy was around, Alice got treated as the superior officer she was.

As such, it made her laugh whenever she saw the men drooling over women. Thoughts of sex and a good time never even crossed her mind anymore, too preoccupied with fear for Europe. But the brash American soldiers, now faced with a new land of women to conquer, seemed to suddenly remember they'd not had sex in ages. Alice just hoped they'd be responsible.

"And if we aren't going to England?" Joe Toye asked.

Bill shrugged. "There are broads all over the world."

"We're going to England, I'm sure of it," Malarkey argued again. "Alice is still with us, isn't she? She's only gonna jump into Europe."

They fell quiet for a moment. Alice seized the opportunity to make her presence known. "How are you all doing back here?"

"Ey there's our favorite officer," George joked. He moved a random pack of a seat near him. "You joining us on the trip? Thought you ditched us for the Lieutenants?"

She moved through the car and plopped down next to George. In order to see out the window, she sat sideways on the seat, facing George and the front of the train car. "Lieutenant Welsh took the window seat. I figured I'd come find one down here."

As they started heckling her, the train began to move. For a brief moment, the discussions stopped. Everyone looked out the window to watch North Carolina speed away. Alice felt herself trembling. Her body couldn't seem to decide if she felt excited or terrified. She knew they were headed for England. One step closer to France.

The men started chatting again. Alice mostly stayed out of the conversations. Instead, she watched the plains and hills and forests speed by outside the windows.

An hour into the long train ride, she became distracted by the sudden hush that had fallen over her train car. She looked away from the window. Ron Speirs had entered the car, digging through his cigarette pack. He made his way over to her, pretending to be oblivious to the fact that Easy Company's men had lowered their voices.

"Hey, Klein, you seen Lieutenant Nixon?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. What do you need him for?"

He handed her a cigarette. "Lieutenant Meehan up in Baker said Battalion's looking for him. Thought I'd pass that along if I found him."

"Winters and Welsh are about five cars up. I'd check there. Nix is never far from Dick when he has the choice," she teased. Pulling out her lighter, she lit the cigarette Ron had given her. At the mention of Harry, she saw him immediately straighten. Her grin reached all the way to her eyes. "Are you still upset about the wargames? Don't hold it against Harry. He beat you fair and square."

Ron glared down at her. "I'm not."

"Whatever you say."

But his expression suddenly changed. He smirked at her, grin too big to suppress. "Why would I be upset over that maneuver? You're forgetting something, I think."

"Yeah? What am I forgetting?"

"I killed you first." With another smirk, he picked his way through the rest of the cabin and disappeared down the next car.

Alice couldn't wipe the smirk off her face to even feign indignance. Only after a moment did she realize the entirety of the men of Easy in her train car were staring at her. "What?"

"Did Lieutenant Speirs smile?" George looked at her and then down the next car at his fading form. It made Lipton laugh on his other side. But the other seemed completely in agreement.

"Lieutenant Speirs is crazy," Bill declared. "Anybody can see that."

"What?" Alice almost cackled at his statement. "He just wants you to think that."

"Fucking insane. Like all of Dog Company," Toye muttered. He pulled out a cigarette for himself.

"Whatever you say, boys. Whatever you say."

She let them fall back into small conversations. Before long, she pulled out her well loved copy of Les Miserables and began to read. The French eased her mind as she let herself fall into one of her two birth languages.

Hours passed. Lunch was served, sandwiches that bad been made for the men in preparation for the trip. At some point, Alice took a nap against the window. The click-clack of the train wheels and steady hum of the men's conversations lulled her to sleep despite her stress and excitement. When she woke up later, the sun had dipped below the treeline around them and only a few streaks of pinks and purples painted the sky.

Some of the men had fallen asleep as well. Others jotted down notes in journals or wrote letters to send off before getting on the troop ship that inevitably awaited them. Most of the conversations had died, though Lip and George still chatted quietly about various matters. As she looked around, Alice debated what to do.

"I'm going to find the officers again," she said to George and Lip. "Save my seat. I may come back."

"Alice, everytime you leave it breaks my heart. Quit it," George joked. But he didn't hesitate to put his coat on the seat she vacated. "Don't let Speirs kill you again."

"Ha, ha."

Moving while the train zipped up the East Coast took a bit more effort than when it had been stationary. She passed back through the various cars, saying a quick hello to the boys of Third Platoon she spent time with. Back through Dog Company, and even past a few men from Fox, she picked her way carefully.

When she reached the spot she'd left Harry and Dick, she smiled. Harry had fallen asleep against the window, but Dick worked on writing a letter in what little light his small overhead bulb gave. Across from him, Nixon sat reading to the same light. She slipped over to them. Both Dick and Nix looked up.

"Get bored of the enlisted?" Nixon asked, cheeky grin on his face.

She shook her head. "Just wanted to take a walk. Figured I'd check in with you. I see Harry's enjoying his beauty rest."

"'S not beauty rest, Alice. That would imply I'm ever not beautiful," he said, eyes still closed.

Alice, Dick, and Nixon all laughed. Confident that the small Irishman was awake, she spoke to him directly. "In that case, put your feet off the bench and let me sit, Harry."

He groaned in annoyance, but pulled his feet off the free chair in their four person sitting area. She clambered over Nixon and plopped down on the window seat across from Harry. With a smirk, she watched him push up in the seat.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"2030 hours."

"Great. Nixon, pass me your flask."

To her surprise, he did as asked. Harry downed a quick drink of Vat 69 and nodded his thanks. He passed the silver flask back. Though Nixon offered her a sip, Alice declined.

"Only another eight hours to go," she muttered. Alice pushed herself into the corner as best she could. As she lay her head against the train car, she listened to the movements of the wheels.

While the other three eventually all got to work writing letters, Alice sat quietly. She had no one to write to. To pass the time, she started humming to herself. At first she didn't even realize she had started singing La Vie en Rose under her breath. She just played with her hair, trying to untangle it as best she could, and wove the melody around them in an effort to placate her nerves. Since no one commented, it didn't even occur to her that was what she was doing.

While she sang, she started braiding bits of her hair. She leaned against the window still, watching as the stars shined down from above. At some point, her song faltered, as she tried to pray. Prayer didn't come easy to her anymore. While she knew God not to be the source of the evil in the world, part of her wondered why he continued to punish his Chosen People. Or, why he continued to allow them to be punished.

Soon, she fell asleep again, closing her eyes after trying to peer through the reflection of herself in the window. After she's drifted off, Harry turned to the other two. He looked up from his letter.

"Never knew she could sing."

Dick smirked. "Yeah, she mentioned a few times that her whole family was musically inclined. Her sister was a dancer, and her mother a pianist."

"So you've heard her sing?"

Nixon nodded. He took another sip of Vat 69. "I don't think there's a member of Easy who hasn't. She used to sing during Toccoa training to keep the men from killing Sobel."

"She's hasn't done it much recently, though," Dick commented. He shrugged. "I don't know why."

Harry yawned and nodded. "Well, I am certainly more impressed with her than I expected to be when I found out I'd be working with the only woman in the Army. Even if she doesn't officially exist."

"Yeah, I think we all are," agreed Nixon. He looked at her, sleeping peacefully against the wood and glass of the train car.

Harry angled himself more towards the group. He backed against the window. Putting his pencil down, he looked from her to them. "Be honest. Did you two think she'd make it?"

Neither one answered right away. Nixon took another drink. After a few moments, Dick broke the silence.

"At first?" He also put down his pencil. "I don't know. We knew she'd been in training in England, and we knew she'd been in the Maquis. So she had to have been competent."

"Honestly I was less concerned about her physicality after she showed up most of the men on day one," Nixon admitted. "The harder part for her was fitting in."

Harry nodded. "They didn't like her?"

Dick sighed. "Well, some didn't mind her. But mostly it was a matter of no one really knowing what to do with her presence."

"Including Alice herself," Nixon added.

Dick nodded immediately. "Her being German made matters worse. No one's called her a Nazi in awhile, since we mostly only see Dog and Fox. But in the early days of Toccoa, men in Easy and the rest of the 506th saw German and said Nazi."

Nixon agreed. "At this point, Dog and Fox are used to her being around. But they hated her. A couple of guys from Dog almost killed her when they got drunk."

"Yeah, she mentioned something about that." Harry sat up straighter. "What happened? I've heard lots of rumors."

Nixon laughed. "About Speirs?" When Harry nodded, he smirked at Dick. Then he turned back. "The men were court-martialed."

"So he didn't shoot them?"

Dick let out a small laugh. "No. They were convicted of assault on a superior officer."

"And Speirs just lets everyone think he killed them?"

Nixon laughed and nodded. "Yep." He took a drink. "Don't go spreading the truth now, either. It's too entertaining to watch the enlisted squirm."

They fell into quiet conversation. Harry knew some about Alice after spending nights sharing smokes, but he found he got answers from them to questions he hadn't been willing to ask her to her face. He asked a lot about her Maquis activities. Nixon knew more than anyone, having done some snooping around into her files after being promoted to Battalion Intelligence. As the hours dragged on, they finally finished their letters and turned to sleep. Only another five hours before they'd reach New York. And once they reached New York, it'd be onward to England.