A/N: We are about two weeks in-universe from D-Day. Get ready, friends. It's crunch time. Hope you enjoyed the Nixon shenanigans of the previous, bonus chapter.


Chapter Forty-Two


May 1944

Fury coursed through Alice's veins as she slammed the door to Nixon's office in the Regimental quarters. To call it an office was stretching the truth; they'd managed to fit a desk in a walk in closet. But she hadn't needed more than a closet door to slam in her anger. Her boots pounded the wooden stairs as she hurried down to street level.

Don't do anything stupid, she'd told Bill back in January. Alice hadn't known she should've said that to literally every boy in Easy Company. Since the New Year began, the men of her company had managed to make poorer and poorer decisions until it came to a head a week ago when George Luz had pissed Sobel off enough to make the man take it out on the entire company.

Except he'd not really taken it out on the entire company. He'd taken it out on Dick Winters. As Alice's boots hit grass, she felt her blood pulsing. She'd thought the stupidity would've ended with Sobel, though. But no, no of course it hadn't. But she'd not expected Richard Winters, of all people, to be the one to take stupidity one step further. He'd asked for a court martial trial. That would've been fine if it hadn't left Easy Company without its best officer so close to the inevitable invasion of Europe.

Her meeting with Nixon hadn't lasted ten minutes. They'd both been angry at Dick, and they'd both agreed to figure out a way to get him back. Nixon would look into talking to Sink and Strayer. Alice though, she had other plans before talking to Sink herself.

She didn't bother to knock on the re purposed barn used as Easy's enlisted base. Dirt and some stray straw littered the floor as she threw the door open. Without a second thought, she rounded a corner. Around a table, the eight non-commissioned officers of Easy Company passed papers to Lipton. At her entrance, they startled. She looked at them in confusion.

"Lieutenant!" choked Talbert through his canteen.

Alice paused. With narrowed eyes, she scanned the men before her. They fell silent. Her eyes rested on a small pile of papers in Lip's hands. "What are you doing?" Their continued silence made her pause. "Lip, give me those."

Lipton sighed. Pushing back his chair, he walked over and met Alice halfway. He handed them over. Everyone watched Alice read the top one.

"We ain't jumping with Sobel," Guarnere declared.

Alice bit her lip and let her hand, which held the resignations, fall to her side. Her left hand went to her hip. "Honestly, the stupidity of Easy Company never ceases. First Platoon making Sobel actively look like a fool, Dick deciding he'd rather be court martialed than take another punishment, and now this?"

"This is something that's been a long time coming," Johnny argued immediately. He stood up and circled the table until he stood closer to her. Then he leaned against it, half sitting half standing. Johnny gestured to the papers. "You know he's going to get a lot of men killed."

Alice shook her head. Her gaze wandered between all eight of them. Johnny Martin, Bull Randleman, Carwood Lipton, Bill Guarnere, Myron Ranney, Terrence Harris, Floyd Talbert, and Chuck Grant, the first line of defense between the rest of Easy and the incompetence of Sobel's leadership, stared back at her.

"Yes, yes he is. But a mutiny?"

Grant scoffed. "Come on, Lieutenant. Since when did you care about army regulations when it comes to safety."

Alice glanced at him. She frowned. "I would do anything to win this war. You going against your army protocols isn't my issue. It's that by doing so, you could be leaving this company, your company, without some of its best men not a few days after losing its best officer."

"What would you have us do, then," Harris argued. He folded his arms over his chest. "Keep going like nothing's wrong? We've done that for two years now."

"Not this!" She waved the papers in the air. "At least not until Nixon and I have a chance to put out the fires first."

"We can't wait, Lieutenant," Harris disagreed. Ranney spoke up in agreement, and the others just nodded.

Surprised to see Lipton agreeing with them, Alice turned to him. "Lip?"

He sighed. "Alice, if we do nothing, and we jump, a lot of men will die and that's on us. If we do this, and we get removed, a lot of men will die and we'll at least have tried our best." Silence met his words. But he continued on. "Or, if we do this and don't get removed, maybe we can get Sobel out."

Her own pounding blood filled her ears. The fury she felt looking at the men before her soon fully morphed into a mix of fear and a strange sense of pride. These men knew they could die for this. They needed to do this.

"Well." Alice shook her head and bit her lip. Taking a few seconds to look at them, she nodded. "Fine. You could be shot for this. They might kill you."

"We know," said Bill.

Alice nodded. "Well, you may be willing to die here, but I'm not. If and when I die in this war, it'll be on my home soil. So I know absolutely nothing about what happened here. Clear?"

"Yes ma'am," Bill agreed. He smirked back at her, plopping a lit cigarette in his mouth.

Without even saying goodbye, she placed the letters in Lipton's hands and walked away. Seared into her brain were the eyes of the men looking back at her. Even as she turned from them, she said a small prayer that the angel of death would pass over them.

A few hours later, when Alice followed Millie to the door, she felt her stomach drop. Sergeant Evans stood there, straight faced. Millie moved away with a snappy retort.

"Sergeant?" Alice asked.

"Colonel Sink wants to see you, Lieutenant. Immediately."

Alice nodded. She pulled on the dress coat over her button down shirt and followed him to the street. A jeep sat waiting. Alice sat in the passenger seat. It roared away down the road moments later.

Soon, Regimental came into view. The massive estate reared up in front of them. On the left, she found Dick Winters finishing a delivery inventory. Alice held his gaze for a moment as the jeep parked. She offered him a salute. He returned it.

"Colonel Sink's office is-"

"I know the way, Sergeant Evans," Alice assured him, voice harsh. "Thank you for the ride."

Without waiting for him to respond, she walked up the red brick steps into the side door of the estate building. The warm breeze of May ruffled her hair as she opened the door. The usual hustle and bustle of Regimental Headquarters sounded beyond it. When she opened it, she found Nixon chatting with Harry and Moose in the hall by Sink's door.

"He called you in, too, huh," Harry muttered. "Any idea why?"

Alice huffed. "Some."

She crossed her arms and refused to say anything else. Moments later, when Major Strayer opened the door to Sink's office, Alice watched his expression. He seemed more pensive than anything. Alice followed Nix, Harry, and Moose Heyliger inside.

"Your NCOs have put me in quite a bind, Lieutenants." Colonel Sink half-sat, leaning against his desk. With arms across his chest, he all but scowled at them as they stood at attention. He shook his head.

"Sir?" Nixon asked.

Sink twisted to pick up a piece of paper off his desk. He sighed. "I hereby no longer wish to serve as a Non-Commissioned officer in Easy Company. Signed… well signed every single one of the noncoms except First Sergeant Evans." He waved the letter with his hand. "No what in the name of God is this all about!"

"Permission to speak freely?" Nixon asked after a brief moment of silence.

Sink nodded. "Granted."

"This company has known that Captain Sobel is a liability and a fool since Toccoa, sir. Only now that Winters is out of the picture and with the invasion approaching, they realize they're gonna die under that man."

"Captain Sobel shaped Easy Company, Lieutenant Nixon," Sink argued.

"Lieutenant Nixon's right," added Harry. "Colonel, I've served under a lot of men. He doesn't deserve to lead."

Sink bit his cheek. Then he turned to the man on the end. "Heyliger?"

"Captain Sobel lacks the ability to navigate in the field sir, among other lacking skills."

With a huff, he turned to Alice. "I can see you biting your tongue, Klein. Thoughts?"

"Permission to speak candidly, sir?"

"Granted."

Alice bit her lip. Then she gestured towards the closed door they'd come from. "Captain Sobel would've been shot by his own men if he'd been with us in the resistance. He wouldn't have lasted six months. He's a liability." With a sigh, she shook her head.

"Major?"

They all turned to Major Strayer. He'd been silent thus far, standing in the corner near the door and watching them carefully. His raspy voice broke the tension after several long pauses. "I'm inclined to believe them."

Silence fell around them. Colonel Sink watched them all with intense scrutiny. His gaze traveled between the lieutenants and Major Strayer, and finally to the door behind them. He shook his head. "I'll see what we can do. Get the hell out of my office. I don't want to see you four in here any time soon."

They all saluted. The last thing they heard when exiting the office was Colonel Sink ordering Strayer to send a runner for Captain Sobel. Moose Heyliger split from them, but Alice, Nix, and Harry all went for drinks. They found a pub not far into town and set up at a table.

When Alice spotted Dick Winters a few hours later enter the bar, she sipped at her second drink and groaned over her most recent poker loss. "Hey, look!"

"Dick, over here," Nixon called.

Picking his way over to where they sat near an open window, he looked happier than they'd seen him in weeks, or even months. Alice sat up straighter. She narrowed her eyes. "What's new?"

"I don't know what you did, but Sobel's gone." Dick grinned as they all stared at him in silence. No one moved. He just tapped Harry, the one closest to him, on the cheek twice and laughed. "Clearly you didn't know, then."

"He's gone?" Nixon repeated.

"Been transferred to some new jump school to be in charge." Dick slipped into the last chair. "We're free of him."

Alice grinned and took a huge gulp of her wine. Slamming it back on the table, she leaned towards him. "So you're in charge now, right?"

"Not quite," Dick replied, amused. He shook his head. "Lieutenant Meehan is next in line. He'll be taking over Easy."

And take over Easy he did. In the few instances she'd met Lieutenant Thomas Meehan, he'd been cordial, polite, and genuinely interested in her life in France. In the week after he took over Easy Company, Alice watched in glee as he learned the name of every single enlisted man in his new outfit. He spoke highly of Easy Company even when he first came in from Baker. Easy's reputation preceded it.

He'd spent a night having dinner with the other officers, including both Nixon and Alice, despite neither of them leading a platoon. Alice liked him instantly, and knew they'd be in good hands. But not three days after the dinner the lieutenants had shared, and Moose Heyliger had been transferred out of Easy for another company. In his place, she read the name Lieutenant Lynn Compton on the transfer papers. Her heart sank. Yet another new platoon leader for her to have to acclimate to. Or, more accurately, yet another new platoon leader that would have to acclimate to her.