Is that the technical term?

"What are you two up to?" I asked, coming up behind George and Buck, who were having a game of darts with Joe and Babe. Babe, was one of the replacements we'd gotten. His name was Edward Heffron and it turned out he lived a few streets away from Bill. Small world isn't it? Well, anyway, Bill and Babe had become best buddies and just how everyone had taken a shine to me after Bill had introduced me to them, we'd all assimilated Babe…but not his friends…not yet anyway.

"Just having a friendly bet with Babe and Joe." George shrugged. I eyed him. There was no way that George Luz, was just having a friendly bet with Joe and Babe. They were definitely trying to trick them.

"Oh yeah? What are you betting, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Two cartons of smokes each."

"Each?" my eyebrows shot up. I looked at the Joe and Babe. "You know they're having you on, right?"

"Nah, c'mon Sarge, it'll be fine."

"You keep calling me Sarge, Edward and we'll see who's fine." I huffed. "Suit yourselves." I wandered over to Bill and perched myself on the table he was sitting at, watching Babe and Joe get fleeced. They looked pissed off and Babe looked at me as if to say, please don't say I told you so. I just waggled my eyebrows at him.

"Hang on. I'll make you a bet." I stood back up, feeling bad at the sight of the little puppy eyes. "4 packs of smokes, if I can get 6 bullseyes in a row."

The four of them looked at me sceptically.

"Johnny can make sure I've hit them, can't you?" I asked. He agreed. Joe and Babe agreed. Buck and George agreed.

They handed me the darts and I threw one. Bullseye.

"A lucky throw." George shrugged. I caught Don's eye from the bar and he winked at me. Don knew I could play darts, after all, I'd been brought up in a pub and it was only natural for a publican's daughter to be able to chuck a few darts. The second one hit bullseye. I glanced at George.

"That was a fluke."

A third bullseye.

"Getting nervous yet Georgie?"

"Nope."

A fourth.

"How about now?"

"Alright, I'm sweating a bit."

A fifth.

"How about you do the last one with your eyes closed?" He asked.

"That's just dangerous Georgie."

"I'll cover your eyes and you throw. Bull and Martin can step back."

I sighed, but had no choice as George clamped his hands over my eyes. With a deep breath, I threw my last dart. No body cried, so I didn't think I'd hit anyone. I heard George mutter something and he dropped his hands from my face.

"I don't believe it." Buck muttered, holding out the smokes he'd just won. Lo and behold, a blind bullseye. Even I didn't believe it.

"Are you sure they haven't moved it?"

"Pretty sure." George grumbled, handing the smokes to me. I handed them back to Joe and Babe.

"Now kids, what did we learn?" I teased.

"Mother knows best?" Babe smirked. I pouted at him; we were the same age. Just then, Smokey said that Lip had an announcement. All passes we revoked; we were leaving for another jump.

I couldn't sleep. I'd been lying in bed for hours now, staring at the beams above us. In just a few hours we would be moving out, to jump into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden as Danni had whispered to us as we met her outside of the pub. While I was staring into the space above me, worrying and fretting over the coming shit show, Don seemed to have no trouble sleeping. I couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle as I turned my head to watch him quietly snore, his face half-buried in the pillow beside mine with an arm tucked under it. My hand wandered up to the dog tags around my neck, with my new name on. When I was with him, I felt safe and protected, but if we were going to be apart, or if we got separated during the coming battle, I hoped that they'd give just a little of the same comfort.

I sighed again, perhaps a little too loudly.

"Baby? Aren't you asleep yet?" He groggily mumbled, lifting his head up to look at me in the dark.

"No… sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." I whispered, running my fingers gently through his hair.

He shifted, rolling onto his back and holding an arm up for me to curl up against his side, my head now resting on his shoulder as he curled my hair around his fingers.

"Are you scared?" He asked, his lips pressed against the top of my head. I hummed a yes to him and he held me tighter, before rolling again, this time to lean over me. He tucked my hair behind my ear, out of my face and stroked my cheek gently with the back of his fingers. "Everything will be okay."

"You don't know that Don…" I told him, my own hand on his face. "What if we get separated?"

"Then I'll find you."

"What if something happens to me?"

"Then I'll be right there with you."

"What if something happens to you? What if I can't do anything, what if-"

His lips pressed against mine, stopping the bombardment of questions coming out of my mouth.

"Whatever happens, the two of us will be together." He said, after we parted lips. It wasn't often, but he got a serious look in his eye when he needed to, when I need him to.

"Do you promise?"

"I promise." He smiled at me through the gloom and I settled into his arms, finally falling soundly asleep.

"Okie dokie, we got all our shit?"

"Is that the technical term?" Taylor snorted as I looked around our trio, comprising of me, her and Cowboy. We'd stocked up on what we needed, we'd checked and checked and triple checked our equipment and I thought we were just about ready. We'd just started making our way over to our plane, when I heard a voice calling me and when I turned to see who it was, I was surprised to see it was one of the new kids, Miller, approaching with all his gear.

"Section Leader."

"Miller." I looked at him curiously. "What can I do for you?"

"I want to go with you."

"Oka- Wait, WHAT?" I shrieked.

"I want to go with the ACS, ma'am."

I looked at Taylor and Hall, wondering if I really was hearing what I was hearing. They seemed just as astonished as I did.

"Miller, are you crazy?" Taylor asked eventually, looking at him like he had twelve heads, not just two.

"No ma'am."

Tay pinched her fingers together, "Literally no one volunteers for the ACS!"

"Yeah, I just got roped in after D-Day." Hall piped up.

"We didn't have much choice in the first place." I thumbed to Taylor. "You're better off with the others. Stick with Bull… we might just get you killed."

"Actually… Sgt Randleman said I should ask to go with you."

There was a long pause amongst the three of us as we looked blankly at him.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" All three of us replied in unison.

"No way. No, nope, nej, niet, nein, nope." I shook my head so much I thought it would turn to mush. Bull had just dropped Miller on me, right before we were to jump. "Bull, I'll get him killed!"

"I don't think so."

"I do!"

"You'll be fine."

"He won't!"

"He'll be fine if he stays with you."

"No he won't!" I protested. "I'm not fine when I'm with me!"

Bull smirked, patted me on the shoulder and said he'd trust me with any of his men. I groaned and squatted down with my hands over my face.

"No~!" I whined from behind my hands. "This is just too much responsibility!"

"By the way, Malarkey's lookin' for you."

"He is?" In the time it took me to look back, then turn around, Bull had disappeared and I was left with the hefty task of not getting one of his kids killed. Well, shit.

I was amazed at the smoothness in which we dropped into Holland. No turbulence, no flak, the weather was nice and clear, it was great. Just like how the other one should have been. Well, beggars can't be choosers.

We waited quietly, on the outskirts of the town of Eindhoven, waiting for a sign of enemy movement. A window cautiously opened a woman hung something orange out of the window. Then another window opened and another and another… until slowly, the entire town was waving or hanging out orange flags.

It looked like they were celebrating our arrival… well, who wouldn't after years of fascist occupation?

People lined the streets, at least 10 people deep the whole way through town. The women were kissing the boys, Frank nearly got smothered to death by a pair of Dutch breasts with Lip coming to his rescue and Taylor almost killed Joe when she caught him getting it on with a pretty blonde Dutch girl down an ally… which got me thinking. I hadn't seen Don since we'd gotten into town… if he'd been smooching another woman, I swear.

"Lith!"

I almost jumped out of my skin when whispered in my ear, the heat of his breath giving my goose bumps when it crossed my neck.

"Helvete!" I hissed, looking around. "Why d'you always do that?"

"I thought you'd expect me there by now!" Well at least he found scaring the shit out of me funny. "What's wrong with your sister?"

"Which one?" I asked, keeping my eyes out for any suspicious movement, as well as keeping my eyes on Miller and now Babe, as Bill decided to dump him on me too, last minute.

"The one that just popped Liebgott in the face."

"Ah, yes, that one." I sighed. "She just caught Joe with his pants down… literally."

"Oh… poor Taylor."

Tay was livid. The ACS were at the back of the column, herding the rear since the tanks didn't want us in front of them, which gave Tay ample opportunity to gripe about Joe. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Hall stewing over it too.

"That skinny sonovvabitch! I shoulda known!"

Hall glanced at me as Tay stomped ahead of us. I knew he liked her; he'd told me as much at our wedding reception but it wasn't a good move to talk to Taylor about it now. As we walked behind the column, we saw a young woman, with her head shaved. She was holding a baby in her arms and a box of rations. I felt a sense of solidarity with the woman. Here she was, mother to a German soldier's baby. Here I was, wife of an American paratrooper. We'd be in the same position, had roles been reversed.

I gave her another box of rations as we passed, glancing back at her as we got further away.

"I hope he gets his dick shot off!"

"Taylor!"

"He'd fuckin' deserve it!" she continued to grumble until we got into position. "Anyway, look at Big Bird up there, as if there's no one around! He's going to get shot."

No sooner than it came out of her mouth, Lt Peacock went down, holding his neck. Bring up the rear, my arse! Dragging Miller along and getting Tay and Hall into the ditch, we ran forward to cover the medic, who'd now been hit too.

This wasn't starting off so well…

"Taylor!" I yelled to my sister, as the tanks rolled in closer. We were making our retreat, but Taylor was stuck in the middle of the road, behind a jeep, cut off by machine gun fire and mortars. "You've got to move!"

"No shit!" she yelled back, ducking after yet another near miss.

I called for supressing fire, thankfully having Babe, Miller and Hall around to help out. She scrambled over to us, my heart in my mouth as she ducked and dodged the bullets, making it over to us without a scratch. Satisfied that I'd got all my team together, we made a mad run for it. Just as we neared the trucks, there was a grunt and someone fell.

"Hall!" I skidded to a stop, slipping over as I made my turn to go back. Hall was on the ground, on his side, bleeding from somewhere. "Where're you hit?"

"My ass! Jesus Christ!"

"Faen skyld!" I looked around. There was no way I could carry him myself. "Can you stand at all?"

"I don't think so… just go, I'll make it back somehow."

"No way!" I snapped. I wouldn't leave him behind, I wouldn't leave anyone behind. No way. Not now, not ever. I could hear Taylor yelling at me, but I couldn't leave him there.

"Sarge!" Babe's voice suddenly sounded a lot louder than before and when I looked up, not only he, but Miller had come back to help. These kids… we'd known them barely two months and now we couldn't get rid of them! Relief began to ebb over me, as each one took one of Hall's arms, the trio limping back to the trucks.

I was surprised to see Buck laid out on the bed of one of the trucks, gauze wrapped around his butt. Hall hadn't lost his sense of humour.

"You too huh, Lt?"

"So, how's Hall?" Don asked later that night. We'd set up camp outside of Eindhoven, which was now up in flames, being razed to the ground by the Germans in what seemed like an act of vengeance, as if they were showing them what happens when you collaborate with the enemy. Don was sat on the edge of our fox-hole, brewing some coffee as I came back from talking to Danni. She'd offered Miller and Babe a permanent place in the ACS, if they wanted it and Hall had been sent off to the aid-station.

"Heavenly."

"Huh?" He looked at me confused as I sat next to him, watching the flames of destruction burning the town.

"'Cause he's holey?" my eye brow twitched, as if it was an obvious pun.

Don rolled his eyes, "Haha, very funny."

"Yeah… did you hear about Bull?"

"I heard."

"I just saw Bill. He said Hoob and Web's gone looking for him, took some of his replacements and Cobb."

"Good. I hope they find him."

I nodded, sipping the coffee he handed me, "Me too."

I felt Don's arm slip around my shoulder, rubbing my arm and kissing my head. Truth be told, I was going to go with them, but Bill insisted that I should stay here and that they could probably handle it themselves. I sighed and rested my head against Don's shoulder. I was glad he had made it out without a scratch.

"Uh…hey…" a small voice said, from behind. The two of us turned to see Taylor standing behind us, fiddling with her sleeve. Her face wore an expression of hurt, betrayal and sadness. "Do you…is it okay if I stay with you guys?"

Don and I shared a look, before we shuffled apart, letting her sit between us.

Taylor might think she was as tough as nails, but let me tell you, I once saw her cry because she dropped a spoon… I mean, granted, she was on her period, but still. She wasn't all that rough and rowdy.

"Sorry…"

"Don't be sorry! You've not done anything wrong." I told her, patting her shoulder as she cried.

"I just… it's not fair! To do that, knowing the person who cares about you can see!" she wiped her nose on her jacket. "Two years, Lith, two fucking years and never once has he told me he loves me. Not a single time… and I guess I know why now…"

Oh, poor Taylor… two years… that's a long time to invest in someone, only to get your heartbroken. Don looked at me over her head, while he rubbed her back.

"I never should have gone out with him in the first place! Why do I have to go for the dark, broody type? Why can't someone treat me like you treat Lith?"

Don seemed surprised, "I thought you didn't like all this love and affection?"

"I don't like it in public…my mom and dad, they were all lovey-dovey so it grossed us kids out…but I like love and affection just as much as anyone else…"

I wrapped my arms around Taylor, giving her a big hug. I already knew all this, but for her to say it in front of Don, either meant she was just that upset about Joe, or she trusted him as much as she trusted me.

"Maybe I should just steer clear of men for now…" she sniffled after I let go. "I can always marry Cowboy after the wars over."

Don spit out his drink.

"Cheez-Whiz, it was just a joke."