Ugh, so I've been sitting on this chapter for MONTHS, and I just gotta say, I hate it. Well at least the first half I hate. Mostly because subconsciously I think I hate OC insert fics, but I did this to try to challenge myself to be more creative and write deeper with my OCs. If I get to where I ultimately want to be in this story, I promise Anna's backstory is important. In the meantime, take this ridiculously long and incredibly overdue chapter and do what you will with it. Hate it, rip it apart. I can't look at it anymore. Every time I go back to edit it I just hate it even more.
There was nothing Anna hated more than being told to sit down and stay out of the way. It made the acid in her stomach bubble up in her throat with a barely contained rage. Her mother had always said that proper ladies were to be seen and not heard, and if she ever wanted to find a suitable husband she needed to learn that her opinions were not welcome in a conversation among men. Anna always growled under her breath and stalked away fuming after one of her mother's unwanted lessons in lady-like etiquette.
Sometimes it felt like her older brother was the only person in the world on her side. Sticking up for her when their mother became especially preachy about the way ladies were expected to behave. Sam would snort and hide his smile when Anna made faces at their mother behind her back while the family was entertaining important guests and the children were expected to be on their very best behavior. Something about being given orders just led her to rebel against them that much more.
Sam had always been her closest confidant. Older by barely two years, her brother treated her more like a best friend and partner in crime rather than a pestering little sister. In fact, when they were young children it was usually Anna leading the charge into mischief with Sam and the other neighborhood kids acting as the cavalry behind her. Sam treated her like an equal, and valued her opinions and vast knowledge of subjects he had no patience to learn. He just understood her better than their parents ever could.
Their bond as children remained strong as they navigated through high school together, and even when they parted ways to attend different colleges. Letters were a weekly ritual between them, and going home for the holidays was a welcomed reprieve from the hectic schedule of demanding classes and hours of studying. They always managed to fit in a neighborhood snowball fight or a summer trip to the beach in between the endless parade of dinner parties their parents hosted. Being of the South Carolina Campbell's came with responsibilities to high society after all. Responsibility that neither Sam nor Anna had any interest in fulfilling.
When her brother announced her was dropping out of college and joining the Army after Pearl Harbor was attacked, it infuriated their parents to the point where words like 'embarrassment to the family' and 'disownment' were thrown around. It was not decent or in the character of a Campbell to participate in a war. But Sam left for Guadalcanal to fight the Japs anyway, leaving Anna behind with nothing but her stern lipped mother and tyrannical father as company, she could barely stand it.
She tried desperately to prove herself capable at the local animal hospital after she graduated, but the all male practice scoffed at her abilities as a surgeon and more often than not had her playing nursemaid to orphaned livestock and litters of puppies and kittens. Although taking care of baby animals was adorable, it was a gross misuse of her skills. Anna fought long and hard for equal opportunities at the Charleston County Livestock and Small Animal Clinic. Taking on the cases that her male colleagues deemed too boring or low priority, and often volunteering to work nights and weekends so she would be the on-call veterinarian for after hour emergencies. Her mother told her many times to just give up, it wasn't expected of her to have a career. She needed to settle down, marry a man in the upper class circle of her family's friends and start making a family of her own. The thought alone made her eyes sting and her blood boil.
Although the hours were grueling and the work lonely, the skills and experience she acquired working nights and weekends at the clinic proved to be tremendously beneficial. Three years after her brother left for the Pacific, Anna all but leapt at the opportunity to be shipped off to Nazi occupied Europe when the U.S. Army announced they would take anyone with medical experience, from lifeguards to livestock veterinarians.
Being part of the Army came with a new set of challenges for Anna. Germany was a miserable wasteland of pain and death, but she had been expecting that. Years of watching the news reports and Sam's semi-regular letters from the islands at least somewhat prepared her for the horrors she thought she would see in Kraut country, though nothing could have prepared her for Normandy.
After the beach, where she functioned more as an infantry soldier than a medic, Anna quickly became jaded to the violence around her. Walking around with blinders over her eyes and numbed to the madness was the only way she was going to survive this war. She poured everything she had into saving her men after that, draining herself emotionally and physically night after night, month after month, all in the name of saving as many lives as she could.
Her dedication and tireless work ethic quickly raised her in the ranks and she soon found herself in the position of Charge Nurse to her platoon. Doctor Wilson was her only real superior, and now after almost a year in Germany, Wilson largely left her to tend to her own patients.
Which is how Anna found herself alone in an aid tent in the middle of the night, prepping for a leg amputation on a 19 year old kid with nothing but chloroform to knock him out and a giant hillbilly redneck with questionable intelligence as a surgical assistant. Sometimes she did just have to stop and laugh at the circumstances she found herself in.
Surgery was successful, though complications and infection eventually took the kid anyway. Casualties of war, Wilson told her. Honestly, she expected it at this point. Her death rate now vastly outnumbered her survival rate. Wilson told her she was being too hard on herself, counting too many deaths as her own fault when they were really just too far past saving. Which was one of the reasons— she rationally told herself— why she clung to Grady Travis like he was some kind of mythical deity.
For the first time in months, she had treated a patient with life threatening injuries, and he lived. She now felt an overwhelming obligation to keep him alive. It was borderline paranoia if she was being honest with herself. Anna had a case of crossing the doctor/patient line, and she had it bad. It didn't help that Grady was handsome, in the ruggedly dangerous kind of way once he cleaned himself up, a little tortured, and incredibly emotionally damaged. The hopeless empath in her screamed to save him from himself, to do anything she could for him. Fuck, she was in way over her head.
Every quality a man should have that would make him a suitable husband, at least by her mother's standards, Grady did not possess. Which was probably why Anna found him so damn fascinating. Being a South Carolina Campbell, she didn't find herself fraternizing with lower class society very often. Another reason she had to get out of Charleston and away from the influence of her parents and their social circle. Anna needed to experience the world, both the good and the bad. Shipping overseas to Nazi occupied Europe was probably a little extreme, but Sam always said she never did anything half-assed. Bull headed determination, her brother called it. Though most people would just describe her as a stubborn pest.
Regardless, she managed to passively aggressively con Grady into getting a second dose of penicillin before he rolled out with his crew. Her paranoid obligation to his life successfully satiated, but also because the past five days Anna became unintentionally attached to a man her mother would disapprove of with every fiber of her silk frock and petticoat wearing being. She found it kind of exciting if she was being honest, rebelling against her mother's rules and expectations.
Her feelings for Grady were, confusing, to say the least.
He was nothing like she ever encountered before. Sure, many of the soldiers were crass and lacked basic manners, but Grady was downright animalistic. Feral, Bible had called him, and she found herself inclined to agree with that. At least until she got to know Grady a little better and challenged him to be human. Breaking through his facade of heartless monster was easy enough, now she just had to teach him some self control and empathy. He proved himself to be a quick study, maybe he wasn't as dim-witted as Anna first thought. Their chaste goodbye in the aid tent after she had stuck a needle in his ass was proof enough that nurturing even the most volatile of men could elicit some change. She'd just have to wait and see now.
But waiting was not something Anna did well. It reminded her too much of the 'sit down and shut up' etiquette lessons her mother forced her through. She had come to learn over the past year that a lot of being in the Army was waiting around for orders.
So she sat in the medic truck as it jostled down the road at the very back of the column, the farthest away from the action as possible. Only the morgue truck followed behind them. The tanks led the way to a nearby town where they would receive their orders for some insane rescue mission. Private Michaels drove their beaten up little truck with Doctor Wilson sitting shotgun, his nose buried in pages of reports of the Allies movements throughout the country. Anna sat quietly in the back with Molly and Jane, the two other field nurses that had discovered very quickly they were in way over their heads. Mostly because Molly was a caregiver at an old folks home, and Jane was an elementary school nurse. Still, they tried their best, and they were all Anna and Doctor Wilson had right now.
Anna sighed with exhaustion, her head lulling against the cool metal of the side of the truck, eyes drooping with crippling fatigue. The last 48 hours had been a chaotic mess, to say the least. Saving Grady had been such an encouraging win that she feared she may have overestimated her ability to amputate Jack's leg solo. Even though Doctor Wilson praised her work and agreed with her decision to amputate, she couldn't help but blame herself for his ultimate death. She had asked Wilson to let her write the letter to Jack's family. Reluctantly, he agreed, but he also warned her that she was getting far too attached to her patients again.
Oh, if he only knew what she and Grady had been up to these past couple days. Wilson probably would have had her kicked down to bedpan duty so fast her head would've spun.
She sat on a side bench as the truck pitched and lurched down the muddy stricken road. Molly and Jane sat across from her on the other bench, the gurnee in the center of the truck between them. Molly was a sweet quiet girl who had her nose buried in romance novels during any free moment she had. Jane was just ornery, fed up with the entire situation they were in. She napped against Molly's shoulder quite deeply considering the bumpiness of the truck ride.
With a notepad open on her lap, she tapped out a lazy rhythm against her leg with her pen. Anna was desperate to think of the right words to send Jack's parents, but lack of sleep left her mind absolutely blank. She had tried a few opening sentences, but furiously scratched them out in annoyance. Everything she came up with sounded so empty and indifferent to the pain Jack endured. She needed this letter to mean something, to convey the grief and sorrow she felt for not being able to save the boy's life.
The truck came to an abrupt jerking stop, it sent her pen flying as she gripped the bench seat for balance. "Why'd we stop?" She called up to Michaels and Doctor Wilson in the front.
"No clue." Private Michaels answered her, and Anna couldn't help but roll her eyes. She looked over to Molly and Jane, who didn't show the slightest bit of interest in what was going on.
Just then, the truck's radio crackled to life. "Ambush! Right side ambush! Tanks taking enemy fire!"
Anna sprung from her seat immediately, her notepad slipped off her lap and hit the floor with a loud smack. Reaching over Doctor Wilson to turn the radio up, he batted her arm away from his face in annoyance. "Anna please!" He huffed at her, "I'm sure we're not in any danger. The tanks are at the very front of the column."
Yeah, that's exactly what she was so worried about. She leaned forward as far as she could, attention solely focused on the radio in front of her. Her knuckles went white from gripping the sides of Wilson's seat.
"Tank One has been hit! Panzerfaust! All units return enemy fire! Right side tree line!"
Anna swallowed hard, she didn't recognize the voice over the radio, and she had no idea who Tank One was. In an instant, she leapt over the gurney and craned her neck as best she could to see out the dirty and dull side window of the truck. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. This is why she hated being so far back in the column, so far away from the men she had vowed to keep safe. It was agonizing.
"Anna for goodness sake!" Wilson barked at her. "We're too far back to see anything going on at the front."
A cold chill crept down Anna's spine, dread filled the pit of her stomach like a heavy bowling ball. Who was Tank One? She had to know. Before anyone could even think about stopping her, she had her medic pack thrown over her shoulder and her hand gripping the handle of the back door, ready to jump from the truck and run to the front of the column as fast as she could. Molly and Jane both opened their mouths, ready to argue with Anna to stay safely in the truck, but the radio cut them off.
"Enemy targets eliminated. Tank One, the Matador has been destroyed. Lieutenant Parker is dead."
Anna blew out a long breath of relief. She felt the vice in her chest loosen as she sat back down on the bench with a thud. It wasn't them. She said to herself. Thank god it wasn't them. She rested her head in between her knees, forcing her breathing to even out and her heart rate to steady.
"All tanks, Wardaddy."
Anna's head popped up, now there is a voice she recognized. Sergeant Collier.
"Looks like I'm it. I'll lead the column, let's get us where we are going."
A moment later the column began to move again, Private Michaels shifted the truck into gear and they lurched forward, continuing on their voyage like nothing even happened.
"See Anna, what did I tell you? Nothing to worry about way back here." Doctor Wilson chastised her before returning to his stack of papers. Molly and Jane, who had barely given the ordeal any attention, were already back to their book and nap.
Anna sighed loudly to herself. Doctor Wilson was so very wrong, she had everything to worry about way back here. But nevertheless, she sat down and shut up, obeying her superiors orders while screaming internally at the top of her lungs.
—-
Hours later, they entered the small village that had been taken over by Baker Company. Private Michaels parked the medic truck next to an old disintegrating barn. It was a good spot, quiet and just enough out of the way of the tanks and other armored vehicles, but still clearly visible for anyone that may need them. Anna opened the back doors of the truck for some fresh air, no one knew how long they'd be parked here. The Sergeants had to be briefed on the rescue mission before they moved out. Molly and Jane jumped from the truck and disappeared into camp before she could even voice her protest.
Anna lifted her head, her eyes scanning the chaos surrounding them. She found Fury parked not too far away and smiled. The tank looked like it was still in one piece, so hopefully that meant its crew was probably fine as well. She settled on the back bumper of the truck, notepad returned to her lap, pen back to tapping furiously against her thigh. She wanted— no, needed— to finish this letter today. With any luck she could send it off with Baker Company's messenger to be posted.
She was so absorbed in writing out the best explanation for Jack's demise she could muster, she didn't even bother to look up when she heard heavy footsteps approaching her.
"Anna?" The familiar voice called to her, and her head shot up in surprise.
"Grady!?" Her voice turned from surprised to shock in an instant. "Oh my god, what's wrong? You look like shit!" She jumped up from her seat, again abandoning her notebook and pen and rushed to his side. He was pale and shaking, the front of his shirt completely soaked with sweat, along with his face. He was back in his cover-alls and still had his helmet on, but he looked like he was on death's door once again.
"I fucked up real bad Anna. Forgot my aspirin. My head hurts so fuckin' bad, feels like its gonna split in two. An' 'm so fuckin' dizzy I could puke right here."
Anna grimaced, "please don't. Here sit down." She led him to the back of the truck and he sat down heavily on the bumper.
"I need meds Anna, bad. Somethin' stronger then aspirin if you can spare it. I needta be able to fight durin' this fuckin' insane rescue mission, an' right now I can't even see straight." Grady held his head in his hands and moaned pathetically.
"Okay, it's okay sweetie. Just breathe." She soothed, while rubbing his back. Anna sighed, "Grady, anything stronger than aspirin is a shot, and we both know— "
"I don't care if it's a fuckin' shot!" He barked at her. Anna pulled her hand away from his back and gave him a hard glare.
" 'm sorry, okay? 'm sorry. I'm jus' really fuckin' desperate. Anna, please?"
Anna nodded slowly, "okay Grad, okay. But morphine is gonna make you high."
Grady shrugged, "better ta be a little high then completely fuckin' useless."
Anna huffed out a short laugh. "Yeah I guess that's true." She patted his back affectionately before hopping into the back of the truck. She retrieved her medical pack from under the bench and went back to Grady, who now had his helmet off and was running his hands through his sweaty hair, making it stick up in every direction.
She pulled a bottle of aspirin out of the front pocket of the pack first, shook 4 pills into Grady's waiting hand and passed him her canteen.
"Thanks Anna." He said as he threw the pills down his throat and took a long swig of water. She had her back to him, busy measuring a dose of morphine out of his sight. Just enough to dull the pain in his head, but not enough to make him off the walls loopy.
"I want to clean and rebandage your head too. You're covered in sweat."
"Yes ma'am." His replies were very quiet and solemn, very un-Gradylike. Another clue that he felt as bad as he looked. Anna frowned at him as he desperately massaged his scalp, trying anything to relieve the pressure in his head.
"Okay sweetheart." She hid the needle behind her back as she approached him, having learned now that even the sight of the offending object caused him to automatically tense up.
He sighed in defeat, looking up at her with tired brown eyes. "In my ass again?"
Anna snorted. "No, this one goes in your vein. Works much faster. Roll up your sleeve." He did as he was instructed and Anna reached for a gauze pad to wipe the inside of his elbow clean. She lent down in front of him and squeezed his upper arm to bring the vein into sight. "You wanna look away hun?"
Grady nodded quickly and turned his head. "Don't count down er nothin' just do it."
Anna slid the needle into his vein before he barely finished his sentence. He flinched and hissed, but didn't jerk away.
"There," she said as she placed a cotton ball over the puncture and applied pressure. "All done. You should be feeling relief pretty much immediately."
Grady was quiet for another moment before he turned back to Anna and smiled, wide and dopey. "That's fuckin' amazin'. Hooo-ly sheeeet."
Anna couldn't help but snort loudly, "Oh god. Collier is gonna kill me for getting you high."
"But this feels sooo goood." Grady announced in a sing-song voice. "Better then bein' drunk!" He grabbed Anna's waist and pulled her in for a tight hug. "Yer the best, like my own personal fuckin' guardian angel."
"I know hun, I know." Anna rubbed his shoulders as he gripped her awkwardly. "Morphine is good shit, isn't it?"
Grady chuckled stupidly, burying his face in Anna's stomach. "The fuckin' best." He replied, his voice muffled by her coat.
"Okay Grad c'mon, I wanna clean your head before you leave." She pushed at his shoulders for him to let go, but he held on a moment longer. She didn't know how, but she could tell something else was bothering him. He was being uncharacteristically quiet and reserved. "Grady? What's wrong?"
He sighed loudly, and finally pulled back from his death grip hug around her waist. "We were ambushed, on our way here."
Anna nodded understandingly, "I heard. Over the radio."
"Didja hear that it was Norman's fuckin' fault too!?" He growled at her, temper turning volatile in the blink of an eye.
Anna remained calm, she sat down next to Grady on the bumper of the truck and began carding her fingers through his wild hair. "No I did not hear that," she whispered. "How was it Norman's fault?"
"Little fucker was supposedta be watchin' the road." He snarled and spit into the mud. "Couple'a Kraut kids came outta the trees from nowhere, hit the tank in fronta us."
Anna moved her hand from his hair to massaging the back of his neck. "How could Norman have seen them if they came out of the trees?"
"Because that's his fuckin' job!" Grady shouted harshly, but Anna didn't falter. She just kept rubbing the tense and knotted muscles in his neck. "An' once we were ambushed and shootin' back, little asshole didn't even fire his weapon! Not once!"
Anna could only sigh slowly. Poor Norman, she had a feeling he wouldn't be cut out for this. "I don't know what to say. I'm sorry Grady, but he's just a kid. He's probably terrified and overwhelmed— "
Grady snorted, interrupting her. "Yeah well we were all fuckin' terrified when the war started. But we knew what we hadta do, we did our fuckin' jobs." He turned towards Anna, meeting her eyes. "You fought in Normandy, you know what it's like. What yer supposedta do to keep your brothers alive.
Anna nodded in silent agreement, the memories of Normandy always turned her brain numb. "Yeah, I know. I know." She said softly. Grady fell silent while he watched Anna float through the horrors she had witnessed.
"Anna?" He called her name quietly, squeezing her hand. She jumped at the sudden contact, but quickly rebounded, shoving the beach to the back of her mind.
"Yeah, sorry." She sniffed back unshed tears and cleared the hoarseness from her throat. "Let's get your head rebandaged. I'm sure the boys are gonna be looking for you soon." She pushed herself off the truck bumper and began rifling through her pack once more.
"How's your eyesight and hearing?" She questioned, trying to veer the conversation away from battles she wished she could forget.
"Eyesight's pretty much normal," he replied. "Hearin' hasn't come back at all."
Anna nodded again, "that's good. Hearing is gonna take a while. Ruptured eardrums can take quite a long time to heal." She moved to the right side of his head, arms laden with all the medical supplies she needed. She pulled the sweat soaked bandage off and immediately went to work cleaning the sutures.
"Can the stitches come out yet?" Grady questioned hopefully.
"Not yet," Anna answered, frowning. "Still got another week hun."
"Sumbitch" he grumbled under his breath, and Anna giggled.
"GRADY!" Boyd's voice shouted for him over the bustling crowd of soldiers. "C'mon man it's time to roll out!"
Grady nodded to him in reply, "gimmie a second!" He called back.
Quickly, Anna placed a clean bandage over the stitches and secured it down with stripes of tape.
"Can-can you do a second layer?" Grady questioned hesitantly. "Fuckin' helmet is killin' me."
Anna smiled and squeezed his shoulder affectionately. "Course I can hun." She repeated the process with a second bandage and more tape. "Okay, you're good to go."
Grady grabbed his helmet from just inside the truck and grinned up at her. "Thanks sweetheart." As he stood, he quickly pecked a kiss to her cheek, and immediately blushed a fire hydrant red.
"Coon-ass! C'mon! Stop oogling your girlfriend!"
Anna snorted out an amused laugh, "you better go before Boyd has a stroke."
Grady smiled back at her sheepishly, "Thanks darlin', for everything. An' I'm gonna come back for 'nother morphine shot, cus whoo man! That shit is awesome!"
Anna laughed loudly, shaking her head. "Don't count on it unless you're actively dying Coon-ass." She handed him the bottle of aspirin from her pack. "Here, now don't forget again! Every four hours, have Boyd remind you if you have to."
Grady nodded at her, smiling. "Won't forget again. Promise." He squeezed her arm in gratitude and turned to leave.
"Coon-ass!" She called back for him, and when he turned to face her once more, she grabbed the front of his cover-alls and pulled him down for a real kiss. A kiss that made his heart flip and flop and pumped life back into his soul. A kiss that he desperately wished to hold onto for as long as possible. It warmed him all the way down to his toes, made his head swim and his thoughts falter. But too soon she was pulling away, releasing her grip, severing their connection. "Grady" she whispered to him. "Please be careful."
He nodded fervently in acknowledgement, his breathing erratic and mind still whirring. He sighed contentedly, his forehead coming down to rest on hers, he closed his eyes for a long moment and just bathed in the warmth of their closeness.
"COON-ASS! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD C'MON MAN!"
They both snorted in amusement at the frustration in Bible's voice.
"Go on hun," Anna said softly. "You gotta go."
Grady nodded against her forehead and used every fiber of willpower he had to pull himself away. "You'll be right 'hind us?" He called as he turned to head towards Fury.
Anna smiled and nodded, her face flushed and her eyes glistening. "I'll be right behind you."
Fun fact: Doctors falling in love with patients is called the Florence Nightingale effect, but the term wasn't first used until 1982. Just another one of the many frustrations of writing period pieces lol.
I rewatched the movie about 6 times in a row, rewrote pages and pages of notes. Got my outline redone. I think I got my groove back. I won't give you a promised date for an update, but I will say, soon. I'm working on it! As always, I love feedback!