A/N: Back with another one-shot for you!

[ 13 ]

NO ONE'S FAULT

Alice and Harry + "I need a hug" + sometime during the war, prompt given by tumblr's pxpeyewynn

"She had hoped it would reassure them, the strength of her words and the knowledge that the best medic in the 101st would be taking care of their friend. But their faces fell."

October 31, 1944

Nijmegen, the Netherlands

When Nixon phoned her and told her that Moose had been shot, Alice felt her chest tighten. Shivers ran down her spine as her hand went to the still healing bullet wound on her left arm. According to Nix, he'd been shot multiple times by a sentry. Their own damn sentry. She didn't know who to be angrier at: Moose for not immediately relaying the password, or the sentry for shooting him.

She hurried down the steps of the farmhouse. Her Corcoran leather boots pounded on wood. The chill of late October smacked her in the face as she swung open the door and stepped into the night. She couldn't see stars, just the approaching headlights of a jeep.

Alice shielded her eyes. She strained to see past the glare. As the engine switched off and both the lights and the noise died, she let her eyes adjust. Harry and Dick moved out of their jeep. She hurried to them.

"What happened?" she demanded. "Nix told me a little, but he didn't know much."

They didn't say anything, just moved towards the lights on the side of the farmhouse. Her concern grew with each moment that passed in silence. Just as she went to ask again, Dick stopped though, sighing.

"We don't know anything more right now," he told her. "Just what I told Nixon over the radio."

"Gene's got him though," Alice added. She had hoped it would reassure them, the strength of her words and the knowledge that the best medic in the 101st would be taking care of their friend. But their faces fell. "He's with him, right?"

After a momentary pause, they both nodded. Dick took a quick breath. "Yeah. Yeah he's got him."

In the artificial light of the farmhouse lanterns, Alice watch in confusion as Harry took out his canteen and down a drink, and Dick just averted his gaze from her to him and then the darkness. Something else was wrong. Something had happened, and these two weren't telling her. Alice clenched her fist.

"Right. Uh, you two hang here," Dick finally said. "I've got to call Sink, he'll probably want to meet up and discuss our options." He frowned. Turning to Alice, and then to Harry, he added, "Until we get orders to the contrary, Harry, take charge of Easy. I'll send runners to Shames and Peacock."

Harry nodded. "Right," he muttered. Another drink passed his lips, and he moved into the farmhouse.

Left outside with Dick, Alice just felt her stomach turn. Something definitely wasn't right. She turned to her left, at Dick, as the door shut behind Harry. "Dick?"

He sighed. Running a hand through his hair for a moment, Dick turned from the silent door to her. He frowned, and moved back towards the jeep with her in tow. "Doc chewed him out," he tried to explain. He stopped next to the hood of the jeep. "Harry didn't remember how much morphine he'd given Moose."

Alice felt her heart leap into her throat. Gene had been getting more and more snippy while in Holland. She'd been on the receiving end more than once since dropping into the Netherlands. The stress affected all of them, but Gene usually kept a lid on it.

She knew how difficult it was to treat wounded, especially a friend. In Eindhoven, she'd only had to patch up Gene's minor bullet wound in his leg. Even there she'd frozen, almost panicked. Moose's wounds had been much worse.

But as Dick explained what Gene had said, had yelled at them for, she couldn't fault him. Shame washed over her as well, guilt for knowing that had she been in the same situation, she may have been just as caught off guard as Harry. Gene was right. They were officers. They had a job to protect their soldiers as much as the medics did.

"I'll talk to him," Alice said. "And I happen to have a couple bottles of Vat 69 in my room. Harry should appreciate that." She tried to smile even as Dick just frowned at her and then the darkness around them. But as he nodded to her and then drove off in the jeep, she sighed.

Alice shivered from both the darkness and the cold. Left alone, the jeep disappearing into the night down the road, she crossed her arms over her chest for some support. The pain in her arm increased for a moment. Alice sighed. She turned away.

The light in the foyer of the farmhouse caused her to pause. It took a moment to readjust to the brightness. She looked in the kitchen and then the side rooms for Harry, but couldn't find him. So she started up the stairs.

She found him sitting at a table, letter in his hands. It wasn't difficult to guess who it was from; he always reread the ones from Kitty. For a moment, her own letters from Elsa came to mind. Her right hand went to the breast pocket before she even realized what she was doing. They were still there. Unlike her cousin.

But she had to ignore the pain, like she ignored so many things. Like she ignored the way Nixon's mere presence made her smile, or the way she'd started to like Vat 69 almost as much as a good red wine, or the way his laugh warmed her more than any cigarette could. Seeing Harry there, fixated on the letter from Kitty, Alice sighed. Ignore it.

She stepped into the room. It made him look up, and he forced a small smile on his face. Alice could see right through it. But she just sighed, moving further in. Her two stolen Vat 69 bottles sat in a trunk on the far side of the sitting room. After grabbing one, she collapsed into a chair at the table and filled two shot glasses.

"Don't tell Nix I have these," she said. She could see the way his shoulders slumped and he gripped the letter for dear life that Harry needed something. What exactly, she couldn't tell. Definitely alcohol. They could all use the alcohol. "Here."

Harry nodded. "Thanks."

They both took drinks. Then they returned to silence. Thoughts filled her mind that Alice didn't even want to entertain. What if Moose died? Even if he didn't die, what was Easy going to do? Buck was still in the hospital. Easy only really had Harry, Shames, and Peacock. And of course, Harry found himself being considered for a promotion into HQ company. She couldn't command. So what would Easy do?

Her heart raced. Alice felt her breathing get more rapid. Easy didn't need this. Harry didn't need this. None of them did, of course, but as she glanced at the man adjacent to her who clutched at his fiancée's letter and drank expensive whiskey, she tried to focus on him.

"I'll help with Easy," she offered. As her words shattered the silence around them, he looked over. She shrugged. "As long as I'm not actually in command, Sink shouldn't mind."

He nodded. Setting down the letter, Harry leaned back in his chair with a refilled shot glass and sighed. "We'll brief Shames and Peacock in the morning. They can take the news to the men, and I'll answer questions."

"I'll help with Second Platoon," she offered. With Bill in the hospital as well, she figured Lipton and Toye could use an extra hand with leadership there. "We'll make this work."

She said it more to herself as reassurance than anything else. For another hour they sat mostly in silence, nursing shot glasses of whiskey. Neither Nixon nor Dick interrupted. Just the two of them, quiet, trying to ignore the pain and stress around them.

By two in the morning, Alice felt about ready to fall asleep at the table. Her whole body had warmed from the alcohol in her system. She looked over at Harry. He sat with his head back, eyes closed. She wondered if he was asleep. But as she moved to stand up, stumbling just a tiny bit as she readjusted to being upright, he turned to her.

"Do you want a hug?" She blurted it out before she realized what she was saying. Of course, he wouldn't. He'd never ask. Why had she asked? The drinks, probably. She amended her statement. "Because... because I need a hug."

He let out a tiny snort of laughter. But Harry stood up and she grabbed him in a hug. It took all her strength not to cry. So much had happened recently, so many bad things that she was starting to lose her control. The whiskey didn't help. Harry's embrace was warm and comforting. Alice could only hope it would help him too, even if he would never bring himself to admit it or ask.

"Shit, I need to sleep," Alice muttered. She pulled away from him. They'd almost finished a full bottle of the whiskey. "You should too. Briefing in the morning," she reminded him. As she moved to the door, Alice lingered. She turned around. "Harry?"

"Hm?"

"It's not your fault."

He didn't respond. But he did offer her a small nod, and a bit of a shrug, and he pushed the cork back into the top of the Vat 69. She decided that was good enough. It would have to be good enough.