Hello everyone! Thank you so much for the encouraging reviews! I am sorry you've had to wait so long, and for such a short chapter at that! With school starting up again, things have been a bit crazy. I just wrote this chapter to get through the rest of "Day of Days" because I actually already have much of "Carentan" written and I wanted to get to that. Enjoy!
Eleanor adjusted the pack on her shoulders as she continued to trudge behind Speirs through the woods of Normandy. Dawn was approaching and they needed to get to the rendezvous point soon. Thankfully, they hadn't had any more incidents like the one with the two Germans they had encountered earlier that morning.
"Need to check the bearing?" She spoke in a low tone when Speirs slowed to a stop. She halted right behind him, looking over his shoulder for signs of danger.
"Yeah, better do it, just in case. We should be really close." He murmured, pulling out his mini compass. Eleanor unfolded the map as they kneeled. They had made an efficient team over the last few hours, to Speirs' delight. It helped that she talked much less than the average female Speirs has encountered in his life. He didn't think she was shy or soft spoken, though. He'd seen her laughing and carrying on with the men of Easy in various mess halls over the last three years. Rather, she seemed to be intensely focused. Always thinking, always observing. Then again, who wasn't like that in enemy territory? That's how you survived.
"Looks like we've shifted northeast just a hair." she murmured, her brow furrowed as she shifted closer to him in order to view both the compass and the map. Speirs gave a curt nod.
"If we correct, we should be there in just another few minutes. We're only about a mile out." He added. Eleanor was nodding quickly, excited and also in fear of the prospect of seeing her company. Who would be there? Who would be missing? And who might need her help right now?
"We should pick up the pace." She replied, folding the map back up and stuffing it into her pocket as she rose to her feet. Speirs nodded as he rose also, but his eyes flickered to the bandage peeking out of her helmet, uncertain.
"It's better. Stopped bleeding. Let's go." She insisted before he could ask, this time taking the lead in an attempt to correct their course. Speirs followed behind, keeping his rifle at the ready, just in case.
Eleanor's heart was pounding hard as she and Speirs finally walked into the base camp where the soldiers were looking for their platoons left and right. She stopped short when she didn't immediately see any Easy men. Speirs took notice and placed a hand on her back, urging her forward with him.
"Come on," he told her "let's find some officers and see what the plan is." She nodded, as his hand on her back effectively grounded her and brought her back to the task at hand.
Eleanor could've cried when she saw Dick Winters' auburn hair reflecting sunlight up ahead and she picked up the pace, practically jogging by the time she reached him and Buck Compton. She slowed as she reached them, unsure of how to greet them. Were the other men hugging each other? She didn't have to think about it long, because when they noticed her, Winters turned and pulled her into a modest but heartfelt embrace and Buck placed a teasing hand on her helmet, hugging her as well when Winters released her.
"Nora!" Dick had exclaimed, a relieved smile gracing his usually serious expression.
"You boys have no idea how glad I am to see you." She laughed.
"You're covered in blood," Dick observed, "are you wounded?"
"We ran into some trouble, but she handled herself." Speirs spoke up from behind her. None of the Easy Company officers had noticed his presence in the midst of their reunion. Winters exchanged a respectful nod with the Dog Company officer and Speirs decided that it was time to hook back up with his own men.
"Make sure that cut gets taken care of." He told Eleanor, who nodded. "Got any smokes?" He then asked the men. Buck pulled a pack out of his breast pocket and offered it to Speirs, who took the entire pack and walked off.
"So who's still unaccounted for?" Eleanor cut to the chase, as Buck watched Speirs walk off with his smokes in disbelief.
"You." He replied. "Or, your plane, anyway. Where's Meehan?"
Eleanor opened her mouth to explain, but wasn't sure that she could. Everything so far had moved so quickly that she hadn't even sorted out what happened in her own mind. She shook her head solemnly and the men's looks turned mournful.
"I guess that means it's you, Dick." Buck said gently after a few moments. At that moment, Toye appeared in the group.
"Nora! You're a sight for sore eyes!" He exclaimed happily before turning to Winters. "Everyone's rounded up." He informed the new CO of Easy Company. Winters nodded, turning to leave and gesturing for the others to follow. Eleanor sidled up next to Buck.
"What's going on?" She asked, falling into step with the much larger man.
"Taking some guns out nearby. Guys at the beach landings are getting obliterated." He replied. When they entered the tent, men hooted and hollered as they embraced Eleanor.
"We thought you was dead, bird. What the hell?" Guarnere joked in relief.
"My God, Nora. You look like you killed a man." Malarkey joked without thinking as the men took in her blood-soaked uniform. When Eleanor didn't immediately respond, Malarkey searched her eyes frantically with his own.
"Holy shit." He said after a moment.
Bull Randleman threw an arm around her shoulders and Winters urged the men to gather around so that he could talk strategy with them. Eleanor tried to focus on what Winters was saying, but her mind kept wandering at the reminder of the life she had taken just a few hours ago. Bull's squeezing and softly-rubbing hand on her shoulder periodically pulled her back to the present during the meeting. When the group finally split up to prepare for the assault, Winters pulled Eleanor to the side.
"Go to the medical tent. They need all the help they can get over there." He ordered her gently.
"No, Roe is already over there. You need a medic." She insisted.
"We'll be close by. If anyone is wounded, we'll get them over to the medical tent. Go." He told her, his tone leaving no room for argument.
"Fine." She sighed, turning to leave.
"Nora." He called out and she stopped, looking back at him. "I'm glad you did what you needed to do to come back."
She nodded softly, forcing a reassuring smile. "You too, Dick."
Eleanor was frustrated that she was kept from the field mission, but she also trusted Dick's instincts, so she felt torn. All of her frustration, in fact, all of her thoughts of the field mission evaporated when she entered the medical tent and saw all of the wounded men and the medical personnel scrambling to help them. Roe spotted her from across the tent.
"Nice of you to show up, Price." He called. Though the words were harsh, his tone betrayed how glad he was to see her. "Now grab some gauze and get over here."
Eleanor took a deep breath and got to work.
Eleanor was relieved to finally wash the blood off of her hands when all of the men in the medical tent were taken care of. She sighed as she scrubbed at them; the majority washed away, but the deepest cracks in her skin seemed to hold a red tint no matter how hard she scrubbed. Finally satisfied, she excused herself from the tent and stepped into the roadway. There were soldiers everywhere, but the area was pitch-dark because everyone was on light discipline. She wasn't exactly sure where she should be settling in for the night, so she figured her first order of business would be to find some of the other men from Easy.
After she had been wandering around for a few minutes, Dick sidled up next to her.
"How're you feeling, Price?" He asked, giving her a sidelong glance. She simply shrugged a shoulder, uninterested in answering the question when there were more important things to discuss.
"Okay." She said. "How was the assault on Brecourt? I saw that Popeye took a bullet." She continued.
"Yeah, how's he doing?" He asked, genuinely interested.
"He'll be alright." She replied. "So the assault?"
"Went well. We took out probably 20 Germans. Disabled all of the guns. Dog Company swooped in and took out the last one, but we could've handled it."
"Of course." She insisted, a knowing smile gracing her face.
"Anyway, we found a map that's probably going to prove pretty helpful for headquarters."
"Day one and you're already a hero." She teased. His cheeks took on a slight pink tinge - his report of the assault had been so objective, so humble. She enjoyed making Dick Winters uncomfortable with verbal accolades. Up ahead of them, the tent flap of a jeep flipped open and Guarnere's face popped out.
"Gimme some air! Jesus Christ." He complained. Dick and Eleanor exchanged a glance before walking up to the vehicle and ducking under the flap.
"Nora!" A few of the men exclaimed. Eleanor's nose crinkled at the scent that wafted up from Buck's bowl.
"Whatcha got there?" She asked, cringing.
"You don't wanna know." Guarnere joked, earning an eye roll from Malarkey, who seemed to be preparing the food. "Drink, sir?" He then asked Winters, offering him a bottle.
"It's been a day of firsts." Winters reflected, surprising everyone by accepting the bottle and taking a swig.
"Yes, it has." Eleanor agreed morosely, causing Winters to offer her the bottle next. She took an extra long pull of the alcohol, before handing it back to Guarnere and reaching a hand out to Buck. He took her hand, pulling her up into the back of the truck with them and on his other side, Toye scooted over to make room for her.
"Oh, and Guarnere?" Winters added before he left. "I'm not a quaker."
Everyone in the truck erupted with laughter and when it died down, there was an unspoken tension, as all the men wanted to ask Eleanor what had happened to her plane, to her, but didn't know how. Harry Welsh finally bit the bullet.
"You do D-Day by yourself?" He asked. Eleanor didn't mind so much that they wanted to know - they were her brothers, her comrades. They had all gone through D-Day, too. If she couldn't tell them, then who could she tell?
"Nah." She responded, testing a small bit of the beans that Malarkey had handed her in a small tin cup. They didn't taste as bad as they smelled. "I mean, just from the time I left the plane to the time I hit the ground. Lt. Speirs saw me falling."
"You spent the evening with that guy?" Toye responded. "I mean, the man's crazy, but if there's anyone you'd want to be stuck with on invasion day, it's him. He took out that last gun today practically by himself." He added. Eleanor found that it wasn't a huge stretch of her imagination to picture what he was telling her.
"Falling?" Malarkey asked, suspicious of the word she'd used to describe her descent to earth. Eleanor nodded proudly, actually excited that she had a story the men really wanted to hear.
"Chute went out. I'd be dead if I hadn't fallen into the water." She insisted, causing some
of the men's jaws to drop.
"You're pulling my leg." Malarkey argued.
"No, I'm not! Speirs was waiting at the edge of the lake when I climbed out and then we
made our way to the rendezvous point. Got attacked by a pair of Germans on the way, but other than that, we didn't see any trouble." She summarized. At the mention of the 'pair of Germans,' the men sensed that she didn't want to be questioned too much on the matter.
"Well I'm glad Speirs was there." Lipton told her with his kind smile.
"Speirs should be glad she was there." Buck retorted. "Isn't that right, Nora?" He added, nudging her playfully.
"Well, he did almost get us lost." She agreed, causing the men to laugh in surprise. Eleanor found herself becoming increasingly more relaxed as she watched the men around her laughing and carrying on. D-Day, the day they'd all been waiting for, both anticipating and dreading, was finally over. And with the light of the fire and the warmth radiating from Buck and Toye on either side of her, Eleanor felt she was ready, or as ready as she could be, for D-Day plus one.