Thanks for your patience in waiting for updates, everyone (and for reminding me that you're here and that you actually care about Nora and what happens to her!). One thing I want to address with this update: you'll notice that in this chapter I have made a definitive switch to using "Nora" in the narration instead of Eleanor. I always meant to make this switch gradually as Nora's perception of herself changes throughout the story, but I have recently gotten very attached to and familiar with her as a character, and decided that I just want to make the switch to calling her Nora now, as the men already think of her as Nora (and, based on your reviews, many of you already think of her as "Nora" too).

I'm also excited to say that I've been watching BoB a lot lately and have made some major plans for this story. I'm SO excited for you guys to see how Nora is going to develop, especially in the last few episodes. So, all that to say, I definitely have not abandoned this story, despite the long hiatuses, and I appreciate everyone sticking with it!

Chapter Eleven

"You alright?" Luz asked quietly from beside Nora. They were sitting atop a tank as they pulled into Nuenen - the next town that they were supposed to be liberating. "Heard you didn't enjoy Eindhoven as much as the rest of us." He added. Nora shrugged.

"I'm fine." She said. It wouldn't do to dwell on it, after all. Besides, Lipton had already pulled her aside and talked to her about it, and she was feeling a little bit better now that they'd left. She was hoping Nuenen wouldn't be anything like that - a foolish hope, as Eindhoven had been blessedly peaceful compared to what they were about to endure. Luz accepted the answer without any pressing, and they watched the countryside drift by, trying not to hold their breath thinking about the conflict that might lie ahead.

About a half-mile after they entered Nuenen, the caravan of tanks passed by a woman holding her baby on the side of the road. She was dressed in rags and her head had been shaved - clearly a victim of the same treatment as Mila. The soldiers all sobered and quieted as they approached, looking on the woman in pity. Nora sent an inquiring look at Lipton and he shook his head. There was no time to stop and speak to the woman or check up on her. Luz watched Nora deflate and reached into his pocket, pulling out a C-ration.

"Mellet," He called down to one of the Privates walking alongside the tank. The young man looked up and Luz tossed him the box, nodding toward the woman. The Private walked over and placed it in her hands as they passed and the woman nodded her appreciation to him. Nora relaxed a bit and leaned her head back against the metal tank, thankful to be serving with men who seemed to understand her well enough.

A few minutes later, the caravan abruptly came to a stop and Nora leaned forward to see what was happening. They'd stopped on the outskirts of the small town and a lieutenant had wandered up ahead, taking a look at it through his binoculars.

"Get a load of General Patton!" One of the men called jokingly.

"What's he doing?" Nora asked aloud to no one in particular, the hair on the back of her neck raising as she watched him. He had no cover whatsoever. Bull was quick to act, climbing down and calling out to the lieutenant in warning, but it was too late - the sound of a bullet came zipping through the air, and the lieutenant hit the ground with a spurt of blood.

"Off the tracks!" The men started screaming as they jumped down, "Everyone to the ditch! Get to the ditch!"

Luz reached out to grab onto the sleeve of Nora's uniform when she jumped down, but it was too late and she slipped out of his grasp, running toward the fallen lieutenant. She slid to her knees next to the soldier and tried to flatten herself out as much as possible - she was the first to make it to him, but Bull was right on her heels, kneeling down as well.

"You're doing great, Lieutenant." She told the boy, who was already holding his own neck to keep the blood from flowing out. "Bull, help him keep pressure on it."

Bull did as she instructed, and she began packing the wound with gauze, pushing it under his bloody fingers. "Keep moving! Get up!" He was screaming at his platoon, who were still squatting in the ditch at the side of the road. Nora placed her hands over his so that he could slip his own off the wound.

"Go, Bull." She ordered. "I've got it."

"Are you sure?" He called back over the gunfire. A bullet ricocheted off the dirt near them, but Nora's eyes were trained on the lieutenant as she continued to speak to him calmly.

"Yes, go!" She insisted, and Bull ran off to corral his men out of the ditch. "Lieutenant, what's your name?" She asked the young man.

"Brewer." he whispered hoarsely.

"You can speak. That's a good sign, Brewer." She assured him. "I need you to relax and focus on me. We're going to get the bleeding under control before we move you." After a few minutes, she let up on the pressure just a bit to look underneath and try to discern where the bullet had entered and exited. If she was right, it should've avoided all major arteries.

"I think you got lucky, lieutenant."

"Really?" He rasped.

"Don't speak." She instructed him, reapplying pressure. She could hear the chaos of battle going on behind her in the town and prayed that the wounded wouldn't be too much for Roe and the other medics to handle. She wasn't going to leave this soldier until she was confident his wound was clotting and she could get a bandage on it. A few more minutes passed and the bleeding had slowed, though not as much as she would've liked.

"Let's get you bandaged up." She announced. She wrapped the bandages carefully, in a pattern that put pressure on the wounded spot. Nixon and Winters appeared at the tanks and Winters rushed to her side.

"How is he?" He asked.

"I've done all I can do here - he needs to be evacuated to an aid station." She replied.

"We'll get him loaded onto a jeep." Winters said, nodding. "We're gonna have to fall back."

"Already?" Nora asked, whipping around to look at the scene behind her. She'd heard the tanks exploding the whole time, and could now see that half the town had been destroyed and that the men were scrambling under a rain of gunfire. She turned back to address Winters. "I'm gonna go help."

Winters looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn't. There could be wounded in there, and it was her job to see to it that those boys made it back when the order went out. Nora left the lieutenant in his care and dropped down into the ditch, trying to keep low as she made her way into town. She stepped over a couple of soldiers along the way, stooping down to nudge them in case they were still alive. They weren't.

The further in she ran, the more chaotic things got. There were heavy artillery explosions everywhere, and large chunks of stone would've been her undoing if she hadn't been wearing her helmet. The men must've gotten the order to fall back, because they flooded into the same ditch and started running back out of town, screaming at each other to keep moving.

"You're going the wrong way!" Cobb yelled as she passed him. She continued to push past the long string of panicked men, having now latched onto a 'medic' cry up ahead. As she got closer, she recognized the voice as Malarkey, and a lump formed in her throat. When she finally reached the sound, she stepped over Malarkey and Skip and dropped down next to Buck, whose face was screwed up in pain. He was lying supine and reaching around to hold his backside, so Nora rolled him onto his side and began checking him out, no questions asked. There was both an entry and an exit wound. Probably two of each, Nora thought, as she stared at his clothed backside in amazement.

"It went straight through, side to side." She announced. She ripped open his pants in the back and began to apply gauze to the four holes as best she could, wanting to staunch the bleeding a bit.

"I'm getting to know you guys too well." She complained over the sound of gunfire, earning a pained laugh from Buck. The light moment was ruined by a piece of artillery that hit near the side of the ditch, sending dirt flying everywhere. Nora ducked for cover, throwing herself over the wound to keep it clean as best she could.

"Malarkey, get 'em out of here. Go!" Buck commanded.

"What?" Malarkey said, alarmed.

"Just leave me here for the Germans." Buck continued.

"Are you nuts?" Malarkey exclaimed.

"We'll carry you." Skip said.

"Are you kiddin' me? I weigh more than both of you two guys combined." Buck argued. Nora and Malarkey exchanged a look, knowing that they couldn't leave him there but not sure what else to do.

"Come on." Malarkey told Skip, who followed him as he got up and exited the ditch. "Nora, stay here with him."

"I'm serious, Nora." Buck continued after they ran off. "You should go."

"Shut your trap, Buck Compton."

When Malarkey and Skip reappeared a minute later, they came with Guarnere and a giant oak door in tow.

"Alright, Compton, time to go." Nora announced, stepping away as the men grabbed him and hauled him up onto the door. Shouldering the other end, they began to drag him across the grass out of Nuenen. Because the door was too wide, they couldn't use the ditch for cover, and Nora was concerned that Buck would become target practice, so she walked behind him, hoping that her medic's badge would help to redirect some of the gunfire.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Winters was screaming as they finally made it back to the tanks. The men dragged Buck onward toward one of the trucks and Nora hung back when Nixon gestured for her.

"How bad?" He asked.

"I'm not sure; but it didn't look too goo-" Nora was cut off as a bullet ricocheted off of Nix's helmet, throwing him to the ground. It happened so quickly and was so surprising that Nora did something she didn't do often - she screamed.

"Nix!" Winters cried when he saw his best friend fall. Nora and Dick fell to their knees next to him, helping him into a sitting position.

"I'm alright. I'm alright." Nix was saying, dazed. "...Am I alright?"

"Yeah." Dick replied as Nora pushed his hair back and looked at his head. "You feel alright?"

"Yeah, quit looking at me like that." Nix insisted, still shocked, as he swatted Nora's hands away. The three of them crawled over to take better cover next to the wheel of a jeep, and Lipton approached to report on the men. As he spoke to Winters about the casualties, Nora continued to fuss over Nixon, turning his head to look at her.

"Nora, seriously, I'm fine." He complained, clearly wanting to forget the whole experience as soon as possible.

"You could have a concussion, Lewis. Look at me." She said. He continued to harumph, but did as she asked. She held his head and looked into his eyes for a few moments, asking him to follow her finger with his gaze.

"I think you're okay." She finally announced, relieved. "Put your helmet back on." She then added as an afterthought.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Nixon murmured, putting the damaged helmet back on his head as he got up and left.

"Okay, let's move 'em out." Winters announced. "Price, go with Lipton and help see to the 11 wounded."

Nora nodded, moving to follow Lipton, but he stopped "Sir, Randleman's missing, too." Winters hesitated for a moment.

"Randleman?"

"Yes, sir."

The three were quiet for a long moment.

"Okay, let's go." Winters said, finally.

Nora followed Lipton back to the trucks while listening to him brief her on the injuries. It sounded like none, with the exception of Lieutenant Brewer's, were too bad - and Brewer had been sent ahead of them in the direction of an aid station. Nora located the truck that Buck had been loaded into the back of and climbed up with the help of Guarnere.

"One bullet, four holes." Guarnere announced in amazement, as if Nora didn't already know.

"Let's take a better look." She told Buck, sitting on the bed of the truck next to him as it lurched into motion and began driving away from Nuenen.

Once they were a good few miles away from Nuenen, the caravan pulled over on the side of the road and the company walked down into an empty field to sit and wait for further instructions. Nora went around with Roe helping the injured for the first couple of hours and then settled in with some of the guys when darkness fell.

"Any good news?" Luz asked as she plopped down next to him in the grass. He, Malarkey, Skip, and a few others were all sitting around chewing the fat. Everyone looked ready to fall over from exhaustion, including Nora.

"I heard Lieutenant Brewer's gonna make it." She said quietly, shrugging a shoulder.

"That's good." Malarkey piped up. The terrible silence that fell over them clearly had to do with Randleman's disappearance, but none of them wanted to bring it up, so Malarkey kept talking. "I'm gonna have kinks in my neck for a week." He groaned.

"Yeah, at least you didn't spend half the day in Buck Compton's ass crack." Nora quipped, causing shocked laughter to erupt among the men. Someone in the distance called out 'noise discipline!' and they quieted down. Nora didn't often resort to foul humor around the men, so when she did, it always took them by surprise and served as a morale booster. Besides, Buck's million-dollar wound was getting funnier and funnier to Nora ever since they'd been out of danger, and she'd had the chance to think about it.

"That was quick thinking with the door." She complimented Malarkey, nudging him with her foot where he was laying near her in the grass.

"That's why they keep bringing me along," He teased, grabbing her foot before she could nudge him with it again.

"Alright, folks," Lipton announced, walking up to the group and crouching to speak with them. "Looks like we're gonna hunker down here for the night and head out in the morning. Get some sleep."

The men all began to pull gear for the night out of their bags but Nora just sighed and laid back in the grass, letting her back pop and stretch. She could fall asleep right like that.

"Hey sleepyhead, might wanna pull out a blanket." Skip called jokingly. Nora waved a dismissive hand, refusing to move from her spot.

"I got it. Don't strain yourself" Luz announced sarcastically, and she felt him rifling around in her bag next to her.

Nora began to drift, replaying the day's events in her head. The loss of Bull was a hard one, and she prayed that he was not a prisoner of war. At the same time, she hoped that he was alive. Today had been one of the hardest battles yet - they'd had to retreat, and it hadn't felt good. But Nora also couldn't help feeling that this battle was a step forward for her. For the first time, the men - several of them - had trusted her to strike out on her own and make her own decisions. Luz had chosen not to stand in the way of her duty when she ran off, Bull had chosen the welfare of his men instead of staying to watch her, and Winters had allowed her to run headfirst into a failing battle while the men retreated.

"Nora, you've still got your helmet on." Luz reminded her, thinking she looked awfully uncomfortable. But she was already fast asleep.

"Ah, leave her be." Skip insisted.

When Lipton nudged her awake, Nora felt like she had just entered the world for the first time, she had been sleeping so hard. She groaned and rolled onto her side. She had to have been laying flat on her back all night long on the hard ground, because her muscles screamed at the movement. Lipton, that gentle soul, was trying his hardest not to smirk, and she cringed to think about what she'd just looked like sleeping.

"Bull's back." He announced after a moment. That got Nora's full attention and she sat up quickly.

"Is he alright?" She asked, wadding up her blanket and the other things Luz had apparently pulled out of her pack for her.

"He's fine. We move out in five." He replied, watching her gather her things. She threw on her pack and followed him over to where all the other men were gathered around Bull. Before she could approach and give the man a proper greeting, Skip turned around and called out to her.

"Hey! If it isn't Snore-a Price!" He greeted. The other men turned and greeted her with a chorus of the same nickname: "Snore-a!" "Hey Snore-a!" "How'd you sleep, Snore-a?"

Nora stopped and turned to Lipton, giving him a baleful look that demanded an explanation. Instead of providing one, Lipton ran a hand over his face, trying to hide his laughter.