Nora spent as much time outside of her foxhole as possible. The medics were low on supplies, so she and Roe spent most of their time running from foxhole to foxhole, scrounging for whatever bandages and syrettes the men had leftover from Holland. So far, they hadn't gleaned much. At this point, they were desperate for a pair of scissors.
"Nora, take a break. You're gonna freeze running around out there all night." Nix had told her when she went to bother him for supplies.
"If anyone's going to freeze, it's you. You look like you haven't moved all day." She said, noticing the snow-dusted blanket he was huddled under. "You've gotta move around and keep the blood flowing."
"I'm serious, sit down for a minute." He urged her. She eyed the foxhole - he and Winters had a pretty nice setup. The ground didn't look too wet, but she didn't want to risk being wrong and having to live with a wet (and then frozen) uniform for the rest of the evening.
Nixon watched as Nora surveyed the hole. Lipton had mentioned to them earlier that something wasn't right with her. She was hardly ever in her foxhole, and when she was, she passed up sleep in favor of doing foxhole maintenance to try and make it better. She certainly looked as if she hadn't slept in a while.
"It's dry." He told her.
"I have to find some scissors," She said, shaking her head. "I don't suppose you have any?"
"No, sorry." Nix replied. Nora nodded, rising from her squat.
"You should be walking at least five minutes out of every hour." She told him in parting.
"Yes, doctor." He called out playfully.
Nora saw Roe hunkered down in a foxhole with Spina and headed that way.
"Any luck?" She asked, squatting down in the shallow hole with them.
"Nadda." Spina replied.
"Got a couple bandages, but no scissors yet," Roe said. "You?"
"I got one syrette," Nora said with a sigh, holding up the meager offering. "How long do
you think it'll be before more supplies come?"
"Not until after the fog lifts. Not soon enough." Roe said, "1st battalion pulled out of Foy and there's supposed to be a lot of shit headed our way, real quick."
Nora's stomach turned at the thought of responding to multiple calls for a medic without any supplies. Right now, they were doing okay. Under a barrage, it would be a different story.
"What's this? Three medics in one hole? What's gonna happen to us if you take a hit?" Lt. Dike asked, approaching them from behind. The three turned to regard him, surprised by his sudden appearance. Nora had rarely seen the man since they'd arrived in the forest. His absence had already become a running joke among the men. Nora wasn't sure what to think of Lt. Norman Dike. He certainly wasn't a very competent leader; strangely, though, he didn't seem to be bothered by Nora's presence and had largely left her alone - a reaction she had never received from a new C.O. For that reason, she didn't really mind him too much. Easy was getting along just fine without leadership (or, rather, under the leadership of Lipton, which had already been a constant for a while now). Lt. Dike called for Lipton, who ran up to join them.
"I'll keep moving." Nora offered, her knees popping as she stood to full height. "I'm gonna see if Speirs scrounged anything up further down the line."
"1st Sergeant, where's my foxhole?" Dike asked Lipton, his tone exasperated. Nora and Lipton exchanged an unreadable look, and Lipton ushered him in the correct direction.
When Nora found Speirs, she wasn't surprised to find him on his feet and keeping busy. He walked over to meet her, pulling a handful of bandages out of his pockets. She'd gone to see him earlier in the day to check on Dog Company's supply situation - they were also running low, but had a little bit more leftover from Holland than Easy did. Speirs had assured her that he would talk with the medics and bounce around to see what they and some of the neighboring companies could spare.
"It's not much. Everyone's strapped for morphine right now." He told her.
"It's better than nothing." Nora assured him, stuffing the bandages into her bag. "Thanks."
"There's supposed to be some pretty nasty stuff coming our way." He told her.
"So I hear." She replied absent-mindedly, "Listen, you keep moving and stay dry, alright?"
It was the mantra she'd been repeating for days to every man she came in contact with. Her goal was to get through this war without ever seeing gangrene in the flesh. The few times she'd managed to sleep in these woods, her dreams were plagued with images of fingers and toes falling off. She turned to head back in the direction she came.
"Price?" Speirs called out, causing her to turn around. He reached into his pants pocket and fished something out, holding it up. "Merry Christmas."
Scissors. Nora smiled for what might have been the first time in days.
Somehow, when the generals in charge chose to make Nora a medic for her own safety, she didn't think that this was what they had in mind. Running through a gunfire battle with the protection of a medic badge on her arm was one thing. Being the person to get up and run between foxholes during a mortar shelling was another thing entirely. Nora was nearly back to Easy territory when she heard the ominous whistle and broke into a sprint.
"Incoming!" Somebody was screaming in the distance. Nora dove into the first foxhole she saw just as the first two mortars hit the ground and exploded. They hadn't been nearby, but she waited with baited breath as two more hit the ground, each getting closer. She rolled away from the owner of the foxhole to see that she had jumped directly onto Lt. Dike, who was curled up in a ball with his arms curled over his head.
"Are you alright?" She asked him, not getting a response. She knew the hole hadn't been hit - physically, he should be okay. She heard a cry for a medic and cursed under her breath. She took one last look at Dike and decided that he would have to wait. She got up and made a b-line for the injured soldier, sliding into the foxhole to find that Roe was already elevating Sisk's bloody leg - it was full of large wooden splinters from the tree that had exploded nearby.
"It ain't that bad, Sisk. It ain't that bad." He was assuring the man. Perconte was in the hole as well, calling for a jeep. Nora moved around to Sisk's other side, helping Roe pull the largest pieces out - he was right, nothing important seemed to be damaged, but it sure didn't look pretty. She continued to pull some of the smaller pieces out as Roe sprinkled sulfa on the larger wounds. Nora pulled out one of the bandages that Speirs had given her and wrapped it around the leg, earning a shout from Sisk as she tightened it. Roe pulled out a syrette, but Sisk held up a hand.
"No, doc, save the morphine. I can make it. Save it."
Roe shoved the syrette back into his pocket. "We gotta get more plasma." He said as they heard the jeep pulling up.
"Go ahead," Nora assured him. "Spina and I can hold down the fort here."
To be honest, she didn't even know if Spina was here - Roe had mentioned sending him all the way down to third battalion to scrounge for supplies. But Roe was right - they'd gotten lucky with this wound. Anything more serious was going to require plasma, and they had none. Roe and Perconte lifted Sisk out of the hole and carried him to the jeep. Nora ducked and curled up as a mortar hit close enough to the hole to cause discomfort. Perconte came back to the foxhole a minute later, out of breath.
"He got blood on my trousers!" He exclaimed.
"Ask for some new ones - I'm sure they'll send them right away."
The shelling died down after a few more minutes, and Nora was relieved to find that there were no more cries for a medic. She jumped up out of the hole and started making the rounds, just in case anyone had been hurt and not able to cry out. Lipton was also up and running around, ordering everyone to stay in their holes for the time being, in case more was incoming.
"Who got hit?" He asked her as they crossed paths.
"Sisk. He'll be alright. He's on his way to Bastogne. Roe went along to find some plasma." She explained. Lipton nodded.
"When you're done checking on everyone, head back to the foxhole." He told her.
An hour later, Nora slid under the tarp on her foxhole and sat next to Luz, trying not to think about the prickling sensation bleeding through the fabric of her pants. Every time she sat down, she couldn't tell if what she felt was wet or just cold, and her paranoia tended to win out.
"Here," Lipton said as he joined them in the hole, handing a tin can of Joe Domingus's infamous beans over. Nora accepted the can and passed it back and forth with Luz for a while. The beans were as nasty as ever, but the warmth they provided made them feel like a luxury.
"Has Roe come back from Bastogne yet?" She asked Lipton, shoving her hands into her armpits to keep warm as Luz finished off the beans. Lipton shook his head.
"I hope he can get his hands on some plasma." Nora said, chewing the inside of her cheek. Truth be told, it was making her nervous to be the only medic nearby. She'd discovered that Spina hadn't yet made it back from his scrounging mission.
"Did he mention if he was going to look for a pair of boots while he was there?" Luz asked. Nora glanced down at his feet, eyebrows furrowing.
"Why do you need boots?"
"Not me. Toye." Luz said. Lipton gave him an exasperated look, as if he'd said too much, and he shrugged defensively.
"What's wrong with Toye's boots?" She asked. Neither man said anything for a moment.
"Roe's taking care of it." Lipton said finally. Nora pulled back the tarp, crawling out.
"Come on, Nora, you should shut your eyes for a few minutes." Luz begged.
"I'll be back soon." She told the men, heading toward the OP foxhole where Toye was watching the line. She kneeled down next to the deep hole, speaking to Toye from over his shoulder.
"Toye, let me see your feet."
"I gotta keep an eye on the line." Toye told her. Roe had mentioned that Nora was particularly worried about keeping everyone dry, so he didn't see any point in upsetting her.
"I didn't ask for your eyes, I asked for your feet." She said, climbing down into the hole next to him.
"The doc's already taking care of it." Toye argued, shifting away as she reached for his feet. Nora didn't particularly like that Roe was considered the singular authority on everything, and it showed in the crease on her brow.
"Well Roe isn't here, and I'm supposed to be keeping track of everyone." She said. Toye sighed and offered her one of his feet. They were bagged in makeshift shoes crafted from fabric and paracord.
"What happened to your boots?"
"Took 'em off for a second. They took a mortar hit."
Nora tugged gingerly at the paracord and pulled one of the "shoes" off. Her stomach lurched with anxiety when she saw the foot underneath. She reached out and pressed a finger to one of his toes; he hissed, attempting to pull the foot out of her grasp.
"It's trench foot, Toye." She said, the worry evident in her voice.
"I'm gonna take good care of it." He assured her.
"It could turn to gangrene. It needs to be treated."
"I'm not coming off the line." Toye said, his eyes stony.
"You could lose this foot." Nora argued. "It looks really bad, Toye -"
"Then don't look at it if you can't handle it." He snapped, yanking his foot away. Nora sat unmoving for a moment, surprised by the outburst. Toye's expression softened a bit as he realized how harsh his tone had been. Nora slung her medical bag back over her shoulder, avoiding eye contact.
"Try massaging them." She said as she got up. "And keep them dry."
Nora weaved between foxholes on her way back from the front line. She ran right into Luz and Bull and wouldn't have noticed if Luz hadn't reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"Hey, how's Toye?" He asked, his eyes roaming over her face as he tried to determine her state.
"Fine, I suppose." She said simply, her tone indicating that she didn't want to elaborate.
"Alright, well, a group of us is going out on patrol to see if we can pinpoint where the German line is."
"You'll need a medic," Nora said, putting her helmet on.
"No, you should stay." Martin interrupted, joining their group. "We won't be far. If anyone gets hurt, we'll bring him to you."
Nora hesitated but finally nodded. After the response she'd just gotten from Toye, she didn't feel like pushing.
"You should get some rest." Bull suggested. Nora shook her head.
"Maybe in a minute. I just have to check on…" She trailed off. Who had she been meaning to check on? Her brain reached for a name, trying to remember her mental checklist. "Lt. Dike."
Nora settled in the foxhole next to Dike, who was eating his dinner out of a tin mug.
"Need something, Lieutenant?" He asked, his tone clipped.
"Just checking in." She answered. "I thought maybe you got wounded earlier."
"Nope." He said, "Fit as a fiddle." There was a distant and nervous quality to his eyes, and Nora wondered if his performance in the Ardennes thus far wasn't his usual modus operandi. Perhaps the woods were messing with him as much as they'd been messing with her.
"You were in Holland, right?" She asked.
"Yep," He said, crossing his arms for warmth after putting down his empty mug. "As an intelligence officer. Helped defend a pretty important junction on the Eindhoven-Arnhem route. Got a bronze star for it, too."
Nora nodded along to his explanation, trying to piece Norman Dike together. If he'd been an okay intelligence officer (as he said), maybe he just couldn't handle the stress of the front line.
"Something wrong with your pants?" He asked nodding down toward her hip. She glanced down to see that she'd begun wringing the excess fabric of her pants into a ball. It was a nervous habit that she was only partially aware of.
"Oh, no, just - trying to get any water out." She explained, perfectly aware of how silly it sounded.
"Oh." Dike said, not seeming to think anything of it. "Looks alright to me."
"Yes, I think you're right. It's just hard to tell when I can't stop thinking about i -"
"Do you think this is an okay place for a foxhole?" He interrupted, his face contemplative. Nora was suddenly reminded why the men had started calling him 'Foxhole Norman.' "A high chance of being hit?"
"Seems okay to me." She assured him before excusing herself and heading for her own foxhole.
They'd lost Julian on the patrol.
Nora was ricocheting back and forth between guilt that she hadn't been there and guilt that her guilt constituted a kind of vanity - a way of making his death about her and her own struggles. She couldn't help feeling, though, that if she were doing a better job of keeping it together, none of this would have happened. If she'd been well-rested and well-adjusted, she might've been allowed to join the patrol. Bull had clearly seen this guilt swirling in her eyes, because he mentioned to her that there would've been no way of helping Julian, even with a medic. He'd been caught out in the open, and the others had been pinned down by gunfire. Heffron, who had taken the young replacement under his wing lately, had tried desperately to get to him, but they'd wound up having to leave Julian behind.
It was obvious that Babe was distraught. After things had settled down, Nora went to his hole to see that Roe, who'd returned around the same time as the patrol, was already there. He was holding Babe, who stared wordlessly at the opposite side of the foxhole. Roe nodded when Nora pulled up the tarp, and she slipped into the hole, sitting across from them. She reached forward and placed a hand on Babe's leg, but he didn't seem to even notice. She felt woefully inadequate, and not for the first time that day. The hole was quiet for a long time. Eventually, Roe pulled out a chocolate bar and coaxed Heffron into eating a bite or two, which snapped him out of his stupor.
"I promised him if he got hit, I'd grab his stuff and bring it to his Ma. You know?" He said, his voice small. A lump swelled in Nora's throat until it hurt, and her eyes burned with tears. "Now the Krauts will fuckin' strip him." Babe continued, his voice breaking.
"It's okay," Roe said in a low, soothing voice.
"It's not." Babe snapped, "it's not okay. We should've got to him."
Nora moved to sit on Babe's other side and let herself under the blanket, hugging him so that he was sandwiched between her and Roe. Babe buried his head in her shoulder, and she and Roe sat in silence until he fell asleep.
"You okay?" Roe whispered after a while. Nora wondered if he ever stopped thinking about everyone else.
"What was your grandma called again?" She whispered back, staring up through a crack in the tarp at the white flares the Germans were shooting into the sky.
"A traiteurs." Roe said softly. He had told her way back at Currahee about the Cajun healers that laid their hands on people and cured them.
"She ever get weary?" Nora asked, glancing down at Babe. The crease between his brows had evened out as he slept, making him look his age again.
"She used to pray a lot," Roe answered. "Talked to God about the pain she pulled out. Asked him to carry it away."
Nora glanced up to see a sad smile on Roe's face. She wished she could carry away his pain. Babe Heffron's pain. Joe Toye's pain.
"Can you stay with him?" She asked Roe, gesturing to the young man on her shoulder. "I need to check on something." Roe's eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded. Nora shifted carefully out from under the sleeping man and climbed out of the foxhole into the frigid night.
Nora quickly and quietly moved from tree to tree, pausing for a moment between each one to listen for signs that she'd been noticed. The moon was covered by the clouds for the moment, which worked both for and against her. She had already slipped past their own line and was carefully feeling her way in the direction of the enemy's line, trying to pinpoint the spot that the men had visited earlier.
She spent 20 minutes sneaking around in the cold, growing more and more hopeless. If the Germans had taken Julian's body away, she could be out here all night, wandering in the dark. She had stopped by Bull's foxhole for a few minutes to fish for more information from Bull, as he'd been there when Julian was shot - she'd considered asking Martin, who'd led the little expedition, but she knew his suspicious eyes would see right through her. The fog was so dense that she could've walked right past Julian at this point and not have realized it. She needed to be careful not to stumble into the Germans' line - they'd gone eerily quiet about an hour ago and the lack of gunshots was somehow more discomforting. Nora was just about to give in and accept that Julian had been taken away when the wind shifted the fog, and she saw him lying about 20 yards northeast of her position.
She sank down onto one knee and surveyed the area - she couldn't see anyone out there, but that didn't mean they weren't. Likely, everyone was in their foxholes sleeping except for a couple of OPs that had been designated to watch the line. She noted the large pile of lumber a few yards from Julian. According to Bull, that was where the men had been pinned down, rendered helpless as Julian bled out. She needed to get over there. There was an open expanse between her and the pile, with little-to-no tree cover. She would need to get across unseen. She considered army-crawling, but the fog was thick at the moment, and she needed to move quickly, while the cover was good. She'd be better off to just make a stealthy run for it.
Nora noticed her nerves spiking and counted to three, preparing herself. One. She dug her boot heel into the ground, not wanting to slip on the snow when she pushed off. Two. She took a deep breath. Three. Nora pushed off the tree and started forward. The moment she'd gained any momentum, a pair of arms snaked around her chest and arms, yanking her back down. Nora immediately began to struggle, her heart-rate spiking at the thought of being in German possession. One of the arms had come up around her neck, the hand clamping down over her mouth.
"Stop it!" A voice hissed in her ear, "Stop struggling. It's Speirs. It's me." Nora stopped her legs from scrambling and allowed him to pull her back behind the tree - fortunately, she'd been behind a thicker trunk that could conceal them both as long as they were careful. Speirs dragged her around so that his back was against the tree and she was trapped between his legs, her back pressed tightly against his chest. In her panic, she continued to push against his arms. "Nora, stop. Relax." He whispered again. Nora forced herself to take a deep breath through her nose and relax her muscles. Her pulse was still frantic as her brain brought memories of her D-Day struggle to the forefront. The two of them stayed like that for a long minute, waiting with baited breath to see if any bullets would come. When they didn't, Speirs finally took his hand away from her mouth, though he continued to hold her firmly in place.
"What the hell are you doing?" He whispered harshly, his mouth right against her ear.
"Getting Julian's personal effects." She whispered back, pushing against his grip one more time to emphasize that he could release her now. His arms loosened but didn't let go.
"You're going to get yourself shot." He said.
"Not if I go now," She argued. "I have cover."
Speirs said nothing for a minute, turning his head to look around the tree trunk. Nora did the same. The fog was so dense now that she could barely see Julian laying there.
"You might need suppressive fire." He whispered finally. Nora didn't like the idea of Speirs risking his life for a fool's errand that she'd concocted for herself. However, she was also cognizant of the fact that he could just drag her back to her foxhole if she didn't agree.
"Fine. You can keep watch from behind the lumber pile." She agreed. He let her go, and the two of them silently pulled themselves into a crouching position. Speirs pulled his rifle off his back and held it in front of him.
"Stay low and follow me." He told her. Nora did as instructed, running after him. It felt like they were exposed for ages, and Nora's heart was thumping again when they slid to a stop behind the lumber pile. They sat there for a moment, catching their breath with their backs against the logs, waiting for any sign of a commotion. The tension was unbearable, but they didn't seem to have been spotted. Nora glanced over to see that Julian was laying on his side a few yards away, eyes open as if he was watching her. He looked young and afraid. She swallowed the growing lump in her throat and tried to focus on the task at hand. She couldn't change what happened to him, but she could get his effects to send home to his mother. She could help Babe keep his promise.
"The fog's clearing." Speirs whispered. "Let me do it."
He was right - the breeze had shifted the fog once again and their surroundings were far more visible now. Nora shook her head. This was her half-baked idea - she would be the one to do it.
"They're going to see you." Speirs added.
She ignored him, continuing to look around as she thought. The fog had cleared enough that she could see most dark objects - trees, brush, etc. Everything else was still a fuzzy white. For the hundredth time, she mentally cursed the army for not getting them any winter supplies yet. This would be far easier if she had a winter camouflage poncho. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she considered her options. She was so close now. All she needed to do was get to him for a minute - there was no way she could turn back now. Her uniform jacket was dark, but the thin t-shirt underneath was much lighter - losing the jacket would make her a much less imposing figure against the white landscape.
She unzipped it and pulled it off, shoving it at Speirs.
"What are you doing?" He whispered, his expression and tone incredulous.
"Don't let that get wet." She said. He slung it over his shoulder so that it wouldn't be touching the ground. Not that it really mattered - she would have to army crawl to Julian. She would be soaked to the bone before this was over.
"You'll freeze," he warned her.
"I'll be fine." She assured him. She took her helmet off and laid it on the snow.
"Stay very low." He said. Nora nodded, but hesitated for a moment before sinking down to the ground. She recalled the quiver in Babe's voice earlier that night and lowered herself onto her stomach. She had to try. Speirs raised his rifle so that it was discreetly peeking over the lumber pile, in case he needed to provide covering fire.
The cold air had already been biting at her skin, and now the growing feeling of the water sinking into her clothes multiplied the sting. The snow in this spot was particularly slushy, and she was soaked before she even made it a few feet. She did her best to ignore it as she slowly crawled along the ground toward Julian. It didn't take her long to cross the distance, but every muscle in her body tensed from the cold and the anticipation that a bullet would hit her any moment.
When she was within arm's reach of him, she reached out and began to check his pockets. She managed to pull out a couple of letters and photographs. Then she pulled off his dog tags and fished a lighter out of his inner jacket pocket. When she realized she'd gleaned everything she could, she began to shimmy back along the ground in the direction she came. Moving backwards proved a lot more difficult than moving forward, especially with her joints aching from the cold and her body's now-violent shivering. When she'd made it close enough to the lumber pile, Speirs grabbed her legs and dragged her back in. He immediately tried to force her jacket back on her, but she swatted it away, not wanting to get her only dry article of clothing wet. He pried Julian's things out of her cold fingers and stuffed them into the small medical pack she'd brought along.
"Come on, you're gonna freeze." He coaxed, handing her the helmet. She put it on her head and tried to fasten it under her chin, but her hands were shaking too much from the cold. Speirs noticed and did it for her, glancing warily toward the German line.
"Can you run?" He asked. Nora nodded, mostly because she knew she didn't have a choice. "Alright, come on."
At first, she didn't run very fast, feeling largely out of control of her body, but when the gunshots started, her survival instinct kicked into high gear, and she managed to keep up. When they made it out of firing distance unscathed, she collapsed, teeth chattering, but Speirs scooped her up easily and kept moving.
"Don't shoot!" He called out as he approached their own frontline, not bothering to sneak in the way that they had snuck out.
"What the hell?" Joe Toye exclaimed as Speirs ran past their foxhole. Nora directed him to her own foxhole as best she could, and he kneeled next to it.
"Open up!" He called quietly. The tarp was flipped away from the entrance, revealing a bleary-eyed Luz.
"What the -? Oh my God, is she okay?" Luz asked as Speirs passed her down into the foxhole. Lipton, who'd also been sleeping in the hole, was up in an instant and helping get her settled as well.
"She needs to be warmed up." Speirs said.
"Nora, can you hear me?" Lipton asked as he and Luz began rubbing at her arms and legs to try and generate heat.
"I'm c-c-cold, not d-dead." Nora responded. She noticed Speirs still kneeling outside of the hole. "Go b-back to Dog C-c-company." She told him. She didn't want everyone to find out about her little excursion, but if they did, she certainly didn't want to implicate Speirs in it, too. He didn't move for a minute, looking unsure, but seemed to eventually agree that it was the best course of action. He gave a curt nod and took off the medical pack he'd been carrying for her, dropping it into the hole.
"Send Doc Roe on your way out." Lipton called out as Speirs got up, his tone sharp. When Speirs was gone, Luz reached up and pulled the tarp closed again, trying to trap as much heat as possible.
"What happened?" Lipton asked.
"It's c-cold outs-side." Nora replied after a moment, earning a baleful look from both men. Before they could press her any further, Roe was letting himself into the foxhole, pushing Luz out of the way.
"What the hell did you do to yourself?" Roe asked, using the signature stern tone that she'd been hearing him use with the men for months now.
"I just got too cold. I'll be f-fine." She insisted as he pulled at the edge of her boots, looking down in them.
"You have snow in your boots." He said gruffly, pulling them off and attempting to knock the snow out of them. When he finished doing that, he felt her t-shirt to see how wet it was.
"Where's your jacket?" He asked. Nora glanced at the medical kit to see that Speirs had laid her discarded jacket on top of it. Roe followed her gaze.
"I t-took it off" She said. Roe didn't respond. He could tell that whatever she had done was foolish, and he wasn't happy about it. He continued to feel her toes and fingers for a few more minutes before he decided she would be fine. He gestured for Luz and Lipton to give them some space, and they averted their eyes as Roe helped her out of her wet t-shirt and into her dry jacket.
"It's only one layer, but at least it'll be dry. Stay close and make sure the shivering settles." He told the men, "If it doesn't, make her get up and move for 20 minutes, and then bring her back in. I'll be with Heffron if you need me."
"Wait," Nora said weakly, teeth chattering. She gestured toward the medical kit and Luz grabbed it, setting it on her lap. She reached in with shaky hands and dug out the items she'd pulled from Julian's pockets. She held them out to Roe, who stared at them for a moment, processing the offering. "G-give these to him."
While they couldn't make out all of the items in her hand, the dog tag dangling from her fist was a dead giveaway of what she'd done. She'd expected Roe to have a fit, but he just continued to stare at her in disbelief as he took the items.
"Tell him...n-not to say anyth...ing." She requested. Luz squeezed her tighter as her body shook in a particularly violent string of shivers - the muscles in her back were practically screaming from staying tensed up so long.
"Will do," Roe said softly after a moment, nodding at her before making his exit. Lipton reached up to pull the tarp down, and the foxhole was quiet for a long time except for the sound of Nora's teeth chattering. The air was tense, and she began to wonder if they were giving her the silent treatment.
"Are you at least going to point out the hole in our line that you managed to sneak through?" Lipton asked after a while. Nora let out a sound that was a cross between a laugh and a sob. Both men assumed it was a laugh until it was followed by another gasping sob.
"Woah, hey," Luz said, alarmed "hey, it's alright. What's wrong?"
"Are you hurt?" Lipton asked. Nora shook her head, burying her face in his shoulder. She was embarrassed to be crying, but she already had so little control of her breathing from the shivering that there was no stopping the onslaught now. The two men sat quietly with her under a shared blanket and continued trying to warm her up while she cried. After a little while, her gasping and her shivers had mostly subsided.
"I th-think I just need sleep." She said finally, exhaustion hitting her like a train. Lipton and Luz exchanged a look over her head that said no kidding, but they said nothing, relieved as she finally fell into a deep slumber.
When Nora awoke in the morning, it was to the sound of plane engines. The fog had lifted for the moment and supplies were finally being dropped. Roe was away in Bastogne again, sorting out the supply matter, and Nora's uniform was crunchy after the water in it had frozen overnight, but things still seemed generally better now that she had gotten some sleep.
When the men came together for their meager breakfast that morning, Toye pulled her to the side. He was limping, but he had new boots, courtesy of Roe.
"You okay?" He asked, "I thought you got hit when Speirs carried you in last night."
Nora glanced around warily, not wanting the other men to overhear. Her actions the night before were on par with her bazooka incident in Carentan and would likely get her sent home if the word spread too far. She'd been warned about keeping her head down.
"I'm alright," She insisted. "Just got too cold." Toye nodded. He didn't say anything for a long moment, and Nora moved to excuse herself, but he stopped her.
"Look, Nora, I'm really sorry about yesterday." He said. "I don't know what got into me."
"The conditions got to you." She said, nodding. "It happens to the best of us."
Toye nodded, grateful that they'd come to an understanding.
"How're the feet?" She asked as they walked back to rejoin the group.
"Disgusting as hell." Guarnere replied for him, causing the men around him to laugh.
"More disgusting than pissing needles?" Nora shot back, raising an eyebrow. The men erupted again, and Guarnere shoved a tongue into his cheek.
"Doc wasn't supposed to tell you about that. Ain't we got doctor/patient confidentiality around here?" He grumbled. Luz and Lipton exchanged a smile as Nora continued bantering with the men. She was much more like herself today.
Of course, the shelling continued, and men continued to get hurt. Gordon had taken a shot to the arm and needed plasma, which they thankfully now had. Harry took a mortar hit in the leg late one night and had to be sent off the line as well. Christmas came and went, along with a message from General Macauliffe that let them (and the Germans) know that the 101st wouldn't be backing out of the Ardennes any time soon. As the men stuck it out, Nora did her best to carry their pain away, and when she couldn't bear the weight herself, she found that a few good men around her were always waiting to carry hers as well.