Disclaimers: all the usual apply.
Chapter 17
Arlene POV
She lay on the steps of a small monument, helmet put off to one side so she could soak up all the available sun. She hated being cold, her parent's house had always had a chill to it, and cold seemed to seep into her bones at a moment's notice.
"Arlene," Joe called her.
"M'hm,"she replied, eyes still closed, but she could feel him watching her.
They'd fallen into a friendly, if somewhat awkward, rhythm. In the few days that has passed they'd barely seen each other let alone get time alone together. Which meant they both knew an emotional conversation was looming, and both parties had questions that needed answering.
"You okay?" he asked.
She opened her eyes, using her hands to shield them from the sun. Joe was standing by her feet, head tilted to one side. "Fine. Just cold."
"Cold?"
She smiled at his disbelief. "Unless it's a heatwave I'm always a little cold. Think I got too much of it as a child and now it's a part of me."
He smirked. "Really, and when you told me about your folks they sounded like such warm people."
She snorted. "Oh yes, they give Father Christmas a run for his money."
He laughed.
"Heya fellas!" she heard a familiar voice from somewhere behind the men.
Joe held out his hand and she accepted it, gladly allowing him to pull her up and against his chest.
She arched an eyebrow and he smirked.
He's impossible.
With the smirk still on his face he turned around to great the newly arrived soldiers. She followed him and her own smile widened when she spotted Talbart, Shifty and Smokey. The three men had been missing since D-Day.
"Well boys, how nice of you to grace us with your presence," she said, squeezing Shifty's arm.
With the most adorable flush to his cheeks Shifty gave her a shy smile.
"Aww, doll, we had to give you some time to miss us," Tab said, pulling her towards him and into a crushing side hug.
"What, months without me in England wasn't enough?"
"Jeez, don't even remind me!" he replied.
She wriggled herself free from his grip, but Smokey quickly pulled her into a quick hug of his own. Technically, as an officer, she shouldn't be as close to the enlisted men and NCO's as she was, but she'd always found it easier to relax around them than other officers.
She felt that with them, she had to put on less of a show. An honestly the military had given them their ranks in part because of the specialised nature of their work, and also so they had some authority over the men they worked with. Neither she or Jessica ever took it too seriously, unless it suited them.
"Hey Tab, get a load of this," Joe said, unfurling a red Nazi flag he'd found. "You like that?"
Luz nodded approvingly. "Nice, huh?"
"Yeah, it's the real stuff?" Tab asked, and she could tell by the glint in his eyes he had something up his sleeve.
Joe scoffed. "Yeah, of course."
Tab dramatically pulled a German poncho from his pack, holding his prize out for all the men to see. "You like this?"
Luz grabbed a hold of the poncho. "Oh, nice! That's a beauty, sarge! It's a hell of a poncho."
Tab grinned and pulled the poncho from Luz's grasp. "You got anything doll?"
"Not right now."
"Really? C'mon, tell the truth."
"Well, a German did give me a ball gown and some jewellery a while back, but I had to use those to stage my own death. "
There was a beat of silence, all the men staring at her with their mouths hanging open. Arlene suppressed a giggle. She shouldn't have said anything, but their reaction made it worth it.
"What!?" Joe was the first to exclaim, quickly followed by a flood of similar questions from the rest.
She held up her hands. "No, no. I've already said too much."
"Oh, c'mon!" Luz objected, hands raised to high heaven.
She smirked and turned away, ready to continue sunning herself.
"Arlene," Alex called her, putting a stop to her plans.
"This isn't over Arlene," Joe said.
"If you say so," she replied, grabbing her pack and jogging over to Alex.
In Clark's absence Jessica had taken complete charge of the unit and she'd unofficially promoted Alex as her second in command.
"Yip?" she said, stopping in-front of her friend.
"We're moving out. General Taylor's sending the division to take Carentan."
"Makes sense. It's the only place where armour from the beaches can link up and head inland. So what's the plan?"
"We're going to scout ahead. Division thinks a regiment of Kraut paratroopers are holding Carentan, and they want us to try and get to their sentries before they can let them know we're coming."
"They do realise there's only a handful of us right? We can't get to every sentry from every angle."
He shrugged. "Fox will take the lead, Easy behind them, then Dog etc."
"We're working in pairs?"
"Loose formation, it'll be dark soon so we'll need to stay pretty close together. One vet with one replacement."
"They've lived through the last few days, we need to stop calling them replacements."
"When we get new guys, they can be the replacements."
"I'm sure they're counting the days."
"Easy Company! On the road!" Lieutenant Welsh shouted before taking a suspicious swig from his canteen.
"That's our cue," she said.
"Let's go."
Just before they rounded the corner and lost sight of Easy she glanced over her shoulder to find Joe's eyes fixed to her. She gave him a smile, hoping he could see it from this distance, and then he was gone.
Jessica POV
The night was uncomfortably warm and damp, without even the slightest breeze to provide some relief. The air was heavy with the promise of rain, and the relief it would provide from the stuffiness would quickly be replaced by mud.
Arlene should be happy, she thought. Her friend was always cold, while she always ran a few degrees warmer than everyone else around her.
They stalked through the dark forest in a loose line, two people deep. She'd paired each of her remaining officers with a sergeant. This way if a pair got hit, they wouldn't lose two experienced soldiers in one go.
She carefully, meticulously placed each footstep, moving through the darkness like a cat stalking its prey. Parker followed in her exact footsteps, close enough that she could hear his evenly paced breathing.
Her senses reached into the darkness that surrounded them, searching for anything that would give away their enemy's position. She knew there had to be Germans somewhere in these woods, the questions was where.
She slowly turned her head from left to right, when the sharp snap of a twig up ahead froze her blood in her veins. She dropped to one knee and held up her hand. Within a second everyone had followed her lead.
She closed her eyes and held her breath.
Leaves rustled up ahead, an innocuous sound except there was no wind to stir them tonight.
Her eyes shot open. She signed for Parker to follow her as the others held their ground. In a crouch she carefully moved forward, her rifle at the ready.
After a few steps she heard voices. They were low and hushed and definitely not speaking English.
She slowed her pace, each footstep becoming a life and death gamble as they inched closer. The voices came into focus. One person was speaking while the others grunted occasional replies. And most importantly they were speaking German.
She signed for Parker to hold his position as she crawled closer.
She could hear her own blood rushing in her ears, and she swore the Germans would be able to hear the hammering of her heart but she kept pushing forward, one inch at a time.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime she found the source. Five Germans were huddled together in a tight circle. There was a flash of light and the rustling of paper.
They were a scouting party, ordered to sound an early alarm if the Americans approached Carentan from this direction. From what she could gather they weren't the only one, but they were spread out to cover as much of the approach as possible, so this was the only one close by.
We have to kill them before they move.
They couldn't risk them running into Fox Company and sounding the alarm.
She slowly backed away from the men, until she felt safe and then turned around and retraced her footsteps, picking up Parker on the way.
When they returned to her unit she waved them over. She crouched down and brushed away some leaves to expose the ground underneath.
"Germans, 15 yards ahead and to the right," she whispered, drawing their position with an X.
Drawing an arrow she continued, "Arlene, Alex, flank around to their left. Once in place hold your position. This is their natural retreat."
They nodded.
"We'll approach from behind. On my cue we'll open fire." She pointed to John and herself. "These have to be clean shots."
She focused on Alex and Arlene. "If any escape, you kill them quickly and quietly. We can't have a gunfight."
Jessica locked eyes with each member of her team, no one showing any sign of hesitation or doubt. This is what they'd come here to do.
"Move," she whispered her final order.
They moved out, eight deadly shadows melting into the darkness.
They found the enemy soldiers right where she'd left them. They were sharing a cigarette, suspiciously eyeing the dark around them as they readied to move out.
Just in time.
John, Parker and Roberts had each taken up a position from where they could see the enemy. She quickly moved behind them, signalling out their target. They didn't have much time left.
There were five Germans and four of them, whoever got their man first had to kill the fifth.
She raised her rifle and found the commanding officer. He was looking away from her, but they were so close she could see his chest rise and fall through his grey uniform. She found the point where his heart would be.
Breath in. Breath out.
Her rifle slammed into her shoulder and three shots followed in quick succession.
Four Germans fell to the ground in a bloody heap. The fifth started to run when a his head jerked backwards and his feet gave way under him. The shot faded into the darkness as she climbed out of the shadows.
Alex strode towards her, his sidearm casually dangling in his hand.
"I had him," she said.
He holstered his weapon. "I know."
"Check them. Take any piece of paper you find."
There was a low moan followed by a sickly sucking sound. She looked around the fallen men until she found the one that was trying to move.
Damn.
She was about to reach for her knife when John stepped over the man. The body on the ground jerked and kicked before going completely still.
John bent down, wiped his blade on the enemy soldier's jacket before putting it away and starting to search the man's clothes.
She glanced over to Alex and they both shrugged.
XXXXXX
Easy Company was crouched in the ditch that ran next to the road leading into Carentan. They were shielded from the waiting Germans by a slight incline in the path, but as soon as they started moving forward they would be heading straight into the jaws of the German defences.
It was eerily quiet. The Germans were waiting for them to make their move, they were waiting for the inevitable assault and the few civilians left were hiding and praying.
"And Captain King's men?" Harry asked, pulling her back into the conversation.
"We'll go in with Easy, spread out over the three platoons. Our objective is to get to strategic higher ground and provide covering fire to the main assault."
"Okay then," he said.
"Harry," Richard continued his briefing, "I want you to take 1st platoon right up the middle, hard and fast. We have to move quickly. I'll be right behind you with 2nd and 3rd."
"Sergeant Parker and I will be going in with you," she added, giving Harry a small nod.
Richard crawled forward and lifted his head so he could see into the town. She watched him, the pent up adrenaline making it hard to swallow as all her muscles tensed up in anticipation.
He crawled back over to them, checked his watch one last time and said, "Go."
She was up and running before she could think.
"Let's go 1st, let's go!" Harry shouted.
"Move!" she shouted.
German fire drowned out the sound of her own thundering heart. Bullets hit the ground at her feet. The man in-front of her crumbled to the ground. She vaulted over him and felt the air next to her cheek move as a bullet whizzed past her face.
She shoved Parker in the back so he slammed into a wall. Grabbing Harry's collar she flung them both against the same wall as the earth where they'd been erupted in a hail of bullets.
A body slammed into her. "Fuck!" Luz shouted.
"Where the fuck is everybody?" Harry shouted.
She looked back, the assault had stalled and they were stranded. She let off a few shots around the wall, just to have the Germans return her fire tenfold.
Arlene POV
"Get down!"
When the order came for them to get into the ditch she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
She was still below the rise, so was shielded from most of the gunfire. She stood in the middle of the road, frantically scanning the soldiers ahead. Winters was out in the open, dragging and kicking men out of the ditch. Jessica wasn't anywhere to be seen, which meant she was somewhere over the rise.
The constant machine gun fire told her what she needed to know. We have to distract that MG team.
"Roberts, on me!" she shouted, clapping the man on the shoulder.
He followed her. She jumped over the ditch and found the grassy embankment that ran parallel with the road into town. She glanced over her shoulder. Roberts and Shifty were there.
The Germans were focused on the main road. She ran down the slope and threw herself against the wall of a chicken coop. Shifty wedged himself in between her and the fence. Roberts slammed into the wall of the opposite building.
She could see the MG team firing on the road. She raised her rifle when a clear shot rang out and Roberts dropped.
"Sniper!" she shouted.
She looked over her shoulder to Shifty. "You fire at the MG team, I'll take the sniper."
He pressed his rifle into his shoulder.
Another clear shot rang out over the constant drone of the MG fire.
Left and up.
She stepped out, turned to her left, and found her target lying on his stomach two storeys up.
Her finger curled around the trigger and his body went limp. A shot went off by her head, disorientating her.
Strong hands pulled her back and pinned her between a body and the wall as their small hiding place was assaulted by machine gun fire.
"Fuck!" Shifty screamed above her.
Her one ear was ringing.
Jessica POV
The MG fire stopped for a second, then started up again, but it was no longer focused on them.
She slung her rifle over her shoulder. "Harry, grenade!"
He threw his rifle over his shoulder and pulled a grenade from his jacket.
"Parker, Luz, covering fire."
She unclipped her own grenade. "Go!"
They ran for the window where the MG fire was coming from. She pulled the pin from the grenade, tossed it into the window and threw herself into ball below it.
Dust and debris rained down on her. She lifted her head to find Harry giving her a gap toothed grin.
She pushed herself up and Parker was next to her.
She looked in the direction the MG team had been shooting and saw Arlene and Shifty emerge in a cloud of feathers.
What the hell?
"We gotta take that warehouse!" Lipton shouted as he ran past her.
He was right, a large warehouse dominated the left side of the main entrance into Carentan, and a building with that many windows was a sniper's dream.
"Parker, on the sergeant!" she ordered.
He followed Lipton.
Arlene ran over to her. "Roberts is down."
"Shit!"
She looked around. Harry was standing in a doorway, ordering men to clear buildings.
"Liebgott!" she shouted and the soldier paused.
Jessica glanced at Arlene. "Link up with them until you clear a suitable building. Then set up shop. Go!"
Arlene turned and ran.
She scanned the faces of the men now streaming into the town. She spotted Alex, John, Hunt and West and watched as they split up into two pairs and disappeared from view.
She went to grab Parker when the street around her started exploding. Shell after shell hit around them. She ducked into a crouch and searched for the origin of the barrage.
When the fourth shell hit, sending two soldiers flying through the air she pinpointed the direction of the artillery fire.
"Parker!" she shouted, moving past the warehouse. "On me!"
She heard footsteps close behind her.
She saw Lipton standing in the middle of the road, screaming at soldiers to move and get to cover.
Another shell went off, this time she could tell she was close to the source. She rounded a corner in time to see the Germans load a round into the huge gun, then the ground at her feet lifted, and the sky was where the earth had been a second earlier.
She fell onto a pile of rubble, the jagged edges digging into her side. She rolled off of the rubble and onto her stomach.
Lipton was laying against a wall, his helmet lost and blood running down his cheek. She pushed herself onto her hands and knees and started to crawl over to him when someone grabbed her under her arms and lifted her up.
They carried her the short distance to Lipton before putting her down next to him. It was Parker. He was covered in so much filth his skin was grey, but he seemed unharmed.
She could see his lips were moving, but the words sounded like they were underwater.
"What?!" she shouted.
"Where are you hurt?" she faintly heard him ask.
Her hearing and the pain started to return at the same time.
She groaned. Her head was already throbbing and her chest was tight.
"Fine," she managed.
Tab arrived next to them, worry making him look more innocent than usual.
"What?" Parker asked.
"Fine, I'm fine," she clarified.
She got onto her knees so she was leaning over Lipton.
His eyes were dazed, but responsive which was a good sign.
"Lip, can you hear me?" she asked.
He nodded, but then his eyes widened.
She followed his gaze. Blood was seeping into his pants right where his crotch was.
"Tab," she said.
He followed her line of sight. Tab ripped Lipton's pants open and peered inside. Looking up he grabbed his friend's shoulder and smiled. "You're okay, Lip. Everything's right where it should be."
Lipton smiled faintly.
"You got him?" she asked Tab.
"Yeah, go."
Standing she called Parker, "On me!"
They ran deeper into the town, dodging men and gunfire, until she spotted the perfect building for them.
Pointing towards the five storey building with the flat roof she said, "There!"
She led the way until they were right across the road from the building. Judging by the fact that the door was hanging by one hinge and a dead German lay on the ground she assumed it had been cleared.
Just as she was about to step out into the street a line of bullets bit into the ground at her feet. She jerked backwards.
She slowly peered around the corner just to have plaster hit the back of her head. Snapping her head back she closed her eyes, trying to picture the scene.
"Captain?"
"MG team to our left. Rifleman to the right."
"Sniper?"
"No, or he's a piss poor one. If he was any good I'd be dead."
She opened her eyes and turned back to the street.
She scanned the buildings and alleyways for any alternative that didn't include a lengthy flanking missions, when she found a group of soldiers pinned against the wall of a narrow alley.
She was about to try and get their attention when one of them looked over his shoulder and their eyes met. To her surprise the eyes that met her belonged to Ron. She quickly signed her plan.
She'd pull the enemy fire, they take out the MG team and Parker will deal with the rifleman.
He nodded.
She took off her helmet and put it on the ground, making sure her long blonde braid hung over her shoulder.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Parker asked.
"If you saw a woman in an enemy uniform, how would you feel?"
"Confused."
She smiled. "Exactly. Don't miss."
"Yes, ma'am."
Placing her rifle with her helmet she took a deep breath, unclipped her sidearm and switched off the safety.
One, two, three.
She shot out of the cover and stopped in the middle of the street. The Germans peppered the ground but then faltered and the gunfire died down.
Now.
There was movement behind her as Parker stepped out and fired two clean shots. Then all hell broke loose.
The MG team opened up, focusing all their firepower on the very spot she was standing.
She lunged forward and dove for the nearest doorway. A sharp pain ripped into her left arm as she scrambled to get to her feet. Looking around the interior she quickly found the stairs leading to the upper storey.
As the fighting intensified she ran for the stairs. Taking them two at a time she reached the second floor.
She ran to the window that overlooked the street. Pressing herself into the wall she looked out and to her relief she had a clear shot of the German MG team.
Two dead Germans were on the ground, but three remained and they were raining hell down on those Dog soldiers.
She took aim through the smudged glass and the next moment a waterfall of glass was raining down on the street below.
The Germans turned their attention to her vantage point but she was already long gone. Standing at the top of the stairs she listened as the gunfire reached a crescendo before subsiding and dying down all together.
She cautiously descended the stairs, only relaxing when she heard American voices calling her name.
"Here!" she shouted back.
There were heavy footsteps running up the stairs so she simply waited on the first floor, hoping to avoid a collision.
Ron appeared at the top of the stairs, his dark brown eyes almost black as he fixed her with them. "What the hell was that?"
She crossed her arms over her chest. "A distraction. I told you I was going to draw their fire."
He threw his hands into the air. "By running into the open without a bloody helmet on!"
"Well, it worked didn't it?"
"You could have gotten yourself killed!"
She gestured around them. "Look around you, those are the stakes."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Goddamnit Jessica."
She'd all but had enough of his sudden change towards her. She closed the space between them so their faces were only a few inches apart. "What Ron? What?"
He frowned and pursed his lips like he was holding back words. His eyes darted to her side and he gently took her left arm. "You're bleeding."
She glanced down. A line of blood was slowly growing on her upper arm, soaking the torn fabric of her uniform. "It's nothing."
"Nothing? Are you blind?"
She was about to respond when footsteps came bounding up the stairs. "Captain!" Parker called.
"Here!" she replied.
Ron held onto her arm, but she pulled it from his grasp. "I need to go."
At that moment Parker reached them. He paused, eyes flicking between the two as he shifted his weight back and forth.
She held out her hand for her rifle and helmet. "Let's get to the roof."
He held out her things to her as he replied, "Yes, ma'am."
Taking them she held Ron's gaze, and with a final, pointed look she turned and led the way up the stairs.
Arlene POV
They moved underneath an arched walkway as mortar blasts and gunfire shook the air around them. The men stopped at the end of the walkway, scanned the street and crossed to start clearing the nearest buildings.
She expertly scanned the row of buildings facing her until she found one that had a view of the main road leading in and out of the town.
"You two, on me. We're clearing that building," she said to the nearest soldier, pointing her rifle in its direction.
Without hesitation the two men jogged towards the building. She followed them, but glanced over her shoulder in time to see Joe entering a building with a large glass display window, Tipper on his heels.
The two soldiers were waiting for her on either side of the entrance way. She shouldered her rifle and unclipped a grenade form her belt.
She nodded, the one man kicked the door down and she tossed in the grenade. They pressed themselves against the wall as smoke and dust billowed out of the building's interior.
The first man went in and two shots followed. She was right behind him, there was movement to her right. She fired twice at the shadow and it vanished.
The dust clung to the inside of her mouth and stung her eyes. She pressed past it, moving deeper into the building.
She found the stairs that would take her to higher ground, her boot was on the first one when the walls shuddered and it sounded like it had started to rain.
Her breath hitched as her heart stopped. She looked behind her to find both soldiers frozen, unsure whether to continue or see what had happened.
She swallowed hard as her heart started up again. "Clear this building!"
The men moved, years of training overriding their fear and doubt. She ran the opposite way. It had taken her brain a while to place the sound that had followed the initial explosions, but as soon as it did she had to go see for herself. Glass, thousands of shards sounded like rain.
After the dust and smoke the brilliant sunshine nearly blinded her. She blinked as she ran back the way she'd come.
The first thing she saw were two soldiers just standing in the middle of the street like they were in a daze. She knew where they were looking, and she was petrified of what she would find.
Arlene slowed and pushed the fear down, slowly turning so she was facing the building Joe had entered minutes earlier.
Later on, when she looked back at that moment she would feel guilt and remorse, but right then and there a wave of relief washed over her, so acute she almost smiled. That was until her mind fully processed what she was seeing.
Joe was alive and somehow unharmed, but cradled in his arms was Tipper. The young soldier with the quick smile was covered in so much ash and dirt his skin was cakes in it. Half of his face was covered in dark blood as more spilled from his mouth between shocked whimpers. Both his legs had huge gashes, white bone protruding from the torn flesh. His right foot was half gone, smoke drifting out of his shoe.
She slung her rifle over her shoulder and slowly approached the two men. Kneeling down on Tipper's other side she said, "Tip, it's Arlene. You're going to be okay."
His one eye drifted over to her as if he were seeing her for the first time.
"Hey, there you are sweetheart. I'm going to give you some morphine."
Taking out her aid-kit she met Joe's eyes. They were filled with guilt and heartache, which she knew from experience would turn to anger as soon as Tipper was cared for.
"We need to get him to the aid station," she said, hoping a clear task would help everyone snap out of the shock they were in.
He cleared his throat and the usual sharpness returned to his eyes. "Hey guys, give us a hand," he told the two men who were still standing behind her.
She jabbed the morphine syrette into Tipper's upper arm before sticking it onto his jacket so the medics would know how much he'd had.
She stood to make space for the men to pick him up, but his eye followed her. She smiled, doing her best to hide her own guilt and relief. For a few minutes she watched the men leave, carrying their wounded comrade between them and her heart broke a little with every second.
Enough Arlene. Get to work.
Jessica POV
She'd walked into the aid station looking for any of her men, but soon found herself on top of a table, with Easy's medic Eugene Roe asking her to take off her jacket.
She teasingly raised an eyebrow at his request and he had the decency to blush, dropping his eyes as his hand fidgeted with a bandage.
"I'm just teasing Eugene."
He looked back up and smiled shyly. She'd never spent much time with Eugene, but up-close she had to admire the man's good looks. His hair was so dark it seemed to have a blue tinge. His eyes, although an incredibly dark brown where patient and kind, the types of eyes you'd want looking over you in your time of need. The frown that ran between those eyes seemed permanent, but to her it only made him all the more adorable.
"What?" he asked, frown deepening.
Dumping her jacket at her side she said, "This is going to sound left field, but I like you."
"Umm…thank you Captain."
She leaned forward. "How many horrible things have you seen and heard today?"
He sighed, mouth pressed into a thin line.
"Exactly. Sometimes you also need to hear something nice."
He gave her a lopsided smile.
She leaned back. "Now, how 'bout we stitch up this arm so I can move out?"
He rolled up her sleeve, trying to be delicate, but when the dried and bloody shirt pulled away from the wound she let out an involuntary hiss.
He shot her an apologetic look but she waved him off.
Trying to distract herself from the warm blood now trickling down her exposed arm she scanned the faces in the room.
"None of them have been here," he said, reading her mind.
"I'm only missing Arlene. She was with Liebgott."
"He was here earlier. Brought Tipper in. He said Arlene had given him morphine."
She looked down at him, but his eyes were focused on the jagged laceration running down her arm. "Sounds like her. I swear in another life she was a nurse or something."
He glanced up from the wound. "There's debris in the wound. I need to clean it before I can put in stitches. It's going to hurt."
"Do what you have to do."
He got to work, tweezers carefully pulling shards of brick and filth out of her arm. She focused on her breathing and turned back to studying the room, hoping to find any distraction.
She quickly found one when her eyes fell onto Richard. He was kneeling in-front of a soldier with shocking white hair. The soldier was staring ahead blindly, eyes focused on something miles away. Richards was softly speaking to him, concern etched into all his features.
"Shell shock?" she asked.
Gene's hand paused. "Hysterical blindness. Says he can't see."
"I think you're going to have to change your prognoses."
"What?"
They both watched, mouths slightly agape as the soldier stood, dazed eyes scanning the room as he grabbed his gun and headed for the door.
They followed him out the door before turning to Richard who had stopped next to them. He looked as surprised as she felt.
"Well, aren't you just the local miracle worker," she said.
He shook his head in disbelief.
She didn't notice Gene going back to work on her arm, so she wasn't able to steady her face when he pulled the last bit of debris from her wound.
Richard's blue eyes flashed as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "What happened to your arm?"
"What happened to your leg?"
He hesitated, eyes darting to Gene for an explanation.
"You keep shifting your weight off of your right leg."
"That obvious?"
Jessica winked. "Never play poker against me."
"Good thing I don't gamble." His lips turned into a mischievous grin. "Although Nixon does."
He let go of her shoulder and to her relief he dragged an abandoned chair over. "Ricochet," he answered her question.
She wrinkled her nose. "Sorry."
"Your turn."
"Oh, I may or may not have run across an open street to draw fire from an MG team and a rifleman."
"Why?"
"I'm an excellent distraction."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Fine. A group of soldiers were pinned down. I ran across the street to draw fire, which I excelled at by the way."
Gene grunted a laugh next to her.
"I had to dive into a building for cover. The floor was littered with debris and something cut my arm. Honestly, it was nothing compared to nearly being blown up."
"What?" both men exclaimed.
She waved them off with her free hand. "A blast went off close to me. I was tussled around a bit that's all."
"You hurt?" Richard asked as his eyes scanned her.
"Not really. Landed on some bricks with my side, but nothing's broken."
"How would you know," he asked.
"Experience."
Richard rolled his eyes and she thought she heard Gene swear in French under his breath. She beamed innocently at both men.
"There," Gene said as the needled dropped into the metal tray with a light clink.
She looked down at her arm, twisting it this way and that to study the wound. "Wow Gene, you're amazing! From now on when I get hurt I'm coming straight to you."
"You make a habit of this?" the medic asked.
"What can I say, I'm the run head first into danger kinda girl."
He shook his head as he ran a red tinted hand through his dark hair.
"Your turn," she told Richard, easily hopping off of the table.
The redhead stood so he was towering over her. "You're trouble."
"True, but the best kind."
"M'hm."
With a smile and wink she grabbed her things and sauntered out of the aid station.
Now, where is that girl?
Arlene POV
As soon as she'd been able to check in with Alex she went in search of Joe. Her reason was, at least partly, extremely selfish. The surge of emotions she'd felt when she'd thought he'd been caught up in the blast had unsettled her nerves, and she needed to see him under calmer circumstances. But her other reason was the look in his eyes when he'd held Tipper. Yes, he'd acted calm and composed. He'd done the very best he could for his friend, but she knew that look all too well. It was shock that could quickly turn into guilt or anger or both.
She found him leaning against a wall, close to where Easy had gathered after the fight had mostly died down. His helmet was at his feet and his rifle rested against the wall. Two cigarette butts already laid next to his helmet, and a third was already on its way.
Casually leaning against the wall next to him she said, "Hey Joe."
He looked at her, took out another cigarette and used his own one to light it, before handing it to her. She gladly accepted it, savouring the taste on her tongue as the smoke smoothed over her frayed nerves.
"Doc says he could make it," Joe said, his eyes firmly fixed on the horizon.
"He's strong and healthy. I don't think major arteries were hit. So yeah."
The silence stretched out between them.
"Joe?"
"Yeah."
She turned her head so she was looking at him. "It's not your fault. There's nothing more you could have done."
He scoffed and tossed what was left of his cigarette to the ground. "I should have taken him with me when I left the building. I just assumed he was right behind me. I didn't even look."
"He was doing his job and you were doing yours. You were there for him when it mattered."
"Much good it did."
She moved away from the wall so she was standing directly in-front of him. "I've seen men with far less severe injuries die from shock. You were there, you kept him calm and he knew he was taken care of. There was no way for you to stop him from getting hurt, but you did what you could to keep him from dying. That's what counts."
He reached for her hand, gently intertwining their fingers. Arlene did her best to ignore the warmth of his touch or the flutter in her stomach. This really wasn't the time or the place for either one.
"Thank you," he said.
"For what?"
"Being there. For Tip and for me. Being here now."
She smiled softly.
"Arlene!" she heard her best friend call.
"You should go," Joe said, but he didn't move.
With a sigh she untangled her fingers and turned, but then she paused and glanced over her shoulder. "I was relieved. I know it's horrible, but when I realised you weren't hurt, I was relieved."
Without waiting for his response she turned and left.
Not the time or the place.
XXXXXXX
Hello! I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks and won't be able to really write or post during this time, so I wanted to post an extra chapter before I go. I already have a draft for chapter 18, so when I get back it shouldn't be to long until I can post again.
Thank you for coming back to the story and going on this little adventure with me. I love to hear from you all, so thank you so much to everyone that's reached out. Also, if you've added the story to your alerts/faves...your rock!
Chat soon.