Disclaimer: I own nothing of Band of Brothers and the images I used, just my characters and story. In addition, I meant no disrespect to the real soldiers of Easy Company and I apologize for any mistakes whether it be historical inaccuracies or punctuation/grammar.
Thank You PurpleDolphinPlush, OneThatNoOneSees, jenna742, Lina1998, and nette0602 for favoring and following!
Also thank you to Afreakbynature and nette0602 for reviewing!
Camp Toccoa, Georgia: 1942
Eliza stood still in the hot Georgia heat, waiting for the damned First Lieutenant Herbert Sobel to appear as the platoon waited in formation. While waiting, they became targets for mosquitoes, hungrily buzzing around. A mosquito had apparently got Nixon as he quickly swatted his neck. Unknown to him, Eliza smiled jokingly from behind, but karma interfered and her smile quickly turned into a frown since a mosquito bit her cheek. Eliza slapped her own cheek, successfully ending its life.
"Why are ya slapping yourself, Stardust?" George Luz joked, standing at her right side.
"Shut up, Luz," Eliza responded with a glare since she was tired of waiting in the heat, while mosquitoes bit her.
"You people are at the position of attention!" First Lieutenant Sobel shouted as he appeared with First Sergeant William Evans by his side.
Eliza starred as Sobel walked to the company wearing a brown leather jacket, wondering why he was wearing a leather jacket on a hot day. No one in their right mind would wear such a heavy jacket in the scorching heat.
As Sobel neared the platoon, he turned to one of the men, Frank Perconte.
"Private Perconte, have you been blousing your trousers over your boots like a paratrooper?" Sobel asked with a stern voice.
"No, sir," Perconte responded after bolting his rifle.
"Then explain the creases at the bottom," The Lieutenant continued.
"No excuse, sir," Perconte replied with a gulp.
"Volunteering for the Parachute Infantry is one thing, Perconte, but you've got a long way to prove that you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked."
After tormenting Perconte, Sobel turned to his next victim, George Luz.
"Name," Sobel questioned, even though he knew the names of the men in his company.
"Luz, George," replied Luz as Sobel took his rifle.
"Dirt in the rear sight aperture. Pass revoked."
"Name," Sobel asked, however with much dislike since the trooper in front of him was a female. Sobel believed women didn't belong in the army, especially in his own company. His goal was to make Easy Company the best goddamn company in the airborne and he wasn't going to let a woman ruin it.
"Clark, Eliza," Eliza responded with much hatred.
"Private, your hair is sticking out of your helmet and there's dirt on your uniform. You better fix your appearance, what kind of soldier can't even handle the simplest of things. Pass revoked."
"Yes, sir," Eliza responded with the same tone.
Eliza knew her hair was neatly kept because she was sure that each strand was tied to her bun. Hell, her bun was so tight that it was pulling her hair out of their roots. And the "dirt" that Sobel pointed out was a mere speck.
Eliza knew that the Lieutenant hated her, so he always pointed out very unreasonable infractions, resulting in many of her passes revoked. Eliza in return hated that man with all her guts. Sobel then stood in front of John Martin, however, he stormed to Sergeant Carwood Lipton.
"When did you sew on the chevron, Sergeant Lipton?"
"Yesterday, sir."
"Long enough to notice this. Revoked."
He then went to Donald Malarkey.
"Name."
"Malarkey, Donald G."
"Malarkey... 'Malarkey' is slang for 'bullshit', isn't it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Rust on the butt plate hinge spring, Private Bullshit. Revoked."
And finally to Joseph Liebgott.
"Name."
"Liebgott, Joseph D., sir."
"Rusty bayonet, Liebgott. Do you wanna kill Germans?"
"Yes, sir."
"Not with this."
Sobel took his bayonet and hit it on his helmet, which Eliza thought to be unnecessary.
"I wouldn't take this rusty piece of shit to war and I will not take you to war in your condition," Sobel shouted to the men as he threw the bayonet to the ground. Eliza rolled her eyes since she thought Sobel was being dramatic. Unfortunately, Eliza was caught by the Lieutenant.
Sobel stormed to Eliza and shouted at her face, "Private, do you have something to say!"
"No sir," Eliza responded, trying to hold much certainty in her voice since she worried that her act of disrespecting Sobel would've brought consequences to the platoon.
"Well Private, since you've disrespected me, you will be placed on latrine duty," Sobel stated with a grimace. Eliza, however, sighed a breath of relief. He returned to the front.
"Now, thanks to these men and their infractions, every man in the company who had a weekend pass has lost it."
"Change into your PT gear. We're running Currahee."
At the mention of Currahee, Eliza cursed under her breath. The goddamn Lieutenant was always ordering the company to run that beast of a mountain. At first, Eliza had some difficulty running within the time limit set by Sobel. However, Eliza improved from the motivation of proving Sobel and other paratroopers wrong that females can be a part of the military.
"2nd Platoon, fall out. We have two minutes," Winters stated to his men, who quickly went to the cabins to change.
"I ain't going up that hill," retorted Perconte, sitting on his bed.
"Same here Frank, but what choice do we have," Eliza exclaimed while changing behind a makeshift screen. Eliza learning from experience, already had her PT gear under her uniform. Even though she had a screen, Eliza was still cautious.
Suddenly, Martin rushed into the cabin and exclaimed, "Hey, Perconte, what are you thinking of, blousing your pants?"
"Shut up, alright? He gigged everybody!" Perconte tried to reason with Martin.
"Yeah? Well, you should know better! Don't give him no excuses."
"Excuses? Why don't you come here, look at these trousers, get down and you tell me if there's a crease on them!"
From their conversation, Eliza deduced that a fight would erupt. However, Lipton came at the right moment, shouting at the men to hurry up.
"Alright, let's go! On the road, in PT formation. Let's move, move, move!"
"Perconte. Let's go, Perconte."
At the sound of Lipton, Perconte quickly removed his uniform, already having his PT gear underneath.
After Eliza finished, she realized that the men already left; the only ones remaining were Lipton, White, and her. From Eliza's view, White wasn't in his PT gear and realized that he gave up.
"Private White, why are you not in your PT gear?" Lipton questioned. However, White ignored him.
"I asked you a question, private," Lipton continued but White continued to ignore him.
Eliza went up to Lipton, tapped his shoulder, and shook her head. Lipton then understood that White gave up and so they continued their way to Currahee.
While Easy Company was walking to Currahee, they met up with other soldiers from another company.
"Ah, Easy Company. Hey while you're running, don't worry, we'll take your dames to the movies for you," One soldier shouted.
"Yeah, good, they need some female company," Liebgott remarked sarcastically.
"Hey Clark, what about you? Want to ditch these boys and hang out with real men," stated a private, who noticed Eliza and gave her a wink.
It was a known fact that Easy was the only company to have a female medic. Other companies had been assigned female medics, but all of them quit due to the struggles of training, homesickness, or were dishonorably discharged.
Being the clever woman that she was, Eliza already had a response at the tip of her tongue.
"Sure, I would love to go to the movies," Eliza retorted as she gave the soldier a fake smile.
At her answer, the private was quite shocked but quickly gave her a smirk since she always declined when someone asked her out.
However, his expression quickly changed when Eliza uttered, "But running Currahee while Sobel shouts at my ear is more appealing than going out with someone like you."
At her answer, Easy Company cheered and laughed. Muck even gave her a high five and shouted, "That's our Stardust!"
The men ran to the soldiers and slapped their hats off. Eliza had the privilege of swiping the hat of the private just as she swiped the smirk off his face.
"Where do we run?" Sobel asked while the company ran in formation.
"Currahee!" Easy Company shouted in response.
"What's Currahee mean?"
"We stand alone!"
At that answer, Eliza believed the statement when she first joined Easy Company. Most of the men didn't interact with her since she was a woman. However, it all changed when she stood up for herself. Eliza realized that even if each man did stand alone, he had his brother in arms standing right behind him.
"How far up? How far down?"
"Three miles up, three miles down!"
"Now, what company is this?"
"Easy Company!"
"And what do we do?"
"Stand alone!"
During the run, Muck tripped and stumbled. Eliza left her position to help Muck, along with the men surrounding him. However, Sobel caught them.
"Do not help that man! Do not help that man. You do not stop."
After Sobel turned his back, Eliza went to Muck's side and whispered, "Hey Skip, I'll check that later, just to make sure it isn't broken."
"Yeah okay, thanks Stardust," Muck whispered back with a smile. Eliza smiled back and went back to her position, so she wouldn't get into more trouble.
"You have 13 minutes to get to the top of this mountain if you wanna serve in the paratroopers!" Sobel ran ahead and shouted, "Hi-yo, Silver!" Eliza glared at the back of his head.
As Eliza neared the steep path of the mountain, she didn't notice a branch was in the way. Eliza's left foot got caught and she stumbled. With the help from Bull Randleman, Eliza continued running with a bloody scrape on her knee.
"Come on, you can make it up there! Come on! Come on, Alley! Let's go! Come on, Guarnere! You got it! Come on!" Winters shouted to encourage the men since he was the first one to reach the top.
"We are coming on 23 minutes. That may be good enough for the rest of the 506, but that is not good enough for Easy Company!" Sobel exclaimed to the company as they descended from the mountain. Eliza grumbled since Sobel was always complaining that their time wasn't good enough.
After Currahee, the company was granted a much-needed break. Eliza went to check up with Muck to ensure that his ankle wasn't broken. Even though her bandage was soaked, Eliza was more preoccupied with checking Muck's injury since it was worse than hers.
In a distance, she saw Malarkey and Penkala helping Muck to the cabins. Eliza rushed to the guys to catch up.
"Hey, guys!" She greeted them with a smile.
"Hey Stardust, I'm sure you're here to check up on Skip," Malarkey smiled back.
"You got that right Don, just wanted to make sure that he didn't break anything," She replied with a smile. Both men placed Skip onto his bed.
"Skip, you lucky bastard, Eliza is taking care of you." Penkala patted Muck's shoulder as he laughed.
"Yea I may be the luckiest son of a bitch because Eliza's taking care of me, but this shit really hurts." Skip groaned in pain as Eliza applied pressure to his ankle.
"Well, the good thing is you didn't break it. It's a mild sprain, so it should heal up within a few days. Just keep weight off it and elevate it in the meantime. I'll get you some ice to reduce the swelling," Eliza stated with an assertive tone, the same tone she used when examining a patient at the hospital back home.
"Yes, ma'am," Skip replied, using a tone which one would use when talking to a superior officer.
After grabbing ice for Skip, she went on her way to grab some lunch. On her way, Eliza spotted Winters and ran to his side.
"Hey, Dick!" Eliza greeted with a smile, she always called him by his nickname when both of them were alone or if Nixon was present. Winters, in return, used her first name.
"Hi, Eliza. I saw you trip while we were running Currahee. Are you okay?" Dick stated as he looked at Eliza with concern.
"I just got a small cut, but other than that, I'm fine," Eliza replied. One trait of Winters that Eliza admired was how much he cared for his comrades. However, Winters didn't believe her as he saw how soaked her bandage was with blood.
"Eliza, that's not a small cut. It's still bleeding," Dick scolded her as they stopped walking.
"It's fine Dick, I didn't have a chance to clean it since I was checking up on Skip."
"You're always putting others before yourself, even when you're bleeding. Wait here, I'll get some supplies to get that cleanup. Wouldn't want it to get infected."
Eliza began to protest, however, Winters already left in a hurry.
As she waited, Eliza sat on a tree stump nearby and smiled to herself, it was nice that Winters cared for her. When that thought popped into her mind, Eliza's pale cheeks began to blush. With a shake of her head, Eliza began to ponder why that thought crossed her mind since Winters cared for all of his comrades.
After a while, Winters returned with the necessary supplies and bent down to Eliza's knee.
"Dick, what're you doing? I can do it myself."
"Like I said earlier, you've been putting others before yourself, now you should let someone help you."
Eliza with rosy tinted cheeks, whispered a thank you, while Winters tended to her wound.
A/N: Sorry for this short chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter will focus on how she befriended the men of Easy Company.
*Edited on May 23, 2018.