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 Guest for reviewing!
Normandy, France: 1944
A few days after capturing Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Eliza and the men were taking a break, waiting for more men to join them as Easy Company was not yet complete. Meanwhile, Eliza was resting on the steps of a monument with Perconte and Dukeman by her side. However, the loud shoutings of the men suddenly woke her up. As Eliza lifted her helmet off from her face, she saw Talbert, Blithe, Powers, and other men from First Platoon joining them. While Talbert and Powers were talking with Liebgott and Luz, Blithe decided to sit down on the monument while the trio questioned him about his travels.
"Hey Blithe, it's good to see you," Eliza greeted with a smile, Blithe smiled in return.
"How was your jump?" Dukeman asked.
"Ah, missed the DZ," Blithe responded while placing his rifle and helmet down on the steps.
"Yeah, that goes without saying. Got any good souvenirs to trade?" Perconte asked, which Blithe responded with a confused expression. To clarify, Perconte showed Blithe the row of watches, strapped onto his left arm. While Dukeman was gazing at the watches, Eliza laid back down onto the steps to rest.
"They're all tickin', unlike their previous owners."
"So, have we lost anybody?"
"Tommy Burgess took one in the face, while Popeye Wynn got pinked in the behind."
"Hey, Eliza, how're they doin'?"
"They're gonna be okay, just shipped to a hospital in England."
At Eliza's response, the men were relieved, and so they continued onto their chatter while Eliza went back to her nap. However, Eliza's snooze shortly ended when Lieutenant Welsh shouted for First Platoon to move out.
"Let's go, First Platoon! Easy's moving out! On your feet!"
As the men gathered their items to head out, Eliza cursed under her breath since she was sleep-deprived. Even with a sprained ankle and a gash on her stomach, Eliza still helped around the aid station, stitching and cleaning wounds. If she wasn't in the aid station, Eliza was checking up on the men, making sure they ate and were well-rested. After checking her equipment and putting on her helmet, Eliza joined the men of First Platoon.
"Listen up! It'll be dark soon. I want light and noise from here on. No talking, no smoking, and no playing grab-fanny with the man in front of you, Luz." At the last part of Welsh's orders, everyone laughed.
"So where are we headed to, Lieutenant?" A soldier asked as all men of First Platoon stood in formation, at the front of Welsh.
"We're taking Carentan."
"That sounds like fun," Perconte sarcastically stated, which earned a tired smile from Eliza.
"It's the only place where armor from Omaha and Utah Beach can link up and head inland. Until we take Carentan, they're stuck on the sand. General Taylor's sending the whole division."
"Remember boys, give me three days and three nights of hard fighting, and you will be relieved," Luz stated, once again perfectly imitating General Taylor and earning peals of laughter from the platoon.
Once Hoobler volunteered to be the lead scout and Welsh gave out his orders, Easy Company started their trek towards Carentan. Though, before walking out, Luz couldn't help but mimic General Taylor a second time.
"Another thing to remember boys, flies spread diseases. So, keep yours close."
Carentan, France: 1944
After marching through the night and losing Fox Company many times, Easy Company finally reached Carentan. The men were currently crouching onto the gravel pathway towards the town, waiting for further orders from the Lieutenants. Once Winters instructed Welsh of the strategy, Welsh quietly shouted for First Platoon to move. With haste, the men of First Platoon and Eliza ran towards the town. However, enemy fire suddenly ambushed the platoon, leaving Welsh, Luz, and Eliza behind a wrecked building for cover while the rest of the men were hiding in ditches beside the gravel pathway.
"Goddamn it," Luz shouted, moving closer to Welsh as a bullet almost hit him in the shoulder.
"Where the fuck is everybody? Where did everybody go?" Welsh shouted back, as Luz shot back.
"I have no idea!"
In the midst of the loud peals of bullets flying towards them, Eliza heard the faint shout for a medic. Scanning the area, Eliza was able to pinpoint the sound a few feet from her, as it was one of the men, who was initially shot down from First Platoon. The man was lying down surrounded by the few dead paratroopers of First Platoon, providing him cover. Saying a silent prayer, Eliza with her heart thudding rapidly, ran away from cover as bullets passed her.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Welsh shouted to Eliza, but she didn't respond as she was busy crawling in the long strand of grass at the side of the gravel path for concealment. When she was close to the injured soldier, Eliza dragged the soldier out of the trail after discovering a weak pulse, once again using the grass for cover. Beside her, more soldiers of First Platoon were coming out of the ditch and following Compton into the town, with Second and Third Platoon following. After dragging the soldier through the grass, Eliza gently placed him on the wrecked building beside Welsh and Luz who were firing a round of bullets.
"Just doing my job, Lieutenant," Eliza replied as she checked the unconscious soldier, who had multiple gunshot wounds to his abdomen and legs. After the quick assessment, Eliza applied sulpha to his injuries and tourniquets to his legs to stop the bleeding. When she finished, her next concern was his stomach as more blood started to pool out. As Eliza was using gauze to compress the bleeding, she felt the soldier's body slack, a sign of too much blood loss.
"C'mon, Morris stay with me!" Eliza shouted, as she quickly wrapped the bandage and placed her bloody fingers to his neck. When she felt his pulse still beating, Eliza hauled Morris onto her back, making a run to the makeshift aid-station at the edge of town.
"Be careful out there, Stardust!" Luz yelled, after further cowering from a grenade explosion.
Eliza ran with bullets hitting the ground beside her feet while carrying an injured man on her back. At that moment, Eliza was grateful for the night marches and running Currahee because it provided her with the necessary strength to carry out her duty. Hell, if she would survive this war, Eliza would thank Sobel, an act she never would've thought to do.
After carrying Morris to the aid-station and informing another medic of his wounds, Eliza ran back to town. As she slid behind a wall for cover due to the pain of her ankle being unbearable, Eliza suddenly heard a cry for a medic. Ignoring her pain, Eliza ran to the soldier, who had a graze on his neck and his left leg severed from an explosion.
"It's going to be okay Evans," Eliza stated trying to calm the stressed soldier as she tied a tourniquet to his left thigh and poured sulpha to the stump. With haste, Eliza turned her attention to the graze on his neck, which was spraying out blood. Eliza tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure. However, she was too late as Evans had died, his body lying limp against the concrete wall. Eliza immediately removed her bloody hands from his neck to close his hazel eyes. Once his eyes were closed, tears started to stream down her face since Eliza blamed herself for not being able to save him in time. She witnessed countless deaths as a nurse before, but what brought her to tears was that Evans didn't even look old enough to enlist. With a shuddering breath, Eliza quickly wiped her tears away, knowing that it wouldn't do her any good to ponder over his death, and so she ran to another call for a medic.
Meanwhile, Easy Company was quickly taking control of Carentan as the men were able to shoot down the Germans, who were securing the front buildings and enabling more paratroopers to enter Carentan. After bringing in another paratrooper to the aid station, Eliza saw many of the men throwing grenades into the houses, further securing the area. However, several minutes later, German mortar fire rain down on the men. Without any reinforcement, the men run to get off the streets. As Eliza ran towards the loud booms of explosions, she heard the familiar shouts of Talbert.
Nearing the wreckage from German artillery, Eliza settles beside a severely injured Lipton, quickly assessing his wounds. Talbert sighed a relief when Eliza appeared as she promptly grabbed the necessary equipment.
"You're gonna be okay Lip, Eliza is here," Talbert stated trying to calm down Lipton, who slightly shook his head in response as Eliza administered morphine.
"Tie this around his arm," Eliza instructed as she handed him a field tourniquet. While Talbert was tending to the gash on his arm and cheek, Eliza unzipped Lipton's pants to examine the wound on his groin.
"Don't worry Lip you're still gonna have little ones running around," Eliza stated as covered the bleeding wound with gauze. When they managed to control the bleeding of Lipton's wounds, Eliza and Talbert hauled him up to carry him to the aid station.
Several hours passed and the regiment was successful in capturing Carentan. Eliza was currently in the aid station, stitching a graze on the shoulder of a paratrooper from Fox Company. When she finished, Eliza saw Roe assisting Blithe, to enter the aid station.
"What's wrong with Blithe?" Eliza asked with worry as she helped Roe bring Blithe into the aid station, gently setting him down in a corner beside the doorway since wounded paratroopers occupied every area of the room.
"He's got no wounds, just that he can't see," Roe answered, before leaving to help another medic bring in another wounded to the aid station, while Eliza took over in caring for Blithe.
"Hey Blithe, can you tell me what happened?" Eliza questioned, while Blithe's light eyes blankly stared at her.
"I don't know...suddenly everything just went all black."
"Did you feel any pain when you lost your vision?"
"No pain, ma'am."
In addition to his response, Eliza further inspected his eyes. However, his light blue eyes seemed to look normal. Blithe's condition worried and puzzled Eliza, though without knowing what else to do, Eliza decided to check Blithe while she examined other injured paratroopers.
"I don't see anything in your eyes to have caused vision loss, but I'm going to monitor you until a doctor is available to see you. So, try to get some rest and eat this," Eliza stated as she broke a piece of her chocolate bar. She always gave some of her chocolate rations after seeing a wounded soldier, for a boost in morale and the battle lasted for hours, so they were surely hungry.
"Thank you," Blithe whispered, as he accepted the bar of chocolate and slowly taking a bite out of the bar, finding comfort in the sweet treat.
"Not a problem Blithe, I'll check up on you in a little bit."
As Eliza turned around to attend to another patient, she didn't expect it to be Winters, who was limping towards the entrance of the aid station. Running to him, Eliza helped walk Winters to an empty table.
"Thanks," Winters stated as Eliza carefully placed him on the table, while she sat on a stool and nodded to him in response.
"Are you all right Eliza?" Winters continued, looking at her with concern since blood covered her face.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Eliza responded as she removed his boots and rolled his pants up, to examine the wound.
"You have blood all over your face, did you get injured again?"
"I-It's not my blood," Eliza stammered because she couldn't help but remember Evans, the boy she didn't save. Meanwhile, Winters's concern for Eliza grew as sorrow suddenly filled her once bright green eyes. Winters was about to question her more. However, he thought it would be best to give her some space.
"Sorry, this is going to hurt," Eliza informed Winters, as she used tweezers to pull out the metal embedded in his gash.
"Fortunately, it's a small piece of a ricochet."
"Stupid," Winters whispered as he handed her a silver pan to dump the metal. However, Eliza heard him as she gently wiped away the blood seeping out of his wound.
"It's not your fault," Eliza told Winters with a small smile before disinfecting the wound.
"Almost done, but you're gonna have to keep weight off it."
"Eliza, I won't be able to do that."
"Dick, at least try."
Suddenly Compton came towards Winters to be informed of plans for Easy Company.
"What have we got planned, chief?" Compton asked as he took off his helmet.
"Well, we expect a counterattack. Carentan is as important to them as it is to us."
"Any idea when?"
"We're not waiting around to find out. Battalion wants us to head east toward high grounds, set up a defensive position. With all the flooded fields, it's the one direction they'll approach from."
"Yeah. You gonna be alright?"
"Y-yeah." Winters had grunted in pain as Eliza slightly lifted his leg to wrap the wound properly.
"Good," Compton stated as he nodded his head and left the aid station.
"What's wrong with Blithe?" Winters asked Eliza finished wrapping the bandage around his leg.
"No physical wounds, but he lost his vision."
"He can't see?"
"Yeah, Blithe told me he couldn't see anything."
Concerned for his comrade, Winters stood and limped towards Blithe.
"Dick, I just told you not to put weight on your leg," scolded Eliza. However, Winters ignored her and kneeled in front of Blithe. Without any choice, Eliza walked towards the pair.
"Blithe? It's Lieutenant Winters speaking, while Corporal Clark is beside me. What happened?"
"I don't know, sir. Well, things... they just kinda went black on me."
"What, you can't see?"
"Not a thing, sir. I can't see a thing."
"Hi Blithe, I'm just going to examine your eyes again," Eliza notified as she gently turned his head towards her. Eliza meticulously analyzed his eyes to make sure that she didn't miss anything. However, just like the first time, Blithe's eyes looked normal.
"Well, you just take it easy, Blithe. I'm gonna get you out of here. Get you back to England," Winters assured Blithe, as tears fell down his face. It broke Eliza's heart to see Blithe suffer, while she couldn't do anything to help.
"I didn't wanna let anyone down."
"No. Just take it easy. It's okay, son."
"Yeah, don't worry Blithe. I'm sure you didn't let anyone down. There's more wounded that I need to tend, so I'll check on you until you're evacuated. "
As Eliza and Winters were about to leave, Blithe exclaimed, "Sir, ma'am?"
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Thank you, Lieutenant Winters and Corporal Clark. I'm okay. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay... I think I'm okay." Blithe then walked towards the pair.
"You can see?"
"God, I don't know what happened. I think-I think I'm okay."
"All right. Well, stay here a little while longer and make sure. Then you can report back to your platoon."
"Yes, sir," Blithe stated as he walked away.
Eliza and Winters looked at Blithe with amazement but were grateful that he was able to see again. Suddenly, at that moment, Eliza realized what happened to Blithe.
"I should've known," Eliza whispered, catching Winters's attention.
"Know what?"
"Blithe had Hysterical Blindness; he lost his vision due to extreme emotional stress. I could tell he was stressed before, but I didn't know it was to this extent. If only I did something earlier, to relieve his stress, he wouldn't have lost his sight," Eliza reprimanded herself, feeling the guilt weigh herself down. In addition to not saving Evans, she could've prevented Blithe's blindness. Eliza felt that she failed in being a medic.
Meanwhile, Winters saw how distressed Eliza was becoming, so he gently grabbed her arm and led her outside of the aid station. Making sure no one would see them, Winters brought Eliza into a hug because he knew, just from her crestfallen expression, that she blamed herself.
The hug from Winters had immensely surprised Eliza. However, the comfort of being in Winters's arms caused few tears to slip out of her green eyes, as the emotions she tried to bottle started to flow. And at that moment, Eliza realized that she would be forever grateful to have Winters by her side.
A/N: Sorry if this chapter was crappy, I might revise this later on, but tell me in the reviews/comments what you thought about it. Unfortunately, next chapter won't be posted for about two weeks since I'll be revising past chapters and I'm moving out for college.