"Golden Gate Park"

Author: carmen_085

Disclaimer: I don't own any Band of Brothers characters. All original characters in this belong to me

Summary: He stared down at the dark, swirling water under the bridge. A step up and over…and a push off the railing is all it would take. Closing his eyes he swallowed the lump of emotion in his throat. No matter what, they were always there. The men who lived, the men who died, and her…always her. ( Liebgott X OC with an ensemble storyline)

Author's Note: I do no own any Band of Brothers characters and this story is based on the mini-series and not any real life individuals. I started this story last year but looking back I wanted to re-write it with more detail, same initial storyline but hopefully more developed. Thank you for your time and please leave a review!

Chapter One

November 1945

San Francisco

Leaning his elbows against the railing, the man took a long drag on his cigarette as he stared out at the bay. It was another impossibly foggy day in San Francisco. At times it felt like the gray dullness of the city was never ending. Cold drizzle hit his face as he gazed out into the white haze. His stare was blank but his mind was reeling. War was nothing like he had imagined, in fact, he didn't think he possessed the ability to imagine such things before he was actually living them. Things he could never forget, men he never wanted to forget.

Staring down at the dark, swirling water under the bridge a strangely gratifying thought came to his mind. Just one step up and over, and a push off the railing is all it would take. No one survived the fall; some were found, most were washed out to the Pacific before anyone knew they were gone. Two hundred and twenty feet….four seconds…and a lifetime's worth of pain would be gone. Closing his eyes, he swallowed the lump of emotion in his throat. He knew it was going to be hard, knew they weren't all going to come home….even accepted he might not come home; but what he didn't count on was this.

Dropping his cigarette he watched it fall end over end into the dark water below. He folded his hands and leaned forward resting his forehead on the orange railing. "This" didn't even have a name, at least not one he knew. "This" was sleepless nights, it was the way a loud sound made his heart seize and his breath hitch, it was the near constant ringing in his ears, and the haunting sound of his brothers crying out in agony. "This" was knowing exactly where he belonged only to come home and not belong at all, it was the persistent ache in his chest, and it was fully understanding how much a human being could suffer. "This" was a place like Landsberg, it was the men left behind, and it was her….always her.

A strangled sob escaped his lips as he shook his head willing it all to go away. Stepping up onto the railing he leaned over at the waist looking down at the cold water below. For the last three years all he had been doing was trying to break the fall. The crash to the ground was inevitable; gravity exerting itself the minute the Jumpmaster yelled 'Go'. He took a lot of falls throughout the war; only a small number of them involved a parachute or a plane. Falling was inevitable, they all knew it, how they tried to lessen the blow became the only thing that mattered.

White knuckling the railing he leaned into the cold steel his knees aching. This fall…this would be one that he wouldn't try to break. He would go face first; one…two…three…four. And then nothing…blackness…peace. The wind ruffled his dark brown hair as he let out a low groan. So many of his brothers crying and begging for their fucking lives, and here he was ready to throw his away. Before the war he would have puked if he had seen himself now. But he got here somehow, and maybe to understand that he would need to go back to the start.

Camp Toccoa, Georgia

July 1942

Hazy sunlight streamed into the small office as she stood at attention. Underneath her blouse she felt beads of sweat roll down her chest; she could only hope that her shirt hadn't betrayed her nerves. Behind her, a young man stood in the doorway, hand on the knob waiting for the command to shut it and leave. No such command had been offered, however, as the man in front of her leisurely perused the file on his desk. The only urgency in this moment was finding a light for his expensive looking cigar. Smoke clouded her vision as he exhaled over the papers saying nothing. The message was clear, however, she was on his time and if he wanted to, he could make her stand there all day.

Finally, he looked up meeting her eyes for a moment before looking behind her. "Thank you, Loraine. That will be all." The young man snapped to attention, saluted , and left closing the door behind him with a sharp click. They were alone now; having both already sized each other up, it was time to do battle. Gesturing toward the chair he offered a pleasant smile. "Why, Miss Bennett, please have a seat."

Meeting his eyes Lucy nodded as she briskly seated herself in front of him. The desk was ordinary, metal and utilitarian; not at all what she had expected from a man of his rank. 'Colonel Robert Sink', Commander of the 506th Parachute Infanty Regiment, 101st Airborne, United States Army; it sounded so prestigious in the letter. One look into his eyes, however, told her that this man could command the entire Army from a fucking hole if he wanted to. Straightening her back she felt the sweat beginning to pool around the edges of her bra.

"Thank you, Sir." Lucy was acutely aware of the fact that they didn't want her here. Behind the polite smiles and the yes ma'ams was a layer of thinly veiled hostility ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Swallowing hard she tried not to show how her back ached from the unnatural posture she felt only proper to assume in the presence of someone who had complete and ultimate power over her life. He stared at her for a moment, rolling the smoldering cigar between his fingers. Lucy kept her face impassive, her hands still, and her eyes unperturbed at this showdown of wills. Her gender alone already gave them enough reasons to hate her, no sense in providing anything else.

The Colonel exhaled smoke, filling the space between them with a cloudy haze. Maintaining her stoic stare she waited. He reached for a piece of paper as Lucy's eyes fell on familiar letterhead. "Well Miss Bennett you come highly recommended. A young nurse already with so much experience." She knew that Carney pulled every string and connection he had to get her here. Setting the paper back down, Sink laid the cigar in a glass ashtray as he regarded her thoughtfully. "I just can't understand why you want to be out in the woods with a bunch of GIs when you could be in a field hospital with all the other nurses….my God with your experience you could be running an entire ward !"

There it was. With all the other nurses…all the other women. She had more training and experience on day one than the men who would become combat medics could hope to have before the start of the War. She had already seen a man bleed out and stopped another from bleeding out. Had bandaged wounds, splinted broken bones, and drug a boy out from under a street car with no one's help but her own. And yet here she was…being curtly redirected to a ward with all the other nurses for no reason other than being a woman. A fire in side of Lucy flickered as she set her jaw and squared her shoulders toward the Colonel.

"Nursing is important work, Sir, and I agree that many lives are saved at the hospital." The corners of Sink's lips twitched upward. Licking her lips she met his eyes in a defiant stare. "But even the hospital cannot save someone if they don't first get there alive." The twitching smile faded as the Colonel's lips pulled into a dour line. Lucy took a deep breath, this was it, no turning back now. Sink and the rest of the Army needed to know how much this meant to her and that she would go down fighting if she had to. "But frankly, Sir, if a man showed up in your office with my experience you would put him in charge of a medical combat unit, not a ward." The dour line pulled into a scowl as the Colonel reached for his cigar. Narrowing his eyes at Lucy he inhaled deeply not saying a word. She held his gaze before shaking her head and looking away. "Forgive my candor, Sir. I just…." She closed her mouth, eyes darting side to side searching for the right words. "I just believe so much in what I do….the concept of taking care into the streets is novel in civilian life but the military has been doing it for years. I feel like this is where I'm meant to be."

Sink exhaled smoke into her face as Lucy stared at him, unflinching. They sat in silence for a moment before he looked at the papers in front of him once more. Choosing his words carefully, Sink stared at her as he spoke. "Miss Bennett…no one wants to see a woman ripped open on the battlefield."

She was quiet for a moment as she looked down at her hands. "Colonel I would venture to say that no one wants to see a women ripped apart anywhere." He paused for a moment before offering a chuckle that filled the otherwise awkward silence. She had prepared herself for nearly every argument, every angle. Predictably, the Colonel had gone right for the throat. Women are fair, beautiful creatures to be admired; sending them to war was unnatural at best and no one had the stomach for it. While a man who dies in battle is a hero, a woman who meets the same fate is a cause for guilt….guilt for those who sent her and guilt for those who couldn't protect her.

Meeting the Colonel's gaze she stared back stoically. Sink met her eyes as the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. She had a fire inside her, he could see that. Still, she would need a lot more than that to survive the training to be a paratrooper. Truth be told, he had little say in the matter. This one had come down from the top and like it or not he would need to at least give her a chance. Still, he felt the need to vet her himself; after all this was his regiment….his company…his reputation. Stubbing the cigar in the ash tray he sighed loudly and dramatically. A passive aggressive way of showing his reluctance in the matter.

"Ms. Bennett I'm sure you can understand my hesitation. Women have never been sent to the front before….never fought hand to hand with a man…never …" Before the Colonel could finish she opened her mouth; the words coming out before she could stop them.

"Never been given the chance." The Colonel fell silent as he stared at her, his expression unreadable. Maybe she had gone too far. Men…especially men of power required certain length of time to bluster before interruption lest their ego become damaged. While she didn't personally care at all about the Colonel's ego she knew that any assault on it would undoubtedly hamper her efforts to become a paratrooper.

"Well Miss Bennett…you're going to get what you want." Collecting the papers in front of him he shoved them into a folder, his frustration evident in the way he jammed everything together. "We'll just have to see if you're going to want what you get." Shaking his head it appeared he couldn't believe that he had been unsuccessful in talking her out of it. "You'll be assigned to Easy Company, Second Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. Your Commanding Officer will be Lieutenant Herbert Sobel; you will meet him tomorrow morning at 0500 on the parade grounds. Your training will begin immediately."

She stared him not blinking. "Thank you Sir."

"Don't thank me yet, Bennett. You're going to need a whole lot more than a letter and a strap to become a paratrooper." Lucy bit back a retort. The tourniquet was not some strap…it could and it WOULD save a man's life. She sewn it together herself, had tried over and over to find something that would compress an artery with enough force to stop the bleeding. She would show the Colonel…she would show them all. Sink didn't bother looking back up at her as his sharp voice pierced the air.

"Loraine !" Lucy took this as her cue that she was being thrown out. Standing up just as swiftly as she had sat down she saluted the Colonel. His eyes flickered some level of surprise before offering her the barest of nods. Before she'd left San Francisco she'd made Carney show her how to properly salute. No need to given them one MORE reason to hate her.

Hurried footsteps before the door swung open. The poor boy, couldn't have looked more than eighteen, didn't get a word out before Sink began yelling orders.

"Take Miss Bennett to Cabin 16. She'll find her provisions there." Loraine nodded quickly.

"Yes Sir !" The boy replied back with more gusto than the situation required. Lucy offered a nod to the Colonel before turning on her heel. She could feel his eyes burning into her back as she swiftly followed Loraine out the door shutting it tightly behind her. Exhaling, she felt her aching shoulders drop for the first time in an hour. This was going to be exhausting; not the training or the medical or the looming notion of combat. But convincing each and every person in this camp…in this company…in the whole fucking Army that she belonged here. That she could earn her place just like the men. That this was where she was meant to be. "Miss Bennett?" Loraine looked at her confused from the other end of the hallway. It was only then that she realized she was still standing outside the Colonel's Office, hand frozen on the door knob.

Forcing a smile she shook her head as she came to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry…." Returning her smile he nodded.

"I'm sure you want to get settled in. This whole place can be a bit overwhelming." Lucy looked back at him not sure what to say so she just smiled and stepped past him out the door.

"Is my cabin far ? I could just walk if you point me in the right direction." She was sure he had other things to do more important than chauffeur her around. The men had been at Toccoa for a week now and she was sure none of them had arrived with a personal driver. Moving to pull her duffel bag from the rear of the jeep she was silently grateful for her sensible choice of shoes looking down at the rocky dirt road.

Loraine rushed to her side intervening immediately and pushing her bag back into the vehicle. "OH NO! Ma'am please the Colonel gave me an order to see you to your cabin and that's what I'm going to do".

She studied his panicked face and softened in her effort. She didn't want the kid to get in trouble. Relenting, she gave him nod as he quickly ran around the other side jumping into the driver's seat. Everyone had their orders here; some less daunting than others. Swinging herself into the passenger seat, she extended her hand.

"I'm a Private just like you….so it's Lucy not Ma'am." Loraine started the jeep as he ducked his head sheepishly shaking her hand.

"Sorry…Lucy." Pointing them toward her cabin he was quick to add. "You won't be a Private for long though…Lucy…" His young face spread into a smile as he suppressed the urge to call her Ma'am again. "Medics are Corporals; it's a specialized position with a whole dollar extra a pay." Lucy nodded her head, she should have known that. The jeep bounced up and down on the rough road as they headed toward the other edges of camp.

Her stomach began to churn at the thought of her accommodations. Would she be living with the other men already? She swallowed hard; it was what she signed up for but suddenly it seemed terrifying. Up ahead a group of soldiers ran across the dirt road in PT gear. They were sweat soaked and exhausted, and in that moment Lucy realized that the living arrangements would be the least of her worries. "Hey there's Easy Company now." Loraine nodded toward the men in front of them. Honking the horn he attempted to the split the sea of bodies as they drove on. Lucy kept her face impassive sure that as soon as they realized she wasn't a man all their attention would be on her. The men groaned and yelled obviously pissed that their pace had been interrupted.

"What the fuck ?!"

"Who's this asshole?!"

A tall man with blonde hair and a permanent scowl lunged toward Loraine as he yelled. "Get out of our way you jeep jockey !"

For his part Loraine depressed the accelerator gunning the engines through he crowd. The jeep lurched forward. As they passed Lucy noticed a few men stop and turn to look at her, clearly realizing that she was a woman. Before the surprise on their faces could be registered they disappeared into a cloud of dust. Around the bend and near the woods line Lorraine brought the jeep to a halt. His happy, boyish face was pulled into a tight line. She wondered if driving the Colonel had been his choice or not. She wondered if that's all the Army thought he was fit to do and if they had similar plans for her down the line.

Lucy swung her duffel bag over her shoulder as she took a deep breath. They couldn't deny her this if she proved herself. If she was just as good as the men how could they say no? Loraine offered her a small smile as she stepped past him into the rudimentary barracks. This was going to be fair; she kept telling herself that despite the knot in her stomach. "Well I better be getting back to the Colonel. Please let me know if there's anything you need…Lucy." She turned back toward him dropping her bag to the wooden floor in the process.

"Thank you, Loraine. I will." He paused before nodding toward her.

"Gerry…please." Lucy smiled at him genuinely. Well at least one person seemed to like her, maybe this would't be so hard after all.

"Gerry. Thank you." With that the door slammed shut and she was left alone for the first time today.

Her cabin was the same size as the others but had clearly been used for storage. Beds, chairs, desks and various other supplies were stacked in the rear with one bed pulled out and made for her near the door. Dropping herself onto the hard mattress she lay back and stared at the ceiling waiting for the muscles in her shoulders to relax. The tension of the day had given her a headache and she closed her eyes trying to empty all the thoughts out of her mind.

'One day at a time, Lucy….today was win. You're still here. Take tomorrow as it comes.'

A fly buzzed about the room, an unwanted guest. Lucy sighed, well at least she was in good company. She placidly wondered what it would have been like had she presented herself as a soldier and not a medic. My God the ground would have probably opened up and swallowed this place whole. The corner of her lip began to draw lazily up into a smirk as the door slammed open. Unable to get her feet under her quickly enough she tripped over nothing more than herself landing in a heap next to the bed. Hazarding a glance upward she was met with a tall, dark haired man. His eyes pierced a hole in her face as she was quick to notice the bars on his collar; he was an Officer and he was staring at her like she was the worst thing he had ever seen.

Gathering herself Lucy pushed herself up to standing, hoping that her blouse didn't come untucked on her way down to the floor. Keeping her spine ramrod straight and her gaze fixed straight ahead she waited…waited for whatever this was. He didn't speak, he just stared at her, the late afternoon sun casting long shadows against the planked wooden floor.

"Private Bennett."

"Yes Sir!" She shouted back. She didn't dare look at him no matter how much she wanted to. Carney had told her that; never look an officer in the eye. It was disrespect, a challenge. Lucy looked at the fly which had landed on the opposite wall, even a brainless insect aware that this man demanded full attention.

"Lieutenant Herbert M. Sobel, Commander Easy Company." So he was the boss. "The finest Company in second battalion …in the entire 506th…perhaps even the 101st." Very modest as well. "Until now…" She didn't flinch although she couldn't deny that his near immediate disdain was more than a little unsettling. This man held her fate in his hands. He came to stand in front of her, his hot breath on her face as he stared down his pointed nose. "You will have a probationary period in which I expect you to not only demonstrate your physical abilities but also your medical abilities….which I have heard so much about." Trepidation and doubt began to fill her heart. What if she couldn't do this? What if she embarrassed herself, Carney, and everyone else who believed her. An image of her Dad and Scotty flashed in her mind. "Your probation is over when I say it is. You join the Company when I feel you're good enough. You leave when I tell you to get out, and I will be giving you no special treatment, Private."

"Understood Sir!" He looked her up and down once before stepping back pointing at the footlocker to the floor.

"Your gear can be found in there. I expect it packed and sorted by morning." He stepped in front of her back toward the door. He was leaving, thank God. Lucy felt the breath she had been holding slowly begin to seep out of her lungs. "Private Bennett?"

"Yes Sir!" Gritting her teeth she stopped the flow of air, her lungs burning. There was more…there was always more.

"I expect no man to ever be in this cabin….lest he find himself caught up in some very unfortunate accusations." Lucy's mouth fell open marginally and all the air whooshed out. She had been here not even four hours. Not even a full day. And there it was…from none other than her commanding officer. His comment was a double sided in the most ruthless of ways. They felt she was here just to spread her legs. To get her jump wings on her back. Yet worse than that; if a man tried to assault her and she reported him it would be an Unfortunate situation for him. Not wrong…not criminal….not even against United States Army Protocol…just Unfortunate.

She was silent, imperceptibly wavering back and forth on her feet. She knew this wasn't going to be easy but she didn't expect this. Swallowing hard her eyes drifted toward the ground.

"Bennett ? Do you understand me?"

"Yes Sir." This time she didn't shout, there was no gusto behind her words, just sober understanding.

"Report to the Parade Grounds at 0500 tomorrow morning and I will be watching." He didn't wait for a reply as the door slammed shut. The sun had dipped below the horizon as her cabin filled with evening twilight. She heard his jeep start and pull away and yet she continued to stand there; her breathing ragged her eyes blinking back tears that wouldn't come.

This wasn't going to be fair. It wasn't going to be easy. The Colonel…Lieutenant Sobel….they didn't want her here. If her commanding officers were so open with their hostility she could only imagine what the rest of the rank and file had in store for her. Swallowing hard she let her eyes slip closed. She knew right then, in that moment, that if she wanted to be a Medic…a Paratrooper she would have to do it all on her own.

TBC….