Last Time: Easy Company takes Brecourt Manor.
"To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse." - Rawsi Williams
Now: Easy Company takes the town of Carentan.
Chapter 15 - The Mission Begins
The next day after taking Coup De Ville, Easy Company then took the town of Ste. Marie-du-Monte. There was time to kill before there next mission, so they loitered around waiting for the rest of Easy Company to be assembled. For many, they waited to see if Lt. Meehan would show up. As hours passed, the hope that their CO made it, began to fade.
Because of botched up the jumps were, some Easy guys like Perconte, were already at Ste. Marie-du-Monte. They were there just in time for the assault on the town.
Perconte, in his normal flamboyant fashion, bragged that he and some other guys he dropped with, stayed in a farmhouse all night and waited to attack the Germans until morning when they least expected it.
"We waited in a barn all friggn' night until we ambushed some Germans. That ain't the only thing Becca, check out his watches! I got time zones going from all around the States." Perconte exclaimed, thrusting a watch donned arm at her.
"That's great Frank." Rebecca sighed, unimpressed.
A lot of the guys boasted about souvenirs they picked off of dead Krauts.
Across the way from where Frank was sitting with Rebecca, she saw Liebgott with Tab.
"Hey, Tab get a load of this. You like that?" Liebgott said prancing his newly acquired Nazi flag.
"Yeah, it's the real stuff, man," Tab replied.
"Yeah of course." Liebgott bragged, feeling proud about himself.
Trying to one-up his friend, Tab pulled out a Kraut poncho out of his pack.
"You like this?" Tab gloated.
"Oh nice, that's a beauty sarge," Luz exclaimed.
Rebecca looked at them, dejectedly. She didn't particularly care for stripping the dead of their belongings for trophies. It left a bad taste in her mouth.
One by one the Easy men filed into the town. Rebecca saw Luz and Penkala, followed by Smokey, Shifty, and Blithe make it to the town too. Easy was becoming whole again except for Meehan and all the men in his plane. Rebecca realized that if Meehan hadn't shown up, nor any of his guys from his plane, it could on mean that the plane went down. She didn't share her thoughts with anyone, in fear of bringing down the spirits of the company. In the meantime, Dick was in charge and Welsh would be in charge of First Platoon.
Rebecca sprawled out on a Christian monument with Perconte and Dukeman, soaking up the sun's warm rays. It felt good to relax after almost three days of nonstop fighting and she was thankful for it.
Welsh appeared out of a building ordering First Platoon to move out. "Let's go, First Platoon!" He took a sip from his canteen but judging by the way he cringed, it wasn't water. "Easy's moving out! On your feet!" he began again.
Rebecca hopped up from where she was, grabbed her medbag, and followed her platoon over to where Harry was.
"Listen Up! It'll be dark soon. I want light and noise discipline from her on. No talking, no smoking, and no playing grab-fanny with the man in front of you, Luz."
Rebecca let out a chuckle. Welsh definitely wasn't as straightlaced as Dick was. He reminded her more and more of Nix.
Welsh went on, explaining that they would be taking Carentan. She remembered in the debriefing explanation on D-Day that Carentan was the only place where armor from Omaha and Utah Beach could link up and head inland. Because General Taylor was sending the whole division, the mission must have been a worthy cause. This also meant casualties would be high. Rebecca mentally prepared herself for the work that would definitely lay ahead of her.
Easy Company walked for hours and well into the night, they made their way to a lake that looked like it had been set on fire. Finally, after stepping over a charred German corpse, Hoobler realized they lost F Company again.
Hoobler gave word to Perconte who told the rest of the guys. Many just rolled their eyes or sniggered at the F Company's inadequacy to maneuver in the night time, while Rebecca thought that maybe Sobel's crazy night marches actually did come in handy.
While Hoobler and Blithe went to go find F Company, the rest of Easy's platoons crouched down near the blazing lake and waited. Finally Easy found Fox Company and they moved out.
XXX
It took four days to make it to Carentan and the division would have had the concealment of darkness on their sides if they hadn't been stopping so often to look for F Company. The 506th was deployed across the Carentan highway lead by First Platoon.
Rebecca watched as first moved up while she and the other medics would wait behind in case of casualties. As soon as they began to move up the road, the Germans defending the town opened up, catching Easy by surprise. Rebecca nearly jumped out of her skin from the sudden burst of machine gun bullet aimed at them. This was truly the first time she was under fire.
In an attempt to get some cover, the company dispersed into a trench-like dugout, most likely used as a runoff ditch. Easy was completely exposed and in fear of being shot, no one wanted to leave the ditch. Rebecca saw that Luz and Harry were the only ones who weren't trapped in the ditch. Instead, they were pinned up against a farmhouse, looking around and randomly firing off shots in the direction of the town. They were bewildered and probably wondering where the rest company had gone.
Finally, Easy got moving only thanks to Winters' hollering and the raid on the town began with different squads began clearing houses. Bullets were screaming past Rebecca and she had no idea how she wasn't getting shot. Every move she made from house to house, Rebecca felt the bullets nip at her feet and fly past her.
She stuck close with Guarnere, who was following up the rear, in case someone called for a medic.
Lipton approached her suddenly, shouting to be heard over the MG's and grenade explosions, "Rebecca, battalion wants you to stay covered and try to make your way to the aid station."
She nodded in agreement but didn't want to have to stay at the aid station while the fight was going on here.
Rebecca's heart was racing as she stuck close to the building for cover. She began her move from building to building looking for the aid station.
In one fell swoop, the characteristic low drone of German mortars began bursting. Lipton was on the fire escape of a warehouse he was taking, yelling for men to get off the streets. He probably didn't realize that he was running around in the streets like a banshee himself.
"Lipton you're out in the open! Move your ass!" she yelled, even though she knew she was preaching to the choir. He probably couldn't hear her over all the fire anyways.
Unfortunately, Lipton was caught in the sights of a German 88 that was targeting on one of the buildings. Rebecca stood up in shock as she saw him fly back from the German 88 shell. She quickly ran over to him and Talbert, who was already on the scene helping him.
Rebecca sat next to a very stunned Lipton. "Hey Lip, you're gonna be okay," Rebecca cooed. He was very much in shock and as Rebecca was checking his pupils for brain damage, she noticed his eyes traveled down to his pants. She looked quickly down at the zipper of his trousers and noticed a considerable amount of blood seeping through.
Oh well, no time for modesty, she thought.
She quickly stuck her finger inside the hole of the bloody pants and ripped them open. Rebecca checked and was relieved to see none of his reproductive parts were damaged, only his upper thigh.
Tab peered at the wound himself and reassured Lip he would be okay. "You're okay Lip, everything's right where it should be." Talbert began picking him up.
Rebecca wiped the blood from her hands onto her trousers. "Tab, I need you to take Lip to the aid station and tell Roe he's got a puncture wound in the upper right thigh and a busted up nose." Tab nodded and headed off with Lip over his shoulder.
After watching Lipton get taken over to the aid station, Rebecca heard the calm yet loud call for a medic coming from a pharmacy. She got up from her position and sprinted over. Rebecca wondered why the call for a medic wasn't more urgent but didn't dwell on it too much. A call for a medic, was a call for a medic, whether it was a scream or not.
When Rebecca got to the pharmacy, the sight took her breath away. Tipper had been investigating the building for Krauts when it got hit by a German mortar. One side of his face was severely burned, bleeding, and leaving one eye completely shut. His legs were both blown open, exposing ligaments and raw flesh, his feet actually had holes blasted into them, still steaming from the hot shrapnel. He wasn't in good shape, but he would make it. Rebecca soon determined he would lose his eye and be lucky if he didn't lose his legs too.
Rebecca looked at Liebgott who was doing an excellent job in comforting Tipper and must have been the one who called for help. She looked at him earnestly, they had to get him out of there immediately. She crouched down to Tipper and began pouring on a sulfa packet on his exposed wounds and covered up his burns with bandages. If they didn't get attended to quickly, he would have a nasty infection and soon.
Rebecca smiled at him still trying to keep Tipper calm and spoke softly to him, "Hey, darling, you're gonna be just fine." She pulled out a morphine syrette, stuck it in him, and pinned it to his jacket. She doubted that he could even really feel anything because his extensive of his injuries probably shut down his nervous system.
She took out a few more bandages and wrapped the rest of his wounds. Liebgott watched Rebecca, almost in a trance, she knew to see his friend all torn up was beginning to shake him up. "Hey, Lieb, why don't you come to take him to the aid station with me."
Liebgott nodded and helped Rebecca pick Tipper up in a two-hand seat carry. They began making their way to the aid station. When they both arrived, Tipper was evacuated immediately. Rebecca smiled at Liebgott and thanked him for the help before he went back into the fray.
XXX
Roe had been wrapping up a wounded private with a shot up leg when he saw Rebecca come into the aid station holding Tipper. A wave of relief passed over him. He hadn't seen her since the beginning of the battle and was wondering if she was okay. Judging by the amount of blood wiped on her uniform and the injured soldier she was carrying, he guessed that she was out in the hailstorm of combat running after the wounded, instead of doing what she was told–man the aid station–and allow the wounded to come to her.
The dark-haired Cajun walked over to Rebecca. "Lieutenant, I was beginning to wonder where you were. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, but Lip and Tipper got hit. They're going to be evacuated."
"That's too bad. Are they okay?" Roe said, worried.
"Lip will be okay, but Tipper has a long haul ahead of him. He was hit pretty bad."
Roe let out a sigh. "Alright. Battalion surgeon hasn't shown up yet, so you're in charge," he said walking towards a wounded man he was about to help.
Rebecca quickly looked around at the restaurant they made into an aid station. It was a hell of a lot cleaner than the station back at Ste. Mere Eglise. The stench of rotting flesh and infection wasn't present yet, and it was eminently cleaner than the previous. Having a running sink also helped too. Without another thought, Rebecca got to work. The battle of Carentan was mostly over as she could see and the severely wounded were evacuated, leaving those with minor injuries. It was a short order for Rebecca.
She was finishing up taking care of a trooper with a burned leg when Blithe came walking in with the assistance of another trooper. Rebecca rushed over to him.
"Hey, Blithe, what's going on." Rebecca did a quick scan over his body and saw no visible injuries.
"I-I can't s-see ma'am."
Rebecca was a little surprised by what he said. She didn't know if he was faking to be blind to get out of fighting or if he was actually blinded by something.
"Alright, let's get you a seat." Rebecca got out a tiny flashlight and began checking his pupils. When they didn't dilate, she became concerned. "Blithe, can you tell me what happened?"
Blithe was looking out into space and began answering Rebecca. "I-I don't know, I was fightin' but then things went black on me." Rebecca could see tears running down his face.
"Alright, honey, why don't you cool your heels, I got a nice comfy spot just for you," Rebecca said sweetly. She couldn't really do anything to help him so she moved onto men that had injuries she could help.
She walked him over to the corner and sat him down. If he was doing this to get out of combat, he sure was doing a hell of a job.
XXX
Before long, the sound of bullets and mortars ceased. The all-clear sounded off and Rebecca stepped outside of the aid station to get some fresh air.
I wonder where Dick is. Rebecca hadn't seen him since the battle started and it had been a few hours.
As if reading her mind, Dick rounded the corner. However, he was limping and his leg was bleeding. Rebecca walked over to Dick and put his arm around her shoulder. "What the hell happened to you?" Rebecca joked.
Dick looked up at her, in quite a bit of pain. "Alright, let's take a look at it," Rebecca said, regretting pestering him when he was clearly hurting.
Rebecca walked Dick over to a table and sat him down so his leg was hanging off. She rolled up his leg pant and was relieved to see that it was just some shrapnel. Rebecca took out some sulfa and cleaned the wound, then took out some forceps and began looking for the bullet piece. Dick was in some discomfort judging by the way his face contorted as she prodded around his leg. "Sorry, Dick, it'll be over soon," Rebecca said trying to ease his pain.
Eventually, Rebecca found the bullet. "There it is, you're lucky it was just a ricochet. You just caught a piece of it," Rebecca said with a smile. She began to clean up the stray blood that had flowed from the wound and dressed it.
"Try to stay off of it and make sure to keep it clean."
He wasn't paying attention to her but had his focus on Blithes.
"Hey, are you paying attention?" Rebecca asked.
"What's wrong with Blithe?" he asked.
"Well, nothing physically, except he can't see," Rebecca said.
Dick jumped off of the table and walked over to him, right as Rebecca was about to get the bandage on him. Rebecca huffed in frustration but watched the exchange between the two. Dick was a good man and was a good leader. He treated all his men with kindness and encouragement. She watched as Dick talked to him and reassured Blithe that he would be okay. Dick then mentioned Blithe would be getting out of here and got up to leave. Suddenly, Blithe looked at his hand.
"Sir." Blithe said, getting Dick's attention.
"Yeah, what is it?" He asked. Blithe stood up and used the wall as a support for himself. He told Dick he could all of a sudden see.
Rebecca and Dick watched as Blithe walked out of the aid station, they both exchanged looks of bewilderment. "Alright, let's get that bandage on before you cure the lepers next." Rebecca joked.
XXX
Rebecca stayed in the aid station for a while longer after she patched up Dick. When she noticed no more wounded were coming through, she decided to take the opportunity and take a seat in the sun outside the aid station, and close her eyes.
It had been a hectic and tiring day. Rebecca had spent most of it covered in other people's blood. She closed her eyes and thought of everything she'd done.
Terrified, I was so terrified. But my body kept moving and got me to safety. How did I manage to keep moving forward?
However, when her mind was relaxed and she sat reflecting.
At any point in that battle, I could have died.
Rebecca thought of the guys who she saw get torn up.
Lipton, Tipper, and all the other guys weren't so lucky as me.
Trying not to dwell on this fact, she began dozing off into a light sleep.
"Up and at 'em Becca, it's time to move out," Lt. Spiers said kicking her boot. Rebecca didn't know how long she was asleep for but was still completely exhausted. Somehow she still managed to pull herself to her feet.
She had actually never gotten to know the commander of D Company that well, but what Rebecca could tell Speirs was a serious man who took nothing from no one. But, Rebecca also knew the rumors. Rumor control had it that Speirs killed twenty POWs on D-Day and killed a sergeant in his platoon for being drunk. Rebecca knew that killing one of his own guys had to be a load of shit, but killing the POWs could have been true. Twenty was pushing it though. She had passed those POWs and knew there wasn't twenty. The tales were getting distorted and were spiraling out of control, that's usually how rumors went.
"How long was I asleep for?" she asked, pushing the rumors out of her head.
"A couple of hours." He responded and the walked away.
Weird. She thought to herself.
Rebecca pushed her thoughts about Speirs out of her head and prepared to get moving. She was absentmindedly packing her things when she began eavesdropping on Malarkey, Penkala, Muck, Blithe, and More talking about the same exact thing as she had been thinking about.
Almost with perfect timing, Muck called her over. "Hey, Lieutenant, come over here!"
Rebecca made the slow trudge over to the group of men. "What's up, Skip?"
Skip looked up at Rebecca as he began packing up his stuff. "We saw you talking to Speirs over there. He mentions anything about killing More?" Skip chuckled much to More's distaste.
Rebecca looked at the group in confusion. "What?"
"Well, I'm sure you heard the rumors. And Groucho over here gave Speirs some lip. We were wondering how long he has to live," Skip said bursting into laughter.
She looked at Skip, with annoyance on her face.
"I think you have more of a chance of being shot by me than him," Rebecca said.
They brushed her off and continued on about the rumors. She didn't say anything else and walked away. Rebecca detested rumors - as she was always at the other end of one -and didn't think it was fair to Speirs to be talked about without having the chance to defend himself.
XXX
Easy Company had been moving across a field for hours to get into a new position in order to prevent a counter-assault on Carentan. The Krauts wanted the town just as much as they did, and the idea was to set up defenses so they didn't overrun the position again.
Easy was on the far end of the line totally exposed to the enemy and completely made unveiled to the elements.
The whole idea behind taking this particular field was because it was the only one not flooded by rain and it gave access to the town. But who knew how long it would last before this one was flooded too?
Being wet from the rain attracted the mosquitoes, giving them a feast. They were exposed, wet, and bitten up from bugs. All in all, it was miserable.
Rebecca was making her way with her platoon when Perconte began complaining. "Hey, Luz," he said, "how far are we goin'?"
Oh, Jesus Christ, Frank" Luz said, annoyed, "I don't know. Until they tell us to stop."
"High ground," Hoobler said, "there's high ground up ahead."
"Okay, genius, answer me this then," Perconte began annoyed, "why is Easy Company the only company who's either the front of an advance or, like now, exposed at the far edge of the line?"
"To keep you on your toes," Hoobler said again.
"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that we're never in the middle and we're the fifth of nine companies of this regiment. Able through Item. Think of it."
"Hey Becca," Luz said, "there any way you could bandage his mouth shut?"
Rebecca chuckled. Perconte did have a way of going off on little tangents when he was upset and it came out as more bitching than anything.
"See there, you see that-?" Hobbler began, but he was cut off by the sporadic fire of an MG forcing everyone on the ground.
"Contact right," Harry yelled, "get in the hedgerow!"
Rebecca crawled on her stomach to find some cover and would stay there until they needed her.
The cry for a medic was called very quickly.
"MEDIC!"
Rebecca came bounding over the hedgerow and went to the private calling for a medic.
He had been shot in the shoulder and was bleeding profusely. Rebecca took out a bandage and applied pressure.
"Hey kiddo, you're gonna be alright." Rebecca asserted.
This was going to be a long day.
XXX
Easy Company dug themselves in for the night while the Krauts lay just a few yards ahead. The thought of the enemy so close to them gave Rebecca chills. The situation was only made worse when it began to downpour. Rebecca pulled out her poncho and tried to keep warm with Roe.
"So," Rebecca said breaking the silence, "how are you doing?" Rebecca said spooning some of the canned meat into her mouth from her supper unit K ration. She didn't particularly have anything to say to her fellow medic, but Rebecca thought it would be better than doing nothing, focusing on the rain pouring down on them, and the disgusting army issued dog chow that passed as food.
Roe looked over to where Rebecca was and eyed her curiously. "I'm okay, how are you doing, Lieutenant?" Roe said.
"Oh, I'm just fine, Roe. I just love sitting in the mud, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and being soaking wet," Rebecca said, sarcasm lacing her words.
He let off a soft chuckle. "Hey, why don't you cop a few, I'll be on the lookout in case someone needs us."
"Yeah, that sounds good," Rebecca said slowly closing her eyes.
Before Rebecca could stay asleep for five minutes, she heard the call for a medic. Both medics, confused, sprinted out of their foxholes the where the sound was coming from.
When they arrived at the scene, Talbert was on the ground with a stab wound given to him by his own man. Liebgott was on the scene trying to help as well. Smith was in the background apologizing while Roe and Rebecca began to patch him up.
"I didn't know it was him," Smith said, guilt lacing his voice, "he looked like a Kraut."
"Can you breath?" Liebgott asked.
"Yeah, I can breath!" Talbert said in pain.
Rebecca poured some sulfa on the wound. "Dammit, Tab. Did you have where that stupid poncho?" she said criticized. After tending to the wound as best they could, they waited for him to be evacuated.
"Hey, Rebecca," Roe said, "I'm gonna stay here with Floyd until he gets evacuated. Why don't you go back to the foxhole and rest."
Rebecca nodded and headed back to her foxhole. She walked in the cover of the brush, noticing the nasty squish the ground made under her boots from the rain. Rebecca was glad, however, that the rain had stopped. Rain only made their situation ten times worse. It was bad enough that they were on constant alert for enemy outside, but being wet in the rain only added to the misery. On the way back to her foxhole, Rebecca heard Speirs talking to Blithe. She stopped where she was to listen in on their conversation.
"You know why you hid in that ditch, Blithe?" Rebecca heard Speirs say.
"I was scared," Blithe answered back.
"We're all scared. You hid in that ditch because you still think there's hope. But Blithe the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. And the sooner you accept that the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier supposed to function. Without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it," Spiers said with an eerie tone in his voice.
Blithe sat down in his hole, with an absolutely petrified look on his face. Speirs passed Rebecca, but before he made his way totally past her, Rebecca stopped him.
"Jesus Christ, Ron," Rebecca said disturbed. "What the hell was that?"
Speirs had probably scared away any chance of Blithe functioning in battle for good.
Speirs just smiled at her slightly and continued walking.
XXX
It was D-Day plus seven when the attack finally commenced. The morning started off normal, normal as any morning for a soldier started off.
Rebecca was crouching adjacent to Welsh as he explained the plan of attack. She didn't necessarily have to hear the plan, but it didn't hurt to listen anyways. Some guys were in a foxhole next to Rebecca, trading candy and smokes. Boyle walked by, handing out ammo.
"No, we don't know what they've got," Harry explained, "We may be attacking a weaker force, possibly more paratroopers."
"And we know how they can be," Hoobler said.
Harry chuckled at Hoobler and continued. "Fire and maneuver. That's the name of the game, fire, and maneuver. Dog and Fox Companies will be on our left flank, moving with us. Any questions?" Harry finished.
All the men surrounding him shook their heads. "Let's make 'em holler," Welsh said.
Perconte rolled up his sleeve revealing his collection of watches, looking at one to see the time. "It's 9:30 in the evening back home. Must be."
Quickly interrupting the peace, the wailing sound of a mortar cut off Perconte and commenced the attack. Rebecca and Roe fell into their foxholes, anticipating the wailings that were sure to come shortly.
Rebecca heard someone screaming and immediately bolted up from her foxhole. Following the sound, Rebecca saw Blithe in his foxhole making the noise. He wasn't injured from what Rebecca could tell. Quickly Rebecca, fled from Blithe's foxhole when she actually witnessed a man get shot in the chest and go down. She didn't have time to baby Blithe when guys were actually getting killed.
She was the first to pounce. However, when she arrived to aid him, the trooper was already dead.
She watched as the scene unfolded. The battle was evenly matched. The 506th fired and the Krauts fired back. Mortars went off from their side and from the German's side. The battle seemed to go as planned until Kraut tanks came out of nowhere, overwhelming Easy Company and the rest of the 506th. It was chaos.
"Holy shit," Welsh yelled, "There goes our left flank!"
From her position, Rebecca noticed Welsh stand up and run into the fray to help McGrath fire a bazooka. What the hell is he thinking‽ Rebecca saw the tank get closer as Harry struggle to load the bazooka. The first shot didn't even leave a scratch on the tank. After the first shot, Harry, McGrath, and the German tank entered into a battle of who would fire first. Struggling to reload the bazooka, the tank fired first. The blast from the tank seemed to blast Harry and McGrath right off of the ground.
"Harry!" Rebecca screamed. She was prepared to go and check the remains of the two paratroopers, when she saw them both spring up from the ground and fire the bazooka, destroying the tank. Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief, but the battle wasn't over yet.
Rebecca was jumping from place to place within the hedgerows,
"MEDIC!"
Was that Buck? Yes, damn, I need to get to him now!
Her heart was pounding and Rebecca's pulse thumped as she ran to his call. Rebecca saw Buck pouring sulfa on the wounded arm of the trooper and trying to stop the bleeding. She bounded into the foxhole and started aiding the trooper.
"Buck, I got this! You keep firing!" Rebecca yelled.
Buck nodded quickly and kept firing his weapon off at the Germans line. Rebecca quickly tended to the trooper and stopped the bleeding. She waited by his side as he was evacuated.
The numbers were becoming overwhelming.
We're gonna lose this one. There's just too many.
As Rebecca looked around, more Germans were coming through making the difference between the 506th and the Germans that much bigger. The tanks made the Krauts almost untouchable as they used them for cover.
Suddenly, when it looked like the odds couldn't be more stacked up against Easy, a defeating blast from out of nowhere leveled a Kraut tank. No one knew where it came from until Sherman tanks burst through the piles of brush. Yells and hollers of glee filled the air as second armored broke through the line, reinforcing the 506th. Rebecca was just as happy as the next guy, but her job was hardly done. The wounded were littered all across the 506th's hedgerow.
With the sudden onslaught of reinforcements, Easy Company and whoever was left gave it all they had left. The battle quickly became very one-sided. The Germans were swiftly outnumbered. American troops began pouring on more fire, engulfing the Germans who began their retreat.
XXX
In the month that passed, Easy Company spent it taking smaller towns surrounding Carentan. Rebecca and Roe had their hands always full with wounded. Whether it was heading into battle while Easy defended another town or hedgerow, or waiting in the aid station for the wounded on patrols, Rebecca always had her hands capped in blood. Soon the anxiety and nervousness that came along with going into combat, dulled.
One day Easy was on a patrol, Nixon, and Welsh along with a few other guys went to go investigate a farmhouse. Rebecca and Roe had no reason to accompany them, so they stayed behind with Winters and the rest of the Easy men.
Rebecca sat in the grass, keeping her ears open for trouble, but at the same time closing her eyes. She was absolutely exhausted. Roe sat next to her. "Hey, Rebecca, how are you fixed?"
Roe's sudden advance in conversation made Rebecca jump up in attention. He snickered as she grabbed her heart in sudden surprise. "Jesus Christ, Roe, trying to give a girl a heart attack?" Rebecca asked bitterly.
He let out another chuckle. "Sorry, chère, I didn't mean to scare you," Roe said smiling.
Rebecca raised her eyebrow at the name Roe called her. "I'm a little low on plasma, and what did you call me?" She asked, smiling.
"Cherie," Roe began, "it means 'my dear' in French."
Rebecca felt her heart pang at the sudden affection. The very shy and often uncomfortable Roe now had a pet name for her.
"If you don't want me to, I can stop saying it." He offered.
"No, I'm just flattered that you're comfortable enough with me. I didn't know you spoke French," Rebecca said.
"Yeah," Roe said, "I'm half Cajun. What about you, what -"
Roe's question was unanticipatedly interrupted as the yell for medic was heard coming from the direction of the farmhouse. Rebecca and Roe quickly grabbed their belongings and sprinted to the direction of the call.
When Rebecca and Roe got there, Blithe was on the ground with a gunshot wound to the neck. Blood was gushing out of the large hole in his neck, and he was choking on his own blood.
"It's alright, Blithe, we got you," Roe said.
Rebecca did what she could to help him, but she couldn't help but be disturbed. He was surprisingly calm despite the fact he was gravely injured, and the look on his face was almost like he was accepting his fate. It was like the words Speirs said to him not long ago, was flooding back into his memory, sedating him.
Blithe was quickly evacuated and Winters told them all they were being pulled off the line to a field camp north of Utah beach. Rebecca should have been happy with such news, the mention of hot food and showers should have made her jump for joy, but she couldn't get the spine-chilling look of Blithe's face out of her mind.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I'm working hard to get new ones out for ya'll. Let me know how I'm doing, love ya! :3
