They were right to be on their guard.

As the smoke began to clear, figures appeared where they had been standing not half an hour ago. The sentry was the first to spot them, and called a warning to the Germans from where had had been positioned on a large rock that jutted out from the cliff, where visibility was more or less good. They clearly hadn't heard the Allies approach in their frantic preparations.

But with her sharp vision, Emilie could see that it wasn't just Americans standing there, but also the French. Get your game faces on, boys, she thought silently, looking around at the men surrounding her. Make this one count.

That was when she spotted a taller, slim man jumping out of a truck on the American side of the ravine, and the white sash on his left arm. "Wait!" she yelled at the men behind her, not thinking what she was doing, but they had already opened fire. She saw Eugene take cover just as someone behind her secured her arms and dragged her, kicking, to the back of the MLR. "Get off me!" she hissed, shoving him away and peering over the heads of the soldiers. No sign of Gene. But was that a good or bad thing? She wasn't sure.

"We can't have our only medic getting wounded," Ehrlichmann murmured gently in her ear, and she reluctantly settled down, though she continued to pace back and forth behind the men, picking at her fingers and chewing at her thumb nail until it was no more than a stump. The surgeon stood behind her with his hands behind his back, watching her through narrowed, concerned eyes. At least no one was getting wounded.

In truth, the Allies looked rather unimpressed with their display of fire-power. Perhaps the wind wasn't just right, or maybe they had made a grave error and put them too far back, because the mortar rounds hit directly in front of the Americans, but never within their ranks, which was good news for Emilie but terrible for the rest of the soldiers. When the first few mortars fired, the French and Americans scattered instinctively, but when they learned they were doing no damage, they simply watched them contemptuously. They found it amusing at first, but soon it grew into an irritation.

"So much for going out in a blaze of glory," Emilie muttered to Ehrlichmann when she finally stopped pacing and went to stand beside him. He shook his head in disbelief in response. A few of the French returned fire, but it wasn't really heartfelt and did about as much damage as the German mortars. She was just glad that the Germans didn't follow the Japanese tradition of suiciding if you lost a battle because it was too disgraceful to return home a failure. She had seen a few men take their own lives in her time in the army, and the mere thought froze her heart.

Eventually, they were forced to surrender; her CO gave the order with a despaired sigh, though he looked faintly relieved, and all the soldiers rose to their feet with their hands held over their head. She could hear the American's laughter even from that distance and gritted her teeth. They were not something to be mocked.

At that moment, she heard her name being called and frowned, looking around. "Demont, get over here!" the order came again, and she recognised her CO's voice. She glanced back at Ehrlichmann, who shrugged. Clearing her throat, Emilie walked over to her commanding officer, who was standing with a few of the SS men, along with a man from her company.

"Demont," her CO greeted her, frowning disapprovingly, subtly so none of the SS would notice, "You took your time. Have you become deaf over night?"

Emilie smiled sweetly. "Sorry, sir. I thought your voice was just an irritating sound in my head."

One of the SS soldiers smirked and the man from her company covered his mouth with his hand to hide his snickering. Her CO was not impressed, glowering at her, but, grinding his teeth together, he continued on. "You and Fiebig are two of very few soldiers that speak English fluently. I want you to go to the edge of the bridge and tell the Americans that, as we cannot possibly make it over the ravine to surrender, we will make our way up to Berchtesgaden and surrender there." He paused, eyes flicking from Fiebig to Emilie, "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Understood, sir."

Her CO nodded in approval. Before they put one foot down to leave, however, he added, "Oh. And hold your heads high, walk with pride. You are German soldiers. Act like it, and show them that even in defeat we are a force to be reckoned with." She noticed that he was displaying all of his medals on his clean field uniform.

Emilie nodded, his words coursing through her as she straightened, smoothed her uniform, saluted, and turned on her heel, marching away towards the destroyed bridge with Fiebig close by her side. She would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous, but was glad she could do one last thing for her army, and that her CO had trusted her enough to allow her to do it.

They crossed the distance between their company and the blown bridge, covering open land that made them both feel a little wary and uncomfortable and they quickened their pace slightly. The sun beat down on them, and she absently hoped her pale skin wouldn't burn horribly. Demont and Freidrich Fiebig came to a halt at the edge of the ravine in unison, standing straight and proud, arms held rigidly by their sides.

"We're here to inform you of our honourable surrender," Emilie called to the Americans in English, who all looked a little startled to see her there. She spotted Eugene and Bull walking behind a jeep, and, when they heard her voice ring out, they both stopped dead and snapped their heads around to stare at her. She struggled to hide her smile.

A group of Americans gathered together and talked urgently for a moment before finally two Colonels, a French General, an American Major and a Captain marched towards the other edge of the ravine. The Americans looked considerably more dirty than the Germans, who strove to look their best even in foxholes.

"What, so first you try to kill us, then you surrender when things aren't going your way?" The Captain called sarcastically, eyebrows raised. The Major turned to him and muttered something under his breath, obviously telling him to behave, to which the Captain rolled his eyes but fell silent. They were both good-looking, the Major a redhead like herself, though his hair was far more well-groomed than her own birds nest.

One of the Colonels, a tall, older man with a large, grey moustache, shot a warning glance to the men behind him before taking a small step forward. "I apologise for the behaviour of Captain Nixon," he told them in a heavy Southern accent, raising his voice to be heard over the expansive gap separating them, "We accept your surrender, but…" He gestured to the remnants of the bridge in front of him, "How exactly are you going to get over here to be escorted to a prisoner of war camp? I'm assuming Germans don't have the ability to sprout wings."

Fiebig spoke up this time, sounding a little more nervous than Emilie. She watched him from the corner of her eye, silently urging him to suck it up. The Americans were intimidating, certainly, but they had to keep their cool and demand respect. "W-we are…" Fiebig trailed off and the other Colonel and French General exchanged an amused look. Emilie bit her tongue to stop herself from snapping at them. The German cleared his throat and continued more strongly, getting more used to once again speaking in English, albeit with a strong accent, "We are going to continue up to Berchtesgaden and surrender there."

"Well, don't get lost on the way." The man she now knew as Nixon clearly hadn't intended for the Germans to be able to hear his comment, as, when he looked up to see Fiebig staring at him incredulously and Emilie smirking amusedly, he blushed and cleared his throat.

"Thanks for the tip, Captain," Emilie called to him just as sarcastically. The Major gave a half-smile, glancing at the man beside him.

The French General let out a rumbling laugh, patting Nixon on the back so hard he wheezed. "I think Captain Nixon here has finally met his match, ey?" he chuckled in a loud, heavily-accented voice. The American gave a weak smile, but looked as though he wanted to get as far away from the man as possible, rubbing his back.

Behind the five soldiers, a few of the other Americans wolf-whistled at Emilie and she saw Gene stiffen. Once more, she had to fight back a grin.

"Make sure to turn yourselves in to the first American you see," the first Colonel instructed them, ignoring what was going on behind him, "We don't want to risk y'all being shot at."

Everyone clearly expected Nixon to have something to say about that, as there was a pause in the conversation where they all glanced at him. He frowned, looking around at the numerous sets of eyes turned on him. "What?"

"The United States Army and the entire Allied Forces thanks you for your cooperation," continued the Colonel, focusing once more on the Germans, sounding like he was reading off a script he had performed countless times before.

"Sorry about the roadblock, Yanks," Emilie teased with a sincere face, "Good luck getting around that."

With that, Emilie and Fiebig saluted in unison before marching back to their company. And that was Emilie's first proper encounter with Allies of any considerable rank. She was almost impressed with herself, a relatively new feeling; a General, two Colonels, a Major and a Captain had all come forward to greet a sergeant and a private.

A/N: So, of course, I don't even have to tell you who those Americans were. But I will anyway aha! Colonel Strayer, Colonel Sink, Nixon, and Winters. It was so great to finally write for Nixon omfg. :D I would have included General Taylor, but meh. The French General was Jacques Phillipe Leclerc, the famous commander of the 2nd Armoured Division. The French had supposedly been on the right flank of the Americans for the past week as they travelled up to Berchtesgaden, but the Americans continuously lost contact with them, as they were there one minute, gone the next; the French were stopping everywhere to loot, and to send it back to France every time they filled up a few trucks.

Well, on with the show that will soon be drawing to a close… NOOO! Also, in the mini-series, it shows that the American advance on Berchtesgaden was stopped by lots and lots of large rocks on the road leading up to it, but I've chosen to go with the book, that spoke of the bridge.

Hope you enjoyed. (;

xx