Special thanks goes to nette0602!
I hope you – and of course the others, too – will enjoy this chapter. It's not very long, but I didn't want to let you wait any longer.
Because they hadn't seen and heard much of Maggie since her arrival, the breakfast felt like an interrogation to Maggie. The boys wanted to know everything about her. Where did she come from? Why did she join the Army? What did she do before that? What plans had she for the time after the war? Did she have a sweetheart somewhere? Etc…
Maggie, who felt a little feverish, answered all the questions as well as she could. She told the boys about her childhood and youth, her family, her studies at the Harvard Law School and the disappearance of her sister. The boys seemed pretty impressed by her intelligence. Dick, who sat at the nearest table, was very amused because Sobel couldn't have been less right the day before when he stated that Maggie wasn't smart enough for an officer. Dick would make every bet that Maggie was much smarter than their CO, even if he wouldn't tell anybody…
After the morning-muster Easy had to do several exercises at the training ground. Maggie was a little afraid of that because the speed was much higher than during her basic training and she had always been a little clumsy. After she fell twice, she knew the course and got along better. The guys helped her every time they could, which meant when Sobel didn't look. And these moments were rare. Maggie got the impression that he just waited for a failure of her, so that he could punish her. So she tried her best to stay invisible; she always ran in the middle of the group and tried to be as quiet as possible.
After the lunch they had to absolve an orienteering march. That wasn't a big problem because Lt. Winters who led the group had an excellent sense of orientation. Maggie thought that he was a great leader: He was kind and he just pulled rang when necessary.
After their march they stood in front of the Easy-barracks when Lt. Nixon, Winters' best friend, came along. "Hey Dick, I see, you've got the only women in the whole regiment. What a waste with a person like you, which has no flaws and no vices" stated Lew. He spoke quietly but loud enough for the company to hear him. "Shut up, Nix." Dick was angry because his best friend didn't act like a proper officer should. In Dick's opinion a good officer had to act as an example. In addition he felt insulted by Nix' comment: "What a waste with a person like you, which has no flaws and no vices". Just because he didn't drink or smoke and because he wasn't a womanizer didn't mean that he had no eyes for a beautiful woman…
Maggie ignored the Lieutenants' comment. She didn't know if she could like Lt. Nixon because he seemed to be quite arrogant and Maggie didn't like that he embarrassed Lt. Winters in front of the company. Besides she was a little jealous because Lt. Nixon spent so much time with Lt. Winters. Maggie didn't know exactly why, but she had the impression that there was a special connection between her and the Lieutnant and she wanted to get to know him better.
Sobel inspected the company and punished people for vanities. The collective punishment was that they all had to run Currahee. Maggie already couldn't stand to hear the name of that sh… mountain. She felt feverish and weak and doubted that she'd make it to the top and back to the camp. But she didn't want to show weakness in front of her CO, so she started to run along with the men. On her way to the top she had to stop her run and coughed badly. Lt. Winters was immediately by her side. He knew that Maggie was ill, but he could also understand that she wanted to finish the run and not to satisfy Cpt. Sobel. So the two of them continued their way upwards.
Back at the camp, they all stood in a row when Maggie passed out. Lipton, who stood beside Maggie couldn't react because Sobel was yelling at him. Dick picked Maggie up and carried her to the barrack he shared with Lew. He didn't think about bringing her to her own barrack because he was too angry with Sobel to think properly.
In his barrack he laid Maggie down on his bed and called for Doc Roe. The medic diagnosed bronchitis and told Dick how to bring down the fever.
Dick started to undress Maggie when he realised that half of the company stood in his door. So he expulsed the others and continued his task. When she didn't wear anything apart from her underwear, Dick risked a small glimpse at her flat belly and the small but firm breast. He could also see that Maggie had a lot of scars and wondered where they came from.
Lew came in and stared at Maggie. "Wow, Dick. It's always the quite ones... She's part of your company for two days and you already get her into you bed. Did you pull rank, mhm?" asked Lew and winked. "Shut up, Nix. Stop starring at her and go to bed. Maggie passed out because she's ill." "Oh, I'm sorry. I hope she'll be alright in the morning…"
After Lew went to bed, Dick made a calf packing and rubbed Maggie's breast with ageratum. Following he packed her into his blanked and cuddled her from behind, because the Doc told him that it was very important that he kept Maggie warm. He liked the feeling of her warm body against his and the smell of Maggie's hair, so that some moments later he was asleep.
Maggie woke up in the middle of the night and felt much better. But soon she realised that she couldn't move and panicked because she didn't know what was wrong with her. That was when she realised that someone behind her breathed against her ear and that she was embraced by strong and freckled arms. When she turned around she could see Lt. Winters' peaceful face and knew that this was the best thing that could have happened to her after that day. So she snuggled against the hole between Dicks head and shoulder and was immediately asleep again.
The next morning Lew was the first to be awake and caught a glimpse of the cuddling pair. He had to admit that Maggie fit perfectly for Dick, physical as well as in character. He was really sorry that he had to wake the two, but duty was duty and he knew exactly that Dick would be furious if he was too late. When Dick awoke, he nearly pushed Maggie out of his bed. When Lew told them, that they had just half an hour before they had to be at the muster, Maggie ran away quickly. She was a little disappointed that the night finished so soon but she hoped that they could repeat this someday.