One month later

There was a growing comfort amongst the men concerning Mara Rothko and even she had begun to grow comfortable with the Basterds fighting with them, talking with them, learning about their lives. She refrained from becoming too close to any of them, but Donny was the one that also seemed to ask her questions rather than answering hers. Mara found this irritating and often refused to answer if it meant telling him too much about her life before the camp. She felt that was all he needed to know since Aldo so sneakily told him when she specifically asked him not to. Bu thankfully she kept the secret from the rest of the Basterds, but she knew they suspected something, though none were willing to even ask. Mostly Mara was silent, but when faced with curiosity, it was hard to fight. And in some strange, obscure fashion Mara began to care about the men she fought amongst. She learned of their families, their passions, their sweethearts. All except Donny.

Mara and the Basterds raided several German squads daily and it was the most exhilarating thing Mara had ever experienced. The Basterds were impressed by the utter brutality she expressed against the Germans they faced, but Donny was more impressed by the amount of animosity she obviously coveted on their down time. He thought her extremely peculiar in these moments.

"You want somethin' to eat?" Donny asked Mara as she sat with her sketchbook, huddled in a wool blanket by one of the three fires they had going.

"Hmm?" She looked up at him.

"Food. Would you like some?"

"Oh. No thank you." She went back to drawing and Donny rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well," he sat next to her, "when I asked I was just being kind. You need to eat." He pushed the metal plate under her nose and she sighed, grabbing it and complying with his demands. "What cha drawin'?"

She closed her book and muttered, "Nothing."

"Mm—hmm..." Donny mumbled as he ate a spoonful of beans and watched her place the book in between them. He gently opened to a page as Mara ate slowly, watching the fire. But before he could see anything she grabbed the book and stuffed it in her coat. He smiled as she rolled her eyes.

"When are we leaving?" She asked as she pushed the beans around her plate, pretending to eat. Donny noticed this but didn't say anything. He cleared his throat.

"Aldo wants to head out tomorrow morning, says he has word of a small Nazi base in some factory outside of Poitiers." Mara nodded, setting her plate down and snuggling deeper into her blanket. She noticed Donny looking at her with sadness in his eyes. She hated when he did that, he did it often.

"What?"

Donny shook his head as he picked her plate up and looked at her once before getting up and walking back to Omar and Aldo, leaving her to sleep.

"She still not eatin'?" Aldo asked as Donny dumped the beans back into the pot.

"Nope." He sat next to Omar and looked at Aldo who shook his head.

"Well...she's gonna have to eat sometime, but we can't force her to." Aldo finished his plate and sighed, leaving to his tent for the night without another word.

"D'you think they poisoned her food?" Omar's question hung heavy in the air. Ever since Donny had let the beans spill to his closest mate Omar had relentlessly brought it up, confusion filling him just as it filled Donny himself. They both hoped soon that Mara would tell the rest of the Basterds herself what had happened.

"Ain't got a doubt in my mind they did..." Donny muttered. He decided it best not to think too much about it and go to bed.

After the raid in Poitiers

"Donny—Mara go scout the perimeter for any scragglers will ya?" Donny nodded as Mara sighed. She slipped her coat back on and she followed Donny out of the factory.

They end up finding and killing two within the first few minutes but Donny urged Mara to go out a little further, just in case.

Now about thirty minutes from the factory, Donny and Mara walked slowly when they suddenly heard the distant sound of leaves crunching under synchronized marching footfalls. They both looked at each other and then around them wildly before Donny's eyes widen. As Mara clutches her gun tight, ready to attack Donny grabbed her by the waist and clapped a hand over her mouth as he drug her behind a large tree trunk. Then around about twenty Nazi soldiers march through the woods not twenty feet from where they hid. They were headed for the factory they had just raided. But then they all stopped to take a small break.

Donny knew that Aldo had most likely gotten everyone out of the factory and back to the camp site so the other thing he was worried about was getting himself and Mara passed the camped out Nazis. It'd be suicide to try and attack all of them right there with only two people, a gun, and a bat. So they sat there, Donny's hand still over Mara's mouth as he held her as close to him and the tree as possible.

He looked at Mara and she was looking at him with a slightly frightened and panicked look in her eyes. He brought his hand from her mouth and she breathed out slowly, the cold creating a gentle cloud out of her shallow breath.

"What are we going to do, Donny?" She asked, looking around the tree quickly and spotting all the Nazis sitting not ten yards from them.

"The first thing we need to do is get out from behind this tree."

"How the hell are we going to do that? There's about twenty Nazis blocking the way back to camp. We can't just walk past them like frolickers in the woods caught by surprise."

Donny clinched his jaw knowing she was right.

"Then we're gonna to have to go around." He said quickly.

"What if we get lost?"

"We won't get lost, I'm good with directions." Mara looked at him unsure as he looked at her with a blank, but determined look.

"Okay. All right. Are we just going to make a dash for it?"

Donny shook his head. "No. We need to wait till it gets a bit darker, then we'll slowly ease ourselves North."

Mara nodded as she looked back once more. It looked as though they were setting up camp and started large fires to fight away the cold. He sighed as she looked back at Donny and pushed herself closer against him.