** DICK POV **

"How was your vacation?" Nixon asked almost as soon as I returned to our quarters. He was fighting a smile, and not very well, I might add, as Welsh looked between us as though he had missed something. "Meet anyone interesting?"

"You're really quite proud of yourself, aren't you?"

His hidden smile became a full-blown Nixon grin as Welsh finally asked what the joke was.

"Well, Harry, I may have manipulated the system so that our hard-working battalion XO had a little company on his leave in Paris."

Welsh looked at him in impressed amazement. "You didn't. Rose was on leave in Paris?"

I turned my back to unpack my bag as they continued their not-quite-conspiratorial conversation, feeling a bit like I was back in grade school.

"She was, conveniently enough, in the same hotel, in a room that should have been quite near to Captain Winters here."

"Adjoining, in fact. There was a shared bathroom between us," I corrected, turning around to see them both grinning like fools and waiting for me to share some juicy tidbit of information. I forced my facial expression to remain passive, even as the image of her bare skin peeking out beneath the bubbles invaded my mind, and finished, "And to answer your first question, Lew, it was pleasant enough."

"That's it! All that work I did, and all you're going to give me is that it was pleasant?" He was incredulous.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Cupid. We both had a pleasant leave, and we came back to reality."

"I don't buy that there is nothing else to it, but okay. Be evasive if you want. You know I'll find out eventually."

Welsh looked like an excited child watching a tennis match. He knew Nix well enough to know that he'd keep after it until he wore me down and got something out of me, and he knew Nix well enough to know that having an eager audience only encouraged him.

"There is nothing to find out, Lew. No secret rendezvous. No torrid love affair. We went. We rested. We came back. That's it," I said, trying to sound decisive. He caught the added effort in my denial immediately and latched onto it with a mischievous smile.

"But you must have talked, at least some?"

Welsh's head turned again.

"Yes, we talked."

"Uh huh. Just pleasantries as you passed in the hallway? Or actual, seated conversations?"

"Conversations. We shared several pleasant meals with nice conversations."

"Pleasant. Nice. Hmm. So, you two spent quite a bit of time together in Paris, then?"

"We were the only two people we knew, Nix. We spent time together because we didn't know anyone else."

I almost choked. The words felt absolutely wrong coming out of my mouth. They felt like a betrayal. I flinched as though in pain, and Nix's face grew serious.

"Dick, you know I'm just joking around. If you need to talk about something, you can trust us both completely."

Harry backed him up immediately. "Absolutely. Come on, Dick. Even you don't believe what you're saying. You look like it physically hurts you to say it."

I sighed and sat down on the edge of the bunk, my leg tapping involuntarily as I tried to come up with a way to explain myself out of my obvious discomfort. They leaned forward from the bunk across from me, silently urging me to confess whatever deep, dark secrets I was trying to hide.

"I promise, you're only going to be disappointed. It's not what you think. We shared meals and explored Paris together. Nothing… like that… happened. I accidentally walked in on her in the bathtub yesterday morning. She was covered in bubbles and I didn't see anything that I shouldn't have. We had breakfast and planned to walk all over Paris. When we got up and started out," I paused, taking a deep breath. Harry and Lew weren't looking at me now as though they were waiting for bits of gossip, but as concerned friends, and it gave me the reassurance to continue. "I just took her hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. We spent the whole day exploring Paris hand-in-hand. Museums. Shops. Everywhere. And I could not stop thinking about how perfectly normal it felt to be walking around like some young couple. And I could not take my eyes off of her."

"And?" Harry prodded, sensing that there was more to the story.

"And I told her that. Standing there on a bridge overlooking the river, without a second thought, I told her how beautiful I thought she was. We tried not to acknowledge it. We ended the evening at the Eiffel Tower, and then walked back to the hotel because we knew we had to be up early this morning. But we both knew that things were different, and we both knew that it didn't matter because nothing can possibly happen. She had herself convinced that I was only there because of you, and that she had read too much into everything, and I hated to see her like that. So, before we said good night, I told her the only thing that I safely could under the circumstances. That there was no one I would rather have spent time with than her. I kissed her hand. She kissed my cheek. We said good night, and woke up this morning back in the real world. That's it. That's all there is. A few affectionate moments brought on by shared history and the atmosphere of Paris, and never, ever to be repeated."

They leaned back and looked at each other. Nix let out an audible breath, as though he'd been holding it in through my story. He seemed as though he'd been expecting something a bit more scandalous, but he didn't say so out loud. They watched my nervous tics for the next few minutes, silently cataloguing my body language as I tapped my leg, ran my fingers through my hair, and generally refused to make eye contact. Finally, Nix spoke up, putting me out of my misery. My eyes snapped up to meet his, and I must have looked like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His arms were crossed and his face held a sympathetic smile. His words, I noticed, were not phrased in the form of a question.

"You're in love with that girl."

** ROSE POV **

"Hey, Doll!" Bill greeted me with a tight hug. "How was Paris? The Eiffel Tower still standing?"

"Nah," I deadpanned. "Wouldn't you know it? Somebody came in and carted it off the night before I got there."

There was comfort in our sarcastic routine, and Bill chuckled, "Damn, I missed you, Doll. Wasn't a soul in that damn hospital who would laugh at my jokes."

"No cute nurses you could flirt with?"

"Oh, now that is a different story entirely. No keepers though. What about you? You didn't get swept off your feet in Paris, did you?"

I forced a half-hearted laugh as Dick's… Captain Winters'… face floated in my consciousness.

"No. Nothing like that. Captain Winters was actually in the next room. I wound up spending most of the time with him." Across the room, I saw Bull's attention shift to me, his knowing eyes twinkling as they met mine, the small smile on his lips disguised only by his cigar. Everyone else may have been oblivious to the implications of such an arrangement, but Bull Randleman knew my secret. "It was nice. We mostly just walked around the city. Saw the museums and things like that. Nothing too exciting."

"Well," announced Don, "I, for one, am glad Nixon sent you. You run yourself into the ground taking care of all of us. You needed that. And, truth be told, Captain Winters did too. Plus, that just means that there was someone there to keep an eye on you, and for you to pass the time with. No good for you to be running off to Paris by yourself. We can't have anything happen to you or, like Bill said, have you getting swept off your feet and falling in love with some guy."

He meant it as a joke, and I managed a covering laugh, but the last comment hit a little bit close to home. A few minutes later, we were walking toward the movie room and Bull Randleman appeared beside me, chewing thoughtfully on his cigar. We slowed down a bit, falling just out of earshot of the group, and he stole a glance at me.

"You don't have to tell me what happened in Paris, Rosalie, but I'm here if you ever want to talk."

"Thank you, Bull. It was nothing catastrophic or anything. Just…"

"But something happened. Even if it was only words."

I bit my lip and nodded, and he smiled and threw a reassuring arm around my shoulder.

"You feel something for him. Maybe even love. And he feels something for you. Ever since that day at the bridge, when I overheard him talking to Nixon and Welsh, I've been watching him. It's there. I can see it."

I nodded again, and he pulled me close into his half-hug.

"Listen darlin'. Here's the thing. Right now, this isn't the best situation. Maybe not the best words for a couple of paratroopers, but you just need to hang in there and focus on getting through the war in one piece. After that, who knows what may happen? But Captain Winters doesn't strike me as the type of man who is prone to changing his feelings too quickly, and you won't be in the Army forever."