**WINTERS POV**

"This is an unnecessary risk."

I knew from Lew's face that he agreed with me, but we both knew that there was little that we could do but follow orders. We had settled into Hagueneau. Lipton had pneumonia. Spiers had taken over Easy Company. The Germans were just across the river that I was now staring across, and my men were finally getting the opportunity to sleep inside for an extended period of time.

"I know, Dick. It didn't come from me."

Apparently, Sink and the division brass thought that this would be a good time to send a patrol across the river to snatch some German prisoners for interrogation. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but orders were orders. We went to the CP to go over the plan with Spiers and discuss who would be on the patrol. They could make me pass down the order, but I didn't have to be thrilled about it.

**ROSE POV**

We were settling in to the OP when Webster came in with some fresh-faced lieutenant we had never seen before. Joe, who had really put Web in his place when he had hopped onto the back of our truck with a big recruiting poster grin on his face, was now looking at him warily. From across the room, we overheard the new lieutenant, Jones, telling Malarkey about a patrol. Joe wanted details. Not one to wait, he threw an arm around Webster's shoulder and began pressing him.

Webster, dying to be a part of the group again, quickly spilled the limited details he had. Fifteen men on a prisoner snatch across the river. The new lieutenant desperately wanted to be among the fifteen, and we veterans were definitely in favor of that. He could certainly use the experience, but it didn't sound like he would be getting it on this patrol. By the time Malarkey called for our attention, we already knew who had been selected so far. The only good news was that rations had come in and, along with our late-arriving winter shoe packs, we had showers. We made our way quickly down the stairs as shells whistled over the buildings, adding yet another name to our growing list of casualties.

Sergeant Bill Keane was dead, the potatoes he'd been carrying strewn all around him. Webster and Jones stood in stunned silence over his body. The rest of us were undeterred. It wasn't that we didn't care about the latest death. We did. But we had seen so much of it that we knew that lingering out in the open over a body served no purpose but to bring more bodies. Showers and fresh ODs remained the priority for most of us.

"Rose," Bull called from near the canvas tents that were slowly filling with exhausted, dirty paratroopers. He was holding a blanket and standing at a water stream close to the wall of the tent. On his face was the reassuring smile that I had come to depend on. "Come here sweetheart. I'll block off a spot for you so you can take a shower."

Gratefully, I stepped behind the blanket and stripped down without a second thought. The water was tepid, but against the cold air it felt amazing and I closed my eyes as the stream began to wash the grime of the last month away.

Beside me, Bull spoke again, offering me a bar of soap. His fingers brushed mine as he placed it in my hand, and I looked up to see his cheeks flaming with a fire that burned all the way up into his eyes. His voice was low and husky, and I realized that he probably hadn't expected me to be completely naked because many of the others were bathing with underwear still on.

"I'm sorry. Wasn't trying to sneak a peek at ya. I just didn't expect you to be…"

"Bull, don't worry about it. There is nobody I trust more than you. Besides," I finished, stepping back underneath the water as I lathered the soap in my hands, "I'm a filthy, beaten down mess. I'm certainly not much to look at, naked or not."

"Shit, Rosalie. Don't start that shit with me. You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

**BULL POV**

She looked up at me in surprise, and I knew that I should be embarrassed at having been caught staring. I just couldn't bring myself to be. The way the water ran across her skin, cleansing the mud and blood away as it continued its journey down her body like a collection of dirty rivers… It stirred me in places that I had been trying to ignore for a long, long time. Places that I had been trying to pretend did not exist.

I thought she would be angry at me, or maybe embarrassed, but when I didn't back down, something unexpected happened. Her shock faded as she held my gaze. A small, shy smile began to spread across her face. Then she tried to bite it back, nibbling on her lower lip. I tried to hide what that small gesture did to me, but the rumble in my chest and the white-knuckle grip that I now had on the blanket probably gave me away. I cleared my throat in an attempt to cover it.

"So, um, why don't you finish up? Doc is bringing me a set of ODs for you. Then I can shower and we can go get some chow."

She nodded and closed her eyes again, scrubbing away our month in the woods of Belgium. I tried not to watch her as she ran the soap across her body, grateful when Doc jogged over to hand me a fresh uniform for her so that I had no choice but to avert my gaze.

God, she was beautiful. I knew all about her confusing relationship with Captain Winters, but I also knew that the foundation we'd been building our friendship on was incredibly strong. Of course, they didn't know the whole story, but the guys pointed it out constantly. I tried not to listen to the voices in my brain saying that we could be something more. But now, seeing her blush and tentative smile in the shower, I had a moment of uncertainty. If I tried, maybe I could help her forget her feelings for Dick Winters. But did I want to take that risk?

I was pulled from my thoughts when she stepped from her makeshift shower stall in her clean ODs. She looked up at me with a twinkle in her eye.

"Need me to hold the blanket for you?"

In that moment, all I wanted to do was kiss her until she never thought about another man again. I managed to stutter a weak "no," and she smiled and pointed to the set of steps where she would wait for me to finish so that we could go eat. As she walked away and I began to undress, I found myself wishing that the shower was colder.

**ROSE POV**

My stomach felt funny, fluttering, butterfly feeling that I wasn't used to having around Bull, but there was something about the way that he had been looking at me. I recognized it at the feeling that I had whenever there was a tense moment between Di… Captain Winters… and me, which is maybe why it surprised me so much.

George Luz had asked me once if I could ever see myself with Bull. Of course, he didn't know anything about the complicated relationship I had with Captain Winters. As far as I knew, except for Bull, no one knew. The question still struck me a little funny at the time though, and I answered him truthfully.

"I don't know, George. I don't think I've ever really thought about it that much. I mean, he's my best friend. I love him. I guess, given where we are, I never considered anything else."

"Hmm," he had responded at the time, in a way that said he probably knew a little more than he was saying. We were shivering in a foxhole in the Bois Jacques, Bull having left me under his protection while he did his shift at the OP, and I was too cold to pester him. I decided to wait him out, but he wouldn't give me anything further except to say, "Some of us were just curious. He protects you like you are his world."

He wasn't wrong. In my heart I knew that the man who had just looked like he wanted to devour me in the shower would also, without a second thought, jump in front of a moving tank to save me. I also knew that I would do the same. Thinking about it now, there was no question that Bull Randleman had a significant piece of my heart. I loved him.

But what kind of love? I'd been trying so hard to ignore that side of myself because of Winters that I hadn't even acknowledged that anything but friendship with Bull was possible. I leaned back against the steps and let my eyes wander back toward the shower.

He stood with his back to me, completely bare. His skin, as all of ours, was pale from having been bundled up against the frigid Belgian winter, but the broad, muscular shoulders belonged to a man who had once known the unrelenting heat and sun of a southern summer spent working outdoors. He had no aversion to the hard labor of digging foxholes or feeling the cold metal of a rifle in his hand. These were as familiar to him as the dirt and grime he was now washing away. Dirt and grime that had been compounded by his tucking me underneath him as shells and splintered trees rained down on us. By his sleeping with his back against the muddy walls of the foxhole so that I could nestle against him for comfort and warmth. It made me stop and think.

I had always considered Denver Randleman to be a good-looking man. I had seen him in everything from civilian clothes to PT gear. He had even been clean and pressed, decked out to the nines in his dress uniform, but he had never looked as handsome to me as he did in that moment. I considered him carefully as he donned a fresh set of ODs, not realizing that he had noticed my stare. He stood from tying his boots and made his way determinedly toward me, shirt still hanging open, stopping so close that I had to look up to meet his eyes. When I did, he winked and gave me a little half smile.

"Did you enjoy the show ma'am?"

I must have blushed because his grin widened, but I managed a cheeky response of, "As much as you did a few minutes ago sir."

For a moment, we stood locked in silent acknowledgement of the line of intimacy that had now been crossed. Surprisingly, it wasn't really an uncomfortable feeling. It was more a feeling of… could it be anticipation?

Neither of us noticed the two officers watching our public, but personal, display with interest. Finally, the red-haired Captain sighed and dropped his head.

"Let's go. We need to let Martin know he's leading the patrol and meet with him and Spiers before the briefing."

Throwing a final glance in our direction, he started in the direction of the command post.

"See there, Dick," Lewis Nixon finally said, patting his friend on the shoulder, "Now there is a man who knows what he wants. You may just get your wish after all."