While Easy were at MacKall the training intensified, Amy and Lane had to jump with other small arms, just not riffles, their beloved Thompson's. Amy was exhausted and Lane was able to sneak of every night to cuddle up to Nixon.
The battalion was going on a three-day maneuver; its main focus was on quick troop movements and operating behind enemy lines.
Around dusk the platoon leaders was shown their locations on a map, and then told where to be in the morning.
Winters managed to get the company in a textbook position for an ambush, they were waiting for morning when they were told to expect an attack by enemy troops.
Suddenly Popeye, who were made Sobel's runner, came strolling into their position. Amy was happy to see him, she missed him in her platoon, and he ended up staying the night, catching up on some sleep.
Tipper was, against his will, assisting Sobel with map reading and such, he made sure Sobel got more confused than usual, he made Sobel's compass disappear. The men had made a deal, if they could make Sobel screw up enough, maybe he would be replaced, so everybody had to help out.
Eventually Sobel found his Company and they were sitting tight, which made Sobel jumpy.
Amy was seriously considering killing him, he kept pacing, saying they were in the wrong position.
Winters kept telling him they should sit tight and let the enemy come to them, but Sobel pulled rank and Amy and Winters had no choice, but to obey.
The Company fell out and was immediately killed by Dog company, who in this case posed as the enemy.
Amy couldn't help but notice the smirk on Speirs face and she just gave him a dirty look.
"Captain Hendrick you might want to come and take a look at this" Mia said and walked into Katie's office
Katie was finishing up some charts from the night shift, her and Mia was about to go of shift when Mia called her.
"What is it, I just want to shower find Dick and talk him into taking a nap with me" Katie said.
"Well you want to check this one out" Mia said
"What is it" Katie said
"Well Sobel hurt his foot, on the last jump" Mia said
Katie got up and followed Mia to the examination room Sobel was in; Sobel was there with his loyal sergeant Evans.
"So Captain Sobel you hurt yourself" Katie couldn't keep the smirk of her face
Katie checked out his foot and bandaged it up and told him, that he had to stay of it.
Sobel and Evans walked out; Katie could hear Sobel mumbling something about conducting a surprise inspection at the Easy barrack.
"Mia come on, we got to go grab your stuff and let's move" Katie said.
She knew they had to get to Easy's barrack before Sobel and clean out the boy's footlockers.
Mia and Katie ran to the barrack and cleaned out all non army issued material and clothing they could find. They found a lot of quite surprising stuff, pornography and a lot of condoms; they couldn't help but giggle and they knew they would have some leverage over the boys from now on.
Katie and Mia hid around the corner from Easy's barracks and waited, they saw Sobel enter and about tilted over with laughter when they heard Sobel growling over not being able to find any contraband, he knew something was up, he just have to find out who was behind, the clearing out of the lockers.
When the guys came back from maneuver, they were met with turned over footlockers and missing personal items.
If there was a man in Easy that didn't hated Sobel they did now.
While the men tried to get their stuff back together, Mia and Katie walked in, holding their personal items.
"We didn't do it, but we did save your personal stuff" Mia said
"You guys are life savers" Lipton said.
Mia blushed, they hadn't really spoken since the night of the dance and she missed their talks at the mess.
Mia gave him a little smile and walked out of the barrack.
Katie looked at Lipton "You need to talk to her" She said and walked out.
She headed right for the shower and after finishing, she had one goal and one goal only; to find Winters and take a nap.
Katie walked over to the officers barrack and knocked on the door, Winters opened, a smile spread across his face when he saw her standing there, he could tell she was exhausted and he guessed it had been a crazy night at the hospital, with all the maneuvers going on, a lot of injured men came in, not wounded, but injured from tripping over tree roots, head injuries and so on.
Winters opened the door and guided Katie to his cot, he knew it was naptime, he didn't have the time to sleep, but he knew Katie would keel over and fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Katie curled up and pulled Winters down with her "You stay with me, you need some rest to, doctor's orders" Katie said.
Winters laid down and just enjoyed holding Katie in his arms, Katie turned around so she was facing him, she looked him straight in the eyes "Dick I need you to kiss me now, no more gentleman" She said
Winters wasn't about to say no to that, he leaned down and kissed Katie, who just sighed and fell asleep.
"you have to be fucking with me, who the hell came up with that" Lane was pissed off.
The whole second battalion had just taken a standard physical fitness test the day before and scored a 97 percent. Now some colonel from Washington thought Strayer had rigged the score, and ordered the battalion had to take the test again
Lane was tired, Nix and her was working harder than most. Intelligence briefings a long with special training in collecting Intel, interrogating prisoners and the night maneuvers had Lane reaching her limits. The day the test was rescheduled to take place, was the one day Lane and Nix had of, they have had plans to go to Charlotte and rent a hotel room, sleep and eat room service and if they had time, make some amazing love.
"You know what, I am getting us out of this one, I am going to Sink" Lane said and marched out of door slamming it after her.
"I love that woman and her temper" Nixon mumbled to himself, there was no way she was taking no for an answer from Sink.
Lane marched right into Sinks office; she saluted him and sat down in the chair across from his desk.
"Captain Easterday, what can I do for you" Sink said, it had to be important for the captain to march in here like that.
"Colonel, I need for lieutenant Nixon and me to be excused from the physical fitness test" Lane said
Sink hid a smile, he knew exactly why the captain was here, "You want me to excuse you and lieutenant Nixon, and why would I do such a thing" the colonel said.
"Well, I rather not say" Lane said
"Not good enough captain, I need more than that" Sink said.
"Please uncle Robert, just give me this and I won't ever ask for anything again, consider it my Christmas present" Lane said.
The reason Lane was the one the girls send to Sink, was that Sink was Lane's uncle, a fact kept hidden from the men; she didn't want it to interfere with her relationship to the men.
"Now Lane you can't go pull the uncle card like that, tell me what you and the lieutenant had planned that's so important" Sink said.
"Well it's the day we have the forty eight hour passes, and we had plans, I swear good clean plans" Lane said
"Well ok, But Lane separate hotel rooms in Charlotte" Sink said
Lane blushed when she realized Sink had been on to her all along.
Lane and Nixon had the greatest time in Charlotte and when they returned they learned that not only had second battalion scored 98 percent on the physical fitness test, but a lot of Easy men had been promoted as well.
The night before Easy was to head out to Sturgis, Kentucky, Lipton finally got the courage to talk to Mia.
It had been almost a month since the incident after the dance and Lipton really hadn't figured out what to say to Mia, he had a feeling that Mia had more than friendly feeling for him, and it was flattering. Lipton had to admit Mia was an attractive girl and her smile could light up a whole room.
Lipton found Mia at the hospital she packing up supplies to take with them the next day.
"Can you sneak away for a while" Lipton asked
Mia jumped, she hadn't heard him walk in, "Sure, let me pack this up and I will be right there" Mia said
Lipton watched Mia pack up the crate she had been working on, when she was done she turned and smiled at him, Lipton couldn't help but smile back at her, that smile was contagious
They walked out of the hospital and headed for the airfield. They crossed the airfield and Lipton found a secluded spot and sat down, he motioned for Mia to sit beside him and starred into the horizon.
"Mia what happened at the dance" Lipton asked he didn't really remember, all he remembered was waking up the next day and Mia refusing to talk to him.
"Nothing really, it was all my fault" Mia said.
"Some how I don't believe that, please tell me" Lipton said.
"Well I walked you home, because you decided to drink with the big boys and something tells me you don't drink a lot. When we got to your barrack, I helped you into bed and you told me I was beautiful and then you called me your wife's name or ex wife or whatever, it stung a little since I felt we had a connection and it was just easier not to talk to you." Mia said.
"Mia I am so sorry, that must have hurt, I should have known better than to drink that much and to have you walk me home, was probably stupid, but please believe me when I say this, I have no interest in my ex wife what so ever" Lipton said
"Its ok, I was just being silly" Mia said, she wished she could get out of this awkward conversation.
"Its not ok, look Mia you are very beautiful, and any man would be lucky to have you" Lipton said.
Mia couldn't sit and listen to him telling her that he thought she was beautiful, he just didn't want her, so she tried to stand up to get away, but Lipton grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.
"Don't run from me please" he said
"I am, I just can't sit here and listen to you say, you don't want me, when I clearly want you a much as my next breath" Mia said and felt some tears run down her face.
Lipton looked at her; he didn't know what to say.
Did he want Mia to? would it be wise for them to get involved? he knew they would be separated for long periods at a time and would it only add to the stress of combat.
"Mia looks at me" he said
Mia looked at him and he knew he couldn't say no to her, he took her head between his hands and kissed her and then hugged her, Mia smiled and Lipton felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"This doesn't mean you get to sleep in my bed like Hendrick and Easterday sleeps in Nixon's and Winters ok?" Lipton said
Mia just nodded against his chest and smiled, she was happy.
From behind them they suddenly heard someone call someone else, the worst names in the book; Lipton was actually surprised a girl would know some of them words, but when they saw who it was he wasn't surprised
"God damn you Ron, I will stay with my men and I won't go to regiment just because you think it will be safer, you ass" Amy was walking away from a fuming Speirs.
Mia got to her feet and got between Amy and Speirs, just before Amy launched at Speirs for calling her the most stubborn woman he had ever encountered and why he bothered trying to talk to her was beyond him.
Mia was pretty sure Amy would have decked him, if she had gotten the chance, but Mia made sure she didn't, she escorted her away without a word, leaving Speirs and Lipton to themselves.
"What was that about?" Lipton asked Speirs
"She got offered a promotion to captain and a move to Regiment and she turned it down" Speirs said
"Well you got to give the lieutenant that, she knows what she want and nobody tells her different" Lipton said
"That's why she infuriates me so much, I just want her safe and she tells me to stuff it" Speirs said
"A piece of advice, sir, let Hunt decide for herself it's the best way to go about it, learned that the hard way at Toccoa" Lipton said and walked off.
Speirs looked over the camp, they were moving out tomorrow and he didn't know when he would see Amy again, he just hoped she had come down by then.