DISCLAIMER: Once again, no disrespect meant to the real men of Easy Company, story based on the characters in the film. I only own Nikki and David

Chapter 2 Welcome to France

Nikki was sitting next to Dick on the C-47 trying very hard to keep not only her nerves in check but also the keep the ice cream she had eaten earlier from coming back up. Way to go girl, never will I eat ice cream again, I promise Lord, just let me survive without disgracing myself and I'll never touch it again. She also adds to the vow to kick Doc Roe when they got on the ground, the airsickness pills had done nothing but make her sleepy.

Dick elbowed her in the ribs to get her attention, "how you doing Nikki?" Dick was practically screaming in her ear so she could hear over the mixture of engines and wind.

"I've been better, so when do you think-?"

Nikki never finished the sentence because the loud explosions drowned out any other sounds. Looking quickly around she knew all the men were aware that what they were hearing was the German anti-aircraft fire. This would be the most dangerous time because they would be jumping into that same fire and they would be defenseless.

The red light changed to amber.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…

"Stand up, equipment check sound off!"

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

"One okay, two okay, three okay…"

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

"Shit we're hit, out, out everybody out!"

He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake

The amber light turned green.

The hard push from behind ended the Lord's Prayer and she found herself falling into nothing punctuated by the bright explosions from the FLAK and C-47s burning and crashing down to earth.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nikki could see the ground coming up faster than it normally should have but what she saw off to her left did not make her feel any better. A German machine gun was shooting the paratroopers before they even landed. Either her and another paratrooper off to her right apparently were out of range or they hadn't been spotted. As if that wasn't bad enough the tree, she going to land in was about to make it worse.

Hitting what felt like every branch on the way down, the chute finally caught on a limb, leaving her about ten feet off the ground, and knocking the wind out of her momentarily. Oh, this was not good. Being in the tree attached to a white parachute in the dark was a quick way to attract unwanted attention. Gee, why don't I just attach a glowing sign that reads, "Germans shoot here!"

Reaching up to grab the risers and pulling with her body weight yielded no results and staying in the tree definitely wasn't an option so the only thing left to do was cut herself free. Reaching down her leg, she was able to free the knife all of them wore for just such an occasion, cut the risers free from the harness, and fell to the ground.

Great, I've got no idea where I'm at but I've got to get out of here. Come on Nikki, now is not the time to freeze up, think which direction did you see the chute land.

Nikki quickly got her bearings and headed off in the direction she had seen the last chute come down praying to link up with anyone from Easy.

"Flash."

"Thunder."

"Dick is that you?" Nikki couldn't believe her luck, not only had she found someone from Easy, she had found Dick by some miracle. Suddenly she felt as if everything was going to be okay.

"Nikki, are you okay? I was worried when the whole chalk was scattered that I'd have trouble finding you."

Nikki grabbed his arm and started pulling him off away from the German machine gun that was still firing too close for comfort.

"Let's get moving Dick, that machine gun might decide to find new targets. Oh to answer your question, I'm just great for someone who landed in a tree."

"You landed in a tree? Are you sure your okay nothing broken?"

Nikki sighed, "Dick my bruises have bruises and my ribs are killing me but right now I need you to get us out of here before someone decides to turn us into human pop -up targets."

Dick took the hint and started leading them off in the direction of the rally point, with Nikki dogging his footsteps all the way. She had never been so tired or sore in her life and she would beat her paycheck that they were a long way from where they should have been. She was sure nothing was broken, but her bruised ribs ached with every step. Yep, Doc Roe was going to have to check them, if they ever found him.

Finally, curiosity got the better of her, "Dick how far away do you think we are? Not that I'm complaining about this wonderful walk in the French countryside, with a handsome man, but."

Dick couldn't help but chuckle, he knew she had to be sore from hitting the tree, but she was still hanging in there. He had to admit with her sarcasm it was almost like having a female version of Nix along for the walk.

"Not sure, I need to find some terrain feature that I recognize and then-."

The noises from across the stream cause them to freeze and drop. Dick quickly pulled out the cricket he was carrying and gave the signal of one clack. Quickly two clacks are the retuned answer, allowing both of them to breathe a little easier.

"Boy are we glad you to see you guys, how you doin' Nikki."

Lip and a couple of men Nikki had never seen join the group and after making a quick makeshift compass and checking it against the map, Dick adjusts their direction of travel and they head off again into the night.

They couldn't have gone more than a mile or so when they bumped into Guarnere and Toye. So at least they new four had made the jump safely. Nikki couldn't restrain herself from hugging both men, who were both surprised but managed to tell her they happy to see her as well.

The increasing noise from a wagon that was approaching caused them all to freeze again. Nikki could hear the Germans talking among themselves, nothing important, mainly why the guns had been firing all night.

"Dick, they don't know were here, they are confused as to why the anti-aircraft guns have been firing all night, but they are not overly concerned because apparently this has happened before."

Dick nodded and gave directions for everyone to take up a position around the bridge. "Nikki stay down. If anything happens you have your pistol right?"

Nikki lifted her jacket to show the Colt 45 on her hip. Even though they didn't have to carry weapons, Nikki had made it a point to be armed.

Dick had yet to give any commands when Guarnere began shooting. Oh yeah, Dick wasn't going to be happy over that one, not to mention every German in the area was probably going to come running very soon.

Nikki stayed where she was while Dick and Bill went toe to toe over Bill firing without an order. She had heard Lip talking to some other guys prior to the jump saying that Bill had lost his brother in Italy so maybe that had something to do with his sudden anger not only toward the Germans but toward Winters as well.

"Come on Nikki, we've got a lot of ground to cover." Lip helped her to her feet and caught her arm as she staggered a bit.

"Sorry Lip, guess my body is more exhausted than I thought." Nikki tried to smile, but knew some how she was probably coming up short. "Don't worry, I won't slow you down."

Lip gave her a gentle nudge and pushed her between him and Dick. He knew if he kept her in front of him, then he wouldn't have to worry that she was falling behind.

Nikki had no idea how far they had walked but by dawn, they found an abandoned farm where several dead paratroopers were laying. Deciding to be useful, she headed to the abandoned house while the men gathered weapons and ammunition. It wasn't that she was squeamish, she just didn't see the need to help with that when there might be food.

She was lucky enough to find a small amount a bread and cheese that was at least enough for each man to get a small portion prior to moving out.

Nikki nearly collapsed from joy when they topped a small knoll to see the rally point containing a mixture of 101st and 82nd Airborne Soldiers, now they would find out how many made it after the jump. She quickly spotted Luz and Liebgott sitting next to a tree comparing items they had found and decided to join them.

Dropping wearily next to them she finally mustered enough energy to ask if they had seen anyone else from Easy.

Liebgott said they had seen Marlarky but he had stopped to talk to some Germany POWs, but that they were still missing Lt Meehan and no one had seen any of the men from his chalk.

"Have you guys seen any of Dog Company's men, I'm trying to find out if my friend David made it okay."

Luz glanced around the crowd before answering. "Hey I think that's Lt Speirs over there, why don't you ask him."

Nikki growled, there was no way she was going to ask that man anything, much less, where David was. Not after the way he had treated her. She kept her silence and watched as he walked back down the road from where they had come. Yeah, keep on walking friend, all the way back to England for all I care.

Nikki slowly removed her helmet and eased her sore and aching body down on the ground. She had never been so tired in her life and she hadn't even realized that she dozed off till someone was shaking her and calling her name.

"Love, I know it's only been a long night, but do you think laying about all passed out is such a good idea."

Without even opening her eyes she smiled, "well thank God you're all right. You are alright aren't you?" The sudden thought that he might not be had her opening her eyes and struggling to sit up.

David pulled her up into a sitting position then dropped down next to her.

"Wow, what happened to your face?"

Nikki reached up to touch her cheek and felt the scratch that David was talking about, but when she looked at his face she knew it had to be worse than a scratch.

"Okay so how bad is my face or do I really want to know?"

David reached out to touch her face, stopped, and instead made sympathy sounds. "Well sweetie, you've looked better but the bruise will fade. What or who did you get in a fight with?"

"Ha, very funny, I lost a fight with a tree. I'm sure if my face looks bad the rest of me it is probably one giant purple bruise. Oh well, it's not like I'm here to win some beauty contest."

David snickered, "well good thing too, because right now they would probably pay to keep you out."

Nikki was trying very hard not to laugh, laughing just hurt her ribs more. Oh but he was probably right, that's what made it even funnier. Had she known she was being watched she probably wouldn't have been laughing any more.

Lt Speirs had been standing off to the side trying very hard to listen to the conversation around him and failing miserably. His attention focused on Easy's translator laughing about something David had said. This was his first chance to see her in the light and now that he could see her he could clearly understand, why his translator was so interested in her.

He knew she was tall, based off their last encounter, he guessed somewhere around 5ft 7 inches or possibly 5ft 8inches. Her blue-black hair was escaping the bun at the base of her head to fall in wisps around her face. It gave her the appearance of being even younger than she probably was. What held him captivated were her eyes. Even from this distance, they appeared to be crystal blue. The thought of making those eyes darken in anger like they probably had been two nights ago was too tempting to resist. Nevertheless, the way she looked right now, dirty and exhausted, he wasn't sure if she would fight or just shoot him on sight. He had seen the glare she had given him earlier as he walked down the road; yep he was not her favorite person.

Deciding to take his life into his own hands, he strolled over to her and David on the pretense of having David translate some papers he had found, but as he drew closer, he could finally see the nasty bruise and cut on the right side of her face.

"Well, Ms Klemp glad to see you survived the jump."

Nikki jerked her head around to look up at her nemesis and tried to keep a look of bored indifference on her face.

"Lt Speirs, how nice to see you again and I see even the Germans couldn't managed to hit someone as big an ass-."

The hand over her mouth cut off the rest of the statement, however there was no doubt in Ron's mind; she was about to call him worse than ass. The look she was currently giving him reinforced that he was correct. It also confirmed his earlier guess about the color of her eyes, they had darkened to almost navy blue.

Still he couldn't resist prodding her further. "Oh come now Ms Klemp is that anyway to greet a fellow paratrooper?"

His mocking only made Nikki madder and David was about to get his hand bit if he didn't move it. So pushing his hand aside Nikki wearily got to her feet and again toe to toe with Ron Speirs.

"Look Lt, lets get something straight, I don't like you and you apparently have something against me. It's a big war I'm sure we can some how stay out of each other's way. What'd you say?"

Before Ron could speak, Major Strayer was calling his name. Turning back to Nikki, he reached out to touch her face but stopped just shy of her skin. He was so close to touching her he could feel the warmth of her body on his hand.

The look she was giving him was priceless. It was somewhere between irritation, confusion and fear that he really would touch her. Interesting.

"You really need to have that looked at; small cuts like that can become infected rather quickly."

With that parting shot, Speirs turned and headed back to the Battalion CP.

Nikki could feel her heart about to pound out of her chest. She really thought he was going to touch her and for a brief minute, those cold intense eyes had warmed with concern, but it was gone so quickly she could have imagined it. She watched him walk away wondering what was going on.

Nikki turned to look at David who was still sitting on the ground looking shocked with his mouth hung open.

David finally managed to find his voice, "Now what do you think that was about?"

Nikki snorted, "who knows, don't worry, he's probably just worried that if something happens to me they'll come after you for Easy Company. I'm really starting to believe some of the stories about him, maybe he is crazy. Come on I need to find Dick and Doc Roe, and not necessarily in that order. Hopefully they will know if Lew made it okay."

Nikki was lucky enough to find Doc Roe quickly and he cleaned the cut on her face and checked her ribs. There was nothing serious as she suspected but bruised ribs that would be sore for several more days.

By the time Nikki could find Dick again, she had heard the stories of his taking out three sets of guns. Much to her displeasure, Speirs had taken the final gun with only a few men and everyone was in awe of the Dog Company Lt. In fact it seemed no matter where she turned someone was talking about Ron Speirs. Not all of it was good, she had also heard the story from Malarkey that he had shot twenty unarmed German Soldiers.

At this point, Nikki was confident if she didn't see him ever again it would be too soon. The guy really was starting to bug her.

She and Dick were standing along the edge of the road waiting for some tanks to pass when one suddenly stopped.

"Going my way?"

Leave it to Lewis Nixon to travel in style. Nikki had no idea where he had found them, but she was glad to not be walking, but even better was the fact Nix was safe.

Dick climbed aboard then they both pulled Nikki up between them. She greeted Nix with a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek. She got the satisfaction of his face turning as red as Dick's hair, but Nixon left his arm around her and her head on his shoulder as they pulled off.

Nikki wouldn't have been nearly as comfortable where she was had she looked back into the compound and seen the look on Ron's face.

David had been waving to Nikki as she left with Easy Company and turned just in time to catch the expression on Speirs face. If he had seen that look on any other man's face, he would have said they were jealous. Hmm, maybe this war might turn out to be interesting after all.

Chapter 3 may take a little longer, work is starting to get busy. Thanks for reading.