Disclaimer: I don't own Band of Brothers, but I do love the HBO miniseries. Also, this is based purely on the miniseries, and not the lives of the actual men of Easy Company. I have nothing but admiration and respect for the men that fought so that we could live freely today.

A/N: Thanks to EmmyMK for the review and to everyone who's been reading! I'm sorry I suck at getting these up quickly! I'll try to be better!

That Don't Make It Easy Loving Me

It had been about a month since their last jump had been cancelled, and about two months since Easy Company had been in Normandy, in the midst of the action. New men had since joined the company, to replace the men that had been killed and wounded in Normandy.

Sadie had decided to join the men on this particular night at the local pub. She'd even changed out of her OD's for the occasion. She sat in a fairly simple grey dress, sipping a beer that one of men in her company had bought, and watched Buck and Babe Heffron compete in a round of darts. She thought it was strange that Buck was shooting left-handed, as she didn't think he was left-handed, but maybe it was something she'd just never noticed before.

"Sorry George," Buck apologized to Luz after not hitting a crucial shot. Sadie didn't really understand the game, but as far as she could tell the objective was to hit the bull's-eye in the middle of the target.

"It's alright," Luz replied. Sadie was becoming a little suspicious of the two, but let it go.

Babe stepped up and easily won the game over Buck. After a bit of a congratulatory drink for Babe from Wild Bill, the two groups of men decided to make a wager on the next round of darts. Sadie was enjoying watching the game. She was beginning to pick up the rules a bit and the strategy behind. She had always been a sports fan and even played recreationally back home, so learning a new activity was always intriguing.

"Alright, here we go. One shot. Here we go, Luz" Buck lined up. Apparently the men had decided to bet two packs for whoever could get closest to the bull's-eye in one shot.

"Lieutenant, you gonna shoot lefty all night?" Luz inquired. Sadie knew it! It sounded suspicious and Luz was in on it, so something had to be going on.

"George. What would I do without George Luz?" Buck smirked. Knowing they'd got away with conning Babe and Toye, he switched to his right hand.

"Boop," Luz said as Buck hit the bull's-eye spot-on.

Sadie laughed at the whole exchange as she sipped her beer and the winning team collected their packs of cigarettes.

"Alright Lieutenant, let's see what you've got," Luz walked over to Sadie and tried to coax her into joining them.

"Oh no, I can't throw darts," Sadie protested.

"Just get over here," said Buck, offering over the darts.

Sadie stood as she finished off the rest of her drink. Feeling a little drunk now that she was standing, she made her way over to the men. Taking the darts from Buck, she turned around to line up with the dart board. With the dart in her left hand, she closed one eye and stuck out her tongue in concentration.

"Now Sadie, you don't have to show off and use your left-hand. Not everyone is a pro like Buck," George teased her like she was stupid.

"Shut up, George, I'm left-handed," she responded, not taking her eye off the dart board as she waivered a bit. She then threw the dart as best she knew how, hoping luck would be on her side and she wouldn't completely embarrass herself. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, she completely missed the dart board and managed to hit the wall about three feet from the floor.

Her friends around her just laughed and Luz commented in his usual sarcastic nature, "Good one, Sadie."

Moving the other dart to her left hand she turned her head to look at the man standing in front of her. "Fuck off, Luz."

"Okay, you hit the board this time and I'll buy you a drink."

Sadie went to realign herself for a second attempt when she felt a body right behind her. Buck placed his right hand on her right hip as he pressed his body up against her back.

"Okay, now, just relax," he whispered in her left ear. Sadie breathed a little deeper and her heart beat a little faster as the men around them had gone uncomfortably silent at the intimate contact between two of their officers. Buck's fingertips brushed along her arm as he delicately adjusted her elbow. He then placed his left hand on her left hip and continued, "Now release as it's pointed at the target, not after."

Sadie nodded dumbly, intoxicated by both the alcohol and the close proximity to a man she found attractive. She proceeded to throw the dart as Buck had instructed. It didn't hit the bull's-eye, but it did hit the ring around it. Buck released his grasp on her waist as she threw her hands in the air in victory. The men cheered around her as she turned to Buck, her eyes wide in shock and a huge smile on her face.

"Well done, Lieutenant," Buck congratulated her calmly.

"Thanks, Buck," Sadie replied.

"Now, Luz," Buck looked over Sadie's shoulder, "I think you owe the lady a beer."

True to his word, Luz bought Sadie a beer and she continued to talk and joke around with Buck and Luz. She could kind of overhear Cobb making comments to the new replacements. She had never been his biggest fan and had thought he was a bit of an asshole. He was always making snide remarks about her not being capable enough to go into combat with Easy, but most of the other men were quick to have her back. She usually just brushed it off, knowing that if he was injured in the field she could let him bleed a few extra seconds or prod at his wound a little harder than necessary.

Right then, the bar was interrupted for Lipton to announce that they would all be shipping out again.

Luz just looked at Sadie and asked, "Did you know about this?"

Sadie looked at him sadly and shrugged. She'd been told a few hours earlier. Operation Market-Garden had been planned quickly and needed to be put in action even more quickly if there was any hope of it working. She'd been informed so that she and the other nurses could be ready when the time came to jump.

The next day, Sadie stood at the front of the tent with the rest of the Easy Company officers as Dick and Lew explained the objective of Operation Market-Garden. The look on every man's face was the same and it broke her heart. They all look pained and worried, and not one of them could sit still. They were remembering Operation Overlord and they were praying it wouldn't be the same. She hadn't seen all the horrific things they'd seen, but she'd seen some of the results and she hoped this time it wouldn't be as tragic. A wave of relief and hope rushed across the tent when Nixon mentioned that the potential outcome of this operation could be Berlin by Christmas. They could hang in there a couple more months if it meant ending the war before the new year.

Two days later they were getting ready to jump. The men were preparing out on the runway and Sadie was strapping on her gear while she talked to Dick in his tent.

"Are we sure this is gonna work?" Sadie asking what everyone had been wondering.

"I'm sure Eisenhower's thought it through. He wouldn't agree with Montgomery if he didn't honestly believe it would work," Dick responded distractedly as he got ready himself.

"I'm saying, there are a lot of things that need to go right for this to work," Sadie stated, "What if there's more German opposition that we expected? Or what if the British are slow and we can't hold the town? Then the Allied paratroopers are stuck in Arnhem. How are we supposed to save them? We won't even be able to get supplies through. We're redirecting all our resources into this one plan, so we're completely screwed if it blows up in our faces."

"Sadie," Dick stopped what he was doing and looked at her, "this is out of our control. We need to follow orders as planned."

"I'm not questioning Ike," clarified Sadie, "but I have my doubts."

"There are always doubts, but risks need to be taken if we want to win this war."

"I know, I just-"

"You need to calm down and think positive. You can't jump if you're like this," Dick stepped closer to her in an effort to calm his friend. "Have some faith."

"Ready to go, you two?" Nixon popped his head in the tent, clearly strapped in and prepared for the jump.

"Ah, Nix," Dick said, turning to his friend, "Can you talk some sense into her? She's questioning your intelligence information."

"Hey! I take offense to that," Nixon said to Sadie in a joking manner.

"I wasn't questioning your intelligence information," Sadie explained as she walked past Nixon, out of the tent, "I was questioning your judgement."

"Yeah, well, sometimes I question that too," he commented, more to Winters and himself than to her.

Dick simply shook his head and smiled as he followed Sadie out of the tent.

After many announced and cancelled missions, the men of 101st and the special group of nurses were finally on their way to their second jump. Sadie was more nervous this time around, probably because she knew what they could be expecting once they landed. It was a daytime jump, which could be good or bad. A positive was that she would be able to see where she was going, but it also meant the Germans would be able to see the same thing.

To keep herself from panicking she went over the mission details in her head. She would be meeting up with the other nurses and establishing small aid stations as they traveled along and towns were claimed. Until then, she would be hanging back with the commissioned officers, while her company fought. This allowed her to be somewhat of a field medic. The wounded men would be pulled off the line and brought back to her as they moved along.

It felt like no time had passed and they were once again jumping out of a plane into German occupied territory. Sadie landed and quickly scrambled to get rid of her parachute. She was incredibly jumpy and anticipating German fire at any moment, only it never came. There was little German opposition, just as Nixon had said, and they moved into Eindhoven with relative ease.

Sadie tried her best to stick to Winters' side as they made their way through Eindhoven, but it was difficult given that the streets were packed with people waving orange flags and ribbons. From every direction Sadie was being kissed and grabbed by the Dutch women. She tried to explain that she wasn't a man, but they didn't seem to understand since she dressed like all the men and the braid down her back was her only distinctly feminine feature at a glance. The men around her were all enjoying the attention, a little too much if you asked her.

Sadie was standing at the edge of the town's centre square with Winters, trying to see over the crowd. She yelped as yet another person grabbed her ass. She whipped around to find that the culprit was Lewis Nixon. "I'm gonna let that slide because you're the first man to do that all day," she narrowed her eyes at him, only half joking.

Nixon only winked and chuckled in response and turned to his friend, "Dick, clock's ticking."

"Yeah," was Winters' distracted response, so Nixon turned back to the tall woman next to him.

"You got a little something…" Nixon tried to begin, referring to the lipstick smudges that covered her face. Sadie huffed in frustration and began to rub at her face, unsuccessfully trying to remove the bright red smears covering her tanned face. "Here, let me," Nixon tried to nudge Sadie's hands away from her face.

"Here," Dick pointedly interjecting on the moment the two officers were having and handed Sadie a handkerchief.

"Thanks. Ugh, they think I'm a man!" Sadie exclaimed out of frustration as she accepted his offering.

Just then, a rush of women came past the group of three. Winters calmly accepted a kiss on the lips from a pretty civilian and continued turning his collar up. Nixon and Sadie were a little more frantic in trying to avoid the swarm of women. Nixon politely thanked them and moved on, but Sadie tried to dodge them and looked terrified as she attempted to escape.

Harry Welsh finally found the group and started laughing as soon as he saw the nurse's face. "I think you missed when you tried to put lipstick on this morning, Sadie."

"Shut up, Harry," Sadie glared at him, not in the mood to be teased.

"What's up, Welshy?" asked Buck, pulling the lieutenant's attention away from Sadie's misfortune.

"Snipers," replied Welsh. As the men adjusted their uniforms and equipment, Sadie and Nixon continued to gaze at each other, having a little conversation of their own without actually speaking.

"We gotta get to these bridges," Winters ordered, and the officers moved out to try to find their men.

They stumbled on a crowd that had gathered around a group of wailing and crying women. The onlookers were chanting something in Dutch that the nurse didn't understand. The women in the middle kneeled and their hair was cut off and their clothes torn and ripped from their bodies. They continued to cry helplessly as their dignity was stripped from them. The American soldiers around her instantly went silent and tears sprang to Sadie's eyes.

"Can't we do something?" Sadie asked quietly, a couple of tears threatening to fall from her green eyes.

"It's not our place," stated Dick, but Sadie could hear in his voice that he wished they could help in some way.

"What did they do?" inquired Welsh, not taking his eyes off the scene before him.

"They slept with the Germans," an unknown accented voice said from behind the group. It seemed that Nixon had returned with a Dutch ally. Sadie tried to wipe the tears from her face as she turned around the meet the new man. Nixon saw this and caught her eye to give her a concerned glance. "They are lucky," the Dutch man continued, "the men who collaborated are being shot."

Nixon and Winters continued to discuss important matters with the Dutch man, Mr. van Kooijk, as they weaved in and out of the crowd, while Sadie, Buck and Welsh trailed behind.

"It'll be okay, Sadie," Buck rubbed the tall woman's upper back above her pack, as a way to console her.

"Thanks, Buck," Sadie gave him a small smile, glad to have her friends with her.

Buck and Welsh left after Winters ordered them to settle their platoons in for the night, placing a perimeter around the city as a precaution. Dick and van Kooijk wandered off to discuss their plans further. This left Sadie and Nixon facing each other in the crowded streets of Eindhoven.

"Shouldn't you be going with them?" Sadie gestured towards the retreating figures of Dick and van Kooijk.

"Nah, Dick can handle himself," Nixon waved the idea off. He stepped closer and turned the collar of her jacket up, so that her silver bar couldn't be seen by any potential German snipers in the area. "Besides, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'll be fine," Sadie tried to unsuccessfully act like the incident hadn't bothered her. "I was just caught off guard is all," she continued with her nonchalant façade.

Sadie pulled out her canteen, poured a bit of water on the forgotten handkerchief Dick had given her and resumed trying to scrub her face clean.

"Scrub any harder and you're gonna wash your freckles off," Nixon teased, trying to brighten her spirits and lighten the mood. She didn't notice his dark eyes dancing with amusement.

"With any luck," Sadie sighed without even looking at him, hating her freckles. The light splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks had become more visible over the summer once she got a bit of a tan and she despised it. Where she was from, freckles weren't an attractive feature to have, but she was never quite able to cover them up.

"I like your freckles," Nixon stated honestly.

"You do?" Sadie stopped what she was doing to look him in the eye.

"Yeah, they suit you," he smiled warmly at her. Sadie was slightly taken aback as her heart fluttered at his words. No one, besides her mother, had said anything quite so nice about them. It was completely unplanned and honest. Nixon just chuckled at her blank expression and took the handkerchief from her, wiping the last hint of red lipstick from her cheek.

"Thanks," Sadie replied meekly at both his comment and his assistance as she blushed.

"Come on, let's go find a place to stay for the night," Nixon took Sadie's hand and led her through the crowd, which had gotten more unruly since the British tanks had begun to roll through the city.

"I'm not staying with you, Lew," Sadie stated, trying to dodge civilians as she held Nixon's hand tightly so as not to lose him in the crowd.

"I know, I know, separate beds, separate rooms," Nixon replied with a sigh, now used to Sadie's routine. She was constantly paranoid someone would draw conclusions if they were seen alone together.

Whenever they were able to squeeze in a moment to themselves back in England, she was always the first one dressed and practically sprinting out the door before he could even get his pants on. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered, since so many of his comments and actions earned him a livid glare and an angry whisper to keep his hands to himself. But then Sadie would smile at him and laugh at his sarcastic remarks. Unlike many of the women he'd come across, she was smart enough to keep up in conversations and contribute her own witty remarks. Nixon genuinely enjoyed spending time with her, both alone and in a group of people, and add to that, she was a good lay.

"Separate houses," Sadie clarified. Nixon just rolled his eyes, however Sadie couldn't see it because he was still facing forward and she was slightly behind him.

"Fine, but you're staying with one of the Easy Company officers. I'm not letting you sleep in some foreign house with some strange family you don't know. You could be raped for Chrissake," Nixon raised his voice slightly as he began to rant.

"Alright, okay," Sadie tried to calm him down by obliging to his request.

"And not with Compton. He's a good man, but I don't like the way he looks at you and touches you," Nixon continued.

"He's a friend, Lew. He's just looking out for me," Sadie tried to get him to see rationally.

"Yeah, well, he's looking out for you a little too closely," Nixon replied snidely, the nice moment they'd shared not long ago completely forgotten.

"I seem to remember you being married, and it's not to me! You don't control what I do, Lew," Sadie replied icily and stormed off to find Dick. She'd see if she could stay in the same billet with him for the night and cool off. How dare Lew say those things to her! Sure she found Buck good-looking, but that was it and she was pretty sure he felt the same way about her. She wasn't some whore that was going to sleep with half the company and she didn't appreciate being treated as such.

Just as the sun was setting, Easy's CO found a house for him and the young nurse to stay in for the night. Because of the language barrier, it took a bit of explaining that he and Sadie were not married and would therefore need two separate rooms for the night. They managed to move the Dutch family to their neighbours' house and Sadie and Dick were given free reign. Dick took the master bedroom with the adjoining study, so that he could do his paperwork and conduct meetings if needed, while Sadie took the eldest daughter's room. It was a fairly decent size and it suited her perfectly for a one night stay. She felt a little guilty for having such a nice place to sleep while many of her friends slept outside of town in their foxholes, but she wasn't about to give it up. Besides, it was only one night.

While distracting Dick from his paperwork in the study, purely out of her own boredom, Sadie had found a book in French. She bid him goodnight and returned to her room, fully intending to attempt to read part of the novel and then go directly to sleep.

She was sitting at the desk, having an easier time reading than she anticipated. It had been quite a while since she'd read anything in French, but she'd always found it much easier to read than to speak the language. Suddenly there was a light tap at the door.

"Come in," Sadie said distractedly, fully engrossed in the book and guessing it was Dick at the door.

"Hey," a voice said from the doorway. Sadie looked up to find a very apologetic and slightly drunk-looking Lewis Nixon standing there. She just shot him an unimpressed look and returned to reading her book. "Listen, I feel like shit for what I said to you."

"You should," Sadie didn't take her eyes of the novel, although she wasn't actually reading anymore.

"Come on, don't be like that," Nixon took a step into her room. "I came to say I'm sorry."

"Okay."

"Look at me…please?" Nixon practically begged her.

She just sighed and looked at the man, doing her best to remain looking pissed off. "What?" she snapped.

"Go for a walk with me?" he asked. The look in his eyes was enough to make her feel terrible for being so short with him. She knew he wasn't really as sorry as he was pretending to be, but she also knew that she wasn't actually as pissed as she was acting. They were both just being stubborn, and Nixon was trying to do the right thing and fix it.

"Fine, let me just grab my jacket," Sadie pushed her chair back from the desk and pulled her jacket off the bedpost it was hanging from.

Once outside, they strolled the streets of Eindhoven. There was lots of drinking and celebrating still occurring, but Sadie couldn't get past the awkward silence that had fallen between her and Nixon.

"So… I was an ass-,"

"And I was a bitch," Sadie finished his sentence. "Can we just leave it at that? We're both sorry and we don't really need to drag this out."

"Sure thing," Nixon nodded. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," he smirked over at her, relieved as the awkward tension lifted. Sadie just giggled and continued to walk in silence.

"I'm surprised you're not out drinking with all the civilians," the nurse changed the subject, referring to the noisy pub they were walking past.

"What makes you think I haven't been drinking?" Nixon joked.

"Touché." Silence fell upon them once again, only this time it was much more comfortable as they observed the goings-on that were happening all around them.

"So I have some Vat 69 back at my billet if you wanted."

"Wow!"

"What?"

"Subtle," Sadie said and Nixon just gave her a confused look in return. "You have a way of making everything sound so inappropriate."

"It's part of my charm," Nixon winked at her. Sadie simply intertwined her fingers with his and directed their walk towards his billet at a leisurely pace.

They quietly snuck into the house Nixon was occupying because the couple that lived there was currently sleeping upstairs. Sadie turned on the light in his room as Nixon grabbed a couple glasses and filled them with his favourite drink.

"You really think the war could be over by Christmas?" Sadie asked hopefully as she sipped her drink. She sat in a chair in the corner of the room and Nixon took a seat at the desk.

"If everything goes as planned, then yeah," Nixon replied.

"That would be nice," replied Sadie thoughtfully, swirling the whiskey around in her glass, "I miss being home, with all that snow in the winter."

The two continued to reminisce about growing up and life back at home for the better part of an hour. They both finished their drinks relatively quickly; however, Nixon was the only one to keep drinking.

Sadie glanced down at her watch, "Oh shit!" she exclaimed and jump up. "It's late. I gotta get back."

"Stay," Nixon suggested.

"I can't. We're moving out early. Dick's probably wondering where I am…" Sadie crossed the small room in a couple steps. She leaned over Nixon to place the empty glass on his desk then bent down to give him a peck on the lips.

"Stay," he persisted and pulled her back into a kiss. He pulled on the back of her left thigh to nudge her so that she was standing in between his legs.

"Hmmm," Sadie smiled into his lips as he ran his hand up her thigh and over her backside and then back down. "I can't," she stood up and gazed down at him. She tucked an unruly curl behind her ear and took a couple steps back to leave.

Nixon quickly stood, oddly stable for the amount of alcohol he'd consumed, and pulled her back to him. "Just stay," he said once again as he ran his hands up and down Sadie's back and arms.

Sadie had to admit, it was tempting. She could sneak out in the middle of the night and he wouldn't have any idea since he'd be sleeping so deeply thanks to the Vat 69. She leaned into his body and felt that he was semi-hard against her hip. He smirked down at her slightly in his most seductive manner. "Nice try, but I really can't. We're not in England anymore," she responded with her own teasing smirk.

Nixon just huffed in frustration and walked over to his bed and flopped down on his back. "If the German's don't kill me, you will," he mumbled over-dramatically, rubbing his hands over his face.

"G'night, Lew," Sadie called over her shoulder as she laughed and left the house to return to her own billet.

"'Night!" Nixon hollered half-consciously.

A/N: I'm hoping this will satisfy everyone for a little bit! I have a week of hell coming up and then I plan to take a few days off to just re-watch the series and then write, write, write! Again, thanks for reading!