Alice rarely sleeps. Since she started working at the camp 6 months ago, she swears she's gotten about 10 hours total. They have barracks, mind you, for the girls as well as the agents, but the agents spend way more time in those barracks than anyone working the radio room with HYDRA. However, the HYDRA girls had devised a system so that everyone got a two hour rotation on Duncan's cot overnight. Duncan didn't say anything about it; unless it was urgent, he finished his work elsewhere in the building.
The one redeeming thing about working so much, Alice will admit, is the girls she works with. She's made some close friends in the room. She's become undoubtedly closest with Eliza, a shy, quiet girl from B.C., Jane, a cheeky, morse-code-transmitting record holder from the University of New York, and Eleanor, a talkative, hard-working girl from northern Ontario. They worked well together - all of the girls in the room did. Despite the tense atmosphere and stress, the room dynamic was a good one.
She's just spent another night encoding and decoding, catching a couple of hours on the cot in Duncan's room on her rotation, but she's exhausted. She sets her headphones down, standing and grabbing the records off her desk.
She hears the creaking of the swinging doors, and looks up. She pauses briefly, her eyes landing on Sinclair, then traveling to the man next to him, who she doesn't recognize. He's tall and slim, with brown hair, and he's wearing a white t-shirt and green army pants. He looks like he's ready to train, she realizes, and she turns to Eleanor.
"Who's that?"
Eleanor looks up, her eyes finding the man, before looking back at Alice. "The American."
Alice racks her brain. "Oh, yes. I forgot he was scheduled to arrive today. I hardly know what day it is half the time."
Eleanor murmurs in agreement, consumed in her work once more, and Alice chances one last glance at the newcomer before heading towards the record room. She's about to pass the two men without incident when Duncan stops her, and she has to hold back a sigh. If she's being honest, she could care less about meeting the new recruit. American, Eleanor had said. Where had this guy, and the rest of his country, been since the beginning?
"Alice, I'd like for you to meet Tom Cummings," Duncan says, and the man holds out his hand. "First American through the gates," Duncan adds, his hand falling to pat Tom on the back. Alice reaches out to shake his hand stiffly.
"American, huh? Nice of you to show up," she says with a tight-lipped, forced smile. She pulls her hand away from his and abruptly turns on her heel, heading towards the record room.
After filing her reports, Alice heads back into the hall. It's empty, she notices, and she can't help but pause. She leans her back against the white wall, taking a moment to breathe. She knows their work is important - perhaps some of the most important work for the Allies - but sometimes she wishes everything was normal again.
Nonsense, she scolds herself, lifting her head and running a hand through her dark auburn hair. You can't think like that - this is your life now, and this is the world, Alice.
Alice walks into the room with her files, her eyes on the paper in front of her. She chances a glance up to find the American man standing outside Duncan's office. He shoots her a grin when they make eye contact, and she rolls her eyes, passing him and heading to her desk. She's about to sit down when the door slams open, and a soldier in field gear runs in, his eyes wild.
"He's dead."
The room is stunned into silence, everyone stopping what they're doing.
"Jimmy's dead," the man speaks again, and no one says a word. The soldier glances quickly around him, panicked, his eyes locking with Alice's for a moment as he whispers, "That's going to be me."
Alice is frozen in place. The soldier finally looks away and down at his feet, before murmuring again, "That's going to be me." He looks up, a crazed look in his eyes as he turns to one of the other girls. His voice raises as he begins to shout, his entire body trembling. "That's going to be me!" He yells. "I'm going to die. I'm going to die."
Within moments, two other soldiers are holding the man down, with Tom's help.
"Send for the nurse," Duncan says to Alice quietly, and she nods, taking a silent step backwards towards her desk. The soldier is so distraught he doesn't notice as she quickly calls down to the infirmary. The nurse arrives almost immediately, as the man continues to yell, his voice breaking into sobs.
"I don't want to die," he cries, and Alice feels her heart break a little.
The nurse quickly injects him with a needle, and his panicked movements immediately cease. Tom stands up and takes a step back. The other two soldiers stand up as well, one of them wiping his forehead free of sweat.
"What happened out there?" Duncan asks calmly.
One of the soldiers takes a step forward. "Private James was killed in shooting practice, sir. Accidental death."
Duncan nods, lifting a hand to his forehead. "Alright. I'll write to his parents. Thank you, Higgins. Reynolds, help Higgins get Johnson to the infirmary." The two men salute, before helping the nearly unconscious man stand up. The two soldiers begin to walk down the hall with him, his arms hung limply around their shoulders.
The nurse turns to Duncan. "Should I keep him subdued, sir?"
"Take care of him as best you can. But we can't send him home, he's seen too much here," Duncan says to the nurse quietly, but Alice hears it, and she can tell Tom has heard it, too.
She looks up at the man beside her to find his face panicked and afraid. He stares down the hall for a few moments after the soldier has left, before tearing his gaze away and looking to the floor. He looks simultaneously shocked and terrified, and Alice sighs.
"You'd better get used to that. Welcome to the real world, America," she says shortly, and Tom turns to her in surprise. His eyebrows furrow as he processes her harsh words, but she doesn't give him a chance to retaliate as she turns on her heel back to her desk. She hears the door open as Tom exits, his footsteps echoing down the hall. As she sits down, she feels eyes on her, and she looks up and across at Eliza. She raises her eyebrows in question, and the quieter girl shrugs.
"That was out of line, Alice," she says, and Alice is taken aback.
She feels her innate defensiveness threaten to take over as she shoots back, "And why's that?"
"Eliza's right," Eleanor says from beside her. Alice turns to her other friend in disbelief. "Give the guy a break."
Alice isn't sure what to make of the conversation. She rolls her eyes, turning back to her work. "He's had a break since the war started," Alice mutters under her breath, "alongside the rest of his country."
"Jane is American," Eliza points out.
"And Jane's been here since we opened," Alice retorts. She sees Jane look up at the sound of her name from where she's been talking to one of the other girls across the room, and Alice is reminded how small the room actually is. She lowers her voice as she adds, "It bothers me that it took them so long, alright? Can we leave it?" The other girls mutter in agreement, and Alice sighs as they get back to work.
She can't help but wonder if maybe she had been a little bit harsher than she should have been. She's always been told by her parents that she needs to be careful about the things she says. If there was one thing that hasn't changed since she came to Camp X, that was it. She bites her lip before dismissing the thought and picking up her pencil.
Thank you so much for all the love already! Reviews and comments are food for the writer's soul, so please please please comment, even if it's just a smiley face!
Huge sshoutout to for her constant support of me and Alice. She's the author of the brilliant Neil story, Home - go check it out! I've gotten a sneak peek of the next chapter and it is HUGE.
PS- disclaimer, I have nothing against Americans!
PPS- still not over the finale.
xx, Leslie