A big thanks goes as always to my wonderful and steadfast reviewers, who really help me update regularly. I'm so happy you like the story so far... warm and fuzzy feeling! :-)))
BatOutOfHell-Madness (Glad you like Lizzie and Dick, it's fun to write the parts with both of them. Very happy you think Dick's character is plausible, I don't want him too far away from how he's depicted in the series), beth-rodrigues.77 (Very glad to hear you like Lizzie's strong character! I think she can be a challenge to Dick, that's also why he's drawn to her. Yeah, their finally friendly to each other. For now... :-))),ScarlettLeon (Hello there and welcome to the story. I'm very happy you're into this fic and like it so far! And yeah, Heffron, he's just sweet. There's more of the other guys in this chapter, hope you enjoy!) and ChocAndSnow19 (Yeah, it's a bit of a relief to see the both of them on more friendly terms. Very glad you liked the character descriptions, that's really the hardest part of it all, trying to figure out what they would do and feel, without writing them away from either their origins or what is plausible. And yeah, you're right, they're both complex characters, with issues and fears like every human being. I'm very fascinated with this pre-war atmosphere in England, none of them has yet seen combat, but they all know it's just a matter of time. I really like to write the characters against this tense background).
Yay, and here we already arrive at chapter 6! Finally seeing a positive thing in not being a native English speaker, since I can put my mother tongue to good use... ;-)
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"It's not all that much left, so finish up", the Valkyrie (or Betty, as he now knew) said to Dick sternly, shoving the small bowl of chicken soup back into his hands that he had just deposited on the nightstand.
"I told you already, I'm full, I can't eat anymore", Dick tried to explain, his patience wearing thin. He was sure that if he forced one more spoonful down his throat, it would come right back up again. His stomach was tied in uncomfortable knots, not all that happy to be fed again after staying empty for so long.
"This small bowl was only half-full from the beginning, so you should be able to manage it", she reproached him as if he were a child, stemming her hands into her rather large hips.
Dick found himself glaring at her. What was it with him and the nurses here? He could lead a platoon alright and there was not one man in Easy Company that dared to oppose him, but in here no one seemed to even put an effort in treating him with respect.
"That's enough, I'm done", he repeated more forcefully, shoving the bowl back on his nightstand and crossing his arms.
"You're done when this is empty", she insisted in a shrill voice, her tiny pale blue eyes almost disappearing in slits and her cheeks turning pink. She grabbed the bowl and tried to shove it back at him, but his hands caught the bowl before it was in his lap and pushed it from him. Maybe his movements were a bit too spirited, because the bowl dropped from both their hands, shattering on the ground and spilling the soup halfway across the room. Silence followed the crash of breaking porcelain.
"This is all your fault!", the Valkyrie screeched, face bright red.
"I didn't mean to break it", Dick tried to explain uneasily, already starting to feel guilty for the mess on the ground.
At that moment, the pregnant doctor, Dr. Coombs, decided to check up on them.
"Everything alright?", she asked, looking curiously at the spilled soup on the ground and then at a huffing Betty.
"I'm done here, Dr. Coombs!", the Valkyrie stated in a high-pitched voice. "I won't treat this man anymore, someone else can do it!"
Then she stomped out of the ward, leaving a consternated Dick and the doctor looking after her.
"Lieutenant Winters", the doctor said with a sigh, "are you trying to set a new record? This is the second nurse of my ward that storms off in a frenzy after treating you."
"I'm truly sorry, doctor", Dick answered uncomfortably, but at the same time feeling that all of this was not his fault. "I just tried to make her understand that I couldn't eat anymore."
"Yes, Betty can sometimes be a bit stubborn", Dr. Coombs supplied with a faint smile. "Don't worry about it, lieutenant. You're not looking like the usual troublemaker, so I guess that you were just the first one daring to defy her. She'll be fine."
"I really don't try to make this more difficult on purpose", Dick answered, just for good measure, in his own defense.
"I know that, lieutenant", she replied understandingly. "The girls are yet learning their ways around here, they're still in training, just like your soldiers. All of them voluntarily signed up for the military hospital to be able to help and to carry their own shares in this war. Many of them actually come from other professions, leaving their jobs to contribute to this bigger purpose. Lizzie, for example, used to be a teacher, she only signed up as a nurse after the war had broken out."
This was news to Dick. He had never given a thought so far to the motivation of the medical personnel to work on the base, he had always assumed that they were just regular nurses and doctors. Maybe the reasons for him joining the army and for the women to work in the military hospital were not all that different. They also had to leave their country, their well-known surroundings and their families to help in whatever way was most needed. And he certainly could not have guessed that Lizzie had worked as a teacher, although he thought it quite fitting. There was no doubt she was able to hold her own in a class of cheeky ten-year-olds, the thought of her telling off some boys for a prank amusing him.
"I didn't know that", he admitted, also seeing the doctor with new eyes. It was surely her high level of commitment that had brought her to the military hospital, despite her pregnancy and work being much easier at a regular hospital.
"Yes, that doesn't surprise me", Dr. Coombs replied smilingly but without even a trace of reproach. "Your work is obvious for anyone to see and it's what everyone talks about, from the newspapers to the politicians. Our work is much more in the background, which isn't all that bad, to be honest. You're certainly under much more pressure from the public than we are."
Dick nodded at that, deciding for himself to make a bigger effort to be patient with the medical personnel in the future.
"Well, let's leave the talking and get to your abdomen. And have this mess cleaned up", the doctor stated, turning around to another young nurse coming into the ward. "Tessa, would you mind cleaning up here a bit, please?"
"Right away, Dr. Coombs" the girl answered. "I'll just change Private Weller's bandage, I'll be right with you."
The doctor nodded at that, then maneuvered herself into the chair beside Dick's bed, her already quite big belly hindering her and making her sigh softly. .
"This is getting more tedious from day to day", she explained, rubbing her back.
"I hope this isn't too stressful for you and your child, with all the hard work you're doing, doctor", Dick said rather self-consciously, feeling uncomfortable talking about her pregnancy but somehow needing to express his appreciation for her effort despite her condition.
"It's fine, thank you for your concern", she replied, her delicate features lighting up. "Why, I can't see why the girls don't like you, there's certainly no lack of manners on your part. I would be fawning all over you, if I weren't already married to the best guy on earth and expecting his child."
Dick felt his cheeks getting warm at that. He could not help himself and he hated it, but he did not know how to prevent himself from blushing at such a compliment. Especially uttered by a woman, and an attractive woman at that.
"Alright, let's not boost your ego too much", she said, still smiling warmly at him. "It's your abdomen that has my interest, not your manners. So please let me see that noncompliant side of yours."
He did as she asked and rolled up the sweater he wore to reveal the white bandages beneath. She started to undo them, while the nurse, Tessa, came back to clean the ground from the shards and the remains of the chicken soup. For a short moment, Dick wondered if he should ask the doctor where Lizzie was, but then decided against it. No need for tongues to start wagging. However, he had found himself waiting for her the whole morning, looking up every time a nurse entered the ward, but just seeing two new nurses and the Valkyrie today. That probably meant that Lizzie had finally received some time off, after her 24-hours-shift, which would certainly do her some good.
"This doesn't look all too bad", Dr. Coombs commented, when the neat row of stitches on his abdomen was finally revealed. The long surgery wound still looked raw to Dick, the swollen skin around the suture showing all possible colors of bruising. "Do you see the fine stitches? That's so clearly Paul's hand. This will leave a very tidy scar."
"I can see it", Dick replied a bit faintly. Maybe he would have been able to appreciate the doctor's handiwork better, if it had not been his own belly that had been cut open and then stitched back together. Thinking about the things Dr. Coombs, the husband, had told him about the surgery, especially the nasty parts of it, left him feeling slightly queasy. He normally was not one to faint at the first sight of blood and growing up on a farm had shown him a few things about severe injuries, in animals and humans, but with his stomach still functioning less than reliably and the chicken soup not quite settled down yet, he found himself taking a deep steadying breath.
"Is everything alright?", Dr. Coombs asked him concernedly. "You look a bit pale."
"Everything fine", he replied shortly, taking another deep breath and hoping his stomach would stay where it belonged. "Just struggling still a bit with the chicken soup."
"Yes, that's normal", she said sympathetically. "It takes time for everything to start working again as it should. Don't count on any appetite while eating in the next few weeks. Shall I stop with the examination and continue later?"
"No, I think I can manage", Dick answered, tearing his gaze away from his battered abdomen and looking to the ceiling.
"Okay", she said, then continued with gently tapping his abdomen, watching his face for a reaction to the pain. It still hurt, every time they did this, but at least it hurt a bit less with each passing day.
"You're doing fine", she finally stated, while she spread a salve over the suture and then started to wrap it back up. "No sign of any complications, which is really good. There is still some infection in the peritoneum, but it has clearly receded to the lower right quadrant, which is exactly the way this should heal. It will be another ten days until the infection and the swelling will be fully gone. Keep up the good recovery and you'll be out of here in two week's time."
"Good", Dick said, taking the proffered glass of water and meds the doctor was handing him. "I can't miss out too long on the training."
"I know you're itching to get out of here, but just keep in mind that recovery time will be longer if you put too much strain on your body too early", she told him, giving him an intent look.
"Yeah, I know", he replied, rather reluctantly. He knew she was right, but time was pressing, he could not just lean back and patiently wait for his body to be back to normal again.
Just as the doctor got up from the chair, Tessa came to them again.
"There are three soldiers waiting to see you, Lieutenant Winters", she said.
"Yes, it's fine, I expect them", he replied, rolling down his sweater and sitting up a bit straighter in bed.
The nurse nodded and motioned for Lipton, Guarnere and Roe to come closer. The three of them stepped up to his bed hesitantly, looking around uneasily at all the medical equipment. Dick could feel with them, after all it was clear for all soldiers that the chances were rather high for them to end up here as well in the course of the war and none of them was actually comfortable with that thought.
"Sergeant Lipton, Sergeant Guarnere, Medic Roe", he addressed them formally. "Good to see you."
"Good to see you, too, sir", Lipton replied for all three of them, then looked rather curiously at the doctor standing beside his bed.
"This is Dr. Coombs", Dick thought it proper to introduce her. "Her husband operated on me." And then he explained to her, "The three of them were responsible for bringing me here as fast as they could. Medic Roe was the one diagnosing me with appendicitis."
"Oh, so he's the one whose advices you decided to throw to the wind, lieutenant", she remarked pointedly, but giving Roe an appreciative nod.
"Yeah, you could put it that way", Dick had to admit rather unwillingly, noticing Guarnere biting back a grin at the soft reproach of the doctor.
"It's good to know that you have competent medics in the field", she said to Roe, giving him a smile that left the medic shuffling his feet shyly.
"Thank you, ma'am… doctor", Roe replied timidly.
"I'll leave you then to your visitors, lieutenant", she said, nodding to the three soldiers, then walking across the ward to another patient.
"They're really not hesitant to speak their minds here", Dick explained, giving them a wry smile.
"I can see that", Lipton replied with a smile of his own. "How are you doing, sir?"
"Much better, thanks", Dick answered, feeling a bit uneasy to talk about his illness in front of the men, but at the same time knowing that he owned them an honest answer, after all the trouble they had gone through to bring him to hospital. "It's agonizingly slow-going, but at least I'm making progress. As of today, they even let me eat again."
Dick had meant for the last part to sound light-hearted, but judging from the crestfallen looks on his men's faces, it had fallen flat.
"So you won't be back anytime soon, sir?", Guarnere asked, not fully able to mask his disappointment.
"Not in the next few weeks, I'm afraid", he answered cheerlessly, deciding against telling them about the recovery time of three months Lizzie had talked about.
The long faces told him everything he needed to know about the state second platoon was in, but he asked about it anyway.
"I heard you got Lieutenant Shames as replacement", he said quietly.
"Yes", Guarnere spat, ignoring a moderating look from Lipton, "he's the most useless, goddamned cowboy we had to put up with until now. We had not one free afternoon in the last eight days. He's even pulling us out of the film evenings to go through an exercise again. When we don't come running at his bellowing he already threatens with court-martial. But worst of it all, his blundering in the field is even worse than Sobel's and we're not even allowed to try and make it better."
By the gloomy faces of Lipton and Roe, Dick could see that Guarnere was not exaggerating. All three of them looked tired and worn, he noticed with some alarm.
"But he can't just revoke your weekend passes, only Sobel can do that", Dick put in frowningly.
"Yeah, but he can go with his notions of discipline to Sobel and receives more or less a carte blanche", Lipton replied dully.
"What about the other platoons?", Dick queried.
"They're not quite as bad off as we are", Lipton answered. "With Lieutenant Welsh still in Bristol, third platoon is struggling a bit with Lieutenant Matheson as replacement. And first platoon with Lieutenant Peacock... Well, let's just say at least they're used to him. But Lieutenant Shames' methods affect the whole company. The mood is low at the moment. One or two of the men are even thinking of applying for reassignment to another company or giving up."
"What?", Dick exclaimed, now truly alarmed. "This can't be happening. We're too far along to make any major personnel changes in the companies. Who are these men?"
Lipton exchanged an uneasy glance with Guarnere.
"I'm not sure we're supposed to tell you, sir", Guarnere explained reluctantly. "They might not feel comfortable with you knowing and so far they're only thinking about it."
Dick sighed, hating the powerlessness he was confined to. When Lipton had told him that Dick was the one holding the company together the night he got sick, he had never thought of how spot on the sergeant's comment might prove to be.
"Alright, I won't press you for names", Dick replied, then looked at all three intently. "Listen, I'll be out of here in two weeks. I'll try to see Colonel Sink shortly after that, maybe I can talk him into giving me back command while still on light duty. Or at least partial command."
"Sir, the doctors here will need to clear you for duty", Roe explained quietly. "Sink will require some kind of medical proof that you're fit to take back command."
Dick knew that there was no way he could talk the doctors into proclaiming him fit for duty earlier than what they deemed reasonable. However, they probably did not know how important it was for him to return to Easy as soon as possible. It was downright infuriating.
"Okay", he said slowly, releasing his pent up breath, struggling for calm, "you just need to hold on for a while longer. It will be stressful and it will be aggravating, but it won't be forever. You can't choose your officers, that's how it works in the army."
"Yeah, thanks for that, I didn't know", Guarnere commented snarkily.
"I can only promise I'll be back as soon as they'll let me", Dick insisted, ignoring Guarnere's remark.
"If you had listened to Roe or any of us, for that matter", Guarnere said scathingly, "we wouldn't be in this situation."
"Do you really think I don't know that?!", Dick exclaimed, his frustration getting the better of him. "Do you want to hear that all of this is my fault? Fine, I'll say it, all of this stupid mess is my very own fault, okay? I'm mulling this over and over in my head since I woke up. Just don't think that I don't care."
The three men looked at him with wide eyes, taken aback at Dick's sudden outburst.
"But it won't change a thing", he added more quietly, feeling the flare of temper taxing his weakened strength. "We have to look forward, not backward."
"Yes, I think we can all agree on that", Lipton remarked, looking pointedly at his fellow sergeant.
"Sir, I apologize, I didn't mean for this to sound like an accusation", Guarnere said contritely and Dick gave him a forgiving nod. "It's not your fault you got sick in the first place. It's just this fucking situation and this fucking Shames that got me all riled up." Then he added quietly, "My weekend passes are revoked for the next four weeks, for insubordination."
"Well, maybe telling him that even a blind chicken would make better use of the map than him might not have been what he wanted to hear, Bill", Lipton replied, a faint smile on his face. Dick found his mood slightly lifting when picturing the situation in his head.
"I didn't exactly plan on him hearing that", Guarnere explained morosely. "You could have warned me he was standing right behind me, you know."
"I didn't see him coming up either", Lipton replied, then said to Dick, "He has this habit of just popping out of the ground in the most unfortunate moments. You could get the impression he has eyes in the back of his head."
"Yeah, I know what it feels like", Dick replied, feeling a smile tug at his lips despite their situation. "I used to deliver milk as a summer job to pay for college and I had a boss that was exactly like that. During the two years I did this, I smashed only two bottles, but he caught me both times, yelling at me for minutes on an end. It was really disconcerting, because most of the times, he wasn't even there. Just bad luck."
"You delivered milk?", Guarnere asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah, I did", Dick answered, feeling faintly amused that Guarnere looked so shocked about it. "I wasn't born a lieutenant, you know."
This made Roe and Lipton smile a bit.
"So, do you think you can hold on a while longer?", Dick asked, bringing them back on topic.
"I guess so, yeah", Lipton answered, looking at Guarnere and Roe nodding their heads. "We won't have much choice. But there's not one man in the company that isn't looking forward to having you back again, sir."
"That's good to hear, after all", Dick replied warmly, feeling grateful for the loyalty of his men. "By the way, I didn't thank you yet for bringing me to the hospital. It's all a bit blurry, but I know you did everything possible to get me back to the base as fast as possible. You did an awesome job that night, with everything."
"Thank you, sir", Guarnere murmured, the others nodding their heads.
"Maybe it will cheer you up to know that the maneuver will be counted as a success", Dick told them. "We've got the best results of all platoons of every company so far. So whatever Shames tells you, you need to keep in mind that you're fine soldiers, each and every one of you."
"That's very good news, sir", Lipton replied, smiling brightly. "And it'll be much needed to bolster the boys' confidence."
"Tell the men, but don't spread it too far", Dick cautioned. "It's not official yet."
"Understood, sir", Guarnere answered, then deposited a big and rather thick brown envelope on the nightstand. "Lieutenant Nixon asked me to bring you this. He can't make it for a visit today, he's in meetings all day. Said it's some magazines you asked for."
"Thanks, Bill", Dick answered, smiling inwardly at his friend's cover for the paperwork.
"Alright, boys, I think it's time to get back, lunch time is almost over", Lipton said, looking at his watch.
"Thanks for the visit", Dick replied. "Come back whenever you want or if there's more trouble. I'm quite isolated at the moment, but as soon as I'm out of here, I can at least hope to get an ear up at regiment."
"We'll do just that, sir", Lipton said. "Get well soon."
Dick nodded at them and watched his men leave the ward.
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"Bleiben Sie stehen", Dick murmured quietly to himself, testing the pronunciation of the foreign words on his tongue.
"Stay where you are", he translated softly to himself, then looked up in the notebook on his lap if he was correct. Luckily, he was pretty good at learning foreign languages and the few sentences of German every officer had to have ready at hand seemed to stick with him quite well.
He was sitting in the middle of his bed in the ward, surrounded by loose sheets and notebooks, from treatises on warfare and strategy to the newest reports on the battlegrounds of Europe. It was shortly after midnight and just like the night before, Dick had been unable to sleep. At least he had something to do now, although he knew very well that he needed more practice in the field maneuvers, not more theory on warfare.
"Kommen Sie hierher", he pronounced softly, but before he could think of the translation, he heard soft footsteps and the curtain was drawn open. Lizzie walked slowly up to his bed, taking in the stacks of paper with raised eyebrows.
"First", she said without a greeting, giving Dick a pointed look, "do you really plan on making a habit of not sleeping at night? And second, what in God's name are you doing?"
Dick gave her a smile, feeling happy to see her again, since she had not been around all day.
"First, no, I don't plan on keeping you awake every night", he answered, smiling gently. "And second, I'm just trying to get some paperwork and theoretical stuff done."
"Okay, and which part of you staying on full medical leave for the next six weeks was unclear to you?", she asked long-sufferingly, lowering herself into the chair beside his bed. She looked better rested than yesterday evening, although her hair was already hanging wildly around her face again, which was why she tried to cram it back under her nurse cap.
"Well, this isn't actually light duty, just some material for the theoretical classes I attend", he explained, then added quietly, "Makes me feel slightly more useful."
Only now, Lizzie gave him a smile, showing her white teeth, then nodded her head.
"Yes, I should've known you're someone who gets restless quickly", she replied, her eyes twinkling warmly. "To be honest, I do understand you, I'd be a terrible patient, too. Can't stay in the same place for too long without getting edgy." Then added quickly, "But this doesn't mean I approve of you going against doctor's orders, of course."
"Yeah, of course", Dick said lightly, noticing the wink she gave him. Her presence already felt familiar to him, somehow brightening up the room. And his mood, too, strangely enough.
"So, what are you doing?", she asked, eyeing the mass of paper on his bed curiously.
"At the moment, I'm trying to learn some German", he explained, showing her the notebook on his lap. "Well, not actually learning, more like memorizing a few sentences. 'Legt die Waffen nieder' is 'Drop your weapons' or 'Bleiben Sie stehen' 'Stay where you are'. Things like that."
The smile on Lizzie's face was wiped off by a strange look flitting across her face, then she schooled it into an impassive mask. It was so quick Dick was not really sure if he had just imagined it.
"Oh", she said coolly, "have you learned 'Fahr zur Hölle, Nazidreck' yet?"
"No", Dick answered slowly, watching her closely. Her eyes had changed from the warm brown to a frosty grey, remembering him of slate. "But I have this hunch that I won't find that expression in my book. What does it mean?"
"'Go to hell, nazi scum'", she translated, looking at her fingers in her lap, then lifting her eyes to him. There was a fierceness to her gaze that seemed to dare him to comment on what she had just said, making him cautious of his next words.
He thought her behavior a bit strange, but he still decided to ask, "So, you know German or do you just know some imprecations?"
"No, I actually know it quite well", she replied slowly, frowning to herself.
"Were you teaching it before you became a nurse?", Dick inquired gently, hoping to draw her out of the tenseness that had suddenly taken hold of her.
"How do you know I was a teacher?", she asked back, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Mrs. Dr. Coombs told me today", he answered, watching her fiddle with her fingernails. "I'm sure you were a good teacher. Why did you give it up?"
The thundery look on her face and the thin line of her lips immediately told him that he had chosen the wrong topic to lift her mood. Whatever he had brought to her mind, it certainly were not happy memories.
"Look, I don't think any of this is your business", she told him rather frostily, getting up from the chair. "I've got things to do."
"Lizzie", he called out to her, as she was about to leave, but she just ignored him, pulling the curtain close behind her. Dick was left where he was sitting, staring a long time at the space where she had disappeared. Darn it, this was certainly not the kind of conversation he had looked forward to for the whole day. Where had he gone wrong to make her so very reserved? He had no idea.
Sighing deeply, he went back to his German sentences, still thinking about Lizzie. What was it with her? He had enjoyed their meeting the night before, he had even taken pleasure in the light banter they had shared. He had also found himself looking forward to seeing her again, because she was capable of distracting him from his worries with only two sentences. But for every step forward they took, they made two backward. Sighing again, he forced himself to concentrate on the stuff in his books, putting every thought of Lizzie out of his mind, only halfway succeeding.
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"Lizzie, stop your daydreaming, I need that bandage", Greta told her rather briskly, one hand tamped down on a pad that covered a freshly sutured wound on a private's thigh.
"Sorry", Lizzie murmured, handing her the bandage and telling herself to concentrate on the work at hand. She had slept badly, after talking to Winters (no, he was Dick now) the night before and she found her thoughts always circling back to her family and everything that had happened. If she was honest to herself, it really had not been Dick's fault, but he had triggered an unwelcome train of thought that she had worked hard to push from her mind.
"Could you prepare the tetanus vaccine?", Greta asked her, more gently this time.
"Yeah, of course", Lizzie answered, going to fetch the vaccine and a syringe. When she came back, the private was already starting to dress again, suffering from no other wound beside the rather large gash from a barbed wire fence in his thigh.
"Here", she said, handing Greta the syringe, then cleaning away the bloody pads. Since there was nothing else to be done, Lizzie got up and left her friend to finish up the patient. Stepping outside the barracks, Lizzie took a deep breath and watched the ever present English clouds flit over the sky. She had yet to see just one beautiful day, without rain and without clouds, in this country. Sitting down on the steps, she lit herself a cigarette, breathing in the smoke deeply, then pulled a half finished letter to her father out of her pocket. She had started it two days after arriving in England more than a month ago and had never found the time to finish it. Reading through it again, she heard the door open behind her, and when she turned her head, she saw Greta coming to her.
"Hey", her friend greeted her softly, sitting down beside her on the steps. "You seem preoccupied, is something amiss?"
"No, not really", Lizzie answered slowly. "Well, at least not more wrong than usually. I just realized that I haven't written to my father yet and that he doesn't know my address here. But if I write to him now, I might soon receive some bad news, you know."
"Your brother?", Greta questioned softly and Lizzie nodded her head. "Well, I don't mean to sound callous, but maybe it would be good for all of you to know he's dead, to be able to wipe the slate clean and go on living."
"Yeah, I know what you mean", Lizzie sighed, watching her shoes.
"How long has it been since the last time you heard anything of him?", Greta asked her.
"Well, the last time I've seen him was the day when he told us that he had enlisted, almost two years ago", Lizzie answered, feeling bitterness in her. "My father was so angry and so disappointed, he chased him out of the house and told him never to come back again. Then we received two letters, one from last spring, the other dating from the end of August, saying that he was stationed somewhere close to the river Dnieper, in the Soviet Republic Ukraine."
"That's not good", Greta replied, wrapping an arm around Lizzie's shoulders. "The Red Army is gaining ground there daily..."
"I know, I read the newspaper, too", Lizzie cut her off tersely, feeling helpless in her anger and bitterness. "God, just how could he be so stupid, I really don't get it! It's like spitting into my father's face!"
Hot tears welled up in her eyes and Lizzie brushed them aside angrily. There was nothing to be gained by bawling like a baby, she just had to accept reality and go on with her life. Her brother did not deserve to make her miserable, even now, after everything that had happened in the last two years. But he was still her little brother and she could not get the childhood memories of them playing in the garden or swimming in the sea in summer out of her head.
"Lizzie, come here", Greta said gently and drew her into her arms, but Lizzie disentangled herself from her friend, wiping at her eyes and forcing a smile onto her face.
"It's fine", she replied, sniffling a little. "I'm fine, really. It just suddenly welled up and everything started circling in my head automatically. Just because of Winters."
"What?", Greta asked incredulously. "You can't make him responsible for everything, Lizzie, that's not fair."
Now Lizzie found herself chuckling a bit at her friend defending Dick.
"I know", she replied, smiling faintly. "It's not really his fault, but he was speaking some German words, then asked me about why I became a nurse, that somehow brought everything back, you know."
"Then you turned the cold shoulder on him, I presume", Greta said pointedly, shaking her head to herself, when Lizzie nodded abashedly. "Look, all I can tell you about him is that he's a really decent man, trying to do the right thing."
"I know that already", Lizzie told her friend softly. "We talked, you know. I might have been wrong, he's not all that bad."
"Very good", Greta mockingly applauded. "Then it's actually true. One of the patients of the ward complained about voices and light from Winter's bed in the middle of the night. I told him that couldn't be, because you were on night-shift."
"He had some troubles sleeping", Lizzie reluctantly revealed. "And he's just too stubborn to accept any meds, so I stayed with him for a while."
Greta smiled brightly, before Lizzie narrowed her eyes on her friend, "Speaking of him, why did you tell him I was a teacher?"
"Ah, that just somehow came up when I examined him yesterday", Greta replied smilingly.
"Just came up, huh?"
"Yeah, really", her friend answered innocently.
Lizzie watched her friend suspiciously, getting the impression that Greta was planning something. A short silence followed, then her friend turned to her again, her demeanor more serious than before.
"I wanted to ask you something", she said slowly, looking Lizzie deep in the eyes.
"Yes?", Lizzie asked, looking at Greta expectantly.
"How would you like becoming a godmother?", her friend inquired, a small smile tugging on her lips.
"What?", Lizzie asked excitedly, not believing her ears. "You sure? What about Paul?"
"Well, I talked to Paul first, and he said he couldn't imagine someone better. So what do you say?"
"I'd love to", Lizzie replied emotionally, enveloping her friend into a tight hug.
-tbc-