Common Virtue

June 26th 1940

The letter wasn't bad. After Duncan had read it he had handed it to Courtney, and she reluctantly read it. She was expecting some tale of a heroic yet tragic death from Mr. Evans superior officer, but no, it was from Mr. Evans himself. He had been hurt, but still alive. He was staying on base until he healed and then he would be sent back out onto the field.

Courtney heard Mrs. Evans crying herself to sleep every night since then, but she wouldn't dare cry in front of her boys. She was strong for them. Davey took a more active role in being man of the house and stayed home more than he went out. While Dale, on the other hand, took to locking himself in his bedroom more often than he had before.

Duncan was the strange one, he carried on as normal, as if this didn't effect him at all. He repressed his feelings and buried them underneath and didn't tell any of his friends what had happened. He pretended it hadn't happened. Mrs. Evans wasn't the only one worried about him, though. Courtney had taken to checking up on Duncan every five minutes, making sure he hadn't lost his mind completely.

The pair went to school for the next three days without a hitch. Duncan would still ignore Courtney, but he had stopped being such a pain in the arse. Everyone else had school had no idea what was going on, and it wasn't Courtney's place to tell them. But they were treating her differently now, letting her play with them at break times and sit with them at lunch. She wasn't feeling as much of an outcast now, which felt a lot better.

Bridgette was quickly becoming a close friend. She would hang around Courtney all day to the point where Mr. Jones, their teacher, had to put Bridgette back in her original seat as she wouldn't stop talking to Courtney through every lesson.

It was a weird sensation, and Courtney couldn't compare it to anything she'd ever felt before. She didn't exactly have friends back in London, and she didn't know what it was like to have a constant companionship. Courtney found herself allowing Bridgette to follow her around, talking her ear off, much to Heather's annoyance. Heather had a personal vendetta against Courtney and the only reason Courtney could think of was because she had taken Bridgette away. Heather still had her other two girls at her side, but Bridgette never looked like she had fit in with them before, and Beth was still friends with Bridgette and Lindsay was best friends with Beth, and Heather blamed Courtney for the whole confusing ordeal because apparently she was stealing her friends and Courtney found it all very confusing.

On Friday Bridgette asked her a strange question:

"Do you want to come to my house tomorrow?"

Courtney tilted her to the side. She'd never been invited somewhere so casual as a persons house before, at least not for some ulterior motive such as piano practice or a birthday gathering. She didn't know what it was people did when they went over each others houses.

"Me and DJ and Geoff were going to go to the sweet shop and maybe you and Duncan wanted to come too, but you don't have to say yes if you don't want to, I know you have chores and stuff on the farm, I don't know what that's like though so I guess it's not really 'siderate and-"

"Okay."

Bridgette shut up instantly, turning her head back towards Courtney who simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Really?" Bridgette gasped. "Because I never really have a girl to hang out with, only boys, and boys aren't all that great." The young girl pulled a face, making Courtney laugh. After living with three boys for two weeks, she could relate. "And Beth isn't really allowed out and Heather's not really that nice and Lindsay's an idiot- oh no, I didn't mean that!"

Courtney continued to listen to Bridgette ramble on for a while after she had stopped apologising for saying something mean against Lindsay who was 'really a big sweetheart'.

After school, Courtney found herself in a gang of her classmate who had all ended up walking home together. Twelve eight year olds walking down a road seemed like trouble, and a lot of the elders stopped themselves to see what they were up to, but the kids were laughing too much to care.

Slowly the group trailed off down side streets, and when there were only six of them left Courtney still found herself with a massive grin on her face. It was her, Bridgette and Beth on one side with Geoff, DJ and Duncan on the other. Beth kept nudging Bridgette so that her arm would brush against Geoff's, to which he would smile at her and Bridgette would blush like mad.

Courtney couldn't keep up with the easy-flowing conversation, it was changing so often, but she didn't feel like an outsider anymore, she felt included. No one was telling her to walk behind because there wasn't enough room, they made room. They welcomed her. Even Duncan, much to Courtney's surprise.

When the four went off down their own side street, to their own houses, which Bridgette explained Duncan knew where it was because he'd been best friends with DJ since nursery, and DJ had always lived by Bridgette, it was just Duncan and Courtney left.

He seemed in a good enough mood, a faint smile on his face, though Courtney could see that it didn't quite reach his eyes upon closer inspection.

"What you looking at?" Duncan mumbled, pulling his cap lower on his head. Courtney shrugged and turned away. She didn't like Duncan very much, but when found herself missing the pranks he played on her. Tugging her pigtails, spilling her milk, running his muddy boots through the kitchen after she'd cleaned it. Okay, maybe not so much the extra cleaning, but the rest of it suddenly felt like a missing piece in her chest. It had become the norm after two weeks of the same routine. She wondered if everything was the same inside Duncan's head.

The clock fell on six and the Evans sat down for supper. It was nothing more than a bowl of broth, which was what they had most evenings. Courtney finished washing her hands under the tap after she had been scrubbing the floor after Dale had forgotten to take his boots of in a rush to get back to his bedroom. Courtney never knew what was so important that he had to spend all his time in his room, but she sure was angry at his carelessness.

"How was school?" Mrs. Evans asked over the scraping spoons. No one spoke, their faces solemn.

Courtney was watching Duncan from the corner of her eyes, mindlessly eating her own food and Duncan just played with his.

"Courtney?"

"Huh?" The young girl quickly turned to face her host mother.

"How was school?" The older woman encouraged. Courtney had found that Mrs. Evans favoured her out of the four children, and she wasn't sure if it was out of politeness towards or a guest or because she really had always wanted a daughter. Being saddled with three sons must have upset her a long time ago, though Courtney suspected she got over it, but having the opportunity to have a surrogate daughter did seem to put a smile on her face.

"Oh um...Bridgette asked me and Duncan if we want to go to the sweet shop tomorrow with her, DJ and Geoff-"

"Everyone keeps talking about the Battle of Britain," Duncan interrupted, dropping his spoon against his dish. "What is it?"

Mrs. Evans paled slightly. Ever since the Priminister's announcement on the radio the week before, The Battle of Britain was a common topic, yet no one seemed to be talking about it at the same time.

"It...Well, sweetie, it's nothing for you to worry about."

"It means that the German's are gonna be targeting us next," Davey replied. "This is why I want to go join the army, to stop those stupid pricks from ruining our country!"

"Davey!" Mrs. Evans scolded, though Courtney didn't know if it was from speaking out of turn, cursing or bringing back up his plans to join the army. "Do you honestly believe you are going to stop an entire countries worth of German soldiers by yourself?"

"But I can help!"

"You're just a boy!"

Davey threw down his spoon and silently excused himself from the table. Mrs. Evan stared angrily after him, but Courtney could tell she was hurt. She looked like she was going to cry again, and Courtney suspected she was going actually going to when she ordered her, Duncan and Dale to get themselves to bed without letting them finish their supper.

Duncan crept into his room with Courtney instead of going to Dale's room with him like Courtney had expected him to do. He was upset and angry too, and Courtney didn't think he'd want her to see him like that.

They silently climbed out onto their secret window spot, watching the sun set in the distance. Summer was rolling on past already and they were almost to July. The night was cool, a soft breeze flowing through the farm. Courtney could hear the distant cows which Dale had forgotten to bring in from grazing. She guessed Mrs. Evans would do it when she'd calmed down.

"Are you okay?"

After a moment, Duncan shook his head.

"What if he doesn't come home? What if I never see him again?"

"At least you have your mum. Mine still hasn't replied to my letter...I could never see either of my parents again and I wouldn't even know it because no one knows where I am."

The silence was bitter and eventually Duncan left. They weren't very good at the talking thing, and they weren't exactly friends.

Courtney felt tense as she crawled into bed. Her brain wouldn't settle even after reading a few chapters of Peter Rabbit. It was playing on her mind about parents and death and how she really didn't know what was going on at home. She didn't know what was going on around her.

And she was scared.

Courtney didn't want to admit it, but she was terrified. Anything could happen at any minute and they could all end up dead. She was old enough to understand what was going on around them, even though the adults didn't think she did. The children her age were sheltered. At school the teachers wouldn't talk about it, at home parents avoided the topic in front of the young ones. But Courtney knew. She knew that first night when her father had received his letter and she'd found her parents discussing very seriously what they were going to do when they thought she'd gone to bed. There was a war going on and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

And just the unnerve Courtney, as she finally settled into a restless sleep, the sirens started.

She didn't hear it at first, mistaking it for an alarm clock, or even the cows in the field telling her it's morning now. It wasn't until Mrs. Evans came running into the room frantically carrying a small candle that Courtney realised what was going on. They'd had practice evacuations in school, but it was nothing like this.

"Come on, Courtney, get up, sweetie, take this," Mrs Evans fussed, thrusting Courtney's gas mask into her hand. "Let's go." She grabbed onto Courtney's wrist with her free hand and hauling her out of bed. Courtney barely had time to run the sleep from her eyes before Mrs. Evans dragged her into Dale's bedroom, ready to wake up the other two boys, but they were already up and putting on their boots.

Davey was scurrying around behind them, grabbing at all sorts of items that couldn't couldn't name as useful even in her hazy state.

"Davey, put those down and carry Courtney." To which he did. Courtney was scooped up into the eldest brothers arms and he bounced down the stairs, waiting for the other three family members in the kitchen. Courtney was put to sit on the table as Davey raced around, trying to find the house key to unlock the back door. Only when Mrs. Evans arrived and reminded him they never locked the back door did he stop to pick Courtney up again.

The blaring sirens were making it hard for Courtney to doze off on Davey's shoulder as he bounded across the back garden towards the shelter. Through blurred vision she could make out Dale walking quickly behind his older brother and Mrs. Evans, her hand wrapped around Duncan's wrist, dragging her youngest son along.

Davey put her back on her feet as he opened up the door and hurried her inside. He stayed outside for a moment, waiting for everyone to cram in before locking it tightly behind him.

It was very narrow, Courtney noted, and it smelled damp. There was barely any furniture. There were two bunk beds, one against each of the side walls. At the end of the left side bed, against the rest of the remaining space of the wall was a wooden desk that looked like it had seen one too many bugs. Across the room, at the end of the other bed, was a small cupboard which Courtney guessed contained the food.

But that was it, nothing fancy, not even enough beds for all of them. Dale had already claimed the top bunk on one and Davey tossed his gas mask on the top bunk of the other one. Courtney stood hazily in the doorway, her eyes still not quite awake.

Mrs. Evans settled herself on the bunk under Dale's, instructing her youngest son to turn off the lights. Duncan turned around, as much sleep in his eyes as Courtney's. He reached out and tugged on one of her messy pigtails before reaching over her shoulder and flicking the switch on the wall.

It was dark in the shelter now, but Courtney was more awake thanks to Duncan's abuse. She wondered why he'd done it now, and wanted to know if it had anything to do with the fact she'd only been thinking of the lack of pigtail-pulling a twelve hours ago.

It was a tight squeeze, but Courtney and Duncan managed to work their way into the same bed without starting an argument. There wasn't much of an option unless one of them wanted to crawl into bed with Mrs. Evans who, by the sound of all the snoring, was asleep like her two eldest sons.

"Why do you keep pulling my pigtails?"

Duncan shrugged. "What else am I supposed to do with them?"

Courtney rolled her eyes in the dark, too scared to try to fall asleep. The sirens were still blaring outside, but they sounded distant through the metal walls.

Duncan didn't look like he planned to sleep either, and the two ended up whispering secrets in the dark like old friends. It wasn't anything momentous, but something just clicked, and things weren't quite the same for the two after that.

A/N: Awh.

I know this is late, but it's the longest chapter yet so...forgive me?

This is the chapter I have been building towards since the start of this story. I knew I wanted Courtney arrived two weeks before this happened, and what is happening is called the Swansea Blitz. We'll see more of it in the next chapter...It is an actual event that happened on June 27th 1940. I remember learning about it in History class when I was about 12, and we were shown pictures of the city centre afterwards and it's always stuck with me in my mind.

Another true thing is Winston Churchill's speech about the Battle of Britain. "What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." Their Finest Hour speech.

So far the dates have been pretty close together between chapters, that may change, so be aware.

Thanks for reading, please review (:

Love, ChloeRhiannonX