Author's Note: This is a short chapter before I throw her back in with Easy. I wanted to have a chapter with both Marley and Joe, and I'll take her back in time for The Last Patrol. Promise! :) Leave a review, please!
"How are the boys?" I asked Joe as he sat in the chair next to me in my bed, the day before I was set to be released and sent back to the line with the men. It was an early night, having me glad that I had enough energy for Joe since he came over to visit for an hour or two. We were about to move to the French town of Hangenau, where I knew that I would have to be used as a translator at some point since I knew and spoke French as if I grew up there. Doc as well, which was funny for the two medics having to be the translators for the area. I was glad to do it, Doc as well, which was going to be harder for us since we would have to both be medics and translators. Joe was my inside eye for what was going on with my boys since I was stuck the hospital under the watchful eyes of Eugene Roe.
"They're good, glad to be out of the cold and somewhere that's at least a bit warmer, though still too cold for me." Joe explained, having me smile at him.
"I wish I was with you guys." I confessed, seeing him roll his eyes and smirk at me.
"Oh, come on, you would of be frozen with us back there if you were there. It wasn't so great." He reminded me, but I shook my head.
"Being here in this bed was hell, Joe." I started, but he shook his head.
"I'm sure it was." He commented.
"I'm serious. I hated being in here and trying to get my own strength back, when I knew you guys needed me out there." I went on, having me see him shift a bit in his chair next to me.
"Marley, you needed to rest here. After nearly dying from a grenade, which anyone could have been killed from, you needed a breather. Spina was good enough for us when Doc was here with you. We were fine, trust me." Joe reassured me, having me shake my head in stubbornness.
"It's not the same." I muttered, seeing him chuckle and run his fingers in his hair.
"Damn, you're more stubborn than me." He commented, having me glare at him from my spot and see him smirk at me, the same flirtatious smirk that he would use on me before he would kiss me.
"And you're a saint compared to me?" I asked him back with a raised eyebrow, having me see him eye me then and nod his head.
"Point taken. We're both hotheads, too proud for our own good." Joe added, having me smile from my spot and feel the scabs on my face move with my cheek. Joe noticed this, having me see him reach up to touch the still healing wounds on my cheek as I stayed still and watched him carefully.
"These are healing up good," Joe said in a light tone, the smile was still on his face and I grinned back at him, "Though they make you look tough. Pretty as hell, but tough."
"Did you just call me pretty?" I asked him in a short laugh, seeing him trace my face with his fingers down my jaw, feeling him stop and then look over at me with a glint in his eyes. I could tell he hated that I caught him in a trap, but then again he was still in his flirting nature with me. What a cocky bastard, but I loved it anyways.
"Does it bother ya?" He asked me, the same thing he asked me when we were in the Bar at England after I called him out for flirting with me out in the open.
"It never has bothered me, Mr. Liebgott, and it never will be. But for you to call me pretty, well, that's a first for you." I explained, having me see him now roll his eyes from my calling him for trying something new with me.
"I tend to bring out the big guns when I'm around someone I like." He countered back, having me chuckle from my spot as he went on, "But you are pretty, too pretty for me."
"Oh please," I said in a snort to him, "Way to make me feel better about being in a bed, Liebgott. But no need to take it that far."
"You think I was just buttering you up with that?" He challenged me, a raised eyebrow and he leaned over to me, having me loose my breath for a moment since he was so close to me that it made me freeze, not want to move as he was pushing the boundary with me. What a thrill seeker.
"You tend to use your words to your advantage, Joe." I tried to hold my ground with him, but with him being so close to me and his smile making me weak in the knees, he was going to win this battle. How far was he going to push this with me before he knew I was going to snap.
"You are one of the most infuriating and scariest women I have ever met," Joe stated to me, "You are also one of the smartest, stubborn as hell, and not to mention brilliant when it comes to medicine, and your loyalty." I said nothing as he confessed this all to me, all that he saw in me. He was still smiling at me, his voice was soft and cool with a hint of passion behind it.
"You scare me, and you also make me so happy from just that goddamn smile you show me when you're happy. I never want to look at another smile on another woman after seeing that grin on your face, Marley. I can't imagine kissing any other lips than yours since yours are such an addiction that it's hard to break from it. You are my breath of fresh air, and I don't care if it sounds so sappy but it's true. And you should know: You are beyond beautiful to me. How's that for using my words?" Joe said the last part in a simpler tone, having me feel everything inside and out of me go so warm and so soothing, almost like I was cleansed in the most relaxing bath. He called me beautiful, something I would never think I would hear coming from his mouth. It sounded so sad, but I knew he was never one to show his true feelings to others, especially with the rest of the men in Easy. So it seemed natural to me to lean in and kiss him hard on the lips.
This kiss was far better and more thrilling in the pit of my stomach compared to the others kisses we shared. Those were gentle and careful, as if we were testing the waters with the both of us. But now, after hearing him tell me all these things to me and mean it, it made me want to show them what I was feeling for him.
As we continued to kiss, the kisses were bolder and I could feel myself trying to scoot closer to him as his fingers were back in my hair and along my jawline. I ran my own fingers in his short brown hair, having me hear him groan from the action and I did it again, just to get a rise out of him. But it was when I took the huge jump and traced his bottom lip with my tongue when he got up from the chair in a sudden bolt but never stopping his kisses. The chair fell over as he towered over me, kissing me as if his life depended on it and having me loose all thoughts going in and out of my brain. I have never been kissed like this before: it was beyond amazing.
"Sie sind eine erstaunliche Frau." Joe murmured against my lips as I felt him move his own lips against my jawline to my neck. I chuckled, having me groan then from feeling those lips against my skin. This was better than morphine, better than any drug that I could ever take in the world combined. Joe was my drug.
"Quite trying to flirt with me in German, will ya?" I gasped to him as I felt him smile against my neck.
"Does it distract you?" He asked me, having me pull away from him for me for a brief seconds before I grabbed his neck in almost rough state, pulling him down to sit on the bed with me so we could be level again. He grabbed my hand, intertwining it as we were still close enough to kiss. His lips were swollen from our heated kisses, his cheeks were rosy and his breathing was shallow. I took in a shaky breath, trying to calm my nerves as I smiled widely at him, thinking that I should tell him all that I thought of him.
"Since you spilled that much about me, it's my turn." I started, seeing him smile at me as I went on with what was going on in my brain, "You are a hotheaded, lanky, headstrong, and sometimes arrogant fool who happens to have a loyal heart and a grin that could make any girl weak in the knees, yet you only show it to me and no one else. I can't stop thinking about you, Joe, and I don't ever want to. Not until I take my last breath on this God forsaken earth." I proclaimed to him in a bold tone, having me see him watch him and see that he was slowly trying not to break in front of me from hearing those words that I gave him. I framed his face in my hands, having me see him lick his lips as I searched his brown eyes in wonder and admiration.
"You challenge me all the time with your stubborn ways, and I love it. So stop thinking you're not good enough for me, dammit." I ended, having me see him smile widely at me and I could see a tear escape his eye. I swiped it away with my thumb, having me feel him shutter from my touch on him and he rested his hands on my wrist, watching me carefully before he spoke up again.
"Can you promise me something, Marley?" he asked in a low tone.
"Anything." I vowed to him. I saw him search my own green orbs, having me wonder what he wanted me to promise. What he said next almost made me break my heart and have me cry in front of him because of how he said it and how he loped so vulnerable in front of me.
"Don't ever scare me like that again." I sighed then, knowing what he meant. I scared him once from the jump in Normandy, again in Holland by going MIA. But this, the recent event that had me go into the bed in the hospital, that made it all worse for him. Even when we weren't talking to each other, we were caring about each other and reach out for one another under the cover of darkness. Within our own minds we were screaming for forgiveness to one another, though we were both too prideful to spit it out. Joe saw me fly in the air and pass out cold, he saw me run like an idiot for something that was needed. And all he could do, was watch and not help. I put him through hell, he didn't deserve that pain and that agony from seeing me out cold on the floor covered in blood and snow. It made me realize, in how he screamed my name before I passed out, that he lost all sense of reality then since he thought I was dead.
I leaned up, kissing his forehead and closing my eyes, trying to hard not to cry in front of him and feeling him clutch my wrists with a bit of force since he too had his eyes closed. I felt the kiss for several moments, wanting to show him and have him feel what I was feeling to him and how I was feeling for making him go through that. It was haunting him, like a broken record, and I wanted to end it once for all. I pressed my forehead against his, having me wish that this moment between us. I loved him, with all my heart, and I wasn't going to hurt him ever again.
"I promise."
