A/N: So, this is basically the last depressing chapter (but at least this one has some lighter moments). Most of this chapter was entirely unintentional, though. When I started typing this out, it sort of gained a mind of its own. Things I hadn't planned on happening just yet happened. Hopefully, it makes it all just a tad bit more interesting.
Lyrics by Iron & Wine and E. Y Harburg & Billy Rose. I do not own Band of Brothers.

XIII. Jezebel

Who's seen Jezebel
Will the mountain last as long as I can wait
Wait like the dawn,
How it aches to meet the day

Muck and Penkala were dead. That was the news that Cora returned to after her one day away. The tears stung at the corners of her eyes again and she shook her head. She wanted so much to cry, but something always stopped her. Cora sighed as a numb feeling washed over her. I want to wake up now. Cora meandered around the forest, mixing with the others that were milling about. She felt as though she were miles away. Physically, she was in Belgium. Mentally, she was buried in a pine box in some cold cemetery. Say, it's only a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea. But it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me.

The coffee, yet again, had guided her into the vicinity of Dick Winters. Or, perhaps it had been caused by some higher power, something bigger than anything she could ever fathom… she'd never know. Either way, whenever she was upset, in pain, or longing for gentle words, she ended up next to Dick. Yes, it's only a canvas sky hanging over a muslin tree. But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me.

She studied his profile for a moment, soaking up every spare second she had.

He was quite lanky: his legs, his arms, his torso. Everything seemed stretched out. His jaw was strong, with the hint of stubble returning, and his nose was almost straight; the slight imperfection being the place where he had broken it once in his youth. It was his lips, though, that she noticed the most… an odd sort of thing for her. They were set in a pout and pursed just enough to make them more prominent on his face. Cora blinked, hoping that any thought she had would disappear.

"I was wondering when you'd be back," he said, not looking at her. He knew she wasn't in her formal uniform any longer, but he figured she hadn't removed her makeup yet or let her hair be ruined of its unruly style, and he wouldn't run the risk of falling even more for her.

"Yeah, well… yeah. Mind if I steal a cup or two?"

Dick finally got the courage to look at her. I knew it… someone should have gotten a picture of you in that uniform. She sounded so listless, so isolated. She wasn't herself.

"Are you okay?"

Cora took a swig of coffee, and then a gulp. She watched as Dick's tongue darted out to moisten his chapped lips and the way he pouted a little again while he measured her reaction to his question. Something turned in the pit of her stomach and suddenly her whole body ached. Hormones. Fucking hormones. "Okay enough."

Dick nodded until his eyes stopped for a brief moment on her chest, watching it rise and fall like waves upon a white sand shore. He thought back to the summers and springs, when sometimes it was too hot for her to have her shirts buttoned up all of the way and whenever she leaned forward in front of him, he could see the tops of her breasts. It was such a small thing, as Sobel had seen her completely naked, but something about catching a glimpse of such a faint amount of skin made those moments all the more special for him.

"I'm sorry I always ask, but I worry about you," he said.

Cora bent her head to gaze into the nearly empty cup and felt all of her emotional walls suddenly slip and fall through the cracks of their foundation. The cup landed with a crash on the ground as her hands flew up to cover her face. The sobs shook her entire body as she began to double over from the pain. Dick stood instantly and crossed the space in two strides. He pulled her to him and smoothed her hair and shushed her, breathing slowly and steadily, just as the snow began to swirl around them.

She sniffled as she leaned back from him, looking up into his eyes. Dick reached his hand up and touched the scars on her forehead with his fingertips. He traced them down to her cheek, brushing against the side of her nose and directly beneath her eye; along the corner of her red mouth and to her jaw, where he gently stroked her earlobe. A sugary glaze of lust came over Cora's eyes suddenly and her breath hitched in her throat. She placed a hand at the base of Dick's head, her fingers absently twirling the hair. She didn't make a move to pull him toward her, but she didn't move away either. Dick could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he slowly tilted his head and she carefully guided him. Both of their eyes slipped shut and Cora could feel Dick's grip tighten on her waist. I've waited so long for you. He touched his lips to hers tentatively while she held him there, the slight pressure making everything seem hazy. They broke apart, only their heads leaning back to allow their eyes to connect once again. Cora could feel a force building up inside of her, the blood rushing through her body. She trembled, and then inhaled deeply before capturing Dick's mouth fully and discovering the slightest taste of virginal sweetness on the tip of her tongue.

"Captain Winters!" a voice called.

Just as they had done in Paris, Cora and Dick leapt far from each other. They wore their guilty expressions and tried to wipe any traces from their lips before Lipton walked through the tent. He glanced at both of the captains, confused by their fidgetiness. Lip took a long drag of his third cigarette and reported his thoughts about Dike to Winters, and Cora slipped out the back unnoticed.

She practically ran to Buck's old foxhole, the only place where she knew that she could be alone. As soon as she plopped down into the dirt, she drew her knees up to her chest. Cora rocked back and forth until she finally put her fingertips to her lips and savored in the overwhelming feeling, an emotion she found impossible to describe to herself. All she knew was that it was similar to the feeling she had gotten the first time she saw Fred Astaire dance, when she went to the pictures to see Charlie Chaplin; when she first saw Scarlett charm her way into Rhett's heart, got spun around a dance floor to a swinging big band, or stayed out all night sipping vodka martinis with extra olives. What it was… was magical.

&&&&&

Cora tried her best to ignore Dick the next morning, not because of any regrets she may have had, but because she knew that he was going to have to lay down the law with Dike. It took a patience and concentration that she didn't dare distract him from. He was in leadership mode, even when they finally saw each other.

"Cora, you're going to wait with Nix and I until you're needed. It's going to get bad out there and I don't want you in the thick of things right away, got it?"

"Of course I do," she said, trying to hide any emotional inflection in her voice.

Dick looked about and then shifted his gaze back down to Cora's. His features softened and he stood close to her, their hips almost touching. "Yesterday was… I can't even…"

"I know. You don't have to say anything about it. We'll figure it out later."

"Together?"

Cora scoffed and backed away from him, not wanting to cause a scene on such a day. "Oh, come on, Dick. You act like we were strangers before!"

As she walked away, he watched her… really watched her. Dick had never been considered a Casanova in his small rural town; in fact there was some speculation to whether or not he had been into girls at all. It wasn't until he started going steady with Miriam Lowe in high school that the rumors subsided. This was mostly due to the fact that Dick was probably one of the few men in Western civilization that wanted to wait until marriage, something that other men (outside of Lancaster, PA) found strange. But he was still a man, and as he watched Cora's hips sway, the urges that his father had spoken to him about in his early teens were evident by the fire that seemed to burn in his veins.

She had him exactly where she wanted him.

&&&&&

Easy Company could be seen running across an eighth of a mile of open field, their olive green uniforms contrasting against the white, snowy ground. They emerged from the woods like nothing that the Krauts had ever seen, with blazing firearms and battle cries. The snow fell in flurries around them and left a cloud over the field as the soldiers ran.

Cora stood on the edge of the woods with Dick, Colonel Sink, Nixon, and several others, listening to Dick yell toward the men and watching as they fell, one after the other, limp to the earth. Dike had stopped them for some reason, leaving Easy out in the open. Mortars began to fall more as they scrambled for cover and the Germans decided to further showcase their artillery. He refused to go forward. She couldn't understand why, but Dike refused to go forward. She could swear that over all of the explosions she heard the words, "Fall back."

Dick got on the radio finally and Cora could hear Luz on the other end, yelling at Dike. There was no way to tell what was going on. A few more of the men fell, their blood spraying on the fresh snow.

Cora grabbed Dick by the arm. "Tell me what needs to be done and let me go out there."

He looked at her with a horrified expression, as if she had just asked to cut out his heart. "No."

"Dick, I could go out there and take over. He's only a lieutenant. That's why I was promoted to captain all those years ago, for just this reason. My men are dropping like flies out there!"

"Exactly, they're dying," he said, pulling her closer and whispering. "I can't have you dying too."

He turned then away from her to find that Dike was still sitting there. Dick's nostrils flared suddenly and, for the first time since Cora had met him, he cursed. He swung his gun forward and started to run. "Oh, fuck it! You have to keep moving!"

But as he ran, Sink and Nix ran after him. "Dick! Captain Winters! Godammit, you do not go out there. You're the Battalion Commander, now get back here!"

Dick took one glance over his shoulder before stalking back, angrier than before. Sink started to say something regarding his attachment to Easy, but Dick simply cut him off.

"Speirs, get yourself over here!" he called. "Get out there and relieve Dike and take that attack on in."

Ron came rushing past Cora before speeding out towards Foy. She stared forward as he ran, praying. They're in capable hands now. The men started to move forward and actually take the town as originally planned. Just as a building in the distance caught into a fiery inferno, though, a call rang out over the field.

Cora winced, but with a deep breath, pulled the canvas bag over her head and started for the clearing. Her jaw clenched tight when she felt Dick's fingers wrapped around her wrist just as she reached the very border of the tree line. Cora's chest heaved with labored breaths and she turned warily to face him.

"Don't go," he said, his tone heavy with fear.

The call came again, more urgent than before. Cora closed her eyes and bit down hard on her bottom lip as a single tear rolled down her cheek and neck. She opened them again and inhaled sharply.

"I have to."

She slipped out of Dick's hold and ran toward a haystack in the middle of the field where a replacement sat next to the wounded man. Cora stumbled to a stop as Norman Dike's blank face stared up at her. The replacement, a young red-head that she hadn't gotten a chance to know yet, was covering his head at the sounds of the gunshots.

"I think he's dead, Captain Larson," he said in a heavy Southern accent.

Cora knelt down next to Dike and removed her right glove. She pressed two fingers against his throat, but she couldn't feel a single movement underneath his icy skin. She reached into the pocket of her bag and pulled out a small, square mirror. Cora placed it under his nose and waited for his breath to fog up the glass, but nothing happened. She sighed then, and closed his eyes. "You know what, Foxhole Norman, next time you want to mouth off to me, I suggest remembering that your life is in my hands… and if I decide not to give a shit, you're royally fucked."

"I think you're right, kid."

&&&&&

Cora sat in the convent in Rachamps and waited for the ceiling to fall down around her. She wasn't sure that it was safe, especially the way she had positioned herself against Eugene, with her head in his lap. Her eyes kept slipping shut as they listened to the choir that the nuns had brought in and enjoyed the warm candlelight, which had softened everyone's features.

Her thoughts constantly drifted to Dick, though, and as she flowed in and out of sleep, she could feel the pressure on her lips. Cora still couldn't pinpoint what she felt for him exactly, although love did seem fairly realistic. But the last time she had been in love, she had also been very wrong and highly delusional. Say, it's only a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea. She promised herself that this time it would be different and she wouldn't be so foolish… but as soon as that kiss came flooding back to her memories, all of her promises disappeared. But it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me.

You dirty jezebel, what have you gotten yourself into?

Reviews = swooning.