Horvath backs out of the open room and I take a step back as Daniel stands. He grabs one of my hand, and I latch onto that arm with both hands.
"I gotta find a good place up high," Daniel says, turning back to me. He puts a hand on the side of my face, kissing my lips softly and putting another light kiss on my temple before he walks away to my left into the rubble.
I start walking toward the other, stopping between Henderson and Horvath.
"…where all the rubble makes a bit of a bottleneck," Miller is saying as I reach them, stepping in between Horvath and Henderson.
"Disable em',?" Ryan asks.
"If we can, make that tank a sixty ton roadblock. We do that, we have a fighting chance at the flanks," Miller answers.
"Yes sir, that good's, split em' up, don't let em' mass," Henderson comments.
"Hit them hard as we can, one on one, fall back to the bridge," Miller says, facing said bridge as he says this.
"Machine gun on the move down here, number two up high somewhere to piss something bad on their heads," Horvath says.
"That would be the idea," Miller remarks, walking past us toward Daniel.
"Jackson," he says. "If we can, I can get you up in that bell tower."
"Yes sir," Daniel says as Miller stops right next to him.
"Give you a little company if you need it," Miller says and Daniel instantly looks at me, making me smile a little.
Miller sees this and says, "Not her, I have something else for her to do."
I look at Miller, he hasn't told me this, but Daniel just sighs and looks down at the ground before saying, "I'd say uh… a thirty with about a thousand rounds would be okay."
Miller looks at Henderson, who looks at another soldier. "Parker, job opportunity."
"Yeah, well it's not the worst idea ever Captain," Reiben starts as Miller walks back toward the main street. I wait until Daniel reaches me. He grabs for my hand as I go for his and we follow the others as Reiben keeps talking. "…but it's just that everything depends on getting this tank down this main road for us to knock out, right? So how the hell do you plan on doing that?"
"Reiben's right, as our esteemed colleague from the airborne pointed out what we got here are a bunch of spitwads. So how do we stop the tank, if we get it to commit?" Horvath asks. Miller stops and looks around at all the buildings, trying to determine the best positions for his men.
"Get our rabbit a chase," Miller says, pointing at a type of vehicle. "We could hit the tank in the tracks."
"Yeah, but with what?" Ryan asks.
Miller shuffles his feet, and no one says anything, all looking to him for an answer. "Well we could try a sticky bomb."
Daniel looks up from his gun in confusion.
"Sticky bomb sir?" Ryan asks.
"Captain, those things are highly unstable," I say.
"Well, desperate times…" Miller trails off.
"Desperate measures, yes, but we'd be more likely to blow ourselves up than the tank tracks," I say.
"So we do it carefully, and quickly," Miller says.
"Yeah, and make the fuses extra long, don't light it up until you're practically right there," I say.
"Sir, ma'am, are you two making that up?" Henderson asks skeptical.
"No, it's in the field manual. You can take a look if you want to," Miller says defensively.
"Well, sir, we seem to be out of field manuals," Ryan says. "Perhaps you can enlighten us."
I see Daniel trying to stifle a smile and knock his shoulder with mine. He looks at me, both of us smiling now, and Miller interrupts our silent conversation.
"Alright, you have some demolition don't you? Some TNT or composition B?" Miller asks.
Henderson points behind Miller and we look at another soldier. "That sir is the one thing we got plenty of. I got that bridge wired with enough composition B to blow it twice."
"Alright," Miller says, brushing by me as he walks toward the bridge. "You can spare some then. You take a standard issue GI sock, cramp it with as much comp B as it can hold, rig up a simple fuse, then you coat the whole thing with axel grease. That way when you throw it, it should stick. It's a bomb that sticks, it's a sticky bomb. Come up with a better way to knock off the tracks of a tank I'm all ears."
"This is good, now we got to surrender our socks," Reiben snarks.
Some of Henderson's men get into a rowboat and take some of the comp B off of the bridge, and Reiben pulls it up. He hands it to Horvath who stuffs it in the socks, then hands it to the guys who coat it with axel grease, and then who put the fuse in it.
"Lilly," Miller says, waving me over. Ryan and another paratrooper are with him and we walk back onto the bridge. "For being the best we can do, that forwarding machine gun is not in a terrible firing position. And this position right here, this is the Alamo."
Miller waves toward a ruined building. "They push us back this far, last man alive blows the bridge."
"Yeah, we only got a thirty second delay on that fuse, so let everyone know that if you are that last man, you better hurry your ass off or you're not gonna be alive long."
"And Lilly, this is where you come in," Miller says, turning to look at me. "We're going to be displacing and running all over this place. That means, we won't be able to carry a lot of ammo. So you and Upham are going to have to get us that ammo as we need it."
"And that ammo is going to be at the Alamo," I conclude.
"Yeah, you have two thirty cals, one in the bell tower with Jackson, and the other with Mellish," Miller tells me. "They'll shout if you need more ammo."
"Captain?" Ryan says. "Where am I during all of this?"
"No more than two feet away from me," Miller says, walking past Ryan as he unbuttons his jacket. "And that's not negotiable."
"Lilly, go to Mellish, he's with Upham. Get some ammo and get ready," Miller says and stops, putting a hand in front of me to stop me too. The others keep walking when Miller stares at them and then he looks back at me. "Lilly, get some ammo, then while we wait… you can, um, go wherever you want."
I nod slowly, understanding what he's trying to get at. "Thank you sir."
He just sighs, looks down, and nods. "Go."
"Yes sir," I say, walking around him and down the bridge. I find Mellish and Upham walking carefully through the rubble.
When I approach them, Mellish nods toward me and keeps talking to Upham. "Hey Upham."
"Yes?"
"Listen to me, alright?"
"Yeah," Upham says, taking a quick drag at his cigarette.
"You listening?" Mellish asks just to make sure and I smile in amusement.
"Yes," Upham says, more strongly this time.
"Alright, we're gonna be displacing and falling back like crazy sons of bitches," Mellish says, reaching up and taking his cigarette from between his lips. "So you have to be Jonny on the spot with the ammo, or we're dead."
I raise an eyebrow as how he isn't speaking to me too but Mellish just looks at me and whispers, "You'll be fine."
I smirk and Mellish says, "You understand that?"
"Jonny on the spot," Upham repeats.
"Yeah, you alright?" Mellish asks, knowing Upham is nervous- it is rather obvious.
Upham blows out smoke and says, "Yeah, yeah."
Mellish removes Upham's helmet, and I take off mine. Mellish makes Upham hold his and Upham starts to tell us a story. "You know when we were shipping out of England, suppliers starting handing out cartons of cigarettes; and I said, 'No thank you, I don't smoke'."
Mellish puts a few things in Upham's helmet and I follow suit, putting a few grenades and clips in it. Upham shakes the cigarette in his fingers and whispers, "I don't smoke."
Mellish pulls out a huge roll of 30 cal ammo. "Quite a situation, huh?"
He places the ammo around Upham's neck, and I pull another necklace of 30 cal out of the box, wrapping it around my own neck.
"Yeah, fucked up, beyond all… recognition," Mellish emphasizes, trying to hint to Upham about FUBAR. Daniel told me about how Upham didn't know what that was. How does he not know? Even I know, and I was just a nurse.
Mellish looks at him, waiting for it to click and it does just a few seconds later. "FUBAR."
We smile and Mellish slaps a hand between his neck and shoulder.
"Yeah, well, it's gonna be a real show, huh?" Mellish comments. "Yeah, okay."
Mellish walks away and Upham follows him, dropping something out of his helmet.
"Take it easy," Mellish says, waiting for Upham to catch up. "You, Lilly, go to your husband, would you? We all know you want to."
I mock glare at him and turn away, walking carefully through the stone and wood rubble to the bell tower. I see Daniel and Parker looking out from the side of it. Daniel is sitting on the side of the tower's top wall, one leg hanging off as he smokes a cigarette.
I run past Horvath and Reiben, who is grinning at me as he sees me reach the entrance of the bell tower. I run up the steps, and it's a good thing I've been walking so much lately, otherwise I'd be more out of breath when I reach the top of the tower.
Daniel and Parker are watching the trapdoor when I open it, so they must've heard the ammo necklace around my neck. Daniel walks the few steps over to me and reaches for my hand, pulling me up.
Parker picks up a pair of binoculars and scans the horizon, giving us some semblance of privacy. Daniel doesn't let go of my hand, just switches the hand he's holding it with. We walk over to where he was sitting and he pushes himself back up to sit on the wall. He leans against the pillar and reaches for me. I give him my hands and he turns me around before grabbing my waist and lifting me onto the wall. I scoot back toward him and he moves his right leg over the wall, letting it hang. He puts his arms around my front, hugging me to his chest. I rest my head back against his shoulder and I close my eyes as he gives me a kiss to my head.
"Everything is gonna be fine darlin'," he whispers.
I don't say anything; knowing he's just saying this to try to make me relax, not convince me that it's really going to be alright. He and I both know that he can't promise anything, and he's not trying to. He's just trying to reassure me that no matter what happens, it will be all right in the end… even if it takes a while.
"Just… just be careful, please?" I beg.
"Of course, you be careful too," he says. "I'll be watching you."
He places another kiss to the crown of my head, and I smile, feeling a little better knowing I'll have Daniel watching me from the tower.
"I'll try," I say. "Although, running though the middle of a battle sort of implies getting shot."
He pulls me tighter against him. "Run fast."
His voice is hard and I turn my face into his neck. He moves his right arm up to rub my neck with his hand. He breathes out long and hard and I grasp the arm across my chest to my neck. "I will, I'll run as fast as I can, and you'll see me from here. And you'll need some 30 cal, which Upham and I will be coming to give to you."
The tension leaves his body bit by bit, but not entirely. We spend a few minutes in silence before I say, "Do you know what I felt, and thought, we I found out I was pregnant?"
I can feel him look at me.
"At first there was shock, I just-just couldn't believe it. Then, a minute later, when it settled in, I felt happiness, so much joy. I went to tell you, and then remembered you weren't there anymore. The happiness was covered with sadness, then worry. I knew you wouldn't be… upset, or angry at hearing we were going to have a baby. I was worried because I knew… because I knew- with all the men dying in this war- that there was a very real chance you would never get to meet your son or daughter. I could send you pictures, tell you about him or her, but… what if you-you died before you could come home and meet them in person, hold them, play with them, watch them grow up."
Daniel doesn't say anything. My voice is a little thick but tears aren't threatening to fall. He trails his hand across my throat to my jaw, gently pushing a little at it until I turn my head. He's looking at me with concern and warmth. He strokes my cheek with his thumb and says, "It's alright darlin'. It's gonna be alright."
"Dear God, I hope you're right," I say. "Please be right."
"I will be, everything's gonna be fine," he says before his eyes flick to my lips and I lean up and capture his in an almost desperate kiss. When I relax, lying back against him, our kiss breaks. He moves his hand a little to wipe away a single tear that managed to escape. I take a deep breath and he holds me tight as I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to calm myself down. God, why am I like this so much lately?
"Sorry," I mutter. He leans down, placing his chin on my shoulder, his nose pressing against my jaw.
"It's alright," he says sincerely. "You know I don't mind."
"Not when it happens every now and again," I say and he chuckles.
"I don't mind ever."
I take another deep breath and Parker suddenly clears his throat.
"Sorry lovebirds, but we got incoming," he says. I sit up and Daniel nudges me so I jump down. He follows and goes over to Parker, taking the binoculars from him. He takes a look himself and curses under his breath. I then feel a slight shaking in the tower- tanks.
"Lilly," Daniel says, lowering the binoculars. "You need to get down there."
He turns his head to look at me and can see how he doesn't want me to leave. But we both know I have too; the others will need to ammo I am responsible for getting it to them.
I step up to him. "You'll see me soon."
I give him a quick peck on the lips and start for the trap door, but he grabs my hand and pulls me back to him. This surprises me and I fall into him, but he catches me, snaking a hand around my waist and pulls me upward. His mouth is suddenly on mine, and this kiss is not so simple. It makes me lightheaded, the heat from his body spreading into mine. I hardly have time to react before he's pulling away. I'm still slightly out of it, and when I open my eyes, I see how he's smirking just a little.
My eyes find Parker, who is openly gaping at us, and I blush a little, looking at the ground.
Daniel pulls me back to him and whispers, "I love you."
"I love you too," I say and he kisses me again, not as deeply as before, but not chastely either. When he backs away, a feeling of sadness washes over me, and… foreboding.
This isn't going to be the last time I see him, it isn't. Right?