I'm back! All my vacations and ridiculous amounts of traveling are over!

So I was kinda bummed, but last chapter was my least-viewed yet... maybe everyone else was just on vacay like me (I hope) haha.

Anyway, here's the next chapter. And for the first time I'm actually doing review responses. YAY!

Chapter Four

"How did you sleep last night? I heard you tossing and turning a lot," Adam said the next morning as he and Meg headed over to the mess hall.

"I slept fine; like a baby," Meg replied, realizing she'd have to be more careful about her nightmares with Adam around now. If that was even possible. "How about you?"

"I slept better than I have for the past month, that's for sure," he said as they walked through the doorway. "I have to say, being surrounded by all these military men is a little intimidating."

Meg snickered as she led him to a table in the middle.

"Hi boys," she said, acknowledging George, Muck, Frank, and Joe.

"Ey Meg!" a couple of them shouted as they looked up and saw her. George shoved Muck over, making more room for her to sit beside him.

"This is my brother Adam," Meg introduced as the siblings sat down. "Adam, these are some of the men I've gotten to know. George Luz, Warren Muck, Frank Perconte, and Joe Liebgott. Be nice to them," she finished and the boys all chuckled as Adam rolled his eyes.

"Adam was it?" George asked, leaning over Meg to offer his hand. "Nice to meet you. I hope, now that you're here, you plan on keeping an eye on this one?"

"Yeah, keep her on a tighter leash," Muck added. Meg stuck her tongue out at them and George laughed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were six," he shot back, causing her to blush.

"Well I'm sorry you lot have had to put up with her for two days," Adam said, joining in on the fun. "If I could have gotten here any sooner, I would have. I know how hard she is to handle."

"I'm hard to handle?" she asked in an appalled tone. "I'm sorry, when we were in France last, who was it who got rip roaring drunk and had to be dragged from the bar before he blew the mission to a handful of Germans?"

The Easy Company guys all raised their eyebrows, glancing over at Adam who blushed and chuckled embarrassedly.

"If we're being fair, the only reason that happened was because Chri-"

But Meg cut him off quickly, turning to the men.

"So are you boys ready to get back to a grueling week of training?" she asked, smirking at the looks on their faces.

"No," Frank said glumly, using his fork to dissect his breakfast, something that looked to Meg like it was supposed to be eggs.

"Will you be spying on us while we train?" George asked, his usual grin plastered across his face. "Because I'd like to know now if you are so I remember to look as impressive as possible."

"Show off," Meg said and the guys all laughed. She had obviously hit the nail on the head when it came to George Luz.

Smirking at how close all the guys were, she glanced up, her eyebrows rising when she spotted Lieutenants Nixon and Winters at the entrance to the mess hall. Lewis was staring at her again but this time she wasn't the only one who noticed.

"I don't care for him," Adam said under his breath and a couple of the guys turned to see who he was talking about.

"Nixon?" George asked, seeming surprised about the revelation. "He's alright. Good sense of humor, but we don't have a ton of interaction with him."

"Why don't you like him?" Meg asked, scowling at her brother. Very rarely did he come across someone he disliked, and even then he usually kept it to himself.

"Because you do," he said firmly, ending it with a little shrug. George, Muck, Frank and Joe all looked at Meg with sudden interest, causing her to blush and quickly shake her head.

"No I don't!" She stuttered back, appalled her brother had made that acquisition. "I'm hungry."

Leaving the table awkwardly, she weaved through the men to the front of the mess where the food was being served. As she stood in line, she felt a figure approach her on either side. Looking to her left, she smiled when she saw Dick standing there. Her smiled waned when she realized that if Dick was on her left, she knew who would be on her right. Forcing herself not to look at Lewis Nixon (mostly because she knew her brother and the lads were probably watching) she turned in the direction of Dick, hoping he would speak before Lewis did.

He didn't disappoint.

"So were you able to get back to sleep after your nighttime excursion?" Dick asked as he was served a spoonful of the suspicious-looking eggs.

"Nighttime excursion?" Lewis asked from her right, looking at both of them with a twinkle in his eyes. "I didn't expect the two of you to take part in a midnight rendezvous. Especially so soon after meeting."

The way he said it, as if it was a big-time scandal, caused Meg to frown, completely forgetting to tell the server that she'd pass on the eggs. Instead she turned and scowled at Lewis in an annoyed way before turning to glance at Dick. His cheeks were slightly pink as he threw her an apologetic look. At least she wasn't the only one who was embarrassed by what Lewis was insinuating, whether he was joking or not.

"Count on you to ruin my mood," Meg shot in Lewis' direction before turning and carrying her plate back to the table with the boys. She was almost there when she stopped; noticing Adam had left his seat.

"He got a message and left right after you did," Muck explained when he noticed her confused look.

"Do you know who it was from?" she asked as she sat down with them, suddenly realizing there were eggs on her plate. "Gross," she said under her breath before looking at George for an answer to her question.

"Nope. An orderly just delivered it and he left. I like him by the way," George said. "Your brother," he added with an eye roll when she didn't seem to understand what he meant. At his admission, she smiled, her grin lighting up her whole face.

"Oh! Yeah, he's a good big brother. He has the perfect mixture of protectiveness, fun, and annoying. I haven't seen him in almost a year so it's nice to be working with him again," she told them as she started eating the food on her plate.

She had been worried the boys wouldn't take as well to Adam as they had to her. In fact, she was still a little worried that once the honeymoon phase of her relationship with Easy was over, they'd get sick of her as well. Hearing that they approved of her brother, and approved of her enough to include her at their table made her relax. She had been worrying for nothing.

But when she thought about it, she realized her worries weren't really for that reason. Her worries were more about what would happen if they all did become close. Christian, Carter, Maxwell, Sarah, and Yvonne were proof that getting close to people was dangerous. Getting close to people meant they would get hurt and you would blame yourself. With war looming over them, was it a risk she was willing to take?

Shaking herself from her morbid thoughts, Meg turned her focus back to the table, realizing that the rest of the boys had drifted off, starting their own conversation about what they'd be running in drills today. Listening in lightly, she continued to eat, wondering how much she'd regret trying those eggs.

"So, Nixon huh?" George's voice whispered suddenly in her ear and she turned to find him smiling at her in an annoyingly knowing way.

"No, Adam's wrong," Meg said with a huff, turning back to her plate. "He just got the wrong idea because he caught us walking together yesterday. It was a rare moment when the Lieutenant was being cordial with me. Usually he seems to do everything he can to agitate me."

"So it's the pulling your pig tails kinda thing then?" George asked, his smile turning into more of a smirk. Meg tried to act annoyed, mostly to cover the embarrassment she was feeling at being caught in this situation.

"No it most certainly is not. You know between you and my brother, I think I might actually go insane here," she told him, her comment being drowned out by the sound of dozens of benches moving along the floor. All around them, every man had stood up and they were beginning to file out of the mess.

"You mean between me, your brother, and Lieutenant Nixon," George said with a wink before following Muck out the door.

After finishing her breakfast and making sure all of the men were properly with their groups for morning calisthenics, Meg made her way back to their quarters, hoping she would find her brother there. Sure enough, she came upon him stuffing shirts into a small duffle.

"What are you doing? Who was the message from?" Meg asked, walking over to sit on her own bed.

"Marco. They want me to report to London for a briefing on a possible one-man mission," he told her, not looking up as he reached for a few more things scattered on his bed. Everything was a jumbled mess but Meg was too shocked by his statement to bother fixing it all for him.

"But you literally just got here," Meg practically cried, getting up and dashing over to sit on his bed instead, swatting a few things aside in the process. "Surely Marco won't make you leave before we get settled in and know the place."

This time Adam did look up, grabbing her hands as he locked eyes with her.

"Meg, the whole point of us coming here was so we had a home base with the Yank soldiers while we went off on our own missions. I'm sure you'll be going on one soon too so don't get too comfortable."

"No I won't," Meg huffed childishly, crossing her arms in a pout. She didn't care if she was acting foolish; she was upset. "Marco won't ever send for me. He's going to keep me here with 2,000 men to keep me out of trouble."

"Meg," Adam said, looking at her with a grin, "If you really wanted to get into trouble, two million men wouldn't be able to stop you."

At his statement, Meg couldn't help but smile and shrug, admitting there was truth in what he said.

Adam tied the strap on his bag before standing up and giving her hair a ruffle, much to her annoyance.

"Want to walk me over to the jeep?" he asked and she nodded, letting him pull her up from the bed. Together the two siblings headed out into the crisp October air, bundling up against the chill.

When they arrived at the waiting jeep, Meg wrinkled her nose at the sight of Captain Sobel approaching.

Although she hadn't yet met him personally, a majority of her notes from her Friday night experiment were about how much the men disliked the captain. In fact, it seemed to be everyone's favorite pub conversation. It was hard not to feel the same after hearing all the stories the men had told her. And if the other rumors were true, Sobel didn't care for her much either, especially after the statements she made about him the morning after said experiment.

"Captain," the jeep driver said, standing to attention and saluting Sobel as he approached. At that moment Meg was glad she didn't have to follow military protocol. She didn't know if she would be able to salute Sobel if she was required to.

"Who authorized this jeep?" Sobel asked, ignoring the siblings and staring at the driver, a private who suddenly looked extremely intimidated. Meg felt bad for him and was debating how best to draw the attention away from him when Adam spoke up.

"I did sir," Adam said, stepping forward and taking the attention off of the private. Sobel didn't seem to expect anyone to speak to him. His eyebrows rose and he turned to Adam with a look of disgust.

"You? And who are you precisely?" Sobel asked, staring down at the agent over his nose.

"Agent Adam Myeroff sir," Adam replied and Meg held back a sigh. One of the first things she should have done when Adam got there was to warn him about Sobel and his apparent dislike for everyone who wasn't himself.

"I see, and who gave you permission to authorize jeeps whenever you felt like it?"

"Colonel Sink did sir," Adam said and Sobel only looked surprised for a moment before covering it up.

"Well we'll just have to see if that's true, won't we?" he asked and Adam shrugged, tossing his duffle into the back of the jeep and climbing into the passenger seat.

"I guess you will," Adam said as he sat down and turned to face the captain. "I, however, have to be going. Drive on."

The private only hesitated a moment before putting his foot on the pedal and steering the jeep down the dirt drive, leaving Meg with the infuriated captain.

Knowing this was the last place she wanted to be right now, Meg took a small step backwards, prepared to use an unfamiliar battle term called retreating.

"I'll just be..." she started but Sobel cut her off, turning on her.

"No, you're coming with me so we can sort this out," he said, grabbing her arm tightly as he led her in the direction of HQ. Meg had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

How annoying.

When they arrived at Colonel Sink's office, Meg's arm felt like it was about to fall off. It was so numb from being held so tightly, she doubted she'd get feeling back for at least an hour.

"I need to speak with the Colonel," Sobel announced loudly as they walked in the room. The orderly at the desk stood at attention, saluting Sobel before indicating that he could go in the office.

"Captain," Sink said as they walked in. "Miss Myeroff. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Sir," Sobel started, dropping his arm from his salute, "Miss Myeroff and her brother feel they are allowed to authorize jeeps whenever they feel like it. I felt the need to report this."

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone in the room looked at each other, eyes shifting about to take the others in. Finally the Colonel cleared his throat.

"Miss Myeroff, are you and your brother authorizing jeeps whenever you feel like it?" the Colonel asked, turning to her. Meg shook her head, holding in a smirk when she saw the look of amusement on his face.

"No sir. My brother got called back to IIA and authorized a jeep to take him to the train."

"So you're only using the jeeps for what you were authorized to use them for?" the Colonel asked and Meg nodded.

"Yes sir," she said, wishing she could turn and see the look on Sobel's face. She also found herself wishing the rest of Easy could be here to witness this as well. She knew they'd get a kick out of seeing their CO about to be reprimanded.

"I think that's all then Captain Sobel," the Colonel said, bringing Meg back to the current situation.

With a rushed salute, Sobel turned on his heel and stormed out of the office, not speaking another word.

"It would appear that you and your brother have made your first American enemy," the Colonel said as soon as Sobel was gone.

"It would appear so sir," Meg said, glad that at least she had Sink on her side.

That night found Meg wandering to the mess hall. One of the reasons was because she was hungry. Another reason was that she wanted to see the boys again. Although she wouldn't admit it to anyone, she enjoyed their company. She enjoyed their characters, the way they made her laugh, the way the interacted with each other, and the loyalty they all seemed to have.

All in all, it was the type of relationship she had been sorely missing in the past year. She had spent months locked away, forbidding herself from having human interaction out of the fear that anyone she got close to she would also lose. Now though, however, her mentality was much more stable and she realized how foolish this idea was. Of course these men could get hurt, they were in a war for Christ's sake! But that didn't mean she was never allowed to have companionship anymore. Besides, she and Adam had been close since her birth and he hadn't been too hurt so far.

Walking in, she smiled when she spotted the boys of Easy Company sitting over at a table. She didn't know why it was them that she had grown so close to over the past few days; there were nine companies in the 101st. However, it had happened that way and when she saw all the boys throw their heads back at something George Luz said, she couldn't help but make her way over to them.

"Gentlemen," she said, a smile gracing her features. The boys all looked up at her, laughter still on their faces.

"Meg!" George cried, motioning for the paratrooper across from him to slide over. "Have you had the wonderful pleasure of meeting Floyd?"

Meg looked at the attractive young man next to her, shaking her head as she stuck her hand out.

"I don't believe I have. It's nice to meet you Floyd."

The young man shook her hand, smiling as a faint blush graced his cheeks.

"Thank you ma'am," he said, causing a couple of the guys to chuckle.

"So sweetheart, what have you been doing to keep yourself busy today?" Bill asked, and Meg turned all her attention to him.

"Well I had a lovely run in with Sobel this morning," she said and she smirked when all the guys at the table leaned in slightly, obviously eager to hear what she had to say. "He accused my brother and me of authorizing jeeps whenever we felt like it," she said with a shrug, indicating it was no big deal.

"What happened?" Muck asked and Meg smirked.

"Colonel Sink told him we weren't and that was that. I will agree with you lads though, I don't care for him at all."

The guys all seemed pleased with her statement and they all smiled smugly at each other.

Suddenly a loud masculine voice called for a ten-hut and every man in the room stood at attention, benches scraping across the ground. Meg froze, suddenly feeling awkward. She wasn't in the military so she didn't have to follow proper procedure, but should she sit there and look silly, or stand to blend in?

"Gentlemen I want you in full uniform, we're running a night exercise," a familiar, nasally voice said and Meg rolled her eyes.

Sobel.

As all the men in the mess hall slowly filed out, most muttering curses, Meg stood from her bench to watch them go. Suddenly feeling very awkward, she decided her best option would be to grab some food and take it back to her room. She wasn't going to sit in the mess by herself.

"Care if I join you?" a voice asked and she turned with raised eyebrows to see Lewis Nixon standing there. With a sigh, she motioned to the open bench across from her.

"Sure why not," she said in a tone that made it seem like this was the absolute last thing she wanted to do.

"Aw come on," Lewis said, leaning back on the bench and looking up at her. "I thought we'd gone through all of this yesterday. Do we really have to start back at square one every day?"

"I suppose I have been rather a pill towards you," she said with a sigh, admitting he was right.

"Yeah you've sure been a pill alright," he said before tossing her a smirk. "Did you already eat?" he changed the conversation and she blushed, jumping up.

"I'll be right back," she said before heading up and grabbing a plate of food.

Ten minutes later found her in stitches over stories Lewis was telling.

"So then, right after everyone gets their special meal of spaghetti and starts chowing down, Sobel storms in and announces that the plans had changed and we were running Curahee."

"Seriously?" Meg asked, her laughter stopping as she realized what would happen next. Mixing full stomachs of spaghetti with a six mile run would not have been a pretty sight.

"He's a hardass, but he's a genius," Lewis finished, setting down his fork after his last bite.

"Yeah, evil genius," Meg scoffed, earning a smirk from her comrade. "So, tell me all about Lewis Nixon," she said, taking the time to eat some more of her meal.

"I thought you already learned all about me from my file," Lewis accused and Meg blushed and shrugged.

"Just the information important enough to be in your file," she told him. "I want to hear about the Lewis Nixon that the American military isn't interested in." Hell, if she was going to stay on speaking terms with him, she should probably get to know him more personally.

"Well you already know I went to Yale," he started and she nodded. "Did my file say I grew up in both New York City and Montecito, California?"

"Nope," Meg said, excited she had learned something new. Learning things about people was always a favorite of hers. Maybe that's why she enjoyed undercover work so much, she got to know the people she was spying on.

"Yeah, grew up there. Traveled Europe for a bit,"

"Oh where?" she asked, cutting him off.

"Lots of places," he said casually. "But I bet you've been to more places than I have."

Instead of getting into that argument, she prodded him for more.

"What else is there?" he asked in a laughing voice.

"Well what about your family?" she asked, suddenly realizing she had hit a nerve. Lewis sobered up slightly, looking down at his plate.

"Not much to tell. We're the quintessential American family," he said with a false grin, his voice carrying a large level of sarcasm. When he saw Meg's look, he sighed and went on. "Dad owns Nixon Nitration Works in Nixon, New Jersey."

Meg chuckled into her hand, causing him to roll his eyes dramatically.

"Yeah, yeah whatever," he said before continuing. "Mom's active in civic activities out in California. They're still married," he added when he saw her questioning glance. "They just don't spend much time together. Let's see, I've got a sister-"

"You mentioned her before," Meg cut in and he nodded.

"She's a peach. Annoying as hell but you know, mom's got her doing that whole debutant thing so Blanche'll for sure be following in mommy dearest's footsteps."

Meg made note of the cynicism in his voice as he spoke of his family. While her family had been apart for long periods of time, they all loved each other and took advantage of their short times together. She couldn't imagine being so sour over the people you grew up with.

"Well what about your own family?" she asked, hoping to turn the conversation to a happier note. "What about Katharine and Charles?"

Lewis actually let out a loud, single laugh, shaking his head.

"You mean my lovely wife?" he asked and Meg realized that this was not how she wanted to change the conversation. "Katharine's everything my parents wanted me to find in a wife. She was from Arizona but our fathers were mutual friends and we were pushed at each other at lots of social gatherings."

"So it was chosen by your parents?" she asked, trying to understand why he would marry someone he seemed to dislike so much.

"What is this, 20 questions?" Lewis asked suddenly before rising from the bench and storming out the door, leaving Meg sitting there alone and utterly confused.

Geez, Nix can be such a hot head sometimes! So, what did you all think? This is my longest chapter yet and so I'd be super bummed if I got even less reviews :( My little baby sister leaves for college this week and she's going to be almost 3 hours away! Since I'm going to be all depressed for the next few days, a whole bunch of reviews would make me feel a little better! Please? :)

LovingBOBThePacific - Thanks so much for faithfully reviewing! I'm glad you're enjoying my story so far! I hope it doesn't disappoint! And I'm sorry my updating probably isn't as quick as you'd hope. I just want to make sure I give myself a good amount of time to edit and proof each chapter before it goes up. My little sister's going away to college in 3 days (sniff sniff) so maybe with her hours away I'll be able to focus my time more on this story.

SuesserKaefer234 - I love your ideas/questions that you put in your reviews. I'm glad to see you're spending some time mulling over my plot lines haha. Hopefully it stays to what you expected. And yeah, Dick's a good guy...but just not the guy for Meg ;)

battyderp - Thanks for complimenting my writing style! I'm always nervous because I've always felt that it's less mature than I am (I would say immature, but then it sounds like I'm insulting it haha). Anyway, I'm glad you like my style and I'm glad you like this story. And I like your thought of Luz. He's probably my favorite paratrooper, but I've got someone else in mind... :D

Tegan Ganmore - Ahh thanks for liking Meg! I know what you mean, sometimes I find it hard to find a character and plot line to my liking, that's why I finally buckled down and wrote one exactly the way I wanted it haha. I'm glad I'm not the only one enjoying it! Also, I'd be SUPER interested to hear more about your headcanon. PM me!

caught-offsides - Yeah, I enjoy the Nixon-love-interests too. Idk if it's because I'm a good girl, so I'd never do anything with a married man, but those affair stories of Nixon's draw me in every time. When my editor (aka my best friend) read my story for the first time, she was like "WHAT!? HE'S MARRIED!" but for some reason I love it haha.

Amanda - Thanks! I'm glad you're really enjoying it! I hope you like this chapter as well as the others!