Thanks to everyone who read and review/emailed me! It was much appreciated. I just want you to know though, that usually these won't come as quickly as this one has, I was sick today and was able to write this one while I laid around. Please let me know what you think... I might have gotten a little out of character with Donny in this one towards the end but take into the account that he isn't the same person he was during the war. I don't know if I really got that much out of character, I just feel that maybe I did. Anyways thank you all and I hope you enjoy. Also ignore typos I am just writing this for fun like I do all of my fan fics so they aren't going to be perfect.
She had meant to sleep all day, but after nine o'clock rolled around, she woke up. She rolled over in her bed and sighed. It didn't matter how long she wanted to sleep, she always woke up at nine o'clock on her days off. She had never been able to sleep past nine, even those days that she had desperately tried. She was always a 'early riser'. As she laid in bed she started to think about Donny Donowitz. She smiled as his face came into her memory and she wondered what he was doing today. No doubt cursing Louisa into the deepest pit of hell for hurting him as she scraped the dead skin away from his body. He should have just taken the maggot treatment, it wouldn't nearly be as bad, and would have been so much quicker.
She wished that she was back at the hospital so she could see Donny. She missed him so much as she laid in her bed. She missed the way he watched her work in silence, or the way he made fun of her when she dropped something. She missed his strong Boston accent as he spoke with her. After being a month by his side she was missing not being by it on her day off.
She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. She yawned and wondered what Donny would say to her at this moment. Usually if she was with him and she yawned, he would tell her that she needed to take less time for him and more for herself. He would tell her that she needed to sleep more. A smile graced her lips as she imagined him telling her to go back to bed. She looked at herself in the tiny mirror on her door and decided that she would go see him today, finally. If she wanted to see him, she could see him as a visitor.
The prospect of just visiting him was a very nice thought. She could sit with him and talk to him on a friendlier level, instead of just being the nice nurse that took care of him everyday. She wondered if he would be happy to see her. No doubt he would. As she had left his room last night he told her that he would miss her on the morrow. So instead of missing him, and her missing him, she would just spend her day with him.
She started to get dressed after she washed up for the morning. She decided to wear a black turtle neck with khaki pants, instead of the matching black skirt. She didn't want him to think that she was coming to a funeral. He would have asked her if she was at a funeral if she walked in wearing only black, she knew he would. She let her hair down, knowing that Donny would like it. She put just a little bit of makeup on and after she finished applying the lipstick she wanted to take it off. She didn't have to wear makeup and she knew that, and she shouldn't have even put it on. Too late now though. She wondered if he would say anything about he makeup. Hopefully he wouldn't make fun of her for it, not like she would mind if he did. She understood that he would just be teasing her if he did.
She started out the door and made her way across base to the hospital. It took her five minutes to walk there in heels, where normally it would have only taken her three minutes to walk there. It was a beautiful day outside and she wished that she would enjoy it outside with Donny. Once there she looked up to the second floor were Donny resided. Which window was his? She shrugged her shoulders and continued forward. She nervously entered the hospital and made her way to Donny's room.
When she entered he was asleep and Louisa was rewrapping his bandages, already done with his scrapings. Louisa looked up and nodded to Liez in confusion. Louisa was an older French woman with dull blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a severe scowl that was permanently on her face. But she did have a sweet mouth, if she would only smile once in a while, thought Liez.
"Why are you here?" asked Louisa in German. "He doesn't have anyone in this country and I figured I could at least visit him. That way he doesn't feel so alone." replied Liez in German also. Louisa nodded, yet rolled her green eyes towards the heavens. "You know you shouldn't get close to them." Louisa said, remarking the patients.
Louisa saw every patient that entered the hospital as cattle. Liez knew that Louisa was a good spirit, she just had funny ways of showing it to others. Liez shook her head and came further into the room.
"I am not getting close, just trying to be civil to him." Liez said as she sat down in the visitor's chair that was next to his bed. Louisa ignore what she said and just finished what she was doing. After she was done Louisa left them alone, telling Liez to come and get her if he was hungry when he woke.
Liez watched Donny sleep and studied his features. He shouldn't have been aloud to sleep this long but she wasn't the nurse today and she didn't want to be the nurse today. She just wanted to be his friend, and she was excited for him to wake up, but she just let him sleep.
He looked so peaceful. She let her eyes wander the lines of his face, admiring him in all his beauty. She like his dark black hair that when he aloud her to brush it was parted to one side. He had dark imposing eyebrows that she also liked. He had a nose that fit his face appropriately and he had a wide smile. Her eyes settled on his closed ones. He had long black eyelashes that rested against his pale skin.
She felt her heart flutter as she stared at him and she had to tell herself that she shouldn't think of him as a prospective male that she could have in her life. He was only a patient that she tended to, and was trying to be nice to him. She couldn't lie to herself though. Within the month that they had been so close to each other, she knew she had developed strong feelings. She knew when he got better and left, she would be losing a very close friend, which he happened to be her only one. Most looked down their noses at her for being German. It didn't matter that she had killed her own brother for them, they despised that she had German blood running through her veins.
Donny didn't see that though. He saw a nurse who took care of him in his time of need. He saw her as a good person. Just like she didn't see that he was a battered Jew in a hospital bed. She saw him as a good man that she was friends with. As she became lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice that Donny had awoken.
"Liez?" he asked as his vision cleared.
"Yes. It is me." she said as she stood up and hovered over him a moment. She went to check him for fever and stopped herself. Instead she just let her fingertips brush through his hair. He smiled and yawned. She smiled down at him and fought her need to continue to play with his hair. She put her hand down by her side.
"Wait… why are you here? This is your day off." he asked as he sat up without her help. He had been better at being able to help himself without help for almost a week now. She wanted to applaud his effort, but today she was just his friend. "I figured I would just come and visit you as a friend." she said she smiled at him. He blinked at her a few times. Instantly her heart fell. She started to fret, hoping that she hadn't read him wrong.
"So we are friends?" he asked as he stared her in the eye.
"I thought we were." she said boldly.
He smiled so widely his cheeks dimpled. "I am glad to hear that." he said as he reached out and squeezed her shoulder. She took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"So are you hungry?" she asked as they continued to hold hands. Their fingers laced together and she marveled at the callous' on his hand. While she marveled the roughness of his hand, he marveled the softness of hers. He was beginning to think that she was his opposite. She was yin to his yang. He smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm hungry." he said.
"I will be right back then." she said as she pulled her hand free gently.
When she returned she sat a tray of food in front of him. He started to eat and she sat down on the chair next to the bed. "Donny, what did you do in the Marines?" she asked as she watched him eat. He looked up at her stunned. "I don't know if I really want to talk to you about it." he said, knowing that he might be judged by her if she knew the truth.
She looked at him confused. "You can tell me. I won't mind if it was bad." she whispered. He should have been gloating about what he did but in the face of an innocent German, he didn't know if it was the right thing to do. He could just come out and be truthful. 'I beat Nazi's to death with a baseball bat, and shot Hitler to death.' Yet if he said it that way he may very well scare her away with his brutality.
She waited patiently for him to speak. "Come on Donny… It couldn't have been that bad." she said with a laugh. His anger peeked then. She had no idea how bad it had been. He may have loved every minute of it, but it was something he was going to have to live with his entire life. Yes, he avenged his people, but he had also beat people to death to do it. His religion stated not to hurt people, and he had made sure that was all he did was hurt people.
In his anger he shoved his tray to the floor, making all the plates skitter across it loudly. She stood up afraid. She stared down at the floor before she looked to him. Silence filled the room and he regretted his actions instantly.
"Liez, I killed many men. I just didn't kill them though. I beat Nazi's to death with a baseball bat that I brought from home. I enjoyed every damned minute of bashing their brains out too. I also shot Hitler during the theater's explosion. I killed Hitler, and I beat many men to death. I am proud that I avenged people, and I know I helped save lives. Yet forgive me if I didn't want to talk to you about it because I thought you would be scared of what I had to say." he said as he stared forward, refusing to look at her expression.
He heard her bend down and pick up his mess. After a few minutes she cleaned up everything and then sat it near the sink. She then came and sat on the edge of his bed, facing him. She hooked a finger under his chin and forced him to look at her. "So you are the Bear Jew?" she asked as their eyes met. He nodded and tried to look away from her.
"Donny I do not look down on you for what you have done. I in fact know you don't look down on me for having my brother killed. I admire you for what you did, as I know you admire me." she said. He smiled and then felt better that she didn't think ill of him. She didn't think ill of him for what he had done in the past, and she didn't think ill of his temper tantrum that he had thrown a moment ago.
He then reached out and stroked his hand down her soft curls. He wanted to change the subject, so he did. "You wore your hair down for me." he stated arrogantly. She nodded though, stroking his ego. He could really like a girl like her. "I think we could be more than friends." he said boldly. She just smiled as he played with her hair adoringly.
"I am sorry for throwing the stuff on the floor." he said.
"It is fine." she said as he tugged one of her curls.
"When I leave for America when I am better, I will miss you." he said sadly. He would miss her too. He would miss her doting nature. He would miss her sweet smile. And he would miss the way she looked at him sometimes as if he were the only man in her life. He wondered what it would be if he was in fact the only man in her life. He sighed, knowing that he shouldn't get his hopes up.
"I will miss you more. You are the only friend I have here." she said, trying not to sound so sad when she said it. It didn't work though. He frowned at her. "I am your only friend? What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means that you, Donny Donowitz, are my only friend on this base. I am German so you can assume that many people are skeptical of me. So due to other's wariness of me, they just stay away. Am I saying it right? Wariness?" she said as her pretty brows drew together.
"Yeah, you are saying it right. Well fuck all of them. They just need to take the time to know you. For a man who beat Nazi's to death, I am very fond of you because you are a just a German, you aren't a Nazi. And if you were, I would have to say that you are the prettiest Nazi that I have ever met." he said with a wide smile. She smiled back at him and reached out to play with the wisps of his bangs. His hair was soft, and she wanted nothing more to play with it all night.
"You know for a Nazi killer, you are a rather enjoyable fellow to be around." she joked as she still played with his hair still. "Tell me more about yourself." he said as he closed his eyes so he could just listen to her speak.
"Well my full name is Liez Gertrude Hartwin." she said.
He busted out laughing which made his healing skin on his stomach pull uncomfortable, but he couldn't stop laughing. She stared at him as if he were insane. "What?" she asked as she nudged his shoulder playfully.
"Your middle name is Gertrude!" he said as he busted out into a new round of laughter. She shook her head. Her entire name was nothing but a joke to him. "Yeah and your name is Donny…" she said, trying not to be offended. She knew by now that it was in his nature to react exactly the way he wanted to. He was a sick person, she knew that, so being offended would have been wasted effort on her part.
"But your middle name is Gertrude…" he said, trying to sober himself up from laughing so hard at her. "I am sorry. I don't mean to laugh, it is just I have never really met any one with that as a name." he said, still laughing subtly. "It is a family name. It was my mother's middle name that was passed down from my grandmother, and then my grandmother's mother. I think it has been passed down for five generations." she said with a smile as he actually stopped laughing to listen intently to her.
"Tell me more." he said, as he was completely finished with his laughing fit.
"Um, well I like to read. Fantasy books mostly. I like to think there is an escape from the real world." she said with a giggle, making fun of herself. He just smiled and listened to her speak. "I had a dog before the war. His name was Merlin, he was a wolfhound. Great dog. I have always sort of been a loner. My brother told me when I was younger that I was strange. I have never been very social. So I am used to not having friends. But now that I have you as a friend I am afraid about when you are better and must leave…" she admitted with a sad smile.
"I haven't had many friends either. I had one good friend through high school, but we didn't talk much after we graduated. I was really good friends with a girl once, but she was just trying to get close to my cousin, I didn't blame her though. She had always had a crush on my cousin. Mostly people were awkward around me because I am Jewish. It didn't help that I worked in the barber shop with my dad ever since I was sixteen. I am used to being called a hair stylist." he said.
Now it was her turn to laugh. "Donny the hair stylist. It was a nice ring to it." she said with a laugh. He smiled at her and let her finish before he continued. "No one really wanted to associate with the Jewish… hair stylist." he said with a smile. "About the only real friends I had were the Basterds…. And now you…" he said as he reached out and pulled a tendril on her elegant hair. He wished he could drown his hands in her hair as he rained kisses over her face. But he knew they were just friends. And when tomorrow rolled around she would again but his nurse. So he just enjoyed this time because he knew one day it would end.
"So you are a dog person? We would never work out… I am a cat person." he joked.
"My mom had a cat. But when she died the cat disappeared. My brother told me that he thought the cat died from missing my mother." Liez said. He wanted to change the subject at the moment. He was bringing up too many hurtful memories, but she just continued, as if it didn't hurt anymore. "I loved my family dearly. I loved my brother too. It is just when I found out what he was doing, he died to me. So when I turned him in and they killed him, it didn't hurt. Because he was already dead to me. The brother that I grew up with was not the monster that inhabited his body when he was a Nazi." she explained, hoping that Donny wouldn't think ill of the brother she had once knew.
He nodded, telling her silently that he understood. He cleared his throat and tried to think about what else he could talk about. "I caught a frog once. Not one of those small tree frogs, but a real big one. I kept him in a shoe box when I was a kid. One day he got out though, and my sister killed him in her fright. I was so mad at her. I hated her for the longest time. It took me almost forever to realize that she didn't kill my frog on purpose." he said with a sigh.
"What was your frog's name?" asked Liez with a giggle.
"I named him frog. I know, I am great a naming things. Definitely not as good as the name Merlin." he said with a laugh.
She just smiled at him. She then let her eyes dart to the window, and she sighed. It was getting late, which meant visiting hours was soon to be over. She looked back to him, determined to stay as long as she could.
"When I was younger, I always wondered what it would be like to see New York City. I always lived in the countryside. I wanted to know what tall buildings would look like." she said. This was nice, having someone that she could tell these sort of things to. "I have been to New York City. It isn't all the impressive." he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I beg to differ Mr. Donowitz. To a country girl, the big city has a lot of appeal." she said. Yeah and to a country girl you never think of all the bad things that could happen in the city, he thought to himself. But then again, at least there isn't a camp where they torture Jews in your back yard, he thought. "Maybe one day you will get to go see it." he said. He wanted to be the one to take her, but what did a burnt cripple have to offer this woman. He suddenly felt very self conscious. They were only friends and he had to remind himself of that. He couldn't promise her things when he laid in this hospital bed, missing a leg, with his lower half scorched. It angered him suddenly, but he calmed himself down internally. He didn't have time to be angry with himself. He just needed to enjoy his time with her now.
She noticed that there was something wrong so she asked him if he was okay. He said that he was indeed fine, just thinking about his family. "Tell me more about your family." she said as she finally stood up from his bed and returned to the chair. She sensed it was time for another scraping, and didn't want to be caught in his bed by Louisa.
"My mother is a maid for some rich family. Cleans their house and what not. My sister works under my mom, and the last I had heard she was going to get married…. I hope I will get to see her walk down the aisle. My father own his own Barber shop in down town Boston. My cousin, the one the girl wanted to get to know, he also lives with us." he said in a detached tone. He needed to stay detached otherwise he would miss his family too much.
After he finished talking, Louisa joined the room. She came in and gave them both a curt nod. Liez made eye contact with Donny. It was time for her to go. She came to the bed and grasped his hand the way a nurse would, not a friend. He understood though, he wouldn't want Louisa to think that they were getting close. "I will see you in the morning Mr. Donowitz." said Liez with a smile in English. She wasn't sure if Louisa spoke English so just to be on the safe side she stayed subtle.
"See you tomorrow too Liez." he said, still called her Lies. She smiled and stopped herself from reaching out to touch his face. With that she left him alone with Louisa.