Author's Note: This Chapter is all in Joe's POV. Enjoy!

Bastogne, Belgium

December 23rd, 1944

"Jesus, can it get any colder out here?" I heard Grant mumble next to me in our foxhole, the both of us sitting there in the dead of night now and the cold was once again getting under our bones and have me wish that we were on the sun at this point. What was the point for us being there anyways? It's only been a few days, and some of us were ready to call it quits, all because they wanted us to hold the line there against the Germans that were on the other side of the plain, right in front of us. I hated the cold, it made me more bitter. I had no problem with being bitter to the others now, and the others were falling in there since we were not happy being there.

The cold was getting to us.

"I think it can," I muttered back to him, wrapping my arms around my body now and seeing the air escaping my lips as I spoke to Grant, seeing him snort a bit not and shuffle to keep himself warm.

"Something tells me Winters really wants to shoot Sink by now for dragging out asses out here," Grant chattered a bit with his chattering teeth and I looked up at the bright moon right over us now, stars scattered a bit around the moon to give the whole forest we were in some light and a hint of hope in this frozen hell. Like I said, only a hint of hope.

Fuck that hint.

"Pull the cover over, we can grab some shut-eye since Buck and Toye are on look out tonight," Grant said to me, having me move my arms away from my body to grab the edge of the trap that we would use to cover our foxhole.

"Yes, sir," I grunted back to him as I shoved the tarp over us now and we were in the darkness once again, literal darkness. I could hear Grant shuffling a bit more and then nothing, having me think that he was about to fall sleep and I shuffled too against the wall. It took me a moment or two to shuffle as well to find a good enough, spot, shrugging off my helmet and lean against the foxhole wall and I tried to close my eyes. But once again, like any other night since we got here and all I had there was the cold to wake me up to reality, I was thinking of Georgie.

Where was she? Where was hell was Georgie?

The last I heard of her, she was somewhere near Holland when we were here in the Goddamn cold of Bastogne. She was recruited to help with the wounded out there, but ti got me worried since I heard things were getting rough now in the war. Was she close to the action? Was she going to get hurt? I had to clue, and it was scaring the shit out of me.

Not knowing where she was.

We wrote to each other, to the point where we knew more and more about each other than we ever did before, which was impossible since we had those long walks in that small English town where I met her. God, I still remember when I met her in that hospital, my hand split on and throbbing there and the blood sticking to my skin when I finally saw her face to face. I'm not gonna lie, I was attracted to her when she opened that mouth of hers, that mouth that I could have sworn already broke some hearts in the past. The way she spoke and presented herself and carried herself like she was already the head nurse there in that God forsaken place. She wasn't spunky or a hardass, but she also knew how to hold her ground.

What got me were her eyes.

They were bright, bright enough to light a room and for a man to stop in his tracks and forget to breathe. I only wonder who gave her those eyes, her mom or pop. It had to be her mother since she too had the kind of hair that you run your fingers through and feel how soft it was. I remember running my fingers in her hair when we would kiss.

I opened my eyes. God, it just hurt me thinking of her. Missing her even.

I was so pathetic, beyond pathetic for a girl like her, and to think she likes me back was enough for me to believe in miracles. It didn't take long for me to fall for her, to want to talk to her and listen to all of her good and bad days. Her stories of growing up in Washington D.C., her mother passing away and how she wanted to learn medicine just to find out more about cancer. God, she was so Goddamn perfect that it was sickening for me to think about. I didn't know if it was a added bonus that she was Jewish like me, ethic wise, or that she knew when to shut me down with a simple look or one sentence.

Grant was snoring softly then in our foxhole, having me hear the winds above me in the forest and out tarp was moving slightly with it. I clutched my rifle, thinking that it was the only thing grounding me and keeping me sane from missing her too damn much. I was one of those guys now, longing to see their girl again like a silly school boy. But the guys knew Georgie, hell, I introduced her to them when we were still friends and before I claimed her as my own. They loved her to death, thought of her as a ray of the sunshine in that town when we were still under Sobel. Maybe that was her purpose in the world now, to be a ray of sunshine for lost souls. It felt like that we were mostly Gods, ready to go to war.

But now, in a goddamn foxhole in a frozen forest, I learned I was less of a God.

We were used to death, from the past battles in Carentan when I almost saw Tipper blown to bits, in Holland with bodies all over the floor of replacements, and of course, here in the fucking forest with nowhere else to go. Georgie knew this was going to happen, she warned me 3 months ago when I was back to Albourne, right before Holland. She knew that one of these days, I was not gonna last and my luck was going to run out. Being there in Bastogne made it more of a reality for me than anything now, I had to believe that she was right.

But I also had to believe that she was wrong.

The last letter I got from her was before we got our leave in France and week or so ago, but since then I got nothing from her. It was making me worry, thinking that she was either transferred in another area or something else bad happened to her. Georgie knew how to stay grounded, she wasn't frail like a delicate flower. But then again, this was a war, not some kind of bar fight. Something could happen to her out there, something that I can't protect her from.

Shit, tomorrow was Christmas Eve. It made me remember last year.

It's been a year since I kissed her, one of the best decisions I ever made in my life without a shred of a doubt. Kissing her was like I was about to kiss the sun for the first time: Fiery and exhilarating at the same time. I've kissed others before, being the school walls after classes or even out in small enough dates to be considered just a hangout. But this, this one kiss that I decided to go with her on a bench in the middle of a snowfall, it was the best kiss I ever had. I would dream about that moment there in the middle of the night, it would bring me peace ever once in awhile when I was away from Georgie. Sometimes it would work, and other times it as not enough.

"Joe," I was once again snapped back to reality now and those thoughts of Georgie were out of my head as fast as a balloon popping in the air, "You need to get some shut eye. Christ, I can hear you thinking from where I'm at," Grant muttered to me now from his own spot and I looked over at him. He was glaring at me, sleep evident in his eyes and how he slumped against our soil wall of the foxhole.

"Sorry," I replied back in a grumble to him now as he rolled his eyes and rearranged himself once more before saying something else that made me really wish I was alone not with him so he couldn't me.

"You know she's fine whoever she is, right?" I really wanted to punch there right there in the jaw, even with him being a good friend of mine and who was not breathing down my ass like Cobb.

Goddamnit, I didn't know at all. They didn't understand it at all.

February 1945

Hangengau, France

This place seems more like a death trap than anything else, but it was much better than Bastogne any who. It was still cold, beyond cold and we were beyond done with the forest at this point, the bitterness of the war and how cold it was getting was coming over me like a wave in the ocean. God, I sounded like Fucking Webster who already came back and was trying to act like all was well. No, Webster, nothing was fucking fine since you abandoned us in Holland and never came back. Did he expect a warm welcome back from us?

Not a fucking chance.

Not only was this place crumbling around us bit by bit with the mud crumbling under our feet and the sky looking gray and dull like a real tragedy, but we were supposed to help with a patrol that was going on later that night and apparently I was on the fucking list to go. Christ. They needed a translator and yay for me being one of the only ones in the whole Company, other than the greatly educated Webster. It was really bumming me out. not that I wasn't bummed before since these days it was less likely for me to see the ray of the sunshine in things. God, even George Luz was getting annoying.

Maybe it was me.

I was walking back from another round of patrol along the outside of the perimeter with Chuck Grant, whom once again was seeing the drowsy side effects of me once again not hearing from Georgie. At this point, and I had known it was happening and turning me into a real asshole, something was wrong with Georgie since she's still advent written back to me yet. I tried to roll out the typical reasons: She's busy with her nursing, she's in another place that she can't write back to me, her letters were sent somewhere else.

God, how pathetic was I?

But then again, I knew she would write to me even when she was busy, I knew she would try to get to me when she was in another place and it would seem impossible for her to write. Georgie would not do this to me and have it slip her mind, she knew how to write to me and she knew to do it fast. We both kept that promise with one another, so what was happening?

The more bitter I was getting, the more the guy were leaving me alone and not asking me about it. They could see me and how I looked when they were about to ask, fearing that I would shoot them point blank or use a knife, not her throat for bringing her up in conversation.

These days, the happiness and high egos of war were wearing off on most of us now, and we were just trying to get through this leg of the war and pray to God or whoever was listening that we were going to leave the cold, leave the countless deaths, for good. First it was the replacement Julian, and that was bad enough hearing Babe bellyaching over his death and how he couldn't save him. Second it was Hobbler and how an accidental shot to the leg sent him to his grave.

But Muck and Penkala. Shit.

Malarky was never the same since then, no longer holding that shelfful glow about him that we all kind of appreciated. No, he turned cold, not calloused like some, but cold none the less. To make it worse, Joe Toye and Wild Bill himself lost their legs. Their Goddamn legs…it was not even close to fair. being sent home and seeing Buck loose it after he witnesses it was enough for all of us to hate the army within our own heart and hate the cold for the rest of our lives.

No wonder Webster was target No. 1 when he rolled into town.

"What the hell?" Grant said out of the blue, having me see him point over to the area where a private was rushing over to Winters and Nixon, along with Captain Spiers and they were talking together about something. At first, I was going to say nothing about it since it seems like another meeting about the patrol tonight, but I then knew what made Grant concerned. It was how they were talking, how they were looking at each other and I could see something was very wrong, wrong or out of place that would make Nixon look like he was about to be sick.

"What do you think that's about?" I asked Grant now as we were walking a bit more closely now and the officers there were talking now in hushed whispers.

"Maybe Sink wants us now to fly off by the seat of our asses now," Grant replied as he cracked his neck as we were about to head over to the apartment building where most of us were staying in when I heard my name being called.

"LIebgott," Winters was the now who called me, having me grumble to myself a bit thinking that I broke a rule or did something wrong. But I didn't at least I didn't think I did. But then again it might have been my attitude, Webster tattling on me to Winters in saying that I wasn't being nice. It made me grin as I jogged over to him now. But as I got there, I could see it was something a bit on the more side, and it made me confused.

"Sir," I said to him in a huff since the jogging alone was enough for me to collapse thanks to the lack of food. Winters and Nixon eyed each other and Spiers looked the other way, Winters holding the piece of paper in front of him now and I looked with my eyes for a brief sentence, seeing that it was mostly a list of names and I had to wonder what was going on.

"We just got a report of the current MIA's in the army and nurse corps, and one name on here highlighted for us to be informed on," Winters explained to me now as I eyed him in a bit if suspicion since I was not getting where he was coming from with this. He then handed me the paper, saying nothing else and I just took it, not thinking anything of it.

"Look at the names," He instructed me, having me shook a look at him at firs to see if this was what he really wanted. He was still standing there and saying nothing, and I knew this was serious. We can all tell when Winters was serious about something, or something spooked him. I didn't know which side I was dealing with in that moment, but I was afraid I was about it. I started to read the names one by one, seeing nothing or knowing nothing familiar about those names at first.

But then it hit me, almost like I was shot in the chest. There it was in a plain letter typed on the paper and it made me blink a few times and try not to scream out from what I was seeing.

Kozloff, Georgiana. Army Nurses Corps.

Well, Shit.

"Georgie?" I said in almost a harsh whisper now, thinking that this was really a sick trick or it was another person. It had to be another person, I would it was since I didn't think this would be something happening to me, let alone her in general. But this felt so real, almost too real like I was being shot over and over again in the chest in slow motion.

"She was labeled as MIA as of December 21st while she was stationed in near the Belgium Battle lines at the main camp nursing facility," Winters explained to me in his regular tone of voice, his eyes were still one me as I was reading her name, over and over, over and over, like a record player that was not even close to stopping when I wanted to have it stop. Her name was there, like a stamp that was left her as she was one of the mere others that were lost in the shuffle of war.

"Joe," I looked back up at Winters, my fingers clutching the paper and almost breaking the paper in a thousand pieces now as I found my voice again and trying so hard not to throw plenty of questions at him as to what was going on and if this was real.

"Why are you tellin' me this, sir?" I asked him, hoping that he wasn't getting the hint that I was attached to her as more than a friend. Did he know? Hell, did the others know about Georgie and me? That would already be terrible enough, and now it felt a numbing pain from hearing and seeing her name.

"Joe, we know that you two are close friends, and she was close to the others in Easy too. We just wanted to let you know what happened to her," Winters was trying to make it easier for me, and yet my own heart within me was breaking and shattering all around me, It was like the light within em went out, someone blew it out with a single blow of the wind, and all I could feel and see was darkness. How was it supposed to be easy for me now?

"How do you know she's MIA?" I had to ask him that one now since there was still a part of me thinking that this was some kind of a sick lie that they were trying to feed me. It felt like I was going a bit crazy from how I was thinking about this and already seeing this in such a harsh way, but then again it involved Georgie. AT this rate I wanted to find out the truth about any of it, I was getting angry and desperate about it.

"Her officer reported her MIA after she was supposed to go to her quarters." Winters explained.

"And no one saw her?" I asked, still not getting it all in my head. Winters could see that I was getting a bit agitated now as I was clutching the paper in a death grip.

"Typically with someone who's MIA, they could have missed her for moving to a new position of combat, a miscommunication could have happened or someone who was not properly identified," Nixon answered for me now calmly, but he took looked a bit tense about it.

"Joe, they combed the area where they saw her last. They are still trying to find out where she is, and the likelihood that they were going to find her near the battles outing the forest was very slim," He was still telling me this and I was trying to still hold onto the thought that she was somewhere nearby, or at least still breathing. It didn't sound great to be MIA, especially for her since she was a goddamn nurse. Only soldiers go MIA, hell Bull went MIA for one night. But that was temporary, he was a guy.

"Every battalion and company got this report, Joe. it's not just us," He said to me calmly, pointing to the paper that was about to rip in two within my to hands and I looked up at him, "We are taking this seriously, and every officer in the US army has a copy of this report and all the names. We are on the lookout for any MIA soldiers that we run across that are mentioned here, so there are people looking for her and keeping an eye out for her."

I said nothing since there was thing else to say to him unless I wanted to get in trouble for talking back to him. How was I going to go on with this, to direct this like burning alcohol down my throat and then wanting to vomit? How could this happen to her? Of all people in this world, why her? Georgie knew how to take care of herself, and yet this happens.

By the time they told me to keep my head high and they were going to let me know if something does happen, they walked away or at least I did and I said nothing, my brain working on overdrive and something inside of me wanting to burst open and wanting to scream out in pain and in agony of not know where she was. I made it through the streets without saying a word, up to where I knew I would find an empty room and I stood there, closing the door behind me and having it sink into me, one last time.

The hope I had for a future with her was slowly going out like she was barely out of my reach and no longer close enough for me to grab and protect her. She was gone, I didn't know how long or where she was. All that matters was that she was gone, and I could be there to protect her. I closed my eyes.

With all I had left within me, I screamed into the empty room.

Damn it all to hell.

May 11th, 1945

Zell am See, Austria

I woke up in a gasp, breathing in and out harshly out through my nose and my eyes were open wide in front of me at the apartment I was in. All I could see and feel was darkness, but the soothing calm of the quiet and the soft sounds of the wind coming through the light curtains from the open window. I sighed in relief, the cool sheet of sweat on me having me run fingers in my hair to calm down.

Another night, another nightmare.

This one was especially bad, two of my worst nightmares morphing into one. One of them was of the camps, seeing those prisoners in there and how they have placed there because they were Jews. My own fucking people. It was a backstab to me, and all I could do was try to feed them and give them water. But what about the ones who were killed before we found the place? Those faces in my head, those faces of lost souls were making me gasp out in pain and in sadness.

The other nightmare, the other one that was just as painful and bad, was of Georgie. I would dream of her, seeing her coming out of that truck where they brought her to us with the others who escaped. But seeing her that damaged again, looking at me with those eyes, and seeing the hint of reject on her face on how I was there to protect there, That was just as bad as thinking that I was dead.

Her rejecting me.

This dream was the worst of all: being in the camp and seeing glimpses of Georgie there throughout the sea of faces and the sea of death. I thought she was there, I thought I heard her cry out to me in pain and in sadness. When she did cry out, I woke up then and I almost cried.

Nothing was moving there in the room where I was staying, and it made me sigh in relief. These nightmares were going to be a reassuring thing for me to live through and try to survive, I knew that for sure. The camps were going to be the worst, as I placed my hand back down and felt the body next to me stir a bit but not moved. It made me look down to see who it was.

Georgie, fast asleep and facing away from me.

Since we got to the town there in the mountains, Georgie and I shared a room side by side, and on most nights we would share a bed just to have another person there if one of us woke up. Sometimes it was me hearing her wake up and having me try to calm her down, pulling her back to the bed and back to the dream again since I knew she needed the rest. Or it was her trying to get me back to reality and remind me that we weren't at the camps anymore. We both were trying to save each other, we were trying too damn hard.

I fell back to the bed, my head back on the pillow and I moved my arm to drape over her body as she was still sleeping, having me snuggle in close to her and then feeling her lace out fingers together without waking up.

"I'm so sorry, Liebste," I said to her in a hushed tone, knowing that she was not going to say a word since she was still fast asleep. I was sorry, sorry for not being there to keep her safe, sorry for not being a good enough boyfriend or someone who loves her. I was sorry for her to go through this and I could only do so much for her and not all of it, not as much as she needed.

It was natural for us to stay close as if the other was going to disappear. I wasn't going to leave her, not when I knew she needed me to help her through this stupid nightmare that she'll be stuck in for the rest of her life.

I won't let her disappear.