Harper smiled at the sergeant then followed his gaze to the men sitting in a small, desolate circle. They were away from other groups but they were by far the loudest. She heard a man with a harsh Brooklyn accent's voice rise above the rest as he told a story filled with profanity and women. Had it been 6 months ago when she was in basic, Harper would have turned bright pink and got that awkward feeling in the pit of her stomach, but now that she heard that kind of talk just about

everywhere she went, it didn't bother her.

Sarge glanced one more time in Harper's direction then yelled, "Wade!"

One of the quieter soldiers glanced up and upon seeing the blood smeared across Harper's face, jumped up and came over. Harper was surprised he didn't even look at her twice. He seemed only to be worried about her heath rather than her gender.

"What happened?" he asked taking Harper's arm and leading her to the group of men.

"Remember that fight a few minutes ago?" Reiben asked Wade. "She won."

Wade nodded, either not catching, or not caring that the Brooklyn boy had said her. He pulled out a gauze pad and started cleaning the drying blood off her split lip."How do I look, doc?" Harper asked, fully expecting him to look up at her amazed at her feminine voice, but again he did nothing out of the ordinary.

"I've see worse," he said moving onto a gash above her left eye. "I would love to see the other soldier."

Harper smiled and Horvath dropped to one knee in front of the men.

"Boys we have a new mission, and a new squad member." He glanced around while his meaning hit all the men. Reiben was the first to speak.

"Hold up," he said raising a hand. "You want her to come with us?"

Horvath glared at him.

"I didn't assign her to this team. Lt. Colonel Anderson did. Is this going to be a problem, Reiben?"

"No sir. I just don't think this is a good idea. I mean, I don't want to have to protect her and try to concentrate on the-"

"Protect? I sorry maybe you missed that fight earlier," Harper cut in sharply.

"Oh sweetheart, that was just a stupid private without a gun. Have you actually ever been on a mission?" asked Reiben his tone belittling.

"I made it up the fucking beach didn't I?" she asked. "That's probably more than most of Company C did."

"Listen here you-"

"Reiben!" shouted Horvath. "Both of you knock it off! Lewis is coming on this mission weather you like it or not, and it would be a lot better for all of us if you two would just get along!"

Reiben glared at the woman and she returned his glare. Hers seemed more chilling because of her striking blue eyes.

"Fine," said Reiben after a second.

Harper just nodded. At that moment the Captain returned with her brother in law. Harper rolled her eyes. He looked just as afraid as he had been in basic training, and even though he was almost 3 years older than she was, he looked like a small child clutching a toy gun to his chest. When he saw her his eyes lit up, but he said nothing because the Captain was in the process of introducing him.

"Men, this is Timothy Upham. He is our new translator."

The men looked at him with open amusement on their faces.

"Great," said Mellish to Reiben. "Another one to protect."

Reiben and Caparzo snickered but Harper glared at Mellish. She would have gotten up had it not been for Wade's hand on her arm.

"Don't worry about them," he said quietly. "They just like to try to get a rise out of you. That's how they are."

"Great," she said. "Are you like that?"

He smiled, his dark eyes sparkling as he concentrated on her bloody fist.

"Not normally."

She smiled too just as Miller said, "Ok men… and woman… Lets move out!"

They got up, pulled their gear on, and made their way out of camp. The group fell into their normal formation which was thrown off by the addition of the 9th woman. Miller noticed this quickly and gave new formation orders.

"Reiben take point; Horvath right flank; Jackson left flank; Caparzo behind Horvath; Mellish behind him; Lewis flank Jackson; Upham stay in the middle with Wade."

Caparzo whistled referring to his place behind Horvath and Mellish laughed. They walked for a few minutes in silence, listening for the high pitched whine of artillery shells, or the 'ping' of gunfire in the distance. Harper used these few minutes of peace and quiet to study the squad.

Miller and Horvath were talking quietly about where they were headed. Harper noticed that the map the captain was holding was shaking. She then let her eyes range over to Reiben, who was in front of everyone, casually swinging his rifle back and forth, looking for the enemy. She followed the line back to Caparzo's large form lumbering along across from her. He was looking across the horizon with a far away look in his eyes. Mellish was behind Caparzo. He was in the process of taking a long drag of his halfway gone cigarette. She watched the end glow red…

"What is it Harper? Do you want some?" asked her father.

Harper shook her head violently trying to make her drunk father understand.

"Oh come on…" he said strolling over to the 6 year old girl. "It makes you calm. Then it will be easier for you to… you know-"

He reached out and stroked her knee pulling her nightgown up as he went.

"Don't worry honey… it will be-"

"Lewis!" It was Miller.

"Yes sir," she said wiping sweat from her cheek.

"Pay attention, Private."

"Sorry sir."

"He asked if there was anything you wanted to tell your new squad," said Reiben from the front of the formation.

"Oh," Harper said. "No. Nothing sir."

"Nothing at all?" asked Mellish. "Like how you have such a nice right hook?"

Harper took a breath remembering herself 13 years ago, and the day she learned how to punch; and shoot. She recovered her composure quickly and said, "I was just born with it I guess."

From the front of the line Reiben snorted, which made Harper's temper flare, but she said nothing. They all became silent. Harper glanced at her brother in law who looked positively terrified.

"Tim, you alright?" she asked.

He jumped at his name and said, "Oh yah. I'm good. Perfect." Harper nodded and turned back to stare blankly off into the trees. Upham then decided to try to make conversation. He slowed down so he was next to Mellish who was looking out over the field. Upham tapped his shoulder, which was the complete wrong thing to do.

"Hey!" said Mellish irritably.

Thinking Mellish was being nice, he said, "Oh hey," but Mellish continued angrily.

"You want your head blown off you fancy little fuck? Don't ever touch me with those little rat claws again. Get the fuck back in formation," he said then turned away to look out at the open field.

Upham didn't take the hint. After a pause he said, "I was just wondering where you were from."

Mellish turned and glared back at him making Upham move up the line to Caparzo.

"Caparzo?" he asked making sure he got his name right.

"Hey drop dead Corporal," he hissed taking a drag off his cigarette. Upham nodded, not surprised by the private's general rudeness.

Harper glared at Caparzo. She didn't really like Tim, but she didn't want the squad to be mean to him either. Before she had a chance to say anything though, Caparzo continued.

"And another thing, every time you salute the captain, you make him a target for the Germans. So do us a favor and don't do it. Especially when I'm standing next to him, kapish?" he asked.

Upham nodded. "Yeah, kapish…" he said stepping further into the center of the formation.

Harper almost said something to Caparzo but Wade beat me to speaking. "Corporal, what's your book about?"

"Oh. Its supposed to be about the bonds of brotherhood that develop between soldiers in war," he answered almost hitting Wade in the back of the head with his rifle.

Everyone broke out into laughter. Even Harper cracked a small smile. Upham had never had a real friend in his life. Besides her sister, but she didn't really even like him. However she did like the money his job got him.

"Brotherhood?" said Caparzo mockingly. "What do you know about brotherhood? Get a load of this guy, fish," he said to Mellish. "Why don't you go bug Lewy."

"Lewis," Harper corrected.

"Whatever," said Caparzo smiling.

"I already know her," said Upham in such a way that it made it sound creepy.

All the men, including the Captain turned to give him an odd look."What?" he asked.

"He's my brother in law," Harper said feeling the heat of embarrassment inch its way up into her face.

"Oh so you know little Upchuck?" asked Mellish smiling at Harper.

"Upham," he corrected quietly.

Reiben who was clearly annoyed with this topic decided to change the subject.

"So you want to explain the math of this to me? I mean where is the sense in the 8 of us risking our lives to save one guy?""There are 9 of us smart ass," Harper said glaring at him.

He turned around and counted then said, "Nope I only see 8 soldiers and one little girl."

Harper's temper flared again but the tall, sharpshooter who hadn't spoken until right then spoke. "You really need to learn when to shut up, Reiben," he said in his southern drawl.

Harper glanced up at him, a shadow of a smile crossing her face. 'So they aren't all pigs,' she thought.

"Anybody want to answer that?" asked the captain like the exchange between Reiben and Harper hadn't taken place.

"Reiben, think about the poor bastard's mother," said Wade as we crested the top of a hill.

"Hey doc, I got a mother. You got a mother. Sarge has got a mother. I mean, shit. I bet even the captains got a mother." He glanced back at Miller who just smiled. "Ok well maybe not the captain, but the rest of us got mothers."

Upham piped up next. "There's not a reason why except to do and die."

"La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. What is that supposed to mean corporal? We are supposed to die is that it?"

"He's talking about our duty as soldiers," I said to the idiot walking across from me.

Then Miller picked up. "We all have orders and we have to follow them, and that supersedes everything including your mothers."

"Yes sir, thank you sir," said Upham glancing around awkwardly.

"Even if you think the mission is FUBAR sir?" asked Reiben.

"Especially if you think the mission is FUBAR," said Miller.

"What's FUBAR?" asked Upham.

I almost laughed out loud. Everyone knew hat FUBAR was, weather you were a General or a Corporal.

"Oh its German," said Mellish laughing.

"I've never heard of that…" said Upham confused.

I shook my head smiling. This mission was going to be interesting.

As they were all silently laughing at Upham's stupidity, Jackson spoke up.

"Sir I have an opinion on this matter."

"Well by all means share it with the squad," said Miller. Harper could tell he was amused.

"Well its my way of thinking sir, this entire mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military recourses."

Harper was stunned at all the huge words that were strung together in that sentence.

"Yeah go on," said Miller. Though she could not see his face, Harper could hear the smile in his voice.

"Well, it seems to me, sir, that God gave me a special gift, made me a fine instrument of warfare," Jackson said raising one hand to the sky.
"Reiben, pay attention. Now, this is the way to gripe. Continue, Jackson," Miller said excited where this conversation was leading.
"Well, what I mean by that, sir, is... if you was to put me and this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and including one mile of Adolph Hitler with a clear line of sight, sir... pack your bags, fellas, war's over. Amen," said Jackson.

Harper nodded in agreement, but no one saw her. Not to be swayed off of his topic, Reiben continued, and not to anyone's surprise, he used a snide comment.
"Oh, that's brilliant, bumpkin," he said to Jackson. "Hey, so, Captain, what about you? I mean, you don't gripe at all?
"I don't gripe to you, Reiben. I'm a captain. There's a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up. You gripe to me, I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on, and so on. I don't gripe to you. I don't gripe in front of you. You should know that as a Ranger."

Miller sounded almost irritated. Not deterred at all, Reiben continued.
"I'm sorry, sir, but uh... let's say you weren't a captain, or maybe I was a major. What would you say then?"
"Well, in that case... I'd say, "This is an excellent mission, sir, with an extremely valuable objective, sir, worthy of my best efforts, sir. Moreover... I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan and am willing to lay down my life and the lives of my men - especially you, Reiben - to ease her suffering," said Miller expertly shutting Reiben up.
"He's good," chuckled Mellish.
"I love him," said Caparzo making a kissy face a Mellish.

Harper rolled her eyes. "Men," she said to quietly for any of them to hear. They were finished with their discussion about Private James Francis Ryan just as it started pouring down rain. It had been almost 3 hours since the squad set out from the beach, and they were almost to the first bombed out village Miller thought Ryan might be in, when Mellish asked the question Harper had been fearing since she became part of this group.

"So Lewis. Tell us about yourself."