Reiben pulled out of Horvath and Mellish's grip and rubbed his jaw, all the while glaring at Harper, whose eyes were downcast. Miller continued to stare at the two Rangers with disapproving eyes.
"Ryan is at Ramelle. We are leaving in 10 minutes. Get yourselves cleaned up and for god sakes don't kill each other," he said after a few seconds of silence.
He shot one more glance between them then turned pulling Horvath along with him to the other side of camp. Once he was out of earshot, Reiben turned furious eyes on Harper.
"So one whisper from you boyfriend and you become a tame little puppy?" he asked Harper mockingly.
Jackson jerked his head up at the sarcastic comment from the Brooklyn tough guy. Harper spit out a mouthful of blood in response, almost daring him to call her tame again. Reiben didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't care. He walked forward again only to be stopped by Wade's boyish frame between him and Harper.
"Take a walk, Reiben," he hissed.
He had to look up to be able to see Reiben's face clearly, and he didn't look very intimidating, but with the addition of Jackson stepping up next to the medic made Reiben think twice about whatever he was thinking of doing.
"You're lucky you have body guards or I would beat you to a bloody pulp," he said glaring around Jackson's shoulder.
Jackson gave him a hard shove and Reiben walked away, shouldering his way around Mellish, muttering curse words the entire time. When they were satisfied Reiben was at a safe distance, Wade and Jackson turned, surprised to find Harper on the ground. She was staring off into the many bodies piling up on the outside of camp.
Wade knelt next to her and gingerly touched her bloody knuckles. Harper made no move to stop him so he began stretching her long fingers out to assess the damage. She flinched as he moved her pinky, and Wade figured it was broken. She got off easy considering how hard Reiben's head was. Wade smiled at his stupid joke and Jackson gave him a weird look. He shook his head and asked, "Harper? Can you tell me if anything hurts?"
He cursed himself as he heard his patronizing tone. Harper nodded to answer his question.
"Where does it hurt?" he asked not being able to sake the patronizing tone.
At first Harper didn't react, but slowly she move her left hand over her chest. Wade looked confused at first. He saw no wounds so he glanced at Harper's face. It was turned to him, and her expression told him everything. It wasn't her chest that was in pain, he realized. It was her heart. He didn't even bother to ask why. He knew she wouldn't tell him. In time, he figured she would, but for now, she didn't want to speak.
He finished examining her few wounds, then left her in the capable care of Jackson to go treat Reiben. He and Mellish were across the field 'playing' with dog tags like poker chips.
Jackson watched as Wade got to them and started shoving dog tags back into the bag they had come out of. He heard the medic say something about the whole 101 airborne watching, but then turned his attention back to Harper, who was fingering the wrappings on her left hand with the fingers on her right. Jackson reached forward and covered both her hands with one of his. She turned blank eyes on him. He could see the embarrassment still etched in her face.
"You don't have to feel bad you know," he said looking hard at her. "I've wanted to punch Reiben a few times myself."
"But have you?" she asked, her voice hollow and uncharacteristically feeble.
"No," Jackson admitted. "But I really wanted to."
A shadow of a smile touched Harper's lips as Jackson continued.
"I think almost all of us have wanted to hit the son of a bitch at one time or another. I bet the captain has even had fantasies of turning around and unloading a clip into Reiben, just for good measure."
The smile Jackson had been waiting for finally broke across Harper's cloudy face.
"Thank you Jackson," she said letting the smile take over her face.
She leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, before standing and glancing down at him.
"Well?" she asked. "You coming?"
He nodded and got up, following her over to the table where Miller was explaining the plan. Jackson and Harper came up and took a knee next to Upham and Horvath. Across the circle, Reiben was sending icy glares Harper's way. She could feel them, but she ignored him and kept her eyes on either the captain, or the map in front of her.
"Ramelle," began Miller. "Is right along the Merderet River." He pointed to a squiggly blue line on the map that really meant nothing other than squiggly blue line to any of the privates. He continued. "The bridge there is a big deal to the Germans. It's the only way to get their tanks and artillery to Cherbourg. We can't push on Paris until we take a deep water port, and Rommel knows that, so he's gonna try to get his armor across the Merderet River any way he can."
As Miller opened a compass and held it, all the rangers noticed it shaking uncontrollably. Reiben glanced at Miller's face first followed the rest in turn. Being the medic, Wade looked at it most critically, though none of them were stupid enough to ask about it. Miller continued to talk so it obviously wasn't bothering him any.
"This way he can hit our invasion forces in the flank when we make the turn for Cherbourg. That makes any village on that river with an intact bridge solid gold real estate."
He suddenly seemed to notice his hand and glance around at the worried faces around him. The rangers just stared back at him, not really knowing what to say. After a minute of this, he snapped the compass closed and said, "Let's go."
They all watched as Miller got his gear and headed for the edge of camp. Horvath was the first one to move.
"You heard him," he said getting his own gear. "Get in formation."
No one spoke as they fell into line. Reiben on point, Miller next, then Horvath, Mellish was on the right, Jackson was on the left, Wade and Upham in the middle and Harper bringing up the rear. Jackson kept throwing quick glances over his shoulder to make sure Harper was still there. She would smile every time he did, but it wasn't a very enthusiastic smile and he just looked more worried when he would turn the next time.
After a few miles of peaceful silence, Reiben started in.
"So Lewis," he said making Harper jump.
All the rangers tensed waiting for a fiery comeback.
"What Reiben?" she sighed, not in the mood to fight with the Brooklyn idiot.
"Well I was just wondering if you would give Ryan that same right hook for me when we find him," he said not turning around to see her reaction.
Harper thought she saw him rub his jaw where that right hook had landed. She smiled and said, "You know Reiben. I don't give a-"
"Get down!" whispered Miller loudly interrupting her.
The squad immediately dropped down in the tall grass. Harper's view of all but Mellish was obstructed by the thick grass, though she could hear Upham's whimpering.
"Shut up you idiot!" hissed Reiben from somewhere in front of Harper. She heard a smacking noise that was probably Reiben's hand colliding with her brother in law's head.
"Quiet!" growled Miller.
They all lay still for a few minutes until they heard the grind of tiger tanks approaching. Harper met Mellish's round eyes, and could only imagine what hers looked like. His knuckles were white as he clutched his rifle to his chest. He was laying flat; hardly breathing. Harper imagined she probably looked about the same.
Suddenly one of the tiger tanks burst through the grass right over her head. Moving quickly, she scrambled forward toward the tank. Just as it's tracks came down on either side of her, Harper threw herself against a small hill under the tank. It crashed down, but the hill held it just high enough so that Harper wouldn't get crushed. She coughed as the tank kicked up dirt around her.
Through the smoke and dust, Harper thought she saw Mellish throw himself to the left to keep from getting smashed by the giant tread of the tiger.
"Oh please God, let them be alright," Harper prayed. Then she added an after thought. "Even Reiben."
She smiled in spite of herself as the back of the tank crashed down over her. She looked back just in time to see another tank cresting the small hill. The hill itself started to crumble and Harper knew anymore stress would smash the hill and Harper along with it. As the back of the tank crashed down, Harper closed her eyes and waited for the two ton monster to crush her, but just as she heard the grind of the motor something ran into her at full speed.
She opened her eyes just in time to see hazel eyes staring into hers, and then they were rolling over and over each other until they came to a stop in a ditch; right under another tiger.
Harper
was so surprised at who was above her in the ditch, she couldn't
even speak for a second.
"What are you staring at?" came the
Brooklyn accent she knew all to well.
'Thank you,' she said sarcastically to God. 'Out of all the people you could have sent to save me-'
Harper was about to answer Reiben when she half yelled, "Duck Reiben!"
She pulled his head down just in time to miss getting it taken off by a stray piece of metal on the tank. Reiben threw an arm over Harper's face as dirt cascaded in around them. She felt his heavy breathing against her cheek as the tanks rolled on, not even aware that there were two American Rangers literally right under their noses. Harper almost laughed out loud at the irony of the situation, but just then, the tanks stopped.
Reiben raised his head off Harper's shoulder. The same thing was on both their minds. They knew they were in the safest place at the moment. Their squad, however, was out in the open with nothing to cover them but grass. In a second Reiben and Harper found out why the tanks stopped. It had started pouring rain.
"Great," hissed Harper.
Reiben looked at her, confused, but then her meaning sank in. She was lying at the bottom of a ditch, no matter how shallow a ditch none the less, with 100 lbs of gear weighing her down and a 180 lb person with his 100 lbs of gear on top of her. Reiben tried to slide to the left and get off her, but the ground was already muddy and slippery, and all he did was push mud in on top of her. She wiped mud out of her eyes angrily and hissed, "just stop moving."
He did and they waited while the Germans above shouted orders. They both caught their breath as they heard the word 'Americans' in the flurry of German, but it seemed they were just talking about Americans in general.
Finally they decided something and the tanks rumbled to life. As the tank above Reiben and Harper rolled forward it let a flood of water explode down upon the privates. It filled the ditch quickly. It was so full Harper had to raise her head out of the water to breath. After a few minutes of this, Reiben could tell she was getting tired, though her ego would never let her admit it. He knew she would die before she asked for help; especially from him. He made a quick decision and put aside their argument from earlier.
He used his left arm to brace himself against the muddy side while he slid his right arm around the back of Harper's neck. He lifted her face out of the water. At first she looked annoyed, but then he felt the muscles in the back of her neck relax and she let out a sigh.
"Thank you," she said attempting to hide her relief, but failing miserably.
He nodded and ducked his head into her shoulder as the last tank passed over them. Though the tanks were gone, Harper and Reiben were smart enough to stay put until Miller's signal.
"Clear!" he yelled a few minutes later.
Before the words were even out of his mouth, shouts could be heard from everyone in the squad.
"Reiben! Harper! Where are you?!"
"Over here!" yelled Reiben as he got out of the ditch and pulled Harper up after him.
She was soaked through, possibly all the way to her bones, and worse than that; she was shivering. The rain continued to come down in sheets as a cold wind blew down off the hills. Reiben was struggling to stay on his feet, given he had something wrong with his ankle. Harper wraped her arm around Reiben's waist, holding him steady until the squad could get to them.
"Woohoo!" yelled Mellish jumping around like a giddy child. "You two defiantly have more than 9 lives!"
Reiben laughed, and Harper somehow mustered a smile, but Wade's face was serious.
"We need to get out of the rain, Captain!" he yelled to Miller over a sudden clap of thunder.
Miller nodded, and looked around for somewhere to go.
"There was a farmhouse a few miles back. We could see if that was in one piece," said Jackson.
Miller nodded again and started off. Though he wanted to run to Harper, Jackson was content to help Reiben, since he had saved Harper. Wade, on the other hand, went right to Harper. He peeled off her field jacket and draped his around her trembling form. At first she tried to push it away, seeing as it was Wade's only source of heat, but he held it on her shoulders until she gave up.
They started out across the open field following the flattened path made by the tiger tanks. The rain was now coming down so hard, no one could see more than five feet in front of their faces. Wade was holding tightly to Harper's shoulders like she might fly away if he let her go. She was leaning heavily into his side struggling to stay upright due to her violent trembling. Wade squeezed her shoulder.
"Hang on," he whispered. "We are almost there."
Harper nodded, not able to speak because of her chattering teeth. She glanced to her left and barley made out the tall sharpshooter and the young B.A.R. gunner hobbling along. From what she could see, Jackson was supporting nost of Reiben's weight, and Reiben wasn't using his right foot at all. Fear pulsed through her. What if Reiben was never able to use his leg again? He had gotten hurt saving her. If he didn't get better, Harper would never be able to forgive herself. Wade saw her face and said, "Don't worry. He'll be alright. The way he's walking, it's probably just a sprain."
Harper founds Wade's dark eyes with hers just as a bolt of lightning split the sky. Wade almost fell over from surprise. There was something in Harper's eyes he had never seen before. He couldn't see the smart ass attitude that closely resembled Reiben's, or the fierce passion she had for things she believed in. he couldn't even see the convicting loyalty she had for her squad. The only thing he saw was fear. Cold, dead, paralyzing fear.
