Hey guys!

I'm so sorry I haven't been writing for awhile. I have been working and its been crazy. Anyway, I'm back for now!

Hope you enjoy!

Harper walked along a few paces behind Jackson, wiping the last few traces of wetness from her eyes. It seemed like she had been crying a lot in the last few days; not a fact she was particularly proud of. She glanced around at the troop. Each had the same expression mask on. Harper laughed to herself as she realized how manly her squad was.

No one has spoken since the song had stopped 20 minutes ago, and the silence was surprisingly comforting. Harper hadn't felt this close to anyone ever in her life. Not even her own family. After a few more minutes, Captain Miller led the squad over a hill where they came upon a pile of dead paratroopers.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Upham in such a way that it made everyone laugh in spite of the bad situation.

"Way to sound like my 189 year old grandmother, Upchuck," said Reiben rolling his eyes.

"Hush both of you," hissed Miller crouching low in the grass.

The squad followed suit. Miller signaled to Horvath and they both advanced up a small rise through some underbrush, leaving the rest of them to fall back on their heels and rest for a few minutes.

Harper let her heavy gear fall from her back onto the wet grass. Reiben and Mellish did the same but with less grace than Harper. Wade dropped his gear to and went to work on looking at Reiben's leg. Jackson was kneeling stalk still. Harper knew what he was doing, though it was lost on everyone else. Sharpshooters were notorious for having a great sense of things. And their best sense out of the 5 human's possess? Not their vision, although that helped immensely. No it was their hearing that was prized among everyone else.

Sharpshooter's hearing was to an eagle's sight, as Reiben had so eloquently put it. Harper found herself smiling as she knelt next to Jackson. She looked out over the field they had just come across, then her eyes drifted to Jackson's sharply cut features. Harper suddenly found herself gazing at Jackson rather than doing what she, as a sharpshooter, was supposed to do.

"What do you hear?" asked Jackson surprising Harper out of her trance.

"What? Oh um…" she paused to listen.

Nothing particular stuck out in the quiet. Actually that was peculiar. There was no noise at all. Not a bird or bug or a rustle of leaves. She heard nothing.

"I don't hear anything," whispered Harper afraid she might disrupt the silence by speaking to loudly.

"Exactly…" said Jackson ominously.

Harper met his gaze confusion in her eyes. Her eyes asked the question, 'what does that mean?'

But Jackson turned away from her, his eyes hard. Harper was dumbstruck. He had never looked at her that way before, but she wrote it off to him being worried about something, which was also a little disconcerting. The sniper hardly ever got worried, or let it show. This was very bad for Jackson to look that way. Harper could feel the tension in the air as Jackson shifted his weight from his left knee to his right.

"Jackson?"

Harper cursed herself for sounding so much like a child, but it shocked Jackson out of his hardened state. He turned his normally soft eyes on her, but they were not soft. They were worried.

"Jackson what is it?" Harper whispered almost to quietly for herself to hear.

"I'm not sure," said Jackson realizing he was scaring her.

He laid a hand on her arm.

"I just have a feeling."

Harper searched the sniper's face for answers, but were unsuccessful. She furrowed her brows making Jackson snicker.

"Its probably nothing," Jackson assured her trying to make is voice light, but Harper could tell something was still nagging at him, though she didn't have time to ask any more questions because the captain and Horvath were coming back through the bushes.

"What is it?" asked Reiben as the group gathered around Miller.

"Machine gun. Probably MG-42," answered Horvath as he knelt next in between Mellish and Wade.

"Jesus," sighed Reiben under his breath. "Is that what got those guys?"

"Maybe one of them is our boy," suggested Mellish earning a glare from Harper, but snickers from everyone else.

"No, their patches are 82nd so your lucks not that good," said Miller instantly dispelling that thought from anyone's mind.

"Yeah well I don't know how fast the rest of you Betties are, but I'm thinken' if we detour this way, quick and quiet, the Krauts will never even know we were here."

Everyone looked at Miller who was in the process of taking all his heavy gear off. He said nothing so Reiben continued.

"So what I'm trying to say, Captain, is why don't we just go around the thing?"

For a second Miller didn't speak then he said, "I hear what your saying, but we can't go around."

Harper glanced to her left at Reiben who didn't look deterred at all, but it was Jackson who spoke next. After a few seconds pause Jackson said, "I'm with Reiben on this one sir."

Miller seemed surprised at the soft spoken sniper. He hardly ever went against the words of the captain, and had never before sided with Reiben. But Miller was not swayed from his point. The next to speak up was Mellish.

"Captain, we can skip it and still accomplish our mission. I mean this isn't our mission right?"

Miller looked at him, a blank expression on his face.

"Is that what you want to do Mellish? Leave it here so it can ambush another company?"

Everyone turned to Mellish waiting to see the private's reaction. Mellish let his head fall and he said, "no sir. I'm simply saying it seems like an unnecessary risk given our objective."

Harper almost laughed. Mellish was never this refined when he was talking to any other member of the squad. Miller stood up as Mellish was saying this.

"Our objective is to win the war," he growled making Mellish drop his gaze, ashamed.

"Sir, I just, uh, I don't have a good feeling about this one," said Reiben trying to defend Mellish.

"When is the last time you felt good about anything, Reiben?" Harper asked smiling, but no one else smiled.

Miller nodded sharply then put his helmet on. He got up, turned on his heel and started off through the underbrush. The rest of the squad sat still in their semi circle until Horvath got up and motioned for them to follow. They reluctantly did.

Harper stayed in between Jackson and Reiben as they moved through the underbrush. For some reason, Harper would much rather be out in the open on a field instead of in the forest where you could mistake a shadow for a German. They stayed low and fast seeing as the little hill between them and the German machine gun nest was just that. Little. All of a sudden they came out of the trees into a small clearing.

Miller knelt and waited for the squad to follow suit. Once they were again is the semi circle, Miller started speaking quickly and quietly.

"Alright. Three runners with suppressing fire. Mellish, you hook to the right, I'll go up the middle. Who's going left?"

He glanced around as no one said anything.

"Who's going left?" he asked getting angry he had to repeat himself.

Reiben, who was looking particularly angry, spit into the grass to show his disapproval of the side bar, Miller was taking them on. Suddenly, to Harper's horror, Jackson spoke up.

"I'll do it. I'll go left."

Reiben, and Mellish glared at him, but all Harper could do was stare open mouthed at him.

"No," she said quickly. "I will. I can run faster, and I'm not such a big target."

Jackson glared at her. "I said I would-"

"No! I will go sir," said Harper frantically turning her plea to her commanding officer.

Miller looked on her with interest.

"She is faster, Jackson," he said glancing at the tall sharpshooter.

Jackson's mouth fell open, but Reiben was quickest to speak.

"But sir, she's a… well a…"

"A woman?" asked Harper glaring at Reiben. "Has anyone ever told you, you are very observant?" she asked sarcastically.

"That's not what I was going to say," said Reiben quickly trying to cover his mistake and think of a better reason for objecting.

"That's enough," hissed Miller who was growing tired of the argument. He wanted to get this over with.

"Lewis, you go left."

Jackson's mouth fell farther open, if that was possible.

"But captain-" Jackson started, but Miller cut across him.

"Stuff it Jackson. I don't want to hear it. Upham, switch with Lewis, and linger in the rear."

Jackson shut his mouth but turned to Harper with pleading eyes. Harper could see the anguish in his eyes, but she set her jaw and turned to Upham. She took his rifle and he took her B.A.R and sniper rifle. He also had pleading eyes.

"I'll be fine," she said to her brother in law.

He didn't look convinced, but he said nothing. Miller continued talking.

"We advance on him until he has to change out his barrels. I think we should be able to hit him from grenade range."

As the flurry of exchanging weapons and ammunition continued, Horvath looked worried.

"Captain, why don't I go up the middle?"

"What with the way you run? Ha! No way," said Miller

"Maybe I should go left sir?" said Horvath, unwilling to give up.

Miller turned and glared at him.

"Maybe you should shut up!" he hissed, then he turned to Reiben. "Reiben base of fire."

Reiben, Mellish and Jackson, though not happy about the way things were going, quickly fell into step handing off grenades and pulling their packs and heavy gear off. To Harper's surprise, Wade, though he didn't even have a gun, was also preparing to go up the hill. Before Harper could address this however, Miller looked around at her.

"Sir?" she asked seeing his odd expression.

"You sure you can-"

"Sir no disrespect, but are you really asking me that? Do you really have that little faith in the opposite sex?" asked Harper cutting him off angrily.

"I was going to ask if your sure you ok to run. Didn't you get hurt yesterday?" Miller answered her.

"Oh," said Harper feeling her cheeks flush furiously. "Yes sir. I'm fine."

"Good," said Miller amused. He turned back to the squad who was now ready. "Mags and clips where you can reach them. And extra grenades for the base runners. Lets go."

He took off out onto the field down the middle and Harper and Mellish went right and left. Reiben, Jackson, Horvath and Wade followed at a distance, though Jackson was running as close to Harper as he could. Upham disappeared behind a cow carcus at the bottom of the hill, and the chaos began.