5.
~ Air raid were nothing new. They had frightened Ariadne at first but she soon adapted. Like her nurses training, the Blitz drove the fear right out of her. She would wait in the dark with the other scared nurses and patients. Hearing the bombs grow louder and louder as children panicked and cried.
After the all clear, they would emerge from the shelters to see new destruction. Buildings reduced to a pile of bricks and wood. People sifting through their homes looking for anything that could be saved.
The public shelters were always crowded, smelly and too hot. Ariadne and Trixie didn't wait in the shelters like everyone else. Their training was to announce to those in charge that they were nurses and see what help they could provide. It was engrained into them from the first day of nurses training that they had a responsibility to care for the wounded, no matter what.
There was very little wounded from the air raids these days. The public was too well informed and used to the bombings to cause many casualties. After the horrors of the Blitz, no one had to be told twice to get to the shelters.
The nurse's main worries were the older people having heart problems from the scare the bombing put in everyone. For kids getting hurt by shrapnel they were constantly picking at.
With a mighty jolt, a bomb exploded near the public shelter. People were screaming and Ariadne was thrown off her feet. She had been trying to comfort a small boy who had taken broken glass to the face. The lighting in the dark trench like hole was poor and the air always smelled sour, tight and stuffy.
"Watch it now, Darling. I can't seem to go anywhere without beautiful girls falling all over me." A familiar voice said as strong hand caught her before she hit the ground.
"Eames?" She cried in the darkness.
A match blazed into life and she saw her savior's face appear in the weak light.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
"I'm Ariadne." She gasped as Trixie picked up the work of removing the glass from the boys face by the weak lamp light.
"Sorry." Eames said as he stepped into the light and she could see him better.
"I'm the girl you got off the beach of Dunkirk." Ariadne said as she couldn't believe her eyes.
Eames looked at her for a long time.
"Well I'll be." He said with a smile.
~ "He's a cute one." Trixie said with a smile. "He rescued you?" She asked.
"Oh yes. I had been walking for days and I hadn't bathed or did my hair. My feet were bleeding and everything. He got me transit papers to come to England. They weren't taking civilians from the Dunkirk evacuation." Ariadne explained and then wished she hadn't.
She had made it a point to not talk about the evacuation. Memories of the family, of Phillip, the students, they were all too close.
"You never told me you evacuated France." Trixie said. "You English is so good."
"I lived in Canada till I was 10. My parents died of the influenza." Ariadne said sadly as the all clear siren let out.
She didn't like to think about coming to France as a child either. Her solitary arrival on that big boat in nothing but her thin, little dress. Holding just the few treasures she had also escaped France with. Perhaps it was her destiny to always wash up on some new shore, alone and with nothing.
"I'm glad your alright. I had worried about you." Eames was saying as he helped them out of the shelter and into the fresh air. He was very handsome and charming and Trixie fawned over him shamelessly.
"I was worried about you to." Ariadne said. "You didn't get into trouble because of me did you?" She asked.
"No, I get into trouble because of me." Eames laughed as he made sure the shelter was empty. "Why I'm on air raid duty right now." He explained. "I just happened to find my way to some rationed cigarettes and decided to spread the wealth."
"I'm working at the hospital, with the Red Cross." Ariadne explained.
"Excellent, so when we take back Paris you'll be there." Eames said.
Trixie gave her a look.
"I hope so." Ariadne said, and meant it.
"I see my relief." Eames said as an older man with the ARP walked over to them. "I have to get home. My best girl is cooking tonight and I don't want to miss that."
"Oh." Trixie said looking heartbroken. "You have a girlfriend."
"Afraid so." Eames said with a wink before he said his goodbyes to the ladies.
He stopped to give Ariadne a hug before leaving them. Trixie handing Ariadne her bag of clothes.
"Rotten luck." Trixie said with a sigh.
Ariadne smiled. She liked Eames, but her heart didn't race like she knew it was supposed to when a girl fell in love. Still, she felt happier at seeing him again. Something from that terrible time that was good.
"Let's go home." She said to Trixie as the pretty American girl watched Eames leave.
~ America, 1943 ~
~ Arthur knew his place in this unit right away. He was under the direct command of a Captain Dominic Cobb. An all American officer who was very educated gentleman, but needed someone like Arthur to get the rest of the troops to follow orders.
Arthur had been promoted to Lieutenant right out of Officer's candidate school. He fitted the role of officer perfectly as the enlisted men would look to him to see how to act and what to do.
When they saw Arthur supporting all of Cobb's decisions, backing him up and having confidence in the Captain, the rest of the men under his command felt more comfortable following their leader.
Cobb had been in academia before joining the Army. He had been used to being around well educated, intelligent people all his life. His home was the classroom, not the trenches. It was a rude awakening to find himself with men who hadn't even gone to high school. Many of them could barely read and felt secretly that the Captain was a little too stuck up at times.
By sharp contrast, they responded well to Arthur's cold, no nonsense ethics. The Lieutenant having very little tolerance for their distrust of Cobb and wasn't afraid to let the men know it. The partnership worked remarkably well. Cobb appreciated being around a well read, educated man such as Arthur.
"My wife, Mal." Cobb said one evening as they were finally able to unwind from the day. It had been a strenuous few months as the third Army division was under intense training for something Cobb called 'Overlord'.
They were still stateside and Arthur and the rest of the men wondered when they would ever actually see any battle.
Arthur took the framed picture of an elegant looking woman. A small girl and baby in her arms.
"My son, James." Cobb nodded at the baby. "He was born just before I left. I haven't seen him since. He would be two years old now."
Arthur nodded but didn't trust himself to say anything. He had gotten a stern letter from his mother that Linda had married some middle aged accountant. He didn't want Cobb to ask him about his social life back home.
"Are you married? Any kids?" Cobb asked. Arthur cringed.
"No. I don't even have a girl back home." Arthur admitted.
All the men here had a sweetheart back home. They kept pictures of pretty girls tucked into bibles, helmets and pocket watches. Arthur wishing he had thought to bring a picture of a girl, any girl. One who he could say was his sweetheart.
He felt so out of step with the rest of the men. They had something to go home to. He had nothing.
"Well, when the war is over." Cobb said in that kind teacher's voice of his. "You'll be a war hero and the girls will line up to be with you."
Arthur had to laugh.
"I doubt that." He said. "My mother wanted me to marry this girl, Linda." He shook his head. "She wasn't my kind of girl." Arthur admitted.
"What is your kind of girl?" Cobb asked. The Captain rolled a cigarette with the Lieutenant as they sat in the officer's barracks. Watching the rain fall over the other buildings.
Arthur sighed. He wasn't even sure she could exist in reality.
"Someone who isn't selfish. Who thinks about others before herself." Arthur said.
"Linda wasn't any of those things?" Cobb asked as he lit his hand rolled cigarette.
Arthur snorted a laugh.
"What is Operation Overlord, Sir?" He asked instead.
"It means were going to London." Cobb said brightly. "Means were going to take back France."