8.
~ Arthur dreamed of a girl with an impossibly beautiful face. Her eyes were rich and dark. Her lips were full and soft. He dreamed he kissed her and held her close. He dreamed she smelled like soap and they whispered things to each other. In his dream he loved her. Not in a physical way, but in a way that made his chest expand and feel completely happy.
~ He woke up in a hospital. The dream had been so real he had half expected to see the girl waiting for him. Instead, Captain Cobb was sitting in the tiny chair next to him.
"Morning." The Captain said as Arthur blinked at the sunlight streaming into the ward.
"What happened?" the Lieutenant groaned as a headache rolled over his brain.
"A building fell on you." Cobb said with a laugh.
"Oh." Arthur said. He moved his feet and arms. His back hurting slightly as he tried to sit up straighter.
"How do you feel?" Cobb asked him.
"Terrible." Arthur sighed as he felt dizzy.
"Doctor says you'll live." Cobb told him.
"The boy?" Arthur asked.
"He didn't make it." Cobb told him. "You should know, the Colonel was very impressed with what you did. He's putting you in for a promotion and a purple heart."
"Great." Arthur said in a dead voice. He remembered the little boy in the fire. The child had been too afraid to move. Arthur hadn't reached him in time. He couldn't save him. A medal and a promotion didn't make up for it.
"You need to rest up. I need you back with the unit before the week is out." Cobb told him as the Captain stood to leave.
"Yes, Sir." Arthur said numbly.
He wanted the girl he dreamed about back. He closed his eyes as Cobb left him. His pain medication working, and dropping him back into the land of dreams.
~ Ariadne had slept soundly after her shift ended. She had expected to be back in the recovery ward when her shift started again. But a sudden change in the schedule sent her to laundry where she spent the next 8 hours folding sheets and counting medical supplies. It was mindless work that let her thoughts wander. Her memory retuning to the American officer who kissed her.
After her shift ended, she traditionally went back to the dormitory upstairs. She normally took a hot bath and read, sewed or found something else to do till lights out.
Instead, she stopped at the recovery ward. She wanted to see her solider, Arthur, again. She wanted to see if he was awake. Wanted to see what he was like without the drugs.
The ward nurse waved at her as she walked through the beds of sleeping men. Her eyes searching for Arthur. She was disappointed to see his bed from that morning was empty.
"The American solider," She turned to the ward nurse. "Where is he?
Irrationally, she feared he had died while she was sleeping or in laundry.
"He was discharged an hour ago. You just missed him." The ward nurse said.
"Already?" Ariadne asked. "He was really hurt."
"He was stubborn." The nurse said with a shrug. "I'm glad he's gone. He wouldn't listen to anyone and refused to let anyone help him. Did what he wanted." She grumbled.
Ariadne felt disappointed. Part of her wanted to see him again. The drugs she had given him might mean he wouldn't even remember her.
She turned around and squared her shoulders. Walking back out of the ward with all the confidence and steel she had learned in her profession.
~ Arthur's back hurt. He winced as he dressed himself. He didn't want to admit to Cobb that another night in the hospital would have been a good idea. Yet, he couldn't stay another second in that place. He had been surrounded by seriously wounded soldiers. Some of them burned badly or missing limbs. He knew too well that such a thing might happen to him. That he might be laying in that same hospital bed soon enough. His body broken and useless. Being cared for by that grumpy nurse who said she had to help him go to the bathroom.
He shook his head and focused instead on the meeting.
His wounds would heal, and he didn't want to be left out of the invasion plans.
"Operation Overlord." The Colonel told the officers in front of him. "We will be apart of a large scale operation that will take back the French coast with extreme aggression and force. Our intelligence says that the beach is intrenched with enemy forces. They have the higher ground and we can expect heavy casualties as we retake that part of Hitler's Europe.
Arthur looked over the map of France. A long mess of sweeping red arrows coming over one beach. The American, British, Canadian and French forces would attack from the waters. They would attack a beach called Normandy.
~ The Matron had assembled her most impressive of Red Cross nurses in to the nurse's dinning hall.
"Our fearless troops have decided to take back the French soil that was so barbarically stolen for her rightful people." She said in a voice she clearly meant to inspire her audience, but only sounded condescending and overly dramatic.
"Red Cross doctors and nurses will be needed to assist the many wounded on the terrible battlefield of war." She went on as the nurses watched her performance with little interest.
"The Red Cross is asking for her volunteer nurses to once more, stem the tide of death and bring hope to countless families. That their loved ones, their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers will live and come back home. All thanks to your efforts." The Matron went on in a long winded speech.
"Glad she wasn't on the recruiting campaign." Trixie said and Ariadne almost smiled.
Her thoughts were still on her mysterious Lieutenant. That strange man who had kissed her and made her heart beat faster.
'Arthur.' She said his name in her head. The only place she could say it.
It occurred to her then, that Arthur might be at the front. He might be one of the wounded. That strange man who had climbed into a burning building to save a child. A man who had kissed her and told her he loved her. Drugged or not, he seemed to mean it.
"So we ask that you step forward and show the evil doers what real courage looks like." The Matron was saying as Ariadne stood up and walked to the sign in sheet on the table.
All eyes were on her as even the Matron was surprised her speech had been so moving.
"Nurse." The matron said once the other nurses had followed Ariadne's example and sighed up to go to the front.
"Doctor Kikie told me what happened with the American solider from the bombing the other day."
Ariadne froze. Her face burning hot. She had thought the Doctor wouldn't say a word about it. Now she was about to be told off by the boney, harpie like Matron.
"He did?" Ariadne said nervously.
"Yes, he said that you were very professional and caring to the solider. That you knew exactly what needed to be done without being told. Most doctors do not like to have a nurse do things without being ordered to, but, Doctor Kikie is different. He has his own way of doing things and we, as nurses, must respect that preference."
"Yes, Matron." Ariadne said dutifully.
"After speaking with Doctor Kikie and reviewing your records, I have promoted you to Senior triage nurse and you will follow Doctor Kikie to the front. He has requested you personally. Report to the training ward immediately." The Matron said.
"Yes, Matron." Ariadne said in surprise. She hadn't expected a promotion to the more exciting and less grunt work world of triage. Her days of laundry, washing floors and cleaning bed pans were over. She was now a Senior Nurse.
"You must listen to your instructors and study hard. Remember that ignorance is not and excuse." The Matron said smoothing down her apron.
"Yes, Matron. Thank you, Matron." Ariadne said with a curtsey.
"Did I just hear right?" Trixie hissed at her after the Matron left. "Were you just promoted out of crap work hell?
"So it would seem." Ariadne laughed. She couldn't believe after almost four years of paying her dues, she was finally a real nurse. One that would learn to assist in operations and could wear the nurse's emblem on her shoulder and collar. She was now one of those fearless Red Cross nurses she had admired so much from her hospital bed in Dover.
~ Arthur shifted uncomfortably in his new uniform. The stiff fabric hadn't been broken in and it was too tight. It was appropriate that he had a new uniform issued to him to match his new rank as Captain. General Eisenhower himself had shook his hand at an impromptu ceremony that was held to promote a few officers and hand out medals.
"Congratulations, Son." Eisenhower had said shaking Arthur's hand and telling the young man he represented the best of America. A Purple heart pinned to the newly christen Captain.
Arthur felt the shinny, new Captain's bars looked odd on his shoulders.
"Don't worry." A voice said. "You might not wear them for long."
Arthur turned to see Lieutenant Nash. A nervous looking man who would be with his new command for the invasion.
"What makes you say that?" Arthur said coldly. He missed Cobb. He felt like he was another older brother to him was someone he could unload his fears on. Cobb listening to him in that patient and kind way.
But Cobb had been promoted as well. Eisenhower not shaking his hand as the General had to leave mid ceremony. Cobb was now a Major and would be following the infantry to the front as they would attempt to take back the beach.
"The Krauts have the higher ground. It'll be a blood bath." Nash said.
"Lieutenant. You are free to think whatever you want about your orders. You are free to think your going to die, I'm going to die and our men will die. But you will never say that out loud. Not to me, not to the men. To the men you will stand firmly behind the mission and make them believe that we will take back that beach." The Captain said firmly to the new Lieutenant he had been issued.
He didn't care for Nash very much. The Lieutenant was very negative about going to battle. Very afraid that he was going to die. Arthur didn't trust him. Didn't want to have to go into battle with such a cowardly, little man.
"Yes, Sir." Nash sighed in a sleazy voice.
"Sir!" A corporal said coming to the barracks. "You have a telegram."
Arthur paused as a fear gripped him. Formal news of David's death had come in a telegram. Bad news always came in telegrams.
"Your girl home break up with you?" Nash asked as he opened a flask and took a swing. Ignoring the rules about drinking on duty.
"It's from my sister." Arthur said looking over the short sentences Beth had sent him.
The Captain sighed and re-read the telegram again.
"My brother Jacob was shot down over the Pacific." He said soberly. "He's dead."