9.

~ Arthur's family had a phone in their house and he was able to call them before the fleet would leave for the shores of Normandy.

"It happened over a month ago." Beth said. "We didn't want to tell you till we were sure."

Arthur didn't say anything. Jacob had been more like Arthur then the rest of the family. Like their father, both sons had been quite and reserved. It struck the Captain that he was the only son left.

"How is Dad?" He asked.

"Oh, he's alright." Beth said holding back tears. He could tell by the sound of her voice that she was lying.
"Mother?" He asked.

"Mother." Beth groaned. "Mother is mother." She said dryly.

Arthur nodded and looked out of the streets of London. He was in a red phone booth that was unique to this area of the world. It had started to rain and he was glad to be in this secluded spot that was sheltered and isolated.
"Tell me..." Beth said choking back a sob. "Tell me whats happening with you. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Arthur said numbly. "I got a promotion. I'm a Captain now."

"Arthur, that's wonderful!" Beth said. He could tell she was smiling.

"Yeah." He said sadly into the phone. "Shook General Eisenhower's hand and everything."

"Is he important?" Beth asked.

Arthur laughed.

"Beth, I might not be able to call you for awhile. So, I don't want you to worry if you don't hear from me for a few weeks. If I can't call, I'll write."

"Arthur, you have to make it home. Okay?" Beth was saying as his eyes caught the sight of something he didn't think was real.

Out in the rain, he saw her. The girl he dreamed about. He squinted past the glass of the phone booth as she walked past him. Her large brown eyes slipping over him and not seeing him.

She was in a blue dress and was carrying an umbrella to protect her from the summer rain.

'She was real?' He thought as the dream raced back to him. Her lips on his and the way her hips felt in his hands.

"Arthur?" Beth came back over the phone. "Are you there?"

The Captain watched as the girl he dreamed about stepped lightly off the curb, and onto a double decker bus. It's panels lined with war propaganda for victory.

"Beth, I have to go. I'll call you back." He said and hung up.

He lunged out of the funny, red phone booth and dove headlong into a gaggle of old women in WVS uniforms.

"Mind yourself, GI!" One of them shouted at him as the ladies giggled.

He found himself chasing the double decker bus his dream girl had stepped on. A real girl, a face he hadn't just imagined.

"Wait!" He shouted as the bus picked up speed and made a turn.

He gave chase, but a car cut him off. Giving him a rude honk and it's driver shouting about him running in the streets with a war on. He ran around the cars only to find the bus, the girl, was gone.

~ Ariadne smoothed out her new uniform. Her promotion to senior nurse meant she now wore a dark gray and not pale gray or blue. The fabric was heavily starched and it was as crisp as paper.

She felt the butterflies in her stomach go off as she tried to pin her nurses cap on her head. Her graduation pin on her collar signifying she was a true Red Cross nurse and ready for anything. The Matron congratulating her for being the top of her class.

"I was also top of my class, Nurse." She told her. "Perhaps one day you will follow in my footsteps."

"Hopefully, Matron." Ariadne said meekly. The last thing in the world she wanted was to be like the Matron.

~ "You look gorgeous." Trixie said sarcastically as Ariadne re-pinned her hat.

"You look gorgeous, Nurse." Ariadne corrected her. Trixie and another girl in their dormitory saluted her before bursting into giggles.

Ariadne felt different. Her back hurt from standing up so strait all the time these days.

"We are proud of you." Trixie said as she fished a package from under her pillow.

"What's this?" Ariadne asked as Trixie handed her the brown paper package.

"Something the girls and I made you." Trixie said innocently.

Ariadne looked at them in surprise. She hadn't received a birthday present in years. Not even from the Family back in France. She wasn't used to gifts for any reason.

"Not everyday a girl graduates top of her nursing class and goes to the front."

"Trixie." Ariadne said as her fingers grazed over the wrapping tied with red string.

"Open it!" Trixie demanded.

Ariadne couldn't fight the grin on her face as she carefully unfolded the package. Inside was a small, handmade pillow. Her name was thickly stitched at it's center in large, colorful, block letters. The girls she worked with had all lovingly stitched their own names into the pillow surrounding her name. Making her's not look so lonely.

Ariadne felt her eyes well with tears as she looked at each name. A task that took weeks if not more. The girls all secretly working on this project on their precious off time.

"Turn it over." Trixie prompted as suddenly, she didn't want to leave for the front. Suddenly realizing she did have friends here. There were people who cared for her.

She looked at the back. Stitched in the same big block letters as her name was:

When you see this, think of us.

London, 1944

She cried then as Trixie laughed at her.
"It's a pillow, and small. I checked, they will let you take it with you to the front. It was hard to think of a gift you could bring. They won't let you take much with you." She said.
"Thank you." Ariadne cried softly.

"There's even a little pocket I hid in the side for your valuables." Trixie said as she showed her a cleverly hidden opening at the side. A button sewn into the inner wall of the pillow.

Ariadne never felt so happy.

~ Arthur tried to calm his shaking hands. He had thrown up outside the hastily constructed barrack. As the events of the day finally caught up to him. The Allies had aggressively taken back the beach, but it had cost them dearly.

Arthur had seen men shot dead before him. Seen their bodies blown up in the mud and then washed back out with the surf. The deaths were so random and it could have just as easily have been him that was killed, and not the poor soul at his side.

Nash was killed. The coward had hidden behind the shore brakes as other men took fire from the Nazi gun men. An angry British Lieutenant had pulled him out of his hiding place and had pushed him back into the line of advancement where he was cut down instantly.

"My mum, always thinks a cup of tea will cure anything." The British Lieutenant said handing Arthur a cup.

Arthur sighed and didn't want it.

"Don't worry, I put sugar in it." The Lieutenant said showing him a small flask. Arthur had to smile at seeing that.

The British Lieutenant, Eames, had stayed close to Arthur after Nash was blown up. The two of them taking out a bunker that was shooting up the beach. Turning the sand red with the blood of farm boys who had no clue what they were walking into. Most of their unit had been killed and they left what few comrades they had left to try and take out the cement bunker. As their men provided cover fire, he and Eames snaked around to a more sheltered area of the beach.

They saw the two Nazis peeping out at the invasion as he and Eames hid behind rocks. Arthur took his rifel and, thinking back to his days of hunting with his father, shot the gunnery men in the head. He had never killed anyone before. Never taken the life of someone who had a mother and a name. Who had family who would miss them and depended on them.

Suddenly, in the heat of battle, he didn't care. He hated the enemy. Not because of their invasion of France and the horrible rumors of what they were doing. He hated them for the young men he was seeing blown to bits right before his eyes.

~"You know I was at Dunkirk in June of '40? I was there for the evacuation." Eames said as the men sat on ammo boxes and drank their tea. They could see Red Cross boats coming in to help the wounded.

"Really?" Arthur said as Eames handed him a cigarette.

"Yeah. It was a mess. Not as bad as all this though." He said pleasantly. As if Normandy beach had just been rained out and not a horrific title wave of human death.

"Starting to think I need to stay away from beaches." Eames told him with a smile.

Arthur wasn't amused. He still had blood on his hands from where he tried to help a medic hold together a young man's body.

He felt there was no way they could win this war. They had taken back the beach, but the cost had been too high. The loss of young lives had been the price to take back this piece of land. The Enemy was too well intrenched in the country and their would be more lives lost.

"This was just one day." Eames was saying. "This was a bad day. Tomorrow will be better."

Arthur shook his head as he felt the liquor seeping into his blood. Warming him.

"Don't be such a stick in the mud." Eames said. "We'll put Hitler on the ropes yet."

~ Ariadne's hands were shaking. She had assisted in trauma before, but never like this. Never in a bunker that just a few hours ago, had been the hide out for Nazi artillery fire.

From this cemented stronghold, the enemy would shoot at the helpless boys on the beach. A group of boys who now were sheltered as Doctor Kikie worked to stem the tide of blood loss.

Ariadne had been proud of herself. She had met the doctor's needs at every angle. In her training, she had worked closely with Doctor Kikie for 18 hours a day.

The older man telling his staff of only 5 nurses what to expect, and what he expected them to do. He didn't lie to them about anything. Telling them that while it was true they would be following the front line as it pushed the Nazis back, there was a real possibility of being shot. Or worse, captured and all the terrible things that could happen to a woman who had been captured.

The more worried girls had carried a hypodermic needle filled with morphine hidden in their pulled up hair style. If they were captured, they meant to take the easy way out.

After almost 20 hours of helping Doctor Kikie, of watching young men bleed to death on the beach. She was released from duty. There was still work to be done, but they needed a break. Red Cross reinforcements had arrived and had taken over the bunker. Started pulling back the bodies of the dead from the beach and the ocean.

She was still shaking as she washed her apron in the little metal tub the other nurses had used for laundry. No time for a proper wash of uniform and body. It was scrub your apron as clean as you can, wash your hands and face, eat your dinner, go to bed in your clothes, and hope a bomb doesn't hit you while you sleep. In a six more hours you have to do it all over again.

'It wasn't worth it.' Ariadne decided as she curled her exhausted body onto her cot. She could hear another nurse cry herself to sleep.

'Nothing was worth all of that death.'