39.

~ Ariadne would never admit it, but she loved the new clothes Beth had bought for her. The fabric was rich and well put together. She had never had clothes this nice or fashionable before. Clothes that made her figure so appealing and feminine. She almost looked like another girl. A girl who didn't walk out of France half dead and on bleeding feet. A girl who never hid from air raids, or cleaned bloodied soldiers. A girl who never drifted alone in the world most of her life. In these clothes, she was someone else.

Ariadne reveled in the feel of a pretty tweed dress she would wear to dinner. It was a beautiful, warm fabric and she wished she had something like this while in London. She marveled at how her mood was lifted by new things.

Beth had waned to splurge on a whole new wardrobe, but Ariadne insisted on only getting the basics. Shirts, skirts, only one new dress and a new pair of shoes. She needed nothing else.

"I'm going to have to teach you how to buy clothes." Beth joked.

They both agreed it would be for the best not to tell Lydia about the pregnancy. The whole situation of her last son marrying some stranger had upset her. Knowing that there was a baby involved would only cause the lady of the house more distress.

For now, they had a dinner to get through.

~ "Ariadne, tell us of your duties as a nurse. I hear they can be quite daunting. Cleaning people up and all that. It's something I could never do." Linda said with a shutter as the three women sat down for dinner.

Ariadne looked up from her plate. She was enjoying the mashed potatoes the cook had brought out and was embarrassed to feel judgmental eyes on her as she enjoyed good food. Linda using a special emphasis on her name. Teasing her.

"Oh, um." She fumbled as she tried to sit up more lady like. Coping Beth's easy grace at the dinner table. "Not too much to tell." She said meekly.

"It has to be hard work. My dear Henry wanted to get married, so what was I to do? A wife finds herself limited in war work." Linda laughed in a sweet innocent voice. "Poor Henry, God rest his soul." She added casting a pious look at Lydia who nodded approvingly.

Ariadne took a good look at Linda. She was everything Ariadne was not. Tall, and with magical red hair and bright green eyes. Her arms and legs were long and her clothes were even nicer then Beth's. She was a stunning woman. Clearly better suited to Arthur then Ariadne. Anyone could see that.

Linda laughed.

"I thought about nursing, but I mean, I'm not very good at cleaning up after all that sickness. I'll leave that to people who are good at that kind of work."

Ariadne could feel the thinly veiled insult coming.

"Like you, Dear." Linda said happily to Ariadne. "I'm so glad you have a profession to fall back on. One never knows what to expect in this uncertain world. We don't know what will happen when the war is over. It must be a comfort to know you won't be destitute."

"She won't be destitute." Beth said lazily. "When Arthur is home he will go back to the firm. In fact, Arthur has been encouraging her to go to medical school."

"A doctor?" Linda asked in a too sweet voice. "How modern. Personally I would never had neglected my Henry for a silly career. Family is the most important thing." She said looking at Lydia.

"It certainly is." Lydia agreed.

"And as women, we are the heart of the family. It's selfish to pursue interests that would take us away from our husbands and children." Linda added.

"Women are managing homes, families and work just fine right now." Beth said glaring at Linda.

"Oh Beth, you and your silly ideas." Linda scolded. "This is war time. The men are away. Once their home again, things will go back to normal."

"I worry about the home Arthur will come back to." Lydia said sadly.

"Don't worry, Lydia." Linda said soothingly. "When Arthur is home, we can sort out everything."

Ariadne felt there was a conspiratorial air between Lydia and Arthur's ex-girlfriend.

"When my brother gets home, I'll imagine the two of you will find a nice home nearby. I want to visit you." Beth said brightly to Ariadne.

"Oh, I hope so." Ariadne said with a smile.

"I bet Arthur would love the company of your visits, Beth. With his wife at... work." Linda said 'work' with an sigh.

Ariadne didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to defend herself against these strangers. She couldn't steel her spine against the catty insults and plotting of women who she didn't know. Women who had money, and family.

If she talked back, Lydia might just fly into a rage and throw her out of the house. Then where would she go?

~ The doctor Beth had found was a pleasant, capable man who told Ariadne gently that, despite healing from a broken leg, she should count on being a new mother in summer.

Ariadne slept peacefully in her guest room at night and enjoyed fresh foods and other luxuries that she hadn't had since the war started. Her one pain, was that Arthur was not there with her.

Ariadne worried that while she was warm and well fed, her husband might be cold and hungry. She had terrible thoughts of him left for dead in a ditch or worse, captured by the enemy.

Beth told her to stop thinking about it. That such thoughts would be bad for the baby and create a sad child.

~ Arthur was cold. He had never remembered being this cold in his life. A wintery snow storm had stopped the advancement dead and the men were forced to settle in a small village outside of Germany. Another few days and they would march into Hitler's heart.

The American and British forces had not wanted to separate. Instead, blazing a trail right though the worst of the desolation.

"From what I hear, the Red Army is closing in on Berlin as well. We may get to meet some Russians." Eames said as Arthur tried to warm his hands up enough to write back to Ariadne.

Her newest letter was about her and Beth shopping for the baby and starting classes as NYU. He had no idea what his mother thought about the prospect of a grandchild and a daughter-in-law in med school. He suspected his wife and sister hadn't told her any of these recent developments.

He scratched her name on the fine white paper and tried to think of something to say to her.

Over the past few days he had seen horrible things. Bodies, piled like old socks in liberated death camps. He saw the naked bodies of skeletal men, women and children. All emaciated, all hairless.

In one rail station, the helpless victims were all executed while trying to flee from a cattle car train. Their bodies left to rot as delicate white snow fell on them.

Cobb had taken all of it especially hard as Arthur felt the coldness of the winter seep into his heart. Protecting it from feeling too much.

"My wife, my children. I can't seem to remember their faces anymore. I want to see their beautiful faces again." Cobb said as if in a trance.

"You will." Arthur said numbly. "Their safe and sound back home. Their safer there then anywhere else in the world right now."

"I know. I just... I want to go home. I have to get back home to my children. Their still so young. My boy, he doesn't even know me. I miss my wife, I never should have left her." Cobb said as snow fell over the two men.

~ Arthur blinked. He couldn't write to his wife about what he was seeing here. Couldn't burden her with the images of so much death and destruction. All those shoes in a pile. Bodies left to rot in clumps till they didn't even look human anymore. So much life, just thrown away.

He knew he had to lie. He had to lie, and make her believe the lie. Make her never question it.

Ariadne,

I don't think I'll miss the Army when I'm home with you and the baby again. I don't see myself missing the food, or the marching, or sleeping in tents. The only good thing about the Army was it did get me a cute nurse in Paris.

I miss you so much. If I had just one wish, I would wish I was back home with you. I wish I could be there with you as you prepare for our child to be born.

I think the war will be over very soon. It feels like our enemy has nowhere left to run. It feels like those bullies are showing that they really are cowards.

Kiss the little one for me and tell Beth and Mother that I am well.

When you go to sleep tonight, wrap yourself up warm and tight and think of me. Wishing I could hold you.

Arthur

Arthur addressed the envelope and mailed it. He opened his cigarette case and looked at the sepia photo of Ariadne. Frozen forever on the Paris streets with him by her side. Her telegram about the baby tucked behind it.

~ A few days later, as Arthur and his men had made another advancement, an ambushed happened. He should have seen it coming. Should have suspected the desperate actions of the enemy would lead to this. Their victories had made him and his men complacent and careless.

A field they were marching over was too still. Too silent. Like a graveyard where not even the wind would stir the trees.

Suddenly, their tank ran aground into an unseen ditch and almost tipped over. The tank's guns facing down to the ground when the attack happened. Arthur barely had enough time to realize a trap had been dug for the heavy tank to fall into before the tree line lit up with gun fire. Hard bullets cutting down the men around him. Puffs of red blood hitting the air as his men were practically sawed in half by machine gun fire.

The gun fire was hot and relentless as Arthur and Cobb ducked down into the trench with their tank. Their men firing back as the Major drew his side arm and he and Cobb shot back at the dark shapes in the trees. The tank protected them from the worst of the fire fight as Arthur called to his men to surrender.

He heard Cobb shouting in pain and took a sharp breath at seeing dark red blood on white snow. The colonel had been shot in the leg.

"Sir?" The skinny Corporal shouted back. Fear written plainly on his face as a man next to him was hit in the neck and killed. His contrasting sharply on the white snow.

"We surrender!" Arthur growled taking out the white handkerchief he had used so often when Ariadne cried. He pined it on the barrel of his riffle and waved the white make shift flag in the air.

He knew he had to do it. Cobb was wounded, he couldn't see Dax and the field was carpeted with the blood and bodies of his men.

The Nazis stopped their fire at the Major's shouts of: "Stop! Wir Ergeben uns!"

"Sir, were just giving up?" The skinny Corporal said looking scared as the Nazis advanced out of the trees. The band of them holding weapons trained on Arthur's few remaining men. Cobb was gasping hard at the wound to his leg.

"They have us out maned and out gunned Corporal." Arthur said soberly. "They will kill us all if we don't."

~ Out of over 300 American and British troops that had been victims of the ambush. Arthur counted only 60 to have survived the fray. He surrendered his remaining men and their weapons to the enemy.

The Nazis were barking at them. Asking who the officers were. The trained response to all of them was to point to one of the dead. Never revealing that Arthur or Cobb were the only officers left now. The Colonel and Major dressed like enlisted men.

Arthur helped Cobb to stand as their captures shot and killed the most critically wounded.

"Walk, Cobb." Arthur said harshly as the colonel leaned on the major. "If they think your too badly hurt, they'll kill you." The Major searched the bloodied snow for Lieutenant Eames and didn't see him among the living or the dead.

'Bastard had better make it out and get help.' He thought as the Nazis made the survivors march into the cold darkness. Arthur recognized the dead, staring eyes of Dax as they marched past the bodies of their brothers in arms. The enemy leaving their comrades in the snow. The Major turned away. Not wanting to remember his friend this way. His now clouded eyes looking out from a lifeless body.

~ An ocean away, Ariadne woke up from a nightmare.