46.

~ Arthur kept waiting for something bad to happen. To wake up, and still be back in that dark room. For those dead Nazis to rise from their snowy graves and pull him back.

"How... how long were we there?" Arthur stammered.
"We got the wounded out about fourteen days ago, Major." Eames said as the Lieutenant drove slowly over the snowy road.

"Fourteen days?" Arthur whispered. He couldn't believe it had been that long. Sometimes it felt like years, but he had been asleep for so long, he hadn't felt time pass. The room he was being held in had no windows and they never fed him after he attacked Little Prick.
"Yeah, sorry it took so long. We had to go against orders to get you." Eames said as finally the trucks arrived at an Army camp.

The gruff colonel was shouting at people who thought they were Nazis in their German trucks.

"I said hold your fire, you stupid fuck." He shouted at a scared looking infantry man.

~ Arthur had to be forced to eat. The hot soup they gave him made his empty stomach clench shut. His last meal of bread and cheese had been twelve days ago and before that, five days with no food. Also in the back of his mind was the fear that he would be beaten after he ate. That was how it was when he was in the guard house.

He would eat the bread, the cheese. Then he was beaten.

"Eat it slow, son." The colonel said once they were alone in the officer's tent. Arthur ate two spoonfuls before he felt he might throw up.

"I can't, Sir." He said feeling himself want to lurch as he was suddenly too dizzy to sit up.

"Hey!" Burch shouted. "I didn't risk a court marshal so you could eat like a bird. Trying to keep your figure for the ball, Cinderella?"

Arthur took a few more sips of soup.

"We have to make you strong again. We have to get you home to your wife, remember?" He said lighting a cigarette.

"Can I have one of those?" Arthur asked pointing to the cigarette. "That little prick who captured us, he smoked all of mine."
"If you finish your soup." The colonel said with a smile.

~ Colonel Nathaniel Burch wasn't court marshaled. It seemed even those above him were a little afraid of him.

For a few days, Arthur was kept at the Army camp till he got his strength back. He spent his days sleeping and reading from the Colonel's small collection of books. The older man had a taste for the classics. Books Arthur had not read since he was in school. It felt like another person had read those same words. A young man with no idea what war was really about. How he longed to be that young man again.

He poured over the Iliad and Odyssey as if they held all the secrets of the world within them. The Nazi officer's talk of Odysseus and Penelope seeming especially poignant right now.

He slept on an Army cot and didn't venture outside the officer's tent. Eames would bring him dinner and the two of them would smoke and talk about nothing important.

When he shaved each morning, he would stare for a long time at his reflection. He had changed somehow in the three weeks he was prisoner. It wasn't just the sudden weight loss or the days of starvation, sleeping and the cold. His face looked haunted now.

At night, before he went to bed, he propped up the silver cigarette case on an ammo box and fell asleep looking at her picture. Her delicate face that held the barest hint of a smile. Her brown dress, falling so beautifully over her figure. He wondered what her figure looked like now. He wondered if she was showing signs of their child's growth.

When he told Eames and the colonel what Little Prick had said he had done over her picture, they had laughed.

"Son, that's not true." The colonel said smoking a smelly cigar and winning all their money at poker. "Nazis can't get a hard dick. That's why they became Nazis." He told Arthur as if the major was stupid.

They had all enjoyed a good laugh and Arthur felt much better when he looked at his sweetheart, his forever, in the silver case.

~ "What do you mean I can't telegraph my wife?" Arthur almost shouted a week after his rescue.

"Son, command has to debrief you and I wouldn't plan on that happening any time soon. Things are getting pretty heated for us right now." The gruff colonel said. "You orders are to stay with us as we go into Berlin."

"My wife thinks I'm MIA. She thinks I'm dead." Arthur said beseechingly. "Just... just let me send her a letter at least. Let her know I'm alright. You can check it if you want to. I wouldn't say anything about where I am or what's happening." Arthur promised.

"I have my orders." The gruff colonel said. "Don't worry, war is almost done. You'll be home before fall."

~ Fall. His baby was due in fall.

~ "What's this?" Ariadne asked one morning after the snow had started to melt. Robert had presented her with a small package. It was the most beautifully wrapped thing she had ever seen. She had never received a present so nicely presented.

"You won't know until you open it." Robert teased.

Ariadne tried no to smile, and gently unwrapped the package. She hated to disturb the beautiful wrapping paper. The lovely professionally tied bow.

Robert was laughing.

"It's alright to rip it open." He said.

Ariadne took a sharp breath and her heart broke.

Baby shoes. Fine, little white shoes that were just as well made as adult shoes.

"I saw them and I couldn't resist." Robert explained. "It's the new trend. Buying cute shoes a baby can't possible use, and will grow out of in two seconds."

"Robert... I..." She tried to collect her thoughts. "I can't accept these."

"Their not for you. Their for the baby." He told her.

"I know, but it's too expensive." She said gripping tightly to the precious, little shoes. She didn't want to let go of them. They were too cute. Too perfect.

"Please take them." Robert said gently. "I saw them and I wanted to get them for the baby."

She nodded her head. She had been looking at all the baby things in shop windows lately. She could barely resist buying out the store of all the wonderful clothes and furniture.

She had to use a great deal of control when she only bought a bassinet and a few jumpers for her expected arrival.

Lately, her heart had stopped hurting. She no longer felt the need to stay out in the cold. No longer wanted to not eat. Lately, she had felt sad and lonely, but no longer in any pain.

It was strange how she felt so alone these days. She could tell Robert was sensing it.

"Have you heard anything from the war office?" He asked as she ran a finger over the shinny buckles of the baby shoes.

"Nothing." Ariadne said sadly. "I probably won't know anything for certain for a long time." She sighed.

Robert looked at her with those clear, responsive eyes.

"Ariadne, you know that no matter what happens, I'll be there for you. I don't want you to feel like you're all alone." He said.

She blinked and felt her heart race.

"Robert..." She wasn't sure what she would say next because Maurice started yelling for help in his room. He wanted water, he wanted to sit up. Where was everyone? No one was ever around when he needed them.

Ariadne and Robert looked at each other uncomfortably before she left him to attend to the older man.