Downton's back and it was AMAZING *fangirls*

Anyways, I actually quite liked writing this chapter; it's where things get intense …

It will alternate between Sybil and Branson's POV's, should be simple enough to tell who's who (I hope :P)

Reviews are love :D

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"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it"

- Deciderius Erasmus

July 1916

The silence was deafening.

Despite her distance from the line, Sybil had heard the bombardments of the previous few days as the allied forces tried to destroy the enemy line. Yet now it was silent. Somehow, hearing nothing from the front was worse than hearing the bombs. It meant the advance was most likely underway. Tom was there, risking his life yet again.

xxx

Branson spared a glance for the line of men to his right stretching down the full length of the trench, knowing on his left that it would be exactly the same. Looks ranging from fear to anger to acceptance covered their faces and Tom gripped his rifle to his chest, waiting for the signal to ascend the ladder.

A whistle pierced the air. An ominous sound in the previous silence. The signal to advance.

Branson took a deep breath and, gathering his courage, climbed up into a hail of bullets and out onto No Man's Land.

xxx

The doors burst open and the silence was pierced by the cries of wounded men and the rapid footfalls of both doctors and nurses racing to their aid.

Sybil could only watch in stunned silence as the beds filled up with new patients, recently brought off the front lines after encountering enemy fire.

The battle had begun, and it was over whelming. Sybil was thrown violently out of her comfort zone and into what could only be described as hell.

xxx

'Hell' wasn't near terrible enough a word to describe the scene unfolding before him. Branson had thought that the battle where he had been wounded was bad, but this … this was so much worse.

His mind drifted to Sybil, imagining how she was coping at the field hospital. It was strange to think that she was so close, yet so far from him at that very moment.

He suddenly flinched as warm liquid spattered his face and stole a glance to his left. His gaze fell to a man on the ground, the face he recognised, yet he couldn't put a name to it. He'd been shot in the head, and in some way Branson was jealous; a quick death and he was free of this nightmare. He felt sort of detached, rather than fearful, as he stared for a mere second at the unknown man, left lying on a battlefield with hundreds of others so far from home.

xxx

She was paralysed by fear as she stared in shock at the severely wounded soldier in front of her.

It felt like she was submerged in water, everything was in a blur around her and voices seemed muffled, far away. She felt as if someone had taken the oxygen out of the room as her breathing became erratic. She took a step back and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes to try and calm herself down.

Being there in the field hospital was nothing like she had imagined. She had pictured how bad things would be, but somehow it had ended up a hundred times worse. She thought she would have been okay due to all her time at the hospital in London, but this was different. It was just so much more intense than anything she had ever experienced. Injuries were far more serious than what she had previously handled. Everything was happening at a faster pace and she was constantly trying to catch up.

But she was determined not to back down. She had to prove her family wrong. She had to make Tom proud. He was fighting miles away in a freezing cold trench and she was relatively safe in a field hospital some distance from the line, and wasn't the one in the path of the bullets. She could do this; it was her duty as a nurse.

These men were risking their lives for their country; the least she could do is try to save them.

She thought about the wounded man; he was someone's son, maybe someone's husband, father, uncle.

He could have been Tom.

This last thought snapped her back to reality and her eyes flew open. Everything seemed clearer, and she knew what she had to do.

xxx

A bullet zipped through the air and brought Branson back to his senses in an instant. His eyes parted from his fleeting glance at his fallen comrade and back forward towards the unknown. The mud beneath his feet was thick and difficult to trudge through following days of rain.

He continued walking, hating his vulnerable state against an enemy who were clearly unaffected by the constant bombardment of their positions during the previous few days.

xxx

"Nurse!"

Her head snapped up as she realised a man was calling over to her. He was clearly a surgeon, one she had seen briefly before but figured he was based at another hospital. She took in his blood stained hands and the struggling patient he was attempting to keep still.

With newfound confidence she raced over to him, placing her hands on top of the surgeons to attempt to stem the flow of blood coming from his shoulder. She soon realised that his shoulder injury was the least of his worries as the surgeon began work on his stomach where a gaping wound was exposing his internal organs. Sybil forced herself to keep calm and retain pressure on the shoulder wound.

She looked down at his face and attempted to use soothing words to calm him down, as opposed to physical restraint.

The wounded continued to arrive, even long after the all the beds had filled. They had even been forced to lay men on stretchers on the floor to treat them. Sybil glanced at the boots scattered across the floor and the piles of discarded muddy and bloodied clothing. It was clear this battle was of an unimaginable magnitude, and Sybil dreaded the prospect of Tom being brought in though the door.

xxx

Time seemed to slow almost to a standstill.

Branson could hear it the split second before it landed. A soft whistling noise gradually increasing in pitch as it approached.

He barely had time to turn away before a strong force sent him flying backwards into the unknown.