Hi All ^_^

Sorry for the late update. And thank you for all new follower.

This chapter is un-beta-ed and since English is not my first language, if you have any ideas or see any mistakes, please poke. I'll really appreciate it.

"Excuse me. Can I see Sweet?" I asked a mechanic in the workshop.

The workshop was busier than usual. Since the Division received the news that Germans made an offensive attack at the Ardennes, the Transportation Corps has been acted quickly to call all available trucks and trailers throughout France and hurry-up the maintenance works to be ready to transport the Division to Bastogne. The higher-ups still seemed pretty confidence that the Infantry can hold the line, since the Intel predicted that the German forces facing the VIII Corps at four divisions. And that was VIII Corps's problem; First Army's problem. Not Airborne's problem. But still, we have to prepare for the worst.

"Sweet? Over there." he pointed a truck on the far end of the workshop "Hey Sweet! Ya got a Miss lookin' fo' ya!"

Sweet (his real name actually Jed Williams) looked up and grinned his pearly white teeth (Frank would be jealous). Like most of the Transportation Corps crew, he was a Black man.

"Mornin', Miss Jones. Lookin' fo' yer present? Finished it this morning."

"Please… call me Becca, Sweet."

"Nah, Miss. That will be not appropriate."

I sighed "If you say so, Sweet. So, can I see it?"

"Wait a minute, Miss."

Several minutes later he come back and gave me the thing I've been asked him to engrave several days ago. It's a Zippo lighter in black crackle finished with rounded bottom, as usual in this time of year. It's a regular Army issue but I asked Sweet to personalized it by engrave it. On one side, it's engraved with Jump Wings badge with two stars on the base of each wing, representing Normandy and Holland Campaign. On the other side, it's engraved with George's name and serial number on the cap and a Screaming Eagle on the body. It's perfect.

"Oh, Sweet…This is very nice. You really have a talent." I admired the lighter for a minute before finally I put it to my pocket.

"Thanks, Miss. That is very kind of ya." His face was beaming.

"No, Sweet. I'm the one who should say thank you. And for that…here're cigarettes. For you and your friends."

"Ya don' have to do that, Miss."

"I insist." and shoved six packs of cigarettes into his hand.

"Thank you, Miss. And I hope he like it." Sweet said kindly.

"Wish me luck." I smiled and nodded at him before I walked back to Easy's barrack.

I did cross my fingers, silently hoped George like my gift. The question now is 'how to give it to him?'

"Hey Becca, here's another one. Why was Hitler hit with a baseball?"

"I don't know, George. Because he's a racist?"

"No…because he did nazi it coming."

I chuckled "You're one crazy Portuguese."

Skip hollered with awful German accent without looking up from his cards. "Stop with ze Nazi jokes, zey make me führious!" And we roared with laughter.

We're playing poker with Malarkey, Bill, Babe and Skip and George have been doing this Hitler jokes and impersonation for an hour. My stomach already hurt from laughing. But apparently, George still has full supply of it. After they finally get rid of their hang over, they're back to their mischievous self. Nobody would think that they are elite squad trained to kill Germans.

Skip waved his hand "Wait…wait…wait…I got another one. How did Hitler get rid of aristocratic Germans?"

We all shake our heads. And then he did his hideous German accent again "Von by von"

We throw him cigarettes butts.

Malarkey piped in "I also know one. What's a Kraut's favorite number?"

"Nein!" We shout at once. We laugh at him because he's practically pouting.

"That's old stuff, mate. But thanks for trying anyway." George pats his back.

"Hey Becca, hear any news from higher ups?" Bill asked while shuffling the cards.

It has its perks working for the Colonel and Easy men know this. I'm their gossip queen.

"Well, General Taylor flew back to the States for some conference. Brig. Gen. McAuliffe takes the charge." I said

"Thank fucking God!", "Hallelujah!", and "But I haven't had a chance to shove my boots in his ass!" were the responses.

"And Dike?" Babe asked hopefully.

"He's somebody's favorite at the division, so he's not leaving anytime soon." I explained.

"The only passable officer we got is only Buck. Thank God, he came back from the hospital. Foley is okay but he's not experienced. And Peacock? Jesus! He'll get lost even though he had a map to locate his ass. How the Army doesn't realize that calculating distance and reading maps requires higher math skills than counting fingers and toes?!" Babe ranted.

Malarkey said glumly "And we haven't received our winter uniforms. If they send us to the front right now, we're colossally fucked."

Skip calmly said "I won't worry anything as long as besides me is a paratrooper. Besides, I'm pretty sure we're God's instrument to kick Hitler's ass. We will be just fine."

Malarkey "But we had a shithead for command."

George smiled confidently "We're badass paratrooper extraordinaire. We're the best. The sights of this patch alone," George pointed the Screaming Eagle patch on his shoulder "makes most soldiers run back to their Momma's titties." Then he added "You see, Easy depends on us now … Toccoa men. With a…what you called him, Becca? Troglodyte? Yeah…With a Troglodyte as our CO, we have to make sure his dumbness is not contaminated the kids. We show them replacement, officers and enlisted alike, what an elite paratrooper should be."

"What's Troglodyte?" Babe asked. His brows furrowed.

"Cave man…more or less." I said.

The men nodded their approval of Dike's new nickname. Malarkey mumble "Learn something new every day."

"That's why you have to do whatever we said, Babe. You're our little baby boy." Bill said to Babe.

"I'm just two weeks younger than you, asshole." Babe grumbles.

"Yeah, but you're acting like five years younger. And I'm your Sergeant, god dammit! Don't call me asshole, asshole!" And Bill smacked Babe's head; their usual loving gesture.

At that time, Joe entered the barrack. "Aw...look at you guys…precious little assholes. Regular knitting circle?" Almost everyone flipped him off. Joe just grinned as if that's the exact reaction he hoped. He molested Malarkey to find lighter, light his cigarette with his usual cocky manners and asked "Who's winning?"

"The latest round? Malarkey" I said. Malarkey was significantly cheerful today since he's starting to win in poker after disastrous games several days before that make him blown three months' pay.

Joe smirked and shoved Babe who sits next to me so he can plopped his butt right next to me. George who sat across of me raised one of his brows. Joe purposely ignored George's confusion and said "Really? That 'Luck of the Irish' must be starts to work, right Mick? By the way, Becca. Thanks for the Aspirin this morning. How you can talk over Doc to give you a full bottle? He's kinda a loner. But do you know he whipped Captain Winters and Welsh's butt when Moose got shot? He can be a badass if he wants to."

He then casually wrapped my shoulder with his left hand and leaned a bit. This cocky Jew must be up to something because he's grinning and occasionally glance to George. Said Portuguese's forehead furrowed deeper and his lips tightened. He really had to learn to school his expression in public. But I couldn't stop my mischievous self to play along with Joe. George's jealous façade was too adorable.

"No worries, Joe. Doc is nice actually. I promised him to sneak some medical supply for him, so he 'accidentally looked the other way' when I took the Aspirin. And he cares about you, guys. He keeps scrounging medical supply for Easy, you know. 'Just in case we're sent to the front anytime soon' he said. Oh…And I found his accent is sexy. Especially… when he's talking French." I fanned myself and winked to Joe. The men laugh. George literally chewed his cigarette. He looked more and more like a grumbling puppy.

Babe then said "And he's brave too, right Becca? I mean… Can you imagine? In the front line, under fire, without any gun to protect yourself, unselfishly helping other soldiers…"

Bill ruffled his hair "Careful there, Babe. Or we'll think you have a crush with the Doc."

We laugh at Babe's squawked "'am not!"

When the laugh subsides, Joe asked me "Hey Becca. For Christmas football match with The Deuce, will you cheer for me? I'll take off my shirt for you."

George chocked on his smoke. Joe snickered. This Jew was evil!

George stood up abruptly and mumbled "'ll go to the theatre." And he walked out the barrack before we can reply with anything.

I smacked Joe up in the head "You little tease!"

He laughed and said "Mission accomplished. Go get your frog." He had the audacity to slap my butt and give me a shoo-ing gesture. I flipped him off and he laugh again.

George was not walked very far from the barrack when I caught him.

"George? Are you mad? You realize Joe was only kidding, right? He's messing with you."

He shrugged. His hands were in his pocket.

"I just…" but he didn't finish his sentence.

"Are you jealous?"

"Am not…" but he paused and scratched his head "Well...honestly? A little. I mean…you're pretty, Becca...and smart… and can speak French... and…I'm the total opposite of you. " His face reddened "Look…I'm sorry, okay? I know I don't have the right to…"

I blurted out "I don't mind you're jealous" and now it's my turn to do an impersonation of a strawberry.

George Luz's jealous for me. That's definitely goes to my win column regardless his comment about how opposite we are. I'll deal about that later. For now, I allowed my inner self flails its arms with joy and doodles hearts and stars in my imaginary diary.

George smiled sheepishly "We really have bastards for friends, aren't we?"

He's right. Easy's teasing and 'caring' antics are sometimes borderline annoying. I chuckled "Yeah, they are the worst band of cupids ever."

George laughed "Holy Shit! I just imagined Joe in cupid costume. That was one scary image."

"Hey George…Becca…wait up!" Skip run toward us.

"Where's the other?" George asked.

Skip sighed "Still playing. I asked Malark to come with me, but I think he didn't hear anything I said. He's too deep in the game."

George wrapped his hand to Skips' shoulder "Come on then…I'll do John, Becca will do Marlene, as usual. And you can do Broderick…or Anna Lee."

Strategic placement is an important thing. As soon as we entered the theatre, George quickly scanned the area of operation and 'decidedly' sat behind Toye and Lipton. Skip, fearing Toye's brass knuckles if he tagged along George's plan, decided to sit several rows back and finally sat beside Frank. Smart move actually.

When the movie started, George and I dutifully carry out our role and achieved our objective in a relatively short time. And when George and I join forces, lo and behold, even the ever patience Mama Lipton (as George fondly called him) can be pissed. That sort of goes in the win column, along with a successful 40 points of Grab-fanny to one respectable officer (Long story. The operation also credited Captain Nixon as the mastermind). Toye was looked murderous, but that's his default look, so it's not a big deal. As long as Toye is not using his brass knuckles, we're safe.

But then two officers were entering the hall. The movie stopped and we're instructed to move out for our next mission. Apparently, SS Panzer Divisions broke through in Ardennes. They overran America's First Army. All passes are canceled. Say goodbye to weekend in Paris and Christmas football game with the 502nd.

George looked at me. He didn't say anything but I understand what he wanted to say to me.

"I got to go, George. Will you meet me outside the regimental supply office in 15 minutes?" I asked

"Okay" he said "Becca…do you have any winter clothing?"

"Neither of us has, George. It's an Army-wide problem."

"But…"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be in the safety of regimental HQ. Go scrounge anything for you and Easy. You'll spend a lot of time in the open, so I suggest bringing canvas or tarpaulin with you. I'll see you in 15 minutes, okay?" And I run outside the theater without waiting for his answer.

What followed next was a huge commotion. And slightly frantic, thanks to Dike's panic attack for a whole wrong reason. He's panicking because Col. Strayer hasn't return from England, instead of panicking because his company didn't have a sufficient ammunition and supply to hold a front line during winter time (He shouldn't even got panicked in the first place. He's the CO for Christ's sake!).

We scrounged and packed anything we can. I help regimental supply officer to distribute anything we had but it still not enough.

"Becca, there's Luz from Easy looking for you outside."

"Thank you, Sir. I'll be back in 5 minutes."

"Your job's done here, Becca. You can go pack your things after you meet him. Oh…and you can give him Easy's radio spare parts? It's on the box over there. He's Easy radioman right?"

"Yes, Sir."

I grab the spare parts box and another box of supply and hurriedly walk outside to meet George.

"Come with me." I said to him. And we walk until we find a place private enough to talk.

"Here's radio spare part for Easy." I give the spare part box to him. "And this is for the boys." I give him another box of cigarettes, gloves, scarfs and bandages. "It's all I can save for you guys."

"Becca…this is…thanks…the boys will appreciate this."

"And…um…this is for you." I gave him the Zippo lighter. "I know it's not as valuable as the chess board you gave me. But it's the only thing I can think off right now, since you're smoking like breathing oxygen…um…so…yeah…Sorry." I should really shut my mouth right about now.

He took the lighter. His thumb grazed the engravings slowly. His voice shook a little bit when he said "This…is…so much more valuable than that chess board, Becca. This is beautiful…I…thank you." And he smile those smile that makes my stomach churned pleasantly.

"Be careful out there, all right George? It looks like the Germans utilize all their resources for this offensive."

"Don't worry, Becca. We're paratroopers. We're the elite."

"Are you saying that you're invincible?"

"No…we're not invincible. But…you might be bored hearing this…we're the best damn company in the ETO."

"Don't get over confidence. It'll make you reckless. Because you're not expendable, George. Especially you." I lowered my head to hide my tears that threatens to fall out. I can't believe I said that even though that's the truth.

"Becca…" George put the boxes on the ground and hugged me. And now the tears slowly run down my cheeks.

"Becca...Don't worry, okay." He wiped my tears with his thumb. He looked at me in the eyes and after something that looked like steeling himself, he asked "Sorry for asking you this…maybe this is not the right time…but…Can I…Can I kiss you?" His voice was unsure and his face reddened as soon as he said that.

Well, me too actually. Because, dear God, I really want he kiss me too.

"Um…I believe the correct sentence is 'May I kiss you'"

What the actual fuck, Becca? You stupid…STUPID girl! The boy wants to kiss you and you correct his grammar?

George chuckled "Well…sorry, Princess. I don't speak Harvard-ese. So…May I kiss you?"

I smiled sheepishly. I pretty sure snow can melt in my face since my cheek was felt extremely hot. "Yes…You may kiss me, George."

And next thing I feel was his lips on mine.

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