Tony sat strapped in between Mary and Rosemary hands tightly gripping the handles of the two instruments as the plane finally reached altitude. The other girls where sitting across from them there group clearly set apart from the soldiers. He Heard one of the men chuck up into a bag that was hurriedly thrust at him when the plane started to take off, and Tony almost wish he had his own bag to throw up in.

Mary patted his leg and he knew that Rosemary was watching him with he now knew her trademark frown. "Did they not tell you?" The blond asked and he shook his head no.

"I don't understand it, we all were told last week that we would be going to replace the girls that went two month ago" Rosemary said "When where you told you where leaving?"

"Approximately two hours and fourteen minutes ago" and he couldn't hide the dispondince in his voice.

"What!" Rosemary shouted loud enough to draw the attention of three of the guys sitting down their row. They quickly went back to own conversation when she shot them a glare. "Is that why you only have one bag packed? You at least know that we will be over there for two months at the least?" Tony whipped his head to her direction.

"Two months!" What if we get attacked? I don't even have a gun to defend myself!

Mary's hand was back on his knee as she patted it "Its ok Tony! We are part of the preforming troop. Strictly staying at the bases or nearby towns if we are next to one that the men can get to easily" He felt himself nod and looked back down onto the cases on his lap. He had three outfits, two pairs of socks, a handful of stolen toiletries, and two instruments to his name.

Rosemary must be a mind reader or the mother of Natasha or something because she bumped his shoulder gently enough to draw his attention. "Anthony. Just in case you didn't know, we will be given stage outfits and additional clothing when we arrive at camp and a few more pieces when the weather changes."

"Oh! And when we get paid we can spend that on what ever we want!" Mary added helpfully. So I'm not completely screwed over. Tony thought relaxing a bit. The girls seeing this shot each other a look over his shoulders and also sat back.

As predicted the plane rocked and swayed threw the air for the next few hours as they flew further away from the mainland and more over the ocean where the winds must have been calmer, because it was around hour four that some Corporal Cadwallader gave permission to unbuckle and that they could grab some things out of their bags but those must remain in the cargo nets on the side of the plane above their heads. Men got out cards and some chips and started a few games between themselves. Tony clearly being regarded as 'part of the girls' group since he was just a performer.

The woman on the other hand all sat in one group and took stock of what they all packed and were willing to share between the others. Much to his own amusement the gaggle of females all sat around him, Mary, and Rosemary.

"So what I'm getting here is that you all know each other." The two brunette twins giggled together (Kinda creepy) and the one on the right with her ears pierced responded.

"We are all part of the same preforming company that got bought over last year by the government. Most of us here have known each other since before that happened"

the other sister nodded in agreement along with a few others "Most of us stay in the same building too. Nancy doesn't though, she lives with her husband!" she added. Nancy being another blond with slightly shorter hair then Mary nodded when her name was mentioned.

Twin number 1 glanced over to the loud men and leaned forward to gently ask Rosemary a question shooting Tony a cursorily look "Where you able to pack…everything?" Dispite the question being for Rosie, Mary hummed happily.

"Tony is fine Lily, in fact it is because of him that we were able to pack everything!" This must of meant something to all of them because they shot Tony warm smiles.

"Uh, it was no problem to me. Obviously you all needed whatever it is more then me" He spoke up.

"Anthony?" Rosemary said next to him "Would you be a gent and grab the mints out of your bag? Should be right on top." Looking at her he raised an eyebrow when she shot him a wink and a few of the other gals twittered mischievously. Shooting the group a curious look he stood up and unbuckled a cargo strap to access his duffle. Unzipping the bag his hand momentarily froze at what was neatly packed between folded dresses and what nots.

Pistols, knifes, bullets, all hand-held weapons, all could easily be used by anyone with smaller hands. They had packed a defense bag, and sounded like it would be dispersed throughout the rest once they landed and settled. Not exactly the bag of bricks I was thinking of. Deftly plucking the tin of mints he spotted he zipped up his bag and strapped it back up without showing anything or reacting more then his slight pause at the initial revile.

Sitting back down he handed over the tin to Rosemary "Happy my bag was used for a good cause" he said with a small smirk he shared with the others. A moment passed when another thought came to his head "All of you now how to…" shooting a look at the men, his eyes caught Cadwalladers and the man twitched his mustache at him with an odd look before returning to his card game "uh-Preform with the material?"

Twins and Rosemary only frown slightly and Nancy is the one that responds "No but Mary does. She was going to show us the number after we land" once again he felt surprised and look quizzically at the blond next to him her hazel eyes twinkled.

"Oh yes, I learned from daddy the piece a while ago!" dumbfounded he nodded.

"Well, I'm not too shabby myself when push comes to shove so if any of you need help figuring out some, steps, or some parts need help, ill be happy to oblige" The girls all give him another round of warm smiles and start talking actual dance numbers and such.

Tony stood up and sat back down in his seat and snatched up the violin case. Opening it he found a sound violin but the E string was snapped and a few hairs on one of the the bows had fallen out of the bunch and the other looked brand new. Lifting the instrument and holding it with his chin, not trusting the plane enough to set it down, Tony riffled threw the compartment inside the case. Thank god Mr. Asshole made sure he had the essentials. Grabbing the thin string and some resin, Tony set the case down between his feet and set to work.

Changing the string was the easy part, tuning it was the nightmare. Not only did who ever owned the violin last shove the tuning pegs so far, they obviously didn't know what each string was supposed to be. Focusing on trying to hear his soft plucking over the hum of the plane Tony did not notice the few curious glances some of the men and most of the lady's shot him.

Tuned to his satisfaction the violin went back into its case, attention quickly switching over to the new bow. Picking it up he started to twist the tension till it was at the point he liked it and held the bow slightly pointed down with the hairs up and tilted to the light. He actually got me a brand new bow! Tony thought surprised at the shiny threads, it's never been resined before.

Grabbing the puck next, he couldn't hold in another exasperated huff at the new puck in his hands. He needed something to score the surface. Debating if he could use one of the knifes currently in his duffle he was pleasantly surprised when a pocket knife came into view.

Looking up he was greeted with one of the older men, who Tony personally thought should be nowhere near the war at his age.

"Me wife used to play. Always hated losing her old puck and having to get a new one." Tony nodded in understanding and instead of taking the knife, handed the puck to the man. Slowly the man sat next to him and Tony heard a soft pop of his back at some point.

Much to old, flashed through his mind as arthritic hands started to score the dried sap. But war is war, and never kind.

A shift further down the hull made Tony's gaze flicker up and light upon, once again Cadwallader. It seemed he was thinking the same thing as Tony was because his steel blue eyes where roving over the assembled men with a critical eye, lingering on the young pup who had vomited during take off and the older man sitting next to Tony. Those two might not make it. Tony thought bitterly.

He hated it. Always had. When Rhodey left for duty, or when he was injured and the team had to leave without him. He hated the sense of powerlessness and the shear fact there was nothing he could do.

Gentle hands handed him back the know scored puck and Tony shot the man a blinding smile to cover his own guilt.

"Could you play Berceuse No. 1 from Trois Morceaux? It was my wife's favorite" The hopeful look on the mans face broke a little bit of his heart and he nodded, not trusting his voice.

Only a few were watching them at that point, but after doing a final check on the tuning Tony started to play the melody his mother had taught him when he was young. Noise stopped as tony focused on playing the short but sweet piece, technically a lullaby, and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the duo sitting together. The old man strictly watching Tony as memories of his sweet Jane came back to him.

With the last note, Tony refused to look over at the man next to him but instead threw a cheeky grin at the girls trying to disrupt the melancholy in the air.

"Not just some useless piano man now am I!?" the twins easily laughed at the joke not understanding it fully, but Mary and Rosie gave two encouraging smiles as well. Warm hands distracted him enough to finally look at his bench mate.

"Thank you my boy, for playing my Janes song" releasing his hand the man stood up stiffly and walked to the rest of the men and settled down in his original seat, pulling out a small trinket and staring at it lovingly.

Mood soured, Tony placed the violin in its case and secured it back in place. The trumpet came out next the yellow brass in desperate need of cleaning but otherwise the keys moved fine and the slides weren't stuck in place.

"Oi music man!" a shaggy haired guy called, Tony's eye twitching at the nickname "Play us something hopping!" half of the men cheered in encouragement and the girls started to shout out song ideas. Grinning tony placed the mouth piece in and shot the lady's a wink. They all started laughing as the first few notes of Pistol Packing Mama rang out into the plane.


Sad boy hour, with the side of the feels.