As soon as Fury was in sight of their camp, Agnes took her chance to pop outside of her hatch, close it, and sit on top of it, and the very moment they were past the signs that pointed the other way, the ones that warned American soldiers that they were entering enemy territory, she slid off the moving tank.

'Angel?' Collier called out over the sound of their engine.

'I can't stand another second on that metal coffin, I'll walk this last bit, let me clear my head.'

Wardaddy nodded and grabbed his intercom.

'Gordo, slow down, match her pace, let's keep an eye on her.' Even though this was their familiar base camp, he'd never like to let her wander around out of his sight.

Despite the mud almost coming up to her ankles, Agnes managed to walk with large and fast paces, fuelled by the pent-up frustration, anger, and hurt inside of her after having almost lost her life, and losing their entire platoon. As Agnes immediately walked to the medical tent to fetch some hot water to wash her face, Collier ordered Gordo to park nearby, next to the tanks of Binkowski's platoon, who seemed to have made it out alive of whatever battle they had been ordered to fight. All of them slowly got off, and Collier was immediately greeted by the other tank sergeants.

'I thought you were dead,' Davis said.

'Devil watches over his own. Binkowski.' Collier shook Binkowski's hand, and then Peterson's.

'Devil watched over Angel?' Binkowski asked as he had a look at Fury and the crew standing next to it, noticing that Agnes was missing.

'She's washing her face,' Don replied as he looked over to the medical tent where he could still spot her between some nurses and tent poles. 'Best leave her alone, she had a rough ride this time. How 'bout you, crew still together?'

'Still holding on.'

'Good.'

'Sergeant. Sergeant.' A Master Sergeant came walking towards them. He looked clean. Too clean. As if he'd never even smelled battle from afar. 'Where's the rest of third platoon?'

Collier had a look at him and then sighed. 'We're it.' The Master Sergeant sighed back at him and then returned to his station to try to figure out how to regroup whatever was left of several broken platoons.

'Okay boys, we still got a job to do. Grady, restock ammo and rations. Gordo, water and gas. Boyd, check up on Agnes and do what you can about mechanical issues.' After handing out all the orders, he took off immediately.

'We can't do shit about mechanical issues, where are you going?' Boyd got no reply from him, but Agnes returned soon after he left and went straight to Boyd.

'You think I might need stitches on this? They don't have a mirror in there and everybody's too busy to have a look.' Boyd took out his glasses and then gently grabbed her chin to hold her still and have a better look. He studied her bottom lip, which had a clean vertical cut on the left side, but then moved his gaze to look her in the eye. She seemed to blink some tears away and sighed as she looked back at him, which made him understand that she didn't actually care about the state of her lip. She was just trying to distract herself from whatever she was feeling by talking about something else.

'Well, you'll have a nice scar as a reminder if we don't stitch it, I can tell you that,' Boyd replied as he let go of her.

'No thanks, I'd like to stay pretty.'

Boyd grinned. 'You couldn't be ugly even if you tried.' He looked over to Grady, who'd already climbed back on top of the tank to take off the .50 for repair.

'Grady, throw me the med-kit. Go, have a seat.' He patted on Fury's right front fender and Agnes jumped on.

'Hurts a lot?' Boyd asked as he rummaged through the med-kit for the things he'd be needing.

'I don't know,' Agnes said as she looked away. Knowing her, Boyd could tell from that response that it definitely did.

'Let me get you some lidocaine.'

'Fuck no.'

Boyd sighed. 'Really, Agnes?'

She knew better than most people that getting sutured without anesthetic hurt like a bitch.

'I don't want my entire mouth to go numb.'

'I don't wanna hurt you,' Boyd rebutted.

'Just do it. Please.'

He sighed again.

'Alright. Just make sure you hold still.'

He took great care and time as he disinfected her cut and placed the stitches. Despite the added pain she apparently preferred to put herself through, he felt and knew she needed some care and attention, and he was more than happy to give it to her. And Grady and Gordo were more than happy to give them the time for this as they repaired and restocked the Fury. Everybody had their moments, and Agnes had helped them through theirs plenty of times; it was only right to repay the favour every now and then. The stitching clearly hurt a lot, telling from Agnes' painful facial expressions, but Boyd's touch was gentle and soft, and that was really all that mattered to her right now. When he was done he made her put a piece of gauze up to the wound to stop the bleeding he'd caused, and then looked her in the eye again.

'Good job,' he said, impressed with how well she'd managed to keep still despite the pain. He put a hand on the back of her neck as he leaned in to kiss her forehead, and then gave her a gentle smile.

But Agnes was no longer looking at him. He noticed she had set her eyes on something behind him, and she did not look happy. He turned around and saw just about the greenest little soldier in front of him.

'Hi. Hi, I'm Norman.' Grady and Gordo had also noticed him, and both laid down their work. None of the crew replied to him, but all kept giving him the same, hostile look.

'Which… which way is the front?'

'Who the fuck are you?' Boyd spat back as he set a step forward. Only after Boyd had moved closer, Norman seemed to notice who had sat behind him this whole time: a woman. He was too stunned to speak for a second. 'I asked you a question.' He was forced to look back at Boyd, who sounded very agitated. He did not know this man in front of him, and since Agnes was clearly unsettled by his presence, he felt fiercely defensive.

'I'm… I- just… I'm your new assistant driver, I was supposed to report to Sergeant Collier, but I don't know where he is.' His gaze unwillingly wandered off back to Agnes, who now didn't look hostile, but furious. She pushed herself off the tank and jumped on the ground, stomping off in a haste.

'Is she okay?' Norman asked sheepishly.

'Shut the fuck up,' Boyd replied.

Agnes looked around the camp frantically, trying to spot Collier, only to find him sitting with the rest of the tank sergeants. She threw the gauze she'd kept to her lip away to speak unimpeded.

'Who the fuck is that?' Don seemed almost startled by her sudden angry voice from behind him, and turned around while remaining seated. He followed her pointing finger back to the Fury and spotted Norman, who'd already had his duffle bag taken by Gordo. 'Your new assistant driver?'

Collier looked back at Agnes and then got up.

'Stay here,' he ordered, and she immediately sat down on the chair he'd just gotten up from, looking pissed off as she ignored the other sergeants who had confused looks on their faces.

Collier went over to the Master Sergeant.

'Who the fuck is that?' he asked the same question Agnes had asked, pointing back at the Fury. The young Master Sergeant looked somewhat confused.

'Your new assistant driver.'

'I got an assistant driver.' The Master Sergeant now seemed to remember exactly why this newly assigned crew member would pose an issue to him, and sighed.

'Listen, Sergeant Collier-'

'Yes?' Collier spoke over him, in some sort of attempt to assert dominance over this way too clean, way too young Master Sergeant.

'You knew this was a day long coming. It is madness to have a woman amongst your ranks in active combat, it's-'

'You're going to have to do better than that, Master Sergeant,' Collier interrupted again.

'The company thanks Miss Towler for her contributions but we-'

'Miss Towler is the best damn marksman this company has ever seen. She's helped us take down town defense snipers shooting back from a goddamn moving tank, she can spot enemy hideouts from half a mile away. She's a trained nurse, I've seen her save many lives. She's one of our best assets.'

'She's a woman.'

'This is a fucking war we're fighting. The last Master Sergeant understood that.'

'I will not discuss the matter any further. You will take on Private Ellison as your new assistant driver.' Collier looked back at him in silence for a moment, making the Master Sergeant clearly uncomfortable as he'd already had trouble setting his foot down about this matter in front of a subordinate who seemed more than ready to beat him up over it.

'Very well, roger that. But Agnes stays with us. I will not have you cut the ground from under our feet when we're already knee deep in the mud.' He didn't even wait for a reply to that before walking away, because he didn't care about whatever reply the Master Sergeant had to that. He walked back to Agnes and the other sergeants, who had been looking at him from afar the entire time.

'So?'

Collier came to a halt in front of them, sighed, and then looked at Agnes.

'He's our new assistant driver, it seems I can't do shit about it.'

'So what about me?'

'What about you?' Collier managed to pull his lips into a grin in order to lighten her mood as he lit himself a cigarette. 'You'll be up in the commander's seat with me, it's a better spot for a lookout anyway, the bow gun was never your best friend. Let's have you try out the .50 too.'

Agnes' sigh seemed to contain a slight bit of relief, but she still looked angry as she swiftly got up and started walking away. Collier went after her and stopped her after just a few steps, far away enough to be out of earshot of the other sergeants.

'Agnes…' He seemed somewhat at a loss for words as he stood in front of her, blocking her path. 'I'm sorry. I know how you feel, they chose the worst possible time.' He shot a quick glance back at Fury to see the young soldier standing awkwardly with his crew, not knowing what to do with himself, and he sighed. 'Just… try to be nice to the kid. He probably won't be around for the long run anyway…'

Agnes sighed too, as she knew he was right, but felt bad about being somewhat relieved by his comment. In this war the only place she could ever hope to feel somewhat safe anymore was with Fury; to lose that or even to be sent home knowing they would have gone on without her, possibly to be killed, would have been her psychological downfall. Collier now noticed the stitches in her lip and put his hand on her cheek, softly feeling the stitches with his thumb as he studied them.

'Bible did good work.'

Agnes didn't flinch in pain but did turn her head away. He smiled at her as he let his hand back down. He took his cigarettes out of his breast pocket to give one to Agnes, put it between her lips, lit it for her, and then got out of her way, allowing her to walk back to Fury and introduce herself to the green soldier.