August -September 1942

Camp Toccoa

Lieutenant Hebert Sobel wasn't happy, at all, he had gone to Colonel Sink to try and get rid of the nurses before he had even met them, the medic, Roe, he thought his name was, and another medic that was being placed there would be good enough for Easy Company. But Sink shut him down saying that this was coming from General Taylor and General Forbes of the Army Nursing Corp directly and what they said went.

So now on top of these men, and he used that term very loosely, he also had to deal with women who shouldn't even be in uniform, they should be at home with children. Shaking his head he rounded the corner where Easy Company was lined up, his dark beady eyes going from Lieutenants Winters and Nixon to where the head nurse was standing. "You people are at the position of attention." He barked before he went towards the nurse missing out Nixon, Winters and several of the other boys tensed up.

"Relax." Bobby hissed, "Olivia can handle this." During the summertime, instead of going to camps like Bill did where he learned about the Army. The Stewart kids were sent to the family summer home outside of Columbia, South Carolina and the boys had it beat into their heads military training, and once they figured out that Olivia was watching, she was included in it. She could handle a CO yelling in her face, this one she just couldn't sass after everything was said and done with.

Sobel came to a stop in front of Olivia, letting his eyes flick over her body, "Lieutenant Stewart." He started waiting for her to recoil away from him, like other women in his presence had, instead she held his gaze.

Almost confidently.

Good, this meant he was going to have a challenge, he liked having a challenge.

"Sir." She returned, she had already been told stories by her brother, Bill, Lewis, and Dick about Sobel and how more or less how useless he was. She tried not to judge him before she actually met him in person but it was looking like they were right. He looked at her last name then over to where Bobby was standing with Bill and Joe Toye, another Pennsylvania boy she had been introduced to in a rush the night before.

"Are you two related?"

"Yes, sir, that's my twin brother." She returned, knowing it was better to tell the truth than to lie. Especially when Bobby would want to defend her if he thought she was being threatened. "Us being in the same company isn't going to do a darn thing. We are both here to do our jobs. And I assure you, sir, Colonel Sink knew of our familial ties and placed me in your company." That part was a fib on her part, she didn't know if Sink knew the truth or not.

And if he really cared if he did.

'And no amount of complaining will get him to approve of me leaving Easy for another company.'

"That's my girl," Lewis muttered loud enough for Dick to hear, causing a half smile to appear on his face. They both had been taunt and ready to defend Olivia but Bobby had been right about her being able to defend herself.

"And honestly, sir, if I were to be completely honest. Having me here for my brother and Guarnere is for the best. They tend not to get into trouble if I am around."

That was a bold-faced lie, even Adele and Amber who had been the last two to be introduced to the two men knew that they got into trouble and a lot of the time dragged Olivia in with them, the punishment was usually a lot less when she was involved. "If you want to prove you are the best and that you know what you are doing. Leave me and the girls here."

Olivia was going to be forever thankful that she was filled in on Sobel's shortcomings so she could learn how to twist and turn him to see things how she wanted to see if need be. But that was something that she was going to keep close to her chest and only use when she needed it.

He flicked his eyes over her shoulder to the other girls and then looked back at her, "You are beautiful and smart. I like that.'

"Thank you, sir." Her statement came out more like a question than an air of confidence, like her previous statements. She knew that she and the girls were extremely pretty and for the most part extremely smart and they were picked for the Nursing Corp and for the Paratroopers for that reason and she had been told for years that she was beautiful, most recently by Joe Liebgott that morning when he stopped her at the counter in the mess hall. But hearing it from Sobel made her extremely uncomfortable. So much so that she wanted to go take a shower and scrub herself clean.

He finally broke his gaze away from her and went back towards the boys who now had newcomers in there. There were several new boys who had joined that hadn't been introduced fully to Sobel.

Olivia once he was away from her took a step back and visibly cringed. "You good Liv?" Adele asked keeping her voice low so Sobel didn't round back on them. "No, I need a drink and a shower." She returned glancing over her shoulder at her friend. "I don't blame you at all. Though I do feel bad for Don and the others."

Don was Donald Malarkey, one of the new guys that had been assigned to Easy after getting out of W company and it already seemed like he was going to be a target for Sobel along with Smokey Gordon, another newbie, and Frank Procente, one of the first members of the company.

"Yeah, me too.' She agreed, twisting a bit to see what was going on. Sobel was prowling up and down the rows of the three platoons looking for something to dig them for. A happening, Olivia was assured, happened quite often and if more than one man was dinged then the weekend passes were revoked. It happened once already in the short two weeks they had been there, Lewis had been sure that it was going to happen more and more.

"Change into PT gear, we are running Currahee.' Sobel ordered, "Ladies included."

The girls' training for the medic stuff was normally in the afternoons with Eugene Roe and Ralph Spina the two medics assigned to Easy Company.

"You heard him ladies, fall out," Olivia ordered as she met her brother's eyes and nodded, assuring him she was okay.

Amber was quiet as she pulled off the ugly green uniform that had been issued for them to wear, after meeting Sobel, an idea had formed in her head. If Harding was unwilling to get Olivia kicked out of the program for faradization then maybe Sobel would. She was just going to have to find a way to get him alone and talk to him. If Olivia could sleep with Lewis and from what she had seen Dick, then she should be okay to be with Sobel.

"You handled that so much better than I would have." Betsy commented, shaking Amber out of her thoughts, "him being all up in my personal space like that."

"A lot of practice before Lewis came down from Yale, I was going to have to go to the Deb ball with my Uncle Finn's nephew Joshua and he was three times as bad as Sobel. He was all hands and no class.'

"And Nixon isn't?" Alice teased, she, Amber, and Betsy had seen how he got with Olivia on weekend passes and how often they ended up in a hotel together for a full 48 hours.

"Nah, Lew is different, he is all class, hands, and dick." She returned, her mouth curving into a smile.

"Olivia!" Lily scolded from where she was standing by her bunk, Dog Company was going to the obstacle course while Easy ran Currahee. "Sorry, Lil, it's true. Just like Bill is all dick and hands and no class.'

"That is true.' Evie agreed with a laugh, "And that in and of itself is a talent." She had figured that Bill had slept with Olivia once or twice when she came back from Charleston, she had seen the nail marks on his back and the dark purple love bit on his neck and she couldn't get mad at it. They weren't together and it seemed to her that it was fair that it happened.

"I couldn't share a man like you two have." Mary threw in finally, normally when the girls talked, she stayed silent, not wanting to be included in the conversations or to make friends. She saw Olivia as a rival for Liebgott's attention and she didn't want to see the charm like the others did. "We don't share." Both girls said at the same time. "Liv was with him first, they dated for what two years?" Olivia nodded her head as she fastened a bobby pin into her braid to keep the strands in place, "But then she slept with him behind my back before I slept with him." Mary shook her head, she couldn't do it, let alone be friendly to the girl who slept with the man she supposedly loved.

"Let's go, ladies, PT formation." Carwood Lipton called as he opened the door to their barracks, out of the Sargents they had in Easy Company, he was the most respectful of the women and their space. Floyd Talbert was standing just behind Lipton and offered the girls a smile as they passed. "Olivia, my darling." He commented once she was out onto the pathway.

"What do you want, Floyd, sugar?" She returned glancing up at him out of the corner of her eye knowing that he was flirting with her. Bobby had quickly filled her in on his friends the night before about how both Talbert and Liebgott were both ladies' men and how she should stay away from them.

"What? I can't check on you?" Lipton's laugh from behind them made her think that she was on the right path. "You don't know me well enough to check on me." "Then let me get to know you." He knew it wasn't fair to Liebgott to do this when he had made his interest in the younger Stewart twin known to him and to Chuck Grant. But he also had Mary on a back burner as well.

Floyd didn't.

"You have to earn the right to get to know me." She returned before raising herself up on her toes to press a kiss against his cheek before going to join the rest of the girls in the group.

"Careful Tab," Lipton warned, "You don't know what you are getting yourself into."

Joe who had seen the exchange was angry, he had thought he had made it clear that he was interested in Olivia and that should've been enough to stop him from approaching Olivia. But it wasn't, now he was going to make his own interest clear and that was the last thing that he wanted to do, Tab had forced his hand.

To try and see if he could weed out the weaker girls, Sobel separated them throughout the platoons. Olivia and Adele in the first platoon with Lipton, Talbert, and Liebgott, Amber and Evie in the second platoon with Bill, Bobby, and Joe Toye, and Betsy in the third platoon with Grant, Johnny Martin, Bull Randleman, and Mary.

"Hey ya Princess.' Liebgott greeted as he joined Olivia and Talbert. "Liebgott." She returned, "I thought I told you not to call me that." "I would prefer you to call me Joe." Everyone called him by his last name or a shortened version of his last name. But to prove a point that he was serious to Tab and to an extent her, that he was serious about his pursuit of her.

"You know, Bobby warned me about both of you.' She started low enough for them to hear her, Sobel was already roaming up and down the platoons and she didn't want to be the reason why the boys got into trouble because of her. She didn't even like it when Bobby got into trouble for her and he was her flesh and blood.

"What did he say?" Tab was curious, he knew the night before after Bobby saw Liebgott talking to his sister, took her aside, and talked to her about things. "Said y'all were man whores. And that I should stay away from you both."

"Of course he did," Talbert muttered, as Sobel called out for them to start running, saving them from saying anything. In a way either one of them blamed Bobby for telling his sister how they were, if their sisters were there, they would have done the same thing.

Joe would have done the same thing with his sister and she was thrown into a situation like Olivia was. He glanced down at the girl and found that her eyes were on Sobel studying him, with an intense dislike.

"What is it?"

"He looks like a demonic swan." She answered after a heartbeat, finally looking back at him. "She ain't wrong." Pat Christensen said through heavy breaths from behind them causing her to smile victoriously

Sobel was now running back and forth between the groups throwing his arms around, yelling things that Olivia was thankful that she could barely make out. Something about the Japanese, High-Ho-Silver, and a bunch of other nonsense that she wasn't ready to deal with yet. It was like trying to mourn her brothers, uncle and great great grandfather's death. She couldn't handle it right then and the best way she knew how to was to bottle it up and let it simmer until it was enough. And Sobel was going to be the same way it felt like.