August-September 1942
*Because part of me is selfish and wants to add more to what we see in the show, I am kind of doing things a little out of order*
A lot of the girls were struggling with the obstacle course, PT, and running the hill, no more so than Adele Rogers, the soft-spoken girl from Seattle, Washington, she was a little shorter than the other girls and had to jump up to get into the tunnels and then up to the wall.
But Olivia insisted that they stayed together and worked through it and in turn, her twin brother Bobby, Floyd Talbert, and Joseph Liebgott dropped back to help them out. At first, Adele thought it was because Bobby didn't want to see his sister, especially fail and because Liebgott was sweet on Olivia having witnessed the flirting between the two when they weren't under the watchful eye of Sobel and Bobby and Floyd who were trying to stop it.
But then she started to realize that unlike Sobel, Bill Evans, and Roy Cobb, one of the privates in the first platoon, most of these boys had their best interests at heart, even if it was for their own selfish needs. Talbert was open to admitting that often flirted with Olivia, Daisy, and Lily. The latter of the trio blushed wildly and stammered through conversations. He was often scolded by Olivia for teasing the poor girl.
Unlike the rest of them, Lily, who was in Dog Company with Edward Stewart and Ronald Speirs, wasn't used to being surrounded by men, even loud friendly ones. From what they were able to piece together was that Lily's father was abusive and beat the poor girl down until she was nothing, the call from the Nursing Corp came at a good time, like Katherine, Olivia's mother, Lily's father, Arthur was going to force Lily to marry someone who was old enough to be her father. She had run, changing her name and never looking back.
They had all respected that. She thought that was part of the reason why the mysterious Speirs took a liking to Lily and took her under his wing.
"Come on Addie." Olivia's voice shook her out of her thoughts and she looked at the girl who had come back to her side, her green eyes dancing in amusement, "We need to get over the wall and Sobel is watching."
Adele cringed, "Isn't he always watching though, almost creepily?"
The answering unladylike snort that came from Olivia was answer enough for her. It was almost uncomfortable the way Sobel stared and leered at them, so much so that none of them wanted to be in the same room with him without another nurse or one of the boys with them. Thankfully, he hadn't escalated yet and tried anything with them.
"I don't know how I am going to get over that freaking wall.' She changed the subject as she followed her toward the tunnels. "Get a running start." Bobby offered up, "Bean, go first. I will stay"
"Yeah, c'mon Princess. Race ya. Loser buys drinks next time we get a pass.' Liebgott offered up.
"Yeah," Olivia laughed, "Sure if Malarkey or Frank don't get our passes revoked."
In the month they had been at Toccoa they hadn't been able to have a pass because of little things that Sobel found to be not up to snuff. It drove them all crazy. Honestly, she was already sick and tired of hearing about the boys not getting laid. At first, it had surprised her how quickly they forgot about the social norms. But there was really nothing she could do other than being or trying to be a sympathetic ear.
Adele looked at the older twin quickly checking if he was okay with his friend openly asking his sister out. To her surprise, he just shook his head, he must have figured that they were both going to do whatever they wanted. They were in the middle of war and life was going to be short, who was he to stop them? After everything his sister had been through with Katherine and taking care of Fredrick, she deserved a little fun. As much as he hated it.
"Stop Joe! You cheated!" Olivia laughed as they both came to a stop at the end of the course, for the most part, he had stayed close by her until the end when he took off running, causing her to curse and chase after him.
Still laughing he shrugged his shoulders, took steps forward, and slung his arm around her shoulders pulling her back to him. He could enjoy seeing the light blush covering her cheeks. He resisted pressing a kiss against her cheek before turning so they were facing the group that was still making their way towards the end of the course.
"I will still pay for drinks." He muttered lowly in her ear. "On one condition." "What's that?" She prodded before yelling out encouragement to Adele. "It's just the two of us. No Bobby, no Floyd. Just us."
Pursing her lips, she thought for a minute before nodding her head in agreement, "Fine. Yeah! Addie!" Adele had pulled herself up and over the wall and had a triumphant smile on her face. Bobby who had come over the wall behind her grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her up. Causing her to shout with laughter.
"Sometimes," Joe's voice was low in her ear, as he clapped his hands in encouragement, "All it takes is the right kind of encouragement."
"Is that so?" She returned as Adele tore across the opening and into her Lieutenant's arms, causing Joe to snicker and move his arm from her shoulders to her waist to hold her up so they wouldn't tumble to the ground. He wanted to admit that the thought of taking her out on the weekend pass was the encouragement he needed. But at the same time, he wasn't sure that he was ready to settle at all. Olivia was a girl who needed a boyfriend, not a bootcamp fling.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant Sobel." Amber started seeing the flat-footed man outside of the officer's barracks, everyone else was heading out to dinner in the mess hall a couple of hours later. He turned to face her, a sneer forming on his face. The hatred and distaste he had for the women were growing stronger with each day that passed. "I think I have a way of getting Olivia Stewart out of both of our hairs." Sobel paused, he could hear Olivia's laughter coming from down the pathway, Bill Guarnere had gathered her up in his arms dipping her down to the ground, and proceeded to rain kisses all over her face.
"I am listening." He started folding his arms, he was tired of not being able to do anything about the nurses. But if one of their own was willing to do something about it, he was going to take full advantage of it.
"Bill, stop, you are embarrassing yourself!' Olivia laughed as he raised her back upright, his hand lingering on hers. "Me? Never." He laughed before releasing her hand, she had scolded him about the flirting and how he should focus more on Evie than her, and how they could get removed from the program.
Evie joined the Army Nursing Corps to be with Bill, not because she wanted to make a difference. She wanted the relationship with Bill where Olivia found herself moving further and further away from her childhood sweetheart and more towards someone like Lewis or even Joe Liebgott, who over the last week or so she had started forming a friendship with.
She gave him a pointed look and then glanced at Evie.
"You know," Talbert commented, settling his arm around her shoulders, they had all heard the shouting match that the two had gotten into after he had seen her and Nixon wander off together to talk, "We would pay big bucks to see you two together." His dark eyes darted to Evie then back to Olivia who glowered at him.
"In your dreams pal."
"Only every night babe." He returned, causing her to roll her eyes and smack her hand against his chest.
"You are a pig." He offered a cheeky smile followed by a loud smacking kiss against her cheek before letting her slip away from him. "Just the girl I was looking for.' Sobel's nasally voice came from down the pathway causing everyone to deflate and roll their eyes and Olivia to stiffen.
Bobby took a step forward ready to pounce on the man if need be. She had come to him the night before near tears about how Sobel was making them uncomfortable and as much as she was playing it off like everything was fine, it wasn't.
'After the night march tonight, you and Cobb are going to be on guard duty."
"Yes, sir." She flattered, she had dreaded spending time with Cobb after the advances he tried on her and the other girls. But if she had to do it, she had to do it.
"Don't worry Liv, we are on right after." Bobby muttered darkly, normally the duties were two or three hours at a time, "We will make sure nothing happens to you."
"If worst comes to worst." Floyd added, "Stab him with your scissors."
"Gladly." There was a small twisted smirk forming on her face. As much as her oldest brother claimed her innocence, there was something about her that could be downright evil. It made her twin brother proud.
Cobb, who had been within the ranks of the 3rd platoon came up to the group smirking, "Olivia." "It's Lieutenant Stewart.' Bobby corrected, and while Olivia was okay with most of the men and permitted them to call her by her first name, she still had every right to be called by her rank, which she rightfully earned.
Cobb rolled his eyes, "She isn't my Lieutenant." "She is a Lieutenant." Talbert threw in before the tempers that Liebgott and Bobby had flared, "And she does deserve your respect. She worked just as hard as the other Lieutenants." Her hand caught his and squeezed it in thanks as Liebgott led her into the mess hall, out of the line of the fire.
"Oh come on, Talbert, the only reason why you pretend to respect her is because you want in her pants." The blonde man complained, "I mean, I don't blame you, I want to fuck her too."
A heavy hand dropped onto his shoulder, and he turned his head to meet the fiery blue eyes of Robert Stewart. And his heart dropped to his stomach. "Roy, let's go have a chat before we go to dinner."
Olivia stifled her yawn behind her hand as they marched, she was sandwiched in between Talbert and Liebgott. Every Friday night since they had been there and their passes were revoked they had marched and each march grew longer. They were now at 12 miles, in the pitch dark, full packs and dead silence.
The silence that all the girls hated.
Especially Olivia who was used to the constant noise of the old houses settling or of siblings fighting or over-talking each other to be heard. Only tonight was different, she had heard Pat Christenson coughing and dropped back to check on him and told him to drink the water. That they were forbidden to drink from, he was fighting a mild cold and slight dehydration and Olivia wasn't going to let anything serious happen to him. They had all come too far with this for someone to drop out because of an illness.
" Lieutenant." He offered, he knew that there would be hell to pay when Sobel found out that he drank from his canteen. But he wanted to listen to Olivia, she was like Winters and Nixon, and she seemed to know what she was doing. And if he remembered correctly, Bobby told them stories about how his twin was constantly talking about how she patched him and the older brothers and younger sister up.
"I will handle Sobel." She said firmly, a determined twinkle in her eye before returning to her place between Talbert and Liebgott.
"I hope you know what you are doing Princess," Joe whispered.
"I always know what I am doing.' He glanced over her head at Talbert who smirked and shook his head. She was going to cause a mess of trouble, there was no doubt in his mind. But he would do anything he could to pull her out of it.
"Lieutenant Winters." Bull Randleman's voice came from in front of her causing her to perk up causing the two men on either side of her to laugh.
"What is it?'
"Permission to speak sir."
"Permission granted.' Winters returned, Olivia didn't need to see his face to know that he was amused, she could count on one hand how many times she had seen that man amused. This was a rare treat.
"We have 9 other companies sir, why is it we are the only ones that are out here marching 12 miles in the pitch dark with a full pack."
"Why do you think Private Randleman?"
"Lieutenant Sobel hates us, sir." "Lieutenant Sobel doesn't hate Easy Company, he just hates you." There was scattered laughter through the ranks.
"Thank you, sir."
"He hates you too, Muck.' Talbert teased knocking his knuckles against Skip's helmet causing Olivia to laugh softly and shake her head.
"Amber is the only one he likes other than Evans." Adele's voice floated forward. Amber was the only nurse not marching with them that night.
"Why do you think that?" Olivia returned curiously, they all had their theories on what was going on, and she had rushed whispered conversations with Lewis and Dick about theirs when they could have them.
"Well." The girl paused, trying to find the right words that wouldn't embarrass herself or
the other girls. "I kind of walked in on them the other night."
"Easy Liv!' Chuck Grant exclaimed as he bumped into her, she had stopped dead in her tracks at the statement.
"Sorry Chuck." She said before moving forward again, falling back into step with Liebgott and Talbert, "What were they doing Addie?"
"You know."
"No, we don't sweets." Liebgott called, earning a slap on the chest from Olivia, causing him to catch it and hold it against his heart, "You wound me, princess.' His heart flipped in his chest when he saw the bright dimpled smile on her face.
"You know it."
"Sex." Bobby filled in, his amusement clear in his voice.
"Aw! Gross! Bobby!" Repeated complaints filled the air at that.
"I really, really didn't need that image in my head," Alice complained from where she was near the front with Bull and Johnny.
"Me either." The other 3 nurses agreed, pulling faces. All thankful that it was dark enough to where the men couldn't see how horrified they all were.
"Where is Lewis when I need him?" Olivia muttered, "He has whiskey." Trying to drown the image out of her head was going to be the best option.
"There is one way to get the image out of your head." Talbert started as they turned to go line up in front of the barracks, "Creating your own images. We will be happy to help you with that."
All the blood rushed to her face and neck and she was thankful that her uniform and too-big helmet covered it, the last thing that she needed was to be teased again, Lewis did that enough.
"Oh, um, I, uh." She stammered, she had only really had Lewis tease her like that before having a man who was a near stranger say that was shocking. Her shock was saved by Sobel, Evans, and Amber appearing.
The latter smirked at her CO's misfortunate having to march with the men and the other nurses. Olivia, who pulled herself away from the 1st platoon made her way up to the front, to stand next to Dick, like she had been told to. Lewis, Peacock, and Shames joined them seconds later.
"Liv? You good?" Lewis asked lowly, he could see the faint red tinge on her cheeks and wondered what he had missed by being further back.
"Later, Lew, later." She muttered.
"Lieutenant Winters, canteens out and open," Sobel ordered, his beady eyes going over all of the company. "Canteens out and open," Dick ordered not risking to look back at the other officers, he knew the moment he made eye contact with Olivia, one of them was going to
break and it was probably going to be her. And they didn't need to have a scene caused right then.
Sobel gave the command to pour and started going up and down the rows of men looking for one of them to mess up so he could have them repeat the march.
"Who is this?" He had found his target, Pat Christenson. "Private Christenson. Were you told not to drink on the Friday night march?"
"Yes, sir." "You disobeyed a direct order. Lieutenant Winters."
"Lieutenant Sobel." Olivia's voice cut over his command causing everyone to freeze, no one actually cut him off before, they had all thought about it and never did it, "I told him to drink sir.'
"What gives you the right?" Sobel spat, spinning around to face her.
"My rank in the Nursing Corp sir, it is my responsibility to make sure these men are healthy
enough to go into battle. And Private Christenson is sick." The man's hands formed fists and he stalked towards her.
"He wasn't healthy. So I made a call." Her eyes dropped down to his fists, "What are you going to do with those fists Lieutenant Sobel?"
"Oh don't do it Liv," Lewis muttered, he knew that she could drop the fact that her godfather was the General over the parachute infantry. He was even over General Taylor, with whom they were all familiar. Her saying anything about that would make it five times worse for her and for Bobby.
But Sobel seemed not to put two and two together and it was almost like a game to see when Sobel was going to figure it out.
If he did.
Realizing that Winters, Nixon, and several others were inching closer to where they were standing, Sobel loosened his fist and stepped away. "Both of you refill your canteens and repeat the 12-mile march now! Fall out!" He finally spat. "Yes sir." The two parroted back and Olivia smirked as she passed Lewis and the others. She had known exactly what she was doing when she had told him to drink, she knew that she couldn't do 2 hours alone with Cobb on guard duty. He was still smarting from the ass beating he got from Bobby, there was no telling what he would do to her. Olivia had been quick to put two and two together when her brother came into the mess hall with bloody knuckles. The rest of the boys had been quick to start teasing Bobby once Olivia scolded him and started cleaning up the blood knuckles. Then she turned her attention to them, lecturing them too, which amused her brother and Nixon greatly.
"You didn't have to do that, Lieutenant." Pat finally said as they started back out on the march. "It's Olivia please." She waved her hand, "And yes I did. Sobel thinks he can bully everyone and anyone he thinks is below him, including the women. But I am not going to let him."
He was silent waiting for her to go on, it seemed like as quiet as she seemed she had a lot to say about Sobel.
"Y'all worked too hard for him to f-" she caught herself from swearing, if it was Lewis, Bobby, or Bill she would have been more open to cursing, "mess it up. I think the best thing that we can do is rise above his crap and prove we are the best. You boys have Winters, Nixon, Keihn, Peacock, and Shames, they outweigh everything that he has done wrong."
"We also have you Olivia.' He cut in, "and the other girls. We all work extra hard to impress you." He was awarded with a bright smile from her. Something that only was granted to her twin, Bill, and from what he had seen Winters, Nixon, Talbert, and Liebgott.
"You lot are a bunch of flirts you know that?"
He laughed before shifting the machine gun on his shoulder again, they all knew it, it had started being a competition between them to see who could get to one of the nurses first. Olivia because of her rank and the fact that she was one of their own's twin sister was out of it.
"So are you though, you flirt with Lieutenant Nixon."
'Honey, there is more to the story with me and Nix than y'all know. I am sure you know that I dated Bill right?" Her eyes were on the path in front of them. "We heard, your brother is very vocal about his displeasure with Bill and his relationship with Jenkins. We also heard you slapped both of them."
"I did, it happened right before we left to go back to Charleston. Frederick, our great-great grandfather was on death's door and wanted me to go out and take care of him." She started, her fingers catching the strap of her medical bag, "I reminded him a lot of his daughter Lydia who was killed during the Civil War."
'And where you go, Bobby goes." They had all seen it, Bobby was fiercely overprotective of his sister, and her going to OCS and then to Meade was the longest they had been separated. "Bingo." She laughed using her free hand to push her helmet up, "I hadn't made up my mind to go back until then and I think my grandfather and great uncle Finn knew that so Finn was already on his way down from DC to get us."
"Wait, is Uncle Finn, General Finnigan Stewart?"
"You catch on quick Pat. Yes, he is mine and Bobby's godfather, but we don't want that to go around too much. I already got enough crap at OCS for it." He made a motion like he was zipping his lips causing her to laugh softly before carrying on with her story.
Once the anger cleared and they returned to their barracks, Sobel realized that Olivia had gotten out of guard duty with Cobb and he had to figure out a way to get to her. "Son of a bitch!' Sobel cursed, throwing his jacket onto his footlocker.
"Sir?" Evans asked as he shut the door to their barracks. Much like Winters and Nixon, they shared a two-man barracks which was kiddie corner from the nurses' barracks. Evans knew from watching Sobel that he just had to angle just perfectly on the two steps that were attached to the building, you could see into the small window that was on the nurse's barracks door. "She got out of guard duty with Cobb."
"Maybe it's for the best, sir," Evans started almost thoughtfully, "we shouldn't be messing with them too much. The men are much more agreeable when they are around. And," he paused, he like some of the others put two and two together with the Stewart last name and the general in charge of them being a Stewart too. "And what?" He spat angrily, he couldn't believe that Evans wasn't backing him like he thought he would.
"It's nothing, never mind." He returned, Sobel was digging his own grave and he was going to have to lie in it.
"Hey." Lewis laughed seeing the head nurse coming into the mess hall, dark circles ringing her eyes and shoulders slumped, "There's our girl."
'Good morning." She returned with a yawn, she had gotten back to the barracks a few hours before and tossed and turned before having to get up for the day.
"Is Christenson okay?" Dick asked as she joined them at their table, she pushed the plate of slop that she had gotten to the center of the table and opted to pick up her coffee mug. "He is fine now. Betsy is checking on him right now." She returned, 'I think it was just a cold and stress from being with Sobel 24/7."
Raising an eyebrow, Dick pushed the slop back towards her, he knew that they were all stressed and if OCS was anything to go off of, Olivia was stressed out and when she was stressed she snapped a lot more and didn't eat. And when that happened, Olivia got super angry and was more than likely to snap. She frowned and picked up her fork. "Can't be any worse than what Katherine made." Lewis teased nudging her with his elbow.
"That's funny, that you think she cooked Lewis." She laughed, 'Everything I learned, I learned from Andie, and thank god for that." She paused taking a sip of her coffee, 'Do you think what Addie said last night was true about Amber and Sobel?"
"What about them?" Lewis asked looking between the two, Neither one of them had said much of anything after the confrontation the night before.
"Supposedly, they are having sex." The tips of Dick's ears went red and a pink tinge covered Olivia's cheeks as she answered.
'If it is true, you can go to Sink and get Amber sent home." Lewis mused, but Olivia quickly shook her head, "No, that is the easy way out for her, and after everything she has put me through so far. " She shook her head, there was a part of her, that yes wanted to ruin Amber's life but the other part wanted to ruin her bit by bit. It was just going to be a waiting game to see who would win out.
"Don't think I don't know what you were doing Olivia," Sobel commented later that morning when she came up onto the mock airplane to practice their practice jumps, he had just snapped at Smokey Gordon who broke his legs. And now Olivia was standing in front of him.
"I am sure, I don't know what you are talking about sir." Olivia returned innocently, "I am just doing my job, just like you are." There was a choked cough from behind her and Sobel turned his glare to her brother who was standing behind her waiting for his turn. "Yes, you do.' He sputtered, stopping from cursing at her. "Lieutenant Sobel, I think you need to get out of the heat. Heat exhaustion is a dangerous thing. Excuse me." He gaped at her as she stepped into the opening, her eyes glanced down at the sand.
This part was easy, it was the actual jumping out of the plane that was scaring her. Taking a deep breath, she counted 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 like the others before as she jumped off the platform. Unlike Gordon who went before her, she landed on her knees and threw her hands out to catch herself.
"Ow." She muttered as she stood up to brush herself off before turning to look up at the platform again. Her brother had caught her eye and offered a smile and a thumbs up. He had pushed himself forward and butted in front of the others so he could be close to his sister, he knew how much flying and going out of the plane terrified her. When she found out that James was becoming a pilot, she prayed every single day and Bobby was sure she still did even though he had been gone for several months.
"You know something." Amber started, she had been standing waiting for the rest of the nurses to finish so they could go into their classroom lecture. "Don't start Amber, I am not in the mood.' Olivia ordered, it was short and clipped something she wasn't used to, she was starting to sound more and more like her mother and she hated it. Amber squared her shoulders and took a step forward so she was standing closer to her.
Causing her to take a step back, glowering angrily, "I am warning you, Sargent, back off." Amber smirked and took another step forward, "You have no control here, Olivia. Lieutenant Sobel is in charge and he likes me over you." "And that's completely fine for you Amber." Olivia returned, "You should start thinking about settling down. I mean a girl your age," Out of all the girls, Amber was the oldest at 24 while Olivia and the others ranged between 18-22 years old. "Should start thinking about settling down. And Lieutenant Sobel is perfect for that. And for you." Amber's hand twitched like she wanted to slap her but she knew that if she did, she would be out of the program and Olivia would win.
That was the last thing that she wanted.