All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

48: 2311

"What?" Guarnere asked, an attempt to cover his tracks.

"What... what?" Luz replied, his face screwing up comically.

Posey grimaced from her place just ahead of them. "We should be getting back to the train station before we get caught."

Luz turned his eyes from her back to Guarnere, scepticism written all over his face. "You said 'we're looking after her'," he said, enunciating his words slowly as though laying a hand of cards in poker which could make or break his chances of winning. "Why'd you say 'her'?"

"Uh..."

"It's an inside joke," Posey explained in one breath, her eyes wild as they flicked between Johnny and Guarnere in the search for backup. "Y'know, because I'm so... effeminate." The lie was weak even to her own ears. Johnny sighed from beside her.

"You're a girl, aren't you?" Luz asked, turning to face Posey fully. She could practically see the gears turning in his head as he pieced everything together. "The teddy bear, the sneaking out - not going to the hospital after you were shot!" Posey knew she'd lost from the sparkle in his eyes; for all he liked to mess around and play the comedian, Luz wasn't at all stupid. "You're a broad!"

"For fuck's sake, Guarnere," Johnny hissed, and turned his back on the conversation entirely. He walked a few paces in the direction of the way out before turning back, too far away to contribute to the conversation but just about close enough that he could hear it.

"Luz, if you tell anyone I'll kick your ass so hard you'll be coughin' up boot polish for weeks, alright?"

And there was Bill, always trying to be her hero.

"I could be shot for doing this, Luz," Posey told him, speaking with her real accent and her real voice. The reaction she got was immediate, though not necessarily the one she'd been expecting: his face lit up like a Christmas tree. "I'm serious!" she added, desperately dragging her smile back down again, because this was serious, even if Luz generally wasn't. "I could actually be shot. You can't tell a single soul."

"You're really a broad," was all he said in response to that. He shook his head as though to clear a daze. "Duckie, you're a fuckin' broad!"

"I know!" she responded, mimicking his enthusiasm. "Now would you listen to me? No one can know. No one. Absolutely not a single person on the planet."

"Right, sure," he replied, nodding rapidly. "Otherwise I'll be coughing up boot polish, I gotcha. My lips are sealed." He mimed the action, fastening an invisible zip across his mouth before throwing away the key. "Who else knows?" He looked almost giddy with excitement.

"Luz, this ain't a fuckin' game," Bill growled, his jaw clenched tight.

"No, I know. Listen, Bill, I know. It's fine. I won't tell anyone. Alright?" Luz held his hands up in mock-surrender, just like he had on the train, and Posey had to work extra hard to wipe the smile off of her face. "So who else knows?"

Posey sighed. "Right now it's you, Bill, Johnny, Roe, and Nixon."

"Nixon?! Captain Nixon?!"

"The very same."

"You told him and not me?!"

"I didn't tell him!" Posey cried indignantly, before clamping her mouth shut and looking around with wide eyes. They needed to continue this conversation elsewhere lest the lot of them get caught. She leaned in towards Luz and lowered her voice. "He worked it out and confronted me about it, of course I didn't tell him. Look, I'll explain everything when we're on the train but we need to go."