The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

34: The Right to the Title

There was something so strange in returning to find everything exactly as they'd left it. Seeing the clothes she'd slept in the night she'd been deployed strewn about her bedroom floor had been jarring enough for Charlie, but returning to the local hospital for the first time since coming back to England was its own kind of eerie. Everything was exactly where they'd left it the last time they'd been there, when they hadn't known they wouldn't be coming back for a while; boxes of new supplies they'd left to shelve until the next day, inventory lists they'd yet to put into folders, pens they'd left on window ledges.

Their first order of business was finishing all of the little jobs they'd left behind and tidying up the ward. Their second was a debrief.

Lieutenant Maddox seemed somehow less strict now than she had before. Charlie had expected it to be the reverse, if the was being honest; she'd thought that with the bleakness and exhaustion of combat their CO would only become increasingly bitter. Instead, Maddox had even smiled as she came into the ward and found them all finishing tidying up.

"So," she began after she'd gotten them to sit lined up on one of the beds, sitting on the bed next to them herself, "a formal debriefing. I'm supposed to make note of anything that went especially wrong to see if it's in anyone's power to change, but first I'll ask you this: how are you?"

The four of them were stunned into silence.

Slowly, Maddox let a smile draw onto her face.

"Nothing to say?" she asked, cocking her head to the side curiously. "Not even you, Edison?" she teased. "Usually you've always got something on your mind."

Seeming to remember herself, Mabs replied, "Doin' alright, ma'am."

Lieutenant Maddox sighed around a small smile. "When we're alone and not in front of the men, or the surgeons, you can call me Henry."

At this, Charlie's jaw fell open. Beside her, Boo gasped.

"Henry," Mabs said, her voice filled with bewilderment.

After a beat, Charlie ventured, "Lieutenant Henry?"

Maddox barked a laugh. "No, Charlie. Just Henry. I think we've all earned the right to a first name basis, don't you?"

"... Sure," Mabs agreed, still seeming wary, as though she was expecting a trick.

Maddox - Henry - nodded before turning to the rest of them. "And you all? Autumn? How are you doing?"

"Fine," said Autumn, equally as suspicious.

When Boo was asked, her answer was, 'Okay,' and Charlie's was, 'I'm alright, thank you'.

A long pause fell upon them until Charlie spoke up tentatively, "What about you, Lieu- Henry?"

Maddox - Henry - smiled at the correction and nodded. "I'm good. Thanks, Charlie." She let her words settle and then clapped her hands together, looking between the group as though they were a group of friends at a sleepover. They had the set up for it, Charlie supposed. "Okay, let's start the debriefing, shall we?"

The debriefing went on, and on, and on. They spoke about every aspect of their time overseas. Each of them raised things they thought could have gone better - like Charlie being left to her own devices after the Battle of Carentan - and also pitched what they felt went well - like how quick they'd gotten at setting up and dismantling the field hospital tent.

When everything finally seemed to be wrapping up, Henry turned to Charlie all of a sudden.

Charlie felt herself shrink under the attention. She had a feeling she knew what Henry was about to say and she didn't want to hear it, didn't want to remember it, especially not in front of the others.