The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

51: Dutch Terms of Endearment

After moving around to many, many different towns surrounding the city of Eindhoven, Easy Company was moved to a part of Holland between the Waal river and the Rhine River nicknamed 'the Island' for how it was cut off on all sides by water. The Island was not, however, a fun vacation destination.

The company had lost an awful lot of men defending the stretch of bridges they'd now nicknamed 'Hell's Highway', officers and enlisted alike, and the line was spread thin. And the Island was small. The 23rd Field Hospital was stationed as far back from the line as they could get, which was to say, not very far at all.

The only upside seemed to be that the surgeons had finally arrived. Doctors Whitlock and Remington were now set up with them - and they were in a house this time! - and were there to bear the brunt of the serious wounds.

Charlie was incredibly glad to have that responsibility lifted off of her shoulders and onto theirs; she was more than happy to assist the surgeons, but all too often she'd been called upon to do a surgeon's job in their absence with only a nurse's training. Her job description entailed being, primarily, a caregiver, not a surgeon, but that mattered little when men were brought into the field hospital with their organs hanging out and she was the most experienced of all of the nurses.

In every face that came to the field hospital, covered in blood with mortal wounds or else mostly fine with only a bullet in a limb, she saw James. His blue eyes stared back at her, his voice spoke to her, his hands reached for her. The ghosts that had haunted her after Normandy seemed of little consequence now; at least she'd only known those faces in passing. This one she was sure she'd never forget. She saw him everywhere.

Now, Charlie was perfectly happy to sit back and let the Whitlock and Remington take over for a while.

With so little distance between the field hospital and the line, the company command post (CP) was very close to them indeed. So while the sound of machine gun fire rattled all night long and men were constantly crawling along the line to get to each outpost, at least Charlie could listen to the clamour in good company. She spent most of her days with Autumn, Malarkey, Skip, and Alex - Alton, too, when Third Platoon happened to be around at the same time as Second. Floyd she didn't see very much. She always made sure to take her shifts whenever she knew First Platoon would be hanging around.

The barn Easy was using as a CP was cosy, if a little bit itchy with all the hay. But all things considered, it reminded Charlie of the barn they'd used back in Aldbourne as barracks, and she'd always felt welcome there. The walls meant they could have lamps set up through the night and the space meant they could sleep on the floor when they wanted to without having to go anywhere. More often than not, Charlie fell asleep mid-conversation, leaning against stacks of hay.

"Hey, Lancaster!"

Something hit Charlie's temple. She swiped at it to find a piece of hay someone must have thrown at her.

"You listening to me?" Malarkey demanded.

Charlie sat up straight from where she'd been dozing against her usual stack of hay. "Riveted," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Tell me more."

Malarkey scoffed but he did go on talking. "So, anyway, I say, 'Maybe we could go on a date sometime, rekindle the old flame, if you know what I mean,' -" Here, he winked, and Charlie rolled her eyes while Skip scoffed and Alex laughed, "- and she says, and I quote, 'In your dreams, Don. You might've charmed me when we were teenagers but you've got no chance now I finally realise how low my standards were back then.'"

Charlie furrowed her eyebrows, wondering why on Earth Malarkey was telling them this story about his conversation with Henry when it had clearly been an utter disaster, but when she looked back up at him he was grinning.