The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

56: Divine Intervention or Bad Luck

Finally, Charlie could sleep. When she wasn't working it was all she did. With her hands beneath her head and her legs tucked against herself, Charlie was often fast asleep in the CP after her shifts before any of her friends managed to say hello.

She liked it better that way. She didn't feel like talking at the moment. At some point, even with all of the nightmares, it had become easier to be asleep than to be awake, and as soon as Charlie had been granted back her ability to do it she didn't want to do anything else.

Sometimes when she woke up she'd find her friends gathered around her. Other times she'd wake with only herself for company. In any case, it was never Floyd who greeted her in her consciousness. He knew by now that she was avoiding him. This time around, he hadn't even cared to try to make her change her mind.

Just over a week after the success of Operation Pegasus, the mission to rescue the British paratroopers, Charlie was sound asleep while Easy Company's new commanding officer was shot by one of his own soldiers. First Lieutenant Heyliger had only been put in charge after Captain Winters had been promoted up to the battalion level after the battle at the crossroads. Heyliger had been the commanding officer for less than a month.

No one woke Charlie up when Moose Heyliger was brought into the field hospital; they had two surgeons on hand, Doc Roe had already stabilised him, and they had three nurses besides. Heyliger had been hit badly, and he'd been given too much morphine by Captain Winters and First Lieutenant Welsh, but he would live.

When Charlie woke the following morning, she barely reacted as Autumn told her the news. All she could think was that she was glad she hadn't seen it. At this point, she was sure if she saw one more man pouring blood from bullet holes she'd about break in half.

Easy's new commanding officer was delivered to them in the form of First Lieutenant Norman Dike. Charlie didn't meet him, or even see him, for the first two weeks he was on the line with them and she didn't care to, either. From what she'd overheard from the men or else been told in her brief interactions with Skip, Alex, and Malark he was awful. Apparently he had no idea what he was doing, acted like the whole thing was beneath him, and was only there to prove to the brass that he could get his boots a little dirty before he was allowed to climb the ranks. So, all in all, a very promising new addition to the company.

The first time Charlie did meet him was when he came wandering into the field hospital one day while she was on shift. No one was in there besides her and Autumn, though Mabs and Boo followed behind him into the tent, but he didn't seem to be looking for one of his men. Instead, he stood in the doorway, preventing Mabs and Boo from getting past him, and took a leisurely look around.

"So this is the field hospital," he spoke finally after a lengthy pause.

Charlie's eyes went to Autumn as she answered, "Yep."

"That's 'yes, sir' to you, Nurse," Dike said, his eyes still drinking in the tent's interior.

"Actually, I'm a lieutenant, sir," Autumn informed him, breezily, for all intents and purposes. Charlie could tell she was rattled.

"A second lieutenant, going by your insignia," Dike pointed out.

Charlie rolled her eyes and turned back to the bandages she'd been counting. Their supplies were running low and she needed to get an inventory list to Henry before the end of the day to put in a request for more.

"I'm just here to make sure everything is running smoothly," Dike said into the pause that followed. He ambled a few steps further into the tent, finally allowing Mabs and Boo to enter, then stood in the centre of it with his hands on his hips, his head tilted back as he looked at the top of the tent.