The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

58: Powerless to Defy

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Malarkey grinned. "Well, well, well," he said, leading his entourage towards the five women sitting outside a café having lunch, "what are the chances of meeting you guys here?"

"Don," Henry said, her voice blank, her face unimpressed.

"George!" Boo exclaimed, catching sight of him at the back of the group. She jumped up out of her seat and closed the distance between them, throwing her arms around his neck and giggling as he picked her up and spun her in a circle.

"You two are sickening," Autumn said, watching with a fake grimace.

A French waiter emerged from the café before any further dialogue could be exchanged. "You sit down or you leave," he told the men, his arms crossed around some menus. He quirked an eyebrow at them as he awaited their decision. "I wait."

"We'll sit," Malark decided, and planted himself in one of the chairs at the table nearest to the nurses.

"Of course we will," Alex mumbled, earning him a snort from Skip.

Charlie's eyebrows furrowed as she watched the group take their seats and open up the menus the waiter handed to them. Accompanying Malark and George were Skip, Alex, Joe Liebgott, and Floyd. It seemed an odd collection of men.

"What are you guys doing here?" Boo asked, making heart eyes at George even as she addressed the question to all of them. From over on his table, George was making heart eyes right back.

Charlie smiled into her water and looked away.

"We're on leave," Malark said, pretending to look over the menu with great interest. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're on leave," Henry said, still deadpan. "Don, what are you doing?"

"Thinking about what to order. Got any recommendations?"

Charlie locked eyes with Skip, who shrugged with a glint in his eye. The moment she'd seen him she'd suspected that Malarkey had orchestrated this entire thing to get close to Henry, as he tended to have so little opportunity when they were in combat, but after seeing Skip's face there wasn't a single doubt in her mind. Whether she wanted to or not, Charlie knew that Henry would be spending the rest of her time in Paris with Malarkey.

There was casual chatter across the tables throughout the duration of lunch but Charlie remained mostly silent. Every now and again she'd speak, either because someone had spoken to her or to prevent anyone asking her why she wasn't saying anything, but the rest of the time she picked at her food. Her attention was otherwise occupied by sneaking glances at Floyd. She wasn't sure why she couldn't seem to keep her eyes off of him. They hadn't spoken in weeks and that had been her own conscious decision, and yet now that he was sitting so close she couldn't help but want to take everything back and listen to him speak to her again.

It would all have been so much easier, she thought, if he wasn't who he was. If he was someone like Shifty, and just pure sweetness, or George and Skip, who chose one woman and stuck to her. But if he'd been anyone else she wouldn't have been in this predicament. There was just something about Floyd.

It became harder to sneak glances at him after she'd finished her food, so she turned in her seat and pretended to people watch instead. Her eyes scanned the street up and down, all the while watching him in her periphery. When she caught him waving at someone across the street she couldn't help but turn to look, even knowing she was giving herself away.

She'd braced herself to see a beautiful French woman, and there was, indeed, a beautiful woman over there. But it wasn't to her he was waving, because she was talking to a man in the opposite direction to Floyd.