The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

79: In the Midst

Charlie stayed away from OP-1 ahead of the patrol. She didn't want to worry any of the men gearing up to go on patrol or appear as a sort of bad omen to them. Instead, she chose to stick with the men of Easy who would be giving covering fire, all of whom were gathering in OP-3.

Boo and Autumn were there, too, but they'd arrived before Charlie; Boo had been keen on waiting with George and Autumn had wanted to speak to Lieb about something. When Charlie had made to go with them, however, Doctor Whitlock had called her back and given her a list of things he wanted done before he turned in for the night. All of them were things he could have done for himself - and, really, should have done for himself - but Charlie refrained from complaining, knowing it would only delay her longer.

So, by the time she made it to OP-3, everyone else had already gathered.

"Charlie," a voice which unmistakably belonged to Alton More greeted her from beside the door.

"Alton," she replied, turning to him. "How have you been?" To her, it felt like the pair of them hadn't properly spoken since Holland, maybe even before that. She didn't like to think that they'd lost touch, even when she knew they had, but, just like with Don, even being near him reminded her of Skip and Alex and how much she missed them both. She felt hollow with how much she still ached from it.

He shrugged and took a long drag on his cigarette. "You know..." he said.

She nodded. She did know. It had been a stupid question to ask.

"Tab's over in the corner," he said, gesturing further into the room.

Charlie frowned. "Maybe I want to stay here."

Weakly, but affectionately, Alton smiled. "We'll catch up later, Charlie. I'll take you somewhere fancy when we finally go back to Mourmelon."

With a tiny smile, Charlie asked, "You're choosing now to ask me on a date?"

"Who says I wanted it to be a date?"

Charlie raised her eyebrows at him and he snorted.

"If I did ask you on a date," he said, puffing on his cigarette once before removing it and leaning down closer to her, "would you say yes?"

Would she? It wasn't like Floyd was ever going to ask her, and she'd always gotten along well with Alton. He could be overbearing with his flirting at times, but wasn't Floyd the same?

She dismissed that thought immediately. Floyd was never overbearing. Overwhelming, yes, when he got a little too suggestive with his remarks, but not once had she felt uncomfortable in his presence, whereas she still wasn't so sure on how to interact with Alton one on one, even with how long she'd known him. They'd always been friends in a group setting. But could they be more than friends by themselves?

She didn't have an answer herself, so she couldn't give him one. "Maybe," she said.

He shrugged. "Good enough for me. We'll see about it when we're off the line." Then he stuck his cigarette back in his mouth and resumed his puffing on it, and she left to go and find Floyd.

Floyd noticed her approach the moment she entered his field of vision and brightened up in the way that made her feel like she was made of sunshine. He was sitting on an old dresser and shifted along to make room for her, then patted the place beside him when she got close.

Once Charlie had hoisted herself up to join him, she glanced at him sidelong. "Comfy," she said.

He grinned. "Only the best for my favourite nurse."

In spite of herself, Charlie smiled. "Oh, I'm your favourite now?"

He rolled his eyes. "You've always been my favourite, Freckles."