The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

102: Not A Single Purer Soul

The crowd which gathered for Shifty's send off should have been much bigger than it was. The men were training and they'd had to say their goodbyes earlier that morning. It seemed a cruel thing that they hadn't been allowed out of it to say goodbye, but Shifty told the nurses it was better this way, and Charlie knew it was because he didn't want to get too emotional.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" Charlie told him the second before she wrapped him up in a hug.

"I will," he assured her, patting her back. "Now, you look after yourself, too, alright? You do a lotta good for all the men here. They might not need me around anymore but they sure need you."

Charlie gave a watery laugh into his shoulder before pulling back. "I will," she promised him. "And I'll look after Floyd for you, too. I know you kept him out of trouble a lot."

Shifty smiled. "He don't need me lookin' out for him no more now that he's got you."

Charlie smiled and took hold of both of his hands. He'd chosen her as his final goodbye and that was so much an honour she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. Her eyes were on their hands where they were linked and, after a beat, she sighed. When she looked back up at him she had tears in her eyes, though she hoped he'd assume it was due to the sunshine she was squinting against.

"You were my first ever male friend, you know," she told him. She smiled when that made his own smile widen. "My first friend in all of Easy, too. And you made my life so much easier at the start just by being a friendly face. I hope you know how much your friendship means to me."

"Now, your friendship means an awful lot to me, too, Charlie," he replied in that soft manner of his.

"You'll write, won't you?" she asked hopefully. "I want to hear all about your life back home."

"I will." Shifty nodded.

"Sergeant, we're getting ready to leave," cut in the driver of the waiting jeep.

Charlie gave Shifty's hands a squeeze. "It's been an honour and a privilege to call you a friend. I hope I'll get to keep that honour for the rest of my life."

"You will," Shifty said with a shy smile. "It's been an awful great honour to be your friend, too, Charlie."

She hugged him once more and then stepped back, giving him a final smile as he turned to get into the jeep. Once he was inside, the driver shut the door behind him and got into the front seat. Shifty gave the group of nurses a wave.

"See you soon," Boo called to him, waving back.

"I'll see ya," Shifty agreed. A moment later the engine roared to life and the jeep pulled away, and all of a sudden they were short of a man valued for both his combat expertise and his smile, both equally as treasured as each other.

"Damn," Mabs said with a sigh once the jeep had disappeared from view.

"Yeah," Autumn replied.

"It's going to be so strange not having him here," Charlie said with a small, sad smile. She had yet to turn away from the road ahead where the jeep had once been.

"I'm glad he gets to go home," Boo said. "He deserves it."

They all agreed on this. There existed not a single purer soul in all the world.

They found out four days later that Shifty had been in a car accident after being hit head on by a drunk driver on his way to the ship which would have taken him home. He was in a hospital somewhere in France, being treated for a severe concussion, a broken pelvis, and a broken arm.

"Jesus," Mabs said when she and Charlie heard. Floyd had delivered the news to them while they were on shift.

"Is he going to be okay?" Charlie asked.