Bitter Pill to Swallow

Chapter 22

"Hey, Mr intelligent intelligence officer, please tell me you know when it's gonna stop goddamn rainin'."

"It seems you've confused the job of an intelligence officer with a weatherman there Val," Lew chuckled, a wry smile on his face.

"Then maybe you can tell me how much longer we're gonna be in this goddamn woods," she quipped, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well why don't you head across that road there and ask the Krauts how much longer they're planning to stick around."

"Touché," Valerie laughed, bowing sarcastically in defeat. She huffed out a disbelieving laugh when she noticed Lew lifting a bottle to his lips and taking a deep slug from it. "Jesus Lew, tell me you're not drinkin' a bottle of Schnapps in the pissin' rain in the middle of active combat."

"What can I say, it just fell into my hand," he smirked, taking another long swig from the bottle, "would be a shame to let it go to waste."

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that," Dick sighed as he approached them through the trees, his shoulders tense. They'd been under almost constant fire for the majority of the day, and Dick had been doing his best to keep the show running. Ultimately though they'd had to pull back into the treeline, and he'd been on edge ever since. "I sent a Sherman to try and take out that Tiger Royal we spotted earlier but no dice. Damn Tiger took him down with two shots, then took a potshot at one of the others and got that too."

"It's gonna be a long night, isn't it?" Valerie sighed in dismay, meeting Dick's pitying gaze with one of her own.

"Afraid so Val," he replied, "I'm gonna need you to check in with your mortar squad, make sure they've got enough rounds to keep them going. We can't let up the pressure on the highway."

"You got it boss," she agreed, giving him a lazy two finger salute as she headed off through the trees. Dick watched her go for a moment before turning back to Nix with a disapproving frown, but he chose not to say anything to his friend.

"Glad to see you and Val have kissed and made up," Nix commented as he swigged from his bottle. Dick rolled his eyes at him before responding.

"We talked," he said pointedly, "and we're all good."

"She admit why she was angry?"

"Well...not necessarily no" Dick sighed, refusing to meet Nixon's amused gaze. She'd been incredibly cagey when he'd questioned her, but he hadn't wanted to push any further lest they end up in another argument. But that didn't mean that Nix's theory was right. Maybe it was just something really personal that she hadn't wanted to tell him about. There could be a thousand reasons as to why she'd avoided his questions.

"Right," Nix commented dryly, "well at least you're friends again. Now all you need to do is pull your head out of your ass and tell her you like her and all will be well in the world."

"Nix," Dick huffed in exasperation, "I already told you..."

"Yeah yeah, I know you did," Nix butted in, clapping him on the back before making his way towards the trees, "told me all about honour and duty and all that other crap." Dick shook his head in exasperation, refusing to even dignify Nix with a response. Nix to his credit didn't seem inclined to wait for one.

"Nix?" Dick called to his friend as he watched him amble off through the trees, "Take it easy on the Schnapps. And please try not to get caught with it." Nix gave him a half-hearted wave before continuing on his trek through the trees, Dick watching him go with concern.

~~~~

"Hey, Lieutenant Landry,"

Valerie stopped in her tracks and waited for Shames to catch up to her. He'd been with her in third platoon since they'd dropped in Holland, and Valerie found they got along well enough together. He'd been nothing but nice to her since they'd met, and she appreciated his competency in combat.