The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

Deleted Scene: Charlie Runs Away

A/N:

The first of Charlie's deleted scenes collection! Sorry it's taken me forever - life has been busy! But I've so missed Charlie and Floyd and their story so you can definitely expect more to follow. Also, as a reminder, you can find me on tumblr at cetaitlaverite (and definitely should - I love hearing from you guys)!

Anyway, this scene takes place in Haguenau (episode 8) after Jackson's death, but from Floyd's perspective this time instead of Charlie's. Hope you love!!!

***

Even after the artillery fire had stopped, the gunfire had ceased, and the shouting voices had fallen quiet, Floyd could still hear noise in his ears. Sometimes, the silence right after a battle could feel louder than the battle itself. His ears rang with the impact of a recent cacophony and his eyes, too, blinked in and out of focus, one moment blurry and the next clear and the next blurry again after he'd focused them for too long on bright lights and flashes of moonlight on metal.

He was exhausted. There was no other word for it. After Bastogne and the horror of everything he'd seen there, and then the false hope of being taken off the line, Floyd had thought he was done, but now, now, in some dingy bombed out French town named Haguenau after giving covering fire for some pointless, reckless patrol, he was finished. Exhausted. He'd never felt so bone-weary, not even when he'd been taken off the line during the Normandy Campaign, not even in Holland.

As he dragged himself to his feet, his ODs damp and cold from kneeling in the riverbank, all he could think about was Charlie. He wanted to ask her... No, he didn't. He was tired, but he wasn't that tired. Not tired enough to ask Charlie Lancaster, who didn't love him the way he loved her, to stay the night with him even though it was against the rules and she wouldn't even want to. That was the part he needed to keep reminding himself of - she wouldn't want to. She didn't like him like that. She wasn't in love with him the way he was with her. He repeated this over and over again in his head like a mantra, not letting himself forget, because if he forgot then he'd ask her; he didn't honestly care about the rules.

The men were supposed to head straight to the CP for a debriefing before being dismissed to bed, but all of them were unanimous in their unspoken decision to head to OP-1's basement first to see how the patrol had gone. Floyd led the way in, hoping and praying whatever the aftermath was wouldn't be devastation, wouldn't be all of his friends dead in this horrible little town.

But the men from the patrol weren't down here anymore. It was only Autumn.

"Hey," Malarkey greeted her as he stepped into the basement beside Floyd. "How did it go?"

Autumn worried at her bottom lip. Her eyes flicked from Malark to Floyd and then to the men slowly spilling into the basement behind them.

"They got the prisoners," Autumn said eventually. She kept her eyes studiously trained on Malark. "We lost Jackson. He threw a grenade into a building and ran into it right after. They brought him back here but we couldn't save him - internal bleeding and ruptured lungs..." She trailed off, perhaps lost in her haunted memories of the event.

Behind Floyd were murmurs. Men muttered to each other about how big of a shame it was to lose Jackson and then about how they were going to head back to the CP, since nothing was going on down here. But Floyd kept his eyes trained on Autumn. Usually she had no issues with eye contact - really, her issue was with blank staring - but right now she was making a concentrated effort to look everywhere except at him.

Something wasn't right. She wasn't telling them something.

Floyd waited until the men behind him had all left the basement, leaving only him and Malarkey with Autumn. Then he came out with it and asked, "What are you hiding?"