Courage Under Fire| Band of Brothers

Pre War Part 6

Pre-War part 6

"Olivia!" Helen exclaimed, trying to pull her back down in the pew. The girl had risen to her feet, Stanhope had followed quickly as if to play protector to the girl, worried that Kathy or her mother did not try and attack Olivia. 

"You spoiled selfish little brat." Kathy spat as she took steps forward as if she wanted to strike the younger girl who clenched her fists ready to swing, if necessary.

 "Olivia, sit down." Helen hissed tugging on her wrist, she did not know if she was more horrified or proud that her niece did this. "I will not." The girl returned as Lewis quickly went down the steps and to the pew to protect the girl. She never asked for any of this, this was all his doing, he was the one that went down to Charleston to accompany her to the deb ball. He was the one who got her drunk and then proceeded to fall in love with her. The girl was 18 years old and dealing with a whole lot of uncertainty. "Kathy, this isn't the time or place for this."

"You put her up to this!'  The woman was furious and went to strike Lewis with her bouquet but was stopped by Olivia grabbing a hold of her wrist, "He did no such thing! I have a brain inside my head, and I use it unlike you."  

"How dare you!" 

"How dare I? How dare I?" Olivia was floored, she never thought she could meet someone as selfish as her mother, but she was dead wrong. "Do you realize that we are entering a war and Lewis joined the army and that you could lose him? Or do you want that so you can take the money and run?" 

Kathy raised her hand to slap her again and the girl smirked, twisting the wrist that she was holding to the side. "You aren't going to strike me or Lewis."  The younger girl commented, "Hitting people may have worked before but let me make one thing perfectly clear, you are not going to hit him or me ever again. If you do, it will be the last thing you ever do." 

"Are you threatening me?' 

"In front of God and all of these witnesses."   "That's my girl," Lewis muttered with a smirk, unable to help himself, this was the Olivia that he had fallen in love with.  His former future wife glared at him and then at Olivia who looked murderous and stepped down. There was no doubt in her mind that if she had struck Lewis or the girl, she would have gotten hurt too and she was already wounded. There was no reason for her to be hurt more. 

"Liv, let's go." Helen whispered, taking hold of her arm to pull her away, "She is not Katherine, taking your anger and hurt on her isn't going to do anything." 

"It will make me feel so much better." She returned turning to look at her aunt, it hit both Lewis and Helen then how much Olivia was really hurting.  The act she had put on had fooled them. The hurt from Katherine not wanting her, and the hurt from Bill and Evie breaking her heart. Fear of losing more of her brothers and the uncertainty of the war.  This situation with Kathy hitting her the night before just brought everything to the forefront. And she couldn't fight it back. 

It was too much.

 "She isn't worth it kid, and neither is you getting into trouble with the law," Lewis added, he figured that Helen promised to keep Liv out of trouble as much as she could, and for once he wanted to make sure that it happened that way. "Fine." She conceded releasing the hold on her wrist and taking a step back, "You are right Aunt Helen, we should go. We don't want to keep Uncle Michael's staff waiting for too long."  The older girl nodded her head and whispered a few things to her own aunt and uncle before grasping Olivia's hand and pulling her out into the aisle and out of the church.