All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

14: Guts

Posey found herself waking up with a sense of deep peace settled over her more often than she would've expected. Indeed, she had already decided boot camp was going to be the most stressful experience of her life before she'd even been told where she'd be going - and that was saying something, because she'd been in London for a lot of the Blitz. Still, sometimes she found herself blinking awake and drowning in serenity, the early light of dawn mixed with the lingering traces of starlight assuring her she still had an extra few hours to sleep before the wake up call.

Then she'd remember where she was.

It was cruel to forget. How many times had she woken up in her bunk wondering what her mother would be making for breakfast or how long it'd be until her brother woke the entire household up by stomping down the stairs? How many times had the lingering haziness of sleep allowed her to revel in her dreams of civilian mundanity?

All those weeks in bootcamp and something inside of her was still fantasising about an alternate reality where there was no war, no Blitz, no evacuation, no nothing. She felt guilty to admit it, and refused to even admit it to herself, but something inside of her was also still fantasising that she had a father, even though it'd been well over two years since he'd left. And then, once she pushed this thought away, she felt embarrassed because, really, not having a father anymore was the absolute least of her worries.

Thankfully, Posey had managed to get her shower in at her usual time last night, which tended to be around two in the morning. The entire affair had gone as smoothly as it usually did, uninterrupted and, strangely, if not eerily, serene. She loved that she could shower so late and still wake up with dry hair; this was the only upside she had found to having short hair. She still missed her long, thick blonde locks sorely.

When the wake up call eventually came Posey was feeling a lot less nostalgic and sorry for herself, and a lot more determined to conquer the day. They only had a few more weeks at Camp Toccoa before they'd be moving onto another camp she'd forgotten the name of and she was intent on beating her Currahee personal best before they left. Maybe she'd even finally complete the obstacle course in a respectable time, too, though that goal seemed a little bit more unattainable - all of the rope climbing and throwing oneself over the tops of walls was a lot more difficult when you had little-to-no upper body strength and not much in the way of height, either. The simple truth of the matter was that the obstacle course was difficult for a man of 6'4", let alone a girl of 5'7", but that didn't stop her from bouncing around on the balls of her feet and narrowing her eyes at the first obstacle later that day, dead set on scaling the wall in one go.

"Lookin' determined, there, Duckie," Skip spoke up through a smile from beside her.

Posey shot him a glance and a offered a laugh before zeroing in on the wall once more. "I'm gonna conquer that stupid wall even if it kills me," she told him. "Today will be the day."

Skip patted her once on the back. "Well, then lets hope it doesn't kill you. I'd rather not slip on your blood whilst I'm trying to 'conquer' it myself."

Posey laughed. "I'll try my very best, just for you."

"Deal," Skip replied.

How the pair of them had managed to find themselves at the front of the queue, neither had any idea. Posey could only imagine her determination had pushed her forwards inadvertently, though she found she hardly minded the pressure of the rest of the eyes of Second Platoon on the back of her, all awaiting the starting whistle. This was between her and the wall. If she fell flat on her face she'd laugh it off - it wasn't like she hadn't already had to do so a hundred times before - but she wasn't going to do so without putting up her fair share of a fight first.