" Strong women don't have attitudes. They have standards and boundaries."

- Unknown

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Hazel enjoyed when they were relieved from training for a weekend and got to experience Wartime London during Christmas time. The trust among the people of the company was astounding by this point. There was banter and inside jokes and laughs as tiny groups moved down the streets of London, with glances from the locals, but they didn't entirely care with their extra $50 dollar pay in their pockets and smiles on their faces.

Of course, Hazel sent each and every bit of extra pay she got to her mother back home with hopes that she could put it towards herself for once and not the house. Hazel enjoyed walking next to Lizzie, the two women dressed in their uniforms as Christmas music played through the streets, with songs of hope and joy for the holiday as well as longing and the feeling of homesickness, since it was yet another Christmas where they would not be home with their loved ones.

" You know," Malarkey started as him and Skip stood on either side of Hazel, " back home, we had these fountains that would run along Main Street, most gorgeous things. You'd love 'em, if you love the stars." Everyone knew of Hazel's love and fascination with the stars, she talked about them a lot, but the men didn't mind. Instead, they found it adorable, her fascination with the stars and all.

" Really?" Hazel asked him, her eyes shining. Malarkey nodded.

" Or the Niagara." Skip said, and Hazel's eyes widened, " Now her, she's a beauty. Swam it myself once."

" More like skipped across the bridge," Don said.

" You know, that's actually how I got the nickname." Skip said. Hazel looked up at him.

" Don't tell me it was because you skipped?" Don asked blandly.

" It was most definitely because I skipped. And I skipped everywhere." Skip said with a proud smile.

" That's cute, Skip." Hazel said with a smile.

" I mean, hey, I'm not the only one with a cute nickname, you're literally so tiny and your nickname is Tiny." Skip said as Hazel laughed.

" His is bullshit." Skip said and Hazel let out an even louder laugh.

" Shut up, will ya!" Don said, reaching past Hazel to shove Skip's shoulder.

" I'm kidding silly, but Sobel sure got a kick out of it." Skip said as Hazel giggled and watched as the tops of Don's cheeks turned pink.

" You didn't have to be so vocal," Don said as Skip laughed.

" They were gonna find out sooner or later, Don, plus I'm pretty sure they know malarkey is in fact slang for bullshit." Skip said as Don rolled his eyes.

" Hey, you 3, catch up!" George yelled as the trio walked faster towards the group.

" Now, that's a sight to see." Don said as they approached the railing that overlooked the River Thames to Big Ben. It glowed like an ember in the night, lighting up the sky as a chilly wind blew against the group. Hazel then looked up towards the stars which seemed to shine so bright down upon them.

As Hazel looked up towards the stars, the gentle tune of Bing Crosby's I'll Be Home For Christmas flowed through the speakers along the cobblestone pathways. Hazel gripped the cold railing and stared down at the flowing water of the River Thames. She felt saddened suddenly. Her mother wouldn't see her for a second Christmas. She could hear some of the guys goofing off behind her, their voices bringing an ounce of joy to her heart, because even though she wasn't home, she had the men and women of Easy Company. Hazel's eyes stayed looking out to the stars and Big Ben, as she listened to the quiet Christmas music and the water lapping against the sides of the riverbed.

" Hey, Tiny," a voice said and Hazel glanced over to see George beside her.

" Hey, George." Hazel said softly, glancing back towards Big Ben.

" You doing ok? You seem out of it." George said. Hazel shrugged. George stepped closer to her and gently budged her shoulder.

" C'mon what's bugging ya?" he asked her a smile playing on his lips.

" It's my second Christmas without my mom." Hazel told him with a sad smile, " But I guess that's war, right?" George glanced her way with a soft smile.

" You know, she's probably watching the sky right now, thinking of you." George said with a nod. Hazel looked up at him and softly smiled and then nodded.

" Yeah," Hazel said, " I bet she has our Christmas tree up. And she'll wrap it in the most beautiful lights and beads and home made ornaments I made as a kid. And she'll probably have a few friends over, like Mrs. Barry or Mrs. Wilkes and one of our friends, Harry, who helps with all the gardening. And then my babcia and dziadek will come over usually." George smiled.

" And of course the food, that's the part I'll miss." Hazel said with a sigh, " We always have turkey with gravy, and I make mashed potatoes or Kopytka and pierogis. And then usually makowiec for desert." Hazel missed that. She missed her mother's meals.

" Polish?" he asked her and Hazel nodded to him.

" We have the best food on holidays." Hazel said, and rubbed her head, " I miss that."

" Well, when this war ends, you'll get that all back." George told her and she smiled.
" Can you say anything in Polish?" George asked her.

" Yeah, actually. My babcia has a heavier accent than my dziadek, but I learned a few things." Hazel said and cleared her throat, " Cześć George, nazywam się Hazel. Mam nadzieję, że twój dzień idzie dobrze." George stared at her completely confused.

" All I heard was my name." George said with a slight laugh. Hazel laughed.

" I said hi George, my name is Hazel. I hope your day is going well." Hazel said and George smirked.

" Yeah, I would've never guessed." George said and Hazel laughed, before their eyes settled on the water again. They watched the lights twinkle across the way as Big Ben reflected down upon the water, it's glorious lights faintly shining down. The Christmas tune was slowly fading out to a new song.

" Merry Christmas." Hazel said, even with Christmas a few weeks away. George smiled.

" Merry Christmas, Tiny." George said. And it would be the last normal Christmas they would ever experience. But they had each other and for now, each other was enough.

December 13th though, caused Hazel to forget the Christmas joy that had once overwhelmed her entire being. Hazel sat beside Joe Liebgott as per usual as their plane climbed in altitude. And when she jumped, it was like any other normal day, as she guided her risers to the ground, and collapsed again, shock sent up her legs through her numb feet and finally clicking off her parachute with ease. She had been walking toward where she saw Catherine and Bill, but stopped when she heard yelling. Hazel glanced over her shoulder and watched as 3 paratroopers frantically began pulling a parachute up and off the ground. She raised a brow in the air. That's when Sobel was running over, eyes wide with Winters, Nixon, Harry and Moore behind him, Sergeant Evans tagging along a bit. Hazel watched with rooted feet as the cold wind blew. She watched paratroopers be backed away from the area and escorted away as Hazel saw Lip coming running up to them.

" Catherine, find Bill and start moving the men back towards the DZ." Lip said.

" What's going on?" Catherine asked as Hazel glanced at him.

" There's been an accident." Lip said and that's all he said before Winters yelled for him. Hazel looked at Catherine before she let out a sigh and had to take duty.

" Men! Start moving towards the DZ! Let's go!" she called and they followed her orders. Hazel watched Catherine frantically find Bill and tell him what Lip said as Hazel watched his eyes widen in what looked to be horror.

It had been courtesy of a night jump that had killed Private Rudolph Dittrich. A boy who was no older than 20 killed not even in combat, but by a parachute mishap.

What would that letter look like when it was to go home to his parents?

To his siblings?

Hazel that night was quieter as she retreated back towards the Burnett's at about 2300. Hazel hated to think of it in the way she did, but he was in a better place, without a war. His death must've been horribly brutal and terrifying though and that thought stayed with Hazel for quite some time. Lizzie found herself in the aid station that afternoon, while Hazel, Catherine and the rest of Easy Company were out working with weapons, something medics didn't carry. Eugene Roe was someone she felt she could be herself around mainly because he reminded her a lot of Hazel, with his calming demeanor and he would always listen to her if she needed to talk to him or ask him questions. Lizzie stood overtop of the medical book laid out in front of her, as she leaned up against the table, eyes narrowed.

" You stare any harder at that book, you're going to become the book." Gene said as he brought over a stock of new bandages beside her. Lizzie sighed and leaned back from the book and shut it.

" There's nothing in there about patching a ruptured aortic aneurysm." Lizzie concluded. 
" I wouldn't suspect that it would be." Gene said as he walked to the book and opened it up and began flipping through the pages of the book.

" I bet they didn't put it in there because they think it couldn't happen on a battlefield." Lizzie concluded as she stood and walked to where the bandages were and began sorting through the bandages that were in the bin.

" When we know that's not true, because virtually anything can happen." Gene confirmed and Lizzie nodded. She pulled out bandage after bandage and neatly made sure they were folded up perfectly before putting them in a pile.

" Here, found it." Gene said pushing the book towards her and pointing to the section.

" Must've skimmed over it." Lizzie said as she leaned down next to Gene and looked at the page.

" You scared for war, Gene?" Lizzie asked him, as her eyes soaked up the words off the page.

" Being scared's only the half of it." Gene said as he rubbed his neck. Lizzie glanced at him.

" All I can have is an ounce of hope that whenever we finally jump, we can make a difference in this world." Lizzie said and Gene glanced at her with a soft expression upon his face.



Through training, he had learned to distance himself from everyone, to become a medic and strictly a medic, because there was always the chance in war that any man in the company could die or become heavily wounded, but now, with Lizzie sitting beside him with her quiet smiles, and her gentle words and her drive and passion for the medical world, he felt a sense of friendship, something he'd been missing.

Hazel and Catherine remained at the rainy field where weapons were one of the major things they were practicing using at the moment. They would would have an intense week of heavy weapon preparedness and tactics and drills. Catherine had worked with her Thompson all through training, and her skills had honed in while they were in England these last few months, so they were razor sharp and skilled by this point, just as Hazel's were. Down the row Sink went, to each man, making him fire off a round of fire in front of everyone else, until satisfied that the man could shoot. When he came up to Catherine, he nodded her on and she quickly pulled the trigger and fired off the first round of bullets, without really shifting in her entire frame at the knock back.

" Well done, Sergeant." Sink said with a smile to Catherine and she nodded back. Sink went over a few tactics that each platoon could take as a group. They went over things like that through the afternoons of the heavy weapons training, which was quite nice in the rain. The group sat in a semi-circle around Sink who stood in the center with targets are the far end of the field.

" Corporal Parker if you would come over here." he said one day. Hazel looked up from her weapon and watched as all the heads turned to her. She adjusted her helmet and walked forward towards Sink.

" Yes, sir." she said and saluted, and Sink saluted her back quickly.

" How about you show a few practice shots with this beauty." Sink said with a bright smile to her, which made her smile slightly. There was a new version of the M1903A4 in his arms, with the Redfield scope. She nodded. She gently took the weapon from the Colonel's hands.

" As promised." Sink told her as she smiled up at him.

" Thank you, sir."

" It won't fog up with humidity much more, I've been told, and the knock-backs been tweaked with so it's not as rough as it had been." Sink explained and Hazel nodded to him. She then slowly got down on her stomach, and set the weapon up straight on its bipod for ground positions, before setting it up to complete readiness.

She gently rested her check on the pad for her face, and set her eye in a straight path towards the target on the opposite end of the field. It was far away, if that's what anyone could tell. She leaned back and made a few extra adjustments to her scope and magnification before setting her check back on the pad. Her finger gently placed itself on the trigger and she sucked in a breath to steady herself. She did her practices and movements just like she had been taught by her father and the training the Army had somehow managed to provide. Then she pulled the trigger, and a loud crackling shot was heard ringing off and reverberating against the trees out in the distance.

It was silent as the men and the girls and Sink watched her from behind. She sucked in another breath and took off another ear-piercing shot as it most definitely hit the target again. She finished the rounds off of the rifle, before letting out a breath and leaning back from rifle. She glanced up towards Sink with a tiny smile, and Sink let a smile slowly flow over his features. Hazel slowly glanced back looking towards the rest of the men that were watching her with wide eyes. There was a silence within the group, as their eyes were either on her or the sniper.

" How about you attach a silencer?" Sink asked her, handing her the enhancement. She gratefully took the silencer and attached it to the front of her sniper before getting back into her position. She rounded off a few more shots from the weapon, the silencer doing its job.

The men couldn't believe, that this tiny, shy and quiet, yet humble girl, would be operating this weapon in the war. Her entire persona, now with the weapon, made her even more deadly as an asset to the Airborne. No one would suspect a thing from the young girl about her motives, or what the rifle would have the capability of doing. She'd simply be in the background, quiet and calm, and shoot every last one of the Nazis that she needed to kill down.

As Hazel ambled over to the group again, many of the men had their eyes directed towards Hazel who stood with an innocent smile.

" What?" she asked Joe Liebgott who was smirking at her from under the brim of his helmet.

" You could've taken out someone's eye." he said, and Hazel smirked up at him.

" That's the point." she confirmed to him with a nod and Joe's eyes widened a bit. She smiled innocently then and there. That night, the group went out to a pub, as gentle Christmas tunes played from it, but it was warm inside, compared to the rainy outside atmosphere and it was very welcoming. Hazel found herself sitting with George again, as well Chuck, Floyd and Joe Liebgott.

" Still can't believe the public can't know about Operation Virago. I'm surprised no one's found out about it." Chuck said shaking his head, as he sipped his beer.

" We've been moved around very discretely." Hazel admitted, " The restrictions have been rough to sort of move around, but once we got out of America we have some more freedoms out here at least, it's nice. But what was Sobel like? In Toccoa?"

" Oh, Sobel," George groaned.

" You're in for a treat." Floyd muttered next to her as George stood running a hand through his hair. He cleared his throat a bit and adjusted his lose tie.

" Hi-ho Silver!" George yelled, pointing a finger in the air and then running in place, " We are not Fox Company, we are not Dog Company, this! This is Easy Company!" Hazel had to let out a laugh at George's impression.

" Why are you laughing!" George yelled coming around the table, holding back his own laugh as he came over her shoulder, pointing down at her, " There is not laughter in my company, there is no joy! Only hard work!"

" George stop!" Hazel laughed out shaking her head as the table erupted into laughter. George finally stepped back laughing and clapping his hands together.

" The guy was a shit show in Toccoa, but it's nothing we weren't used to." George said. Hazel smiled.

" Sounds like." she said.

" Started shouting stuff like 3 miles up, 3 miles down as we ran up Currahee, the mountain there, a bunch of stuff." Chuck said leaning forward.

" Hey even Joe Liebgott here got to get smacked in the head with a bayonet, that was a treat." George said wrapping his arm over Joe's shoulders, who shoved him off.

" Fuck you." Joe spat as George sat back laughing.

" Such a bundle of sunshine aren't you?" George commented as Joe rolled his eyes.

" Oh yeah and you're just the most precious angel." deadpanned Joe, as George laughed. Hazel smiled, and then noticed someone walking up to the table.

" Well, well, well, if it isn't the Airborne Virago." he said, leaning against an empty chair. Hazel looked up at him with wide, nervous eyes, as the man's daunting blue eyes stared back at her, a smirk cast on his lips, and his hair looking rather fluffy.

Hazel had to say though that Liebgott's hair looked better.

" Yeah, so the fuck what?" Joe asked sipping his beer, his eyes staying on the guy standing at the chair that was unoccupied.

" Could I buy you a drink, sweetheart?" the man standing asked Hazel. And each Easy Company man watched her cheeks burn and her palms go sweaty. Hazel gulped. This never had really happened before.

" Uh, sure." Hazel said, as she slowly stood, and watched as the 4 men from Easy Company, grew serious, their expressions unchanged as they watched the man lead Hazel away.

" Sorry about that back there, didn't mean to intimidate them." the man said as he guided Hazel towards the bar. Hazel looked up at him with a small, curt smile and a nod.

" You don't talk much do ya?" She offered a small smile and shook her head. She usually moved into this nervous, ' I won't speak to you mode ', when a guy did this with her.

" What can I get for ya?" the bartender asked.

" 2 of your finest drinks." the man said as Hazel grimaced.

" I don't drink." Hazel said quickly as the man looked down at her, with a raised brow.

" Well, luckily we don't have to do much of that." the man said as he slowly leaned down coming closer and closer to Hazel. Hazel stepped back and into another person.

" Hey, watch it would ya?" the man she had bumped into snapped. Hazel gulped stumbling back a bit. She turned back to the man who was smirking at her.

" Yeah, I know, we're a bit public right now." the man said and Hazel feeling like her heart was in her throat, stared at him. There were these warning signals going off in her head, like big, red exclamation points, over and over. But she didn't have a clue what to do.

" Here ya go." the bartender said as the man grabbed the drinks.

" Thank you," the man said and then turned to Hazel, " follow me." He guided her towards the back of the bar, a darkened and dim lit room, where only a few people were. He placed the drinks down and then sat in the booth right up next to Hazel. Hazel stared at him with wide eyes.

" Now that we're in private." he whispered, looking at her with a smirk. He slowly leaned forward. But Hazel narrowed her eyes, and brought up her hands to his throat and pressed the pressure point. The man jumped back, grabbing at his throat before looking at Hazel.

" What the hell was that for?" the man said. Hazel narrowed her eyes.

" I'm a Virago right?" Hazel said softly back, her mood darkening, a flip slowly being switched to a dark side, " I have a right to hurt someone if they touch me in a way I don't want to be touched."

" I haven't had a girl in years, please just let me have this for me." the man pleaded.

" And I haven't had a father for 11, so please let me out of the booth." Hazel said, staring at him coldly. Her gaze was unwavering as the man remained begging, whimpering, like the pansy he was.

" I said," Hazel whispered, her voice dropping dangerously low and unmatched in intensity, " get out of my way." The man stared at her, as her fists clenched, becoming white, her blue eyes turned red it seemed with anger watching him. Hazel never felt this way, never let this side of her take over, but now, feeling violated she let it. The man scrambled from the booth as Hazel held her chin up and slowly slid out from the booth with her, drink, in hand. She stood in front of the man who looked at her.

" When you meet someone new, I advise you introduce them to yourself first and not try to kiss them, alright?" Hazel asked him, before showing him the drink and placing it beside his. She would've thrown it on him, but she wasn't one to make messes.

" You just wasted some money, by the way." Hazel said, blandly, before turning and stalking out of the room. As she walked away, her heart racing, her mind going absolutely insane, she felt a sense of pride. That she had gotten herself out of that situation, that she had known it was wrong and she stood her guard with herself.

Hazel slowly approached the table again where the 4 Easy guys were and they all watched as she slowly sat down, the angry mood she was in 4 seconds ago, completely gone. They were watching her.

" How was it?" Chuck asked, knowing suspiciously how quick that 'drink' was.

" He didn't exactly like my actions I'd say." Hazel said, nodding as she sipped her Coke that was in front of her. Chuck raised a brow as Floyd looked at her oddly.

" What do you mean?" Floyd asked her.

" Well," she said softly, " he tried kissing me."

" Hold the fuck up." Joe said turning to her. Hazel's cheeks warmed as he stared at her.

" Where is this guy?" Joe asked her. But Hazel held up a hand.

" As a woman, you'd be surprised how many times things like that seem to happen." Hazel said quietly as the tension simmered down a bit.

" I told him off," Hazel said, " so please don't worry about it." There was a lot of crap Hazel Parker had gone through in her life time and she was not letting that be a part of it.

" As a Virago, you learn things." Hazel said, " Such as, self-defense, something that I feel more women in this day and age need to learn." The men watched Hazel, interested in what she had to say.

" You sure are wise beyond your years, Hazel." Floyd said, but Hazel just smiled softly.

" I just pick up on my surroundings and what's going on in each and every aspect of the life around me and focus it in on what's happening right now to anyone. I use that to then control my actions." Hazel explained. The men stared at her.

" And they say women aren't the best thing on this planet." Floyd said, smirking at her. Hazel softly grinned at him.

" I beg to differ." Floyd grinned as he leaned forward with a smile. Hazel smiled, genuinely that night.

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hey!! another chapter, with another one to come! i wanted to upload wednesday but i didn't have the time to and figured a good update today would be nice!

thank you!