" Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities."

- Aesop

✰✰✰

The following morning was bright, with the sun out, barely a cloud or two in the sky. it was June 4th, 1944. The company knew that the time was coming close that they would be jumping soon. Into this unknown territory with a gun and a parachute or in some cases a medic satchel or a sniper.

Hazel was expecting a letter from her dad now any day by this point. Her mother had informed her that he was sending a letter to her soon, and Hazel herself was not planning on writing back anytime soon. The pain she felt, which overwhelmed her entire being with the stress of that situation she tried to whole-heartedly to forget, was too immense to focus on with a jump occurring soon. But she figured he would send one now in case these were her last days on Earth.

Whenever mail call happened in the past days, her head would whip around when she heard Vest call the names out, but it was never for her. She was waiting so expectantly by this point just to see her father's handwriting after all these years and hear what he had to say after so long.

" Three-day supply of K-rations, chocolate bars, charms candy, powdered coffee, sugar, matches, compass, bayonet, entrenching tool, ammunition, gas mask, musette bag with ammo, my webbing, my .45, canteen, two cartons of smokes, hawkins mine, two grenades, smoke grenade, gamma grenade, TNT, this bullshit," hollered Toye, throwing god-knows-what to the ground, " and a pair of nasty skivvies." Lizzie glanced his way from where she had set out all her medical supplies on a tarp on the tarmac. She smirked.

" What's your point?" Perconte asked the man next to him, as he whipped off his gloves.

" You know, this stuff weighs as much as I do. I've still got my chute, my reserve chut, my Mae West, my M-1." Toye said quickly.

" Where are you keeping your brass knuckles?" Perconte asked the man with a chuckle, standing to teeter off somewhere else.

" I could use some brass knuckles." Toye said with an upturned glance, where he caught Lizzie looking his way with a raised brow, which Joe smirked to. Lizzie slowly stood up and crouched in front of his tarmac again and raised a brow as she glanced down at his stuff.

" Guess I shouldn't be complaining, Doc, with all that stuff, you, yourself have to carry." Joe said as he glanced up at her. She shrugged a bit and glanced back at her own things.

" Eh, what's life without a little weight." Lizzie said, as Joe smiled at her.

" Right," he said.

" You heard about those leg bags though?" Lizzie asked him. Joe glanced up at her.

" Leg bags?" he asked her. She pointed to where George was with the leg bag.

" The fuck?" muttered Joe, " I'll be lucky if I don't die because all this weight plummets me to my death." Lizzie laughed.

" That'll be the day." she said as she stood up and brushed her hands against each other.

" 'Cause I mean," Lizzie said walking over to George as Joe followed her with his eyes, " I'm just as tall as this guy. And we're carrying the same weight for our tiny bodies." Lizzie wrapped an arm over George's shoulder as he glared at her.

" Oh you are funny, Lizzie." George said, but he couldn't keep the smile that broadened on his lips from his face as Joe just shook his head chuckling.

" She making fun of your height again, George?" Malarkey asked as he wandered over.

" No!" George said, " It's called petite."

" How in any way are you petite, George?" Joe asked from his spot. George snickered.

" Average." George said. The group just snickered shaking their heads.

" They started handing out ice cream." Malarkey said as Lizzie's head whipped around to look at him.

" Ice cream?" she asked and Malarkey nodded.

" Oh yeah, chocolate, vanilla, little bit of strawberry." he said. Lizzie's eyes widened as she met George's eyes who were equally as wide.

" I'll race ya." George said throwing down his shovel to the ground.

" You're on!" Lizzie said, as George hopped over his stuff and shoved Lizzie to the side before racing forward.

" Screw you, George!" Lizzie called racing after him.

" Have fun!" Malarkey called, " You get those stupid leg bags after." he muttered afterwards as Joe snickered from his spot on the ground.

" Talbert!" Vest called, as Hazel, Liebgott and Tab stood in a group together chatting.

" Talbert!" Vest called again as Tab looked up again and towards Vest.

" Floyd! Floyd M, here!" Tab called to Tab and Vest looked the groups way.

" Heavy." Vest said walking over with a box towards Tab a smirk on his face.

" Condoms?" Vest called.

" I don't know, probably." Tab said as Hazel rolled her eyes. Liebgott came over.

" Whatcha got?" Lieb asked him glancing at the box.

" 'Dear Floyd, give 'em hell.'" Floyd read and Hazel smiled. " It's from Chief of the Kokomo police department." Tab glanced at the group, and smiled.

" Right." Lieb said a big smile on his face.

" Whoa," Tab said opening the box up, " you've gotta love cops." He pulled out a shiny pistol that gleamed in the sunlight. James Alley came over and glanced at the weapon with wide eyes and a smile, excited and giddy.

" All right, listen up, listen up." Lipton's voice called, coming through the crowd of people.

" If you did not sign your GI Life Insurance Policy, you go on over and see Sergeant Evans at the headquarters company tent. You boys and girls don't let your families miss out on $10,000."

" You guys signed up for that yet?" Floyd asked Hazel and Joe. Hazel nodded.

" Yeah." she said softly.

" I need something for my 4 sisters if I don't make it back. They can get one of those nice fancy pictures of me and put it above their fire place." Joe said with a laugh and Hazel smirked a bit.

Even if it was a joke, the thought of Joe dying in war only saddened her heart because really anyone could die out there. She tried to put it out of her mind when leg bags were given to everyone as well as bits of ice cream were passed around. When Lizzie and George had gotten back to their spots, they were sad to find that with the ice cream came the leg bags that were a whooping 80 pounds.

" Why're they springing these things on us now?" Malarkey asked to no one specifically looking at the huge leg bag with not-exactly-easy instructions on how to use it.

" It's just an extra 80 pounds strapped to your leg." Luz deadpanned as he walked over, " Does anybody have any idea how the hell this thing works?"

" Beats me." muttered Lizzie repositioning the entire thing in her lap again to try and get a better view of it.

" Colonel Sink." came Vest's voice suddenly as he stepped close and shoved a paper into the hands of Bill who sat on the ground eating his bowl of ice cream like a child.

" Colonel Sink," Vest repeated shoving the paper into Luz's hands before he glanced down at Lizzie who was just a little shorter than him.

" Soldiers of the Regiment. Tonight....is the night...of nights." Luz's impression slowly wore off as he read from the paper and Lizzie felt an unfamiliar pit of fear develop in her stomach.

" Today, as you read this, you are en route to the great adventure for which you have trained for over two years." Lizzie stared at the paper that slightly shook between her fingers. She bit her lip and glanced towards Luz. George looked over at her with the most serious expression she'd ever seen on a person.

" So that's why they gave us ice cream." Bill said lifting the bowl of ice cream with a slight grimace.

The sun had nearly almost set.

Hazel walked through the entirety of the airfield, through the levels of the men, her eyes eagerly looking for someone. Someone that held a very important letter for her. She couldn't find that someone, but she hoped before the drop she'd manage to get her hands on that very important letter.

" Hey, Tiny!" she heard a voice call. She turned at the sound just as she noticed Talbert walking toward her with a smile on his face. His helmet was slightly lopsided on his head, his hair poking out in multiple directions from underneath it, his face smeared with the face-paint provided to the paratroopers. A tiny smile crossed her face as she walked toward him, stepping cautiously over top the people that sat in groups on the ground or stood in circles.

" Hi Tab." she said with a tiny smile. Tab noticed her immediate demeanor, which most of the men in the company could pick up on it at this point. It was reserved, and quiet, and the nervous tension radiating from her was extremely evident to him.

" You ok?" he asked her, and she nodded her smile faltering. She glanced over at the duo of women sitting not to far from where she was at the moment.

" It's just a lot, you know? Everything." she said nodding, before looking back up at him. Tab nodded with a smile.

" Yeah, but hey, you're one tough chick, Tiny, I'd be scared to come across you after the drop if I were them." Tab said quietly, glancing down at the ground before looking back up at her. She let out a tiny sound of air from her nose as a laugh and a smile fell on her lips again.

" I mean, come on, it's pretty badass what you do already. Those Krauts better be terrified." Tab said.

" Tab." she muttered, with a roll of her eyes.

" Tiny, they literally have no idea that we'll have someone with a freakin sniper dropping in. I say that it'll be a sweet surprise for them. Trust me." Tab said smiling. Trust. That word was a big word for her. She's struggled with the idea of trusting someone all her life, but she was coming to terms with what that word meant to her.

" We'll see." she said beginning to turn away from him, before he caught her on the arm.

" If I don't see you, be careful out there ok?" Tab said as she turned back to him. She nodded with a close lipped smile.

" Yeah, of course." she said, before turning away to head towards the rest of the girls. Tab watched her go with a similar nervous tension that the girl had arrived with. The girl walked back towards the girls, and when she arrived, the women noticed that similar nervous tension that bestowed the entire airfield of men now. The two women looked up when Hazel made her way to them.

" Hey." Catherine said as polished away at a tiny part of the Thompson, rubbing at the barrel of the gun with the grease.

" Hey." Hazel said before sitting down in the circle and pulling the sniper rifle into her hands, to continue her work on shining it up. Catherine could sense a bit of nervous tension and sadness that surrounded the young girl. But it was Lizzie who spoke first. She picked up on anything.

" Find Vest yet? For the letter?" Lizzie had asked Hazel, sitting up with a small smile on her face.

" No, can't find him, but I'll get it eventually. Don't worry about it." Hazel said. Catherine looked up at the mention of not worrying about it.

" Want me to find him?" Catherine asked.

" It's fine, I promise." Hazel said.

" Are you sure? You've been talking about this letter for a week. I'm not afraid to go rip him from yapping away with Joe or someone." Catherine said. Hazel smiled at her but shook her head.

" I'll be fine, it'll turn up." Hazel said with a nod.

" It'll come," Lizzie said, " I had this thing show up." Lizzie held up her letter that she seemed to want to throw into the ocean. Hazel gave a sad, small smile. She leaned back, with a small sigh, and looked to the sky. She always looked at the sky when she felt a bit lost or helpless, like she couldn't do anything. It was like a blanket of safety, similar to the one she felt with her mother. But her mother wasn't here, but the sky was comforting enough.

" Easy Company, listen up!" the entirety of Easy Company heard Meehan call over the airfield. Everyone stopped when they were doing, getting quiet immediately and turned to look over towards the CO on top of the jeep.

" Channel coast is socked in with rain and fog." Meehan called over the group. " No jump tonight. The invasion has been postponed. We're on a 24-hour stand-down." This made Hazel's stomach roll in an uneasy way. 24-hour stand down. They weren't jumping tonight, but they could in 24 hours and that was very unnerving.

The women bided each other good bye as they moved their gear back to their bunks in the tents on the airfield. Mess hall that night was weirdly quiet, and everyone seemed to have this disheartening feeling in their souls as they sat there. Even the 'feast' that Malarkey and Skip had been so excited about didn't taste super exciting, as their stomachs rolled.

They played a movie, but no one was focusing or even paying attention to it; the only thing on their minds being that invasion that they awaited eagerly by this point, the anxious feeling building inside their chests.

Catherine couldn't take the movie, she needed a moment to breath so she decided to stand outside in the slowly darkening evening, she figured it'd be one of her last sunsets at this pretty place, one of her last sunsets before she was involved in the war. She was smoking, a rarity for her at times, but her stomach was twirling and she was anxious about the invasion in general. She heard footsteps and turned to see Bill coming out of the tent, with a rather upset expression across his features.

" Bill?" she asked leaning forward from the post to stand in front of him.

" Hey, Mack," he said rather lowly and sadly, clearly in a far off place that wasn't Upottery.

" You ok?" she asked quietly, her eyes glancing down at the letter in his hand that was opened.

" Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just need a second." he said and moved past her again towards the tents lighting up a smoke as he did so. Catherine sighed watching the man go. She'd never seen Bill like that and it scared her, right before the invasion especially.

Catherine walked towards the edge of the airfield, where the horizon was visibly lighter than the dark blue sky as it turned from evening to night. She saw a figure at the end of the airfield, staring up toward the sky, their garrison cap removed from their head, and a downward expression.

It was Hazel, and it seemed she was praying to God.

Catherine didn't want to interrupt the girl though. She'd been through so much at that point in her life, and even though she had the company, and the women behind her, but that didn't mean she wasn't going through things. She was earnestly awaiting the letter that she had yet to receive it seemed. Catherine turned and let the sniper be in silence.

Hazel was actually there with the letter that she had been waiting for. It had arrived after mess hall and she'd skipped the movie completely because of her fear she'd read it and throw up during the movie and scare the others. There were fresh tears in her eyes as she sat there with the letter in her hands. She couldn't seem to force her eyes away from the paper that shook between her hands. Her eyes scanned the contents of the letter, not wanting to read each piece and put them together all at once.

Dear Hazel,

It has been quite some time, hasn't it. 11 years to be exact. I'm not proud of it, I'm not proud at all of leaving you and your mother, but I wasn't right in the head; not at all. I went away to try and deal with that and not be a burden to you and your mother, but turns out, all together, I just hurt you both more in the end. I tried escaping to the mountains in Montana. I took a few trains there, using the money I could scrounge from different cities across the nation and different towns I came upon. I got drunk a lot, wasted too much money, and found myself in the woods near a lake next. I lived in a tiny home where I was told it would help me and my brain and the insanity I seemed to be going through. That was for about a year, of trying to get through that to help me the best I could. When I came out on the other side, I feel guilty to even say it, but I wished to not return home if fear that I would harm you and your mother even more, that the scars that I had given you were too much for you to even handle in a large capacity. So I escaped to Arizona, and lived with different people during my time there, doing whatever I possibly could to survive and get work, and keep my mind off the insanity I just had narrowly escaped. I met a woman, who reminded my very much of your mother, and we courted for a year or two before we married, and had a child together. I told myself it was wrong, all of it and what I did and tried to do and tried to escape, and without a single letter of explanation, but in the end it was for the better of both of us I feel, and your mother. To do this day, I still live with only a bit of guilt, but I know you and your mother are better off without the reminder of me and what I did to you, and I hope you accept that. I hope you accept it all what I did. I live very happily now, in a town near the coast in California, where you can see the sunset. I've stopped smoking and drinking and have tempted off everything that could've put me on the trail I affected you and your mother with. I've heard you joined the Airborne, and to be honest I wasn't entirely pleased because fear of you dying overcame me. But I knew that, you, strong brave and passionate could overcome anything. I hope after the war, we get a chance to meet up and talk things out and try to understand each other. You were so young when this happened and I can't help but take blame after blame for letting it all happen initially. I have many regrets. Please write me back if you ever get the chance out there.

Love,

Your Father

Hazel slowly lowered the letter from her vision and stared out toward the setting sun, her jaw slightly slack. Tears remained welled up in her eyes. She glanced back down at the letter as she attempted to comprehend everything. She felt the first tear drop down her cheek as she stood there and she quickly wiped it away. She watched, in silence and alone as the sun slowly set behind the horizon and the sky turned dark, so that the stars were visible enough to be seen.

That's when Hazel cried.

She finally let herself let out the built up emotion she couldn't cry out for the past year. Her trembling sobs escaped her lips and filled the silence and danced with the wind that swirled around her hair. She slowly let herself sit down on the ground, her knees weak from sobbing, and she let the onslaught of tears overwhelm her. She had never felt the pain she felt now. She always had trouble coping with her emotions and how to control them and sitting here not, she couldn't contain them. She was filled with pain it seemed, and it looked for a way to escape.

Her heart ached, her chest turned sour and her throat turned sore from the heaving cries that fell from her lips. She began to feel a hand on her back, gently rubbing in a small circle, comfortingly and soothingly.

Hazel peered over her shoulder with bright, bloodshot eyes and saw that it was Bill there. Hazel sucked in her cry, but the minute she attempted to do that, the sob escaped past her lips and she broke. Bill slowly got next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let her cry into him. Her sobs sounded like they were filled with so much aching pain, that had been just waiting to burst. Bill looked down at the girl as she cried, trying his best to comfort the emotionally distraught girl under his arm.

She was always so humble and quiet that he would've never suspected that she was going through something like what she was possibly going through now. Hazel kept her head shoved into Bill's neck forcing herself to calm down as he held her.

She hated crying.

But the training for war had exposed it once too many times.

But Bill to her was like a very protective, loyal older brother and she knew she could trust Bill, like a few others that were here. Bill was the one through training with Sobel who made sure she was never left behind, and made sure she had representation.

" Hey, kid." Bill said and Hazel glanced up at him once she had finally stopped crying and sniffled slightly. " How about you hit the hay? Ok?" She looked at him with sad eyes and then nodded slowly.

" Yeah." she whispered. Bill slowly stood and helped the girl stand. He wasn't going to ask what had happened or what she was upset about, but he wanted to make sure she slept well and could hopefully use that for healing. The two walked back in silence, the letter from her father in Hazel's hands. The two walked back into the tent of 2nd platoon, where a tense silence blanketed the entire group already. Hazel and Bill's entrance just increased it. The minute Hazel took a seat on her bed, she glanced back down at the letter again, and felt her eyes well with tears. She closed her eyes so hard to try and not have to look at it in front of her or the writing or anything in general that dealt with the letter.

Joe Liebgott was the one who sat down beside his best friend, wrapping his warm, comforting arm around her shoulder and letting her rest her head on his shoulder. Joe wasn't about to start asking Hazel what was wrong, he had learned from his sisters that sometimes they just liked to be held in hugs and not talked to. That being there and being held was enough. Hazel wasn't used to that sort of comfort but she was beginning to welcome it with open arms.

Joe came to a realization that night; he didn't like seeing Hazel cry.

✰✰✰

hey! one more chapter and then it'll be d-day! this part of the story was truly so fun to write with all the virago's training as well as meeting easy and creating bonds and exploring characters and dynamics. it truly is the most fascinating part of the story to write because by war, everything seems to change and grow and expand.

thank you all!