" Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."

- Dale Carnegie

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It was quiet on the plane, except for the engines that whirred constantly and the jolt every so often from the wind outside, making the plane sway a bit.

Hazel had long ago shut her eyes, the airsickness pill working its way into her system by now and making her exhausted. Medication and pills like that always put her to sleep.

Catherine however, was awake, twiddling her thumbs together, mentally trying to prepare herself for what they were doing. Her mind couldn't comprehend it, but she figured at this point nobody could. She looked across the way towards Hazel, who was so tiny next to Chuck, with just enough room to squeeze herself in next to him.

Catherine could tell Hazel was sleeping, her head titled to the side against Chuck's shoulder a bit, who also happened to be asleep, and her mouth slightly parted, her eyelids gently closed over her bright, blue eyes. She seemed peaceful for the moment, the sniper rifle leaned up next to her though, adding the texture of seriousness to the scene.

Everyone seemed anxious though, which grew to Catherine.

Malarkey kept glancing out of the window, and Joe was rather wide-eyed and repeatedly biting his lip. Others attempted adjustments to their gear, loosening in or tightening it every so often, in nervousness of anxiousness.

Winters was watching Catherine and she turned her head ever so slightly and met his gaze with a nervous smile; he smiled back and that settled her for the time being as her hands became twitchy and jittery. She felt her stomach turn sour at the thought of what might happen after they jump out of the plane. Her thoughts went out to Lizzie on another plane with Lip and Buck and Welsh.

Catherine glanced towards Gene at the end of the stick across from Winters. His eyes seemed filled with their usual worry, staying unfocused in front of him. Catherine wished she could say a simple word of comfort to their medic who seemed to be having his own internal battle as he sat there.

Everyone was though.

Hazel felt nestled in, half awake, half asleep, and she yawned a bit as she rested against Chuck.

But then the whole plane shook a bit, and there was the distant sound of a bomb coming from below. Her eyes flew open. She felt her heart lodge into her throat, as the tension inside the plane mounted. Hazel slowly sat up from Chuck's shoulder as more sound of bombs were heard again and again, growing closer with each passing second.

Hazel slowly pushed her helmet on top of her head in anticipation glancing towards Catherine across from her, who already sat on the edge of her seat with nerves. Catherine met her eyes and gave her a slight nod, as if she were to wish her good luck at the impending jump that was minutes away from happening.

Just at that moment, a red glow blinked on in the wake of the bombing sounds and all eyes seemed to travel to the source. Hazel watched, her heart pounding rapidly inside her and the pit in her stomach dropping to her toes, as Winters stood in the haze of the red light and turned toward the rest of the plane.

" Get ready!" Winters yelled to the group, holding out his hands in front of him. Hazel pulled her chord out in front of her holding it as steady as she could in her shaking hands.

" Stand up!" Winters called, and everyone moved to their feet, the two rows, mixing now. Hazel ended up behind Catherine and in front of Tab, and she could tell from the tension in front and behind her that their nerves were through the roof.

" Hook up!" Winters voice called again, as Hazel took her chord and clipped it to the wire above them. An explosion hit close to the plane and Hazel felt her knees turn to complete jello.

" Equipment check!" Winters called. Hazel felt Tab, respectfully, begin checking her gear and making sure it was secure. She reached forward herself and carefully did the same thing to Catherine, tightening any loose ends and straps.

Clicks echoed off through the plane as another explosion shook the plane and jolted Hazel forward into Catherine, who's built figured stopped her from falling forward even more. Hazel's head swam, as she wobbled a bit before regaining composure and balance.

" Sound off for equipment check!" came Winter's voice. The calls echoed off through the plane, and Hazel prepared herself mentally for everything.

" Six ok!" Tab called behind her, tapping her shoulder.

" Five ok!" Hazel yelled, surprisingly loud in Catherine's ear, so much so, she wasn't sure it was Hazel's voice.

But the girl had much more inside her, including the volume of her voice.

It seemed that once the plane pushed through the clouds was when the explosions grew and the bombing sound grew louder right outside the plane. Lights flashed, knocking the planes from side to side, shooting people to the side onto the benches and forcing them to stand up again in the chaos.

Hazel gripped tightly onto chord that held her at her feet, before glancing out the window, and watching as a plane engulfed in fire went quickly down to its fate. She swallowed quickly. She watched the chaos unfold quickly outside as flashing and bombs and planes exploding and perishing to the ground occurred. She also watched as tiny parachutes began appearing outside of the windows, signifying that people have jumped, people have made their jump into the invasion. She wondered if Lizzie had made her jump. She wondered if she was alive and okay, if she had touched the ground. She hated the thought of the fact that she could be dead. She didn't want to think about it.

" We get any lower, we ain't gonna need any friggin' parachutes!" Hazel heard Skip call from a person or two up. A shot pulsed through a window, hitting someone who was peering out it and back, Hazel couldn't watch, her mind in fragments.

Suddenly, just like the flip of a switch, which it probably was, the light turned green; that bright, bearing color that signaled the jump. It was time for a jump.

" Let's go!" Winters yelled, turning to call towards the entire plane. Then she watched as Winters jumped right out of the plane. Gene followed right after him without hesitation. Person after person went out the door, until Hazel watched Catherine jump straight out the door with a powerful determination.

Hazel stepped up to the door, and she felt Tab's hand give her one final, farewell squeeze before she jumped right out of the door. The wind hit her immediately, as she felt the chord disconnect from the plane and she was above Normandy, swinging and falling through the bomb-filled sky.

She strained to look for the DZ, or even some light, but the wind pushed in every direction possible before she felt the parachute open above her head. She felt the air push through it and pulse upward a few feet before settling. It was loud as guns shot, bombs exploded and there were distant yells and screams. She saw fires, the remnants of explosions of downed planes and the bodies of people.

She knew that for many people that would be their final resting place.

Hazel felt the wind guide her out of the way of the fire, but farther from the DZ, and her heart pounded faster in fear. She was guided further away from the sight of probably more of the paratroopers and she felt the ground coming closer and closer, as gravity pulled her done more. She passed a hedge of trees, before the field opened up and it came closer.

The impact hit her like a wall of bricks, as she crashed down into the muddy field. She felt the parachute land roughly on top of her and she let out a groan. She roughly pushed the top layer off her head and groaned again as she sat up from her uncomfortable position on the ground.

Her first view she got was the darkness of the Earth compared to the sky. It was eerily silent so close to the ground and away from the quickness of the action. She saw the mass of trees she had previously floated over, and she saw the field expand on for quite some time before hitting a farm and another mass of trees. She noticed there was a road nearby, something she did not want to approach. The crickets were out, chirping surprisingly, as they had yet to be hit with impact from the invasion.

Hazel quickly detached the parachute and rolled it up, before shoving it away and discarding it. She then reached for her leg bag and froze. She reached frantically again and found it was not there.

When had it flown off?

Did something hit it off?

She looked around before looking bag where the leg bag had been.

" Come on." she muttered and reached for her sniper rifle which was still there. She pulled the rifle around and into her arms and reached for ammo. She pulled what she had from her belt that contained ammo and inserted it quickly into the weapon, before closing it up and locking it up safely. She adjusted her helmet on her head before moving to a crouched position and glancing around. No one else had landed where she had landed, or at least that's what it looked like.

Hazel slowly moved to her feet and began moving in a crouched position over towards the big hedge of trees. The road remained an open barrier than she would have to move across to get to the other side, but she figured she would be willing to take that risk to get there. Hazel sucked in a breath, and sprinted out from the field of tall grass, across the road and into the dense trees.

The minute she reached the other side, her heart raced rapidly before she attempted to calm it with deep breathing. She leaned up against a tree and peaked out again around a corner, observing her surroundings that awaited ahead of her. Hazel walked slowly and quietly walking through the forest toward her expected assembly area, the weapon gripped tightly in her hands, ready to fire at any given moment.

----

Catherine had been in a free fall for longer than she had initially wanted, before the parachute opened. But the ground was too close, and her body was in the wrong direction, her legs flying out from the side of her, her shoulder headed directly for the pile of logs that were below her. Catherine frantically reached up to guide the risers a bit, but before her hand could even grasp them, her shoulder slammed down right into those thick logs, the rest of her body pushing down on that and the parachute falling heavily over top her.

Immediately Catherine's right hand flew to her left shoulder, and she grimaced, pressing her teeth together, as pain simmered in her shoulder, a dull throb slowly becoming apparent in the shoulder area. It was burning on the outside and the inside.

But she would suffocate long before she could figure out the shoulder wound.

Catherine groaned as she pulled her right hand away and to the knife in her pocket, blood covering over her fingers as she did so, and forced the knife up into the parachute to cut a hole. Her left arm entirely wouldn't move, much less the shoulder, and with each plunge of the knife into the fabric of the parachute, her left shoulder seemed to pulse in ever worse pain.

She had to pull her webbing off, yes, that was what she had to do next.

And then she had to access her weapon and her maps.

Her mind went into overdrive as the throbbing wound moved back into her brain again.

Catherine pushed open where she had cut through the parachute, there was a slight humid breeze that washed over her. Catherine slowly, grimacing as she did so, pulled the right part of her webbing from her shoulder, before glancing at her left shoulder. She had to remove the webbing to get to cover. Catherine shifted, and a sharp pain shot through her shoulder as tears swarmed her vision and her heart rate spiked. It was bleeding profusely, whatever had happened, and to move it would just release even more blood.

But the area where the wound was, the parachute was ripped and bare bark lay open, perfect for slicing open human skin. However, Catherine's entire shoulder hurt, internally.

Not just on the outside.

Catherine had to move and get the left shoulder after the webbing. Catherine searched around for the knife again, and slowly picked it up, looking at the handle on it. She shut her eyes for a moment and sucked in a breath, before placing the handle in between her teeth. Catherine then turned to the bark and her shoulder and the webbing. Catherine grabbed the webbing, gritting her teeth in pain as she did so.

Then she quickly pulled the webbing off, over her shoulder, a strangled cry escaping past her lips as her shoulder seemed to lock up in utter pain, as tears streamed down her cheeks, pain throbbing now in her entire upper left arm. Catherine was trembling with worry and anxiety that filled her system, as her head spun and her mouth grew dry.

She hadn't even stepped on the actual ground and she was wounded.

But she had to make a makeshift splint to secure it, yeah, that's what Gene or Lizzie would tell her if they were here.

But she was bleeding as well, profusely. Blood loss came to her mind, if she lost too much she could die. If the wound got infected, it could take a turn for the worst. She was already sweating, and some of her tears of pain mixed with the sweat crawling down her forehead.

She yanked the only bandage she had in her med kit and began attempting some sort of splint. She moved her shoulder area from straight to bent in one swift movement, and bit her lip until the point of blood to hold back the cry that wanted to erupt from her mouth. She tied the entire thing up, the white standing out a bit more than everything else in the darkness.

Catherine forced herself to push up from where she was against the bark of the logs with the parachute and get to the ground. As she stood, she felt light headed, but her shoulder hurt even more and was where all her focus went to. Catherine, struggling, moved off the logs and touched the French ground, before collapsing, her shoulder twisting in pain as tears flew into her vision again.

It was an overwhelming pain that flooded her entire system.

There were tears in her eyes.

Tears.

She never cried.

She hadn't cried in a while. She forced herself to suck up the tears as she grabbed dirt and leaves to hide the bright white bandage from sight for camouflage. When she finished, her shoulder continued to throb, as she heard explosions in the far off distance, the cracking of weapons and she swore she heard things in the woods, which made her heart pulse in fear. She looked around at the nearby forest; she had to get in there.

Catherine moved to her feet, bending down, to pull her Thompson on her shoulder, and her map into her hand. Then she stood, wobbling on two feet, as she continued feeling light headed and ill. Her hands were covered in blood and dirt and tree bark and now sweat from worry. As she continued through the forest, she began feeling more light headed.

The Thompson slowly fell from her shoulder, as her hand grew numb, and her feet stumbled over each other. She collapsed against a tree, and let out a pained cry, trembling. The pain was too overwhelming internally and externally.

Then she heard footsteps and she froze.

Her heart pounded and it felt like in a second it was going to pound out of her chest. The footsteps were gentle and cautious and familiar. They were not that German, they were American. Catherine fumbled with the cricket in her hand and managed to click it. The footsteps stopped, and then a second later two clicks answered back. It was an American paratrooper.

" Flash." Catherine called out in pain.

" Thunder." the call came back and Catherine looked up to see a dark figure appear through the trees.

It was Doc Roe.

Immediately Catherine's eyes filled with more unwanted tears at the sight of a medic, someone who could help her.

Because she did recognize she needed help.

" Gene," she whimpered out as the medic immediately brought his attention to the splint on her arm, covered in dirt and blood, and the trembling of her feet and arms, her eyes with tears streaking down her cheeks.

" Catherine," Gene said, as he quickly moved towards her and crouched by her side in the pitch black of the night.

Catherine and Gene never crossed paths enough to have conversation or even really interact with each other, but now thrust into the middle of war, their paths were diverged.

" It's my arm, Gene." Catherine whimpered out, as Gene's eyes went to her shoulder. He quickly stepped over her and moved his hands to her shoulder. He touched it gently as she flinched and blood appeared on his finger tips.

" What happened?" Gene asked her as she glanced towards him.

" My parachute didn't open up until I was only 100 feet above the ground, and I crashed into a bunch of lumber. My shoulder hit first." Catherine whimpered out, as a heavy feeling filled her throat, the feeling of sobbing and utter despair. She never would've suspected to be injured in the jump, that wasn't the part she had feared. Gene gently pressed against the wrapped part of the shoulder and Catherine let out a pained whimper, as her right hand went up to stop Gene's hands on her shoulder.

" It's okay." Gene said softly, as he looked at the bleeding part of the wound. Catherine squeezed her eyes shut as he pressed again on the tender part of her shoulder. Catherine grimaced again.

" We have to move, Gene." Catherine whispered, her voice on the verge of breaking.

" Catherine you're hurt." Gene said, " Let me wrap ya up." Catherine clamped her mouth shut, she knew she had to listen to him.

Catherine shoved a hand over her face, and let an onslaught of tears past her lips, hiding her tears. It hurt so bad, and she knew that this could send her back to England.

Gene looked at the woman, who he had never once seen cry, crying right in front of him. And his heart broke as she did so. She was in so much mental and emotional and physical pain. He couldn't do anything serious until they reached the general assembly area.

" Catherine." he said quietly, leaning forward closer to her, to keep his voice down and from being heard. She looked at him with tear filled, pained eyes.

" Do you have something I can take?" she asked through a sob.

" I can give you morphine, and hope that it doesn't knock you out." Gene said pulling the tiny vial from his pocket.

" Anything to get rid of the pain." she cried out, wiping at her eyes again. Gene moved over to her good arm and gently inserted the vial of medicine. Catherine felt her pain slowly disappear for it's worth and she felt relief hit her system. Her heart rate slowed down and her breathing became even again as she felt her arm for the most part go numb, or so it felt. Catherine looked toward Gene and swallowed heavily.

" Thank you." she managed out. Gene nodded.

" You'll have to be evacuated," Gene said sadly looking at her below the bottom of the rim of his helmet. Catherine felt tears well up in her eyes at that thought. She knew he was telling the truth, something she had to accept by this point, but as she sat here in the middle of the forest in Normandy, she couldn't help but cry.

She had just gotten to the war, she had so long wished to fight in.

" Yeah." she managed out, her voice breaking sadly at the end. Gene looked at her sad eyes, before looking around.

" We should get you up." he said watching her softly. She nodded faintly and held up her good arm for him to help her up with. He crouched down and then slowly lifted her to feet and secured her good arm around his shoulder to help her walk without falling as the morphine really kicked. The medic and the rifleman continued off into the dark, towards the ever looming chaos that would greet them.

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Lizzie had a fairly rough landing, straight on her legs, which shook with shock as she tried to stand. Her medic satchel had flapped over a bit, and her supplies flew a bit to the ground, and she hurriedly attempted to clean it up quickly. The parachute, she quickly discarded before turning and running into the woods her heart pounding wildly out of her chest. She'd seen a few parachutes land close to her, but her fear of Germans finding her made her run for cover. Lizzie watched as someone darted away from the parachute toward the left. Lizzie carefully hurried through the trees, and continued until she came to where the person had run into.

" Flash?" she called frantically, her hands gripping the strap around the medic satchel tightly as she moved through.

" Thunder, Thunder, I'm here." the voice called, and she immediately recognized it as Floyd's.

" Tab!" she called with relief as she watched as the man appeared around the tree up ahead and hurried toward her. Lizzie couldn't help but wrap the man in a tight hug, just for a moment of comfort after the terrifying jump. Tab pulled back and held her at arms length.

" Are you hurt?" he asked her quickly.

" No, no I'm fine, did you see anybody else?" she asked.

" No, I just landed, you?" he asked and Lizzie shook her head.

" We should probably get moving." Lizzie said.

" Yeah, let's go." Tab said as the two began moving through the trees through the forest in Normandy. Lizzie stayed close to Tab, as her eyes continued scanning over the land around them, as her footsteps and Tab's remained quiet and gentle as they padded against the ground. Lizzie's heart was pounding. She hadn't expected to meet up with someone as quickly as she did.

From the way the plane was going, she had expected to be pushed off course and have to trek through the woods, hoping she wasn't killed. But meeting up with Tab had put a new sense of security within her. He had a weapon and he was skilled with it.

And Lizzie trusted Tab as a loyal NCO of Easy Company and of Winters.

" How'd you feel with your jump?" Tab asked her softly as she moved closer to his side.

" It was fine, I guess, " Lizzie said, " that wasn't the scary part though, Tab." Tab glanced at Lizzie.

" A prop blast came at me, and I just missed it. I was near death for a bit, but hey, I'm still here." Lizzie said and Tab chuckled.

" Glad you can joke about it," Tab said, " but you ok?" Lizzie looked at him, her face paint starting to sweat off.

" Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. You?" she asked.

" Yeah," Tab said, " we'll both be fine." Lizzie nodded, smiling at him, and gently gripped his bicep and patted it with an affirming nod.

Then, there was a crack, and the medic and NCO froze, hands on each other's soldiers, looking towards the sound. The footsteps were coming closer. Lizzie watched Tab out of the corner of her eye reach down to pull out his cricket. Tab gave it a click. The footsteps immediately stopped and a few seconds later, 2 clicks answered.

" Flash?" Tab called out.

" Thunder." the call came back and Lizzie knew who it was instantly. She could recognize that voice anywhere.

It was Shifty Powers.

The Virginia man stepped out from the trees and Lizzie watched in the moonlight as a smile spread across his face when he saw the group.

" Shifty." Lizzie said as a tiny grin grew on her face as Tab lowered his cricket a smile on his own face.

" Hey guys." Shifty said. Lizzie walked forward and hugged Shifty tightly before pulling back and glancing at Tab who came over and shook Shifty's hand.

" Well I guess 2 guns were better than 1 anyway." Tab said as the two laughed looking at the NCO.

" Let's get going." Tab said and the duo nodded before following after Tab into the ever looming darkness of Normandy.

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hey! so the women have made their jump into normandy, and i feel i just had to show what each of their landings were like and how they ended up. catherine though :( the poor woman.

i'm doing one other chapter today, just because i have a lot of editing on the block for today, so thank you for all your support and your love!