" That was her magic, she could still see the sunset, even on those darkest days."

- atticus

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Lizzie was sitting beside Shifty in the blistering midday heat from the sun, her neck growing sore as she was bent over, making her first K-ration since being here. Blonde hair hung in her face, as she bent over and she remained focused and alert. They were right next to a large field and Tab was currently standing and looking out toward it. They'd been going since they met up, searching for the assembly area, but they were blown so far off that it was over 12 kilometres away by this point. And by now with the garrison battle already over, they were probably on the road to Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont, the next town that they were to capture. Lizzie finally sat up from her K-ration, pressing a hand to the back of her neck and rubbing it as it grew sore. She had to stretch it a bit as she did so.

" You ok, Lizzie?" Shifty asked her and she nodded.

" Yeah, I'm good." she said as she leaned back and sighed, picking up the K-ration, " Do you want a bite?"

" No you keep it," Shifty said, " and drink water." Shifty had been the one on her for drinking water, for she was neglecting it, as she was staying on high alert and making sure that the boys erew the ones drinking water. Lizzie grinned at Shifty and nodded.

" Thanks Shifty, I will." she said, as she reached into her canteen and took a sip from it. She was dehydrated, she could feel it. But she didn't want to drink it in case Tab or Shifty needed it. She knew she needed water but her medic instincts usually remained high, and she knew Shifty and Tab would run out soon. She knew all the symptoms of dehydration as well, such as headache, hallucination, sun-sickness, things like that.

" Well," Tab said and both Lizzie and Shifty glanced up towards Tab, " no sign of anyone else." He glanced back towards the two. Shifty was giving him a pointed look and Lizzie was raising a brow his way.

" I think we've figured that out, Tab." Lizzie said, " The drop must've been widespread if we haven't seen anyone for a few miles."

" Yeah, well, still sucks." Tab complained as he walked over and took a seat in the little triangle. Lizzie offered a tiny smile.

" You need to eat," Lizzie offered, holding out her K-ration toward him.

" Isn't that your K-ration?" Tab asked her, noticing there weren't any others by her side except her medic satchel.

" Yeah, but it's fine, you need it more." Lizzie said.

" No, Lizzie, keep it, it's yours." Tab said. Lizzie gave a pointed look.

" I'm only taking a bite because it is yours and you deserve it more. You are the medic, can't have you passing out on us." Tab told her and Lizzie snickered softly.

" It's fine I promise, I need to make sure you two are kept up to speed, especially since we don't know when we'll be meeting up with the others." Lizzie explained as Tab took the K-ration and took a bit of food out and ate it.

" How can you remain so positive?" Tab asked her. Lizzie smirked to herself softly.

" I guess it's the only thing I can do in situations like this." Lizzie said, " The unknown, yeah, it's scary, but just facing it, just knowing you don't know what's going to happen, it doesn't make it that scary anymore. You just accept it."

" Wise words of wisdom from Miss Elizabeth Elliot." Tab said with a nod as Lizzie smirked at him shaking her head. Lizzie glanced at Shifty who smiled at her softly.

" My grandma taught me that one." Lizzie said with a nod, looking down at her hands. No one knew about her grandmother, not even the girls, because well, supposedly her grandmother was getting better, the treatments, they were working. Even if it wasn't always a guarantee.

" She's real into God and stuff, always says he'll save her from her sins and her misfortunes, things like that. She's a big believer in that." Lizzie said with a small smile. Shifty and Tab met each other's gaze, as they listened to Lizzie trail off. Lizzie wasn't one to grow entirely too close with others, maybe just a small conversation or two, but her actions spoke louder, especially as a combat medic. Her and Gene were the same way. Soft-spoken, but firm and commanding when you went against orders.

It was the medic way.

" She doing ok?" Tab asked leaning forward.

" Yeah," Lizzie said with a nod, forcing a smile on her face, guarding herself. She cursed that she even brought her grandmother up. It would lead to unwanted emotions and feelings that Lizzie thought she had left behind in America when she became prepared to fight in the war. She wore her heart on her sleeve and was fairly easy to read, but she was quieter about it, more so than other women. It seems Shifty Power and Floyd Talbert could pick up on that she was hiding something. She wasn't ready to say yet.

" How about your families? They ok?" Lizzie asked. The two men met eyes again, but decided Lizzie got off the topic because it was too much for her.

" Doing well, I guess," Shifty said, " sent me some cards, a few photos." Shifty pulled out a tiny photo from his front pocket and showed Lizzie, who reached forward and took the tiny photograph in her hand.

" That's mom." Shifty said and Lizzie softly smiled down at it. Tab thought she had a wise smile, years beyond her age.

" She's beautiful Shifty." Lizzie said, as she handed the photo back to him and he took it and tucked it away. Shifty smiled at her.

" I got one of my dog back home." Tab said and Lizzie's eyes lit up.

" You have a dog?" Lizzie said as Tab pulled out the picture and showed it to her. It was a German Shepherd with the softest looking ears, tail wagging, as it seemed he were smiling with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

" Aw, Tab," Lizzie said.

" That's Bailey." Tab said and Lizzie's eyes turned soft.

" He's adorable." Lizzie said handing him back the photo as Tab nodded with a smile.

" Once he gets the zoomies, though, game over." Tab said.

" Zoomies?" Lizzie asked him.

" You know, they get really excited and started booking it around the house." Tab said as Shifty and Lizzie giggled.

" He sounds so cute." Lizzie said as she brushed her hands off on her ODs.

" We should probably get moving." Tab said as he looked at the two.

" Yeah," Shifty said as he stood, " they're probably moving to Sainte-Marie-Du-Monte now." Lizzie slowly stood and pulled on her medic satchel as well as her helmet, carefully placing it on her head as she did so.

" Scoped out what looks like a road through the wheat over there a ways." Tab said as the trio began walking again through the marshy waste land.

" Would've been nice if they didn't flood out these here fields." Shifty said as he stepped into a large puddle.

" Yeah, it would've," Lizzie agreed as she stepped around her own mud pit. They moved through the tall field of wheat, their footsteps quiet as they did so before they came out on the other side, the road. A muddy road, but a road. There were tire tracks, they were footprints. Everything.

" Any of you got a map on you?" Tab said turning and Shifty was quick to start pulling his out. He handed it to Tab.

" If we follow this road, I'm sure we'll be heading along right to Coup-De-Ville." Tab said, " We won't make it in time to Sainte-Marie-Du-Monte."

" Maybe we'll meet up with a few others along the way." Lizzie suggested, hopeful.

" Well, standing here and yapping about it won't get us there, so let's get moving." Tab said as he rolled up the map and handed it back to the sharpshooter. The trio moved along the road, their feet squishing into the wet mud as they walked, the sun baking them like cakes in an oven.

" If only I was as positive as Elizabeth Elliot." Tab said as they continued down the road. The woman had pounds of medical equipment hanging off her and there was a smile on her face. Lizzie turned to Tab with a grin.

" It's all about your mindset, Floyd," Lizzie said as she huffed a bit, " sure, it sucks how far away we were dropped, but it doesn't mean we won't get there. Plenty of roads are all over this place and thousands of paratroopers were dropped. We're bound to meet up with someone soon."

" Hopefully no one from the 5-0-deuce, I'm not in the mood to have to win back my confidence levels just yet." Tab said.

" Ah, the bar fight." Lizzie commented, a smirk on her face.

" Ah, yes, is right," Tab said, " you were there Shifty, I wasn't in the wrong exactly."

" Well," Shifty said, " you were the one trying to get a woman to dance when clearly her boyfriend was right next to her."

" That was clearly a friend." Tab argued.

" A friend of a girl doesn't just, ya know, kiss her on the lips and call her his friend, right, Tab?" Lizzie called from in front of them.

" Ok, but ya know, fun friends, c'mon Lizzie keep up." Tab said as Lizzie snickered. " Where you-"

" Whatever," Lizzie said cutting him off, knowing where he was going with it, "I'm just saying you probably deserved that. And that 502nd guy was probably proud of it." Lizzie offered, being bluntly honest.

" You know, Tab, there were plenty other fine young ladies there that you could've asked to dance that would've kept you from that situation." Shifty offered.

" He's not wrong, Tab." Lizzie said as she narrowed her eyes towards what was in front of her. A gathering of people. People in American uniforms. She began to hear Shifty and Tab bicker.

" Hey, you two, shut up." Lizzie called, as the two glanced at Lizzie. She pointed ahead. Tab narrowed his eyes and hurried forward standing next to Lizzie.

" What in the hell?" Tab muttered.

" It's the 502nd." Shifty said coming to stand by Lizzie's other side.

" You gotta be shitting me." Tab muttered, and Lizzie felt a smirk crawl onto her face. She glanced at Tab innocently.

" What were you saying about those fun friends again, Tab?" Lizzie asked him with a raised brow as she headed forward again, Shifty at her side. Tab grumbled and caught up with the two.

" If I get my ass beat, this on you, Elliot." Tab said as Lizzie snickered.

" It's D-Day, Tab, I'm pretty sure any ass beating that's wanted will go down back in Aldbourne." she said, " You can save that pretty face for a little while longer."

" She's got a point, Tab, they've probably forgotten about it by now." Shifty offered in reconciliation to his friend, " Don't boost his ego too much." Lizzie snickered.

" Yeah, yeah," Tab said waving it off. As the trio approached, a few guys started turning to them.

" 506th." Tab called to them as they approached. Lizzie saw a few smiles upon some faces.

" Well, well, Easy Company," one guy said pointing to their helmets.

" Yeah," Tab said, " any of our guys floating through here?"

" Yeah, uh, one guy, says he's Smokey? He's over smoking a chimney. He's got 'em in his nose, a few in his mouth." the guy said shaking their hands.

" Meagerly surprised," Tab said nonchalantly. Smokey was smokey because well he smoked; a whole lot.

" Where is he?" Lizzie asked.

" You a Virago?" the man asked her, ignoring the question.

" Yes I am." Lizzie said with a proud smile, pulling back the collar of her OD to show the tiny Athena symbol each girl had sewn into their D-Day ODs, " And proud of it."

" Damn you guys in the 506th got lucky, we just got a bunch of shit for brains Lieutenants." he said.

" Are we surprised? The military allows anyone of human species in at this point." Tab said.

" Smokey." Lizzie said refocusing Tab's nonexistent energy.

" Right, Smokey, you know where we can find him?" Tab asked him.

" Probably over there, last I saw, guy's got a jolly laugh." the man said.

" Great, well, thanks, we'll see ya around." Tab said and turned quickly away, motioning the 2 others to follow.

" The military allows anyone of human species?" Shifty questioned at Tab as they walked through the crowd.

" They allowed fucking Sobel in, to lead, they're growing soft." Tab stated.

" They allowed you in." Lizzie muttered with a smirk as Tab rolled his eyes.

" Elizabeth." he whined.

" Oh poor baby.' Lizzie pouted out as Tab shook his head.

" Just let me be funny for once." Tab mumbled.

" Oh, you're funny plenty of times, you just get beat up for it most of the time in the end." Lizzie offered and Tab rolled his eyes.

" People just don't get my humor." Tab said as Lizzie and Shifty snickered, " Ah, Smokey!" The trio approached the man, who indeed had cigarettes in possibly ever facial orifice, besides the eyes. He looked up at them, his helmet strap swinging, as he pulled the cigarette that sat on his lips out and stood up.

" Tab! Lizzie! Shifty!" he said as he approached them.

" Thought I was stuck with these guys for the rest of the war." he said as he took another smoke.

" Well the smoke might kill ya before that." Tab said as Smokey rolled his eyes.

" They might beat you up before the boat trip home, Bunny." Smokey said.

" What have I told you about that nickname?" Tab muttered.

" Bunny?" Lizzie asked, trying to conceal the laugh that wanted an escape route.

" Bunnies hump just about anything there, Doc, and it just so happens this son of a bitch does as well." Smokey said, patting Tab's shoulder.

" Oh I forgot, it's make fun of Floyd day." Tab grumbled. Lizzie patted his arm.

" That's everyday, sweetheart." Lizzie said, as Tab grumbled.

" Using the word sweetheart does not make me feel better." Tab grumbled.

" Aw come on, Tab, it's just for jokes, trying to lighten the already rather depressing mood we're sucked into." Lizzie said with a shrug of her shoulders.

" Who knew you were so funny." Tab commented as they followed Shifty over to where Smokey was getting his stuff.

" A medic's a lot of things, Tab," Lizzie said, " a bit shut off, a bit distant sure, but funny. It lightens the mood a bit."

" You think they recognize me?" Tab said quietly leaning towards her as Shifty helped Smokey into his webbing.

" Will you calm down? There's a war on and you're worried about a guy you jumped at 5 months ago." Lizzie said watching him.

" Is this about the bar fight?" Smokey asked as he clipped his webbing into place with him.

" Lower your voice, goddamn." muttered Tab.

" I found it quite funny," Smokey said as he unplugged a cigarette from his nose. Tab raised a brow.

" Oh really, shall I bring up the mishap in Toccoa with our beloved Skinny Sisk?" Tab said crossing his arms.

" Ok you two, duel later, focus now." Lizzie said pressing them back.

" And you said you were the smart one." Shifty said with a smirk as he patted Tab's shoulder.

" Jenny Hendricks thought I was." Tab muttered.

" Jenny Hendricks drank 4 beers at the bar and wondered why she threw up." Smokey offered.

" You 3, focus." Lizzie called to them.

" Why do I feel myself bickering more with anyone more than ever, Elliot?" Tab asked her as she paraded through the group of men, " You never joked much back in Aldbourne."

" Well, Tab, we're in the middle of Normandy, not with the 506th, and the only thing to brighten the mood is humor." Lizzie offered, " I'd say you'd be bickering more as well." Tab just smirked and shook his head.

Lizzie was right, medics never opened up much, but when they did, they were truly funny people, like Lizzie and caring, putting everyone before themselves and they were beloved, without a doubt.

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hey! back with another chapter, a bit later, i finally got my braces off!! this chapter was fun for me, it showed a bit more of lizzie's chill side, because really she is one of the most chilled out characters i've ever written. and you usually never see a super chilled out combat medic who isn't fazed by much clearly. her character's super fun so i'm excited to show you more of her, but there's a reason i'm writing her character and not revealing much; a combat medic usually doesn't grow too connected to others, so i'm trying to portray that. she's a fun character to write.

thank you for all your support and love!! :)