" I'm not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."

- Louisa May Alcott

✰✰✰

The NCOs managed to round up a majority of the men to start following the direction of where the Germans, went to defend the counteroffensive that was planned. They were to defend Carentan at all costs so the supplies on the Normandy beaches could continue their move inland.

Lizzie had cleaned up what she could with Gene and the rest of the Easy Company medics before they headed out, with bloodied hands. The sun was out, shining brightly down on the soldiers that moved across the field. Lizzie was beside her 1st platoon buddies again, Perconte, Luz and Hoobler. She had missed them.

" Hey, Luz." Perconte started.

" What?" Luz asked, as Lizzie looked up from where she was walking next to Luz.

" How far we going?" Perconte exclaimed. Lizzie smirked.

" Did you even look at those sand tables, Perco?" Lizzie asked the man beside her. Frank gave her a look.

" Yes, Lizzie, but all I'm saying is that, we've been walking for a while, we won't be defending Carentan no more if we're not even close by it now." Frank said, " So honestly, how far we gonna end up going?"

" Oh, Jesus Christ, Frank, I don't know." whined George, hearing enough talk from his friend.

" Until they tell tell us to stop."

" High ground." Hoobler said. " There's high ground up ahead."

" Okay, genius, answer me this then:" Perconte started as Luz and Lizzie started chuckling.

" Why is Easy Company the only company who's either at the front of an advance or, like now, exposed at the far edge of the line?"

" We're Easy Company, remember Frank?" Lizzie muttered, " We're always on the edges."

" To keep you on your toes." Hoobler stated, adding onto Lizzie's fact.

" No," Perconte started and Lizzie laughed, " that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that we're never in the middle. And we're the fifth of nine companies of this regiment. Able through Item. Think of it."

" How about you just walk, Perco?" Lizzie said through a laugh.

" See there, you see that?" Hoobler said pointing forward. Suddenly, gunshots ripped across the field. Luz pulled Lizzie to the ground and she slammed harshly onto the dirt. She let out a groan at the impact.

" Incoming!" someone yelled.

" No shit!" Lizzie heard someone call from a few people back.

" Contact right! Get in the hedgerow!" Welsh called up ahead. Luz slowly helped Lizzie toward the hedgerow, and she pulled herself forward, with the radio man next to her, with each crawl movement forward. Shots continued ripping out across the entire group, and explosions rattled the now empty field behind them. Chaos ensued across the entire field, as leaders began yelling and calling out, and ordering instructions that dissipated into thin air.

" Medic!" came a call, and Lizzie turned, ripping from Luz's grasp.

" Lizzie!" Luz called, but she turned and hurried back where the chaos was, helping a fallen man to the side under a hedgerow and began assessing his wounds.

" Luz, get down here with the radio now!" Welsh yelled, and Luz cursed himself, looking away from where Lizzie had disappeared and flipped toward Welsh quickly. The men tried their best at fighting back against the retreated Germans.

Lizzie assessed the man's wounds and quickly ripped open a packet of sulfa with her teeth and poured the sulfa into the bullet wound. Lizzie looked up as an explosion rattled off near her, and she screamed a deafening scream that shot fear through Luz when he heard it. Lizzie collapsed next to the man, grasping at her arm, grimacing the entire time, fighting through the pain that encased her. Lizzie reached up to touch her arm and she immediately felt the graze of where the bullet had fiercely touched her skin. She sat up again in pain and reached around the man wrapping the wound the best she could through the immense pain she felt. The gunfire slowly seized, and as Lizzie laid there she began to feel light headed. She knew she would pass out soon.

" Lizzie!" came Luz's voice, as she slowly stood up, hissing a bit at the blood coming from her arm. Luz appeared around the corner and saw the girl, pale and in pain, with blood coming from her arm.

" Lizzie," Luz said coming forward, " hey, you're okay." Lizzie grasped onto him as Luz caught her from stumbling to the ground.

" What happened?" he asked her as Lizzie managed to catch his eye.

" I don't know," she said, gulping a bit as she became thirsty, " but we need to get this man behind the lines."

" You're bleeding," Luz said.

" I know," Lizzie said as she shifted a bit walking and grimaced a bit, " we need to find Gene."

" Come on," George said as he wrapped an arm around her to lead her toward where he had seen the other medic go.

" It's just a bullet graze, I'll be fine." Lizzie grimaced out as she began to sweat cold sweat and her mouth became cotton dry.

" Doc!" George called. Gene came hurrying through the trees and collapsed by their side as George gently lowered Lizzie to the ground.

" What happened?" Gene asked, as he pulled her arm into his lap. She couldn't speak, dizzy and sweaty.

" She said uh, it was a bullet wound graze?" George tried.

" Right," Gene said as he pulled a bandage out, " she'll be okay." Gene was able to patch her up, but the dizzy feeling never left her system.

" There's a guy back there who needs to be taken behind the lines, he's injured." Lizzie said to Gene.

" Okay." Gene said as he shoved away the bandage.

" I'll come with you." Lizzie said standing.

" Stay here, keep drinking some water until you don't feel light-headed, you'll be okay." Gene said to her before jumping out of the hedgerow and moving on down the line.

As it rained that night, Lizzy was able to let the rain hit her skin and slowly let herself heal a bit from the wound. She resided in a foxhole with Bull, her head spinning a mile a minute, her eye sight unfocused and her body drained. Gene though had told her to stay in the foxhole and make sure she healed up to her full potential. She trusted him on that notion, and George made sure of it before he moved to his own foxhole.

That night, Hazel and Tab did the first few hours of watch along the line. Tab had become like a big brother, always checking up on her, making sure she was okay. He was like Catherine. The two of them were always checking up on Hazel. So, there she was, walking next to Talbert in their ponchos, his a German one, as the rain pelted down on their figures, and created a muddy slush beneath their feet.

" Where'd you get that poncho, Tab?" Hazel asked him, as she held herself back from jumping into a mud puddle like a kid.

" Well," Tab started, " we met up with the 502nd, you know Shifty, Elizabeth, Smokey and I, and on D plus 1, we had a run in with some Krauts. It didn't end to well for them afterward." Hazel glanced up at him from under her poncho and the rim of her helmet.

" Ah, I see." she said with a nod, " Figured it provided more camouflage?"

" Clearly not there Tiny, if we killed them." Tab said and Hazel snickered softly, as she grasped the strap on her shoulder tighter.

" Did you get any souvenirs, besides that poncho?" Hazel asked him, as she narrowly avoided another mud pit.

" Nah, I was too busy with this thing." Tab said, " You?"

" No, but I almost had an Edelweiss flower." Hazel said and Tab chuckled.

" Yeah, I would've expected that from you." Tab said as Hazel grinned.

" Do you even know what an Edelweiss is?" she asked him as Tab smirked at her.

" Of course I do." he said. Hazel looked at him with wide eyes from under the brim of her helmet.

" Don't give me that look." Tab said and Hazel smirked proudly to herself.

" What look?"

" Oh you know the one that lets me know that I have no recollection of what an Edelweiss flower is." Tab said and Hazel giggled.

" It's just the mark of a true soldier, Lieb told me the soldiers can get them high up in the Alps of Germany and Austria." Hazel said, " It's white with a yellow center. I think it's rather beautiful."

" Oh well thank God I didn't say anything." Tab said and Hazel glanced at him.

" Why?"

" I was thinking it was a daisy." Tab said and Hazel laughed, but clamped her mouth shut as they were in the darkness, in the rain, of the night. The two continued on, walking along the hedgerow, watching as others bedded down into their foxholes, the slushy pits of watery mud awaiting them as they did so. The Germans had been singing the entire time they were walking along, singing in the middle of the war, in the middle of a rain storm. And they were singing.

" Can you fucking believe it?" Tab said shaking his head, " Singing, in a downpour." Hazel just smirked.

" I can." a voice said and the two turned to see Harry Welsh approaching them with the canteen that most definitely had anything but water in it.

" Evening, sir." Tab said as the Lieutenant with a goofy smile on his face stepped in between the two, taking a sip from the canteen, a meagerly coughing the last bit down.

" You hear that?" Welsh said, as they stood there.

" Uh, yeah, it's called rain." Tab said, and Hazel forced herself not to laugh.

" Nah, not that Sergeant, I'm talking about the singing." Welsh said, looking between the two. Hazel offered a smile.

" Kitty used to sing." Welsh said and Hazel offered a raised brow.

" Who's Kitty, sir?" Hazel asked him.

" The love of my life." Welsh said looking at her, and Hazel's heart grew mushy; that was adorable, even if he were slightly drunken.

" Singing brings me back, ya know, the days in Wilkes-Barre, standing in her kitchen, listening to her sing those songs on the radio," Welsh said, " the singing's a comfort."

" You know, I had a knack for it back in Kokomo-"

' Sergeant Talbert, I mean no offense, but I think I'd rather hear those Krauts sing, but thank you." Welsh said and Hazel laughed at Tab's face in response.

" Um, what are you doing so close to the line, sir?" Hazel asked him, she figured he'd be back with the other Lieutenants perhaps.

" You know, taking a swing past hell's gate, nothing out of the norm." Welsh said sipping from his canteen, " What about you two? You're rather close."

" Oh, rounds, sir, we got duty." Tab said.

" Oh, right, rounds," Welsh said, " well I'll leave you two to it."

" Thank you, sir." Hazel said with a nod. Then the two watched the tiny Irishman walk away, a bit of a jump in his step as he took another swig from his canteen before placing it back on his belt.

" That's definitely not just water." Hazel muttered beside Tab, who let out a snort.

" Definitely not, Tiny." Tab said and Hazel grinned as the two set off again on their rounds. Now, as Hazel thought about the Germans singing, all she could envision was a drunk Harry Welsh in a beautiful woman's kitchen, listening to the love of his life, singing.

" What a character." Tab commented as the man disappeared into the darkness of the hedgerow.

" Got that right," Hazel said, " but I've always liked him, even from the start. He seems fun to be around, lucky for Catherine." Tab nodded with a smirk.

" Oh yeah, I'd want to see drinking games between those two." Tab said and Hazel grinned.

" Wait, how old are you even?" Tab asked her suddenly, looking at her with wide eyes.

" 19." she said with a nod, " I'll be 20 on the 22nd of July."

" No wonder I never saw you drink once." Tab said, " Technically you're in Europe and can be drinking, but you don't seem like a rule breaker necessarily." Hazel giggled, and her cheeks burned a bit. That was her, she never usually broke the rules, it was just her personality.

" I can promise you though, on that 22nd of 1945 then, I'll be making sure you'll somehow be getting a drink, even if I have to pull Lieutenant Welsh's canteen from his grasp." Tab said and Hazel laughed.

" You do that, Tab." Hazel said and he laughed loudly. The two continued on their rounds or mini patrol really until they were to switch out with Bill and Joe Toye.

" You here those fuckers singing?" Bill said as he pulled on his poncho, " Oh I'll show them singing."

" Cause you know, you just have the greatest voice out there." Toye muttered.

" Shut it, Joe," Bill said, " hey, I'll make you sing."

" I can sing." Joe said, pulling on his as Hazel helped him up and out of the foxhole.

" Whatever you want Joe, just please anything to drown out that noise." Bill said. Toye smirked.

" You guys see anything?" Toye asked the two.

" Nothing, except a drunk Lieutenant Welsh." Tab said.

" He still got stuff in there?" Bill asked. Tab smirked.

" Oh yeah, came up to Tiny and I talking about the love of his life, Kitty." Tab said.

" It was cute," Hazel countered, " even if he were drunk."

" I'll take your word for it, kiddo." Bill said and Hazel grinned.

" Have fun guys," she called.

" I'll try not to." Bill called back as Joe snickered.

" I'll see you tomorrow, Tab." Hazel said waving to the man who gave her a tiny mock salute back, something he'd picked up on from Lizzie.

Hazel sighed as she turned, heading through the wet leaves of the low hanging trees and bushes around the place towards the foxhole she was sharing with Liebgott, situated near the medics and a few of the machine gunners like Alton and Smokey. She headed on her way through, but then heard a strangled cry from behind her, just a few yards back. She froze, feet poised and held still.

What was that?

There was a sudden cry for a medic, erupting across the entirety of Easy Company and their foxholes, as the cold rain, pelted down coming down harder onto the poncho that stuck to her skin. Hazel slowly turned and heard another call for a medic erupt from the same person's mouth.

It was Tab.

Hazel took off through the forest toward the voice. As she approached the froze at the sight. What scared her most was that she had just been with Tab and now here he was. Liebgott was on top of Talbert, pulling up his shirt and poncho, as Gene was ripping open his bag, and Lizzie was coming through on the other side.

There was a private in the foxhole, flabbergasted.

Hazel felt her knees go weak as she watched Tab cry out in pain, and wriggled around as Liebgott, Gene and Lizzie attempted to calm him or fill the wound. More footsteps walked forward toward the group and everyone looked over except the two medics and Tab. It was Lieutenant Speirs.

" What's going on here?" he asked, as the rain dropped heavily on his helmet, and glanced towards Tab.

" Smith thought that Talbert was a Kraut, sir." Joe said with a nod, looking back from Tab and noticing Hazel.

" What'd he do?" Speirs asked.

" Bayoneted him, sir," Liebgott said standing up. Hazel looked toward Speirs and Speirs seemingly noticed that Hazel was wide-eyed. They were just talking together, and things just seemed to happen now, like a snap of the fingers.

She sighed to herself. But it was war.

" We gotta move him." Gene said to Lizzie, as she moved to his head and Gene moved to his feet. Hazel watched as the two medics lifted Tab into the air, crying out and wriggling, and then slowly walked off with him into the darkness. Why hadn't she said anything? Standing here watching him go off and she couldn't even say a word.

" Get some rest, Corporal." Speirs told her. She glanced up towards him and bit her lip. He nodded.

" Come on, Tiny." Joe said as he walked towards her. Hazel slowly moved to Joe's side and the two soldiers walked away side by side into the darkness. When Joe and Hazel reached their foxhole, Hazel was frozen staring forward, eyes glazed over.

" He was right there, Lieb." Hazel whispered softly.

" Hey," Joe said and placed a hand on her knee, " just like you told me. He'll be fine, we got there in time. And I'm not leaving your side." Hazel looked up at him with a tiny smile.

He was right.

✰✰✰

hey! back with another lovely chapter for you all :) these three today deal with the battle of bloody gulch, so be prepared for the next chapter which focuses on the battle. we're finishing up carentan quickly! i hoped you've enjoyed it as much as i've had writing it! thanks for reading!