" Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we'd give blood."

- Charles Dickens

✰✰✰

Within the coming days, Catherine was focusing more on making sure alcohol and weapons were more under control because there were a few too many times a drunk replacement found his way to supplies and was a reckless head case in Austria. It was exhausting really.

Catherine and the NCOs were like chickens with their heads cut off trying to keep people in line, trying to keep the company in line and people doing what they were supposed to be doing. Drinking was fine, but when they were still training and inevitably heading towards another war zone, it was not ideal.

" It's not fun keeping boys filled with testosterone where they're supposed to be on a night with a full moon." Catherine said as Nixon chuckled, pouring her a drink.

" You thought it would be?" Nixon questioned as he turned sliding the drink to her. Catherine made a face as Dick slowly entered the room with a few papers.

" Ah, the professor." Nixon said as Dick rolled his eyes and put the papers down in front of Catherine.

" Just in," Dick said as Catherine sighed.

" Should I be surprised? No, it's more geography I'm assuming?" Catherine said and Dick gave her a sympathetic face. She sighed.

" Oh, c'mon Miss. Cornell, I thought you loved this stuff." Nixon said as Catherine sipped her drink.

" I loved it when I wasn't about to go fight a whole other war." Catherine stated as Nixon smirked. Catherine sighed, softly moving between her cigarette and her drink as Dick shuffled through his own papers.

" You managing to keep the boys under control? Speirs holding up?" Dick asked her. Catherine let out a drag.

" If you consider replacements fighting over the last bottle of schnapps in the streets of Austria, under control, then yes we're doing fine." Catherine said and Nixon chuckled. Dick gave her a look.

" They're fine, we have some of the best NCOs in the Airborne, they're just getting harder to pull together now. I mean I have Chuck telling me he has replacements wandering out for drinks in the middle of the night or Tab telling me, a mini fire started because some fought over how to share a cigarette. They're restless." Catherine said.

" Nothing like Sobel's training," Nixon told her and Catherine nodded, understanding immediately.

" Or Thermes." she agreed, " Speirs though, he's right up there with them, it's just these replacements, they don't know the true horror of war, what it does to someone, and they go back to their barracks and act like they're on holiday. It's....it's not great."

" Well, maybe only a year or two of this left, and then we take a boat back to the States and boom we're home, war over." Nixon said as Catherine lulled her head over to look at him.

" How many more lives lost though?" she asked him," War's bullshit, I'm so done with having to fight and get violent. Why can't we just talk like humans?"

" Thank God I'm not the only one who has wondered that." Nixon stated, taking out his smoke.

" We've done the best we could for this company and now we're supposed to lead them to their deaths into Tokyo - I wouldn't say that's how I'd spend my summer break, pfft." Catherine said. Nixon softly reached forward and pushed her drink closer to her.

" Have a little more of that drink, Cath." Nixon said and Catherine smirked. It wasn't good, but sometimes drinking brought the edge off a bit from the war effort.

" Thoughts, Dick, you've been quiet." Nixon said.

" He's pissed because he couldn't jump out there early," Harry said coming into, to place cookies in front of them all before sipping a bit from the pitcher of nearby beer.

" Where'd you wander off to?" Nixon asked him.

" Oh you know, cookies," Harry said and Dick rolled his eyes.

" C'mon, Dick what's bothering ya, you usually have a strong opinion." Nixon said.

" What's this about?" Harry asked and met Catherine's eyes. Catherine merely sighed, sitting back in her chair.

" The other stupid war we have to go parachute into." Catherine clarified. Harry nodded with an 'OH' face.

" I'd have rather parachuted in and gotten it over with, but the Colonel thinks the company needs me more, that I've done enough." Dick said.

" You think they're holding out for something? that they think this war may end, so they're keeping us held back, doing anything really to keep us held back?" Catherine questioned, watching her smoke rise to the ceiling. The three men glanced her way.

" Just an observation." Catherine said.

" Sir! Sir!" a voice suddenly started yelling from out in the hall. Catherine slowly sat up, turning over her shoulder as one of Dick's runners came running into the room, wide eyes, frantic, face pale.

" Someone's been hit." the runner said and that's all it took for Dick to go running straight out of the room after him. Catherine watched the two disappear as her heart raced. Hit? Who exactly has been hit? Catherine slowly looked back towards the other two and they sat quietly. Catherine slowly settled back down into her chair. It would be harder to keep everyone together - and each day it was growing harder and harder.

Private John Janovec had been the one hit.

81 points.

He had 81 points, 4 away from a trip home, to get out of this war.

The world felt cruel, too cruel for Easy.

With the war in Europe over, they thought they'd be brought a sense of peace, relief, maybe an ounce of freedom, but instead they were thrust into another and were all but surrounded by death, sadness and grief.

And the impending doom, of the buzz of Operation Virago growing in the United States.

Articles flew out every week of people who had scrapped the bottom of the barrel for information but never got it quite right in the end. No one would ever get it right, no matter how many articles were written about it. Only Virago members would be the ones to get it right - they'd gone through it.

Hazel hoped her own message would somehow make it through within the coming days. She had read it out loud to Johnny and Bull on her scrap piece of paper and they had all but looked like proud parents watching their child go off to school. She just hoped they wouldn't change anything from the raw, evident truth that encompassed her writing.

Catherine swore that the wind against her face was like pins and needles, sorta like back in Bastogne when she'd do foxhole checks each night, but she knew Dick was just driving at a normal pace. Maybe it was the flashbacks of how it had felt against her cheeks. She wasn't so sure. George's little smile was stuck in her head, and Dick was such a smooth driver that she wasn't entirely focused on anything else. George and her had talked more about a life together and now it was something she yearned for more than anything in the entire world.

" You okay, Cath?" Dick asked her as they drove slowly down the road, her head lulled against her up-bent arm - Dick knew her by now, he knew she wasn't focusing on a thing.

" Fine," she answered, watching the dark trees rush past, " I'm tired of all this."

" I know you are," Dick said as they slowly came to a stop at the end of the road before turning right, moving back towards HQ at Zell Am See. Briefings brought the two out late at night, they weren't fun briefings either.

" What are you gonna do when the war ends, Dick?" she asked him, " When you get home I mean?" Dick glanced over at her and then returned his focus to the road.

" Nix offered me a job in New Jersey, figured I'd take him up on the offer." Dick said and Catherine smiled slightly.

" I hope it goes well for you," she said. Dick smiled.

" You got plans?" he asked her. Dick and Nix and now Harry knew about her and George, but with the war evidently over in Europe, it was odd seeing as they let it slide. But the women, originally Viragos seemed to get many things slid by for them.

They were powerful in their own ways.

Except those three and the women were the only ones that knew and Catherine intended to keep it that way for a while, just like Hazel and Joe - the girls only knew about those two.

" George asked me to go home with him, back to Rhode Island." Catherine said with a soft smile towards Dick, " And I said yes." Dick smiled almost instantly. Catherine met his eye and grinned.

" You two are good for each other." Dick said, " And even with all this, I know you've been happier." Catherine smiled wide at him.

" I didn't know I could be this happy, but truly I am Dick." she said and Dick grinned, nodding as his hands held the wheel.

" I'm happy for you two," Dick said, " he was my runner a few days ago, caught him coming from your room." Catherine blushed a bit.

" I knew he just wanted to see you though," Dick said, " so I acted like I didn't see him doing that." Catherine smiled softly.

" Thanks for that," she said and Dick chuckled. Riding into town, Dick stopped off at where the men were.

" Thanks for the ride, Dick," she said, slapping the jeep and giving a salute.

" Get some rest tonight, we have some more briefings in the morning," Dick said.

" And then the convention, yeah, yeah I know, I promise I'll be looking my best." she said and Dick chuckled.

" See ya," she said as he drove away. Catherine headed into where the men currently were. Stepping through the foyer she immediately sat George coming towards her noticing her.

" Hey, Lieutenant!" he called like he usually did, when the other guys were in the room, trying to keep it somewhat under wraps.

" Hey," she said, but she didn't miss that signature smirk on his lips whenever he looked at her.

" Lieutenant!" Malarkey called excitedly, " Was wondering when Winters would drop you off; how was the briefing, got any news?"

" If news as in, keep training the men, then no, nothing, same old, same old." she said as she slowly lowered herself into a nearby chair with a sigh as Johnny came up to her.

" Anything from the Pacific?" he asked. She shook her head.

" Nothing but the usual." Catherine said with a sigh. Nothing but the usual - as always.

Lizzie and Gene had been cleaning up the aid station, turning off lights, leaving windows open to air out the place, watching as medics headed out for the night and surgeons left, when chaos sprung up from outside the aid station. Lizzie met Gene's eyes, which narrowed and darkened. He gently stepped up to her side, placing a hand on her elbow as the two met eyes again, the yelling getting louder.

That's when Tab burst in through the door looking at the two.

" Gene! Liz!" he called and then noticed the two standing there, " It's Chuck!" Lizzie's heart stopped and her hand reached out to Gene's bicep, grasping onto him to keep herself steady.

Chuck?

Chuck?

What had happened to Chuck? She met Gene's eyes and then the two were off running one after the other.

The second Lizzie stepped out into the dark night, she was hit by the warm Austrian breeze delivered by the Alps, and almost immediately her senses focused on Chuck and the red-hot, angry Speirs that was yelling at stretcher-bearers to move Chuck onto the stretcher.

It was this odd numbness that overtook Lizzie.

Chuck Grant had always been there, one of the nicest and funniest NCOs she'd been around and in times when she wasn't herself, Chuck had been there - they had some of the best conversations together. he was an original Toccoa man as well, another one with not enough points to go home, another causality inflicted by this war, when a war wasn't even on in Europe. So then, Lizzie narrowed her eyes and hurried forward.

" What the hell happened?" she snapped looking at the two frantic, wide-eyed replacements that stood shaking in their boots side by side.

" It was some replacement, he was drunk-"

" And there was this gun in his hand-"

" And people scattered on the ground in the mud-"

" I think he called one a German-"

" No, no, it was British-"

" Hey!" Lizzie yelled, her hands pressed to the sides of Chuck's head, her eyes narrowed like a firing breathing dragon of desolation, " To Chuck! What happened to Chuck? Bullet, knife, what the hell was it?"

" A bullet. A bullet to the head." the one replacement said and Lizzie grunted, turning to press her hands to the wound, blood, crimson red covering her fingers as she turned and looked back at Gene.

" Get an IV going!" she called to him and Gene took off into the aid station. Lizzie met Speirs' eyes.

" Help me move him." she said as Tab came rushing to her side. Moving Chuck onto the stretcher was the easy part and the replacements were kept outside, worrying, waiting, biting on the ends of their finger nails, anxious to hear about their NCO.

As Gene inserted the blood into Chuck's stream, Lizzie carefully was dressing the wound with her bloodied finger tips. Speirs was right by her side, grasping onto Chuck's limp hand in his own. Chuck might've not felt it but the CO was there. Speirs was there for every member of the company, it didn't matter who. No one messed with Speirs' men and women. That's when the disheveled surgeon came wandering over as Lizzie moved the bandage with Tab's help around Chuck's head.

" Hey," the surgeon said and Lizzie narrowed her eyes.

" Where were you? We've been waiting." she snapped, eyes cold. The surgeon sent her a look.

" You caught me in a smoke break." he said and Lizzie's gaze turned icy.

Reaching up, she pulled the smoke straight from his lips and stomped it into the ground.

Speirs, Tab and Gene watched the woman, her gaze like an ice queen's staring down the surgeon who stood cowering up at her.

" You could take some time to actually do your job," she hissed. The surgeon glared at her as he stepped forward, lighting up a new cigarette on his lip which Lizzie grew disgruntled at, hanging over Chuck, looking in the freshly cleaned wound. He was scruffy, looking exhausted, and didn't give Lizzie one ounce of himself that looked like he cared one bit. It pissed her off. She opened her mouth but she met Gene's eyes from across the stretcher. His were equal in intensity. She would save her breath.

" Jesus." muttered the surgeon hanging over Chuck with baited breath.

" What?" Speirs asked, his breath quick, his eyes focused on the surgeon almost instantly.

" He's not going to make it." the surgeon replied, bored-like in a sense. Lizzie narrowed her eyes and threatened to step forward but Gene's gaze calmed her. Gene turned his attention to the surgeon.

" You can't operate on him?" Gene said, as if he didn't believe those words for one second.

" Not me. You'd need a brain surgeon." the surgeon answered. You are the surgeon, Lizzie thought.

" And even if you had one, I don't think there's any hope." the surgeon said, rubbing his eyes with his greasy fingers, half open at that.

" Did you even get a good look at it?!" snapped Lizzie but Gene's eyes made her back off. The surgeon merely wandered away, crushing the old cigarette on the floor again. Lizzie was fuming and she could tell Speirs was too - he just had more control than she did. Lizzie glanced at Speirs and watched as Speirs pointed to Tab.

" You find the shooter, I want him alive." he said firmly to Tab who met his eyes.

" Yes, sir." was Tab's quick answer - Chuck was his friend, he was all of their friends - this was very much personal.

" Come on, help me." Speirs said moving past Lizzie to the top of the stretcher.

" What are you doing?" Tab asked him as Gene adjusted the plasma.

" We're gonna go find a brain surgeon." Speirs said as Tab moved towards the head of the stretcher as well, moving the stretcher up from the position it was in. Lizzie's eyes set blazing, like a fire cooking meat, tantalizing, flames burning every inch. She had been tired of war for too long at this point, tired of fighting and fighting and still getting absolutely no ounce of happiness in the end.

Lizzie was the one to throw open the door into the dark night, warm Austrian air hitting her body as she did so. Lizzie was quick to jump up into the jeep so that the stretcher could be fed towards her. Tab jumped up beside her as Speirs fed the stretcher up onto the back of the jeep. Lizzie met Tab's eyes, her gaze icy as she watched evident fear and anger and exhaustion built up in Tab's eyes.

This was one of his best friends - they'd shared foxholes in Bastogne together, laughed at each other's jokes, comforted one another. Tab deserved to see his friend live. It was like a silent message to Tab, letting him know Lizzie would do anything to save Chuck.

As Tab moved out then, Gene jumped up beside Lizzie, as she gently moved to Chuck's head, her gentle fingers, prodding around the wound to make sure the bandage held and where the surgeon's greasy fingers had been, hadn't done a thing to the bare wound. Softly watching Chuck, her heart raced.

This was Chuck Grant.

Chuck.

A Toccoa Man - who just like Shifty - would not make it home without a scar of war to prove it.

A scar not even from a battle, but inflicted by his own kind.

That's what hurt the most.

Lizzie softly glanced over towards Gene in the darkness, his eyes like iced over diamonds, with a warm spot in the center. He was angry too, but he was also a medic. Speirs took off in a matter of seconds, speeding through the streets of Zell Am See. Lizzie grasped onto the back of the jeep, as her one hand stayed flush against the exposed part of Chuck's face. Sweat dripped down the brim of her forehead, they needed to find the brain surgeon - the regular one was no help whatsoever.

Lizzie was more determined than ever, even she'd be willing to perform brain surgery just to save Chuck.

Hazel had been standing in the darkened hallway, leaned up against the cool walls of the room, arms crossed, head downcast, trying to keep her eyes awake the best she could - she was exhausted. After training today, she had cat napped for a bit and she was already tired again. Joe was next to her, talking to Popeye who leaned up against the wall across from them, their conversation drowned out by the knocking around inside her head, something she had grown to used to by now.

Chuck had been shot.

They'd all heard the news that had eventually come wandering inside the building where a majority of the platoons would hang out at night, and the men were angry, they all were.

Hazel had been quiet the entire time though, and she was always quiet, but this was a deadly quiet with a murderous look playing in her eye.

No member harmed a member of Easy Company, her family.

No one even laid a hand on them.

And now someone had - they'd soon regret it.

Suddenly the light flipped on and Hazel looked up, seeing their First Sergeant making his way into the room, his wide, frantic eyes glancing around the entire hallway as people filed out from rooms that lead off from the main hallway.

" Hey, Lieb. He wants a noncom guarding each roadblock with at least two men watching every road out of town." Tab said, his voice firm, his body composed, as he moved out towards where more of the men were currently staying unaware of what was about to happy.

Hazel was angry, an angry she hadn't felt in a long time - but she hadn't fired a weapon at someone in a long time either.

The anger was similar in many ways.

Joe's hand gently placed on her shoulder was the only thing keeping her at some sort of calm. Hazel could see Catherine past the replacement's shoulder in front of her standing beside George, eyes narrowed, in a similar murder like way. No one messed with her NCOs, nor did they mess with her family, her boys.

" Bull, Malark, you each take a squad and one of these witnesses on a house-to-house search." Tab said as Hazel watched Catherine's eyes follow Tab's own.

" Can we shoot this bastard on sight?" Malarkey asked, a willing to fire that gun at this guy sounding off in his voice.

" Try and take him alive." Tab said as Catherine met his gaze.

" What's the word?" Catherine said as Tab came forward meeting her gaze.

" Speirs wants us looking for him, anywhere he can be in this goddamn town." Tab said and Catherine nodded firmly.

" Where's Grant now?" Bull asked as Hazel looked up towards him, with a fierce expression.

" They took him to a Kraut hospital to see if they could drum up any good doctors." Tab said as Bull came to look at him and Catherine appeared at his side again.

" What direction was he last seen going in?" she asked Tab as suddenly Hazel appeared at her side.

" South, towards the southern part of the lake." Tab said and Hazel glanced at Catherine.

" I'm coming with you," Hazel said, her voice like ice - something that made Catherine even freeze in her tracks. Hazel's eyes were narrowed as she watched the expressions of Bull, Tab, George and Catherine watch her.

" Chuck's my friend, all your friend, and he's a part of this family too."

And with that Hazel turned, pulling her helmet from it's lone peg, and sprinting out the door.

✰✰✰

AHHH my queens going all my badass because NO ONE touches their lil family of beans <3 thank you all for continuing to join me on this journey with every update i appreciate it so so much, truly!! you are all so lovely and please never forget that :)