All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

37: Revenants

Contrary to Toye's prediction, the company didn't end up moving out at first light. In fact, for much of the day they were left to rest and catch their breath after the nightmare that had been D-Day. Men continued to show up throughout the day, some of them boasting souvenirs - like Tab's German raincoat - but that was all the excitement they experienced for hours.

Posey remained with the group she'd found the previous day, only ever leaving to find food or to find somewhere extra private to relieve herself (she longed for the days when she'd thought using the bathroom in training had been difficult). Otherwise, she sat resting, and her body was grateful for the repose. Her feet ached something fierce and her calves felt like bricks, and that wasn't even the half of it. With every hour that passed Posey was becoming more partial to the idea of spending the night in that very spot, too, uncomfortable as it had been when she'd woken up.

When lunch passed she began to sweat again, and decided it was time to let Teddy see a bit of occupied France for himself. He'd been to France with her when she was little and it felt only right that he see it again now that she was grown up. She sat him on her lap and smoothed out his fur, pleased with how little damage he'd sustained even through D-Day.

"You still haulin' that thing around?" Guarnere asked from beside her, taking a long drag on his cigarette.

Posey hummed her affirmation before adding, "I'd hardly call it 'hauling'. He doesn't weigh very much, you see."

Guarnere rolled his eyes. "What's its name?"

"His name," Posey corrected, "is Teddy." She braced herself for the teasing. When it didn't come, she felt the need to fill the gap. "He's for good luck," she said, holding onto Teddy's paws and squeezing them lightly. "Do you have a good luck charm?"

"Don't need one."

Posey smiled to herself and turned her eyes forwards, watching idly as Winters wandered away from a conversation he'd been having with Lieutenant Welsh of First Platoon. "Everyone needs good luck from time to time."

Before Guarnere could respond, Welsh was calling out, "Easy's moving out! On your feet!" and they were all scrambling to their feet to listen to their new orders. Posey tucked Teddy back into one of her interior pockets and followed the crowd. Briefly, she wondered why Welsh was the one who was going to tell them instead of Winters, who was now the company CO since Lieutenant Meehan hadn't shown up yet, but stumbled her way over to where Welsh was standing nonetheless; the lethargy she'd hoped had died down now that she'd gotten to rest didn't seem to want to go away so easily.

"Listen up!" Welsh ordered, inducing silence amongst the gathered enlisted. "It'll be dark soon, I want light and noise discipline from here on. No talking, no smoking, and no playing grab fanny with the man in front of you, Luz."

Posey stifled a giggle; thus far she'd been lucky enough to not have ended up in front of Luz when walking or lining up in an aeroplane, but he was infamous for his tendency to pinch the behind of whichever poor soul was. She generally tried to steer herself away from him in any just such circumstances, for the sake of her dignity as much as for his; one day, after all, he'd likely find out that she was a woman and he'd be absolutely mortified if he'd grabbed her arse at any point. She liked to think she was doing him a favour in ensuring that neither of them ended up in that particular mortifying position.

"So where we headed to, Lieutenant, huh?" someone called out from the crowd, a voice Posey couldn't immediately place and couldn't be bothered to turn and seek out.

"We're taking Carentan," Welsh replied.

"That sounds like fun," Tab commented, and though Posey smiled, she felt her heart drop. Carentan was a nearby town, and if they were taking it, that meant it was currently being occupied by German troops. She was about to see her first lot of combat. She clutched her rifle tighter before wiping off her sweaty palms on her trousers as discreetly as she could. She didn't feel like she was ready to see her first lot of combat at all.