All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

56: Desperation

Operation Market Garden was already off to a bad start.

The company's first order of business once in Holland was to secure the town of Son and defend the bridge there so that the ground forces could cross over and begin the advance into Germany. All over Holland, paratroopers, American and British alike, were working to secure such towns and bridges for the ground forces. Unfortunately, they weren't going to be able to use this one.

Getting into and through the town had been easy enough, but as soon as they'd pressed on towards the bridge they'd come under heavy fire. Many a replacement found himself being dragged to cover by a veteran and the lot of them were forced to watch as the Germans blew up the bridge.

"Sorry, Monty," Posey mumbled under her breath as she watched, appalled. Montgomery's plan was not off to the flying start he'd surely hoped for.

Just like that, they were onto the next part of the mission: liberating Eindhoven. With little time to waste now that step one had already failed, the engineers had to work quickly and efficiently to build a new bridge that would allow them to get to the occupied city. In the meantime, Easy and the other two companies in Second Battalion, Dog and Fox, set up camp in Son.

"See, this is what fuckin' happens when we're under British command," Bill commented the moment he had slumped down onto the floor beside Posey, likely just to get a rise out of her. The pair of them had been arguing about it almost nonstop since finding out that Market Garden was Montgomery's idea.

"Yes, because D-Day started out so much better than this," she retorted drily. "The Germans knew we were coming and tried to shoot us out of the air so we ended up scattered all across Normandy. Took me a full day to find the company, not before having a knife shoved against my throat, and I was one of the lucky ones. Yes, Eisenhower's plan was so much better than this."

"At least we didn't fuckin' fall at the first hurdle," Bill fired back.

"I'd say being shot out of the sky counts as falling at the first hurdle, wouldn't you?"

"It really took you a full day to find Easy?" Heffron asked, cutting their bickering short.

Posey nodded, the makings of a smile crawling onto her face. "Yep." She tugged down the collar of her ODs and tilted her chin up to show him the scar on her neck. "Got held at knife point by some Resistance fighters too. See?"

"Damn, Duckie, your Adam's apple must be tiny. I can't see it at all!" Malarkey butted in.

Posey dropped her chin and tugged her ODs back up immediately. She felt her face heat up immediately in the face of so stupid a mistake.

"Everything about Wells is tiny," commented Johnny, sitting down on her other side.

Flames were still alight in Posey's cheeks but she felt them calm significantly in light of the quick save. After all this time spent pretending to a boy, how could she still be making such stupid, trivial mistakes?

The conversation carried on without her as she tried to settle her mind. Every time she slipped up she was liable to panic and panicking right now was not the best idea. She turned her eyes to the sky ahead, careful not to expose her neck too much, and watched as the clouds lazily tiptoed after one another. The sky was grey but the sunshine felt warm, limited though it was. The brightness remained even when she closed her eyes.

Posey jolted awake to the sound of Winters' voice. "Easy Company! On your feet, we're moving out!"

"I fell asleep," she said, before she could help it.

"Sure did," Johnny replied. "Now get off me."

"Sorry." She was grinning as she sat upright from where she'd been leaning against his shoulder, smug in the knowledge that she was probably the only person alive who could've gotten away with that.