All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

67: December

"I have a good feeling about today," Posey declared to Gene the moment she woke up. However it had come to pass, the two of them had had bunks side by side ever since Fort Benning. Posey, for one, was glad for it, for despite how much she loved the others she found their voices did tend to sound like nails on a chalkboard with how loud they could be so early in the morning. Gene's voice, however, had a gentle cadence to it that she didn't mind hearing so much at the crack of dawn.

"Hm?" came Gene's reply. For all of his merits, he really wasn't much a morning person.

"I said," Posey began, enunciating clearly as she got up and began to make her bed, "I have a good feeling about today." She breathed in deeply through her nose and exhaled the air through her mouth, a smile working its way onto her lips as she tugged her sheets to wrinkleless perfection. "Yes, I think today's going to be a good one."

"Why's that?" Gene humoured her, his voice groggy as he dug the heels of his palms into his eyes and rubbed at them.

"I don't know, really," Posey chirped in reply, shrugging her shoulders but still smiling. "Just a feeling, you know? Like how you wake up sometimes feeling deeply unsettled, or knowing that you've forgotten something really important. Except I feel that today's going to be a good day and I prefer that feeling infinitely to the others."

Gene chuckled to himself. He reached out from under his sheets to pick up Teddy from where he'd fallen off of Posey's bunk in her bed-making process and placed him carefully back on the bed. "Sure," he said, though he didn't sound at all convinced. Posey thought he likely always woke up with the deeply unsettled feeling, but he did have an awful lot to deal with. Then again, he'd always been very serious, even back at Toccoa. Some souls were just heavier than others, she supposed.

"Early breakfast?" she asked, sitting back down on her bed to put on her boots. "The mess hall'll be empty." She glanced up at Gene and laughed at the face he made; she could tell he was bracing himself to say yes and get up out of the warm, but before he could speak she said, "You don't have to say yes. I have no reservations about going by myself."

Gene grimaced and then nodded. "I'll meet ya there," he said, and burrowed back into his sheets. Posey giggled, for she could hardly blame him, what with how freezing Mourmelon-le-Grand was.

Stepping out into the morning air was always a good, harsh wake-up, if not an unwelcome one. The chill in the air slapped her in the face, leaving a flush in her cheeks and making her eyes water. She shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her ODs - which she'd taken to sleeping in, for the barracks were unheated, the blankets were thin, and the air was sub-zero - and set off on her way to the mess hall, walking slowly to take in the peace of the early morning.

It was still dark outside, even at 0900, though the first beams of sunshine were just beginning to peak out from the horizon, checking to make sure the coast was clear. Posey revelled in the darkness and in the silence. As a woman, she never could have been walking outside alone when it was dark. There were some things about being a man that suited her quite well and she was determined to appreciate them wherever she could for however long she could; even with her success so far, she was well aware that she was walking a tightrope, perhaps now more than ever.

It was December now, she realised with a start, the month of warm laughter and cold nights, of Christmas carols and of missing home. Posey drew in a long breath of the fresh winter air and let it touch her soul, to cleanse it of all months previous and their happenings and clear the way for a fresh lot of memories. She had a good feeling about this one, after all - fancy waking up on the first and just feeling that everything in the world was right! Yes, December was going to be kind to her, she was sure of it.