Catch Her If You Can | Band of Brothers

XIX. June 11th, 1944. Vierville, Normandy. France.

June 11th, 1944. Vierville, Normandy. France.

Dawn had broken, and Carentan was waiting. Five days had passed since D-Day, and the Normandy campaign wasn't getting any easier. Georgia had been walking back from getting a new bandage for her arm and caught sight of Harry Welsh just before she went to head inside the regimental CP.

"Well, look who it is!" he called out.

Georgia laughed and smiled as she walked over to Easy Company. They were all clustered around a monument to the French men of Vierville who'd fought in the Great War. As she approached the spot, her jump boots thumped against the cobblestone street. Harry pulled her into a half hug, and she tried not to tense too much.

"It's good to see you, Georgia," said Harry.

"It's good to see you too. How's the company?"

"Good, all things considered. Dick's thriving in leadership -"

"No surprise there."

"Nope, not really. Nix is still following him around, though."

Georgia sighed. "I swear, those two act like their long lost siblings or something."

"I think they just do it to torment the rest of us," Harry said, chuckling.

"Yeah, something like that. You ready?"

"To take Carentan? Hell yeah, I am."

Georgia grinned. "Let's get a move on then."

She shook hands with Harry, then went back to the CP. Their banter was familiar and calming to her. Once back at the little bakery, she gathered up her map case, binoculars, weapons, ammo, and everything else she had to her name since entering Normandy.

It wasn't much, and most of it wasn't very fashionable.

She met up with Hester and the Colonel outside, and the three of them got into a jeep. They rode in it until the roads ran out, at which point they began to traverse the terrain on foot like everyone else. They took up the rear of the march to Carentan, which was surprisingly uneventful. The only odd part had been the lake. Georgia had assumed something had spilled in it because the surface of the lake itself was on fire. As Georgia looked into the glassy water, she saw her reflection illuminated by the orange flames. She put how she looked out of her mind. As always, the mosquitoes tormented the 506th endlessly. As the day eventually drew to a close, they stopped about a mile outside of the town.

Georgia occupied herself by scouting out German positions and assigning different sectors of the city to be responsibilities of different battalions. When night came again, she was pleased that it was cloudless and that she could see the stars. It made it easier to believe that morning would come again, and easier to believe that she would wake up again if she went to sleep.

The nightmares seemed less that night, or maybe Georgia's memory was simply foggy.

Ever the pessimist, Georgia suspected the latter.

The terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach proved her correct at almost four in the morning.

Georgia ducked behind a hedgerow and retched, hoping that no one heard. All she could remember was fire and the sound of ammunition going off and the awful screams from the soon-to-be-dead paratrooper.

As her mind cleared, Georgia noticed she was shaking, but not crying.

After spending a few minutes looking up at the stars and breathing deeply, Georgia felt like she'd collected herself. She began walking to retrieve her weapons and gear just as the 506th began to awaken.