Charade (Band of Brothers)

" AFTERMATH "

This was bad. Very bad. 

Kate had left the barracks without any idea as to where she was going - she just had to get out of there. If she had been thinking more clearly, she could have stayed there and tried to mitigate the damage, explain her situation, and grovel for his silence. But, understandably, she was not thinking clearly. Kate pressed her back against a storage shed and slid down to the ground, head on her knees. Careless! How could I have let this happen? This was a cruel twist of fate. Just as she had gotten her jump wings, they were going to be taken away again, along with any dignity she had left, and her bond with the company. She couldn't let it happen without a fight, but what could she do now? For one, I can snap out of it. She picked herself reluctantly off the ground and dusted off her uniform. There was nothing she could do except head back to the rest of the company. With any luck, she would get there before Luz and catch him as he came in. Taking a deep breath, she set off, still shaking. 

Half expecting the room to fall silent and stare at her as she walked in, Kate was relieved that the men were still oblivious to the situation, like the bar was in its own, secluded bubble. Her relief was promptly quashed as she made eye contact with George, who had evidently arrived before her. Like deers caught in headlights, they stared at each other for a beat, and Kate could feel her face flushing bright red. He didn't say anything, and turned away from her awkwardly to get another drink. Throughout the night, Kate would observe as he gripped it the whole time, passing it from hand to hand, occasionally bringing it to his lips but never taking a sip. If she weren't so preoccupied with her own problem, she might have said he was almost as panicked as she was. 

"You look wound up." 

Kate spun around, frightened by the voice behind her. In the process, she almost knocked the drink out of Liebgott's hands.

"Jesus," He glared at her, surveying the damage she had done to his sleeve from the spillage. "Guess I'm right."

"No, I'm just- I mean I guess I am. Must be the alcohol."

"So you're the one person who gets more uptight after a few beers? Sounds about right." He laughed, but it finally felt like he was laughing with her, not at her. He started gravitating towards the group of soldiers next to them. "What's with everyone tonight? We're supposed to be celebrating. I mean Nicolli's always jumpy, but what's wrong with you, George?" 

Luz looked up from the chipped bench he had been thoroughly inspecting and turned beet red, glancing from Kate to Joe and back. He let out a strangled chuckle, shrugging his shoulders. Liebgott raised his eyebrows in defeat, turning to the other men as he took a swig from what was left of his drink. 

"Squares." He mumbled, leaving Kate and George to themselves.

As much as she wanted to turn and run, Kate knew that if she was to have any chance at staying in the Airborne, she had to face this head-on. 

"Look, what you saw back there-" She shut her eyes in despair as her voice came out too soft.

"Just tell me, am I right?" He looked her dead in the eye, letting her know this was not the time to evade the truth. "You're a...?"

She sighed. "I am."

"But... But... How? How the hell are you here?" 

"Because I wanted to be here more than you can imagine, and if you want something that bad, there's always a way." She could feel him analyzing her face, her posture, her shape, trying to understand how he and every man in the company had missed what was now so obvious to him. "George, my advantage was that nobody even considered that I wasn't a man once my medical papers were forged. Nobody was looking at me like that. Why would anybody suspect that I was anything more than a scrawny, sissy boy? If you had told them the truth, they would have laughed in your face, because it's just not done."