Band of Brothers || To Hell And Back

Chapter Four: The Enlisted

Even though Elle had gained a huge amount of confidence after talking to Dick, she was still nervous. The enlisted were arriving continuously and Elle had serious suspicions of her abilities to lead anyone.

If the other officers were worried about the responsibility weighing their shoulders, they didn't let it show and neither did Elle. She had been trained to do this but still, her nervousness was about to take the better of her.

"Nervous?" Nixon asked her when they were sitting on the stairs watching the enlisted finding their way in the barracks. 

"Just wanna make a good first impression, that's all", Elle answered, careful not letting Nixon know about her nervousness. Elle didn't know why it was so important to her to hide it from everyone else.

"Showing up on time is a good place to start, Lieutenant Latecomer", he said laughing  and Elle rolled her eyes.

"Again, it wasn't my fault! Call me Lieutenant Latecomer again and I'll break your arm", she said and right after saying it wanted to hit herself. Elle Roosevelt was (unintentionally) famous for breaking a reporter's arm. Few mistakes like this and she could just declare everyone who she really was.

"Please don't break his arm", Dick said smiling and sat himself next to Nixon. Elle smiled apologetically and shrugged. 

"Can you guys imagine those people fighting with us?" Nixon said clearly amused watching the enlisted finding their way into the barracks looking very lost. 

"They don't look like soldiers", Elle said critically. 

"Well, their not supposed to, not just yet. Their training is just beginning", Dick said, kindly as always, "anyway, Ed, are your feet still killing you?"

Elle sighed and nodded. Her feet were most certainly killing her, walking hurt like hell but standing still hurt even more. Even just laying in the bed hurt. Everything hurt after the kind of stress Elle and her poor feet had gone through.

***

In Elle's opinion, the next day arrived way too quickly. The first training day and now she was supposed to get up there, in front of those men and be a some kind of an authority. Maybe she should have never become an officer, clearly she was not up to it.

When the enlisted gathered together, standing in front of Sobel, Elle glanced them nervously. However, her nervousness faded away when Sobel started shouting at the men. Elle was not sure what Sobel thought to achieve by shouting at the men but she found it rather comical. The Lieutenant looked a little bit like an over-grown squirrel. 

"Not very cool", Nixon said quietly and Elle nodded. The enlisted looked very uncomfortable and she could not blame them for that. Only very few officers were attending this first gathering and Elle knew exactly why. Sobel wanted to discourage all of them.

"This is Easy Company, the best company there is and I will not tolerate anything making the Easy Company look bad-" 

"The only thing making Easy Company look bad is that stupid squirrel", Elle muttered, "and maybe that boy, whose uniform is way too short for him."

Nixon started laughing when he saw what Elle meant. One of the enlisted was indeed so tall and burly that his uniform was a bit too small for him. The sight was rather comical and hearing Nixon laugh made also Elle laugh. She tried desperately to hide her laugh from Sobel but her attempts were unsuccessful. 

"Something funny, lieutenants?" Sobel asked murderously, turning to watch them. Elle wondered if she should be worried about the fact that every time Sobel talked to her he seemed willing to strangle her with his bare hands.