The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

99: Like A Cat

Charlie and Floyd didn't speak again about their argument, but it was a dark cloud that hung over Charlie's head whenever she wasn't with him. Every second not spent in his presence was a second less that she got to spend with him, and they might not have the time to make up for all of them when they went back home. She'd once naively assumed they would be going home together, but now she wasn't so sure. And if their days together were numbered, shouldn't they be spending every waking moment together?

They tried to, at the very least, but both of them still had jobs and duties to attend to. It was because of one of these jobs - Floyd's - that the two of them were among the first to know about a piece of news which had Charlie's emotions split down the middle.

"We're being sent to the Pacific," Floyd told her one day, in a stolen moment when both of them were supposed to be working. "Easy, that is. But I'd guess that you guys are coming, too."

The Pacific. Charlie hadn't even thought about it, hadn't considered the prospect.

Had they really not done enough? They'd won the war in Europe, did they need to be sent straight to another one?

But, on the other hand, it gave them more time. Charlie and Floyd would be together, on the other side of the world from her parents, for longer.

Unless...

No. That didn't even bear thinking about. Not after everything they'd survived. He couldn't, wouldn't, die now.

"How soon?" Charlie asked quietly. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

Floyd, however, didn't have one for her. "Not sure. We're staying here until it's decided. It's not gonna be formally announced until the anniversary of D-Day."

That was when Charlie recalled the lottery. On the anniversary of D-Day, June sixth, there was to be held a lottery wherein one man from each company would be sent home immediately. Now that they were being sent to the Pacific, there was more riding on this lottery than she'd previously thought.

If Floyd won - well, they'd be separated sooner, but he'd be safe and she'd still be working, so she wouldn't have to go home without him just yet.

Yes, this seemed to her the best case scenario. If Floyd won the lottery then everything would be alright.

"I wanted to run something by you about that, actually," Floyd said after a beat.

"About the lottery?" Charlie asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. "I... Well, I had an idea. I don't know what you're gonna think of it, though."

"Right..." Charlie said, wary. The way he was talking didn't sound at all like it boded well.

"Each man needs eighty-five points to go home," Floyd explained. "Even without the lottery, if you've got eighty-five points, you're done."

"How many do you have?" Charlie asked. This wasn't the first time she was hearing about this points system - she'd spoken to Don about it a little, since he didn't have enough, which seemed absurd to Charlie because he'd given more than anyone else in Easy while in the service. And yet, somehow, the Army didn't think so: he'd taken part in D-Day, the Brécourt Manor Assault, Carentan, the Battle of Bloody Gulch, dropped into Holland for Operation Market Garden and remained on the line all the way through the Island, the rescue of the Brits, and beyond. He'd been there throughout Bastogne and the Bois Jacques, and Foy, and Noville, and Rachamps, and Haguenau. And in the process he'd lost his four best friends. How on Earth did he still not have enough points?

It made no sense to Charlie. But if Don didn't have enough points then she had little hope that Floyd would have, either. Even his wound didn't count for anything because he hadn't been wounded by the enemy and so didn't qualify for a purple heart.