Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ２６ － Ｗｅ】

Chapter 26 - We

After that, as the majority of the veterans realised who she was, they looked at her differently. They were still cautious, and didn’t trust her yet but they didn’t think so bad of her. She couldn’t be that bad if she could survive Normandy, Occupied France for 4 years, and could hold her own – verbally – with one of them.

Margaret found she didn’t mind spending her evenings in their presence.

When replacements weren’t around, or some of the guys could find somewhere, they began to teach her the stuff she didn’t but should know. How to field strip a rifle, how to clean it and look after it. All the different manoeuvres they used during Easy Company’s time in Normandy, teaching in detail what you did, why you were doing it so that she knew them almost as inside out as they did. She was taught the hand signals, how to stand to attention and salute properly. Doc Roe spent a lot of time with her, going over basic first aid – of which she knew a lot – and then started going through some of his medic training. If she was going to be with them for a while, might as well make her useful.

She enjoyed it.

The days could be gruelling, practising (in her case learning) drill after drill after drill, practising different tactical manoeuvres, learning to work with the Company she’d been thrust into. Sometimes she was so tired she crashed in the evenings. But mornings weren’t bad. As it turned out, she’d deliberately not been informed of the early start. But she was still up with the sun as per usual, sometimes before it, meaning she had time to go for a run before everyone else was up. Her physical condition was nothing to sneeze at but she had nothing on the Paratroopers.

But on the evenings that she didn’t crash, she began to help Bull learn to play Patience properly, or she'd challenge Martin again. Naturally, Margaret was quicker than him when the game she was dealt was actually winnable. Or she’d knit, making a collection of scarves. The guys assumed that it was just a thing she did. But there was a purpose.

Sometimes she’d even sit and watch the poker game, not that she knew how to play.

Very few actually talked to her outside of teaching her but they didn’t hate her as she’d feared.

Guarnere and Toye were still obnoxious arseholes, the former much louder than the latter, and Toye was beginning to lay off on the comments. Guarnere seemed to take pleasure in asking about her “fear of scissors”, trying to see if he could get the same reaction. It didn’t happen for so long that he was beginning to grow bored with it until one time it did.

He didn’t try again after that.

And though guilt began to consume him, he still found something to bitch about. Seeking a rise out of her so that she’d respond to him, because most of the time, she didn’t really respond to much from anyone.

Perconte was still a confused little shit that cleaned his teeth too often just for a sense of normalcy. He didn’t talk to Margaret, just eyed her warily.

Malarkey, Muck and Penkala…whoever put them together obviously had something against the rest of the world. Or maybe just Margaret. It was all going fine until she laughed at one of their dumb jokes at someone else’s expense. Then they were all at her expense and it became a lot less funny real fast. Guarnere, Toye and Luz of course all found it hilarious.

Luz. Oh Luz. He was still a loud piece of shit. Nothing really changed between the pair, but then he’d never felt any real animosity towards her.

Margaret went home at the weekend, not only not wanting to intrude on E Company's free time, but wanting to just be home.