Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ３０ － Ｒｅａｄｙ】

Chapter 30 - Ready

Margaret went and got food, letting the noise from the mess drown out her thoughts.

As usual, she planned to sit outside as there was never really room. And she did, losing herself in the noise just behind her.

She didn't expect Lieutenant Dick Winters to come sit beside her, but guessed he had more questions. And though she didn't want to answer them, Margaret felt she owed him answers for how accepting he'd been and how ready to help her he was.

"You can ask, if I don't talk now I may never again. And besides, it's probably important for you to know your men so," she just shrugged to end of her sentence.

Her food...was unidentifiable. She had no idea what it was supposed to be but it didn't taste horrible.

"Why'd her coming back..." he wasn't sure how to phrase the question. There was definitely no way to ask delicately, "why did it do this to you?"

There was definitely rice involved...maybe?

Swallowing, she leaned back and looked to the sky. Don't cry. If she started she might struggle to stop.

"Because she didn't stay. She didn't come back for me, her daughter. She came back, though I don't know when, for jewellery. To collect trinkets."

Dick let her eat then, thinking about all she'd said. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like, being alone since 15. It just sounded so alien. How could a mother do that? Why had she not been able to go to school? Dick realised that, when she'd talked at them in The Blue Boar, she really was worried about doing all of this. That despite all the things she knew how to do, there were quite a few things considered basic and essential that she'd never had the opportunity to learn. How to make friends. How to be vulnerable. How to trust.

Things that seemed simple to everyone else could be immensely hard, and probably quite daunting for her.

"You making friends?"

Margaret hummed, started trying to talk around her food but caught herself. Holding up three fingers, she swallowed way too hard and had to think really hard so she didn't cough.

After clearing her throat a few times, she put her tray on the ground, and then bent her knees so the soles of her boots were pressed against eachother. Then once her hands were resting on her boots, she turned her head to face Dick Winters and flashed him a closed eyed beam.

It was times like these that she was like a child. Something about her joy was just so wholesome.

"I'm assuming they're the three who went with you last weekend." Wide eyed, she nodded, but relaxed when he smiled at her. "You should talk to them."

"Hm?"

"Making friends. Talk to the men."

Margaret laughed a little, rocking from side to side like a little boat.

"If only it were so easy. I never learned how to make friends."

He just rolled his eyes at her. But they smiled, and she found herself feeling better than she had all week. Perhaps talking to people wasn't so bad.

"Well for someone that doesn't know how to make friends, you aren't doing too bad. You've already got 4."

He offered her a hand up, and she took it.

Then they parted ways, and Margaret took her tray back in. The wall of noise hit her full force when she stood in the doorway.

"Does anyone want the rest o-"

It was a wonder anyone heard her with all the noise, but then Perconte was by her side relieving her of her tray and scurrying back to his seat without so much as a word – defending his steal with a fierce hand. Margaret remained in the doorway for a little while, a small smile on her face – she had to at least attempt to contain herself.

Not only had she four friends, but she had found herself able to talk. Opening up was not something she was certain she could do. But it had happened.

And yet trusting was so difficult. There were still so many walls, a mask or two, and filter after filter.

There was so much she could talk about, so much to say, to explain why the way she was, to apologise for her treatment of the men in Normandy.

The question was...

Was she ready to lay it out for all to see? Was she ready to show them how she really was?

There were parts that some knew where she'd had no choice but to tell them. But so much still went unsaid.

And would remain.

Margaret sought distraction now, and retreated to the barracks as there would be no night drill tonight. So she lay on her front, boots off of course as she did not wish to make any of the sheets dirty, and she read.

When the noise began to build for the evening, she stopped, knowing soon it would be too loud for her to concentrate at the moment. And for the sake of normalcy, as well as not having done it in a while, Margaret picked up her needles and finished a scarf.

If she wanted enough to be ready on time, she'd have to step up the pace.