Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ３２ － Ｓｎａｐ】

Chapter 32 - Snap

Margaret did get through a lot of scarves during her bed rest. But she hated it. It was so boring. Someone had to bring her her meals, Roe would always come and check up on her when he had a spare chance – something she wasn't used to so she ended up a bit standoffish – and occasionally an actual doctor would check her over, she missed out on the training and though she didn't particularly enjoy it, it was frustrating to not be able to do anything. To be completely dependent on others.

Bull came and played cards with her some evenings, and then Luz tried to distract her by finding a way to play snap with a standard deck of cards. It got very loud very quickly.

"SNAP!"

"Nonono, that doesn't count. No! We didn't agree that that counted!"

"Yes we did, same number is a snap!"

"No it isn't! It has to be the same colour and number!"

"Ugh! FINE!"

There was a lot of shouting.

A

lot

of

shouting.

And exaggerated eye rolls, and flailing and scoffing. Cards went everywhere.

In the end everyone was yelling at them to shut up, so she and Luz shouted back.

"Will you shut up?!"

"I can barely deal with one Luz, let alone two!"

"Hey Luz! Stop corrupting Watkins!"

"You guys try playing snap with him!"

"You try and convince Watkins sh- he's wrong!"

"How about you try and play snap with four suits!"

"This is fucking ridiculous!"

Luz was dragged away from her by Grant, and he reached out for her childishly, and her for him. She pouted as her friend was taken away, and Luz whined at Grant as he was forcibly sat down away from her.

Cards were still all over the place, so she began to twist and lean and bend to pick them up before she felt eyes on her.

"I swear to god, Roe, if that's you starin', you say anything and I will walk over there."

"That's it? That's your threat?"

"Hey, I'm the one with a broken ankle, Guarnere. Me threatening to get up and walk on it is plenty good enough."

"Oh please, your ankle ain't broken. Are you always this dramatic? Or is it just this time of," she glared at him. If he said month she'd leap up and smack him silly. "Year."

She still glared, but let out a breath.

There had been too many almosts like that.

Her ankle was on the mend, and she could walk on it, in fact was told to, but for the rest of the week was off training.

So no one had to bring her meals. She managed to hobble through the mess, the trouble was getting out again. By the time she managed to join the queue, she was at the back, and by the time she was at the front of the queue, everywhere was full and it was hard to move.

It was actually Liebgott who made a bit of space for her to sit, and so she was crammed between him and Penkala as she ate her tea that night.

It felt weirdly nice to be included in the impenetrable wall of noise, despite the fact that she could hardly hear what was going on.

Margaret ate quietly, tuning out of what little conversation she could hear. It was so odd to find herself amongst this chaos, this noise, after years and years and years of near silence. But it was good. A little stressful. But she could feel it was good for her soul.

She didn't feel quite so alone anymore.

However she tuned back into the world around her when a hand appeared by her plate.

Margaret smacked it away, hissed, and then turned to find the culprit. She didn't find him. But the others all laughed at her reaction, particularly the hiss.

It turned out that some of her food had already gone missing.

She lent forward, and looked up and down the table, eyes narrowed.

When Muck winked at her she knew it had to be him and was just about ready to go over the table at him because she was feeling like she wanted to stress eat the entire world.

That was how she felt when her period was a few days away – a bit like a bear, eat and eat until winter (or in this case period) and then hibernate.

She was swept back into the barracks with the dizzying amount of sound, and found herself at the periphery once again.

Doc checked her ankle, changed the bandage around it, and told her that as long as she was careful, she could resume training on Monday. But it was only Wednesday. That was still a lot of time to kill.

Margaret thanked him, smiling at the prospect of being allowed to do stuff again.

As she watched the guys spend their evening as they would any other, her eyes caught Luz on the opposite side of the barn. He was scheming, definitely scheming. He looked so proud of himself, smug.

Adorable.

And then he met her gaze, but his face did not falter as she had expected it to. His eyes brightened, and that shit eating grin doubled in size.

"What're you smirking about Luz?" she called over the noise, and he laughed loudly.

"Go back to your knitting, Watkins!"

_

Hello! This is me, back, with a proper updating schedule. 10 chapters a week starting from today. Friday-Sunday will have 2 chapters posted, Monday-Thursday will just be 1.

Sorry I've been a way so long, I promise the story is done, finished it in June last year, and that the sequel is done too. 

In other news, anyone watched SAS: Rogue Heroes? I'm more than a little obsessed...