Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ４１ － Ａｉｒｆｉｅｌｄ】

Chapter 41 - Airfield

They'd been there all day, learning about their objective and drop zone, they'd be dropping into some French town, at night. That evening even.

So the afternoon arrived and, and they were getting all their gear ready, packing it up properly, putting on webbing and going over the plan.

Margaret had been given two packs of cigarettes. Apparently it was standard.

She was sat with a bunch of the guys, taking a break, when she got them out and stared at the little boxes.

"Ain't you ever smoked before?"

Shaking her head, she opened a pack and looked inside, making everyone laugh with how she peered at them.

Instructed to try one, she got one out, and Luz lit it for her.

And she inhaled.

And immediately started coughing and spluttering and gagging, removing the cigarette almost immediately.

"Someone take that- Take this away from me! God! Why d- Why do you do that to yourselves?!" She coughed and wretched a few times, "that's disgusting. You can have mine, I will not be lighting them."

And with that she threw the packs in different directions and let the guys distribute them accordingly.

Almost all of them got lit and it became a little hazy around their circle as the guys teased her.

It was funny really, and Margaret did find it funny eventually, after she couldn't taste the cigarette anymore and she'd stopped feeling like she was dying and burning and choking.

"I think you were doin' it wrong."

"No. No no no. I am not falling for that and I am not trying again, unless you fancy me vomiting on you Martin. God that was vile. How do you even stand that?"

Another round of laughs.

And then Doc came round with air sickness pills, one for now, one for 30 minutes into the air.

"Doc. Doc! Pray tell, surely smoking is bad for you, because it felt like I was dying for a few minutes there."

"I don' think so."

Margaret sighed, exasperated, and flailed her arms about it bit trying to gesticulate why smoking was a crime against the body before somebody smacked her.

It was Talbert.

"Can you stop assaulting me? I'm serious here Tab- no, why're you laughing, I'm serious. You're mistreating me and I'm not ok with it."

Suddenly everyone was howling with laughter, and Margaret felt her whole body warm up with embarrassment for not knowing what was so funny.

Soon enough they were queuing in front of planes, shoving the next person in.

Margaret looked out over the airfield, and the next plane wasn't too far. There was something on the nose of that plane, a beautiful woman. Weird, thought Margaret, but then she was in the plane and sat down.

So.

This was it.

Fiddling with straps her mind went away, and she felt a familiar presence return.

So where were you hiding?

Not hiding, recharging.

"You've never needed to recharge before."

She didn't hear anyone's response, it was all just dull noise.

4 years is a long time, you've said it yourself. Anyway, sounds like someone missed me.

"Why would I?"

Because you need me.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

Oh, Liebgott.

Margaret shook her head and apologised, but said nothing more.

It was fine.

This was fine.

Everything was fine.

She was built for war. It was time to go back.

Too long had she been away. She'd grown used to warm food, to showers, to beds, to company that cared.

Normal was not what it had been months ago.

The pilots got in, she heard them, and her foot began to tap.

No one had actually bothered to check if she knew what she was doing.

For the record, she did. The Service had been looking at ways to get her into France. Parachuting in was one of them. Genesis had made a total for 4 practice jumps before the idea was scrapped for...boats.

Guess it was time to earn her wings for real.

"Hey, should've checked earlier, do you know what you're supposed to d-"

The engines started.

It was too loud to hear.

This was it.

This was it.

This.

Was.

It.

No it wasn't.

The engines were off again.

It had been fucking cancelled again.

Fucking General Patton overran the drop zone.

Who the fuck was General Patton anyway?

What was the fucking point?!

Margaret would genuinely lose her shit if this happened again.

Though she didn't really want to leave England, the war wasn't over and if they didn't move out soon she'd swim the channel.

It was nearing the end of August now.

_

So at this point it had not be discovered that smoking was bad for your health, hence Doc's response.

Also! Who liked my Darlin' Doris reference?