Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ８１ － Ｗｏｒｓｔ】

Chapter 81 - Worst

Buck was taken off the line shortly after. Bad case of trench foot so said the report.

No one believed that. But they never thought any less of him, because watching your friends get torn up like that was one of the worst kinds of pain.

There was now no feasible alternative to Dike.

Easy Company were tasked by Captain Nixon to keep Peggy away from the Lieutenant where possible. This was after he'd seen her boil over and start raging about Dike's absence. She blamed him for what happened to Bill and Joe. Everyone did their best to look out for her, because she was like a little sister to them (despite her being older than most of them).

The job was fairly easy, as Dike was hardly around.

Inside, she knew it wasn't Dike's fault. But she needed an output for her pain and guilt, he just became a way to channel that.

"Hey Peggy? Can you read somethin' for me?"

"What? Can't read yourself?" The ghost of a smile on her face let Skip know she was teasing. "Sure, what d'ya need?"

There was some paper in his hand.

"Well, I've been meaning to write home to Faye about you, to properly talk about you as the last time I wrote about you I was, as you Brits say, basically slagging you off. I want you to check that you're happy for me to say all these things given that you're a) technically still a spy, and b) I'm pretty sure they read our letters to see if they need censoring."

It was an unsealed envelope.

Reaching out, she took it like it was one of the most precious things in the world. She tucked it away, keeping it safe to read later.

Skip's grin warmed her heart and she hugged him. She'd been hugging people a lot lately, taking everyone in the vicinity, as well as the victim, by surprise. Even Captain Winters got a hug, something probably considered not strictly proper but to hell with proper.

Hugs made her feel a little better for a while.

Better was good.

A few days later, and she still hadn't had the chance to read that letter. Clearing the woods west of Foy took priority. Thankfully there was next to no resistance. She wasn't sure she could face another bad casualty.

When the shells rained down on the 10th, Peggy cried in her foxhole. It was all she could do. She hated this so much, hated that what had happened to Bill and Joe could so easily happen again.

Then the worst.

The worst happened.

Never...

Never had she imagined...

No.

She heard the news and just walked away because she couldn't-

Well...she just couldn't.

She'd only been talking to them that morning.

Oh God, she was going to be sick!

How could the world be so cruel?

Warren "Skip" Muck and Alex "Penk" Penkala...they were too good, too good to and for her. And they had cared so so much about her.

She'd never been so angry at the Nazis, at the Germans before. Of course she'd been angry for what she'd had to do as Coco, but this? This was worse than a crime. It was-

It was-

Well she didn't know what it was!

Peggy hardly spoke. She stayed in a foxhole with Malarkey, and at night she'd catch him looking at the remains of Skip's rosary. They missed Skip and Penk dearly. Perhaps him more so than her. But she didn't know. She just tried her best to be there for him, and often that was just leaning her head on his shoulder. It was a reminder that he could feel, even when he was too lost in his own head to hear.

Everyone worried.

Don Malarkey and Peggy Watkins were scarcely seen apart in the days that followed the shelling of January 10th. To the point that she even accompanied him to see Buck off, her small cold hand gripping the elbow of his sleeve as she walked a step behind him.

The main changes for Peggy were her suddenly smoking like she had back on the 10th of December and the days that followed, she was quieter, and a lot less self assured. The latter of which was the most shocking to the Company.

Some thought that it was like she'd had the rug pulled out from under her and she couldn't find her feet.

Before Buck left, she hugged him so tight he had to ask her to let go so he could breathe.

She'd miss him so much and she told him. And she told him to get better and come back soon. And she told him that if he didn't see her again that she loved knowing him and being his friend. He told her off for talking like that. Buck kissed the top of her head as a final farewell, and everyone saluted and Peggy tried very hard to not cry.

God this was all so wrong and she felt so lost, she had no clue how she was supposed to navigate life without so many of the key people in it.

Very soon they'd take Foy, and then Easy would leave the dreaded forests of Belgium behind.

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A short but not sweet one, I'm trying to update in a big blob so there's more for you guys to red. Please let me know what you think xx