Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ９９ － Ａｕｓｔｒｉａ】

Chapter 99 - Austria

Easy Company was now an occupation force, and everyone was really relaxed.

Austria was even more beautiful than Bavaria, and Easy was billeted in a hotel overlooking a huge lake!

Peggy ferried her belongings up to her assigned room, and stopped to eye up the bath. She'd definitely have one. And she did. But part way through there was a pounding on her door.

"Gorgeous, you better be decent because I'm coming in-"

"Floyd, don't you dare!" she shrieked. But he was already opening the door so Peggy scrambled to cover as much and sink as low into the water of the roll top bath as possible. She faced the window and looked out at the lake as her face burned. "Tab, get out!"

"Oh, cool, didn't know your room had a bath outside the restroom." He peered inside the little bathroom connected to the main room. In it was a shower, a large sink and mirror, and a toilet. He hummed at that. "C'mon, get your clothes on, preferably the PT gear, we're going swimming."

She whined, as it had only been 15 minutes since she'd gotten in.

"Floyd, get out. I am not coming out of this tub until you've shut that door behind you!"

Peggy looked over her shoulder at him, and he shrugged at her before leaving. But he did say he was just outside.

Sighing, she drained her warm bath, and padded around her room in a comfy bathrobe until she found underwear and her PT gear, last time she'd worn it was Aldbourne. Deciding not to bother with shoes, she slipped into all her clothes, and opened the door. Floyd had been leaning on it, and his stumble made her smirk.

"C'mon then, creep."

"Creep? Creep!? Excuse me? I'll-"

"You were the one who just came into my room whilst I was in the bath."

There was some playful shoving as the pair made their way down the stairs and into the foyer. A small group was waiting for them, apparently everyone else had already headed down to the lake.

"Nice of you to join us, thought you'd never make it!"

"Shut up, Luz! Reprimand Tab, not me! He's the one who came in whilst I was in the bath and then didn't apologise."

Floyd fumbled for an excuse but was already being wrestled out the door by George.

And so began the jovial walk down to the little pier, where everyone either jumped in, or was chucked in. Peggy was reluctant to jump, so she was scooped up by Bull and thrown in. She shrieked as she went in. Somewhere in the cool water, she had an idea. A mean, mean idea. She stayed under, and listened to their distorted and muffled panic as she swam to an unsuspecting victim. Don Malarkey.

Grabbing his legs she pulled him down as far as she could before coming up for air.

As she deserved, she got a thorough splashing for it.

The day continued on much like that, everyone just being stupid in the lake. It was so good.

In the end, by tea time, everyone was very cold on the journey back. In fact they ran back to the hotel in order to get warm quicker.

It turned out that Floyd was just a few doors down from Peggy. Something she took comfort in.

When it came time to turn in, anxiety crashed down on her. So she shut herself away.

How long had it been since she last slept alone?

But still, she readied for bed, and gingerly brushed out her now almost chin length hair. She washed her face, and pulled on a nightgown she'd swiped in Bavaria. If it weren't for her PT top and shorts being soaked, she would've slept in them. Then she settled down in the big soft bed under the comfy duvet and stared at the ceiling.

After an hour of staring, she got up and out of bed, wincing just a little at her bruised feet. Shoes...she should've worn them earlier.

Peggy tiptoed out of her room and padded over to Floyd's room. Then she knocked quietly. There was a shuffle before the door opened.

"It's weird, isn't it? Having our own rooms."

She nodded, and he let her in. From there the pair of them climbed into bed and did what everyone had been wanting to do for months. Sleep.

Floyd woke with a start, and squinted at a watch he'd pinched from Frank. 2 am. When he was slightly more awake, seconds later, he realised why he'd woken. Peggy was thrashing about in her sleep, crying out. But then the screaming started and he tried frantically to wake her up and quiet her down. It took some time, but finally she was awake, clinging to him and sobbing.

"Lewis! Where's Lewis? The...Th-The ghosts. They're here! He'll have. He'll have seen them. Know what to- I need to find-" He shushed her gently, and rubbed her back and got her quiet again.

"Why don't we go find him together? Would you like that?"

She nodded feebly and the pair got out of bed and went down the hall, up two flights of stairs to the officers' rooms. One still had the lights on, undoubtedly Major Winters. But since they didn't know which room was Nixon's, the only option was to ask him since he was awake.

"Major Winters, sir? It's Sergeant Talbert." The door opened, and a tired looking Dick was in the doorway.

"It's 2 in the morning, Sergeant. What's the matter?" Then he saw Peggy. It took a minute but then it clicked. Talbert had caught her in the midst of a nightmare.

"Which room's Captain Nixon in? Peggy needs him."

Dick nodded and pointed at the room just across from him, then bid them goodnight. As he shut the door, it became painfully clear that despite her looking like she was doing okay during the day, she wasn't, and it was worse at night. He understood that. It was worse at night for him too, for everyone.

Floyd quietly knocked on Nix's door, and waited.

"What? It's two in the morning? Can't this wait?" he groaned as he opened the door, only to have to take a step back to steady himself as Peggy barrelled into him. "Oh. I see. Thank you, Talbert, you can go back to sleep now, I've got her."  Floyd nodded and said goodnight. Lewis shut the door and turned to Peggy. "Ghosts?"

She trembled before him, even as he led her to one of the chairs.

"They're here, Lew. I-I...I don't know how. But they're here!"

So that night, Lewis soothed her, and drank with her until she seemed calm enough to go back to bed. But she didn't want to go back to her own room. She stayed up in the officer's quarters that night.

_

I loved writing Peggy's interactions, especially the cute ones. But I didn't realise how much I missed it, missed them until just now, when I was checking this for errors. However this does not mean that I miss out, that I no longer write things like that. Check out All I Want on AO3, it's an SAS: Rogue Heroes fic by me. I'm currently writing it's sequel (and even it's threequel) and even many many AUs for it. Through that I get to write all sorts of interactions, fun and not fun.