Love Like Ghosts - Band of Brothers

Chapter 15 - Angel of Death

BASTOGNE, BELGIUM
December, 1944

It was finally Christmas, a bleak one at that. Josephine had seen enough of snow. The once thrilling chill became sharp and brutal.

Days blurred into nights, and everything in-between.

It had been nearly a week since Easy was cut off. The aid drop was the last they were probably going to see stuck in that damn forest.

"I wish I was in Fiji right now." Malarkey sighed brushing his teeth.

"What, you don't want to spend Christmas with me here, Don?" Jo teased him.

"It'd be nice if you were there too, y'know. A holiday vacation or whatever."

"Fiji?" Toye laughed dryly. "Try Italy instead."

"Who the hell chooses Italy over Fiji?" Luz scoffs.

Josephine hears the men around them snort at that.

"What d'you know about any of those places, Luz?"

The men laughed and chatted amongst themselves about their holiday vacations. Josephine knew they were all homesick for any place other than Bastogne at that point. She was too. It was unmistakable.

The group could laugh and rant all they wanted, but it couldn't shake the helpless feeling that had plagued them the moment they set foot in the godforsaken place. It was infectious and began to crumble their courage. There wasn't much of anything they could do but wait.

Jo's thoughts wandered to her brother and what he would say.

'Patience is important, Jo. You can't get anywhere without it.'

Except she wasn't sure how long her patience had to last - but if she thought about it like that, then was it really patience?

The complicated thoughts made her grumble under her breath.

"You alright?" Liebgott sits next to her and hands a mug of some kind of warm food. Her mouth salivates at the sight of the steam rising from it.

"I will be once the first bite of that is in my mouth."

"Okay okay, relax!" He laughs and quickly hands her a spoon.

She wastes no time to scoop some and taste it. The food didn't look appetizing at all, nor did it taste it. In that moment, Josephine remembered the time where Malarkey was her chef for the night in Normandy - Guarnere had just come around to accepting her and her fate had just met its beginning as a combat medic. The memory made her smile.

"Damn, I didn't think you'd like that grub that much. It looks like shit to me."

"No it definitely is, Lieb. I think it's just the heat that makes me so happy." She clarifies.

"Oh sure. That makes sense, Jo." He nods.

-

Night fell quickly that day, Christmas felt like it sped up time. When the sun rose for the holiday, she was woken up by a familiar voice with a warm greeting.

"Merry Christmas to my very own miracle, Jo!" Guarnere called out and lifted the cover of her foxhole. He then threw a snowball at the man beside her, earning a combination of curses.

Josephine smiled and patted Luz on the cheek to stop his obscene language then she accepted the hand that Bill offered her - lifting her up to the surface.

"Merry Christmas, Bill. I'd be damned if the Germans ruined this perfect day, wouldn't you?"

"Oh hun, they have no Christmas spirit, so I would count on it."