Timeless

3|| 1943

Daniel looked up as a friend of his signalled him. One of the privates. "What's up, Williams?" he asked, closing his book. "Anything the matter?"

Williams gestured to the slight bulge in Daniel's breast pocket. "I've always noticed you having your compass in there, sir," he said. "And I wanted to know why."

Daniel smiled softly. "Oh, this?" He pulled the compass out, watching it shine under the light. "I put it there because of this girl-"

"- she back home?"

He shook his head, chuckling. "Uh, no. She's a traveller. She gave this to me before I enlisted and told me to keep it close to my heart so it'd protect me." Daniel opened it to show Williams his and Daisy's portrait, the one with them turned to each other. "She's my Daisy."

"You've got yourself a nice-looking gal there, Sousa, sir." Williams glanced at the ring on Daniel's hand. "That where the ring comes from, too?"

Daniel nodded and pulled it off, threading it with the necklace of his dog tags. "I miss her," he said simply.

Williams slung an arm around him. "Come on then, sir," the private said cheerfully. "Let's get you something to drink. We'll make you forget about that kinda pain for tonight, alright?"

Daniel smiled a little. "Alright, but we have to be ready by 0600 tomorrow, so let's not have too much."

"Yes sir, lieutenant," Williams said brightly. "Though, I think the troop might wanna hear some of your love story. There's been gossip about you and your mystery lady."

Daniel chuckled. "I thought the point was to make me forget about it," he said amusedly.

"Most of us kids never even kissed a broad, Sousa," Williams said earnestly. "And... you said we have to get up early, right?"

Daniel sighed, shaking his head. "You guys are gonna be the death of me," he muttered, hearing Williams' delighted laugh. "Alright. I'll tell you guys a story."

Williams signalled to the group by the pub and they whooped happily before filing inside. "They've been waiting all night for it," he said, seeing Daniel's raised eyebrows. "Sorry, sir."

Daniel heaved another sigh and mustered up a smile. "Let's get to it, then."

A cheer rose up when he and the private entered the pub, and a few drinks were handed to them as Daniel was seated at the head of the table. Eager faces shone out at him in the dim room, and his gut twisted at all these young men going out to the war front.

He'd already been there. Hell, he even got some scars from it. It wasn't pretty. Some didn't make it back. And Daniel had the heavy job of reporting who didn't.

He shook his head inwardly. The story would be good for morale, at least.

"Lieutenant," Williams said graciously, "we've gathered here today to hear about you and your lovely lady."

Daniel chuckled. "Well, the lovely lady's name is Daisy. She's a traveller, and she came to my town when we were seventeen. Only spent a day together before she had to leave. I already knew I was hopelessly in love with her, though." He grinned softly at the whoops that the last sentence brought. "The night before she left, I brought her to the train station for one of those, um, photo booth things, the ones where you could take a few photos and you'd get them in two strips. Then she left for a while."

"Your compass's photo didn't look like it came from a photo strip," a sergeant called out.

Daniel nodded. "It's not. A few years after she left, she came back. We picked up where we left off. Neither of us forgot about each other, and we had a nice time running around town together for the week that she was here. She gave me the compass, and we picked out rings-"