Courage Under Fire| Band of Brothers

Currahee Part 5

Betsy watched as Olivia turned the final sealed letter from her brother James over in her hands several times. She had been doing that since the night before and it was starting to worry her and the other nurses.

"Liv? Why don't you open it?" She asked softly as she went over to the head nurse's bunk and sat down on the end of it.

"I can't." Olivia admitted softly as she stopped turning the letter over and raised her eyes to look at her friend, "It will make the fact that we lost him real. Ever since we were little, James has been Bobby's and my protector. You think Bobby and Edward were bad when it comes to me, Jimmy was worse. He always wanted a baby sister and when I came along.'

'His wish came true." Adele added as she sat down on the other side of Betsy, Alice had sat next to her friend and clasped her hand in hers to stop the fidgeting.

The blonde nodded her head in agreement as Lipton opened the door and called them to formation. Olivia tapped her finger against the slanted handwriting before she leaned over and put the letter back in her journal. It just wasn't her brothers' death that was bothering me, it was the whole almost screwing Joe Liebgott in the latrines. She was almost scared of those feelings that he had stirred up. She didn't know if it was lust or if she had fallen in love with him as quickly as she had with Lewis.

"Liv? Are you okay?" Lipton asked, seeing that she was lagging, normally she was the first one out of the barracks encouraging her girls to hurry it along. "Yeah, Lip, I am okay.' She returned as she stood up, smoothing her hands over the material of her jumpsuit. It was a new uniform for the girls and she wasn't quite used to it yet.

The Sergeant frowned, he along with several others could tell she wasn't okay but she was acting like she was, 'You know you can talk to me if you want, Liv.'

Her bottom lip trembled and she steeled herself, "Thanks Lip. Did he say what we are doing?'

'Classroom instruction most of the day. " She offered him a crooked smile and nodded her head, at least he wasn't going to make them be out in the rain, that was the last thing they needed. More colds were going through the platoons and making their way towards the nurses. If one got sick, they all got sick.

**

Instead of joining Liebgott and Talbert at their table like she normally would, Olivia opted to sit with Lewis and Dick near the front of the classroom.

"Wanna talk about it?" Lewis asked, lowering his voice to where only Dick and Olivia could hear. She didn't answer right away, instead, she chewed on the inside of her bottom lip looking at Strayer who had just come into the classroom.

"We know Liebgott followed you into the latrines." Dick offered up, keeping his eyes on Strayer, he knew that Olivia was a lot like him and didn't like this kind of attention on her. Anything to do with relationships or sex, and they both just shut down.

"Did you?' Olivia had expected Lewis to be angry instead he was curious and a little jealous, like he had been when he found out she had been sleeping with Bill after he left for New Year at his parents' house before going to Fort Dix.

"No, Mary walked in before things could get too far. I think that they have slept together too."

She answered, the familiar heat of embarrassment crept into her cheeks, and she quickly lowered her eyes to the desk to avoid Strayer's gaze when he looked over at the trio.

Lewis made a move like he was stretching so he could look over her shoulder at Liebgott who was staring steadily at Olivia's back, willing her to look at him. '