Sorcha Devlin never planned to find herself across the Pond stationed at the Thorpe Abbotts base, but as a promise to be close to her younger brother, she landed in this position. Cormack Devlin, younger by 2 years, was training to become a fighter...
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Sorcha had barely three hours of sleep before she was needed back in the tower. She had spent the night and early hours of the morning folding maps and putting flight plans into bags for the navigators to prep them for their mission to Trondheim, Norway. She, and the rest of the women, had been woken up at a quarter to five by a sharp knock and call from outside the door. All the women in the bunk quickly assembled themselves, making sure they looked proper before heading out to their desks. Sorcha walked alongside Shiv and Aileen, the latter half carrying the morning conversations, "I have a complaint, and it's gonna be in vain, but you two can't make fun of me for it, okay."
"'In vain'," Shiv mocked, putting air quotes as she spoke, "Look at you using big words."
"Oh piss off Shiv," Aileen retorted as she made a face at her friend, "I know why we have to get up so early, but could there ever be a possible world where we get possibly an extra half-hour of sleep?"
The younger girl's words elicited a chuckle from Sorcha, as she quietly agreed with Aileen's grievance, "In a perfect world, love."
"God, you sound like my Nan." groaned Shiv.
"Good," Sorcha smiled as she wrapped an arm around the less-than-cheerful girl, "Someone has to keep you in line."
Aileen giggled at Sorcha's words, while Shiv only grunted in acknowledgment. The trio had arrived at the tower, shaking off the previous mood of playfulness and exhaustion, replacing it with an air of professionalism. They made their way to their desks, words of greeting passing between those they passed, before getting down to work. Since all of Sorcha's work corresponding to the current mission had already been done, she was relegated to filing reports and flight plans from previous missions. Each plan had been reviewed by higher-up navigation execs, deeming them successful, or unsuccessful. Sorcha's job at face value was to read the bold text at the top and file each into their respective folders. But the curious girl would spend time reviewing all the annotations made by the air execs, having a great interest in the field.
Sorcha had completed college the year before arriving at Thorpe Abbotts. She had always felt a pull to the studies of history, politics, and geography, wanting to understand the world as a whole. Growing up in a heavily Irish neighborhood, she had been exposed to stories of what life was like across the pond, being the only 5-year-old who actually wanted to listen to an old man's life story. Once in school, Sorcha excelled in Social Studies and was told she should consider a career in teaching. The Devlin family had always placed importance on education, as both Sorcha's father and mother had only gone to 6th grade before being pulled out to work. Sorcha's mother was wary of the idea of her eldest, and first daughter, going to college, having a decent understanding of what life was like for a woman her age. Sorcha had been accepted into Barnard College and was in the midst of her last year when Pearl Harbor occurred. Her plan was to finish out the year, get a job, and then find a way to join the war effort, but her mother pleaded she put her career on hold to accompany her brother overseas. Once everything had settled at home, Sorcha was called to be stationed at Thorpe Abbotts, working as a clerk for navigation execs, fitting right in her wheelhouse. Now, as she read each file, scanning for any bit of information she could find, Sorcha knew she was in the right place, doing the right thing for her family, as well as her country.
