Pitschen ma en gamba - Small, but powerful [A Band of Brothers Story]

Foxhole Talk

After another long, cold night, the brunette found herself sitting on a log a few paces away from their makeshift mess tent, a hot cup of coffee clasped tightly between her hands. Buck had sat down beside her, wordlessly reaching over and pulling the trembling young medic into his side.

"I swear", she spoke up, pushing the words out between her chattering teeth, "every time I get a hot drink, I end up shaking even more. How does that make any sense?"

Buck laughed. "Well, you're the medic."

She snorted. "Oh, now you tell me", she jested half-heartedly.

"Yeah."

They were interrupted by Lipton, who strode over to them. "Hey Buck. Lieutenant Dike wants the leaders to join him for some kind of meeting to go over the next patrol", he said.

The blond lieutenant nodded and got up with a reluctant noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a groan.

Lip looked at Ella who had stayed where she was. "Wanna come along?", he asked. "Thought you might like to know the formation and things like that."

The girl hesitated for a moment. Dike avoided any sort of interaction with her like the plague. Then again, he usually didn't even acknowledge her presence. Plus, she needed to know what they were planning so she could plot the medics' strategy. And finally, Lip had said the CO wanted all the 'leaders' in the briefing. As ranking medic, she therefore had a right to be at that meeting.

Decision made, she got to her feet as well. "Alright."

***

They gathered a few feet away from the foxholes, huddling together in a circle. Ella greeted Lieutenants Foley and Shames with a smile, Peacock with a nod. She still hadn't entirely gotten over the incident where he had left a patrol in the middle of a firefight to report to the CP.

Dike ambled over. "All here?", he asked, not bothering to wait for an answer before he began.

Ella had a hard time paying attention to the man. To her, it seemed like he was just stringing big words together. Five minutes in, she still had no clue what formation he wanted to use. She shivered violently as a gust of wind blew snowflakes down her collar.

She wrapped her arms around her thin frame, shoving her bare hands under her armpits. Like all of the men, she had mastered the art of constantly shifting from one foot to the other without looking like she needed to pee about two days after they had moved into Bastogne.

"Now, Battalion S3 is planning a move, so I will probably be called away regularly", Dike finished his sermon. The brunette traded a puzzled look with the First Sergeant, her forehead crinkling into a small frown. 'Called away'? There is no way Winters and Nixon would call him away while he's supposed to be leading Easy in the field, she thought.

"Are there any questions?" Dike's voice indicated clearly that he didn't really care.

"Uh, yeah", Buck spoke up, incredulous. "What's the formation you want us to go for?", he asked the question they had all been waiting for the CO to answer.

Inwardly, Ella was shaking her head. How could someone as incompetent as Lt Norman Dike be appointed company leader?

"At present, as per usual, but I'll clarify that with you at a later time, Lieutenant Compton", was the reply.

The small girl only just clamped down on the frustrated sigh that threatened to escape her. Her jaw muscles clenched as she gritted her teeth, not just to stop them from chattering. This was unbelievable. If it weren't for Lip, Buck and the non-coms, they would never get anything done. She coughed into her sleeve-clad hand and ignored the scrutinising look she got from Buck.