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

Rachamps

A/N: This chapter is really short and I'm sorry about it. But there just wasn't a better way to divide the last chapter, this one and the next... I hope you like it anyways :)

Unfortunately, there was no evac available for the casualties of Foy. Also, Easy Company wasn't taken off the line, no matter how much they deserved and needed a breather. Instead, the brass wanted them to join the attack on Noville, which was set to take place two days after Foy.

When Ella heard the news, she just sighed and plastered an optimistic smile onto her face. She didn't have the energy to get worked up over it. She was too tired. "C'mon", she said to Spina and Gene. "Let's go."

They took Noville.

After the wounded were seen to, the three medics dropped right where they were, curling up on a piece of floor. Mud and blood stained their uniforms, their fingers were caked with it. But they didn't care. They were too tired to even think about finding themselves a more comfortable place to sleep. They fell asleep instantly and nobody had the heart to wake them.

Then, after Noville, they took Rachamps.

***

They spent the night in the convent of Rachamps. For Easy Company, it was the first time they slept inside in a month. Ella's eyes were burning with exhaustion by the time she finally slumped down into a pew next to Luz.

Spina and Gene had ganged up on her and told her in no uncertain terms that she was to get some sleep, no buts. "We'll take care of the wounded, you take care of yourself tonight, Ellie", Gene had said, fixing her with a stern look. Too wiped out to argue, the small girl had relented.

She let Luz manhandle her into lying down, her head pillowed on his lap. She peered over at Lipton, who was going through her reports and trying to put together a roster. Sadness filled her. She knew the score. The numbers had burned themselves into her mind.

They had left Mourmelon with 121 men and officers. While in Belgium, they had received 24 replacements. Of those 145, only 63 were left.

Blinking blearily, the young medic rubbed her forehead and heaved a sigh. Tears prickled at the back of her eyes and she raised her gaze to look at the ceiling. Luz' fingers ran through her hair. Some of the tension that had been her constant companion over the past few weeks drained away and she let the soothing voices of the sisters' choir wash over her.

The pew creaked quietly when Lip got up to give his report to their new CO. The brunette watched them silently.

Speirs got up and said: "Well, I better get back to Battalion before they disappear."

Ella's lips twitched with the ghost of an amused smirk.

He began to gather his gear while he turned back to Lipton. "You wanna ask me, don't you?"

"Ask you what, sir?", Lip questioned with a disarming smile.

"You wanna know if they're true or not, the stories about me."

Lip stayed silent, not trying to deny it.

***

Speirs continued. He sounded calm, neither insulted nor defensive.

"You ever noticed with stories like that, everyone says they heard it from someone who was there. But then when you ask that person, they say they heard it from someone who was there. Nothing new really. I bet if you went back 2000 years, you'd hear a couple of centurions standing around and yakking about how Tertius lobbed off the heads of Carthaginian prisoners."

Lip smiled and offered: "Well... maybe they kept talking about it because they never heard Tertius deny it."

The lieutenant slung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed his helmet. "Maybe that's because Tertius knew there was some value to the men thinking he was the meanest, thoughest son of a bitch in the whole Roman Legion." He gave Lip a small, sincere smile.

"Like never having to share his smokes", Ella chimed in, voice pitched just at a whisper.

Luz, Lip and Speirs, the only three men who had heard her, chuckled.

Speirs nodded, corner of his mouth curling into an amused smirk. "For example."

Halfway lulled to sleep by Luz' hand smoothing her locks, her gaze slowly trailed over to Lipton. "Hey Sarge?", she asked, peering up at him, looking young and innocent.

"Yeah, Shorty?"

"Who the hell's Tertius?"

He smiled and shared an amused glance with Luz. Producing a blanket from thin air, he spread it over her, tucking her in. "Go to sleep, Shorty", he chided lightly.

Eyes already reduced to slits, the small girl mumbled a sleepy "Yessir", then her lids closed.

***

The next day, they moved out again. Not to Mourmelon, though. They were bound for Haguenau to help hold the line against the German counter offensive in the Alsace. It was off the front lines and Ella was grateful for small mercies.

The brunette was snuggled between Christenson and Babe on the truck. Her entire body hurt from all the shivering, her bones aching from the cold that had settled in them.

As they pulled out, Luz commented: "Hey, look. It's 1st Battalion."

He leant forward and called: "Hey! HEY!"

"Whaddaya want?", one of the men walking below asked, annoyed.

"Yeah, thanks for crapping in our foxholes, you shitheads", Luz grumbled.

Ella chuckled. She could still hear Toye ranting to her about that. "Look at this shit!", he had exclaimed, gesturing irately. "These fuckers!"

One of the men from 1st Battalion grinned and gave a sloppy salute. "Hey, it's our pleasure!", he called back with a laugh.

"Enjoy the walk, boys", Bull drawled, smirking around his cigar stump.

"There they go", somebody said, "Easy Company's riding out again."

The ranking medic smiled to herself. That's right. Here we go again.