Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

Upset

A/N: Thank you very much for your reads, votes and comments! They always brighten my days and I really need that right now... Not gonna bore you with details, but my brother has been terribly unwell the past few weeks. He's getting better now, but it's still stressful.

Anyways, I hope you like the chapter :) It dives a bit more into the emotions and dynamics between the women.

Out of the 24 women in 2nd Battalion, 19 had a sweetheart back home. Out of those, 11 were married or in a serious relationship.

After going steady for 4 years, Theresa Nolan had gotten engaged to her high school sweetheart Thomas Brady right before basic training. She kept a picture of him in a locket that she wore around her neck and she religiously wrote to him every Saturday evening.

So each time they got mail, she always eagerly anticipated Vest calling "Nolan, Theresa!"

A week before Thanksgiving, mail call was in the evening. Usually, it was sometime during the day, but apparently HQ had been just as busy as the rest of the companies in their regiment.

When her name was called, Theresa replied: "Here!" and took the letter she was handed. She smiled happily as she sliced open the envelope and fished out the neatly folded piece of paper. Her eyes raced across the words as if she couldn't bear to read it slowly.

After only a few lines, her smile began to fade, a look of shock and disbelief taking over.

"What's going on?", Irene asked when she looked up from her own letter and saw her friend's distress.

"Tommy", Theresa said slowly, eyes still fixed on her fiancé's familiar handwriting. "He, um...he"- her voice broke and she swallowed thickly, staring at the letter with a stricken expression on her face.

Kathleen leaned over and skimmed the letter, an arm wrapped around Theresa's shoulders. "Oh", she made softly. "Oh, Theresa, I am so sorry."

***

Catherine stood up and came over from where she had been seated at a table behind them. She could see that Theresa was fighting hard not to burst into tears in the middle of the mess hall and judging by the expressions of those around her, she could guess the contents of the other woman's letter.

"Hey Reese", she said, smiling warmly. "How about we go somewhere quiet, hm?"

Theresa nodded, sniffling and tucking the letter into her pocket.

Many pairs of eyes followed them as Catherine guided the distraught Nebraskan out of the mess hall, one arm around her back.

Perconte blurted: "What's with her?"

He received a disapproving look from Lipton and an eyeroll from John Martin, who was known to have one of the best scowls in the company.

"She got a Dear John letter", Frances said, pointedly focusing on her meal.

"Oh."

If anybody later on noticed Theresa's red and swollen eyes or the salt stains on the shoulder of Catherine's uniform blouse, they were considerate and smart enough not to mention it.

***

After losing their weekend pass one too many times because of an infraction related to their hair – it was too long, it wasn't pulled back properly, a single hair was out of place... - the women had enough.

"That's it!", Irene declared angrily, rummaging through her footlocker. "I've had it with him!"

"Me too!", Helen exclaimed, digging around in her duffel. "I haven't had a weekend pass in weeks!"