Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

D-Day

A/N: Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I hope you're all doing well.

I survived my end-of-year concert (It went really well and we had fun) and have had surprisingly relaxing Christmas holidays so far. I started with exam prep today, but since I only have two exams, it's not that big of a deal.
Especially not compared to second semester, where I had a whooping 14 exams over a course of 8 days. Definitely not my idea of fun...

Anyways, enough ramblings from me. I hope you enjoy the chapter. It was a tricky one to write and I haven't decided yet whether I'm happy with it or not.

Apart from the rattling and rumbling of the aircraft, which drowned out a lot of other noises, the inside of the plane was eerily silent. Catherine shifted and flexed her toes inside her jump boots. Between the tight webbing and the pack of the reserve chute on her lap, her left leg was starting to fall asleep.

She was scared. At first, she'd been able to distract herself, but when darkness had settled over them, her mind had inevitably turned to what lay ahead. And then to what she'd left behind.

Tommy, her bright little boy, would be turning six years old in two weeks. He would start elementary school in fall. And Gwen, now already eight years old, was bursting with pride for her baby brother.

He can read already, she had written in one of her letters, her blocky letters still uneven, but improving. And Daddy and I taught him to tell time.

Catherine's smile at the thought didn't make it onto her face. Thunder cracked in the distance, barely audible over the noise of the plane. She didn't pay it any heed, mind still focused on her family. She could just picture them, her kids splashing in the shallows on the beach, Roger teaching them how to float and swim.

Roger.

The thought made her heart twinge with longing. Her dear husband, who had encouraged her to enlist after he'd been declared 4F. Her best friend, whose happy-go-lucky personality had immediately taken her in when they had first met. Her partner in crime, with whom she'd gone through thick and thin.

***

The distant thunder was closer now and definitely not thunder. It was the booming of anti-aircraft batteries that tore up the night with their salves. The planes broke through the thick clouds and suddenly, the sky was alight with a lightning storm of gunfire, explosions and the blinding streaks of tracer ammunition.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Kathleen tried to focus on something other than the buzzing tingle of nerves under her skin.

The red light flashed on next to the doorway. In the dim, flickering lighting, she could just make out her jump master's signal to get ready. With her heart pounding at the base of her throat, she got to her feet along with the rest of her stick, hooking herself to the central line. Her hands, much to her surprise, weren't trembling.

"Equipment check!", she heard the jump master shout.

Reaching out, she checked the straps of the person in front of her. She felt her way along the belts and knots before making sure her own webbing was cinched tightly.

Kathleen didn't hear the command to sound off for equipment check, but when the man behind her gave her a firm clap on the shoulder and bellowed: "Six okay!", she simply continued the line.

"Four okay!", she heard Ana María call in front of her.

The plane bounced and jostled, unexpectedly banking left at one point, making a few of them lose their balance. Kathleen didn't have time to worry about their aircraft being hit because their line began moving forward.