Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

Rumours and Gossip

A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry for not updating yesterday, but I got maybe an hour of sleep on the flight home from New York and the jetlag really hit me hard, so I was too tired for pretty much anything more than watching tv and sifting through some emails etc.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's kinda short, but I really had fun writing it. Let me know what you think :)

Frances lounged in the sun, head pillowed on her musette bag, listening to the chatter of her friends from first and second platoon. She was idly shuffling through a deck of cards, spinning and flipping the individual cards lazily. Her fingers were so familiar with the motions that they practically moved on their own. The voices of her friends a constantly swelling and dipping buzz in the background, Frances simply enjoyed the respite.

"Hey Shea", called the inimitable voice of the one and only Bill Guarnere. "Is it true?"

She slowly looked over to him, arching an eyebrow. "Is what true?", she asked back.

"The rumours."

Playfully rolling her eyes, Frances heaved a dramatic sigh and sat up. "Gonna be a bit more specific, Gonorrhoea?" She shot him a lopsided smile, gesturing with her free hand. "This is the Army, there's tons of rumours flying around."

Johnny Martin snorted and elaborated: "Rumour has it you took out a bunch of Krauts on D-Day with one bullet and a shoelace."

Frances blinked at him before bursting into peals of laughter. "That's probably the best version I've heard ever", she giggled, transferring her cards to the other hand to wipe tears from the corners of her eyes. "A bullet and a shoelace." She shook her head.

"Well, what happened then?", Ramirez questioned. "Cause some guys from Dog Company are pretty sure that you can do real magic."

The woman's eyebrows rose towards her hairline, confusion mixing with disbelief before she chuckled again. "Alright, I'll tell you, but you gotta promise not to tell anyone else", she bargained, eyes dancing with mischief. "I can't wait to find out what ridiculous stories people come up with."

The small cluster of men leant forward, eager to hear the story.

***

"Okay, so after I landed and got the hell out of dodge, I bumped into Audrey Maynard. She, uh, she's a machine gunner in Fox Company. Anyway, we figured out where we were and started walking. On the way, we picked up two guys from Dog, Leelan and McDowell.

As it happens, we ended up in a bit of a skirmish with some Krauts. There were around twenty of them and only four of us. They tried to surround us and were doing a pretty decent job backing us into a corner.

We needed a distraction to make a clean get-away, so I thought a smoke bomb would come in handy. Naturally, none of us had their smoke grenades, so I had to build one."

"You built a smoke bomb?", Bull asked, his Arkansas drawl tinged with surprise and admiration.

Frances smiled, offering a light shrug. "Well, my uncle taught me all sorts of tricks", she allowed, "and it's really simple."

Johnny Martin gave her one of his patented looks and snarked: "That's easy for you to say."

"C'mon, don't leave us hanging", Ramirez complained, giving her a nudge. "Tell us the rest!"

She laughed. "Alright alright, keep your shirt on!", she placated, letting a card dance along her fingers.