A Soldier of No Importance [ Band of Brothers ] 1

TWENTY ONE

Alice woke gasping. Her chest tightened. All around her, darkness filled the room. Only a few of the beds were occupied, just the ones of her friends who had stayed. As she struggled to catch her breath, Alice slipped into her boots and hurried out the door.

The sun had started to rise. Alice hurried away from the barracks, not sure where her feet were leading her. It didn't take long for her to realize she'd forgotten her jacket. She stopped. All around her, a quiet stillness filled Fort Benning. Alice clutched her arms around her body as a gust of wind hit her.

As she ducked her face away, a slew of German curses left her. Her bare arms had quickly lost the warmth they'd felt from time indoors. Alice wanted to scream. She'd had another nightmare. The Nazis had infiltrated her old Parisian flat, grabbed her, and dragged her screaming down the hall.

Alice looked at her hands. In the dream, she'd broken her nails trying to hold onto the wood, to stop being dragged away. They'd hit her. One had drawn a gun. She'd woken up, gasping, when the bullet had pierced her shoulder. 

Her hand quickly went to the ugly scar over her left chest. She could feel the texture of her skin  change as she reached it. Smooth, but tight, it felt like it'd been pulled across something too far. A few indents betrayed the one-time presence of stitches. Alice shuddered. From the cold or the memories, she couldn't tell.

"What are you doing?"

Alice turned around to see Joe Toye walking over, cigarette dangling from his mouth. He had remembered a coat. She almost scoffed at herself as another wind blast hit her in the face. When he had joined her, she shrugged. Joe seemed to study her.

"You forgot your jacket?" He had to suppress a laugh. 

Alice rolled her eyes. "No, Joe. I decided to take it off and enjoy the freezing cold."

He scoffed. "Want mine?"

"What?"

"I mean, with the way you're standing out here you're probably not going back in any time soon."

Alice looked at him. "Yeah? What's the way I'm standing?"

"Like you're thinking." Joe smirked. "Guarnere would hound you about it."

She hummed. Looking across the complex, she didn't move to accept the jacket. Her thoughts took her far away, to winter in the shadows of the Galibier. She'd had Robert then. He'd kept her warm. Their anger had kept them warm together.

"Take the goddamn coat. Your face is bright red." Joe held it out to her. "Or, go back inside and get your own."

Alice accepted it a moment later. She shifted the heavy coat over her shoulders and used it to hide her hands as well. She looked at Joe. "You don't have to answer this. But I have a question."

"We playing truth or dare again?"

Alice smiled, huffing out a laugh. "No."

"Right." Joe shifted his feet and folded his arms. "What's the question?"

"Are you afraid?"

He didn't answer right away. She turned her head so he could think without pressure. Alice closed her eyes. The faces of the resistance fighters she'd lost, and the faces of her family, flooded her mind. She could see them so clearly.

"Yeah, of course I'm scared." He blew a deep breath out. Arms folded, he shrugged. "I grew up working in the coal mines. They paid me to do the heavy lifting, and when I was younger, I'd squeeze where the bigger guys couldn't. I saw cave ins. Fucking terrifying they are."

"I didn't know that's what you did."

"Well let's keep it between us, yeah? Anyways, they scared me to death. But I still did my job." He paused again. Then he turned to look at her. Offering her a cigarette, which she accepted, Joe followed up. "Are you afraid?"