A Soldier of No Importance [ Band of Brothers ] 1

FORTY EIGHT

Alice had woken up almost at sunrise, just a bit after. Nixon had still slept like a rock to her right across the room, and Buck seemed to be asleep too. When she'd changed and walked out of the room, she found Dick Winters right outside the door at the street level. The hustle and bustle had only increased from the night before.

Dick turned to her. He nodded, forcing a small smile on his face. "Morning."

"Good morning to you," she agreed. Alice put her hands on her hips. "Any more of Easy show up?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Doc Roe, Skip Muck, and Alex Penkala came in a few hours ago. Spina, Dukeman, Tipper, and Perconte wandered in a few minutes ago too."

Alice sighed. "Still no sign of Harry?"

"No, nor anyone from Meehan's plane."

Her heart clenched again. If, to allow Sergeant Evans a spot on the HQ plane, she hadn't been switched, chances were she'd have been missing too. But she just nodded. "They'll turn up."

A tiny smile spread across Dick's face. He shook his head. "Since when are you the optimistic one?"

She let out a small laugh. As they stood beside the door to their temporary house, they watched men wandering up the road. A few got ushered towards the aid station, bleeding and bruised. But most just looked around for familiar faces. Just as Alice pulled out and lit a cigarette, she heard familiar voices. Her grin only grew as she saw them.

"Speak of the devil," Alice said, laughing. She poked Dick and then pointed down the road. George and Harry strolled side by side, both smoking cigarettes. With a grin, she pushed off the brick wall and wandered over. "Took you long enough to show up!"

Both Harry and George grinned as they caught sight of her. They broke off from the line of paratroopers dribbling in. Both joined Alice and Dick.

George did a quick salute. "How late are we?"

Dick cracked a smile. He looked from George to Harry. "Late, but not that late."

"How many people have shown up?" Harry asked.

"We're at about forty percent." Looking between them, Dick nodded. "Either of you run into Meehan, or anyone from his plane?"

George shook his head, and Harry said no. Both Alice and Dick sighed. While the other two officers started chatting about D-Day, she offered to show George to where the enlisted had set up. Easy had claimed a small house not too far away.

"Jesus Christ, what happened to your face?" George pointed at her, holding his finger mere inches from the cut.

Alice scoffed. Walking beside him, she turned to look him in the eyes. "How bad does it look?"

"Looks like it hurt."

She laughed. "Yeah, it did. But not until I realized it was there."

"Run into many Germans, then?"

"No, I got that on the plane. We killed more bugs than Nazis on the way in here. You?"

George shrugged. While they waited for a caravan of jeeps and a tank to roll through, he gestured back to where Harry and Dick had been. "Well, I met up with Lieutenant Welsh an hour or so after we jumped. A few boys of the 82nd joined us before we found their unit."

"Did you grab some sleep?"

"Yeah." George nodded, taking his cigarette out for a moment to blow some smoke. "Then we started this way."

The line of vehicles ended. Alice and George crossed together, followed by a handful of other enlisted men from various companies. They caught sight of Malarkey and Skip Muck chatting while sitting on some crates, smoking.