Humanity of the Broken [ Band of Brothers ] 2

THIRTY-ONE

Alice could not stop yawning as the jeep bounced into the town. They had dirt roads, not paved or cobbled. Next to her, Harry started snickering. She scoffed. "Shut up."

"About what?" he added. Then he smirked. 

"Get the smirk off your face." 

Harry started laughing again. Even Lipton, sitting in the front of the jeep on the passenger side, tried and failed to stifle his own laughter. Another yawn escaped her.

"Don't mock me for being tired!" she whined when Harry snickered again. "You're both children."

The jeeps and trucks rolled through the quiet town, the ones carrying officers coming to a halt in the city center. It was nearly 1400 hours, two hours past what they'd hoped to arrive at. But they had finally arrived, and Alice relished the ability to walk around free instead of squished into a vehicle. As she jumped out, she yawned again and stretched. 

"I wanna send out some patrols," Dick told them. With him, Ron joined for orders as well. Dick turned directly to Harry. "I want Dog here in the village, Easy and Fox in the woods."

"Easy Company will take the northwest. Lieutenant Lipton," Ron turned to the man on his right, "Have First and Second Platoon swing up through the woods, have Third swing around."

Just like that, the officers split. Alice followed Dick to Nixon. She noticed he looked distinctly hungover, but not drunk. Her heart lifted a bit. Maybe he'd improved. When he and Dick stopped talking, she joined them.

"You look like you drank a little too much, Nix," Alice commented. She flashed him a small smile.

He scoffed under his breath. "Yeah. Yeah I think I did."

"Thought you weren't drinking local stuff," she added.

Again, he laughed. It sounded bitter, but not hopeless. Alice decided that was an improvement. Dick had moved away, leaving the two of them standing in the corner of the city center. On every side, the enlisted men scurried about to report to their platoon leaders. The German citizens didn't seem to be objecting to their presence either, instead just watching them curiously. 

"Are you feeling better?" She kept her voice low, not looking at him. Instead she watched the organized chaos all around them. 

He let out a deep breath. "I could do with some more Vat 69."

"Nix." Alice sighed and looked at him. "Please don't drink yourself to death."

"Why? You care?" he joked.

Alice folded her arms over her chest. She spun on him. "Of course I care."

He didn't respond at first. His rueful smirk dropped and he just looked at her. Neither broke eye contact. After what felt like an eternity, he finally looked away, focusing on the ground. 

"Goddamnit," she muttered. "Nix, we need to talk. I promised when you were sober, we'd talk."

He nodded, still looking away. The tiniest smirk grew until he turned to her. "Just talk?"

Alice grinned, laughing, and looked away. "That's something we need to talk about first."

Peacock's voice floated over from the far end of the square. "Captain Nixon, sir, Major Winters wants you."

"I'm gonna kill him," Nixon muttered.

Alice smirked. "Oh yeah, which one?"

He snorted but didn't answer. With a last glance her way and another rueful smirk, he wandered in the direction of Peacock and Dick. Alice watched him go with a tiny smile. When he disappeared from sight, she turned away.