Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

06: An Invention of Darkness

"I will vanish in the morning light; I was only an invention of darkness." - Angela Carter, The Lady of the House of Love

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As soon as Juliette arrived back at the airfield the following day she could already tell that nerves were running high. Everyone knew there would be no more postponing. As Colonel Sink had said in his letter to the regiment, tonight was the 'night of nights'.

After all of the preparations everyone had made the previous day under the impression that they would already be in Normandy by now, there was little to do apart from sit around and wait. Where the paratroopers were concerned, they still had to gather and attach all of their equipment to themselves again, and even though Juliette had seen them do it the previous day it still seemed like an impossible task seeing it all laid out before each of them. She was glad she didn't have to jump with all of that; she wouldn't be able to stand.

Thomas drove them all straight to where he recalled Easy Company being stationed, and she grinned when she saw the familiar faces. Toye looked to be just as happy as he was yesterday about having to carry their bucket loads of equipment.

"Boys," she greeted them when she hopped out of the jeep.

Bill squinted his eyes as he watched them all approach. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"Well, unlike you poor, unfortunate souls, we have a house and beds," Tom replied easily, shooting him a smirk. "Have fun spending the night in a tent?"

"Again," Malarkey muttered. Bill merely rolled his eyes.

The boys were all alight with jitters. Jules approached George where she saw him repeatedly counting his equipment.

"Ready to invade Fortress Europe?" she asked him, smiling.

He jolted in place before looking up at her, falling back into his easy smile when he saw who it was. "Born ready," he told her with a grin. "Are you?"

She patted him on the shoulder before taking a seat beside him. "Not my first rodeo, my friend."

Before he could ask, she added, "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you. How did that date with Mary-the-barmaid go? Was there a sequel?"

George stared at her for a moment, not seeming to recognise the name (which wasn't a good sign) before his mouth fell open in realisation. "Oh! Damn, you really have been gone a while." Jules shrugged before he continued. "We went out twice but, eh, I don't know. We didn't really click. Not like me and you, anyway." He nudged her with a wink and she rolled her eyes. "But then I met Mabel."

"Mabel?" Juliette echoed, intrigued.

"Mabel," he repeated with a nod. "Blonde. Works at the tailor's. Smokin' hot."

"Scale of one to ten?" she asked.

He grinned again. "Fourteen."

Jules whistled.

"Anyway, we went on three dates before her boyfriend came back. And then I met Amelia."

George continued to rattle off his many dates with many different girls and Jules listened intently with an amused grin. George seemed to be more in love with the idea of love than he was with any of the girls he went out with, but he was all excitement at the mention of each and every one of them - plus, he had obviously taken care to remember each name, which was sweet. Regardless, the female population of Aldbourne and all of the neighbouring towns the paratroopers had visited on their weekend passes (mainly Swindon, but apparently they had been to London a few times) didn't seem to mind. He had had rather a lot of successes, regardless, because he was talking for about ten minutes straight.