All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

17: Bunks

In spite of everything, Posey had to admit that she was sad to say goodbye to Camp Toccoa, and especially to Mount Currahee. They'd been through a lot together, she thought, and she'd certainly miss running alongside Luz, Lieb, and Roe everyday. It was all quite bittersweet, in an incredibly strange way.

Posey savoured the walk to the showers in the middle of the night, filled with less anxiety and more nostalgia as she knew it'd be the last time. As she washed she worried whether it might be more difficult to do all of this at Fort Benning - would the shower block be as close, her bunk as conveniently positioned, the door to the barracks as quiet when she tried to slip out? All of that new place uncertainty bubbled up in her stomach as she stood under the water.

Yes, she thought she'd miss Camp Toccoa, where it'd all began. Part of her couldn't believe she'd made it through the first part of basic, which was a thought that made her feel emotional in and of itself. Because of the fact that she had, she knew she'd look back on Toccoa fondly, despite everything they'd had to endure there.

She lay awake most of the night, reminiscing on all that had transpired since she'd arrived at Toccoa and thinking about how different everything looked now that she'd lived there for a while. The barracks looked almost remarkably different even though they weren't much changed. They looked like home now.

She giggled silently to herself, her blanket pulled up to her nose, as she recalled the first words she'd said to any of the men. "So this is home?" or something like that, if she remembered correctly. It had been a joke at the time, because it had looked so extremely uninviting and because, for her, it was simply a stop along the way before she could actually get home. It meant more to her now. She'd miss these barracks.

When they eventually arrived at Fort Benning, Posey found that her nostalgia and sentimentality of the night before had been a bit of a waste of time. Aside from the fact that the bunks were bunkbeds, the barracks were almost identical.

She quickly threw her bag on the bottom bunk of the bed closest to the door and laughed when Luz frowned. "I wanted that one," he said.

Posey shrugged. "Better luck next time." She patted him on the shoulder once conspiratorially.

"You had the bunk closest to the door at Toccoa," he argued, clearly unwilling to back down just yet.

"You'd already chosen your bunk before I got there!" Posey protested through a disbelieving laugh. "Besides, you love being the centre of attention much too much to be hidden away in a corner."

Luz shook his head. "Why don't you take the top and I'll take the bottom and we can share it. There, a win-win situation. Call it a compromise."

And a terrible idea, where she was concerned; sneaking out of the barracks was one thing, but having to climb down a bunk bed which held a sleeping George Luz on the bottom was entirely another.

"No, I need to be on the bottom," she replied decisively. Then she amended, "You can take the top, though, if you want."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you 'need' to be on the bottom?" Luz challenged.

Posey searched her mind as quickly as she was able for a feasible excuse. "I... uh... I'm afraid of heights." She wanted to punch herself in the face the moment the words were out of her mouth.

From the bunk opposite them, where he'd evidently been listening in, Toye said, "You're training to be a fucking paratrooper."

Her knight in shining armour came in the form of a sharp glare and snappy words, "I'm taking top bunk. Luz, take a hike."