The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

110: As All Things

"How do you want to spend your last day in Austria?"

Charlie's heart sank at the thought of it, but Floyd was being brave and he was forcing a smile for her, so she made herself brighten up. "I just want to spend it with you," she told him quietly. She shifted closer to him where they were lying facing each other in bed, their limbs tangled together and their breaths shared. "I don't mind where we go or what we do or who else is there, as long as I get to spend the whole day with you."

Floyd's smile faltered at the edges. Morning light peeking out from the edges of the curtains lit up his eyes in gold. There was a high flush in his cheeks but Charlie knew it wasn't because he was flustered or embarrassed. He lifted a hand and brushed some of her hair back, then pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "You wanna go to the lake?" he asked, speaking softly into her skin.

Charlie smiled because he knew her so well. "I want to watch the sunset at the lake with you, like we used to do when we first got here."

Floyd pulled back so he could look down at her again. "Alright," he agreed. "Then that's what we'll do."

"I just want to stay with you," Charlie confessed, grabbing hold of his hands and using them to pull herself impossibly closer to him. "Just want to talk to you."

He smiled. "Alright, Freckles," he whispered, nodding.

"I don't want to leave."

"I know you don't." He gave her a very, very sad whisper of a smile. "And there's nothing I want more in the whole world than for you to stay."

"I wish," Charlie began quietly, lifting a hand to cup his cheek, "that we could start back at the beginning and do everything all over again. I want to fall in love with you again, from the start."

Floyd's smile quirked upwards again, higher on one side. "And do everything else?" he asked, clearly not believing her. "You'd wanna do D-Day again? Bastogne?"

"If it meant I had more time with you," she confirmed. "If it meant we had longer. I wish we had loved each other for longer."

Floyd leaned his cheek into her palm and his eyes fell closed. That crooked smile she loved so much was on his face, and his eyelashes fluttered as he said, "Someone once told me that it couldn't have happened any other way. That it had to happen like this." He reopened his eyes to peer up at her and the warm morning light instantly found its home in the depths of his brown eyes, making them glow. "And she knows everything, so she has to be right."

In spite of herself, Charlie laughed. "We lost so much time," she whispered sadly. "We could have loved each other so much better in Bastogne."

Floyd pressed a kiss to her palm. "I don't know about you, but there's no way I could have loved you any more, even back then. I would have exploded."

Charlie breathed a smile. "At least you would have been warm."

Floyd laughed and kissed her, long and hard and certain, before pulling back and holding her before him with both hands on her face. "Come on, Freckles," he said at length. "Let's go make our last day count."

Their first order of business, after showering and getting ready for the day, was breakfast. Then they met up with everyone else downstairs and found all of the men awake and in the hotel restaurant even though it was their one day off. Charlie was humbled by the sight. All of these men could still be in bed and yet had shown up to begin the nurses' last day with the company. It didn't seem such a big deal but it made Charlie want to weep.

She sat in a seat that had been saved for her in the centre of a big table, and there had been a seat saved for Floyd beside her. Tears really did spring to her eyes when the two of them were called over. When had she ever been loved like this? When had anyone thought of her when she wasn't there and deliberately made space for her? When would she ever find herself in the midst of such a truly incredible group of people again?