Their Fizz- Band of brothers

Briefing

Flo walked into the CP, flopped into a chair and propped her feet up on the table, immediately closing her eyes and relaxing before switching her brain on.

She heard a few more men enter the room and then a hand on her shoulder made her jolt and slap the hand off her, she turned and saw Vest looking nervous, she relaxed "Oh Vest, you okay?"

He nodded "Yeah Fizz, a letter arrived for you honey"

She perked up "Thank you" she smiled a bright smile at him and opened the letter fast before the captains arrived for briefing.

My darling Florence,

I hope your well and safe.... We are all well and missing you so much whenever anybody asks me about you I want to cry.

Annie asks everyday if we have had a new letter, she keeps smelling that piece of lavender you sent us when you were in Holland.

Clover still doesn't let anyone else ride her, she let's us walk her but if you try and get on she bucks and kicks like crazy.

Juliet and libby send their love and say they have written seperate letters to you, so I hope you receive them soon.

Last we heard from James was 2 months ago... He was fine then, I and the rest of the village are praying the bloody germans have left the pows alone now we are winning the war, surely the germans must have more important concerns than pows?

The planes can be heard overhead now... We think they're trying a last ditch attempt to come over our way into the ports, we heard the first bomb 2 weeks ago, thankfully there hasn't been anymore since.

We miss your chatter around the table darling and seeing you everyday, always remember you're my ray of sunshine.

Me, your dad, Joey, Annie and I'm sure James as well send you our love darling. Please stay safe.

Lots of love,
Mum

Florence felt a tear flow down her cheek as she smiled at her mums words. Flooding the letter back up and smoothing it out she put it safely in the pocket over her chest, now her family would be protecting her.

Lieb who was sat next to her asked how her family was, "They sound fine and everything's normal thank goodness, I might get in touch with the red Cross and see if they can locate James, my mum and dad haven't heard from him in 2 months" she said nibbling her lip concernedly.

Lieb tapped her hand away "We don't want you having a bleeding lip Flzz, I'm sure he's fine, what with the end and everything things won't be getting processed, try not to worry honey bunny" he smiled while Flo scrunched her eyebrows "That's a new one.... I'm not sure I like it" she said and started giggling at Liebs offended face.

But their laughter was short lived when Cobb entered and started pitching in with his opinions.

"Here she is......the girl who can keep breaking the rules yet somehow always stays.... Who are you fucking?" he said smiling and laughing to himself while liebgott and babe stood up and shoved him into the wall.

"We got a problem here cobb? You wanna have a fight... Bring it on" Lieb said moving closer to the man with every word, "Joe.. I can fight my own battles" Flo said tiredly as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes again.

Joe roughly let go of Cobb who was about to retort when they heard a "ten hut" from a certain newbe in the room, they all sighed as they tiredly got to their feet as Winters, Nix and Speirs entered the room.

Winters immediately started "At ease" he said as they all flopped back down on the chairs " As you can see, we've assembled 15 of you here and Florence as medic for this prisoner snatch tonight, 0100." Flo sighed 'another long night' she thought as she stared down at the map while Winters continued "Just a couple of points. Secured four rubber boats to get you, across the river. Lt. Jones here is the ranking officer.....and he'll be along as an observer. Sgt. Martin here will lead the patrol in Sgt. Malarkey's place." The men and Flo looked at each other nodding slightly at the happy thought of their friend being safe for a night.

"The whole battalion will be covering your withdrawal. We've identified targets. We've planned fire for 'em.
We hear these whistles, we open up.
So don't blow them till you're back in the boats with your prisoners."

"Sir what if the house is empty?"

"It won't, but in any case....we know it's an outpost, we want it destroyed....so you have to lay some demo on a time delay. You have to move fast, but carefully. Put a perimeter around the house. Once in place, get rifle grenades in the window. Get your assault team in quick. Okay, good, understood.
Remember, it's about prisoners. Don't pop the first thing that moves.
Clear?" Winters said ensuring each of them knew no one was to get hurt in this stupid patrol, Flos eyes involuntarily closed and she almost lost her balence but skinny grabbed her elbow ensuring that she stayed upright, she opened her eyes to them all staring at her, she smiled and said "Please continue" which made some of them chuckle and Winters repeated "Clear?"

"Yes sir" they all replied, it reminded Flo of when her teacher used to say to the class "Are we ready to do maths?" and they'd all wearily chortle the reply back to him.

Winters turned to Martin "You picked your assault team?", "Yeah, McClung, Sisk, Cobb, Garcia and Webster, as translator" he said giving a smirk to Web, Flo rolled her eyes at his childish behaviour, she knew they were gonna be hard on him but this is ridiculous.

"The rest of you guys, a base of fire with Sgt. Grant. You speak German right Webster", 'he knew full well he spoke German' Flo thought as she rolled her eyes for about the 500th time that day as Web replied "Yeah a little", this made her eyes widen, when was web suddenly so humble?

"Good, that's my team sir?" Martin said turning back to Winters "Questions?" "No" "Good, Good luck" Winters said as he high tailed it out the room with Martin, speirs, nix, Jones and Flo who thought she'd tag along in tow.

Stepping out into the drizzle reminded Flo of home again.. 'I've got to get a grip on myself' she thought as the officers started talking about the assault.. She was broken out of her thoughts by Webster coming up to them.

"Sir?" "Yes?", "Liebgott, I and Fizz, we all speak German" "Yeah?"

"You said 15 men and woman, there are 17 of us, including three translators." "Fine, Liebgott, you wanna sit this one out?" and Flo saw the look of relief not just on Liebs face but on Web as well, she smiled slightly as she realized that he was doing his best to get back int heir good graces and it was working.
"Yes, sir" Lieb smiled happily going off to finish his conversation.

Flo smiled at Web and gave him a small punch on the shoulder as he walked off slightly smiling as well.

Flo turned back to the group of men who were still discussing the attack, she picked up words here and there like "Street sqauds" and "left flank" but she was in a little world of her own until she heard her name being said "Earth to Florence" Winters said as she quickly looked up.

"Oh sorry sir, I was..... Practicing my German in my head" she said slightly nodding as they all looked at her weirdly "Okay, fizz we're going to put you in the assault team with Web to give him a hand translating to the German POWs, I don't want you to go running off okay, stay with the team at all times" Winters said before he left to go back to battalion, Flo saluted him before she noticed Nix give a little head cock to the side and she followed.

"Fizzy.. Were you really practicing your German? We all know you don't need to. You speak it perfectly" he said suspiciously, "No Nix, I was thinking about home, my mum sent me a letter and maybe it's cause I've not thought of it in so long but, everything I see makes me think of the farm"

Nix pulled the young girl into a hug "Fizzy, you've been away from home for nearly 3 years apart from a few days leave and even then we were all there. If you think you need a bit of time to reflect and regroup then we can easily take you off patrol... Maybe send you away for a couple of da..." Nix was stopped by an elbow jabbing him in the stomach" Okay maybe not" he chuckled "Just know, Flo that if you need anything you need only ask"

Flo pulled back and nodded "Thanks Nix, I might go rest before we go.. I need to check my temp as well and Liptons as well" Nix nodded "Flo I don't like it, you almost fainted in the briefing... Anyway I can persuade you to stay?" he asked hopefully while she gave a small smile "Nope, I'll see you later, tell Gene to wake me at 2300 please if you see him" and with that she started walking away.

Speirs came up to Nix "She give in?" he asked, "No" was the reply and the two gave each other concerned looks...they didn't think this was going to go well.