All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

66: Parade

"It's a damn crime that we're - what? - an hour away from Paris? Two? And we can't go," Penkala was saying, his face contorted into a deep scowl and his words sharp.

"I love Paris," Posey murmured to herself, and threw herself down onto her bunk. The mattress was as rock hard as all of the army mattresses she'd ever slept on, but it was a mattress and that was as good as a pile of the fluffiest pillows in the world to her now.

"I bet the officers are getting their goddamn passes," Toye grumbled, his eyes as stormy as ever.

"'Course they fucking are," commented Lieb, somewhere between disgruntled and outraged. He was talking with his hands, a sure sign that he was either excited or furious. Posey knew which one her bets were on. "The second we're off the line the officers head off to whatever fancy part of Europe they haven't been to yet."

"Aren't we also close to Reims?" Tab asked, inspecting his rifle. "Wouldn't mind going there."

"My dad fought in Reims," Posey said, more to herself than to anyone else. "He was wounded there."

"Really?" Luz asked. "In Reims?"

"The Second Battle of the Marne," she confirmed, nodding. "He got hit in the shoulder trying to save his friend."

"Did he save him in the end?" inquired Malarkey.

Posey's tiny smile faltered. "Uh, no." She shrugged. "He never talked about it really but my mum told me as much." She forced a smile back onto her face, an attempt to lighten the mood she'd accidentally dampened; discussing things like the First War always came with an unhealthy dose of self-reflection, and in Posey's experience, self-reflection was a soldier's worst enemy. Don't think, just do - that was her motto. "So I'd like to go to Reims, too," she declared, looking at the men scattered around the room for agreement. "If we can't get to Paris."

The group of them set out for dinner shortly afterwards, ravenous after a day of parade marching.

As she waited in the queue for food, Posey thought about Paris and how nice it would be to get to go. It had been such a long time since any of them had seen civilisation she couldn't even imagine what staying in a hotel or eating at a restaurant might be like. Still, thinking about Paris kept a smile on her face all the way up until sitting down at the table, wherein she stumbled into a conversation about the wounded who had yet to find their way back to the company.

"- back soon," Malarkey was saying when she was first able to lock onto the conversation. "He was only shot in the ass and God knows his is big enough."

"There were four holes, though," Skip reasoned. Posey realised they were talking about Lieutenant Compton. "Four bullet holes is a lot to recover from fast. Plus, Popeye got shot in the ass in Normandy and he didn't get back 'til the jump into Holland."

A pause for consideration fell upon the group. Posey shifted in her seat and offered, "I hope Bill gets back soon." She felt herself flush under the scrutiny of the table as they awaited an explanation. She wondered why she needed one. "I don't like being in charge of a squad. I'm a follower, not a leader."

"Well, Bill got hit in the ass, too," Heffron said with a tired sigh. "Fractured his leg, weren't it? And got shot in the leg, too. Word is they sent him all the way back to England. Don't think we're gonna be seein' him for a while."

Posey's face fell. Being sent all the way back to England meant it was serious. She eyed Heffron curiously, attempting to discern how long he'd had this information and why he hadn't shared it sooner. When it didn't work, she concentrated all of her attention onto her food.

"Hey, apparently Heyliger's gonna live," Johnny spoke up suddenly. "Overheard Winters and Nixon talking about it. He's been sent back to England, too, but they don't know if he'll be coming back at all."