All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

69: Ammunition

Posey laughed as she nodded, quickly fumbling to withdraw it from one of her pockets. She slid it across the table to him and watched his face closely for his reaction - this would be the first time he'd ever seen her as a girl, after all, even if she was only a little one in the photograph.

"This you?" he asked, pointing to the younger version of her smiling into the camera.

"Certainly is."

"And that same damn bear." He shook his head, grinning.

"The very same," Posey replied, giggling. She couldn't help it. "We go way back, you see."

Bill rolled his eyes. "Fancy house you got," he said, looking up at her but inclining his head towards the picture. "You're a rich girl, huh?"

"Used to be," she replied with a shrug. "That's how I found myself in America as opposed to the English countryside."

"So, what, fancy dinner parties and strings 'a pearls?" he teased.

Posey laughed. "I was never old enough for pearls - they're a woman's jewellery, and I was never a woman at home. Fancy dinner parties, though, certainly, and lots of them. Finishing schools and dowries and future politicians I was supposed to bat my eyelashes at. Seems a lifetime ago, now."

"You were one of them posh broads, huh?" Bill asked, chuckling to himself.

Posey laughed along with him. "Must be impossible for you to imagine me like that but yes, at one point I was."

"You miss being rich?"

"I miss being happy." The sentence slipped out before she had time to process it. Once the words had settled she sighed and looked away. "I miss being safe, I mean. And I miss... I miss my mum."

Her words forced a heavy silence upon them, which weighty words were wont to do. Eventually, however, Posey got sick of feeling sorry for herself. She straightened up and offered Bill a tiny smile. "Tell me about your family?" she requested. "What are they like?"

"Well, I got nine siblings," he began, then stopped. He cleared his throat, his face suddenly empty of emotion. After a moment, he corrected himself, "I got eight siblings."

Posey shook her head. "You've got nine," she told him, leaving little room for argument. "He's still your brother, always will be."

"I got nine siblings," he started again. Posey smiled and he did, too. "I'm the youngest."

"Ten of you," she said, laughing in mild disbelief. "That's so many! Your Christmases must be so fun."

Bill laughed and shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah, I guess. Don't know any different."

For all he tried to brush the idea aside, Posey wasn't going to let it go for a while. Her eyes were lit up, her smile wide as she envisioned what Christmas morning might look like in a house full up with people. "What's it like? Christmas at your house?"

Bill went to dismiss the idea again but paused when he looked into her face. Perhaps it was the excitement he must have seen there, or perhaps it was so close to Christmas now that he was in the right sort of spirit, but either way he appeased her. "Well," he began, and described his last Christmas at home in as much detail as he was able. Posey hung onto his every word.

"That sounds so magical," she said once he'd finished speaking. She didn't know why her eyes had filled with tears and hoped he wouldn't notice. She opened her mouth to speak again when the sounds of boots on concrete and disgruntled voices turned her attention to the door. "I thought everyone was supposed to be watching that film," she commented, more to herself than to Bill.