All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

77: Trouble

Bill scoffed. "I ain't a 'Will'."

"I know you're not," she replied, smiling. "You're very much a 'Bill', even though it's a bit of an old man's name." She laughed to herself at the thought, especially when she caught the scowl he shot her in her periphery. "I can't imagine you as an old man," she mused, chewing on her bottom lip if only to get some warmth back into it.

"Well that's fuckin' brilliant, ain't it?" Bill replied without missing a beat.

Posey laughed loudly. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Out here freezin' my ass off, gettin' bombed by the fuckin' krauts ten times a day, and you can't see me as an old man. Fuckin' fantastic, that is."

"I didn't mean it like that!" she insisted, still giggling. "I just mean that you're such a young person, you know? I can't imagine you being old. Some people are like that, I think. They just have so much life running through them you can't ever imagine it slowing down." And it was true. When she looked at Bill Posey saw, above all, life. She saw energy and colour and vibrancy, enthusiasm and passion. His veins seemed to fizz with life, as though full to bursting. Just watching him could be fascinating because of how completely alive he was. It was impossible to imagine him ever not being that way.

Bill shook his head, laughing and grumbling to himself under his breath, and Posey smiled. She felt lucky, in that moment, to have ended up tucked under his arm. She didn't know what he saw in her but she hoped it was something special, something that made him want to keep her around for a while. She hoped they'd be in love forever.

He must have felt her eyes on his face for he turned to glance down at her and grinned at whatever he saw reflected back at him. Posey smiled back, softer, now, for he looked at her like he knew her. And like he loved her. It was all she'd ever wanted to see reflected back at her in the eyes of someone she loved.

Unable to help herself, Posey leaned forwards and kissed him very softly. She'd been waiting for him to do it ever since he'd last kissed her but he hadn't, not since that first time. But she was sick of waiting for what she wanted when she could just go out and get it, and what she wanted, more than anything, was to kiss him. To show him she loved him and to feel that he loved her in return.

And he did. She knew he did. She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her sometimes, could hear it in his laugh after she said something strange, could feel it when he returned her abrupt kiss without a second of hesitation. She wondered if he knew he'd been her first kiss.

She wondered if it was always like this.

"Duckie?"

Posey pulled back in a heartbeat. Her eyes were wide, her jaw fallen open.

"Guarnere?"

"Tab," Posey said, at a complete loss for words.

"What..." Tab started, his words trailing off as he looked between the two of them. "I..."

"I'm a girl," Posey blurted out.

"You're... you - what?" Tab stuttered, no less reassured by this revelation. "You're -"

"A girl," Posey confirmed, looking to Bill helplessly. "Um... I can explain -"

"Shit," Tab said to himself. Then he began to laugh. Louder this time, he repeated, "Shit," and ducked back out from under the tarpaulin and said, "Lieb, guess the fuck what?"

"Tab, no -" Posey gasped, scrambling out of the OP after him.

But it was too late. She caught the tail end of Tab's words as he unloaded his discovery onto Lieb and saw the shock and then confusion in the latter's eyes eyes.