The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

19: A Pile of Helmets

"I'm okay," Charlie replied. "I don't have a hangover or anything. And Autumn cleaned up my cuts for me." She shot a smile in Autumn's direction as she declared this, who gave her a mock salute before turning to replace the first aid kit in the drawer she'd gotten it from. "How was your night?"

Mabel gave a mixture of a grimace and a grin, and how that was possible Charlie had no clear idea. "Eventful."

"How come you weren't with Floyd when I went outside?"

Mabel heaved a sigh. "He seemed to think because he was my date he had some sorta claim over me." She rolled her eyes and stared at the ceiling. "I was just remindin' him I've got options."

Charlie frowned. "Mabs..."

"What?"

Charlie exchanged a look with Violet as she slid into another chair at the table. Violet shrugged and Charlie sighed. Autumn was busy preparing breakfast so she knew she'd have to say this without any sort of immediate backup. "He really likes you, Mabs." Her voice was gentle but sad, her eyebrows drawn together as she tried to appeal to Mabs' sympathy. For whatever reason, Mabs seemed to have buckets of it when it came to the girls and so very little when it came to the boys.

Mabs scoffed and looked away. "No, he doesn't."

Charlie scrunched up her face. "Yes, he does."

"Just 'cause he thinks I'm pretty don't mean he wants to be my boyfriend."

Charlie threw her arms up in confusion as much as frustration. "Then what does it mean?" She leaned forward over the table, trying to catch Mabs' attention and get her to look back at her.

Mabs huffed and finally did look back across the table at Charlie. "It means he wants to get me into bed." Whatever reaction Charlie had to that made her sigh, now more patient and less irritable. "Look, Charlie, I know he's your friend and all but he's still a man."

"But he got you flowers," Charlie mumbled, looking down at her hands on the table. She'd known Floyd was a ladies' man but she'd thought it was different with Mabs. Why had he sought her out and tried so hard to win Mabs over if all he wanted out of her was sex?

"'Cause he wanted to sweeten me up." Mabs at least looked sympathetic as she gazed back at Charlie.

Charlie had to look away, feeling silly for being seen as so naïve by her best friend. Instead, she turned first to Violet and then to Autumn, who was still working on breakfast but glanced up briefly when she must have felt eyes on her.

Charlie had always known she was the youngest of the group, but never had she felt more out of her depth in all of this than in that moment. All of them were looking at her like their poor, foolish little sister who was coming to realise for the first time that the world wasn't all sunshine and roses, whether they knew it or not. Charlie could only imagine how stupid they all thought she was.

It wasn't a big deal, sure, but it felt like one. If not because it forced Charlie to realise how little she understood about the world then because it changed the way she saw Floyd, who she'd just started considering a real, proper friend.

Charlie left the table before Autumn had even served breakfast, claiming she had some errands to run even knowing that none of them would believe her. When she stepped out of the front door into the late morning she found the sky grey and overcast, the threat of rain hanging heavy in the clouds. She made her way quickly to the bus stop, keeping her head down and avoiding greeting anyone just in case she ran into any of the paratroopers, who she most certainly didn't feel like speaking to at the moment.

The bus arrived a mere minute after she got there, and when she got to the hospital it was quiet but not empty.

Whilst it was true that none of them on her ward were working today, some of the nurses on the other wards were, so the doors were all unlocked. Some of the girls she passed had even been at the dance the previous night - she recognised some of the Dog Company nurses on her way - though their CO had clearly not been as uncharacteristically merciful as Lieutenant Maddox had been with them.