The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

21: At the Elbow and the Hip

All of it was cool, she had to admit, and she'd gotten up extra early just to admire herself in the mirror in her new uniform. But it was the helmet that made her feel a bit sick. If you want to keep from getting shot in the head, Maddox had said. Charlie's blood had run cold at the time and it still did now, every time she thought about it.

The next day entailed map-reading training, and they set off into the woods surrounding Aldbourne for a day of orienteering. Unsurprisingly, Autumn was the best at it. Charlie knew who she'd be going to in a crisis.

Everything they were learning put a nauseous feeling in Charlie's stomach. All of the skills they learned with Maddox were things she'd been taught in training, yes, but back then she hadn't considered that she might actually need to know them when she went overseas. Indeed, back then she hadn't known she'd be assigned to a field hospital, right in the thick of the action, instead of an evac hospital or a rehabilitation centre. It was still a mystery to her why she'd been picked for one of the front line nurses but she chose not to focus on that; instead, she decided to focus as much of her attention as she could on the skills she'd been so unconcerned about in training but now realised might one day save her life.

"Do you think they'll have us partner up with the men?" Violet asked as they all sat around the table at breakfast the following morning.

Charlie's heart dropped into her shoes at the thought. Hand to hand combat training was bad enough, but having to fight one of the boys? There was no doubt in her mind she'd be hobbling for days afterwards.

Across from Charlie at the table, Mabs grinned into her glass of water. "I hope so."

"You just want to be paired with George," Charlie said, pointing her fork at Violet accusingly. She tried to distract herself from any more worries; she had enough keeping her up at night as it was.

Violet giggled abruptly and clapped a hand over her mouth to cover it. Charlie tilted her head back as she laughed. "You do just want to be paired with George! I was only joking but you are unbelievable!"

Mabs snorted. "Can you blame her? If I had a man falling all over himself just to get me to smile I'd take any opportunity to be close to him, too."

Charlie rolled her eyes dramatically. "You do have one of those! In fact, you have several!"

Mabs shrugged, giving a shake of her head. "I have plenty of men falling over themselves to get me into bed, but none of them look at me the way he looks at her."

Charlie frowned as she shovelled a forkful of eggs into her mouth. "Floyd did," she mumbled, her voice muffled thanks to the food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Autumn scolded without even looking up from her breakfast.

Charlie frowned but said no more.

The four of them trekked to the paratroopers' training field half an hour later. The sun was already hot as it beat heavily down upon them. They'd all been advised by Maddox to leave their helmets at home and Charlie wasn't sure whether this was good in the face of the heat or not; when she raised her hand to press down on her head, her hair was burning hot.

"These damn jumpsuits are boilin'," Mabs complained as they stomped through the grass of the next field over, still on their way to the training field. "Hope it ain't this hot in France."

"How do you know we're going to France?" Charlie wondered as she balanced her foot above a particularly long strand of grass before stamping it into the ground.

Mabs laughed. "Where else would we be goin'?"

"Holland?" Charlie suggested.

"Belgium?" added Autumn.