The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

24: For Good Luck

Quickly, before he could turn away, Charlie told him, "Good luck," and gave him her best smile. "I hope it all goes well for you."

He chuckled quietly under his breath, nodding to himself and setting his gaze on the floor. "Sure. Yeah. Thanks."

Charlie smiled as she watched him, though the smile was now strained. Uncertain. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Gene sighed and finally dragged his gaze back up to meet hers. "Stay outta harm's way when you get over there," he told her seriously, his eyebrows bowing low over his eyes.

Charlie considered his words for a moment, considered the stern way he was looking at her, and realised he wasn't going to add anything else. Finally, she nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "I'll try my best. But only if you do the same."

Gene cracked a small, reluctant smile. "Ain't sure that'll be possible."

"Well, try your hardest anyway."

At this, he laughed, and Charlie smiled. She felt like she'd won a trophy, just getting him to do that. He was the hardest boy she'd ever tried to make smile, but that made the moments he did all the more special.

"I better get goin'," he said at length, gesturing aimlessly with his right arm.

Charlie nodded, understanding that he wanted to be left to himself. "Okay," she said, trying not to let her disappointment show on her face. "Well, I'll see you soon, maybe?" she asked, giving him a hopeful smile.

Gene nodded and ducked from her gaze. "I'll see ya soon, Charlie," he promised, and with that walked away.

Charlie stood there looking after him for a few moments, her smile creeping higher up her face. When she re-joined Mabs she was all but grinning to herself like a girl possessed.

"So, can I assume it went well?" Mabs asked, glancing up only once from her work so Charlie could see her smug smirk.

Charlie laughed, dazed. "He remembered my name."

Mabs rolled her eyes. "Charlie, darlin', I love ya to death but your standards could really use some work."

Charlie nudged her in the side reprovingly but continued to smile, even as the topic of conversation turned to much more serious matters, like whether or not it looked like the soldiers were bringing enough bandages with them. They had no way of knowing how long the boys were likely to be overseas and thus no real way of judging. Mabs argued that for four medics, as was the number of medics to the company, they had plenty of bandages to last them at least a small while. Charlie argued that they weren't going to have a field hospital to go to for extra recovery, much less an evac hospital, and worried they didn't have nearly enough.

The debate was cut short when two of the officers' orderlies approached them and wordlessly snatched the boxes of bandages they'd been loading off the floor in front of them and turned away.

"Yeah, you can go ahead and take 'em," Mabs called sarcastically to their retreating figures. "We just got finished loadin' 'em. You're welcome!"

Charlie sighed, her hands idle in her lap now that they had nothing to do, and stared into the field ahead of her. 

The morning was filled with gentle shades of orange and yellow as the sun fought to rise over the horizon, the time not matching up with the picture the sky was painting while the Brits' crazy daylight savings were in place. It was pretty, though. She liked that she didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn in order to see the sun rise, as she'd had to at home on the days she'd felt like it. And everything was just that little bit easier when the world looked as pretty as this.