The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

35: Like Laughter After Tears

Charlie let out a shout of cheerful agreement, and then of complaint as Alton started to slow down.

"We're here," he told her, laughing as he slowed to a stop. Turning the engine off with one hand, with the other he gestured to the barn which served as the paratroopers' barracks. "If I didn't stop we'd be wearing a whole pile of wood and hay right now."

Still, Charlie frowned as Alton stepped off the bike and kicked out its kickstand so it wouldn't fall.

"Again!" she demanded, clapping her hands in encouragement. Even through her frown, a wide smile wanted to split her face.

Malarkey threw his head back and laughed. "Alton, you heard the lady. Again!"

Alton only laughed. "We'll be testing our luck if we go again." He held out a hand to Charlie and helped her get off the bike, still chuckling to himself all the while. "But if it's still here tomorrow," he told her, "I'll take you out again, and that's a promise."

Charlie smiled wide as he slung an arm around her shoulders, then perhaps even wider as Malarkey, just having climbed out of the sidecar, did the same.

"Jesus Christ, that sure was close," Malarkey said after a beat, speaking of the truck that nearly hit them. The three of them began to walk towards the barracks.

At the memory, Charlie laughed again and Alton grinned wryly. "Nah," he said, "we missed it by a mile."

Charlie shook her head. "It was headed straight for us!"

"It wouldn't've hit us," Alton insisted. "I was completely in control."

Charlie shared an unconvinced look with Malarkey that set her to giggling again. Malarkey ruffled her hair.

"Thank you guys for thinking of me when you stole the bike," Charlie said after a moment, looking between them both with a smile. "That was so much fun."

Alton brushed her aside. "We didn't steal anything." He shrugged, smirking. "We just borrowed it. Y'know, to keep the engine ticking over."

As Charlie laughed, nodding faux-seriously in agreement, Malarkey went on, "'Sides, I had to thank you somehow after you punched me so good in training. Guess who cleaned me up after?"

Charlie gasped and stopped still in her tracks, leading the two men to having to stop with her. Charlie turned to Malarkey with her jaw hanging agape. "I hit you so hard you needed to be cleaned up after?"

Malarkey just grinned. "Yeah, but it's fine. Anyway, guess who?"

Charlie rolled her eyes. The answer was so obvious it was pointless to make her guess. "Henry."

"Bingo." He raised his beer bottle to take another sip, his smile so wide she thought it must be hurting him. Now that she knew Malarkey better, it was still as much of a surprise to her that he'd ever been Henry's boyfriend as it had been when she'd first found out. How had this boy who was made of sunshine and chaos ever convinced Henry, all stern words and harsh glares as she was, to give a piece of her heart to him? They were chalk and cheese down to the very definition, but she couldn't help thinking that that was probably why they were good together.

Instead of giving voice to any of this, Charlie sent Malarkey a grin of her own and asked, "Well, when she was cleaning you up did she happen to tell you that she was the one who ordered me to hit you?"

From her other side, Alton downright cackled at this revelation. From the look on Malarkey's face, it was clear that Henry hadn't, in fact, told him this.

"And not just in the face, either," Charlie added, just to add fuel to the fire, and almost cackled herself at the look of distress on his face.

"You're shittin' me," he said, looking torn between believing her and calling her a filthy liar.