The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

54: Who Cares About His Dad

"Malark!" Charlie exclaimed, sitting up just so she could glare at him.

"Charlie's a lady," commented Skip around a cigarette. "She doesn't shit."

"Thank you," Charlie said with another pointed look at Malarkey.

"You know what the worst thing is?" Alex went on as if no one had spoken.

"What?" Malarkey asked, all ears.

"When you walk all the way over there 'n then realise it's just a fart -"

"Alex!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Yeah, but you can't risk it," Skip agreed, shooting Charlie a grin around his cigarette. "That is one chance you will never catch me taking."

"You got that right," said Malarkey.

"You three are so vulgar," Charlie complained, shutting her eyes and shaking her head in her disgust. "Why am I even friends with you?"

Alex shrugged. "'Cause we decided you were just about interesting enough to recruit."

"Wow, thanks, Alex. I'm flattered."

"Anytime, Charlie, anytime."

"Hey, Lancaster," Malarkey said, the universal indication he was about to change the subject (mercifully). "What're you reading right now?"

"Yeah, what is it we'll be forced to listen to on our deathbeds?" Skip wondered drily.

Charlie shot him a look which was weakened by her fondness for him. "That's not funny," she said, and it wasn't, but the wink he gave her made her frown ease anyway. Still, thinking about him, or any of them, lying on a bed in the field hospital while she read to them in their final few hours the same way she'd done with Robert Van Klinken made her stomach drop. "None of the three of you are allowed to die, okay?" she said, meaning every word. "If I have to say goodbye to any of you my ghost will kill your ghost as soon as I follow after."

Malarkey snorted. "If you think your ghost is ending up anywhere near my ghost, you are sorely mistaken."

Charlie's jaw fell open, and then she laughed in disbelief. "You're going to ignore me in the afterlife?"

"I do my best to do it now," he said, grinning at her. "If I get there before you do I'll at least have a head start."

"That is so mean, Malark," Charlie told him with a tut. "For saying that, I don't think you'll get to be a ghost at all. Your soul is probably going straight to -"

"Charlie, Doctor Whitlock wants to see you."

Charlie's eyes fell shut once more, though this time in resignation instead of disgust. Doctor Whitlock was maybe Charlie's least favourite person on the planet and as of late he'd been doing his absolute best to force her to spend more time with him than was strictly necessary, likely just to torture her. She'd only come off of her shift about half an hour ago and here she was again, being called right back to the field hospital.

"Okay," Charlie said to Boo, nodding at her before turning back to the others. "Will you look after Trigger while I'm gone?"

"Sure thing," Malarkey agreed.

"He prefers us to you anyway," Skip drawled with a laugh.

Charlie scoffed. "In your dreams, maybe."

Doctor Whitlock, it turned out, just wanted to know where Charlie had put his surgical equipment after she'd assisted him in the last surgery. If he had bothered to put it away himself, she thought as she showed him where she'd stowed it safely, he would know, but instead he'd decided to leave all of the different instruments, still covered in blood, out on the side while he left the tent to go for a smoke.