The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

101: A Dream That Shouldn't Have to Be

Floyd left with just as much reluctance as Charlie let him go with, and she nestled back beneath the covers, trying to get more sleep. It was impossible, however, to fall back asleep without Floyd there, so after a while of trying she dragged herself out of bed and back into her fatigues, and made her way to her room on the floor below.

Mabs wasn't in there - she was with Speirs, of course - so Charlie had the shower all to herself for as long as she liked. When she emerged she got into a fresh set of fatigues and placed the old ones in a pile ready to take down to the laundry room later. Then she made a start on pulling up her hair.

The day passed her by at much the same idle pace, filled with not very much work to do and thus nothing much to occupy her mind. Shifty stopped by at one point and spoke with Charlie and Mabs for a while, just as bored as them now that all of the men were training and he wasn't. He told them that his paperwork was currently being filled out and he was due to leave them the following day, which was much sooner than Charlie had anticipated, but he assured her he still remembered his promise to let her know when he was leaving and say goodbye.

Shifty left them to go and have dinner with the rest of the men, his last meal as a member of Easy Company, and Charlie and Mabs made plans with Boo, Autumn, and Henry to go down to the lake while the men were doing weapons training later. They still had swimsuits, after all, and hadn't gotten all that much use out of them. And it was still summer, and they didn't know how long they would be staying here, where they could act like they were only on vacation and not awaiting imminent redeployment. They all agreed they should be making the most of it.

So, after their own dinner, which they took after Easy had finished these days on account of how crowded the mess hall got, they all went up to their rooms to change, then made the trek down to the lake with their towels.

The water was freezing cold at first but warm once they were in, and Charlie and Boo laughed loudly together as they found themselves in a water fight. Mabs watched on, laughing, from the dock, while Autumn swam out further into the lake and Henry paddled on her back, staring up into the sky.

"Austria is my favourite place we've been by far," Boo declared once she and Charlie had called for an armistice in their water fight. "I don't ever wanna leave."

"Even to go home?" Henry asked with a smile. By now she had her eyes closed but she was still floating on her back, her hands gliding gently at her sides.

"Even to go home," Boo confirmed.

Charlie wasn't at all surprised to hear this answer. She didn't know exactly what Boo's life had been like before she'd become a nurse, but everything she did know pointed to it not being very nice. Indeed, Boo and George had already agreed that they'd both go to his family home in Rhode Island when the war in the Pacific ended. If the war in the Pacific wasn't still a factor, or if George had enough points to go home, the two of them would be engaged by now, Charlie thought. Maybe even married.

"This is my favourite, too," Charlie added before Henry could ask Boo why she wasn't so eager to go home. "I love Paris but I'm happiest here." She was, she realised, even happier now than she had been in Aldbourne. While she was sure she would always look back on the period of her life she'd spent in England, however brief, with indescribable fondness, there had been so much uncertainty back then. Now, she had Floyd and she knew who she was a little better, knew what she was made of. Though the Pacific was the lingering dark cloud, as was whatever Charlie and Floyd would do when the time eventually came for them to go back home, those two things were just distant enough to forget about during her happier moments.

Boo smirked at Charlie's words, the innuendo clear in the wiggling of her eyebrows. "I bet."

Charlie pointed a finger at her. "I know what you're insinuating and I don't like it!"