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The sudden sound of the bolt being pulled back of Liebgott's gun and a muffled scream whispering in the cold snow broke the harsh silence of the dark night. Riley laid there on the ground, head buried underneath her arms and her eyes closed tightly. Her thin figure was shaking in the snow, mostly from the deathly low temperatures but also because of the shock she experienced due to the barrel of that gun being pointed right at the elastic tied around her ponytail.
"Fuck, Riles. Thought you were a fucking Kraut! I could've shot you." Joseph was quick enough to put away the weapon and use his hands instead to put them on her shoulders, lovingly brushing away the frozen dirt that had fallen on her jacket. He slid his fingers between hers and took her hands from burying her head in the cold. He didn't say anymore words, simply placed his lips against the skin of her palm.
"I'm sorry, Lieb," Riley apologized, her head raised from the soil. She dusted off her dirtied uniform and sat up, crossing her legs over each other and waiting by the brim of the lookout post.
"Are you going to stay there?"
"I don't want to disturb you, just needed to know if you're alright." Joseph simply laughed as a reaction and stretched out his arm for her to take a hold on, so that he could help the young woman inside the self-made fox hole. Riley didn't really plan on staying for too long, but her will to rest her head on his shoulder and stare of into the distance was too great to ignore.
"We're moving out tomorrow, closer to a small town named Foy," she stated, mimicking what Buck had explained to her about the situation.She had been waiting to talk to Joseph ever since she had left the town of Bastogne, ever since they parted without saying goodbye. But now that she was snuggled against him, shivering in the cold yet enjoying the warmth of his body temperature, she didn't know where to start.
Talking about what she had seen in the hospital would be too harsh and it might trigger some well-kept fear inside Joseph that Riley didn't want to bring out. There was no need for her to do that, no need for her to start talking about such a dark subject. But the painful things were impossible to avoid, they were surrounded by death and murder, there was nothing worse than that. So, instead, Riley talked about the future, a possible brighter future that didn't hold the trauma of killing just yet.
"You're coming with us?"
"I believe so, yes. Nixon said that they've been really missing out on information on the field. Also, the hospital that I worked in is destroyed now and there is no other place where they want or need my help at the moment. So I guess I'm staying with Easy for a while," Riley answered in her soft, but slowly turning husky voice, the cold even affecting the tone of her words.
Her eyes were picking up every flickering light at the other side of the no-man's-land. Every nook in the trees, even the simplest moving leaves made her believe that it was a German, ready to give the signal to his mates and kill the complete Company. The silent bristling of the fallen twigs rolling over the solid-frozen dirt, gave the illusion that the enemies were so close, Riley could hear their footsteps breaking the perfect new layer of white snow.
She was so scared of it all, so afraid that her suspicions were true and that her last minutes alive were slowly ticking away with the watches tied around Perconte's wrists. Riley didn't understand how they did it, how they simply sat there, night and night over again. Only looking at the trees standing a couple of ten meters away, waiting for an attack. Her head turned away from the bloodied battlefield and laid it softly on Joseph's shoulder, glancing up at his scruffy face and blue turned lips. He stared back at her with the lovely smirk painted on his face and much adoration in his dark brown eyes that matched perfectly with the locks on his head.
"Watch the line, Lieb."
"It's rude not to look at someone when they're talking, you know. My mother always told me that."
"I guess she wouldn't mind if it meant that you would stay alive a little longer," Riley joked and he laughed as a response. It made her smile, just the sound of his happiness now actually ringing in her ears. Joseph was actually there with her and that laugh made her realize that. It made her understand that she was lucky, lucky enough that he was safe. The only injury he had gotten was the one on his neck and in a way, she was happy that he had gotten it. Not like she was happy he was hurt, but that she was the person who cleaned it up. Who knows what would've happened if Joseph hadn't stopped by. Maybe they wouldn't have shared that kiss and admit their own feelings, mostly to themselves.
"Can I kiss you?"
"I don't know, somebody told me to watch the line. And you know, Riles, can't really do that with my eyes closed."
"Sometimes you are really just an impossible man." Riley grabbed one side of his face in the palm of her right hand and gave a soft, but fast kiss on the lips. But, Joseph didn't want her to leave just yet, so he pulled the young woman back and kissed her much longer, with more power, but without the eagerness to ask for more.
Riley said a sweet goodnight to Joseph and crawled back out of the foxhole, leaving him alone but this time with the comforting feeling of his Riley still being alive and, for as much as he could see, without any extra wounds or injuries. He was happy to know that, happy that now she was much closer to him. But also much closer to the constant danger of living on the battlefields. He knew people would protect her, there was no doubting that. Just, nobody would be able to protect her from more trauma's, more nightmares for her sleep. She would see it all and he was scared for her.
