Out of a Vacant Heart: A Band of Brothers Fanfiction

Wedding Plans

Paris, France
August 1945

Cate tucked her bare feet under her nightgown where she sat on the window seat, wrapping her arms around her knees. Mira slept in the twin bed nearby, her breathing slowly evening out. In the alley below, a couple embraced beneath the mustard glow of a streetlamp.

The young woman wrapped her birdlike arms around the soldier's neck. She could almost feel his hands on her own body as the man ran them down the sides of the girl's lean torso.

Cate shut her eyes as the memory rushed into her consciousness. He had smelled of smoke and the heady remnants of the musk she had given him. In his worn overcoat, his hair a stark brick red against the grey as he grew smaller till disappearing into the morning mist. 

It was as though he had never been there at all.

She wondered if she had dreamed up those last few days in Haguenau to cope with the loss of James. Last she had heard from her mother, Owen had returned home and was learning to live without his leg.

Owen had sent her the letter. He had penned that learning to go on without a limb was easier than losing their gentle giant of a older brother. She had felt that went without saying.

She wondered if the letter with the news of James's death was still on that mantel piece in Haguenau. She had swept up Don's curls and deposited them in the same waste bin as her own braid. As she had closed the door to that room, she had felt that she had closed the door to them, whatever it had been. He had surprised her by the supply truck.

Captured in his eyes and unable to fly from the danger of loss, she had held his hands as long as she could. She had taken the chance.

Back in May, she had written to her mother and asked if there had been any mail for her. Her mother's response had been cheerfully ignorant, saying that of course not since everyone knew she was in Europe.

Victory in Japan and still no post from Don Malarkey.

Cate took in a ragged breath and heaved herself from the window seat, pacing towards the small writing desk. A sheet of paper was laying there, with one line and no address. Cate guessed that by this point there would never be an address for it.

Donald,
I am at a loss in how to tell you this but I am unsure

She had carried it on her person since the day Alice had bounded into the hospital with news of Germany's surrender. Now it was August and it had been five days since Japan had surrendered. She was still without the words. She didn't even know how to finish that one sentence.

"This is a strange change of circumstance," Mira mumbled, sitting up in bed and rubbing a hand over her eyes. "When have I ever gone to bed before you?"

Cate pushed the paper back into the desk. "Never, I think."

She paced back towards the window. The amorous couple had disappeared into the night. She held aside the lace curtain with her fingertips and glanced over at Mira. The young woman was sitting up in bed, studying her friend. She stood out of the mess of sheets and joined her at the sill.

"Still no word from the gentleman caller of Haguenau?" Mira asked, crossing her arms.

Cate shook her head and attempted a weak smile. "Nothing."

"Nothing," Mira repeated, sitting down on the window seat. "You know, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's-"

"I know it doesn't mean he's dead," Cate interrupted with a mirthless chortle, the last word thudding into her chest like a bullet. "But I don't know which option is worse. That he can't write... or won't."

"Well honey, you barely knew the guy. You said it yourself."

"I know, I know."

Mira grasped her hand. "Catie. When I met you, you were the most sensible, innocent girl I had ever met in my entire life. I seriously don't know how they do it wherever it is that you grew up."

"Greensborough, New Hampshire."

"Yes, wherever that is." Mira smirked though her dark eyes remained sober. "Us lucky ones, the survivors. We may be alive, but we are so far from who we once were, it's almost impossible to marry those two halves."

"Is that why you and Anthony decided to leave your relationship open ended during the war? Why you were comfortable dating those other men?" Cate looked pointedly over at her friend.

Mira nodded. "We knew we wanted to get married before he left for Africa, but there was always the chance one or both of us wouldn't return. And the even less desirable consequence that we wouldn't know the person we were looking at when all had been said and done."

"So how is it that you are marrying him next week?"

A rare blush rose into Mira's square face. "Simply because though we have both changed, our hearts have not. Despite the storm and changes in the coastline, the love remained." Mira laid her other hand on Cate's shoulder. "I am telling you this because I love you. Perhaps, the both of you woke up from the war and found that the thing you shared had been washed away."

Cate gave a soggy scoff, brushing away a tear. "What would I have done without you these past couple years?"

"Probably been bored to death. War can be so tedious."

Cate rolled her eyes towards the wardrobe that they shared. Even in the dark, the antique wedding dress they'd bought upon arriving in Paris shone like moonlight on snow.

"Are you ready for Friday?"

"I think I was always ready. Fate just wasn't yet," Mira answered standing and facing the wedding dress. She peeked over at Cate with a thinly manicured eyebrow arching suggestively. "Get my meaning?"