Band of Brothers - Sunshine Solider

chapter 97: the wedding

December 1st, was a good and bad day. It was the first day, unofficially, of winter, and even though it had yet to snow in Virginia, Charlotte had woken up wearing warmer clothes, and not daring to go outside unless asked. Memories of Bastogne fogged up her brain and as she moved slowly around the house, she avoided looking outside of anything that dealt with outside weather. As her family ate breakfast, she was quite, but no one pushed her for questions. They figured it had something to do with the war that took her over still sometimes and decided to remain quiet. They knew just their presence would be comforting for her. It was also the day they drove up to Washington DC again. 

Charlotte had packed her bags up, and carefully folded her dress that she had gotten for the wedding, neatly into the dress bag, before walking out with her small suite case and the dress bag to the car. The weather hit her a bit and she froze for a second as an icy blast hit her and she thought of the attack on Foy suddenly, before focusing again on the reality of where she was now. Louis and Catherine had already began the trek up, hours earlier, to make sure room accommodations for all the guests were ready. 

The rest of the Tarvers family drove down together, arriving at about 3 that afternoon. Charlotte still felt weird with the month of December. She still got uncomfortable when her memories flooded back to her, and she'd blank out and stare for longer than 10 seconds, almost to the point she couldn't shake from it. 

December 2nd was a Sunday, which meant that it was church day, but it also meant that physical preparations for the wedding were in order. There were bouquets of flowers to put together, as well as nameplates, food coordination, making sure the dresses, tuxedos, and military uniforms looked spot on. 

On the 3rd as the bridesmaids were gathered in their own preparation room, and the groomsmen in their own, things really startled to settle for Caroline and Louis. But Caroline kept the atmosphere fun and light, and dreamy. 

Charlotte had been assisting Caroline's best friend, Elise pull the zipper on the back of her dress up, as her other friend Emma began applying makeup. Caroline's other friend Margot had been so excited to meet Charlotte, after hearing that she had been a female combat medic in the war, stating how it was 'women empowerment'. But of course, with a wedding came a bunch of lovesick bridesmaids, so Charlotte figured it wouldn't be long before they started asking Charlotte if she was dating anyone, because she hadn't brought a date. She didn't want to have to bug any of the men from her company, and she'd rather take this on alone. 

So when the question popped up, she was more than happy to answer.

" So, Charlotte, do you have a special someone?" Helena, another bridesmaid had asked her. Charlotte smiled, as she finished off the zipper on the dress.

" Well, I guess you can say I do." Charlotte said softly, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

" And who happens to be this 'special someone'?" Josie, another bridesmaid, urged on stepping closer to the girl, with a smile.

" His name's Ronald Speirs." she said, " And I met him while we were in the war together. He was my CO, the commanding officer, and my captain." Her cheeks had flared to about another degree of heat, and she slowly turned to look at everyone feeling her cheeks on fire. The other girls sighed dreamily.

" How'd you meet?" Emma asked, with a squeal.

" Well," she said, thinking back, " it was more of an unexpected love. I didn't expect to fall in love with him, but it seemed to be the best thing that had happened to me after. I was told to go out on OP duty, and I find that he's there, and he opted to stay with me the rest of my time on duty."

" That's literally so cute," sighed Elise. Charlotte sighed to herself. He was really the only thing that made her somewhat happy thinking back on that terrible war she had been involved in.