Shadows of the World » Band of Brothers

26: A Star Riding Through Clouds

Martin laughed. "What, we're all gonna go out on the piss while you're sat in bed at home reading books with about fifty holes in your stomach? Fat chance."

Juliette rolled her eyes but she was smiling. "As much as I appreciate the sentiment, I don't see why my condition is any reason for everyone to be on house arrest. I reckon if anything you'd better go otherwise we'll arise suspicion."

There was a knock at the bedroom door and Martin shot her a look. "This conversation isn't over," he promised.

Juliette laughed and watched him leave, Tom leading Gene in in his place.

"Gene!" she exclaimed upon his entering, not having expected the American medic to be her next visitor.

"Hey, chérie," he smiled. He lingered by the door as Tom shut it behind him.

"What am I? The poor orphan boy you've taken into your home as a servant?" Tom asked. Juliette rolled her eyes at his dramatics.

"How you feelin'?" Eugene inquired. He approached the bed tentatively and scanned all of the visible parts of her for ailment. She smiled.

"Better. Hurts to move but other than that it's not giving me any grief."

"Good. That's good. Can I take a look?" He gestured to her stomach and she nodded, sitting up with Tom's help and lifting up the hem of her shirt.

Gene gingerly peeled back the bandages and nodded to himself, murmuring things Juliette couldn't make out as he made his way from left to right across the wounds to check the healing.

"Looks good," he told her. Relief was evident in his face, and he nodded once to Tom who stood on the other side of the bed. "No signs of infection and they're healin' well."

As he began to change her bandages a thought dawned on Jules. "Hey, Gene?"

"Hm?"

"Am I your first patient?"

He rolled his eyes and didn't look up from his work, but a small smile tugged at his lips. "Yeah. Y'are. But don't be proud of it."

"Oh, I'm very proud of it," she retorted with a triumphant smile. "I'm like work experience for you, no?"

Gene shook his head but he was chuckling to himself as he continued to bandage up her wounds. Juliette saw this as a complete win.

"So, you speak French?" she spoke up into the silence that followed. She felt slightly awkward with both Gene and Tom staring down at her.

Gene nodded and glanced up at her face briefly before continuing his work. "Yeah. Half-Cajun." He paused, seeming to contemplate whether or not he should say what he was going to say next. Finally, he cleared his throat and studiously avoided her eyes whilst paying particularly close attention to the bandages. "You're French, huh?"

Juliette looked to Thomas, who shrugged. There was no point in trying to deny it now, not after what she'd said whilst on the morphine.

"Yeah," she admitted, looking to the window and closing her eyes against the sunlight. "Born in Bordeaux, moved to England when I was eleven. Though for all intents and purposes I was born and bred in Aldbourne, okay?"

Gene laughed quietly. "Yeah, I gotcha. No one on the planet or I'm executed and all that."

This earned a laugh out of both Tom and Jules, and Gene smiled to himself as he carried on working.

"Do you miss France?" he wondered, watching her in his periphery.

Juliette shrugged. "Difficult to miss it when I'm there so often."