Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

22: Such Sweet Sorrow

"When's the briefing?" Tom asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Nixon shrugged and looked to Winters, who rolled his eyes. "2000 hours tonight," Winters told them. "Over in one of the tents we're using on the other side of the village."

"It's a date," Tom told him with a rakish grin which made Jules laugh. The pair of them bid the trio of officers goodbye and started back on their way across the village.

On their journey they came across none other than George Luz, who was wearing the same grin as always.

"You'll never guess what happened at the pub last night," he said after he'd approached them.

His smile was infectious, so Jules began smiling too. "What?"

"Buck and I won two packs of smokes off of Babe and Toye by pretending we're bad at darts."

Tom and Jules both let out low whistles. "Maybe you should be the spies, not us," Tom said with a laugh.

George brushed him away, still grinning. "Aw, stop, I'm blushin'." He looked behind him at a few of the other paratroopers before turning back, much less smiley. "We're, uh, movin' out again. Won't be coming back to England this time."

Jules giggled. "Aw, don't be so sad, George. We're coming with you."

"Jules!" Tom exclaimed, turning to her in astonishment. "You just told me off for not being discreet!"

"Well, this is George," she reasoned with a shrug. "Plus, he'll find out in a few hours anyway."

George was back to grinning again. "So you're jumping with us again?"

"Don't tell anyone," Tom told him, but he nodded. "We won't be with you the whole time - for us it's more of a way to get into occupied Holland without the elevated risk of being caught on site."

George nodded his understanding. "So after that that's it then?"

This sudden realisation was jarring and infinitely sadder than Jules had been expecting. She hadn't really put two and two together. "I suppose it is," she said, looking to Tom instinctively.

Tom nodded. They would have no real reason to stick with the company after they'd gotten their orders, and where they would be coming back to Aldbourne afterwards, the Americans wouldn't.

Jules had known there would come an end to their time with the yanks, but she hadn't thought it'd be so soon.

"When's the jump?" she asked, eyebrows furrowing together. She suddenly had the feeling that she was really running out of time.

"Two days' time," Tom replied, "but they're being locked into the airfield again tomorrow for secrecy purposes."

Jules nodded. "Right."

Tom laughed a little bit. "Got someone to see?"

"Always," she replied through a laugh. She turned to George and gave him a quick hug, bidding him goodbye and promising Tom she'd see him back at the house. She then headed back the way she'd just come, in search of a couple of Americans she still had things to say to.

She found one of them relatively quickly. "Floyd!"

The man in question turned immediately at the sound of his name, and smiled when he saw her. "Hey, Jules," he said, nodding to the group he was with before approaching her. "Decided you wanna try again?" If he hadn't been Floyd and if his tone hadn't been so clearly joking she would've really hit him.

"Shut up," she told him, but she was grinning. "Don't tell anyone, but I have foreknowledge of your next jump. We'll be jumping with you again but after that we'll be going our separate ways. I wanted to thank you again before we're back in a war zone."