Right before the paratroopers were about to get into the planes to jump into France, the entire thing was called off. Charlie didn't know why - Henry never passed the reason on - but cancelled jump or not, it had now become abundantly clear that their days in Aldbourne were numbered. If the company could be ordered to jump into combat with less than twelve hours' notice then not a single day could be squandered.
This thought must have occurred to Captain Winters, for the paratroopers' training picked up significantly thereafter, largely for the benefit of the replacements. It was through Skip, Alex, Malarkey, and Alton that Charlie heard all about their ineptitude, how their lack of proper long-term training meant that they weren't anywhere near ready for combat. It was also through them that she found out that the replacements weren't nearly as impudent with the men as they had been with the women; while some were flirts and others were downright rude, with the veterans they were as good as gold, all wide-eyed wonder and wanting to impress.
Charlie wished she could say this fact surprised her, but it didn't. Officers or otherwise, nurses were to the inexperienced soldier what the girls they'd known back home had been: opportunities to get laid, or otherwise not of use.
As the men's training picked back up, so did the amount of time they spent in the pub. It had been a sobering reminder for everyone that they could be shoved out of civilian life and back into combat at the drop of a hat, and everyone wanted to make the most of it. For this same reason, Charlie found herself in the pub too most evenings. Knowing now what it would be like when she got back out there, she couldn't justify not taking every opportunity to have fun and be young whenever they came her way.
Tonight was one just such night.
Filled to bursting with young people all attempting to escape their duty to the war effort for a while, the pub interior was alight with activity. The music was loud, the chatter even louder, and the crowd so thick Charlie had to hold onto Mabs to make sure they weren't separated on their way to the bar.
It was Saturday night, which always had a good turnout, and every soldier from Easy seemed to be here, veteran and replacement alike. Except for Floyd, of course, who was out on the date he'd thought he was going to miss.
Charlie still didn't know many of the replacements - still it was only Babe she'd properly spoken to - but somehow Mabs seemed to be very well acquainted with all of them. "Watch out for that one," she was saying, pointing different replacements out as they passed them. "He's handsy. Never learned the word 'no'."
Charlie pulled a face and Mabs laughed.
"That one, on the other hand," Mabs went on, pointing out someone different. "He's real sweet. Kinda awkward. Might be a good fit for you."
Charlie rolled her eyes and jostled Mabs playfully, which earned her a self-satisfied laugh. Nonetheless, Charlie turned to look at the man Mabs had gestured to and found her description matched up with his appearance perfectly; he was freckled, baby-faced, and blushing as he spoke to a local woman. Charlie felt like she was looking at her male equivalent.
"What's his name?" Charlie wondered, turning back to Mabs as she lost sight of him. They carried on pressing through the crowd on their way to the bar.
"James Miller," Mabs said with a suggestive grin. "He's cute, right?"
Charlie shrugged. "Maybe."
"From you," Mabs replied, chuckling, "that's as good as saying you wanna have his babies."
"Mabs!" Charlie exclaimed, but Mabs had her back turned as she made the final push to the bar.
"Two shots of vodka and two glasses of vodka lemonade, both doubles," Mabs ordered, shooting the bartender a flirty smile.
The bartender was off and making the drinks so fast Charlie was sure he must have at least cricked his neck, but the next thing she knew she had a shot glass and a normal one lined up in front of her.
"How much do I owe you?"
The barman gave a toothy grin that Charlie guessed was supposed to be charming but really was just dorky. "On the house," he said with a wink.
Charlie thanked him as Mabs blew him a kiss, and then they both turned to each other to take the shot.
"To the first of many shots we'll do tonight," Mabs said, holding up her shot glass and waiting to cheers Charlie's.
Charlie laughed. "To the first of a reasonable amount of shots we'll do tonight," she corrected, clinking her glass against Mabs'.
The both of them threw their shots back at the same time, Charlie scrunching up her entire face in disgust at the taste while Mabs simply smiled, invigorated.
"Y'know, I don't think there's such a thing as a 'reasonable amount of shots'," Boo said, appearing out of the crowd with George's arm slung over her shoulders.
"Sure there is!" George exclaimed, shaking his head to dismiss the idea.
"How many's that?" Mabs asked, already sipping from her vodka lemonade.
George shrugged. "Eh, maybe five - six, if you're lookin' to end up -"
"Whatever you're going to say, don't," Boo cut across him, though when she looked up at him her smile was so adoring Charlie felt her chest go warm.
"Aw, come on, Boo, I was just gonna talk about this one time in boot camp when -"
"George!"
"I wanna hear the boot camp story!" Charlie said, laughing as she swirled her straw around her drink, trying to make the vodka less potent.
"Boo, sweetheart, I promise it ain't anything dirty," George said, his shoulders shaking with laughter at whatever memory he had swirling around in his head. "It ain't the one about Skinny and the train, if that's what you're thinking."
"Skinny and the train," Mabs repeated, looking thoroughly fascinated. "Tell me more."
"It's disgusting, Mabs," Boo said, shaking her head at George. "Trust me, you don't wanna know."
"Oh, we absolutely do," said Mabs, her eyes bright. "Now you just gotta tell us!"
Boo shot George a look of half-hearted annoyance and he returned it with an adoring smile. He pressed a kiss to her temple, murmuring, "Sorry, sweetheart," before turning back to Charlie and Mabs and beginning, "So, the story goes..."
He went on to tell a story about Skinny Sisk and his girlfriend from back when the company had been training in Georgia at Camp Toccoa, and how they'd been caught getting intimate on some train tracks. 'Getting intimate' was not, of course, the terminology George had used, but Charlie had blushed so hard when he'd explained just what they'd gotten up to that she couldn't bear to even recall the words lest she give herself heat stroke or something.
Apparently, a train that had been coming down the tracks had had to perform an emergency stop, the driver had called the police, and Skinny had ended up getting a court martial for the incident. His explanation of the event, according to George, had been, "Well, sir, she was comin', I was comin', and the only one who had any control over the brakes was the damned train driver."
Mabs burst into delighted laughter as George told them that last bit, but Charlie just looked between her and George, confused. Even Boo was wearing a grimace in an attempt to conceal her laughter, and Charlie had no idea what the joke was.
"I don't get it," she said when Mabs' laughter had started to fizzle out.
"Which part?" George asked.
Mabs adjusted Charlie's uniform beret affectionately on her head. "You'll get it one day, Charlie, darlin'. When you meet a very special man who loves you very much."
Charlie scowled and batted her hand away. "Can you explain it?" When Mabs just grinned, she turned to George. "What's the joke?"
George squinted his eyes in confusion. "The train was comin' and so was Skinny," he explained, tilting his head to see if she'd understand.
Charlie shook her head. "I still don't get it."
"What part don't ya get?" Before Charlie could reply, Boo rose up on her toes and whispered something in his ear which made his eyes go wide. "Oh," he said when she pulled away. He turned to Charlie in surprise. "How the fuck are you and Tab best friends?"
"They're not best friends," Mabs said, linking her arm with Charlie's to make her point. "We're best friends. Talbert's just a nuisance."
George laughed. "You'd know."
"George Luz!" George only cackled as Boo swatted at him before bidding Charlie and Mabs goodbye and steering himself and Boo towards the bar.
Mabs watched them go for a moment and scanned the rest of the bar, probably looking for people she knew. All the while, Charlie sipped her drink and decided to let the joke go; if no one was going to explain it then she didn't care to understand. She was sure it wasn't that funny, anyway.
Suddenly, Mabs turned back to Charlie and pointed at her drink. "Quick, drink that. There's a new bartender goin' on shift and he likes me."
Charlie laughed. "Everyone likes you, Mabs."
Mabs just grinned. "Come on. Drink up."
Their next round of drinks was also free of charge, courtesy of both Mabs' beauty and her uncanny ability to manipulate men, and Charlie felt her shoulders began to relax as the second shot and next double vodka lemonade began to make their way into her system. The room felt warmer now, the lights shined brighter, and everything was starting to get just a little bit funnier.
They stayed at the bar to drink their second round and then, after getting their third, they took the shots at the bar and carried their drinks to a table which had recently been abandoned in the corner.
Charlie thought she recognised the two replacements on the table next to them from when she'd asked Bull to help her find Lipton and Winters. One was tall and kept sipping his beer with shifty eyes flitting around the pub, as though he was expecting someone to appear out of nowhere and punch him in the face, and the other was shorter and glancing around awkwardly, probably looking for some of his other friends.
"Les Hashey and Tony Garcia," Mabs said, gesturing to the tall one first and the shorter one after. "Replacements in Bull's squad. They're friends with Miller."
Charlie looked at her with raised eyebrows. "How do you keep tabs on everyone?"
With a smirk, Mabs tipped her drink back. "I just know people, I guess." After slamming her glass down with a decisiveness which made Charlie wary, before Charlie could stop her Mabs was leaning across her and calling over the noise, "Hey, Hashey, Garcia! Where's Miller?"
Charlie groaned but said nothing lest she draw attention to herself.
Hashey stared at Mabs dumbly for a moment before answering, "He went to get a drink about a half hour ago."
Mabs huffed. "Fine, what about Heffron?"
"Babe's talkin' to some of the other guys."
"Oh, I've met Babe," Charlie said, without really meaning to say it.
Mabs quirked a brow at her. "You have?"
"Yeah. We spoke a bit at inoculations."
Considering this revelation, Mabs sat back in her chair with a thoughtful hum. "Opinions?" she asked eventually and took a sip from Charlie's drink.
"He was nice," Charlie replied. "After I took him down a peg, at least."
Mabs laughed. "Yeah, they're all a little in need of a humblin' if you ask me. The vets seem to like Babe though."
"Bill?" Charlie guessed.
Mabs nodded. "They bonded over comin' from South Philly."
Charlie wasn't surprised; she'd guessed the two of them would get along when she'd first read Babe's medical form and realised he came from the same city as civic Bill Guarnere.
Mabs remembered herself then and made quick introductions between Charlie and Les and Tony. Neither of the pair were very chatty and both seemed to be unsure of what to do with themselves during the conversation, so any cross-table chatter died out quickly. Soon, Charlie and Mabs were left to themselves, talking about this and that and searching the crowd for anyone they liked enough to rope into sitting with them.
It seemed that as soon as Charlie gave up looking, the very people she'd been searching for found her.
"Hey, Charlie!" Alex called as he approached. "Where ya been? We been lookin' for ya!"
Charlie smiled and sat up straighter in her seat. "You have?"
"'Course!" he exclaimed, beckoning her over. "Come on, we got a game of darts goin' and I want you on my team. Don is fuckin' terrible."
Giggling, Charlie shook her head. "Why does that not surprise me?"
"Uh, 'cause he's fuckin' terrible at everything?" Alex guessed, then beckoned her towards him with more vigour. "Come on, 'fore they start without us."
"Okay, okay, I'm coming." Before she rose from her chair, however, Charlie turned to Mabs. "Are you coming too?"
Mabs smiled and shook her head. "I'll make my own trouble, darlin'. Come find me when ya wanna go home."
"Will do," Charlie promised, then gave her a final smile before knocking back the last of her drink and following Alex over to the dartboard on the other side of the room.
"Ay, Charlie!" Alton cheered when he caught sight of her, prompting Skip and Malarkey to turn, too.
"Nice of you to finally show up, Charlie," Skip teased.
"Where ya been, Lancaster?" Malarkey asked with his characteristic toothy grin.
"Oh, you know," Charlie said, pretending coyness, "here and there."
"You playin'?" Alton asked, gesturing to where he'd been wiping off the tallies of the previous game from the chalkboard.
Tucking her hands behind her back, Charlie shrugged. "I don't know how."
"You've never played darts?" Skip asked, shocked.
"Oh, that just won't do," said Alex, shaking his head and tutting.
"Still glad you tried to swap me out now, Penky?" Malarkey asked Alex, smirking smugly.
Alex scoffed. "She's still probably better than you, Malark."
"Yeah, well it doesn't take much," added Skip.
"Don't you worry, Charlie," said Alton, coming over from the chalkboard. "I'll teach ya. Show ya everything I know."
"Which ain't much," retorted Alex.
Charlie laughed as she looked over at him. "Someone's an awfully sore loser."
Alex feigned disgust. "Whose team are you on, Charlie?"
"Well, that depends," replied Charlie with a coy smile. "Whose team is gonna make me win?"
"That's the spirit!" cheered Skip. "You're on mine and Alton's team."
"Hey! I recruited her. She's on my fuckin' team."
"Well, I'm teachin' her, so she's on mine," objected Alton.
Charlie tilted her head back as she laughed. "While I'm really feeling the love right now, guys, I still don't actually know how to play darts, so I wouldn't fight over me just yet."
"Eh, you'll be a natural," said Alton with a small smirk. "You got the dainty little hands for it."
After a little while's more bickering, it was finally decided that Charlie would join Skip and Alton's team, so that she could take her shots with Alton helping her, and they'd play against the begrudging team of Alex and Malarkey. The game was Mickey Mouse, and in order to understand it the men needed to talk her through the geography of the dart board first. Charlie did her best to keep up while sipping on the drink Malarkey had gotten for her, eyes wide and nodding frequently as she hung onto Alton's every word.
By the time they started playing she thought she'd just about exhausted her mental capacity for concentration in civilian life, but at least the actual throwing of the darts didn't take much brain power. Instead, it was the aiming that was the hard part. Charlie found she was so terrible at it that, in the end, Alton took to standing behind her and clasping her throwing hand in his own so that they could throw the dart together. For safety's sake more than anything else, since she'd thrown more than a few darts so badly they'd missed the board by a mile, but Alton had been suspiciously quick to volunteer his services.
While Alton was good at darts, throwing them with another person's hand wasn't as easy as he'd perhaps anticipated, and their team lost regardless, much to Malarkey's joy.
"Thank you, Charlie!" Alex cheered as Skip handed over a pack of cigarettes.
"Sorry, boys," Charlie said to Alton and Skip, genuinely apologetic that she'd made them lose.
Skip just shrugged. "Hey, happens to the best of us."
"You keep practising with us and we'll have you a pro in no time," Alton reassured her, slinging an arm over her shoulders. "Come on, your drink's empty and we can't have that."
Charlie rolled her eyes as she let him guide her over to the bar. "You're trouble," she told him, sharing a grin with him.
Alton smirked. "Nah," he objected, "I'm fun."