Charlie didn't want to leave Berchtesgaden. She'd grown fond of it - and especially fond of the house decorated in pink she'd been staying in, with its balcony looking out onto snow-capped mountains more majestic than anything she'd ever seen. But she was still under orders and that meant she had to pack up her things and climb onto the trucks just like everyone else.
She was nursing a terrible hangover, also like everyone else, and the movement of the truck over bumpy dirt roads only made it worse. But she hadn't eaten in a while, which meant she didn't have anything in her stomach to throw up, so while she gagged all that she ever ended up coughing up was saliva and bile.
They travelled for an hour before Henry said their destination was coming into view, and suddenly Charlie wasn't all that upset about leaving Berchtesgaden behind anymore.
If Germany had been pretty, Austria was stunning.
The difference was clear first and foremost in the colour of the grass. Even in the parts of Germany largely untouched by the war, the land still betrayed its part in the conflict. But here the grass was as green as it was back home in New Hampshire - greener, even. It sparkled in the morning sunlight like a million tiny emeralds, throwing out their light just to give whoever saw them something to smile about.
The sky was bluer than any sky Charlie had ever seen, and the trees taller, fuller, healthier than she could remember trees ever being. It floored her to think that while all of the fighting was going on there had still been things simply living. Not living to fight, but living in spite of everything trying to make them die. Just living. Trees growing strong and healthy out of the ground because that was simply what trees did.
The lake named Lake Zell was still and bright blue. It looked like glass. Reflected in the edges of its waters were mountains, closer, prettier, more imposing than the ones even in Berchtesgaden.
So much beauty all in one place. How was it possible that there existed places which contained so much to marvel at? How was it possible that there existed places which hadn't seen a single bomb, shell, or bullet throughout the entirety of the war?
They drove past two long lines of German soldiers walking on foot, clearly not so happy to be leaving Zell am See behind, and then, eventually, they came upon civilians. The vast majority of them were women, for the younger men would currently be surrendering along with the German Army, and they were all too enthusiastic to return the paratroopers' waves and calls of greeting.
Charlie simply sat and smiled as she watched the men in the line of trucks before her wave and nudge each other, probably already deciding which of the women they were going to seek out and flirt with later. Much had changed over the course of her time in the war but if one thing had remained constant it was that where soldiers found women they would think of little else.
It took a long time to get everyone and everything organised when the trucks finally came to a stop. Eventually it was decided that all of the men from Easy, along with the nurses, would be staying in the main hotel in Zell am See, whose staff informed them they had more than enough rooms to accommodate them. Most of the men were put up in rooms in the basement, which sounded worse than it was; usually reserved for staff, the basement had a main room with couches and chairs and tables and two hallways leading away from it, with good sized rooms on either side of both hallways. Once those rooms were all filled, some of the more respected NCOs along with Floyd, as first sergeant, were given actual hotel rooms to share, two to a room, one floor above where the nurses were situated. Charlie was sharing with Mabs, of course, and Boo with Autumn, and Henry smiled smugly when she was handed the key to a room of her very own.
"Rank has its privileges," was all she said to the others before she disappeared into a room with a double bed and an en-suite bathroom.
The room Charlie was sharing with Mabs had two single beds, both of them with their headboards pushed flush against a white wall, upon which hung a painting of the hotel with the mountains behind it. The sheets on the beds were also white, but luxurious, and the pillows were voluminous. Blue curtains were drawn across large floor-to-ceiling windows opposite the door and, when Charlie pulled them back, she found a balcony and squealed.
"A balcony!" Charlie exclaimed, her voice pitched loud enough for Mabs to hear it above the shower water she was testing.
The balcony was made of light brown tile, with a black wrought iron railing which created three sides of a rectangle to cage them in. There was a matching wrought iron table with two chairs pushed beneath it and Charlie sat down in one for a little while to admire the view. Mountains and trees and greenery and the lake. The perfect view. It was all so beautiful.
"I think I could stay here forever," Charlie declared.
Mabs laughed as she finally turned the water off and emerged from the bathroom drying her hands on a white towel. "Me too."
Charlie chose the bed closest to the window and Mabs the one closest to the bathroom, an agreement they came to naturally and didn't have to debate. They made quick work of unpacking their belongings, each taking one half of the wardrobe and placing all other personal effects into their respective nightstands, before pushing their carpet bags beneath their beds and heading down to the basement where Henry had told them to meet her to start setting up the field hospital. No one expected to need it and, indeed, Charlie hoped they didn't, but they'd been ordered to anyway, 'just in case', so they made quick work of it and left it at that.
"Let's go down to the lake," Boo suggested as they climbed the stairs back up to the hotel lobby.
"If only we had swimsuits," Autumn lamented as they all agreed and headed out of the hotel in the direction of the lake. "I want to swim."
"Maybe we can buy some," Henry said. "There'll be stores and stuff, I'm sure."
Charlie smiled at the thought. "I haven't been swimming since I was little," she said, thinking of memories of vacations in the South of France.
"I've never," admitted Mabs. "I'm a city girl through and through."
"So's Autumn," Boo pointed out.
Mabs heaved a laugh of surrender. "Alright, then I got no excuse."
The nurses followed signs which took them to a trail through the woods. The sunshine was warm on Charlie's skin and prompted her to roll her sleeves up and tie her hair back off her neck, and as it cut through the gaps in the trees it made patterns dance on the ground.
After only a couple of minutes of walking they heard voices and splashing, and emerged onto the edge of the lake. There was a wooden pier stretching out into it covered in piles of khaki, and in the water were men. Shirtless men. Potentially naked men.
"Oh my goodness!" Charlie exclaimed when she realised.
Mabs laughed loudly. "Well, what d'ya suppose we have here, girls?"
"It must be bath time at the zoo," Autumn remarked with a smirk, coming forward to stand beside her.
"Would ya look who it is," Don declared from where he was paddling in the water, thankfully concealed from the neck downwards. "Come to watch the show?"
"What show?" Henry retorted. "Did the menagerie come to town?"
"So rude," Don replied with a tut. "Why don't you come join us?"
"Why don't you put some clothes on and then we'll talk," she fired back.
"Aw, Henry, don't be that way."
"We don't have swimsuits," Boo supplied helpfully.
George scoffed, wading through the water toward them. "Swimsuits," he echoed. "Who needs 'em?"
"Do you suppose we get in naked?" Boo asked sarcastically.
Mabs laughed. "Oh, I bet they'd love that."
Floyd swam closer to the edge of the water, too. "Aw, come on," he called, grinning. "Just get in! We won't look."
"Sure you won't," Mabs answered him.
Floyd rolled his eyes and rose to his full height until he was standing waist-deep in the water. "Freckles, you trust me, don't you?"
"Uh..." Her hesitation wasn't in answer to his question but rather because her brain had decided to short circuit the instant her eyes landed on his bare torso. She'd seen it before, once, when he'd been stabbed in Normandy, but it had been dark in the tent and his abdomen had been largely concealed by a bandage and he'd been lying with a blanket half over him. Now, none of those things were true. With the way the water dripped off of his skin the light couldn't seem to stay away from him, not that she blamed it, and he seemed to glow golden in the sunshine. He was so nicely toned, so... muscular... that Charlie felt heat flood to her face in one great big gust. "Um..."
"Something wrong, Freckles?" Floyd asked, playing innocent in spite of the smug smirk on his face.
"I, um..."
"Charlie," Mabs said.
"Hm?"
"You're starin'," Mabs informed her in a whisper, leaning in so as not to be overheard. "Better stop before he gets any ideas," she advised.
Charlie nodded, straightening her posture and tearing her eyes away.
"Let's go get swimsuits," Boo suggested, turning away from where she'd been speaking quietly to George to face the other nurses. "We have the rest of the day off, right?"
Henry sighed. "Right," she confirmed.
"Then let's go!"
Charlie agreed immediately, if only to get some separation between herself and the ever-smirking Floyd still standing half exposed in the water, and the others followed soon after.
Locating a store in town which sold swimsuits, and then picking some out, and then trying them on, and then picking their favourites, and then buying them, and then walking back to the hotel took so long that by the time they returned the men had all left the lake. But the nurses still went, and they relished the privacy. While Charlie, Boo, Autumn, and Henry swam and played in the water, Mabs spent her time sunbathing on the pier with her legs dangling into the lake. It was all so peaceful, so casual, so calming that Charlie couldn't quite reconcile any of it with real life; it felt so much more like a dream.
Back at the hotel, Mabs let Charlie shower first, since she was soaking wet and dripping water all over the room, and the water pressure was, just as Mabs had said, perfect. Charlie could have lived in that shower. But eventually she decided it was time to get out - her skin had let her know in no uncertain terms that it didn't want to absorb any more water today - and Charlie waited for Mabs to finish showering while sitting out on the balcony in the light of early evening.
If every day they spent in Austria was like this, Charlie was certain she wouldn't mind the wait before going home at all. In fact, she was sure she'd love it.
They bought dinner in the hotel restaurant that night, sick of Army rations and still celebrating victory as they were, and were interrupted halfway through by a group of men from Easy who had spotted them through a window.
"Word on the street is you went for a swim without us," said Babe, approaching with Chuck, Lieb, and Garcia in tow. He was exaggerating an affronted expression which, when he saw it, made Chuck laugh.
"Word on the street is right," Autumn said with a smug smirk.
"Lotta people would pay a lotta money to see a show like that," Mabs drawled, smiling innocently, "so why should we be expected to give it to you boys for free?"
"Because of all the love you guys have for us in your hearts?" Garcia teased, taking a seat at the table next to them. The rest of the men quickly followed suit.
Autumn scoffed. "What love? We do this because we get paid. Don't go getting any ideas now."
"Oh, yeah," Lieb said, smirking as he leaned across the table, "'cause we all know how bad you need the money."
Autumn rolled her eyes and hid her smile behind a sip from her glass of water.
"Anyway," interrupted Chuck, cutting the bantering short, "there's gonna be a party tonight in the basement. Thought we should clue you guys in."
"Generous of you," acknowledged Mabs. "Who's goin'?"
"All of the enlisted," Garcia replied. "The officers don't know about it."
"Yeah, and you're not gonna tell 'em, Mabs," Lieb threatened pointedly.
Mabs downright cackled at this. "Oh, yeah. 'Cause I'm infamous for bein' such a terrible tattletale."
"All we're sayin' is what Speirs don't know won't hurt him," insisted Babe, leaning closer to her.
Mabs rolled her eyes. "I don't tell him everything."
"Glad to hear it."
So Babe was clearly still nursing a huge crush on Mabs. Charlie had been under the impression he'd left it behind in Bastogne but apparently not.
"What time's the party?" Boo wondered, still picking at her food.
"2000 hours," said Garcia.
"There gonna be drinks or do we bring our own?" This from Mabs.
"We've got some, but if you want anythin' special then you're gonna have to supply it yourselves," said Chuck.
"Alright," Mabs agreed. "I'll go."
The other nurses agreed as well and thus it was decided how they were going to be spending their first night in Austria.
It seemed a shame, Charlie thought upon reflection while she was getting ready later that evening, that they'd be spending their first sunset in such a beautiful place in a basement with no windows, but at least they'd all be together. And maybe she could just go late and stay up here for a while to watch it. Mabs had gone to see Speirs ahead of the party and had told Charlie she'd meet her there - she'd used the excuse that she had things she needed to pick up in town, which Charlie had recognised in an instant as a white lie - so it wasn't like she would be holding anyone up.
Charlie finished getting ready just as the sun was starting to set; the timing was so perfect she saw no reason to head downstairs and miss it all. She didn't know how much more time she'd have to gaze at sunsets in the Alps, after all, now that the war was over.
Charlie sat out on the balcony, dressed in her dress uniform with her hair perfectly styled and her makeup done, all except for her lipstick, which she always saved for last. She smiled as she watched warm light flood the sky. The very top of the sky was starting to turn a deep shade of purple, the very bottom still a bright yellow, and in between were every shade of orange, red, and pink that Charlie could imagine.
She was marvelling at how the centre of the sky seemed to be blushing when a knock came at the door.
"Come in!" she called, expecting Mabs.
The figure who entered was not, in fact, Mabs.