UPOTTERY, ENGLAND
June, 1944
"Why the hell are you bleeding?" Jo exclaimed as Luz sheepishly walked into the aid station. A stream of blood was dripping from a cut above his eyebrow.
"It was a dare. Toye made me-" He began.
"Y'know what, I don't wanna know anymore." She shook her head exasperatedly. "Just sit here."
"Yes ma'am." Luz smirked as he sat in front of the girl.
"You don't have to say ma'am if I'm younger than you." She teased.
Jo took off his cap and examined the cut. Luckily, it was far enough from his eye to need stitches.
"You're lucky I don't have to do sutures, Luz." She sighed cleaning his cut.
"No, I'm lucky 'cause I get to see you, Lambert." Luz grinned.
Jo smiled back and finished placing the steri-strips on his wound. Her face grew solemn as she leaned back, taking in the trooper before her.
"What?" Luz asked. His tone grew somber as he noticed her demeanor.
"I'll miss you." She mumbled after she turned to put back the other medical supplies in the container.
Luz's grin dropped when he watched Jo. That night, the men would drop into Normandy. Sure, she had been prepared for that day, but when it came, Jo couldn't wrap her brain around it. George Luz had become her brother-away-from-home. He was always checking in on her and joking around, never failing to put a smile on Jo's face.
"It'll be okay, doll." Luz stood up. He placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug.
Jo gave a watery smile before he pulled back.
"I'm not that good with goodbyes." Luz admitted.
"This isn't goodbye." Jo mustered, looking at her friend.
-
Josephine Lambert watched the last plane fly up into the sky. Her hope overflowed and her mind went rampant when she thought about the troopers leaving. She had felt a part of East Company grow in her heart within the past year. Jo's memories were warm; Liebgott taking walks with her, Luz and her dancing, Nixon giving Jo her first drink, and so many more.
The next morning, Jo and Birdie got into a truck with some of the other medics. Their new uniforms were more like the military's uniforms. No more skirts - Jo was glad.
The scenery distracted her from the impending storm she and Birdie were headed to. Once they made it to the coast of England, just before the English channel, they boarded a civilian boat. Apparently, it was safe to cross in a non-military-issued boat. Jo had her doubts as she read the news clippings regarding submarine missilery and death upon the seas.
"It'll be alright, Jo." Birdie calmed her nerves as they reached further and further out into the water. The shoreline wasn't visible anymore.
Now, she was heading to enemy territory.
-
NORMANDY, FRANCE
June, 1944
The medic station buzzed with medics and wounded troopers. Jo and Birdie had just arrived, but they were already rolling up their sleeves to assist the staff with aiding the men.
"Help me set him over here." Jo ordered another medic to help her move the injured trooper onto a bed. "Get gauze, I'll get the bullet."
Jo took tweezers in her right hand and held the trooper down with her left arm. She began to pull out the bullet from his thigh, careful to avoid any major arteries. The trooper wailed in pain.
"You'll be alright-" She paused, looking at his name tag. "Private Golding."
"Uh huh." The man groaned in pain, trying to clutch his leg as Jo stitched it after she disinfected the area.
After an hour or so, she got a break. Most of the injured men had been taken in. There was supposed to be an attack later that day. She would most likely be busy again.
Jo had seen a lot of broken legs and ankles, mainly from their drop. She held back emotion as she walked out of the hospital, wiping blood off of her hands.
"Jo?" A voice called out over a crowd of troopers.
The girl whipped her head around to see Joe Liebgott standing alert, watching her as if he was unsure of the sight before his eyes.
"Lieb?" Jo smiled, relieved. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. He engulfed her frame with the biggest hug he could muster up.
"God, I was so worried." Liebgott revealed, looking at her face.
"You're the one who dropped from an airplane." She countered.
"Yeah, yeah." He laughed, then turned around to look at the men behind him. "Guys, look! It's Jo!"
The troopers got up quickly at those words and rushed over to her. Malarkey, Penkala, and Talbert hugged her immediately.
George Luz pushed all of them aside and crushed her in a tight embrace.
"No more goodbyes, okay?" Jo said as they broke apart.
"That's exactly what I was gonna say." Luz grinned.
"Lambert." Winters nodded to her.
"Lieutenant." She nodded back.
Buck Compton went up beside him.
"Actually, it's captain now." Buck patted the man's shoulder.
"What happened to Meehan?" Jo inquired, her eyebrows knitted together.
"We're not sure." Winters explained somberly. "No one has heard from him or Easy Company's headquarter troops."
Jo nodded, understanding that something must've happened to the plane over the D.Z.
"Lieutenant Speirs." Winters greeted the man.
Jo looked to the right to see Ronald Speirs standing with a fearless aura. The sides of his face were covered in three streaks of black paint.
Speirs shook Winters's hand, then he glanced at Jo. Her hair had been put into a low bun, smaller pieces falling out to frame her face.
"How many men have Dog Company got assembled?"
He snapped his gaze back to Winters and Compton.
"A handful, maybe twenty." Speirs replied nonchalantly.
"Are you the only officer that made it?" Winters asked.
"So far." He nodded. "I'm still waiting for orders."
Jo smiled to Luz as he and the others walked away - her attention back to the men before her.
"You got a cigarette?" Speirs asked Compton.
"Yeah." He pulled out a box of cigarettes and handed it to Speirs.
Speirs just took the box and walked off without any other words.
Winters huffed a laugh and looked at Jo. She shrugged.
"Yeah, just keep the whole thing." Compton muttered watching the man walk off - he seemed to be a professional at that, Jo noticed.
"Captain Winters, sir?" Jo asked, changing topics.
"Yes, Lambert?" He peered at the girl.
"What I'm about to ask you, sir, I understand if you want me gone." She started.
-
"What do you mean she wants to go on the front line?" Nixon exclaimed.
"It's crazy, Dick. She's crazy." Welsh ran a hand over his head. "If you think battalion HQ will let her-"
"Look, I'm not allowing anything yet." Winters argued. "It's just a possibility."
"Yeah, that's some possibility."
"Nix, just think- the main battalion plane is missing. We only have three medics, surely that's not enough." Winters interjected.
"You're not taking her with second platoon." Nixon shook his head. "She has no training, or experience."
"Was I the only one who saw her go up Currahee?" Welsh chuckled, breaking some of the tension.
"I can't tell her anything until Horton and I speak." Winters sighed and walked off.
Nixon and Welsh looked at each other wearily.
"No. There's no way that's happening." Nixon shook his head once more. It wasn't malicious, he was just concerned for Jo. "He can't let Jo go out there."
"Lambert?" Speirs came up to the two men out of the blue.
"Uh, yeah. She requested to be a combat medic." Welsh revealed to the stoic man.
Speirs's face contorted into something that they couldn't decipher.
"Are you alright?" Nixon asked, his eyes studying the man.
Speirs nodded and clenched his jaw before spotting Jo through the window of the aid station.
"See you 'round." He added then headed into the building. Welsh and Nixon furrowed their brows at the strange moment then went about their business.
Speirs opened the door and was instantly met with frantic people moving all around the emergency med area. His eyes searched for a particular nurse and he saw Jo holding the hand of a trooper as Roe stitched a large torso gash.
"Lambert." Speirs greeted the girl. She looked up with welcoming eyes.
"Sir." Jo smiled with pressed lips.
There was a silent moment.
"Roe." He greeted to the other medic, realizing the tension.
Eugene nodded to the lieutenant and went back to his work.
"Is there something you need, sir?" Jo asked softly. She had a gentle presence that calmed everything. Speirs knew for a fact that if she hadn't been holding that wounded trooper's hand, he would be writhing in pain within that moment. It was like the midas touch. Even in her line of sight, he felt a wave of serenity wash over him.
"Uh, no." Was all Speirs told her and then he left the two medics at their station.
Jo looked at Roe weirdly.
"What the hell was that?" She asked.
"You're asking the wrong person, Jo." Roe shrugged.
Speirs bolted out of the aid station his hand clutching his helmet at the pace he went at.
From the moment he found out about Josephine Lambert's request to go on the front lines, Speirs felt a need to do something. He didn't know what. Talking to her clearly failed, he clammed up.
The lieutenant didn't have a clue why he had been thinking about it that much, even at all. There was a war going on.
-
Birdie watched as her friend put an oversized helmet on.
"I can't believe you're doing this." She mumbled with worry sprawled across her face.
Jo placed the medic armband on her sleeve and looked at the girl.
"Think of it as a dry run. Battalion HQ just wants to see how it'll go." She told Birdie.
"Yeah, well except it's not a dry run. Second platoon is taking over Kraut trenches. You'll definitely be in the line of fire, Jo." Birdie groaned. "A woman in combat? No way."
Jo sighed and looked at her.
"You were once proud of me." She said.
"That was when you weren't trying to get yourself killed."
"Maybe this is what I was meant to do." Jo told Birdie.
Bernadette Herst said nothing as her friend walked away, heading towards Easy Company. How in the hell Horton allowed this, no one will ever know.
"You got your side bag?" Roe asked, having her double check.
"Yes, Doc." Jo pointed to the bag at her hip.
Roe looked at her helmet, a tilted smile danced on his lips.
"Y'might want to adjust the chin strap." He added, pointing to it.
Jo let out a breathy laugh as she tightened the helmet to her head.
"I'll be waitin' for ya here."
"See you on the flip side, Roe."
Jo smiled at the man and made her way over to Winters. Some of Easy Company surrounded him. They gave pointed stares to her as she stood beside them. Bill Guarnere scoffed and shook his head in disbelief.
"Today's been a day of firsts." He muttered to the trooper next to him. Jo stiffened and looked up to see Winters already looking at her. He nodded to her before placing a piece of paper on the table before them.
"The 88s we've been hearing have been spotted in a field down the road aways. Major Strayer wants us to take them out." Winters started to draw on the paper, showing a simple map. "There are guns that we know of, firing on Utah beach, and plan on a third and fourth. Here and here."
Jo watched as he pointed to the marks he placed upon the paper.
"The Germans are in the trenches with access to the entire battery, and with machine gun cover in the rear. We'll establish a base of fire and move under it hard and fast with two squads of three."
"How many Krauts you think we're facin'?" Toye asked.
"No idea." Winters answered.
"No idea?" Guarnere asked.
Winters paused before continuing.
"We'll take some TNT along with us, to spike the guns." He explained. "Lipton, your responsibility."
"Yes sir." He nodded.
"Liebgott, you'll take the first machine gun with Gurner."
They nodded.
"Lambert, you'll follow behind. Only move through the trenches when needed."
"Yes sir." She said.
"Plesha, Hendrix, you two take the other. Who does that leave?"
Some men raised their hands.
"Compton, Malarkey, Toye, Guarnere." Winters looked at them. "Okay. We'll be making the main assault. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Alright let's pack it up, boys." Winters left the crowd. Jo exhaled uncomfortably at his last word.
"Y'hear that Lambert?" Guarnere chided, his eyes scrutinized her. "You should stay back. Y'know, with the other nurses."
She blocked the sound of his Philly accent out and turned on her heel to leave.
Jo swore to herself that she wouldn't let another douche bag like Bill Guarnere spent all over her, because when it came down to going on the front line, she would be the one to save his ass.
-