HI! They're in love, your honor :)
Kathryn was just finishing up the last of her rounds in the hospital when she spotted something rather out of sorts. It wasn't that it was altogether surprising to her—it's just that Major Gale Cleven shouldn't have been in the hospital in the first place anyhow. Especially given the fact that he had already finished up his interrogation and had helped her return Meatball to DeMarco.
She glanced at the rest of her rows of beds and frowned. Two to go; she grabbed the sheets in a hurry, making short time before making her way over to Buck, who was sitting quietly in a chair against the wall.
"Aren't you missing dinner right now?"
Buck blinked, eyes landing on Kathryn Egan standing there with a curious expression on her face. His gaze searched past her and landed on the wall and he gave a sigh. "I guess I am, yeah."
"Well why?" She questioned, shifting her position to hold the sheets more fully.
His eyes searched down the rows of hospital beds, where several of his men lay recovering from surgeries and wounds sustained from the mission. "I don't want them to be alone."
For a moment, Kathryn just stared at him. It almost unnerved him, the way that she didn't say anything at all. "They don't make men like you, Gale Cleven," Kathryn finally settled on her thoughts, giving him a small smile.
"Well I don't know about that," he ducked his head and felt a smile unnecessarily spreading across his features.
"Well I do. No one else has done what you're doing right now," Kathryn glanced at the window and she frowned. "You didn't eat breakfast either."
"Are you keeping track of everyone's eating habits?"
"Just my friends," Kathryn said pointedly. "I'll bring you something from the mess hall."
"You don't have to do that."
"No, but you don't have to sit here with them either."
If there was one thing that Gale Cleven knew, it was that once an Egan got something into their head, there was just no stopping them. No amount of arguing, no amount of talking, or convincing—nothing in the world—could stop an Egan from doing whatever the hell that they wanted.
She hadn't even been gone for a full ten minutes before she was bustling in with two bowls of soup and some bread, looking more concentrated than he had ever seen her. "You really didn't have to—"
"And this is where you thank me," Kathryn said, placing the bowl in his hands pointedly. "What will everyone think if the pilots don't eat?"
He rolled his eyes at that and realized, quite suddenly, that she had brought her own dinner too. "Kath—"
"Oh don't 'Kath' me. That's my brother's job," she said, grabbing a chair and sitting across from him.
"Well alright, I won't." Buck stated, waiting a moment until she had taken the first bite. "So kindergarten?" He questioned, furrowing his brow.
In the dim light of the hospital wing, with the fading light, he could still see the blush dust across her cheeks. "I like working with kids. They're nicer than grown men."
"Well I can't argue with that."
"You just shouldn't argue with me anyway." At that, Buck gave a laugh and Kathryn realized it was probably the first time all day that he had laughed. She liked it when he laughed—liked to be the source of the smile and the laugh. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"I mean—" Kathryn just stifled a grin. "If there wasn't a war , what would you be doing?"
He shrugged. "I guess I never gave it much thought."
"You should."
"Why do you care so much?"
Kathryn was almost taken off-guard by the directness of the question—but to be fair, she had started it by asking. "This war isn't going to last forever. And if you're going to make it through, you have to start thinking about what happens afterwards too."
"I didn't peg you as an optimist."
"I'm not," Kathryn amended her statement. "I just think that we all need a little bit of hope sometimes."
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Kathryn found that sleep was elusive as smoke. Every time she tried to reach it, it just wafted higher and higher out of reach. Her bed was rickety and it wasn't much of a real bed . But she supposed that the days where she slept in an actual bed and not a military cot were long over.
She wondered how the men slept soundly at all. To sleep on a bed that felt like the ground, to wake up and know that you were risking your life—she almost wondered if the government knew just how bad these beds were. But then again, this was war. No amount of complaining was going to change the fact that they just didn't have the resources to give every man a soft bed.
Tossing and turning was second-nature to her at nighttime. When she had lived at home, she had shared a room with her older sister. Then of course, her sister had been married and she had been alone in the room. College was better and she had roommates there too—
And this wasn't far from what she thought of college as. She liked the other nurses well enough to feel at times, like this was just a roommate situation and that they were all there for something besides war.
Just then, in the darkness of the room, Kathryn's ears caught onto a muffled cry. Almost immediately, Kathryn was sitting straight up and staring into the dim room. Another cry and Kathryn didn't hesitate—
Annika was sitting in her bed and weeping. Kathryn didn't even register the light being turned on, or the fact that she and Laura were kneeling at Annika's sides, or the fact that Poppy and Becky were rushing around the room like mother hens. Annika was shaking like a leaf, face pale and a thin sheen of sweat running down her head.
"I—" Annika's voice cracked as she looked around at the bunkhouse full of women. "It was just a dream," her voice sounded very small—even smaller than her usual gentle tone that she used to speak.
"Oh sweetheart," Kathryn murmured, grabbing the nearest cloth and wiping at the sweat on her head. "Were you having a nightmare?"
"No?" Annika hiccuped.
"Ani," Laura said, grabbing her hand softly. "Talk to us."
"It was—there was so much blood!" Annika exclaimed.
Laura and Kathryn locked eyes—the same thought process seeming to take place between them. Annika was rather sensitive, and she had a gentle soul. The war wasn't meant for everyone, even those who wanted to help. If this was too much for Annika, then they needed to handle this amongst themselves. It'd be awful if Doctor Adler found out about the entire thing.
The girls just hugged her. And there, in the dim light of dawn, Kathryn felt the bond of sisterhood. That only those five nurses would ever know—they would forever be bound by the blood of the men that they worked on. The blood would linger and remain lodged under their nails for years to come but only they would understand. No one else would ever be able to recognize the horrors that they, the nurses of the war, had seen.
It was one thing to be a woman in time of war. It was quite another to hold the hand of men as they slipped from this world into another. It was quite another to get up every morning, put on stockings and a skirt, plaster Victory Red on your lips, and smile and have a kind word for every soldier that passed. It was something that no one would quite be able to articulate or understand.
The girls didn't go back to sleep after that. It was already morning, after all. And no one could quite sleep after Annika's confession of her nightmare. Still, they talked quietly until it was time for them to begin their duties.
And that next morning, bright and early, each of the nurses was called into the new Commanding Officer's Office. There wasn't much known about Colonel Harding—just that he had arrived as quickly as the former Colonel had left and that he had a higher standard for the work that he expected to be done on the base.
Standing there in their Nurse's Uniform, hair tightly bound and makeup carefully placed, Kathryn just felt small in the presence of this Colonel. "I expect nothing but the best from the nurses here at Thorpe Abbots. I will be holding you to a standard of professionalism that is seldom seen here in Europe. Is that understood?"
The girls all exchanged a glance. "Yes sir," Kathryn piped up, keeping her chin up and posture as straight as she could. They hadn't been through any sort of basic training, but they could answer questions correctly, if nothing else.
Colonel Harding narrowed his gaze at her. "I take it that you're Nurse Egan?"
"Yes, sir."
"Mrs?"
"No, sir. Major Egan's my brother."
He just gave a look of amusement at that. "That won't be a problem, now will it?"
"No, sir."
Colonel Harding just stared at the group of nurses for a long minute. "Alright. Dismissed."
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Despite the stone cold and somewhat frosty reception the nurses had received from Colonel Harding, it seemed that this Colonel was much more receptive to partying than he had initially let on. It wasn't uncommon for new Commanding Officers to be greeted that same night with a party of sorts to commence their standing.
The party was in full swing, with the band playing and dancing all around the room. Kathryn had no sooner detached herself from Becky's grasp that she found herself swarmed by a group of pilots—all with her brother drinking in the center.
"Kitty!" Bucky exclaimed excitedly.
She just rolled her eyes and glanced over at DeMarco and Buck. "How much did he have to drink? The party just started!"
"Enough." Buck murmured, shaking his head at Bucky.
"And who is this lovely lady—" One of the boys had hurried to the front of the crowd and Kathryn found herself immediately surprised by his boldness.
"Oh no, no, no!" Bucky poked the pilot in the chest. "Not my baby sister, Curt!"
Kathryn didn't even blink. "Curt, is it?"
"Curtis, ma'am," The pilot placed a hand dramatically over his heart as he introduced himself. "And I believe he said that your name was Kitty?"
The thick New-York accent didn't phase her and she grinned. "Oh I think we're gonna get along great!"
"No!" Bucky slurred, grabbing her by the shoulders and moving her to the side. "These boys are on my side!"
"Your side?" Kathryn glanced over at Buck and DeMarco.
"He's got spies to keep an eye on you," DeMarco deadpanned.
"Enlightening."
"Traitor," Bucky grumbled.
"Meatball loves her." As if that explained the entire situation.
"Well, Curt—how would you like to dance with my friend Annika?"
The other pilot brightened at the thought. "Really?"
"Yes! She'll love talking to you!" Buck just watched as she whisked Biddick away to go dance with Annika, finally returning to find that her brother was already dancing with another girl. "Oh thank God. I didn't want to deal with him all night," Kathryn exclaimed.
"You're certainly keeping busy tonight." Buck pointed out.
"Just trying to keep everyone in a good mood," Kathryn admitted, leaning against the wall as the crowd dissipated ever so slightly.
"Big job."
"Tell me about it," Kathryn grinned. "And if you ever gave the inclination that you enjoyed dancing, I'd try to find someone for you too."
"Your brother already does that enough."
"Oh I bet," Kathryn's gaze just swept over the crowd and the band playing. A soft smile crossed her features and for a moment, Gale Cleven was transfixed by the smile on her face. Everything seemed to just disappear when she smiled. She was like a ray of sunshine in human form. "What?"
He blinked. "Sorry?"
"You're staring. Did my lipstick smear or something?" She asked in a lowered tone, giving him a funny expression.
"No—" His voice trailed off. Her lipstick never smeared. In fact, Kathryn Egan hardly ever looked as if she wasn't something out of a dream. Always immaculate and perfect in every way, shape, and form. "Just thinking!" He finally stated.
"About?"
"Did you ever get those sheets to where they were supposed to be?" He changed the subject quickly.
Kathryn just held up her hands in a surrendering motion. His gaze fell on the raw skin of her hands. "Don't you know that the nurses wash the sheets?" She questioned.
He swallowed dryly—her hands were drier than he had ever seen them. Not that he had focused on her hands much before, for the record. But the fact of the matter was that he didn't particularly love seeing the cost of war on Kathryn Egan's hands. Hands that should not have to scrub something raw so that blood would come out of it.
"Maybe they oughta start having the local women do the laundry."
She nearly laughed. "And put me out of a job? No thank you."
Kathryn found that with Gale Cleven, time just seemed to pass so quickly. And before she knew it, it was already nearly the early hours of the morning. When it was just the two of them, she felt as though she could talk to him for hours and it never felt like enough time.
So when he offered to walk her back to the nurses bunkhouse yet again, this time she didn't argue. She could learn from him too—
The ground was uneven and she let out a slight wince as her feet hit the gravel of the night. "Are you alright?"
"Oh just fine—" Kathryn grunted for a moment, finally slipping off her heels and just frowning at the dirt path ahead. "Just picking my poison."
He smiled at her. "I'll take them."
Kathryn was speechless for just a moment as he gently took her heels from her hands. "Thank you," she murmured. For a moment, he didn't say anything either—he just let his shoulder brush against hers as they walked.
She supposed it was an Egan trait to hate silence. Her brother certainly never let a moment of silence sit still. "You're a lot more fun than my brother will ever know," Kathryn stated evenly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He laughed.
"He thinks you're boring because you don't do the stuff he does. I don't think that you are."
"That's a high compliment coming from you."
"Well of course it is, I'm hard to impress."
"Are you saying that I impress you?"
She nearly tripped—she was so taken aback by the comment that Kathryn didn't even focus on the ground beneath her—and the next thing she knew she was falling and then it was all just stopping. She was certain, for just a moment, that this was the most undignified way to die and that of all the people she had to die in front of, it would be Gale Cleven.
He had caught her by the waist, a low laugh spilling from his lips. "I didn't think nurses were this clumsy."
Kathryn lightly swatted at his shoulder—unable to stop the smile that had appeared on her face, alongside a deep blush. "Now you're teasing me."
"Just a little," He said, straightening her back onto the path. "For ego purposes."
She didn't let go of his shoulders for another second, just staring at him. "Well I suppose I deserve that," she finally stammered out. It took another second to realize that she was solidly in his grasp and his hands were still on her waist. She gave a cough and her gaze fell back on the path as they both fell back into line. "That was a nice save back there."
"Well I could hardly let you fall, now could I?"
"I don't know—I think I saw my life flash before my eyes." Kathryn admitted, albeit a little shyly. "It's an undignified end. I don't even have my shoes on."
He laughed and as they came to a stop outside the nurses bunkhouse, he handed over her shoes. "Kathryn Egan, they don't make women like you."
The proud smile did not dissipate for the rest of the night. And it did not leave her face when she wrote in her journal and when she got into her bed that night. It did not go away when she slipped her journal under her pillow and it didn't go away as she tried to fall asleep.
Maybe falling in love with Major Buck Cleven wouldn't be that bad.
And maybe, just maybe, she would be okay with it.