A/N: And this is where paying attention to the tags gets important. While there's not explicit scenes here, there are allusions and implications of sexual assault and more. Please be aware that the next few chapters deal very heavily with these themes. If you're uncomfortable at any point, skip ahead or stop reading! Thank you! I also took a few liberties, so this is where things differ from both the show and historical accuracy.
September, 1944
Doctor Kathryn Egan was in the middle of a triage when everything really went to hell . Maybe it was the fact that the Allied Forces were falling back and the nurses couldn't just leave their patients. There were 12 men who were in critical condition and she was doing her best to float between the different stations.
But there was too much to be done. Too much to be done for her—and she was just one woman, attempting to do surgery as quickly and efficiently as she could. She had limited supplies and she knew that by staying with their patients, she was putting the rest of them at risk, but that was just a risk she was going to have to take.
They had lives to save, they had men that they could not abandon, could not give up on. And in the very same way that her brother wouldn't abandon his men, in the very same way that Buck Cleven would sit there and take heavy fire and keep going, Kathryn Egan was bound and determined to do the same.
And it was this very mentality that would be her undoing.
Pinching skin together, Kathryn coated her hands in blood and began to sew up the wound as quickly as she could. "We need to get the bleeding under control! Maggie, can you—"
But Maggie was already on it.
The thing about working with these nurses for as long as she had been working with them was the fact that they knew how to work with one another. They picked up on signals and cues that others just wouldn't. And the other thing was that they listened to Kathryn's orders, however unorthodox and however challenging they might be. Because they knew that Kathryn had their best interests at heart.
If the nurses knew what was coming though, they would have abandoned that field hospital. They would have turned tail and run, never to be seen again. They would have even left their patients. But they didn't know.
Didn't know that Allied bombings had taken down several main roads that Lieutenant Hausmann was taking to get to his next interrogation. Didn't know that he had ordered a back road to be taken. Didn't know that he was now in a car and approaching their location—although he wouldn't know that either.
They just didn't know.
The nurses were unaware that Allied Forces had nearly gotten in a firefight trying to get the car off the road and they had succeeded. Didn't know that Hausmann and four German soldiers were now trekking through to try and find some sort of vehicle that could take them where they were meant to go.
Didn't know that Hausmann saw the field hospital and knew that he had leverage . Because no Allied forces were going to attack a hostaged field hospital with a bunch of nurses and wounded men. It wasn't the honorable option, but he was running out of those.
So when Kathryn Egan was in the middle of a surgery—attempting to extract a bullet from a soldier's gut—the last thing she expected was the sound of a gunshot. And for a moment, she thought she was hit. But then her patient went limp and when Kathryn glanced up, she found four German soldiers and a Nazi Lieutenant standing there, smoking gun in hand.
"If I were you, I'd step away from the patient."
Kathryn just felt like she was going to throw up as she stood there, slowly raising her blood-coated hands in the air. She couldn't help her gaze from slipping down to the patient on the table, eyes glazed over and staring at nothing.
"Do as he says," Kathryn said in a careful tone, gaze leveling back on the man.
She heard the clamber as all of the nurses stepped away from their patients. "Where is the doctor in charge?" The man questioned, gaze casting over the group of women.
When no one spoke, he stepped forward and shot another patient—this time causing Inez to let out a shocked gasp of horror—she flinched violently back into Rhoda, who just caught her shoulder and held onto her.
"Who is the doctor in charge?"
"I am," Kathryn said in a steady tone—truth be told, she felt very far away from herself. She should have been afraid, should have felt some sort of level of fear, but all she felt was a quiet and steady beating heart that reminded her she was still here. That she was still alive.
His gaze narrowed and he sneered. "A woman doctor?"
"It's true," Rhoda's motherly tone cut through the silence.
Kathryn thought she had seen cruelty in his eyes before, but now as his gaze landed on her, she just wanted to curl up into herself. The way that he looked at her was sickening . "In Germany, women know their place," he sneered. "I will question each one of you. And you will answer honestly or you will meet the same fate as these unfortunate men."
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Those first few hours of interrogation—they were hellish. Later, Kathryn wished she would've done something earlier. But she just sat there and waited for her turn. She knew that if she moved to help any of her patients, they would be killed along with her. She knew what these men were capable of. And it was a stark realization.
The best she could hope for was that two things could happen. The first, and altogether more unlikely, was that the Allied Soldiers returned to get the field hospital and were able to get them out of this situation. The second, and altogether more likely, was that the Germans would reach them first and they'd be sent to a Prisoner of War Camp or some sort of Civilian Camp.
But she knew what happened to women in those camps. She knew what men were capable of. Had known it since the first time her mother told her to hide her shoulders and knees. Had known it every time she tried to walk home by herself and her brother or Buck or someone had accompanied her.
Because to be a woman was to face the harsh realities of what men were truly capable of.
Since Kathryn had been pointed out as the leader of the company of nurses and the resident doctor, the Lieutenant had deigned to interrogate the others first. And so she sat in the dirt, twigs cutting into her knees and waiting for her turn. Each girl returned paler than she had been before and nearly shaking like a leaf.
She wasn't sure what he had said to them, or even what he had done . Any signs of talking got a gun waved in their face. And Kathryn wasn't about to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they scared her.
Kathryn needed to be untouchable. Unbeatable. These were her girls, her nurses, her comrades. And she was going to do her best to protect them, no matter the cost. She'd negotiate, she'd fight her way out if needed, she'd comply when needed, but she would do it for them .
Then it was Kathryn's turn. She was hauled up off of the ground harshly by the elbow, nearly having it pulled from its socket. Kathryn didn't even make a noise of pain or complaint as she was forced into a chair and found herself staring at the Lieutenant. He was a greasy man—with coldness and an emptiness in his eyes, hiding behind glasses. Something about the way that he held himself just made her skin crawl.
But she didn't react. She just stared at him, unflinching. It seemed to unnerve him and he blinked first, glancing down at the paper in front of him. "Your name?"
" Doctor Kathryn Egan."
She didn't fail to notice the pause as he went to write her name and the way his brow furrowed in concentration. "How did you come to this position?"
"Germans shot our doctor in the head as we arrived in the field," Kathryn bit the words out like they were shards of ice.
"I see," he finally wrote down her answer. "It is just an unusual thing to find a woman who is a doctor here. I am Lieutenant Hausmann."
"I don't care."
He nearly smirked, leaning forward. "You should care very much, Dr. Egan. I am the difference between life and death. Pain and pleasure. Comfort and cold."
If Kathryn Egan felt any discomfort at his words, she certainly didn't show it. She just narrowed her gaze and clenched her fists tighter around her uniformed skirt. "You're not God," she said innocently.
His jaw ticked in annoyance as he stared at her. "Where are you from, Dr. Egan?" He finally questioned, glancing down at his questions again.
"Wisconsin."
"Manitowoc, yes?"
Kathryn felt her blood turn to ice as she stared at him. He had no emotion in his eyes, nothing that said he was testing her—but he knew exactly where she was from. It made her mouth dry and as she heard him say it, she felt it in her bones. He had, at some point anyway, spoken to her brother. He had information on John Bucky Egan.
"That would be correct," Kathryn said lightly. "Do you know so much about all of the nurses or is it just me?"
Yet again, Hausmann found himself caught off-guard. If he thought that playing mind-games with Bucky Egan was a task, interrogating Egan's sister was even more of a game of wits. And at the moment, she had caught onto him. She hadn't reacted. Hadn't done anything about it. It was unnerving.
"No," Hausmann admitted, setting down his pen. "I admit, I was intrigued to hear of a female doctor on the front. I was even more intrigued when I heard your last name. You do remind me of someone."
"I'm afraid I don't bear much resemblance to anyone you'd know," Kathryn sneered. "Is this your way of trying to appeal to my feminine charm, by chatting me up about things? Because I can assure you, you won't get much out of me."
"That's what your brother said, too." At that, Kathryn froze. And he couldn't help but grin. Giving her a piece of the bone and then tugging it away from her was so much more satisfying than just telling her things. "How was your stay at Thorpe Abbot?"
At that, Kathryn's jaw snapped shut and she leaned back in her chair. "Like I said, you're not getting much out of me."
"Come now, Kathryn—can I call you Kathryn?" He didn't even wait for a response. "This can be very very pleasant, or this can get messy. That's all up to you. After all, this is the front," he said, getting up and crossing behind her.
She tensed immediately, warning signs and sounds going off in her head. But she couldn't do anything as he set his hands down on her shoulders—making her go stiff as a board. "Things happen all of the time, don't they?"
Kathryn couldn't help it—as his hands slipped down into her jacket, she slammed her forehead upwards and collided with his chin. He let out a gasp of surprise and the next thing she knew, something hard and metal was colliding with her jaw and sending her slamming into the table face first. She didn't even get a shriek out before he was hauling her up by her hair and she was staring at him with wide eyes.
Pain radiated from where the butt of his gun had collided with her jaw and she tasted something metallic in her mouth as she stared into his cold and dead eyes. But she did not flinch as she stared at him. "I don't like to be touched," Kathryn hissed the words out in as venomous a tone she could muster.
He slowly released her, dropping her back into the chair. Kathryn let out a breath as he crossed back over to his chair, this time with the gun trained on her. It wasn't much better than the situation had been before, but at least he wasn't touching her this time. At least his disgusting and grimy hands weren't on her chest anymore.
"You know, I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement, Kathryn. Don't you?" Hausmann questioned, narrowing his gaze.
Kathryn's gaze was locked onto the pistol in his possession. It loomed larger than anything else in this war. A startling reminder of her own mortality. "That all depends on the terms of said arrangement," Kathryn barely managed to keep her voice level.
"I'm so glad that we understand each other."
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Those few hours where Kathryn Egan and her nurses were held by the Germans was absolutely hellish. But the way that it all ended was so much worse. When Hausmann heard that there were reinforcements coming, he had made a game out of it. It wasn't the fun kind of a game, but the kind of game that made Kathryn wonder whether this was hell and they were already dead.
You see, if the Germans approached first, then they all got to live. Each of them would be interrogated and sent to a Civilian Camp or a Prisoner of War Camp, that is if they decided to advocate for that. Kathryn knew what went on at the Civilian Camps to women and the type of experimentation that might take place at such a place as that. At least if they ended up as POW's, then they stood a chance to have soldiers defend them and stand with them.
Hausmann even mentioned that if that happened, she might come face to face with some familiar faces. That had made her insides curdle like milk and the thought of her brother or Buck learning that she was out here on the front was sickening enough.
But the second and altogether worse option was if the Allies approached. Because if they did, then Hausmann had given the soldiers under his command an order. It was simple really—they were to be brutalized by these men and then shot and left to be found by the Allies. They were to be made examples of why Germany would never give in to the war.
And the minute that those words left his lips, she knew what was coming.
But it wasn't until the Allies were approaching that things got wildly out of control. Hausmann had just been finishing up his handiwork on Kathryn Egan when she had stabbed him in the mouth with a scalpel. It was so shocking that a woman would even dare to fight back against him—
And so when he pulled his trigger on Kathryn Egan and she landed unmoving in a ditch, he must have thought she was dead. So dead, in fact, that he plucked the necklace off of her neck just to make a point. Because he knew where he'd be taking that locket and ring—and if it meant torturing Major Egan in some way for not complying, then it was all the better.
But Kathryn Egan was not dead. She did not die. And she was about to raise utter destruction and hell in her wake.