" She was unstoppable. Not because she did not have failures or doubts. But because she continued on despite them."
- Beau Taplin
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( a/n ) hey! i'm back after my few days of not uploading! band camp is finally over, so i have some free time before school to relax and write finally and get back to a normal updating schedule! since i wasn't able to upload for a few days, this is a longer chapter for all my lovely readers, and i'll try to post another chapter or two today! thanks so much for all the comments, reads, and votes! i appreciate every single one of you so much!
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It was D-Day Plus 6, and Easy Company was on the outskirts of Carentan, France. Smoke dusted lightly over the streets, and a creaky window pane swung back and forth as the sun beat down. The Company was quiet, snug in the sunk down sides of the street leading in. The soldiers were piled on the two sides of the road and Charlotte's heart pounded. She knew she had to be ready. There were going to be injuries, and death, and blood. She prepared herself mentally as soldiers stood to their feet, and crouched, hurried forward. She heard the first gunshots, and saw the first two bodies fall, as Luz with his big-ass radio, and Welsh hurrying toward a wall to dodge the bullets.
" In the ditch!" someone yelled, but Charlotte flew to her stomach, grimacing. She watched the two soldiers moving around in pain and their yells and cries echoed towards her. They called for a medic, the very words Charlotte had been trained to hear for years finally being yelled now. She didn't hear Winters yelling at her to stop and get in the ditch. She mustered all her strength and propelled forward through the gunfire coming her way. She yanked one of the soldier's collars and pulled him into the bushes and the ditch. She took a deep breath and reached out pulling the other one into the ditch. As she teared a pack of sulfa with her teeth she heard Winters yelling multiple commands at Easy to move. She poured the powder onto the soldier's wound, and then pulled out a needle of morphine. She plunged it into the guy's leg who immediately calmed down as she continued to strain for Winter's voice. She looked at the poor guy.
" Hey, buddy, I'm gonna fix you up, nice and tight alright?" she cooed, tying a cloth around his leg to control the massive bleeding from the wound.
" Doc, I don't wanna die." he cried, tears expelling from his eyes.
" You won't die in my hands, bud." she whispered, yanking the bandage tighter, before tying it comfortably.
" Stay right here." she said and squeezed his shoulder. She teetered off toward the other soldier collapsing next to him.
" Hey there, bud. I'm gonna take care of ya and make sure you get some sulfa on that wound, and you'll be just fine. " she said, pulling some morphine from her pocket and plunging it into the opposite thigh.
" Is that you Sunshine?" the voice mumbled. The young girl didn't recognize the soldier, blood covering his face, but she promised to make sure to see him when he healed up.
" It's me, buddy." she cooed, ripping the sulfa bag with her teeth again and pouring it into the wound. She wrapped his leg like she did the other soldier, tightly, and securely, before racing off again behind buildings and through rubble to the rest of the men and the gunfire. She maneuvered her way behind another building when another call for a medic arose. She moved through the gunfire and moved around a corner seeing Lipton's platoon. She crouched, hurrying past the waiting men and yanking the man back behind the fire line. The soldier in front of her was young, the wound in his arm, ugly and bloody. She carefully, pulled her scissors from her pocket and cut open the area where the wound was. She pulled another sulfa packet out and began pouring it to the wound and wrapping the wound in a bandage to contain it. She then plunged the morphine into his body and set him gently against the wall. Another cry for a medic echoed and she adjusted the soldier in front of her gently.
" Stay down!" came a guttural voice. Charlotte launched forward, shielding the soldier she was crouched over top of. She yanked the bandage in her teeth as the soldier cried underneath her.
" I got ya buddy, it's gonna be okay." she called through the piece of fabric in between in her teeth. All the sudden, the front of the building exploded, and Charlotte launched forward onto her stomach again, moving past the soldier she had just taken care of. Someone collapsed nearby, a sharp, high pitched shot echoing.
" Merde." she hissed under her breath. " Sniper." She hauled herself to her feet, throwing herself behind a rock wall, her butt slamming onto the rock hard ground. She pushed her helmet up and out of her eyes, and peeked out from behind the wall. Another explosion echoed and she curled into a ball, shielding herself from the explosion and debris. Her wide eyes watched as glass pierced the cobblestone streets, and she froze for a minute. Fear rocketed like adrenaline through her entire body as heavy breaths rasped her body and she tried to grasp her boundaries again. She looked around the corner again, seeing Welsh running full speed at the main building, a grenade launched into the unsuspecting German. The building insides exploded.
" Medic!" she heard someone scream from her left. She hopped up from her spot on the ground and navigated herself behind the buildings finding a soldier grimacing in complete pain, a bullet graze on his palm from where he was holding his weapon.
" Hey Doc." he called in a grimace. Charlotte pulled her scissors from her pocket cutting open the spot where the burn was.
" Hiya bud." she answered, " This may sting, but then I'll wrap it up nice and tight for ya."
" Whatever you need, Doc." he answered with another grimace. Charlotte pulled gauze and a wrap from her pack and cleaned the wound out quickly before wrapping it up. He grimaced, but she quickly pulled the wrap around a bit tighter again and tied it off.
" This'll heal up real nice." she called turning on her heals and jumping in the air avoiding a few shots fired her way. She raced forward a few Germans stumbling out of the building Luz had burst into coming out and collapsing to the ground. Guarnere's squad came up and hurried into the other building. Charlotte raced straight out in the open, the calls of another medic being rung throughout the town. She narrowly saw more soldiers and paratroopers making their way into the streets of Carentan. A house exploded near her, making her fly to the ground and collapse in a huddle. She felt a ringing in her ears, a pounding in her head as she turned to stare at the building. She slowly got to her feet, dizzy and disoriented.
The last she'd been disorientated like this was when she'd jumped into the ocean near her house, and the waves had rolled her over and over again back to the shore and she couldn't tell up from down. She stumbled over her feet, and collapsed on the ground near the injured soldier. She shook her head and focused. She saw the bleeding in his foot, and focused on the blood gushing from the area. He cried in pain.
" I'm sorry, Doc, I'm sorry. If I'd moved-"
" Nothing to be sorry about, Private. I'm gonna patch you up nice and good." she said, pulling out her bandages to clean the bloodied area. She began wrapping the foot careful of the gunfire nearby. When all was said and done she stood and began running again, her chest heaving, dust flying up her nose.
" They got us zeroed!" called Lipton's booming voice, echoing over the main street as a loud explosion rang off. She shoved herself to the wall, an explosion shaking her core.
" Medic!" someone screamed and she hurried forward again. She collapsed beside Joe Toye who was pulling the downed man behind a building.
" Help us!" she called to a Private nearby. The Private turned and helped Joe and Charlotte get the man to relative safety.
" Medic!" someone again screamed. Joe tried to grab the girl as mortars rained down, but she was out and running going toward the source of the voice. She jumped over a barrel and almost ran straight into Buck's crew coming around the corner, but she pulled back when a building nearby exploded. She turned, pushing her hands to her head and running forward and thanked God himself when she saw Gene already crouched over the downed soldier.
" Move, move, move!" Lipton was yelling his voice raw.
" Get off the street!" he yelled again. An explosion rattled the street, as Charlotte saw Lipton fly off his feet and back into a concrete wall. She almost could've exploded at the sight and began high-tailing it toward Lipton.
" Shit, shit, shitty, shit, shit." she muttered, dodging another mortar, and collapsing against the silent LIpton.
" Lip." she murmured, hauling him to sitting position as Tab came running over. She focused on his face, brushing dirt from his eyes which wavered on her.
" Hey, buddy." called Tab, focusing on his body.
" Lip, hey, love, look at me." she cooed, trying to watch his eyes, follow her finger. He was in a complete daze. His eyes glazed over, focusing on his feet. When her brother on the football team had gotten hit hard by a defensive end, and nearly passed out, his eyes held the same look. Her and Tab met eyes and then looked down where Lip's eyes went. Tab made a jump and carefully opened the bloody patch.
" You're ok, Lip, everything's right where it should be." Tab said and Charlotte watched Lipton sigh to himself in relief. She patted Tab on the shoulder.
" Can you take it from here?" she asked, over the firing, as another call for a medic came.
" Go ahead, sunshine." he said with a nod in her direction. She looked one last time at Lipton and then took off again. She scampered through the streets and froze when a loud explosion echoed at a house nearby. She went running to the noise. Her heart pounded at the voices she heard when she rounded the corner. Her heart dropped, stomach rising and falling rapidly. There was Liebgott, cradling Tipper who had blood on his face, and wounds everywhere, his foot smoking.
" Lieb..." she managed out, her voice caught in her chest, as she attempted to clear her throat, and remain calm. Liebgott looked up and met the eyes of the young medic who's attention was focused on Tipper. His voice was a wavering, a gasping plead for a breath of air, his body shaking with fear. Liebgott even looked shook up by the whole thing, his eyes glazed. Tipper's whimpers made Charlotte's heart break as she slowly made her way over. She collapsed next to the two and stared into Tipper's long eyes. Liebgott quietly spoke to the shaking soldier.
" You hang in there, buddy. Okay? Sunshine's gonna get you fixed up. She always does." Liebgott said softly. Charlotte assessed Tipper. He needed to be taken to medical hut.
" Help me get him up." she said quickly. Liebgott carefully put his hands under Tipper's armpits and lifted the paratrooper to his feet. Liebgott got on one side as Charlotte quickly maneuvered to the other side.
" Let's get him to the medic hut. I can take it from there." she said hurriedly. The two maneuvered Tipper through the streets of Carentan, the heavy breaths of the paratroopers filling the tense air. Tipper was in pain, it was evident and he sounded scared. The two hurried into HQ medic hut and got Tipper to a bed. Charlotte whipped off her helmet and grabbed a penlight. She gently touched Tipper's head and made him focus on the light.
" Hey Tipper, it's Sunshine. I'm gonna take care of ya and clean you up." she said softly, her tone soothing Tipper and even Liebgott who watched from behind. Tipper let out a sigh of relief. She clicked off the penlight and turned to Liebgott.
" I leave him for one second-" Charlotte cut him off.
" The Germans have retreated, or are retreating still. Go and take a breather, I got him." she said gently, squeezing his shoulder. Liebgott nodded slowly, his eyes glazed over, in a far off stare. He slowly took off his helmet and turned slowly away from the scene. Charlotte turned back to Tipper and was relieved to see Gene making his way over to her, looking down at some papers in his hands. He finally saw the sunshine soldier and made his way quickly over to her.
" Charlie." he said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked up, stressed.
" Tipper got hit by uh, some mortars that went off inside a building." she said looking at Tipper's face.
" Char-"
" Hey Doc." a voice called, stopping Gene from talking and making the two Easy medics turn and see Lt. Winters ambling his way in pain into the medical wing. Gene gave a curt nod to Charlotte before walking over to Winters and guiding him to a seat. Charlotte turned back to Tipper, and slowly cleaned off his face. He remained fairly silent the entire time.
" Sunshine?" Tipper whispered, his hoarse voice making Charlotte look up from her work on his foot. She wiped her hands slowly and walked over to Tipper's head.
" Hi Tip, how're you feeling?" she said gently, brushing hair from Tipper's eyes. He seemed to calm down at the light touch of the sunshine soldier.
" I've been better, Doc." he said lightly. Charlotte had to crack a smile at the sarcastic tone of his voice.
" You did good today, Tip, I hope you know." she said lightly. Tipper sighed.
" But-"
" You did well, Tip." she said, and that was final. " Rest up, we'll get you some food and water." She began gently cleaning his face, free of all the debris, and removing small particles of debris lodged in. His one eye was swollen shut, so Charlotte immediately got a small bit of cream to help with the color. She continued cleaning his face, softly and gently, as Tipper's one eye watched her softly, as if making sure he were still alive, and that he'd be ok.
" You're not an angel, right, Sunshine?" he asked the girl softly.
" No, sadly, I'm not bud." she said with a small smile, as she continued cleaning his face.
" You look like an angel." he said, his voice slurred through the morphine. She laughed gently.
" Hey, uh, Doc?" came Skinny's voice. Charlotte whirled around and found herself heading toward the sound of his voice. She waved off Gene who was getting up from his work on Winters.
" We found him, I don't know, crouched behind a wall out there, says he can't see, Sunshine." Skinny explained, a little dumbfounded.
" Thanks Skinny. I'll look after him." she said looking at the one and only Blithe. She let him sit and then sat next to him.
" Blithe?" she called softly.
" Ma'am." he answered back, a tremor in his voice, " I, uh, I can't see."
" What happened?" she asked.
" It just went dark on me, ma'am." he answered back, and his response seemed far off and distant. She crouched in front of him, and pulled the penlight from next to her scissors. She shined the light near his eyes, watching for his pupils to follow the light. They moved ever so slightly, and she assumed it was hysterical blindness, from the chaos of the battle, and the smoke, debris, and chemicals all around. There were a rare few cases, and this seemed similar to what she'd read before. Or it mostly just came from his pure fear.
" It's ok, Blithe. We'll arrange to get you back to England. " she said standing up from her crouched position.
" I don't want to let the Company down ma'am." he mumbled softly. She crouched slowly back down in front of Blithe and looked at him.
" You won't and you never did. Rest up." she said, and ruffled his hair lightly before standing up wiping her hands on the cloth again. She sighed and stood, the cloth in her hands as she walked by Gene and Winters.
" You're lucky it was a ricochet." she heard Gene say as she started going through the nearby boxes of supplies. " You just caught a piece of it." Winters mumbled something to himself.
" Now you gonna be able to stay off of it?" Gene asked. Charlotte turned around by this point to look at Winters who met her concerning gaze.
" Doesn't look that way." Winters answered, grimacing.
" Well, you gotta try, huh?" said Gene, just as Compton came in, pulling in helmet off.
" What have we got planned, chief?" he asked Winters, looking a bit exasperated. Winters sighed. Charlotte felt bad for him a lot. More than anyway. He was always there for the Company even in training. Trusting him though, that was the easy part.
" Well, we expect a counterattack." Winters said. " Carentan's as important to them as it is to us."
" Any idea when?" Buck asked quickly.
" We're not waiting around to find out. Battalion wants us to head east toward high ground, set up a defensive position. With all the flooded fields, it's the only direction they can approach from."
" Yeah. You gonna be alright?" Buck asked, noticing Gene working on Winter's leg.
" Yeah." nodded Winters, grimacing again.
" Good." Buck said with some relief, before turning and marching out of the medic HQ. Another thing Charlotte liked about Winters was his quiet yet headstrong mindset. The ways he approached different situations and let his calming demeanor aid the men. She didn't realize she was in a daze of exhaustion when she heard someone call her name.
" Tarvers." the voice came again and she jumped up, snapping from it. Winters was looking at her, and so was Gene, worriedly. Winters saw the sleep deprived young medic in front of him. Her tiny braids were a mess, hairs framing her face, There was dust, and smoke, and blood on her cheeks, her cracked lips, hands covered in dirt and blood, her uniform with similar spots and markings on it. She had been staring off, in her own little world, the signs of war fatigue everywhere. Her eyes, though, they were bright. Her soft, baby blue colored eyes.
" Take a break, Tarvers, you need it." Winters said. She couldn't fight him, only Gene. But the look in Gene's eyes made her start moving her feet outside. She sucked in a breath of air when she finally reached outside. She needed to be away from the blood, and the dirt, and disease. She walked in the street for a bit before sitting down by herself and staring at her hands with all the blood and dirt markings and the small cuts. Tears welt up in her eyes, she didn't know why, and blurred her vision.
She just needed to let her mind drift from where she was in that current moment.
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thanks for reading!