Their Fizz- Band of brothers

Gossip

March, 1945
Struzelburg, Germany

Chatting to some of the local German girls, Flo was happy. Having some female time was certainly paying off and helping her feel more normal and relaxed as if she was at home with her girls, she'd had a letter from Libby the other day telling her about the WI and how Juliet was writing a book! It made her wish they could talk on the phone and made her crave some feminine company, making her seek out some girls her age around town.

To be fair they were completely normal and had been living under the shadow of war as well and with Flo being able to speak german she was able to bond with the girls right away. She was relaxing by the fountain chatting when she noticed a car come speeding through the square and Speirs almost get run over carrying his loot. Looking in the car as it sped past she saw Nix in his harness, making her confused, he was supposed to stay with the troopers he parachuted in with then join them in a couple of weeks.

Saying goodbye to the women, she ambled over to Luz and Perconte who had just returned to the town, "Two questions" Flo said as she looked them over " One, why is Sgt. Nixon in such a hurry? and two Luz why do you keep stretching your jaw?". At this point, Perco started laughing and wound an arm around Luz's neck to bring him closer "You know him Fizz, he's such a lady's man" at least George had the presence of mind to look sheepish, Flo sighed "George we've talked about this.....You need to start respecting these women, it is not their fault the war happened and they should not be punished by you because of it. Would ever do it to a girl at home or even me?" George looked shocked at this and replied "No! Never!", Flo nodded "Exactly my point, any girl in the world no matter where she comes from deserves to be treated equally, and if I ever find out something like this has happened again...we will not be friends anymore"

She walked away after that shaking her head and leaving Perco to hit him on the head, she made her way over to battalion HQ in the hope to make sure everything was okay, but from the way, Nix was driving she doubted it very much. As she was making her way over an arm slung around her shoulder making her divert from the path, looking around and seeing it was Lieb, she knew she wouldn't get out of doing whatever they were gonna do, so sighing she asked "What are we doing?", Lieb chuckled as he heard the reluctance in her voice "We, my darling Florence are going to listen to the news bulletins" he said in a fake posh voice, making her roll her eyes, but as they came to the space where chairs had been set out, she spotted Nix taking his place at the front with a clipboard and when Lieb guided her to a seat, she didn't immediately try and sneak off. 

"The Cooperative for American Remittance to Europe... "...or CARE, has begun assembling food packages stateside....to assist those European families in dire need. Which is presumably all of them." Not many of the men were paying attention, apart from newbies like O'Keefe, so Flo settled herself and joined in the card game with Luz, Lieb, and Babe, knowing she would have a chance to check on Nix after the meeting "So, notes home to your family reminding them... ...to donate whatever they can, would be much appreciated" Nix continued, "I'm sure that you'll be happy to know... ...Oklahoma's still playing on Broadway", with this piece of news, George burst into song, Flo smiled but was reminded of Smokey making plans to take her to see it on broadway and her smile dropped slightly as the men continued singing "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain "And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet "When the wind comes" suddenly they all stopped leaving poor O'Keefe to finish "Right behind the rain" sounding higher than expected, making everyone laugh, including Nix which Flo saw as a good sign, "You sit on your bayonet there O'Keefe?" Christenson said, making the laughs grow louder, and the teasing continue until Nix read out the sad sad news that Rita Hayworth was getting married, leading Babe to turn to Flo and say cheekily "She could never comapre to you Florence" as he took one of her hands to kiss it before Flo swatted him, as they turned back to the conversation she head George say "We'd be in Berlin by now if it was us sir", she looked to Babe who shrugged his shoulders, making her roll her eyes. 

"Pretty pointless" muttered Joe from behind her, she turned and gave him a sympathetic smile, "Darling if you don't want to listen you don't have to, but the rest of us like to keep up with our celebrity gossip," she said in a posh voice and blew him a kiss, she turned back round while Joe shook his head smiling. 

"Speaking of gossip, did you hear Nixon was one of only 3 men to survive the combat jump with the 17th this morning?" Christenson whispered from next to her, she turned sharply to him "How the hell did you hear that?" she whispered back as he leaned closer "Heard Harry Walsh talking about it...he overheard Nix telling Winters" he whispered back before going back to his original place. Flo shot a look of sympathy that Nix didn't see towards him 'well that's really going to help with his drinking' Flo thought as Nix continued with the news. 

The meeting finished promptly after that, Flo shot up from her seat and walked quickly to fall in step with Nix, "Yes Fizzy?" he said not looking at her, he was walking quicker than his normal pace, so Flo was basically jogging to keep up, "Nothing particular, just wanted to check how you are?".

"Fine and dandy honey, how are you?" he said still not looking at her, "I'm fine" she managed to get out before she realized he wouldn't say anything, 'I'll give him time to cool off' she thought, so slowing down her walk she said "Okay see you later, come and find me if you need anything" and then she started making her way to the med hut, where she could see a bit of a queue. 

Walking in she saw Gene, stitching up a bit of a wound on someone's leg, she turned and called the next man into the hut, taking off her helmet and popping her satchel down, "Right what's the problem?" she smiled at the stranger as he showed a rather large insect bite on his arm, she started cleaning it and applying antiseptic, 'going to be a long afternoon' she thought as she glanced at the queue outside. 

***

Later that night most of the men were looking out the window seeing what was happening at the shop, Flo guessed it was Nix trying to find VAT 69, she was really gonna have to speak to him about his alcohol intake. 

She couldn't do much about it now, and as her dad had always told her 'If you do anything about it tonight then don't worry about it until you can'. So following his advice she settled herself on her bed, her hair spread out on the pillow, clean for once. 

"Hey Flo, you ever thought about what you're gonna do after the war"? Chuck asked as he puffed smoke from the bed next to hers. Flo looked over at him from the new book she'd been given called A tree grows in Brooklyn, she glanced around the room for a second before frowning and shrugging her shoulders "I don't really wanna think about it until we're at the end.....I always wanted to be a doctor...but I think I've had enough of treating men's wounds, maybe I'll be an acrobat" she said smiling, Chuck smiled too and replied "Or one of them new scuba divers?" making her chuckle and sigh, she put her book face down on her and looked up at the ceiling "I'd quite like to do something small...that makes a difference, I've had enough of being the odd one out, but I don't want to stop helping people", Chuck made a humming noise before asking the million-dollar question "Are you gonna go back to England? Or come to America?" he said in a quiet voice which made Flo think he was scared of the answer, she whispered back "I don't know".