Evelyn's Tale

-Nineteen-

It had been two weeks since Easy Company had first jumped into Holland. Two weeks since they had left the safety, comfort and cleanliness of England behind. Ever since that fateful day at Nuenen they had been slowly advancing towards Nijmegen through a stretch of highway, nicknamed affectionately by both the Allies and the Germans as Hell's Highway. And hell it was. Their nights were spent sleeping in woods and orchards, waiting for the next bout of German gunfire and artillery to start shooting at them before they would climb out of their foxholes to push them back. Then they would advance forward a little more until it was safe enough to rest again for the remainder of the night. And so this scenario repeated itself; night after night after night. As if that wasn't bad enough in itself, there were the endless daily downpourings of rain to contend with that saturated the ground creating muddy bogs that they were somehow supposed to sleep in. Evelyn, Gene and Spina spent much of their time checking that everyone was managing to keep their feet and themselves as dry as they could. At one point, Lieutenant Welsh had complained to her that it was too much effort to have to keep taking off his socks every few hours to replace them with dry ones. Plus he hated having to dry his wet socks around his neck. Evelyn had told him curtly that if he would prefer to lose his feet to gangrene from trench foot that he could be her guest, and then he really would have something to complain about.

"You know that's quite the bedside manner you have, Corporal," Welsh had smirked. "Is that how you talk to all of your patients?"

"Only the ones that don't do as they're told, and especially the ones who ought to know better," she had answered with a grin. As a medic she felt like she had the right to tell anyone what to do when it came to their health, no matter what their rank was. Hell, she would tell Colonel Sink if she thought she needed to. Anyway, she knew Welshie wouldn't take her manner personally. He was far too easy going to take offence. Luckily the rest of the men seemed to be behaving and doing as they were told, but nevertheless she made sure to keep a watchful eye on them all.

There wasn't much food around to eat. In fact, there were pretty much two choices; k-rations or apples. Most of the men had one in the morning and the other later in the evening. Sometimes if she was feeling particularly frivolous, Evelyn would have both for breakfast and then scrounge a little of whatever Bill was eating later on. He always complained but shared with her nonetheless. She craved a hot meal. Or actually any meal that didn't come out of a packet or a tin nor had fallen from a tree.

... ... ...

October 1st, 1944

They had finally reached Nijmegen. The Island. A long area of land that was nestled in between the Waal river and the Lower Rhine. The 82nd had successfully captured one of the main bridges that would not only enable the British tanks to cross into Arnhem but would allow Easy to secure the line at Nijmegen as well. And there was even more good news. Portable showers had been set up by the bridge meaning that when they crossed they could all finally have a much needed and longed for shower.

Evelyn was beyond ecstatic. Not only was she filthy, but her monthly had arrived with a vengeance, leaving her feeling even more unclean than usual. A shower was just what she needed to make herself feel better.

"I vote we let Evie have the first shower," George decided as they marched across the bridge. "The poor girl absolutely reeks."

"You know what George? I'm just too friggin happy to be having a shower so I'm gonna ignore that comment," she smiled giddily, a jaunty little hop in her step. "However, make the most of this moment because it'll probably never happen the next time you decide to insult my bodily hygiene. Or anything else about me actually."

"Duly noted," George grinned, with a small bob of his head. "Quick question? If you're still so excited about having a shower, does that mean I can make any comments from now until after said shower and you still won't smack me in the mouth?"