Hello There, Soldier

Maryland: September, 1945

"Hey Josephine, can you help me out with something?" Jonny asked Josie as she sat at her desk working. She turned to the man with a smile.

Jonny was a tall, lanky guy who had been kept out of the fighting due to his chronic asthma. That didn't stop him from trying to enlist four times though. After the last rejection he decided to find another way to serve. Jonny was a genius when it came to languages. He spoke five languages fluently and was working on three more. So he was quickly snatched up to do translations.

"Sure. What seems to be the problem?" Josie asked as Jonny walked over to her desk.

"I was working on some files but I found this in the pile on my desk. My French isn't the best but this makes no sense." He gave her the papers as he looked on with confusion.

"I thought German was your specialty." Josie asked as she took the papers.

"It is." He confirmed with a quick nod.

"Alright, let me take a look." She only had to glance at the papers in her hand before she realized the problem. "This is coded, that's why it doesn't make any sense. This is from the Resistance and I'm actually curious how it got into your pile."

"Must have been a mix up." He shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, Jonny. I'll take this one and you can stick with the German stuff." She gave him a smile which he quickly returned.

"Thanks, Josephine." And just like that he was walking away back to his work.

"The great Nemesis saves the day again." Henry's voice startled Josie who was still reading over the papers Jonny had given her.

"Very funny, Henry." She turned to look at him with a glare. "Did you need something?" She asked coldly. Things between them had progressively gotten worse ever since Josephine's return.

"The boss wanted me to give you this." He held out a small folded up piece of paper but pulled it away quickly when Josie reached up to take it. "Because apparently, I'm just an errand boy now." He said with obvious irritation.

"Will you just give me the paper?" Josie snapped. She knew what the note was about and she was eager to read it.

"All it says is that soldier of yours is still alive. He's still in Berlin with the rest of them. It seems your call had the desired effect."

"It's rude to read something that doesn't belong to you."

"I like to look at it as I'm looking out for you. Because you're fooling yourself if you think this guy will actually come home and want to be with you. What did you two share a little romp in France and now you're all in love?" He let out a humorless laugh as Josie's stare darkened.

"Stop talking, Henry." She spoke slowly with an edge to every word she said.

"After everything you did while you were there, no one would understand outside of this office. But I try to look past it all and offer to take you out to dinner and you won't even give me the time of day. You're too busy carrying a torch for some guy who probably won't even want to look at you when he gets home because he knows that you willingly whored yourself out to the Germans and now you're even raising one of their little Nazi bastards!" He snarled with a mixture of anger and disgust.

He wasn't prepared for the slap that hit hard against his cheek. The sound of the hit filling the small room as his head snapped to the side. He hadn't even seen Josie get up from her chair but now she was standing right in front of him with a look of hatred burning in her eyes.