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"Hey, stop that right now!" Riley pushed herself through the crowd surrounding multiple women who were getting shaved in a very brutal way, blood seeping through the wounds on their scalps. She pulled one of the men who held a woman in their grip away from her and stood in front of the other one.
"Ga aan de kant," he demanded in his own language. Riley had no idea what he was telling her, but could see that he wasn't happy. The way his face turned redder and the vein on his temple and neck started to become more prominent. How his eyebrows turned down on his forehead and his eyelids closed more.
"Get out of my way!" the man translated, almost screaming in her face. Riley started shaking with her head and pulled the harmed woman behind her back, protecting her with her own body. She looked down at the blond haired man and saw the same band tied around his arm as she had, only in an orange color except for a green one. Riley took the band between her fingers and tore it off of him, before throwing it in his face and pushing him back as well.
"You're supposed to protect everyone!" she said, the anger in her words scaring him.
"You don't understand what they've done."
"Trust me, I do. But that doesn't mean that they deserve all of this. If I see any of you do something like this again, then I'll give you a good reason to hate a person, more precisely me." Riley grabbed the woman's hand in hers and walked away, pulling her softly behind her. Nobody dared to stop her, they all had noticed the army green band she wore and understood well enough what that meant.
"You should watch out, young lady. Or you might be the next one."
Before Riley could turn herself around and look the man in the face. Three soldiers were already in front of her and grabbed him by the coat, dragging him away from Riley. The soldiers were Malarkey, Luz and Buck, three men she really started to get along with. It wasn't like she didn't become friends with the rest, just their friendship was different. These guys were always there to make Riley laugh. They tried to make her feel better, instead of her helping them. Malarkey was the one who understood that even though she was able to lift many people's spirits, she needed someone to lift hers as well, otherwise she couldn't keep on doing it. Riley was used to pushing herself away, her own feelings and emotions. She locked them in her mind and didn't dare to bother someone with it, but these three helped her open up and stop hiding behind her need to help.
"Where do you live?" Riley concentrated herself on the woman she held between her fingers. She didn't need the negative vibes coming from the people standing around her. But she knew that if she stayed there any longer, that they would become really angry and Riley didn't want that. She didn't want a fight a start, so disappearing from their vision would be the best solution to prevent that.
"Daar," the woman whispered, pointing at a house at the end of the next street. Riley stayed with her until she was inside her house and had locked the door. She even cleaned the wounds on her head and wrapped her bald scalp with a beautiful scarf that Riley had found on the top shelve of the wooden wardrobe. The light material was decorated with multiple colored flowers, Riley absolutely loved the combination of the red, blues and yellows. She hoped that it would make the woman feel better about herself, that the scarf would hide this new insecurity she now had.
Riley shut the door behind her, very softly so that she wouldn't disturb the resting woman and walked back towards the crowded market place. Winters, Nixon, Welsh and Buck were talking with the head of the Dutch Resistance group, the man was explaining why these women were treated like that and introduced himself to the officers of the American airborne.
"Aah, Riley Wilson. We've been wanting to meet you for a long time now, well ever since you and your friends came to France." His thick Dutch accent didn't disturb his English in any way, she could understand him very clearly and was happy that she did. The Dutch language had been thrown all over the town, almost no one of the Americans understood a word of what they were saying. But this man tried his best and she applauded him for that.
"Where are your friends?"
"Killed on the night before D-day. As far as I know, I'm the only one left," Riley explained, thinking about Harold's disappearance when she shook the man's outstretched hand.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"How is everything going over here, mister –"
"Van Kooijk. We've been waiting for you, to give you all our help and show the airborne our gratitude."
"He said he can help us secure the bridges," Nixon stated, interfering with the conversation. Winters now also took a step closer towards the man and waited patiently for him to confirm that he could do that. Van Kooijk started walking towards young teenagers with the same orange band around their arms, Winters and Nixon followed him with Riley, Buck and Harry close behind them.
"They are kids," Winters sounded very surprised by the age of the people who helped the resistance. They were very young and he hadn't expected that in any way.
"These are reliable reports. Anything we can do to help you, we will do. Anything."
"You can trust them, Winters. You wouldn't stand in Holland without the Dutch Resistance," Riley reassured. The lieutenant nodded at her, knowing well that she only trusts the right people so he can believe her if she tells him that they'll help. He shakes Van Kooijk's hand and gives orders to the waiting officers standing on the sidewalk. He told Riley to stay with Buck, help him with finding a place where everyone could stay for the night.
"Thank you for the help there, Buck." She was grateful for them pulling the man away and wanted to show her gratitude. She could've handled the situation by herself, Riley had done that before but the support of her friends really made her feel better.
"Why did you stop them?"
"The woman slept with German soldiers, not with the Nazi's. The Germans are people like you and me, they're only on the opposite side of the battlefields. I've stopped it before, wanted to do that again," she explained.
"What?"
"It happened all over Normandy as well. Every place we went, we would find shaved woman who became homeless because the townies had destroyed their houses and they had no place to go. Avery and I would always help these woman, give them some warmth and the needed medical help. We did everything to help, at least how much we were able to."
"Sometimes I just really wonder how you're still alive."
