An Expensive Solitude: A Band of Brothers Fanfiction

English Rain

Ducking out of the rain, Captain Dick Winters heard Lewis shut the door as he followed him into the office. The young captain tugged the hat from his neatly combed, holly red crown and wiped the condensation from his forehead. A splintering desk piled with neatly organized folders faced a smaller room, the door ajar.

"Lunchtime," Lewis commented. "We can try again later?"

Thud

Someone was definitely in the building, causing a commotion down a skinny hall at the end of the oblong room. Dick's jaw tightened as he arched an eyebrow at his friend.

"All yours." Lewis leaned against the desk and pulled out a packet of cigarettes, gesturing in the direction of the racket. "You're the one who wanted to see the broad yourself."

Heaving a sigh, Dick slid his fingers down the stitching of his hat and hoped this wouldn't take too long. The commotion grew as he eased down the dim hall and into a larger chamber. He hadn't realized that the building was an old library. At least twenty free standing shelves were full of dusty books. Heavy rainfall battered the puckered glass of the tall windows.

Thump

A leather volume dropped into the aisle from above a few feet away. It was a book on French Impressionism. It joined several others that lay in the path, mostly about art history. Dick rounded the corner of the shelf. A blonde perched on the step ladder as she leafed through a thin hardcover. As she set the book on the ledge above her head, her leg lifted behind her. Dick couldn't help noticing the long leg and attractive arc of her ankle curving down to her bare foot.

She cleared her throat.

Dick's gaze shot upwards, his face growing warm under her catlike, hazel eyes. There was no doubt who her father was from that narrowed, unmerciful glare. His mouth went dry and he forgot about her legs.

"Who are you?" Taking off her spectacles, she tucked them into her shirt pocket as she climbed down the ladder.

"Lieutenant Edith Sink?"

"That's my name. But what is yours?" She tucked her feet into a pair of practical, brown oxfords nearby.

"Captain Richard Winters." Dick stood straight, regaining his composure as she approached. "I was told that you were who I needed to speak to."

"Concerning what?" Edith brushed past him, gathering the books from the floor.

"Concerning those passes for my men."

Dick followed her down the hall, the ends of her loose waves grazing her shoulders. She had quite a determined strut for a woman.

Lewis's reaction was typical. Moments earlier, he'd told Dick that Edith Sink was probably the spitting image of her father. Mustache and all. Why else would a single woman in her late twenties be working in a position usually held by a man? WAC officers were alright, but Edith Sink wasn't just a typist or switchboard operator. She ran the gauntlet of administrative work from assisting supply officers to distributing leave passes.