We Happy Few | Band of Brothers

Chapter 59: Going Home Part 1

With her head resting on the train window, Margot watched lazily as the scenery passed her by, each tree signifying a greater distance between her and Annie. The black-haired woman hadn't expected that saying goodbye to everyone would have been so hard—especially when it came to Annie—but she had been feeling nothing less than miserable throughout the entire fifteen-hour train ride. 

She had tried to occupy her mind, but when the only thing to do was reread the letters she had received from Joe and Bill, she was finding it increasingly hard to keep from missing everyone already. The last time she had been on a train she was riding from Camp Mackall to Brooklyn, and even though the thought of shipping out to Europe was terrifying, she had been too wrapped up in talking to Annie and playing card games with the guys to really have much time to overthink.

Overthinking was all Margot had this time around. All she could do was overthink; overthink about how Annie was doing, overthink about if everyone had gotten home safely, and overthink about the ones who had been lost or injured along the way. Was Annie back with her family already? Were the guys settling back into civilian life okay? Were Joe and Bill still in the hospital? Where was Shifty? What about the officers like Speirs who had chosen to stay in the Army? How was Dick Winters doing?

Before Margot even had time to try and pick apart the questions rattling around in her head, the train had screeched to a halt into the familiar station and a man in a pristine suit began walking up and down the aisle, announcing that they had arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

At first, Margot didn't move. Suddenly, she was struck with bouts of doubt and second thoughts. The last time she had ever step foot in North Carolina she had been at Camp Mackall with everyone else, and the time before that, she was running away from home to join the Army. In many ways, this was the very first time she would be stepping into her home state completely and utterly alone. 

For a split second, she thought about staying seated and letting the train take her somewhere else. She didn't even care where, just as long as it wasn't Charlotte. The final call came and even though staying would be easier, Margot knew she couldn't. So the female Paratrooper stood up, grabbed her luggage, and disembarked from the train. 

The tall woman stood still on the platform and watched as the train took off again, her eyes following it until it was nothing more than a dot in the distance. Her fingers wrapped around the strap of her bag hard and with her free hand, she reached up and pulled her cap off of her head. She was well aware of the stares she was getting from the many passer-biers, but she was so far from caring what they thought about her it wasn't even funny. 

They could think a female Paratrooper was weird all they wanted because as far as she was concerned, she wasn't a paratrooper anymore. Sure, she still held all of her Paratrooper training and experiences, but as soon as her boots hit the dirty ground of the Charlotte train station, she was just Margot Kessler again. 

She was just a woman who lived on an old, rundown piece of land and ran a ratty shooting range. She was just a woman who lived with her scumbag of a father and yearned for the days she still had her mother around. 

She wasn't Staff Sergeant Margot Kessler anymore; no, she was just Margot Kessler. 

With a sharp exhale, Margot spun on her heel and headed out to track down a cab to take her home. When she finally caught one, she slid into the back seat and spat out the address of her house.

Peering through the rearview mirror at her, the driver furrowed his eyebrows momentarily as he pulled away from the curb. "Nice getup, lady," he commented. "You in the Army or something like that?"

"Yeah." Margot kept her gaze on the passing buildings out the window as they slowly made their way out of the city and toward the country. "Something like that."