Humanity of the Broken [ Band of Brothers ] 2

TWENTY-SEVEN

Two days later, Nixon had settled into some small routine being back at the Battalion level. Alice watched him when she could. All she wanted to do was hug him, tell him things would turn out alright. After the initial shock of losing the kids in the plane during the jump, he'd managed to put on an air of nonchalance and teasing. 

Around 1000 hours, Alice found herself sitting at a table in the city center. She'd just opened a letter from Millie. As the men of Easy who weren't out on patrol or on the line began to filter in for the lecture Nixon had been asked to lead, she turned to the second envelope she'd gotten a couple days prior. She didn't recognize the handwriting. But the first line stopped her from breathing.

"Hey Sweetheart,

"Joe's with me too. He said he'd write his own but I said that was fucking stupid since postage costs so much. We've been stuck inside goddamn hospitals for months now. Stupid docs are worse than Doc Roe when it comes to being careful. I told them to hell with it. Gimme a crutch and let me go.

"Joe's worse off than me. He's gonna be here a lot longer, and he's pretty pissed over it too. Yeah, he just told me he's ready to die in his sleep to get outta here. I'm getting shipped back to the States in a week or so, probably to another fucking hospital. God I hate this. I'm fine. They should just let me go back to Philly.

"Right now we're in England. You wouldn't believe who stopped by yesterday. Millie stopped in, said she and Maddie'd heard from you about us getting hit and their middle sister, Maggie I think, she pulled some strings at her job to find us. Always knew she was a good one. Fucking fantastic family, those Bratts.

"I heard from Johnny a while ago. I couldn't fucking believe that Speirs took over for Dike. The man's insane. Joe just said he's not as insane as me, but I beg to differ. I know you like him though (no accounting for taste I suppose) so hopefully he straightens Easy out. Fucking Foxhole Norman's worse than him, I'm sure. That jackass is almost as bad as Sobel.

"We finally heard about the casualties from after we left thanks to Joe's mom checking reports. Tell Malark to write us, would you? That stupid Mick's in charge of my platoon now, and I need to make sure his head's on straight. Watch him, would you? Don't tell him we said that though. He's a good man, he'll manage, but you should help him. I'm sure you are though. Tell Luz he better write me about the thing we'd been talking about. He'll know what I mean.

"We're running out of room. Joe says he better not see you on a casualty list. I agree. You gotta keep the boys from going too crazy, yeah? Don't worry about us. But when you beat that son of a bitch who took your country, come back and visit ours. 

"Sincerely,

"Bill Guarnere & Joe Toye."

By the time she finished reading the three page letter, Alice felt tears on her cheeks. She brushed them away with her sleeve as fast as she could and soon found herself smiling down at the note. Joe sounded like Joe, and Bill sounded like Bill. Somehow that made everything infinitely better.

"Ready for another one of these lectures?" said George, walking over. A cigarette lay between his fingers. With a deep breath, he drew the smoke in before letting it out. 

Alice snorted, flashing him a tiny smile. "Just heard from Bill and Joe." She waved the letter in the air.

"No shit!" George grinned. "What'd they say? How're they doing?"

"I think they're about ready to bust out again," Alice joked. "They were pretty shocked about Speirs taking over. Bill also said something about you needing to write him about a discussion you'd been having? Ring a bell?"