Shadows of the World » Band of Brothers

02: Those Unheard

"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter." - John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

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Bright and early the following morning Juliette ventured down the stairs of the house she'd barely taken a single glance at the previous night. Waking up with the sun was a habit she thought she'd never be able to break completely, but she didn't altogether mind so much. There was something about the early morning sunshine that made everything feel like it was going to be okay, and that feeling was far too rare to pass up these days.

The living room of the house she was staying in was cosy and quintessentially British; it put an ache in her chest and reminded her all too sharply of home. Juliette pushed the thought to the back of her mind as soon as it had registered. Home wasn't an option, because it wasn't safe until the war was over. However, even as she dutifully pushed all nostalgia to the back of her mind, the painful ache lingered as she crossed into the kitchen.

The kitchen was very much what she'd expected as well, small in itself but it extended into a larger open space that housed a wooden dining table. To be spending more than three days in one place was such a rarity even just looking at the place Juliette knew it would come to feel like home soon enough.

Preparing a small breakfast from the food that had already been delivered ahead of their arrival, Juliette ate quickly before heading back into the living room only to find Thomas seated on the sofa reading something.

"Alex not back yet?" she asked into the silence, making Thomas jolt in his seat and press a hand against his thumping heart.

"Jesus bloody -!"

Juliette only laughed.

When Thomas replied in the negative to her question she hummed her understanding. It was customary for Alexis to be the first to venture out of their accommodation in order to scout out their surroundings. In order to fit in appropriately they needed a basic idea of the order of things and who to watch out for, and as their commanding officer that job generally fell on Alexis' shoulders.

"I heard him leave a couple of hours ago, so I can't imagine what's taking him so long," Thomas commented. "He's scouting out a British countryside village as though we're still in Nazi-occupied Paris."

"He's wary of the Americans," Juliette replied, shrugging as she sat on the armchair placed directly to the left of the sofa, tucked up against the wall. "They're bound to be raucous and overexcited. He just wants to make sure we can stay out of their way enough that they don't arouse suspicion in us."

"It's not like they'd have the sufficient brain power to guess what we're here for anyway," Thomas replied with a smirk, to which Juliette giggled.

"Well, you know Alex. One step in front of the game is never quite enough. That's why he's the best."

A silence fell over the pair in which only the sound of the clock ticking away obnoxiously on the wall opposite them could be heard. Juliette could feel the fair-haired man's eyes on her and shot him a look when she got irritated by his gaze, which only made him chuckle.

"Do you ever wish you'd stayed home instead?"

"What do you mean?" she inquired.

"You know, when you got the first letter. Do you ever wish you'd just said 'no' and spent the war as a nurse or something?" Thomas asked the question with the genuine intrigue that accompanied knowing someone for a long time but never having thought to ask a particular question. He found he couldn't fathom an answer despite how well he knew the girl, and watched her closely as she considered his question.

"And risk missing out on all of our adventures? Never," Juliette replied nonchalantly, trying for a joking tone that fell somewhat flat. In all honestly she wasn't entirely sure. She tried not to think about the what ifs, and definitely sought deliberately not to think too much about the past either. It made things easier that way.

She sighed as her smile faltered, feeling as though she owed her friend an honest answer. "I don't know. I'm proud of what I do and of how much I can help, but every time we get sent on another job another part of me goes numb. But whilst a more bulk-standard wartime career would definitely be easier I think I'd always wonder 'what if'. And I couldn't live with the guilt of knowing that something big and important had been asked of me in our country's hour of greatest need and I'd denied them my help. How could a person live with that?"

Thomas nodded, his eyes gentle as they watched her. He supposed he hadn't thought of it that way.

"Do you ever wish you'd just been a solider?" Juliette asked him in turn, to which he smiled ruefully.

"Sometimes." He paused, contemplating what his life might have been like if he had enlisted as all the boys he went to school with had. "Sometimes I wonder why they chose me in the first place. I think a lot about all the other code breakers who didn't train upwards and wonder whether they wish they'd been picked instead of me. Sometimes I think it'd have been better if I stayed with them." He paused, considering. "But I want to help. And they didn't ask any of the others, they asked me, so it was something I had to do."

"You'd never have met me if you hadn't been a code breaker," Juliette acknowledged with a soft, almost teasing smile.

"That decides it then. I do wish I'd been a soldier instead." At this Juliette protested indignantly and he laughed. "Nah, someone needs to take care of you in the field when you decide to play the hero and run off wherever."

"You get in a car with a Nazi one time," she joked, erupting into giggles when Thomas shot her an unimpressed look.

"Don't even joke about that. It's not funny." Though contrary to what he was saying, he was laughing along with her.

In the midst of their giggles they heard the front door open and then close, and then the door to the porch do the same, right before Alexis entered the living room. He looked between them with a small smile tugging at his lips before removing his coat and draping it over the back of the sofa.

"How're we looking?" Thomas inquired, watching the stoic man as he came to stand before both of them, hands tucking themselves into his pockets.

"There's quite a few locals so we should blend in just fine. A few servicemen on break from the war, and presumably a few men who weren't allowed to enlist for some reason or other. And above all else, lots and lots of Americans."

"How many is 'lots and lots?'" asked Juliette, whilst Thomas looked contemplative.

"An entire company. They're paratroopers - 101st Airborne, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Company E. Supposedly, they're one of the best American units around, though they haven't seen any combat yet. My guess is they're also going to be sent out on the France invasion."

"An entire company. That's - what? - a hundred and fifty men? Give or take?" Thomas spoke up, to which Alexis nodded.

"From what I can gather they train quite frequently in the surrounding fields and woods, but spend most of their time in and around the village. Their CO is a man named Captain Hebert Sobel, who is, by the looks of things, despised unanimously among officers and enlisted alike. His reputation precedes him as being arrogant, argumentative, and obnoxious so I'd steer clear of him wherever possible. I'll point him out to you at some point so you know who I mean. Have William and Martin gotten up yet?"

Juliette and Thomas both shook their heads.

"Right," Alexis went on, "you two can head out and get acquainted. I'll fill the others in when they eventually surface."

"Yes, sir," Thomas grinned as Juliette jumped to her feet, eager to see the village in the light of day.

"Remember to stay separate!" Alexis called after them to which Juliette rolled her eyes.

"Don't you trust us, Alex?" she teased, turning back and placing a hand on her hip with a quirked eyebrow.

"Only as far as I can throw you," he drawled, which earned a short laugh from both Juliette and Thomas.

With that, Juliette stepped out onto the cobblestone road in their secluded corner of Aldbourne, eager to see for herself what she was dealing with, especially where the Americans were concerned.