Shadows of the World » Band of Brothers

13: Face Unto Face

"Face unto face, then, say,
Eyes mine own meeting,
Is your heart far away,
Or with mine beating?"
- Thomas Hardy, Between Us Now

-

A few days after Juliette had helped Eugene with the medical supplies and run into the two officers, she was taking a walk through Aldbourne with Thomas. As they had been in Aldbourne for over two weeks by now it had been deemed appropriate (by Alexis, naturally) for them to begin interacting in public, so Juliette and Thomas had seized the opportunity immediately. Thomas had been desperate to introduce her to some of his new paratrooper friends, and she wasn't at all surprised when he told her this for he, much like herself, always seemed to accidentally break the rules Alexis set for them. They had been told to avoid the Americans, and Juliette had really tried, but it was difficult with so many of them around.

Though, she acknowledged, Thomas seemed to have broken this rule a little bit more liberally than she had; where she had found a friend in Eugene Roe, he had found friends in many of the men. He just couldn't help himself.

"That is the ugliest fucking cat I have ever seen in my life," Thomas said as they walked along the road that led into the village, passing the abundance of fields on their way in. The cat he was referring to wore a collar and Juliette thought that it probably did for the sole reason that it looked homeless. Its grey fur was patchy and knotted in places and it had a wild look in its eye that reminded Juliette slightly of Martin when he had been permitted to go in on a mission.

The thought made her laugh, which Thomas mistook for disbelief of his hyperbolical declaration, so he insisted, "It is, I swear. Try and tell me you've seen an uglier cat, Jules, just try."

Juliette rolled her eyes exasperatedly before grabbing his arm and towing him along with her once more. "Stop staring at it, please, it looks like it's going to maul you."

"It'd probably give me about fifty diseases if it did," he replied. He maintained eye contact with the cat as they passed it.

"That's someone's pride and joy you're talking about!" she protested, though she laughed as he finally turned away from it and they continued on into the village. "Anyway, brief me on who your paratrooper friends are. I want to know what I'm walking into before I'm forced into conversation with half a dozen yanks."

Thomas chuckled. "Where to begin, little Jules, where to begin." She hated when he called her that and he knew it. His smile grew when he felt her eyes burning a hole into the side of his face. "First one I met was a guy named Smokey - I don't know his real name - but he's pretty harmless. Then there's Tab -"

"Is his real name Floyd?" Juliette enquired.

Thomas shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. Why, have you met him?"

Juliette rolled her eyes once more. "If his real name's Floyd then I have. If it isn't then I haven't - why don't you know any of their real names?"

Thomas shrugged nonchalantly. "Never came up. It's not like any of them know yours." He grinned childishly when she scoffed.

"For good reason, and they don't know yours either!"

Thomas giggled as she shoved him lightly. He set his footing right again before they turned a corner into the outskirts of the village. "Uh, who else is there? Um, Bill Guarnere - there's a real name for ya! I think you'll like him, too, he's a funny guy. Then there's also Joe Toye, and the other Joe, whose last name is Liebgott, incidentally..." Thomas proceeded to rattle off a list of about a dozen names, leaving Juliette's head spinning.

"Christ, Tom, how many of them did you meet?!"

"I don't know, a few." He grinned at her and leaned in close as if revealing a terrible secret. "Don't tell Alex."