Half Sick of Shadows » Band of Brothers [2]

19: A Little Heavy

"My heart is a little heavy." - Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

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The pub in Aldbourne that they always went to was just as packed as it had always been, though half of the original faces were replaced by new ones. It was incredibly strange to look around and not see Tipper hanging around with Liebgott, after he'd been wounded severely in Carentan, or Popeye flitting between groups, after he'd been shot in the behind on D-Day.

The atmosphere was still warm and energetic, however, though there was a rather obvious line drawn between the veterans and the replacements. Other than, of course, Babe Heffron, who had been welcomed in amongst the veterans' ranks as though he had been there all along, purely because he had grown up close to Bill. He seemed sweet, though, so Jules was glad they weren't giving him a hard time, at least.

As Juliette, Thomas, Martin, and Will manoeuvred their way through the pub on their way to the bar they passed a game of darts taking place, George and Buck on one of the teams. As she passed Jules sent them a smile, and asked Buck, "Did Winters and Nixon send my love?"

Buck laughed. "Dick did. Harry sends his right back at you."

She smiled. "Glad to hear it." Then she leaned closer to him and George. "I know you're losing sorely, but I'm rooting for you two."

George grinned. "Well, I have a feeling we might just get lucky." And he shot her a wink before she followed the others to the bar.

After getting their drinks the four spies turned back to face the room, and Juliette was suddenly overcome with chills. Out of nowhere she recalled how her blood had turned to ice the last time she had been there, when Alex had shown up at the door to call them into an emergency mission that ended up lasting three months and ending in their return without him. Her grief over his death seemed to spring up entirely unbidden these days; some days she was absolutely fine but others she missed him so much it felt like she couldn't breathe. In order to try to suppress that feeling she downed all of her drink in one and set the glass back on the bar behind her immediately, shooting the others a sheepish smile. She wasn't out to get drunk, only to forget.

Juliette ended up standing with Floyd, Skinny, and Shifty, who were telling her about one of their (many) cancelled combat jumps from the last few days. Apparently they kept being briefed, getting ready to jump, and then having the jump cancelled at the very last minute. On one occasion they had all been just about to load into the planes when it was called off.

After Jules was laughing with them after Skinny retold the story of that event, Floyd turned to her. "So, we hear you're a nurse now."

Jules chuckled. "Certainly am. With the Red Cross. And I served in Normandy. All of a sudden I've become the person I was supposed to be in wartime."

"You weren't always supposed to be a spy?" Skinny asked, genuinely intrigued.

She laughed with a shake of her head. "No. I did a different job first, but that's properly top secret so I can't tell you what it was, and whilst I was doing that job I was recruited to train to be a spy. I didn't know that's what I was being recruited for, of course - they don't just come up to you and ask you if you want to be a spy." They all laughed here.

"They don't?" Skinny teased.

"How do they ask you, then?" Floyd inquired.

Jules grinned. "For me, it was in a hallway. There was a man who came up to me and asked whether I wanted to train for a promotion. I asked him what the training entailed and what the promotion was and he told me it was top secret. He said 'if you say yes, you'll start tomorrow'." She shrugged. "So I said yes."