The corpswoman (Based off of the HBO mini series 'The Pacific'.

Chapter 13 - Sweet home Alabama

Half an hour later, the taxi had pulled up outside Evangeline's family home. She swallowed nervously, slowly stepping out of the car with her  things at her side.

Flicking through what Dollar notes she could find, she handed the taxi man the correct amount plus a few extra for the trip, he refused, handing the money straight back to her.
"Ain't no way I'm taking money from a Marine- you guys went through hell out there" He saluted and chugged away, leaving Evangeline slightly stunned , watching his car  kicking up dust clouds whist it rumbled along the gravel path.

She was now left in silence. Standing at the end of her drive way, the hot morning sun beating down and the slight chirp of early birds twittering everywhere. She was so used to waking up to bombs exploding, to her,it just seemed like a dream.

Evangeline took another deep breath and began the short walk to the front door.
Thankfully it was unlocked, She  turned the handle and nervously walked inside.
Hearing  cutlery, pots and pans and plates being washed and stashed away.

Her stomach lurched, bringing Her straight back to the day She left. Everything was the same, it was like nothing had been touched.
Evangeline  walked towards the kitchen door and dropped her bag on the floor, her mother jumped, almost dropping what she was holding.

"Evangeline!" she spoke in a shocked whisper.
"Hey ma" Evangeline squeaked out, her voice breaking at the sight of her older looking mother.
She had a full head of grey hair now and was a lot skinnier to when Evangeline had left her.

"Oh my sweet child!" Her mother cried, rushing over to hug her, eyes welling with tears.
"I Missed you so much!" 
"Me too Ma" Evangeline cried into her mother's shoulder, hugging her as tightly as she could.

For a moment, Evangeline finally Felt at peace, enveloped in those familiar arms, she felt as nothing more could hurt her.

------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the day consisted of a awful amount of questions.
Her Mother asking how she was doing and where she had been over the years, carefully treading around the conversations of war and asking about the people she had met.

Evangeline tried to answer everything as close to the truth as possible, She  mentioned the mortar boys, a ghost of a smile on her lips as she mentioned Eugene.
 Sidney and the boys from H company.
 However she  had avoided the questions about combat just answering with " i don't want to talk about it just yet".
Which her mother understood completely. 

Walking into her bedroom again was something else, seeing her bed, all the books and photographs of her 'old' self, the genuine smiles eched over everyone's faces in the frames. 

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her note book, still caked with mud and god knows what, Evangeline was surprised the thing didn't fall apart as she opened it up.
She took the muddy photograph of 'the last family vacation' and propped it up on one on the high shelves next to the photo of her brother, with that cheesy smile of his in his marine uniform.

"My Handsome boy" Her mother hummed, sitting down on the end of Evangeline's bed, looking up at the photograph." My Brave Brave boy"
"He was" Evangeline swallowed, stepping back and sitting back down with her mother, Putting her arm around her shoulders.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Evangeline thought she would adore sleeping in her own bed again, but for how ever long she tried, she couldn't get comfortable and even when she did, eventually close her eyes to sleep, visions and nightmares of the muddy battlefield flashed through her mind.
She tossed and turned for hours until she finally gave up, slipping out of bed with a exhausted huff.