Holy Moses and damned bananas, so very sorry in the delay of updates. I know, five months is a rather long time for me to not update, but I hope to back to frequent updating once again. Thanks to everyone who’s still along for the ride, your support is much appreciated. A bit more of a note at the end, but now onwards to the next chapter.

I wish for the whole truth
every time you speak.
I'm thinkin' about how you care half as much for me
While I watch you arrive, smoke cigarettes, sleep...

- The Wish, Gregory and the Hawk

Chapter Eight

Backcountry, France

D-Day plus 25

Iris stood patiently behind Webb as they waited for the signal to move. Harry Welsh, the First Lieutenant of Easy, knelt at the head of the company waiting for his own orders. They had been stopped for only a few minutes, scoping out the seemingly abandoned farm house less than a mile down from where everyone was stopped. No one looked too excited to keep on moving. Walking for almost three hours did that to a person after hiking the whole day before. Though no one complained except Perconte, but no one really listened to the man anymore.

Iris fell back out of the way as Nixon walked briskly towards the front of the company in a crouched position. She watched, along with many others, as he and Welsh talked for a few minutes before Welsh called out for volunteers. The occupied woods around the company were silent and Iris felt her heart sink. Volunteering was always bad. It almost always resulted in some sort of casualty. Just like every other part of the war.

She hated volunteering. Though she’d only been with Easy for less than a month, most of the men had become close to her heart, and every time one of them volunteered, Iris had to watch them be carried away on a stretcher. Iris knew it wasn’t a good idea in the slightest to become attached to Easy, but as the men had come to accept her as almost a younger sister, it was becoming harder and harder to wall in her heart.

“I’ll go,” Albert Blithe, a man that Iris didn’t know all that well, called out. He didn’t look overly excited to be going, but Iris doubted that anyone would look excited this far into the war.

It was amazing for it was only D-Day plus twenty-five. It felt like so many more, hundreds even. Iris had never before realized the amount of energy it went into being a soldier. And she wasn’t even in combat! During all of the few small skirmishes that had occurred while Iris had been staying with Easy, someone had always been there to stuff her into a foxhole or hide her behind a tree out of harm’s way. Not that she wanted to be in the thick of things, in fact Iris was perfectly fine with being more ‘behind the scenes’ of Easy. However, she did have new found respect for the men that had been generous enough to take her and her sister in.

Not many other people would do that. Most anyone else, even her own French people would’ve simply turned them away. They would’ve been forced to protect themselves against the onslaught of the battles and hope for the best. She knew that Cole would be fine on her own, she always was, but Iris knew herself. She wouldn’t have been able to survive this far along into the War if it hadn’t of been for Winters and his generosity.

As far as she was concerned, she owed that man her life if not more.

Iris ducked to the ground as a gun shot rang through the otherwise silent forest and covered her head with her hands. Voices called out around her and Iris could hear Cole’s voice among them, trying to call out to Eugene for help. Iris stood up when Winters walked into the group and spoke with Harry. By the looks of Harry he was upset at the new causality, not that Iris blamed the man, he had just lost another man to Germans.

No, Blithe wasn’t dead, but Iris knew what a neck wound did. He wouldn’t be back.

Another Easy man had been taken by the enemy, and for all Iris and Colette knew, it could’ve been Dimitri. That thought scared Iris more than anything. To know that a man as close to her as a brother was fighting against her, possibly even killed already by one of the men surrounding her. Iris didn’t want to think about it, to worry about every helmeted Nazi across the field firing on them could possibly be Dimitri, but she couldn’t help herself from wondering.

Was she really on the right side?

--

Luz watched as Iris walked angrily away from her older sister, a perturbed look upon the older girl’s face, while Iris looked worried. Colette shook her head as she watched her sister walked away but didn’t move to follow the girl and turned back to her dishes. Sibling rivalry, George wondered as he stood up from the poker game he was currently losing and started over to where Iris was sitting, tearing apart an unsuspecting patch of weeds.

“Stupid, ignorant, brash woman!” Iris tore apart the weed in her hand, ringing it until the pulp inside dripped down her hand. She threw the weed to the ground in disgust and stomped on it, digging her heel into it and imagined it as Colette’s perfect little face. “Thinks she knows everything, just because she’s the oldest! Stupid stupid girl!”

Iris stopped short of ranting at the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her. She turned around to see Luz standing a few feet away from her, a laughing grin across his face with a dash of confusion in his eyes. Iris felt a blush crawl up her neck and swiped a hand across her forehead, whipping away the bangs that had fallen into her eyes.

“’Ello, Luz,” Iris said in accented English, still a bit horrified someone had seen her somewhat childish tantrum. “’Ow are you?” She wiped her slightly dirtied hands on her skirt and looked at him abashed.

Luz gave a laugh and shook his head, walking up to the young French girl. “I’m good, bit tired though. All this walking is starting to wear me out. How are you?”

Iris shrugged her shoulders and looked away, knowing Luz was curious about her poor decimation of the weed. “Ca va.,” she answered, giving nothing away. Luz gave her an unbelieving look and sat down on a nearby fallen tree, reaching up and grabbing Iris’ hand before pulling her down beside him.

“You’re not a very good liar,” he told her with a small smile. Iris squirmed slightly and Luz’s face turned serious. “Tell me.”

Iris wanted to tell him everything, she really did. She wanted to tell him that her brother had stolen Top Secret documents from the Germans while being posted in Berlin. She wanted to tell George that her brother had almost died protecting his family, and how he’d left the stolen papers in her older sister’s care. Iris wanted to tell him that she knew about the camps, the ones that held the Jews, the ones like the one Luc was in now because of his traitorous ways. She wanted to tell him everything, absolutely everything until there was nothing left hidden deep inside her soul. She wanted to tell him more than anything, to have someone beside her brave and untouchable sister know of her pain.

George looked at her, waiting in silence for her to speak. He wanted to help the girl, he knew she was hurting. But how could he help her if she wasn’t willing to let him in?

Thoughts whirled through Iris’ head, to tell or not to tell? She knew that by telling him, she risked everything that Colette had worked to bring them. All the safety, the security, it would all be lost to her selfishness. She didn’t need to tell Luz, she only wanted to so that someone else could suffer along with her. What kind of friend would she to Luz if she told him only to cause him pain? He didn’t deserve the burden of knowing.

Iris shook her head, ashamed of herself for even thinking of burdening one of the men who had risked his life to give her shelter. How could she have been so cruel?

“I fired zee toast,” she said finally, giving Luz an embarrassed look, praying he wouldn’t see through her horribly conducted lie. It was actually a half true statement; she had caught the toast on fire that morning, though she and Luz both knew it wasn’t what he was talking about.

Luz looked at her, half confused. “You fired the toast?” Iris gave him a sidelong glance down the log and a small blush redden her cheeks. “You mean you burned it,” he corrected her with a laugh and pushed her gently on the shoulder. “Not much of a cook, are you?”

Pretty much all the men of Easy had learned fairly quickly that between the two sisters, Iris was not the better cook. In fact, Winters had jokingly banned her from cooking the rest of the time she stayed with them, much to her relief, along with everyone else’s. That morning’s toast had been a fluke. Cole had left her sister alone with the bread for a total of three seconds and turned back around to find the once considered edible bread burned to a crisp.

It was a talent of Iris’.

“Apple pie,” Iris told him with a grin and waved a finger at him before leaping up from the log and started back towards the center of camp with a grin. She ran a few steps and stopped, looking back to see Luz still on the log. She shook her head at his confusion and walked back to him. Reaching down, Iris lightly tapped his hand and jumped away. “Tag.”

Luz looked at her almost unbelievingly, not seeming to believe that the girl before him wanted to play Tag. They were in the middle of the Second World War, one of their friends had just been shot in the neck by a sniper, and Germans could be surrounding them at that very moment, but Iris didn’t look like she cared. The little French girl that he had found with Webster hiding in a gardening shed didn’t seem to care about the War going on around them, and the moment, her idea looked like a pretty good one.

--

Cole looked up from her notebook at the sounds of laughter and was surprised at the scene unfolding before her. Buck was chasing after a hyena laughing George Luz as he jumped over one of the center camp fires, causing many men to look at them affronted as their meals were interrupted, and dashed past her to hide behind a madly grinning Iris. She squealed loudly when Buck came to a slow halt in front of Cole’s little sister. He darted forwarded and hit her lightly on the shoulder before running away.

Iris turned around with what she hoped was an angry face and looked at a grinning Luz. He took one look at her face and his smile disappeared. Raising his hands up in surrender he started backing away from the smaller girl while shaking his head.

“Oh, c’mon Iris!” Luz yelled, backing away a little faster and flashing the other men around them, which were all laughing at the unfortunate man, a look of annoyance. “You love me too much to tag me!”

Stopping to think, Iris looked at him thoughtfully and grinned wider. He looked at her and dropped his hands, thinking she was going to turn around and go after someone else. “I don’t love you that much, Luz,” Iris announced, just as she whipped out a hand and smacking him in the gut before running towards where Webster and Malarkey were doubled over with laughter.

Luz stood still for a few moments, shocked that the little French girl had tagged him once again. He looked at the laughing men, a giggling Iris, and even to where Winters and Nixon were watching on with amusement. “I’m so going to get you, girl,” Luz said to Iris, quickly chasing after her.

Cole watched on as Iris childishly stuck out her tongue before dashing off further into the camp, weaving around all of the foxholes with ease. She hid behind an unsuspecting Bill, who cursed out Luz when he was shoved aside to get to Iris. If a group of Germans walked into camp right now, they’d be confused to see that at least a dozen of the enemy were all prancing around like children.

The Germans wouldn’t have even known that Easy Company was in a War that night. There was too much happiness and laughter for them to have been in the midst of a World War. All caused by one French girl who couldn’t speak more than a few dozen words in English, and happened to be keeping a secret that could cost millions of people their lives.

But on that night, you wouldn’t have known that.

--

Note of Lack of Updates: Okay, so once again, I am horribly sorry for the delay in updates. I got a new computer because the other one was.. erh, misplaced down a hallway. That meant I had to rewrite four of the chapters I already had written on my old laptop, and that wasn’t exactly my idea of fun. It took me – five? – months to do it, but finally did. Yes, I’m lazy, so sue me.

Note on Name Change: I changed the penname. I was rather bored with my old one and all my friends were finally getting theirs.. So, I got a cool one. To be honest, I was quite upset when my friend took Elsie Jane Talben, which was one of my choices that I so stupidly shared with her, but Finley Ann Miles was good enough for me.

Note on Romance: People have been asking me this before, is Iris going to end up with anyone in Easy? I’m actually kind of tempted to do so, and even have a few guys in mind, but ultimately it’s up to you readers. I can make this go either way, love or not, so if you would just leave your much needed opinion in a review (or PM) it would be much appreciated.

Note on Pictures: Ha, yes my little friends, I have Iris and Colette pictures at the ready. Still debating if I’m going to put them on my profile, so right now if you want them just ask for them and I’ll send the link to you.

Alright, that’s everything for now. Reviews are always loved and thanks again to those who’re still along for the ride. I’ll be trying to update all my stories on the weekends, so be on the lookout.

xxfin