The morning lecture ended with Nixon giving the same warning as he'd given the officers. They would not be calling this jump off; too many people were involved, too much money, too many plans. Alice watched the men's faces turn somber. The one point of amusement came when they realized they'd be under British command for this operation.

They'd have about a week and a half until the jump. As the enlisted filtered out, some grumbling more than others, Alice just followed with a smile. Listening to Guarnere rant about the British never ceased to amuse her.

"Better watch your mouth, Gonorrhea," she teased. "If Millie hears you talking like that, she won't ever let you come over for dinner again."

Bill rolled his eyes. "Maddie likes me too much. Ain't no way Millie'd kick me out."

With a laugh, Alice shook her head. He wasn't wrong. Madeleine loved to be around Bill and George the most. She found them amusing, and strange.

They moved together back towards the designated mess halls. Second Battalion's swarmed with the other two companies already, so finding a seat wasn't the easiest. In the end, Alice decided to sit outside on a few picnic tables that had been set up. The pasta tasted better than she expected.

Bill, Joe Toye, Malarkey, Skip Muck, Alex, and George all joined her, and to her surprise, Babe Heffron. Bill practically dragged him into the seat across from Alice. Though he looked uncomfortable, he seemed equally curious, glancing at her not infrequently despite the conversations to his right. Alice had to suppress a smirk.

"Now, Babe, the one person yah gonna wanna make friends with is her," Bill said. They'd already gone half way through the meal, but apparently now was the time to pull Alice into conversation. "She's got the Colonel's ear."

"Right, that's an exaggeration," Alice said. Shaking her head, she just kept eating.

But Bill wouldn't drop it. "Not only she's got Sink at her beck an' call, but I'm pretty sure all of Easy's officers love her."

"What's not to love," George called from down the table. He smirked. With a quick wink, he slipped from the table to join them at the other end. He pulled out a cigarette. "Except that she likes to take my smokes."

"Hear that, Babe? She's great. So you better treat 'er right."

Alice shook her head and turned from George and Bill back to Babe across from her. With a small smile, she just sighed. "Babe, they're trying to flatter me. I don't think you're going to have a problem with me."

He nodded. "No ma'am."

"Drop the formalities. Unless we're around the officers, you can call me Alice, since everyone else does." She smiled. "I guess it's sort of an Easy Company tradition. First names."

"Except around the officers, or men from other companies," George added.

Joe Toye leaned over. "You show her the respect she deserves."

"Alright, alright. I think Babe gets the point."

Just as he went to respond, they saw Vest coming over with a full mail bag. Everyone cheered as he came to the table. Everyone got letters. Meals forgotten, they tore into their mail. But when Vest came to Alice, she looked up in surprise.

"Lieutenant, when I was cleaning out the mail room last night, I found a pile of letters addressed to an Adélaïde Klein. Ring a bell?" He looked confused, but held out the six letters.

Alice froze. Who would be writing her, and more than that, who would be writing her as Adélaïde. Without even thinking, Alice stood from the table. She took the letters. With a small thank you, Alice moved away and dumped her food tray.

Her heart raced. The script looked fine, well practiced. But the ink frayed in places, and hastily written. She tore the top one open. To her shock, it was written in German. The writing inside didn't match the outside. As she scanned the letter, her heart sank.

Dear Addy,

Mama said to write a letter to someone to make myself feel better. Things here have gotten very bad. My best friend from synagogue disappeared last week, Lotte. I overheard Papa say that the Nazis are taking Jews somewhere. We don't know where, though. Mama says we may leave if we can.

Love,
Elsa

The letter had been dated September 1943.

Her hands trembled as she reached for the next one. Alice didn't realize she'd stopped in the middle of the walkway between the Mess and the fields that housed Easy Company's farmhouse turned bunkhouse. As she tried to tear open the second letter, her fingers fumbled about the envelope. The same messy script scrawled the second.

Dear Addy,

Things are very bad here. Mama and Papa said we're going to be leaving. They said we can't go back to Germany though. I don't know where we're going. I'll still try to write you though, even if we can't send these. I wrote some for Bernadette too.

Love,
Elsa

The second letter had been dated December 1943.

Her heart raced. She slipped the piece of paper back into the envelope. Heat filled her chest, tingling fear racing through her. Her breaths came short. Her chest hurt as she gingerly tore the third.

Dear Addy,

We're in hiding now. A family in Amsterdam took us in after some nice people who don't like the Nazis helped us get there. We wanted to go across the sea, but we can't yet. It's too dangerous. I heard Mama say the Nazis are taking anyone who's a jew. They say horrible things are happening to people like us. I heard something about camps for Jews to work.

Here isn't so bad, except I don't like being so close to James and Tomas. We're stuck in a cellar. But there's another family here, a mum and a daughter named Mila. Mila's nice, she's my age. She's Dutch, and she's helping me learn French, like you learned. I know I haven't seen you since I was little, but I like to think you're getting these. Papa said France isn't much better than here though, so I guess I just hope you're alright. I just want to know why the Nazis hate us. We're German too. Why are they hurting us? I hope you're alright though, Addy.

Love,
Elsa

Dated February 1944.

The Elsa that Alice could picture wasn't over six with light brown curls, brown eyes, and a beautiful smile. That had been in 1938. Now she's twelve...

Only if she's alive. Alice stopped breathing. She hadn't spared much thought recently to her extended family. She hadn't even heard from Elsa in five years. All her thoughts had been on her immediate family. Guilt crashed into her all at once. She hadn't spared a thought for the others, for her cousins.

Footsteps sounded behind her. Harry moved up next to her, apple in hand. He took another bite of it.

"How are the men doing?"

Alice didn't answer at first. The letters dropped to her side as her hand fell away. She took a deep breath.

"What's wrong?"

She paused. Her thoughts scattered. So much to say, so much to think about, so little information... Alice turned to him. Three open letters, three sealed. Harry looked at her, eyebrows furrowed in concern. She held them up.

"Vest found some letters that hadn't been sent to me." She paused.

He frowned. "Why not?"

"They were written for Adélaïde Klein, not Alice."

It took a moment for Harry to register what she'd said. Then his eyes widened. He looked from her face to her hands, to the letters they held. "Who are they from?"

"Elsa, a cousin of mine. She's twelve, or, would be, if she's alive," she added. "She's one of the cousins who lives in Holland."

Harry let out a long breath. As they stood next to each other, looking down the road towards the enlisted men's housing, he just shook his head. Rustling through his jacket, he pulled out a canteen. "Here."

Alice took it without thinking. She downed the drink, not at all surprised to taste whiskey, though it certainly wasn't Vat 69. She thanked him. After a moment, he asked her what the letters said. She took a moment to summarize them.

After another long pause, he turned back to face her. "Are you going to open the rest?"

Her breathing faltered. Alice turned to him as well. She looked at him closely, holding his gaze. She could feel her muscles tensed, her jaw tight and set. Fear constricted her entire body. With a quick look away from Harry, she tucked all six letters into her breast pocket.

"Right, well, if you want to grab dinner with us, we're hitting the pub."

With a small, forced smile, she turned back to him. Alice shook her head. Her tears wanted to form, but as always, she held them back in the presence of a member of Easy. "Thank you, but no. Millie's invited a few of the enlisted over to the house for dinner. I've got to help get ready for them. They're a bit more rambunctious than you all."

Harry snorted in amusement. He nodded. "That's true."

Leaving Harry behind, Alice left the area to head back to town. She'd been on her way to check in with a few of the men who had left the briefing quickly before heading home, but the letters had sapped her energy. With a heavy heart, she went into the Bratt home.

She found it empty. Millie had a piano, though. With what small energy she did have, Alice sat down to play La Vie en Rose. It didn't take long for her to close her eyes and tune into the melody Alice blocked everything else out. The world melted from her, the pain and fear replaced more with bittersweet nostalgia.

"Now I know ya had a rough day." Millie stood behind her in the entrance to the room. She held a vase of flowers in one hand and a brown parcel in the other. "Ya only seem to play that one when you're upset."

Alice turned from the bench. She shrugged, averting her eyes for a moment. "I'd rather not say, if that's alright with you."

"Course it's alright. But you're gonna need t' talk with someone, love, if it's that serious." Millie gestured with her head towards the kitchen. "Come on, though. We've got to get ready for those boys of yours."

Alice smiled. She got up from the piano, covering the keys with reverence. Preparations for dinner took the entire afternoon. Madeleine came home to help with Percy. Before long they once again had food enough for a feast, gifts from several of the neighbors who didn't host soldiers.

Their knock sounded while Alice sat on the grass in the backyard. She didn't hear it, only hearing the voices of her friends when they came through with Millie. As Percy showed her his rock collection, she didn't even greet them. She could hear them each though: Lip, Tab, George, Joe Toye, and Bill. She cracked a smile when she heard Lip and Joe thanking Millie profusely for dinner. She of course would have none of it, insisting they were always welcome at her house provided they watched their language around the kids. It didn't even take five seconds for Madeleine to protest.

"I'm not a child. I hear worse from the boys at school."

"Maybe, Maddie, but I'm your sister and I'll raise ya' the way mum would've wanted. And she would've wanted ya' to be a proper young woman."

Alice turned back to Percy. He continued to ramble on mostly coherently about the various stones and pebbles he'd found on his walks with his mother. Some were grey, some white, some black. Alice smiled. "You've got a good collection here."

"I try. I collect them with mum." He handed her a smooth, light grey speckled stone about the size of his small palm. "Here. Mum says flat stones are lucky."

Alice took it. It took only a moment for her to reach her arms out. Percy fell into her instantly for a hug. She felt his warm cheek against her own, his brown hair brushing her skin. For a moment, she felt her tears returning. When he backed away, she cleared her throat and thanked the toddler.

Suddenly, as Percy walked away, she heard and felt someone crouch next to her. The cigarette smell on the man's clothes betrayed him instantly. Alice looked right. "George."

"I want to eat so if you could, you know, get off the grass..."

Alice scoffed but accepted his help up. They all wore their dress greens, and Maddie chatted with Bill and Joe as she moved stuff outside from the kitchen with her mother. She went on and on about the boys at school, and how they wanted to enlist, and how she told them the Yanks were better than they. Every time she said something to that effect, Alice saw Millie flinch.

Clearly Lipton noticed too, because as they all settled down at the table and Maddie continued her tirade about the amazing Americans, he shook his head. "If it weren't for your people, the war would've ended ages ago."

Maddie shrugged. "I suppose you're right. But it's you Yanks winnin' it now."

It never ceased to amaze Alice just how fast and endless Madeleine could talk if she wanted to. Some days she wouldn't say much at all, but others she went on forever, especially around the soldiers. But Millie had the opposite. Her love for the Royal Army didn't stop. Hearing her own sister belittle the work her husband had died for hurt, deeply.

"Madeleine, shut your mouth. You're just repeatin' the same stuff you hear from Lizzie's mum." Millie put her fork down. "Yeah these boys are doing what needs t' be done, but your uncle and your father died in this fight. So I don't wanna hear another word outta your mouth about us versus them."

The table went silent. It didn't take long for Percy to interrupt though, insisting in no uncertain terms that he very much did not need to eat his carrots and peas, and that the hedgehogs who lived at the back of the yard would appreciate them much more. The whole table started laughing.

"Do ya know when you're shippin out?" Millie asked. The meal had come to an end, but they still sat around the table. "Sometime soon it seems like."

Alice shuffled where she sat. "Can't tell you exactly, of course. But yes, soon."

"Well then, best of luck. May God watch over you," she added. Turning to the side, she saw Percy still pitching a fit. "Bloody hell, he has been in such an awful mood these last few days. Excuse me. Maddie, put up the dishes while I put him down for the night, please."

With that, both the Bratt women disappeared, leaving the men of Easy with Alice in the garden. They chatted without concern. She found it a welcome change to the general anxiety of earlier, after the briefing. But as they chatted, her mind wandered again to Holland. Only now instead of just worrying about their military target, she had to wonder about her family's fate. She could feel the letters in her pocket, untouched. They weighed her down.