A shrill whistle woke them at five on Monday morning. It took a moment of blinking herself awake before Alice remembered where she was. Dick had told them they'd fall out in fatigues and then have to change into PT gear, so she changed behind her curtain into the PT gear under it. Groans filled the barracks. When she'd fallen asleep the previous night, several bunks had been empty.

Alice grabbed her gun off her footlocker on the way out. She took up her spot at the very back of the formation, one of the first few there. George Luz yawned beside her. Her gaze met Dick's in the front, and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. She stood at attention as the rest of her platoon filled in.

Sobel finished up with first platoon and strode over to them, fuming. He barked at them to stand at attention. Alice rolled her eyes because they already were. The First Lieutenant strode between the men. He stared them down. He said nothing more until he came to stand before Alice.

"Are you wearing lipstick, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir."

His cold hand grabbed her chin and yanked her up. She shivered at the touch. Beady eyes glared down at her as she refused to react.

"For lying, you get to run Currahee twice, Lieutenant. Once with the men, and once tonight." He dropped her chin. Striding back to the front, he screeched at the men. "Currahee is that mountain. We run three miles up and three miles down. We do not stop! You will do so faster than any other company, is that clear?"

"Sir, yes sir."

"Lieutenant Winters, dismiss the men. Have them ready to run Currahee in five minutes."

"Second Platoon, fall out. Change and report back here in three!"

They broke formation. Muttering German curses under her breath, Alice joined the men inside. Stripping off the fatigues didn't take long. The PT shorts barely extended to her fingertips and showed her legs completely. At least the shirt fell a bit loose.

"Lookin' good, toots," Guarnere told her. He winked as she moved past him but then stopped. "What happened to your face?"

Alice's hand touched her cheek. It burned slightly at the touch. "The Lieutenant found it necessary to check for lipstick. The lipstick does not exist."

"He grabbed you?"

She shrugged and dropped the conversation. Once back outside, she breathed deeply in. Without meaning to, a small laugh escaped her as she looked at Currahee Mountain.

"What's so funny?"

She looked at Bull and smirked. "That is not a mountain. That is a hill."

Still grinning at the comparison of Currahee to something like the Col du Galibier, she fell in behind most of the company with Winters. They walked at a quick pace down the center of the camp, First Platoon up ahead with Nixon. The warmth of the Georgia summer didn't bother her as much anymore. Alice ended up walking between Joe Liebgott and George Luz. Anger all but radiated from the Austrian-American to her left.

Whistles and jeers went up to either side of the group. Alice just focused on her feet hitting the ground. At first she heard and felt the crunch of the gravel path, but soon her boots met rough ground. She knew how to run. She knew how to run up and down mountains. This wouldn't be an issue. She was more worried about combat training than physical fitness.

Sobel soon came running up to them, screeching profanities and insults. Their feet pounded the ground. Alice tried her best not to stand out among the men, some of whom had clearly never run up mountains before. The last thing she needed was a target on her back from her own company.

"Klein, you look tired. If you can't make it up this mountain, you should go back to your broken country. I'm sure the Nazis would love to have you back! Just surrender like the French always do!"

Anger flared up in her cheat. Sobel spoke of things he couldn't understand. Without even hesitating, Alice picked up speed until she ran right next to Lieutenant Winters and a few other well-conditioned men. She noticed Dick glance at her, but she didn't give him any response.

Her legs had started to burn when they ran up a small inclined ditch. Jumping around the loose stones, she slammed her hand down on a pillar stone where Dick had just been before. While Dick stayed behind to encourage the heaving recruits, Alice focused on not slipping on the way down.

She reached the bottom in second place. They'd taken about an hour and a half for the whole company to go up and down. As the last men from second platoon trickled down, gasping for breath, Sobel sneered at her.

"You got beaten by a girl! Upcoming weekend passes are revoked unless you can earn them back, Second Platoon."

"Good fuckin' job," Liebgott sneered at her. He'd come down in fourth.

Alice sighed and noticed half the men glaring at her as well. She bit the inside of her cheek. As she went to turn away, hands on her hips, laughter came from behind her. A few men meandering outside the nearby Fox Company barracks wiggled their fingers at her and made kissing noises. Her chest tightened and her ears warmed. Turning away, she looked back at her company. None of the men objected to the taunts.

The next few hours were spent in stretches. Alice was by far the most flexible member of Easy, and she did her best to hide this fact. But they noticed. When the lunch bells rang, Alice got in line. A bowl of soup, bread, and a cup of water became her meal. She sat down alone.

Unlike the previous few days, the men of Easy Company didn't join her. It upset her more than she wanted to admit, and heat filled her body. She knew that once the recruits had a few weeks of training under their belts, the playing field would even. Until then, she would just sit alone.

"This seat taken?"

Alice looked up at Nixon. She shook her head, mouth full of food. He plopped down across from her. Moments later, Dick joined them.

"I heard you ran circles around Second Platoon," Nixon joked. He shoved a spoon into his stew and mixed it around.

"It is not their fault. I bet none of them have had formal training, nor lived in a mountain range." With a sigh, Alice patted her mouth with a napkin.

Dick hummed in agreement. "Give them a few days, Alice. They'll get used to it."

She shrugged. "Perhaps. But I should've held back. I knew what the outcome would be. But Sobel hit a bit too close to home with some of his taunts." Then she straightened up, finished with her food.. "Then again, I'm not here to be liked. I'm here to free my home."

Excusing herself, Alice dropped her tray off and walked out of the crowded Mess Hall. Suddenly she tumbled forward. Laughter echoed around her. Her head spun and hands stung from the gravel. A sharp pain radiated from the corner of her forehead. "Scheisse."

"Keep speaking German, you fuckin' Nazi broad."

"How's the view from down there?"

Alice blinked away the fog around her. Pulling herself to her feet, she pushed through the men around her and continued on her way. She could feel blood dripping from her face, and her palms were all scraped up.

With a slam, she shut the barracks door behind herself. Anger pulsed through her. She wanted nothing more than to punch the men into sense. But she couldn't. Well, she probably could have taken the two at the door, but the last thing she needed was more drama.

Only the whirring of the fan overhead made any noise in the empty barracks. Her hand went to her forehead and gingerly she patted her skin. Sticky blood stained her fingers. Head wounds always bled way more than they needed to. Alice walked down to her cot and pulled out her small mirror. With a washcloth, she dabbed at the cut. It didn't seem too deep. She got lucky the rock she hit hadn't been larger.

Her hands were another matter. Several small cuts crossed her skin, white from the scrapes and red from the blood. It burned. Then she looked down. Her knees had a few scrapes as well, but nothing as bad as her hands and face.

"Scheisse," she cursed again, under her breath.

Keeping pressure on her head injury through the washcloth, she used her free hand to pull out the photo of her and her brothers. Suddenly the door opened and the raucous platoon came inside. She pulled the cloth away from her head too fast, the material sticking to her slowly clotting wound. She hissed. Opening and closing her hands caused blazing pain.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Bill Guarnere seemed genuinely concerned when he looked over to her.

The others spun around to look. She bit her cheek and shrugged, tossing the cloth to the side in as nonchalant a way as she could. After a moment, she sighed. "I tripped."

"You tripped, eh?" Guarnere walked over. He folded his arms. "Did you get back at whatever tripped yah?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Who was it?" Johnny stepped over to her as well. He looked at the cut.

"I never said someone did this on purpose."

"You never said they didn't," Guarnere bit back.

Alice huffed. "I have had worse. I just need some water to clean up my face."

"Say no more." Suddenly George stood in front of her with a full canteen. He handed it to her and she thanked him.

Cleaning around the cut stung. She bit her cheek to keep from complaining. Finally when she hoped most of the blood had been washed away, she stood again. She had to go take care of her hands. The palms already hurt twice as much now they were drying. Excusing herself, Alice left the barracks.

She figured that since she was technically a Lieutenant, she had a right to the Officers' restrooms. She strolled with purpose towards the barracks that held the officers. As she turned a corner, she ran right into someone.

"I apologize, Lieutenant!" She took a quick step back as she realized she'd walked into Speirs.

But he just furrowed his brow and looked at her forehead. "What happened to that?"

"I fell."

"Right. Who did that to you?"

Alice hesitated. She didn't know the names of the privates who'd tripped her. So she kept her mouth shut.

"You have a right to defend yourself, Klein."

She nodded. "I know. I was caught unprepared. Trust me, that will not happen again. I just need to wash my hands."

Speirs accompanied her the rest of the way to the Officers' restrooms. While she went inside and scrubbed her palms clean, he stood thinking. It didn't take long before she'd finished and they went their separate ways.

In the second half of training that day, Alice did significantly worse. They focused on weight training. Ever time Alice tried to grab a weight, her palms all but screamed in pain. She could tell that Dick didn't miss the anguish on her face nor the red welt and cut in the corner of her forehead along her hairline.

"Come on Klein! Ready to give up yet?"

Sobel's jeers made her want to punch him. She never would've tolerated being spoken to like that back in the Maquis. Back there, they shared a common enemy. But in Camp Toccoa, it seemed the company's enemy was equally herself as much as Sobel or the Nazi threat. However she did notice the men weren't as furious with her, at least not the ones who had seen her cuts and scrapes.

She ate dinner by herself that night as neither Dick nor Nixon joined her. When they were dismissed for the day after the Mess Hall, she still had more to do. Currahee demanded to be run again thanks to the fake lipstick incident that morning.

So as the sun began to set, Alice silently re-tied her boots. None of the men spoke to her as she ran a hurting hand through her blonde hair. Fatigue crashed over her as she wandered through the quiet, darkening camp towards the base of the Currahee run. Each step crunched on the gravel. A few lightning bugs flickered around her. With a last, lingering look at the star-studded sky above, she took a deep breath and started up the three mile hike.

Halfway up the climb, night had fallen completely. A chorus of crickets and other bugs accompanied her on her way. Only the methodical pounding of her boots and ragged breathing made any other noise. By the time she reached the top, pain shot through her knees. The fall earlier had hurt her more than she expected. Setting her jaw, Alice slapped the pillar stone and started back down.

"Stand alone," she muttered. Sobel had told them what Currahee meant. She supposed it fit her situation well. She would stand alone, no matter what.

When her boots hit gravel at the entrance to camp, she paused to cough and catch her breath. Her head spun, pain shooting through her. When she opened the door to her barracks, she didn't speak and didn't make eye contact with the men who sat around chatting. Instead she went straight to the back and grabbed her towel, shower kit, and sleeping clothes. Sweat dripped down her face and mixed with blood from the reopened cut.

Bill turned to her. "Where you goin'?"

Alice turned back to them. She stood at the door. "I need to shower."

"You can't go by yourself," Joe Toye objected.

Alice just shrugged in defeat. She didn't have the energy to deal with this. She supposed she could find Nixon. Her hand went back up to where she could feel the blood dripping. Then she turned and left.

To her surprise, Bill Guarnere, Joe Toye, and George Luz caught up with her before long. They weren't officers, so they went to the regular showers.

"We'll wait out here," Joe told her. "Gotta keep you out of trouble."

Alice cracked a smile and thanked them. She ducked into the showers and set to work scrubbing the grime and blood from her skin. Lukewarm water spilled over her body and she sighed in content. Soon, a French song spilled from her lips.

Outside, Bill shared cigarettes with Joe and George. They stood together listening to her. With each new verse of the song, they relaxed.

"Jesus," sighed George.

Bill and Joe snickered. But they agreed with his longing sentiments. With just crickets around, they didn't say much else.

"Privates, what are you doing loitering out here?" Dick Winters walked by them. He looked curiously.

"Lieutenant Klein needed to shower," Bill explained.

Dick flashed them a tiny smile. He could hear her soft, quiet singing. Then he grew more serious. "Did she mention what happened with her head today?"

George paused. "She said she tripped, sir."

"Did she say someone did it on purpose?"

"She wouldn't tell us who, sir," Joe explained.

Dick nodded. He stood thinking for a moment. With a quick nod, he told them to carry on. Leaving them to the quiet song Alice sung and chorus of crickets and falling water, they kept puffing at their cigarettes.

When the water shut off, they had just finished smoking. After another few minutes, Alice came outside holding her PT gear in her towel. Her face looked a lot cleaner, though the red welt on the side still looked gruesome. She smiled more too. Running a hand through her wet hair, she nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate the help."

"Dontcha worry about it," Bill said. "Sobel would have our asses if you showed up black and blue to formation in the mornin'."

"He'd probably revoke all our passes again and blame you for wearing make up," George added with a smirk.

Alice hummed in agreement. "I was not wearing lipstick this morning. And, uh, I apologize for being the reason you had your passes revoked. I let my anger with Sobel cloud my judgement when I rushed to finish the Currahee run."

"Well, we're all in this together, eh." Bill dug out a cigarette from his pack and handed it to her. When she took it, he offered her a light.

With a small smile, Alice drew the smoke in. Then she released it calmly. "Indeed."