Two days later, Nixon had settled into some small routine being back at the Battalion level. Alice watched him when she could. All she wanted to do was hug him, tell him things would turn out alright. After the initial shock of losing the kids in the plane during the jump, he'd managed to put on an air of nonchalance and teasing. 

Around 1000 hours, Alice found herself sitting at a table in the city center. She'd just opened a letter from Millie. As the men of Easy who weren't out on patrol or on the line began to filter in for the lecture Nixon had been asked to lead, she turned to the second envelope she'd gotten a couple days prior. She didn't recognize the handwriting. But the first line stopped her from breathing.

"Hey Sweetheart,

"Joe's with me too. He said he'd write his own but I said that was fucking stupid since postage costs so much. We've been stuck inside goddamn hospitals for months now. Stupid docs are worse than Doc Roe when it comes to being careful. I told them to hell with it. Gimme a crutch and let me go.

"Joe's worse off than me. He's gonna be here a lot longer, and he's pretty pissed over it too. Yeah, he just told me he's ready to die in his sleep to get outta here. I'm getting shipped back to the States in a week or so, probably to another fucking hospital. God I hate this. I'm fine. They should just let me go back to Philly.

"Right now we're in England. You wouldn't believe who stopped by yesterday. Millie stopped in, said she and Maddie'd heard from you about us getting hit and their middle sister, Maggie I think, she pulled some strings at her job to find us. Always knew she was a good one. Fucking fantastic family, those Bratts.

"I heard from Johnny a while ago. I couldn't fucking believe that Speirs took over for Dike. The man's insane. Joe just said he's not as insane as me, but I beg to differ. I know you like him though (no accounting for taste I suppose) so hopefully he straightens Easy out. Fucking Foxhole Norman's worse than him, I'm sure. That jackass is almost as bad as Sobel.

"We finally heard about the casualties from after we left thanks to Joe's mom checking reports. Tell Malark to write us, would you? That stupid Mick's in charge of my platoon now, and I need to make sure his head's on straight. Watch him, would you? Don't tell him we said that though. He's a good man, he'll manage, but you should help him. I'm sure you are though. Tell Luz he better write me about the thing we'd been talking about. He'll know what I mean.

"We're running out of room. Joe says he better not see you on a casualty list. I agree. You gotta keep the boys from going too crazy, yeah? Don't worry about us. But when you beat that son of a bitch who took your country, come back and visit ours. 

"Sincerely,

"Bill Guarnere & Joe Toye."

By the time she finished reading the three page letter, Alice felt tears on her cheeks. She brushed them away with her sleeve as fast as she could and soon found herself smiling down at the note. Joe sounded like Joe, and Bill sounded like Bill. Somehow that made everything infinitely better.

"Ready for another one of these lectures?" said George, walking over. A cigarette lay between his fingers. With a deep breath, he drew the smoke in before letting it out. 

Alice snorted, flashing him a tiny smile. "Just heard from Bill and Joe." She waved the letter in the air.

"No shit!" George grinned. "What'd they say? How're they doing?"

"I think they're about ready to bust out again," Alice joked. "They were pretty shocked about Speirs taking over. Bill also said something about you needing to write him about a discussion you'd been having? Ring a bell?"

The grin that spread across George's face concerned her. But he nodded. "Yeah. yeah I'll get on that."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this," Alice muttered.

George just grinned again before leaving her to her spot. He moved to a table in the middle of the space for the lecture. The replacements took the spots up front, including Janovec and O'Keefe. Christenson, Babe, and Talbert all sat near each other, with George beyond them in front of a table. Johnny, Popeye, Perco, and a few other Toccoa men rounded up the group. 

When Alice caught sight of Nixon, he stood to the side away from the men taking a drink of his flask. He looked so tired. After a moment's hesitation, she stuffed the letter from Joe and Bill back into her pocket and made her way over to him.

"Anything interesting in today's news?" she asked him.

He scoffed and shook his head. "Not that I know of. I haven't actually looked through it."

Alice smiled at him. "Is this how you made it through Yale? Going into lectures without preparing?"

"Of course," he joked. "I never needed to study. Too smart."

"Hm. Really?" 

Nixon smirked. "You don't believe me?"

With a dramatic roll of her eyes, Alice didn't respond. The men had gotten themselves all into seats. She could see George shuffling a deck of cards. With another snort of genuine laughter, Nixon moved over to them. It took a minute for them to quiet down. From her spot about ten feet away, Alice just watched them with her hands across her chest and a bright smile.

As Nixon finished muttering about CARE and the need for donations of food for Europe's citizens, Chuck Grant slipped into one of the last empty seats. He sent a shrug in the direction of Floyd Talbert who laughed at him. A few moments passed while Nixon looked down his clipboard.

"I'm sure that you'll all be happy to know Oklahoma is still playing on Broadway," he said next.

The effect was instantaneous. George grinned wide and popped his cigarette out of his mouth. As loud as he could, he started up the song, "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain!"

Beside him, Pat Christenson picked it up as well, and soon the entire area was screeching the lyrics. While Nixon started smiling and directing with his finger, they brought it to a close. "And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet!"

But O'Keefe kept going, "When the wind comes right behind the rain!"

The entire gathered group from Easy Company burst into laughter. George downright cackled at his joke, having cut the rest of the men off to lead O'Keefe to a solo. Even Alice couldn't stop her laughter at their antics.

"O'Keefe, are you sitting on your bayonet? Why don't you leave the singing to Luz." Pat joked. 

"Or Alice!" Talbert shouted.

"Yeah, unless you wanna do, uh, "Surrey with the Fringe On Top," O'Keefe? I'm sure Alice would love a break from the girl's part," Luz added with a snicker.

Even as they continued to heckle him, Alice turned from the boys to Nixon. He'd flipped the page on the clipboard. "Aw." When they turned to him, he looked up. "Rita Hayworth's getting married."

"Oh Rita! Say it isn't true!" George groaned.

"She's too good for you, George," Alice called over.

Once more, the entire area burst into laughter. She even saw Johnny grinning where he played with his cards. They glanced her way, and George just shook his head, hand over his heart. Nixon, smirking, still looked down at his clipboard. Then his smile faltered.

"Wartime news."

The whole area calmed down considerably. Men straightened in their chairs. The card game going on between George, Johnny, Liebgott, and More slowed. 

"Resistance in the Ruhr's crumbling. Looks like there might be a breakout in Remagen," he said, still reading his clipboard. "Apparently the Krauts forgot to blow up one of their bridges when they headed back over the Rhine." With a glance up, he looked at the men and then Alice briefly. "I guess the boys in the 17th Airborne did okay after all."

She shot him a small smile and a nod. But the men of Easy Company, namely George "I like the center of attention" Luz, just protested. With a dramatic sigh, George groaned. "Ah, forget it. We'd be in Berlin by now if it were us instead of them, sir, huh?"

The whole area started clapping and loudly agreeing with his statements. Nixon gave George a smirk and a nod. Next on his clipboard, more war news.

"In the PTO, Operation Detachment is almost complete. Looks like the Marines are going to capture Iwo Jima," Nixon said. 

"The Marines got nothin' on the Airborne!" someone shouted.

Another round of applause, and another smirk from Nixon. Alice just grinned at them again and shook her head. In the sunshine of occupied Germany, suddenly the war seemed further away than ever, even listening to war news.

Nixon nodded, looking at the stuff on his clipboard. He turned a page. "Churchill crossed the Rhine yesterday with Montgomery," he said. "Crazy Brits." To the rumble of laughter, he just shook his head with a smile. With a small nod to himself, he let the pages follow back into order.

 "Oh." He paused and looked up. "This is your reminder to keep fraternization to a minimum, boys. Keep your hands and other body parts to yourselves." When a chorus of snickers met his order, he just shrugged. Nixon knew it was pointless, but he had to add the caveat anyways. "Right. That's it. You're dismissed. Don't cause too much trouble."

"Us, sir?" George asked, feigning innocence.

"You most of all, Luz," Nixon quipped. "Get out of here. You all have jobs to do."

They didn't hang around any longer. The cafe chairs they'd commandeered were pushed in around tables and the men split to head off in various directions. Perconte, who Alice had seen half sleeping through most of the lecture, grabbed his gun and helmet from the table to his right and set off towards, she guessed, the outpost. O'Keefe scurried after him.

"Hey, anyone seen Malark." Alice walked over to a group of the Toccoa men. 

They laughed and chatted, turning only when she interrupted. More shook his head so she turned to Johnny. He pointed down the road. "Lipton was looking for him. Try the CP. Why?"

"Got a note from Bill and Joe," she admitted. They all perked up immediately. With a smile, she nodded. "They're doing okay. Both of them are about ready to bust out of the hospital in England."

"Sounds about right," More said.

She left them to their work. The CP sat on the edge of town in a farmhouse that Easy had taken over. After making her way through the town with its stone roads and houses, her feet hit a gravel path. She saw Skinny and Shifty not too far ahead, side by side. They disappeared into the barn part of the CP, and soon enough she came up to the door as well.

Inside, she found a dozen members of Easy snacking on rations and resting. A few sat on the ground of the barn playing cards, some eating rations. They all nodded her direction as she walked in. Crossing the barn, Alice headed towards the door to the house itself. The platoon sergeants, and Talbert as First Sergeant had taken up a couple of the extra bedrooms.

Alice found Lipton and Malarkey at a table in the kitchen. They had mugs of coffee and Malarkey looked to be quite enjoying a plate of eggs. Over in the kitchen, she saw their host woman, an older lady with greying hair and a white and blue dress, cleaning up.

"Guten Tag," Alice said, smiling. "Wie gehts? 

All three of them glanced over. The woman smiled and nodded. She wiped her hands on her apron. "Mir geht es gut, danke."

"Ich hoffe meine Freunde stören dich nicht zu sehr?"

Both Alice and the woman glanced over at Malarkey and Lipton, and started grinning. The woman shook her head. "Nein."

Alice nodded. Leaving the woman to her chores, she slipped into a chair at the table. They both watched her curiously. After a moment, she chuckled. "I just wanted to make sure you aren't causing her any trouble."

"Are we?" Lipton asked.

"No. You're alright." She turned back from the woman to the two of them. Pulling out the letter from her pocket, she waved it briefly in the air before putting it down. "Heard from Bill and Joe."

They both perked up immediately. She went on to summarize the letter, leaving out only things she deemed too personal for either herself, or for the two wounded men. Both Malarkey and Lipton laughed at Bill's assertion that the former needed to take care of his Platoon, understanding the threat for what it was.

She stayed for a while longer, enjoying a few of the scrambled eggs that the woman who owned the house brought to her. She had to admit, fresh eggs and bacon tasted like paradise after so long without anything but army food. But in the end, with the afternoon waning, she knew she had places to be. She wanted to check in with Nixon, and then with Dick. 

"Hey, Lip, you joining us for poker tonight? You missed the last couple." She stood from her chair and pulled her jacket back on.

He laughed under his breath. "Yeah, I planned on it. Though Harry told me about the last game, and after the luck you had, I'm not sure I want to." He turned to Malarkey. "She won over 150 bucks in a single round."

"Jesus," Malarkey muttered. "We never should've helped you get better back in training."

Alice started laughing and shook her head. Placing a hand on Lipton's shoulder, she smirked. "Hang tough."

Leaving them simultaneously amused and worried at her poker skills, Alice left the farmhouse. She thanked their host first, and then wandered through the CP barn to check which enlisted had come back to rest. Not very many people had shown up. With a last smile back at the men in the barn, she headed back to town.