A New CO

Taking Noville was easy, Flo and Gene didn't have any work to do the day they took Noville. For the first couple of days since Foy, Flo had been on edge all the time watching for Griffiths or any noise she thought it was mortars, often waking up from her light doze and grabbing her medic satchel ready to run for the first call.

But with Gene and her boy's help she had calmed down and could now sleep a full 2 hours without waking up. As well Captain Speirs had pulled her aside quickly to inform her that Sergeant Griffiths had now been taken off the line pending a court-martial, she had wanted to hug him with relief.

Now stocked up with all their medical supplies Flo and Gene had a job and a half keeping all the paperwork up to date and constantly doing inventory. Maths had never been Flo's strong suit and now she was realizing just how terrible she was...... Gene had been giving her a hand but she still felt rubbish about it.

When they took Rachamps. It was a cold morning, well it was always cold but Flo could feel herself shivering which hardly ever happened these days.

She was watching from the line with Winters and Nix as Gene had basically forced Winters to give her orders to not be the assault team medic.

She was huffing and rolling her eyes but eventually went along with the descision when all the boys had said they were happy she was being kept out of an extra amount of danger.

She was grumbling to Nix "Its not fair, if I was a man they would be happy for me to always be on the assault team"

Nix laughed and put an arm around her "Well your not a man and good because your our fizz and we want to keep you safe, especially head office"

Flo gave him a confused glance and saw the look on Winters's face when he heard what Nix exposed her to "Why especially head office?"

Nix suddenly groaned as he realized he had let slip while Winters just shrugged and mumbled "You've got to tell her now idiot".

"Yeh alright Dick. So, Flo, the US army is using you as an experiment to see whether women can join the army or not. If you do well and survive then women will be allowed in the US army......if not then I doubt they'll give it much thought"

Flo's face was blank but inside her blood was pulsing through her ears "So I'm basically carrying any woman whoever wants to be part of the military dreams on my shoulders?"

Winters gave a small nod before looking back over the battle happening at Rachamps "Basically yes" he said deadpan, Nix then decided to add on "And you're doing a tremendous job so far fizzy" while taking a gulp from his flask.

Flo just turned her head back to the battle and swallowed hard. "Okay," she said quietly. In her head Flo was thinking hard, she needed to prove that women were as good in an army as men were and that women were capable of being part of an elite group of men.

'Ill prove it to them' she mumbled under her breath.

***

When the battle was over Flo had rushed down to the town to see if she could help Gene with any casualties. "Flo! Flo!" she heard him shout and she sprinted to where he had two soldiers Mack and Prop on the ground holding their wounds. "Flo you start on Mack, just a flesh wound not hit an artery" Gene informed her as she started working on his leg, ripping sulpha open with her teeth and grabbing a bandage ready to tightly wrap his leg.

Flo continued with her work, the smell of smoke invading her nostrils and making her cough, to which Gene glanced over at her concerned but she just shrugged him off, in her peripheral vision Flo suddenly saw something dart out from behind a wall.

Looking over to it fully she noticed two germans running for their lives through the field next to the town, looking around quickly she noticed Gene had gone to escort Prop to the jeep and none of the boys would make it in time to stop them. So grabbing Macks gun, Flo aimed at the germans, 'come on Flo remember what your dad taught you' she thought as she pulled the trigger aiming for their legs. There was always the risk that they could bleed out but she was only shooting to wound and limbs were her best bet, so with both eyes, open Flo shot one German hitting his leg as he tumbled to the ground, and then she quickly nailed the other one down as well.

At the sound of the first shot half the men had come running and seen Flo standing with a gun in her hands which she immediately dropped and ran to aid the germans she had just shot. The men all wore a sort of impressed faces clouded with confusion, none of them knew she could shoot, Sobel had never allowed her to touch a gun so how was she such a crack shot?

Gene was the first out of the stupor as he ran to assist her while calling over his shoulder "Babe get me a jeep" to which Babe immediately ran off to get.

When Gene landed next to her and started work on the other German he realized she had aimed perfectly and the men were seriously injured but not life-threatening....... Perfect for prisoners. Gene shot her a glance but Flo just said "Not the time Gene, I'll explain later".

Half an hour later when the Germans had been taken to battalion for further treatment and questioning, all the men gathered around Flo asking the same question to which she simy replied "What? You didn't think that just cause Sobel didn't let me I can't shoot? Farm girl" she smiled and walked off to where the hot drinks were being served.

They all glanced at each other. Their respect for the 21 year old had just gone up a lot.

***

That night they were staying in Rachamps before heading off again, god knows where.

Once she had come out of the med hut after taking inventory Flo heard they were staying in the convent, she could have cried, warmth for the first time in what felt like forever.

She walked into the convent and heard the choir singing for them, it was so georgous with the candles and music that she hadn't heard in months that Flo felt like she couldn't speak for fear of crying.

She spotted an empty pew next to Lip  so she made her way over as quietly as she could with smiles sent over to the boys who caught her eye.

Sliding into the empty seat, Flo started undoing her braids and let her head relax from the tightness she had put upon it for days. Sighing deeply she rested her back on Lips legs that were sat up on the bench and closed her eyes enjoying the peacefulness before it evaporated.

"Flo" Lip whispered quietly, "Yeah?" she whispered back "How are the medical stocks?", she smiled slightly at his concern wanting everything to be in order before they were pulled back from the line tomorrow.

"They're fine Lip, what are you doing anyway?" she asked twisting herself towards him to look in his book. He gladly showed her he was making a roster of everyone in the company who they had and lost since they came into Bastogne.

Her eyes widened as she saw they had come in with 145 men. They were leaving with 63. So few Toccoa men were left and that thought scared her more than she cared to admit.

Thinking over all the deaths Flo wondered how she would ever come to terms with it and she decided she wouldn't try. At least not yet. There still may be more deaths coming.

Flo then noticed Speirs, enjoying the music while holding papers in his hand, she moved over to sit next to him and whispered "Congratulations Sir" as she smiled at him, a smile which he returned "Thanks Florrie, good shooting, by the way, where did you learn to be so accurate?" he asked in a curious voice while Flo gave a small laugh "My dad used to take me and my brother James shooting with him like rabbits, pheasants, etc so you have to be accurate otherwise they'll skimp away before you have time to reload. I and James always had competitions so I practiced a lot to beat him" she whispered inclining her head towards him so he could hear her.

An amused expression crossed his face "Well, that explains it. How is James?" a look of concern now crossed his face as Flo started whispering with a hopeful expression "He's okay I think, last I heard from mum he was doing well and not getting in any more trouble with the Germans"

"Good" he nodded "Have you had any more trouble with any men since Griffiths?", Flo shook her head immediately "No Sir, thank goodness. I think you've scared them all off" she whispered silently laughing. Speirs returned her smile then whispered "By the way the Germans you took have given intelligence a lot of information in exchange for their lives, we believe they are telling the truth because on of their claims has already turned out to be true, I obviously can't tell you but Battalion are very impressed with you Florrie" which made her blush and she mumbled a quick "see you later" before she let him get back to his paperwork and she went back to lean on Lip.

Flo looked back over to Lip, who was, in turn, looking at Speirs a bit nervously, Speirs was sorting through papers and kept glancing at Lip waiting for him to speak. Eventually, Speirs spoke up "What is it?", Lip looked over surprised at him and answered "Nothing" to which Flo gave a small chuckle and laid her head back down on the bench and closed her eyes.

"Well, I had better get back to battalion before they disappear......You wanna ask me don't ya?" Speirs asked Lip and at this point, Flo raised her head ready to hear what Speirs was gonna confess, he gave a small glance to Flo and smiled a cheeky smile at her before turning back to Lip with his emotionless face.

"Ask you what, sir?" Lip asked but he as well held a cheeky smile. "Ask whether the stories about me are true or not? Did you ever hear stories like that everyone says they heard it from someone who was there but then when you ask that person, they heard it from someone else who was there, It's nothing new really, I bet if you went back 2,000 years you'd hear a couple of centurions gossiping and yakking about how Tericus lopped off the heads of some Carthaginian prisoners.", Lip then replied, "Well maybe they kept talking about it because they never heard Tericus deny it?".

Speirs's mouth twitched upwards and then replied while walking past Lip "Well maybe that's because Tercius knew there was some value to keeping the men thinking he was the meanest, toughest, son of a bitch in the whole Roman legion" and with that, he started walking away but not before sending Flo a wink, which made her blush and smile while settling back down to sleep.

Before she could drift she heard Lip say to Speirs before he left "Sir, the men, and Florence aren't really concerned about the stories, they're just glad to have you as our CO. They're happy to have a good leader again", Flo then heard Speirs reply in a direct manner "Well from what I've heard they've always had one, I've been told there's always been one man they could count on, led' em into the Bois Jacques, held them together when they had the crap shelled out of em in the woods, every day kept their spirits up, kept the men and Florence focused gave em direction, everything a good combat leader does". Flo could hear the silence as Lip didn't realize who Speirs was talking about.

Speirs seemed to cotton on to this as he said "You had no idea who I'm talking about do you?... Hell it was you, first sergeant, ever since Winters made battalion you've been the leader of 'Easy Company'". Still, silence from Lip and Flo wasn't surprised, he always disliked praise or attention, she thought Speirs had left but then returned saying "Oh....and your not gonna be a 1st Sergeant much longer, Winters put in for a battlefield commission and Sink approved, you should get the official nod in a few days. Congratulations, Lieutenant.". Flo then heard Speirs walk off.

"He's right Sir" Flo whispered before she drifted off to sleep, thinking they'd be in Mourmellon by tomorrow evening.

***

However, that was not to be and she found herself on a truck headed for Haguenau with the rest of her boys and doing something she never thought she would.....smoking. She only took one puff before coughing and spluttering and swearing she'd never do it again.

"Come on Flo, it gets better" Chuck laughed at her as she crushed the smoke under her boot.

"Nope never ever again," she said and leaned her head against Luz's shoulder.

Luz looked around and behind them spotted the first battalion "Hey look, it's 1st, Hey you thanks for crapping in our foxholes you shitheads" which made them and Flo start giggling.

"Hey, it's our pleasure" one of them replied, while Bull just puffed on his cigar and stated gloomily "Enjoy the walk boys".

They then continued riding out to Haguenau.