Always 2nd Platoon

"Here we are Florrie" Speirs said as he had led her to the shower.

"Thank you Sir" she hesitated before walking in, so Spires patted her shoulder "Don't worry Florrie I'm going to keep guard for you and there's a seperate shower set up at the back for you" he smiled as her face lit up.

"What are we waiting for come on!" she said exctidily as the sweat glistened on her forehead with her rosy cheeks. He laughed and followed after her as they turned the corner.

"Okay sir, I'll go inside you stay here at all costs or I'm gonna murder you and it will be bloody" she half smiled as she walked din as he shouted after her "I don't doubt it".

Flo walked into the shower and it was one of the best feelings she'd ever had, privacy. She stripped off her uniform that she'd been in for 2 months, looking at it she grimaced it was thick with blood and mud, it had holes all around it due to it being so thin, you couldn't even see the red cross on the armband anymore. Flo sighed and took her plaits out of her hair and set her helmet on the chair with her satchel.

Her head felt so much relief when the plaits were out that she sighed in relief so loudly Speirs called out "Everything okay Florrie?", "Yes sir" she called back a tad embarrassed but she chuckled it off and stepped into the hot water, on a chair in the room was soap and shampoo for her.

She let herself cry as the water ran over her, knowing no one could see her tears, she cried for Hoobler, Bill, Joe, Penkala, Skippy, Julian, smokey and buck but she also cried for everything, every feeling of despair, hurt and pain that she had felt since they dropped into Holland.

She also had a wee moment of self pity, here she was a girl of 21, if she admitted it to herself very ill, slightly scared and she just wanted a cuddle from her mum, of course she had the boys but it wasn't the same thing, she missed her brothers and sister and her dad and she just wanted to be around the fireplace with them drinking hot chocolate and laughing at her dad's bad jokes, she hadn't had a letter from her mum for a while either... Maybe that was it, she just wanted some news from them.

Once all the tears had come out, Flo scrubbed all the grime off her, there was about 2 layers of thick bloody mud that scrubbed off, the floor was filthy, as was her hair by the time she had washed the grit out from it her hair was a different colour. As she turned off the shower and put her towel on, Flo looked back at her manky uniform and sighed as she knew that was her only thing to wear when suddenly a hand passed through the curtain and there was a new unfirom.

Smiling thankfully Flo called out "Thanks Sir" and the hand waved in a way that said 'not a problem'. This new uniform was a bit big but Flo just took the belt from her old one and fastened it so the trousers didn't hit the ground, she had been given clean underwear as well thank the lord, as she slipped on the new medic armband she realised how much more she felt like herself, taking out her thermometer from her satchel she took her temp, 103° 'come down slightly' she thought but she still knew it was shitty.

Slipping her satchel over her head so it rested on her hip, her throughly washed hair in plaits and her helmet on Flo made her way out to Captain Speirs who looked shocked at his favourite girls transformation.

"Florrie you look..... Clean" he said eyeing her sneakily up and down

and mentally face palming he said clean instead of beautiful, making Flo blush and giggle slightly.

"Thank you Sir, its just what I needed" now I should grab the supplies from where Luz is I heard the rations have arrived" she said as Speirs nodded his head and checked his watch "Well Private Hilton, you have 20 minutes left and believe me I will be checking" he smirked slightly as Flo rolled her eyes smiling and started walking towards the building Luz was in until she heard Malark say defeated "Alright 2nd platoon on me!"

She did a little turn and walked towards Malark, when she arrived he gave her a soft smile and popeye threw an arm around her.

"All right, I'm leading this patrol.

CO wants Grant, Liebgott, Wynn, Jackson, Shifty from 3rd Platoon, and Webster and we know about babe, mcclung, ramirez and Fizz"

"They want anyone from first?" Lieb asked dejected, Flo moved over and linked their arms and he held tight like it was the only thing keeping him afloat.

"No" Malark said and went back to queue for a shower.

"Anyone they don't want from 2nd? Jesus Christ" Lieb said starting to get worked up SO Flo although it was small, patted his shoulder and leaned onto him.

"That list sounds like everybody to me." Malark said from the queue, he really shouldn't be leading Flo knew but she couldn't tell the Co what to do, only advise if asked.

"It's always 2nd Platoon. Swear to God, if we had three guys, they'd still want us for it and they always make Fizz be the medic for us" Lieb said still wound up, Flo spoke up "I volunteered, if one of you is going to get hurt I want to be the one whose there"

"I can't believe Malarkey's gonna lead it." Chuck said shaking his head in disbelief while Lieb gently unattached himself from her and walked away with Babe and Chuck trailing after him while she heard Babe say spitefully "he only lost his five best friends, what the fuck's he gotta live for?"

***

She dragged her legs into the tuck shop as she called it and the lads were all crowded round Luz who was becoming stressed as the smoke hung from his mouth.

She went and leaned on the back wall as Cobb was complaining about not getting a hershey bar, Flo really didn't like him, she thought he was a selfish twat and he'd always resented the respect she got from the boys.

"Come on Luz your first platoon at heart" Cobb was begging, while Luz was sorting through everything "Jesus Cobb! There's not enough" he sorted through his stocks.

Vest then came in then with another box "We just got a report of movement. Lipton wants you to lay a few bazooka rounds into a house across the river", she shook her head at the thought of Lip being up again.

Then all Luz needed was for Lieb and Lt Jones with Web to walk in "Oh hershey bars!" Lieb said dead excited as he gazed at the loot.

"Jesus Christ" Luz said exasperated "Wait your turn".

"Who are they for?" Johnny Martin asked Luz leaning on the desk smiling, Flo shook her head, he was a cheeky one that's for sure.

"Not you, Johnny", "Come on, George, one bar", "No, there's not enough to go around" the argument continued as she only noticed Lt Jones's presence when he asked "Capt. Speirs here?".

"Down by the river, sir." George responded tiredly then a voice piped up that she didn't think she would hear for a while "Hey, big mouth, give the kid a Hershey bar" Perco said standing in the doorway smiling as Flo jumped up and ran over to give him a big hug. "Nice to see your still kicking Fizzy" he said as they pulled back, "Eh you can't get rid of me that easily" she smiled but he noticed the bags under her eyes.

"You gotta be shittin' me!" Lieb said smiling widely at his friend, "What's up, guys?" Perco said acting cool "I like what you did with the place, George"

"Yeah, I did good" George said smiling widely for the first time in a while.

"How you feeling?" Johnny went up to him patting him on the back, glad to have another member of his team arrive.

"If you keep your hands off my ass, fine" Perco joked back and started walking over to the table.

"Have a Hershey." George said chucking him one, "Thanks".

"He gets a fuckin' Hershey bar?" Cobb said back to complaining as usual, while Flo rolled her eyes as George replied "he got shot in the ass" sassily which made the end of Flos mouth turn up in a smile.

Johnny and Perco were catching up and Perco started asking about the patrol coming up, Flo had never seen Lieb so pissed off "Yeah well just to make sure the krauts are finished we gotta go row across the river tonight and snatch some krauts"

"Your kidding" Perco said with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Wish I was, welcome back Frank" Lieb said dead pan, as Luz then turned to grab a box of explosives "Yeah, Jesus, that reminds me, Web, I need you to run these to OP-2 for me.

Grenade launchers for the night patrol. Any day now, Web, there you go. You know what? Send these, too." Luz passed Web the box as Web seemed a bit dazed with his instructions.

Flo walked up to the desk and tapped it with her fingers" George, can I have a chocolate bar?" she asked softly looking at him with her doe eyes.

"Yeah, yeah sure Fizz" he said handing her one, she smiled "Thanks" she said softly and turned to grab her box of med supplies newly delivered as Cobb started complaining "So all she has to do is flutter her eyelashes and you give her whatever she wants" he said with a hateful look on his face "bitch" he mumbled under his breath but no one heard so Flo decided not to cause a scene, she just rolled her eyes.

"Hey she's ill and she actually dropped in on d day so shut up cobb" Lieb said giving him a death glare.

Vest then came in again "Hey did you guys hear what happened to the platoon leader from D company last night, got his foot blown off and had to come back empty handed" he said while they all listened intently.

Flo turned to look at Jones and he looked nervous, unsurprisingly they guy had just come out of West Point.

"Fizz did you not know about this?" Lieb asked her as she was drawn from her day dream.

"No it was last night before we arrived here Lieb, I heard that he had been transferred to a field hospital though so fingers crossed he pulls through" she said before grabbing onto webs arm and pulling herself up, Flo grabbed her med supplies box and started walking out the room before she heard Luz say "I've gotta go blast this house, come on Web, Fizz wait a minute"

She stood and waited for them, tapping her foot as Jones asked Luz "Is Captain Speirs gonna be where you are?"

"In the vicinity yeah" Luz replied putting a hand on Flos shoulder almost protectively, as he started to lead her out of the room.

"Then I'll join you." he said acting like it was a great pleasure while Luz rolled his eyes and continued to try and move himself and Flo out the door.

"Where are we going?" Web asked just to be helpful "To the house I gotta blast" George replied exasperated and then Vest joined in "Capt. Winters gonna be with him?" and Flo rolled her eyes and started moving faster out the door "Anyone whose coming come now because I've only got 15 minutes before I'm gonna be frogmarched to sleep" she said over everyone and then a bunch of people started following her out the building.