Band of Brothers Drabbles [Band of Brothers]
Band of Brothers: Gen Drabbles
Title: Teeth
Word Count: 86
Challenge: 94 teeth
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Speirs
“I heard he has a bunch of teeth.”
“What?!”
“You heard me; I heard he has a bunch of teeth.”
“Why would he want teeth?”
“It’s not the teeth, it’s the fillings.”
“The fillings, does he need a filling?”
“No, the fillings, they’re gold and silver.”
“Wow, he really knows how to loot.”
“But I don’t think he collected them.”
“Then how’d be get them?”
“He got them off a German officer back before we got to the Eagles-Nest.”
“Lucky him.”
“Yeah Speirs is like that.”
Title: Luck
Word Count: 116
Challenge: 95 Possession
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Hoobler, Frank, Luz
“And it was a good shot if I do say so my self,” Hoobler said as he aimed the Lugar at a near by tree.
“Are you going to dig that fox hole or tell us about that shiny new Lugar all day?” Frank asked as he shoveled out another piece of frozen dirt.
“Come on Frank he’s been trying to get one since we first jumped. He finally got lucky let him talk,” Luz said with a grin,
“Lucky, it wasn’t luck Luz. It was skill and hard work and good aim,” Hoobler countered.
“Are you sure about that? Wasn’t Martin given that patrol first?” Frank asked as he looked over at Luz grinning too.
Title: Talking
Word Count: 82
Challenge: 97 Fingernails
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Skip, Penkala and Guarnere.
“Did you hear about the guy with the fingernails,” Skip asked jumping into the hole.
“Yeah I heard, what about it?” Guarnere said.
“I haven’t, what’s this,” Penkala ask.
“This guy was digging with his hands, ripped out his fingernails, if I ever get like that just slap me, or shot me,” Skip explained.
“What nuts? Aren’t you already?”
“And you’re just as nuts Penkala.”
“And I’ll shoot you both if you don’t shut up about it,” Guarnere said looking forward again.
Title: On the line
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 99 lonely
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
They couldn’t see anything. The snow was falling hard, cutting off their sight of anything around them. White was everywhere, it was all they could see in every directions.
The sounds of the forest were muted and silent, there was no sound beyond the white veil around them, it muted everything so even their own voices didn’t travel far beyond their ears, and everything else was silent.
All they felt was cold, everything they touched, and even the air itself was cold, white cold that froze you right to the bone.
When you’re on the line your alone, all alone.
Title: Scared
Word Count: 68
Challenge: 100 Hero
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
He was scared. Scared of being shot, being killed. He knew it could happen when he signed up. He knew at Taccoa that could happen. He knew every time he jumped, he knew that every time his chute could not open. He knew something could happen at any time. But he kept on, he didn’t quit. He jumped, he fired his gun. He fought on, scared or not.
Title: Airborne
Word Count: 106
Challenge: 101 Airborne
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Skip
“What the hell is the Airborne?” Skip asked as he looked over at his friends.
“Don’t know but it said you get an extra fifty bucks a month.”
“But what do you have to do for that extra? They’re not just giving it away.” Skip said.
“They are the Army.”
“That doesn’t make then completely stupid…but jumping out of planes makes the Airborne insane,” Skip said looking at the poster.
“Come on, maybe we can sign up for the Tank Corp.”
“Tanks? You can barely drive your dad’s car.”
“It’s not like you can crash a Tank, now stop looking at that poster and come on.”
Title: How do you Milk
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 106 Milk
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Luz and Frank
“Moo”
“Why are we here again?” Luz asked as he watched Frank trying to milk a cow.
“You wanted eggs I wanted milk. Do you know how long it’s been since I had milk, real fresh milk?” Frank asked as he moved his helmet under the cow.
“But eggs take only a few minutes this is taking forever Frank,” Luz said back as he looked at the other man trying to milk the cow, “do you even know what your doing?”
“Milking a cow?” Frank said poking the cow again.
“You don’t do that by poking it, you milk it.”
Title: Birthdays on the line
Word Count: 101
Challenge: For a friend
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Guarnere and Toye
“What are you doing back here?” Guarnere asked, “Didn’t you get hit in that shoulder?”
“I’m good, just a nick, this is where I need to be, any movement there Bill?”
“Nothing Joe, the Jerrys aren’t doing anything. Just watching, maybe a couple of shells,” Guarnere said as looked over at Toye, “Bring anything back for me, come on what did you get.”
“Who said I have anything Bill?”
“I know you what is it, some good food, some drinks, what Joe?”
“Well I, happy Birthday Guarnere,” Toye said as he pulled out a bottle from his pants.
“Aren’t birthdays great?”
Title: Bull, Landsberg
Word Count: 127
Characters/Pairings: Bull
Rating: PG
The first thing was the dead silence; we couldn’t hear a thing, no birds, no animals at all. All we could hear was own voices and footsteps.
That’s when we felt it. Something just felt wrong. Like something crawling up your spine. The feeling that there’s some one behind you when’s there’s not.
Then came the smell, over powering everything even my cigar, as the wind shifted. The smell of burnt wood and the odor of an over flowing sit-trench…and something else, something worse.
As we reached the edge of the tree line we could taste it even through my cigar, the taste of ash and charred flesh. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and smoke.
Then we saw it through the drifting smog.
Title: What can I
Word Count: 101
Characters/Pairings: Spina
Rating: G
Author's Notes: I just watched part 6.
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. What could I say, what could I do. I knew how he felt, we all did. We’ve all lost someone that we cared about, we’ve all lost friends, but I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t comfort him, so I sat there and let him cry. Let him talk about Julian and his promise. I think that’s the hardest part, knowing that he can’t keep his promise, that he can’t send Julian’s things to him mother. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything at all.
Title: In the Army
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: any/all
Rating: G
Author's Notes: I hope you like it, I’m working on getting caught up.
They’re all the same here; the Germans don’t care what they did before. The Germans don’t care if they were farmers, Lawyers, Doctors, or factory workers. They will kill a rich man as soon as a poor one. To live you have to have luck and skill. You can’t learn luck or count on it so you need skill. None of us knew everything we need to know, some start with a little but we all needed to work. We all need to shoot straighter, craw lower, jump and land better. In that at least we are all the same.
Title: Momentum
Word Count: 78
Characters/Pairings: perconte
Rating: G
The trees were a blur, whooshing past as he ran, leaping over logs and potholes. Pushing himself faster, trying to out run this thoughts. He could run from the place but not the images. He had to get to Town, to find someone, Lipton, Speirs, Nixon, Winters, anyone. He had to find them tell them, tell them what, how could he tell them what he saw, what he felt. He had to run faster, he pushed himself forward.
Title: Slow Death
Word Count: 90
Characters/Pairings: none
Rating: g
Authors Notes: This is the just the most bizarre thing I’ve ever written.
Easy is dying. Every day it gets a little closer. It started all the way back in Taccoa. Slowly one by one, two by two or more. Like blood from a body. They try and replace the losses but they just are lost as well poring out with the old. More and more they fell by Germans, Americans, and Fate till Easy was a shadow of what it once was. Day by day it’s time came closer slowly coming closer. Till at last it was felled with a single word…Peace.
Title: Outside Foy
Challenge: 35 Metal
Word Count: 114
Characters/Pairings: Webb
Rating: R
There were bullets flying everywhere. Coming from all sides at once but he couldn’t find the source, any source. Something he could hit, something he could fire at. Something he could do. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t even move. If he moved even a little he’d lose what precious cover the skinny tree gave him. And they knew he was there he could feel the tree shake as they hit it again and again. He was trapped…
But he was a gods-dammed Paratrooper and a Paratrooper didn’t shiver in a corner they fought back. Webb brought up his rifle and looked through a fork in the tree to fire.
He never felt the bullet.
Title: Rumor
Challenge: 39 Truth
Word Count: 107
Characters/Pairings: Speirs
Rating: PG-13
I’ve heard the rumor; I’d have to be dead or deaf not to. I can see the way every one acts around me. Afraid to look at me, afraid to catch my eye. I see the way their eyes widen every time I pull out my smokes. I understand even, they know I’m a killer, more of us are everyday. But they wonder am I like them, killing because my country asked me to. Or do I do it for some other reason, do I like death, am I a killer at heart? And did I kill those men on D-Day or is that just a story?
Title: Wounds
Challenge: 40 Heal
Word Count: 97
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
Rating: PG-13
You can see the wounds on every man. From shrapnel, bullets, trees and bitter cold that left their marks on their flesh. To see the looks in their eyes that without warning will grow distant or hunted remembering friends lost or past horrors…or both. You see it everyday. Austria is as close to paradise as any of them or you will ever see but it’s not home. And that’s what they need, that’s what you need. To see why we did it, to see what and who we did it all for. Only then can we heal.
Title: Plane
Challenge: Fire
Word Count: 106
Characters/Pairings: Meehan and Evans
Rating: PG
They were taking fire, far more than they should be. The Germans should have been surprised, caught off guard but they weren’t. They knew they were there.
He looked around the plane at the faces of his men. Some had blank looks. Other had fear in their eyes. This wasn’t training, this was real, they could die and they knew it.
And then he knew it…they weren’t going to make it but he didn’t let it show. He was their commander he couldn’t show his fears. So he reached out to Sergeants Evans and smiled calming the other man as their world was engulfed by fire.
Title: Dig
Word Count: 103
Challenge: 45 Labor
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Lipton
It was hard work, but the men needed it. The ground was frozen hard as a brick. Even the dirt that covered everything, dirt you could normal kick into with your shoes was as dark and solid as that new tar they where laying as roads back home. But they had to dig into it. They needed shelter against the bombs the Germans would be dropping anytime.
Lip grabbed the shovel, one of the few and shoved it into the earth with all his might. It didn’t go far but it was a start. It was hard work, but the men needed it.
Title: Snow
Word Count: 65
Challenge: 48 Snow
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
It was snowing. It snowed every year. He’d seen it dozens of times but this was different. This was the first snow fall since he got home. The first snow since he left Bastogne and everything behind him. But it wasn’t the same, it wasn’t as cold. It wasn’t as wet or as heavy as that winter. It may be snowing but it wasn’t Bastogne.
Title: Sometime to deal you have to deal with something else
Word Count: 103
Challenge: For thimpressionist
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Lipton and Malarkey
A/N: Yes I know that’s a long title but it works. Takes place after the death of Skip and Penk. I planned slash but it didn’t happen.
They where gone, they didn’t even leave bodies behind. They were just a hole in the ground. Malarkey wasn’t sure how long he’d been there when Lipton showed up but he was glad he was there, Lip had been with them from the beginning, he knew what it was like…and he was coughing. His skin was as white as the snow around them and the lines under his eyes where dark, way too dark even for being here, “You OK there Lip?”
“I’m supposed to be asking you that Don.” The hell you are, you need help. We can’t lose you, we can’t.
Title: Laugh
Word Count: 95
Challenge: 49 Laugh
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Luz
He made them laugh. He was great at it. He could get them to laugh even in this cold hell of snow and ice, he could do it. He was just that good even if Dike did make it easy. But now…now he didn’t know if he could. He almost had gotten into that fox hole with them. He saw the bomb, he saw the bomb fall on them. He saw them die. And then he saw another one fall on Lip and him, he thought he was…he didn’t know if he could laugh again.
Title: Emotions
Word Count: 74
Challenge: 51 Emotions
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Lipton
You rarely show your emotions, you never get mad or angry. You never truly smile or laugh. You always have half smiles or give a half chuckle. You never show your fear, I don’t even know if you can feel scared. But that what’s makes you a great leader. Your bravery and courage, but that’s why I’m scared. I’m afraid of losing you. If I lost you I don’t know what I would do.
Title: Alive
Word Count: 101
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Malarkey
It was a wonderful day. The green English county side was rushing passed as a warm golden sun beamed down on him. He smiled and raised his champagne in toast when he saw one of his Sergeants. He took a long swallow before turning back to the front and glancing at More before looking ahead to the estate that Easy was staying at. The sun was out and the sky was clear and blue, he has a weekend pass to London, he wasn’t in Normandy, he wasn’t in the hospital, and he was alive. It didn’t get any better than this.
Title: Run
Word Count: 100
Challenge: Determination 52
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Speirs
This wasn’t his best idea, but they needed to link up with I company. He could feel the eyes of everyone on him. He could hear their shouts of surprise. But there was one thing he didn’t hear; he didn’t hear bullets, not at first. He saw the Germans as he ran past he’d never seen such shocked looks on any one’s faces before. They were looking at him in disbelief. He was almost to the wall when he heard the first bullet hit the ground, but he knew he had to keep going. He had to reach I company.
Title: Daily Grind
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 65 Grind
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Luz and Martin
“Every day it’s the some thing, it’s getting old, Luz.”
“What you going to do Johnny. Not like we can just ask the Captain to change it.”
“We could, we could ask him, or the Lieutenant, we could ask Winters.”
“And just what his he supposed to do? Sobel hates him every bit as much as we hate Sobel. And even if he didn’t, Sobel isn’t going to let us have any fun.”
“I know, but if I don’t have some fun soon I’m going to lose it Luz. I swear
I will.”
“Won’t we all Johnny, won’t we all.”
Title: Rain Storm
Word Count: 82
Challenge: 66 Silk
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
It’s was almost like a rainstorm. The sky was full of parachutes. They were everywhere you looked. In every direction they were falling, joined by weapons, ammo, gear, and men like rain drops falling from the sky. It was like a rain storm. The sky was filled not with dark thunderclouds but parachutes of green and black for a moment it looks beautiful and wonderful just for a moment. Then it all crashed back to reality, just liking everything crashing to earth.
Title: View Below
Word Count: 82
Challenge: 67 Smoke
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
Smoke was still rising from the city. The bombed out building and dirty streets were obscured by the drifting clouds of smoke and dust. The city was falling apart, building by building creating more and more smoke. But that was below him. Up here, up here it was wonderful this was a roof over their head. A stove to cook on, beds to sleep on, and toilets to shit in. Down below in maybe a smoky mire but up here it’s wonderful.
Title: Red
Word Count: 95
Challenge: 68 Rage
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: everyone in the room
It was almost tangible; if any of them had tried they may have been able to feel it. But that’s not what they were trying to do, no they were trying to see how much they could beat this replacement before he’d die and they meant to see it through to the end. Their knuckles were bloody. Their own his blood mixing with each others and the replacement’s covered most of their fist. It just added to the rage, bleeding over everything, coloring everything. That was all they were seeing, the red of their rage.
Title: Better
Word Count: 101
Challenge: 70 Secret
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Joe Toye and Don Malarkey
Note: From Malarkey’s book, I tried to feel what Joe was feeling and if you haven’t read Malarkey’s book you may not get it, even if you have you may not get it I’m not sure how well it worked.
They didn’t talk about it. About the night on the atrium. What was said in that bathroom that night. He had wanted to be alone but he was glad he wasn’t. Don had been there when he needed someone to talk to, someone to talk to him. Don was there for him when wasn’t really there himself. And he was glad he was able to be there for Don in return when Dewitt Lowery had tried to screwier him. Don didn’t deserve getting stabbed by one of his own side, Don deserved better then that. Don deserved better. Don was better.
Title: Dust
Word Count: 101
Challenge: 71 Sparks
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Any one
The sun was breaking over the banks of the river, filling the streets with light before it streamed in through the basement windows of the cellar they were staying in. The light was reflecting off the dust in the air creating sparkles of light as they drifted around the room. It almost made it beautiful. Like death, something almost perfect only it wasn’t, not if you really liked at it. It was a sight to wake up to. Seeing the air filled with flecks of gold. And after the morning wake up call from the Germans the room really lit up.
Title: Gone
Word Count: 71
Challenge: 72 Flags
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Unnamed
The sun was setting over the field of white crosses. Its last golden rays of light saluting those gathered as a row of men in pressed suits of olive green fired into the air. Three times the seven men fired their guns. Then men in tan and brown folded the pristine cotton cloth of red, white and blue before carefully handing it to a crying mother, weeping for her lost son.
Title: Alone
Word Count: 81
Challenge: 74 abandon
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: anyone
You can’t see anyone. When it’s snowing hard it covers everything, blocking all vision. Even those two you know are right there. Even those you know are only a few feet from you are lost in the snow. You feel alone, completely alone. Cut off from every one else. And even more what little you can see makes you think first of the Krauts. What if they’re attacking? What if this is it? And you just know you’re not really alone.
Title: Jump
Word Count: 81
Challenge: 75 Unity
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: anyone
When you jump; you jump together. You hope you land with your stick all together so you can start right off get right into it. That’s why we train all the time so that when it happens we are all together. Every jump starts with finding your unit, your buddies. By day, by night, it doesn’t matter. You do it because you know you’re in it together. They’re all you have to count on with out them you would be alone.
Title: My Ass
Word Count: 88
Challenge: 76 Speeches
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Malarkey and Toye
“Can you believe this bullshit?”
“It’s bullshit all right, that’s what I believe. Rescues my ass.”
“Yeah, we were doing just what we were ordered to do right Don?”
“Right where does this Patton get off thinking we needed to be rescued? We were just fine, right Joe?”
“Right”
“It’s nice to have fresh supplies but we’re just fine.”
“Do you know what I’d like to do Don, I want to shove this paper right down that three star’s throat, I’ll show him who needs to be rescued.”
Title: Drowning under people
Word Count: 72
Challenge: 77 Drown
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: anyone
You couldn’t hear anything over the sound of cheering. The crowed, the women, the children, the men were everywhere crying out for joy. The people were like a flood, ever where you looked more and more were coming out of buildings and down streets. They had food, cameras, lips, everywhere you looked there were more of them. An endless flood that looked like it would never end and would drown them all.
Title: Again
Word Count: 72
Challenge: 80 Misery
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: anyone
The war was over. Their war anyways but now they had to fight again half a world away. They’d had to deal with Normandy, Bastogne, Germany and everyplace in between. And now they had to do it again. It wasn’t right. It was wrong, very wrong. They were in Austria. The country was beautiful. The women were wonderful. It was summer and warm. They were in paradise, training to return to hell.
Title: Unfair
Word Count: 104
Challenge: 81 Rain
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: anyone
It was raining, they finally had a break from training and it had to rain. It looked like it was going to flood the town if it didn’t stop soon. How did horses even stay in their stables with it raining like this all the time? It just wasn’t right. It was their day off. Their day to have fun, they shouldn’t be stuck inside playing cards, dice or whatever. They should have been able to run around town in and out of the pubs. Picnics on the green hills with lonely women, fun. Not stuck in the barn like a bunch of mules.
Title: Jump
Word Count: 101
Challenge: 84 Cramp
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: None
They were cramped.
It wasn’t that the planes were small, they weren’t. The planes had lots of space. The first time he’s seen them they’d looked roomy and spacious even. But that was before he’d put on all his gear. His webbing, main chute, reserve chute, leg bag, gun, K rations, ammo, uniform, and everything else and all that space were gone. Filled by twelve guys and all their gear. He wasn’t sure he could breathe it was so cramped all he could do was wait for the green light to get out into the air.
Where it wasn’t so cramped.
Title: Brighter
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 86 Color
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
He’d never seen the world look so bright before. The blue sky had never looked so clear before and the crystal waters of the lake never were so beautiful and clear before. The grass looked green like emeralds and not just over the fence but everywhere. Everything was better. His olive drab wasn’t as drab. His gun glistening like it was new and not a year old, a hard year at that. It was warm but not too warm. Everything was great, perfected even.
They were going home and that just made everything in the world better much better.
Title: Filling in the Gap
Word Count: 98
Challenge: 87 Cavalry
Rating: GP
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
The Germans had broken through the front, the green divisions in northern France and Belgium had been smashed. They were in full retreat and the Germans needed to be stopped. They had to be stopped before they reached the cites of Paris and Amsterdam and the key oil they hold.
And it was up to them to stop them. They had to go in and stop them at Bastogne. They had to hold the roads from the Germans. They had to hold the line against the Germans. They weren’t going to get any backup, they were the backup.
Title: Darts
Word Count: 91
Challenge: 90 Glenn Miller
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Luz and Malarkey
The music filled the bar as Luz lifted the dart and let it fly, “hey, hey, one more and you own me another pack.”
“Not this time,” Malarkey threw back as he lined up his own shot, “all I need is two bull’s eyes and you’ll own me a pack.”
“That’s not going to happen Malarkey, that was just luck. Get ready to own me a pack,” Luz said as he threw his dart hitting the bull’s eye, “NO drink your beer, listen to your music and give me that pack.”
Title: Fruit
Word Count: 102
Challenge: 93 Fruit
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Toye and Malarkey
“I can’t ever remember what real fruit tasted like any more.”
“An apple, I’d kill for an apple Malarkey.”
“I’d kill for a bite of an apple. Just to tasted it again Toye.”
“Or how about an orange. A juicy orange. I wouldn’t even peel it I’d just bite right in.”
“Fresh orange juice. A nice tall glass of that would be great.”
“Feel the juice running down my face, maybe a girl will help clean it up afterwards.”
“Now that’s an image I don’t need Joe.”
“But it’s a nice image Malarkey, a damn bit better then this snow.”
“That’s…that’s true.”
Title: Over
Challenge: victory
Word Count: 102
Characters/Pairings: any and all
Rating: PG
They had fought for over a year and trained for over two and now it was over.
They had dealt with sweltering heat and bone-numbing cold and now it was over.
They had marched under the rain and played under the sun and now it was over.
They had killed for their country and died for their friends and now it was over.
They had flown in the skies and plowed through the mud and now it was over.
They had been through everything together and now it was over.
They had loved each other as brothers and that was not over.
Title: Home
Challenge: left
Word Count: 101
Characters/Pairings: any
Rating: PG
In all the time we’ve been here we kept parts of home with us.
Letters from family and friends, knowing they’re still there.
Pictures of those we left behind, those still at home, safe.
To help remind us why we’re here, why we fight.
With out them we would be lost, adrift.
Knowing that someday it will end, that we can go home.
That we can see our family and friends; that we can be home again.
But in the end we couldn’t just leave the war behind.
Just like we couldn’t leave the real world behind when we came here.
Title: Teeth
Word Count: 86
Challenge: 94 teeth
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Speirs
“I heard he has a bunch of teeth.”
“What?!”
“You heard me; I heard he has a bunch of teeth.”
“Why would he want teeth?”
“It’s not the teeth, it’s the fillings.”
“The fillings, does he need a filling?”
“No, the fillings, they’re gold and silver.”
“Wow, he really knows how to loot.”
“But I don’t think he collected them.”
“Then how’d be get them?”
“He got them off a German officer back before we got to the Eagles-Nest.”
“Lucky him.”
“Yeah Speirs is like that.”
Title: Luck
Word Count: 116
Challenge: 95 Possession
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Hoobler, Frank, Luz
“And it was a good shot if I do say so my self,” Hoobler said as he aimed the Lugar at a near by tree.
“Are you going to dig that fox hole or tell us about that shiny new Lugar all day?” Frank asked as he shoveled out another piece of frozen dirt.
“Come on Frank he’s been trying to get one since we first jumped. He finally got lucky let him talk,” Luz said with a grin,
“Lucky, it wasn’t luck Luz. It was skill and hard work and good aim,” Hoobler countered.
“Are you sure about that? Wasn’t Martin given that patrol first?” Frank asked as he looked over at Luz grinning too.
Title: Talking
Word Count: 82
Challenge: 97 Fingernails
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Skip, Penkala and Guarnere.
“Did you hear about the guy with the fingernails,” Skip asked jumping into the hole.
“Yeah I heard, what about it?” Guarnere said.
“I haven’t, what’s this,” Penkala ask.
“This guy was digging with his hands, ripped out his fingernails, if I ever get like that just slap me, or shot me,” Skip explained.
“What nuts? Aren’t you already?”
“And you’re just as nuts Penkala.”
“And I’ll shoot you both if you don’t shut up about it,” Guarnere said looking forward again.
Title: On the line
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 99 lonely
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
They couldn’t see anything. The snow was falling hard, cutting off their sight of anything around them. White was everywhere, it was all they could see in every directions.
The sounds of the forest were muted and silent, there was no sound beyond the white veil around them, it muted everything so even their own voices didn’t travel far beyond their ears, and everything else was silent.
All they felt was cold, everything they touched, and even the air itself was cold, white cold that froze you right to the bone.
When you’re on the line your alone, all alone.
Title: Scared
Word Count: 68
Challenge: 100 Hero
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
He was scared. Scared of being shot, being killed. He knew it could happen when he signed up. He knew at Taccoa that could happen. He knew every time he jumped, he knew that every time his chute could not open. He knew something could happen at any time. But he kept on, he didn’t quit. He jumped, he fired his gun. He fought on, scared or not.
Title: Airborne
Word Count: 106
Challenge: 101 Airborne
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Skip
“What the hell is the Airborne?” Skip asked as he looked over at his friends.
“Don’t know but it said you get an extra fifty bucks a month.”
“But what do you have to do for that extra? They’re not just giving it away.” Skip said.
“They are the Army.”
“That doesn’t make then completely stupid…but jumping out of planes makes the Airborne insane,” Skip said looking at the poster.
“Come on, maybe we can sign up for the Tank Corp.”
“Tanks? You can barely drive your dad’s car.”
“It’s not like you can crash a Tank, now stop looking at that poster and come on.”
Title: How do you Milk
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 106 Milk
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Luz and Frank
“Moo”
“Why are we here again?” Luz asked as he watched Frank trying to milk a cow.
“You wanted eggs I wanted milk. Do you know how long it’s been since I had milk, real fresh milk?” Frank asked as he moved his helmet under the cow.
“But eggs take only a few minutes this is taking forever Frank,” Luz said back as he looked at the other man trying to milk the cow, “do you even know what your doing?”
“Milking a cow?” Frank said poking the cow again.
“You don’t do that by poking it, you milk it.”
Title: Birthdays on the line
Word Count: 101
Challenge: For a friend
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Guarnere and Toye
“What are you doing back here?” Guarnere asked, “Didn’t you get hit in that shoulder?”
“I’m good, just a nick, this is where I need to be, any movement there Bill?”
“Nothing Joe, the Jerrys aren’t doing anything. Just watching, maybe a couple of shells,” Guarnere said as looked over at Toye, “Bring anything back for me, come on what did you get.”
“Who said I have anything Bill?”
“I know you what is it, some good food, some drinks, what Joe?”
“Well I, happy Birthday Guarnere,” Toye said as he pulled out a bottle from his pants.
“Aren’t birthdays great?”
Title: Bull, Landsberg
Word Count: 127
Characters/Pairings: Bull
Rating: PG
The first thing was the dead silence; we couldn’t hear a thing, no birds, no animals at all. All we could hear was own voices and footsteps.
That’s when we felt it. Something just felt wrong. Like something crawling up your spine. The feeling that there’s some one behind you when’s there’s not.
Then came the smell, over powering everything even my cigar, as the wind shifted. The smell of burnt wood and the odor of an over flowing sit-trench…and something else, something worse.
As we reached the edge of the tree line we could taste it even through my cigar, the taste of ash and charred flesh. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and smoke.
Then we saw it through the drifting smog.
Title: What can I
Word Count: 101
Characters/Pairings: Spina
Rating: G
Author's Notes: I just watched part 6.
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. What could I say, what could I do. I knew how he felt, we all did. We’ve all lost someone that we cared about, we’ve all lost friends, but I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t comfort him, so I sat there and let him cry. Let him talk about Julian and his promise. I think that’s the hardest part, knowing that he can’t keep his promise, that he can’t send Julian’s things to him mother. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything at all.
Title: In the Army
Word Count: 100
Characters/Pairings: any/all
Rating: G
Author's Notes: I hope you like it, I’m working on getting caught up.
They’re all the same here; the Germans don’t care what they did before. The Germans don’t care if they were farmers, Lawyers, Doctors, or factory workers. They will kill a rich man as soon as a poor one. To live you have to have luck and skill. You can’t learn luck or count on it so you need skill. None of us knew everything we need to know, some start with a little but we all needed to work. We all need to shoot straighter, craw lower, jump and land better. In that at least we are all the same.
Title: Momentum
Word Count: 78
Characters/Pairings: perconte
Rating: G
The trees were a blur, whooshing past as he ran, leaping over logs and potholes. Pushing himself faster, trying to out run this thoughts. He could run from the place but not the images. He had to get to Town, to find someone, Lipton, Speirs, Nixon, Winters, anyone. He had to find them tell them, tell them what, how could he tell them what he saw, what he felt. He had to run faster, he pushed himself forward.
Title: Slow Death
Word Count: 90
Characters/Pairings: none
Rating: g
Authors Notes: This is the just the most bizarre thing I’ve ever written.
Easy is dying. Every day it gets a little closer. It started all the way back in Taccoa. Slowly one by one, two by two or more. Like blood from a body. They try and replace the losses but they just are lost as well poring out with the old. More and more they fell by Germans, Americans, and Fate till Easy was a shadow of what it once was. Day by day it’s time came closer slowly coming closer. Till at last it was felled with a single word…Peace.
Title: Outside Foy
Challenge: 35 Metal
Word Count: 114
Characters/Pairings: Webb
Rating: R
There were bullets flying everywhere. Coming from all sides at once but he couldn’t find the source, any source. Something he could hit, something he could fire at. Something he could do. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t even move. If he moved even a little he’d lose what precious cover the skinny tree gave him. And they knew he was there he could feel the tree shake as they hit it again and again. He was trapped…
But he was a gods-dammed Paratrooper and a Paratrooper didn’t shiver in a corner they fought back. Webb brought up his rifle and looked through a fork in the tree to fire.
He never felt the bullet.
Title: Rumor
Challenge: 39 Truth
Word Count: 107
Characters/Pairings: Speirs
Rating: PG-13
I’ve heard the rumor; I’d have to be dead or deaf not to. I can see the way every one acts around me. Afraid to look at me, afraid to catch my eye. I see the way their eyes widen every time I pull out my smokes. I understand even, they know I’m a killer, more of us are everyday. But they wonder am I like them, killing because my country asked me to. Or do I do it for some other reason, do I like death, am I a killer at heart? And did I kill those men on D-Day or is that just a story?
Title: Wounds
Challenge: 40 Heal
Word Count: 97
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
Rating: PG-13
You can see the wounds on every man. From shrapnel, bullets, trees and bitter cold that left their marks on their flesh. To see the looks in their eyes that without warning will grow distant or hunted remembering friends lost or past horrors…or both. You see it everyday. Austria is as close to paradise as any of them or you will ever see but it’s not home. And that’s what they need, that’s what you need. To see why we did it, to see what and who we did it all for. Only then can we heal.
Title: Plane
Challenge: Fire
Word Count: 106
Characters/Pairings: Meehan and Evans
Rating: PG
They were taking fire, far more than they should be. The Germans should have been surprised, caught off guard but they weren’t. They knew they were there.
He looked around the plane at the faces of his men. Some had blank looks. Other had fear in their eyes. This wasn’t training, this was real, they could die and they knew it.
And then he knew it…they weren’t going to make it but he didn’t let it show. He was their commander he couldn’t show his fears. So he reached out to Sergeants Evans and smiled calming the other man as their world was engulfed by fire.
Title: Dig
Word Count: 103
Challenge: 45 Labor
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Lipton
It was hard work, but the men needed it. The ground was frozen hard as a brick. Even the dirt that covered everything, dirt you could normal kick into with your shoes was as dark and solid as that new tar they where laying as roads back home. But they had to dig into it. They needed shelter against the bombs the Germans would be dropping anytime.
Lip grabbed the shovel, one of the few and shoved it into the earth with all his might. It didn’t go far but it was a start. It was hard work, but the men needed it.
Title: Snow
Word Count: 65
Challenge: 48 Snow
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
It was snowing. It snowed every year. He’d seen it dozens of times but this was different. This was the first snow fall since he got home. The first snow since he left Bastogne and everything behind him. But it wasn’t the same, it wasn’t as cold. It wasn’t as wet or as heavy as that winter. It may be snowing but it wasn’t Bastogne.
Title: Sometime to deal you have to deal with something else
Word Count: 103
Challenge: For thimpressionist
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Lipton and Malarkey
A/N: Yes I know that’s a long title but it works. Takes place after the death of Skip and Penk. I planned slash but it didn’t happen.
They where gone, they didn’t even leave bodies behind. They were just a hole in the ground. Malarkey wasn’t sure how long he’d been there when Lipton showed up but he was glad he was there, Lip had been with them from the beginning, he knew what it was like…and he was coughing. His skin was as white as the snow around them and the lines under his eyes where dark, way too dark even for being here, “You OK there Lip?”
“I’m supposed to be asking you that Don.” The hell you are, you need help. We can’t lose you, we can’t.
Title: Laugh
Word Count: 95
Challenge: 49 Laugh
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Luz
He made them laugh. He was great at it. He could get them to laugh even in this cold hell of snow and ice, he could do it. He was just that good even if Dike did make it easy. But now…now he didn’t know if he could. He almost had gotten into that fox hole with them. He saw the bomb, he saw the bomb fall on them. He saw them die. And then he saw another one fall on Lip and him, he thought he was…he didn’t know if he could laugh again.
Title: Emotions
Word Count: 74
Challenge: 51 Emotions
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Lipton
You rarely show your emotions, you never get mad or angry. You never truly smile or laugh. You always have half smiles or give a half chuckle. You never show your fear, I don’t even know if you can feel scared. But that what’s makes you a great leader. Your bravery and courage, but that’s why I’m scared. I’m afraid of losing you. If I lost you I don’t know what I would do.
Title: Alive
Word Count: 101
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Malarkey
It was a wonderful day. The green English county side was rushing passed as a warm golden sun beamed down on him. He smiled and raised his champagne in toast when he saw one of his Sergeants. He took a long swallow before turning back to the front and glancing at More before looking ahead to the estate that Easy was staying at. The sun was out and the sky was clear and blue, he has a weekend pass to London, he wasn’t in Normandy, he wasn’t in the hospital, and he was alive. It didn’t get any better than this.
Title: Run
Word Count: 100
Challenge: Determination 52
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Speirs
This wasn’t his best idea, but they needed to link up with I company. He could feel the eyes of everyone on him. He could hear their shouts of surprise. But there was one thing he didn’t hear; he didn’t hear bullets, not at first. He saw the Germans as he ran past he’d never seen such shocked looks on any one’s faces before. They were looking at him in disbelief. He was almost to the wall when he heard the first bullet hit the ground, but he knew he had to keep going. He had to reach I company.
Title: Daily Grind
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 65 Grind
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Luz and Martin
“Every day it’s the some thing, it’s getting old, Luz.”
“What you going to do Johnny. Not like we can just ask the Captain to change it.”
“We could, we could ask him, or the Lieutenant, we could ask Winters.”
“And just what his he supposed to do? Sobel hates him every bit as much as we hate Sobel. And even if he didn’t, Sobel isn’t going to let us have any fun.”
“I know, but if I don’t have some fun soon I’m going to lose it Luz. I swear
I will.”
“Won’t we all Johnny, won’t we all.”
Title: Rain Storm
Word Count: 82
Challenge: 66 Silk
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
It’s was almost like a rainstorm. The sky was full of parachutes. They were everywhere you looked. In every direction they were falling, joined by weapons, ammo, gear, and men like rain drops falling from the sky. It was like a rain storm. The sky was filled not with dark thunderclouds but parachutes of green and black for a moment it looks beautiful and wonderful just for a moment. Then it all crashed back to reality, just liking everything crashing to earth.
Title: View Below
Word Count: 82
Challenge: 67 Smoke
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
Smoke was still rising from the city. The bombed out building and dirty streets were obscured by the drifting clouds of smoke and dust. The city was falling apart, building by building creating more and more smoke. But that was below him. Up here, up here it was wonderful this was a roof over their head. A stove to cook on, beds to sleep on, and toilets to shit in. Down below in maybe a smoky mire but up here it’s wonderful.
Title: Red
Word Count: 95
Challenge: 68 Rage
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: everyone in the room
It was almost tangible; if any of them had tried they may have been able to feel it. But that’s not what they were trying to do, no they were trying to see how much they could beat this replacement before he’d die and they meant to see it through to the end. Their knuckles were bloody. Their own his blood mixing with each others and the replacement’s covered most of their fist. It just added to the rage, bleeding over everything, coloring everything. That was all they were seeing, the red of their rage.
Title: Better
Word Count: 101
Challenge: 70 Secret
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Joe Toye and Don Malarkey
Note: From Malarkey’s book, I tried to feel what Joe was feeling and if you haven’t read Malarkey’s book you may not get it, even if you have you may not get it I’m not sure how well it worked.
They didn’t talk about it. About the night on the atrium. What was said in that bathroom that night. He had wanted to be alone but he was glad he wasn’t. Don had been there when he needed someone to talk to, someone to talk to him. Don was there for him when wasn’t really there himself. And he was glad he was able to be there for Don in return when Dewitt Lowery had tried to screwier him. Don didn’t deserve getting stabbed by one of his own side, Don deserved better then that. Don deserved better. Don was better.
Title: Dust
Word Count: 101
Challenge: 71 Sparks
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Any one
The sun was breaking over the banks of the river, filling the streets with light before it streamed in through the basement windows of the cellar they were staying in. The light was reflecting off the dust in the air creating sparkles of light as they drifted around the room. It almost made it beautiful. Like death, something almost perfect only it wasn’t, not if you really liked at it. It was a sight to wake up to. Seeing the air filled with flecks of gold. And after the morning wake up call from the Germans the room really lit up.
Title: Gone
Word Count: 71
Challenge: 72 Flags
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Unnamed
The sun was setting over the field of white crosses. Its last golden rays of light saluting those gathered as a row of men in pressed suits of olive green fired into the air. Three times the seven men fired their guns. Then men in tan and brown folded the pristine cotton cloth of red, white and blue before carefully handing it to a crying mother, weeping for her lost son.
Title: Alone
Word Count: 81
Challenge: 74 abandon
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: anyone
You can’t see anyone. When it’s snowing hard it covers everything, blocking all vision. Even those two you know are right there. Even those you know are only a few feet from you are lost in the snow. You feel alone, completely alone. Cut off from every one else. And even more what little you can see makes you think first of the Krauts. What if they’re attacking? What if this is it? And you just know you’re not really alone.
Title: Jump
Word Count: 81
Challenge: 75 Unity
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: anyone
When you jump; you jump together. You hope you land with your stick all together so you can start right off get right into it. That’s why we train all the time so that when it happens we are all together. Every jump starts with finding your unit, your buddies. By day, by night, it doesn’t matter. You do it because you know you’re in it together. They’re all you have to count on with out them you would be alone.
Title: My Ass
Word Count: 88
Challenge: 76 Speeches
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Malarkey and Toye
“Can you believe this bullshit?”
“It’s bullshit all right, that’s what I believe. Rescues my ass.”
“Yeah, we were doing just what we were ordered to do right Don?”
“Right where does this Patton get off thinking we needed to be rescued? We were just fine, right Joe?”
“Right”
“It’s nice to have fresh supplies but we’re just fine.”
“Do you know what I’d like to do Don, I want to shove this paper right down that three star’s throat, I’ll show him who needs to be rescued.”
Title: Drowning under people
Word Count: 72
Challenge: 77 Drown
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: anyone
You couldn’t hear anything over the sound of cheering. The crowed, the women, the children, the men were everywhere crying out for joy. The people were like a flood, ever where you looked more and more were coming out of buildings and down streets. They had food, cameras, lips, everywhere you looked there were more of them. An endless flood that looked like it would never end and would drown them all.
Title: Again
Word Count: 72
Challenge: 80 Misery
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: anyone
The war was over. Their war anyways but now they had to fight again half a world away. They’d had to deal with Normandy, Bastogne, Germany and everyplace in between. And now they had to do it again. It wasn’t right. It was wrong, very wrong. They were in Austria. The country was beautiful. The women were wonderful. It was summer and warm. They were in paradise, training to return to hell.
Title: Unfair
Word Count: 104
Challenge: 81 Rain
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: anyone
It was raining, they finally had a break from training and it had to rain. It looked like it was going to flood the town if it didn’t stop soon. How did horses even stay in their stables with it raining like this all the time? It just wasn’t right. It was their day off. Their day to have fun, they shouldn’t be stuck inside playing cards, dice or whatever. They should have been able to run around town in and out of the pubs. Picnics on the green hills with lonely women, fun. Not stuck in the barn like a bunch of mules.
Title: Jump
Word Count: 101
Challenge: 84 Cramp
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: None
They were cramped.
It wasn’t that the planes were small, they weren’t. The planes had lots of space. The first time he’s seen them they’d looked roomy and spacious even. But that was before he’d put on all his gear. His webbing, main chute, reserve chute, leg bag, gun, K rations, ammo, uniform, and everything else and all that space were gone. Filled by twelve guys and all their gear. He wasn’t sure he could breathe it was so cramped all he could do was wait for the green light to get out into the air.
Where it wasn’t so cramped.
Title: Brighter
Word Count: 100
Challenge: 86 Color
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
He’d never seen the world look so bright before. The blue sky had never looked so clear before and the crystal waters of the lake never were so beautiful and clear before. The grass looked green like emeralds and not just over the fence but everywhere. Everything was better. His olive drab wasn’t as drab. His gun glistening like it was new and not a year old, a hard year at that. It was warm but not too warm. Everything was great, perfected even.
They were going home and that just made everything in the world better much better.
Title: Filling in the Gap
Word Count: 98
Challenge: 87 Cavalry
Rating: GP
Characters/Pairings: Anyone
The Germans had broken through the front, the green divisions in northern France and Belgium had been smashed. They were in full retreat and the Germans needed to be stopped. They had to be stopped before they reached the cites of Paris and Amsterdam and the key oil they hold.
And it was up to them to stop them. They had to go in and stop them at Bastogne. They had to hold the roads from the Germans. They had to hold the line against the Germans. They weren’t going to get any backup, they were the backup.
Title: Darts
Word Count: 91
Challenge: 90 Glenn Miller
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Luz and Malarkey
The music filled the bar as Luz lifted the dart and let it fly, “hey, hey, one more and you own me another pack.”
“Not this time,” Malarkey threw back as he lined up his own shot, “all I need is two bull’s eyes and you’ll own me a pack.”
“That’s not going to happen Malarkey, that was just luck. Get ready to own me a pack,” Luz said as he threw his dart hitting the bull’s eye, “NO drink your beer, listen to your music and give me that pack.”
Title: Fruit
Word Count: 102
Challenge: 93 Fruit
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Toye and Malarkey
“I can’t ever remember what real fruit tasted like any more.”
“An apple, I’d kill for an apple Malarkey.”
“I’d kill for a bite of an apple. Just to tasted it again Toye.”
“Or how about an orange. A juicy orange. I wouldn’t even peel it I’d just bite right in.”
“Fresh orange juice. A nice tall glass of that would be great.”
“Feel the juice running down my face, maybe a girl will help clean it up afterwards.”
“Now that’s an image I don’t need Joe.”
“But it’s a nice image Malarkey, a damn bit better then this snow.”
“That’s…that’s true.”
Title: Over
Challenge: victory
Word Count: 102
Characters/Pairings: any and all
Rating: PG
They had fought for over a year and trained for over two and now it was over.
They had dealt with sweltering heat and bone-numbing cold and now it was over.
They had marched under the rain and played under the sun and now it was over.
They had killed for their country and died for their friends and now it was over.
They had flown in the skies and plowed through the mud and now it was over.
They had been through everything together and now it was over.
They had loved each other as brothers and that was not over.
Title: Home
Challenge: left
Word Count: 101
Characters/Pairings: any
Rating: PG
In all the time we’ve been here we kept parts of home with us.
Letters from family and friends, knowing they’re still there.
Pictures of those we left behind, those still at home, safe.
To help remind us why we’re here, why we fight.
With out them we would be lost, adrift.
Knowing that someday it will end, that we can go home.
That we can see our family and friends; that we can be home again.
But in the end we couldn’t just leave the war behind.
Just like we couldn’t leave the real world behind when we came here.