#channel 47 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sergeant-spoons · 1 year

Text

47. Who Came Up The Bristol Channel?

Leslie Sheppard

Taglist: @thoughpoppiesblow @chaosklutz @wexhappyxfew @50svibes @tvserie-s-world @adamantiumdragonfly @ask-you-what-sir @whovian45810 @brokennerdalert @holdingforgeneralhugs @claire-bear-1218 @heirsoflilith @itswormtrain @actualtrashpanda @wtrpxrks

This batch of updates (47-49) is dedicated in tandem to my wonderful mutuals @mercurygray (for @’ing me in her Thankful Thursday event - I am so humbled and thankful in return) and @thoughpoppiesblow (for making a beautiful edit for Kate August almost immediately after I introduced her with this post-war snippet). Love you both so much!! Thank you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The temperate sun of the early English Spring bore down on the 101st Airborne Infantry, warming their faces despite the cool morning air. Skip told Leslie at breakfast that morning that Ramsbury was where they held all the jump training nowadays. Starting from Aldbourne, it was a five-minute drive and an hour-long hike, but that was only for a single Company marching in time. Wisely, Major Horton and the other higher-ups had decided that moving the entire Infantry on the morning of March 23rd would necessitate the use of transports. The Buick Specials and GMCs rumbled onto the road just after 6:00 hours. It was now noon and the jump demonstration they'd been preparing for all month was nearly concluded. All they were waiting for now was the top brass to approve of their decorum—or, in layman's terms, their line formations, their uniforms, how well they were standing at attention, that sort of thing.

A bee buzzed past Leslie's helmet. She watched it fly away but made no other movement other than the slightest tilt of the head. She stood with the other sergeants, awaiting the ceremony's end. With Danny Huff on one side and Kiko on the other, she felt rather lucky with her placement. Poor Tink was stuck behind Cowboy Bennett, the tallest member of the Mechorps. This jump was a massive deal—General Eisenhower and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had come to see it together. Leslie was certainly not the only one excited to hear the news last night. There had been rumors, but to have it confirmed was something else entirely. Clearly, what they were rehearsing for here (and what they had just demonstrated) was an enterprise of a scale they'd never tried before. Officers like Col. Sink and Maj. Horton knew what it was all about, but even Lt. Nixon, intelligence officer that he was, couldn't provide Easy or the Mechorps any information, and not because he wasn't allowed—he simply didn't have any to give.

Churchill and Eisenhower had passed by the Mechorps earlier. Mama E met them in a salute, and though both men seemed initially startled at her general existence, by the time they left they had both deigned to shake her hand. Kiko was practically vibrating in her boots beside Leslie as the two men passed, and Leslie had to stop herself from reaching out and touching her friend's hand to remind her to breathe. She kept a close eye on Churchill, in particular, wondering what it was about the PM that had convinced so many to make him one of the most powerful men in the world. She didn't think he was all that spectacular up close. He didn't smile once—not, at least, while he was turned to her. She supposed she liked his hat, and his speckled bowtie was a little funny, but that was all.

Eisenhower wasn't much better. He smiled much more than Churchill, but Leslie wasn't sure that was better. The more she looked at him, the more he appeared like a gremlin in the bedtime stories Franklin would make up to scare his younger siblings on scorching summer nights. Hiding under the covers was unbearable in the heat, so they all had to sleep on top of the same mattress to protect each other. Franklin was like a human icebox; he always slept in the middle. Gutsy little Leslie braved the edge. Sometimes Don and his siblings would be over, too, and squealing at Franklin, they'd all pile onto a few beds, wide-eyed and whispering until they fell asleep one by one, leaving one last protector (usually Nora) awake. In the morning, the waking-up made the fright worth it. Crusty-eyed and yawning, they stumbled down the stairs toward the sound of Franklin singing while pancakes and eggs sizzled in pans on the stove.

As the bee came back around, Leslie smiled—those were good memories, waking up to find Don half on top of her, giggling as she rolled him off and he pretended to snore, him clawing his way back on top of her until she either let him sleep a little longer or pushed him off the bed onto the fuzzy, carpeted floor, where he'd whine until she tumbled down and lay there with him.

"Psst. Sheppard."

Danny elbowed her rather unsubtly, and Leslie twitched, hoping someone like Sobel hadn't seen. Still, Danny persisted until she hissed his name, and even then, he wouldn't forego his inquiry.

"Ain't that your fella over there?" he asked out of the corner of his mouth. "Your Malarkey?"

Leslie looked over to where she knew Easy Company to be standing and picked Don out with ease, first because he was Don but second because Ike Eisenhower himself was shaking his hand. As her heart swelled with pride, she tried to hold back a smile to no avail. Though she knew she was supposed to be maintaining a neutral expression, she couldn't help it, delighted to see Don singled out so positively.

"Sure is," she whispered back to Danny, too happy to care if it was wise to leave him wondering whether Don was or wasn't 'her Malarkey' after all.

The whole shebang was over by the middle of the hour, and when Mama E finally dismissed the Mechorps, they mingled amongst themselves, chatting eagerly about the demonstration and complimenting each other's immaculately sewn chevrons. Their captain drew Kiko aside for a minute, but Leslie and Tink hardly noticed, exchanging teasing encouragements every which way they turned. Leslie stood up on her tiptoes to eye the crowd, hoping Don, Skip, and Penk would make their way over as soon as they could, but she'd lost sight of them. Michael Michaud hooked his arm around hers and suggested she join him and a number of the others for lunch on the town, and she eagerly agreed, but before she would leave with them, she had to check whether or not Kiko and Tink wanted to come. It turned out that both women had already started back to the base, hitching a ride in their commander's jeep, so Leslie grabbed Don, Skip, Penk, and Alton More when they emerged from the crowd, and they all set off for a rowdy lunch downtown.

"So what'd Ike say to you, you lucky sonuvabitch?" Leslie asked as she munched on a french fry, having to lean close to Don for him to hear, and he casually slung his arm over her shoulders, grinning.

"He asked me about home and how I liked England."

"No shit?"

"No shit."

Leslie grinned around the straw of her soda.

"This is the kind o' thing you tell your grandkids about someday, y'know."

"Sure is. I'm gonna blow their minds."

He stole a fry straight from her hand, and when she protested, he kissed her forehead and laughed at her pout.

"Pop-Pop shook General Eisenhower's hand and talked about the weather with Winston Churchill—imagine that."

Back at the base just after 2:00 hours, stalling for time before afternoon lectures, the foursome from Easy (plus Leslie) lounged in the shade under a copse of poplar trees behind the medbay, trading stories and teasingly congratulating Don for his encounter with Eisenhower.

"Bet Ike's gonna tell his son 'bout you," Penkala teased. "'Say, son, I never met a more redheaded man in all my days. Never a more freckled one, neither'."

"Don't try to do voices, Alex," Leslie scolded, laughing, "you're no George Luz!"

"Oh, c'mon, I could do the voice if I tried—'Four score and seven years ago'-"

"That's Lincoln, you dolt!" Skip guffawed.

"Says who?"

"The hist'ry books!" More refuted, and the three of them began to squabble.

Chuckling a sigh of amusement, Leslie inclined her head onto Don's shoulder. He shifted a bit to give her more of a slope to lean on, but she didn't have much of a chance to get comfortable before a familiar figure came speeding out of the sunshine with her cap all crooked atop her head and a brilliant smile upon her lips.

"Lady! Lady! You'll never guess what news I've just got, it's really somethin' else-"

"What is it?" Leslie cried, hurrying to her feet with Don close behind. "What, Tink, what?"

"They wrote to me weeks ago, sayin' they weren't gonna get my birthday present to me in time, an' that's okay, you an' Kiko an' Skip threw me a whale of a party-"

"We sure did," Skip agreed, now nibbling on a stalk of wheatgrass as he, Penk, and More looked up at Tink, preferring to hear her news over their petty argument.

"-but they said it'd come, my present would come, and it has!"

"It has? What is it?"

Penk leaned one way and Skip leaned the other as if they thought Tink was somehow hiding the wonderful something in a third hand behind her back. Leslie laughed and pushed at Skip's head, beckoning for Tink to go on.

"It's in Cardiff now, they're in Cardiff in Wales, and they came up the Bristol Channel and- Augh! I'm so excited!"

"That's wonderful, Tink, but who wrote to you? Who came up the Bristol Channel?"

"My brothers, didn't I tell you?!" Tink yelped, too enthused for Leslie to reply that no, she hadn't told her. "My brothers Joey and Jack and my cousin Janie, come all the way to Wales to see me!"

Leslie, Don, and Penk started to cheer, and Skip grabbed Tink and twirled her around, singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"—Glory, glory, Hallelujah! To get out of their way, Leslie jumped back and fell right against Don. Laughing, he steadied her, and when she looked up at him, he was grinning.

"Why, hello there."

"I think my heart just might burst, Mr. Malarkey," she exclaimed, fanning her face and leaning dramatically against his chest. "What a day it's been!"

"That's Private Malarkey to you," he laughed, and she rolled her eyes and puffed her chest out.

"I'm a sergeant, Private, not to mention your best friend of a decade, I think I've earned the right to call you whatever I so please."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?"

As More and Penk joined Skip's singing, Don took her hand and got her to dance with him, too.

"Like Don," she supposed, grinning and spinning, "and 'Lark, and 'hot stuff'-"

He barked a laugh, but his cheeks were turning a little pink, and before Leslie could tease him about it, Kiko came running up, and that was more than enough to distract them all.

"Woah, Kiko, catch your breath," Leslie encouraged. "You're never in a rush like this—what's up?"

"I've got great news," she told them all, panting her way through the declaration. "Great, wonderful news!"

A shout came from farther into the base, and the group gave pause.

"Shit, that's Sobel."

After a beat during which everyone's happiness felt a little threatened, Alton More clambered to his feet with a hearty sigh.

"Sounds like he's calling for some help with some shit, not the whole Company. But if he comes around the whole corner, he'll grab all of you." A meaningful look, especially at Kiko and Penk, then Leslie and Don. "I'll go."

Looks of relief all around.

"Thanks, Alton! You're the man!"

"Come back over when you can, yeah?"

"We owe you one, More!"

"Yeah, I know, yeah, I will, and yeah, you sure fuckin' do," he called back, but he was waving them off, and as soon as he was gone around the corner, they all turned back to Kiko. Tink and Skip bounced with anticipatory excitement. Leslie squeezed Don's hand. The rest stood tensed with bated breaths. Kiko, who had managed to compose herself in the interim, flashed a brilliant smile (that made Penk blush) and delivered the third joyful happenstance of the day.

"Judy Garland's gone on a tour of England, a war tour, with the USO, for the troops-"

"Judy Garland's in England?"

"With the USO?"

"On a war tour? For troops like us?"

"Yes, in England, yes, with the USO, and yes, for troops like us! Even better—oh, you're all going to love me for this—she's coming to London next week, it's her last show on the tour, and I've got tickets!"

The response to this revelation blew the reaction to Tink's news out of the water. All those gathered hastened to agree that yes, they loved Kiko before, but even more now. What fantastic news! Clamoring for details, they wheedled out of her the date (next Friday, the 31st), the number of tickets (6), and how she'd gotten said tickets (Mama E got wind of the tour and told Kiko she'd drive her and a group of her friends to the station in Swindon and pay for the tickets, the hotel, and the train fare as a late birthday present to her favorite mechanic), but then Tink tumbled to the ground mid-cartwheel and, alarmed, they momentarily forgot their questions. Amid inquiries as to her wellbeing, their friend sat up and shook her pale hair, steadying herself with her palms flat to the earth, and they saw her brown eyes had gone wide with realization.

"Seven!" she insisted, springing back to her feet. "We've got to get seven!"

"Seven what?"

"Seven tickets!"

"Why?"

As she listed her friends, Tink ticked them off on her fingers. "You, me, Lady here, your respective boyfriends, Skip, and-"

"Respective boyfriends?"

"Sorry—boyfriend and fiancé."

Leslie made a face and mumbled her usual denial, but the other girls had already moved on with business, having learned long ago not to take any thought of Leslie and Don being a couple seriously.

"Right, so, that's six," Kiko figured, "that's all of us."

"But what about George?" Tink looked aghast. "He's gotta come! You know how much he loves Judy Garland!"

They all blinked at her until she went a little pink and tugged at her jacket sleeve.

"Or did he tell just me that?"

"I think it might have been just you," Leslie concluded, suppressing a smirk. "But yes, he should definitely come—think you could get one more ticket outta Mama E, Kiko?"

"After today's good fortune?" their commander asked, coming up to the girls with a growing smile. "Absolutely. Who for?"

As the girls cheered, Don informed her it was for George Luz.

"Speak of the devil," Mama E said. "Lucky Number Seven just asked me where to find you lot—and here he comes now."

"What's all the hullaballoo about?" George started to ask, coming around the poplars, his cheeks a little pink from sunburn, but he could barely get the words out before a gleeful Tink jumped him in a hug.

"George!"

"Woah!" He stumbled back a foot, but he was quick to wrap his arms securely around her, and Leslie did not miss the fondness in his laughter as he set Tink back on her feet. "I know I'm amazing, but what'd I do this time?"

"We're gonna go see Judy Garland live in concert!" Tink blurted out, and George lit up like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller.

"What! No way!"

Grinning, he grabbed her by the hands and spun around, and for the second time in the last half hour, Tink was persuaded to dance. George started singing as they hoofed it, and the others clapped a rhythm, grinning as they watched. Tink and George made a pretty pair, prancing lithely across the hard ground in perfect unison despite their chunky uniform boots.

"The bells are ringing for me and my gal. Oh, the birds are singing for me and my gal! Well, everyone's been knowin', to a wedding they're goin', And for weeks they've been sewing every Susie and Sal..."

As their friends applauded his singing, Tink laughed merrily, entirely missing the premise of the song despite George's glaring blush.

"Oh, I hope she sings that one! It just makes you wanna dance!"

"It sure does!" George twirled her away, looking a bit wistful. "You lucky dames. Wish I was goin' too."

"But you are!" Leslie informed him "Which is thanks to good ol' Tink here. So maybe you oughta say-"

"No fuckin' way!"

Leslie, Don, Skip, Penk, and even Mama E all started laughing, but Kiko held a straight face and tut-tutted at George.

"No, no," she insisted. "Say-"

"Right!" George picked Tink up by the waist and spun her around the way they did in the movies like For Me and My Gal. "Audra Luchette, you are officially my favorite person in the whole damn world! Thank you! From the bottom of my very affectionate heart, thank you!"

"Officially your favorite?" Tink laughed, reddening at his adoration. "Do I get a medal for that? Or a badge?"

"You sure deserve one," George said sweetly, and Tink's blush deepened as he let her down, her hands on his shoulders. She was laughing, trying to play it off, but George was looking at her so endearingly that it made Leslie wonder how Tink hadn't yet realized how much he adored her. She looked at Don, who was already looking at her, and they shared a knowing smile.

"Captain Eades!" George exclaimed, spinning on his heels, and as he went to shake her hand, chattering on about his excitement, Leslie grabbed Tink's sleeve and tugged.

"You're staring."

"Am not."

"Well, you'd better get going, boys," Mama E declared before Leslie could contradict Tink's obvious lie, "and you girls had better come with me, or else you'll all be late."

They saluted her and agreed, gathering up their things, and the captain tapped her watch, harrumphing under her breath.

"Now, I'm not much of a stickler for scheduling things down to the second, but I know your commanding officer is..."

She stuck out her tongue and drew her finger across her throat as she rolled her eyes, astonishing the group into hilarity. As she watched them separate into Easy and Mechorps, she chastised them for laughing as if she didn't know what on earth they could possibly find so funny.

"I'd better see you in the garage in the next five minutes, ladies, or it'll be latrine duty for the rest of the week."

Two out of the three of them already had latrine duty, but Kiko, the lucky outlier, wrinkled up her nose; when they all replied with the customary "Yes'm!", hers was by far the keenest.

"Then hop to it!"

"She's right, you know," Leslie agreed as they hustled off with quick waves of farewell to their less fortunate friends. "These daydreams won't dream themselves."

"Uh-huh. They're all yours, Tink."

"Oh, shut up."

Kiko and Leslie tried not to smirk, but then they looked at each other and promptly failed.

"I was thinking about London, but hey, if you've got something else—or someone else—in mind..."

"It's okay, Tink, we won't tell if you-"

"They're congregatin' for me and my gal, while the parson's waitin' for me and my gal," Tink belted, clutching her satchel closer to her chest, very much an I can't hear you move.

"If you fall a little bit in love!" Leslie shouted, but Tink only got louder.

"And sometime, I'm gonna build a little home for two three or four or more!"

Leslie chuckled and slowed down, and Kiko took the cue to follow suit as Tink, oblivious, rushed into the garage at full speed.

"You really think she could..?" Kiko asked after a beat, glancing between Leslie and the open side door, out of which still wafted Tink's singing.

"In love land for me and my gal..."

"Oh, yeah."

Leslie smiled, a little hopeful but also a little sad that things weren't quite as easy for Tink as she might pretend. But still, the way she'd looked after George, batting her lashes against awe beaming down like sunshine...

"I think she might be starting to already."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4 notes · View notes