𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐖...

༻ ❁ ༺

October 2nd, 1943

          MORTARS SOUNDED LIKE thunder all around them, explosions rocking the night, sending out bursts of soil and deadly shrapnel in their wake.

Bucky dove into a newly abandoned crater, putting his back against the compacted ground, as another soldier, wearing a bowler hat instead of a helmet, trailed closely after.

Not for the first time he regretted ever leaving Brooklyn. He definitely regretted leaving camp. Fucking Nazis...

He clutched his rifle like a lifeline.

"There's got to be at least five mortar companies out there," the man in the bowler hat, he had recently introduced himself as Dugan, shouted over the noise.

"Radio for B-company!" Bucky shouted back. "Tell them we need cover and support!"

A third guy, his dark skin stained with filth and grime, fell into the hole beside them. Gabriel revealed the damaged radio hung at his side and said, "That may be tricky." The case had been broken by two bullet holes.

"Bucky, behind you!"

The rat-tat-tat of the guns echoed over the explosions as he turned, rifle at the ready to shoot at the approaching soldiers. And I caught a glimpse of yet another approaching force tearing through the shattered earth.

"Here they come!" He called out, throwing himself across the crater to brace himself for the firefight.

"I hate these guys," Dugan grumbled, resettling his bowler on top of his messy blond hair before taking his place beside Bucky.

Bucky was definitely in agreement. His hands were steady on his weapon, and he set his mouth in a hard line. He despised everything about it. He despised the rifle's recoil, as well as the smell and burn of gunpowder in the air.

Even as his next shot downed another enemy soldier, his mouth was as dry as a desert, the metallic taste of terror heavy in his throat. He despised it as well. He wished he'd never discovered killing among all the abilities a man might possess.

As a flash of blue erupted over the battlefield, dissolving the troops it came into touch with, they all recoiled in astonishment. More rounds of blue light erupted, vaporizing a dozen allied soldiers in a matter of seconds, and he froze.

"Get down!" Gabriel cried out, and they ducked just in time to avoid the spray of another mortar shell. Dirt and fragments of shattered metal rained down on them from above.

Bucky and Dugan peered over the edge of the pit, searching for the source of the attack. That had been bigger than the explosions before it.

"What the hell was that?" Gabriel asked softly.

The three men rose cautiously from the crater, eyes on the alert for any movement.

Another trio of blue light bursts fired across the decimated field.

Dugan, rarely at a loss for words, was the first to respond. "Well that looks new..." As a massive tank rolled over the hill towards them, towering over the battlefield.

Bucky gazed upwards as the tank's turret rotated to point directly at them. "Duck!" He grabbed his companions and dove for the relative safety of the crater as a metallic buzz filled the air, followed by an echoing boom as the tank fired.

Fucking Nazis.

༻ ❁ ༺

October 5th, 1943

Alice was practically purring with contentment. For the first time in what felt like months, she was warm all the way to her bones and clean at the same time.

She let herself back into the barracks tent with a luxurious stretch. She was more than ready for bed. "I can't believe it. There's never hot water after night shift. But, I swear it was the greatest shower I've ever had. Before you ask, no Martha wasn't there, and you're..." Alice took a better look at her friend. "You're not alright. What happened?"

"They're not coming back. They... they're..." Gwen's voice cracked and died before the end of the sentence.

One look at her friend's shattered eyes told Alice all she needed to know. She swayed on the spot as the world tilted painfully off its axis. "They - what - what happened?"

"They - there was an enemy force moving through Azzano. Some of our men were sent to head them off, but - " Her voice cracked and she covered her mouth with her hands, holding back a sob.

In a heartbeat, Alice was by her friend's side, settling down on the cot next to her and squeezing Gwen into her arms. "Oh Gwen, I'm so sorry."

Her own heart was turning to stone in her chest, but it was nothing compared to what Gwen must be going through. Bucky was a fine man and a good friend, and she couldn't deny her feelings for him. Gwen, on the other hand, had lost her husband and partner.

Gwen clung back just as tightly, shaking in her arms as she sobbed.

Alice made no attempt to hide her emotions. She wept for her friends, for all the lives gone, and for the heinous, horrific waste of it all. To never see Lawrence's face light up again when he saw Gwen across the camp. Never watch them dance like they're the only two people on the planet.

She would never see Bucky's smile, or his beautiful blue eyes again. Never hear him tease her, or hear him laugh when she gave as good as she got.

She fisted her trembling hands in the back of her friend's dress, swallowing past the spiked ball of grief that had taken up residence in her throat.

༻ ❁ ༺

October 7th, 1943

The sun rose in the sky the next day, somehow. The morning wake-up call awakened Alice reluctantly. 

A part of her wanted to draw her cover up over her head and stay in bed for the rest of her life. If she was sleeping, she couldn't experience the pain of heartbreak.

Gwen lay beside her, scarcely moving. Her eyes were darkly shadowed, and tear traces remained on her cheeks. 

Alice slipped softly from her mattress, moving as cautiously as she could, to get ready for the day. When Gwen finally opened her eyes, she was fastening her wimple in place.

"Hi..." She said softly.

Gwen raised one trembling hand slowly to her face, wiping her eyes. "...Hi."

She didn't ask how her friend was feeling. The love of her life was dead. The life they had planned together was cut short before it had even begun.

"Do you feel up to working today?"

Alice inquired, placing a kind touch on Gwen's shoulder. She used to work through her tension and panic as a means to divert her attention away from it. A large number of them did. This, on the other hand, was different.

Gwen shook her head.

"Okay," Alice whispered and gave Gwen's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'll tell Matron you're sick. You stay here."

She took the coverlet off her bed, draping it over the other lady and tucked her in snuggly, just as she had done the day Bucky had to carry her back. The pieces of Alice's broken heart throbbed at the memory, but she forced it down. She could get through today. She had to. "I'll come check on you at lunch, okay?"

The day seemed to pass in a haze. Everything seemed a long way distant and unreal. The 107th's remnants had been hauled in that morning.

Most of them had been brutally hurt, and they all had a gloomy horror in their eyes that hadn't been there before. They had been severely rattled by the incident. Many men refused to talk about it, and those that did, had awful experiences to tell.

She had heard the stories of tanks the size of a building, armed with canons that blasted blue light beams that annihilated anything they came into contact with.

Alice was sick to her stomach at the thought of her Bucky having to deal with such a horror. He must have been so terrified. She made a hard line with her mouth, holding back tears that sting her eyes.

She couldn't tell Gwen about this. It would be too painful.

She couldn't take a lunch break since they were extremely busy. She didn't mind because she didn't have much of an appetite herself. But Alice snuck away just long enough to scrounge some food from the shambles and deliver it to Gwen. The best fruit she could locate, and small items.

When she reached Gwen, she was still sleeping, a still bundle beneath the covers. Alice slid the meal onto the small table they shared, paused to fix her friend's sheets, and then crept back to the minor injuries ward.

The definition of minor had changed a lot in the last few days.

The serious injuries ward was fully occupied, spilling over into the other wards, as a result of the remaining squads taken by Hydra and subsequent attacks that harried their lines. The nurses' days were consumed by bandages and war wounds.

In some ways, it was helpful.

Alice discovered that if she was too preoccupied to sleep, she was also too preoccupied to think about what she had lost and what she may have had if fate had been kinder.