Ok, so I'm trying something a little different with this one, and I hope you will forgive me; for this imagine I'm taking the team back to WWII. I need you to imagine that all the boys are younger, basically when they were in their prime, but apart from that, they are the same. I hope that you will enjoy.

The first rays of light were just peaking through the clouds that hung heavy overhead, as vessels as far as the eye could see made their way across the English Channel to Normandy in France; the skies above were filled with thousands of aircraft that seemed to block out the very sun itself, swarming like mad hornets towards their objective. Already the air smelt of war, the European continent had been so long under its shadow, that the very land seemed to permanently reek of the stench of blood, cordite, and death.

Captain Barney Ross looked at his team as their landing craft got closer and closer to their destination, they along with over 23,000 other soldiers were heading for Utah beach as part of the largest seabourne invasion in history, Operation Overlord.

Ross's team weren't like any of the other units that made their way on mass to the French coast, whereas the majority of the other men had been given the objective of securing a beachhead on the Contentin Peninsula which was the location of the port facilities at Cherbourg, with the intention of sealing off the Peninsula as quickly as possibly so that they could prevent the Germans from reinforcing the city; Barney's team was a little different, commonly called the Expendables by the other men, the group were known for being given every difficult, near impossible mission that the powers that be ever thought up, they were the ones you sent in when you wanted a job done quickly and quietly, the ones that could make anything happen. Their job was to not only aid in securing the beach, but then they were to quietly make their way further into France to find a German General that had got word to the Allies that he could give them valuable information in exchange for him being taken to Britain.

The Expendables were a strange ragtag mixture of experts from all fields and different countries; Ross himself was Italian-American, his second in command, Lieutenant Lee Christmas was British, and part of a group that had been formed in 1941 known as the SAS. The Sargent, known by all as Toll Road, was an expert in grappling combat and demolition, while the other Sargent, a certain Hale Caesar, was a heavy weapons specialist; Corporal Galgo was a Spaniard that had left Spain after his county had sided with the Axis, not wanting anything to do with the ideals of Heir Hitler, he eventually had been able to escape his homeland and offer his services to the allies.

Doc was the teams medic, and private Gunnar Jensen, who had been demoted from his rank of Sargent after an unfortunate drunken fight in a British pub, was a specialist in chemical engineering, supplied by the neutral country of Sweden as part of their voluntary brigades.

Finally, there was (Y/n), the only woman on the entire fleet; fluent in German, French and Russian, as well as being a mechanic that had the reputation of being able to fix anything with an engine, she had been seconded to the team by the Office of Strategic Services, whom she had been with since its founding in 1942, and despite Barney and the others reservations about having a woman in the team, (Y/n) had proved herself over and over again as she had made herself indispensable to Barney and the rest of the boys.

Barney watched as (Y/n) checked her M1 Carbine semi-automatic rifle over and over again; she knew about war, her father had been a General in the Great War, and she had been bought up knowing, that despite her gender, her father had every intention that she would follow in his footsteps; but as much as she knew about the theory of war, the practicalities were different.

"(Y/n) Dahlin, if it ain't good now, it never will be." Barney said, coming to stand by her side as the team waited for the word to disembark.

"Yeah, sorry Cap. I just........ I just don't want to let anyone down when we get there." (Y/n) said softly, tensing slightly as she felt Barney's hand move down to grip hers.

The two had been together more or less since the team had met first met (Y/n), not that anyone knew; she was the daughter of an important General, a well-educated, socially connected lady, and he was her superior officer, from what her father would describe as the wrong side of the tracks, a man that dear old dad would never approve of; but from the moment they had set eyes on one another, sparks had flown. Whatever society may have said about relationships between men and women before the war had now changed, and when any moment could be you last, life and love became so much more important.

Barney looked down at (Y/n), he knew how brave she was, how she had been through hell to prove herself to the men around her; but as she gripped his hand tightly, he was scared that she wasn't ready. He knew she was afraid, but they were all afraid, and any man that said they weren't, was either a liar, or completely out of their minds.

"Don't worry Barney, just do what you have to do and get us all onto that beach safely, the rest of us will do our best not to get killed before this damn day is over." (Y/n) whispered, as she looked up into her lover's eyes, his fear matching hers.

Suddenly they could hear automatic gun fire coming from the distance, gun fire that was getting closer with every second that passed; (Y/n) knew that there was no turning back now, not that she would if she could, she was an Expendable, a part of a team that she would do anything to protect, and when the gangplank of the landing craft opened she hoped that the training she had had with the OSS and the months of preparation she had spent with the team would kick in, and instinct would take over.

As the team and the other men made their last preparations, tightening the chin straps of their helmets, making sure that their extra clips were secured in their pockets, (Y/n) reluctantly slipped her hand out of Barney's, the coldness of the morning instantly taking away any heat that had been there, from now on she was not his lover, from now on he was her captain, her superior officer, and he would remain that until they both stepped foot back on the shores of England.

The sound of shouting men filled the air as the Armada of landing craft stopped as close to the shore as they could, their contents spilling out into the water as thousands upon thousands of men disembarked their vessels; without warning, the front of the teams boat fell open, revealing the beach they were to take and hold. With a thunder of boots hitting metal, (Y/n) rushed forward, the boys surrounding her as they jumped into the freezing water of the Channel and made their way to the beach.