UPDATED 05/06/2022. I believe everything should be updated and correct in this chapter. Little did I know, Google Docs isn't the best at tracking revisions when I need it!

* * * * *

The boys decided to spend the night out at a pub and dragged Madison along with them.

Well, they didn't really force her into it, she had said she would go. When she got there, however, she realized that she didn't really want to do anything. Instead, she sat down next to Webster, the Company Scholar as she nicknamed him in her journal, and chatted with him as she watched Compton, Bull, Toye, Martin, Luz, Guarnere, and Babe play a round of darts. At least she was receiving some sort of entertainment.

"Klein! Get over here and try this out!" Compton shouted from across the room. Madison shook her head in response.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she tried to shoot him down, but the men had really wanted her to do it.

"Come on, do it! Please?" Babe asked, giving her the puppy dog look. Madison sighed in defeat, wobbling just slightly, knowing that he got her there. Ever since the two met, they had become inseparable. They clicked almost immediately. Their friendship would last for their entire lives.

"Alright, fine," she mumbled. Her friends cheered as she took a gulp of her beer, passed it to Web so it'll be protected. Or drink it. She really didn't care what he did with it. It was gross, anyway. Right now, she couldn't help but think that if her parents (and brother) found out about her underage drinking, even if she was just a year under it, with a bunch of grown men...she would be dead. At least she had a strong tolerance for it (thanks to her German and Irish roots) and that she never got hungover.

Madison had gotten up from her chair and walked over to the men who wanted her to play. Truth be told, she really didn't want to play. She was bad, she just knew it. When she got close enough, Bull was kind enough to hand her the darts. She took them.

"Thanks," Madison gave a slight nod, as she looked down at the darts. "Um, all I have to do is throw them at the board and try to hit the dead center, right?"

"Sure," Bill clapped one of his large hands onto her shoulder. "You'll do great, kid. Doesn't matter if the board is all the way up in Heaven and you're down in Hell," he earned a glare from that comment. Fuck him and his stupid height jokes. "Relax, Mighty Mouse. Do it."

Madison sighed. She eyed the board as she got into a stance. Using her left hand, she threw one of the darts. She really wasn't concentrating on where it was going to land but it had almost hit dead in the middle of the board. It seemed that all in the bar were silent. Then someone behind her let out a whistle.

"Is this the first time you played darts?" Bull asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah, and I'm terrible at it," she mumbled, looking down at the floor, scuffing her boot with it.

"Are you kidding me? That was great! You almost hit dead center on your first try!" Luz exclaimed. "Sure you ain't the Devil?"

Madison scowled at him. "I don't even know why I told you about that."

"Because you love me," Luz said, with the hint of a smile in his voice.

"I don't," Madison told him simply. "Can I stop now?"

"Nope. You gotta keep playing," Martin told her. She groaned, but obliged. She threw the second dart, and that one too almost hit the dead center.

"You ever gonna hit the center, kid?" Toye asked her. She shrugged.

"I told you, I'm not good at this."

"Yeah you are! You just need some guidance is all," Babe declared, setting his beer down. "Let me show you." He stood behind Madison, his right hand taking hold of hers, and his left arm ghosted over hers, his hand touching hers. It was very...odd. Madison didn't like it.

"Getting intimate now, are we?" Luz commented, which had Martin snorting into his glass. Madison was burning right now. She really didn't like being touched like this but at the moment, Babe didn't care. She thought that maybe he was drinking a little too much. Besides, if he did try to do anything with her, she was gonna kick him. Hard.

"Okay, now do this," he lifted her playing arm up a little more and together, they started to sway on their heels. This was very awkward, but Madison knew that he was only trying to help her. And he did. when she let go of the dart, she hit the center with a loud thud!

Madison grinned at her accomplishment and stepped away from Babe before she went back to hug him.

"Thank you! Thank you! Now when we get back to the states, I can kick my brother's behind!" The men chuckled at her declaration. "Can I go back and sit down now?"

"Sure thing kid, I'll come with you. In fact, let's go visit Bull's squad. Introduce ourselves, yeah?" Bill asked her, which she nodded in agreement to.

"Careful what you say now, it don't take much to set my guys off," Bull warned the duo, which made Madison snort and Bill chuckle.

"Yeah, you got some wild-eyed killers right there, boy," Martin commented, which made Madison and Bill laugh even harder. After the two collected themselves, they walked over to the table where the replacements were sitting. Bill motioned for her to sit down in the empty chair at the table as he pulled up another chair while also grabbing her beer from Web who didn't even touch it and placed it in front of her.

"Hey, fellas. Why you here, what do you say?" Bill asked the men. At least, that's what Madison thought he said. Sometimes, she can't understand a word he says.

It's the Philly accent, Madison thought as she sipped on her beer. Him and Babe. It can be hard to decipher their talking.

"That's actually Babe's seat—Private Heffron's," one of the men ignored Bill and stared right at Madison.

"He'll just have to live with it," Madison shrugged.

"I don't care if it's fuckin' Eisenhower's. She can sit there if she wants," Bill shot at the man. He then put an arm around Madison's shoulders (something he did a lot, Madison noticed), pulling her closer. "This here is Madison Klein.  She's one of our medics here, and a good one at that. You treat her with respect, capiche?"

The replacements nodded. They wouldn't dare to mistreat Madison.

"Good," Bill nodded, taking his arm off his smaller and much younger friend. He looked to the man next to him. He had dark hair and bright, blue eyes. "And you are?"

"Uh, Private Miller. James Miller. I'm in Sargent Randleman's squad," replacement number one answered.

"Us too," the man who told Madison she was in Babe's seat piped in. "I'm Les Hashey."

"I'm Tony—" the third one was introducing himself, but Bill cut him off.

"—Garcia. I know. Old Gonorrhea don't miss nothin'," Bill said, before taking Madison's beer out of her hands and drinking out of it. She glared at him.

"I paid for that, asshole."

"Don't worry, Maddie. I'll buy you the next glass," Bill promised her, setting the now empty glass down. After he did that, a story had popped into his head. He smiled.

"Did Babe ever tell you boys about Doris?" Bill asked the replacements.

"No," Hashey shook his head, his friends mimicking his action.

"Well, you're about to get educated then," Bill grinned.

"Bill—" Madison started, but her friend cut her off.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Maddie. It's funny!" Bill reasoned with her. "Any who, here's the setting: we're getting ready to get on the plane for that first town we never jumped into. All of a sudden, Heffron stops dead in his tracks. Bing and a bang and a bang and a boom! Everyone is banging into each other. Maddie here was the one to ask him what was wrong, seeing as she was right behind him." Madison could feel herself turn red and rubbed at her temple. She remembered not realizing he had stopped and, in a way, she felt responsible for everyone knocking each other down.

"He's staring at the nose of the plan because on it, there's a beautiful pinup painted on it. Beneath her, the name is Darlin' Doris. Doris, just happens to be the name of the skirt who that day, sent Babe one of those letters," Bill explained. He paused, trying to remember the name of it. Madison couldn't remember what they called it, either. She knew it was just a breakup letter.

After Bill gave up on trying to remember what the term was, he turned back to Webster, who was listening in on to the story. Bill could lure anyone in.

"What do you call those letter that the broads send?" Bill asked.

"Dear John letter," Webster answered. Satisfied, Bill turned back to the group.

"That's it. A 'Dear Babe' letter. Ha!" Bill laughed at his own joke. Compton and Martin behind them laughed too. Madison just shook her head, as she listened to Bill wrapping up his story.

"In other words, Babe don't have to risk getting inside of old Doris ever again," Bill concluded, before he screeched like a bird. Madison yelped silently, covering her mouth in shock. Even though she was friends with Bill, she wasn't expecting that.

"And now you see, he's now getting intimate with Klein here! I mean, did you see them playing darts earlier or what?" Bill and his big mouth; Madison fumed as she turned back in to her seat and punched him the arm. Hard. Everyone (besides the replacements, who looked scared. They even looked kind of sorry for her.) was now laughing at her. Oh, how she hated her friends sometimes.

"Hey, Bull. Your squad listens up really good," Bill said to Bull, as he lit up a cigarette.

"Yeah, they're being polite when Bull opens his mouth," Martin commented.

Bill turned around to look at Martin. "Johnny, what are you saying? That Bull's men are just humoring him?"

"Yeah, like whenever he gives out his folksy wisdom from back down at the farm," Martin said, which made Madison start laughing.

"Yeah. They think he's a fucking hayseed," Bill agreed with Martin, which got the others to laugh, including the replacements, which caught Martin's attention.

"What are you laughing at?" Martin asked the men, who sobered up quickly. They thought they were in trouble, but the others knew that Johnny was just pulling on their legs. The seasoned soldiers were just jerks like that.

"He's only messing with you," Madison told the men, as Bull got up and left the table. "But in all honesty, you should listen to your Sergeant. He knows what he's doing."

Just as the replacements were slowly nodding along, she noticed that Cobb was making his way over. God, Madison groaned internally. He's just gotta get into everything, doesn't he?

She watched as one of the rudest men she has ever met roughly shoved Private Miller's shoulder. "Where'd you get that?" Cobb asked, leaning to touch the unit citation on Miller's uniform.

"It's a presidential distinguish unit citation for uh...for what the regiment did in Normandy." Private Miller explained. Madison wanted to shake her head. She knew what Cobb was playing at.

"Uh huh," Cobb nodded his head fervently. "That's right. For what the regiment did. You weren't there." Madison was about to shoot something at him, but Hoobler beat her to it.

"Hey, ease up there, Cobb. It's a unit citation."

But Cobb's words took effect on the replacement. Madison watched as Miller unpinned the citation and placed it on the table. Feeling all eyes on him, Miller had got up from the table and left them.

"Why do you have to be such an ass?" Madison asked Cobb. "From what I remember, you didn't fight either." Before Cobb could fire back, she jumped up from her seat, grabbing Miller's citation, and thrust it into Bull's large hand before she ran off, going to track down Miller.

Bull watched as his friend ran off, before turning back to Cobb. "She's right, Cobb. You didn't fight in Normandy neither." He too, walked off.

Cobb, Garcia, and Hashey watched as he left. Cobb then leaned down to Garcia.

"I got hit on the plane before I got to jump. That bitch knows, she was right behind me when I got hit. She was the one who stopped me from going. You got that?"

Garcia didn't know what else to do besides nod.

* * * * *

Madison had stormed off. She shoved past by the men she had a round of darts with earlier and went out of the pub. The sky was clear with shining stars. It was rather beautiful, Madison noted.

She found Private Miller not too far away from her. He was loitering against the wall, lost in his troublesome thoughts. Madison relaxed her posture before she walked over to him.

"Private Miller?" she called out, slowly inching towards him. He didn't respond. "Private Miller!" she called out again, a little louder this time. His head snapped up, looking around before he saw that the young medic of Easy was looking up at him.

"Don't be...don't listen to Cobb. He's an idiot," Madison told him. "I know, you're a replacement and he's been around longer but let me tell you something: he is one of the worst people here. He may fight good, but he's not the nicest person you meet, yeah?" Miller did nothing in response. "You know, you don't have to be silent around me. It's okay to talk and have your opinions. As long as the others don't hear, anyway." Even with her poor eyesight, Madison could make out that his head was barely nodding along. Well, that was something, right?

"You know, now that I think about it, you remind me of my sister. She's shy and quiet, like you."

Miller started blushing. This is when he finally started to speak. "I—uh, no! I—"

"Relax, Private Miller. It's fine being quiet. Another medic of ours is the same way. His name is Doc Roe. Anyway, where was I going with this?" It was silent between the two, while Madison was trying to remember why she came out here in the first place. She found herself thinking that she should not have had those few drinks.

"Oh! I remember now. It was about Cobb. Yeah, Cobb. He had no right to call you out like that. He didn't fight in Normandy either. I would know, I was right behind him when he got hit. I was one of the last few to jump, because of that."

Miller took in every word she said. So, he didn't fight either? Interesting.

"Come on, let's go back inside. They'll figure out we're missing sooner than later, and it's never good for me."

Madison took leave, with Miller soon falling behind her. They had reentered the pub just in time, because she could hear her favorite twin (Smokey) yelling, "I got us an announcement to make!" Everyone watched as he pulled Carwood Lipton in front of him. "This here is Carwood Lipton,"

"He's already married, Smokey!" Don called out, which got a few laughs from the residents in the pub.

Smokey ignored him. "This here is Carwood Lipton, Easy Company's new First Sergeant!"

Lipton was the new FS? This was great news! Everyone in the pub started clapping, with a few yells here and there. Everyone loved Lipton. He was good and fair.

"Now, as he has this new position, he says he has to make an announcement," Smokey continued. Smokey hopped down from the chair he was in, and Lipton stepped up to make his announcement.

"I hate to break it to you but uh, we're moving out again."

All fell silent in the pub, as Lipton took his exit. They were going back out and fight again.

Private Miller walked away from Madison and the group they were near. Bull watched as Miller left.

* * * * *

"This is called Operation Market Garden. Turns out that if the Airborne Division is involved, this one is even bigger than Normandy. They're dropping deep into occupied Holland. The Allied objective is to take this road here, so that the British Army Divisions can take Arnhem. Our job is going to be liberating Eindhoven. Stay there, wait for the tanks."

Everyone was silent as Winters told them what they were going to do. After Winters was finished talking, it was Nixon that took over the remainder of what was to be expected.

"The entire European Advance has been put on hold their resources for this operation. It's Montgomery's personal plan that we'll be under British command." That earned groans, seeing as no one liked to be with the British (unless they were women). "The good news is, if this works, these tanks will be over the Rhine and into Germany. That could end the war and get us home by Christmas."

Christmas, Madison thought. Home. She had been away for almost three years with a few furloughs in 1943. The idea seemed so...foreign to her. As the thought perked her up just a little bit, she wasn't going to get her hopes high too much.

"It'll be a daytime jump. Intelligence doesn't expect much opposition as they think the Krauts in Holland are mostly kids and old men, and we should take them by surprise. In any case, say goodbye to England. I don't think they're going to call this one off."

* * * * *

The jump was literally the easiest jump Madison ever had to do. Compared to D-Day, it was so much better. No one got hurt, she wasn't all by herself when she landed and so far, everything was running smoothly.

After the jump, Easy had to hide in one of the longest trenches she was ever in. (It wasn't man made, she figured that this was the place for when water ran too high and wouldn't risk flooding the roads.) She was sitting with Doc, when Hoobler and Cobb came running by with bottles of...well, it was probably alcohol. The two medics shared a look with each other, silently agreeing that their comrades were all going to kill themselves one day.

After sitting in the trench for only God knows how long, they moved out into the open, and were crossing the meadow, heading straight into Eindhoven. Madison was praying that she didn't have to patch anyone up or any fighting would break out.

Her prayers were answered, because the soldiers were welcomes to Eindhoven in peace. Thanks to the Dutch Resistance, that is.

Madison had never seen a celebration quite like this. She was surrounded by Dutch citizens, all wearing smiles on their faces and waving little orange flags. They were so happy and jubilant that the Americans were here and seeing them like this made Madison smile.

"Keep moving! KEEP MOVING!" she heard Peacock yell. Well, she was trying. But the people were just so nice, and she was able to talk to them! Oh, they were just so sweet. Especially the young children. They would run up to her and hug her and wanted her to pick them up (which she was able to). Many people, especially the older ones, seemed surprised that she was there, dressed in uniform, but did not question it. They were just so happy.

The streets were packed. It made Madison slightly panic, but she was able to spy her comrades around her, so it all wasn't bad. She watched as women kissed her friends on the lips left and right, showing their gratitude. Madison even got a kiss too, from a girl who was possibly around her age. It had taken her by surprise and she was blushing from it. When the girl pulled away, she giggled and ran away, yelling out a "Danke!" Joe and a few other of their comrades laughed as they watched the scene unfold. It made her face go even redder.

Danke, indeed. That's what everyone was saying around her. She got handshakes and kisses on the cheek from the older, aging men. Boys around her age kissed her on the lips, too—Madison turned as red as a tomato every time that happened.

Madison's favorite gift, however, was when the citizens gifted her food. Food! She returned gratitude by giving a peck on the cheek and