UPDATED 05/08/2022. Revised for flow, clarity, and made some revisions around the Battle of the Bulge/Christmas sections. BTW, I need to write a one shot/missing scene chapter of Maddie and Smokey. I just really love exploring the relationships between Maddie and her comrades. Also, Smokey is so underrated. Easily one of the funniest and most loving people from Easy Company. I recommend reading his chapter from Marcus Brotherton's "A Company of Heroes: Personal Memories about the Real Band of Brothers and the Legacy They Left Us." I love that book.

* * * * *

The past few weeks have proved to be a challenge.

For one, supplies were running low in every way imaginable. The men had no ammo. The medics were severely low on medical supplies. No one had any winter clothing. The line was stretched so thin, it was almost impossible to cover it. Easy Company hadn't even been in the forest for a week when they realized just how much peril they were in.

Eugene Roe, Ralph Spina, and Madison Klein found themselves running around, scourging for supplies. Doc took his turn to try to get to Third Battalion, as Spina was digging up a foxhole, and Madison was making rounds to check in with the members of Easy Company.

A lot of the men had refused to let her join them in their foxholes. Apparently, they were "too close to the fire" and "we don't want anything happening to you, Maddie."

Just thinking about their excuses made Madison want to roll her eyes. She literally had to run, duck, and cover in the fire daily—far more than any of them! So, these days, Madison was often found in a foxhole with Doc and Spina (a possibly bad idea, but she really didn't have a choice), someone from the rowdy trio (Malarkey, Muck, and Penkala), or Luz. If she wasn't with any of them, she often found herself walking around, keeping herself and the plasma warm while making sure everyone was well, which was too often.

Madison had returned to Spina, who was still digging, just in time as Roe had come back from his rounds.

"Hey, Doc," Spina wheezed.

"What's happening?" Roe asked.

"Nothing much. Everyone is still using the same old complaints," Madison answered. "Were you able to get anything?"

"Yeah, but not too much," Roe dug around in his bag to get the supplies he had received. "I, uh, got this," he handed Spina a bright white box. It probably held a syringe. Then he handed Madison the next and final supply. "And a Kraut bandage."

"I feel discriminated," Madison joked as the three medics sat down in the foxhole, thoroughly checking their inventory.

"First Battalion is pulled out of Foye," Roe brought up. "Heavy casualties."

"If they're pulling back then what the hell are we sitting here for?" Spina asked, taking a drink from his canteen.

Roe ignored his question. "I need more morphine. Do either of you have extra scissors?"

Spina shook his head. Madison did too.

"Sorry, Roe. I'm sure someone else has an extra pair. Perconte, perhaps?" Madison suggested.

"Sergeant Lipton?" a voice called out. Madison groaned, knowing exactly who was about to complain.

"What the hell is this? Three medics in one hole?" Lieutenant Norman Dike began. God, that man was aggravating. The more Madison was around him, the more she wished he disappeared. She wasn't the only one who felt this way. Many of the men found Dike to be unpleasant.

"Yes, sir," Spina said.

"Well what's going to happen to us if you get hit, huh?"

Madison stared at him, blankly.

"I guess we just won't get hit then."

The reaction on Dike's face was priceless. Spina had to put a hand to his mouth, covering his laugh. Before anything else could be said, Sergeant Lipton had appeared.

"Sir?"

"First Sergeant, where is my foxhole?" Dike asked. Madison just gave out a hard stare, mentally rolling her eyes. Their captain was a child.

Lipton pointed to the direction away from the medic hole.

"Over there, sir." Lipton sounded exasperated. "Maybe you, uh, maybe you missed it."

Dike looked back down the medics.

Say something, I dare you, Madison thought.

"I'll walk you back, sir." Lipton offered.

"Goddamn it," Dike swore and together the two men walked off.

"Oh, thank God," Madison let out the air she was holding in. "Lipton is a saint."

"I would watch my mouth around the captain if I was you, Madison," Roe warned. "He may not appreciate your smart mouth one day."

Madison shrugged. "I'd like to see him try."

* * * * *

After an arterially barrage, which seemed to happen often since they've been out here, the medic trio met back up with each other.

"Who got hit?" Spina asked.

"Penkala," Roe answered. "Here," he gave Spina the first aid kit that all soldiers had on them. "This is what I need all of us to do: one of you take someone and work your way over to Third Battalion. You know what we need: bandages, plasma, whatever you can beg, you beg, alright? And get me some goddamn scissors, I can't get any."

I guess he hasn't found his scissors yet, Madison's eyebrows furrowed as she watched Roe sigh. She'll get a pair for him.

"Have you seen Perconte yet?" Madison asked. Roe shook his head. "Alright, I'll go to him. I know he has some on him."

"Alright," Roe nodded. "Get yourselves some hot meals too, alright? Go."

The two medics left the foxhole. Spina went to get someone to join him on his task, but Madison stayed back for a moment, watching Roe as he took off his helmet and started breathing heavily.

Madison frowned. She knew Roe was overworking himself. How many times has he told Madison to rest, yet he never followed his own advice?

"Eugene?" Madison questioned. Roe looked up. "Take care of yourself, okay? Maybe write to Vera."

And with that, she took off to find Perconte.

* * * * *

"You know, he told me he was a goddamn virgin," Babe said out of nowhere. Spina had taken him along.

"Who?" Spina asked.

"Replacement in my foxhole. Julian," Babe clarified. "Goddamn virgin, just a kid. The only virgin I know is the Virgin Mary."

"What about Maddie? We all know she's pure," Spina commented.

"Oh, yeah. The Virgin Maddie," Babe joked. He and Spina laughed at the little joke. "Oh, I think Julian's carrying a torch for her. He's always staring at her in some mesmerized way, you know?"

"Maybe they should, ah, get together," Spina commented. He started to look around, realizing they had no idea where they were. "Hey, Babe. Where the hell are we?"

Babe stopped in his tracks, looking around. Then he jerked his head to the left. "This way." They continued their journey. "I don't like it."

"Where the hell is Third Battalion?" Spina wondered. Babe didn't answer. Instead, he fell into a ditch. The two men laughed, not realizing there were muffled voices below them.

"Are you alright?" Spina laughed. Once they were quiet, they two finally heard the muffled voices. German voices.

"Come on, let's go!" Spina shouted in a whisper, helping Babe up. Once he was back on the leveled ground, the two began running, just as one of the German soldiers sprung up and began shooting.

* * * * *

As Spina and Babe were searching for the Third Battalion, Madison was searching for Perconte.

"Lieb, have you seen Perconte? Or do you have any scissors? Doc needs them."

"No and no. Sorry, Maddie. Maybe you should ask Luz if he's seen him?"

"Good idea. Thanks, Joe."

Madison did this for a few minutes, until she finally found Frank...brushing his teeth. Leave it to Perconte to be the hygienic of the company.

"Hey Frank, I need your scissors," Madison wasn't going to ask for them, she would demand for them.

"What do you need them for?" Frank asked. It took a moment for him to register to realize that ever since the beginning of their conversation, Madison had taken his bag, emptying the contents, and combing through them to find her desired item.

"Doc needs a pair. No one has scissors except for you, and you don't need them," Madison answered, as she finally found Roe's dire need. "Thank you for your service."

Madison ignored Perconte's yells after her as she continued her rounds.

* * * * *

One of the only positive sides of Madison's day was when Roe's face lit up when she dropped off the pair of scissors. Other than that, the day was long and cold. It was freezing, and she would later find out that the winter of 1944 was the coldest winters Belgium had within the last 30 years. Talk about luck, right?

Madison had forced Roe to rest, even if it was just for a few minutes. The man needed a break. She made the nightly rounds this time. Most of the men seemed fine, except for a hacking Babe and Bill's complaint about how he's "pissing needles." After dealing with them, she stopped by Smokey and Forrest Guth's foxhole.

"Are you all alright?" Madison asked, her teeth clattering.

"Yeah. You want some coffee? You're about to knock your teeth out," Guth said, offering her his cup. She took it, taking a long sip. Before the war, Madison had never really been a coffee person but now, even if it was bitter, she would gulp it down. She was glad to have something edible to drink.

"Oh, and I got this, too," Guth reached into his breast pocket and took out...wait, was that—

"Morphine. It was contraband in the other platoon or something. Lucky me, I got my hand on this."

"You are one lucky man, Forrest. We, medics, appreciate it very much," Madison responded, putting the morphine in a safe place in her inventory. She made a mental note to find a way to prevent the drug from being frozen.

"Oh, and Mighty Mouse? You better go check on Toye out in OP. He's missing something."

"I'll go do that now. Have a nice night," Madison got up and out of the foxhole. So, Toye was missing something? Hopefully it wasn't anything too bad.

Madison ventured off, crouching low enough so anyone above ground wouldn't be able to see her. When she got close enough, she flopped to the ground and started to crawl to where Toye was. She could hear him singing one of his Irish songs. However, Toye heard Madison's movement and pulled out his rifle. When the young medic got closer and he was able to make out who it was, Toye put his rifle down and looked back out into No Man's Land.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" Madison greeted.

"We got hot food. Can you smell it?" One Lung McLung inquired. Madison shook her head.

"No. I think I'm starting to catch a cold. I feel stuffy," Madison answered, before looking back to Toye. "Hey, Joe. I hear that you're missing something?"

"Home," Toye answered.

"Ask him to dance, Klein," McLung said. Before anything else could be said, the trio all heard gunfire and took cover, before realizing that it was far away from them. They were safe for now.

"Joe, let me look at your feet," Madison instructed him. Toye did as Madison requested, but not before growling at McLung to keep watch, which caused Madison to refrain her eye roll. When Madison saw that Toye only had his burlap bags covering his feet—no boots—she was speechless. What the fuck?

"Where the hell are your boots at?" Madison asked after a moment.

"In Washington, up General Taylor's ass," Toye bit back. Madison had to hold her smile at that comment. As much as that was a funny answer, this was a serious matter. No boots in the winter were never good.

"What happened?" Madison asked.

Toye sighed. "Took them off to dry my goddamn socks. They got blown to hell," he paused. "I'm better with bare feet anyway."

"No, you're not!" Madison cried. She thought back to when she was kid, Matt didn't wear any shoes outside during one wintry day back in Dayton. She doesn't remember why, perhaps the Depression was to blame, but she remembered that Matt almost lost his feet. It was below freezing that winter. "What's your shoe size?"

"Size nine, just like everybody else but your tiny ass," Toye answered. For a brief moment annoyance flashed through Madison. She did nothing about it though.

"Alright, I'll see if we can get you any," and with that, she left Toye and McLung. She walked past the others and checked on them before she hopped into Luz's foxhole.

"You got anybody in here with you tonight?" Madison asked. Luz shook his head.

"Nah, it's just me."

"Not anymore. Share the blanket with me."

* * * * *

That next day, Skinny Sisk was wounded during a mortar hit.

He wasn't too badly hurt. His leg got hit badly, but he only lost blood—no missing limbs or life-threatening wounds, thankfully. Roe took him to the hospital in Bastogne, and Madison made sure to let him know that he should look for a pair of nine size boots and that, hopefully, he was able to get more supplies.

With Roe gone, it was only Madison and Spina around on the line. No one else got severely wounded to the point where they needed to be evacuated, which was good. What wasn't good, however, was that during one of her runs, Madison had slipped. Skip later made fun of her during the Mass session that Father Maloney held. He was never going to let her live it down.

"Fell down the rabbit hole, didn't you, Dorothy?" Skip cackled. Madison couldn't help but turn red. She knew that Skip was only teasing her because he knew she would react like this. Damn it.

It's during times like these when she misses home.

For some reason, Skip reminded her of Matt. They shared similar qualities: they were seen as humorous, good looking, and good natured by their peers. They both had the big brother persona over her. It was hard to explain, but Madison felt like she was at home with him and a few of the other men.

Madison wondered how Matt was doing. Last she heard, his own captain had got hit by a sniper about two months ago. That was a hard loss. Madison didn't even want to think about losing Winters, the company dad as she called him. If he were to die, how would Easy Company handle it? Madison would rather not think about it.

Roe returned to the line when Mass ended. After Mass, a few men went "Kraut hunting," AKA a patrol. Johnny Martin had shot down both Madison and Roe in joining them, so they stayed back. Madison had a feeling that it wasn't going to be good, and she was damn well right about it. Call her clairvoyant.

There was heavy fire, Madison had guessed by the sounds of it. Both her and Roe were worried. Then they saw Peacock running towards them. Roe shot up from his position.

"What happened?"

"We're pulling back. I gotta get to CP!" was all he said. Madison's eyes widened, looking to his retreated figure back to where the others were. He just left them.

"He just left them!" Madison all but yelled. "What the fuck!" She made a run for the patrol, but Roe grabbed her bag straps, effectively yanking her towards him.

"Martin told us to stay back!"

"But Roe! They're in trouble!"

"And what are you going to do about it? There's nothing we can do!"

Just in that moment, the patrol returned. Everyone looked sullen, especially Babe, who had marched right past the medics. He almost knocked Madison down. She knew something was wrong. She looked at everyone's faces, trying to figure out who was missing.

"It's Julian. He got hit."

* * * * *

He was a replacement, but it didn't matter. Easy Company had lost a soldier.

Everyone around the fire was sullen, but it was Babe who took Julian's loss the hardest. That was his foxhole buddy, his friend since jump school. Apparently, Julian had taken a hit in the neck and Easy couldn't recover him as the Germans would shoot whenever someone tried to retrieve him.

At that point in time, it was believed that the Germans took Julian's body. That hit Babe hard, along with Madison. While most of the soldiers believed her to be twenty years old, Madison was only a year younger than John. Hearing that he died like that had told her that she can go the same way, no matter how old she really is. It was a scary thought.

Madison sat next to Babe, who was unresponsive. Nobody could blame him, though. No one talked, not even when Winters sat down and joined them.

* * * * *

Roe was running around, trying to find one of his fellow medics or Babe. On his way, he found Toye.

"Toye? What'chu doing out here?" Roe asked. He watched as Toye was drying his socks.

"Thanks for the boots, Doc. I'm doing fine."

"You still having trouble with your feet?" Roe knelt down. "Show me. Let me see them."

Toye hesitated, before he brought up one foot onto the log he was sitting on. For a moment, Roe could only stare before he started to truly examine it. One touch on the skin and Toye had flinched back. That was not a good sign.

"It's trench foot, Toye," Roe concluded. "It turns gangrene, you could lose it."

"I ain't coming off the line, Doc," Toye said. Roe nodded, looking up to Toye after a moment.

"You gotta stay dry," Roe began. "Massage your feet, change socks every day and dry the wet ones around your neck."

"Sure," Toye barely whispered.

"Do it," Roe ordered.

"Working on it," Toye retaliated.

Roe nodded, before he got up and walked away. Then he remembered what his current task was. He turned back to Toye.

"Have you seen Heffron?"

Toye shook his head. "No. Why?"

"He ain't in his hole," Roe answered, before continuing his way. Where could he be?

* * * * *

Ten minutes later Roe had found Madison, Babe, and Spina all cuddled up. Spina had one of his arms wrapped around Babe while Madison was leaning against him. All three of their faces were chalky white and they had red tipped noses.

Roe grabbed the chocolate bar that his nurse friend, Renee, had given him earlier that day.

"Heffron," he held the chocolate across Madison and tried to offer some to the silent man, but he offered no response. Roe then decided to break some chocolate off and then offered it to him. That worked.

"Eat it," Roe ordered. Slowly but surely, Babe brought the piece of chocolate to his mouth and took a bite, slowly chewing. "Good."

It was silent between the four, before Babe broke the silence.

"I promised him if he got hit," he paused. His voice was cracking. "I would get his stuff sent back to his ma, you know?" Babe felt Madison nod against him, letting him know that they were listening. "Now the fucking Krauts are gonna strip him!"

"Babe, it's okay..." Roe began.

"It's not! It's not okay. I should have got to him," Babe became quiet again, before he began to hack up another storm.

* * * * *

It was only the medics awake now. While Madison was fine staring out into the world, Spina decided to start up a conversation.

"What do you call those people, again?" he asked. "Those Cajun healers."

"Traiteurs," Roe answered. "You know, my grandma was a traiteur."

"Your grandma?" Spina asked.

"Uh-huh," Roe responded.

"No shit," said Spina.

"She was," Roe said. "She laid her hands on people and cured them. Took away...sickness, cancer, you name it."

"Your grandmother did that?" Spina repeated. Eugene barely let out a, "Yeah" before Spina said, "You got to be shitting me."

"I remember she used to pray a lot," Roe reminisced.

Spina let out a laugh. "I guess she had to."

"She talked to God about the pain she pulled out," Roe was deep in thought. "Asked him to...carry it away," he looked