Doctor Winnie Allen just wanted to contribute to the war effort. She had no idea that when she volunteered her services to train medics in the paratrooper division that she would end up on the other side of the world and risking her life for these m...
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A/N/TRIGGER WARNINGS: This chapter contains graphic content—the tags have been appropriately marked and I want you to be aware that if at any point you are uncomfortable reading the chapter, you do not have to read it. Not only is this the heaviest chapter that I've written to date, this is a really tough chapter to read. If you've read Timeless, you know the drill with what happened to Kathryn and that should be a good warning to you in the content you will be consuming. I tried to write this in a respectful manner, but handled this more realistically than the content in Timeless and that is reflected in the content. I expect this will likely upset many of you and potentially ruin your day, and for that I apologize. I did not want to post it on Easter Sunday for that exact reason. Thank you for your time in reading this warning and please let me know what you think. Thank you.
Chapter Text
Early October, 1944
Captain Dick Winters carried letters from his mother, all carefully folded and placed in the side of one of his bags. Everyone carried letters, it was just what you did when there was a war. He carried the weight of leadership on his shoulders, like an Atlas at the edge of the world, holding up the sky under immeasurable pressure.
And he would carry the guilt of passing on the instructions to move the field hospital for the rest of his life. It had come at Colonel Sink's request, and the men had been taking a short reprieve for a while.
He rarely worried about the field hospital unless one of his men was in there. It was a statement to Winnie's unflinching leadership and ability to keep calm under pressure that he was able to not worry about her incessantly, or the other nurses. She was always the one in the background with a firm word and inspiring courage.
Nixon, as usual, was drinking from a flask and taking a minute to let everything settle in his brain. After all, Dick knew that between the divorce he was experiencing and trying to keep up with the planning that he was doing, Nixon was exhausted to say the least.
No one blamed him for that.
Morning came and went peacefully, with no orders from the higher-ups, except to hold the position. They could do that. They were good at doing that.
Lunch came and went, with everyone taking turns in mess. Everyone except the nurses and Winnie—who didn't make an appearance. It seemed a strange thing to Dick Winters. Winnie was always so good about making the nurses take a rotation and get breaks. Something about preventing burnout in a job that was more emotionally and mentally taxing than anything else.
But they never came.
He imagined, to himself, that there was some sort of crisis in the field hospital—some other company that had gotten men hurt. They must have been swamped with work to not show up for lunch.
Dick Winters should have checked and found out himself .
But he didn't.
It was approximately 1:37 in the afternoon when Colonel Sink himself made his way down to where Easy Company was stationed. The war wasn't all terror and violence, and Dick had somehow convinced himself that Colonel Sink calling him and Nixon into a private meeting had to be something about their work merit and ethics, not something grim or dark.
