She was numb.

Laying in the cold on the wet ground for hours did that to a person. The only relief was coming from the tanks and trucks burning by the GIs. Jo was with what was left of her platoon, laying in front of the burned out vehicles, and trying to avoid getting shot at by the Nazis. There was a ceasefire that had been holding since about ten minutes after the American troops stormed the beet field.

Their intel had been bad. MGs were expected, hence the tank protection, but the anti-tank was never reported before their eyes got taken out. Now they had to wait for one of two things to happen. The Nazis would come out of their hidey holes and shoot them all to death, or backup would come and save all their asses, blowing Jerry to high hell.

It was hard to tell over the crackling of the fire behind her, but Jo could swear that she heard the hum of engines. They were still far off but with any luck it would be their boys coming to rescue them, if not, lunch was going to be short. She could see the road from where she lay and soon a procession of four Shermans came rolling up. Jo smiled to herself and started wiggling her toes to regain feeling before she had to get up.

The tanks rolled over the first hedgerow and came speeding up towards the survivors and the gaps in their flaming convoy. They cleared the second hedgerow and the soldiers behind the wreckage fell in behind the tanks. Once the tanks cleared the convoy and were close she sprung up with her Thompson and fell in line behind the rest of the ground troops. She was behind Fury, she could hear Don yelling into his comms to someone. That person must have fucked up somewhere.

She nearly had to laugh at the man telling them to keep low and in line behind the tank. Like that wasn't obvious already. She was moving at a slight jog to keep up with Fury. They had gone maybe a hundred yards before all hell broke loose.

Tracers were bouncing everywhere and it made it easy to stay out of the spray of bullets coming from the Germans. A few troops were unfortunate enough to catch a ricochet off the tanks and bite it. Jo kept true behind Fury, staying low as the tanks did their job to destroy the heavy guns and any Nazis in their line of fire.

The machine guns were dispatched fairly quickly and Jo instinctively ducked even lower when she heard the .75 go whistling past the tanks. It took the tanks a few tries, but the ATs were destroyed soon enough. By this time, the entire convoy was at the tree line and foxholes that the Germans had been using as cover. It was time for her to do her job. Jo took a deep breath and focused. She checked the magazine of her tommy gun and stepped out of the cover provided by Fury.

Jo advanced quickly and shot at the Germans in the trenches. Any that she didn't kill instantly were taken care of by the other soldiers behind her. She ran into the tree line the Nazis had been hiding in making sure that all the dead ones were dead and any live ones shared the same fate. She headed left while most everybody else headed right. She was glad she did, she came across a pile of three bodies. They were all men in their mid-twenties.

Jo got close to the pile to inspect it, gun trained on the pile. Not seeing any movement, she proceeded with caution. She headed around one side to reach the head of one of the men when suddenly the man on top grabbed her ankle and yanked. Jo fell to the ground hard, knocking her helmet off. The Nazi had gotten up, Jo trained her gun on him and pulled the trigger, but it jammed. She was surprised, her gun never jammed. The kraut took advantage of the situation and leapt upon Jo.

Instantly she was pinned down and there were hands on her throat. She couldn't breathe, but she tried not to panic. Panicking just led to dying quicker. She tried prying off the German with one hand on his and the other pushing on his face. He just leaned back slightly, getting his face out of her reach. This wasn't working and she could feel her life ebbing away. She tried clawing at the hands clutching her throat, but to no avail. With one hand she kept prying at his fingers trying to break them while the other fumbled for her bayonet sheathed underneath her. She couldn't reach it. She was pinned and being choked, different tactics were needed. She put both hands on his collar and pulled him down. She headbutt him. Instantly he released her and grabbed his face, his nose bleeding. Jo gasped for air, panting. She rolled him off her and tackled him back to the ground. She reached for her bayonet when a rock connected with her skull. She fell back, seeing stars, with a hand still on the bayonet underneath her. The German pinned her back down before she could recover and started to pummel her head with the rock. It hurt like a motherfucker but she had to keep fighting if she wanted to live. She couldn't get her hand and the bayonet out from under her. She pushed her pelvis up with all she could muster and shifted his balance. The small movement was enough for Jo to get the bayonet out. The Nazi brought down the rock again, but Jo held up the bayonet and he impaled his wrist on it. He yelled and recoiled in pain and Jo took the opportunity to sit up now he wasn't over her. She punched him across the face, disrupting his balance, and tackled him, sliding her bayonet smoothly into his throat. She felt like a cat playing with a mouse pinning him down as she waited for him to suffocate and bleed out. It didn't take long.

Once he was dead she rolled off him and onto her back. She lay there staring up at the tree canopy while she took time to breathe and get her adrenaline in check. Her head and throat throbbed with every heartbeat, but the pain would go away soon, it always did.

Having spent enough time recovering, she got up and wiped her bayonet off on his uniform. She placed it back into her belt and retrieved her gun and helmet. The other two bodies were dead. She was positive, otherwise she would be dead instead.

"Sorry Fritz," she said to his body as she passed by and walked back to her unit.

When she made it back out of the woods, most of the other soldiers were standing around in a half circle watching something. She walked past the commotion and straight to Fury and its crew before she turned around. She saw Don roughing up some kid and a German in an American uniform coat kneeling nearby.

"So who's the baby shit greenie over there?" Jo asked.

"That's Norman. Our new bow gunner," replied Gordo.

"New bow gunner?" She grabbed a cup of coffee and returned to her spot. "What happened to Red?"

"Got his fucking head blown off he did," stated Grady. He was wearing a German helmet and coat. Jo looked him up and down in the garb. She made an amused face.

"Coon-Ass, you wear that Nazi shit around me and I might accidentally shoot you. Force of habit you know."

"Ha ha, force of habit," he made a face at her, "you'd just fucking shoot me for the hell of it, Travers."

Jo shrugged. "Maybe." She leaned against Fury, watching the commotion. "But you've been staying on my good side lately. Keep that up and I might even check your wounds sometime instead of having Boyd poke around in them. How's that sound?"

"Don't really give a shit either way."

Just then, Jo's attention was draw by a gunshot and some laughter. The German was dead, the kid named Norman was on the ground upset, and Don was in a huff walking towards the back of the tanks. She went towards the back past the little fire the boys had set up, and followed Don.

She watched him kneel in the field, hands on his knee. She shuffled up behind him to make sure he heard her. She didn't need to see his face to know what it looked like. "Three years and you still get that look in your eyes."

"Which look is that?" He didn't look at her.

"The haunted one from killing somebody." He just turned and stared at her, cigarette hanging out of his mouth. "I don't understand how you do it. How you still have some sort of humanity left after all this shit to feel guilt about killing somebody."

He stood up and faced her, hands on his hips. "Well don't you?"

"Not really. Not after all the shit that's happened to me in my life and this war. I have a harder time killing fluffy little bunny rabbits than I do some Nazi fuck that is going to kill me if I don't kill him first."

Don nodded at her. "There were some Hitler youths earlier, on the way to Baker Company. They blew the lead tank. The kid, Norman, saw them and didn't do shit about it. I guess he didn't realize, the Germans will do anything to win this war. There were three kids, not even old enough to start shaving, and they took out a fucking tank." Don laughed to himself and ran a hand over his face.

"I'm sorry." She moved to hug Don, but he stopped her.

"No, not here, later." He lit his cigarette.

"Alright," she nodded. "Coffee?" She offered the enamel cup to Don.

He gladly took it with a nod. "What happened to your head and neck, by the way?" It throbbed again at its mention. She had completely forgotten about it.

"A Nazi with a rock in the woods. He tried choking me out, I headbutted him, he hit me with a rock, I slit his throat. Needless to say, rock doesn't beat scissors when scissors is a bayonet."

He gave a short laugh. "Come on," he clapped her on the shoulder and they headed back towards Fury. "Have Bible check you over, then we are heading out to take the next town."

"Roger."

When they approached the tank, Wardaddy started giving orders. "We move out in 15. Boyd, take a look at Wonder Woman here. Make sure she ain't too banged up. Norman. I haven't seen you eat anything all day. Make sure you get something to eat."

"Alright, give me a sec." Boyd climbed into the tank.

At the same time Jo overheard Grady talking to Norman. "You best go eat something. Make sure he sees it too." Then Grady started picking up their little camp they made.

"By the way, Grady."

He stood up and looked at Jo. "Yeah?"

"You make one hell of an ugly ass Nazi." She cracked a smile and they both started laughing. Jo noticed that Norman hadn't moved at all. She walked over to him and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Hup two, Norman."

"Huh?" He looked at her, finally snapped out of his daze.

"Go get something to eat. If I remember correctly your rations are stored on the back of the tank." He started nodding at her and she nodded back with a small smile, gently pushing him towards the back of the tank. It started to drizzle. He eventually found his legs again and continued on his own.

"I'm surprised that you are being that nice to him." Boyd said from the top of the turret.

"Yeah, me too." He handed her the bag and jumped down off the tank. "There must be something that makes me human left in here somewhere." She handed the bag back to him.

"That or maybe it's the bump on your head talking and you've got a concussion." He guided her over to an ammo box. "Sit."

Jo sat on the box and took off her helmet. Bible started poking at the wound. "So tell me doctor, how bad is it?"

Boyd laughed. "It ain't too bad. Bit scraped up and swollen, don't really need a bandage. I'll put one on ya anyway. You play in the dirt too much, it'll keep it clean." He fished out a gauze pad and some medical tape and taped it on. He pulled at the collar of her coat and looked at her neck. "Can't do much about the neck. You're good to go for now. Just have Nancy take a look at you when you can to make sure nothing's wrong with you."

She stood up. "Yes, sir," she said while giving him a sarcastic salute. Boyd smiled at that and reached around Jo to get the box she was sitting on.

By then the fire was put out, everything was packed back on the tank, and Don was back. He climbed onto the tank. "Travers."

"Yeah, Sarge?"

"You need a ride?"

"Just as long as I'm on the .50."

"Of course." He gave her a small smile. She smiled back at him and he helped her up the side of the tank.

Sgt. Miles came up to Fury. "Sgt. Collier, time to head out."

"Yeah, I got it." Miles spotted Jo and gave her a smug smile. Then he got on the tank. Jo's blood ran cold and anger boiled into her veins. If looks could kill Sgt. Miles would be cold and in the ground already. She just stared at him, hands balled into fists, and slowly rubbed her knuckles with her thumbs until Grady softly hitting her shoulder finally got her attention.

She snapped her head towards him. "What?" she growled softly.

"Just keep it cool, alright?" He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"Of course." She gave him an angry smile.

"All tanks, this is Wardaddy. Time to head out. I'll be in lead. Same order as before. Pull out." Don put the radio back down and the tanks pulled out, carrying what foot soldiers they could.

Jo turned back to face Miles and unjammed her tommy gun. She smacked Grady on the shoulder. "Here take this. I'm on the .50 and don't need this in my way." Grady nodded and took the gun, putting it in the tank. "Got anything to drink down there to take the edge off?"

"'Course." Grady grinned and passed up a bottle. Jo took a big swig and handed it back to Grady.

"Thanks."

"Anytime." He took a swig himself. Jo faced front, watching for any enemies, while keeping tabs on Sgt. Miles. She kept eyeing him out of the corner of her eye until after ten minutes she couldn't take it anymore.

"Why are you on this tank?" She growled at Miles.

"Same as you. Hitching a ride." He had that same smug smile on his face.

"Yeah, but why this tank?" Her anger and hatred were starting to fill her up.

"Sgt. Collier is in charge of the tanks and I'm in charge of First Platoon. I need to be here for him to give orders to the others."

"Bullshit. There are radios on the other tanks too. Besides, it's unwise to be here. In the case of an ambush it's usually the first tank that eats it. Losing both leaders in one hit would be such a shame."

"Don't jinx us, Travers." Don interjected.

"Don't worry, Wardaddy, you guys are safe in my hands." She didn't take her eyes off Miles.

"If only that were a certainty." Don continued to watch the horizon for any signs of ambush.

"Get off this tank." Jo said to Miles.

"I'm sorry?" He had an amused expression.

"You heard me get off this tank," she said coldly.

The sergeant laughed. "I don't take orders from nurses and I sure as hell don't take orders from women."

"You are lucky I haven't fucking killed you in your sleep."

"Killed me in my sleep?" He laughed again. "You couldn't hurt me if you tried."

"Oh really? Do you want to test that theory?" She crossed her arms.

"All I'd have to do is hit your head into a wall again and you'd be a useless mess that needed rescuing again." He smiled and crossed his arms at her.

"Oh shit." Jo heard Grady mutter over her left shoulder.

Jo felt her anger mix with adrenaline and curl around her heart. She saw red. Her eye gave a twitch and with a yell she tackled sergeant Miles off the side of the tank. The look of surprise and fear on his face as they were falling made Jo's heart soar with joy. They landed in the mud with a thud, Jo on top of him. She just started punching him in the face as hard and fast as she could. There was blood and mud all over his face and Jo's hand hurt like hell, but she kept wailing on him. With every hit she got a sick sense of satisfaction. Next thing she knew there were arms around her waist and shoulders pulling her off the sergeant.

"Put me down!" She yelled. "Put me the fuck down!" Her feet touched the ground again, but she was still restrained. She struggled against the hands holding her. The other soldiers were pulling the injured man out of the mud and Don was standing between the two.

Miles wiped the blood off his face and mouth. "Bitch!" He spat at her, his face already starting to swell.

"Fucking asshole!" She screamed at him. She spit at him and it hit him in the eye. She smiled and laughed to herself.

Don stood in front of her, hand up to push her back if needed. "Calm the fuck down!" He yelled over all the commotion. "You calm the fuck down," he said wagging his finger at Jo. He turned to face Miles. "You get on the second fucking tank and don't say another word."

"Let me go," Jo growled to Grady and Bible.

"Not till Top give the say-so." She heard Grady mutter in her left ear.

Miles glared at her and nursed his face as he walked towards the second tank. She glared right back until Don blocked her line of vision. He stood over her until he had her undivided attention. "I don't know what the fuck that was about but we are having words later. Got it?"

"Got it." She stopped struggling.

"Boys, let her go." They released her and she readjusted her clothes to hang right. "Now get your ass on that tank and man the fucking .50. We get ambushed and make it out alive, I will hold you personally responsible and deal with you myself. Understand?"

"Yes." She glared at Don.

"Okay then." He shifted his attention to the convoy. "Mount up, boys. Let's get this show on the road."

"You shouldn't have done that." Grady muttered to her as they climbed up Fury.

"Why the fuck do you think I gave you my Thompson? I would have shot him otherwise." She took her position behind the turret.

"What about your pistol?" Grady and Bible climbed into the turret.

"Out of ammo." There was a pause and they both started laughing uncontrollably. Once she finally stopped laughing, Jo smiled. "Well, that was exhilarating."

"You good now?" asked Bible.

"Perfectly fine." She smiled again, content with herself. Don glanced sideways at her.

"Just keep an eye out for Nazis." Don stated and they rolled out and down the road to the next town.