** BABE POV **

"Hey, don't look at me, red. I warned you never to trust George Luz," the cheeky blonde laughed.

I'll admit that I was more than a little surprised when I arrived as an Easy Company replacement and was greeted by a woman. Hashey, Miller, Garcia and I walked into the barracks tent in Aldbourne and were greeted by a suspiciously shapely figure bent over one of the beds.

"Wow," sputtered Hashey, and the figure stood and turned.

"Wow" was right. Whoever she was, she was beautiful.

"Can I help you boys?"

"Yes ma'am," Garcia, ever the polite one, answered quickly. "We're just in from reporting for duty, and one of the lieutenants sent us here to drop our stuff."

"Those four over there are open. Go ahead and drop it over there and I'll show you where the chow tent is. That's where the rest of the boys are."

We moved toward the bunks she had indicated and put our bags down, and I turned back toward the woman, whose name I still didn't know.

"Didn't know they allowed skirts in the barracks. You visiting a boyfriend? Or just in the area to entertain the troops?"

I'd always had a gift for putting my foot in my mouth with the ladies. By entertain, I really had meant something like the USO, but that certainly was not how it came out. She turned toward me again, now buttoning up a uniform shirt over the white T-shirt she'd been wearing. When the others saw the bars on her arms, they started to snicker. I dropped my head, the heat in my cheeks letting me know that they were as red as my hair.

"You're a real stud with the ladies, aren't you Private?"

There was amusement in her voice, and I looked up at the most radiant smile I'd ever seen in my life.

"No, ma'am. Not at all."

"I'm Sergeant Vivian Green. It's nice to meet you, Private…?"

"Heffron. Babe Heffron."

I shook her hand and the others introduced themselves quickly. She turned her smile back to me.

"So, Private Philly," she said, pegging my accent, "you boys follow me."

I took hell from the others for my clumsy introduction that first day but, seated in a corner of the crowded mess tent, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She circulated among the men with ease, laughing and talking with many of them before several of them scooted over to make room for her to sit and eat. She might have been a woman, but she was definitely a paratrooper. They obviously respected her as one of their own. The group around her was laughing now, and several had glanced back in our direction, so it wasn't hard to figure out that she was telling the story of how we met.

I stood quickly, telling the guys that I was headed back to barracks. A hand on my chest stopped me and I looked down to see the strong-jawed trooper who was sitting across from her. She was biting back a smile, but he looked pissed. Perhaps he took exception to my unintentional insult of her. I was off to an inauspicious start.

"You Heffron?" he demanded.

"Who's asking?" I asked, trying to put on a tough front.

"From Philadelphia?"

"Yeah."

"I can tell."

His accent registered, and I relaxed. Within moments, we were talking, exchanging stories about mutual acquaintances. She moved over so that I could sit down next to her.

"Babe Heffron, meet Sergeant Bill Guarnere. Try not to insult him. He's not as forgiving as I am." I blushed again as the table of men began to laugh. She elbowed me playfully. "Might as well get used to it. You're never gonna live it down."

"Priceless," Bill chuckled. "Wish I'd have been there."

"Me too," from a guy named George Luz. "But I can't say I blame you, kid. We all had months of watching her run up Currahee in her PT gear. Thought she was put here by the Army just to torture us."

With that storied beginning, and mouths like George and Bill to spread it, the other replacements and I soon integrated into the tightly-knit Easy Company world. Bill became a close friend. Vivian too, although it was no secret to anyone, save for maybe her, that I was completely in awe of her.

This slight woman was far more powerful than her stature would suggest. The stories I heard about her actions on D-Day and the days that followed were nothing short of amazing. A trench knife and a dead German. The guns at Brecourt. Her pulling a wounded man out of harm's way in Carentan. Whatever I'd taken her for in the first few moments of our acquaintance, by the time we stood in the pub on that September night, and much to the delight of my good friend Bill, I was absolutely smitten with Sergeant Vivian Green.

Now, she stood beside me, laughing as I handed over the last two packs of my weekly cigarette ration. She'd warned me that George Luz's involvement meant trouble. If it had been anyone else, I would have listened. The fact was that I'd been trying to impress her. I'd beaten Lieutenant Compton handily in the first game, and I prided myself on my aim. Unfortunately, as I soon became aware, Buck Compton was an All-American catcher for UCLA. He prided himself on his aim as well, especially when he was shooting with the correct hand. Bill threw a sympathetic arm around my shoulder.

"You up for double or nothing?"

"Give the man a break, Bill. I just took his last pack of smokes. I'm not going to take his meager salary. So what's he gonna bet?"

Bill grinned and winked at him. This couldn't be good.

"Well, we could go really old-fashioned here. Compete for the fair lady. Winner gets a kiss from Viv here."

"Now wait just a damn minute! How did I get pulled into this?" she demanded, and Bill prodded her as I tried to hide my quickly reddening face.

"Come on, Doll! It's just a kiss. You'll be like a princess with knights competing for your honor. Besides, what dame wouldn't wanna kiss the All-American pretty boy? You'd be the envy of the entire UCLA cheerleading squad. You know how you love to get back at all those prissy girls you used to hate! We'll send them a picture! And if Babe here wins, we'll send them a picture of that too, so they can see that you're not having as hard a time with the men as they thought."

Giggling at his twisted logic and always up for a bit of fun, she agreed. Bill looked over at Buck and me.

"Well?"

"Hey, I'm always up for an excuse to plant one on Viv," Buck agreed.

Bill didn't wait for me to answer, prodding, "And we know that Babe here won't mind."

Her eyes caught mine, studying me to find the meaning behind Bill's telling words. The blush on my cheeks must have given me away because I saw the slightest hint of a smile before she rested her chin on her hand to watch the action. I played fairly well, but between the stakes and her watching me so closely, I was nervous as hell. Buck, ever confident, beat me without much effort and grinned at the prospect of claiming his prize.

I was jealous of the ease with which he approached her. I was jealous of the way his arm snaked comfortably around her waist. I was incredibly jealous of the way he made her giggle as he dipped her back dramatically before kissing her like they were in some damned Hollywood movie. I had to look away. At last, he pulled her upright and stepped away, leaving her dazed and him grinning like the cat that ate the canary. I was just thankful that she wasn't wearing lipstick, so I didn't have to see it smeared across his lips. It was the first time in my life that I'd really wanted to punch an officer, but he'd won fair and square, so I couldn't really be mad.

As I was taking a deep breath to settle my nerves, Smokey called for our attention, broadcasting that the newly-minted First Sergeant Carwood Lipton had an announcement. It turned out to be that we were moving out again. The jump that some of us replacements had thought would never come was now here, and the veterans were clearly not excited at the prospect. The mood now significantly darker, the Company began drifting out of the pub and back toward barracks.

Stopping outside the doorway, I reached for my cigarettes, needing to release some nervous energy if I hoped to get any sleep at all. The jump. The game and Bill's incessant ragging. Watching Buck Compton kiss the woman I'd been pining for the last two months. Of course, I had no cigarettes.

"Damn," I cursed to myself, not noticing that Vivian had remained outside the door as well.

"Stay right here, red," she ordered, disappearing into the room and returning with something in her hand. "Here."

I caught the pack of cigarettes and looked up at her for an explanation. She didn't smoke, so I figured she traded her rations for other stuff. She grinned at me.

"I always keep a few extra packs for the guys. You know, in case of emergency. Now, smoke and walk with me. I need to go check the supply room so I can update Winters at the briefing tomorrow."

She didn't need to tell me twice. We fell quickly into our usual easy conversation. That, perhaps, was what I loved most about her. Despite my interest in her, I generally felt no discomfort or nervousness when we talked, especially when we were alone or, more specifically, away from Bill. We spent a lot of time talking during those first two months. I asked her about the stories I had heard. She played them off as nothing special. She explained to me, as best she could, what combat was really like. What to expect. How to stay alive. I quickly learned to value her wisdom and her friendship.

Flipping on the light in the small supply room, she closed the door behind me and sat down on the edge of a table in front of me, allowing me to finish my cigarette before speaking.

"You were disappointed tonight, huh?"

"Disappointed? About what?" I asked, suddenly intensely interested in the boxes behind her.

"Kissing me," she said, matter-of-factly. "You know, I was hoping you'd win."

Wait. What? My brain spun wildly.

"You were?"

"Yeah, because then you'd have the excuse you've been looking for, and maybe you wouldn't chicken out."

"Chicken out?" I spluttered. Maybe I hadn't been so good at hiding this from her after all.

She answered only by cocking an eyebrow at me. Surely she couldn't mean that she actually wanted me to kiss her. I stepped forward into the space left between her knees, so that she had to look up at me. She didn't flinch. I brushed a strand of hair back with my fingers. She patiently held my gaze. At last, I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers. Her hand slipped behind my neck and pulled me in, and all at once, I was the most powerful man in the world. So this is what it felt like to be Buck Compton.

** VIVIAN POV **

I'll admit that I was taken with Babe Heffron rather quickly. After an inauspicious first meeting, he had proven himself to be intelligent, eager to learn, and polite. The replacements in that group were all top-notch guys, but perhaps because of how we started off, Babe and I became fast friends. Anyone who could take the ribbing that he got over that introduction and laugh about it was okay by me.

I spent long hours and late nights talking to him about everything from home to the hell of battle. I knew from the way Bill teased him that he must have a crush on me but, although I could sense that there were times when he desperately wanted to, he never followed through and kissed me. Bill had taken it upon himself to press the issue tonight. Now, don't get me wrong. Buck Compton was a handsome man, and admittedly, a hell of a kisser. I'd just been secretly hoping for a different result. When I saw the look of jealous disappointment on Babe's face after Buck claimed his prize, I decided that I'd just have to take action myself, especially after hearing that we were moving out again.

The full moon shining through the small skylight window in the supply room was more than enough for me to see the determined look on his face. When his mouth finally met mine, I slipped my hand behind his head, reassuring him that this was indeed what I had wanted. It was all the confidence he needed.

Wrapping a strong arm around my waist, he pulled me against his body so that I gasped and took that opportunity to sweep his tongue against mine. The temperature in the room seemed to jump 20 degrees, and the heat of the kiss shot up with it, morphing into a breathless blur of lips, tongues, and teeth.

We were tugging at each other's clothes when the reality of the moment crept in and he stopped, gasping against my ear, "Viv?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. That's just it. Nothing is wrong. I just… wanna make sure that this is right. That it's what you want."

"Babe, we've been dancing around this since the day we met. What if we jump in a few days and something happens to one of us? I don't want to have to always wonder. Do you?"

"Have you, um… With any of the other guys, have you…?"

Never one to resist the opportunity to ruin a moment, he asked the question that I was already fairly certain he knew the answer to. Luckily, I knew him well. I smiled and shook my head.

"No. Just you."

All apprehension disappeared. His next kiss was slow and tender, one hand on my cheek as the other pulled apart the buttons on my blouse. I sighed against his ear as his mouth drifted down my jaw and neck, sliding my shirt off of my shoulders and following it with kisses. I leaned back against the table, allowing him all the access he wanted to prevent him from stopping the delicious sensation.

He needed no encouragement now. He was as confident and in control as I had ever seen him, making short work of my belt and sliding my trousers over my hips without hesitation. Grabbing the fabric of his shirt, I pulled him back to my lips and finished my previous mission of pulling that shirt off.

We both groaned with satisfaction at the feeling of naked flesh connecting, and his arm wrapped around my waist again, lifting me fully off the table as he kissed me. Without breaking the kiss, he pulled a heavy blanket from the shelf and, confident that my legs were firmly around his waist, released me long enough to spread it across the floor. Laying me back across it, he tucked another under my head as a pillow and gazed down at me.

"You are so damn beautiful."

For the first time in our relationship, I was the one who blushed. He smiled and lowered himself over me in a slow push-up, capturing my lips again and sighing as I scattered kisses down his shoulders and chest, at last pushing his own trousers over his hips.

Another deep kiss swallowed my gasp as he joined our bodies. We fell into a rhythm as though it were a dance that we both already knew. His fingers intertwined with mine. He hitched one of my legs over his hip. He whispered into my ear as he moved, telling me how beautiful I was, how long he'd wanted me, how he wanted to do this every night for the rest of forever.

His words were punctuated, first by caresses and soft kisses, then, as he began to lose control, by curses and love bites along my neck and shoulders. His movements became increasingly erratic and the friction that was building was as though he were lighting a fire inside my body. We were damp with sweat. My legs wrapped around his waist as I tried to pull him further into me.

"Babe…" My words were quickly lost in a moan of satisfaction.

"Viv, baby, you feel so good. God, I want to do this forever."

"You can," I promised breathlessly. "You can anytime you want."

My body shuddered. My muscles tensed around him. Sensing that I was teetering on the edge, he leaned down to whisper in my ear and, at his words, stars exploded behind my eyes.

"You're all mine, Viv. You know that, right? Tonight is the last time I let another man kiss the woman I love."

My fingernails digging into his shoulder blades sent him tumbling off the edge behind me, and he growled into another deep kiss as he released all of the sexual energy we'd been holding back for the last couple of months. Collapsing beside me and pulling me into him, he kissed my nose and brushed my hair away from my face.

"I love you, Vivian. I hope you know that's what this was about."

I smiled at him and cuddled closer into his arms.

"Just promise that you'll be careful on this jump, okay? I love you. I can't have anything happen to you."

"I promise, sweetheart. At least now, maybe Bill will leave us alone."

"Are you kidding? He's going to be worse than ever."