#babenere

Warnings: angsty(??), minor cussing

Bastogne, 1945

The bitter, cold air blew between the barren trees. Snow came down heavily, leaving a white coat over the ground and the trees.

Splotches of red were reminders of the injured and lost. Foxholes were scattered around -- it was silent as the night fell.

At the front line, two men were huddled together in one hole; trying to generate as much warmth as possible.

Silence was broken by one of the men; you could see his breath in the cold air, "What do ya think you're gonna do after all this? When the war's over." Bill turned his head to his friend.

Heffron paused for a moment, "I hadn't really thought about it; I guess go home and pick up where I left off. You?"

Guarnere shook his head before responding, "Not me, the first thing Imma do is get a real meal. None of this goddamn powdered, canned crap we've been livin' off of. I'm thinking a steak, something big."

Babe chuckled and shook his head, "Real big dreams ya got there, huh, Gonorrhea?"

Guarnere nudged Babe in the side, "Watch the goddamn line, Heffron."

---

The two men had been awoken to loud explosions. Startled, they threw off the blanket they had been sharing and grabbed onto their rifles, readying for battle.

The explosions continued, showing no mercy on their side.

They looked into each other, scared, but they wouldn't admit that. There was nothing to do but wait for things to calm back down.

Moments passed before it went quiet again. You could hear "Medic!" being yelled in the distance. Guarnere looked at Heffron, "Is that Toye?"

Frantically, Bill climbed out of his foxhole in search of his friend. Babe only watched Guarnere run off in the distance.'

---

Another barrage hit them.

Heffron waited until it quieted down again before he heard commotion in the distance.

He crawled out of the hole he had been in with Guarnere and cautiously ran towards the noise.

As he approached the scene, he stopped in his tracks -- it was Toye and Guarnere, both lying on the ground, each with a leg that was blown off. Doc Roe was helping them as Babe ran up.

Guarnere was taken away first. Even during a time like this, he still had something smart to say: "Hey, Joe, I told you I would beat you back to the States." Babe couldn't do anything but stare, in shock of the state his friends were in.

---

Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye had both been taken off the line. Everyone was feeling the weight of the number of casualties Bastogne had resulted in, especially Babe Heffron.

Sure, he had other friends, but he felt a certain way with Guarnere. So far from home, he was able to find solace in Guarnere, knowing they grew up in the same town -- hell, they went to the same high school. Now, Guarnere was gone, and Heffron was finding it difficult to cope.

Night fell again, and Heffron was in the same foxhole he once sat in with Guarnere. He thought about the conversations they had and the jokes they shared -- would he ever get that again?

For the first time in months, Babe pulled out a torn, battered journal from his pocket -- he had been given it by his sister before he joined the army; she had told him to process everything in his "diary." He had laughed when she brought it to him.

Unused, he flipped it to the first place and wrote how he felt, processing all of his emotions and everything he had gone through in the past several days.

How he saw the man he wanted all his life hanging by a thread, leg blown off, lying in the snow, helpless. He wrote in his journal, "I never even knew how much I wanted you." Heffron was spilling all of his emotions on the page, emotions he hadn't even considered until now.

He thought about Guarnere, his family, and his past.

Would he ever get those back? Would he ever get him back? Would he ever see a face like his in years to come?

Heffron thought more on it, regretting more and more of what could've been with his buddy Guarnere.