Work Text:
What We Sacrifice (for the best of us)
By: Shadow Chaser
Story:
Mourmelon was a welcomed relief and a godsend after being on the front lines for so long for many of the 2d Battalion. For Major Winters, it was both a relief – especially to not get shot at or send men to their deaths to plug in gaps on the line – and a bit of trepidation. Trepidation not because of the daily exercises he put the men through along with training the new recruits up to par with the rest of the 2d of the 506th, but because there was so many reports to fill out, commendations to sign, promotions to give, supply reports to send off – generally a lot of paperwork. He had filed a bare minimum while he had been at battalion CP on the front lines, but most of his time had been planning and executing missions and generally overseeing the well-being of the 2d Battalion.
Now there were action reports to be filled out, some of whom he had delegated to Captain Speirs along with the other two Lieutenants of Dog and Fox Companies. For some of the supply reports, he had his executive officer Captain Cox take care of it. There were still a lot of paper and reports to be filled out and he paused in his typing to stare at the small pile. To him, it seemed to grow larger and larger as the day had worn on and Winters rubbed his eyes.
He got up, stretching a little at the stiffness in his muscles from sitting for the past few hours. Maybe he would join in tonight's night drill Speirs was planning to put together to further acclimate Easy's newest replacements; work out some of the stiffness. It would also be good for him to see how everyone was doing since he barely saw any of them during the daylight hours, too busy with...paperwork.
He headed out of his tent, squinting at brightness of light, even though it was mildly overcast. He decided to head over to where Welsh's tent was across and further down from his own. He had been able to appoint Lieutenant Harry Welsh as his intelligence officer and also Nix as his operations officer, especially since Nix had been demoted back to battalion staff for repeated drunkenness. Winters did not mind, especially with his two best friends near him instead of on the front lines if they were ever deployed out again. He did not readily want what had happened to Captain Rogers to happen to him – even though it was the nature of war. He supposed losing Nix and Welsh would take a lot of the fight out of him, and he did nearly lose Nix months ago when some Kraut had shot him through his helmet. It only left a dark score across Nix's brow, but it had scared him.
Opening the flap and stepping in, he let his eyes adjust for a second before seeing Welsh and Speirs both pouring over a map of Mourmelon and the training grounds set up around the area. Both of them had glanced up, but returned to staring at the maps when they saw who it was. Winters walked over and peered down from the other side, noting little sketches of battle plans and whatnot.
“You want Dog and Fox to join Easy tonight?” he asked quietly.
“Probably not. A few of the replacements caught some harassment from them yesterday and we're using some live ammo with blanks tonight,” Speirs shrugged and Winters nodded.
“Understandable,” he replied before tilting his head as he stared at the drawn plans, “mind if I join?”
Welsh only stared at him, one eyebrow raised while Speirs just smiled. Though Welsh had not been there, he had the story relayed to him after he had joined them in Haguenau by Nix; the two knew that during the attack on Foy, Winters had been a heartbeat away from rejoining Easy until he was straight up told that he was a battalion commander and to send someone else. There was not a day that Winters would have traded to not have placed Speirs in command of Easy. They also knew that he picked Easy for a lot of the harder missions, having trained with the men, and that Easy had his favor in any situation be it in or out of combat compared to Dog or Fox.
“Don't like your command staff?” Welsh teased.
“I was thinking that you, Nix, and the others would probably want to be the ones at the objective?” Winters smiled as he saw Welsh roll his eyes.
“Rescued by my own CO...” his friend sighed, “you end up dragging me across the dirt, you'd better not get my reserve chute dirty.”
“You haven't sent it to Kitty yet?” Winters glanced around and saw that Welsh did indeed still have his reserve chute with him, tucked away in a corner of the tent. The fact that it actually did not get stolen while he had been recuperating was a miracle. Nor the fact that he did not send it off then puzzled him.
“It's...a good luck charm,” Welsh shrugged.
“I can post you as an observer of 2d Platoon, Dick,” Speirs had the look of not quite studying the map and more mentally reviewing the list of the men under his command. “Foley's got a lot of new replacements so I was going to have 1st Platoon take charge on this exercise.”
“That's fine,” Winters nodded absently as he studied the plans. It was similar to how he had led his platoon spiking the guns on Normandy, except involving the whole of Easy. 1st Platoon was going to lead the charge on disabling the guns while 3rd and 2nd swept from the rear and side to secure the objective.
“And can I borrow your command staff to pretend that they're Germans so we can take prisoners alive?” Speirs suddenly grinned and Welsh groaned into his hands.
“Really?”
“Sure,” Winters humored Speirs and saw Welsh groan further as he mumbled into his hands something about not getting any sleep while he was rescued by baby replacements.
“The live ammo will only be used on the approach and everyone should have blanks when they reach the objective,” Speirs continue to outline as he drew his finger across the map, “I'll let the others know when they do their nightly patrols. Final briefing will probably be at 2215.”
“I'm not keen on freezing my ass off for the whole damn night Speirs,” Welsh looked sideways at him and Speirs only gave him a crooked smile.
“You've got that reserve chute to keep you warm,” he replied.
“Ha ha, very funny,” Welsh said and Winters shook his head a little as he glanced at his own watch.
“I'm headed back, let me know if anything changes. I'll see the two of you at the final briefing,” he did not want to leave and wanted to continue to plan with his friends. However, at the same time he also knew that Colonel Sink and the higher ups were waiting on the reports and he really needed to finish them.
They nodded their goodbyes at him as he left the tent, squinting again at the brightness in the clouds. “Dick!” he had only taken a few steps towards his own tent when Nix's voice made him turn to see him running towards him, a piece of paper in his hand.
“Nix,” he greeted, seeing the slight stricken look on Nix's face before the paper was shoved unceremoniously into his hands. Looking down, he saw it was succinct and to the point:
[CONFIDENTIAL: EYES-ONLY MAJ. R.D. WINTERS
REPORT: CPT. S.G. ROGERS K-I-A ON FEB. 28-MAR. 1]
Winters was never really prone to swearing, having been raised not in the faith of his mother, but generally in the community that frowned down on taking the Lord's name in an oath or in vain. The war had changed some of that, he knew his diary entries reflected it, but right now he wanted to swear to the high heavens. Instead, he let out a very long sigh and folded the paper and put it into the pocket of his jacket. He knew who sent the note and would only send it because more than likely Captain Rogers requested it after passing through Haguenau.
There were no details, nothing for him to speculate, but at least it was a courtesy and request honored by Colonel Phillips of the SSR. He wondered if there would be an official notice sent out or would it be buried under a one-line report to be spoken to the men about, much like how Sergeant Barnes' death was not even mentioned.
“The command staff radio operator and I are the only ones who know, Dick,” Nix was looking at him and Winters realized that he had been staring out at the rows of tents, lost in thought. Nix was worried about him, Winters realized and absently nodded. He wanted to turn around and go back into the tent to tell Welsh and Speirs; feeling that the two also earned the right to know, but the message of 'Eyes-Only' was clear: the SSR was not exactly sure how to proceed yet about the death of Captain America.
It would have been easy to think that Captain Rogers had lost something, had succumb to combat exhaustion after Barnes' death. That he had committed suicide, but Winters knew better. Rogers had not succumb that day that he had found him in the armory stores and sent him up to get some rest. He had come close, but he had not broken. Though he looked like he had not slept in those few hours of peace given to him, he had come out looking just a little better even though he was clearly still mourning the loss of his friend.
Winters would have liked to have thought that Captain Rogers had lost his life avenging his friend's death, taking down the man that had captured Barnes, but he did not know. Rogers had sacrificed himself for something greater than he, greater than the war – saving the lives of others. How many others, he did not know, but it was something Captain Rogers would do. It was something he made sure Captain America would do.
“Dick?”
“I'm fine,” he forced himself to smile, a sad one, at Nix before he realized that he sounded eerily like Rogers when he had found him a month ago. Shaking his head inwardly, he pushed away all of his gloomy thoughts, “We'll have to see what the official reports say before we tell the others.”
Nix slowly nodded, understanding that they could not say anything, as they headed back to his command tent. There was nothing that could be done now and truth be told, Winters had thought that the corner was turned in the war, but he knew for Captain Rogers, that corner had not turned for him. The Allied effort had lost one of his better soldiers and all he could do was move on.
* * *
“...Some final news,” Winters watched Nix speak in front of the gathered 2d Battalion as he stood in the back, arms crossed across his chest. The official news had crossed all Allied channels that day; two weeks since he had received the flash notice from Colonel Phillips.
“Some final news...” Nix started again, clearing his throat as the others of the battalion shifted, sensing that it was more somber than the ones declaring victory on fronts or entertainment news from back home. “Captain America was killed in action a couple of weeks ago during the SSR's assault on the Red Skull's main base of operations.”
Silence reigned across the battalion as everyone took a second to digest the news before murmurs broke out.
“The report states that the Red Skull had been planning a major aerial assault on the United States using the technology and weapons he had been developing for the past three years. Captain America took control of that aerial bomber and altered its course so that it crashed somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. All hands...all hands were lost.
“There are rescue efforts underway to find the wreckage and the Captain's body,” Nix continued, swallowing visibly as he paused again before reading from the paper once more, “Captain America stopped what could have been millions of lives lost back home while we fought over here. Intelligence believes that the capture of one of HYDRA's top scientists enabled the SSR to locate the Red Skull's base of operations and take it out.” Nix looked like he was about to say more, but suddenly folded the paper in his hands and walked away, clearing his throat a little.
Winters knew that Nix wanted to say something about Sergeant Barnes, but could not under orders and a potential for a courts-martial. Maybe one day, the world would know that the Howling Commandos lost more than their beloved Captain, but today was not the day.
* * *
The comics storyline published a month after the official announcement had Captain America and Sergeant Barnes under taking a solo mission without the Commandos. They were captured by a HYDRA fanatic named Zemo and eventually escaped to stop a remote bomb aimed at New York City. Barnes was caught on the bomb and died in the explosion while the shockwave sent Captain America into the ocean where he died from his injuries.
Roughly seventy years later, Captain America's frozen body would be found – and the world discovered that their hero had not perished, but was still alive.
Two and half years after that, the assassin the intelligence community thought of as a ghost, the Winter Soldier, was revealed to be Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes.
~END~