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Luz looked around again, his gaze passing over the huge blue sign saying 'Easy Company Reunion 1958', the screaming eagle printed above the words. They were in quite a ritzy hotel, and he couldn't help feeling slightly out of place there. He pulled on his Lucky Strike – he'd never changed the brand after the war – and watched one man after another arrive in the fancy entrance hall. Some of them were faces he hadn't seen in years, but he would always recognise them. When he spotted Lip entering, Luz had to admit that he wasn't too surprised to find Speirs right next to him. Speirs stood with his back straight, his shoulders squared and his expression neutral, just like he always did. Sometimes Luz wondered if it wasn't just the war and being in the army, maybe Speirs was just like that.
Frank and Bull were greeting Lip and Speirs, smiles and shaking hands and embraces – well, embracing Lip at least. The men were still careful around Speirs, nobody believed him to be any less dangerous just because he was a civilian now. Some things never changed, especially if they'd been ingrained as deeply as the respectful wariness the men had for Captain Ronald Speirs. Even if the 'Captain' part lay over a decade in the past now.
Lip had a huge grin on his face and talked comfortably with the other men while Speirs seemed as slightly aloof as he'd always been. Luz could tell that he was listening to the conversation, though, and he wondered when he'd learned to read the man. Maybe it was an age thing. Becoming wise and all that. Although, he'd only just turned thirty-six, so maybe that didn't count as wise yet.
Luz flipped his burnt down cigarette in the ashtray to his left. He decided it was time for him to join the little private party Lip and the others were having, and made his way over to the group of men.
“George!” Lip's huge smile showed that he was really pleased to see him, and Luz returned it immediately. “It's so good to see you. How are you?”
“Hey Lip.” Luz grinned and pulled the other man into an embrace. “I'm fine, really good, actually. And you?”
Luz stepped back and looked at Speirs who inclined his head in a little nod, then he extended his hand. “Luz.”
For a moment, Luz was surprised by the gesture. Speirs had never tended towards physical contact – at least not with anyone other than Lip – but Luz recognised the gesture as a sign of respect and caught himself quickly. He accepted the hand he was offered and shook it with a firm grip. “Good to see you came, sir.”
And yet again, something that never changed. Luz didn't think he'd ever be able to stop calling Speirs 'sir', even if he wasn't his superior officer anymore and hadn't been for over ten years. There was just something about the man that commanded respect, and it still worked as well as it had in the army. Speirs had never drawn his authority from his rank.
“I had no choice.” Speirs replied with a faint smirk and glanced at Lip.
Luz followed his gaze and chuckled. “He can be very persuasive, can't he?”
Speirs turned back to Luz and nodded. “Very.”
“Don't talk about me like I'm not standing right next to you.” Lip chided both of them with an indignant huff and glared at each of them in turn. Luz fought his grin and pulled out a new cigarette to avoid looking at Lip.
“I'm going to get a drink.” Speirs said to Lip, not bothering to hide his amusement. His hand touched the small of Lip's back, a gesture that seemed so familiar that Luz couldn't help remembering that it was the same one they'd been doing ever since Belgium. It was the same kind of touch Luz had watched them exchange so many times during the war that he had stopped counting. “Do you want something?”
“A beer, please.” Lip replied and Luz watched him lean into the touch. He was sure nobody else really noticed. They'd all become so used to it during the war that it didn't stand out to any Easy man anymore. Speirs nodded and left for the bar, and Luz saw that he didn't get very far before Nixon pulled him aside with a huge grin that was actually returned. Lip would have to wait for his beer, Luz thought with a grin.
***
It was long past ten o'clock when Luz decided that he really needed a bit of fresh air. It had become more and more stifling in the rather large hall they had booked for their reunion. Maybe it was also the alcohol speaking, Luz thought with a grin. Although he hadn't tried to beat Perco in the drinking game Bull had suggested. Luz had learned that lesson a long time ago. It didn't seem like Malarkey had, though, because he'd been stupid enough to agree to it.
Luz chuckled to himself while he made his way out on one of the many balconies. Frank would literally drink Malark under the table, he had no doubt about that. It was the reason why Luz had placed his bet on Frank: it would make him rich.
When he'd stepped through the huge double doors, open to let in as much fresh air as possible, he noticed a figure at the unlit end of the balcony. The silhouette was familiar, he'd seen it so often in the dark that he guessed he would recognise it until the day he died. “Hey Lip. What are you doing here all alone?”
“I just needed a little bit of quiet.” Lip replied with a smile and turned towards him. “I just got back from a trip to France yesterday and I'm still out of synch with time.”
“France, hmm?” Luz pulled out his Lucky Strikes and offered one to Lip.
“Thanks.” Lip said and accepted. Another thing that never changed, Luz thought with a smirk. Lip still didn't have his own smokes, and he probably still didn't own a lighter.
“So, why France?” Luz asked and held out his own lighter to Lip.
“It was for a huge contract for the company I work for.” Lip explained before dragging on his cigarette. “I couldn't cancel the trip, but I managed to shorten it by two days so that I could make it here today.”
“I never expected anything less.” Luz said with a teasing grin, well aware that Lip had never once missed one of Easy's reunions. He was still Mama Lip, another thing that would never change.
“I know.” Lip grinned and turned to lean with his hip against the railing of the balcony, cigarette between his fingers. In the faint light filtering through the doors a few feet away, Luz saw a reflection of something metallic right under the collar of Lip's shirt. It looked like a chain. Actually, it looked like a very specific kind of chain that Luz knew only too well.
“What's that?” Luz asked and reached for the chain with a grin. “Don't tell me you're still wearing your dog tags, Lip?”
He had it pulled out of Lip's shirt and held the tags in his hands before Lip had any time to react. When Lip had recovered from his surprise and tried to cover the tags with his hand, Luz resolutely pushed his fingers aside. He'd seen something that had attracted his curiosity – Speirs' name on Lip's dog tags. Now he really wanted to read the rest.
He frowned, not sure what to make of it. There was Lip's data on the tags, just as there should be, but then, as his next of kin, there was Speirs' name and the address that Luz knew was Lip's, too. How could that be? He was pretty sure that it was not what the tags had said back in '45. There was only one possibility...
“These are not your original tags.” Luz said when he'd finished reading, the tags still held firmly in his hand. He realised that Lip had frozen up next him. His face was carefully neutral, but worry still showed in his eyes.
“No, they're not.” His voice was quiet, a cautious note to it, and Luz didn't like that sound at all.
“Speirs has a matching pair, I assume?” He hadn't thought it possible, but Lip's posture became even stiffer and his eyes even more cautious. Luz just shook his head with an exasperated sigh. “Oh come on, Lip, relax. As if I haven't known ever since Rachamps.”
Now, Lip actually looked stunned. “What?”
Luz gave another sigh, this one even more exasperated. “Who pointed out to you that Speirs treated you differently?”
Lip hesitated a moment and bit his lip, as if he was unsure where this question led. “You.”
“Right, me.” Luz replied and pulled on his cigarette. “And guess what? I'm very observant. The looks, the touches, the cigarettes, your connection.” Luz shrugged. “When you know what to look for, it isn't too difficult to see things for what they are.”
Lip was quiet for a long moment, and there were so many emotions running through his eyes that Luz couldn't identify them all. When Lip spoke, his voice was almost silent. “So you've known the whole time?”
“I had an idea, yes, but I didn't exactly know.” Luz shrugged again, then he admitted with a smirk tugging on his lips, “Well, until right before we left Austria, that is.”
“Why's that?” Lipton asked with a confused frown.
“Well, actually, Speirs gave me a pack of cigarettes. Told me it was to thank me for opening your eyes.” Luz explained and couldn't hide the smirk anymore when he saw Lip stare at him with an incredulous expression on his face. “When I asked him what he'd do after the war, he said he was going to move to Huntington. That was pretty much a confession.”
“He never told me.” Lip remarked with a tiny frown and Luz wondered if he'd got Speirs into trouble. He hoped not, because he didn't doubt the man would find a way to make him pay for it.
“Well, of course he didn't.” Luz pulled on his cigarette again. “But really, it was only the last confirmation of what we had suspected all along.”
“We?” Lip asked, now with a full blown frown. “Who is 'we'?”
“Easy. We called you Mama Lip and Papa Speirs.” Luz said with a huge grin. “Really, Lip, we all took it for granted that you and Speirs had a special bond. A bit like Winters and Nixon. It was never much of a secret.”
“All the boys knew that...” Instead of angry, Lip now looked outright shocked. He didn't even finish the sentence, and that alone was a very good indication of how shocked he really was.
“No, I don't think so.” Luz hurried to say, trying to calm him down. “Things are different during wartime, you know that. The relationship you have with your fellow soldiers is different from anything you've known back home.” Luz looked at him, serious for once. He needed Lip to understand. “The criteria by which we judged things were different. What happened in the foxhole stayed in the foxhole.”
Lip had obviously not recovered enough to actually form words. There was a mixture of anguish, worry and concern on his face, and maybe there was even a hint of fear. Luz hated that expression with passion. It didn't fit the man who'd led Easy through Bastogne and Landsberg without ever breaking down, being their source of strength to draw on when they'd thought they couldn't go on. Luz knew Lip was only affected so strongly by the whole conversation because of how much the men and their respect meant to him, and Luz realised it was time to make it unmistakably clear that he had nothing to fear from any of his Easy boys.
“Listen to me, Lip. It wouldn't matter any way. We'll always stick together. Every single Easy man will have your and Speirs' back. Whatever happens. You've led us through hell on earth and made sure we got out alive, and we won't ever forget that.” Luz flicked his halfway smoked Lucky Strike over the railing and used his now free hand to grab Lip's shoulder, the other still holding the dog tags. “We're brothers, all of us, and we don't say that lightly. You should know that.”
Lip held his gaze for a moment, then nodded. The fear and the anguish in his eyes were gone, replaced by slow understanding. Luz wondered how a man who was so downright honourable could think so little of himself. A man who would have given his life for every single soldier under his command and yet he didn't seem to know that they would return the favour without a moment's hesitation. Maybe it was part of what made him so decent, Luz mused. That he didn't just assume. That he didn't take things for granted.
Luz looked at the tags in his hand. They had darkened as they only did with the passing of time, there were some scratches and a few dents, but they looked far better than Luz's had when he'd taken them off for good after the war. “How long have you had them?”
Lip had followed his gaze and was looking at the tags with a silent little smile. “Twelve years.”
“That's a long time.” Luz looked up with a smirk and let the tags fall back against Lip's shirt. “Who would've thought that anything good could come out of that war?”
“Yeah.” Lip's hand closed around his tags and when he looked up, he gave Luz a smile. A real one, one that made his eyes glow. “Who would have thought.”
They were quiet for a moment, leaning against the railing in comfortable silence. Then Lip turned to look at Luz and there was a mischievous gleam in his eyes that Luz was sure he'd never seen before. He didn't know what to expect, so he stared back and asked, “What?”
Lip's smirk transformed into a wide grin. “George, did I ever tell you we named our dog 'Luz'?”