5 things between Nix and Winters

For mlyn, 5 things the men saw between Nixon and Winters they weren't supposed to see (Band of Brothers).

1. When they were yet to jump, in the days leading up to Operation Overlord when everyone was tense and worried, Bull saw Lt. Nixon and Lt. Winters standing together in the dark outside the CP. It looked like they were reading some kind of map or something, but in the low light, it was hard to tell. Nixon fished a cigarette out of his pocket and as he fumbled for his lighter, Lt. Winters took it out of his hand to light Lt. Nixon's cigarette. You wouldn't even have thought nothing about it except that as he gave the lighter back, Lt. Nixon looked up at him with a little smile on his face, and Lt. Winters stared back, just a little longer than normal.

2. After Sobel tried to court-martial Dick, you'd have believed it was Nix who had his balls in a vise. Nix was practically spitting fire, all his cool reserve and flippant distance suddenly taking a hike. It didn't surprise Harry, not really, because he'd always wondered about them. It was that time Nix had gotten up during a briefing, grabbed Dick's cup and poured him coffee before pouring his own cup, that made Harry start wondering in the first place. Nix gave it to Dick and sat down, and they never even really looked at each other, like they'd been together for years and lived in their own private world.

3. He hadn't been Capt. Winters's orderly for very long before he figured out that Capt. Nixon was a part of the job, too. He was just... always there. He'd disappear on a recon, or hop off somewhere for leave, but the minute he got back, he was with Capt. Winters. Once, when he left the farmhouse Capt. Winters was quartered in, about a half hour after Capt. Nixon had left, he recognized Capt. Nixon's dark form in the shadows, and as he went around the corner to his own quarters, he saw Capt Nixon go back inside, and then a few minutes later, the light in Capt. Winters's room went out.

4. Capt. Winters was a hard guy to figure out. Mr. Straight Arrow, and all that, the strange ideas that a lot of the men had about him. Capt. Nixon made a lot more sense to people, but Lipton sort of liked how stand-up Capt. Winters was. But it wasn't like he didn't think the world of both of them. They had qualities, together and apart, that made them different from the other officers. You could see they were closer than most other officers, too. Everyone had friends, but Lipton wasn't sure that he'd ever seen anyone do what they would do for each other. One night Capt. Nixon went on a bender, tearing around their little patch of Holland looking for as much booze as he could find. He was so drunk they thought he would die of alcohol poisoning. After he puked all over Capt. Winters's boots, all Winters did was smile at him, drag him back to where he was bunked, and clean off his boots before putting Nixon to bed. Most guys would have clocked him.

5. Right after Winters got his promotion to captain, Lt. Nixon was checking in with him about something he'd found on a recon. Everyone was getting ready to move out so the building was mostly empty, and they probably thought Doc Roe was gone, too, but he just turned his head a little as he packed the last of his stuff and saw them there, talking. Lt. Nixon nodded at Winters, and when he turned to go, he just barely--really, if you didn't have good eyes and hadn't been watching, you'd never have noticed--ran his fingers along the palm of Capt. Winters's hand. Roe slipped out of the building before Nixon could see him.

Innards update

Today I saw my regular doctor to discuss the weekend's big events, and she very strongly encouraged me to get my gall bladder yanked. The ultrasound they did apparently hadn't come back with full results yet when I checked out of the hospital (are you supposed to say "discharged" yourself? Is check out just for hotels?), so she had them in her hands and they did find some definite gall stones, along with the CT scan showing the wall was extra thick and I had forgotten in my drugged condition that they also mentioned there was fluid around the gall bladder. I learned a lot -- I'd always thought gall stones and such were a thing totally related to a high-fat diet and being overweight, which I am, but not as much as a lot of people I've known who had theirs removed. You can imagine my confusion -- here I am eating a relatively decent diet with lots of grains and fruit and veg, and being overweight but not too much, and a regular exerciser, and they're lecturing me about eating a half a piece of fried chicken... but it turns out that it's common in women like me -- fair skinned, 40s and 50s, and it's usually inherited (which I'd never know about because I don't know my family history). And attacks like that are common for people who have lost weight or who *don't* eat a high-fat diet, because the gall bladder is basically trying to squeeze the fat out that you ate and not doing a very good job of it. Making stones, instead.

Anyway, it was all very interesting, but also, freaking me out, because I went upstairs and made an appt. to see the surgeons, and now I'm in full panic mode and the car is already in motion with the emergency brake released... and. Bleh. It isn't the cutting that freaks me out -- it's the everything else. Being hooked up to machines, catheters (ugh!!! to me, the biggest nightmare of all), not knowing what's getting pumped into you (hmmm, though I wonder if they'll give me more Dilaudid...), people get septic infections and die all the time (that's what killed my mom during her cancer treatment)... I can't stand it. The cutting and organ removal aren't my idea of fun, but they're not as big a deal to me as the rest of the shit.

I don't want to do this, but as my doc pointed out, better to reduce the risk now than to have this happen again when I'm traveling or something. And I know she's right. But i still don't wanna do it.

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On a more positive note! The lovely soundingsea has a love thread going on over at her LJ. I've never put my name in the ring before, but I guess I must be feeling needier than usual what with all the exciting events in my life lately.

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Don't think I'm ignoring your 5 Things requests -- it's gonna take me a while to get through so many of them, but you are still welcome to make requests if you wish here. Just bear with me, because some of them are hard!

Now I'm off to DL and watch some vids so I can make recs.