Ed kept a close eye on her for the rest of the day, to make sure she was careful and alert during their brief landing. He didn’t want anything to happen to her. She managed to tend to the men she needed to. Pru put a gentle hand on her shoulder and gave her a hug once the men were loaded.
They flew four missions that day, and Lizzie looked like she’d been beaten when their last patients of the day had left in ambulances with the medics. Ed walked her back to her barracks then, and held her again for a moment before he walked her inside. Audrey was waiting for her in the hall. She had told the others, so they all knew what had happened.
Lizzie looked at Ed before she left him.
“Thank you,” were the only words she could find to say to him. She could never have gotten through the day without him. He gently touched her cheek and nodded.
“I’m here if you need me. Send for me if I can do anything to help.” But they both knew he couldn’t. There was nothing any of them could do now. Greg was dead and nothing would change that.
Audrey walked her up the stairs to their room, with her arm around her, and gently lay Lizzie on the bed in her flight suit. Lizzie lay there and sobbed until she finally fell asleep. Audrey covered her with a blanket and turned off the light. It was all anyone could do for her.
Chapter 11
In the weeks after Greg died, Ed followed Lizzie like a shadow, and was always nearby when she wanted him. His attention wasn’t oppressive. His gentle compassion and kindness, and Audrey’s, and that of the other nurses were what kept her going, and able to function at all. Ed got her to take a few days off, and she called her parents on the day of Greg’s funeral. There was no body. There was nothing to bury after the explosion that killed him. They had a service at St. Leonard’s church in Boston, and were going to put a headstone in the Hatton family plot at the cemetery. Her parents were trying valiantly to be brave, but every day was filled with terror for them, worrying that either Henry or Lizzie would be killed too.
When Lizzie felt strong enough to do so, she began flying missions on her own, as the nurse in charge. It forced her to focus. She missed flying with Ed, Pru, Charlie, and Reggie, but she was proud to have a crew of her own. She met up with Ed every day after work, and they either had dinner at the pub or the fish and chips shop. She needed him now just as she needed to breathe air. He infused her with his own strength. They were walking home from the pub one balmy night in late May, and when he kissed her, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. It felt to both of them as though it had happened before, and their being together was their destiny now. It didn’t surprise their friends either. From the moment Greg had died, Ed had become Lizzie’s source of strength and her protector.
They were walking back from the airstrip a few days later when he turned to her to make a suggestion. The idea had been gnawing at him for weeks, and he had talked to Pru about it. She liked the idea too, and told him to tell Lizzie. They talked about everything now: the future, the past, the present, their dreams, their worst fears. Without meaning to or trying, she had found her soulmate.
Audrey was happy for her. She was still dating the RAF pilot she had met a few months before. They weren’t in love with each other, and it wasn’t passionate or even physical, but they enjoyed each other’s company enough to have dinner or go to a movie every few weeks, when he had time off and she wasn’t busy. The other nurses teased her about it, but she didn’t mind. She would have liked to feel for Geoff what Lizzie did for Ed, but she didn’t. She and Geoff both wanted to see what life had in store for them when the war ended, and not get into anything too deeply before that. But they always had a nice time and good laugh when they went out. He had kissed her a few times after the movies, but bells hadn’t gone off in her head, and her heart didn’t pound.
“Maybe we’re just meant to be friends,” she said. He said it was a possibility. Neither of them wanted to make plans for the future, or stop seeing each other. What they had from time to time was enough for now, for both of them. It wasn’t romantic, but it was still fun. Lizzie was disappointed for her, and hoped she’d meet someone else.
The suggestion Ed made to Lizzie the month after Greg died took her by surprise.
“If we both survive this mess,” he said calmly, “why don’t we both go to medical school, together. I have no idea how I’d pay for it. But my mom seems to be doing okay. She has a decent job now since the war started, and all my brothers and sisters are out of the house now and have jobs.” Two of his brothers were medically disqualified from military service, and young male employees were in high demand. His other three brothers were in the army, but all had survived thus far. One of his sisters had married the son of the local butcher when he was home on leave, and her husband’s family could provide good jobs for both of them, and his other sister was a nun, so suddenly Ed’s burdens were going to be lighter after the war. “There’s talk about veterans’ loans when this is all over. And educational opportunities. I could drive an ambulance with the training I’ve had, but if I survive this godforsaken war, maybe there’s a reason for it, other than the fact that I love you and we found each other. And if you don’t go to medical school, Lizzie, it will be nothing short of a crime. You’ve got more medical talent than any doctor I know.”
“So do you,” she said, smiling at him. They were both reluctant to make plans. There were too many unknowns in their lives, and they were afraid to tempt fate. “And then what? Practice medicine together?” She loved the idea, but it seemed a long way off. “Where would we go to school? We’d have to practice in the country where we go to medical school,” she said practically. And she had to go back to Boston for her parents.
“Don’t forget, I have a cousin in Boston,” he teased her. She knew she’d have to go home to Boston after the war, since the family lost Greg. “What specialty would you want, or just general practice?” he asked her.
She thought about it for a minute before she answered. “Maybe pediatrics. It seems like a nice, happy practice after all this. You?”
“I’ve thought about it. I like the idea of obstetrics for the same reason. If I never see another bleeding male body, torn to bits and broken beyond repair, it will suit me just fine.”
Suddenly the idea of medical school didn’t seem like it would cause such a battle with her father. She had the feeling that he might not fight her on it so vehemently after the war. But they all had to stay alive and get home first. They couldn’t make plans yet.
* * *
—
There were rumors that a big invasion was being planned on the coast of France, but it was top secret and no one knew anything for sure. Their C-47s were too awkward and cumbersome to land on the beaches, so they wouldn’t be able to pick up the wounded. The air evac unit would have to come in by ship from France, or from hospital ships off the coast of England. There were rumors that two or three ships would be coming soon, but they hadn’t seen any so far.