Valiant Crimes

Ross had knelt down near the creek washing the blood off her face and neck. She had heard the sound of leaves shuffling and she grabbed her guns quickly standing up and pressing her body against a tree trunk. Aldo had forgotten to announce himself and Ross pistol whipped him on the back of the head not knowing it was him. He grunted and rubbed the back of his head glaring at Ross.
“Damn it Rosaline, what the hell?” Aldo says giving Ross a look of displeasure.
“Sorry Aldo, I didn’t know it was you, are you okay?” Ross responds apologetically as she touched the back of his head instinctively to be sure it wasn’t bleeding. Being that she was fairly short only standing at 5’3”, Ross had to stand on her tip toes in order to get a better look at the bump she had created at the back of Aldo’s head. Aldo was taken back by her gesture and tone of concern; he sort of enjoyed having her trying to take care of him.
“I’m alright, what are ya doin’ out here alone anyways? Didn’ I tell ya to tell me before ya go runnin’ off?” Aldo responds.
“Is this a trick question,” she counters biting her bottom lip slightly after she pulled away.
“It’s a sure way to get yourself caught again goin’ off like this, and I sure as hell don’ want those krauts layin’ a finger on ya ever again,” he states not realizing how it sounded until the words already came out of his mouth. Ross looked at him a little surprised because the way he said that it sounded like he actually cared for her well-being. They remained quiet until Ross broke the silence.
“Okay,” she replies simply as she began heading back to camp with Aldo following behind her. The walk was quiet and as they were approaching the camp Ross turned her head to look at Aldo who was now walking beside her.
“How exactly did they say I was caught?” Ross says looking at him with her eyebrows furrowed.
“Ya were supposed to finish off Hitler,” Aldo answers.
“That’s it?” she responds sounding a little surprised.
“What there’s more?” he counters turning his head slightly to look at her.
“No its just when you say it like, it makes it seem like I was ordered to kill him or something,” Ross states sitting down at the camp area.
“You weren’t?” Aldo replies still standing now looking down at Ross with curiosity.
“Of course not,” she answers.
“I was undercover as a mute violinist from Spain; I was supposed to get high with the elite Nazis and get information,” she reacts.
“Wait so what the hell happen?” he questions. Now the Basterds were looking at Aldo and Ross waiting to hear what really happened.
“It was some fancy dinner party, and they kept saying he might come but that’s how it always was then he’d never show up, well he showed up the one night I was there performing for them, I exited the room and started to put away my violin, the fucker followed me with his guards. He wanted me to be his fucking mistress, tried to give me money like I was some whore, I may have bashed his face in with my violin,” Ross rambles.
“That’s insane! You beat down Hitler with a violin with his guards still there,” Hirschberg laughs
“I’ll tell you what though, headquarters isn’t happy about it; they seem to think I missed out on an opportunity to get information, but fuck that I’ll take getting chewed out by my commander than having to sleep with that monster willingly,” she scoffs.
“What was it like bashing his face in?” Donny inquires as his eyes lit up.
“It was fantastic, I was six months undercover for that shit of a job, having to be composed and entertain those fuckers so many nights, and then having the chance to fuck his shit up oh man, it was heaven on earth,” Ross gushes with a bright smile.
“No kiddin’, damn shame you didn’t finish him off,” Hirschberg says.
“Yeah that part sort of sucks but I finished off a couple of his guards, that man has a big posse he runs around with,” she states sounding a little disappointed.
“Probably more after what you did,” Utivich states with a smile.
“If only I had more self control, I could have done so much more without being stopped, grrr why must I have been cursed with such brash behavior,” Ross curses.
“Grrr?” Donny says with an amused smirk.
“It’s a term I generally use when frustrated, yes, considering your nickname is the Bear Jew you‘d know a thing or two about grring,” she responds with a humorous tone; her bright eyes smiling. The Basterds burst out laughing and Donny chuckled giving a toothy smile. It seemed to everyone that Ross was finally opening up to them and showing her playful side. Ross realized that she might as well enjoy herself in her last moments whether if it was life or her freedom. She knew she could trust these men as they could trust her.
“So what was it like being undercover for so long? I bet it was hard not to kill any Nazis,” Kagan states looking at Ross.
“You‘re damn right it was hard not to kill any of them, some more than others,” Ross counters.
“Did ya ever meet the Jew Hunter?” Utivich inquires.
“More times than I would have liked,” she responds lighting a cigarette and sucking in the deadly toxins.
“Are you serious? What was he like?” Omar asks looking shocked.
“Irritating, relentless, smug, manipulative, disgustingly polite to the point I wanted to punch him in the throat,” Ross states. Colonel Hans Landa was all of these things and had on many occasions tried to court Ross by speaking to her in broken Spanish, following her around whenever he could.
“So you knew him well?” Hugo teases.
“More than I would have liked, you’d think I excrete some sort of pheromone to attract assholes or something,” she mutters darkly.
“No I think it’s that great rack that attracts them,” Kagan responds honestly.
“Kagan that ain’t no way to speak to a lady!” Aldo scolds smacking Kagan right upside the head.
“Sorry Lieutenant,” Kagan mumbles as he rubbed the back of his head. Ross couldn’t help but let out her laughter as she thought of random Mark Twain quotes.
“It’s not nice to laugh at people’s misfortunes,” Wilhelm states with a smile.
“Good I’m not trying to be nice, as Mark Twain once said; the secret source of humor is not about joy but sorrow. And I take much joy in Kagan’s current sorrows,” Ross replies with her eyes sparkling with laughter and a smile on her face.
“So you’re not offended by Kagan’s comment,” Hirschberg says.
“Hirschberg, what exactly do you know about organized crime?” she inquires giving him a bored look.
“I don’t know just remember reading in the paper that you were a tough bitch that kept everyone in check,” he responds.
“It’s full of men, and we all gave each other shit, Kagan’s comment was church to the things I am used to hearing, people called me a tough bitch? Now that is just funny,” Ross muses with a smile.
“You know you helped my uncle and his family a while back,” Hirschberg says looking at Ross seriously.
“Really?” she answers.
“Yeah, you gave him a job as an accountant, Kirk Goldberg,” he counters.
“No shit Kirk’s your uncle, he’s a good guy, always did his job well,” Ross says surprised. Ross gave a smile at Hirschberg looking at him in a new light as she remembered Kirk Goldberg.
“He told stories about you being a good boss, how you took him to the tracks and that you’d always pick the horse that was least likely to win and they’d win, then you’d give your winnings to a family that needed it,” Hirschberg states.
“Shh don‘t say that stuff people might start thinking I‘m nice,” she replies humorously. They all looked at her, not as the Ross that could easily kill a Nazi but the Ross that could easily help another human being out without question. It was certainly fruit for thought and made them realize just how much more special she was.

Aldo announced that they were going to rest in an upcoming town for a day or so. Everyone was a little worn out with camping outside and the fact they’d actually be staying inside for a couple days sounded pretty good. Sure it wasn’t super luxurious but it was good enough for the Basterds. Ross was kind enough to use her French speaking skills to get everyone their rooms. It was a small hotel and they easily filled up the place.

Being that it had been a very long time since Ross had a nice warm bath she immediately started running the water to get in. Stripping off the severely bloodied and tattered clothes she wore Ross got into the bath, immediately relaxing even though her knife lied on the counter nearby. The bubbly water covered her small frame completely as she sunk lower into the bath closing her eyes while doing so getting her hair wet.

In one room over, Aldo was talking to Utivich and Donny about whatever had to be done. Utivich excused himself to wash his hands and face in the bathroom. Every other room had adjoining bathrooms but this wasn’t realized until Utivich opened the door to what he assumed to be the bathroom. When he entered he only saw the bubbly water with no one in sight, he wandered who the hell left a bath full of water standing then Ross surfaced bringing her hands to her eyes to remove the soap from them. Hearing someone else’s breathing she reached for her knife to defend herself and opened her eyes instantaneously to see Utivich looking at her wide eyed like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Jesus Utivich I was about to slice your gut open. What the hell are you doing in here?” Ross says relaxing seeing that it was just him.
“I-uh- I-w-w-,” he stutters out. In the other room Donny got up to see what the hell was going on that had Utivich stuttering like a fool. Donny stood in the doorway with a smirk. Aldo wasn’t patient enough to wait and got up as well.
“Utivich what in the hell is goin’ on i-” Aldo says stopping mid sentence to see Ross in the bathtub.
“Well this isn’t awkward at all, anyone else in there that gets to see me in the bath?” Ross inquires starting to feel like she was a zoo animal being looked at. Aldo immediately grabbed Utivich by the collar and tugged him back into the other room whilst Donny gave a wink at Ross before shutting the door. Ross felt thankful that they hadn’t come in when she was getting out of the tub, now that would have been disastrous. Now Aldo, Donny, and Utivich had the mental image of Ross in the bathtub with her wet hair clinging to her skin and bare knees bending, slightly poking out of the water. Ross had to brush it off and she finished in the tub about ten minutes later.

She was pretty tired and got into the bed wrapping the covers around her body that only wore simple undergarments. Of course she kept her guns under her pillow and knife on the bed stand. Aldo was in the room over that was connected to Ross’s, the men had left his room and he just sat at the edge of his bed looking at the bathroom door, wondering what Ross was doing in her room. He was a bit annoyed with how Utivich and Donny were gawking at Ross, for some reason he didn’t like it one bit when the other men stared at her so hungrily.