Travel hopefully in life.

“Might not be so bad, life in the brig. Couple square and a guaranteed place to sleep. Maybe a pretty girl to come visit from time to time,” Chuckler considered, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “Who knows?”

“Pretty girl, huh?” Bobbie echoed. Chuckler nodded and Bobbie arched one manicured eyebrow. “And just where do you suppose you’ll find one of those?”

muccamukk

Merriell had figured out pretty early on that the war was going to haunt him one way or another. He just hadn’t expected it to manifest quite like this—the privileged son of some prominent Alabama doctor baying like a stray at Merriell’s heels for permission to follow him home.

muccamukk

scandalinbohemia

Author's Note: This was written as a part of the easycotroopers Rare Pair Meme for teatimemols , whose prompt was: “Generosity - affection - protection.”

This fill exists for exactly two reasons: 1) I felt kind of bad that the Rare Pair Meme was so saturated with BoB content and 2) I discovered that Chuckler's first name is also "Lewis" and I felt contractually obligated to write him. I will admit to knowing almost nothing about Leckie, Chuckler, or the particulars of their involvement in the various campaigns of the Pacific Theater. I've watched The Pacific twice now, but will happily own up to a pretty severe character bias which has driven me to fast forward through basically two-thirds of the narrative in the interest of watching baby Rami Malek swan about being a sly dickhead all over the place.

I think I did a pretty okay job, even so, but there may be some historical inaccuracies. I've also taken a few dramatic liberties—for example, there likely would have been pretty severe light discipline on Gloucester but I like the backdrop of a character brooding over a smoke, so Leckie's having one in this story and anyone who doesn't like it can cart their criticisms elsewhere.

Title is from a poem called 'Accidents of Birth,' by William Meredith, which is also quoted at the beginning of the fic. It seemed like the kind of thing Leckie might enjoy, though it was written by what is essentially a contemporary so the poem would have been published after he returned home from the war. This was not beta-read, because I wanted to get a fill out and posted in a reasonable amount of time since all my others have taken or are taking way longer than they probably should. All errors are mine. Enjoy here, or read on AO3 if you prefer.

Mols, I hope you like it!