Green Eyes Beyond The Sea

by RogueWing

Summary:

Only the war could have brought Hollywood star Jyn Erso and soldier Captain Cassian Andor together. A chance meeting at the Hollywood Canteen in 1943 blossomed into something more. But years of war and its horrors shatter everything, and not every shard can be recovered.

 

This fic was inspired by "Frankly, My Dear Captain Andor" by randomdreamer01 and I highly suggest you read it. This is my attempt at continuing that story, because it left some interesting possibilities. I've also heavily referenced music of the 1940s throughout this fic.

Notes:

• Inspired by Frankly, My Dear Captain Andor by randomdreamer01

I will post more specific content warnings on some of the chapters. There is a character death in this chapter.

 

“Frankly My Dear Captain Andor” has a lot of great 1940s film references, which I’m afraid I can’t match. But I love the music of the era, so you’re going to get musical references instead! In the 1940s, it was common for multiple artists to release competing versions of popular songs. I’ve listed them with the artists and release dates of the versions I like best, not necessarily their composers. (This should also be enough to search for the songs, if the links don't work.) The chapter titles are all songs; I'll post the full playlist after the last chapter to avoid spoilers.

 

- You can listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of Out of Nowhere (1939) here:

 

- bonus song for this chapter: I’ll Never Smile Again (Tommy Dorsey/Frank Sinatra/Pied Pipers, 1940)

Chapter 1: Out Of Nowhere

Hollywood, 1947

Jyn watched the reporter exit her driveway and glanced back at the stacks of letters in the living room. She should have put them somewhere else before he’d come. Too late now. With a sigh, she turned on the radio, suddenly needing something to fill the silence.

You came to me from out of nowhere
You took my heart and found it free
Wonderful dreams, wonderful schemes from nowhere
Made every hour sweet as a flower for me

Jyn laughed darkly and refilled her wine glass. “There are things I’d rather be doing,” she’d told the reporter. Many of those letters would have told him what, if he’d only looked. He hadn’t, so the article would inevitably say something about ‘the mysterious Jyn Erso’. Her publicist would not be happy. Jyn didn’t particularly care.

If you should go back to your nowhere
Leaving me with a memory
I’ll always wait for your return out of nowhere
Hoping you’d bring your love to me

Had she been secretly hoping the reporter would ask about the letters? Jyn wasn’t sure. She reached into the end table drawer for one particular letter, postmarked December 1944. Even now, her hands trembled as she opened it. It had come in a crisp envelope, addressed in an unfamiliar hand; she’d almost missed it among the fan mail.

The first page was totally unremarkable except that it was unfinished and dated from the end of September. Over two months without a letter. When she’d come back from her fall USO tour she’d started to worry; this was not just a delay in the mail, or a busy campaign. Jyn took another gulp of wine and turned to the second page.

The paper was dirty and creased as though it had been in his pocket, but someone had carefully flattened it in an attempt to make it presentable. Some of the ink had run where the letter had gotten wet. It simply said:

“Estrellita mia,

I have written you so many letters, but I want to make sure that if this is my last chance to say it -

I love you, Jyn.

I love you forever.

- Cassian

 

Jyn emptied her glass. She was so very tired of hiding her secrets. But what else could she do? Telling the world accomplished nothing good. It wouldn’t bring him back. Jyn curled up among the stacks of letters, paper reminders of what could have been, and let Ella Fitzgerald sing what she couldn’t voice.

Oh please don’t never leave me
I never want to be free
It wouldn’t be fair
For you to go back to nowhere.

 

------------------------

South Pacific, September 1944

“Captain, Timker is down. Tonc’s been hit, but he’ll make it,” said Melshi, kneeling beside Cassian.

Only nine of them left. Cassian glanced up and nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said after a moment, shutting down the radio. “Right. Our orders are- shit, Kay!” he swore as Kay pressed a bandage to his leg, just above his left ankle.

“Stop moving. Melshi, do you have anything to wrap this with?”

“Yeah, sure, I think so.” He rummaged in his pack and handed Kay another bandage roll. A white bandage. Kay tied what was left of Cassian’s boot back over the bandage to hide it.

Cassian grimaced, but made it to his feet. “Casrich, tell the others we’re falling back. Rook, you’re with me,” he said, putting an arm across the man’s shoulders.

Bodhi flinched as Kay fired a few more rounds of the machine gun to give Casrich a clear path. It had been a long night, and Bodhi was shaky again. Casrich whooped and whipped his shovel blade at the head of an enemy soldier who popped up too close, but he and the others made it safely off the ridge.

Kay hoisted the machine gun on his shoulder, then picked up the radio pack. He reached for Cassian’s other arm, but the captain shook him off.

“Get the men to safety first, lieutenant,” he said, but gave him a small smile of thanks. Reluctantly, Kay jogged off, shouting orders.

 

They made their way down the barren hill quickly; Kay and the men took cover in a thick stand of trees to wait for Cassian and Bodhi to catch up. The tide was coming in, narrowing the path around the cliff face to a thin strip.

“We’ll be totally exposed. Do you want odds on the likelihood of us all getting shot?” murmured Kay, eyeing the open stretch of beach between them and safety. “They’re bad. Very bad.”

Cassian ignored him. “The Marines are coming on the other side of that point, but we can’t wait for them to get here. We’ll cross the beach in pairs. The first ones across can cover the rest of us,” he panted. “Any volunteers?”

“I’ll stay back with the machine gun. Sir,” Kay grumbled. He glanced at Cassian’s ankle and dropped his voice. “I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Go! Go!” Cassian hissed, sending the first three men scrambling from boulder to boulder, trying to keep to what little cover they had. There was no time to argue with Kay about this.

Casrich, Rostok, and Basteren got into position and signaled for the next group to come across. Rostok silenced the peppering of fire that trapped Tonc and Calfor behind the rocks, but it gave away their route.

“Don’t wait for us,” Cassian told Melshi, shoving the radio into his hands. “Get the men to safety.”

Melshi nodded tersely, clapping Cassian’s shoulder.

“There’s not enough time,” murmured Cassian, watching Melshi and Sefla splash through the rising tide. The rest of them had to go now, or never. Enemy fire drew closer.

“I’ll hold them off,” said Kay, running back to the machine gun. “Get out of here!”

“Kay, no!” yelled Cassian, but the lieutenant was already firing, drawing the Japanese soldiers toward his position. Cassian and Bodhi ran across the beach.

Bodhi yelped, and stumbled; Cassian dropped beside him as the beach erupted in mortar fire. The last of his men staggered through waist-high waves around the point. Good. They were safe, at least.

Cassian pulled Bodhi behind a rock, desperate for a moment to think, trying to hold the darkness filling his mind at bay. “Private?”

“I’m okay,” Bodhi shuddered, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than Cassian. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

Cassian glanced at the arm Bodhi was clutching. He’d live, but climbing was out. The waves were too rough to swim. The jungle was too far to run. Both of them had lost their rifles. Kay and the machine gun was all that stood between them and the enemy, now. Cassian drew his pistol and leaned around the edge of the rock, ready to -

“Kay!” he screamed, watching helplessly as Kay’s head snapped back and his lifeless body tumbled into the sand. And then the enemy was upon them.

Notes:

It's only been...five years since I started writing this? I’m very glad I actually had started on the chapter notes, because otherwise I had forgotten the title of the original fic this is based on, and since I had it bookmarked on my old computer that crashed and I was posting anonymously in the comments at that point since I didn’t have an account here yet, I couldn’t find it again. Luckily, my writing file survived the computer crash intact. So thank you again to randomdreamer01 for writing it, I know I mentioned to you I was working on my story five years ago, and I hope you like where I ran with the idea.

One of the reasons this fic took so long is because frankly a lot of the research was pretty depressing, and at one point I had to stop. For example, the mention of white bandages was because soldiers preferred dark bandages because the white ones could give away your position to snipers and get you killed. (Not all of the research made it into the story, but you know. One must know the whole iceberg, even if you only show the readers the tip.) I hope it isn't too depressing in the end. Thanks for reading!

 

Historical Notes:

- I wanted to try something different than usual, and set the story in the Pacific instead of Europe. Hopefully I haven’t messed anything up or offended anyone. Please let me know if I have, because I am no expert.

- The battle and its location are purposely vague because there wasn’t a great place to insert the characters where (and when) I wanted them. However, it is loosely based on the Battle of Peleliu, which took place from September-November 1944. The Army’s 81st Infantry Division was brought in to reinforce the Marines, which was my excuse for bringing in Cassian, Bodhi, and Kay. Their portion of the fighting was inspired by the actions of Captain Everett Pope’s company. From Wikipedia:

“On September 20, 1944, Captain Pope and his company set out to storm Hill 154, a steep and barren coral hill protruding from the face of Suicide Ridge…From almost point-blank range, Japanese mortars and field guns opened up on them from adjoining peaks on Suicide Ridge. Pope and his men took Hill 154 at dusk after hours of bloody fighting that nearly annihilated the group.
“Forced to deploy his men thinly, he nevertheless determined to hold his ground for the night. Immediately after darkness fell, the Japanese started to attack, first in small infiltrating bands, then in groups of 20 to 25. Each time, the Marines opened fire with everything they had: one light machine gun, several Tommy guns and rifles, and a limited supply of hand grenades. When the grenades ran low, they hurled rocks. "We would throw three or four rocks, then a grenade. The Japanese didn't know which were which," one Marine said. By sunrise, the Marines were beating off the enemy with bare fists and hurling ammunition boxes at them. Finally only eight riflemen remained. When daylight brought deadly fire, Pope was ordered to withdraw.”

Captain Pope and his remaining men, however, reached safety where Bodhi and Cassian did not.

 

Character Notes:

Cassian’s men are all canon characters from Scarif, though I’ve ignored most of their ranks. A teensy bit of canon backstory, mostly from the Rogue One Visual Guide:

- Corporal Walea Timker is canonically a woman, who is part of Blue Squadron’s reinforcements. She dies defending the cargo shuttle.
- Corporal Eskro Casrich is a reckless adrenaline junkie.
- Corporal Serchill Rostok is a superstitious sniper.
- Private Arro Basteren is Rostok’s spotter.
- Private Yosh Calfor is a demolitions expert who likes grenades.
- Lieutenant Taidu Sefla is one who brevets Jyn the rank of sergeant (and dies volunteering to reach the master switch). Technically, he outranks Melshi but goes along with Cassian’s choice for leader.
- Corporal Stordan “Stordie” Tonc is the one who stays behind with Bodhi on the shuttle.
- Sergeant Ruescott Melshi is chosen as the Pathfinders’ leader because Cassian knows him personally. He’s also the one Jyn hits in the face with a shovel during her escape attempt. (I think the idea was that Cassian was supposed to be on that rescue mission, until he got pulled away to the Ring of Kafrene at the last second.)