Nazi-occupied France, 1944
Corporal Thalia Spinoza sat beside a German torso, scalp in hand as she stared past Lieutenant Aldo Raine, towards the German sergeant staring right back at her.
Sergeant Werner Rachtman was a stubborn man hailing from the German Werhmacht of the SS.
He had been watching Thalia with the hunger of a stray dog, one of many Germans to do so.
And Sergeant Donny Donowitz had noticed.
Even as he lit a cigarette in the dark tunnel leading out to where the Basterds stood - where the German bodies littered the ground like garbage - he could see the hunger in the mans eyes.
Thalia Spinoza was the only woman in their group of misfits.
A very special one at that.
Donowitz had met her prior to leaving Boston - a quick meeting but one that left him with a burning hole in his chest and a slow realization that he had fallen completely and irrevocably in love with the Chicago girl the moment he saw her.
Donny Donowitz walked briskly through the busy streets of Boston, heading straight for the sports goods store down the block from his fathers barber shop with the intent of looking for a bat to greet the Germans with once he landed in Europe.
“Give ‘em hell, Donny!” Mrs. Meriam Kronke called out to him - the brute of a Bostonian giving her a grin and a wave before he slammed into another body.
His eyes snapped towards the brunette in her now coffee soaked dress blues standing a mere foot away from him.
It took a minute for Donny to say anything - he was busy staring at the young woman staring at him.
She stood tall - taller than any girl he had seen before - broad shouldered with a look on her face that would kill a grown man.
Her body was complimented by the Marine Corps dress blues, the ribbons on her chest making Donny take a closer look at her uniform.
It was tailored beautifully.
The coat lined her torso, dipping at the waist before meeting the skirt as it fell to just an inch above her knees. The ribbons and badges that line her chest were supported by a bountiful rack - as Donny had politely put it - and the golden three stripes and cross rifles centered on her arms led straight to her angelic face.
Sharp jaw. Perfectly manicured eyebrows furrowed in frustration. Plump dark red lips pressed together as her mind ran at a thousand miles a minute.
Golden hazel eyes turned nearly obsidian as she glared at him, sizing him up.
“You better be buying me another coffee if you’re gonna keep looking at me like that,” she muttered, tossing the now crushed cup into a nearby trash can.
Donny blinked before rushing to take his hanker chief out of his pocket and handing it to her.
“I’m sorry about that, sweetheart,” Bostonian accent strong.
Thalia didn’t know she could possibly get more pissed off at the dark haired brute of a man standing in front of her.
“Watch yourself, sweetheart,” she mocked, not caring that the man was only a half head taller than her.
Or the fact that he looked like he could choke someone out with a single hand.
“Sorry,” Donny said again, a grin spreading onto his face, “I’ll pay for your dry cleaning,”
He hopes his offer would take some of the heat off him, yet he only received a low grunt as she dabbed at her coat.
“It’s fine,” she settled, letting out a soft sigh before holding out the hanker chief, “thanks…”
“Donny,” the man offered, grabbing the now coffee coated hankerchief.
Their fingers brushed together, a hitch catching in his throat.
The woman nodded, taking her hand back before she slowly fixed her coat.
The two stood in an awkward silence before Donny offered to escort her around, which she reluctantly agreed to after telling the now staring crowd on the street to keep moving.
He led her to the sports goods store after buying her a new cup of coffee from Mr. Liebgott just across the street.
A content sigh left her lips as she breathed in the smell of cleats and new basketballs.
“Whatcha looking for anyways?” She asked as looked around, following her new acquaintance towards the baseball section of the quaint store.
“I’ll show you in a sec, Doll,”
Donny slowed as he neared the baseball bats.
The heaviest one sat in its rack, grip tape wrapped around the handle neatly.
“You gonna beat Germans skulls in with that?”
A grin grew on his face, dark eyes settling on Thalia as his hands spin the bat around.
“You can read me like a book, can’t ya?”
A smile formed on the brunettes lips.
“Some say thats my best feature,” she quipped back, taking the bat from his hands. “This’ll do nicely,”
After paying for it, Donny turned to her with a marker in hand.
A laugh left her lips as she shook her head, taking the marker from his hand before setting the bat on center.
Her hand ran along the edge, coming to the top of the bat before she uncapped the marker.
‘Thalia A. Spinoza’ written in clean handwriting.
“Gotta hit ‘em hard for me, Donny,” she said, looking up at him with a smile on her face.
Heat rose to his cheeks as she stared at her name on his bat, eyes shifting to her as she held out the marker.
Fingers met yet again as he grabbed it, a small shock zapping at their fingertips.
“Call me Teddy fuckin’ Ballgame, Doll,”
German-occupied France 1944
The Basterds laughed as Hirshberg forced them to kneel in front of him.
“Hey, Hirschberg,” the young Basterds eyes moved towards the Lieutenant. “Send that Kraut sarge over,”
With a heavy hit to the krauts back, he said, “You. Go.”
The German moved with caution, actions deliberate as he made his way over to the officer sitting on the small him next to the bodies of his patrol.
“Sergeant Werner Rachtman,”
The German was curt, eyes drifting towards the woman sitting just behind the lieutenant, eyes settling on her breasts and hips before moving back to the lieutenant.
“You know what “sit down” means, Werner?”
Aldo Raine paused, hand motioning for him to sit.
Werner sat down infront of the American.
“How is your English, Werner?” Raine asked,
“Because if need be, we got a couple of fellows who can translate.”
Raine motioned to the man standing to the right of the woman, arms holding a Karabiner 98k rifle.
The man stared at the kraut indifferently.
“Wicki here, an Austrian-Jew, got the fuck out of Munich while the getting was good,” Raine’s accent got thicker by the minute, “Became American, got drafted, come back to give y’all what for,”
He motioned to the woman sitting beside ‘Wicki’.
“Dame’s Thalia Spinoza; started tearing scalps off krauts with the 1st Marine Provisional Brigade before she offered her services to us,”
The woman stared back at Werner, jaw clenching as her hand tossed the now loose scalp at the kraut, hitting him square in the chest.
“Another one up there you might be familiar with - Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz,”
The name caused Werner to snap his head towards the German standing on top of the tunnels.
“Everybody in the German Army has heard of Hugo Stiglitz,”
The Basterds laughed, some even clapping as Hugo grinned.
“Can I assume you know who we are?” Raine asked, fixing the cap on his head.
“You’re Aldo the Apache,”
Whooping came from the Bastards, a sharp whistling leaving Spinoza’s lips.
“Werner, if you heard of us, you probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-taking business,” Raine clapped his hand, looking at his Basterds, “We in the killing Nazi business, and, cousin, business is a booming,”
Hirschberg let out a laugh, “oh yeah,”
“Now, that leaves two ways we can play this out.
“Either kill you or let you go,” a pause. “Whether or not you’re going to leave this ditch alive depends entirely on you.”
Raine reached into his pocket, by passing the sandwich before pulling out a map.
“Up the road a piece, there’s an orchard-
Besides you, we know there’s another Kraut patrol fucking around here somewhere,”
“If that patrol were to have any crack shots, that orchard would be a goddamn sniper’s delight.
So if you ever want to eat a sauerkraut sandwich again…” Rain trailed off before looking at Werner.
He watched the man’s eyes trail past him towards Spinoza.
Internally, he knew Donny was going to have a good time smashing his head in.
“You gotta to show me on this here map where they are - you got to tell me how many they are, and you got to tell me what kind of artillery they’re carrying with them,”
Werner scoffs, his eyes back on the officer.
“You can’t expect me to divulge information that would put German lives in danger,” the kraut crosses his arms, staring at Raine with an incredulous look.
Raine takes off his cap, running a hand through his hair.
“Well, now, Werner, that’s where you’re wrong, because that’s exactly what I expect. I need to know about Germans hiding in trees - and you need to tell me, and you need to tell me right now,”
He’s growing bored with the German.
The conversation was going nowhere.
“Now, just take that finger of yours and point out on this here map where this party is being held, how many is it coming and what they brought to play with,”
She glanced back towards the tunnels watching the cigarette burn its orange glow for a moment before dying out.
“I respectfully refuse, sir,”
Donny taps the bat on the ground a few times, cracking his neck.
The tapping echoes as he flicks the cigarette but to the ground.
Werners eyes fall past the Basterds, towards the tunnel.
It was too dark to see anything past the first few feet - a pit growing in his stomach.
“That’s Sergeant Donny Donowitz - You might know him better by his nickname,” Aldo stares at Werner.
“The Bear Jew - Now, if you heard of Aldo the Apache, you got to have heard about The Bear Jew,”
“I heard of The Bear Jew,”
“Beats German soldiers with a club,”
“He bashes their brains in with a baseball bat, what he does,” Aldo corrects, “And, Werner, I’m going to ask you one last goddamn time, and if you still respectfully refuse, I’m calling The Bear Jew over,”
“He’s going to take that big bat of his, and he’s going to beat your ass to death with it,”
Aldo’s patience is running out.
“Now, take your Wienerschnitzel-licking finger, and point out on this map what I want to know,”
Werner is openly staring at Spinoza, gathering how she shifts to stand, hips popped onto her right leg, arms crossed over her chest - light grey v-neck accentuating the clench of her jaw as her neck strains.
“Fuck you,” Thalia locks eyes with Werner, lips pressed into a tight smile, “And your Jew dogs,”
Spinoza claps as the rest of the Basterds hoot and laugh.
“Actually, Werner, we’re all tickled to hear you say that,” Rain stands, folding the map as he turns slightly towards the tunnel, “Quite frankly, watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to going to the movies,”
He shoves the map into one hand.
“Got us a German here who wants to die for country - Obliiiiige him,”
Aldo sits at Spinoza’s feet as Donny slowly makes his way towards the German, tapping bis bat rhythmically on the stone under his feet.
He is deliberate with his actions - mimicking a clock counting down the final minute of the krauts miserable life.
Thalia admires the man as he steps out of the tunnel, taking him all in.
Broad shoulders. Narrow hips. Muscle beyond the average strongman highlighted by the white tank he wore.
His eyes were dark, locking on Werner almost immediately.
The Basterds hoot and cheer, Donny swinging the bat over his shoulder as he exits the tunnel.
His eyes dont miss the way Werner is staring at Spinoza.
And he wasnt going to let him oogle his dame for free.
Donny looked over at Thalia, shooting her a wink before she threw him a theatrical kiss - a smile on her lips.
The Bear Jew stops in front of Werner as the cheers die down.
The bat hits Werner in the chest.
“Did you get that for killing Jews?”
Donn takes the bat in his hands, slowly resting it so Thalia’s signature touched his head as it ran down the side of his face.
The hate in his chest for the pig of a man kneeling before him grew by the second.
Donny was a man with unwittling rage - his hatred for the Germans fueled by many Jews that had died by their hands.
In a flash, the bat flies up and away, before Donny yells, swinging the bat down with all his might.
The Basterds cheer, as the Jew Bear continues his turning the German to a pulp.
“Oh, no!” Utivich calls out mockingly, Ulmer joining him with his own,
“Donny!” Hugo calls out, laughing as he watching the Germans skull split open.
“Yeah, Donny!” Spinoza cheers, clapping along with Aldo before laughing as the Lieutenant pulls out a sandwich she had made for the group hours before they took out the patrol.
Her stare turns towards Hirschberg and the younger krauts kneeling in front of him.
Both of them look scare shitless.
“About now, I’d be shitting my pants if I was you,”
“Teddy Fucking Williams knocks it out of the park!” Donny is swinging the bat around, satisfied with the pink jelly like tissue splattered on the ground. “Fenway Park is on its feet for Teddy Fucking Ballgame - He went yard on that one, on to fucking Lansdowne Street!”
Donny looks hot as shit all sweaty and splattered with blood.
“You!” Donny yells, pointing his bat at the blonde German before starting to walk over.
The kraut panics, tears running down gis face before he scrambles onto his feet and tries to make a run for it.
“Damn it, Hirschberg!” Aldo stuffs the sandwich into his mouth, pulling the map back out. “Donny, bring that other one over here. Alive!”
Hirschburg shoved the last kraut forward as Donny nears.
“Get the fuck up! Batter up - You’re on deck!”
A quick shove to the back with his bat and the German is knelt in front of Aldo.
“Two hits. I hit you, you hit the ground,”
Thalia shakes her head, smiling.
Donny loved baseball with an extreme passion.
Aldo Raine waves him away as Wicki joins the trio to translate.
Swinging the bat back over his shoulder, Donny Donowitz makes his way towards the brunette with a grin on his face.
Spinoza returns a smile, holding out her half of a sandwich to him.
His bare arm wraps around her shoulder, pulling ber into his side.
Her free hand rests on his back, her eyes running over the young kraut soared from Donny’s bat.
“Teddy fucking Ballgame,” she says with a wide smile.
______________________•__________________________
Hope y’all enjoyed this! This man has me in a choke hold rn 😭
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