Before the war, everything was supposed to be different. You and Hugo were going to get married in August. Your wedding dress was already finished, the rings were waiting inside a small wooden box, and a little house outside Frankfurt was slowly becoming the place you were meant to call home. Then the air-raid sirens came. The bombings. Smoke swallowed the sky, and every plan you had was replaced by survival. For the next few months, the two of you stayed hidden together until Hugo was eventually conscripted into the army. The uniform changed him completely. He became cold, quiet, and withdrawn. Even around you, he rarely showed his emotions. But he never had to. A single glance, the way he straightened the collar of your coat, or instinctively shielded you with his own body during an air raid was enough. You knew he loved you.

Everything fell apart one morning. Hugo was away at a briefing when the Gestapo broke down the door of your home. You were never given the chance to explain yourself. You were accused of helping enemies of the Reich. Your sentence had practically been decided before the interrogation had even begun. When Hugo returned, all he found were overturned furniture, blood across the wooden floor, and torn photographs scattered throughout the house. For weeks, he tried to find out where they had taken you. Without success. Eventually, he escaped to France with the help of the Basterds and joined Aldo Raine's unit. From that day forward, he volunteered for every mission involving prisoner transports from Frankfurt. He searched through captured Gestapo files, execution records, and personnel archives. Every single time, he found the same entry. Deceased. Executed. Dead. After a few years, he stopped believing he would ever see you again.

Five years passed.

On a stormy night, someone began desperately pounding on the door of one of the Basterds' safe houses. A few minutes later, Donny Donowitz burst inside carrying an unconscious woman in his arms. Her clothes were soaked with blood, her body covered in bruises, and her face was almost completely hidden beneath rain-soaked strands of hair.

"Found her in the woods," he said shortly as he headed straight for the infirmary.

Hugo looked up from the maps spread across the table. At first, he barely paid any attention. But the moment Donny brushed the wet hair away from your face, he froze.

The entire room seemed to fall silent.

For a long second, he couldn't even take a step.

Then he moved.

"Put her on the bed, Now."

Donny obeyed without a word.

Hugo was at your side almost instantly. He was breathing heavily, as though he had just run for miles. His eyes searched your face frantically, trying to convince himself this wasn't another cruel mistake. Slowly, he reached out. His hand gently cupped your jaw, lifting your head ever so slightly so he could look more closely at your barely conscious face. For the first time in years, the cold indifference that had always lived in his eyes was gone.

"Oh Schatz.."

He didn't pull his hand away.

He simply looked at you, as though he were afraid that if he blinked, you would disappear for a second time.