Chapter 1

She found her job most difficult. It was physically demanding, emotionally exhausting and mentally debasing. This new job wasn't what she had agreed to perform and the new assignment in Korea gave the feeling of punishment for the young doctor rather than fulfilling a need. She was now in the Army Nurse Corps. Something she didn't sign up for. The Army Medical Corps actively recruited her. Enticing her with a commissioned rank and a long career in the Army. The offer seemed too good to be true. For the only place she could find a job as a surgeon was at a charity hospital.

She took up the offer, reporting to the nearest office where she was suddenly hoodwinked into joining the Army Nursing Corps. Assured that woman doctors where placed in the Nursing Corps due to separation of gender but she would still be a much needed surgeon and doctor working in the Army hospitals far from harms way. She soon found herself in Tokyo working as a nurse. She did complain and even gave allegations of deception only to be sent even closer to the front; far away from civilization and any real hope of having her placement correctly moved to the Army Medical Corps.

Shipped off to become a nurse at the MASH 4077th in Korea during the height of the campaign. The deception weighed heavily on her and slowly ate away at her soul. The young, enthusiastic surgeon who once thrived on charity work soon became bitter, harsh and made few friends.

Perhaps it was her name that got her into the mess? After all not many women are name "Frankie." Not Francine but Frankie. Dr. Frankie Peterman. She was very proud of the title and of the accomplishment. A woman doctor was rare, a woman surgeon even more so. Working and going to a women's college for medicine. For the more popular male dominated colleges refused to admit her despite her above average acceptance exams.

It was the charity hospital that helped her with her tuition and cost of living. Upon graduation she planed on getting a high paying job in a major hospital and rightfully pay the charity back. But with lack of employment her repayment was done in work for the charity's hospital.

And right now she had wished she had stayed at that small little hospital in the middle of nowhere. For there she was at lest called, "Doctor." Now her new titles were "Lieutenant" or "Nurse." Neither of which she much enjoyed under the deception that placed her in the situation.

Right now she was a nurse in a MASH or Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and a lousy nurse at that. She actually couldn't do the job very well. Making beds was much more difficult than she ever imagined it could be. The bottom sheet had to be so tight a coin could bounce on it and her sheets could never be as tight as army regulations. Not even on her own cot.

The next task she found most unpleasant was her duty as "Bedpan Commando." Sure, she could cut open a human body and fix whatever was wrong with absolutely no issues. However, the mere smell of human fecal matter made her nearly vomit every time.

She did excel at bandage dressing changing due to her surgical background and her job as a surgical nurse was superb to a point where is worked against her. She knew the surgery department inside and out and could have operated with her eyes closed. She knew which instruments the operating doctor would call for and which type of suture he would close with. She was nearly a mind reader for the operating staff. And that ability made her a target for some very jealous nurses who couldn't comprehend how she could be so bad at nursing but so good at assisting surgery. And right now that jealously was making her uneasy transition to the MASH unit even worse.

She stood with the other lot of women. She was short even for a nurse. No more than five foot and two inches tall. Her hair was auburn red and her face oval with fine features.

Corporal Klinger stood before them with his usually bag of mail. He smiled brightly upon the nurses and was generally in good spirits. Something that was as of lately was the direct opposite of Frankie. Not expecting any mail she stood with the group and watched as Klinger handed out envelopes and boxes.

"Nurse Kellye," He stated while holding up a brown package.

The nurse was a bit more plump than most. Her features reflected her ethnic background of half Chinese and half Hawaiian. "Here," she said as she politely took the package from the large hairy hand of the corporal.

"Goodies from home?" Klinger grinned as his mind pictures home made treats.

"Hope so," she agreed. "It's from my mother."

"Ah, nothing like mom's cooking." He remarked as his hand scooped out a bunch of letters. He read the name. "Nurse Hicks."

"Here," another voice called out.

Frankie found mail call to be a grueling operation. She never received any mail. Not even from the hospital that once employed her. She wasn't even sure if the other nurses even knew she was a doctor. But the command surly would have known. It would be in her file. She secretly prayed for some vindication. A letter addressed to her as "Dr. Peterman" or better yet a letter informing her the Army was wrong and she was immediately going to be placed in the position of surgeon. However, deep down inside she knew no such event would occur for the army would rather hide such a mistake than own up to it, especially in regards to women.

Klinger looked at the cover of a magazine. It read American Medical Association. He had seen the magazine come for Dr. Pierce and assumed it was his. Upon double-checking the label he surprised himself, "Dr. Peterman."

Her eyes grew wide. She never imagined her subscription would follow her to the ends of the earth. "Here," she took the magazine.

A low snicker filled the air from the surrounding nurses.

Klinger assumed, "Must be a typo."

Not wishing to get into details about her personal dilemma she simply nodded.

Klinger suggested, "I know Captain Pierce has been waiting for his magazine. Maybe he could read yours after you're done?"

Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce was far from Frankie's favorite surgeon. She actually found him rather annoying, humorless and irritating. As a doctor she couldn't fault him but as a doctor who flirted too much with the nurses she became less than objective. Everything she had fought so hard against: the womanizing, the male doctors flirting with nurses, the demeaning jokes…Se found were wrapped up into one man.

She wanted to slap him whenever he suggested one of the nurses join him for "cocktails" in some out of the way area. Luckily the nurses were onto Hawkeye's flirtation and merely played a game with him. One of shooting him down every chance they got.

A depression had taken hold of her. She suddenly didn't feel like even reading the magazine anymore. She handed the magazine back to Klinger.

"Why don't you just give it to him. He could use it more than me anyhow." The attitude reflected her anger. Deep inside she would have shared with the other staff her last sip of water in a dire situation but this case made her feel like even less of a doctor and thus she couldn't be bothered with it.

"Um, okay." Klinger placed the magazine under his arm. "I'll let him know you gave it to him."

"Anything else for me?"

"Nope," Klinger stated while double-checking the contents of his bag.

"Okay," she walked off.

The corporal stood rather puzzled. Looking upon her as she walked towards the mess hall. He muttered more to himself than to the crowd.

"Strange."

"You're telling me," Nurse Kellye agreed.

He looked at the nurse for more detail.

Kellye continued, "She's never very friendly. I've seen orderlies be better nurses. She has this bizarre ability to read the doctor's minds in the OR. And now she has magazines addressed to her as 'doctor.' Weird! It's like she's some wanna be doctor or something."

"More like self-taught doctor," Nurse Baker chimed. Snickers erupted about the area.

"Seriously, why didn't she just go to medical school if she wanted to be a doctor?" Nurse Able asked.

Klinger didn't enjoy being part of a conspiracy when it came to other members of the MASH unit. He decided to get back to his current duty.

"Um, next package is for Williams."

Colonel Potter's Office

The staff meeting was to address new surgical means but soon it became a means of airing complaints against a certain not-so-friendly nurse. Major Houlihan sat on the edge of her chair. Her blonde locks neatly brushed back from her face. Bright blue eyes pleaded with her colonel.

"Sir, I don't know what else to do with her."

The crusty old colonel leaned forward in the creaky wooden chair. He was already tempted to open up a bottle of scotch and begin an early afternoon drunken stupor.

Instead he replied, "She's a good surgical nurse."

Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan waved her arms around, "She's a wonderful surgical nurse. Heck, I wish I had ten more like her but as a soldier and over all nurse…She awful. She's not very friendly towards other staff; she's okay with the patients but tends to ask more diagnostic related questions which eats up time. Where did she receive her training from, Sir?"

Charles Winchester snickered, "Nursing Finishing School?"

In his best Groucho Marx impression Hawkeye Pierce added, "Where Nurses are finished."

Not amused Capt. BJ Hunnicutt defended, "Okay…She's not the best nurse when it comes to bedside manner. However, she's one hell of a surgical nurse. And we need surgical nurses of her caliber more than we need 'Betty Davis' type nurses."

"It would be better if we could have 'Betty Davis,'" Hawkeye chirped. "At least we could have someone pretending to be a nurse. Which is more than I can say for Nurse Peterman."

Sherman Potter cleared his throat, "Actually boys and girls…I don't know where she got her schooling from. Her records are nearly blank."

"How can her records be blank?" Major Houlihan asked.

"I only got her most recent assignment in them. No schooling or previous history. I can pull some strings at ICOR and see what comes up. So far, all I know is she had some sort of a run in with brass in Tokyo and was then sent here."

"What type of 'run in?'" Hawkeye wondered.

Potter shook his head, "Don't know. The records that I got don't go into detail. All I got is her basic ID and a notification of insubordination."

"No idea what for?" Houlihan asked. "I would need to know if she has some sort of history. Did she endanger a patient? What did she do?"

"Don't know," Potter repeated. "Her records are pretty bare. I can't see any reason to ship her out either. She hasn't placed any patients at risk. Just stepped on a few toes. Unless she does something to harm a patient there is nothing I can really do."

"But she is making the other nurses job's more difficult."

The colonel didn't buy the excuse, he asked, "How so?"

"By alienating them. She's a regular know it all in the O.R. Just cold to the other nurses and to the doctors."

Hawkeye perked up, "I can attest to her being cold." He then mocked in his impression, "Matter of fact, I've seen freezers that are warmer."

Annoyed by the interruption the major shot him a look, she then continued, "She's making it difficult to communicate. So far she has done okay but what if she fails to pass on vital information to one of the doctors and a patient ends up dying?"

"If she were to fail to pass vital information on purpose she would face a court martial. If it was an accident she would be discharged for incompetence."

Upset the major retorted, "So we would have to wait for someone to die before anything can be done about her?"

Colonel Potter snorted, "Hopefully no one will die. And I also can't see sending needed help away simply because she isn't very popular. Especially when we need all the help we can get in this war."

Hawkeye casually waved, "We'll just wait for her to snap like Frank did? Then we can send her away."

BJ countered, "But Frank really was a lousy surgeon. I think Peterman would be able to do his job with her eyes closed. Peterman isn't like Frank Burns. She is good at what she does and so far, I haven't seen any issues when it comes to communications. She puts the patients first. Not herself."

"Why are you defending her Beege?

Hunnicutt replied, "I just don't think it's fair to have everyone gang up against her. Especially when she didn't do anything to deserve it. Yes, she's not very friendly and yes, she can be cold to the staff and yes, she could be a bit more on the ball with the bed pans. But when comes to life saving techniques she knows what she is doing."

Defeated Hawkeye and Major Houlihan looked at one another. The doctor gave a bit of a shrug and conceded.

Hawkeye added, "Yeah, she's a good surgical nurse and we do need that. I just hate to see something happen to a patient or the nurses uncomfortable around her. Maybe someone should talk to her?"

Margaret Houlihan retorted, "I have been talking to her. It hasn't done any good."

BJ corrected, "Have you been 'talking' to her or 'lecturing' her? Let's face it Margaret, you do tend to give orders rather than 'talk' to the nurses."

"I'm her commanding officer," The Major defended.

Colonel Potter interrupted, "Now settle down folks. I have already placed a call to Sidney Freedman about her. I'm gonna have him 'talk' to her. This is obviously out of our realm of medicine. Whatever happened in Tokyo hopefully he can get to the bottom of it."

"Sounds like a plan," Hawkeye agreed.