I always wonderd what happened after the end of Abyssinia, Henry... so I wrote this!
Disclaimer: I don't own MASH. This is just some fun.
Lt. Col. Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors.
It was bad enough for Radar to read the words front of him, but he sure he could tell the others. To say the words aloud would make them real, true. He thought for a moment that maybe if the message was not read out loud, then would never have happened. However, the young corporal knew what had to be done. It felt as though he was sleepwalking when he walked into the OR, almost numb. When he finished speaking, he left quickly so that everyone else's pain would not hurt him. He didn't want to see Margaret sobbing, or Fr. Mulcahy clutching his rosary and crying, or Hawkeye and Trapper inching closer to each other so that they could whisper consoling words and be close to one another, or Frank with tears rolling down his face. All Radar wanted to do was curl up on the floor and cry until he threw up even though he had to carry on and be strong for everyone in the unit… but for now, no one was watching.
He crumpled the note and dropped it on the floor as he rushed to his quarters, the tears pouring down his face. Radar very much wanted for the pain to go away; it all hurt so much.
"Radar?"
The young man jumped to his feet. Hawkeye, Trapper, and Fr. Mulcahy had come in, all crying. Radar fell back on his cot and stared up at all the men before him, tears still rolling down his cheeks. Hawkeye stepped forward, sat down beside him, and put his arms around the clerk. Radar broke down completely, forgetting what he had told himself only minutes before. The cot creaked loudly as Trapper seated himself on the other side, and a chair could be heard scraping across the floor as the priest pulled it over. He felt Trapper's hand on his back and Fr. Mulcahy's on his head. Radar sobbed heavily in Hawkeye's arms, tightly clutching the sleeves that were around him as if Hawkeye, too, would leave him and everyone else the same way Henry did. Trapper's other arm went around him. Father Mulcahy's voice was choked as he prayed. Hawkeye trembled as he quietly sobbed and whispered in a broken voice, "It'll be okay, Radar. I promise, it'll be okay."
Radar wasn't sure it would be.
This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said o die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.
William Penn, "More Fruits of Solitude"
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