With many thanks to B.A. Tyler for allowing me to write this. Inspiration hit as soon as I read the fantastic Writing Wrongs and I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Radar thought long and hard before saying goodbye to Hawkeye. Something had been eating at his conscience for a very, very long time. He knew that there was something Hawkeye should know, but he hadn't told him. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried- in his own way he had. But he'd been talked out of revealing his secret by BJ in a roundabout way, so he did what he had to do to resolve things.
But really, was it fair? To have a secret that momentous and not tell Hawkeye- that was criminal. Today was Radar's last day in Korea, and he knew what he had to do. There was a major wrong that he had to make right.
"Hawkeye...may I speak to you for a moment?"
Hawkeye was scrubbing up for surgery, so he thought fast. "Make it fast, Radar. I'm up to my elbows in soap and up to my neck in dates for the evening."
"Sir...I have something for you. Something I should have given you a long time ago. I'm sorry, Captain. I really ...I really made a serious mistake."
Hawkeye stopped what he was doing and turned to Radar. "You're leaving, so you decide to clear your conscience- save it. Whatever you did, rest assured that you're forgiven. Don't forget to dress up to the nines, we're having a goodbye shin-dig for you after surgery. I'd let you borrow my tux, but somehow I don't think you'd wear it well. Or be able to wear it at all."
"It's about Trapper."
Now Hawkeye's jaw dropped. The usually loquacious and loveable surgeon was speechless for once. "Spill it, Radar."
"It's this." With that, Radar showed Hawkeye his one time best friend's letter, asking about Hawkeye.
Hawkeye, never one to lose his cool, well, not often, blew up. "Damn it, Radar! Why didn't you show this to me? This letter is dated nearly a year ago! You've known about this all this time and you didn't tell me? What were you thinking?"
"I thought...I thought I was doing the right thing," Radar stuttered.
"The hell you were." With that Hawkeye stormed off to surgery.
Trapper...asking about him? Radar of all people knew how much Hawkeye loved, adored, and needed Trapper. For him to keep something like this, well, it was unforgivable.
He couldn't get Trapper out of his mind. He did write, just not to him. It was hard for Hawkeye to decide who he was angrier with, Radar for not telling him about the letter or at Trapper for not having the nerve to write him himself. There were no secrets at the MASH 4077. How did this one stay kept?
Soon surgery was over and it was time for Radar's farewell party. For five straight hours BJ had heard nothing but how angry Hawkeye was, and how he refused to attend the party. After BJ had showered and shaved he confronted his best friend.
"Look, I'm not one to stick my nose in your business..."
"Yeah, but you should really do something about your ears. They stick out like a two ton elephant in the room," Hawkeye chortled.
"Speaking of elephants in the room, do you think you have it in you to forgive Radar? I mean, he thinks the world of you, and I would hate for you not to make your peace with him before saying goodbye."
"The hell I'm forgiving him! He kept this letter a secret from me! He knows how I feel about Trapper and he still didn't tell me. That little..."
"Did you hear yourself," BJ interjected. "You referred to Trapper in the present tense. That might suggest to some that you still care about him."
Hawkeye scoffed. "Why would I do that? He abandoned me."
"You see, he didn't. He wrote Radar. He showed that he still cares. He misses you, Hawk, just like Radar will do you. How can you do to the little guy what you think Trapper did to you?"
Hawkeye didn't say anything. Instead he got up and ravaged through his belongings and found his tux, then went started to undress.
He looked around for a while. He didn't see Radar anywhere. There were no signs of a party, so he headed to Colonel Potter's office, where he saw a red-eyed Potter sitting at his desk, sipping a glass of Japanese scotch.
"He's gone, isn't he?"
The look on the colonel's face told him everything he needed to know. He turned around and retreated to his tent, where he sat on his bed and thought about Trapper, how much he had meant to him. At one point he had practically lived for Trapper's approval, and he had saved his life the night Henry died. So Hawkeye took out a pencil and paper and he knew what he had to do.
Dear Radar...
The end