A/N: This is my first posted M*A*S*H fic, so I hope it's good. This is how I imagine Colonel Potter met Mildred all those years ago. I placed this in 1919. Thanks to AlElizabeth for betaing.
Sherman T. Potter sat in a quiet corner of the restaurant, sipping on a glass of lemonade. It wasn't his first choice of beverages to relax with, but with the prospect of Prohibition looming and some of the counties pre-emptively drying out, he wasn't willing to risk his commission.
Sherman had returned to Missouri for a week of R&R and had visited his family (who had promptly yelled at and hugged him for running off and enlisting at 15) and friends (who were mostly too busy with their own lives to talk to the Captain). So, having spent three days in near constant company of his overbearing mother, not that he didn't appreciate her concern, he was ready for some alone time.
That's how Sherman had found himself in the restaurant sipping his lemonade and listening to a particularly horrible rendition of 'I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now.'
Finally, the singer left the stage accompanied by sporadic, quiet applause when the announcer stood in front of the small group, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present a group unmatched on this of the Mason Dixon: The Lacey Sisters."
Three girls, who were clearly not related: each with a different hair colour and facial structure, raced onto the stage and converged on the microphone. Music from a small band of musicians began and the girls started singing, the two on the sides performing back up lyrics.
"There's something in the tone of a saxophone;
That makes me do a little wiggle all my own;
Cause I'm a Jazz Baby;
Full of jazzbo harmony," played through the small crowd of people but Sherman didn't even notice his full attention on one of the back-up singers.
The girl, with cropped dirty blonde hair, wearing a short dress (and by short he meant just under the knees) and a red feather boa, was just about the most beautiful person he had ever seen. The Lacey Sisters sang through a few more of the more popular pieces before the girls ended their show and dispersed through the applauding crowd.
The girl that Sherman had been watching so avidly went up to the bar and tossed her boa with a disdainful look in its direction. "Gin and tonic," she ordered and pulled herself into a bar stool and crossed her legs, a frown on her face.
Sherman slowly approached the woman and sat on a bar stool next to her. "That was quite the show," he offered and watched from the corner of his eye.
The girl smiled at him sardonically, "Well thank you, it's just a real pleasure to sing for a bunch of blotto men like yourself."
"Whoa there, I didn't mean anything by it 'cept that you are just about the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," Sherman replied, surprised by the bitterness in the girl's voice.
"Cow Potatoes! Oh, I'm sorry! My mother always said my mouth would run off without me if I didn't watch it. It's just, I'm so used to men thinking I'm a flapper because I dress like this for show. Tell you the truth, I would rather do anything else than be on that stage," the girl responded.
Sherman frowned, "Nice girl like you, why aren't you off playing bridge with the girls?"
"I'd love to but see, my father was in the army and didn't make it back, so my sisters and I have to help our mother make the payments and bridge doesn't pay bills," the girl explained.
"Oh Hell, I'm sorry ma'am. I wish more than anything that you're daddy'd come home. I'm Sherman," he introduced.
"Mildred."