entitled: Here We Go Again
summary: When Captain BJ Hunnicutt finds himself drafted again in 1964 and deployed to a medical unit in Vietnam, familiar faces begin to show in a place that he hoped he would never have to be familiar with again. A war with a different name, but the people he loved were there. Oh the people...
pairings: hawkeye/margaret, bj/peg, klinger/soon-lee, others
rating: t
disclaimer: I do not own MASH or it's characters.
notes: I'm not exactly sure what this is...read on.
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Peg cried when his orders came in.
He didn't. A numbness swept over him for the days that followed before the reality sank in.
He was going back to war.
The Korean War had ended over ten years ago. He had thought it was over. He would never have to go back, that everything was finally, at last okay.
Erin was turning twelve soon. Glancing at the dates on his form, he would have to ship out before her birthday.
Oh god, more birthdays. More missed birthdays.
The usual weeks of training come after. He's able to go home every night and he treasures every last moment with his wife and child. Erin's older now and she understands what is happening. She asks him questions every day and every single time, he can only say, "I don't know, honey."
And then the time comes.
He asks Peg and Erin to stay home and let him take a cab to the airport. Peg agrees and the goodbyes are said at home, having started the night before.
His wife, the woman he had been madly in love with since he was sixteen years old, watches him through the window as he walks down the front steps to the waiting taxicab. Her hair longer now, just a few shines of silver through it, and pulled back in a loose braid that loops down her back. Eyes still as bright and full of mischief as the day he had met her and oh god, how can he do this again? How can he leave her again?
Glancing down at himself, he suddenly notices the uniform he is wearing. Yeah he put it on an hour ago but he had paid no attention to the multitude of buttons he had done up. The brush across his shoes, the airway blocking tie Peg had done up.
Now it was real.
Too real.
"Hey, sir, if we are going to make your plane we have to go now." The cab driver's talking and he barely hears. Sliding his legs into the cab, he stares back at the house, at Peg's face in the window. He holds onto that image as long as he can, as the car pulls down the driveway and into the street. As they disappear around a corner -
Would he make it home?
-;
Sixteen hours later, he sets foot in Vietnam.
A voice is yelling his name at the airport and for some reason that voice sounds happy.
"Captain Hunnicutt! Over here!"
He turns towards the voice and his jaw slackens. Radar?
"Radar?" he gapes, moving like a ghost at the younger man. "Oh no, please tell me they didn't get you too."
Radar gives him a wistful smile before shaking his head. "I enlisted. I'm company clerk at the MASH you are heading too. And it's Sergeant O'Reilly now."
"Sergeant? I don't know whether to say congratulations or god be with you."
Radar laughs, reaching down and picking up BJ's bag before leading him out of the airport. "Come on, let's get you to the camp."
The jeep ride is long, longer than he expected but no crazy mishaps. He arrives at the brand new MASH unit all in one piece and sober (of course), waiting for Radar to take him to the CO's office.
"Mind you, we're brand new so our staff isn't fully staffed yet," Radar says as he kicks the jeep into park. "We're supposed to be a bit bigger than the 4077th, so more doctors and nurses are on the way in. You are the second doc. The next two should be arriving tomorrow."
"Are you going to pick them up?"
"Yes sir."
Radar leads him into the main building and down a short hallway before knocking on a pair of double doors. A soft voice allows them entrance and Radar pushes the doors open. "Colonel, our second doc is here sir."
BJ's eyes take in a man seated behind the desk, mid to late fifties with greying hair and dark eyes. When he stands up to extend a hand to BJ, he's about the same height as he. BJ isn't sure why he expected someone smaller, shorter ... oh never mind.
"Captain Hunnicutt is it? I'm Lt. Colonel Bennett," the elder man introduces himself. BJ accepts the hand that he offers, giving it a brief shake before dropping it. "Was your trip satisfactory?"
BJ fights an eyeroll. This guy's reminding him of Frank more and more. "Yes it was, sir."
"That's good. The sergeant will help you get settled in your quarters within a moment. I just need you to fill out some paperwork showing you are here, of course, and then you are dismissed."
BJ does as he's told, dismayed at the sudden heat behind his eyes. His hand shakes as he signs the papers the colonel tells him too, nearly dropping the pen several times before he receives a gentle nudge from Radar. "Let's go, Cap."
Gathering up his things, he follows Radar from the office and across the compound. A large dark green tent awaits him at the far end. Radar lightly taps on the door before entering.
"New bunkie Trapper."
Trapper?
BJ's head shoots up, his jaw nearly hitting the ground again at the sight of the tall blond man. He had only seen one picture of the older man, one that Hawkeye had kept in his footlocker of them with a good chunk of the camp that had been taken when they had some big general had come to visit. BJ hadn't paid too much attention to the story when Hawkeye was telling it, his eyes too busy taking in what had been the 4077th before he had gotten there.
"Trapper, this Captain BJ Hunnicutt. BJ, this is Captain John McIntyre. He's been called 'Trapper' since. well I dunno, since I've known him," Radar says, smiling that smile that BJ remembers so well. When he blinks the younger man is gone, leaving them alone.
BJ holds out a hand to the older blond. "McIntyre? I replaced you at the 4077th."
Trapper raises a surprised brow. "No kidding?" the older man asked with a chuckle. "How did you make it out of there?"
"I met Pierce."
A smile turns the corner of Trapper's mouth up. "He saved your life, didn't he?"
"Something like that."
The other doctor offers him a drink and they settle in.
Trapper had reenlisted when it became apparent that there was a need for doctors during this new and horrible time. After nine weeks at a hospital in the states, he had been the second doctor assigned to this new MASH that was being built, after their new CO.
"How old are you?" he suddenly asked Trapper during a lull in the conversation.
Trapper lowered his glass. "Forty four."
"That means you were thirty when you arrived in Korea," BJ stated softly to himself.
A small noise comes from Trapper. "We were all young. You, me, Pierce, Burns, and whoever replaced Burns."
"How did you -?"
"The guy's cheese was not firmly on his cracker. I knew he would eventually be booted out of the service. Who replaced him?"
BJ smiles. "A good egg named Charles Emerson Winchester, the third."
"Sounds like a real snot rag."
"In the beginning," BJ says. "He didn't want to be there, he had been yanked out of his post in Tokyo and sent there but he adjusted and we grew to get along pretty well."
"Burns never got his head out of his ass?" Trapper asks.
Laughing, BJ shakes his head. "Never."
-;
The next day is surprisingly quiet. BJ wasn't sure what he was expecting, whether it be causalities or what. His second day in Korea they were hit with four hundred wounded men and he was on his feet in that OR for eleven hours straight.
He has to stop comparing this to Korea.
This is a whole new nightmare.
He goes to the OR that morning and helps the colonel and Trapper begin assembling the heart of the camp together. Six operating tables are already there as well as anesthesia machines. They work until nearly seven that night before the colonel allows them to head back to their tent.
"I could use a belt," Trapper bemoans as he opens the door to the tent. "You?"
"Sounds good," BJ agrees, his eyes trailing over Trapper's shoulder and landing on a man sitting on one of the spare bunks.
The man's back is to them. Slightly greying black hair is ruffled up like chicken feathers and his whole frame freezes at their voices.
"Holy shit."
The man slowly stands up and turns around, his eyes wide with shock and just a little bit of grief.
BJ's heart hammers in his chest, his knees suddenly turning to jello. Trapper's hand snaps out and grips his shoulder, steadying him before he falls to the floor.
"Hiya, Hawk."
-;
Well I may leave this here or I may continue it if I get enough feedback. Let me know if you want me too and your thoughts in the reviews. Thanks guys.