Thank you for the review! I truly appreciate it. I hope this feel more in character for Hawkeye. :)
John was intensely focused on his patients, only speaking to get instruments from the nurses. Hawkeye and Frank were up to their normal jabs at one another. To them this was a lighter wave of causalities, and none of the injuries were too sever. "I don't know why they let hotlips be your nurse Frank, I mean I know these aren't the most intense surgeries we've had but it's still not a good time to be distracted." Frank sputtered for a few seconds before responding, "At least I'm not distracted by every nurse that happens to brush my hand while giving me an instrument." "See but even when I'm distracted Frank I am still twice the surgeon you are." Houlihan gently reassured her lover that Hawkeye was just trying to aggravate him as always and that nothing he said was true. John moved to his next patient so he was right next to Major Burns. "Say you're the new guy right?" Frank asked him. John was so involved with his patient, he didn't realize Frank was talking to him. Frank turned to glare at Hawkeye demanding, "What did you say to him about me?" Hawkeye shrugged and said, "Absolutely nothing Frank, he learned to ignore you all on his own." It was then that John realized they were probably talking about him. "Uh what, sorry, I was… working on my patient," he said, sounding mildly irritated. "I just wanted to know if you're john Watson," Frank responded, somewhat defensively. "Yes," John said, restoring his attention to his patient. Frank continued the conversation, though. "Are you part of the UN forces? I heard you're from England," Frank asked. John nodded and finished a row of stiches on one of his patients' wounds before adding, "I was staying in America before I came here, though." He returned the needle to the nurse and requested a pair of tweezers mumbling, "My doctor thought it would be good for me to get away from England for a bit," as he dug shrapnel out of the soldier's arm. "Be careful Watson, Frank might get you deported if he knows you're not a US citizen," Hawkeye said. "Hawkeye likes to poke fun at me, don't take him too seriously," Frank said to John, as if trying to get him onto his side. Hawkeye rolled his eyes and said, "I disagree Frank, I think he should take me very seriously." John did not want to be involved in this little argument right now, he didn't understand how they could banter this way when they were struggling to save lives in a tent where half their patients were nearly dead on arrival. Then again, he began to wonder if this sort of surgery was something you could get used to. He shook his head, that was a morbid idea he didn't have time to think about around now.
john took a step out of the O.R and took a deep breath, rubbing his hands together. Suddenly everything from the day seemed to hit him at once and he felt himself slide down so he was leaning against the tent, hugging his knees. He buried his face in his legs took a few more deep breath. "How are you Doctor Watson?" He heard a voice ask, and he quickly snapped his head up to look the direction of the voice. It was Hawkeye, gazing at him with an empathetic expression. John struggled to his feet and said, "Oh yeah, everything is… just fine." He even added a smile to enforce that idea. Hawkeye's expression did not change much, but he smiled slightly as he put his hand on John's shoulder. "It's a lot to come to terms with, I know," he said, after chuckling and putting his hand down he added, "After my first day I wasn't sure whether I wanted to scream, throw up or cry." John looked at him with a mildly bemused expression and asked, "What did you end up doing?" "Honestly?" John nodded, "I got drunk." John couldn't help but laugh and captain Pierce joined in. Hawkeye put his arm around Johns shoulder and began pulling him towards the swamp, "Come on doctor, we should have a fresh batch of gin ready for you right now." John was still smiling, this place made no sense at all but somehow the fact that this was the way things were suppose to be comforted him.