Hey everyone! Should have mentioned this at the end of the first chapter, but I'd like to give most of the credit (for the lines anyway) to Alan Alda since he is the one who actually wrote them for 'Comrades in Arms'! I just copied those. Hopefully you don't think any less of me now! Just kidding! Maybe…. :-S Thanks for the wonderful reviews! Oh, and there is a 'bad' word in here somewhere, but it's perfectly acceptable for the situation! (Don't worry, only the B word…oh no! Haha)
Chapter 2: Cheater
Five Weeks Later
"Okay Major, here you go. Three days R & R in Tokyo. Have fun." Colonel Potter signed the papers and handed them to a very excited Margaret.
"Oh thank you Colonel!" She took the papers and headed to her tent to pack.
"Hidy-ho Major!" Hawkeye could see that Margaret was in a good mood.
"Hello Hawkeye!" She was smiling from ear to ear.
"What's got you in such a good mood?" The man asked, following the head nurse into her tent.
Margaret grabbed her suitcase from under her bed and went over to her wall locker to grab a few of her clothes, including a very nice black dress and her class A's. "I've been given a three day pass for Tokyo to spend with Donald. We're going to try to work things out."
Hawkeye smiled, loving to see the woman that he really did love in such a good mood. He hated the fact that he loved her so much, and couldn't tell her. If he did tell her, there would be hell to pay. She was a married woman. But, the fact that she wasn't exactly happily married bothered him more than anything. At times, he wanted to find Donald and give him a piece of his mind…or fists. "Well, that's great Margaret. I'm happy for you." His smile told everything, and Margaret thought she saw something different in his eyes.
"Are you alright?" She asked softly.
"Of course I am, why do you say that?" He asked, a confused look on his face.
"No reason…never mind." She knew she saw something different in his eyes and his smile, but couldn't put her finger on just what it was.
"I should let you pack. I'll see you when you get back." Hawkeye gave a small wave and started opening the door.
"Wait." Margaret stopped him. When he turned around, she put a hand on his arm and smiled. "Thanks for what you did a few weeks ago. You know, with helping me through the shelling and the 'Darlene' letter and everything. I really appreciate it."
"Whenever you need someone to talk to, you know where I'll be." Hawkeye smiled and bent down to give the woman a light kiss on the cheek. With that, he turned around and walked out the door.
What was that look? Margaret thought. The picture of the look he gave her was driven into her memory. She closed her eyes and played that moment through, over and over in her mind. It almost looked like…love? The blond shook her head. "Couldn't be."
Tokyo Airport
"Lieutenant Colonel!" She tried her hardest to sound excited, but what she saw in Hawkeye's eyes earlier still dug into her mind.
"Major!" Donald picked her up and hugged her, kissing her all over. He noticed that she wasn't as 'active' as usual and just seemed to hang there. Usually she would be squealing with delight or something. "Are you okay Margaret?" He had a mild look of concern as he set her back down on the floor in the small airport.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Margaret wasn't all that convincing. She had felt very under the weather on the plane, but she thought it was just the frequent turbulence they were experiencing. There was also the fact that her heart wasn't all there with Donald. It was very strongly going out to someone else. Even more so now in the last five weeks after her and Hawkeye's 'adventure' to the 8063rd.
"Well I got us a room at the hotel across the street. Do we want to go there now?" The man in front of her flashed Margaret a 'mischievous' smile and winked a little.
Suddenly, the successful Major had a yearning to see Hawkeye. She knew what her husband's look was supposed to signify, but it did the opposite. Now she didn't really want anything to do with this Lieutenant Colonel that was carrying her bags and heading towards the door. When Donald put an arm around his wife's shoulders, it gave her shivers down her spine. Not because his touch did that too her, but because someone else's touch did…
Later That Night
"Honey, we've been down here forever. When do we get to go upstairs and have a little fun?" Donald winked at her again and it was really making Margaret's skin crawl.
She tried to think of a way to get away from her husband. Margaret was starting to feel sick again and he wasn't making it any better. "If you want to go up to the room, I'll be there in about an hour. I want to go for a little walk…get some fresh air."
"Would you like company?" He asked. There was a look on his face that looked like he really didn't want to go with her.
"No…it's okay. I can go alone." The blond got up from where she sat at a small table in the bar at their hotel. It was a dark room with very little light, but the drinks were cheap. She had been nursing a shot of double bourbon and water for the entire two hours that they were there. Her stomach was really giving her problems today.
"Alright. I'll be waiting for you." Donald stood up when his wife did and kissed her on the cheek. "See you later."
Margaret just grinned a little before she grabbed her coat, exited the small bar, went through the very nice lobby, and out to the street. Being an American G.I. in Tokyo didn't exactly feel like being in Japan. Sure, the buildings and the writing on the signs were different, but you hardly ever saw the natives of the country besides in the shops and restaurants. Most of the people walking along the streets were soldiers on leave. There were men and women in their class A's walking hand and hand, occasionally stopping to look in the store windows at the beautiful decorations.
It was a chilly November night and the moon was shining brighter than any of the lights in the city. Margaret pulled her coat around herself a little more and thought about everything that had happened in the past few weeks. She and Hawkeye had become even better friends since that night in the hut. They'd go to the mess tent and have coffee together more than just when they were done with post-op. Before they had gone to the 8063rd, or at least tried, they had started to talk to each other more. After her little affair with Frank had run its course, the head nurse had become more 'human' and much more sociable.
But, it was one person who was helping her to crack out of her shell. The same person who she had been thinking about a lot today. Margaret's feelings for Hawkeye had intensified greatly as the weeks went by. Whenever she closed her eyes, she still saw that look in his eyes. Either the one that he gave her before their first kiss in the hut, or the one he gave her that morning. They were both inscribed into her memory forever…and her heart.
About a half an hour had passed when Margaret started to feel even worse than when she was on the plane. She became very dizzy and thankfully there was a park bench near by. She hadn't walked very far since she had spent about fifteen minutes in a little shop on the Ginza. For some reason, she had been drawn to the precious little baby clothes she had seen from the window.
After the bit of dizziness had passed, sort of, she got up and started walking back to the hotel. It would only take about ten minutes to get back down the street. After about five of those minutes however, she had that horrible feeling in her throat. The one that comes just before a person gets sick. Margaret was pretty lucky again, seeing as how there was a trash can about three feet from where she stood when she started having that feeling in her throat. It wasn't the most dignified thing to do for her, but she got sick in the trash can a few times, losing her breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the part of that double bourbon and water that she drank. After cleaning up as best she could right there by the trash can, she started heading back to the hotel room again.
The nice, granite lobby was illuminated by all of the paper lamps and looked beautiful. Margaret wanted to get up to the room, but stopped by the front desk to see if anyone had called her, just in case. When there weren't any messages, she went over to the elevator and pressed the number, sighing heavily when she thought about what Donald would probably want to do. She's just pull the headache card, or she could just say that she got sick…
But, she didn't have to worry about that when she got to room 414. She got her key out of her pocket and went to unlock the door when she heard something…giggling! 'What the hell?' Margaret wondered. There was a WOMAN in there! Then she heard Donald, seeming to egg the woman on! The woman at the door, this cheating man's wife, turned beat red with anger. She fumbled with the key and unlocked the door, swinging it open. "What the hell are you doing?!" She screamed at her husband.
"Margaret!" Donald and the other woman, a brunette with a face that resembled a mouse's, were tangled up in the sheets on the bed. Their clothes were all over the room. The brunette's tiny purple dress was over by the window, with her skimpy underwear by the bathroom door. Her bra was nowhere to be seen, not that Margaret was looking. Donald's clothes were also strewn all over the room.
"You son of a bitch! What the hell?! How could you?!" The Major screamed in a huff, grabbing her suitcase that was by the door.
"Margaret, nothing happened." Donald scurried out of the bed, one of the blankets around him, trying to convince his wife like she was some sort of idiot.
"Nothing happened?!" She screamed, "Do you really think I'm that stupid?! Yeah, I walk in on you and some slut doing God knows what in bed, NAKED, and I'm supposed to think nothing happened?!" Her sarcasm was almost deadly, along with the glare she was giving him.
"But…"
"'But' WHAT?!" Margaret wanted so bad to just slug the man in front of her. "How often does this happen? This happened when I was only going to be gone for an hour! What happens when we don't see each other for weeks at a time?! Is this what's going on when I call and they say you're in a meeting?!" She asked completely infuriated, not really wanting to know what the answer was. She had a pretty good idea of just how often it happened. "I let the whole 'Dear Darlene' letter slide, although I'm not sure why!" Donald's face became overrun by a look of confusion. "But this…this is…this is it! This is the last you've ever seen of me!" And with that, the very angry, very heartbroken, head nurse of the 4077th turned around, suitcase in hand, and ran towards the elevators.
"Margaret wait!" Donald jogged towards his wife, still wrapped up in a blanket, but didn't get to the blond before she hit the button to close the doors, and made her way back down to the lobby, sobbing the entire time.
Two Hours Later
Major Houlihan had gone to another hotel and got a room there. It was near Tokyo General and was practically in the same building as the PX. She had stayed in the hotel on a couple other occasions, but never with Donald. That was pretty much her reason for staying at this hotel.
She was now laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and crying some more. 'How could he do that?' The question came up many times during the last two hours. Another thought came up as well though. In a sense Margaret had technically cheated on Donald about five weeks ago, but she kept telling herself that that was different. Very different. She and the man she was with were scared out of their minds and they needed each other more than ever. She had also only done that once and Donald had cheated countless times evidently…
Margaret couldn't take it anymore, she had to talk to someone. She was crying and 'letting it out' sure, but she needed help in getting through all of this. She picked up the phone and waited for about twenty minutes before her call was finally connected.
MASH 4077th - 3:00 a.m.
"Four oh seven seventh MASH." Radar stumbled over to the phone and answered it very sleepily.
"Corporal O'Reily!"
The young company clerk thought it sounded like she was crying, and he was right. "Major Houlihan, is that you sir?" He replied, not sure if it really was her. He had never heard her cry.
"Yes Radar, it's me." She gave a sad little chuckle, hearing the young man call her sir, taken over by nerves. It used to really bother her, but now it seemed to cheer her up a little just because the young man was so funny when he was nervous. "Look, I know it's late, but I need to talk to Dr. Pierce. It's an emergency."
"Now? It's three o'clock in the morning!"
"I know! That's why I said it's an emergency!" The woman on the other end was getting a little perturbed now. "Can you please just go wake him up or drag him out of the officer's club or something?"
"Right. I'll be right back." He set the phone down and then hurried back to it, "Sir." He then set it back down and ran to the swamp, pulling his blue and white striped robe and coat on. "Hawkeye." The young Corporal quietly walked into the Swamp, not wanting to wake the other two men. "Hawkeye." He shook the surgeon's shoulder.
"Radar, if you don't leave me alone, I'm gonna show you a new place to put that bugle of yours." The dark haired man pulled the blanket above his head, turning away from Radar.
"Sir, it's Major Houlihan on the phone. She needs to talk to you. She says it's an emergency."
This brought Hawkeye to his feet. "Is she still on the phone?" He asked as the two made their way back to the office after the surgeon had wrapped up in his robe, blanket, and coat.
"Yes sir." Radar opened the door and let Hawkeye go through, almost lunging for the phone.
"Margaret? Are you okay? What's going on?" He was thoroughly worried about the woman who had, quite honestly, become the woman of his dreams.
"Hawkeye!" She sounded very relieved although Hawkeye's heart sank when he heard she was crying.
"Margaret, what's the matter?" He sat down at the desk, now fully awake.
"Are you alone?" The crying woman asked.
"Uh, hold on." He replied, swiveling the chair to face Radar. "Hang up the phone when I say, okay."
"Sure." Radar nodded and watched Hawkeye walk into Colonel Potter's office and pick up the phone. When he pointed to him, he hung up the phone and went back to bed.
"Okay, now I'm by myself. But, Margaret, what's the matter?" He sat down in Colonel Potter's chair, too concerned and focused on the phone call to put his feet up on the desk like he usually would.
"Well, Donald and I got a room at the hotel across from the airport and…" She decided it would just be easier to tell him the whole story so he would understand better, minus the fact that she was only out on the walk to think about him, "we just went up to drop our suitcases off in the room and then we went back down to the bar for awhile. Well, he wanted to go up to the room for obvious reasons but I said I needed to get some fresh air instead and went out for a walk. I told him I'd be back in about an hour…"
Hawkeye was trying very hard to understand her, but she was talking fast and it was pretty muffled due to the crying and the usual static from the phones. He was following along perfectly fine though with the few words he was catching.
"After about a half an hour, I got sick and threw up in a trash can on the Ginza…so I went back to the room and before I opened the door I could hear a woman giggling and Donald trying to sweet talk her or something. So I swung the door open and caught him and this other woman in bed together!" She was now crying harder than ever, relaying her story to the only person she could really talk to about things like this.
Hawkeye sighed, his anger rising against that stupid Lieutenant Colonel that obviously broke Margaret's heart. "Oh God. Margaret, I'm so sorry. I wish I could be there with you through all this…and to punch the lights out of that 'Penob-slob'" Hearing her crying die down a little, he gently asked, "What are you going to do?"
"I'm not staying with him. It's over. Before I leave, I'm going to get the divorce papers started…" The crying came back, "A divorce…"
"Hey, shh." Hawkeye tried to comfort her over the phone. He wished he could be there with her, letting her cry into his shoulder. "That man doesn't deserve someone as great as you."
A moment later, Radar came through the doors. "Choppers Hawkeye." Not a second later, the man on the phone could hear the blades of the helicopters slice through the air.
"Margaret, I feel horrible, but I have to go. We've got wounded." Hawkeye hated having to leave her in her time of need, but of course the war was back in town.
"It's okay. I just really needed someone to talk to and you helped a lot." He couldn't see it, but the chief surgeon thought that maybe a small smile had appeared on the woman's face.
"Any time." He felt a little better, knowing that she understood why he had to go. "I'll see you when you get back, and remember you can call me whenever you need to."
"Bye Hawkeye. And thanks."
"Goodbye Margaret, and good luck."
"I'll need it." She chuckled sadly. "Oh, Ben!"
"Yeah?" Hawkeye had almost hung up the phone, but heard her voice right before the phone dropped into the bag. He was also a little surprised by her use of his real name.
"I'm sorry." She told him, a little embarrassed.
"About what?"
"About falling apart on you like that. I can't believe I actually let someone hear me cry…"
"Hey, don't worry about it. It just proves what I've known for a long time about you."
"What's that?" She asked, a little confused.
"That you're human." He smiled.
Margaret laughed, "Thanks Hawkeye. I should probably let you get to your patients now. Thanks for everything." After a few more goodbyes, they each hung up their phones and sighed.
Hope you liked this chapter. Sorry about the 'language'! I hope it didn't offend anyone. I would just like to thank Coasttocoast for reminding me to put an acknowledgement for the first chapter. I was planning on doing that and forgot all about it! Oops. Tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks for the awesome reviews for the first chapter. More on the way!