[All MASH characters belong to Fox. Radar Love to everyone for the nice reviews.]



"You're late." He was already seated at the table, a wine menu in one hand.

"Sorry, Jack." Cavan leaned in to kiss her boyfriend before taking the seat across from him at the small table.

"It's alright. Listening to your creative excuses has become one of the more consistent parts of our relationship." Jack Washburn delivered the comment with a smile, but his brown eyes held a little aggravation. "You know I'm on call tonight. I'll probably have to go to the hospital after dinner.

"They're not creative," Cavan protested, "they're true." She was relieved when the waiter arrived to take their dinner orders. When the waiter left Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"So do I not get to hear your creative excuse?" he said with an odd smile. Cavan rolled her eyes. "What? I didn't get mad, did I? Don't I deserve to hear why you were a half hour late to dinner?"

"I was in my office, and I came across this box. I started listening to the tapes that were inside, and I lost track of time, I guess." She took a sip of water, her eyes darting around the room.

"What kind of tapes?"

"I'm not sure, actually," she admitted. "They're recordings of this soldier at a mobile hospital unit in Korea in 1951. I don't know where they came from."

"Korea? What does that have to do with German spies in Ireland during World War II?"

"Nothing."

"So it wasn't part of your thesis?"

"No. Just something that was originally thought to be part of the Presidential Recordings." Cavan waited as Jack processed the information. She could actually see him fighting the urge to comment - she could hear him in her head: So you're thirty minutes late to dinner because you got distracted by a tape you know nothing about that has nothing at all to do with your work. But he kept silent. "I'm really sorry, Jack. You know me."

"Yes, I do," he said, exhaling through his teeth. The sommelier delivered the wine, and after the tasting Jack raised his glass. "Cav, if you weren't late every so often, if you didn't get distracted by irrelevant things that appear on your desk, I'm not sure I would love you so much." Cavan bristled at the word 'irrelevant,' but she clinked glasses with him nonetheless.

"Thanks, Jack." Dinner continued without event, and, as expected, Jack was called to the hospital directly after dinner. After paying the bill, Jack and Cavan gathered their things and walked out to the parking lot.

"I'll see you tonight, Cav," Jack said, resting a hand lightly on the small of her back as they paused beside her Jeep.

"Don't be too late," she returned.

"Hey, you owe me thirty minutes," he joked. "But I won't be too late."

"Yes. Dr. Farrell is always punctual," Cavan laughed, kissing him and climbing into her Jeep. He waited and waved at her as she pulled out of the parking space and drove out of the parking lot before he walked to his Mercedes.

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"So how was dinner with the Right Honorable Dr. Jack Washburn?"

Cavan looked up from her desk to find her friend Katharine standing in the doorway.

"For the purpose of preserving our friendship, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Cavan responded with a wry grin. Katharine laughed out loud and entered the office, slumping down in Cavan's armchair.

"You know I'm only joking. So he hasn't proposed yet?" Cavan rolled her eyes.

"No, thank God." Katharine raised an eyebrow at her friend, causing Cavan to laugh. "Don't get me wrong, I love him and all, it's just, ah...I get this terrible feeling in my stomach whenever he wants to 'take me out to dinner someplace special.'" She got a contemplative look on her face.

"Wow. Hmm. Well, I've lost interest, are you ready for lunch?"

Cavan gave a loud, delighted laugh, shaking her head. Her friend watched her pointedly, sitting up in the armchair as if suddenly realizing she might wrinkle her suit. Katharine Reese worked as a lawyer for several nonprofit organizations in town, and despite the fact that her schedule was extremely flexible, she always dressed as the epitome of professionalism.

"Yeah, hold on." Cavan put her things away and joined her friend to walk down the street to a local deli, where they ordered their usual lunches. They took a small table by the window, where they could watch people walk by in the cold February air from the snug warmth of the deli.

"What do you know about the Korean War?" Cavan asked suddenly between bites of her sandwich. Katharine furrowed her brow and took a long sip of her soda.

"Well, you know, the second book I wrote was about the Korean War." Cavan snorted. "No, c'mon, what do I know about the Korean War? Whatever I learned in history class in high school. Let's see...the Forgotten War. Part of the containment policy of the Cold War, right? Um...we lost, right? Or, at least, no one won decisively. It was a big military disaster or something. Maybe I'm confusing it was Vietnam, though."

"No, you're right. I don't know that much about it either. I hate Cold War history."

"Hmm," Katharine considered. "Why are you asking?"

"I came across these tapes of a U.S. soldier in Korea. A really mysterious set of tapes, some doctor interviewing this Corporal about nothing in particular. I've only listened to a little bit of it, but it seems like this guy was interviewing lots of soldiers over there, and he was going to compile all that information for some purpose or another. I haven't listened to all of it yet, though."

"You've got Cold War guys in the history department, don't you?" Katharine asked. "I'm sure they could tell you more than I could."

"Yeah," Cavan groaned. "I hate asking those guys questions, though. They'll go on for hours." Katharine laughed at her friend.

"I guess it's your only choice, though. This part of your research, or your work at the Center?"

"No. It's completely unrelated. I should give it to someone who can work on it, I guess, but...I don't know, it's just so...compelling. And if I turn it into National Archives it'll just disappear."

"Ah." Katharine watched Cavan carefully. "Well, I wish I could help you. Sounds interesting," she responded after swallowing the last of her sandwich. "Let me know if anything comes of it."

"Heh, you know I will," Cavan said with a laugh, crumpling the paper from her sandwich into a ball and tossing it into the nearest trashcan.

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Cavan threw her things down onto the floor of her office, walked to her audio equipment, hesitated for a second, and then pressed play. She slumped into her armchair, pulling her legs underneath her.

[REEL 1 - Session 1, November 11, 1951, CONT.]

O'Reilly: Anyway, so that's me. Iowa boy, likes animals, drafted by Uncle Sam, Corporal in the U.S. Army, Company Clerk at the 4077th. Those are the facts, I guess. [silence, followed by rustling of papers]

Doctor: Good, good. [sound of pen on paper] You're doing quite well, Corporal, but I'd like you to expand on a few issues, if you could. First of all your family. [silence] Yes, go ahead.

O'Reilly: Gee, what'd I already say about my family? I think I said it's just me and Ma at home mostly, on account of my dad dying when I was real young. He was real old - he had me when he was real old, so it wasn't that he died young or something. My whole family's in Iowa, pretty much, I guess the O'Reilly's decided it was a pretty good place to settle down. And it is, I guess. Good farming land, and all, but you have to be willing to put a lot of work into it. I feel real bad being over here, 'cause I know my Ma's gotta find other help for the farm. Uncle Ed's running a lot of it, but he's getting on in years, so I know it's hard on him. But that's what family's do, right? They step in and take care of each other, 'cause that's what family's for. If you didn't have that, it'd be a lonely life. Or a hard life. Or both.

Some people are loners in life, you know? They'd rather not get help from anyone. It's kinda like it's an insult to them, to get help, 'cause they think it means they're weak or something. Hawkeye can be like that. And Major Houlihan, she can be like that, too, I think 'cause she's a woman with a high rank, and maybe she thinks if she asks for help, people'd think less of her rank. I guess you'd call that pride. But when people are like that, it makes me wonder what their family was like sometimes. 'Cause if you weren't raised to think that help's an ok thing to give and receive, then maybe you wouldn't be used to it. Me, I'm not afraid to ask for help. Embarrassed, sometimes, maybe, to ask for help on certain things, but I'm only embarrassed because of the topic, not 'cause I don't want the help. You know, stuff like, um, you might call matters of the heart. I'm not so good with that stuff, so I ask Hawkeye and Captain Hunnicut.

I've never thought of myself as a loner, 'cause that kind of thing, that's by choice. Sometimes you're alone, but that doesn't always mean you're a loner. I don't have a whole lotta close buddies here. I've got friends, yeah, but you see how Hawk and B.J. - that's Captain Hunnicut - they're real tight, real good buddies, always joking around with each other. They always treat me real good, but they treat me kinda like a kid brother, not like a real buddy. We all go out for drinks, or to play poker, with some of the other guys, like Klinger, or Colonel Potter, or Father Mulcahy, and everyone's real nice to me, but most of the time I feel like I'm tagging along. And I guess that's okay. I'm not lonely here. And I figure as long as you're from a good family, you're never lonely no matter where you are in the world, you know?

Sometimes I see the people here like family. Or - in my head they kinda fit into a mold a family might make. I dunno if that makes any sense. But, see, like I said how Hawkeye and B.J. treat me like a kid brother. And to me, with me asking them for advice and all, they're like older brothers. And I guess Major Houlihan, she's kinda like an older sister - you know how older sisters never want to have anything to do with their little brothers? [laughs] Yeah, that's kinda how it is with us. Major Burns, he doesn't fit into the family, mainly 'cause I don't want him to. He's, ah - well, he's very proud of the fact that he's a Major. I guess if I was forced to include him, he'd be the older sister's no-good boyfriend. [laughs, then clears throat nervously] Ah, yeah, anyway. And Klinger, he's kinda like the crazy cousin that everyone loves, even though they might get kinda annoyed with him sometimes. He's got a good heart, though.

The easy one - that's Colonel Blake. He used to be the C.O. here, but he got his orders to go back home, but, ah...he was killed. His plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan, see. But he was like a dad to me, 'specially 'cause my dad died when I was so little. Colonel Blake treated me real good, and I took good care of him, too. We were a good team, him and me, and I was real sad to see him go. [silence]

You know...I kinda knew he wasn't gonna make it home. It sounds real strange and all, but I said before that people call me Radar 'cause I sometimes know things before they happen. It's not really like I'm psychic, or whatever they call it. It's not like I get dreams of what's gonna happen in the future, or like someone's telling me what's gonna happen. It's like...

Well, I guess it is like a radar, that's the only way to describe it. A radar's got a circle around it, you know, kinda like a range where the radar can see. And some radars are stronger than others, can see further. It's kinda like I've got one of those radar screens up in my head, and everything that happens around me comes in and out of that field, and 'cause my radar's stronger than most people's, I pick up on things first - like phones ringing or the choppers coming. Those things just come onto my radar, so I start reacting, and everyone else picks up on it afterward. I dunno. Maybe most people have their radars shut off or something, and I'm the only one who has mine turned on.

But anyway, I kinda knew Henry - that's Colonel Blake - wasn't gonna make it, 'cause if he was gonna make it, if he was gonna make it all the way back to Illinois from Korea, I'd see a straight line on my radar screen from here to there, simple as that. But even before he left, his little blip on the radar screen, it just sort of disappeared, like it was gonna leave here and then disappear into thin air. It wasn't heading back to Illinois or nothin'. I mean, it's not like that. It's not like I have a real radar screen in my head with little green blips, I bet you really think I'm crazy now. But that's just the best way to describe the way I feel things in my head, I guess.

I don't know how I got to that. All I was trying to say was that Henry Blake was like a dad to me in a lotta ways, and I was real torn up when he was killed, 'cause it was like I'd lost two dads then. Like I'd lost the dad of my real family back home, and then I lost the dad of this new family in Korea. We've got Colonel Potter now, he's a real good man, good officer, good surgeon. He's kinda like a dad, too, but like a dad to the whole unit, not just to me. I guess maybe that's better, though. That way the whole family's got a dad, not just one member.

I'm sorry, Doc, I know I'm rambling on and on now and not making any sense. I didn't get too much sleep last night, we had wounded come in around 3 in the morning, and I've been up since then.

Doctor: You did just fine, Corporal. In fact, I think we are finished for the day.

O'Reilly: Oh? Oh, good. I mean, no offense, Doc, I just get tired of hearing the sound of my own voice for so long.

Doctor: I understand. Now, Corporal O'Reilly, I'd like to meet with you here at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, barring unforeseen circumstances. Is that clear?

O'Reilly: Yes, sir.

Doctor: And one more thing, Corporal - you are not to discuss this matter with anyone in this unit or beyond it. It is a highly classified matter, and a breach of this agreement will result in swift punishment. Understood?

O'Reilly: Yes - Yes, sir.

Doctor: Excellent. Good afternoon, Corporal. You are free to go.

[sound of footsteps, followed by a 'click' as the machine was switched off]