It's been a while again! I'm going to update with 2 chapters, since this one's so short. Thanks for reading!
It didn't take long for Klinger to discover what had affected the surgeon so badly. He instantly noticed the lack of one of the medics. He asked one of the other ones about it.
"He got shelled. It was almost a direct hit. Captain Pierce was with him." The man lowered his voice. "I've seen some pretty awful things since I got here, corporal, but, uh…with Sergeant Dever…I mean, he was in a bad way." Then the conversation was over as both men were called away by Hawkeye and Margaret. It stuck in Klinger's mind though, forcing him to wonder what could happen to a person that was so horrible that even a man who spent his life looking at blood and guts couldn't bear to see it.
Margaret spent the hours in OR trying to see if Hawkeye was any different; that is, when she wasn't busy with wounded. But he didn't seemed to have changed from yesterday. Changed from a week ago, yes, but no more subdued than he'd been since he got here. Maybe nothing had happened after all. Maybe everything had just caught up with him, like it had with her. But no, she thought. Hawkeye Pierce was stronger than that. Things didn't 'catch up with him'. He dealt with things as they happened. And that's what he'd done tonight.
Hours later, when they'd finished operating, and Margaret was sat in what was becoming their corner watching Hawkeye sleep, Klinger approached her and told her what he'd heard about Dever. Her heart went out to the captain. Even if they went home, to the 4077th, right now, he would still have seen more horrors than he ever would have done if he'd never come to the aid station.
