"Hold your horses, gentlemen. I can't afford to let you two doctors leave this unit just this second. We have wounded coming any day now and we need all the hands we can have on deck."

Colonel Potter shuffled paperwork as the two captains, petitioning desperately in his office, put forth their request to go to Tokyo. He didn't seem deterred that the two were, as always, begging to have their way. However, he anticipated it happening and was steeling himself for it, only to find that he possibly couldn't deny it, even if he was practically ordered to by forces higher up than he was to have all hands stay put. He knew that it had to happen, in order to help Margaret be cleared of the charges.

"But Colonel, this could be a life and death situation, quite literally," Hawkeye explained quite deviously, trying to cover up their intentions without knowing what Potter already knew. "Now, Colonel, these conferences could help us –"

"Hawkeye, I know what you're up to." Colonel Potter looked up at the doctors, finally admitting to everything. "No, you can't go to Tokyo General looking for clues to assist Margaret. It'll be a hinder to the Army investigation. Besides, I've already been told that nobody is allowed to leave this unit without a good reason until Margaret does."

"And you can't use that excuse to get us out of here?" BJ asked, scratching his moustache.

"Yeah, Colonel," Hawkeye added. "This conference in Tokyo is actually something we need to go to. We need to go to Tokyo General, amongst other places perhaps, to help Margaret and to find something to prove that she's innocent. We need her, Colonel. We can't afford to lose her."

BJ was about to say, "You can't afford to lose her", but kept his mouth shut, knowing better than to speak of things that he highly suspected about, but nobody spoke about. He knew about the awkward mutual attraction between Margaret and Hawkeye and kept his honest opinions about them (as well as himself when something seemed to happen) low and quiet.

"Hawkeye," Colonel Potter started to reason, "Headquarters Seoul put these orders over my head. I prefer not to run around them to get whatever my personnel want. Now, do you have any other questions for me?"

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Hawkeye demanded immediately. "There's something about this nurse's murder investigation that is bothering you. There's a conspiracy somewhere and you're afraid to tell us something because you were told not to. You don't want us involved. Is that it? You don't want us help exonerate Margaret and have her back at our sides, working as always?"

"Hawkeye –"

"Am I the only one who actually cares, Colonel? Or am I the only one who isn't afraid of the Army and what they'll do to me? Hell, they put me in Korea. I've been here since the very beginning, drafted in and homesick for Crabapple Cove. How much worse can my life be, since this is worst that we can dream of? Now, can you imagine Margaret suffering then, for the rest of her life, knowing that she was innocent and a little something called Korea ruined her?"

"Pierce! That's enough!"

"Colonel –"

"No, Hawkeye. That is enough. There is nothing we can do for Margaret now."

"Then, what harm would two doctors do in Tokyo, going to a medical conference?" BJ asked, the calmest and most reasonable of the three doctors in the office. "After all, Colonel, we're only trying to gather the latest and greatest information to help these soldiers survive the war so Uncle Sam can send them back in."

"Well, considering the last time I let Pierce here loose in Tokyo…" Colonel Potter mused, thinking of the excuse again.

"Scout's honor, Colonel" Hawkeye said, his right hand up straight. "I promise that I will behave from now on. I won't send MacArthur any more notes, asking him to divorce his wife so that she could marry me."

"You better, Pierce, because I'm only letting you go. Hunnicutt, you can stay here. Two doctors out in Tokyo might draw suspicion. One with an enlisted escort will not maybe."

"Why did you change your mind?" BJ then asked.

"Sit, the both of you. I have Radar at the door, so we'll be safe from people who want to listen in. And I know that he can stall anybody at that door perfectly fine without me."

Colonel Potter motioned that the two captains sit down before his desk. They both obeyed instantly (Radar bumping his head against the doorway to see and hear the action through a crack), behaving so that they could receive the information they've craved to have for a couple of days now. It would be anything to help Margaret.

And maybe, we'll fill in some holes, BJ thought.

"Now, boys, here is what I've learned about Winifred Curtis," Colonel Potter started quietly. "First off, she isn't a nurse. She was barely taught any medical skills by somebody, but it's enough to pass muster in any Army hospital. Her crudeness, however inappropriate, seems to mask that inability of hers though."

"I knew it!" BJ exclaimed. "I knew that it was the maid!"

"Not yet, Hunnicutt," Colonel Potter replied. "Now, she did join the Army when she just turned eighteen. Well, she was drafted, more like it, she didn't volunteer. Curtis was stationed, after her basic training, near her home in Las Vegas. Afterward, she has been known to work in several Army hospitals throughout the last war and this one, Tokyo General being the last before us. However, between 1941 and 1950, before this here war started, other than being a 'nurse', she was a wartime and postwar aide to MacArthur. She wasn't just in Guam after the war."

"We knew some of those parts," Hawkeye admitted without guilt. "Get to the juicy parts, oh great colonel of ours."

"I'm getting there, Hawkeye, I'm getting there. Now, as you probably know, she has a few siblings. One of her sisters works in Tokyo General and the other one died most tragically. She probably has more information than I do, since she works also as a double agent being on our side, but…"

"But what?" BJ inquired.

"Winifred Curtis, as you probably figured out by now, is a spy." Colonel Potter smiled. "There, now, there's your dirty little secret, all the information that you've wanted to know. It could be a reason why she was murdered so horribly. However, why Margaret was blamed is another question we need to answer."

"Why all the secrecy then, Colonel?" BJ raised an eyebrow, inquisitive. "Why do we find nothing but black lines through her records?"

"Because nobody wants anybody to find out how she really is," Hawkeye concluded. "The Army is either using her and found out something about her and murdered her or they thought that she was one of us and killed her off anyway. And in any case, we have one Mary, Queen of Scots: beautiful, insecure and rude. And off with her head…almost! Chop, chop, chop! A head is hanging by its puppet strings."

"Again, why would Margaret be blamed, though?" BJ asked again.

"She could be the scapegoat," Colonel Potter suggested. "She was the last person to see and talk to Winifred Curtis alive. The last time anybody saw her around the camp, she was heading to the minefields. Any other physical evidence was planted, I believe."

"We knew that already though," Hawkeye moaned.

"Who would want to ruin Margaret and her career though?" BJ said out loud, still thinking to himself and not paying attention.

"Why don't you stop asking everybody that and think it out!" Hawkeye pulled at his hair, frustrated.

"Pierce," Colonel Potter warned.

"No, the questions are legitimate, but as you can see, to find out the motives of a spy are few and far between," Hawkeye argued. "Who truly hired her? Who did she really work for over the years, if she was just MacArthur's personal aide? Why go from medical unit to medical unit and then get murdered, only to have your boss be blamed for something she didn't do? It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe someone should ask Sergeant Church?" BJ suggested.

"Great idea, Einstein…if we knew where he was!"

"Colonel, don't tell me the man went missing, too." BJ looked to Colonel Potter from Hawkeye (who heard rumors around the camp just minutes before and said nothing to his best friend), but found nothing except confusion in the CO's eyes.

"Son," the colonel began, "Sergeant Church went missing this morning and the camp had started talking about it before I could command anything. His footlocker is still in his tent, right next to the Klinger Collection where is always has been, but there is no Sergeant Church. Nobody has seen him anywhere. The last he was seen was at the Motor Pool, but that was two nights ago."

"Is there a search party going out for him?"

"No, Hunnicutt, there is not. However, the MP's are searching the area instead of us. Every checkpoint has been informed of it."

"There is anything else we know about Sergeant Church?" Hawkeye asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, Pierce," the colonel answered. "His records are as black as a summer thunderstorm cloud. As far as we know, the man has no family and no friends. The woman he loved is dead, murdered by somebody. We don't know what moves the man. How can we decide where he could have gone?"

Hawkeye looked to BJ and vice versa. Then the former said, "Colonel, then let me go as soon as possible. Klinger can come with me."

"I second that," BJ added.

"Send a hairy Lebanese orderly to Tokyo with an alcoholic doctor?" Colonel Potter asked. "I don't think so, doctors. However, if this helps, then I'm willing to put my John Hancock on that pass."

Hawkeye stood up. "Thank you, Colonel. You won't regret this."

"I hope not," the colonel replied, calling for Radar to bring the pass, the order being repeated back to him. "Let's just hope that this time, you won't be sending any of those silly marriage proposals."