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Hawkeye scowled into his breakfast as BJ and Potter sat down at the table. Neither one said anything to the young doctor, but they shared a look over his head. Finally, BJ couldn't take his mood anymore.

"Hawk? You know glaring at your food isn't going to scare it into tasting better." Potter chuckled, but Hawkeye just stood up. "Hey, everything alright?"

"Yeah, fine," he shot back, grabbing his still-full tray. The two men watched their friend scrape the food into the bin and toss the tray down before stalking back to the Swamp.

"Is he that upset over losing Rosieland last week?" Potter joked. BJ shook his head and took a sip of lukewarm coffee.

"Nah, that can't be it. I mean, sure we had one hell of a night, but Hawkeye knew it wasn't going to last. Honestly, Colonel, I think it has more to do with one of our guests that night." At the older man's look, BJ sighed and leaned forward. "You have to promise not to get upset or tell anyone you know." Potter nodded, knowing that BJ wouldn't be asking if it weren't important. "Well, there was a sergeant from the front lines there, AWOL from his unit."

"AWOL?" the surprise in the Colonel's voice was obvious, but BJ continued quickly.

"Yeah, well, Margaret convinced him to go back to his unit, so I'm not sure he even got in trouble. But Hawkeye – and probably everyone else in there – couldn't help but notice he spent an awful lot of cozy time with Major Houlihan."

"Ah," Potter said, catching on, "And Pierce is none too keen on the man."

"I don't understand those two," BJ shook his head. "Different as night and day, but best friends."

"And more?" Potter wondered aloud. He'd always had a funny inkling where those two were concerned, but didn't think anything of it. Houlihan had been so staunchly military when he'd arrived that he assumed she and the Chief Surgeon would never be anything more than begrudging friends. But lately they'd gotten quite close, and Potter wondered if it had anything to do with their little adventure some months back.

"Maybe," BJ answered his question with a sigh. "Hawk won't talk about it; he says Margaret and he are just friends as always. But there's something there."

"Well, they haven't been at each other's throats, so I'm not going to interfere. Whatever they've worked out, it's made them a better team." BJ agreed and the topic turned to more pleasant things as the men finished their breakfast, but a flood of wounded interrupted them. Hawkeye burst from the Swamp shrugging on his robe as he ran. It didn't take long for everyone to scramble into their positions.

OR was tiring and grueling, but they managed to make it through the third wave of Colonel Lacy's troops in record time…23 hours. Hawkeye was very nearly sleepwalking back to the Swamp to collapse in his bed, passing right by Margaret on his way. She offered him a friendly smile, but he just looked at her with tired eyes and walked right past her. BJ didn't miss the hurt look that overtook her features for a brief moment, but he was too tired to deal with it now.

Colonel Lacy's appearance did nothing to settle the tension between the Head Nurse and Chief Surgeon. In fact, the way Margaret began fawning over the silver clusters made Hawkeye's blood boil. Added on top of Lacy's grating attitude, Pierce was at the end of his rope by the day's end. So when Margaret showed up at the Swamp door, he had very little to say to her.

"Look, I'm tired, hungry, and to top it off I have to deal with a ward full of patients who hate their commanding officer who just so happens to be our special guest of dishonor this week. I'd really rather not say anything tonight that either of us will regret in the morning." She stared at him for a moment before laying a hand on his shoulder.

"I understand," she told him. "If you want to talk…" she left the invitation open and walked out the door. Hawkeye turned his head to watch her walk across the compound. He felt bad about disregarding her, but he was still smarting from her night with Scully. And the way she practically threw herself at Lacy that morning in post-op hadn't endeared her to him either. So he let her go, flopping back onto his cot in exhaustion.

Margaret tossed her uniform away in a fit of frustration as she changed for the night. It seemed every time she and Hawkeye took a step forward in their relationship, something came along and shoved them four steps back. After the night he talked about his mother's death, she'd begun to feel something stirring in her. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that there was no way she would risk her heart and their friendship over it. So she'd taken the first opportunity to try and forget about it. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it – Jack Scully was the perfect distraction.

She wasn't blind to the way the sergeant's attention had affected Hawkeye. But she convinced herself that Hawkeye's reactions meant nothing more than one friend looking out for another. Her emotions scared her; she was too raw from Donald to even think about caring for someone like that again. So she resorted to her old ways once again, trying to drive away her feelings. The problem was, it seemed that he'd been driven away with them.

As she lay down to sleep, she tossed and turned with her thoughts, trying to work out how to fix things without complicating their friendship. In the end she gave up, surrendering herself to a fitful slumber.

She was still reeling from her discovery of Lacy's true colors when she reported for her shift in post op the next day. Hawkeye's mood had improved after some rest, and they even joked a bit before Lacy came in and ruined everything. And then MacAvoy had taken a turn for the worse, and she watched as Hawkeye battled for the young man's life.

She had to admit she'd never seen a doctor more dedicated or determined when a patient's life was at stake. She had personally seen him stick his arm inside a patient's chest to massage a heart back to life, and even amid shellfire his instinct to heal outweighed his own survival. He was the epitome of what doctors should be, and many times she'd thanked the Lord that he was here at this camp. They were lucky to have him, despite his insubordination, and as MacAvoy began breathing on his own she grinned proudly at Hawkeye.

"Good job, Doctor," she said, patting him on the shoulder. He took a deep breath and looked at his friends.

"I'm gonna step into Radar's office for some coffee. Be right back." The tone of his voice suggested he was going to do a bit more than that, but neither of them wanted to stop him from confronting the Lieutenant Colonel about walking out so suddenly.

"I should probably get in there with him before he does something stupid," BJ said. "Shift's over anyway, can you handle things until Charles gets here?" She shot him a mirthful glare, and he held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, gotta ask. We have a Head Nurse who's a real stickler for the rules." He finished getting the young soldier settled before joining his friend. Margaret returned her full attention to the patients, noting how much more relaxed the atmosphere was now that Lacy was gone.

Just over two hours later, the doors opened and two corpsmen carried a litter in. Hawkeye followed closely, monitoring the man lying on it. Margaret rushed over, shocked to see Colonel Lacy's unconscious form. She asked the question with her eyes and Hawkeye sighed wearily.

"Appendicitis," he said simply, ushering the corpsmen to the empty bed. He didn't elaborate, or even make any jokes regarding the Colonel's condition. Margaret watched him as he methodically set up the IV and filled out the form on the clipboard hanging at the end of the bed. Something was different about him, but she shook it off as fatigue.

"He'll be fine now," she told him. "He's lucky he was here. And I'm proud of you."

He whirled on her with a strange look. "Why?" She took an involuntary step back at his tone, but lifted her chin and replied.

"For putting your feelings for him aside to operate on him."

"I operate on the enemy all the time," he replied shortly. "I'm going back to the Swamp. Call me if there are any complications." She watched him go, her face screwed up in confusion. Something was wrong with him, and it wasn't until after the 13 hour stint in OR that she found out.

"It was strange," she overheard Kellye talking to the other nurses as she filled her coffee mug in the mess tent. "I thought Captain Pierce didn't like Colonel Lacy, but he invited him back to the Swamp and served him drinks." A cold chill ran down Margaret's spine, but she refused to acknowledge it.

"It was just lucky he was with Hawkeye when his appendix burst," Able added. "I wonder why Captain Pierce didn't ask a nurse to assist him, though." Margaret's mug shattered on the ground as her muscles slackened in shock; despite his disdain for Army regulations, there was no way Pierce would operate alone unless he absolutely had to...or he was hiding something. Without bothering to clean up her mess, she bolted from the tent and into post-op. Despite their long session in OR, she was wide awake as she opened the blood storage container. Colonel Lacy had donated some blood when he'd arrived; a "good will" gesture that she'd found admirable at the time. Now she wondered if the older man didn't feel a little guilt over what he'd put those boys through. But she shook her thoughts clear as she drew a small sample from the unit and rushed to the lab.

"Oh my God," she whispered as she slid away from the microscope. According to the lab test -which she'd performed three times to be absolutely sure - Lacy's white blood count was normal. If he'd had even the beginnings of acute appendicitis, the white cell count would be through the roof. Pierce had lied, and had operated on a healthy man. She cleaned up quickly before storming out the door and into the Swamp.

"Where's Captain Pierce?" she demanded.

BJ looked up sharply at the use of his friend's rank to find a very agitated Major. "Hawkeye's not here. As a matter of fact I don't know where he is. Margaret, are you alright?" He put his letter down and stood.

"No, I'm not alright. I just found out some very disturbing news regarding Captain Pierce and Colonel Lacy." She stared hard at him for a moment. "I'm not even sure what to think right now, BJ." Her hard demeanor deflated instantly and she sunk down onto Hawkeye's bed.

"I know how you feel, Margaret."

Instantly, she shot up from the bunk. "You knew? You knew and you didn't stop him!"

"I tried!" he shouted back. "He was so goddamned determined to be a self-righteous hero, nothing penetrated his brain!"

She backed down but didn't sit, preferring instead to pace around the small space. "I just…he's the best of us, you know?" She still had trouble believing Hawkeye Pierce could cut into a healthy person for no reason. No medical reason, anyway.

"He did it save those boys," BJ reasoned. "I'm not saying I agree with him, but Colonel Lacy was going to defy orders and take those boys up that hill tomorrow."

"Then you should have reported him to Colonel Potter!" Margaret fired back. "Not cut into him like an animal."

BJ sat defeated on his bed. "I know I should have gone to Potter, hell I probably should have done more to stop him. But a part of me? A part of me agreed with him."

Margaret knew the dangers of war, how intense situations could cloud judgment and impair thinking. God knew they'd been in an intense situation for quite awhile now, none of them longer than her and Pierce. But that was no excuse.

"No," she returned firmly. "Nothing gives him the right." And with that she was gone, leaving BJ alone with his thoughts. She was scowling on the way back to her tent, sending enlisted men scrambling to get out of her way. Her lights were off but she knew her way around so well that she undressed in the dark. Only when she moved toward her bed did she hear the shuffling, the telltale sound of someone in her tent. Her heart started racing and her whole body coiled to respond to the threat. It wasn't until she heard the ragged intake of breath and the whisper of her name that she identified her visitor.

"Pierce?" Her arm shot out to turn on the light. He was sitting hunched over on her bunk, head in his hands and elbows on his knees. When he looked up at her, she gasped at the lost look in his eyes.

"I just…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come in here. But BJ's back in the Swamp and I can't really…" he trailed off, and Margaret knew he was struggling. But the image of Colonel Lacy lying in post op flooded her vision and she set her jaw.

"Why?" her voice was hard, and the surprise in his eyes was evident. "How could you do that? I thought you were better than that! The infallible Doctor Pierce, unwavering in his ethics."

He stood up frantically, his expression panicked and flighty. He'd come in here to escape the torment and guilt, but she was just piling it on. "It has to stop," he said to her, repeating his argument with BJ. "You don't know what he was going to do, how many men he was going to send home in a box." His anger was returning, and he answered her defiant tone with his own.

"And what if he'd developed complications? Or an infection?"

His eyes dropped briefly, but when he caught her gaze again there was fire in his eyes. "Don't," he spat. "Don't get all righteous on me. I saved over a hundred lives tonight with a simple procedure, by removing an extraneous organ."

"Me get righteous? Are you listening to yourself? And don't try to rationalize this with me. You took an oath, Pierce, to heal the sick and do no harm. What you did was wrong!" She stepped toward him and for a brief instant he thought she was going to hit him, but she just clenched her fists at her sides.

"I know," his whole body deflated and he slumped back against the wall next to the door. She hadn't expected him to give in so easily, and his distress unnerved her so much that she almost missed his next words. "And I'm probably never going to forgive myself. But there are a hundred young men who have a better chance to get home than they did yesterday. So I'll have to live with that and hope it's enough." He looked at her and his fingers twitched, itching to pull her to him for some comfort. But he knew she wasn't offering any right now, so he stayed still.

"I just…" her gaze was hard as they locked eyes. "I thought you were better that that."

"Margaret –"

"Get out." Her tone brooked no argument, but Hawkeye Pierce had never been one to heed prudent warnings when they were given.

"Margaret, no, let's talk about this." This time he did reach for her, but she slapped his hand away.

"No, Pierce, I'm serious. You're lucky I don't go to Colonel Potter. But we've been through too much together, and you're obviously enduring enough punishment having to live with this. I just…I don't know if I can live with it." He didn't budge for a moment. "Please leave, Captain, before I call the MP's and have you removed." She gestured for the door and he took his cue. But she didn't miss the look in his eyes as he walked away – a look she knew all too well: heartbreak.


Next up: "The Yalu Brick Road"