Radar O'Reilly threw down his pen and sat back in his chair, removing his glasses and rubbing wearily at his eyes. It had to be almost one a.m? He glanced at his watch and saw that the time was actually a quarter to two. Where had the time gone? He filed everything away neatly, and stuffed his completed reports into a large envelope ready to be checked and signed in the morning by the Colonel before dispatching to I-Corps. He took the envelope into the Colonel's office and locked it into the safe as usual, switched off the light and dropped down on to his bed, just as he was. He was far too exhausted to bother getting undressed for bed, and anyway, the weather was freezing, and the heaters as usual at this time of the year were all in the hospital. He cocooned himself in his blanket and closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes sometime later and clicked on the light, peering with one eye open at the time on his watch. Half past two. It should be almost morning by now! He groaned and rolled over, forgetting all about turning the light off, and buried himself beneath his pillow and tried once again to get to sleep.

This time when he emerged from his cocoon to check the time, it was twenty minutes past three. This night was going to last forever!

Radar had been very sleepy while he had been working on his reports, but now that he was free to sleep, he was finding that his mind just would not turn off. He felt wide awake. He went through in his mind what work he might have left to do? He figured that if he was going to be awake anyway, he might as well spend his time doing something useful. The trouble was, he was completely up to date with everything. There was nothing he could get on with without first obtaining signatures from Colonel Potter. The Colonel had been asleep for five hours now, and would not appreciate being woken up at this hour of the night by an unnaturally wakeful company clerk. There was nothing for it, but to try again to go to sleep.

Thirty minutes later, still wide awake, he got up, put his boots on and wandered out of the room. Perhaps someone else would have a job for him to do? Something dull and tedious that would make him fall asleep?

The only one up and around, he found, was Klinger on sentry duty in the compound. Klinger expressed satisfactory sympathy with Radar's insomnia, but had nothing useful to suggest. Radar rolled his eyes and headed for the hospital.

In the main post-op ward, Captain Lloyd was on duty, with Nurse Hollister. Kerry looked up as Radar appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. She finished making notes on Private Luca's chart, and then came over to him.

"Hey Radar, are you alright? You look like you ought to be in bed and asleep."

"That's where I want to be Captain, but I can't sleep. You ain't gotta pill or something have ya'? I just keep lyin' and thinking and I just can't get to sleep."

Kerry smiled.

"You're overtired Radar, and you need to take time to unwind after working so hard before you try to sleep. You're thinking too much, right?"

Radar nodded.

"You're a doctor, Captain. Can't you give me something to help me get some sleep?"

Kerry shook her head.

"Sorry kiddo, no pills. You start taking them and you'll always need them to get any sleep at all. What do you think about the most whilst your lying there?"

"That I want to sleep and can't!"

She nodded and led the young clerk to an empty bed and sat down beside him.

"You see, that's what you are doing wrong. You know, when I was a little girl, I used to have trouble getting to sleep sometimes, and it always made me tired and grouchy the next day. Then I invented a trick to make me relax, and it worked. Every time."

"It did?" Radar looked excited. "Is it a secret or can you tell me? I'll try anything!"

"Well, I was only seven years old at the time, Radar, you might think it was a bit…babyish. After all, you're sitting here in the middle of a war! A grown man pretty much."

Radar looked slightly sheepish.

"I sleep with a teddy bear, Captain. A lotta the guys already think I'm kind of babyish because of that!"

"Well, I'll tell you what I used to do when I was seven years old. You can try it if you think it might help."

"I will! What?"

"Well, my daddy used to tell me that I couldn't sleep because I was trying too hard to sleep. If you try to sleep, it's all you think about, then you worry because you don't go off quickly, and your brain won't shut up and you stay awake all night. He used to tell me to try and think of something else."

"But how do you do that if you're worried about not getting any sleep?"

"Well Radar, I decided that the best way would be to forget that I was trying to sleep, and pretend to be someone else."

"Who?"

Kerry shrugged.

"Anyone, it doesn't matter. One night I was a kid in the back of an old horse-drawn caravan while my folks drove for miles across the plains. Another time I pretended that I was my favourite story-book character, and in my head, I invented adventures that I played out in my mind. I did that every night for months. I wasn't me, lying in bed and not sleeping. I was someone else, someplace else. Before I knew it, I was waking up in the morning, having had a full nights' sleep."

She grinned and got up.

"I suggest you get yourself some cocoa. There's a tin on the shelf in my tent. Drink it slowly, sitting up in bed, and then lie down and just relax. Forget about trying to sleep and just think about how warm and comfy you are and how tasty the cocoa is. If you need to, you can still try my old game. It always worked for me."

Radar got up.

"Thank you, Captain. I'll try that. Goodnight."

"'Night Corporal."

When Radar was gone, Nurse Hollister looked across and caught the new female doctor as a smile lingered for a few moments as she watched the lad leave the room.

"Kerry…did you really used to do that to get to sleep?"

Kerry looked round and grinned widely.

"Didn't everyone?" she asked. "Come on May, time to check on Sargeant Willis again."

Twenty minutes later, Hawkeye and Margaret came in to relieve them. Once they had completed the rounds of all the patients, nurse May Hollister said goodnight and hurried off to bed. Kerry gave Hawkeye a quick peck on the cheek, and on an impulse, stuck her head round the door of Radar's office. He was slumped on his bed, fully clothed, half sitting up. His glasses were hanging from one ear, an empty mug with the tiniest dregs of cocoa still clutched in one hand. His mouth was open and he was snoring softly. He was fast, fast asleep.

Kerry gently removed the mug from his hand and placed it safely on the floor, then she removed his cap and glasses and placed them on his desk out of the way. With gentle, professional ease, she lay him down and slipped his teddy-bear under the blanket beside him and slipped quietly outside into the dark compound.

Radar slept on.