(Inspired by the episode "Preventative Medicine.")

Playing God

A simple appendectomy…

Hawkeye's words came back to him full-force, nearly knocking him over.

Simple—such a dangerous word. When you're cutting into a human body, there's no such thing as simple.

Cutting into a healthy body is mutilation, B.J. had argued.

Why didn't I listen to him? Hawkeye wondered. Why did I insist on going through with this?

Of all the stupid, self-righteous, arrogant…

He sat on the bench in the scrub room, shaking, bewildered, horrified. His world had gone black.

Col. Lacy had died on the table. And Hawkeye Pierce had gone from healer to killer.