I know it's been a while since I've updated this story. I know I promised no filler chapters for a while, but the story is winding down and I'm giving you all...GASPS!...another filler chapter, just for the time being. I hope you do enjoy it. I will update and finish this up soon, hopefully before the end of the year. Then, I can focus on the newer stories. Again, I do want to thank all who have supported me. You all know who you are!

For three glorious days, Hawkeye enjoyed himself in Seoul. When released the next day to his own devises, he spent the time fooling around, as if he were living to the fullest and then dying at the end of the three days. Along with BJ, he drank at the bars, walked in the parks and posed with statues, to see if the locals would know who was what and what positions they thought offensively sexual. Then, without his friend, he would visit all of his lady friends, jump into some of the local's home for local entertainment and even treat some of the sick for free, not caring if it would cost him his life. He balanced play and pleasure with work and found out how it suited him, how he felt the need to settle down someday.

He did not know how he was going to react when getting back to the 4077th. He did not know how he was going to act when he saw Margaret again. Every night even, after reassurances from Sergeants Pyle and Gaines (the men behind the voices) that they would go back, Hawkeye dreamed of Margaret, even after suppressing the feelings for so long and not even thinking about them on the trip for justice. He would confess his feelings for her in these dreams of his, kiss her gently, show her how much of a gentleman he could be…but then, she would push him away and leave, going after some unknown general with a million stars. He never understood the dreams, but reality might be different.

I hope.

Even without the anxiety about Margaret, Hawkeye was also nervous about going back to the war. Who in their right mind would welcome him back? How will everyone feel, especially after Major Floyd and his cronies went by? How would the war affect them afterward? Who will be able to testify at the trials coming up, if possible?

Hawkeye knew that both Wright and Wellington, the two who had initially chased him and Klinger around Tokyo and almost cost him an arm and a leg from hanging out of a window, were charged with many things he could not ponder. They were also going to be held in the stockade for a long time, no questions asked. Already, even though the US was founded on an "innocent until proven guilty" card, the two's verdicts were already set to guilty. That much Hawkeye knew.

"And what about us?" he randomly asked BJ as they headed back to the 4077th in a jeep. While Gaines was driving him, BJ and Charles back, Pyle had Kellye and Klinger in a second vehicle.

"So, what about us, Pierce?" Charles asked, sniffling from his seat in the front. "We'd be going back to that hellhole from whence we came from. No reward necessary, but I don't know what would be nicer. Tokyo and escaping from that hideous creature was more than my fair share of 'fun' this week."

As Charles artificially laughed, BJ snorted. "At this point, I think the best thing would be to go home."

"Yeah, when?" Hawkeye asked bitterly. "We've been here forever and now, this had to happen. I can't believe it."

"Hawkeye, we're going back to camp," BJ explained slowly. "What else did you expect? A pat on the back and a ticket homeward, like we all wanted?"

Hawkeye was silent for a moment, thinking.

"Oh, come off it, Pierce," Charles exclaimed from his front seat. "It's not like we're not going to be welcomed back. Why, I'm sure all those boys and girls are just itching to have another party because they're so bored."

"Or because they're happy to be back to normal," BJ mumbled, trying to ignore Charles' insidious remarks.

"Regardless," Hawkeye said, trying to keep cheerful and forget his dreams, "when we get back, I think a drink is in order."

"When is the last time you had that awful swill you call gin?" Charles asked, still on a snobbish roll. "Last Sunday, before Father Mulcahy's Mass?"

"Ha, ha, very funny, Charles," Hawkeye replied, the twinkle in his blue eyes seeming to come back. "When we get back, I think your pants will be the least of your worries. I think your tape recorder will be safer there instead of out in the open."

"Pierce, don't you even dare," Charles growled.

Behind the jeeps, enemy fire suddenly started. As the three abruptly turned from teasing to sullen, they then remembered the job they had when they reached the camp. It wasn't about the partying or the boredom anymore. It was about the war and the wounded that they had to patch back up.

And Hawkeye was in no mood to be reminded of it. He had more thoughts about Margaret.

"Now, what was that you were going to say, Charles?" Hawkeye asked sweetly, ignoring the mortar rounds far behind them as he held onto his helmet for dear life.

"Pierce, you sniffling fool, leave everything alone and you'll be left in one piece," Charles promised just as nicely as Gaines announced that they would be back in camp in another hour.

"Oh, goody," BJ said, clapping his hands sarcastically. "I can't wait for the games to begin."

~00~

When Hawkeye remembered a distant memory, when Henry Blake had announced a ceasefire from General Clayton, he had been the happiest man alive. He was supposedly going home, leaving the hellhole from which he had been staying in for too long now (some three months, at that point). Everyone had partied on for hours before Clayton came and the message had arrived that the war was back on (and most of their things missing until new supplies had come in). Now, it was two years later almost and he had never seen so much celebration in his life. It was almost like the war was actually over.

Toilet paper and gloves blown up as balloons were everywhere. People surrounded the two jeeps and tried carrying everyone out, but failed when Klinger's dress popped out and showed too much and he insisted that he walk out without assistance. As Hawkeye got out of the jeep, he found himself face-to-face with Colonel Potter. With Gaines, Pyle, BJ, Charles, Kellye and Klinger disappearing into the crowds, Hawkeye was surprised to find his CO staring at him so intently at him and smiling.

"Well, Pierce, this has been a happy day," Colonel Potter began awkwardly, not sure of what else to say.

"You can say that again," Hawkeye replied slowly, shuffling his feet. "Just don't thank me for it. I didn't get all of this by accident, you know."

"But because of you, we don't have to live under someone else's thumb," Colonel Potter insisted, putting a father arm over Hawkeye's shoulder and leading him away from the partying. "Pierce, you've saved not only Margaret, but this camp as well. There is a lot to be thankful for right now, even if it's not Thanksgiving. You need to know that."

Hawkeye was again struck with silence.

"Son, you would not believe the horror these people have gone through," Potter continued, as if Hawkeye was also in on the conversation. "It's not just the war that has them up in arms, but the treatment the Army has given them because they let this jackass accuse them of something that they did not do. And, as your CO here, it's usually my duty to see that some of you have a career in this Man's Army. Right now, I've lost all confidence in that. I can't persuade a bunch of you draftees and regulars to stay in this Army for longer than the war. After this, it'll be impossible, and all because of Major Floyd."

Hawkeye could not help but snort, keeping his laughter in. "You? You have to get some of us to stay in?"

"All part of the job, I suppose," Potter replied, happy to see Hawkeye in a better mood than before. "Pierce…Hawkeye, listen. You really don't know how grateful we really are to you and I do want to be the first to say…thank you. Thank you for believing in the impossible and doing what this camp was probably too scared to do. But can you also forgive an old Calvary officer to staying in position and following orders?"

"Can I say no to those pretty colonel eyes?" Hawkeye immediately asked as Colonel Potter unhooked his arm from his shoulder.

"No, you probably can't," Potter said, laughing. "Now, we do have something down at –"

An announcement soon interrupted Potter and brought back the reality of war, something that had followed the five back to camp. "Attention, attention all personnel. Incoming wounded, coming in on chopper, ambulance and bus. Welcome back the heroes to Korea, everyone!"

Hawkeye and Colonel Potter both looked to each other in dismay and then professionally. It was back to business as usual. The war had come knocking on their doors again.