Quite a few reviews. I still won't elevate my expectations. Thank you, guys! One of the readers wanted me to resolve some subplots and jump start the main plot. In all honesty, I don't know how to jump start it. The whole point of the story is how sometimes small, insignificant things affect people in a stressed job and place. Besides, I am trying to keep the story on the same lines as the show so its hard to introduce something like a bolt of electricity. However, if things go as I planned and don't blow up in my face, I think it will all fall into place soon!
Just hang in there.

Enjoy the weekend treat!

Chapter 53

Before I drifted, I just knew it was a bad idea. Frank was going to wake me up. That was a given. For all those times when he was asleep and I wasn't and I bothered him, this was his lifetime's wish coming true where I was the one needing sleep and he was the one at the poking end.

I wasn't proven wrong.

Frank was fairly predictable especially when it came to malice.

He always came through!

Tonight wasn't any different.

I heard the noise first before I felt the sudden cold draft and the loud cackle emanating from his mouth, reminding me of a hyena with bronchitis. Cate shushed him but he kept giggling like a six year old girl. It was not often that he got the upper hand on me and I just knew he was going to savor this rare moment except, I just wasn't ready for his calamitous sense of humor right now.

"Frank! Please, this is the third time today alone. Let me sleep." I spoke loud as I could. I heard him giggle some more before he started sniveling.

"How do you like them apples now, Pierce?"

"Fraaaank! Let him sleep. Is he right?" Chimed in Cate.

"Oh Cate! You don't know him. He is ...You have no idea."

"Third time, Frank?"

"Yeah. Third time. And if you want, I can tell you exactly when everytime. Frank, man! Shut up, willya?" I was angry at him now. Even I never went to such lengths to make him miserable.

"See that? Did you see that, Cate? I am his superior officer."

"He is incorrigible. I know. But you are a grown up, sweetie..."

"Sweetie..." I could not contain myself. Ape and Juliet could only last so long, in my opinion.

"Oh stuff it, Pierce!" And with that, they both started arguing.

Maybe Col. Potter did have a point. It really WAS too soon to be back to Swamp.

I waited for them to shut up but then lost the battle of wills. It was time to escape this pandemonium!

I threw off the flimsy standard Army issue blanket.

"PIERCE! You are in your underwear!"

"I know Frank. I was there when I undressed."

"You pervert! There is a lady present."

"Hello lady!" I waved my hand at Cate before figuring out the pile that was my clean uniform only...three hours ago. Cursing Frank under my breath, I put on my pants as they both watched me in horror and amusement.

"Boy its cold!"

"PIERCE!"

"Yo-o-o-o" I looked at him again, buttoning my pants and reaching for the shirt.

"You cannot be in your underwear."

"Better yours than mine, fella. Yours itch!"

"No. They. Don't!" I chuckled when he took the bait and spoke in his signature indignant tone

Cate was watching us quietly, with an amused smile on her face. Maybe there was still a chance to save her. Just maybe.

"They do. Trust me! I tried."

"Pierce, I will have your hide for this." Now he was seething.

"You want me to go out in this cold in my undies? I maybe gallant but even I draw a line between gallantry and stupidity."

"Let it go, Frank. He was sleeping. What's the big deal?"

"Wow, Frank. Don't you think she is a little too smart for you? She actually talks sense." Even as I said it, I knew it was a mistake.

"You stay out of this, Ben." She proved me right.

"Yeah! Stay out of this, buttinsky!"

Frank was giving an expression that I always failed to decipher. It could have been translated as sniveling, whining, indignant and a few other things even Freud wouldn't touch. Not even with a ten foot pole.

"Don't do anything I would do, children!" I advised them while putting on my boots.

"Stuff it, Pierce!" That, of course, was Frank.

"Where are you going?" Cate sounded a little concerned.

"Where I don't have to listen to beauty and the beast whispering sweet nothings in each others ears. Or my ear, for that matter."

With that, I left the Swamp. Frank was only doing what I had done all so often. And then I remembered how he gatecrashed my date earlier and now bullied me out of my own bed in my own tent. I wondered if the tables had turned or had I lost my magic touch?

Best option would have been to go sleep in Cate's bed. But that was not a very good idea. It was just Frank being himself and she had little or nothing to do with that. He was incurable, with or without her.

Knowing post-op to be quiet and almost vacant, I went there to find peace, hoping against hope there was no party going on there.

There wasn't.

I took the farthest bed from the main entrance which incidentally was closer to the officer's club exit. Before I lied down, I took a paper, wrote 'Let Me Sleep' in bold and signed my name under and stuck it to the curtain at the foot end before drawing the side curtains as well.

Last thought before I finally dozed off was, 'Should have thought of this earlier, Hawkeye!'.

Despite the unfamilar lumps and bumps in the mattress, I slept.

No dreams that night. That rarely happened and was always welcome because of the great chances of having a nightmare instead of a dream.

I was awakened by a nurse in the morning.

"Good morning, Hawkeye!"

"Good morning, Sunshine." I looked at my watch. It was eight in the morning. Another long and boring day had started.

"You want breakfast here?"

"NO. I don't want breakfast, period. Thanks anyway." I gathered my wits and got up.

The kid BJ operated on yesterday was awake. I decided to look him up before leaving.

"Hello Martins. I am Dr. Pierce. How are you?"

"I am fine, sir. Thank you."

"You look fine too. Heard you were trying to scare the staff yesterday?"

"Oh no sir. I wasn't." Martins turned real serious and I chuckled.

"Well, that was the scuttlebutt. I did not believe it though."

"No sir! I don't believe in scuttlebutt either, sir. Even if its true."

"Thats mighty smart of you, Martins. I don't believe it especially when its true."

He looked at me in a dazed fashion. Probably the morphine. I smiled at him before telling him to breathe deeply. Chest was clear. Abdomen was silent but soft. I reassured him before going through his chart again.

"Nurse, continue with the IV fluids. Normal saline, one liter every eight hours. Leave the NG in for now. Continue chest physiotherapy and incentive spirometry. I want fresh labs on his electrolytes and BUN/creatinine. Get another 'crit too. And a complete blood count. And change his dressing. This one is soaked a little. Did I miss anything?"

"You did not add potassium."

"Not a lot of NG drainage. His bowel was active yesterday and he was not under anesthesia for too long. Lets watch it till noon and then, if required, we can add some potassium. Good pick, by the way."

"Thank you doctor!"

"Ummm, get me the dressing tray and gloves. I think I will see for myself how the wound is."

Wound was fine. Weather was favoring Martins. I redressed the wound and then left the post-op.

With one smooth move, thanks to Frank, I was back to working and it felt pretty good doing that.

It was sunny outside and it looked like a good day despite the mud/slush. The wind had a bite which felt good against the sunny morning.

I went to Swamp to get toiletries, towel and my robe. BJ was asleep. Frank was not there. Maybe he was just trying to hunt/haunt me and only returned when he smelt me in the Swamp. I smiled at his wretchedness before leaving for shower.

P.S. Next chapter is too damned long and goes up on Monday. Stay tuned!