Nothing else seemed important from that moment. He tried to see where she had been hit. He immediately put his fingers on her neck to take her pulse. It was weaker than he would have liked to be.

"Margaret, can you hear me?" he asked as he began looking for the source of the blood. It appeared to be coming from her chest, glancing quickly at it.

"She is alive, thank God," Hawkeye thought to himself. He felt a huge sense of relief if only for the moment. He knew he was going to have to operate. It was too serious a wound to wait. How was he going to do this? When? Where? The North Koreans did not appear to be leaving anytime soon.

"Hawkeye.." Margaret whispered.

"Yeah?" He looked at her, lying there helpless on the floor. She looked so terrified, so helpless. She had tears in her eyes as she looked back at him.

"Is everything going to be OK?" she whispered to him and looked at him with a look of terror in her eyes that he would never forget.

"Yes, I promise. It'll be OK, I'll make sure of it."

"I want you to find my gun and use it," she told him, hoping he could follow through with this request. She knew very well what his ideas were, and wished that she didn't have to tell him that. She waited for a response. She also knew he would have to do something or they were all going to be either hurt or killed.

He couldn't believe what she just asked of him. "What?"

"Captain, just take my gun and shoot it. That's an order!" It took all of her remaining strength to argue with him.

The pain was becoming unbearable. Someone was going to have to do something soon. She could still be a Major when push came to shove. She hated pushing him to do something he was completely and totally against. It was the only way out that she was able to see. Now, her only hope was that he would be able to forgive her later on. She laid her head back on the ground, closed her eyes, and silently prayed that everything would be okay.

With the promise he made that everything was going to be OK, he clearly knew what needed to be done. He couldn't sit around and watch her suffer. They had been through so much together since arriving at the 4077th. Also, he knew she was right and the more time he spent arguing with her, the less likely they would be to ever leave here alive. He glanced around the room. How was he going to shoot this gun? Guns terrified him. He knew from first-hand experience about the destructiveness of them. What really got to him was operating on the young Korean children who got in the line of fire and were wounded. They would come into the 4077th, and they were so helpless and scared. Then, there were all of the times that Frank Burns would order him to use a gun and he so adamantly refused. If only Frank Burns could see him now. He knew he would have to do something fast and he quickly realized that he could be their last hope for survival.

He remembered seeing her put the gun in her jacket pocket earlier in the day. He grabbed it. Would he try to shoot all three of them at once? Would it be possible? He also knew that he was running out of time, with the North Koreans standing there watching him and with Margaret needing surgery soon.

Somehow, he mustered up the courage and felt his finger on the trigger. The gun was hidden from the view of the North Korean soldiers. He took a deep breath, and before actually realizing what exactly he was doing, he had shot the gun several times. The soldiers who had been standing were now lying on the floor.

"What have I done?" he thought to himself. "Oh, God, no!" he screamed. He rushed over to the soldiers on the floor. Blood was everywhere. He put his fingers on the neck of the first soldier. One dead. He got up and frantically ran over to check another one. Dead. He checked the third. No pulse. Slowly, he came to the realization that he had shot and killed them all. He was momentarily in a state of shock. He had to sit down. He couldn't really believe it. He sat down on the floor next to the dead North Korean soldiers and put his hands over his face.

"That's some sharp shooting you have there, Doc," the other doctor slapped him on the back as a way of congratulating him. "You downed three at once. Where'd you learn to shoot?"

"First time. Call it beginner's luck," Hawkeye said with a sarcastic tone in his voice. Now he was being congratulated for killing? This was all too surreal. It was almost as though time had stood still over the last few minutes.

"Can someone help me with the Major?," Hawkeye said to the doctor standing there. "Let's get her stable enough to get her back to the 4077th. She is going to need care asap."

"OK, you got it. Anything - just name it. Man, you saved our lives," the doctor was so happy that Hawkeye Pierce was able to save the day. If only Hawkeye himself shared that same enthusiasm. How would he face himself in the mirror and know that he had killed others? Enemy or not, they were human beings. He had no right to play God and decide their fate for them.

"Can we get a chopper here to take her back?" Hawkeye asked, not knowing what the protocols were for this. He hoped that it was possible. It would be faster to get her back to where they could actually help her.

"Yes, sir. I just called to get one here on the double," Dr. Smith replied, hoping that they could get back to their unit and save her life.

Hawkeye heard the chopper approach before he saw the familiar colors of it. He helped put her on the stretcher and secured her for the ride back. He climbed into the chopper and sat down in the passenger seat. Every time he thought about her, he knew how he felt about her. She was unconscious from her injuries at this point. He also knew that once back at camp, they could save her. He couldn't imagine his life without her. That kept him going through the exhaustion he was starting to feel.