"Attention all units, Attention all units. There will be a poker tournament today after dinner. Anyone is welcome to take part, bring money and if you're broke, Captain Pierce says 'anything from a nurses tent works as well.'"
The flu had hit, it was only supposed to last for twenty-four hours . . . Hawkeye laughed every time he thought of this. Right now it was only making the nurses sick, Hawkeye, Trapper, Henry and Frank still hadn't caught it; and everyone prayed they would remain healthy because the memory of the last flu virus still hung in the air. Hawkeye really didn't need another signed toilet paper roll.
The poker tournament in the Swamp was dismal, almost no one turned up. So their they all sat at the small table, Henry, Hawkeye, Trapper, Frank (surprisingly enough) and of course Sara who was giving them a run for their money.
"I fold." Henry said over his cigar, "I've lost one to many times to you Sara." Her eyes twinkled.
"Oh come on Henry, don't be a sore loser, we'll have to call you Frank then!" Frank glared at her, "I resent that."
The game went on for a few more minutes but everyone quickly lost interest and moved over to the officers clubs except for Sara who stayed behind to try to get some rest.
"Give me the driest martini you can manage." Hawkeye ordered, "I expect to be drunk in half the time it took me yesterday."
"I'll have what he's having." Trapper said as he sat down next to Hawkeye on a bar stool.
"You two will have to be careful," Henry warned, "There's a lady in your tent now."
Hawkeye and Trapper stared at each other for a moment before smirking slightly and then bursting into tears.
"Really Henry, if your so concerned about Sara, get Frank out of the tent, I'd say he's the biggest threat out of all of us." Trapper said, "Beside we're not perverts."
"I have no comment on that." Henry said as he sipped his drink, "I just think you two should be careful about what you say or do in that tent, especially you Pierce."
"Me Henry?" Hawkeye said, "Oh please you know me better than that." Over in the corner of the bar, Frank and Margaret sat together and chatted quietly over their drinks... plotting. After a few minutes They both stood up and walked over to Hawkeye, Henry and Trapper who were sitting at the bar.
"Sir," Margaret said, "Major Burns has something he want's to say to you." Henry sighed and muttered something which sounded slightly like 'Why me?' before turning around to face Margaret and Frank., "What is it Margaret?"
"Despite the fact that she's clearly mature for her age," Margaret began, clearly not letting Frank have any say in this, "Frank doesn't think it's suitable for Sara to be staying in the surgeons tent..."
"Oh, "Hawkeye said, "Your just jealous because there isn't enough room for you!"
"Frank get's very lonely Margaret," Trapper put in.
"Be quiet!" Margaret snapped as Frank put on a look that gave him a sour lemon appearance, "It's not healthy for a young girl like her to be living in a unhygienic pen with animals like you two. And further more these two are disgusting maniacs with sick thoughts in their heads."
"Are you suggesting Frank, that in some kind of drunk rage either Hawkeye or Trapper would do something to her?" Henry asked as he unscrewed the cap off of a bottle of head ache pills.
"Yes that's exactly what Frank is saying!" Margaret snapped.
"Oh do be fair Hotlips," Hawkeye said, clearly drunk now, "If I went back to the swamp like this, she could knock me lightly in the jaw and I'd be out cold."
Trapper laughed with his drunk friend, "Drunk you're more than am I." He laughed again and pretended to hiccup and then became serious once more, "Margaret, you expect to much from us, we might be weirdo's but we're certainly not sick weirdo's."
"Tell me Frank," Hawkeye said, "Where did you take ventriloquist lessons? Your absolutely wonderful at not moving your mouth while your dummy talks."
Margaret opened her mouth to answer back to that but before she could, Henry looked at his watched and turned to Hawkeye and Trapper, "You two have duty now don't you?" They didn't but Henry wanted to talk to Margaret and Frank in private, but with the way the conversation was going so far he would be talking to just Margaret. Getting the idea, Hawkeye and Trapper got up from their bar stools and strolled over back to the Swamp.
"Honestly, Margaret can't ever seem to leave well enough alone." Hawkeye muttered.
"Your making sense," Trapper said, "Clearly you haven't had enough to drink."
"shush," Hawkeye said, "She's asleep." He pointed at Sara who was lying on her cot with her eyes closed.
"No I'm not," Sara said, "But the idea of fainting seems pretty good to me..."
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Well lets just say I'm not liking this flu any better today than I was yesterday. In fact, I think I hate it, hate it enough to have it."
"Uh-oh," Hawkeye and Trapper walked over to Sara's cot as she sat up.
"Your burning up Sara..." Trapper said, "Let's get you to the quarantine area."
"More suction." Hawkeye ordered, but his mind was somewhere else. The flu bug was still circling around, nurses came and went depending on how they felt. Sara was still in the sick room, her fever was slowly rising.
"It has to be repercussions from when they shot her." Trapper said, as he picked bone fragments from a young soldier, for some reason the OR was completely quiet as the surgeons worked away on the newest batch of wounded.
"I hope so," Hawkeye said, "she doesn't need anything else like this right now. Clamp." The nurse handed him a clamp.
Henry looked tired, "Tell the colonel in charge of this unit to stop telling his man that it's a good thing to collect bullets."
"Did the war start Henry?" Trapper asked, "Someone should have told me..."
"I thought this was a surgeons convention..." Hawkeye said.
The hours in the OR passed slowly, several nurses had to go lay down and non of them came back. The flu was spreading like a horrible joke told by Hawkeye, by the end of the day everyone knows it and is sick of it, that's just how the flu was effecting people. Hawkeye was worried about her.
"I need a stiff drink," Trapper said as they washed up from the meat ball surgery, "You coming?"
Hawkeye shook his head, "I'm gonna go check on Sara and the other nurses, I'll catch up with you."
Trapper shrugged, "Suit yourself." When Trapper arrived at the officers club, he found Henry was already there, downing a banana daiquiri.
"What? That time of the day already?" He joked as he sat down next to Henry.
"It's always that time of day for you," The colonel replied, "Where's your partner in crime?"
"Checking on his patient in crime."
Henry smiled slightly, "Pierce has become quite attached to that kid."
Trapper laughed as he sipped his martini, "He has indeed, hope it won't effect his practice." There was a moment of silence before Trapper looked at Henry, "You don't think she would.... would she?" Henry just shrugged and drank the rest of his daiquiri.
"He's a grown man," Trapper started to say, "Wait, cut that, he's an over grown child. Still I'm sure he can keep his head and wits about him."
"Wits for sure," henry said, "But if he loses his head I'm not allowed to let him operate." Trapper laughed and finished his martini.
"I'm gonna go check on Sara, wanna come?"
"Why not?" Henry said.
When they arrived in the building reserved for those with the flu, Henry and Trapper weren't the least surprised to see Hawkeye sitting on Sara's cot, checking her vital signs, taking her temperature and talking with her.
"How you doing kiddo?" Henry asked, "You've got one hell of a fever."
Sara smiled slightly, "You don't have to tell me that, first I'm hot, then I'm cold, I feel like someone's placed a thirty pound bag of heated bricks on my forehead. And if you nine could just stop spinning I would be able to get up without falling over... again."
"Well hang in there," Trapper said, "You'll get over it, everyone else has."
"Yeah, sooner than later is always nice. You guys sure don't look any better than I feel, you might want to try this sleep thing, I hear it's a big fad."
"Alright, just talk to the nurses if you need anything." Hawkeye said.
"Will do." Sara replied.
The three surgeons left her to sleep so they could go get some of their own.