*See Parts 1-2 for Warnings*
© 2000 MCLPart 3
After sleeping for 6 hours after her surgery, Chelsea awoke with a blood curdling scream. Hawkeye had fallen asleep beside her in a chair, and her scream caused him to jump awake and yell out in start. "What? What??" Hawkeye said as he saw Chelsea thrashing around in her bed like she was fighting off an unseen enemy. Hawkeye lept off of the chair and sat next to the fighting kid. He grabbed her flailing hands and held them still. "It's okay, your're safe here, we aren't going to hurt you! You're at a M*A*S*H! I'm a doctor." Hawkeye yelled over her screams of chiniese jibberish.
Suddenly Chelsea opened her mind and let his voice in, and came out of her open eyed nightmare. She stopped fighting and Hawkeye slowly let go of her. Chelsea turned her head and looked into his eyes. She by passed the looks of fear, lack of sleep and utter shock as her own eyes grew and filled with tears. He looked like her, and he'd spoken english without a chiniese accent. She stared into his brown eyes a second more before she sat up and grabbed him with her good arm.
She buried her head into his chest and cried as she held onto him as tight as she could. Hawkeye looked down at her and took a deep breath. He looked up and then back down at the small, black and blue shivering child. He was dying to know more about her, who she was, why she was here, how she'd been so badly injured. Most of all, what her name was. He'd been calling her 'The baby' or 'little one' since she arrived. He also wanted to know who the pigs were that hurt her so he could send them on a one-way trip to hell.
Chelsea's full blown screams and panic soon turned into tears and sniffles, and Hawkeye decided to take a risk and try to talk to her. He knew she had been screaming inn chiniese, but she sure didn't look chiniese to him. "Uh, do you understand english, sweetheart?" Hawk asked. Chelsea heard him and thought she was crazy. Someone had spoken to her, in a langueage she fully understood! She looked up at Hawkeye, eyes black and blue, scared and crying.
"Uh-huh." She replied, stopping suddenly at a pain in her mouth. Hawkeye saw and figured she'd be sore, she'd had 4 teeth knocked out and she was swollen from it a little. "Hurt?" He asked. Chelsea nodded. Hawkeye smiled and held up a finger before going into his white doctor's jacket and fishing around a second. His hand found what he was looking for and pulled it out. "Here. A Radar special." Hawkeye said, as he handed her a soft piece of gum. Chelsea took it like a starved animal.
"You're welcome." Hawkeye said smiling as she gnawed the gum into a wad. "Better?" Hawkeye asked. "Yes sir." Chelsea mumbling in between chews. "I'm Hawkeye." Hawk said and she nodded. Chelsea became aware of her arm itching and she reached over to scratch it and raked her nails over the cast. She looked down and looked as though she'd seen a ghost. "My..arm.." She said shocked as she stared at in in disbelief. "It's okay, I had to put it in a cast because it was broken. It's still all there and in a couple of weeks you'll be able to slap anyone you want." Hawkeye said and he noticed she hadn't smiled at a single thing he'd said to try and make her feel better.
"So how'd you get here? To Korea, I mean." Hawkeye asked. Chelsea swallowed carefully so she wouldn't lose her gum and replied, "My dad was a Major an he got called to the front, and he died there. Then chiniese people came to your tent and took me and my nanny away and put us in this tent, and then they took her away and I never saw her again." Chelsea answered and Hawkeye nodded. "So what's your name?" Hawkeye asked. "Chelsea." She replied. "That's a pretty name, it fits you." Hawkeye said and Chelsea still did not smile. She remained stone faced. "Chelsea, do you know who hurt you?" Hawkeye asked quietly.
Chelsea stopped chewing her gum and looked down as she clutched his shirt again. "Hey, it's okay." Hawkeye said as he felt her begin to shake again. Not moving her head from his chest, she answered, "The chiniese men did. They were mean..they shot me and dinnit care that it was bleedin or that it hurted..and the one..he..never mind...then they threw a gun at me and yelled at me to take it...they hit me and hit me and made me walk funny with other kids...THEN..." Chelsea suddenly stopped as the memory of the girl's death took her over. Her screams and cries of fear and pain rang in her ears. Hawkeye gave her a squeeze.
She snapped out of it and continued, "They made 5 girls from the group go into a field an all of em but 1 died cos the ground blew up! I was friends with the one who dinnit die Mr. Hawkeye, and know what happened to her??" Chelsea asked as she began to cry again. Hawkeye was pretty near tears himself as he nodded no and she went on. "She was 5, 5 years old! She was real scared, and she was yellin, "Help me, it hurts, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" and you know what they did? one of them went over and shooted her in her head, and laughed at her cos she was dead now!!" Chelsea finished as she nearly choked on her gum as her panic returned. Hawkeye held her and had to pat her back to keep her from choking. She soon coughed the gum back up and continued to cry.
"They hit me cos I walked forwards when I meant to the side an when I sneezed! I'm scared! I'm scared an I want my daddy! I wanna go home! I.." Chelsea yelled as she began to fall asleep against Hawkeye's chest. "Chelsea, you're going to be okay. No one here is going to hurt you. Give me your gum." Hawkeye said softly as he held his hand out underneath her chin. She spit it into his palm and fell asleep. Hawkeye smiled and said, "Thanks for the drool." He took the pinkish red wad and stuck it in it's wrapper, and put it in his pocket. Then he gently lay Chelsea back down on her pillow. Suddenly, she grabbed his shirt with her good hand, and he said, "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Hearing Hawkeye's voice calmed her again and she went back to sleep, with Hawkeye at her bedside.
TBC
