Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters! Except Kathryn! They all
belong to M*A*S*H!
Ok this is my first mash fic so bear with me! I didn't know how to start it so it's kind of bad at the beginning but I think it gets better toward the end! Please review and tell me if you think I should continue or any suggestions you have I love hearing them! Thank You!
Chapter One
I didn't exactly know what it was going to be like there. All I knew was that it'd be a big change to go from giving needles and healing chicken pox and measles to healing soldiers wounded in battle. But I knew I had to do it. It's what father wanted. I had to do my patriotic duty. I was glad I was going.
I hadn't been waiting at the train station long before and young Lebanese man asked if I was the nurse transferring to the MASH 4077th. I told him I was and got into his jeep. I didn't really want to talk to him; I had a lot of things on my mind. A lot had happened in the past few months. The man I loved most in the world had left me. I had to leave everything I cherished behind, and I was beginning a new life that was practically a living hell. This isn't the way a 24 year old girl should be spending her life. But there was nothing I could do. I needed to go. I had to go.
Even though I didn't want to talk to this man I couldn't help feeling guilty and rude. Here he was trying to be a friendly to a person that he'd be living with so I talked to him. Besides he was a very nice person.
"So where are you from, Lieutenant…Oh I'm sorry I forgot to ask your name." He asked.
"Kathryn Callaway and I'm originally from California, but I moved to Oklahoma when I was a young girl." I replied.
"Oh our head nurse is from California. She grew up in Fort Ord." He told me.
"My father was a Commanding Officer there once. He used to take me to meet all his staff. We used to have the best times together." I said. I felt a little sad speaking of him but I had to move on.
"Holy Toledo, you sound just like Margaret." He replied surprised. "I'm sure you to will get along fine."
We talked for the duration of the ride there. His name was Maxwell Klinger but people just called him Klinger. He told me about the 4077th and it's surgeons and nurses. He told me that a pretty little thing such as myself should stay away from Captain Pierce. I hadn't known what he had meant then but I soon found out.
When we arrived at the MASH it wasn't anything like I had expected. No one really even noticed I had arrived. They all just kept going about their business. I didn't really feel welcome but it didn't matter. It wasn't like I was going to summer camp like I had as a child and everyone was going to run up to my jeep and start singing. This was a place of work and I was going to have to remember that no matter how hard it'd be.
Klinger showed me where I'd be staying and said that he'd be back for me in a half an hour to introduce me to the CO and the head nurse. I looked around my room. It wasn't like I expected but it'd do. There was a cot for a bed and everything was green. I hated green but I wouldn't learn to like it. I tried hard to make it look like home by adding pictures putting my old comforter and pillows on the cot, but it still looked horrible. I didn't really care as long as it had a roof I was happy. I looked in the mirror to check myself over. I hated wearing my uniform and was glad I had new clothes to wear.
When I glanced in the mirror I wished I hadn't. I was wearing a green t- shirt underneath another green shirt that I wore unbuttoned, with matching green pants and my dog tags to go with it. I had never really cared much about my looks, even though people had always said I was pretty. I had dark brown hair that curled at my shoulder that was now in a loose complicated braid with wisps of hair falling out everywhere, I was tall and fairly slim, and my face was pale ivory. My lips were full but what I loved most about me were my eyes they're blue and icy. They have a sort of depth to them and everyone was always complimenting on them. But I wasn't conceited. I cared now what I looked like since I wanted to make a good impression.
When Klinger returned I was both anxious and nervous. The only commanding officer I knew had been my father and head nurse had been my mother. I guess I was sort of a child at heart even for my age.
On the way there he pointed out where everything was, Triage, Pre-Op, Post-Op, the OR. It was all so army like. What had I gotten myself into? I wanted to leave but the love for my father made me stay.
"Hey don't be nervous. Colonel Potter and Major Houlihan are real nice people. They'll love a nice girl like you." Klinger told me reassuringly.
Houlihan. I thought for a minute. Where had I heard that name before? I decided not to think about it then. There wasn't any time.
"Well here we are. Ya nervous?" he asked.
"You have no idea." I answered.
"I was too. But Sherm and I are great pals now. Real comrades why you might even call us…"
"KLINGER!" yelled a voice from the next room.
"Yes sir Colonel Potter sir." He replied
I had to smile since that didn't really sound like the call of a friend.
"Get in here!" said the voice.
Klinger went in through the swinging doors leaving me alone in the room. Although I might has well have been in there I could hear there entire conversation.
"You bellowed?" Klinger asked when he entered.
"Let me know as soon as Lieutenant Callaway gets here. I want to know the minute she arrives." The voice told him
"She's already here, sir." He said.
"Well don't just stand here bring her in." said an aggravated female voice.
"Yes Major." He said
"No let her settle in first. Show her her tent and then bring her to us."
"Already done, sir. She awaits in my office."
"Well don't just stand there bring her in." said the female.
With that Klinger was out in a flash.
"They will see you know." He told me as if I hadn't heard anything.
I followed him in and found an old man sitting at his desk and a blonde lady standing next to him. The man reminded me a lot of my father. Noble brow, strong chin, face withering away slowly and whatever was left of his hair was white streaked with silver. He seemed like a friendly man and his smile was warm and inviting. The woman had been around my age maybe a few years older. She reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"Come in dear and sit. I'm Colonel Potter and this is Major Houlihan." Said the old Colonel.
Then it his me, Fort Ord, Houlihan, California, It was Margaret Houlihan.
"Margaret Houlihan!" I said in spite of myself. When I said this it made her jump.
"Well yes but for now I'd appreciate it if you'd call me Major." She said sounding surprised.
"Margaret! It's me Kat Wilkinson!"
Then it came to her.
"KAT! I haven't seen you in what," she stopped to think for a second, "Nine years. It's practically a lifetime!"
"Wait a doggone second," Colonel Potter said. "How do you two know each other?"
"Well our fathers worked together at Fort Ord. We'd play there when we were small we were best friends up until I moved to Oklahoma." I told them.
"We saw each other nine years ago, at her mother's funeral." Margaret told them. "Come on I want to introduce you to every…"
Margaret was interrupted by the sound of a PA system. "Attention all personnel, Incoming wounded, report to Triage, sorry folks."
"Well, Callaway. Let's show them what us California girls can do.
The next four hours were a mix of blood, gore, and a nauseating feeling that felt permanent. I had never seen so much carnage in all my years as a nurse. There were soldiers whose limbs would be permanently lost, or ones whose cries of pain and suffering were impossible to bear, but the worst ones were those who couldn't be helped and knew it. Left there to die. Not like humans but like animals who had been horribly mistreated. It was a wonder how I got through it though there was a time that I thought I wouldn't.
"Suction! I need suction." Yelled the surgeon who I was assisting.
"Right sorry!" I pleaded. I wasn't used to this kind of pressure.
"Jeez Margaret," he said, "Where do you get these nurses."
His words cut through me like a knife. I was trying the best I could but he obviously didn't know that.
"Lay off Hawk it's her first day." Replied the surgeon with a mustache. "Hey she's beating the rest of them, not one sign of vomit all day."
"Yeah Beej," he replied, "Not like your first day. Close for me nurse please."
"Yes, doctor." I replied. Finally something I knew how to do. While I was stitching up his stomach wound I felt something grab my arm. I looked up and it was the bloody hand of the boy I had been working on him.
"You gotta help me doc," he said shuttering, "I don't wanna die."
It was amazing how this boy could talk, thinking how much pain he must be in.
"You're going to be just fine, now please let go of my arm, your hurting me." I pleaded.
"I'm gonna die ain't I!" he said with fear in his eyes, "Just tell me I can handle it!"
Then he started shaking uncontrollably.
"Doctor!" I screamed. "Doctor, come quickly! This boy is going into shock."
I couldn't take it; the look in his face was bloodcurdling. His jaw clenched to try and overcome the pain he was feeling. I could feel his hand pulsating still firmly gripping my arm. He was only a boy. This wasn't his war. He was only eighteen years old. He should be worried about girls not getting shelled. He should be carrying a wallet everywhere, not a rifle. I couldn't take it.
"Get him under quick!" the doctor ordered.
"I…I…can't!" I told him in tears.
"Look at me," he said turning my head to face him. I looked into his eyes. He was a scared as I was, "You have to or he'll die, now please, just do it."
I knew what I had to do. I pried his fingers off my arm and went to the gas tank. Talking gently I slipped the mask over his face. It was hard since he was struggling but eventually I got it. His body went limp at first I didn't know id he was under or dead to instinctively I checked for a pulse. The doctor must've thought exactly what I had since he looked at me with worried eyes. So I told him the only way I could since I couldn't find the words. I smiled from under my mask and nodded. The look in his eye changed from fear to relief and he continues to work on his patient. I couldn't stand being in there for one more second. I ran out of there so quickly it could've made your head spin.
I went outside to get some air and was instantly joined by the doctor who I had been assisting.
"Don't they need you in there? What about that boy." I asked.
"He's doing fine now. You've been out here for ten minutes." He replied.
"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't think it had been that long." I wasn't lying I really thought I had only been out there for a minute, "I'll go back in now." I said heading for the door.
"No," he said grabbing my arm. "That's not what I meant."
I winced when he had grabbed my arm. It's not that he had grabbed it violently; it just still hurt from the soldiers grasp. I tried not to let on I was in pain and failed horribly.
"I'm sorry," he said instinctively, "I didn't mean to hurt you."
"No, it's not you!" I told him "That soldier grabbed my arm in there and he sort of used it to ease the pain.
"That looks bad." The doctor said. "Remind me to take a look at it."
"That's why I couldn't put him under." I told him.
"Oh really," he said smirking, "Is that the only reason?"
"Well that and the fact that I was scared out of my mind."
"Hey, we all get like that sometimes. But we're used to it. You, wow, you were great in there!" he said, "That's what I really came out here for. Most nurses either faint or throw up at the first sight of intestine, but you, you tackled that organ like a pro."
I couldn't help but smiling. But then I was reminded of my first impression of this guy from his earlier remark.
"You didn't seem so enthusiastic when I didn't give you suction." I told him. I instantly regretted saying since the look on his face looked that of a puppy dog who had just been abandoned by it's owner.
"I'm sorry about that." He started, "I shouldn't have said that. Besides now I really want to know where Margaret gets such dedicated nurses like you."
I just smiled in reply.
"By the way the names Hawkeye, Hawkeye Pierce." He added with and extended hand.
"I'm Kathryn Callaway. Nice to meet you."
*Please Review*
Ok this is my first mash fic so bear with me! I didn't know how to start it so it's kind of bad at the beginning but I think it gets better toward the end! Please review and tell me if you think I should continue or any suggestions you have I love hearing them! Thank You!
Chapter One
I didn't exactly know what it was going to be like there. All I knew was that it'd be a big change to go from giving needles and healing chicken pox and measles to healing soldiers wounded in battle. But I knew I had to do it. It's what father wanted. I had to do my patriotic duty. I was glad I was going.
I hadn't been waiting at the train station long before and young Lebanese man asked if I was the nurse transferring to the MASH 4077th. I told him I was and got into his jeep. I didn't really want to talk to him; I had a lot of things on my mind. A lot had happened in the past few months. The man I loved most in the world had left me. I had to leave everything I cherished behind, and I was beginning a new life that was practically a living hell. This isn't the way a 24 year old girl should be spending her life. But there was nothing I could do. I needed to go. I had to go.
Even though I didn't want to talk to this man I couldn't help feeling guilty and rude. Here he was trying to be a friendly to a person that he'd be living with so I talked to him. Besides he was a very nice person.
"So where are you from, Lieutenant…Oh I'm sorry I forgot to ask your name." He asked.
"Kathryn Callaway and I'm originally from California, but I moved to Oklahoma when I was a young girl." I replied.
"Oh our head nurse is from California. She grew up in Fort Ord." He told me.
"My father was a Commanding Officer there once. He used to take me to meet all his staff. We used to have the best times together." I said. I felt a little sad speaking of him but I had to move on.
"Holy Toledo, you sound just like Margaret." He replied surprised. "I'm sure you to will get along fine."
We talked for the duration of the ride there. His name was Maxwell Klinger but people just called him Klinger. He told me about the 4077th and it's surgeons and nurses. He told me that a pretty little thing such as myself should stay away from Captain Pierce. I hadn't known what he had meant then but I soon found out.
When we arrived at the MASH it wasn't anything like I had expected. No one really even noticed I had arrived. They all just kept going about their business. I didn't really feel welcome but it didn't matter. It wasn't like I was going to summer camp like I had as a child and everyone was going to run up to my jeep and start singing. This was a place of work and I was going to have to remember that no matter how hard it'd be.
Klinger showed me where I'd be staying and said that he'd be back for me in a half an hour to introduce me to the CO and the head nurse. I looked around my room. It wasn't like I expected but it'd do. There was a cot for a bed and everything was green. I hated green but I wouldn't learn to like it. I tried hard to make it look like home by adding pictures putting my old comforter and pillows on the cot, but it still looked horrible. I didn't really care as long as it had a roof I was happy. I looked in the mirror to check myself over. I hated wearing my uniform and was glad I had new clothes to wear.
When I glanced in the mirror I wished I hadn't. I was wearing a green t- shirt underneath another green shirt that I wore unbuttoned, with matching green pants and my dog tags to go with it. I had never really cared much about my looks, even though people had always said I was pretty. I had dark brown hair that curled at my shoulder that was now in a loose complicated braid with wisps of hair falling out everywhere, I was tall and fairly slim, and my face was pale ivory. My lips were full but what I loved most about me were my eyes they're blue and icy. They have a sort of depth to them and everyone was always complimenting on them. But I wasn't conceited. I cared now what I looked like since I wanted to make a good impression.
When Klinger returned I was both anxious and nervous. The only commanding officer I knew had been my father and head nurse had been my mother. I guess I was sort of a child at heart even for my age.
On the way there he pointed out where everything was, Triage, Pre-Op, Post-Op, the OR. It was all so army like. What had I gotten myself into? I wanted to leave but the love for my father made me stay.
"Hey don't be nervous. Colonel Potter and Major Houlihan are real nice people. They'll love a nice girl like you." Klinger told me reassuringly.
Houlihan. I thought for a minute. Where had I heard that name before? I decided not to think about it then. There wasn't any time.
"Well here we are. Ya nervous?" he asked.
"You have no idea." I answered.
"I was too. But Sherm and I are great pals now. Real comrades why you might even call us…"
"KLINGER!" yelled a voice from the next room.
"Yes sir Colonel Potter sir." He replied
I had to smile since that didn't really sound like the call of a friend.
"Get in here!" said the voice.
Klinger went in through the swinging doors leaving me alone in the room. Although I might has well have been in there I could hear there entire conversation.
"You bellowed?" Klinger asked when he entered.
"Let me know as soon as Lieutenant Callaway gets here. I want to know the minute she arrives." The voice told him
"She's already here, sir." He said.
"Well don't just stand here bring her in." said an aggravated female voice.
"Yes Major." He said
"No let her settle in first. Show her her tent and then bring her to us."
"Already done, sir. She awaits in my office."
"Well don't just stand there bring her in." said the female.
With that Klinger was out in a flash.
"They will see you know." He told me as if I hadn't heard anything.
I followed him in and found an old man sitting at his desk and a blonde lady standing next to him. The man reminded me a lot of my father. Noble brow, strong chin, face withering away slowly and whatever was left of his hair was white streaked with silver. He seemed like a friendly man and his smile was warm and inviting. The woman had been around my age maybe a few years older. She reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"Come in dear and sit. I'm Colonel Potter and this is Major Houlihan." Said the old Colonel.
Then it his me, Fort Ord, Houlihan, California, It was Margaret Houlihan.
"Margaret Houlihan!" I said in spite of myself. When I said this it made her jump.
"Well yes but for now I'd appreciate it if you'd call me Major." She said sounding surprised.
"Margaret! It's me Kat Wilkinson!"
Then it came to her.
"KAT! I haven't seen you in what," she stopped to think for a second, "Nine years. It's practically a lifetime!"
"Wait a doggone second," Colonel Potter said. "How do you two know each other?"
"Well our fathers worked together at Fort Ord. We'd play there when we were small we were best friends up until I moved to Oklahoma." I told them.
"We saw each other nine years ago, at her mother's funeral." Margaret told them. "Come on I want to introduce you to every…"
Margaret was interrupted by the sound of a PA system. "Attention all personnel, Incoming wounded, report to Triage, sorry folks."
"Well, Callaway. Let's show them what us California girls can do.
The next four hours were a mix of blood, gore, and a nauseating feeling that felt permanent. I had never seen so much carnage in all my years as a nurse. There were soldiers whose limbs would be permanently lost, or ones whose cries of pain and suffering were impossible to bear, but the worst ones were those who couldn't be helped and knew it. Left there to die. Not like humans but like animals who had been horribly mistreated. It was a wonder how I got through it though there was a time that I thought I wouldn't.
"Suction! I need suction." Yelled the surgeon who I was assisting.
"Right sorry!" I pleaded. I wasn't used to this kind of pressure.
"Jeez Margaret," he said, "Where do you get these nurses."
His words cut through me like a knife. I was trying the best I could but he obviously didn't know that.
"Lay off Hawk it's her first day." Replied the surgeon with a mustache. "Hey she's beating the rest of them, not one sign of vomit all day."
"Yeah Beej," he replied, "Not like your first day. Close for me nurse please."
"Yes, doctor." I replied. Finally something I knew how to do. While I was stitching up his stomach wound I felt something grab my arm. I looked up and it was the bloody hand of the boy I had been working on him.
"You gotta help me doc," he said shuttering, "I don't wanna die."
It was amazing how this boy could talk, thinking how much pain he must be in.
"You're going to be just fine, now please let go of my arm, your hurting me." I pleaded.
"I'm gonna die ain't I!" he said with fear in his eyes, "Just tell me I can handle it!"
Then he started shaking uncontrollably.
"Doctor!" I screamed. "Doctor, come quickly! This boy is going into shock."
I couldn't take it; the look in his face was bloodcurdling. His jaw clenched to try and overcome the pain he was feeling. I could feel his hand pulsating still firmly gripping my arm. He was only a boy. This wasn't his war. He was only eighteen years old. He should be worried about girls not getting shelled. He should be carrying a wallet everywhere, not a rifle. I couldn't take it.
"Get him under quick!" the doctor ordered.
"I…I…can't!" I told him in tears.
"Look at me," he said turning my head to face him. I looked into his eyes. He was a scared as I was, "You have to or he'll die, now please, just do it."
I knew what I had to do. I pried his fingers off my arm and went to the gas tank. Talking gently I slipped the mask over his face. It was hard since he was struggling but eventually I got it. His body went limp at first I didn't know id he was under or dead to instinctively I checked for a pulse. The doctor must've thought exactly what I had since he looked at me with worried eyes. So I told him the only way I could since I couldn't find the words. I smiled from under my mask and nodded. The look in his eye changed from fear to relief and he continues to work on his patient. I couldn't stand being in there for one more second. I ran out of there so quickly it could've made your head spin.
I went outside to get some air and was instantly joined by the doctor who I had been assisting.
"Don't they need you in there? What about that boy." I asked.
"He's doing fine now. You've been out here for ten minutes." He replied.
"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't think it had been that long." I wasn't lying I really thought I had only been out there for a minute, "I'll go back in now." I said heading for the door.
"No," he said grabbing my arm. "That's not what I meant."
I winced when he had grabbed my arm. It's not that he had grabbed it violently; it just still hurt from the soldiers grasp. I tried not to let on I was in pain and failed horribly.
"I'm sorry," he said instinctively, "I didn't mean to hurt you."
"No, it's not you!" I told him "That soldier grabbed my arm in there and he sort of used it to ease the pain.
"That looks bad." The doctor said. "Remind me to take a look at it."
"That's why I couldn't put him under." I told him.
"Oh really," he said smirking, "Is that the only reason?"
"Well that and the fact that I was scared out of my mind."
"Hey, we all get like that sometimes. But we're used to it. You, wow, you were great in there!" he said, "That's what I really came out here for. Most nurses either faint or throw up at the first sight of intestine, but you, you tackled that organ like a pro."
I couldn't help but smiling. But then I was reminded of my first impression of this guy from his earlier remark.
"You didn't seem so enthusiastic when I didn't give you suction." I told him. I instantly regretted saying since the look on his face looked that of a puppy dog who had just been abandoned by it's owner.
"I'm sorry about that." He started, "I shouldn't have said that. Besides now I really want to know where Margaret gets such dedicated nurses like you."
I just smiled in reply.
"By the way the names Hawkeye, Hawkeye Pierce." He added with and extended hand.
"I'm Kathryn Callaway. Nice to meet you."
*Please Review*