Author's Rambling

                Sorry … sorry … sorry … sorry … sorry … I know it took forever to update.  Truth is, between reworking another story, writer's block on this story, and writing a paper, it was hard to do any additions.  I got an email from somebody who wanted me to "finish this up already!"  I revised some of the earlier chapters and changed the last scene in chapter 8.  For those who don't want to reread everything, the only main change was to promote Lieutenant Theodore Davis to a major.

                Depending on how long the next chapter is, there should be about 2 or 3 chapters left.  I had wanted  to add another scene to this chapter, but I figured I'd post what I've got to keep the dogs from growling.

MASH 4077th

Ouijongbu, Korea

June 6, 1952

            Leah Brighton untied her surgical mask and tossed it into the laundry basket.  After last night's ordeal (and the rumors threatening to spread around camp), she just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep.  The war had other plans; some gung-ho commander tried to overtake a hill and paid the price in high casualties.  She hoped the Mess Tent was still open for lunch – even a late afternoon snack would suffice. 

            "Good work today, Brighton," Major Houlihan said, removing her own surgical garb.

            Leah smiled.  "Thanks, Major."  She started to leave, but the major stopped her.

            "I'd like to talk to you for a minute," Houlihan told the nurse.

             "I'm kind of busy right now, ma'am."

            "That was an order," the other woman reminded her.

            Begrudgingly, Leah followed the head nurse back to her tent.  She's going to ask me about last night – I just know it!  Leah's eyes darted toward the door, hoping to conjure up an escape plan.

            "As I'm sure you are aware, there was a fight early this morning in the Nurse's Showers."

            "News travels fast 'round here," Leah answered.

            "I don't have to listen to the rumors – I was one of the officers who broke it up.  You wouldn't happen to know anything about the incident, would you?"

She shrugged.  "The major probably stole the corporal's favorite comic book or something."

"Nurse Brighton, if there's one thing I hate more than a liar, it's a blatant liar.  Someone with the audacity to think I'm stupid enough to …"

"They were fighting about me!" she blurted out.  "Is that what you wanted to hear?"  Oh, Radar.  Why the hell couldn't you just leave well enough alone?

"Mind telling me why they were fighting about you?" 

            Leah's attention focused on the floor of the tent.  My god this place is so immaculate – it's making me sick.  "It's nothing I can't handle, ma'am," she answered.

            Major Houlihan's voice softened.  "If one of my nurses is in trouble, I deserve to know about it."

            "Look Major – I can take care of myself."  She had learned early on that one does not talk harshly to a superior officer; right now, she didn't give a damn. 

            "What happened?" the major repeated.

             "I did something bad, Major," Leah stammered.  "I did something real bad." 

The major looked perplexed.  "We've all done bad things at one time or the other." 

"I was having nightmares.  The only way to make them stop was by taking walks," She continued, her voice barely above a whisper.  "I know I'm not supposed to do that, but the nightmares were really starting to scare me.  A couple days ago, I ran into Maj. Davis.  He made me go into the Nurses' Showers and strip naked."  She focused her attention on the major's red silk pillow, a token from one of her former suitors.  Houlihan nodded, encouraging her to continue.  "I told him I wasn't gonna do no such thing, but he said he'd file an insubordination complaint – disobeying an officer.  I spit in his eye, and he got so mad he twisted my wrist.  Shoved me into one of the showers and started kissing me."

 "Did you try to fight him off?" 

She forced herself to look the major in the eyes.  "I was scared he'd try to hurt me, ma'am."  She quickly turned her attention back to the red silk pillow so Major Houlihan wouldn't see the tears brimming in her eyelids.  Crying in front of Hot Lips – that'll give everybody a laugh, she thought grimly.  She swallowed hard.  "I told you what you wanted to know.  Can I be excused?" She slammed the door before the major even had a chance to reprimand her.  She dragged herself away from the head nurse's tent, and ignored the tears staining her cheeks.  She wished she wasn't so confused.  Radar was only trying to help.  So why do I hate his guts right now?  When she reached the back of the Nurses' Tent, she sank to the ground and buried her head in her knees.  She sensed somebody approaching, but didn't bother looking up to see who it was.

"Brighton?" a familiar voice said.

Leah wiped her eyes with her sleeves.  "Can I help you with anything, Major?"

The major sat down next to the nurse and wrapped her arm around her heaving shoulders.  "Why haven't you told anyone?" she inquired in a gentle tone of voice the nurses were unaccustomed to being addressed with. 

"People would think I wasn't tough," the nurse answered.  And I'd be the only nurse who keeps turning down dates with the 4077th's most eligible bachelors.

"If somebody tries to hurt you, you report it," Major Houlihan said.  "Who is 'people'?" she inquired.  "Me?"  Brighton nodded.  "You happen to be a very attentive nurse," she continued.  "We had a nurse awhile back – before you arrived, even – who cried every time she saw any serious wounds."

"Aren't we supposed to see serious wounds at a war unit?"

They both laughed at Leah's innocent-yet-obvious observance.

"So, no, Brighton, reporting Major Davis' behavior would not make you seem weak.  In fact, it would make you stronger because you stood up against him."

"Could you tell Colonel Potter not to be too hard on Radar?" the younger nurse requested.  "And … and …" she hung her head.  "I don't want anybody else to know," she mumbled.  "It's embarrassing enough as it is."

"You did nothing wrong!" Major Houlihan reminded her.  "That ass deserves a court-martial – or worse.  You may no realize this, Brighton, but there are at least four or five people on this base who would love to strangle Davis if they didn't hate death so much."

Leah tried to absorb everything the major was telling her.  Is this woman really Major Houlihan? She wondered.  It was hard to believe that the tough-as-nails head nurse actually had an empathetic side – that she actually cared.  Well, I guess she's a human being, too. 

* * *

Project Quantum Leap

Stallions Gate, New Mexico

February 12, 2002

            Walter Eugene O'Reilly pressed his ear against the door.  The lunch they had served him had tasted as scrumptious as a puddle of mud (The Army never was known for good food) and now he was – as Hawkeye called it – "giving the wall a physical."  Even without his sixth sense, he could tell that there were details the psychiatrist, the admiral, and the colonel were leaving out. 

            "… Once he slips into that coma, he's not going to wake up," Lt. Col. Hunnicutt was saying.

            "Sam mentioned something called 'cortisone therapy.'" Admiral Calavicci's voice.

            "That's one of the drugs used in treating meningitis," she informed him.  "But I'm not sure if it was around back in '52."

            Radar swallowed the lump in his throat.  Oh gee, they're talking about Hawkeye!  He tried to shove his trembling hands into his pockets – then realized that the outfit he was wearing didn't have any.  He couldn't make out every word the admiral and the colonel were saying (not that he could understand the medical mumbo-jumbo anyway) but he knew the situation wasn't good.  Hawkeye's gonna die.  The words spiraled in his brain like an out-of-control merry-go-round.  Wasn't losing Henry enough?  Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake had been like a father to him.  The day he learned of the fatal plane crash was one that would stay in his mind for a long time.  Over a year ago, he would have never been able to picture the unit with any other commander.  Now – although it made him feel guilty to admit it – he couldn't picture the 4077th without Colonel Potter.  So much had changed since Henry's death.  Trapper had been discharged – only to be replaced by (to Majors Burns and Houlihan's chagrin) a man who would immediately become one of Captain Pierce's closest friends.  He sometimes wondered how Captain Hunnicutt and Captain McIntyre would have gotten along.  Probably would've made Major Burns go nuts earlier, he fathomed.  Major Houlihan was married and divorced and Major Burns had gone crazy and replaced by Major Winchester.  Major Winchester was a wealthy snob from Boston – but he was one of the finest surgeons the 4077th would have in its possession.  There were subtle changes in personalities, too.  Most of the changes were difficult to notice, but they didn't go past the attuned company clerk.  Captain Pierce had grown more serious and Major Houlihan (at least with the captains) seemed to have discovered a lighter side.  The head nurse and the two jokester-surgeons had actually struck up a friendship.  We can't lose Hawkeye – not now, not ever.

            The door started to slide open, causing the eavesdropper to jump back and plaster himself against the wall.

            "Radar?" Lieutenant Colonel Hunnicutt called out, eying the room for the leapee.

            He inched away from the wall and approached the woman.  "Ma'am?" he asked with an attempt to sound innocent.

            Hunnicutt folded her arms over her chest.  "What did you hear?"

            "What do you mean, ma'am?"

            She sighed.  "I know you've been listening to the conversation," she told him.  "You've got 'guilt' written all over your face.  Besides, I've – ah …" she fumbled for the right words.  "I've heard a lot about you from my cousin." 

She didn't appear to be angry with him.  In fact, it almost seemed that she expected for him to have eavesdropped.  He just wished they would start telling him what was going on with his friends.

            "Is Hawkeye going to die?" he finally blurted out.  He planted his eyes on her.

            "In the original history, yes," she explained.  "Sam is going to make sure that doesn't happen."

            He tried to quell the anger threatening to erupt inside him, but it was to no avail.  "Maybe I'm no doctor and maybe I'm no officer – but gosh darn it! – Don't you dare talk down to me," he hissed.

            "I'm not talking 'down to you,' Radar," she assured him, taken aback by his harsh tone.

            "Maybe this Sam of yours is a great doctor – but even great doctors lose patients."

            "Don't I know it," she muttered.  "Hawkeye is very sick," she started to say.

            "So don't you dare tell me this friend of yours is gonna magically save Captain Pierce!" he continued.

            "May I speak, Corporal?" she finally cut in.      

            "Sure," he mumbled.  Was that me ranting just now?

            "I'm a doctor myself," she told him.  "And I'm certainly not the first one to tell you that when we've got a patient in critical condition, we do everything in our power to save them."  Radar nodded, embarrassed.  "I guess you don't know as much about Sam as we thought you did," she continued.  "He's the modern-day Don Quixote.  I've known him since medical school, and from day one he has never quit on the people he tries to help."  Her eyes softened.  "He'd never give up on Captain Pierce."

            Radar hoisted himself onto the mirrored table.  "I'm sorry I got upset," he told Erin.  "It's just …"

            "Hawkeye is like a brother to you."

            He looked up at her.  "How'd you know?"

            "I know a lot about the MASH 4077th.  The folks there are just as special to me as they are to you."

            "Really?"  How does she know the people at the MASH?  I bet she's never even stepped foot in Korea.

            He could tell by the expression on her face that she was wrestling with the best way to tell him whatever it was she wanted to say.  "Radar, how much do you know about me?  Or about the Project?"

            "Gee, I dunno.  You've got a friend named Sam who travels back in time and helps people.  Right now he's pretending to be me so he can help Captain Pierce and Nurse Brighton."  She prodded him to continue.  "You and Captain Hunnicutt are related – cousins or something."

            She shook her head.  "I lied to you.  He's not my cousin," she admitted.  Her next words nearly caused Radar to fall off the table.  "He's my father."