Wild Horses by mashnut

A M*A*S*H Fan Fic

Here I go again. Why do I keep coming up with ideas? Yada. Yada. Yada. I don't own the characters. Yada. Yada. Yada. Not making any money. (Wish I was!! LOL)

The wind howled outside the tent as three figures inside slept a disturbed sleep. A small, huddled person ran between the tents, against the storm, till he reached the door to the one called the Swamp.

"Hawkeye? Hawkeye, you awake?" Out of breath from running he pulled back his hood and shook one of the sleeping figures. Standing next to the camp bed he was pale and shivering, the eyes hidden by smeared glasses darted this way and that showing the panic within.

"Radar, I'll remove your appendix the hard way if you don't leave me alone." The once sleeping person answered, pulling back the covers to reveal floppy black hair flecked with grey atop a young face with bright blue eyes.

"It's Colonel Potter. He went out in the storm to see to Sophie. When he didn't come back I followed. He… he…" Radar pulled a knitted cap from his head and twisted it in his hands. Hawkeye sat up and a look of concern entered the, now awake, male face.

"Come on. Spit it out."

"Sophie kicked him. The horse got away."

"How bad is Potter?" Hawk got out of the bed while throwing his pillow towards one of the other sleeping men near by.

"He's not getting up. He got hit in the chest." Radar's cap was almost in shreds. The pillow reached the intended person causing a shout.

"Hawk, what did you do that for?" The one who was so rudely woken didn't look too angry. He was probably used to it.

"Potter's hurt. We gotta go, BJ." Hawk was pulling on army boots and a red bathrobe over the t-shirt and shorts he had been sleeping in.

"Right behind you." BJ was quite a bit taller than Radar with sandy coloured hair. Radar was anxious for them to leave so he hovered over Hawkeye and BJ as they wrapped themselves up and headed out into the storm.

The wind battered against them as the three men hurried to the aid of the fallen colonel. Radar broke into a run as they passed rows of parked up jeeps and busses, each marked with a red cross on a white background. Rounding a corner they came across a makeshift corral. The gate was open, slamming shut whenever the wind caught it. A moonlit lump lay in the corner near the water trough. BJ and Hawk moved the body till the crush mark on the older man's chest was visible. He was still breathing and, amazingly, still awake.

"Where's Sophie?" Colonel Potter managed to croak.

"Gone But we need to see to you." Hawkeye continued to examine while BJ grabbed Radar and went for a stretcher. Hawk finished just as BJ and Radar returned with another man and a blonde woman. Both wearing nightdresses.

"He's got four badly broken ribs and a punctured lung. At least Sophie missed his heart. Radar and Klinger, carry him to O.R. Margaret we're going to have to get scrubbed up." Hawk briefed the others. BJ and Hawk moved Potter on to the stretcher before Radar and Klinger, the man in the flowery nightdress, carried him off to wards the only permanent building. Margaret, Hawkeye and BJ ran towards a different door to the same building which opened onto the scrub room. A lot of medical talk went on between the two doctors and nurse as they washed and changed into clean surgical gowns. From then on there was precious little talk in the operating room, only instructions or requests for equipment.

~~~~~ All reviews gratefully received ~~~~~ Love mashnut