This is essentially the same story, but a few people have commented that
Charles' character isn't right and a little too much like Frank Burns. I
have to agree with them. It was my first M*A*S*H fic, and I had started it
soon after I became hooked on the TV series. My theory behind Charles'
Frank-like behaviour is that I was used to Frank, and this was the first
character I'd seen be replaced the show and I decided that I didn't like
Charles. Well, anyway, the fic has been fixed up a bit and hopefully
Charles acts a little more like a Winchester.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
With all the chaos around the compound, no one really noticed the girl curled up in the corner of the bus. Once the bus had been cleared of patients, she stood up and looked out the window. There were still heaps of people running around, and a lot of soldiers laying on the ground, but still, no-one paid her any attention as she got off the bus. Glancing around, she looked for something to tell her where she was. Green canvas tents greeted her on every side, but nothing really gave away where she was. All MASH units looked the same to her. Someone bumped into her.
'Get out of the way!' snapped a man, following to corpsmen with a stretcher. The girl stood back quickly and watched them pass. The man came back and glared at her.
'I'm sorry,' she said, a little worried.
'Who are you?' Charles asked. The girl he'd bumped into was scrawny, dirty, with dark hair and green eyes. Over her grubby blue shirt, she had a GI's jacket which was three sizes too big, and she appeared about sixteen, way too young to be in a war zone.
'I came in with one of the soldiers,' the girl replied. Her voice was shaky, but Charles didn't have time for a frightened child.
'Colonel,' Charles called. A small, grey haired man came up to them, and he seemed annoyed at the piles of wounded around them.
'What is it, Winchester?' he snapped.
'Colonel Potter, this girl came in with one of the soldiers,' Charles began to explain.
'Well move her somewhere out of the way, I don't have time for this!' Potter exploded, walking briskly away to where a man lay. Charles sneered down at the girl.
'Come on, you'll stay in the mess tent for now,' Charles said. 'Stay out of trouble until the Colonel does have time for you.' The man seemed angry at the Colonel, and the girl shrank away from his angry tone. She didn't know that Charles had been placed at the 4077th MASH about a week ago, and was still desperately trying to get transferred back to Tokyo. The girl looked around the tent that Charles had left her in. It was filled with tables with trays of food on them that looked like they had been abandoned.
'Hey, who are you?' someone asked. The girl looked to see a short man taking off an apron behind a counter. She jumped when she noticed the pearl earrings hanging from his lobes, the pearl necklace around his neck and the catchy red two piece dress.
'Black Kat,' the girl squeaked. 'Who are you?'
'Klinger. What are you doing here? You come in with the wounded?' the man asked concernedly. Black Kat nodded. 'What sort of name is Black Kat, anyhow?' Klinger asked.
'It's a nickname,' Kat managed to blurt out. 'I bring bad luck.'
'Yeah? Well, I've got enough bad luck trying to get out of the army,' Klinger said. 'Hey, you look hungry? Want something to eat? The food ain't exactly cuisine here, but it does what food is supposed to do.' Kat nodded and moved closer to the counter. Klinger picked up a tray and dished some food onto it. By the looks of the kid Charles had dumped in here, she hadn't been feed a proper meal in a while.
'Thank you,' Kat mumbled when Klinger handed her the tray. She picked up a fork and began eating quickly, without sitting down, as if she were ready to bolt.
'How are you bad luck, if you don't mind me asking,' Klinger asked.
'I'm bad luck to the people around me. If we're shot at, or bombed, the people with me always get hurt, but I always come away without a scratch,' Kat explained.
'How'd you get here? Where you from and where are you parents?' Klinger asked.
'I jumped boat here, from Australia, and my parents died when I was a baby,' Kat said. She'd finished the tray, much to Klinger's astonishment, and now sat on one of the tables, rocking herself gently.
'Poor kid. Have you tried getting back home?' Klinger asked.
'I can't get home. The army won't send me and every time I find someone who says they get me home, they die from wounds at an army hospital,' Kat said. She turned away quickly and sort of shuddered. 'Not many people will look after me during the war now days because I have a bad reputation.'
'Maybe you can stay here,' Klinger said.
'No CO would let me stay in their camp,' Kat said, shaking her head. She looked up hopefully. 'But it'd be good if they did. Nothing bad seems to happen around me when I'm in a non combat unit.'
'You look tired. You want to sleep, get cleaned up, maybe? I can show you where the showers are,' Klinger said. Kat nodded and stood up. She followed Klinger timidly into the compound and he showed her around so she knew where everything was. He left her in Post Op, so he could go into OR to talk to Colonel Potter, who refused to talk to him at that time. When he got back, Kat ad curled up on one of the cots and was fast asleep.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'What are you doing in Korea?' Potter asked. At a few of the nurse's requests, he'd let Kat sleep through the night, and was interrogating her the morning after her arrival.
'Jumped boat here, sir,' Kat replied.
'Why would you want to come here?' Hawkeye asked in the corner, a glass of gin in one hand. He, BJ, Charles and Klinger had come to check out the girl who'd come in with the soldiers, half in the hope that she might have news of the outside world, unfiltered by the Government.
'I was heading to England, where I have a distant half Aunt. I got on the wrong ship,' Kat said quietly.
'What have you been doing during the war between then and now?' Potter asked.
'Trying to get back,' Kat said.
'How?' BJ asked. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Black Kat reminded him of a girl in his old neighbourhood. She had been small, shy and a little overshadowed by the more outgoing kids of the block.
'I've asked the army. They won't help me get back. People have said they'd get me back home, by adoption, or through the army somehow, as I can't get through myself, but they usually get killed before the paperwork is finished,' Kat said. She shrank more into her chair, with a half hope that they'd forget she was there.
'What about the person you came in with yesterday?' Hawkeye said. 'He'd be ok if we operated on him. We didn't lose anyone on the table yesterday.'
'He was one of the ones who died on the bus,' Kat whispered, all the time liking less the way the discussion was heading.
'What about an orphanage? Have you thought about going to one of those?' BJ asked. Kat shook her head.
'Come on, stop crowding her with questions,' Klinger said, standing up.
'Calm down, Klinger,' Charles said. 'It's not like we're threatening her or anything.'
'But she's frightened. Scared out of her skull,' Klinger insisted. 'Leave her alone.' Kat noticed Potter look down at her, and she tried to move back more, but only succeeded in pushing hard on the back of the chair with her back.
'Well, she can't stay here. We'll have to send her to a refugee camp or something. Too old for an orphanage, really,' Potter said. 'She can go on the next truck heading for Seoul.'
'What? Can't she stay here?' Klinger asked.
'Please let me stay,' Kat pleaded.
'We don't have room,' Potter said firmly.
'I'll sleep on the floor, in someone's footlocker if I have to. Don't send me back towards the war,' Kat said.
'Kat, the war is hitting us here all the time as well. You'd probably be safer somewhere else than three miles from the front,' Charles said, curling his lip.
'I'll do anything, I'll clean the bedpans, I'll do laundry, anything to let me stay,' Kat said, turning to Hawkeye and BJ for help. The two doctors felt bad with letting her be sent away, but what could they do?
'Kat, you'd be better off somewhere else,' Hawkeye said. 'As much as I hate to admit that Charles is right.'
'Get back to the Swamp, or whatever you boys were doing before the casualties came in yesterday, we've finished in here,' Potter said, nodding towards the door. Hawkeye, BJ and Charles went out, while Klinger waited for Kat.
'Please, can't I stay?' she asked. Potter shook his head.
'Like I said, we have no room,' he told her. Klinger lead Kat out of the room, and into the compound. He looked around to make sure no one was listening, and bent down to Kat's level.
'When the Colonel puts you on the truck this afternoon, jump off a few miles outta camp, and walk back. I'll hide you until we think of something,' Klinger said. Kat looked up, a little bit of hope in her eyes.
'Really?' she asked. Klinger nodded and she gave him a small, happy smile. It was the first time she'd smiled in a while, probably the first time she'd been happy in Korea. Black Kat followed Klinger to the mess tent, where she could have her second proper meal in weeks.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Kat got onto the truck without too much fuss, much to everyone's surprise. Hawkeye had thought she'd fight out staying in the camp a little while longer before being dragged kicking and screaming onto the back of the truck, where she'd be sedated before being taken away.
'I don't think she's that sort of person, Hawkeye,' BJ said as Kat climbed carefully up onto the truck.
'Well it's what I'd do,' Hawkeye said in a pretend haughtily voice. He grinned up at the girl as she found a comfortable place to sit among some South Koreans being shipped away also. 'Good luck, Black Kat, may your bad luck always stick by you,' he said.
'Ignore him,' Klinger whispered as he handed Kat her jacket. 'And I'll see you soon,' he added before the truck started off. Kat waved to the people watching her go, mostly scared, but sort of excited that she was going back there soon.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Guess who I found behind Klinger's tent,' Potter said, standing in the doorway of the Post Op ward where Hawkeye, BJ and Charles were. Klinger was standing there, looking a little ashamed, and Potter pulled Kat into view.
'Black Kat!' BJ said.
'She jump off the truck?' Hawkeye asked.
'Appears so,' Potter replied. 'One of you want to take her personally to a friend of mine's place, in Seoul. He promised to get her home. Not you, Klinger,' Potter said as Klinger opened his mouth to offer to take Kat.
'I'll take her, I could do with three days R and R,' Hawkeye said.
'Winchester, you'd better take her, I trust you more than Klinger to bring her back, and more than Hawkeye and BJ to leave Seoul in ruins,' Potter sighed. Charles nodded and led Kat to where Radar had a jeep waiting.
'Well, we're off. Everyone's fine, Nurse Kellye can come get us at the officer's club if something happens. Coming, Klinger?' Hawkeye said as the jeep with Kat and Charles in it pulled away from camp.
'Yeah, alright,' Klinger said. He walked with the two doctors to the officer's club and sat at the bar with them, after ordering a beer.
'You organised her to come back, didn't you?' BJ asked Klinger.
'I was worried about her. Think she'll be ok?' Klinger asked.
'Hey, she survived the war this long,' Hawkeye said, taking a sip from his martini.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Sir?' Radar poked Hawkeye in the side.
'Huh? What?' the surgeon jumped awake.
'Two wounded men just came in. Oh, and Kat,' Radar said.
'A cat? I'm no vet,' Hawkeye yawned, pulling his left boot onto his right foot.
'No, not a cat, Black Kat, you know, the kid?' Radar said. He was now poking BJ awake.
'Black Kat's back? Wasn't she supposed to be going home?' Hawkeye asked, realizing his mistake with his shoes.
'What about Black Kat?' BJ asked, sitting up.
'She's injured, in surgery,' Radar said. 'We have no whole blood left, that last bunch cleaned us out, and supplies aren't due until Monday, so Klinger has offered to give blood for surgery,' Radar said, helping Hawkeye with his bathrobe.
'Come on, Beej, get moving,' Hawkeye said, running out. Charles was already scrubbing when they got there. Potter arrived a few minutes later.
'Sorry I'm late, I was out riding Sophie, Radar couldn't find me for a few minutes,' Potter explained. Margaret came out to Pre op.
'One of the men have died already, sir,' she said. 'The girl and the other one are just hanging on.'
'Looks like we only need two surgeons,' Hawkeye commented.
'Who's worse off?' Charles asked.
'The girl,' Margaret replied as she helped Charles get into his surgical gown and to get his gloves on.
'I'll look after her then, while one of you gentlemen take care of the soldier,' Charles said before disappearing into OR.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Kat blinked awake.
'Ah, the Black Kat awakens,' Hawkeye said. 'You had enough shrapnel in your arms and legs to make a new one of each instrument we used on you.'
'The others? What happened to the other two?' Kat asked.
'One died waiting on the table, and the other died while we were operating,' BJ replied. 'You're the only survivor.'
'You're joking, right?' Kat asked. 'It's not funny if you are.'
'We're not kidding,' Hawkeye said softly. Kat started crying quietly.
'Ten men during this war died because of my bad luck,' she said. 'I've been lucky each time.'
'Sounds like you owe a cat somewhere a life,' BJ said.
'Kat ok?' Klinger asked, coming into Post op.
'Yeah, she's fine. Needs a week here so we're totally sure she's ok, though,' Hawkeye replied. Klinger nodded and left.
'So I'm going to be ok?' Kat asked.
'Yeah, fit as a fiddle,' BJ said. 'You'll be jumping boats again in no time.' Kat's face twitched a little into a smile, before disappearing again.
'Great,' she said softly.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Margaret found Kat leaning against the wall of Sophie's stable four days later.
'Hi,' Margaret said, making an effort to be kind.
'Hi,' Kat said without turning around. She had s dreamy sound to her voice, and she was staring at the Colonel's horse fondly.
'You like horses?' Margaret asked.
'Been riding since I was three,' Kat said. 'It helps if you grow up on a farm.'
'Maybe the Colonel will let you ride Sophie,' Margaret said.
'The Colonel owns this horse?' Kat asked, turning around. She jumped in surprise when she saw she'd been talking to Margaret.
'Yes, he does. I'm sure he wouldn't mind,' Margaret said. Kat mumbled something, and stared at the ground. Margaret walked away, she'd been told Black Kat didn't like talking a lot.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Uh, sir?'
'What now, Radar?'
'Sir, the Black Kat has been riding your horse, sir.'
'Kat has been riding Sophie?'
'Yes, sir, for the last three days.'
'Go get her, Hawkeye, BJ, Charles, BJ and Margaret. Tell them it's urgent.'
'Right away, sir.'
'And Radar. . .'
'Make sure Kat hasn't hurt herself riding Sophie, yes sir.'
'Thank you Radar, that'll be all.'
'Yes sir.'
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'I understand you've been riding Sophie,' Potter said to Kat. Kat looked around nervously, and shrank back. 'I also understand that you wish to stay here,' Potter continued. Kat risked a quick nod as she tried to make herself invisible. 'What I don't understand, is how you ended back up in a combat zone when I sent you to someone who'd send you home,' Potter sat down, and looked at Kat.
'Black Kat has talked to me about that, sir,' Margaret said, stepping forward.
'Fine, what's the scoop?' Potter asked.
'He sent me away. Said he could only help me if I were part of the army and I couldn't join so I could go home for another two years,' Kat spoke up.
'Last time I ask his a favour,' Potter said to himself. 'Anyway, I never realised you'd been riding Sophie until Radar told me half an hour before. I never noticed. You've taken good care of my horse, and as a reward, you may stay in camp, if you get the right amount of votes,' Potter glanced up at the other people in the room.
'I don't mind her staying,' Hawkeye said. 'She adds interest to the camp.'
'It's not like she takes up much room,' BJ shrugged. 'Plus, here's probably the safest place in the war.' Klinger and Margaret agreed, but Charles was against it.
'She should be sent home! A MASH unit is no place for a child!' he protested.
'Sorry, Winchester, you're out voted. The Black Kat stays,' Potter said.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'I never picked you as the superstitious type, Charles,' Hawkeye said later in the Swamp.
'Excuse me?' Charles asked.
'Well, Klinger said Kat told him that she was bad luck. Why else would you want her to go?' BJ asked.
'Bad luck is for ignoramuses like yourselves,' Charles replied. 'I don't believe in it.' At this point, Charles sat on his cot, which instantly collapsed. Hawkeye and BJ started laughing.
'Believe in bad luck now, Charles?' BJ managed to ask.
'You two are imbeciles,' Charles said, getting up with difficulty. He then went to where his footlocker was, and tried to open it. When it refused to open, he glared at the other two men.
'What now, Charles? Can't you open your footlocker?' Hawkeye asked innocently.
'You've changed the lock!' Charles yelled.
'How do you know it wasn't the Black Kat's bad luck?' BJ asked. Charles stormed out of the Swamp to find somewhere where Hawkeye and BJ wouldn't bother him.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Excuse me? Mr Winchester?' Kat whispered softly. Charles looked up to see Black Kat standing at the Swamp door, looking a little scared and unsure of herself.
'Dr Winchester, if you don't mind,' he said icily. Kat shrank back a little, and Charles sighed. 'Come in, child, what is it?' he demanded. Kat came into the tent, looking like a skittish fox.
'Dr Winchester, why don't you want me in camp?' Kat asked. Charles was a little surprised at the question.
'I thought you knew,' he said, a little uncomfortably. Kat shook her head. Charles sighed again. 'I don't want to see a young child, such as yourself, in the midst of all this blood, this horror,' he told her.
'It's worse out in the field,' Kat replied quietly.
'Most probably. The point is, the best place for you to be at this time would be home. With your Aunt, or whoever you were going to live with,' Charles said.
'I've tried,' Kat replied. Charles stared at the girl, making her feel uncomfortable. She didn't believe Charles wanted her to be safe from the war, not after how spitefully Hawkeye and BJ talked about him, and how they treated him, but after talking to him, it seemed slightly possible.
'Three miles from the front is not a safe place to be,' he said. Kat nodded, and left Charles to his music.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'What are you doing, Kat?' Klinger asked. He'd seen a movement in the compound and found it was Kat.
'I'm leaving,' Kat replied.
'Why?' Klinger said. 'Don't you like it here?'
'No, I love it. But I talked to that doctor who doesn't want me here, and he makes sense. Three miles from the front line is dangerous. I'm going to head south, where it's safer,' Kat explained.
'Why would you listen to Charles?' Klinger asked.
'He was the one who operated on me when I came in the second time. He saved my life. I respect him a lot for that,' Kat said.
'Are you sure you want to go?' Klinger asked, desperate to make Kat stay. Kat nodded.
'I appreciate what everyone here has done for me here, especially you, but this is no place for a girl my age,' Kat said. She began walking away, but Klinger stopped her.
'One last thing. If Black Kat is your nickname, what's your real name?' he asked. Kat looked up at Klinger, a small smiled on her face.
'Fiona,' she said. Kat disappeared into the darkness, and away from camp.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Black Kat's gone?' Hawkeye asked.
'Yep. Decided Major Winchester was right when he said a MASH unit was no place for a kid,' Klinger replied. 'You want potatoes or green slop with that hamburger?'
'Uh, potatoes,' Hawkeye said distractedly. He and BJ walked over to a table and sat down.
'Can you believe Charles? He sent Black Kat away. Probably bribed her,' BJ said sourly.
'Maybe she'll come back,' Hawkeye said hopefully. 'She realise that she has friends here and should come back.'
'Odds are, Hawk, she'll find somewhere to hole up for the rest of the war,' BJ said. Charles sat down the table from them and the other two surgeons looked at each other.
'Did you know Black Kat left?' Hawkeye asked Charles innocently.
'Oh really?' Charles asked, suspecting a trick.
'Klinger said he saw her leave the camp,' BJ added.
'There's only one reason why she'd leave, you know,' Hawkeye said. 'Because someone around camp didn't like her.'
'You're blaming me for that girl's running off?' Charles asked in surprise.
'Yes,' Hawkeye replied.
'That's absurd,' Charles said, standing up with his tray and leaving.
'Poor Black Kat,' BJ said. 'Hope she's doing ok.'
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Black Kat returned to the 4077th MASH, but not as anyone expected. She came in by helicopter, the victim of a bomb blast twenty miles away. She was burnt, with a broken arm, multiple fractures to one leg and died of blood loss on the way to camp. Charles blamed himself. Hawkeye and BJ hadn't brought it up that it was his fault for sending Kat away, but he knew it would only be a matter of time. Instead of sending her away in a truck with the other anonymous soldiers, she was buried on the outskirts of camp.
'Mind if I sit with you, Major?' Klinger asked.
'If you must,' Charles said, staring at the plain little wooden cross in front of him. 'It was my fault she left you know,' he said when Klinger sat down. 'If I hadn't told her to leave, she'd still be here.'
'She left because she respected you,' Klinger said.
'What?' Charles asked.
'She told me, the night she left. She said she said that she respected you for what you did. You saved her life when she came in the second time, and she thought you were right when you said this was no place for her,' Klinger said. The two were silent for a while. Charles finally got up and left after a few minutes, and Klinger went to the cross. On it, BJ and Hawkeye had written "Black Kat", but Klinger felt it was wrong. He took up the paint brush and paint Hawkeye had left there, and added a few things. He stood back to admire his handy work, then left. A gentle breeze blew, drying the wet paint.
"Fiona, the Black Kat of Korea."
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Authors Note: Ok, the ending is probably a little corny, but you have to admit, this is better than the original. Please leave your reviews in a tidy an orderly fashion. ;)
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
With all the chaos around the compound, no one really noticed the girl curled up in the corner of the bus. Once the bus had been cleared of patients, she stood up and looked out the window. There were still heaps of people running around, and a lot of soldiers laying on the ground, but still, no-one paid her any attention as she got off the bus. Glancing around, she looked for something to tell her where she was. Green canvas tents greeted her on every side, but nothing really gave away where she was. All MASH units looked the same to her. Someone bumped into her.
'Get out of the way!' snapped a man, following to corpsmen with a stretcher. The girl stood back quickly and watched them pass. The man came back and glared at her.
'I'm sorry,' she said, a little worried.
'Who are you?' Charles asked. The girl he'd bumped into was scrawny, dirty, with dark hair and green eyes. Over her grubby blue shirt, she had a GI's jacket which was three sizes too big, and she appeared about sixteen, way too young to be in a war zone.
'I came in with one of the soldiers,' the girl replied. Her voice was shaky, but Charles didn't have time for a frightened child.
'Colonel,' Charles called. A small, grey haired man came up to them, and he seemed annoyed at the piles of wounded around them.
'What is it, Winchester?' he snapped.
'Colonel Potter, this girl came in with one of the soldiers,' Charles began to explain.
'Well move her somewhere out of the way, I don't have time for this!' Potter exploded, walking briskly away to where a man lay. Charles sneered down at the girl.
'Come on, you'll stay in the mess tent for now,' Charles said. 'Stay out of trouble until the Colonel does have time for you.' The man seemed angry at the Colonel, and the girl shrank away from his angry tone. She didn't know that Charles had been placed at the 4077th MASH about a week ago, and was still desperately trying to get transferred back to Tokyo. The girl looked around the tent that Charles had left her in. It was filled with tables with trays of food on them that looked like they had been abandoned.
'Hey, who are you?' someone asked. The girl looked to see a short man taking off an apron behind a counter. She jumped when she noticed the pearl earrings hanging from his lobes, the pearl necklace around his neck and the catchy red two piece dress.
'Black Kat,' the girl squeaked. 'Who are you?'
'Klinger. What are you doing here? You come in with the wounded?' the man asked concernedly. Black Kat nodded. 'What sort of name is Black Kat, anyhow?' Klinger asked.
'It's a nickname,' Kat managed to blurt out. 'I bring bad luck.'
'Yeah? Well, I've got enough bad luck trying to get out of the army,' Klinger said. 'Hey, you look hungry? Want something to eat? The food ain't exactly cuisine here, but it does what food is supposed to do.' Kat nodded and moved closer to the counter. Klinger picked up a tray and dished some food onto it. By the looks of the kid Charles had dumped in here, she hadn't been feed a proper meal in a while.
'Thank you,' Kat mumbled when Klinger handed her the tray. She picked up a fork and began eating quickly, without sitting down, as if she were ready to bolt.
'How are you bad luck, if you don't mind me asking,' Klinger asked.
'I'm bad luck to the people around me. If we're shot at, or bombed, the people with me always get hurt, but I always come away without a scratch,' Kat explained.
'How'd you get here? Where you from and where are you parents?' Klinger asked.
'I jumped boat here, from Australia, and my parents died when I was a baby,' Kat said. She'd finished the tray, much to Klinger's astonishment, and now sat on one of the tables, rocking herself gently.
'Poor kid. Have you tried getting back home?' Klinger asked.
'I can't get home. The army won't send me and every time I find someone who says they get me home, they die from wounds at an army hospital,' Kat said. She turned away quickly and sort of shuddered. 'Not many people will look after me during the war now days because I have a bad reputation.'
'Maybe you can stay here,' Klinger said.
'No CO would let me stay in their camp,' Kat said, shaking her head. She looked up hopefully. 'But it'd be good if they did. Nothing bad seems to happen around me when I'm in a non combat unit.'
'You look tired. You want to sleep, get cleaned up, maybe? I can show you where the showers are,' Klinger said. Kat nodded and stood up. She followed Klinger timidly into the compound and he showed her around so she knew where everything was. He left her in Post Op, so he could go into OR to talk to Colonel Potter, who refused to talk to him at that time. When he got back, Kat ad curled up on one of the cots and was fast asleep.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'What are you doing in Korea?' Potter asked. At a few of the nurse's requests, he'd let Kat sleep through the night, and was interrogating her the morning after her arrival.
'Jumped boat here, sir,' Kat replied.
'Why would you want to come here?' Hawkeye asked in the corner, a glass of gin in one hand. He, BJ, Charles and Klinger had come to check out the girl who'd come in with the soldiers, half in the hope that she might have news of the outside world, unfiltered by the Government.
'I was heading to England, where I have a distant half Aunt. I got on the wrong ship,' Kat said quietly.
'What have you been doing during the war between then and now?' Potter asked.
'Trying to get back,' Kat said.
'How?' BJ asked. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Black Kat reminded him of a girl in his old neighbourhood. She had been small, shy and a little overshadowed by the more outgoing kids of the block.
'I've asked the army. They won't help me get back. People have said they'd get me back home, by adoption, or through the army somehow, as I can't get through myself, but they usually get killed before the paperwork is finished,' Kat said. She shrank more into her chair, with a half hope that they'd forget she was there.
'What about the person you came in with yesterday?' Hawkeye said. 'He'd be ok if we operated on him. We didn't lose anyone on the table yesterday.'
'He was one of the ones who died on the bus,' Kat whispered, all the time liking less the way the discussion was heading.
'What about an orphanage? Have you thought about going to one of those?' BJ asked. Kat shook her head.
'Come on, stop crowding her with questions,' Klinger said, standing up.
'Calm down, Klinger,' Charles said. 'It's not like we're threatening her or anything.'
'But she's frightened. Scared out of her skull,' Klinger insisted. 'Leave her alone.' Kat noticed Potter look down at her, and she tried to move back more, but only succeeded in pushing hard on the back of the chair with her back.
'Well, she can't stay here. We'll have to send her to a refugee camp or something. Too old for an orphanage, really,' Potter said. 'She can go on the next truck heading for Seoul.'
'What? Can't she stay here?' Klinger asked.
'Please let me stay,' Kat pleaded.
'We don't have room,' Potter said firmly.
'I'll sleep on the floor, in someone's footlocker if I have to. Don't send me back towards the war,' Kat said.
'Kat, the war is hitting us here all the time as well. You'd probably be safer somewhere else than three miles from the front,' Charles said, curling his lip.
'I'll do anything, I'll clean the bedpans, I'll do laundry, anything to let me stay,' Kat said, turning to Hawkeye and BJ for help. The two doctors felt bad with letting her be sent away, but what could they do?
'Kat, you'd be better off somewhere else,' Hawkeye said. 'As much as I hate to admit that Charles is right.'
'Get back to the Swamp, or whatever you boys were doing before the casualties came in yesterday, we've finished in here,' Potter said, nodding towards the door. Hawkeye, BJ and Charles went out, while Klinger waited for Kat.
'Please, can't I stay?' she asked. Potter shook his head.
'Like I said, we have no room,' he told her. Klinger lead Kat out of the room, and into the compound. He looked around to make sure no one was listening, and bent down to Kat's level.
'When the Colonel puts you on the truck this afternoon, jump off a few miles outta camp, and walk back. I'll hide you until we think of something,' Klinger said. Kat looked up, a little bit of hope in her eyes.
'Really?' she asked. Klinger nodded and she gave him a small, happy smile. It was the first time she'd smiled in a while, probably the first time she'd been happy in Korea. Black Kat followed Klinger to the mess tent, where she could have her second proper meal in weeks.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Kat got onto the truck without too much fuss, much to everyone's surprise. Hawkeye had thought she'd fight out staying in the camp a little while longer before being dragged kicking and screaming onto the back of the truck, where she'd be sedated before being taken away.
'I don't think she's that sort of person, Hawkeye,' BJ said as Kat climbed carefully up onto the truck.
'Well it's what I'd do,' Hawkeye said in a pretend haughtily voice. He grinned up at the girl as she found a comfortable place to sit among some South Koreans being shipped away also. 'Good luck, Black Kat, may your bad luck always stick by you,' he said.
'Ignore him,' Klinger whispered as he handed Kat her jacket. 'And I'll see you soon,' he added before the truck started off. Kat waved to the people watching her go, mostly scared, but sort of excited that she was going back there soon.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Guess who I found behind Klinger's tent,' Potter said, standing in the doorway of the Post Op ward where Hawkeye, BJ and Charles were. Klinger was standing there, looking a little ashamed, and Potter pulled Kat into view.
'Black Kat!' BJ said.
'She jump off the truck?' Hawkeye asked.
'Appears so,' Potter replied. 'One of you want to take her personally to a friend of mine's place, in Seoul. He promised to get her home. Not you, Klinger,' Potter said as Klinger opened his mouth to offer to take Kat.
'I'll take her, I could do with three days R and R,' Hawkeye said.
'Winchester, you'd better take her, I trust you more than Klinger to bring her back, and more than Hawkeye and BJ to leave Seoul in ruins,' Potter sighed. Charles nodded and led Kat to where Radar had a jeep waiting.
'Well, we're off. Everyone's fine, Nurse Kellye can come get us at the officer's club if something happens. Coming, Klinger?' Hawkeye said as the jeep with Kat and Charles in it pulled away from camp.
'Yeah, alright,' Klinger said. He walked with the two doctors to the officer's club and sat at the bar with them, after ordering a beer.
'You organised her to come back, didn't you?' BJ asked Klinger.
'I was worried about her. Think she'll be ok?' Klinger asked.
'Hey, she survived the war this long,' Hawkeye said, taking a sip from his martini.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Sir?' Radar poked Hawkeye in the side.
'Huh? What?' the surgeon jumped awake.
'Two wounded men just came in. Oh, and Kat,' Radar said.
'A cat? I'm no vet,' Hawkeye yawned, pulling his left boot onto his right foot.
'No, not a cat, Black Kat, you know, the kid?' Radar said. He was now poking BJ awake.
'Black Kat's back? Wasn't she supposed to be going home?' Hawkeye asked, realizing his mistake with his shoes.
'What about Black Kat?' BJ asked, sitting up.
'She's injured, in surgery,' Radar said. 'We have no whole blood left, that last bunch cleaned us out, and supplies aren't due until Monday, so Klinger has offered to give blood for surgery,' Radar said, helping Hawkeye with his bathrobe.
'Come on, Beej, get moving,' Hawkeye said, running out. Charles was already scrubbing when they got there. Potter arrived a few minutes later.
'Sorry I'm late, I was out riding Sophie, Radar couldn't find me for a few minutes,' Potter explained. Margaret came out to Pre op.
'One of the men have died already, sir,' she said. 'The girl and the other one are just hanging on.'
'Looks like we only need two surgeons,' Hawkeye commented.
'Who's worse off?' Charles asked.
'The girl,' Margaret replied as she helped Charles get into his surgical gown and to get his gloves on.
'I'll look after her then, while one of you gentlemen take care of the soldier,' Charles said before disappearing into OR.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Kat blinked awake.
'Ah, the Black Kat awakens,' Hawkeye said. 'You had enough shrapnel in your arms and legs to make a new one of each instrument we used on you.'
'The others? What happened to the other two?' Kat asked.
'One died waiting on the table, and the other died while we were operating,' BJ replied. 'You're the only survivor.'
'You're joking, right?' Kat asked. 'It's not funny if you are.'
'We're not kidding,' Hawkeye said softly. Kat started crying quietly.
'Ten men during this war died because of my bad luck,' she said. 'I've been lucky each time.'
'Sounds like you owe a cat somewhere a life,' BJ said.
'Kat ok?' Klinger asked, coming into Post op.
'Yeah, she's fine. Needs a week here so we're totally sure she's ok, though,' Hawkeye replied. Klinger nodded and left.
'So I'm going to be ok?' Kat asked.
'Yeah, fit as a fiddle,' BJ said. 'You'll be jumping boats again in no time.' Kat's face twitched a little into a smile, before disappearing again.
'Great,' she said softly.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Margaret found Kat leaning against the wall of Sophie's stable four days later.
'Hi,' Margaret said, making an effort to be kind.
'Hi,' Kat said without turning around. She had s dreamy sound to her voice, and she was staring at the Colonel's horse fondly.
'You like horses?' Margaret asked.
'Been riding since I was three,' Kat said. 'It helps if you grow up on a farm.'
'Maybe the Colonel will let you ride Sophie,' Margaret said.
'The Colonel owns this horse?' Kat asked, turning around. She jumped in surprise when she saw she'd been talking to Margaret.
'Yes, he does. I'm sure he wouldn't mind,' Margaret said. Kat mumbled something, and stared at the ground. Margaret walked away, she'd been told Black Kat didn't like talking a lot.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Uh, sir?'
'What now, Radar?'
'Sir, the Black Kat has been riding your horse, sir.'
'Kat has been riding Sophie?'
'Yes, sir, for the last three days.'
'Go get her, Hawkeye, BJ, Charles, BJ and Margaret. Tell them it's urgent.'
'Right away, sir.'
'And Radar. . .'
'Make sure Kat hasn't hurt herself riding Sophie, yes sir.'
'Thank you Radar, that'll be all.'
'Yes sir.'
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'I understand you've been riding Sophie,' Potter said to Kat. Kat looked around nervously, and shrank back. 'I also understand that you wish to stay here,' Potter continued. Kat risked a quick nod as she tried to make herself invisible. 'What I don't understand, is how you ended back up in a combat zone when I sent you to someone who'd send you home,' Potter sat down, and looked at Kat.
'Black Kat has talked to me about that, sir,' Margaret said, stepping forward.
'Fine, what's the scoop?' Potter asked.
'He sent me away. Said he could only help me if I were part of the army and I couldn't join so I could go home for another two years,' Kat spoke up.
'Last time I ask his a favour,' Potter said to himself. 'Anyway, I never realised you'd been riding Sophie until Radar told me half an hour before. I never noticed. You've taken good care of my horse, and as a reward, you may stay in camp, if you get the right amount of votes,' Potter glanced up at the other people in the room.
'I don't mind her staying,' Hawkeye said. 'She adds interest to the camp.'
'It's not like she takes up much room,' BJ shrugged. 'Plus, here's probably the safest place in the war.' Klinger and Margaret agreed, but Charles was against it.
'She should be sent home! A MASH unit is no place for a child!' he protested.
'Sorry, Winchester, you're out voted. The Black Kat stays,' Potter said.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'I never picked you as the superstitious type, Charles,' Hawkeye said later in the Swamp.
'Excuse me?' Charles asked.
'Well, Klinger said Kat told him that she was bad luck. Why else would you want her to go?' BJ asked.
'Bad luck is for ignoramuses like yourselves,' Charles replied. 'I don't believe in it.' At this point, Charles sat on his cot, which instantly collapsed. Hawkeye and BJ started laughing.
'Believe in bad luck now, Charles?' BJ managed to ask.
'You two are imbeciles,' Charles said, getting up with difficulty. He then went to where his footlocker was, and tried to open it. When it refused to open, he glared at the other two men.
'What now, Charles? Can't you open your footlocker?' Hawkeye asked innocently.
'You've changed the lock!' Charles yelled.
'How do you know it wasn't the Black Kat's bad luck?' BJ asked. Charles stormed out of the Swamp to find somewhere where Hawkeye and BJ wouldn't bother him.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Excuse me? Mr Winchester?' Kat whispered softly. Charles looked up to see Black Kat standing at the Swamp door, looking a little scared and unsure of herself.
'Dr Winchester, if you don't mind,' he said icily. Kat shrank back a little, and Charles sighed. 'Come in, child, what is it?' he demanded. Kat came into the tent, looking like a skittish fox.
'Dr Winchester, why don't you want me in camp?' Kat asked. Charles was a little surprised at the question.
'I thought you knew,' he said, a little uncomfortably. Kat shook her head. Charles sighed again. 'I don't want to see a young child, such as yourself, in the midst of all this blood, this horror,' he told her.
'It's worse out in the field,' Kat replied quietly.
'Most probably. The point is, the best place for you to be at this time would be home. With your Aunt, or whoever you were going to live with,' Charles said.
'I've tried,' Kat replied. Charles stared at the girl, making her feel uncomfortable. She didn't believe Charles wanted her to be safe from the war, not after how spitefully Hawkeye and BJ talked about him, and how they treated him, but after talking to him, it seemed slightly possible.
'Three miles from the front is not a safe place to be,' he said. Kat nodded, and left Charles to his music.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'What are you doing, Kat?' Klinger asked. He'd seen a movement in the compound and found it was Kat.
'I'm leaving,' Kat replied.
'Why?' Klinger said. 'Don't you like it here?'
'No, I love it. But I talked to that doctor who doesn't want me here, and he makes sense. Three miles from the front line is dangerous. I'm going to head south, where it's safer,' Kat explained.
'Why would you listen to Charles?' Klinger asked.
'He was the one who operated on me when I came in the second time. He saved my life. I respect him a lot for that,' Kat said.
'Are you sure you want to go?' Klinger asked, desperate to make Kat stay. Kat nodded.
'I appreciate what everyone here has done for me here, especially you, but this is no place for a girl my age,' Kat said. She began walking away, but Klinger stopped her.
'One last thing. If Black Kat is your nickname, what's your real name?' he asked. Kat looked up at Klinger, a small smiled on her face.
'Fiona,' she said. Kat disappeared into the darkness, and away from camp.
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
'Black Kat's gone?' Hawkeye asked.
'Yep. Decided Major Winchester was right when he said a MASH unit was no place for a kid,' Klinger replied. 'You want potatoes or green slop with that hamburger?'
'Uh, potatoes,' Hawkeye said distractedly. He and BJ walked over to a table and sat down.
'Can you believe Charles? He sent Black Kat away. Probably bribed her,' BJ said sourly.
'Maybe she'll come back,' Hawkeye said hopefully. 'She realise that she has friends here and should come back.'
'Odds are, Hawk, she'll find somewhere to hole up for the rest of the war,' BJ said. Charles sat down the table from them and the other two surgeons looked at each other.
'Did you know Black Kat left?' Hawkeye asked Charles innocently.
'Oh really?' Charles asked, suspecting a trick.
'Klinger said he saw her leave the camp,' BJ added.
'There's only one reason why she'd leave, you know,' Hawkeye said. 'Because someone around camp didn't like her.'
'You're blaming me for that girl's running off?' Charles asked in surprise.
'Yes,' Hawkeye replied.
'That's absurd,' Charles said, standing up with his tray and leaving.
'Poor Black Kat,' BJ said. 'Hope she's doing ok.'
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Black Kat returned to the 4077th MASH, but not as anyone expected. She came in by helicopter, the victim of a bomb blast twenty miles away. She was burnt, with a broken arm, multiple fractures to one leg and died of blood loss on the way to camp. Charles blamed himself. Hawkeye and BJ hadn't brought it up that it was his fault for sending Kat away, but he knew it would only be a matter of time. Instead of sending her away in a truck with the other anonymous soldiers, she was buried on the outskirts of camp.
'Mind if I sit with you, Major?' Klinger asked.
'If you must,' Charles said, staring at the plain little wooden cross in front of him. 'It was my fault she left you know,' he said when Klinger sat down. 'If I hadn't told her to leave, she'd still be here.'
'She left because she respected you,' Klinger said.
'What?' Charles asked.
'She told me, the night she left. She said she said that she respected you for what you did. You saved her life when she came in the second time, and she thought you were right when you said this was no place for her,' Klinger said. The two were silent for a while. Charles finally got up and left after a few minutes, and Klinger went to the cross. On it, BJ and Hawkeye had written "Black Kat", but Klinger felt it was wrong. He took up the paint brush and paint Hawkeye had left there, and added a few things. He stood back to admire his handy work, then left. A gentle breeze blew, drying the wet paint.
"Fiona, the Black Kat of Korea."
**~~*~~*~~*~~**
Authors Note: Ok, the ending is probably a little corny, but you have to admit, this is better than the original. Please leave your reviews in a tidy an orderly fashion. ;)