I can hear we've arrived...but I don't want to face them...not yet. A part of me believes Hawkeye...and another part doesn't...I need to know the truth before I can see them.

"They're here they're here!"

BJ - always the sillier, happier one.

"Shhh"
"Sorry Hawk."
"Can you grab the bags?"
"Sur...oh my..."
"I know, she looks terrible."
"Verge of death more like it."
"Well..."

Careful Hawk...I'm not that light.

"I've lifted heavier feathers...She's only just fallen asleep."
"How was it?"
"Not much short of hell...where's everyone else?"

Nice Hawkeye...really nice.

"Charles and Trapper are outback. Potter and Daniel are in the den and the gals are baking something. You sure you're okay carrying her?"
"What her? She's down to 92 pounds at least."
"Shit"
"It took everything to not say anything when I saw her."
"When did she last eat?"
"I honestly don't know. She's been starving herself for God knows how long."

He probably wouldn't know either.

"All I do know is she ate some toast 2 nights ago...but didn't keep it down."
"Wonderful, I'll go on ahead."
"BJ is she...oh my Lord."

Always subtle and honest Colonel Potter, there to tell you what's what.

"She's here...in a matter of speaking."
"How was your trip Ben?"

Bound to be Daniel...voice is so similar.

"Korea was bigger laughs."
"You're not putting her upstairs?"
"No, I want her where I can...see her, ya know?"

Like I'm going to do anything drastic anyway? Hmm, comfy couch.

"I'll go tell Charles and Trapper."
"Son, I didn't believe it when you told me, but now..."
"I know Sherm...she's really sick."
"Hawkeye I think it's best if I go home...or to work."
"Yeah okay, thanks dad."
"Ring if you need me."
"Okay!"
"See you Dan!"
"Bye Sherm!"

Home? I figured he'd live here...

"Pierce is she...oh dear God."
"Hawk...what...how?"

Ahhh Charles and Trapper...couldn't mistake their voices anywhere.

"Should we go somewhere more quiet?"
"What? Oh yeah, good idea Beej."
"Do you want me to shut the..."
"NO! I mean...I want her in sight."

Geez Hawkeye, take a sedative or something...I'm not going anywhere...like this is anywhere.

I can hear them moving away to the next room. But their voices are as clear as day.

"Uncle Hawkeye!"
"Heya kiddo! How's it goin'?"
"Is yours and daddy's and uncle Charles and uncle Trapper and grampa Sherman's friend here yet?"
"Yeah, but you've got to be quiet...she's not feeling well and she's asleep."
"She needs a doctor! Yous are all doctors...are you gonna make her better?"
"That's the plan Erin."

Erin...cute kid, Certainly has BJ's brain...and possibly Hawkeye's curiosity.

"Okay Erin, where's mommy?"
"Mommy's here...can you help me and grammie Mildred bake some cookies?"
"YAY!"
"Thank you."

Peg sounds nice...

"Hey Hawk...WHAT THE HELL?"
"Okay okay, before you all bombard me..."
"Son, what's wrong with her?"
"This isn't Margaret at all"
"Certainly not anyone of her I've ever seen."
"All you told us was she was really sick and needed help...what is going on?"
"QUIET! Please. I haven't been able to get much out of her..."
"Not much? You've talked to her haven't you?"
"Not much that makes SENSE Beej. When I have she's either bitten my head off, denied it, cried her eyes out or been a total Smartass."

I learnt from the best didn't I HAWKEYE?

"Denied what?"
"Margaret's been starving herself."
"What?"
"She doesn't eat and when she does she throws it back up."
"For heavens sake, she's a nurse, a damn good one too. Doesn't she have any idea what she's doing to herself?"
"She's not herself."
"I'll say. Even from what you all told me how she changed this isn't that."
"No, really. The Margaret we all know – bar you Trapp, is nowhere to be seen. And the Hotlips you and I know isn't there either. She's an entirely different person. So no guys...she doesn't know."
"What caused this Pierce?"
"I'm not sure yet. I managed to track down Lorraine Anderson. She said this happened before."
"WHAT?!"
"When Margaret was about 15 for some reason she started starving herself and later on, throwing up anything she ate."

That SNITCH! I knew I could never trust her.

"How did she get out of it?"
"Her parents threatened her with hospitalisation...I don't want to have to do that to her."
"Are you alright son?"
"Fair enough to say I never want to go through a car trip like that again."
"How bad was it?"
"Remember her worst mood, times that by about a hundred and swing it violently. I've never seen her in such a way before. Her mood swings are worse than I've ever encountered. And this is Margaret at her saddest and maddest I'm talking about. She also has this warped idea that we all hate her"

Warped? Try again hero.

"Rubbish!"
"And that we only want to help her because we're doctors."
"That's bullshit."
"Yeah, we all love her"
"And I've constantly told her that...what's worse...I think she's hearing voices."
"That's it, I think hell has just frozen over. Margaret Houlihan, hearing voices?"

It is rather chilly in here.

"Yes Charles. But this isn't Margaret Houlihan. It's not Hotlips Houlihan. I don't know who it is."
"Putting the psychological side away for a bit, Hawk how much weight has she lost?"
"She says 32 pounds, but I think it's more..."

38 Hawkeye...

""""32 POUNDS?""""
"Mixed with lack of energy, no food, excessive drinking..."
"Margaret's drinking?"
"I checked around her place...wasn't much there. She's not alcoholic. That's all visibly I could see, though there's bound to be numerous other problems. Mentally I'm more worried. Apart from the voices – which I'm not sure about and the thought we all hate her..." "Which we don't"

Yeah! Right.

"Nightmares. Constant ones, causing her to be sick."
"Sick?"
"Almost in my car too. Plus she's not working and I highly doubt she knows anyone in New York."
"I think I need a drink"
"Make that a double"
"A Triple"
"The whole damn bottle."

Typical Swamp Rats

"BJ?"
"Yeah?"
"I thought Mildred and I might take Erin to the beach. Let you guys sort it out in peace."
"Thanks honey."
"Sherman, if we don't get back in time, can you get the tray out of the oven...and don't eat those cookies"
"I won't mother."
"Bye daddy."
"Bye sweetheart, have fun."
"Have you eaten Hawk?"
"Yeah, about an hour ago, and no she hasn't. Just a coffee and aspirin."
"So what's the next course of action?"
"That's why I called you all...I have no idea how to deal with this."
"Pierce, Boston Mercy may have something in their files..."
"Yeah, didn't we have a similar case there about 10 months ago?"
"Wasn't that the 14 year old girl?"
"Yeah."

Charles and Trapper, working together?

"How did that work out?"
"She saw the hospital psychiatrist, went to therapy, was given a diet to stick by and left at a fairly healthy weight. She's coming back every few months for a check up."
"Hawkeye I know you don't want her to go but..."
"But nothing. We're doctors, right? She's got a whole hospital right here. We all have different specialties...we can help her."
"Does anyone know where Sidney is at the moment?"
"Connecticut I believe."
"I'm not sure if Sidney'll come up here for that, I mean he has his own practice and..."
"There's no harm in calling right?"
"And if he can't get up here right away, he'll tell us how to deal."
"Number's by the phone...he wanted to check up every so often after we got back."

Great – a shrink. I've had my life's worth of them. And SIDNEY of all people!?

"Most importantly...does she want help? Hawk?"
"I wasn't sure until about 40 minutes before we arrived. She just broke down, asking me to please help her...to get rid of them and him."
"Them? Him?"
"That's what made me think of voices...Look I really don't care if she wants help or not. This isn't Margaret...this isn't anyone of her. Whoever it is can...can just go to hell. I want Margaret back. I want the same person I had before we left."

You left? When did this become all about you? All so damn patronising!

"Okay Hawk...we'll help you get her back."
"We want her back too."
"I want to meet the new Margaret Houlihan you all speak about."
"You'll love her"
"Just not as much as some..."
"Son, why don't you get some sleep? We'll watch her."
"No, I just wanna sit with her for a bit."
"Okay Hawk, call if you need anything."

And now he's coming over...to 'watch me.'

"Please God, help her...bring her back to me."

ME? Still with the yawn it all being about him... Hmmm, where did the blanket come from?

"We're baaaack! They still asleep?"
"Yeah, how was it?"
"The Atlantic – as gorgeous as ever!"
"Speak for yourself Trapp, the Pacific is way better."
"I agree honey!"
"You Westerners are all the same."
"Erin, which do you prefer?"
"THE BEACH!"
"See Charles – the beach!"
"Which translates as Atlantic."
"Pacific!"
"Atlantic!"
"Pacific!"
"Boy I'm glad I didn't have the three of you loons at once."

Sure would have been one helluva time!

"Grampa Sherman...is the cookies done?"
"I don't know, let's go find Grammie Mildred"
"Yay! COOKIES!"
"I'm going to take a shower, that water's colder than back home in Winter."
"See – Pacific, okay hon."
"Quite an excitable child your Erin."
"Why Uncle Charles, you're getting a little clucky!"
"You should see him with Henry. What 3 year old doesn't love a walking candy store?"
"How often is it I get to see Erin?"
"Couple times a year."
"You should get your own kids...ruin their teeth."
"Monica and I are discussing it at the moment."
"Really? That's great!"
"You ready for kids?"
"I think so..."

Charles MARRIED?! Well...odder things have happened.

"Erin's been begging me for a younger brother."
"No sister?"
"She wants a brother. As she tells us every night."
"Yeah, Henry wants a brother too...I think it's cute, Lou thinks it's a lot of work."
"You thought of adopting?"
"Yeah. Each time I do, I think of Kim. He was such a cute kid."
"Why don't you write Father Mulcahy? Maybe he could help."
"There's also the Church in Park Lane, they could help too."
"Yeah, I'll talk it over with Lou."

Yeah, and because of me, he was almost killed...great move Houlihan!

"Cookies anyone?"
"Choc Chip is da bestest!"
"Coffee's coming."
"How is she?"
"Sleeping, quite restless."
"Poor girl."
"Hawkeye's not that much better either. That boy cares for her more than he knows..."
"It was always clear Pierce was attracted to her..."
"Even before you guys came, he wanted to make a grab for her."
"This isn't just attraction though."
"Yeah."
"Plus he was the one who had to go rescue her."
"I haven't known Hawkeye for long, but when I saw him come in, he looked like he had just lost his best friend."
"He's not too far off."
"Daddy, why is Uncle Hawkeye sad?"
"Why do you say that sweetie?"
"He looks sad."
"He's sad because Aunty Margaret is sick. And he doesn't know if he can make her get better. But you want to know something?"
"Yeah?"
"He will make her better...he really likes her."
"That's good, cause I wanna help too!"
"Well you know how you can do that? Go get changed."
"Okay daddy!"

They would flip if they knew I was listening. I wonder what time it is?

"You believe Hawk will get her better?"
"Or die trying...if I know Hawkeye, he'll do anything and everything to help her."
"But he's gonna need help."
"Right, which is why we need to go back to Boston."
"What?"
"Charles is right, Boston has much larger hospitals than anywhere in Maine"
"If we want to help Margaret, we need to go and find as much information to help her."
"Yeah you're right. You wanna wake Hawk and tell him you're leaving?"
"Yeah...he'd kill me if I left without saying goodbye."

Trapper Trapper Trapper...always trying to fix things.

"Hey, hey Hawk."
"Mmm? What, is she okay?"
"Still sleeping – see. Look, Charles and me are gonna go back to Boston, snoop around there. We can only help her by knowing what to do."
"Yeah, good idea. When are you coming back?" "Monday. I need to check back at home"
"As do I, never know what those people have been up to."
"Yeah...okay, see ya Monday."
"Bye Hawk"
"Goodbye Pierce."
"Beej, I'm gonna sleep some more...wake me if she does."
"Okay Hawk."

Don't count on it...

"Daddy, is this okay?"
"Perfect, where's mommy?"
"Still in the shower!"
"Well kiddo, what do you want to do?"
"Play with Uncle Trapper!"
"I gotta go see my kids Erin, I'll be back on Monday though."
"Okay...can Henry come too?"
"Maybe next time cutie."
"Erin, sweetie, I have to go too, but I'm coming back with Trapper."
"Okay uncle Charles."
"You guys got everything?"
"Yeah, well...see ya BJ, Sherman, Mildred"
"See you all on Monday then."
"Righto"
"We'll be back with hopefully the key."
"Goodbye boys, see you later."
"Bye Tell Peg!"
"Okay Erin, what can we do?"
"Make cookies?"
"You did that already."
"Can I watch Television?"
"It's 4pm so..."
"Mildred and I are going for a walk."
"Okay, see you in a bit."
"Can I?"
"Why don't we go find mommy and watch it with her?"
"Okay daddy."

See – everyone's happy families. BJ, Peg and Erin, Potter and Mildred, Trapper, his wife and kids, Charles and his wife...Hawkeye and his dad...

What have I got? No one...nothing...that's what.

'Margaret WAKE UP TO YOURSELF! Do you know how pathetic you sound?'

'Hey, the Angel's getting a brain. She's right, you are pathetic'

'She SOUNDS pathetic - not is. This self-pitying is disgusting! This is not you; they all care about you and want to help. Stop being so damn stubborn!'

'PATHETIC PATHETIC PATHETIC!!!'

Shut up

'Margaret grow up'

Stop it

'Yeah – CHILD!'

Stop it!

'So so helpless...just like when you were 15.'

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
"Margaret..."

'You were no good then and you're no good now!'

"SHUT UP SHUT UP...JUST STOP IT, LEAVE ME ALONE."
"Margaret, it's okay it's okay...no one's here but me."
"Hawk...Hawkeye what happened?"
"Please, make them go away...I want them to go away..."

And here I am, screaming like some maniac, wanting them to go away. Just one problem...who is them?