Thank you to my one reviewer. I have to be honest; I don't actually understand what you said about using the MASH writer's ideas.
Hehe. bounces I have great ideas for this girl.
I may be making this chapter a tiny bit longer than the others. Oh, and please – I thrive on reviews. So if you read this story please review it! Thankyou!
Chapter Three: Golden DaysThree long weeks has passed since Kate's arrival at the MASH 4077th. Her curiosity about the place had quickly been thrown away into a drawer and discarded; simply because there were far too many wounded to tend to. She'd barely been given a chance to get to know anyone as she would have liked, but prominent figures of the camp had made themselves known to her. First of all, there was Colonel Blake, and she had met him on her first day, along with Major Houlihan and Radar O'Reilly, the company clerk.
Colonel Blake turned out to be a magnificent doctor and CO, even if he was treated somewhat unfairly by a more than a few of his subordinates. Radar O'Reilly was the youngest member of the 4077th, and kind of like a son and little brother to most. He was super organised, and Kate absolutely loved having him around, as he reminded her so much of her little brother, Brett.
Then there was Major Margaret Houlihan, who was in charge of the nurses. Kate was Margaret's second hand, it seemed. She helped out when it was necessary and usually took the blame for any mistake made by the nursing staff. It wasn't exactly what Kate thought a second hand should do, but who was she to argue? Especially with Margaret, who had turned out to be just as firm and intimidating as she had appeared on the ride over.
The other Major was Frank Burns, a doctor, if you could call him that. Kate couldn't stand the way he spoke to other people, or the way he favoured specific patients over others, just because of their rank or whether they were American or Korean. She also felt sick at his conceited behaviour, and it wasn't even as if he was entitled to it. He was the worst doctor she had ever seen, and she would definitely keep out of his way when he was under pressure.
Then there were the other Surgeons, Captain Hawkeye Pierce and Captain John McIntyre, whom everyone called Trapper. Kate enjoyed their antics somewhat, except for the fact they were both womanisers, and there was a pretty good chance one or both of them were married. Aside from this, she admired them as doctors and their morals about human life. They were the complete opposite of Frank Burns, she realised. They were fun loving, anything but by the book, not racists, and the best doctors she had ever seen at work.
Presently they had found themselves in surgery again. They'd been there at least eight hours, and there was more wounded to come. Everyone was tired, but hardly anyone let it get to them, except Frank. He was getting to everyone, and yelling continuously at Nurse Kellye for his own mistakes. There was a point where Kate was going to stab him with the scalpel she had in her hand.
"Frank, if you don't shut your pie hole, I'm afraid I'm going to have to do a little cosmetic surgery on you." Hawkeye threatened, as Frank's whinging met no end.
Kate grinned. The same thought was obviously just floating through everyone's mind about now.
"Colonel! Did you hear that?" Margaret shrieked, from Trapper's side.
Colonel Blake let out a long sigh, taking the scalpel from Kate, and holding it up in, one could only assume, a threatening manner.
"I heard it Major," he said, barely listening to her next cry.
"There, you see? He heard it." Hawkeye said. "But thanks for you concern."
Margaret scowled and Kate stifled the laughter that threatened to explode any minute. She was distracted from the conversation by the entrance of Radar. He held a little white mask over his mouth as he trotted over to the Colonel.
"Sir," he said, walking past Kate and onto the Colonel's other side to whisper something in his ear.
Apparently whatever Radar had said was rather important, as Colonel Blake nodded and said to Kate,
"Finish up for me, will you?"
Then he hurried out of the OR, followed by Radar. Kate wondered what that was about, but didn't wonder for long. She was supposed to be a great nurse. She was supposed to know exactly what to do when someone was hurt. Therefore, she probably shouldn't have been looking at the Colonel as he exited through the doors.
When she'd finished, she hurried on outside to help the other nurses with those who were still waiting to be operated on. At the sight of the men laying half-dead on the ground before her, and more and more jeeps rolling up, Kate realised there was absolutely no way she was supposed to reassure every single one of them that they'd be okay.
The corpsmen were running out to bring another wounded soldier in. Kate went to sit by the side of a man who looked like his legs had been chopped off, and sadly, she thought, that was probably what was going to happen to him. He was pretty out of it, his head thrashing from side to side, murmuring someone's name that she couldn't quite make out.
Glancing beside her, Kate almost died of shock at the sight of a little girl covered in blood, crying and screaming. She jumped up and ran over to the child, who was being lifted out of a jeep. The blood ran all the way down the child's legs.
"What happened?" Kate demanded of the GI's who'd brought them.
"Their village got bombed," one answered, distractedly. "Most of 'em were long gone, but we found a few, badly injured."
The young woman watched in horror as a man was carried out of the jeep on a stretched, his arm blown off, with burns all over his body, and his face scratched up.
"Doesn't look like there's much you lot can do …" another GI remarked.
Doesn't look like there's much you lot can do.
Those words had haunted Kate through the next few hours, while she stood beside the Colonel in surgery. She wondered what the GI had meant by the word 'much'. He probably had no idea just how many hours these people spent in surgery. He probably had no idea how many miracles could be preformed in that large room.
Kate could only vaguely remember the hours she spent in surgery; it was all like a blur to her. She stumbled out of the OR, feeling the weight of every muscle and bone in her body. This was something she'd had to get used to rather quickly. The long hours only seemed to matter when sleep was required. Otherwise, all Kate could ever think of was if they were doing enough or had done enough to save a patient.
She had a peaceful, dreamless sleep that night, and when she woke up, though it seemed as if she had only just gone to bed, she was fully refreshed and ready for a new day.
Pulling her pyjamas off and replacing them with her army greens, Kate walked calmly towards the Mess Tent. She heard a sudden flapping of wings and suddenly a brown spotted bird swerved in front of her. She jumped back a few feet and watched it fly away.
"Kate?" someone asked unexpectedly.
Jumping yet again, the young Captain caught sight of Trapper making his way slowly towards her, a look of confusion on his face.
"Oh, morning," she smiled, placing her hand over her chest.
"You all right?" He asked, looking around to where the bird was flying off.
She nodded.
"Just a little startled," she confessed. "Nothing major."
"Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," he replied. "Actually, I don't think I've ever really had the effect on people. It's always been more of an annoying quality …"
Kate laughed and looked at him earnestly.
"Oh, I couldn't imagine why …"
The two grinned and walked together towards the Mess. Inside, Hawkeye was seated across from Colonel Blake, talking seriously to Radar about something. As soon as he noticed Trapper and Kate enter, he beckoned them over.
Kate glanced around, noting the two Majors huddled together in secretive whispers. A little way away from them was a table of nurses, chatting joyously.
"What's up?" Trapper asked.
Hawkeye gave Radar an expectant look, but as the boy opened his mouth to speak, the Colonel spoke up.
"We've been told we have to relocate the camp," he informed them solemnly.
"What?" Trapper and Kate cried at once.
"Shh! Sit!" the Colonel commanded.
They did as they were told and listened to him as he explained the situation further.
"According to high ranking Army Generals, we're too close to the fighting," he began. "They want us to move back from the front, not wanting to risk medical supplies and so on."
"But …" Kate stared, befuddled, "that's the whole point! There are other hospitals way closer to the front than us. I mean, as hard as it is for the personnel, it's not them they're worried about, evidently."
"They can't move us back." Trapped said decisively.
"We can't argue with …" Colonel Blake began.
"Actually, I think we can argue with them," interrupted Hawkeye. "We can argue with them, but there would probably be no point."
Colonel Blake nodded in agreement.
"We should just ignore them."
The Colonel's face dropped a few feet at this. Trapper, Kate and Radar stared at Hawkeye in bewilderment.
"We can't ignore them!" Kate pointed out, stunned.
"Look, they know we have to do what they say," explained Hawkeye. "If we don't, what can they do?"
"Ever heard of Capital Punishment?"
"They need us. We're the doctors and nurses that heal their soldiers. Without us, their army would never get back on two feet." Hawkeye pushed.
"So we just go about our normal business?" Trapper asked, much calmer than Kate and Henry. "All right."
Trapper took one look at the food that was being served, shrugged and sat down beside Hawkeye. Radar was watching the Colonel's facial expression. He was absolutely horrified, and Kate's look wasn't much different. The two stared at the other surgeons for a few minutes, astonished.
"You're all crazy." Kate concluded, throwing up her arms and heading off to get some food.
What did they plan on saying to Frank and Margaret? Surely when those two found out, there wouldn't be even the slightest chance that rules and regulations would be ignored.
That day passed quite typically. Two nurses had forgotten or abandoned their duties, so Margaret asked, or more accurately demanded that Kate do the work instead. Without complaint, Kate did it.
Sometimes, she mused, I feel like Cinderella. But then, I'm not that lucky, am I?
Not many people in the camp were informed of the orders to move away from the front, and for good reason, too. Although the Colonel obviously disapproved of Hawkeye's 'plan', he remained hushed about it all. Kate guessed it had something to do with being indecisive – always a rather large fault.
Kate didn't talk to anyone about it either. She didn't know whether she approved or not, so that was probably her being indecisive too. The difference was that she wasn't the CO of the MASH and didn't actually have to make any decisions. She did, however, glare at Hawkeye and Trapper every chance she got. That course of action didn't actually result in anything except confused looks from the duo.
All in all, it was a completely boring day. The most entertaining part of it would have been the conversation she had with one of the patients about Jesus.
She was just walking past his bed, when he cried out. She rushed to his side and asked what was wrong.
"I need …" he mumbled, clutching her arm, "Jesus …"
The first thought that entered Kate's mind was to get Father Mulcahy, but the patient looked her in the eye so intensely that she felt she couldn't move.
"I can get Father …" she began.
"No!" He suddenly yelled.
Kate jumped.
"We need Jesus." He said. "We need to pray."
Kate stared at him. She wanted to check his chart to see how much morphine this man had been given.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Don't you believe in Jesus?" He asked, gravely.
"Uh … I … I guess I do."
"Look at the people here," he indicated with a free hand to the other soldiers lying around him. "Listen to the bombs going off. We need mercy."
"From Jesus?"
"Yes. We need him to forgive us."
"But … it isn't Jesus who's out there on the battlefield, shooting at everyone," reasoned Kate. "It's men, like you, out there. What we need is mercy from each other."
"It is Jesus who will give that mercy." The man said.
Kate glanced at his dog tags. Corporal Tate Weldon.
"You can't give all the work to Jesus." She told him. "We've got to do a little of it, you know. It's man wreaking havoc in this country right now."
"You and I cannot control the other minds out there." Tate explained. "We need to pray to Jesus that he give grace and mercy to those minds. That he take mercy on the wounded – inside and out. Then man will understand."
Here he had stared at her, as if expecting her to reply. Kate didn't know what to say. He just kept staring at her, loosening his grip on her arm. As he lay back, she stood up and watched him for a while, before going back to her tent.
She wasn't sure if she should have taken him seriously or not. It was a fair enough argument – that everyone needed to pray. Maybe she should start. She couldn't remember the last time she did pray. When things got really bad, she knew she would be crying for help from God, but that hadn't happened yet.
Thoughts of Jesus and God slipped her mind as she crawled under the blankets and drifted off to sleep.
A stream of sunlight burst into Kate's view as she gingerly opened her eyes. The shadowy figure of a woman was outlined in front of the sun as the flimsy door banged onto the wall.
"Major?" Kate mumbled.
"Captain," Margaret said in an authoritative tone. "Do you happen to know anything about a certain set of orders, commanding that we move this camp away from the front?"
Kate was thunderstruck for a few seconds, before gathering her wits and sitting up. She guarded her eyes from the vivid light of the sun as Margaret crossed her arms.
"You mean the Generals orders?" Kate asked, finally.
"Oh!" Margaret threw her arms up in the air and strode towards Henry's office.
Swiftly, Kate jumped out of her cot, threw on her dressing gown, pulled on her slippers and raced out after Margaret. Passing Radar as he shuffled through some notes on his desk, she gave a smile and walked into the Colonel's office, uninvited. She found Margaret standing before Henry, yelling at him non-stop. In the corner, Hawkeye and Trapper stood, looks of utter boredom on their faces. Henry was giving Margaret a look that said 'kick me when I should start caring'. Frank stood a few steps behind Margaret, nodding along.
"…a wonder that who they tell about these things aren't the people in charge!" Margaret was ranting.
"Major …" Henry sighed.
"I don't know why you don't reprimand these people, Colonel!" She continued, ignoring him. "They go over your head all the time! Why on earth were they even made Captains?"
Henry looked like he was about ready to drown himself.
"Major, I knew!"
Margaret and Frank shot him equally horrified looks. Margaret's quickly turned into one of ferociousness, and Franks into one of disgust.
"You knew?" Margaret repeated in a dangerous whisper.
"Yes."
"Colonel!" Frank suddenly cried. "You can't let them walk all over you!"
"I'm certainly not going to let you walk all over me, Frank." Henry replied, glaring.
Margaret briefly turned around to glare at Kate, before facing Henry again.
"I will not let you disobey a direct order, sir." She told him firmly. "Either you do this, or I go over your head."
"Yeah, I know. My head's got track marks on it already." Henry muttered.
Margaret glared at him.
"Fine, all right." Henry groaned.
There was a sudden outburst from Hawkeye and Trapper.
"Henry!" Hawkeye yelled. "We can't move back! What about all those patients?"
"Oh, they won't mind going a little further," said Frank. "Don't you think those soldiers would rather know that we be safe?"
This earned him glares from Henry, Kate, Hawkeye and Trapper, immediately shutting him up.
So, because Margaret and Frank were such by the book people (in other words, extremely tight-assed) the entire camp was informed that they were up and moving. Not one person in the entire camp was even mildly happy about this news.
Kate was in Radar's little office, helping him pack everything up in the boxes. He had more reason than anyone else in the camp to be grumpy, but he was probably the calmest about it. Kate wondered about this, and decided to ask him.
"Radar, how can you be so placid about all of this?" she asked him. "You're going to have to set everything up all over again …"
"It's all part of the job," responded Radar. "The Army tells me to do something, and I do it. I haven't go enough rank to argue about anything."
"Just because someone tells you you've got to do something, doesn't mean you have to agree with them." Kate pointed out. "You can't possibly be happy about this, can you?"
Radar shrugged.
"I guess I don't mind because it's important to someone." He said.
"What do you mean?" Kate asked.
"Someone out there has a proper reason for all this." Radar explained.
"But the reason for us moving back is because the Army doesn't want to spend all the money replacing the medical supplies because they keep getting destroyed," said Kate.
Kate suddenly realised that Radar was, in fact, only a boy. He couldn't muster the nerve to ask a woman out let alone argue for his freedom.
"I'm sorry, Radar," she said. "I was just wondering."
"It's okay," replied the young boy, giving her an odd look.
The door burst open, and Henry came in, looking positively exhausted.
"You ready?" He asked. "This is the last lot."
"Yep." Kate said, bending over to pick up one of the boxes.
Henry kept the door open as she walked past, the box in her arms.
"Wow," she sighed, putting it down in one of the jeeps. "Radar, what on earth did you put in here? Bricks?"
"Just paper." He responded, putting a box down beside her.
"And it's all absolutely imperative?"
He nodded.
"Okay."
They looked around them. The compound was empty. It reminded Kate of a ghost town, even if it had absolutely nothing but jeeps and trucks. She could picture where every tent was supposed to be, but suddenly stopped because it was kind of weird.
Everyone got in the trucks or jeeps, most in the trucks except the ranking officers – Henry, Margaret, Frank, Hawkeye and Trapper. All the nurses were in the back of the trucks. Kate sat in the passenger side while Klinger drove one of the trucks.
"I think the Army spent more money on our transport than they would have if they needed to buy penicillin." Klinger said.
"Hmm …" Kate thought for a moment. "I think that in the long run, depending on how much we need, the supplies might cost more."
"But we don't loose that much." Klinger argued.
"Yes. I know. But lately there have been heaps of accidents," said Kate.
"I just think this is a big mistake." Klinger concluded.
"The entire camp thinks that, Corporal." Kate replied.
There was silence in the front seat for a fair few minutes, before there was a sudden explosion and the ground shook. This was followed by a lot of screams and yells and gunfire. Klinger and Kate instinctively dove to the bottom of the truck while this went on.
"The nurses!" Kate suddenly gasped, pushing herself up from the ground.
She kicked open the door and scrambled out of the truck, vaguely hearing Klinger's shouts. Shots were being fired everywhere, but she had to make sure the nurses were okay. They didn't have anything to hide under. They were sitting in a wide-open trailer attached to the buggy.
People were running around everywhere. Klinger suddenly bustled out of the other door.
"Captain!" He yelled, grabbing her arm. "What are you doing?!"
"We need to make sure everyone's okay!" She cried.
The nurses were jumping out of the back of trucks and the corpsmen were running about frantically for some cover. The problem was that with snipers, there really was no cover.
"Is everyone okay?" the voice of the Colonel could only barely be heard above the shouts, screams and gunfire.
There was a sudden screeching sound and everyone cried out, covering their ears. Then Radar's voice was blown out on the megaphone.
"Attention! Everyone back in the trucks, immediately!"
It was a struggle, but the personnel managed it. Klinger and Kate jumped back into the truck last and just as they were about to start again there was a scream.
"That came from behind us!" Klinger said.
They both jumped out and raced towards the back of the truck. Nurse Anderson and a few others were in shock, staring at something. Kate hurried past them and froze at the sight. She covered her mouth and dropped to the ground.
It was Trapper.
Klinger came to her side, and she grabbed his sleeve.
"Get Hawkeye …" she breathed. "Get him!"
Klinger raced off, and Kate stared at Trapper's bloody clothes.
"He … he got it in the stomach!" one of the nurses behind her sighed.
Trapper's eyes were wide open, and he was groaning and breathing irregularly. Bloody was slowly flowing from a deep wound. Kate fumbled with his clothes, unbuttoning his jacket to see his shirt was absolutely soaked with blood.
"Trapper," she whispered, fighting back the tears.
He looked at her, still groaning, and obviously unable to talk. She grabbed his hand.
"Squeeze for me, Trap," she begged.
He couldn't do it.
Suddenly Hawkeye was kneeling down by her side, pulling back his shirt to have a better look at the wound. It was deep and it wouldn't stop bleeding. He turned around.
"Which jeep has the supplies?" He asked, firmly but with desperation.
Henry, Frank and Margaret had obviously hurried down after him.
"That one," pointed Henry.
"Help me." Hawkeye said to Klinger.
Klinger and he lifted Trapper towards the jeep as the poor man gritted his teeth. The occupants of the jeep rushed out as the two men placed Trapper on the back seat.
"Kate!" Hawkeye yelled, jumping in next to his friend.
Kate bolted towards the jeep and jumped in as Klinger pressed down on the accelerator. They'd left everyone on the road to catch up with them before Kate finally spoke.
"Where are we going?"
"There's another MASH unit not all that far away," said Klinger in a hasty tone.
"I don't care what those Generals say, we're going back to where we were!" Henry said firmly.
They had started up again, but Henry had ordered the all turn around and go back. Margaret and Frank had been strongly arguing against it.
"It's more dangerous back there, Major," he continued, "I'm going to tell them personally the circumstances."
The rest of the day was consumed with setting everything up again. The entire time, they received no word from Hawkeye. Henry sat at his desk, trying to be calm, but his face betrayed him to everyone who saw him.