Finally! I'm expecting to write one more chapter to finish this off. Much much much thanks to HawkeyesMartini for the immense help with this chapter and the usual betaing.

Disclaimer: Teh Jimm0rz is mine. Teh rest is not!!!1one lol. -- me being momentarily stupid.

"Margaret… killed Hawkeye?" A look of shock overcame Jimmy's mien.

I looked around the tent as I tried to formulate my response. "Yes," was all that I came up with.

"I mean Margaret isn't the most caring person in the world BJ, but I don't think she'd be able to kill someone…"

"Well, she did."

"I just… I don't understand. How?" Jimmy repositioned himself on the cot so that we faced each other.

"It's a long story, Jim. Just don't worry about it. You should get some sleep so that you can be ready to go home..."

"No, I have to know and if you don't tell me, I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep." Jimmy put his hand on my shoulder and shook me very gently. "C'mon, Beej. Tell me. You have to tell me."

"Pour me a drink then, Jim; I'm not going to do this completely sober." A miniature sad smile crept over my face and I turned on the light, revealing that Frank was still occupied in Post Op.

I received two martinis before I began talking. But even then, it was extremely difficult.

"Hawkeye was what you could call a ladies' man. He was always with one girl or another. I'd seen him leave and return at all hours of the night to meet up with a nurse more times than I could count. But I'd never seen him as happy as he was after spending some time with Margaret. After so long, she had finally given into his innuendoes and remarks and agreed to have dinner with him. He came back pretending that she aggravated the hell out of him, but the truth was that he was crazy about her. I'd even say that Hawkeye was starting to fall in love with her.

"Hawkeye received a letter from his father a few days after his date with Margaret saying that he was rather ill and going to have some tests done in Spruce Harbor. This distressed Hawkeye a great deal and he emptied the still himself that night. I walked in after an all night shift in Post Op and found a note under a martini glass. It said something like: 'I'm going to take a walk in a minefield. Yours Truly, Hawkeye.' I immediately started asking around to see if anyone had seen Hawkeye yet that morning. But I found that the most recent anyone had seen him was late the night before.

"I went to the Officer's Club, where Igor had seen him around ten. He said Hawkeye had left and gone in the direction of Major Houlihan's tent, so that's where I went next. I said something along the lines of 'My little doggy has gone astray. Do you know where I could possibly find him?' and she responded by saying that she hadn't seen him yet that day, but he had been there last night. She agreed to help me look for Hawkeye and in the process we heard that a farmer and his son had found him dead in a field."

Jimmy seemed almost paralyzed at this point. "So how did she kill him?"

"She said he'd arrived at her tent completely inebriated at an odd hour, claiming that he loved her. She didn't take him seriously and told him he should take a walk in a minefield. Hawkeye listened to her and apparently in his drunken state, took a wrong step, setting off a landmine. Some shrapnel hit him in the chest, causing him to bleed to death overnight."

Jimmy breathed in deeply as he moved the hair from his face. "So she didn't kill him…"

"She did kill him, Jimmy. She did."

"But I mean, she didn't actually kill him with her own hands. It's just that he was drunk and took her joke too seriously?"

"She killed my best friend, Jimmy!" I wound up saying rather loudly for the time of night. "If it wasn't for Margaret, I'd still have him!" I felt my body start to shake as I tried to calm down, but nothing seemed to be letting up. I swallowed hard. "Jimmy… she killed Hawkeye."

"I understand why you blame her, BJ. But it wasn't completely her fault. I'm sure she didn't know that Hawkeye was going to take what she said literally. You can't blame Margaret. It was an accident and I'm sure she feels really bad about it."

"But she doesn't, Jim. She shows no remorse whatsoever and that really irritates me. How can she not feel guilt? I mean… I… do. Every day." I felt a hot tear start to leak out and I closed my eyes tightly.

Jimmy put his hand on my shoulder again, and it comforted me. "Don't blame yourself either, Beej."

Why was it that everyone I became close friends with called me 'Beej', and everyone who called me that had to leave me somehow?