Moving in
When Gaby Rose heard that Margaret Houlihan would be away for a while, she couldn't help but be a little happy.
The rumour going round at the moment was that Margaret had been sent for a break because of the fight she had with Hawkeye at Rosie's.
That was another reason she was grateful that she was out of her hair. It now gave her a chance to talk properly with Hawkeye.
She had hoped that while she sat here, in the mess tent, he would come in for breakfast, but had yet to appear. She wouldn't be at all surprised if he didn't drop in, he didn't look like he ate enough.
She decided that she'd pay him a visit at the swamp and hope that his bunkmates weren't also there.
Before she got to the tent, she could see Hunnicutt sitting on his cot. Both of them were writing. She moved to the side of the tent nearest Hawkeye and looked through to him. "Hey," she spoke softly to him, startling him a little. "You wanna come for a walk?"
Hawkeye smiled at her, glad she seemed to be talking to him again. "Just give me a minute to finish off my letter," he said "you can come in and wait if you like."
She came in the tent and sat on Hawkeye's cot and waited while he finished up. He didn't have much left to do, he'd already finished the letter and was just addressing the envelope. She felt as though someone was watching her and looked to see BJ watching her. He didn't say anything but smiled a little at her, before turning back to his letter.
Hawkeye sealed the letter before turning to Gaby. "Okay, I'm all done here."
She stood up. "Let's get going then," she said before turning back around to BJ. "Goodbye." She said.
"Bye." He said. He watched the two walk away together.
"I think I got a little upset the other day over nothing." Gaby said to him as they say in a secluded spot away from camp. Somewhere Hawkeye had taken many of his dates before.
"Well, look, I can understand that. I guess I do have a reputation and I shouldn't have gotten mad a Margaret because of it." He said simply, smiling at her.
"Yeah, I just wonder why she said that to me." Gaby said.
"What do you mean?" Hawkeye said, leaning back so he was resting on his elbows.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just the way she said about you and the nurses." Gaby continued. She moved herself so she could lay along next to Hawkeye, they were just inches away from one another.
"Maybe she just thought you should be warned about me. Besides, I'm not giving it another thought. What's done is done. The important thing is, we're here, together, alone..." Hawkeye carefully moved closed to Gaby and kissed her. She didn't kiss him back so he pulled away. "Sorry." He apologised to her.
"No, I'm sorry, it's just... oh, it doesn't matter." Gaby said, sighing softly and looking away from Hawkeye.
"Tell me, what is it?"
"Oh, damn, she's not even here and she's spoiling things for us!" Gaby said angrily.
"Margaret again?" Hawkeye asked a little surprised as to how much the the head nurse upset Gaby. He'd been the one who'd been shouted at and slapped by Margaret and he'd managed to forgive her.
"I'm sorry, but when I think of how close she came to ruining things for us." Gaby said reaching for Hawkeye's hand.
"Us?" Hawkeye repeated starting to see where she was coming from. "Look, er, Gaby I really enjoy spending time with you. I haven't meet someone like you in a long time, but I also realised the other night that there can never be more between us than... this." Hawkeye waited to see how she reacted.
"This? Coming out here in the middle of a war. Oh, God! This is where you bring all the other nurses isn't it?" Gaby said, feeling angry at Hawkeye.
"I'm sorry you thought this was something different, but I told you how I felt last night. You turned your back on me, remember?" Hawkeye said defending himself. It had been true the things he'd told BJ about Gaby, but she didn't trust him and that had hurt.
"That's beside the point! I came to you this morning to forgive you..." Gaby began.
"Forgive me! I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I did nothing wrong. You heard something and took it for gospel. I talk to you and get ignored, I talk to Margaret and get slapped. This is probably one of the few times in my life when I haven't been to blame for what's happening around me." He told her calmly but firmly.
Gaby stood up and brushed herself down. "You know your problem, Captain Pierce? You don't know a good thing when you've got it." She turned away and rushed back to camp alone.
Hawkeye watched her go, his mind racing with what she'd just said to him. She was right, he had a good thing and had done nothing about it.
He laid back in the grass and started to think of ways he could make it up to her.