Thinking

"Where's BJ?" Hawkeye asked as he entered the swamp to see Charles in the tent alone, reading a book.

"I believe he offered to do a supply check for the colonel." Charles answered, not once lifting his eyes up from the pages in front of him.

"Oh." Was all Hawkeye could say, quietly as he sat on his cot, looking for something to do while waiting for his best friend to return. He needed to talk some things through with a sensible person, someone who didn't tell him what he wanted to hear, someone who told him the truth.

"Anything I can help with, Pierce?" Charles asked, still with book in front of his face.

"No." Hawkeye said, sounding sterner than he meant to.

"Suit yourself." Charles replied.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, Charles." Hawkeye apologized. He didn't say anything for a few minutes, but the will to talk one out and he decided that he could at least get Charles' opinion of things as well as BJ's. "What do you think of nurse Rose?" He asked.

Charles looked at Hawkeye before laying the book down on his lap. "I think she's a very intelligent, sweet woman. And, she's obviously gone crazy at some point as she seems to be infatuated with you."

"Okay, what was I thinking talking to you. If I want an intelligent persons opinion I'll go talk to someone a little more sophisticated, like Zale or Igor." Hawkeye stood up to leave, but Charles raised his hand and motioned for him to sit, which Hawkeye didn't take kindly too, so he remained standing.

"Pierce, I meant everything I said, except the crazy bit." Charles said.

Hawkeye sat back down on his cot. He sighed loudly and didn't say anything for a few moment. "I don't know but I think I kinda screwed things up with her tonight."

"Why, what did you do?" Charles asked. He wasn't that interested in what had happened between the two but when Hawkeye was in one of his more serious moods, like now, he was easier to contend with than when he was acting like a juvenile.

"Well, we had a little time together and, er... she was saying about how close Margaret came to ruining things between us. I guess I objected to her blaming things on Margaret and to implying that 'we' were an 'us'." Hawkeye explained.

"I take it you don't want it to be 'us' than?" Charles queried.

"I thought I did. It's just before Margaret and I had that fight at Rosie's she was pretty insistent that things were over for us. I guess I got annoyed because she believed what she heard. Next thing you know she's telling me she forgives me. Like I need her to forgive me!"

"I don't understand. You like her, she likes you. You have a minor disagreement, she wants to stay friends and you're not interested? Why not?" Charles asked. It seemed to him that Hawkeye was always keen to be in with the nurses so they could at least go on 'dates' together, but here he was throwing things away with nurse Rose for no good reason.

"That's kinda got me stumped too. Maybe I'm being paranoid about this, but she seemed to imply heavily that what happened was Margaret's fault."

"Well, she does appear to be the one that told her everything about you." Charles added.

"I know, but it was all true. She just let her know what she was getting into. How can I be mad at that?" Hawkeye asked.

"Pierce, you know what you need to do? Stop thinking this through so much. Apologize to nurse Rose and set up a new date."

"But what about the thing with Margaret?" He asked, referring to Gaby's attitude to the head nurse.

"They're grown women, they can sort themselves out." Charles said.