Margaret's return

The Jeep stopped at the 4077th and Margaret got out quickly and made her way straight to Colonel Potter­'s office. She wanted to see him first before she had to speak to anyone else. Klinger wasn't anywhere around so after looking through the door and seeing the Colonel was alone, she made her way through.

She noticed she startled the Colonel a little on her entry, but when he saw her he quickly had a smile on his face.

"Margaret, I'm so glad you're back. Take a seat." Margaret did what the Colonel said. "How's your father?"

"He's going to be fine. It wasn't as serious as they first suspected when I received the call. He just needs to rest for a while and give up some of his bad habits." Margaret wiped her eyes from the tears that had ap­peared there. She hadn't been able to talk to anyone close to her about this for so long that she'd just held all her emotions in. She could have called but it was so impersonal she decided it was better to wait.

Colonel Potter handed a handkerchief over to her, which she gratefully excepted and dabbed her eyes with it. "How have things been here?" she asked, sniffing a little.

"They've been better. A lot better." The Colonel stood up and made his way over to his drinks cabinet, tak­ing out a bottle of scotch and two glasses. He poured both himself and Margaret a drink and he pro­ceeded to drink his before he spoke again. "There was an incident here yesterday afternoon." He began. Margaret immediately put her drink back down, not feeling as strong as she did moments ago. "Nurse Rose... attacked Captain Pierce."

Margaret waited for him to continue, but he didn't immediately, giving himself a few seconds. It made her feel even more nervous than she already did. She couldn't believe nurse Rose had attacked anyone, let alone Hawkeye, she'd seemed so close to him.

Although it seemed like forever, a few moments later the Colonel continued speaking. "We've called Sidney Freedman, he's going to come and talk to her, but I think she'll probably end up going with him. She's a very troubled lady."

"What about Hawkeye?" She asked anxiously, no longer able to stand the suspense.

"Well, he's okay." The Colonel said slowly. "He's quite cut up. Everybody's a little shook up from this. Staff attacking one another like this is thankfully very rare."

"Where is he, post op, the swamp? Margaret asked, already standing up to leave.

"Hold on, Margaret," he said, "Just sit back down for a minute, he's not going anywhere. He's getting some rest right now which he needs. He's had a rough couple of days and I want him to just get as much down time as he can. Plus, we've been quiet on the wounded front for a while now and when they start rolling in, his gonna have trouble operating, so the least I can do is make sure he's well rested. I'll tell you what. Freshen yourself up and maybe by lunch time he'll be awake. If not, you can see BJ and Charles and I'm sure they can give you the run down on everything he's done in the last few hours."

Margaret didn't say anything at first, she just couldn't believe all what she'd heard. It just hadn't sunk in yet. Finally she managed to find her voice again. "You're right, Colonel. That sounds like the best thing to do." She stood once again and turned to leave the office.

The Colonel stopped her before she left. "Margaret, he'll be fine." he reassured, then added, "And, I'm sure glad you're father's gonna be okay too."

Margaret seemed like she was the first person to get to the mess tent for lunch, although there were a few others already there.

The swamp had the more protective winter sides attached, she assumed for Hawkeye's privacy. Korea was at the in between stage right now, winter had yet to arrive, but summer was defiantly over.

She had purposely sat so that she could watch who was coming into the tent.

She watched Klinger as he headed over to the swamp and she was willing him to be quiet and not wake Hawkeye up, even though she was keen to see him. It was a few minutes before Klinger reappeared and he headed for the mess tent.

He saw Margaret and after pouring himself a coffee, he joined her at the table.

"Hey, Major. I'm real happy to hear your dad's gonna be okay?" He said.

Although Margaret had disapproved of Klingers numerous attempts to get out of the Army with a section 8, when it came down to it he was not only a good person, but he also worked extremely hard to do what had to be done.

"Thank you Corporal." She replied. She felt a little awkward for a moment, not sure what to say but then she noticed Charles and BJ heading to the mess tent. She immediately looked forward to them arriving so she could hear how Pierce was.

After they got in, they both spotted her and Klinger sitting at the table and the two men shared a few words before Charles came over to join them while BJ went to get some food.

"Margaret, I'm so very glad you're back." Charles said, sitting next to Margaret.

"That's kind of you, Charles." she said.

Klinger got up just then. "Excuse me, I have to get back to work." he said as he left the mess tent and went back to him duties.

"So, tell me how's Hawkeye?" She said, not being able to hold in her question any longer.

"Well, he's not too bad." Charles said. He wanted her to know the truth and he knew that in circumstances such as these, the mind could work over-time. "Most things are awkward and painful for him right now but of course Hunnicutt is nearly always on hand to take care of him. He's not seriously hurt, it's just... awkward." He felt the need to re-emphasis.

"Well, how did it happen, has he said?" Margaret asked.

"From what I can gather, she got mad about something and walked off camp so he followed her to try to bring her back. He said she was like two different people from one moment to the next. She was in a furi­ous mood and then she was... well, how she always appeared to be, nice. Apparently, she told him she had a photo to show him and asked him to hold his hand out. Unfortunately the photo she had turned out to be a scalpel." Charles made a little gesture of someone stabbing a knife into someone's hand to illustrate the situation for her.

"My, God!" Margaret exclaimed, "What happened after that?"

"Well, thankfully he was a lot stronger than she was and he managed to over power her, although she still had hold of the scalpel and managed to... use it a few more times, but he managed to get it off her and he half carried, half dragged her back to the camp. I have to admit that my heart all but jumped in my throat when I saw him coming back. She was screaming and there was blood all over..." Charles re­membered it all to clearly. His first thought was that Rose had been shot what with her screams but it quickly dawned on him that Pierce was the one who was hurt.

Margaret placed her hand on Charles' "It must have been very hard for you all here." She said. Out of the corner of her eye she saw BJ move and get some coffee. She gestured to BJ be­fore asking "How's he doing?"

"He's fine, as long as he's not away from him too long." Charles smirked a little. Although he wouldn't ad­mit it, he'd not left the swamp much, even if all he did was sit in there and read, he just felt better being there. "He's taking Pierce's lunch to him now. Pierce is keen to get out, it's driving him mad being stuck in there all day. He's sort of been forced to have bed rest by the Colonel, bathroom breaks are the only thing he's allowed to leave for. Plus, he can't carry a tray comfortable and it'll just aggravate his injuries, so he may as well have Hunnicutt do it for him. Although I do think he won't be able to stand much more of it in there and he'll just end leaving."

"I wonder when I'll be able to see him?" Margaret said. She watched as BJ nodded his head in her direc­tion as she left and he gave her a big grin.

"All in good time, Margaret. I'm sure after Pierce has had some lunch he could use some good company."