For Therm, the garbage officer, because she's worth it.

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam

Their journey back to camp was made in silence. Sally sat in the front of the jeep, staring straight ahead. Mulcahy sat behind her, every fibre of his body straining to reach out and touch her. But the slope of her shoulders told him that it wasn't a good idea. There was some internal battle raging within her, and he knew that he was the last person who was able to help her.

They arrived at camp as the light began to fade from the sky. Klinger saw them first, as the jeep trundled down the dusty dirt track. His yells alerted the rest of the camp, and by the time they came to a stop outside the mess tent, there was a welcoming committee of their friends waiting to greet them.

"Well, look what the Police dragged it!" an exhaultant Hawkeye exclaimed, grabbing Sally round the waist and lifting her clean off the ground in a strong embrace. She responded by throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face deep into his shoulder. She could feel her fragile reserve beginning to crumble at the sight of her friends and their obvious delight at their safe return.

"Hawk, I can't cope with this right now. I need somewhere quiet, please. Take me somewhere quiet."

Hawkeye looked down in surprise at the young woman. He noted her tired eyes and the nasty gash on the side of her head, and made the diagnosis of too much happening at once. Scooping her up in his arms, he pushed through the shocked crowd into OR.

"Nothing to worry about, folks," he said, noting the worried faces, "It's just all a little too much right now. I'm just going to check her over."

The Operating Room was empty when they entered, and Hawkeye placed Sally onto one of the tables. Having gathered together some iodine and bandages, he hopped up beside her and let her lean her body against his while he cleaned and dressed her head wound. After a few moments, he felt it safe to ask her.

"What happened?" he said, softly.

Sally took a deep breath and launched into a full description of what she had gone through in the last 48 hours. She told him about the injured man, and how somehow she had managed to save him, more through luck than judgement. Then she came to the part where she switched the guns, and how the Korean pulled the trigger on Mulcahy. Hawkeye's eyes grew large and his mouth dropped open at her next revelation.

"John didn't see me switch the pistols, he didn't know the gun wasn't loaded" Sally whispered quietly.

"You mean…" Hawkeye began. Sally finished his thought for him.

"He was going to take a bullet for me, rather than leave me there." She dropped her eyes, and Hawkeye immediately knew something else had happened too.

"Sal, what happened next?" he asked, part of him not wanting to know.

She shifted uncomfortably in his embrace. "He gave me my Christmas present. Hawkeye, it was beautiful. It is beautiful, a dress that he had made for me in Seoul. That's why he was there."

Sally reached into her bag which was lying beside her and pulled out the garment. Hawkeye let out a low whistle as he felt the silky smoothness of the fabric. Slowly, he was coming to the conclusion that whatever was happening between the priest and the doctor had gone beyond the realms of friendship.

"Sally, are you in love with Father Mulcahy?" he asked softly.

She sighed. "Does it matter if I am? It makes no difference, he's not on the market is he?"

Hawkeye kissed her gently on the top of her head. "Doesn't make the longing go away though, does it? Does he know?"

She looked up at him. "Hawkeye, he feels the same way. I kissed him, or we kissed. And…well…"

"And?" Hawkeye was almost falling over waiting for the next word.

"And it was wonderful. Perfect. The feeling I dreamt it would be and more. And now I've had it, I have to let it all go."

"You've got to what?" yelled Hawkeye, unable to keep his voice down. "Why? How can you… surely… you two need to talk about this."

"No, we don't," she said calmly. "What is there to say? I love you, but you belong to someone else? John being a priest isn't a job, it's not even like your being a doctor. It's his entire life, his whole being is made to serve God. And I can't be part of his life because of that. Come on, Hawkeye. Loving a priest is like having an affair, he belongs to God. I'm the other woman; I'm the temptation his mentors warned him about at seminary. How can I compete with a deity? Everything I can offer him cannot come close to what he gets from Him. No matter how much I love him, it can never be enough. Better to break one heart that a whole host of hearts – including his."

Hawkeye sat in stunned silence for a moment. Then he asked the question that he guessed she didn't want to hear.

"What if your leaving does break his heart? What if he can never go back to being the person he was before you?"

"He will." she came back immediately. "God will help him get over it, and make him stronger because he resisted temptation."

Sally jumped down from the bed and smoothed her clothes down. She carefully folded her dress and placed in back in her bag. Then she looked up, her brown eyes no longer wet, but shining with a strange look of determination.

"I'll see you later, thanks for… well, everything. And, sometimes, I wish I'd fallen in love with you. It would have been so much easier."

She kissed him gently on the lips, and he smiled gently. Then she turned around and walked through the doors. Hawkeye knew then it would be only a short matter of time before she was gone for good.

oOo

Sally went immediately to the Swamp. Rummaging around in her trunk, she found what she was looking for - her army notebook with the details of her commanding officer in Korean. Grasping it closely to her chest, she walked over to Radar's office. The company clerk was gathering his things, he was heading for home in the next few days due to the death of his uncle. He seemed distracted, and not his usual self.

"Hi, Captain Sally ma'am." He said, not lifting his eyes from the piled of papers on his desk. "What can I do for you?"

"Can you get me this number in Seoul, please?" she asked, handing him her notebook.

"Sure can," he said, moving over to the phone and connecting to the operator. "What you planning then?" he asked, distracted.

"If I tell you, you have to keep it a secret." She said quietly. Sally knew she could trust Radar to keep her secret.

He turned round, suddenly interest. She looked him in the eye and told him.

"I'm requesting a transfer. I'm leaving." She said.

Radar looked shocked. "But what about Colonel Potter? Shouldn't you… you can't…"

Sally looked sadly at the Corporal as she took the receiver from his hand and began talking to her superior. She knew Potter would be disappointed, and she was planning to write him a letter explaining her sudden decision, but not in too much detail. She was sure Hawkeye could deal with any issues arising from her sudden departure. All she knew was that there was no way she could stay at the 4077th and not love John Francis Patrick Mulcahy from afar. There was no way she could leave and not love him, she doubted whether she could ever love anyone else ever again. Her heart was his completely, and her whole being needed to be with him. And that's why she knew she needed to go.

"But why?" asked Radar, when she had finished the call. She would be gone by the following morning.

"Ad maiorem Dei gloriam," she said, "for the greater glory of God."

oOo

Father Mulcahy sat alone in his tent. He had spent the day sleeping, slipping in and out of consciousness – slipping between the harsh reality and the blissful oblivion of dreams where he was not a priest nor was he in Korean. In his dreams, he was John and she was his forever.

There was a soft knock at the door, and he called out. "Come in."

The door opened and Sally stepped into the room. She was wearing her dress, and looking every bit as stunning as he had imagined she would. Her dark hair was loose and was falling in soft, tumbling curls around her shoulders. He couldn't help himself, and he stood immediately to embrace her. She let him hold her for a moment, before stepping back.

"Sit down, John. I need to tell you something."

Mulcahy's heart stopped. He knew what was coming, but he thought he'd have longer before his fairytale was shattered.

"I'm leaving," she said.

"When?" he said.

"Tomorrow." She said. "First thing. I'll be gone by the time the camp wakes up."

He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. She wanted to run over to him, to hold him tightly and beg him to have her. Beg him to leave the church and run away with her. Make a home with her, and have children with her. To live happily ever after with her. But instead she stood in front of him, struggling to keep her composure but succeeding.

"Why are you leaving?" he asked.

"You know why," she said. "Because I love you."

His head shot up as she said the words. She loved him? "Why are you leaving, then? If you love me, stay with me." He stood up and took her by the hand. He was wearing the sweatshirt which she had her brother send over with the word 'Oxford' on the front – her university. Sally loved how he looked in his hooded top, when they stood talking outside his tent after his morning run. His face was always flushed with the exercise, and they would talk animatedly for hours. At the memory, her eyes began to fill with tears again, and she tried hard to blink them back.

"I can't, John. You know why I can't."

"Oh, Sally." He sighed, "My Sally."

Her careful composure was cracking further now. She could smell him, taste him almost. He was standing so close to her. She could just reach out and…

"No!" she exclaimed, pulling away. "Please, don't do this to me. I can't take any more, I have to go."

He caught her hand and pulled her back, pulled her into his arms and held her there with a surprisingly strong grip which she was more than happy to be in.

"I'll give it all up for you, Sally. Say the word, and I will."

"No, you can't. You think you can right now, when it's all new and exciting and wonderful. But what about tomorrow morning when you have to tell Colonel Potter? What about when you have to hand back your collar, and your crucifix? What about when you have to write to Marty Gallacher and tell him that you're no longer the man he thought you were. When you have to pull your life apart, all for me? You are a wonderful priest, John Mulcahy. And I cannot be the one to take that away from the world."

Mulcahy held her tighter. She was completely wrong of course. At that moment he would have given it up in a heartbeat. But then the guilt would follow, and he knew that it was selfish of him to place such a big responsibility on her shoulders. And yet he knew the pain she was in, the pain he had caused by simply allowing himself to be human. The pain he could ease by just being with her, for the rest of their lives.

"I will do all that, just for you," he whispered.

"And right now," she said, "Knowing that you wouldisenough."

He loosened his grip on her and she stepped back. She reached around her neck and took off the locket she was wearing, before handing it too him.

"Don't forget me." She said, "And we can write to each other. There's not much we can do wrong in a letter. You're my best friend and I would hate to lose that."

Mulcahy nodded, taking the locket from her. His heart was thudding in his chest, and he wanted to yell out to her something, anything. Just to make her stay.

"Goodbye, Johnny." She whispered, kissing him gently on the cheek.

Mulcahy couldn't trust himself to speak, instead he squeezed her hand gently. She walked away from him, opened the door and stepped through it letting it close quietly behind her.

Mulcahy lay face down on his cot and sobbed himself to sleep.

oOo

Halfway across the compound, she realised what she'd done and turned around immediately. She ran back to Mulcahy's tent, wrenched the door open again, and threw herself inside. For a moment they stood and looked at each other in stunned silence. The, as though compelled by some invisible force, they found themselves embracing each other, holding onto each other as though they would never let go. He turned her round and looked deeply into her chestnut brown eyes – the most beautiful eyes in the world as far as he was concerned. His grip on her tightened as she spoke to him quietly.

"Johnny. I love you."

Slowly, he brought his lips down onto hers and pressed them gently together in a soft, loving kiss - a kiss that both had imagined hundreds of times in their heads. Sally's hands found their way around his neck where they stroked the soft hair at the nape. She was smiling at him now, but she was still unable to keep the tears from running down her cheeks. They both knew the magnitude of what they were doing, but knew that it had been coming since the moment he had held her while she cried on the very first night after theatre. Standing in the gloom of the tent, they looked like any other couple, Sally in her fatigues and Mulcahy in his sweat top and pants. No one outside could understand the depth of the emotions which both had been fighting for three months and which now threatened to consume both of them.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked.

"I don't know, and right now I don't want to think about anything beyond now," he answered. "I can't think of anything else except you."

"Well, here we are Captain Lester. Seoul, capital of the World! Enjoy yourself!"

Sally was snapped from her daydream back into the real world. She unloaded her bags from the jeep, trying hard to forget the fantasy she had been playing in her head since she had walked from Mulcahy's tent. She knew she had done the right thing in walking away, but it didn't make it any easier. She was in love with him, and he returned that love. And deep down she knew that no amount of space or distance could change that fact. Holding back the tears which threatened to come every time she thought of him, she held her head high and walked out into the streets of Seoul, alone. But loved.

Fin

A/N: And that's the end folks. Thank you to all my reviewers, especially Therm, Koosh and Major Disaster who have been along for the ride too. And maybe one day, I'll tell you what Sally did next!