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In the Operating Room, everyone is at a table. Tonight was the first time in a while that there is not a lot of joking.
Captain Miller's first patient had a chest full of shrapnel, but he was still awake. He looked up into her eyes and says, "Are you an Angel?"
"No. I'm your doctor." She tells him before the Sergeant put him under. "Ok, I need a scalpel." She says, handing it she cuts into the chest exposing the heart. "Sponge." "I can't see anything in here, I need more suction please." She was so polite while asking for the nurse's help.
"Good lord, this kid is a mess!" Hawkeye calls. "I have so many bleeders I may as well start a blood bank! I need more suction. Come on Hotlips! Suction!"
"I am Captain! There's too much blood!" The Major yells back!
After around 2 hours of meatball surgery, Colonel Potter calls out to their new cutter,
"How you holding up Kimberly?" She doesn't answer. She is working very hard on this patient, that she blocked out others voices, which in Potters eyes is definitely not a good sign. "Captain Miller!" He says, shaking her trance.
"Yes Colonel?" She says, not taking her eyes off the wounds. "I need silk." She says starting to stitch the boy up.
"I said, how are you holding up?"
"Fine." She says shortly, but her eyes reveal how scared she is. All of the sudden there is a loud explosion that shakes the OR. The nurses scream a bit, and the new Captain freezes, but only for a second. She quickly composes herself, and finishes stitching up the wounded boy before calling for another patient. She quickly looks over the patient, and realizes that he was unstable! "I can't work on this man!" She shouts.
"What's the problem Captain?" Major Houlihan asks. "Do you need more hands?"
"NO! I need this patient to be stable! His blood pressure is low; he needs at least 2 leaders of blood before I operate! If I open him up now, he's going to die on the table!" She says angrily.
"FRANK!" Hawkeye calls to him.
"What?" He calls through the doors.
"Get in here!" He calls.
"What do you want Pierce?"
"Miller, do you want to take this?"
"Is there ANY reason why this man is not stable and on my table?"
"What do you mean he's not stable!" Frank shouts. "I checked him over myself.
"Well that's his problem then, he was checked over by a moron!" Hawkeye cracks.
"His blood pressure is low, he needs like 2 leaders of type A positive blood! Get him off the table, get him stable and then get him back here! I am not opening him up when he is shocky" She shouts. Klinger and Father Mulcahy take him off the table and back into pre-op where he is to stabilize and then be sent back.
All during the 13 hours of surgery, the bombs were exploding right outside their doors. The noise was able to drive a man crazy. The walls would shake, and everything would flicker while the 4 doctors and all the nurses were trying to save those kids wounded in the line of battle. Everyone kept working. By the 11th hour of surgery, Captain Miller's hands were shaking so bad she could barely hold her instruments but she still pressed on because it was her job. By about 7:00 the next morning, they finally were through with the causalities. The exhausted doctors take off their operating scrubs, and throw them into the laundry bin.
"So, how did you like your first day in the Korean War Kimberly?" Potter says to her.
"It wasn't dull." She says, her hands still shaking. She felt extremely tired, very shaky, and quite sick.
"This was a pretty tough shift to have your first day. You did good kid." Potter says.
"Frank, I need to see you in my office on the double!"
"Yes sir." Frank says and follows Potter like a little puppy dog, over to his office.
"So, shall we drink, sleep, drink, or drink?" Hawkeye asks.
"I say lets do something different, and drink for once." BJ says smiling.
"Sounds like a plan." Hawkeye says smiling. "Would you like to join us for an early morning drink Kimberly?"
"No thanks, I think I just want to go get some air." She says quickly making her way outside.
BJ and Hawkeye exchange glances. "I think we should go make sure she's ok." BJ says to him as they follow her.
After a quick scan, they spot her over by the oil drums clutching them like there's no tomorrow. In the distance, well the very near distance, there are bombs still going off.
All of the sudden all her emotions come out and she starts to throw up. Hawkeye runs over to her with BJ hot on his trails. He soothingly places a hand on her back and lower arm, trying to support her as she was sick. Her heaving turns dry before she stops. She stands up, still clutching the oil drum, her face beat red. She is quite embarrassed to have allowed her emotions to take over her.
"You know," Hawkeye begins, "This place seems to have the same effect on people during there first shift here."
"You ok Kimberly?" BJ asks her.
"Yeah. I'm sorry." She begins.
"Sorry for what? Throwing up? Showing that you actually have a heart for these guys? Please, Kimberly, sorry is one thing you should never say around here. Like I told you earlier today, this place is hell. The scary thing is you'll get use to all of this." Hawkeye reassures her.
"It's just, not once have I ever thrown up. NOT ONCE! I have never let myself get that bad. but the bombs." she says and trails off. "I never heard anything like that before, and all the blood, and these boys!"
Hawkeye puts his arm around her shoulders and squeezes lightly, "Trust me Kimberly, we know. We all have been here. You sure you don't want a drink?"
She looks at them, "Maybe I will have one."
"That's the spirit!" Hawk says. "To the Swamp!"
Once they get into the swamp, Hawkeye pulls out 3 glasses.
"What the hell is that?" She says pointing to the still.
"A bit of Heaven in a place called Hell!" Hawkeye says. "It's a still, a homemade one, but a still none the less. Trapper and I made it when we first came to this place."
"Trapper?" She asks, as she takes the glass handed to her by Hawkeye.
"Captain John Francis Xavier McIntyre, better known as Trapper." Hawkeye begins. "He was sent state side about a year and a half ago, right Beej?"
"Sounds about right. I was his replacement."
"He was a great guy." Hawk says, remembering his best friend.
"Well, here's too Kimberly's first day at the 4077 M*A*S*H*!" Hawkeye says, raising his glass. They then down there glasses full of 2 day old gin.
"Yuck!" She says coughing. This had to be the most vile thing she has ever tasted.
"Ah, the finest kind." Hawkeye says smiling. "Would you like another?"
"Sure." She says. She quickly drinks that one. "Wow." She says, "That has to be the driest martini I have ever drunk."
"See Hawk and you thought it wouldn't be good." BJ says, lying back on his cot.
"14hours a go was a good year." He says smiling
"So, where's Frank?" She asks.
"He is with Hotlips I would assume."
"Are him and the Major an..."
"Oh no, they are strictly business" Hawkeye says, "Risky business that is." BJ laughs.
"What is his problem, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Not at all Captain, you see Frank is suffering from an acute case of what we doctors like to call 'Pig Headedness.' In a simple way, he's a Major, and wants to be treated like he is superior to all of us because he's a Major."
"We enjoy razzing him a bit." BJ cuts in.
"Well is he a competent Doctor?" She asks, not able to see how he operated the past 13 hours.
"Competent, yes, but he does a number of things wrong. He should just be that doctor that gets rich quick, not an army doctor." Hawkeye says, "But then again, I think that all of us should be one of these doctors."
He gets quiet, and the 3 Captains, sit there in silence for a few seconds.
"Beej, how about another." He says.
"Yeah, me too." She says handing her glass to BJ.
There is a knock on the door, it was Colonel Potter. "Colonel, come on in, take a load off!" A slightly tipsy Hawkeye says.
"Join the party sir!" BJ says. "Would you like a drink?"
"Don't mind if I do." He says. "I wanted to come in and congratulate Captain Miller on a job well done." He says taking a sip from his drink.
"Thank you sir." She says. "Well Captains and Colonel, I think I am going to go try and sleep this night off." She says, handing back her glass. "Thank you for the drink. I'll see you in the morning... well I'll see you when I wake up." She heads back to her tent.
"Good night Captain." They say, as she leaves.
"So how did she do after the adrenaline ran out?"
"She threw up." BJ said a matter of factly. "She went out of the OR, Hawk and I followed her, to see how she was doing, and she threw up."
Potter nods. "I think that is the same for just about everyone."
"She got very embarrassed though. She said that never once has she gotten sick before, and apologized."
"What did you tell her?"
"I told her that is the one thing she should never say that because that shows she cares." Hawkeye says. "There is no reason she should be ashamed for letting her emotions take hold of her. I am sure it won't be the first time, and it probably won't be the last."
"Very true." Potter says. "Her surgical abilities..."
Pierce cuts him off, "Are one of the best I have ever seen especially with a doctor so young. She caught on so quickly! It was amazing. Only thing we have to break of her is the fact that she doesn't speak during surgery!"
"Pierce, let her find her own way." Potter says.
"Oh and find it she will." Hawk quips.
After a few more minutes of talking, Potter says, "Alright boys. I better get into the horizontal, before more casualties arrive. Franks in Post-Op till 11, then it's you Hawkeye. See if Kimberly's awake by then, and take her to see what's going on with that."
"You got it sir. Good night." He says.
"Good night Hawkeye, BJ."
"Night Colonel." BJ calls to him as he leaves the 'Swamp'.
"Good night Beej.
"Night, Hawk."
*Capt. Millers Tent*
Just before the sun comes up, Kimberly is having a really tough time sleeping. She decides to write her husband a letter.
Dear Jack, Its 5:00 in the morning, and I am having a lot of trouble sleeping, so I figured I'd write you and let you know that I am here, and ok. My flight here was bumpy. I road in a chopper and then a jeep to get to the 4077. My commanding officer is Colonel Sherman Potter. He is regular army, but he is a sweet man. I am 1 of 4 surgeons on the compound, and once again the only female surgeon. Let me tell you a bit about the other 3 surgeons. First you have Hawkeye Pierce. His real name is Benjamin, but he goes by Hawkeye. Hawkeye is from Crabapple Cove Maine. He is a ladies man, but an absolutely incredible surgeon. Then, you have BJ Hunnicut. He is from California. He is like me; we are both married and have a daughter. His daughter is a couple months younger than Susan. He also is a great surgeon. Then you have Frank. I don't know how to explain him. He is, like Hawkeye says, a "competent" doctor, but that's about it. He actually put a shocky person on my table! But he seems like a whiner. Hawkeye and BJ call him ferret face, and I can definitely tell why. He and Maj. Houlihan are kind of an unofficial item, because he is married. Oh, Maj. Houlihan is our head nurse, her names Margaret. She wants to be treated like regular army also in a way, but how can you expect a MASH unit to be army? We are doctors, not solders. My first day here, I operated for 13 hours straight. I must have operated on 10 boys. The bombs were exploding all around our MASH Unit. Don't they know we're doctors? I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life. After the hours were over, I went outside and threw up. I have never gotten sick before, but this time I did. Hawkeye and BJ were right there next to me. I was so embarrassed, but they said this happens to just about everyone. I am actually scared for more causalities. I now know what to expect, but still. Well, sweetie, it is almost 6:00 AM now, and I really should try and get some sleep before the new day starts. By the time you get this I'll be home, haha. give Susan a kiss and a hug for me. Love always, Kimberly
She then sticks it in an envelope, and places it on the desk, crawls into her bed, trying not to think of what horrors are to come tomorrow.
*To be continued
Thanks for reading! I hope you are enjoying it! *STARY*
In the Operating Room, everyone is at a table. Tonight was the first time in a while that there is not a lot of joking.
Captain Miller's first patient had a chest full of shrapnel, but he was still awake. He looked up into her eyes and says, "Are you an Angel?"
"No. I'm your doctor." She tells him before the Sergeant put him under. "Ok, I need a scalpel." She says, handing it she cuts into the chest exposing the heart. "Sponge." "I can't see anything in here, I need more suction please." She was so polite while asking for the nurse's help.
"Good lord, this kid is a mess!" Hawkeye calls. "I have so many bleeders I may as well start a blood bank! I need more suction. Come on Hotlips! Suction!"
"I am Captain! There's too much blood!" The Major yells back!
After around 2 hours of meatball surgery, Colonel Potter calls out to their new cutter,
"How you holding up Kimberly?" She doesn't answer. She is working very hard on this patient, that she blocked out others voices, which in Potters eyes is definitely not a good sign. "Captain Miller!" He says, shaking her trance.
"Yes Colonel?" She says, not taking her eyes off the wounds. "I need silk." She says starting to stitch the boy up.
"I said, how are you holding up?"
"Fine." She says shortly, but her eyes reveal how scared she is. All of the sudden there is a loud explosion that shakes the OR. The nurses scream a bit, and the new Captain freezes, but only for a second. She quickly composes herself, and finishes stitching up the wounded boy before calling for another patient. She quickly looks over the patient, and realizes that he was unstable! "I can't work on this man!" She shouts.
"What's the problem Captain?" Major Houlihan asks. "Do you need more hands?"
"NO! I need this patient to be stable! His blood pressure is low; he needs at least 2 leaders of blood before I operate! If I open him up now, he's going to die on the table!" She says angrily.
"FRANK!" Hawkeye calls to him.
"What?" He calls through the doors.
"Get in here!" He calls.
"What do you want Pierce?"
"Miller, do you want to take this?"
"Is there ANY reason why this man is not stable and on my table?"
"What do you mean he's not stable!" Frank shouts. "I checked him over myself.
"Well that's his problem then, he was checked over by a moron!" Hawkeye cracks.
"His blood pressure is low, he needs like 2 leaders of type A positive blood! Get him off the table, get him stable and then get him back here! I am not opening him up when he is shocky" She shouts. Klinger and Father Mulcahy take him off the table and back into pre-op where he is to stabilize and then be sent back.
All during the 13 hours of surgery, the bombs were exploding right outside their doors. The noise was able to drive a man crazy. The walls would shake, and everything would flicker while the 4 doctors and all the nurses were trying to save those kids wounded in the line of battle. Everyone kept working. By the 11th hour of surgery, Captain Miller's hands were shaking so bad she could barely hold her instruments but she still pressed on because it was her job. By about 7:00 the next morning, they finally were through with the causalities. The exhausted doctors take off their operating scrubs, and throw them into the laundry bin.
"So, how did you like your first day in the Korean War Kimberly?" Potter says to her.
"It wasn't dull." She says, her hands still shaking. She felt extremely tired, very shaky, and quite sick.
"This was a pretty tough shift to have your first day. You did good kid." Potter says.
"Frank, I need to see you in my office on the double!"
"Yes sir." Frank says and follows Potter like a little puppy dog, over to his office.
"So, shall we drink, sleep, drink, or drink?" Hawkeye asks.
"I say lets do something different, and drink for once." BJ says smiling.
"Sounds like a plan." Hawkeye says smiling. "Would you like to join us for an early morning drink Kimberly?"
"No thanks, I think I just want to go get some air." She says quickly making her way outside.
BJ and Hawkeye exchange glances. "I think we should go make sure she's ok." BJ says to him as they follow her.
After a quick scan, they spot her over by the oil drums clutching them like there's no tomorrow. In the distance, well the very near distance, there are bombs still going off.
All of the sudden all her emotions come out and she starts to throw up. Hawkeye runs over to her with BJ hot on his trails. He soothingly places a hand on her back and lower arm, trying to support her as she was sick. Her heaving turns dry before she stops. She stands up, still clutching the oil drum, her face beat red. She is quite embarrassed to have allowed her emotions to take over her.
"You know," Hawkeye begins, "This place seems to have the same effect on people during there first shift here."
"You ok Kimberly?" BJ asks her.
"Yeah. I'm sorry." She begins.
"Sorry for what? Throwing up? Showing that you actually have a heart for these guys? Please, Kimberly, sorry is one thing you should never say around here. Like I told you earlier today, this place is hell. The scary thing is you'll get use to all of this." Hawkeye reassures her.
"It's just, not once have I ever thrown up. NOT ONCE! I have never let myself get that bad. but the bombs." she says and trails off. "I never heard anything like that before, and all the blood, and these boys!"
Hawkeye puts his arm around her shoulders and squeezes lightly, "Trust me Kimberly, we know. We all have been here. You sure you don't want a drink?"
She looks at them, "Maybe I will have one."
"That's the spirit!" Hawk says. "To the Swamp!"
Once they get into the swamp, Hawkeye pulls out 3 glasses.
"What the hell is that?" She says pointing to the still.
"A bit of Heaven in a place called Hell!" Hawkeye says. "It's a still, a homemade one, but a still none the less. Trapper and I made it when we first came to this place."
"Trapper?" She asks, as she takes the glass handed to her by Hawkeye.
"Captain John Francis Xavier McIntyre, better known as Trapper." Hawkeye begins. "He was sent state side about a year and a half ago, right Beej?"
"Sounds about right. I was his replacement."
"He was a great guy." Hawk says, remembering his best friend.
"Well, here's too Kimberly's first day at the 4077 M*A*S*H*!" Hawkeye says, raising his glass. They then down there glasses full of 2 day old gin.
"Yuck!" She says coughing. This had to be the most vile thing she has ever tasted.
"Ah, the finest kind." Hawkeye says smiling. "Would you like another?"
"Sure." She says. She quickly drinks that one. "Wow." She says, "That has to be the driest martini I have ever drunk."
"See Hawk and you thought it wouldn't be good." BJ says, lying back on his cot.
"14hours a go was a good year." He says smiling
"So, where's Frank?" She asks.
"He is with Hotlips I would assume."
"Are him and the Major an..."
"Oh no, they are strictly business" Hawkeye says, "Risky business that is." BJ laughs.
"What is his problem, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Not at all Captain, you see Frank is suffering from an acute case of what we doctors like to call 'Pig Headedness.' In a simple way, he's a Major, and wants to be treated like he is superior to all of us because he's a Major."
"We enjoy razzing him a bit." BJ cuts in.
"Well is he a competent Doctor?" She asks, not able to see how he operated the past 13 hours.
"Competent, yes, but he does a number of things wrong. He should just be that doctor that gets rich quick, not an army doctor." Hawkeye says, "But then again, I think that all of us should be one of these doctors."
He gets quiet, and the 3 Captains, sit there in silence for a few seconds.
"Beej, how about another." He says.
"Yeah, me too." She says handing her glass to BJ.
There is a knock on the door, it was Colonel Potter. "Colonel, come on in, take a load off!" A slightly tipsy Hawkeye says.
"Join the party sir!" BJ says. "Would you like a drink?"
"Don't mind if I do." He says. "I wanted to come in and congratulate Captain Miller on a job well done." He says taking a sip from his drink.
"Thank you sir." She says. "Well Captains and Colonel, I think I am going to go try and sleep this night off." She says, handing back her glass. "Thank you for the drink. I'll see you in the morning... well I'll see you when I wake up." She heads back to her tent.
"Good night Captain." They say, as she leaves.
"So how did she do after the adrenaline ran out?"
"She threw up." BJ said a matter of factly. "She went out of the OR, Hawk and I followed her, to see how she was doing, and she threw up."
Potter nods. "I think that is the same for just about everyone."
"She got very embarrassed though. She said that never once has she gotten sick before, and apologized."
"What did you tell her?"
"I told her that is the one thing she should never say that because that shows she cares." Hawkeye says. "There is no reason she should be ashamed for letting her emotions take hold of her. I am sure it won't be the first time, and it probably won't be the last."
"Very true." Potter says. "Her surgical abilities..."
Pierce cuts him off, "Are one of the best I have ever seen especially with a doctor so young. She caught on so quickly! It was amazing. Only thing we have to break of her is the fact that she doesn't speak during surgery!"
"Pierce, let her find her own way." Potter says.
"Oh and find it she will." Hawk quips.
After a few more minutes of talking, Potter says, "Alright boys. I better get into the horizontal, before more casualties arrive. Franks in Post-Op till 11, then it's you Hawkeye. See if Kimberly's awake by then, and take her to see what's going on with that."
"You got it sir. Good night." He says.
"Good night Hawkeye, BJ."
"Night Colonel." BJ calls to him as he leaves the 'Swamp'.
"Good night Beej.
"Night, Hawk."
*Capt. Millers Tent*
Just before the sun comes up, Kimberly is having a really tough time sleeping. She decides to write her husband a letter.
Dear Jack, Its 5:00 in the morning, and I am having a lot of trouble sleeping, so I figured I'd write you and let you know that I am here, and ok. My flight here was bumpy. I road in a chopper and then a jeep to get to the 4077. My commanding officer is Colonel Sherman Potter. He is regular army, but he is a sweet man. I am 1 of 4 surgeons on the compound, and once again the only female surgeon. Let me tell you a bit about the other 3 surgeons. First you have Hawkeye Pierce. His real name is Benjamin, but he goes by Hawkeye. Hawkeye is from Crabapple Cove Maine. He is a ladies man, but an absolutely incredible surgeon. Then, you have BJ Hunnicut. He is from California. He is like me; we are both married and have a daughter. His daughter is a couple months younger than Susan. He also is a great surgeon. Then you have Frank. I don't know how to explain him. He is, like Hawkeye says, a "competent" doctor, but that's about it. He actually put a shocky person on my table! But he seems like a whiner. Hawkeye and BJ call him ferret face, and I can definitely tell why. He and Maj. Houlihan are kind of an unofficial item, because he is married. Oh, Maj. Houlihan is our head nurse, her names Margaret. She wants to be treated like regular army also in a way, but how can you expect a MASH unit to be army? We are doctors, not solders. My first day here, I operated for 13 hours straight. I must have operated on 10 boys. The bombs were exploding all around our MASH Unit. Don't they know we're doctors? I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life. After the hours were over, I went outside and threw up. I have never gotten sick before, but this time I did. Hawkeye and BJ were right there next to me. I was so embarrassed, but they said this happens to just about everyone. I am actually scared for more causalities. I now know what to expect, but still. Well, sweetie, it is almost 6:00 AM now, and I really should try and get some sleep before the new day starts. By the time you get this I'll be home, haha. give Susan a kiss and a hug for me. Love always, Kimberly
She then sticks it in an envelope, and places it on the desk, crawls into her bed, trying not to think of what horrors are to come tomorrow.
*To be continued
Thanks for reading! I hope you are enjoying it! *STARY*
