The Korean sunlight is gone. Lamps pop on across the 4077th but the surgeons don't know this. They're knee deep in blood, guts, pus and body parts. Hawkeye Pierce is trying to stitch an aorta back together, but blood is spurting towards the ceiling. The nurse beside him says nothing. He's sure it's Margaret, just by the easy rhythm they have together. BJ is two tables down sawing off a soldier's leg.
"Beej, how long have we been in here?" Hawkeye calls out.
BJ doesn't answer and Hawkeye immediately begins to think about the still. The aorta is slippery and slides around as he clamps it again.
"Major, 3-0 silk. I need more."
Instead, she hands him a full martini glass. He's shocked; Margaret must know he's operating a little tipsy.
"Margaret, I need that silk," he pleads, taking a sip from the glass. It's marked by his bloody fingerprints. The body he's working on begins to jerk like a fish on land. The cover over the patient's head folds down and with horror, Hawkeye recognizes his son.
"No. This isn't...Margaret? Are we..."
But Margaret is not Margaret. A closer look reveals dark hair falling out from under the surgical cap.
"You're a ghost. You're not real. It can't be. BJ, what's happening here?"
But BJ is gone. The dark-haired nurse pulls the cover over the patient's face. "Sorry Dad, he's dead. You couldn't save Benny," she says, and displaying no emotion, she leaves.
Hawkeye is now alone in the OR with the lifeless body of his son.
And with that, Doctor Hawkeye Pierce woke with a cold start. Everything was in its place, the dresser, the bureau, the mirror. Margaret was asleep beside him. Her mouth was slightly open and saliva was beginning to puddle on her pillow. One of her breasts was erupting from the top of her nightgown.
"Ughh. Uck," she said, turning over, coughing slightly. Her eyes looked pouchy and strained. Hawkeye knew it was the alcohol at work. The clock on the bedside stand said six. She'd be getting up soon.
He must have fallen back asleep because the alarm clock was ringing. Margaret was slowly climbing over him to turn it off when he grabbed her. "Lay here with me awhile," he said, pinning her against his chest.
Very gingerly, he ran his hands through her hair. But when he leaned in to kiss her forehead, Margaret scrambled out of reach. Hawkeye's head hit the pillow with a hard thump.
"Let me check on the kids," she said quickly, dashing out of the room.
A light rain was still falling, so Hawkeye put on a bathrobe and some rubber boots and headed downstairs to get the paper. The rush of cool air woke him completely. The briny smell of the ocean enveloped him. So, he stayed on the porch for a bit, just watching the cars go by and town come to life.
"Hawkeye! Get in here!" Margaret screeched through the door. He walked in to find her looking furious.
"What the hell were you doing out there? Are you trying to kill yourself? You're just getting over the flu, for Christ's sake!"
He wanted to explain the dismal beauty that lurked out in the half-light. He wanted to tell her about his strange dream. Most of all, he wanted to ask why his love couldn't make her stop drinking. Instead, Hawkeye Pierce looked at the floor as his wife stomped away. He could hear her fussing over Ben and Ellie in the kitchen. Ellie was just barely sitting up and pale as a ghost. Ben was looking a little better and drinking an orange juice.
"You should go back to bed," he said to Ellie, kissing her cheek.
"I told her to come down here and at least try and eat something," Margaret said, not turning around from the stove. She was wearing a ratty pink bathrobe and a kind of slippers affectionately known further south as "dollar store sliders".
"Do you want to eat anything?" Hawkeye asked his daughter. She shook her head no.
"Go on, then," he said. "Give me a hug first."
Ellie hugged her father and cast a suspicious glance at Margaret, who was tending to a pot of oatmeal. Hawkeye watched Ellie run up the stairs, her feet slipping on the highly polished wood.
Margaret banged a pot down, making Ben jump.
"Dear," she said through clenched teeth, "Benny, why don't you go watch cartoons? I need to talk to your father."
Ben eyed both of them and left the room. Margaret waited until the Looney Tunes music blared from the den.
"What was the meaning of THAT?" she asked, turning to face Hawkeye. Her face was red.
"The meaning of what? She's sick. Ellie will eat when she wants to. Right now the important thing is that she get a little sleep. And furthermore, this isn't even worth discussing," Hawkeye said, opening the paper with a snap.
Margaret was quiet for a moment. "Let me remind you, DOCTOR Pierce, that I am a nurse and know the signs of dehydration. She has them."
Hawkeye put the paper down. "Okay, let's talk about the real problem here. Why not just come out and say you're miserable? I can't make you happy, the kids can't make you happy. And your mood swings...it's like living with the Two Faces of Eve. I don't know who I'm talking to anymore."
Margaret folded her arms. "I think you're completely off base. What about you, wandering around in the rain and all the accusations you had for me last week? You're far from perfect. Hawkeye. I was in Korea with you, you know. Boozing, all those other women..."
"As far as that goes, I was trying to cope with being taken away from my family. I was going to be nice and leave Frank Burns out of the equation, but now let's bring him up. You almost had me court-martialed..."
"You deserved it!"
"...and yes, I had a drinking problem. But so did you...so DO you. There are liquor bottles in the garage, the freezer, under the kitchen sink..."
"No," she said, "No."
"...and I found one yesterday in the seams of the living room curtains. Why not just admit it?"
The air crashed in the kitchen. Margaret's face sagged. She turned back to the stove and cut the burner off very calmly. Then she rushed at Hawkeye, knocking him out of his chair and bringing the whole table over with both of them. Her hands found his neck and she began to bang his head on the linoleum.
"YOU DON'T LOVE ME, YOU NEVER DID, " she screamed rhythmically.
He tried to push her away but only succeeded in grabbing the lapels of her bathrobe. She reared up her fist and hit him firmly in the mouth, splitting Hawkeye's lip. He grabbed her wrists and began to shake her. He saw movement in the kitchen doorway. It was Ellie and Ben. Ellie was looking on blankly and Ben was shedding big, silent tears with his arms wrapped around his sister's waist.