Alex woke up, a familiar headache banging away in her head, a sort of sickly feeling in her stomach. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to have a full on hangover. She opened her eyes slightly against the glare of the sun coming through the window, and her blood froze. This wasn't her bed, or her room. It was Charles'. For a split moment, she thought maybe she'd got too drunk last night, and Charles had brought her home. He would have given her his bed, unable to get into her room, and he'd have slept on the sofa, like the gentleman he was.

Unfortunately, this couldn't be right, because she was naked under the covers, and Charles was sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands, a robe over his shoulders, as if he'd just got out of bed.

'Oh my god,' Alex said, sitting up and frantically making sure the covers hid her completely. 'Oh. My. God. We didn't—'

'I don't know,' Charles said roughly. He sounded sort of upset and a little hung over himself.

'What happened?' Alex asked.

'I don't know,' Charles repeated, louder this time. He flinched when he yelled, but didn't take his head from his hands. Alex was feeling sick now.

'Oh god, I'm a prostitute,' she said. 'A cheap harlot.' She buried her head in her hands.

'Do you remember anything from last night?' Charles asked. He refused to look at her. 'There… there's a chance nothing happened.' Alex closed her eyes and willed herself to remember what had happened.

'We went out last night,' she said eventually, 'had a few drinks, went dancing. I can't remember anything apart from that.' She looked up again. She must have really been out of it. Charles wasn't really her type. He was balding, not the sort of man who worked out, snotty, and had little sense of fun.

Then again, Charles mustn't have been himself either. He'd never have anything to do with a middle class person like herself. And no man wanted anything to do with a woman covered in scars, half blind in her right eye, and couldn't walk without her leg giving way. She wasn't exactly on the top of every mans list.

'We speak to no-one of this,' Charles said, turning to Alex. He realised she still had no clothes on under the blankets, and turned away with embarrassment. Alex turned her head in shame. Charles didn't appear to be wearing anything under his tightly done up robe, and she guessed he'd found himself naked next to her only a short while before she woke up. What had they gotten themselves into?

'Where are my clothes?' she asked eventually. Charles stood up, went and got the green dress beside the door and passed it to her. Holding it up, Alex soon realised it was torn, and completely unwearable.

'Shit,' she said.

Because Alex couldn't find the keys to her room, she had to pull on some of Charles' to go down to the front desk and ask for a replacement. She'd got several funny looks, and she hated herself immensely. She'd sold herself, and for what? A few glasses of wine that she'd paid for herself. She had no idea what she'd say to the others when they got back.

'Oh yeah, I had a great time. Charles and I got drunk together on the last night and woke up this morning, nude, in each others arms.'

She didn't think so.

Charles wasn't happy with the situation either. He couldn't remember one thing that had happened the night before, and only hoped he had acted nobly. He didn't want to think if he'd had drunken intercourse with Alex, or even worse, raped her. He'd never be able to show his face anywhere ever again. He refused to talk about it, or anything else to Alex, and avoided her whilst they got ready to go back to Korea. Not that Alex knew what to say in the first place. She tried talking to him on the plane back to Seoul.

'Charles?' she said cautiously. When he didn't answer, she continued. 'I'm sorry for last night. And this morning. It must have been just as big a shock for you as it was for me, waking up… together.' She paused, and blinked her eyes a few times to keep back the tears. 'I know you're worried that you might have been the cause of it, but it was my fault.' Charles turned to her.

'You remember what happened?' he asked.

'No, but I do know it was me that forced you to come out and celebrate with me. I got us both drunk. It's as good as my fault,' Alex said. Charles was quiet. He knew it wasn't right to let Alex take all the blame, but her taking responsibility like that made him feel better about the whole mess.

'Hey Alex. Have a good time?' BJ asked when the jeep pulled up in front of the Mess tent.

'Yeah, great,' she said, avoiding his glance and heading for the nurses tent with her bags.

'How about you, Charles?' BJ said, confused at Alex's reaction.

'None of your business,' Charles snapped, heading for the Swamp. BJ thought for a moment, and went to Alex's tent. Knocking on the door, he stuck his head in.

'You ok, Alex?' he asked, going in. Alex wiped her eyes hurriedly, hoping BJ hadn't seen the tears.

'Yeah,' she said, trying to sound cheerful. 'A week in Tokyo was exactly what I needed.'

'Why are you so upset now?' BJ asked.

'You know, hangover. I've been deemed fit to drink, and I had a little too much the other night,' Alex said.

'I've seen you hungover, it's more than that,' BJ said. 'It's not like you ended up sleeping with Charles or something, right?' He said it as a joke, but Alex looked up, a horrified look on her face. BJ misread the meaning of the expression. 'Sorry, it was a bad joke,' he said. 'I know you and Charles could never do anything like that.'

'Yeah,' she said weakly, wondering what BJ would have said if he'd realised that had really happened.

'So are you going to be ok?' BJ asked. Alex nodded.

'I might feel better after a sleep,' she said. BJ patted her on the back.

'Good to have you back, Alex,' he said before leaving the nurse's tent. Alex waited a few moments after he left, and reached under her cot, where she'd hidden her mother's rum brownies. There was one left, and she sighed. Next time, she was going to take them with her, so no-one in camp could get to them.

'Wounded, folks. Better drag the welcome mat out.'

Alex was scrubbing quickly, hoping to get through the wounded quickly. Hawkeye and BJ had invited her to a "Welcome Back" drink that night, and she'd wanted to get that over and done with so she could go to bed early that night. Charles walked into the tent, and hesitated. Alex sensed him, and finished rising quickly.

'Better hurry up, Major,' she said, avoiding his gaze. 'There's a few bad cases to get through.' She hurried into the OR, waiting for instructions from Margaret.

'We're low on nurses, Dustin,' Margaret said to her through a mask. 'You'll be helping operate with Winchester today.'

'What?' Alex asked. 'Where is Jefferson and Kellye and the others?'

'Sick. There's something going around. We've given ourselves flu shots for it, but it was too late to keep a lot of the nurses healthy,' Hawkeye replied.

'You wouldn't be assisting otherwise,' Margaret said. By the tone of her voice, she didn't want Alex assisting at all, but had no choice.

'Great,' Alex said, trying to put some enthusiasm into her voice. 'I've missed assisting.' She went and stood by Charles' table, dreading to hear the major's reaction to her working on his table.

'Where is my other nurse?' Charles demanded when he saw Alex standing at his table. 'She's not meant to be assisting.'

'We have a shortage,' Margaret said. 'We just have to hope she'll be ok with it.'

'Thank you for your encouragement, Major,' Alex said over her shoulder. She had jumping beans in her stomach, her hands were shaking. It was like her first operation all over again.

'Scalpel,' Charles said, holding his hand out. At least he was trying to keep a professional attitude. The two operated mainly in silence, while Hawkeye broke into song to keep the mood up, and the others sang along. Every time Alex and Charles touched each other, their hands would jump back as if touched by a live wire.

'What is the matter with you, Dustin?' Margaret asked angrily when she stopped to check how the younger nurse was holding up, and she witnessed Alex drawing her hand away.

'Sorry, Majors,' Alex apologised, head down in shame.

'It's not her fault, Major,' Charles spoke up. 'We both are responsible.' Alex glanced up, knowing he wasn't just talking about the operation. She smiled at him as Margaret went back to Colonel Potter's table, even though she knew Charles probably didn't realise there was a smile under her white mask.

'I wasn't just talking about the operation in there,' Charles said when they were washing their hands afterwards.

'When Major Houlihan was chewing me out?' Alex asked. 'Yeah, I kind of guessed that.' There was a long pause. 'Thanks,' she finally said.

'Just never mention the incident to anyone,' Charles said. 'Ever.'

'Same goes for you,' Alex said.

'Agreed,' Charles said. Hesitantly, the two shook hands.

'I just hope I hadn't made a complete idiot of myself,' Alex muttered.

Kooshball: Dang, you reviewers are too smart for your own good! Guessing what I had planned an' all. Well, hopefully I've presented this in a way that you guys weren't expecting, and no doubt you'll want to know the truth behind all this. Well, that's next chapter, and I'm not writing that till you review! Mwahahaha!