The lights flickered and swayed, and the screams and yells slowly died down. Alex forced her eyes open. Blood dripped from a small cut above her left eyebrow, caused by flying glass, but Alex didn't seem to notice. She was lying flat on her stomach, her ear pressed against the cold concrete and covered in tiny silvers of glass. Around her, she could hear whimpering of nurses around her. Alex opened her mouth.
'Is everyone ok?'
Alex swallowed air quickly without moving from her spot on the ground, trying to calm down. Potter repeated himself.
'Is everyone ok?' More forceful this time.
'I'm ok,' Hawkeye said.
'I think so,' Father Mulcahy said hoarsely.
'What the hell was that?' Charles demanded.
'Grenade,' Hawkeye said. 'Sometimes, an injured enemy will hold onto a live one until they're taken into surgery, and manage to kill a few doctors on our side.'
'Alex, are you alright?' Klinger was asking quietly, shaking the nurse's shoulder.
'Are any of my nurses hurt?' Margaret was saying loudly. Shakily, the other nurses called out that they were ok. Alex shuddered.
'Alex?' Hawkeye said.
'She won't talk to me,' Klinger said loudly. Alex heard Charles crawl quickly over to her.
'Alex?' he said. She felt him put his fingers under her cheekbone to check for a pulse as he rolled her onto her back. She lifted her head slightly, and looked up at him. Charles was staring down at her, worry in his pale blue eyes.
'She's ok,' he said, sounding relieved.
'Winchester, how's you patient?' Potter asked.
'Dead, sir,' Kellye replied. She had been the nurse assisting Charles, and the patient had been the first thing she'd checked, after making sure she was still alive, of course.
'I don't think I can save this one again,' Potter said after he had stood up. 'Poor kid. I hate making a decision like that, but there's others waiting.' Alex was helped into a sitting position by Charles. She was shaking, eyes wide at what had just happened. She didn't feel Charles' arms around her shoulders or the cut on her head that would need looking at by one of the others. She couldn't hear the others talk about how they had been lucky that time, and what precautions should be taken in the future.
'Damn war, near killed us,' Charles said.
'Where's the fun in a war if no one gets killed?' Hawkeye asked sarcastically.
'Cut it out,' Potter snapped before the two could start bickering. 'If you're ok to do so, Klinger, remove these bodies and bring in the next few wounded.' BJ burst into the OR, looking around wildly.
'Oh god, is everyone ok?' he asked.
'We're fine,' Hawkeye said.
'Jefferson said she'd just come off for a rest and heard an explosion,' BJ said. 'She came got me, and said she had been too scared to see what had happened herself.' From behind him, Jefferson was peeking into the OR. She let out a loud sob.
'It's ok, no-one's too badly hurt,' Potter said. He glanced over at Charles and Alex, still on the floor. 'Is she alright?' he asked.
'She's shaken up, but I think she's fine,' Charles said. He helped Alex to her feet. The redhead nurse just looked around numbly. What had been the OR room was half destroyed, broken bottles everywhere, the walls turned into splintered wood, the floor covered in blood and glass.
'How many more wounded do we have?' Potter asked.
'A dozen, at the most,' Father Mulcahy replied.
'Good. Take Alex and lay her down somewhere, I think she's worked hard enough tonight,' Potter said. Father Mulcahy took Alex from Charles, and led her out of the OR. Behind them, Alex could hear BJ ask about what had happened, and she shuddered. She didn't want to think about how lucky there were.
Jefferson came to the Swamp to tend to the cut on Alex's head. It wouldn't scar, but still needed disinfecting and covering. Alex was lying on her cot quietly, staring at the ceiling of the tent. She looked over as Jefferson came in, and smiled weakly.
'Hey,' she said. 'I'm glad I sent you out when I did.'
'I heard you and Hawkeye were lucky. If you hadn't noticed the grenade, you might have been more hurt,' Jefferson said. She still looked kind of pale.
'Can you pour me a martini?' Alex asked, pointing towards the Still before Jefferson could sit down. 'Father Mulcahy told me I shouldn't move around because of the shock. I don't know how the surgeons can keep on operating after that.' Jefferson poured Alex a martini, and hesitated before getting herself one too.
'Here,' she said, handing one of the glasses to Alex.
'You don't like the stuff from the Still, I thought?' Alex asked, sitting up.
'I think I needed a belt,' Jefferson replied. Alex nodded calmly.
'Yeah, well you're welcome to it,' she said, sipping her drink. Jefferson checked the cut, and started cleaning it.
'I didn't know what had happened in there when I heard the explosion,' Jefferson said as Alex winced with the disinfectant.
'I barely knew what had happened,' Alex said. 'I thought maybe I had come back into consciousness after being blown up at my last unit.'
'I thought maybe a missile hit the OR,' Jefferson said. She took a gulp from her martini, and started coughing on the rough drink.
'Easy,' Alex soothed. 'I've got something weaker if you want.' Jefferson shook her head.
'It's ok,' she said, forcing herself to swallow again. After working that down, she turned her attention back to Alex. She secured a bandage over the cut, and Alex smiled at her gratefully.
'How are the others?' she asked.
'Nothing serious,' Jefferson replied. 'The doctors got away with nearly no injuries, but a few nurses got cut by some glass. Nurse Crystal is the worst, her arm got cut up when she landed on broken glass.' Alex nodded. She was glad the others were ok, but she was slightly angry at herself for going into shock like she had. She had experienced this sort of thing before and handled it ok. Better than ok, in fact. She had taken charge last time.
'I hate this war,' Alex said, lying back down. Jefferson nodded in agreement.
Alex was sitting in the Mess tent, nursing a coffee. It was approximately six hours after the OR had been blown up, but Alex couldn't sleep. She was still shaky from the explosion. Klinger sat next to her.
'No more wounded?' she asked. Klinger nodded.
'You ok?' he asked her.
'Yeah,' Alex replied. She looked up from her coffee. 'Thanks.'
'For what?' Klinger asked in surprise.
'You came to see if I was ok almost immediately. No one at any of the other units I've been at would have done that,' Alex said.
'Well, I should be the one thanking you,' Klinger said. 'You knocked me onto the ground.'
'That was an accident,' Alex admitted.
'It still saved my life,' Klinger said. He paused. 'I guess I'm just another notch on your belt of idiots you've saved.'
'Klinger, you are anything but an idiot,' Alex told him. She paused thoughtfully. 'And anyway, you're two notches. That's the second time I've saved you.' Klinger grinned at her, and she grinned back. At least her sense of humour was intact.
'Good to know you're ok,' he said, patting her on the back and standing up. Alex sipped her coffee as he walked off.
'Shouldn't you be in bed?' Charles asked a few minutes later, sitting beside her.
'Can't sleep,' Alex said. She moved closer to Charles for comfort and warmth. 'I'm sorry I knocked you to the ground,' she said.
'It is perfectly alright, Alexia,' Charles said. She rested her head on his shoulder. Something was bothering the nurse but she didn't say anything to Charles. As much as she loved him, she knew she couldn't talk to him about everything. Heck, she couldn't talk to him about most anything. He was too proud to have to endure some of the things Alex always had on her mind.
She hated being a Major because others looked at her with fear instead of trust. She hated knowing her career as a nurse was over once the war ended. She hated hearing from Dani, who was strangely settling into the housewife life quite easily. She hated being in a war zone, watching those around her die and having people try to kill her.
Most of all, the biggest secret she couldn't tell anyone, not even the other nurses, the one thing above all of the hates, Alex missed Hawkeye.