Chapter Three

Korea, April 1953

The casualties had been arriving in a steady stream for nearly twenty four hours before Hawkeye snapped. Just as they were coming to the end of the pile of wounded stacked up in pre-op, the tell tale whup-whupping of chopper blades signalled that his night was not over yet.

"There can't be anymore!" he yelled, "There just CAN'T be. We've had the entire United States Armed Forces through here tonight. Where are they finding them?"

Potter looked up from his vantage point across the room. "Two other MASH units took heavy shelling this afternoon, and a third in the area is bugging out. We're running the show. There should be more surgeons from the two bombed units arriving with their casualties by road."

Hawkeye sighed loudly. "Are they coming via Hawaii?" he asked sarcastically, before turning his attention back to the task in hand.

Two hours later, ambulances arrived in the compound. Klinger was out in a second, overseeing the unloading of the wounded, laying them out and checking everything was running smoothly. Margaret Houlihan was running triage, and she noticed amongst the organised chaos that the relief surgeons had arrived. She approached them immediately and introduced herself.

"Good to see you, Major. I'm Doctor Ian Atherton, MASH 8063rd. We took a bit of a beating as you can see."

Margaret nodded in silent agreement as she surveyed the mass of casualties lying around their feet whilst nurses rushed back and forth around them.

"Major, one of our doctors got hit pretty bad. I wonder can you look at her first?"

Dr Atherton pointed to the slight body lying in the very back of the ambulance. Margaret helped him carry the stretcher from the ambulance before calling out to Hawkeye who had stepped outside to assess the new batch of bodies.

"Doctor Pierce. I think you need to have a look at this."

"In a minute Margaret…" he said, agitated. "I'm going as fast…"

"No, I think you want to come now, Doctor."

Hawkeye reluctantly left his post and came over, grumbling as he did so.

"I know I said I like you when you're masterful. But really, Margaret…" He stopped short when he saw the bloodied face on the ground before him. "Right, Klinger. Get her right inside NOW! And tell Mulcahy I need to see him ASAP. Don't let him see her."

"Sure thing, what's the problem?" Klinger asked, then he saw who he was lifting. "Oh," he said, "Isn't that…"

"Sally." Hawkeye finished for him. "Right first time. And someone needs to tell our Padre that his sweetheart's just become another statistic."

Klinger called to Mulcahy through the door of the OR that Hawkeye wanted to see him, covering Sally's face with the sheet as he did so. Mulcahy breezed past in a moment, and Klinger manhandled her unconscious form through the doors and onto the table. BJ looked up from where he was closing.

"What've we got here then?" he asked, straining to look as the nurses hooked Sally up to IVs of blood and saline and prepped her for surgery.

Klinger, showing unusual tact, sidled over to BJ and whispered in his ear.

"Captain Lester, sir. Apparently she was posted to one of the MASH units that got attack. She's not looking too good, sir."

BJ brow crinkled above his mask, and he concentrated his mind on finishing what he was doing and trying not to think of his one-time roommate lying prone and bleeding only feet away.

Mulcahy found Hawkeye outside kneeling in the dirt beside a badly wounded nurse. The tall surgeon stood as he saw him coming and, taking him by the arm, led Mulcahy a little away from the frantic activity of pre-op. He took a deep breath and put his hands on the priest's shoulders, looking at him seriously.

"Father, do you know where Sally was posted last?"

Mulcahy's eyes looked heavenwards as he tried to recall the last letter she had sent him. It didn't take long, he committed her words to memory by reading and re-reading every item she sent him.

"She was in Tokyo awaiting re-deployment. She was hoping she'd be sent to an Evac hospital in Seoul. Why?"

Hawkeye looked away, then back at his friend. He chose his next words carefully.

"She didn't get that posting. She was sent to the 8063rd. She was there today when they were hit, and…" he stopped briefly as he saw the panic flick across Mulcahy's eyes, "There's no easy way to say this. She's been badly injured, and I'm about to go operate on her now. She's got a bad wound in her abdomen. I can't say for certain but she's lost a lot of blood and it's not looking too good."

Mulcahy looked back at him with unseeing eyes. Hawkeye knew he wasn't taking in what was being said to him.

"Father, I'm only warning you in case you'd rather not be in OR whilst… well I'll understand."

The priest looked back at him defiantly. "I am here to do my duty, and I will carry out that duty. Hawkeye, if you can bring yourself to operate on her, I can be in the same room."

Hawkeye nodded in confirmation. He headed off to scrub up leaving Mulcahy to gather what was left of his thoughts. He cast his eyes upwards again, and whispered a silent prayer.

"Please God, let her live. I'll do anything, just let her live."