A/N: Apologies for the delay people, but I lost the thread a bit with this one. But I'm back on track, and I know exactly where this is going. I don't know how long it will take me to get there, but there is an end in sight. Thank you all for being so patient!

Chapter Four

The injured kept on arriving and the compound began filling up with walking wounded. As more medical staff continued to arrive from the shelled out MASH units, the Mess Tent became a treatment centre for the less critically wounded. But as the war continued to rage around them, Hawkeye was engaged in his own private battle - to save his friend's life.

"I need more suction in here please, Nurse," he barked, and the young woman at his side complied immediately. His brow was beaded with sweat which mingled with the dirt and blood and ran down into his eyes making them sting. He ignored it, however, and continued with his task of sewing Sally's insides back together again.

"How's it going?" BJ's calm voice came from the other side of the room. "Have you managed to save her womb?"

Hawkeye sighed. "Just. Although I wouldn't fancy her chances of having a family in the future. That's if she has a future, it'd be a miracle if she avoids infection from this."

"Well, miracles are the Padre's department, Pierce. You just do what you can." Potter said firmly, never looking up from his own patient. If he had, he would have seen Mulcahy's blue eyes flash heavenwards and his hand reach out to steady himself. It didn't go unnoticed to Hawkeye, however.

"You OK, Father?" he said.

"Fine, thank you," came the rather clipped reply.

The nurse at the head of Hawkeye's table looked up hurriedly. "Doctor, I've lost her pulse," she said with a hint of panic in her voice.

The whole room seemed to stop for an instant, paralysed with fear at what those five little words meant. Then Hawkeye did as Hawkeye does. He fought back.

"Oh no you don't, Sally Lester," he muttered as he checked her pulse and began chest compressions. "You are not going to do this to me. You are not going to die with me elbow deep in your stomach."

Mulcahy could feel the room begin to spin around him, the white figures moving around in slow motion. He could see everything that was happening, but it was as though he was watching a film. BJ had taken over at the head of the table, checking for a pulse after each round of compressions. Hawkeye continued his repeated pumping of Sally's chest, ignoring for the moment the gaping hole in her abdomen. His mind flashed back to Sally's first night at the 4077th. He had seen her do exactly the same thing to a young soldier, pressing down again and again in a vain attempt to bring him back to life. It had failed then, and he had held her as she cried that night. He could remember the smell of her hair, and the damp patch on his shoulder which her tears had made. That first night he could never have known what would happen between them, how much he would love her. And how it would rip his very soul apart.

A voice brought him back to the present; Colonel Potter was at his elbow, talking to him.

"Father? Father! Come on, snap out of it. You've got to do your job, man. Give that girl the Last Rites. It's the least she deserves."

Mulcahy stood rooted to the spot, staring at Sally lying underneath Hawkeye's hands. Hawkeye was yelling at her now, shouting at her to "Get the hell back here, or there'll be trouble."

"I… I…" Mulcahy stuttered, "I can't. I just…"

A sudden wave of horror and nausea washed over him, and with a cry he spun around and ran from the room, sending nurses and dishes crashing to the floor as he went. He careered outside, and stumbled through the scrum of bodies in the compound towards his own tent, oblivious to the cries and yells of the people round about him. Once inside, he fell to his knees sobbing and, clutching his crucifix, he began to beg.

"God, please please God don't punish her like this. Don't take away her life before it's even begun. I am to blame for the sins which we committed, and I should be the one who is punished. Please God, spare her. I'll do anything. I'll give her up completely, cut her out of my life. I'll let her go and live the life she deserves and devote myself to you if only you'd just let her live. Please God, just let her live."

He didn't know how long he stayed like that, sobbing one his knees at the end of his bed. He recited every prayer that he had ever learned over and over through his tears until eventually he fell asleep. He was woken some time later by a soft knock on his door.

"Come in," he croaked, sitting up on his bed and wiping his face with his sleeve.

Hawkeye's worried face peered round the door, and he stepped inside the tent.

"Are you alright now?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Mulcahy flatly. "That depends on what you're about to tell me."

Hawkeye looked at the floor, then back up again.

"She's alive, Father. Sally is still alive.