TWENTY EIGHT
"Kellye, that's the last of them." Major Houlihan announced as she and MacAllister helped an injured Marine stumble into the pre-op area. They eased the man onto an examination table. "Goldman," she called to a passing medic, "Bring an ice pack for his ankle." The head nurse smiled at the young man, "Don't you worry, soldier. You're going to be all right."
Quickly surveying the area, the woman was satisfied with the treatment preparations that were being performed. Seeing one nurse in particular, Margaret Houlihan called to her, "Baker, you're on sick leave. What are you doing out of bed?"
The woman, wearing a surgical mask to prevent spreading infection, was pale and trembling. But her voice was strong and determined, "I can still take vitals and mark charts, Major."
Houlihan studied her. Her nurses were responding to the overwhelming arrival of injured men admirably. She permitted herself a rare smile of approval. "Don't over exert yourself. And, I want you back in bed when we've cleared out pre-op."
"MacAllister, go scrub," turning to her second-in-command, Margaret Houlihan ordered, "Take over as rover in the OR. Keep an eye on Captain Browne. He's a competent surgeon but he's having trouble adjusting to the pace." She continued, "Have Riggs report to post-op #1; I'm going to help in here and then go to post-op #2. And, welcome back," she added.
Just look at this mess!" The red-haired woman spoke in a teasing voice as she entered the hectic operating room again, "I can't leave y'all alone for a minute!"
"We're remodeling...this is the 'Impossible Conditions' motif," Captain Pierce remarked. He didn't look up from his patient. "So, what do you think?"
"I'm trying not to," Sarabeth spoke wryly.
"…How was Tokyo?" "...Did you see the Emperor's Palace?" "..Did you get any shopping done?" Despite the seriousness of their situation, several questions were thrown her way.
Working rapidly, MacAllister replaced sterilized instruments on their trays. She moved from table to table to take care of immediate needs. She also answered their questions. "I didn't do any sight seeing. I was too busy searching through dusty files and sneezing to do anything else. I did get to eat at a fancy restaurant, though. Other than that, there wasn't much to write home about."
A chortle of laughter, abruptly cut off, was heard from Major Winchester who was entering the room. Without further comment, he moved to the injured man who had been placed on his table.
Coming to Pierce's side, MacAllister wiped the Chief Surgeon's sweaty forehead. "Thanks. Just a shave today," the doctor told her. "I'll skip the hair cut."
"Looks like you're going to have to skip the shave, too," she observed as another solider on a stretcher was carried into the room.
"I'd rather skip this whole day," the man grumbled.
"I'd like to skip this, too. Sarabeth, I need another unit of whole blood; B-." Doctor Hunnicutt called to her.
The circulating nurse moved quickly to hang the unit for him. "B-, sir. Anything else?"
"Yes. I need a scratch; right between my shoulder blades. Lower; more to my left; stop; right there; hard." the man directed as MacAllister used a retractor to attend to his itching. "That's got it. What restaurant did you eat at?"
"The White Lotus."
Hawkeye Pierce whistled in appreciation, "That's fancy, all right. I hear the waiter have waiters."
Continuing down the line of tables, stopping by the new surgeon, the lieutenant introduced herself. She asked, "Everything all right, sir?"
"Yes. I guess," the visiting captain responded. "I'm not used to having back to back surgeries like this, however."
Observing his efforts, the Texan asked, "Doctor, since you're just working on muscle repair, would you like for me to finish this? There's a cot out in the hall where you can rest for a few minutes."
The tired surgeon looked up in relief. "Sure. Great. If, that's all right?" he asked the Chief Surgeon.
"Go," Pierce instructed, "never pass up an opportunity to grab a few winks. Grab some for me. So, what did you eat?"
"Campbell, you can take a break, too," MacAllister informed Browne's nurse while preparing some sutures.
The woman smiled in gratitude. "Thanks, I need to stretch my legs." She quickly followed the doctor out of the OR.
Focused on her surgical embroidery, the nurse was silent for a few minutes before replying, "Well, since I'd had never eaten Japanese food before, Major Winchester suggested we share a tray with samples of almost everything from their menu."
"They brought out this platter," she indicated the size before returning to her repairs. "And, on a bed of rice were all these…things. Some I recognized; shrimp and oysters. But the rest were things that I had never considered to be food items: purple seaweed, shark fins, fried eels and boiled octopus."
"The major had insisted the octopus was delicious, so I decided to try it. I'm looking at this pinkish gray tentacle with suckers on it and I'm having second thoughts about eating it...but I decided to go ahead. So, I got a small piece and I start chewing."
"And I'm chewing...and chewing...and chewing...and chewing!" The young woman laughed as she told her tale. "And I'm thinking to myself: I will never be able to swallow this! But I kept working at it."
"Now, Major Winchester is sitting across the table and he's watching all of this. He's too much of a gentleman to say anything. But, I know that, inside, he's laughing at me."
"You do have an amazing repertoire of facial expressions," the doctor contributed in an amused tone.
"Finally, I managed to swallow that bite. I looked down and that darned octopus seemed to have grown even bigger! I swear; that tentacle was now hanging over the sides of my plate! And y'all know that I feel obligated to eat everything on my plate; so, with great reluctance, I started to stab another piece. Thankfully, the major took pity on me and removed that eight armed nightmare from my plate. I tried the shark and the eel meat. I could handle that; even the seaweed. But octopus? No way!"
"I'm inclined to agree with you, lieutenant. I'd rather fish with it than eat it," the commanding officer remarked as he returned to the operating room. He surveyed his overworked staff. "It's going to be a long night, people. Let's continue doing what we do best: providing the 'best care anywhere'."
Silently, he added, "And I hope we don't need any of that care, ourselves."
His call to Regimental headquarters had been frustrating. They had doubted his source and therefore ignored his information. Because Colonel MacAllister had requested that he be advised of any unusual activity around the camp, Potter had called his outfit, as well. That call had been more successful. Captain Sterling had informed the MASH officer that they already knew about the break through the lines. And that a patrol had already been dispatched to intercept those soldiers. He would be called, immediately, if the situation took a more dangerous turn. In the meantime, they were to sit tight and keep sharp eyes out.
Reluctantly, Colonel Potter had pulled some of the enlisted men from hospital duties to act as additional look outs. Resolutely, he now stepped up to his table and called for the next patient waiting for treatment to bring brought in. "It's going to be a long, night," the senior surgeon repeated to himself.
