I woke up to a light rapping on my door. Sherry slept with her head under a pillow, obviously unable to hear the knocking. I stumbled to the door and tossed it open. Corporal O'Reilly stood there, looking very uncomfortable after seeing me in my pajamas but greeted me warmly anyway.

"I'm sorry to have to wake you, Lieutenant, but Colonel Potter wants to see all the new nurses in his office in ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?" I asked, trying to focus my eyes. "But I look terrible. I haven't even showered!"

"We're used to that, ma'am," he replied. It took me a second to process what I had just said, but when I did, I chuckled at myself.

"Korea?" He nodded kindly in response. "I had almost forgotten."

"It happens all the time," he replied gently. "This place takes a lot of getting used to."

"Will you come get me when it's time to go?"

"I'll be back in ten minutes Lieutenant." He turned to leave, but I grabbed his shoulder before he could scurry off.

"One thing, O'Reilly," I said. "I'm a nurse, not a soldier. Call me Linda."

"Oh," he replied shyly. "People here call me Radar."

"Radar?" He nodded. "Why Radar?"

"Well, sometimes I can tell when things are gonna happen before they happen."

I shook my head. "No, I mean that's not your real name is it?"

"Oh no."

Silence.

"Well, what is your real name?" I asked.

"Oh, um, Walter." It sounded more like a question than an answer. "But everybody around here calls me Radar, and I'm ok with that."

"Ok, Radar," I replied, smiling. "Let me get dressed and I'll be right out."

"Ok," he said, and smiled.

I closed the door and sighed. Korea. My first morning there and I was already frazzled. I searched my bags for my green fatigues and found a pair at the bottom of my suitcase, wrinkled so badly that they could have passed for a vegetable of some sort before being recognized as a uniform.

I really wanted to make a good impression on Potter, so I walked over to Sherry and shook her awake.

"I'm so sorry, Sherry, but I can only find one pair of fatigues right now and they're wrinkled like you wouldn't believe. Is there an iron or a hot rock anywhere nearby that I can use?"

"No iron," she replied simply.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked, trying hard not to get on her bad side. She groaned and rolled over.

"Go into the second drawer of the chest over there," she grumbled, pointing towards a dresser. "I have an extra set of fatigues that I just washed."

"Thank you so much, Sherry. What can I give you to repay you for this?"

"Silence," she mumbled, and dropped back into sleep. I ran over to her bureau and yanked out her fatigues, throwing them on as fast as I could.

There was a problem with the uniform. I had always liked wearing clothes that were a little big for me; sometimes I wore my fiancé's shirts or sweaters, because I never liked looking at my figure. Sherry, being considerably smaller than I was, had clothes that fit her figure fine. On me, though, her shirt stretched over my breasts like I was packing heat and her pants cut into my body. I felt like I was crammed into a mannequin's body, jammed into a good figure against my will.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't by any means fat, I just wasn't used to seeing myself in clothes like that. I felt indecent, exposed, and my attire left very little to the imagination. I sighed and started to change into my wrinkled clothes, thinking that anything was better than the embarrassment I was feeling.

A light rapping echoed through the tent and I heard Radar call for me. "Lieutenant? Are you ready?"

"Can you give me a second?"

"Not really ma'am. All the other nurses are already in Colonel Potter's office. We're all waiting on you."

"Ok, I'm coming."

I ran over to the door and pushed it open quickly, almost knocking Radar off his feet.

"I'm sorry Corporal," I said, steadying him. "You'd better show me to the colonel's office."

He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head as if he was trying to rid water from his hair. "Sorry, ma'am," he started. "Follow me."

Despite myself, I smiled. Radar really was cute in the pre-pubescent, middle-American, farm boy kind of way. His head sat on his shoulders as if his neck had run away and hidden under his oversized uniform in terror. Every time he smiled, he stuck his tongue out a little, shrugged his shoulders, and displayed his deep dimpled cheeks. Behind his large, oval glasses, his eyes glimmered with a naïveté that was hard to find in anyone those days.

I followed him through the compound, trying to avoid eye-contact with anyone until we got into the safety of Radar's office. It was pretty organized, considering the little amount of space that all those documents were crammed into. I looked through the double doors into Colonel Potter's office and saw the back of a woman's head, assuming that it was one of the other nurses. I quickly smiled at Radar and ran through the doors.

Colonel Potter looked up from his desk, a cool expression on his face. His steely gray hair shone in the light from the grimy window to my right and his face softened into a stern little smile.

"I'm so sorry, Colonel," I started but I stopped in mid-sentence. All the officers were lined up on either side of him: Major Burns and Major Houlihan to his right. A man I recognized as the camp chaplain along with Hawkeye and BJ were on his left.

"What kept you, Lieutenant?" the Colonel asked not angrily, to my relief, but genuinely curious.

"There was a problem with my uniform, sir."

"It looks fine to me," Hawkeye retorted, smiling at me. I shot him a glance then smiled at Colonel Potter.

"I'mLinda Florence, sir," I said. Major Houlihan made a noise in her throat, no doubt wanting me to salute, but I pretended that I didn't hear her.

"It's good to have you here, Lieutenant," he said back. "You didn't miss much. We're just about to introduce all the officers on this post just in case you missed meeting them yesterday."

I fell into line, hoping to blend in as best I could. Actually, I was hoping that the floor would swallow me up and pull me into the ground forever, but joining the other nurses in line was the only thing I could do. There were five nurses, including myself.

The one furthest from me looked like she should be in a magazine rather than a war. She wasn't a real woman but a caricature, an exaggeration of what a woman should look like with her long legs, tiny waist, and kempt, blonde hair.

The woman standing next to her was a petit redhead; freckles covered the nose and cheeks of her genuinely kind face.

Next to her was a busty brunette. This woman looked like a tank, wide and aggressive, her long brown hair tied into a tight braid at the back of her neck. She looked like she belonged in the military.

The woman standing directly next to me was a blonde girl who hardly looked like she had finished puberty, let alone looked old enough to enlist in the army.

I pulled my gaze away from the other nurses and back at Colonel Potter who had begun introducing the officers.

He pointed at Major Burns: "This is Major Frank Burns; he's one of the surgeons as well as second in command."

Next was Major Houlihan: "You girls all know Major Margaret Houlihan, our chief nurse. She's the one you girls go to if there's a problem and if need be, she can come to me."

Next, Colonel Potter pointed to the chaplain. He had a kind face and a cross around his neck which shone bright silver against his black undershirt: "This is Father Francis Mulcahy, our only chaplain on the post. He handles all denominations of faith and you can always go to him if you need to get something off your chest."

Last were BJ and Hawkeye. "This is our chief surgeon Captain Pierce-"

"You can always come to me if you want something on your chest."

"Captain Pierce!" Houlihan and Burns screamed simultaneously.

The other nurses giggled nervously, not quite knowing what to make of Hawkeye. They no doubt had heard all the tales about him from the older nurses and were most likely wondering if they would be written into his legendary story.

He stole a glance at me and winked. I smiled, hoping my heart melting in my chest wasn't visible to everyone in the room.

"Next to the rabble-rouser is Captain BJ Hunnicutt." He smiled as Hawkeye applauded for him. BJ took a quick bow and raised his head just in time to lock eyes with me. I smiled shyly and turned my head away.

Colonel Potter gestured to himself. "And I, of course, am Colonel Sherman T. Potter, surgeon and commanding officer." He paused for a moment, allowing all the names and faces to sink in. "Now, I yield the floor to Major Houlihan who will tell you about your duties and responsibilities while you're stationed here at the good old 4077th."

Major Houlihan cleared her throat and walked slowly to the spot that Potter had moved out of. She put both of her hands on his desk and leaned in, creating an air of superiority, which I hated.

"You nurses are here for one reason: to aid the doctors."

"I sure need the aid every once in a while," Hawkeye snickered. Houlihan shot him a razor sharp glare and turned back to the nurses. I could almost see the smoke rising from her ears and I could also tell that Hawkeye thoroughly enjoyed pushing her buttons.

"You are required to help in the operating room whenever you are called and will rotate shifts in the post operative ward as some of you got a taste for last night." She fired an icy stare my way. "Just to make sure there is no confusion at all on this point, I would like to emphasize that I will not tolerate disobedience. Your actions could cause lives to be lost and if you defy any of the officers, including myself, you will be put on report and appropriate consequences will follow."

A tense pause followed, as if all of us girls were thinking of ways we could avoid Houlihan's wrath at any cost.

"Who's for cocktails?" Hawkeye said over the silence. He and BJ raised their hands and everyone laughed (with the exception of Majors Burns and Houlihan), thankful for the break in the tension.

Colonel Potter shook his head, a wide grin still plastered on his face. "Ok ladies, you're dismissed."

The nurses saluted, except for me, and they filed out one after the other like toy ducks dragged on a string behind a child. I stayed behind and waited for Hawkeye to come out from behind Colonel Potter's desk. He maneuvered his body around the blocky furniture and embraced me.

"So, how was our little girl's first day?" BJ asked, following Hawkeye from behind the desk as we all made our way into Radar's office. Radar was nowhere to be found.

"It was hard to wake up and remember that I was in the middle of a war," I said. "But other than that, it's been ok."

BJ turned to Hawkeye and smiled. "Our little baby's growing up so fast."

Hawkeye stared at me, a strange little smile on his face, and quickly scanned me from head to toe.

"So fast," he repeated. I punched him in the stomach and he made a small groaning sound somewhere halfway between the sound pain and pleasure.

"I thought I told you to stay away from Captain Pierce, Lieutenant," I heard from behind me. I whipped around and Major Houlihan stood behind me with her arms crossed, Major Burns stood behind her like a loyal dog.

"You were serious about that, Major?" I asked, trying desperately to play dumb.

"I never slip up, Lieutenant," she snarled.

"That's Frank's job," BJ said to me, a playful look on his face.

"Captain Hunnicutt!" Margaret screamed.

"What's going on here?" Colonel Potter yelled, pushing open the doors to his office and surveying the scene. He obviously had dealt with many skirmishes between the majors and captains before and he sounded more bored than concerned.

"I told Lieutenant Florence to stay away from Captain Pierce and she has disobeyed me."

"Why would you ask her to do something like that?" Colonel Potter asked, looking at me questioningly. I shrunk a little at his gaze. I was already in trouble with the C.O. and I hadn't even been there a full two days.

"You must have heard her in OR yesterday, Colonel," Major Houlihan whined. "She was insulting Major Burns and it was because Captain Pierce had some sort of influence."

"I very much doubt that, Major," Potter said, glancing at everyone in the group. "She had just gotten off a plane into a different country and in the middle of a war, she was tired, and as soon as she gets here there's a flood of wounded. Don't be so hard on her, Margaret. Maybe you've forgotten what it's like to be a newcomer, but I don't." He put his hand on my shoulder in a fatherly gesture. "Will you be a little nicer to the Majors in the future, Lieutenant?"

"I'll try sir," I replied quietly. He smiled at me and patted my arm.

"There, it's all settled. Now I'm going to write the misses so I'll need a little quiet. Everyone vamoose!"

We all walked out like children who had just been reprimanded for naughty behavior, arms crossed, eyes down, and feeling the shame of something very trivial.

The second the door of Radar's office closed, Burns and Houlihan turned to Hawkeye, BJ, and myself and began berating us.

"How dare you conduct yourself in that matter, Captain Pierce!" Houlihan started. "I'm trying to keep my nurses' minds on their jobs and you come along and foul it all up!"

"It's no wonder the work in this outfit has become so sloppy," Frank added in, nodding at Major Houlihan in agreement.

"I think your work was pretty foul before I sloppyed it all up," Hawkeye said. His brow furrowed in confusion and he turned to BJ.

"The other way around, Hawk," he replied. I laughed, realizing a second later that it was the wrong thing to do.

Frank slowly walked up to me and looked down at me like I was a foul latrine instead of a person.

"I'll have you whipped before you can say-"

"Sadism?" I finished.

Hawkeye and BJ broke into a peal of laughter and Frank screwed up his face and marched away, Margaret in tow.