First off, I'm so sorry this wasn't posted over here! Second, here's the 19th chapter?
Enjoy!
Of all the things Hawkeye expects from war, he is surprised going to the front alone has never come up for him. He has gone with Margaret and Klinger. He went to the front once with Colonel Potter as well, but is almost a little cocky—if only to himself and Margaret—that he has not been alone yet. Part of him wonders if he will never get sent. He thinks of the war event a little like Jury Duty. He may be called again, but it won't be for a long time or maybe ever again. Either way, he does not dwell on it too much. There is no time to regardless. The M*A*S*H Olympics are being held in a few days and Hawkeye is bound and determined to beat B.J. and Margaret. On the day of the games, Hawkeye begins to get fairly cocky. He only loses his nerve when Donald Penobscott appears. Knowing his winning chance is over, and also not liking the Captain in general—thinking him a poor choice of friend on his wife's part— decides to object when Margaret practically orders Donald to join in the race. Not liking the idea of Donald joining, and
letting him lose, Hawkeye puts the nurse on his shoulders down and yells, "'Stop! Hold it, time out just a doggone second! Colonel, this is the 4077th Olympics. Gorgeous George here is just an out-of-town relative.'"
"'Objection sustained'," The Colonel announces siding with Hawkeye. Margaret begins to object when Donald tells her her CO is correct. Then, when Donald bruises Hawkeye's ego, the surgeon calls out, "'Wait a second. Now wait a minute. What do you mean 'wouldn't stand a chance?'"
"'I didn't mean it like that'," Donald begins. "'I'm sure it would be, uh, competitive.'"
"'You bet your brass'," Hawkeye announces before going back to his post. Then, Donald begins to tout his West Point athletic credentials making Hawkeye inadvertently ask him to join in the race. Margaret and Donald win creating a tie. By the last event, Hawkeye is convinced his team will lose. Thankfully Hawkeye's team wins due to Donald's own cockiness
This does not bode well for Donald who is simply yelled at by Margaret once they get in the keep to leave later that day
"'Fine stay here with the winner. I'm going to Manila'," Donald announces annoyed at his friend's anger. He forgets how bent out of shape she gets.
Being wheeled around by B.J. for a week is a very rewarding experience for him as he continually lauds his winning to anyone who will listen until Margaret comes back. That night after dinner, Hawkeye loftily tells B.J., "Oh chauffeur!"
Rolling his eyes and sending an exasperated look toward Margaret B.J. remarks, "Off to work."
"Has he been like this all week?" Margaret asks.
"Almost. He let Ames have a turn for about half an hour," B.J. replies.
Watching them leave, Margaret mulls over the situation B.J. is in. Yes, it is the deal, but her husband's words and actions bother the nurse immensely upon her return. Hawkeye is almost a little too cocky recently, and she wishes she could bruise his ego just a little. However, hearing her husband receive orders to head alone to the front a couple days later is not what she has in mind for bruising an ego. The night before Hawkeye leaves, Margaret sneaks him into her tent. Laying in her cot, Margaret and Hawkeye are both fairly silent, Hawkeye drawing circles on his wife's back as Margaret tries to memorize the smell of his cologne and possibly his heartbeat.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Anything but tomorrow morning."
After arriving at the front, Hawkeye somehow manages to keep his wits while operating. After, is another story. Hunkered under a table, the surgeon decides to write his will. He sends everything to his father knowing he will be generous with Margaret, but makes sure to give B.J. his bathrobe, Colonel Potter his book "Last of the Mohicans", Father Mulcahey five cents and his respect, Klinger his Hawaiian shirt, and Margaret his Groucho Marx nose and glasses. Sure that Margaret will be angry at his only giving her Groucho Marx glasses despite what they represent, he also hopes she will move on without him with some semblance of humor.
Back at camp, B.J. ceaselessly worries about his best friend knowing his haircut is the reason for Hawkeye's front row seat at the war. Colonel Potter tells the man to stop worrying since no man controls his own destiny oblivious to Margaret's glare. She is not keen to being a widow with less than three years of marriage. After the surgery session, Margaret makes sure to lock herself in her tent and cry. Then, her crying is replaced with anger. Anger at the war for sending them here, anger at Colonel Potter for sending Hawkeye to the front, anger at Hawkeye for going, and anger at herself for not having something of his to remember him by. Maybe if he had gotten her pregnant like she asked him not to, she would feel a little less alone. At least then she would have something that is theirs to hold onto.
Still at the front, Hawkeye and the other surgeon sit on a cot to decompress. When he is told he can go home, Hawkeye is almost reluctant knowing how much work needs to be done. Receiving the blessing to leave, Hawkeye makes his way back to the 4077th. Entering his tent, the surgeon immediately goes to a sleeping B.J. to let him know he is back. When his bunk mate goes back to sleep, Hawkeye looks at the picture of Erin and Peg before heading toward the CO's office realizing his bathrobe is not enough to express how close his best friend is to him.
Taking a pen from Colonel Potter's desk, Hawkeye leaves Erin a list of all the men her father saved at war to help her understand while the father was gone. Just as he finishes, Klinger opens the door and tells Hawkeye to get some sleep, just as relieved as everyone else the surgeon is alive. Hawkeye lets the clerk go back to sleep before standing up, putting his will in his pocket, turning off the light, and leaving the office. Making his way through the compound, Hawkeye slips into Margaret's tent, stumbles his way quietly to the side of the cot, toes his shoes off, and crawls in awkwardly beside her. Waking when she feels someone beside her, Margaret almost screams in terror until she exclaims, "Hawkeye!?"
With a smirk, he whispers, "Hey, Major Baby. You miss me?"
Almost instantly, Margaret begins to cry. Sitting up as best he can, Hawkeye reassures his wife that he is okay. Sniffling, she answers, "I know! It's just, there was talk of you dying."
A fresh set of tears fall silently down her face as she kisses her husband on the lips.
Going back to work, Hawkeye is thankful to not be back at the front. Not until a week later during a surgery, does the doctor combat a problem based on a medical clamp. Discussing the possibility of a new clamp with B.J. and Charles, the men are quickly interrupted by the curtain behind them being aggressively pushed aside.
"'Freeze!'" Margaret shouts coming into the scrub room. When the doctors ask her what is wrong she announces she cannot find her wedding ring. Putting his jacket on, Hawkeye announces, "'Margaret, calm down. We'll help you look for it.'"
B.J. asks where Margaret last has the ring and she tells him as she continues to tear the room apart. Hearing how he describes the ring he gives Margaret a little less than a year ago, Hawkeye is surprised that she thinks so highly of it. Unfortunately that is also the time the group finds out that Klinger throws the ring away. Margaret then decides to choke Klinger for losing it causing the men to break up the fight. Holding onto her wrist while B.J. holds her arms back, Hawkeye announces to his wife, "'Margaret, we'll go through the garbage. We'll find it.'"
Yelling at Klinger to go catch up with the garbage truck, Hawkeye tries to reason with his wife, consoling, "'He'll find it. Believe me.'"
"'That put her mind at ease,'" B.J. remarks as he surveys the damage the Head Nurse leaves in her wake.
'"Well, you just have to know how to talk to her'," Hawkeye answers wondering if they will be the ones to pick up the room. Instead of dwelling on his wife's anger, Hawkeye asks B.J. about going to Colonel Potter to work on a new clamp. To their dismay the doctors have to create a new clamp themselves. They then decide to get someone else to make it who ultimately happens to be a travelling peddler. They also ask for a new ring for Margaret.
When the peddler returns, Hawkeye and B.J. take both the clamp and the ring, handing the ring over to Klinger who goes to save the day. However, when the inscription is wrong, Klinger is on the receiving end of Margaret's tirade. Upset and disappointed by the Major's exclamation Klinger puts her in her place asking why she cannot be thankful he and the other men wanted her to have her ring back. Knowing how unreasonable she acts, Margaret is a little more subdued in surgery. Helping Hawkeye with the clamp, Margaret tells him, "'Klinger found my ring.'"
"'I told you to have faith. You didn't believe me, Margaret, but I knew it would show up. You see?'" Hawkeye replies as he operates. When she tells him it is not the original ring, Hawkeye knows he has been caught but asks instead, '"Oh, really?'"
"'No, it's a cheap copy and I like it a lot better. Thank you'," She says honestly thinking this ring to be a little more special than the one before. Mostly because this ring feels more like one she wants to get from Hawkeye instead of pretend is from someone else. Her other ring was tainted to her in that sense.
"'Any time'," Hawkeye answers eager to make his wife smile. After surgery and talking with the patient about how their new vascular clamp saves his life, B.J. tells Hawkeye to read the inscription Mr. Shin, the peddler puts on the clamp.
"'Over Hill Over Dale, Korean Clamp Will Never Fail'," Hawkeye reads before announcing that he found the missing 'N' in Margaret's wedding band. Seeing her as they leave Post Op, B.J. calls out, "Hey, Margaret! We have something to show you!"
Going toward them, Margaret crosses her arms stating, "I've already seen the clamp."
"Not this," Hawkeye answers. "Look at the inscription."
Reading the words, the men wait a moment before B.J. remarks, "We found the missing part of your wedding band."
Looking at Hawkeye with a hint of humor in her eyes, Margaret announces, "Very funny."
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