Erin lied on her cot, tossing a bean-sack ball up in the air. "Is there anything to do around here other than wait for wounded and rotting in your bunk?"

Darlene looked over to Erin, who was obviously overcome with boredom. "You have rounds to look forward to, I believe after Jo comes back it'll be your shift."

"I completely forgot, do you know when she'll be done?"

"Forty minutes or so."

Erin nodded. It had been just over a week since she had arrived in Vietnam, and just two days ago she had her first experience in the OR. The unit had gotten a load of casualties, and spent almost sixteen hours in surgery. Thankfully three other nurses were transferred in just they day after Erin and Darlene arrived. But their first taste of the war was certainly no party.

Erin still hadn't gotten around to going to the other nurses tent. She had yet to get to know her other colleagues. However, she had been able to get acquainted with Josephine, who she couldn't quite say if she liked yet. Captain Josephine Arnold was a regular army nurse who always had her mind on work. Erin always found her doing extra rounds in post op, or studying her journals.

Margaret and Darlene were probably the closest poeole to friends that she had.

Darlene was still quite timid around everyone, but she seemed a little more talkative as the first few days had passed.

Besides the constant death, the main problem Erin found herself facing was boredom. When she wasn't doing rounds, or in OR, she found nothing to do with her time.

Sometimes she'd chat for a while with Darlene or toss her bean-sack, otherwise she had nothing to do.

"Darlene?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever played poker?"

She nodded, "Yeah a few times. You play?"

"Yeah, my dad taught me how. Maybe I could see if any of the other nurses has a deck we could borrow, would you want to play?"

Darlene stood up and reached for her bag. "Actually, I had packed my own deck, we could use that."

Erin stopped tossing her ball and sat up. "You mean to tell me you've had a deck of cards this whole time, and you just let me die of boredom over here?"

Darlene chuckled, "I didn't know if you were the type of girl who likes to lose her money over a poker game."

Erin smiled, "You're that good, huh?"

"Well I've won most games that I play."

"I thought you said you've only played a few times?"

"Exactly. I try not to test my luck," she looked over at Erin and smirked, "but for you, I suppose I can make an exception."

Erin laughed. "Well you better hurry up with finding those cards if I only got forty minutes before I'm on call."

Darlene pulled out a brand new, unopened deck of cards. "For someone about to owe me a pile of cash, you sure do seem confident."