Chapter 2

Heavy-handedly pushing open the door to the swamp Hawkeye entered, lost in thought, and wandered to his bed.

"We weren't expecting you back so early!" Hunnicut said causing Pierce to frown. He looked quizzically between Hunnicut and Charles not fully comprehending what they meant.

"Yes, thought you'd be all night with that girl, that new nurse…oh what was her name?" Charles agreed.

Realising where they were coming from, Hawkeye laughed, he had forgotten that nobody knew.

"You thought me and Shayla were…! You got it all wrong! Gosh what an awful thought! Unthinkable, even I have standards, I couldn't do that to my baby sister!" Hawkeye said giggling to himself as he lay back on the bed, pleased that he hadn't told Hunnicut the truth earlier in the evening as his face was a picture worth capturing now.

"You have a sister?" both Hunnicut and Charles exclaimed in unison.

Pierce nodded exaggeratedly with a big satisfied grin. He loved the fact that he had tricked them and loved it even more that it had happened by accident.

"Why so surprised? Don't you believe me?" Pierce added enjoying every minute of their confusion.

"It's not that we don't believe you, it's more to do with fact that you have never before mentioned her and being that we know most other details about you, it seems rather strange not to have known that you have a sister." Charles voiced the thoughts of both himself and Hunnicut.

"Yeah, like why didn't you tell us she was coming?" Hunnicut joined in.

Answering honestly Hawkeye told them he hadn't known she was coming. Hunnicut retaliated with several more questions which Pierce answered honestly. This question and answer session could have easily gone on all night had it not been for Major Winchester's interruption asking them politely but abruptly if they would kindly quit talking so he could get some rest. With that Hunnicut declared the questions would continue the following morning and all three men turned around in their beds and tried to go to sleep. Charles was out like a light, Hunnicut took a shade longer, his mind shutting down slowly, but for Hawkeye sleep did not come easily and he spent a long time doting on the events of the day before sleep finally took hold of him.

Early the next morning, the only person who was alert and up already working was Corporal Walter O'Riley, whose job as clerk involved being ready for any early telephone calls and organising the morning mail. He sorted the letters by importance, any official looking letters headed straight to Colonel Potter's desk and family and friends letters where then organised into piles according to tents.

Humming away to himself he continued his daily routine. He enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with this time of morning, it was the one part of the day he didn't have to listen to any shouting or yelling, it was the time he wouldn't get disturbed or distracted from his work.

Holding a letter mid-air he froze, the door had definitely just been opened. He frowned, it couldn't be Colonel Potter it was too early for him and judging from last night the majority were most probably sleeping off the excess of alcohol they had consumed the evening before. So who had just walked through the door?

"Hello? Excuse me…I'm sorry I was looking for the mess tent… I'm new…um…Shayla Pierce…"

Turning round he had found the culprit to be a girl of around his age perhaps younger, with dark brown hair and big hazel eyes. She was quite thin, although proportioned nicely and her smile was warming, compelling him to smile back.

"Pierce...are you by any chance related to Captain Pierce?" he asked, the name suddenly clicking into register.

"Yes, he's my big brother!" Shayla grinned happily.

"Hawkeye has a sister? Wow who'da known." Moving away from her, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Yep that's me and you are?" Shayla asked bringing him back from his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, I'm Walter O'Riley but most people call me Radar."

"Nice to meet you, Radar," Shayla replied holding out her hand. Radar accepted and went to shake her hand. Even in the short time she had been there, he had already decided he liked Shayla and felt pleased that they were now formally introduced. As he brought his hand towards hers it had brushed past the piles of letters and knocked them to the floor. All his neat handiwork lay sprawled across the floor.

Immediately both Radar and Shayla bent down to tidy the mess up. Their heads collided and they returned to standing straight to rub the sore areas. Sharing an awkward smile Shayla let Radar bend down to the floor first and then joined him making sure they didn't bump heads again.

"How were they organised?" Shayla asked bringing a handful back up to the table.

Radar explained his system to Shayla as he brought up another handful of letters.

"Guess I'm not going to be much help then." She replied with a sigh.

Desperate not to let Shayla feel useless Radar quickly thought of something helpful she could do and gave her the task of finding any official letters or any other letters addressed to Colonel Potter. Happy that she could be of use, Shayla got to work and within no time had created a pile of Colonel Potter's letters.

Being that the letters had already been organised some were still in a relative order making it easier for Radar to reposition into piles. His familiarity with the job resulted in it to be done quickly and it took Shayla just as long to form one pile with only one recipient as it took Radar to form several piles with several different addressees. Once they were all rearranged he began to place them neatly into his bag, catching the idea, Shayla began to hand him the individual piles one by one so he could put them in the bag. Each time she handed him a pile of letters he would thank her and she couldn't help but grin at the cuteness of it.

"I can deliver these as I show you the mess tent, if you like." Radar said doing up the bag and putting the strap comfortably over his shoulder.

"Yeah, sure, kill two birds with one stone." Shayla replied adjusting Colonel Potter's letters so they were more prominent on the table.

"That's mean." Radar uttered not meaning for it to be so audible. He starting heading towards the door thinking that perhaps Shayla hadn't heard him.

"It's only a figure of speech." Shayla said softly realising he hadn't meant to say it so loud.

"I know. It's still mean." Radar replied pushing the door open and stepping through.

Shayla's eyes widen as she stared after him, her mouth made an inaudible 'aww' and she followed after him, with a little jog to catch up.

"So you love animals then?" Shayla started the conversation. Radar nodded and continued to tell her about the many pets he had owned both at home and since he had been posted here in the M*A*S*H camp.