Chapter 3

After the morning alarm of Major Winchester, Captains Pierce and Hunnicut were begrudgingly awake. They were not speaking to their companion, whose life-threatening headache was clearly gone and was now being given freely away.

Still half asleep, Hawkeye wrapped his burgandy housecoat around him and slipped into his boats, heading out of the tent and towards the shower unit in order to wake himself up properly. Sleep hadn't been easy for him; his mind had doted on the responsibility he faced now that Shayla was in Korea with him. As the older brother he felt it was now his duty to see that Shayla was alright and in this danger zone he wondered how well he could carry out that responsibility. Apart from that having the responsibility of another's life was his day job he didn't really want to extend that responsibility any further.

"Good morning, Captain, how was last night?" Corporal Klinger greeted in an enthusiastic tone which startled Pierce out of his thoughts.

Frowning, Pierce eyed Klinger, overwhelmed at the energy the man had in him for the time of day, he tried to take in the question and answer it.

"Not one of the best, you might say, seen better."

"Ah, stood you up did she?" Klinger continued.

"Who stood who up?" Pierce replied not following his train of thought.

"That girl you were with last night, what was her name… Shayla… you left together…I assumed you had, you know…" Klinger raised his eyebrows and gave Pierce a knowing grin.

"I may have left with a girl on my arm but I went to my own tent and slept in my own bed and spent all night thinking about her," Hawkeye said teasing Klinger, even this early in the morning and feeling like he did he could still manage to find a way of turning this into another joke.

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that, better luck next time!" Klinger commiserated strolling away from him towards the hospital wards.

Hawkeye headed into the showers with a small smile on his face, Klinger had fallen victim to one of his many practical jokes.

Shayla had done pretty much the whole of Radar's round with him, having found that the mess tent wasn't open she had nothing better to do to waste away the time before breakfast. She had found it very enlightening, learning things about the place from simply observing the day to day routine of mornings and hearing anecdotes from Radar as they chatted together.

Now it was finally time to view the mess tent for herself. The majority of people were now up and about, working through their morning routines before they started work. They entered the tent together, Radar insisting he see her fully inside before leaving to finish off his round and check that Colonel Potter had found all of his letters.

"It was nice having company to do my rounds, I always cope on my own but having someone to talk to makes a real difference you know!" Radar said just before he left Shayla alone

"It was nice having someone to talk to; I learnt a lot today about the place and earned a friend." Shayla replied causing Radar to blush; he was honoured that she could call him a friend after so little time together but in his heart he had hoped that she would see him as a little more than friends. Still it was flattering to have such a friend, even if that was the way it would stay.

"See you around!" Shayla added as he turned away to hide his face and hurried out the door.

She watched him leave and smiled to herself, Radar was such a kind-hearted person that it warmed her heart to know she was acquainted with him.

Turning her attention to the tent she followed the masses queuing for breakfast. Despite the lengthy line it went down quite fast and she was soon faced with the choices from which she chose a simple dish of beans on toast. Taking the tray she searched for somewhere to sit, it was pretty crowded now and spaces where becoming limited but she soon spotted her brother who beckoned her to an empty seat next to him.

"Good morning, I see you've met our lovely Radar." Hawkeye welcomed his sister to the table.

"Yes, he is rather sweet isn't he? He showed me where this place was." Shayla explained.

"Oh yeah…" Hawkeye said turning his head to look at her with a little smile.

"Oh come off it, Radar's very sweet and very cute but that's as far as it goes. Not my type thank-you very much Ben " Shayla retorted while in her head she questioned her answer, wondering whether, although previous boyfriends had been the total opposite of Radar, she could possibly see herself ever actually going out with him. She could guarantee he would look after her and he would never cheat on her like some of her other boyfriends had done and he wouldn't let any harm come to her. Maybe he would be an ideal boyfriend.

"Oh so what is your type? You know, for future reference and all that." Pierce enquired jokingly.

"Never you mind!" Shayla retaliated, her mind still trying to work it out.

Luckily she never got much of a chance to work it out before she was distracted by Major Margaret Houlihan who joined them at the table, taking the empty seat opposite them. She looked harassed and stressed and despite it being the morning she looked as though she could do with another night's sleep.

"Margaret! Busy day for you today, organising all those lovely nurses." Pierce said as she sat down and picked up one piece of toast and took a bite.

"Yes, it will be. What I could do without today is a chopper arriving." Margaret agreed tucking into her breakfast as she did so.

As if hearing her every word, the sound of a helicopter could be heard overhead and tannoy threw out Radar's voice across the whole of the unit. 'All Personnel required, incoming wounded!'

"Looks like you spoke to soon there Major!" Pierce added standing up to answer the call of personnel.

"Come on Shay, time to show you the ropes!" He turned to his sister encouraging her up and ushering her out of her seat and out to where the action was taking place and where they were needed. He put an arm caringly around her as they walked out of the tent.

Margaret immediately noticed this; disapprovingly shaking her head she made a mental note to have a stern word with Pierce regarding his attitude with the new nurses. She couldn't risk having any of them distracted from their work in the next few weeks as there was a lot of training to be completed with little time and little space in which to go wrong.

Reluctantly leaving her breakfast Major Houlihan followed the rest of her workmates out of the tent, switching on to work mode she began taking up her role as doctor and assessing the wounded, determining their ailment and their needs.

While her brother was performing surgery, Shayla was given the job of checking up on the patients in the post-op ward. She was taking it very seriously; checking everything on the patient's notes and assessing how it had improved or in some cases how it hadn't improved. She of course didn't neglect to ask the patient how they were feeling generally, a positive mind helped to a speedy recovery and it was on this question to a young nineteen year old soldier where she senses something else besides his injury was troubling him. Coming closer to the boy and taking a perch on the bed, she enquired further on his feelings, asking if there was anything that she could possibly help with to ease his mind.

"Well there is something, Nurse, I'm not entirely sure of it myself, but my uncle, Lieutenant Frazer Green, was in the troop with us when the bomb exploded, I don't recall seeing him after it exploded. The cave crumbled and we were caught under the rubble, there was so much dust I couldn't see who was being rescued and who wasn't. I know we didn't lose anyone, it was a miracle. I was just wondering if you could check your records or something and see if you can find my Uncle, I just want to know how he's doing." the young soldier said.

Shayla gave him a reassuring smile as she told him she would only be glad to help him reunite himself with his uncle. Telling him she would be right back, she left the ward, having seen to all the patients within it and set out to find the boy's uncle.

Taking a guess she returned to Radar's work space to enquire.

"Hey, Radar, I was wondering, could you do something for me?" Shayla announced herself, disturbing Radar mid typing. Keeping a finger on his place, he turned to face his visitor.

"Sure, what do you need?" Radar replied his voice crackling as he tried to get the words. His mouth had dried up but he knew it wasn't to do with thirst; he had only just finished his cup of tea.

Shayla relayed her problem to him and Radar quickly found her the information she needed. There was a list of all patient intakes they had received from the previous day to this morning. She ran her finger down the list her eyes scanning the page for a Frazer Green. No such name existed on the list. She checked it again, thinking it might have been her own mistake but she came up with the same result, Frazer Green was definitely not on the list.

"That's odd." Shayla said laying the list back on the table.

"He's not on the list?" Radar made an educated guess. For a second Shayla wondered how he had known that, but not thinking much of it she continued.

"If he's not on the list do you think…"

"That he's still under the rubble of the cave? It's a possibility, or he could have just been left of the records but then I did the records so I know I didn't leave anyone off. Everyone was counted for." Radar finished for her.

Taken aback by his accuracy, Shayla stood speechless for a moment before returning her mind to the problem at hand.

"Hang on a minute, I'm going to take this up with Ben, see if he can shed any light on this mystery." Shayla said, grabbing the list back of the table.

"Ben? Oh you mean Hawkeye. Yeah he might know something." Radar agreed, although he wasn't counting on it. Shayla had already left the room by the time he finished his sentence and with a sudden feeling of rejection, he slowly turned back to his typewriter and picked up where he left off.