Chapter 10

The following day, personnel of all ranks gathered in the converted mess tent for the memorial service. The Father was robed accordingly and ready to take the service but not of course until all where present.

"Where's Hawkeye?" Father Mulcahy whispered to the Colonel who had just finished confirming the exact verses he was reading.

"I don't know Father," he replied looking around the tent, having assumed he was already there.

"I don't think we should start without him." Father Mulcahy hinted.

"No you're quite right there, Padre, I'll see what I can do." The Colonel agreed heading to the front row where Hunnicut, Winchester and Radar were all sitting.

"Have either of you boys seen Pierce?" The Colonel asked.

All three of them shook their heads. Hawkeye hadn't been in his bed when either Hunnicut or Winchester had awoken and Radar, even on his rounds, hadn't seen head nor tail of him.

"Hunnicut, will you go and see if you can find him? We're not starting the service without him."

"Of course, Colonel." Hunnicut accepted standing up and exiting the tent. He wasn't sure he was the best person for the job, he wouldn't say Hawkeye would be exactly pleased to see him at the moment but he'd try.

He started with the swamp, if he hadn't been there this morning it didn't go to say he wasn't there now. Pulling open the door tentatively, he called out Hawkeye's name but to no avail. There wasn't even a sign of him having been there. Hunnicut let the door swing back into place. Well, he hadn't expected it to be that easy.

Next he tried the more obvious places: Pre-op, post-op and OR, but not a glimpse of Hawkeye anywhere. He had asked the conscious patients if they had seen anything of Dr Pierce but they claimed that hadn't seen him since early yesterday.

Thinking harder he tried the showers, latrines and even on a whimsical spark of speculation, Colonel Potter's office but alas not a trace. He realised he was going to have to think further outside the box if he was going to find Hawkeye. Put himself in Hawkeye's shoes and work out where he might have got to.

In the manmade streets of tents, Hawkeye was situated outside what had been Shayla's tent. He had raided the tent of Shayla's belongings, not giving a care to the fact she shared the tent with two other nurses who perhaps didn't want doctors nosing around their stuff, and had arranged it neatly on the ground in front of him. In his drink addled state he had still managed to remember to put a blanket down first and he was now sat cross-legged with his display in front of him. In his front line he had a photo of their parents and them together, a necklace Shayla had received on her sixteenth birthday, an unused writing set, her diary and a bottle of perfume.

He picked each one up individually taking time to recall the memories it held and the sentiments that were attached. He had reached her diary and was reading an entry that was entitled Ben's Birthday, it expressed the sadness felt by the whole family as he was absent from them on that special day. A tear rolled uncontrollably down his cheek as he read.

Hunnicut, venturing into the workings of Hawkeye, had resulted in looking outside rather than inside. He didn't know what to expect as he roamed round the corner but he had been prepared for just about anything. So when he spotted Hawkeye blocking the path ahead, he let out a silent sigh of relief and assessed the problem facing him professionally. Approaching warily, Hunnicut thought better then to announce himself and instead clambered onto the ground next to him. He picked up the photo and examined it mimicking Hawkeye's actions.

"This your parents? Gosh, how old were you when this was taken?" Hunnicut asked in a friendly manner.

"I was nine." Pierce replied snatching the photo back and replacing it in the line. Hunnicut let him take it, curious to understand the thought process behind this strange behaviour.

"And Shayla?" Hunnicut added trying not to make a big deal out of it.

"Six."

"You know you shouldn't read a girl's diary, they get very personal about things."

Hawkeye moved his head sideways the tiniest amount and simply raised his eyes to Hunnicut. He closed the diary and placed it back in its position. Returning to the photograph, Hawkeye plucked it from the regimental line and held it in front of him. Even if it wasn't a recent photo at least it was still a physical image of Shayla.

"How someone be erased so quickly?" Hawkeye said.

"Look, Shayla will never be erased, not from your memory nor from anyone else's who met her. She was an inspiration to us all. She saw her chance to do something right, something she believed in and took it. Not many can say we've done that. Come to the service see for yourself if you don't believe me." Hunnicut said standing up and offering out his hand.

With a moment's deliberation, Hawkeye placed his hand in Hunnicut's outstretched one and Hunnicut helped pull him up off the ground.

"I'm sorry I blamed you." Hawkeye told him as they began walking back to the mess tent.

"You had every right to Hawk, I should be apologizing to you."

"And you have, over and over, and frankly I'm sick of hearing the words from your mouth!" Pierce smirked, forgiving his friend in an instant and trying to patch up the damage by reverting back to the witty comments they had both been missing.

Together they entered the tent. Immediately Hawkeye was taken-a-back by the amount of people crammed into the space. And all to commemorate Shayla.

Hunnicut guided him to his seat, as he gawped at the realisation and nodded to Father Mulcahy to begin.

"Our reading is taken from Revelations chapter 14 verse 13: And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' 'Blessed indeed,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!' This is the word of the Lord." Colonel Potter read eloquently to the congregation. He marvelled at the aptness of the verse, it was almost as if it was specifically designed for Pierce's situation, understanding it was he who needed the reassurances that the passage gave. Shayla's good deeds and kind nature would follow her to heaven where she would be blessed for having done them. Her life had been spread with goodness and, although comparatively short, it had contained everything it needed to allow her to ascend to heaven and wait for her family there.

The Father's sermon added to verse, bringing it closer in relation to the recent events. He used examples of Shayla's good deeds of how simply a kind word to somebody was a good deed. But the verse said it all.

Blessed.

That was the word Hawkeye latched on to. Shayla was blessed. Blessed in her life and blessed in her death.