5

Potter knocked lightly and then entered Margaret's tent where he knew Hawkeye was watching over her. He had checked on her as they were carrying her by litter into her quarters and got the whole rundown on her injuries. Now that it was daylight again, he just wanted to see how she was.

Slowly opening the tent he found Hawkeye asleep in her chair with his stethoscope still around his neck and a blood pressure cuff around her arm. Hawkeye jerked awake and said, "Colonel Potter..." he grasped his chest, "I think you just sent my blood pressure up a few degrees."

Potter said softly, "Sorry about that. How's she doing?" He looked over at her sleeping on her cot with an IV.

Hawkeye answered as he leaned over himself. "Her temp is still too high. We started penicillin right after cleaning the wounds out. About four of the deep wounds had already started swelling." He shook his head, "Her blood pressure is back up in the normal range again, she's no longer dehydrated, and she's stable, but I don't like that temp."

Potter asked, "How high is it?"

Hawkeye grabbed a thermometer, "Let's see shall we?" After the three minutes he pulled it back and read it, "104...damn." He shook his head.

Potter patted his shoulder and said, "What about a cold compress?"

Hawkeye nodded and said, "I was hoping the penicillin would do the trick without having to do that. I don't really want her uncomfortable. She was so exhausted last night and not just physically. I've never seen her break down that way, colonel."

Potter then told him, "Well, after what she's been through in the last 48 hours I don't blame her. Listen, you look a little exhausted yourself. Why don't you take a break and let BJ or Frank take over?"

Hawkeye shot him a look and said, "Frank? I don't want Frank anywhere near her." He turned back to look at her, "I can't believe him. One minute he wants her court martialed and the next minute he comes in here, tries to wake her up so he can apologize. I guess he realized it will be harder to date her if she's in Leavenworth."

Potter told him, "I know, I know...but you need a break."

He interrupted again, "No, she needs a break. From him, from this place, from..."

Potter stopped him again as he took a deep breath. "I know, son. I'll go get BJ, alright? I'll take the shift in post op and he can watch over her. You get some sleep. I know Frank will be in there with you, but just ignore him, alright?"

Reluctantly Hawkeye agreed and Potter left. Margaret started to stir just a little and that got Hawkeye's attention. He leaned over her to hear her mutter, "No...there's too many...I can't...No! Get Down!" she shot up in bed.

Hawkeye grabbed her around her arms and pulled her to him as he moved to sit on her bed. "It's ok, it's over now. You're alright, I'm right here." He had her in a tight hug for a few seconds and patted her back.

After taking a few deep breaths trying to stop crying she pulled back and looked at him. She told him, "What...what happened? How did I get in here?" She tried to straighten her hair out some but was still so groggy and achy.

He pushed back a strand of hair for her and told her, "We brought you in here last night. We figured you would be more comfortable in here instead of post op with the men. I never left, you were never alone, alright. It's ok. Why don't you lay back down and get some more rest." He softly pushed her back and then for whatever reason, ran the palm of his hand over her cheek, softly brushing away a tear. He let it linger there for a second as they got lost in each other's eyes for a second.

Her eyes drifted closed again and he took a deep breath. These feelings were hitting him hard all of a sudden. If she weren't so sick he would have kissed her, he knew, and not a hard passionate kiss, but a soft loving one. 'Where did that come from?' he thought to himself.

BJ interrupted his thoughts as he came in. "Colonel Potter sent me over so you can get a break."

Hawkeye nodded and then pointed to things on the chart BJ had picked up off her desk. "Her temp is still too high. Potter and I decided to do cold compresses. I'll get Kellye to come in and help with that along with a fresh IV."

BJ nodded and told him, "Now go on and get out of here. I'll take care of her."

Hawkeye looked over at her one more time and then nodded back to him, but didn't leave without saying, "Alright, just come get me if anything changes."

BJ just smiled as he left and whispered to Margaret, "You know it must be nice having your own personal physician, one willing to stay up all night. As much as he pokes fun at the 'secret' nature of your relationship with Frank, I doubt he realizes he has a 'secret' just as big." He settled in after taking her vitals and started to apply the cold compresses as Kellye arrived with them.

Two hours later Kellye left Margaret's tent. She bumped into Frank as she walked across camp with the bucket of water they had used for the compresses. In a split second she knew she couldn't stop the bucket from hitting him and probably splashing him with cold water so she actually pushed it just a little so it would soak him. "Oh sorry, major," she said sarcastically.

"You did that on purpose!" He spouted back angrily. He didn't however wait for a reply, but stomped off to Margaret's tent.

As Frank opened the door, BJ turned around from the letter he was reading from Peg at Margaret's desk. BJ asked, "Something I can help you with, Frank?"

Frank answered in a whiny voice, "What are you doing here? Major Houlihan doesn't need a babysitter, Captain Hunnicut."

BJ sighed and answered, "I'm here because she still has a fever. What I still don't know is what you need, Frank."

Frank then walked over, "So, how high is her fever? I thought Pierce was just being his usual selfish self last night, not letting me talk to her. Its important, imperative that I speak with her. Alone."

BJ shook his head and turned all the way around to face Frank, "Her fever has come down a little, but only because of the cold compresses we just finished. I'm not going anywhere and I don't think she needs to be disturbed either Frank. What she needs is rest."

Frank whined again, "But she's been resting. All day! You know that much rest isn't good either. One can loose muscle function and..."

BJ cut him off by saying, "Only by being sedentary for weeks on end, that's not the case here Frank. She's still got a fever of 100.4 last time I checked. Potter put me in charge of her care for now, so if you have any complaints, go talk to him. As far as I'm concerned, she sleeps. Got it?"

Frank then "accidentally" knocked her lamp over to make a loud noise as he was pretending to turn to leave. He looked back at her quickly to see if she would move, hoping she would wake up and tell BJ to shove off. She didn't and when he looked back at BJ, he was glaring at him. All Frank said was, "It was just an accident."

BJ then pointed to the door and said as quietly but sternly as possible, "Leave, now."

As soon as he was out the door Margaret whispered, "Thank you."

BJ sat on the cot next to her hip and smiled as she opened her eyes. "You're welcome. How are you feeling?"

She answered, "Horrible, my arm hurts and I feel like I'm going to drown in my own sweat." She tried to maneuver on the cot, but BJ put his hands on her shoulders to try to keep her still.

He told her, "Just try to stay still. The sweat is a good sign. You've been running a high fever for hours now. We were getting worried about it. The cold compresses seem to have worked though."

Margaret then asked as she laid there and he sat back up, "How bad was I?"

BJ told her, "Well, what all do you remember?"

She answered that she remembered Hawkeye carrying her and riding in the jeep, then she remembered taking X-rays and the two talking about her treatment. "After that it gets fuzzy," she concluded.

BJ nodded and said, "You were in shock and exhausted. Both Kellye and Klinger told us about how you refused to be treated properly, or eat or sleep properly. Vomiting because of the pain, the high blood pressure initially, and I'm sure you could feel the infection set in. All of those things just made you condition worse, but it didn't sound like you had a lot of time to be sick." He shook his head and then told her, "Margaret after hearing about everything that happened while we were gone, I can't imagine what you went through and I'm not surprised we found you the way we did."

She then asked, "So you aren't angry with me for what I did?"

BJ then smiled and told her, "No, I'm not. As a matter of fact I think you deserve a metal for it. I'm not sure I would have performed any better under that kind of pressure. I guess that's why you outrank me." They both chuckled for a second.

Margaret then asked, "How high did my fever get and for how long?"

BJ answered, "It got up to almost 105. For a while there I thought we were going to have to sedate Hawkeye too, but we were pushing the penicillin then, we had an IV in and your blood pressure was improving. We both figured you needed pain medication and something to make you sleep for a several hours. You needed rest, fluids, medication, and time to heal that's all. And this is where I ask, how much pain are you in now?"

Margaret then shifted around a bit, rubbing her wound lightly with her other hand, just before BJ could stop her put it back to her side. "It actually does hurt pretty bad and it only feels like its getting worse."

BJ told her, "Ok, stay right there and I mean it, no movement." Once she agreed he got up and got a vile and needle and began injecting it into her IV. "Alright here's just a little morphine to help with that. Now..." he put the needle back down, "why don't you just lay back there and get another nap, let that just sink in and relax. I'll be right here and when you wake up we can get one of the nurses to help you take a shower and change your bedsheets, alright?" She nodded and fell right back to sleep.

Hawkeye woke up with a start as Frank slammed the Swamp door shut. He heard him mumbling to himself, "Why don't I get more sleep, why don't I get some chow in the mess tent...why won't that old coot let me see my Margaret." He threw his hat on his bed and sat down.

Hawkeye then sat up and said as he was putting his pants on, "Why don't you just leave her alone for a little while Frank and let her recover."

Frank then shot back, "Why don't you mind your own beeswax! I don't have to take this from you!" Then he got up and huffed out.

Hawkeye didn't care where he went as long as it wasn't in Margaret's direction. He got his boots laced and headed out. He knocked quietly on her door and then opened it. Only BJ was in there. He ask almost panicked as her bed seemed to have been made as if no one ever slept there, "Where is she? What happened?"

It took BJ a second but then he understood what Hawkeye was thinking and stood up to tell him, "She's just in the shower. Her fever broke so I had Kellye go with her to make sure she didn't fall or anything while she was changing. She's still a little groggy from the morphine."

Hawkeye then took a couple of deep breaths and held on to the door frame, "Oh, yeah, sure, that's great. It is, that's good news." He kept nodding over and over.

BJ just smiled and said, "You ok there, you look like you're about to have a stroke."

Hawkeye then covered quickly and said, "Oh sure, I'm fine. You know just worried as a doctor, you know, in a professional sense." He started gesturing with his hands.

BJ tried hard to bite back a laugh and looked down before saying, "Uh huh, of course." Then he looked around for a second as Hawkeye wasn't leaving and then said, "You know if you want to you can stay in here and take over for me. I barely got lunch and as loathe as I am to call what is being served in the mess tent dinner, I should probably go try to force something down."

Hawkeye then nodded and said, "Sure, yeah, you go do that. I grabbed some breakfast earlier before hitting the sack, but I heard liver was on the menu for lunch so I passed, but you should go over and get something."

BJ just smiled again and patted his shoulder as he left, "Ok, I'll leave you here to hold down the fort."