The wet winter weeks turned into just as wet spring weeks. Jessie swore she was going to grow mold if it didn't stop raining. The number of wounded sharply decreased as fighting resumed further away from their location. So, they were surprised one day to have a wounded Korean stumble into camp.

Klinger ran to post-op where Jessie and Charles were on duty.

"Sirs, there's a wounded local outside, and she looks hurt pretty bad! Looks like she's pregnant, too!" he said, rushing into the door with a swish of skirts, then rushing back out with Jessie and Charles on his heels.

The woman was sitting on the ground leaning against the wheel of a jeep, holding her wound. Blood seeped through her fingers as she looked helplessly up at them. Charles knelt down on the ground beside the woman who cringed.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said softly. Jessie kneeled next to Charles and smiled, hoping it would help. He pried her fingers loose from her stomach. Jessie flinched when she saw the wound.

"Corporal, get us a stretcher. Then go find Col. Potter," he ordered Klinger, who saluted smartly and ran off to find someone to help. "Lieutenant, start her on an IV while I scrub up. And hold this on her wound before she bleeds out." He took off his lab coat and handed it to Jessie.

Jessie patted the woman on the shoulder and smiled, hoping she looked convincing. "You'll be alright. The doctors here are the best."

The woman looked at her blankly. Jessie was startled to find such a cold look, but she shook it off as her imagination.

Klinger and an orderly arrived with the stretcher and carried the woman into pre-op. While Jessie prepped her, she kept up an aimless chatter to soothe the girl's mind. Jessie was glad Margaret wanted to scrub in for the surgery. The almost hateful looks Jessie was getting from the woman startled her, and she found herself rubbing her arms against the chill as she watched the orderlies carry the stretcher into OR.

**********************************************

"It's strange. It was like she hated all of us," Jessie said, her head buried deep in the crate she was rummaging through. She pulled out several items and nodded her head in satisfaction.

"Maybe she was shot by an American," Radar suggested, also rifling through a nearby barrel.

"Maybe she just doesn't like us in Korea," Hawkeye said. He picked up some of the decoration scattered across the floor of the supply room and studied them before tossing them aside. "We ought to just all go home, if they're going to be that way".

Jessie snorted. "Maybe I was just imagining things, but that woman was looking daggers at all of us. I had a feeling she would have rather been anywhere but where she was." She stopped what she was doing. "So, anyone asked you to the Sadie Hawkins dance, Hawkeye?" She grinned at him devilishly as Hawkeye rolled his eyes.

"Who hasn't asked me to the dance, should be your question," he said flippantly. "So many females, so little time."

Jessie heard Radar chuckle from deep in the barrel he was rifling through. She threw a party hat at his back.

"You better decide, the dance is tonight, you know. I've heard all the nurses were just dying to go with you to the dance," Jessie said theatrically, holding her clasped hands to her chest.

Hawkeye kicked at her. "You haven't asked me yet," he said suggestively.

Radar re-emerged suddenly from the barrel, hitting his head on the edge of it. "Ouch!" he mumbled, glaring at Hawkeye.

Jessie laughed. "Oh, you guys are all the same." She leaned over to gather up the various decorations scattered about as B.J. sauntered into the room.

"Hiya, guys. Working hard?"

"Or hardly working," Radar said, glaring at Hawkeye, who was lounging nearby.

Jessie handed B.J. an armful of decorations. "Take these to the mess tent will you?" she said, batting her lashes at him.

"I never could resist a lady," B.J. said, bowing as regally as he could with his arms full of hats and trinkets.

They walked across camp, their arms full. "Oh, thought you would like to know that your Korean friend is awake," B.J. said, glaring at an empty-armed Hawkeye to open the door. Hawkeye didn't get the hint.

"Oh really," Jessie said, getting the door open with her pinkie finger and holding it open with her hip. "Can she speak any English?"

"Not really," B.J. said, huffing as he plopped his load down on the nearest table.

"Did she say anything? You know, about the baby?" Radar asked. Charles and Margaret worked feverishly, but the baby did not survive.

B.J. cocked his head in thought. "She seemed fairly oblivious until we finally got it through to her that she lost the baby. We had to get one of the local boys to translate. "

Radar shook his head sadly. "Did you find out what happened?" He steadied Jessie, who was scrambling up on a table to hang tissue paper from the rafters of the tent.

B.J. rubbed his mustache. "Her name is Yung Lee, and she says she's a local. Her husband was killed, and she's living by herself a few miles up the road. She claims that she was working in a field and someone shot at her from the road."

"But you don't believe that?" Jessie questioned, looked down at B.J.

"Charles said that her wound was from close range. She even had powder burns."

"You think she did it herself?" Hawkeye asked, incredulous. He stopped lazily putting popcorn on a string, eating more than he was stringing. Jessie and Radar looked at each other in shock.

B.J. shook his head. "No, I just don't think that's it. The angle's all wrong."

Jessie clambered down from the table, wiping her hands on her pants legs. "Did you get some sort of odd feeling that she seemed to – I don't know – hate you?" She told him about her interactions with the woman earlier.

B.J. shrugged. "She seemed friendly enough. As friendly as someone who has lost a child could be."

Hawkeye studied Jessie. "Leave reading people's mind to Radar. You haven't quite mastered the ability."

Jessie stuck her tongue out at Hawkeye while Radar laughed at them both. "I guess you're right," she said, rifling through the tissue paper to find the color she wanted. While the breakfast crowd cleared out, Jessie left Father Mulcahy in charge of decorating and walked over to post-op. The room was almost empty, so it was easy to spot the small woman's frame in a cot near the doorway.

Jessie nudged Bigelow, who was on duty, as she walked by.

"How's she doing?" she asked, motioning towards Yung Lee.

"She's doing very well, considering what she went through," Bigelow said, her arms full of charts. "So, see you at the dance?"

"I'll be there," Jessie said absently. Yung Lee appeared to be asleep when Jessie walked to the side of her cot. She slowly opened her eyes and focused on Jessie.

"Hi, Yung Lee. Remember me?" She chuckled at her own questions, knowing the woman couldn't speak any English.

Yung Lee just studied Jessie closely as she sat down on the empty cot.

"Sorry about your baby," Jessie said. Yung Lee looked down at her hands lying listlessly on the blanket. Although Jessie knew she couldn't understand a word she said, she patted the Korean girl on the arm. "Sorry about your husband, too. It must be hard living by yourself."

Jessie was taken aback when Yung Lee raised her head, looking into Jessie's eyes. Although she had tears running down her cheeks, she glared at Jessie for only a moment with such hatred that Jessie sucked in her breath. Jessie sat there a moment, wondering what to do. She wondered if Yung Lee understood more than she led on.

"I guess an American must have done this to you for you to look at me like that. I bet you didn't tell the boy who was translating the entire truth, did you?"

Yung Lee didn't look up at her again, humming a song to herself as she studied her hands.

"You know, if I lost my husband and my baby, I'd probably hate the world right now, too." Jessie watched closely for any reaction. There was none.

She just sighed and rose from the cot, walking towards Bigelow.

"Do you get a strange feeling about her?" she said, motioning towards Yung Lee.

Bigelow chewed on the end of her pen. "Now that you mention it, she seems to be giving me mixed signals, like she wants to be friendly, but then she doesn't," Bigelow said, cocking her head. "But, she has gone through a lot, and she's with a bunch of us who don't understand Korean, so maybe we're just getting it wrong."

Jessie sighed. "You're probably right. "She changed the subject. "So, how did you manage to get off duty tonight to come to the dance?"

"Oh, B.J. said he would be alright by himself. Apparently, dances are not his thing if Peg isn't here." She made a face.

Jessie smiled. "Yeah, that monogamy can sure keep you from having fun, huh?"

*********************************************

Jessie visited Yung Lee a few more times that day, mostly just sitting by her bed and not speaking a word. Yung Lee didn't give her anymore of those strange looks, and Jessie even made her laugh once by pointing at Klinger when he came sauntering into the tent wearing a cheerleader outfit. Still, Jessie couldn't shake from her mind that something was out of sorts.

The dance was just getting started when Jessie and Radar walked hand-in-hand into the mess tent.

Kelleye thrust a drink in Jessie's hand. "Here, have some punch," she said brightly. "I made it myself."

Jessie took a cautious sip and brightened, making Kelleye smile appreciatively. "I don't know how you could make something this good out of what we had, but don't tell me, I don't want to know."

"Where's your hat?" Kelleye asked, motioning to the hat on her own head. The nurses had spent the last several days decorating straw hats with anything they could rummage up. Kelleye's was sporting woven tissue paper.

Jessie snapped her fingers. "I forgot!" She tugged on Radar's arm and motioned that she would be right back. The noisy crowd in the mess tent made conversation almost non-existent.

He nodded in response, and she worked her way out of the crowded tent to the door. She took a breath of cool air once she was outside.

It was dark, but Jessie had never felt afraid in the compound. She hurried to her tent and was opening the door when she saw movement a few tents down.

She let go of the door handle. Everyone was at the dance, and she didn't spot a guard close-by at the moment. She cautiously walked towards the neighboring tent. "Who's there?" she called.

She was startled to find Yung Lee leaning on some crates. Somewhere, she had gotten some clothing. The white gown she wore was too long for her short frame, and it flapped in the evening breeze. "Yung Lee! What are you doing this far from post-op? Let me help you," she said, supporting her arm.

She was surprised with Yung Lee snatched her arm out of her grasp.

"No!" the girl said vehemently.

"So you can speak English! And you're not going anywhere but back to bed." Jessie reached for Yung Lee's arm again, but she surprised her by pushing her hand out of the way.

"Hey!" Jessie said, taken aback. She sucked in her breath when Yung Lee produced a pistol from the folds of her clothes. It looked like an American pistol, but it had one modification. There was an 18-inch homemade blade secured to the barrel.

Now, where did she get that?

Jessie held her arms in front of her, wishing too late that someone had come with her. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you."

Yung Lee chuckled cruelly. "Walk." She motioned with the gun.

Jessie nervously eyed the blade and backed into the open. She prayed silently that someone was in the compound.

Her heart fell when no one was in sight. The only sound was laughter coming from the mess tent, out of sight. "Where exactly are we going?" She tried – and failed - not to look scared.

"North."

Jessie's eyes widened in panic. "You're North Korean," she whispered, mostly to herself. She glanced around, looking for a weapon, but there wasn't one to be had. She wondered if she screamed, how long it would take for someone to get to her before Yung Lee shot her or stabbed her.

Or both.

She felt her knees go weak, but fought it. "Listen, you're sick," she said in her best panic-free voice. "We'll look after you until you're better. We won't mistreat you, I promise."

Yung Lee didn't answer and motioned her along with the pistol.

Jessie thought about the rumors about Americans being held captive by North Koreans. None of it was good, and her palms began to sweat. She studied the girl closely and saw she still seemed a little uncertain, even with the gun and threats.

Definitely not idle threats.

Jessie took a deep breath. She had to try. "We won't hurt you, and we'll make sure you get the best treatment possible. I won't even tell anyone that you're North Korean. It can be a secret."

Yung Lee smiled wickedly. "Scared?"

Jessie swallowed hard, knowing she probably looked terrified.

"They did this to me." Yung Lee said, gesturing at herself.

Jessie's terror-stricken mind had a little trouble comprehending, but it finally dawned on her. "They shot you?" she said incredulously. "Why?"

"Because they wanted me to get into camp. Was the only way." Yung Lee's voice was bitter.

Jessie stood still in the darkness. She wanted to get this girl talking. Anything to get her to forget about the gun. "Why didn't they just shoot you in the arm?"

Tears sprang to Yung Lee's eyes, but she waved the homemade blade in front of her again. "American." The Korean's voice was devoid of all emotion.

After a moment, Jessie understood. "The father was American, and they didn't want you to have the baby, did they?" Now, what was an American doing with a North Korean? "Look, just let me get you back to bed, then we'll talk about this." She held out her hand. "Let me have the gun, and we'll forget this ever happened."

Yung Lee wavered, watching Jessie closely.

Jessie smiled at her, hoping she looked sincere.

"Halt!" a guard said from the shadows on their left.

Jessie recognized him as a private who had only been there a week. But, she didn't have time to react as Yung Lee pointed the gun in his direction. Automatically, Jessie grabbed her arm, and the shot went wild.

Yung Lee struggled out of Jessie's grasp, grabbing Jessie around the waist and turning her to face the terrified guard with the rifle. She held the blade to her neck, cold steel biting into her flesh.

*********************************************

"Hey, Radar. Where's Jess?" Hawkeye asked, his arms draped over two nurses.

"She went back to her tent for something," Radar said, distracted. "Maybe I should check on her." Something just didn't feel right, but he couldn't quite name it.

"Nah, she's alright." One of the nurses giggled as he whispered something in her ear.

"I don't know. . ." Radar said, peering through the open flaps of the tent. His eyes widened, and seconds before the gunshot was fired, he darted out the door.

Everyone screamed and ducked underneath tables.

Hawkeye picked himself off the floor and raced to follow Col. Potter, BJ and Klinger outside. Radar was already out of sight.

"Damn, where did that come from?" Col. Potter said, glancing around the compound. They turned the corner towards the nurses' tent and stopped in their tracks.

***********************************************

Don't you hate a cliff hanger? I'll be out of town until Sunday, too. Bwahahahahaha!!