"What is the meaning of this, Major?" Colonel Potter yelled the next morning after the OR session as he met up with the MP's that arrested Margaret, his three tired doctors and Radar outside the door listening, waiting and wishing for good news. "That was my head nurse you are now holding under arrest in her tent. There is no way that it could be possible she murdered somebody. Now, do you mind explaining this mess you've created in my unit?"
"Direct orders from Headquarters Seoul, Colonel," Major Floyd, the man in charge, replied smoothly as his three men flinched and moved towards the double doors, knowing the colonel's rage well enough (dealing with him enough times had made them slightly smarter). "The medical examiner clearly said that Nurse Curtis had been brutally beaten and murdered, her head…well, I won't get into that because we all know what happened. Now, the murder weapon has been known to belong to Major Houlihan and she didn't say it wasn't otherwise. The other evidence has been pointed in her direction. I'm sorry, Sir, but we do have our orders."
"Orders from who?" Potter demanded, his face turning redder and almost unreadable. "What other evidence?"
"I can't say, Sir…"
"Well, you better be able to tell me soon! I heard enough from your men already yesterday and cannot believe it. I can't hold up my unit. I can't afford to. Major Houlihan is –"
"Colonel, I'm sorry. I really am. I can't do anything about it. But we all have our orders because of the evidence from the scene and in areas from the body. Major Margaret Houlihan is to be held under arrest in her tent until further notice. Seoul might want her, Tokyo might want her even. We don't know yet. All we know is that we are to escort her to her next destination whenever those orders come in."
Colonel Potter sat down at his desk finally, after a moment of silence. He felt defeated, knowing that he could do nothing except demand and receive nothing. "All right then. I understand."
"He's giving up on Margaret? Just like that?" Hawkeye hissed at his co-conspirators when he heard Potter's reply, ignoring the responses from the major and the next argument that ensued because of it, the heat of it quite literally missing them. "He could have tied his gloves on tighter and punched him some more."
"The colonel can only do so much," BJ suggested, resignation on his face, shaking his head.
"Pierce, shut up!" Charles retorted almost too loudly.
"Shh, Sirs, I can't hear anything," Radar hissed, shhhing them further when the three protested simultaneously.
"If your ears got any shorter –" Hawkeye started as another form of protest when the other two had quieted down.
"…and in that case, then, Colonel Potter, we'll be in touch," Major Floyd finished coldly after the fight with the CO, causing the four outside the doors to scatter in different directions as footsteps were heard behind that statement. While the doctors took to the paperwork on clipboards (Charles even stuck his head in Post-Op to check on a patient quickly before coming back into the office), Radar took to the typewriter, looking over reports before copying and typing them up carefully.
The four MP's then exited Colonel Potter's office, passing the doctors and company clerk and going outside, talking about shifts and who was watching Margaret (Major Floyd even laughed, mentioning how dangerous she could be). As soon as they did so (enraging Hawkeye, who knew the truth), the four in the office ran to Colonel Potter.
"There's nothing we can," Potter said as soon as he saw the four enter, looking up from his paperwork sadly and shaking his head, just as BJ had done moments before. Even the colonel's red face had cleared up. Tears had even looked like they made their way down his face very briefly.
"What do you mean, there's nothing we can do, Colonel?" BJ asked, confused.
"The evidence is against Margaret on all sides and the orders are to keep her under tent arrest until new orders come in," Potter replied calmly.
"But we know the major did nothing out of the ordinary," Charles added.
"How do we know that though, Winchester? Margaret was the last person to see Winifred Curtis alive in the nurses' tent. And, according to the nurses, the exchange was not pleasant, to say the least. The two had a rough time talking. Then, Nurse Curtis left, after asking Margaret if she wished her dead. Of course, Margaret said no."
"And you're just gonna give up on her, Colonel?" Hawkeye demanded loudly. "You're just gonna give up on her and watch Seoul and Tokyo tear her apart and destroy her life and her career?"
"Hawk, what can we do?" BJ asked him, accepting what his CO had said. "If Colonel Potter can't soften the punishment or find out what's going on, I don't think we can."
"Yes, we can," Hawkeye answered with confidence.
"With what skills, Pierce? Last I heard, you were no detective." Charles sniffled, wiping his forehead with a sleeve as beads of sweat rolled down.
"Yes, he was…" Radar muttered, fleetingly remembering scenes of Colonel Blake taking apart tents and finding everybody's missing objects in Hawkeye's footlocker while the latter proved his innocence.
"Poor, dear Margaret…" Hawkeye moaned, ignoring Radar's comment, as if it wasn't heard.
"As if that would help 'poor, dear' Margaret, Radar?" Charles sighed.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen…if that is what you are," Potter cautioned them, his hands motioning for them to calm down, his eyes shifting left and right, as if frightened of something, remembering something said before. "I have work to do, as you can see. I suggest you leave now. I'll talk later, when things have calmed down and perhaps, the horses won't buck as much."
"I know when I've –" Hawkeye started.
"Come on, Hawk, let's hit the Swamp for a drink," BJ interjected, steering the captain – with Charles and Radar behind them – out the doors before another argument came up.
~00~
"Do you think that he's hiding something?" Hawkeye asked BJ later that evening in the Swamp after spending several hours laying around in the heat with nothing to do save for watching patients in Post-Op. Charles was nowhere to be seen, so it was relief to talk freely and without any criticism from the snobbish major.
"Who is hiding something and where?" BJ opened another letter addressed to him and absentmindedly replied to his bunkmate as he laughed softly over pictures of his daughter Erin and what she was doing with Peg.
"Colonel Potter, you know. The way he said that he could do nothing for Margaret worried me. And he dismissed us, just like that. He wasn't going to tell us what was bothering him."
BJ finally looked up from his letter, disturbed. "Hawk, maybe there is nothing we can do but support Margaret and tell her that we'll be there for her. We all know she didn't murder anybody. She's more than capable of defending herself, but that also can be used against her."
"What do you mean, Beej?" Hawkeye jumped up from his cot, looking slightly outraged and a little offended at the remark. "Are you telling me that anybody is capable of slipping on a bar of soap and hitting their face against a sink?"
"No, no, Hawkeye. What I mean is…Margaret is known to be feisty…independent…and even vicious and tough to many people. Who's to say that it can or cannot be used against her? I've seen her kick Frank around and he lived to see another sunny day. She's mentally beaten her nurses around and they lived. She's a tough woman."
"But who has ever seen her with a weapon, much less use one against anybody?"
"She owns a gun and so far, she hasn't denied that fact. She also has not denied that it went missing last week. Not to mention, she and Frank Burns used to arm the camp before Colonel Potter came in to command. They lined up cans next to the minefield and shot at them. Remember that?"
"If she had been interrogated about those times and things, Beej, and we don't know –"
"Hawk, like the colonel said, there is nothing we can really do. If you really want to help Margaret, support her and be there, like I said before."
"Is that all you can say too?" Hawkeye asked fearfully, his anger gone and the pitiful tones almost there. "As if it'll be enough to stand at her court martial and admit to everybody that yes, in the past, she had been abusive to people, Regular Army and everything else. She had beaten men, especially Frank Burns, but has been compassionate, resourceful and even brave in the face of many dangers. I can't believe you can sit there, read a letter from your wife, and even –"
"All right, all right, Hawkeye, I'll help you investigate this," BJ sighed, putting his letter down finally and giving up the fight with his friend. Standing up, he also added, "But if this gets too sticky and we reach a dead end with the digging, I can't guarantee that I'll stick around. I would do anything for Margaret too, but I draw a line at lewd and dangerous nurses and the murderous ends that they reach. I don't want to be accused of anything either."
"Ahh, as Sydney Smith said, 'It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little – do what you can'. I think you won't regret this, BJ."
"Sometimes, I regret all the schemes we get into and more," BJ muttered, cursing the day he came to Korea and left his family behind. "So, Hawk, what's our first assignment tonight? What can we do first other than pry information out of Potter and see what we missed?"
"What else?" Hawkeye grinned, his mood changing once more to hope. "We hit the first source: the record keeper in the main office. Come, Watson, and let us bother Radar in the morning and check out a few files. I think we'll find out something if we searched the one file that needs to be looked it."
"Winifred Curtis'?" BJ asked.
"Exactly," Hawkeye replied, grinning with triumph as he took a sip of his drink.