Here's the new one. It continues where I left the last one.

Chapter 35

"Maybe getting out of the camp was not such a bad idea."

"Yeah? You could have been shot. Killed. Injured. Captured."

"But I wasn't. Why can't you let it go? It was not such a big deal. Certainly did not deserve the big welcome party."

" All these people...All of us, we were...We were feeling guilty. Of course we shouldn't have been. Not any of them, anyway."

" Guilty? Why should they feel guilty? Why should you feel guilty."

"For not realizing that something was not right. Yeah, yeah, I know. You did not want to tell them but what about me?"

We had reached the suture room.

Finding a place under overhead lights, I sat down while he got the instrument tray and a pair of gloves. He needed an assistant but he did not get one.

"All of you are crazy. If anyone is supposed to feel bad, its me. And since I have done a lot of that lately, I am not going to do it tonight. What's done is done and nothing can change that."

"Its gonna sting a little."

I yelped as he started cleaning it.

"A LITTLE? STING? Can't you inject some local before trying to kill me?"

"The bacteria will enter the bloodstream from unsterilized field."

"I will take my...OW...chances. Jeez."

"Don't be such a baby, Hawk. I remember a wise man saying not so long ago that it doesn't hurt at all."

"That was before you tried to kill me."

"Look at the bright side."

"Bright side? There's a bright side to this?"

"Yeah. Imagine Frank doing this. After all you have done to him. He would have loved driving a stake through this tiny gash right into your brain stem."

"Yeah. There's that too."

"STOP MOVING YOUR HEAD!"

"Yes mother!"

"So..."

"So...?"

"What was it really?"

"Huh?"

"Cummon Hawk. The mess with Dr. Pierce was just the tip of the iceberg. I know you better than that."

"Can you translate all this in English? I slept through Crypto 101."

"OK. All done. Anything else needs patching up? And I mean that it was not just your father. OR me. You don't climb the watchtower because of a non-communicating friend or a non-decisive father."

"Oh! Yeah. Well, something like this happened a while back too. And I celebrated my success back then. I was a kid. And fought the idea of having him replace Mom with someone else. He respected my wishes and stayed single till last few weeks. He met this woman and wrote me about her but when he did not get any response from me, he figured I did not like the idea. And now he is single all over again."

BJ put his hands in his pockets and looked at me intently.

"I don't know what to tell you."

"I know. That's why I saw no point dragging you into this."

"Why did you leave like that today?"

"I don't know."

"Where did you think you were going?"

"Not sure." BJ raised his eye brows so I tried to explain, "I tried to escape. To see something that meant something. Explained why I was sitting here in this bug-infested hellhole doing nothing but running an assembly line of body parts."

"Yeah?" He raised his eyebrows. My speech went unnoticed.

"Went to see the family that cared for me when I had the accident."

"The one that caused the accident to begin with?"

We both laughed.

"Yeah. And then gave me hepatitis."

"Maybe it was their way of thanking you. Or warning you. From trying to run them over again. So you would leave them alone."

"Yeah. They had left. The place was bombed."

"Oh. Did they..."

"Yeah. Seemed like they got out in time. No pans or anything. Even Clarabelle was gone."

"Clarabelle? Oh..." He smiled as he realized what I meant.

"Just wanted to see my patients. And yours."

"I asked you if anything else needs patching up? I don't want to stay in this cold place longer than necessary."

"No patching up, I think. I slipped on an icy patch and fell sideways. Shoulder and my head took the brunt."

"Let me look at the shoulder then. And we can go home. Ferret face is doing Post-op tonight."

"There's no need...Alright."

Shoulder just had a large bruise.

"How was your PT today?"

"Nobody checked it today."

"Great! Lemme check it then. You don't want a hemarthrosis. Unless you want a hemarthrosis."

"I don't. Unlike Frank, I prefer keeping pain a stranger. I can't take pain. I can only give it."

"OK. Then an X-Ray and a vial of blood. Where do you want your tetanus shot?"

"Have you ever received one in your arm?" I asked rhetorically.

"No. Turn around!" I followed the command. And yelped.

"Good God, Hawk! Girls make less noise." He theatrically rubbed his ear.

"For a medical man, you sure have magic touch. What did you stick me with? A poker?"

"Don't put on your jacket. Its wet anyway. Lemme get the blood first and then you can go to your tent and change."

He dressed the slight graze on the shoulder and took what looked like a lot of blood.

"Thanks Beej." I was shivering now. Even with the moisture, the jacket offered a lot of warmth. And now I had to go to X-Ray which meant braving the cold outside. Suture room was really cold.

"Here!" BJ gave me his jacket and pushed me out of the suture room.

"Gently!" I told him.

"Why? Does it hurt?"

"No. Because its civil. Unless you wanna teach Erin the how to push her uncle around." He just smiled.

"Feel any better? After your rendezvous?"

"What do you think?" I asked him as we opened the door to X-Ray. We heard some interesting sounding noises. I decided to sneak in on them but BJ and his 'civility' stopped me physically from doing it. He made a loud noise which halted all the other noises, apparently in mid-grope. The back door opened and then closed before Frank made his appearance.

"Voyeurs! Degenerates!"

"Aren't you supposed to be married, Frank?" BJ asked him with some heat.

"Mind your own beeswax, Hunnicut!"

"Who was the poor girl, Frank? It was a girl, right? Beej, remind me to tell Radar to keep an eye on his animals. For paternity suits, etc." I looked sideways at BJ who, after a moment's heat was now barely controlling a smile.

"Pierce. I have yet to meet a more morally degenerate, defunct, pervert human being than you. And Hunnicut, I thought you were smarter than this."

"This? Who are you calling 'this'?" I asked with a threatening edge in my voice.

And at the same time, BJ piped in with, "Beats being a Ferret face, right Frank?"

"Oh you-u-u, you-u-u..."

"Who are you calling a you-you, now?" I went close to Frank in a fake threatening posture as he backed off till he hit the wall behind him while BJ intervened to save his life by stepping between him and me, his grin going ear to ear..

"Let him go, Hawk!"

"Step aside Beej! He called me 'this' and then a you-you!"

"Frank, promise him you won't call him a you-you. Or this! That was not very gallant of you to call him that. You know how he gets all worked up and cranky!"

"But he...Oh! Nerts to you both." And with that, he slithered out to the back of the X-Ray room and escaped.

We both howled in laughter and it took us a good few seconds before we could regain some control over ourselves.

"Old Ferret Face sure has his charms!" BJ exclaimed.

"Not to mention ten magic thumbs." And we both started laughing again.

Boy that felt good.

"Do you think...naaahhh!" BJ started but stopped in the middle, smiling.

"What?"

"Who do you think Frank was with?"

"Cannot be Margaret. Though she did mention his name with a longing today."

"NO, that's not possible. She couldn't be. You think thats because...Nah!"

"WHAT? You know something that I don't."

"Has Cate mentioned anything to you?"

"Cate? About? Oh! You don't think...Naahh!"

"Yeah. She seems smarter than that. Alright. Stand still."

"Now that you mentioned it...Tell me when I can move. She did say something about Frank. That he was going to give her private lessons." And with that I snorted and heard BJ do the same behind the screen.

"Hold still, you idiot! Turn a little to your right. Push your shoulder back against the plate. Alright, one, two, three. Done! Let me get the tech. You can wait here or go to Swamp. I will see you there."

"I can go with you. We can swap notes." And we both snickered again.

"No, you go. I will catch up with you in the Swamp."

"Alright. Hey, wait." I took off the jacket and gave it to him. He tried to protest but I had enough of mollycoddling for the night.

Back in the VIP tent, I tried to find a jacket and then remembered that I had given the other one in laundry earlier in the week. Cursing under my breath, shivering in the cold tent as the heater was dead, I packed up my belongings and left for Swamp again.

If I HAD to be in Korea...

Whistling first movement from Beethoven's symphony no. 6, I went back to that dumpster I so lovingly called The Swamp!