Last chapter for this week. And enough of lighthearted banter. I am getting serious from now on. Or maybe not. Stick around and you will be the first to know.

Chapter 40

BJ was in the post-op. I decided to pay him a visit. Radar was in his office looking busy.

"Hello Radar!"

"Oh hi, Hawkeye."

"'Snew, my toy soldier?"

"Hawkeye!"

"Whaaat" I imitated him which irritated him a great deal.

"Cut that out, willya?"

"Margaret left?"

"Yeah. Boy is she crazy or what. Look at this." He showed me a stack of papers with tiny illegible writing on it.

"Yeah?"

"She wants that typed in triplicate by end of business day."

"Use carbon paper. I heard you got a great shipment recently."

"Very funny. You cannot use a carbon paper in a type writer."

"Then I don't know how to help you. Maybe ask Margaret to go easy on you?"

"Can you?"

"Are you kidding? She will make me do all of this instead. Better you than me, I say."

"Thanks for nothing!" He turned his attention back to the stack.

"Who wrote this in such tiny, girlie writing?"

"Do you mind?"

"You don't mean...I mean...Uhhh, I did not mean you, ya know."

"If there's nothing else, Captain Pierce, I have to finish some work!" With that, he officially dismissed me. I was chuckling when the door to post-op opened and BJ appeared.

"Giving Radar tough time, I see."

"No. How dare you say that! I was just discussing his adoption options."

"Adoption?"

"Adoption?" That was Radar who was plain incredulous. Either he was too naïve or I was too good to still be able to surprise him.

"Yeah. Adoption. A-D-O-P-T..."

"Stop bothering my little friend, will you?" I laughed as I saw Radar making a funny face before returning forcefully back to his work.

"Don't call him little. Alright?" I admonished BJ barely holding back my cackle.

"Boy. You two really are something!" With that, he left for inner office.

"What are you doing here?"

"What did it look like?"

"It looked like you were annoying Radar."

"Then that's exactly what I was doing. First it was Frank and then Radar. Now its your turn. Your place or mine?"

"No soliciting in an official building, Hawkeye! Didn't those long nights teach you anything?"

"I always forget. Blame it on my promiscuity."

"What did you do to Frank?"

"Besides making him wet his pants? I show you mine and you show me yours." We both stepped into post-op as we spoke.

"What is that supposed to mean. Have you been sipping at the still again?"

"No mother. How could you say that in front of strangers?"

"So what was that all about? What did you do to Frank?"

"I never kiss and tell."

"Hawk!"

"BJ."

"I thought you would be resting or something."

"I decided on something instead of resting."

"And what does something entail, pray tell?"

"Besides a failed effort to kiss the lipless wonder, you mean?"

"You did not!!"

"Of course I did not. I couldn't find his lips. God knows I tried."

"Uh huh!"

"Then I decided to change into something clean and come see you because Frank was trifle bit irked even before I tried to smooch him."

"What did you do? Steal my clothes?"

"I would never steal your clothes. I only steal Frank's clothes. And it was not even stealing. He left them on his cot for exhibition and I did a swap. Perfectly legal by the Pierce's Code of Swamp Justice."

"Perfect. And I told him not to bother you when he went back. Maybe I should have asked you and not him."

"He told me to blow myself up. I felt enraged and endangered so I tried to defend my honor. That's legal too, if you look closely at Pierce's code!"

"Of course it is."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What is what supposed to mean."

"You said of course."

"Yeah."

"You never agree with me."

"Yeah."

"So?"

"So what? You are making less sense than usual." I just rolled my eyes before getting serious again.

"Hey. Did you ask her?"

"Ask her?"

"Yeah. Ask her. Peg."

"Ask her what?"

"Gee, I don't know, Beej. How about how she is doing. Why she is not writing? And that you need warm clothes?"

"I cannot ask her that."

"Then?"

"What then?"

"What can you ask her then?"

"I have to wait for my parents to return from the trip."

"That makes no sense."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Besides the fact that this is not an answer to my question, it makes no sense even if it was an answer. She is your wife, in case you forgot. Maybe you said something to her and she is mad at you?"

"Goodness Hawk! I did not think of that."

I saw that struck a cord. All this time of selfpity and misery and he may have said something himself. I doubted it but I knew that if I directed his indignation into guilt, there was a good chance he would try to figure out a solution and stop acting like a love sick teenager beating his sweetheart to the ignore.

"I know. Even I just thought of that. No wonder..."

"Hawk! Do you really believe what you said?"

"That you may have offended her?"

"No. Not this. I mean when you said that she is human too."

"Of course I believe you did not marry out of your species. I have seen her pictures."

"Stop joking about it, will you?"

"Beej! Honestly, I think you are an idiot. I tried to tell you this earlier too but I was afraid of you. I think you are letting war get to you and fry your brain. She is the only reason that's letting you survive here."

"But what if...?"

"What if what, Beej? What if what? You don't know anything except she loves you and is the mother of your kid. These reasons outshine any paranoid obsession you may have developed with her being less than what you thought of her. Stop doing this to yourself. Don't sell her short, Beej. And don't sell yourself short either."

"Yeah. When you say it like that, it makes sense. And then...Wait a minute."

A nurse was calling him to a patient. This was a new one, nurse not the patient. Rate of turnover in the camp was surprising and I was one of the oldest relics.

Stop it!

So I stopped.

And then I remembered the letter in my pocket. Tickets were courtesy of one gentleman from Fort Wayne, Indiana who also happened to be my bunkie. I had to hand it to Radar before morning dispatch left the camp. And then there was the added need for some glue, industrial strength. Or would that be too cruel? Well, if I could live without a boot for such a long time, why should he be denied the privilege?

"Yoo Hooo, Honey! I am home."

"PIERCE!" That was Col. Potter. Lately, my encounters with him reminded me of all the time I spent in and out of principal's office in school. I had good practice but I did not want it to turn into a routine.

"Tell him I am not here. Post this letter and get me some super strength glue." With that, I exited the office via out door to take a detour to the post-op's other entrance.

Things we do...I silently thought as a huge blob of icy snow fell on me from the top of office roof.