Ball has started rolling. This was the last calm before the storm! Boy am I glad its coming to an end. Too bad I promised to finish it. I really wanted to end it today but heck, I hate that nagging in my head about leaving unfinished business.

So here it goes, last leg where all crap hits the fan, once and for all! Enjoy the last of the peace!

Happy reading.

Chapter 71

I knew playing chess was a ruse. It did not save me from losing money. Sidney kept asking me things, mostly inconsequential, and I dutifully replied to it all, already feeling sanity seeping back in and replacing the manic urge to just elope.

"When are you gonna ask him to let me work? Not that I need his permission or anything but just to avoid that baleful disappointment in his eyes..."

"Dinner soon enough for you?" Sidney asked me, killing my rook with the elegance of a medieval viking.

"Dinner's fine. I should have known better than to play chess with you." I sadly commented on the sad demise of my rook.

"Payback time, Hawkeye! Or as one of your favorite person says, ' How do you like them apples!'" Maybe he was psychic too because at that very moment, Frank entered the Swamp looking smugger than his usual smug self. I didn't want to speculate on the reason behind that smugness.

"Hello Frank." Sidney greeted Frank. I kept silent, pondering over my next move.

"Oh hello, Sidney. Nice to see you here. I was hoping you could help Pierce here. After what happened last night." He giggled in that high pitched hyena voice and I was half out of my seat before Sidney held my hand and signaled me to keep sitting.

"Oh don't worry about him, Frank. I'm sure he is touched by your concern. Its not him that concerns me though." Sidney spoke meaningfully and though Frank had the sensibility of a tarantula, he was not an idiot.

"I. Resent. That. Major Freedman!" I grinned when I saw Frank's expression change.

"What did I say, Major Frank?" And this time I laughed.

"You are just like your friend here." He used 'friend' as if it was a four letter word.

"Beware his wrath Frank! He can lock you in his funny farm and you might lose your two houses and thirty five thousand dollar car. I know we have a strait jacket lying around here somewhere, Sidney. You want me to get it?"

'Strait Jacket?' Sidney mouthed the words, looking at me with a smile and a bemused expression.

"Its two cars and thirty five...Oh never you mind!" With that, he huffed himself out of Swamp.

"So this is what you were talking about?" Sidney observed in a serious tone.

"Yeah. I felt a fuse blow in my head. Its not a good place to be where my actions are dependant on the whims of the likes of Frank."

"What did you mean when you said you stooped to his level?" Sidney asked me as he made a move.

"Huh?" My mind on his move as I thought of a way to save my now almost-dead queen.

"You said earlier, in Potter's office, that you had stooped to his level."

"I did?" My mind was still on the queen.

"Yeah. Something like, he never before annoyed you enough for you to stoop to his level?" Was this his ploy to ruin any chance I might have had of saving the damned queen?

"Yeah. That. I, uhh, well, we had an argument. And he shoved me. He usually doesn't do anything like that. Anyway, he shoved me and I fell backwards and hit my head here. One of the stitches cut through. Later, he went to Potter and whined and warned him to take action or he would file charges against me. So I told him that I would file assault n battery charges against Frank."

"But you won't." He said that in a questioning tone.

"I'm not sure. I feel tempted...No, I won't." I knew I wouldn't.

"Ever thought about striking a truce?"

Truce?

"With Frank? You're kidding, right?" I chuckled at this whimsical idea.

"No, I'm serious." He sounded serious too.

"Why would I do that?" Now it was my turn to turn serious.

"So he won't bother you?" He was reading too many fairy tales.

"Sidney, you don't know the guy. I do. He is a bigger menace to his friends. I have seen Margaret suffer him although she was not exactly Ms. GetAlong herself."

"Just a suggestion!" Sidney shrugged his shoulders as he eyed the board.

"I hear ya, Sidney. But trust me when I tell you, I'm still better off having him as a nuisance than a friend. Now are you gonna move or not?" I shouldn't have dared him. He killed my queen.

And so we continued till dinner time. Finally, after losing my last game within five minutes, I called it a day. There was only so much beating and humiliation I could take. War just wasn't my thing, even if it was on a chess board.

As promised, Sidney talked to Potter. It seemed Col. Potter's heart was not in benching me either because he acceded almost without effort. Dinner was a sordid affair thought I ate with gusto, earning almost shocked looks from everybody. My sanity was much more important to me than anything else and if it meant I had to eat this slop and gunk for food, so be it!

Thanks to the lull, there was an encore of yesterday's movie. That reminded me of Brenda and our disastrous date.

Maybe tomorrow!

I decided to enjoy the movie anyway.

Casualties in the compound. Come one, come all. Christmas Sale starts now, came Klinger's voice followed by a brief scuffle and Radar's very serious, almost all-grown-up voice,

Attention! Attention! Casualties coming in. All personnel report to their duty stations. Captain Pierce to triage. Cap'n Pierce to triage!

And with that ended the lull and hopefully, my insanity.

Maybe at a later time, I would reconsider my selfishness or the pervasity of the situation where somebody's pain and misery was the only thing to keep me sane. At that moment however, like always, there was no time to think, just to act. Col. Potter gave me a grim smile before rushing into the OR.

Good thing was that it wasn't a huge intake and after sorting the major cases to be done in general anesthesia, I turned my attention to the relatively minor ones which involved scrapes, bruises, relatively minor fractures that could have been reduced without general anesthesia and a cracked chest requiring intubation. Total casualty count was a total of seven major cases and somewhere around nineteen minor ones, one of whom could swing either way.

Good thing BJ was coming back tomorrow. Meanwhile, we had Sidney to do God knows what. He was next to useless in OR as half the complement of surgeons was absent leading to more free nursing staff. I felt like the commander of an army of invalids because of lack of help we could offer. Wishing we won't get anymore casualties till we got BJ and the replacement surgeon back, I scanned the patients in pre-op again, checking for any change in priorities or any further need for blood or fluids. These women were exceptional and that meant I was done with pre-op much earlier than I would have if we had a less than competent nursing staff.

Thinking of BJ and how he would hate to be back to this, I hoped Peg got the letter and helped BJ regain his sensibility. There was also an off chance that he would find out about my little intervention and kill me on sight. Chuckling lightly, I returned to post-op where two patients from the serious list had arrived. They were groggy and I left them alone after a brief lookover to check on the guy with the cracked ribs, hoping against hope he did not blow a gasket and start hemorrhaging internally. Telling one of the nurses to sit and keep a watch on him with a quarter hourly update on chest tube drainage and vitals, I settled on the chair in the corner, making notations on all the charts.

"Hello Hawkeye!"

"Hello Sidney. Like our new décor?" I asked him waving my hand at the post-op.

"I would rather it was vacant. You guys got lucky this time around."

"I won't say that, Sidney. Potter is stuck, alone. With me out of commission, BJ and Potter are headed for some rough times."

"You will be getting a replacement surgeon soon."

"Yeah. You know how long it takes you to get up to speed here? How many we will lose before we start winning again?"

"Yeah. But thats war for you, Hawkeye!"

"I feel bad, Sidney. For not being able to help. Potter is not as fast as BJ. And Frank is neither fast, nor good. It will be at least ten hours for them in the OR. With me and BJ around, it would have been an even four, not more. Thats too much to ask for from somebody like Col. Potter, Sidney. He deserves better!"

"But you have worked completely alone before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but that was different." I remembered the shift from hell during a flu epidemic taking down all surgeons and most nurses, among other people.

"How?"

"It just was, Sidney. That was me. And Margaret helped."

"She is still here. Stop beating yourself up for something you could not do anything about to begin with. None of them blames you so you can stop doing it yourself."

I stayed quiet. He had a point after all. I was alone during the flu epidemic. Margaret and Sheila helped but I was alone. A feeling of relief descended on me as I finally started accepting what Sidney had been saying for last few days.

"Sidney! Thanks for everything."

"I will charge you for everything. Don't feel too grateful." He smiled and his eyes smiled with him.

"Hawkeye! Fields is awake." Chimed Nurse Baker.

And with that, I returned to work, knowing somewhere deep inside, everything will be alright. I will make it to home alive and sane, whenever that time comes.