Thanks yet again to Ragni, NY Gal, Anime and Mary for their reviews. Mary, I read medical books for the knowledge :p. Rest all the questions, I answered in my replies to your messages. ignore typos and such. I might revisit the chapter and edit it if need be.

Enjoy!

Chapter 81

"Hawk!" I felt an arm around mine that shook me out of my reverie.

"Huh?"

"Cummon. Lets go see him."

"Oh! Yeah. I have to ask Margaret to send his liver function tests as well."

"Your stitches need to come out and I have to check your shoulder. Hawk! You OK?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Great." I answered BJ distractedly.

"Cummon, lets get out of here." At this, I looked at him. Realizing what he meant, I started walking with him out of the OR and into the changing room.

He wasn't telling you to leave Korea with him, idiot!

I know.

"What?" BJ looked at me as he got out of his scrubs.

I looked at him quizzically as I followed suit and shook my head.

I couldn't have repeated my thoughts aloud, not again...

I dared not answer this thought this time. Tiredness was setting in my bones now but I had to sit this one out. BJ had other ideas. After removing my stitches and checking my arm, he told me to go to the Swamp and not return till dinner time. The argument was lost before it even started. I made a final check on Johnson. His fever and blood pressure were precariously close to becoming outright scary.

"Let me check his labs then I'm out." I told BJ who was adamant about me leaving.

"Hawk! See, this is why I cannot leave this wretched place and have some real good RnR. Not only do you do things beyond my comprehension, you also lose any trust in me. Go away. Now! I'll wake you when the labs come back."

I looked at him sliently before leaving the post-op. Radar looked at me silently. I just looked straight ahead, thinking what else could I do for the kid – not Radar – but the other one lying inside with more tubes going in and out of him than wires in Radar's circuit board. I drew a blank!

As I entered the Swamp, I saw Frank sitting on his cot patting Cate's hand and smiling his goofy smile that lacked sincerity. I wondered how he could have attracted someone smart as Cate.

"Has nobody ever told you how to knock?" Frank asked me in his whiny tone, all good humor vanishing as he saw my face.

"Oh I know how to knock...your teeth out, Frank! Now shut up as I'm going to bed. You make one sound and that would be your last in this unit. I'll personally fold you, squeeze you and put you in the tiniest box available and send it to Mrs. Ferret Face, postage of which she can pay from her personal checking account. Or was it a joint account?" I spoke with almost no threat and just weariness in my voice as I removed my outer wear considering the warmth in the tent.

"You will not speak with a superior officer in this tone, Pierce!" Frank bristled as I insulted him in front of somebody he was trying very hard to impress.

"Superior? SUPERIOR? Don't start now, Frank! I'm telling you. I had a long and a hard day and I don't want to hear a word about your alleged superiority."

"Army gave me the clusters and you, the bars. I AM the superior officer."

"Took the UN to do it!" I spoke in an undertone not unheard by either of them. Pity they didn't feel amused.

"Pierce! I will not tolerate insubordination." Frank snapped at me again, his brow knitted and his lips completely invisible.

"Frank! If I were you, I wouldn't try to impress the young, venerable yet gullible Lt. O'Hara after she has spent so much time with you. She is bound to find the truth soon. Maybe you send her to where she came from, disappear yourself and stop bothering me, not necessarily in that order."

"She knows how capable I am. And she knows how a loudmouth like you ruined the chances of a recovering soldier. She saw you nick the pulmonary artery. Right Cate? I mean, Lt. O'Hara?" Frank dropped this bomb with his usual smugness, leaving me completely stunned.

"WHAT? What did she see me do?" I was sure I had heard wrong. Cate looked at Frank in shock herself but when Frank looked at her, she silently nodded her head.

I looked at the nod and realized how deep in trouble I was going to be. No wonder Potter looked so shocked and out of whack when I last saw him.

"Yes. She is willing to testify first in front of Col. Potter than any Boards of Inquiry. Your days of surgery are over. Now who is the superior surgeon?" I had stood up and was staring at Cate, barely listening to Frank yammering away about everything else that was gonna happen to me.

"Frank, every surgeon makes mistakes. Let's not..." And at that, my patience ended.

"I DID NOT...I didn't nick..." My incredulous denial was cut off by a louder, more impassioned Frank.

"You don't know, Cate. For last year and a half...this...Because of him, my life has been a living hell. All the things I had to hear about how poor I was as a surgeon, and how my patients not always recover. And then Henry made him the Chief Surgeon. Can you believe that? I was a Major. A Major. I had my own practice in Fort Wayne, Indiana when Army asked me to step up to the plate. And I did. Oh yes. I always obey rules and laws, Cate. And this...this... All the torture I was put through by this man... And you haven't seen McIntyre, goodriddance, if you ask me. Now he will see when his friend gets sent to Ft. Leavenworth instead of that stupid town he is always talking about. Its my time and I will get vindicated, thanks to you. I mean Margaret was great but she always had a soft spot for him, ya know. But you... Oh sweetheart, you are the best!" Frank's passion changed into drool as he reached the end of his monologue. I could not believe my ears as I heard Frank give a speech to Cate about my virtues. I knew he really did not like me all that much but all this hatred verbalized...

Just then, I saw Cate taking her hand out of Frank's silently and getting up.

"How could you see me nick the PA? I wasn't even close and he had been in tamponade...LT. DON'T WALK AWAY FROM YOUR MESS!" I spoke to her, facing her when I was pushed aside by Frank.

"Pierce! You will not talk to the Lt. who also happens to be a lady, right sugar? Yeah, I was saying, you will not speak to her in this tone. Don't dig your grave any deeper than it already is." Frank was in full form today.

"Frank! Next time you touch me, I will break your arm. Answer me, Cate? How could you see me make the nick when even I didn't know where the nick was?" I asked her heatedly.

"Not now, Ben. Please." She implored me with a silent plea in her eyes as she continued to move towards the door.

"What the hell..." What the hell was going on here?

"Pierce! That's enough." Frank spoke from a safe distance, perhaps remembering my earlier threat.

Realizing how pointless it was to seek answers from Cate right now, I dropped it.

With Frank around, I knew I couldn't get a straight answer from her. But why? Why would she lie like that? Maybe her anatomy lessons were coming in handy. It did not look like Frank was forcing her to say what she supposedly said. I hadn't heard her say anything remotely similar either. What the hell was going on here? Whatever it was, it wasn't good. I had a sick feeling in my gut.

It wasn't over yet.

Not even by a long shot.