Thanks to Lucretius, Serilia, Radar, NY Gal (Giants lost :() Anime and Serilia again. I was sick and hence couldn't write or post. I might post next week though no promises.

You guys hang in there!

Cya around.

Chapter 92

There was something very important that I had to do even if it meant a permanent label on me as a masochist. I had to write to Billy's parents. They deserved to know.

That its your fault their son's dead?

'No.'

That its Frank's fault their son died?

'No.'

It WAS Frank's fault, I reasoned with myself and then dropped the idea soon as it popped up in my head. There were better ways of inflicting pain on a grieving family than assigning blame on someone they didn't know, couldn't see and couldn't kill with their bare hands. They wouldn't care who was responsible. All that mattered to them was their loss. That being said, there was always the off chance that whoever wrote the letter got the blame without asking and maybe that's where my own masochism came handy. I could not care less if they blamed me as well. I was doing that job pretty well myself.

Next came the tricky part. I had to get back to Swamp to find stationary to write on and only then did I remember that I had completely run out of paper when I wrote Peg last week. With that came the reminder of my informing BJ of my intervention before his wife told him and he came after me with a pitchfork or something worse.

Stop obsessing about what BJ would do to you. It can't be worse than this.

I hadn't thought about that like that and it calmed my nerves for all of five minutes.

Halfway towards Swamp I changed directions and took a right to go to Radar for some paper and stamps he promised me the other night. Radar wasn't in his office. After waiting for five seconds, I started rummaging through the drawers, wondering about his filing system that dared anybody trying to ransack his official documents to get away with whatever he came to get. It just wasn't gonna happen. After finding the required papers under 'Pages' which was under 'Stuff', I sat down on his desk and started writing.

"That's very nice of you, son!" I was startled as I was signing my name under the letter.

"You're very stealthy for an old man!"

"Not a very nice thing to say especially since..." He pointed towards his eagles.

"Didn't your mom teach you not to sneak up on people? OR to not read other people's letters?" I made no attempt at hiding what I had written now that he had already read it as I wondered about the relationship between nonsensical sentence structure and Radar's chair.

"How are you, Hawkeye?" Potter wasn't in the mood to be amused, it seemed.

"Been better. Been worse. This too shall pass." I replied philosophically.

"Did you talk to his buddy?"

"Yeah."

"How was he?"

"Not very good, understandably."

"He'll be fine. Man can be resilient when he needs to be."

"Yeah. Yeah."

"You know there's going to be an inquiry?"

"Yeah. I had a feeling after all the paper pushing Frank did."

"Hunnicut said he suspected a leak in stomach repair?"

"Yeah. Which can be due to prolonged hypotension and not necessarily because of His Ineptness."

"Pierce..." Potter sounded a little hesitant. I just hoped he wasn't going to ask me if I nicked the pulmonary artery as well. I just waited for him to ask me what he wanted to to before I went on with my explanation.

"Son, it may not be my place to say anything about your personal business but do you know why Lt. O'Hara would be so hell bent to ruin your career?"

"I'm not sure I follow, Colonel. You think I...You saying I made her so mad..." I had already thought about that and discarded the whole idea.

"Yeah, something along those lines."

"No Colonel. Her accusation came as a surprise to me. We were never... ya know. Just friends! At least that's how I saw her."

"Alright, Pierce. Just wanted to make sure." Potter got up from his perch to leave for his office, "If Radar returns before you leave, could you send him in?"

"Yeah!" My mind working overtime to really figure out why Cate said what she said.

"Don't worry too much, Pierce. It will be fine." I wasn't sure whom Potter was trying to cheer with that. I wasn't worried about what Cate and Frank were conspiring but her motives did interest me. Frank on the other hand was predictable in his hatred even if the extent of it was somehow obscured in the past. Or maybe I refused to see it for what it was all along?

Nah!

He really became unhinged after Margaret left him. And for a real, senior Army officer. From West Point, no less.

Radar entered as I was putting final touches to the letter which was nothing more than a proofread.

"Radar! I need more stamps. I seem to remember a promise in return for drinking your proffered Nehi."

Radar made a face and I could see a refusal coming to his lips when his expressions softened and he coughed up some stamps.

"Johnson's parents?" He asked and that little spark of good humor I felt becoming alive again almost but extinguished.

"Yeah." There wasn't all that much I could say, really. It still felt as much my fault as anybody's.

"His buddy told me how he got injured. He wasn't injured by enemy." Radar shook his head in dismay, " Anyway, I know that if he had any chance, you would have saved him." Radar's words reminded me of what Potter had said to me hardly five minutes ago. Who were they trying to convince?

"Here!" I gave him the letter, feeling a little lighter since last night.

"Hawkeye! Don't worry about what Major Burns is trying to do. Remember all the times he tried this when Henry was alive? I think he doesn't like you very much."

I chuckled at Radar's observation. He had a gift for understatement.

"I think he likes me too much, Radar."

"He does? He sure has a strange way of showing it, Hawkeye. Hey, did you see Klinger's latest collection?"

"I saw a few when I went to beg for stamps."

"You asked him for stamps first?" Radar asked with arched eyebrows.

"Yeah. Remember when I came to you and you didn't have any?"

"Oh yeah. Yeah. He made me sign a three day pass for him in return for one book of stamps. He's really something!" And I remembered my promise to do whatever he wanted me to do in return for stamps and shuddered with all the possibilities.

Radar was going to send the letter in the next jeep taking the mail.

I decided to go to the next door village to give them all a physical and to get them to say 'aah'. Potter told me to take somebody with me to the village trip which wasn't an unreasonable demand, really. My last few driving adventures weren't all that good. Getting one of the corpsman, I packed the jeep with food and medicines we could spare and left.

It always amazed me how Dad could give up his surgical career to work as a general physician for a little town like Crabapple Cove. We never really discussed it but now I could see why he did that. It was fun. It was personal. I knew babies he had delivered who were coming to him for their own kids now, him having delivered the second generation of the same families and becoming the pediatrician for the babies' babies.

After refusing some invites to lunch, remembering my last meal and the following bout of illness, I spent a few hours checking the families which mostly comprised of kids and their mommies. The work was tiring and yet, strangely gratifying. The fact that had this not been a war zone, I may never have seen some of the diseases I had seen here and also, my practice would never really have ranged into the realms my father chose to work in wasn't lost on me. Surgery was my thing all along. This was a nice change of pace, albeit heartbreaking at times.

Hawkeye! There's just too much misery and you cannot fix it all, however hard you try.

Who the hell was that? The giver-upper? I hated it when somebody told me what I could or could not do.
After having a hearty lunch of candy bars and some coffee which was almost frigid by now, I turned my attention to runny noses and baby bumps again.

It was dark and late when we got back. Dinner seemed enticing, I wondered why? Maybe working in the field or fields, so to speak, had given me new appreciation, however short lived it was going to be. After filling my tray with some slop, I settled on the usual table where Margaret, BJ, Radar, Father Mulcahy and Potter were seated.

"Hello there! Anybody missed me?" I cheered them all as I landed next to Radar.

"Nobody to comment on the dismal affair I had for lunch, bet your butt I didn't!" BJ scowled as he picked up what seemed like some aged lettuce.

"Aww, cummon Beej! I know you missed me."

"What's with the good cheer?"

Before I could answer, I saw Frank enter.

"FRANK! Come on. Eat with us." I waved him over and saw rest of the table look at me as if I had grown gills and scales at the same time. I chuckled when Frank gave me a weird look.

"Has he been drinking?" Margaret asked nobody in particular.

"Unless he nipped at some local hooch, I don't think..." BJ started off before he turned quiet again.

"Cummon guys. He was going to eat alone."

"You do realize he's trying to get you in trouble." BJ asked me as if he was dealing with Erin's little brother.

"He's been at it for a long time, right Margaret?" I asked Margaret who got uncomfortable almost immediately.

"Pierce, I'm not sure what's cookin' in that head of yours but tread carefully." Potter this time.

"You really think he would explode if he eats with us, don't you?" I asked the table in general.

"Its not him we are concerned about, Hawkeye!" Father Mulcahy sounded a little worried as well.

"He won't come. He'll excuse himself." I informed the table as I started sniffing my food.

After seeing Frank turn towards another table, I chuckled before my second announcement, " Poker! My tent. 8pm. Bring your billfolds, fellas. Am in a winning mood tonight. Beej, pass me the salt. I can still taste this."

"You went crazy when you went to the village?" Margaret asked me a little hotly after Potter left the table.

"Don't think so. I do love it when you're angry though. You look beautiful when you're angry." I informed her as I tried to figure out the origins of mystery meat.

"Take it east, Margaret. He's just playing with Frank." BJ addressed Margaret as he looked pointedly at me.

"And then you wonder why Frank acts the way he does."

"Maaar-garet! We're not reverting to our past now, are we?" I chastised Margaret before turning serious, "No. I think you're right. I'll stay off his case. No more Frank bashing! RIGHT FRANK?" Frank twitched as if I had stepped on his tail. I knew he was going to sleep with a gun under his pillow tonight.

Maybe not if people show up for poker.

I realized Margaret was right. Frank really was like an irked tarantula right now and smart move would have been to stay away from him or at least not get him riled up all that much but as a reflex from the past, when Frank got into this mood, I got into that mood. The upside was, while Trapper was almost as Frank-savvy as I was, he was also just as much tactless whereas BJ was new at this and hopefully, relatively more sensible to rein me in.