Hey guys!

New chapter is up. Half of it got, I have no clue how, presumably through my own incompetence, well, half of it got affixed to the previous chapter. I finally made sense of it today.

Now reposted the previous one, and this is new, fresh from laundry.

Read it. And stay tuned as more will follow soon.

Also, I reread the story. It IS good. So read it again if you forget something. You'll have fun. I know I did :-p

Chapter 103

There was no winning, was there?

Still tired from those long hours spent in the OR, I decided to lie down myself. That letter wasn't getting anywhere and I could feel the cramps from the long sessions.

Was it that I was growing old?

"Captain Pierce!"

I must have dozed off as this voice had a startling effect on me. One look at the watch and I realized that it couldn't have been more than a few minutes nap.

Shaking my head, trying to clear my head, I looked at the intruder.

"Colonel Potter wants to see you." Klinger and his hideous layering of clothes from every fabric family and color pattern had a shocking effect on somebody operating on less than half his mental capacity. I was suddenly awakened.

Rubbing my eyes vigorously, I put on the robe and set out, taking Klinger's hand in honor of his temporary albeit hideous resemblance to a woman.

"Any idea why he wants to see me, m'dear?"

"Search me, Captain. He has a ton of paper work from last few days and he's angry as a …inhu junun al hajan…"

I looked at him quizzically but let it slide. Klinger must have been wringed pretty bad by Potter for him to revert to cursing in Arabic.

Potter was busy going over memos and SOPs and all the enchilada that went with the command.

"Mornin' Colonel!"

"Sit down, Pierce. Be with you in a jiffy."

I sat down and made a valiant effort not to fall asleep. Somehow, the peace and quiet of this office made me crave sleep. Or was it the southern drawl? Thinking of all the recent visits I had made to this office, I felt my eyes closing and so, in order to stop keeling over uber dramatically, I started to drum my fingers on the table.

Potter gave me a look and then decided I had waited long enough.

"Sorry I had to bother ya, Pierce. Did you get any shuteye?"

One look at the Colonel and I could see the tiredness etched around his eyes. It was a sure bet he didn't sleep enough himself and I didn't want to guilt him by answering truthfully.

"Well, I have been thinking. Army owes me almost a year's worth of sleep." I told him deadpan.

"But you've been here what? 17 months?"

"Ever heard of compund interest? Anyway, something came up I'm guessing. Regarding…?"

"I'll let you go get some sleep as we're expecting some heavy casualties and word is, 8063rd might have to bug out as they are sitting almost next to the Chinese. Nothing came up regarding your trial expect I-Corps will be sending an investigator…"

"Please. Not Flagg!" I didn't even let Potter finish but this almost painful plea of mine brought a grin to his tired face.

"No. He's more… espionage. Causes more espionage then a bunch of spies combined." Last bit was almost a mumble, "No, that wasn't the reason I called you."

"Alright!" I raised my eye brows to let him know I was still waiting for the reason he called me.

"What is going on?" Finally, he just blurted.

"A lot is going on. I'm going on. War is going on. Life is going on. Could you be more specific?"

"I remember telling you not to antagonize Burns. I was sitting here. You were sitting there. I remember. I drank half my single malt to get that through your head. What a waste…" Last part was again, a stage whisper crossed with a mumble.

"I didn't antagonize him."

"That's all you've got to say? That you didn't antagonize him? And what was that in the OR yesterday?"

"Oh, you mean when I told him he was incompetent in not so many words?"

I saw Potter flush with anger this time.

"Pierce! You don't even realize…"

"Wait! I thought when you said not to bug him you meant while we're in the Swamp. Or mess. Or… well, anywhere but the OR. You do realize he commits malpractice the moment he starts scrubbing up." I informed Potter, though I had a strong feeing of déjà vu. We did have the very same conversation just last week. And the week before. And the week before that.

"Pierce! He's …"

"Colonel Potter, Sir! He's doing what he has been doing for last year and a half. You might think I'm not taking this seriously but you're wrong! Pick up my file and read through it. Its just that…"

Choppers!

Choppers!

I looked at him and he, at me. Shaking my head, I tied the robe tightly and left his office without another word. One look at the intake of these patients and I braced myself for another long night to be spent in the OR. The ground was strewn with wounded. There were more on the way as 8063rd sent its relatively stable ones to us.

I took the triage again. It was a large intake and patients were sorted out pretty slowly. After I established the fact that I was to be in the OR for no less than eight hours , I headed there. I was still tired from previous long shifts and the little bit of sleep I managed to get didn't do much good. All it did was remind me how painfully sore I was and how much I wanted to sit this one out.

Crush all hope!

That was Frank's motto. After grumbling from the time he came in the OR till he committed his first act of malpractice, he kept whining about the usual lack of consideration on part of Koreans to attack our troops so frequently.

"You should have sent them your time table, Frank." I mumbled to Margaret.

"I heard that Pierce!"

Liar!

"Good. Then you can pass that clamp to me. Unless you need it. Sometimes…" And suddenly, there was a squeal from Frank. I turned to look at what happened. Frank's gown was drenched in blood and this one seemed more a gusher than a spurter.

Panic followed as Frank started berating his scrub nurse.

I wasn't sure what to do as my own patient had some hemorrhaging going on. BJ, who had just returned from triage, saw the commotion and went to help Frank out.

There was silence on that table and it felt ominous.

"What happened, Beej?" I asked as I tried to control the bleeding in my own patient.

"Nothing, Hawk!" BJ wasn't talking and that didn't bid well for the patient. With Potter knee deep in another patient's blood, I decided to just have a look.

"I told you it was nothing!" BJ spoke somewhat crossly this time. I wasn't going to let him suffer my fate and told him gently to let me see.

"I think the clot on the spleen dislodged and Frank panicked." BJ informed me.

"I. Did. Not." The ever-present indignation was expected.

I returned to my own patient who had some bleeding issues of his own.

"Shove it, Frank!" BJ retorted crossly.

"Need help, Beej?" I asked BJ knowing the response but felt Frank would try to pin anything that went wrong on BJ.

"You really think you're the only one here, Hawkeye Pierce, Surgeon Extraordinaire, don't you!" Frank whined, almost eloquently.

BJ stayed quiet this time.

"Pierce!" Margaret looked at me and spoke my name in a concerned, strained voice.

I silently returned to my own patient who had some bleeding but was otherwise alright.

My fingers were beginning to cramp earlier today. I just needed some rest and somehow, I wasn't able to get any.

"Pierce! You OK?" I heard Margaret talking to me in a low whisper and realized I had blanked out for a bit.

"Yeah. Yes. Just hold this clamp here… yes. Thank you. Can somebody get me a glass of water. All this talking has made me thirsty!"

Another mosntrous shift had started. Maybe Army was going to juice me fully before hauling me to Kansas.

"Aren't you a quivering mass of indecision today, Frank!"

Water ought to do the trick, I hoped.

"What is going on, Pierce?" Colonel Potter wasn't as unaware of his environment as he made us believe.

"Just thinking, Colonel." I deflected expertly.

"Want to take a break, son?" Maybe no so expertly…

"No. I am fine. Just got distracted. Retraction here, Margaret!"

And with that, the OR returned to its usual state of controlled chaos.