"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."
― Nicole Krauss
Hawkeye watched the newest nurse in the mess tent, as she looked around with a confused expression on her face. It was clear she had had expectations about what the army would be like and some of them turned out a bit different, for better or for worse. Hawkeye took a sip of his cold, bitter coffee and watched her with narrowed eyes.
The new nurse was cute enough but had nothing too distinguishable about her. She had light brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail and she was roughly average height, if a little skinny. Her army fatigues seemed to swallow her whole, but if that was from her size or her nervousness. Her eyes were a green, but not too bright, almost a dull green like that of grass.
She looked around for an empty spot to sit, the din and chaos of the mess tent at lunch hour seeming to make her more nervous. Hawkeye was aware of the empty seat on his left but knew any attempts to try and flag her down would get lost in the chaos of the tent. He turned to face Trapper on his right, who was reading a letter home from his wife, stuffing mashed potatoes in his mouth as he did so.
"Did you see the new nurse?" Hawkeye asked. Trapper looked up from his letter, raising his brow and mouth full of food. He swallowed thickly and peeked over to where the girl was slowly weaving her way through the tent.
"Getting them fresh off the plane now?" Trapper said, and Hawkeye rolled his eyes. So, Hawkeye was a bit of…a scoundrel when it came to women, but he had more dignity than to hit on a girl who arrived in the army most likely less than a day before. Two days, at least, was his minimum.
"Excuse me?" a soft voice asked, and Hawkeye turned to see the nurse hovering by the empty seat. "Is this seat taken?"
Trapper took another bite of food and spoke.
"No. Go ahead, sit down," Trapper said. "We don't bite. Well, I don't. Hawkeye might."
Hawkeye punched his best friend's arm lightly, and the girl gave a shy smile. She set her tray down and sat down next to Hawkeye, crossing her legs under the table.
"Thank ya," the girl said, and Hawkeye noticed a Southern accent peeking through. Hawkeye pulled a half-smirk and put down his coffee cup back onto his silver tray.
"Well looks like we got a girl from dixie here," Hawkeye said. Trapper smiled next to him, putting his chin in his hand as he stared over Hawkeye's shoulder.
If possible, the girl seemed to beam, her shyness seeming to disappear just a little bit.
"Alabama born and raised," she said proudly, showing a toothy grin.
"Well, Dixie," Trapper said, "what brings you to Korea?"
"The army," the girl said. "I've heard Korea is quite pretty during wartime."
Hawkeye scoffed.
"Well, you might want to get a refund, because you were lied to," Hawkeye said. The girl laughed softly, and Hawkeye smiled. It was a nice laugh, and he had heard quite a few in his time.
"Lieutenant Sanders?" the voice of Margaret Houlihan asked. The girl turned to face Margaret, who was standing behind her, arms crossed behind her back and posture straight. "My name is Major Margaret Houlihan, you'll be reporting to me, as I am the head nurse. I've been looking for you."
The girl smiled and held out a hand to shake to the other woman.
"Nice to meet y'all," the girl said. "My name is Veronica Sanders but can call me Ronnie."
Margaret took the other girl's hand, shaking it stiffly, a contrast to Veronica's brighter, if shy, demeanor.
"Your first shift in the recovery tent will be at 18 hundred hours," Margaret said. Veronica nodded, and Margaret's face softened just a little. "Welcome to the 4077th."
That was the thing with Margaret, their seemed to be a bit warmth beneath the ice peeking through cracks. Hawkeye hadn't known her long, but he had yet to get a good read on the head nurse.
Margaret turned on her heel to leave, and Veronica turned back to face Hawkeye and Trapper. She tilted her head to the side curiously.
"She's not much of a talker, is she?" Veronica asked. Hawkeye took a sip of his bitter coffee, crinkling his nose.
"Depends," Hawkeye said. "Did you manage to screw-up in your first five minutes here?"
Veronica pursed her lips curiously and tilted her head to the side.
"I don't think I did," Veronica said. "But I reckon' I could have."
"Well, then you haven't given her a reason to talk yet," Hawkeye said. She laughed again softly, and Hawkeye could not help the smile that drawled on his face. "Don't worry, you'll get an earful before long."
Veronica took a tentative bite of her food, and there was a brief look of shock and disgust before she swallowed.
"Careful Dixie," Trapper said, as he ate his own food by the forkful. "Food'll get'cha ya in the recovery tent just as soon as an injury."
"Noted," she said with a smile. Hawkeye supposed maybe Dixie was going to stick – there were far worse nicknames she could get. Hawkeye looked over at her more carefully, and found that her smile, much like her laugh, was nice as well.
"Attention, all personal, incoming wounded!"
Hawkeye heard choppers in the distance, and he stood to begin racing to the surgical tent. Trapper was right behind him, while Dixie hesitated, clearly unsure what she was supposed to do. Hawkeye grabbed her arm and pulled her forward on instinct, and she let out a startled "Whoa!".
It was time to get to work, and she was going to be needed to. Time for her to get a crash-course in the 4077th.