1951

Dear Mama,

It's been a few weeks since my last letter. I'm sorry about that, but we've had our hands full around here. The wounded come and come and come, sometimes with no end in sight. My time between shifts in the OR is spent trying to catch up on rest with the other nurses, and I'm often too tired to pick up a pen, let alone write a letter home.

But I do miss you, Jenny, and Sam. I read in your last letter that Jenny finally gave birth to little Mason. I look forward to finally meeting him in person once all this is over. I'm sure that he looks just like Sam and Jenny. It's a given, naturally, that they are adorable, and I know this for a fact. I've never met an ugly baby, and though they say that there is a first for everything, for this I am certain there is no first. I'll be home soon, I'm sure. The war can't last forever. And if it does, well, then Mason will be old enough at some point to come and meet me.

I miss your food, perhaps more than I miss you at times. The food here is disastrously bad, and they've never heard of good eating. No collards, just beans. So many beans. I love beans as much as the next girl, but there are limits to how many a girl can eat. I think I might turn into a bean, and then how much help will I be then? Let alone that no one has even heard of fried chicken livers, and that's a dam—

"Friend chicken liver?" Trapper screeched over her shoulder, and Dixie jumped, dropping her pen in the dirt. She looked over her shoulder to see one Trapper leaned down over her to read what she was writing, and she scowled. "Who in their right mind would eat that?"

"Everyone I know back home, for your information," Dixie shot back. She had hoped finding a spot at the edge of camp to write her letter home would afford her some privacy; the nurses tent was always a flurry of activity when it was quiet at the camp. The mess was also out of the question, for the same reason, as it was often too loud for her to get any kind of thinking done. She had not been expecting for one Trapper John McIntyre to sneak up on her and read over her shoulder. "It happens to be my brother-in-law's favorite food."

Trapper wrinkled his nose in sheer disgust. "Sounds disgusting, Dixie."

"Well, it's not," Dixie insisted. "If we weren't in the middle of a warzone, I might promise to make it for you sometime."

"Really?" Trapper asked. "Let me pause the war for a second, I could use a home-cooked meal, no matter what it is."

Dixie rolled her eyes. "Look how quickly you changed your tune."

"I've been told I'm quite a songsmith," Trapper smiled, and Dixie could not help but return the smile. Despite his womanizing ways and rampant cheating on his wife, there was just something that Dixie liked about Trapper. He was oddly charming, even if she had never been charmed in a way that Trapper liked to charm woman.

"So…you're an aunt now?" Trapper asked. Dixie nodded her head and folded up her letter to finish it later. Dixie normally went into her own world when she was writing back home, caught up in homesickness and longing, so it was probable that Trapper had read her whole letter over her shoulder before he said anything.

"Yeah," Dixie said. "My sister, Jenny, told me she was pregnant just before I was shipped out. Made me regret deciding to come, that I wouldn't get to meet them for a long while."

Dixie's sister, Jenny, was a very kind-hearted young woman. She had married her sweetheart straight out of school, and they had been trying to have a baby for years. Dixie was glad that they finally had their bundle of joy, even if she wasn't around to see them.

Dixie had planned to give Mason a younger cousin one day, but given that her engagement was now broken, she was unsure when that was going to happen.

"I know that look," Trapper said sternly, and Dixie blinked and looked up at him. "You're thinking about the no-good James again."

Dixie sighed and leaned against the post she had been resting her back on, shifting on the blanket she had sat down to not get dirt on her pants. Trapper dropped down from where he was standing, bent over and then sat down next to her on the blanket.

"Look, you got to let them go," Trapper counseled, being sincere for once in his life. "Haven't you even sent the ring back and everything?"

Dixie had sent the ring back in her reply letter, not wanting even a single reminder of Sgt. James Moreland in her life. But it was hard to let go of their relationship – they had been together years. Dixie had been sure he was going to be her husband one day; she had built all her plans for the future on that. She would be a nurse at a hospital in their hometown when James and she went home, while James tended the farm with his father, something he would inherit when his father died. Then she would quit the hospital when she became a mom, take care of the kids.

"I planned my whole life around being his wife one day," Dixie admitted.

Trapper rolled his eyes. "Then just plan a new life."

Dixie scoffed. "You make it sound easy."

"I make everything sound easy," Trapper smoothly said. "I'm charming like that."

Now it was Dixie's turn to roll her eyes and she wiped dirt off her pants, checking her watch. She had to be in the OR in about half an hour, so she could cut this conversation short and try to get her letter finished if she really wanted to. But she was not really in the mood anymore, as the last thing she wanted was to bring up James in a letter to her mama. She knew Mama already knew, she had written a brief letter two weeks ago about it, but she did not want to get into that, because if she really started going on about it, she was unsure she was ever going to stop.

"Well, what do we have here?" a voice asked, and Dixie looked up to see Frank standing in front of them. "If it isn't Sanders and McIntyre. I expected more from you Sanders, associating with a known philander like McIntyre."

"Oh, shut up Frank," Trapper said immediately. Dixie started to stand up to leave, being in no mood to deal with Frank right now.

"Yes, well, apologies, Major," Dixie started. "Captain McIntyre was simply giving me advice, I'll be sure next time to come to you for any and all advice on how best to move on from my estranged ex-fiancé. I'm sure, after all, you have expert advice on how to help women, considering your….close relationship with Major Houlihan."

Frank colored red. "And what is that supposed to mean, Lieutenant?"

Dixie brought a hand to her chest innocently. "Only that you and Major Houlihan have a great professional relationship – I assume one based on trust and respect, yes? So, you must have wonderful advice, if you're able to have such a great relationship with the other major, Major."

Frank was silent for a moment, trying to think of a way to dispute anything that Dixie had said. Dixie technically had not said anything that was not true. Even if at first Dixie had implied something else, her explanation had left little up to being interpreted.

Frank hmphed and sauntered off, and Trapper laughed as he stood up.

"You know he's going to tell Houlihan and you're going to pay for that," Trapper said. Dixie shrugged.

"Whatever. I'm just not in the mood to deal with Frank right now."

The P.A. system crackled to life and the wind began to beat loudly.

"INCOMING WOUNDED!"

And with that, there conversation was officially over.