Some time later, Henry and Trapper were poring over various forms when an irate Major Margaret Houlihan entered the company clerk's office.
"Not this, too," Henry muttered to himself. Fortunately, the Major was too preoccupied with what was currently concerning her to take note and demand an explanation of Henry's comment.
"Colonel! This is unacceptable! How can we run a hospital like that!?" she began a tirade just like every few days.
"Okay, what did they do this time?" Henry asked with resignation.
"Who did what?"
"Um, I assumed you were here about Pierce and McIntyre as usual."
"No, it's not about them. It's about supply! The Sergeant on duty tells me my forms have been rejected! How can we function without basic medical supplies? Now, we're short on silk, bandages-"
"Easy, easy, Major. It must be some mistake. We'll correct this right away. Could you show me these forms, please?"
Hot Lips handed him the papers she was holding in her hand. Henry looked at them.
"Hm," he said after a while. "They look filled out correctly. Did they tell you what was wrong at supply?"
"No, they didn't. There's never been any problems until this day! What are we supposed to do now?"
"Well, a commander must know when to admit his own shortcomings and turn to a higher power. I say we do that now."
"A higher power? Who do you mean?"
"Radar."
Henry, Margaret and Trapper gathered around Radar's bed. He'd been lying half-asleep, but when they came, he rose a bit on his pillows.
"How are you feeling, son?" Henry asked.
"Oh, thank you for asking, sir, my head's all better now, though this time, my throat aches really bad."
"You'll be fine soon, believe me. Here, you're being taken care of by some of the best doctors in Korea, and that's saying something. Now, I hate to disturb you when you're sick, but could you give us a hand with some papers? Major Houlihan here has had her requisition forms rejected and we can't figure out why."
"Oh, sure," Radar reached for his glasses which were lying on a small bedside table and put them on. Margaret reached out her hand in which she was holding the aforementioned forms. Radar glanced at each sheet.
"Is that all, sir? I mean, ma'am?"
"What else would there be?"
"This is the problem. These need to be filled out in triplicate. One for the quartermasters, one for the archive, and one for the archive's archive."
"You're raving! There's no such thing as the archive's archive!"
"But there is, sir, they have it. Anyway, if you just brought me some blank forms, I'll copy them for you right away. I've always done that before when you gave me the forms, I made two copies and then gave them all to Colonel Blake to sign, and then they accepted them."
"If you say so... Thank you, Corporal, I'll have someone else copy them."
"Uh, that's my… pleasure, sir."
"Ma'am!"
"Ma'am."
Margaret took her forms and left, leaving Henry and Trapper with Radar, all three of them being eyed by Frank Burns, who was currently on post-op duty.
"Do you also need some help, sirs?" Radar asked them.
"Yeah, if you just could help me a little with these documents, I can't make head nor tail of them…" Henry began.
"Oh, sure, sir, do you have a pen?"
"Here," Henry handed him the pen he'd been carrying in his breast pocket.
"Oh, but before you start," Trapper cut in, "Hawk told me he's had trouble making calls about this autoclave we need, could you give me some tips, like who to call and what to say to get our point across?"
"Now, McIntyre, you'll get your turn, first let him do these documents, I need them quick-"
"And what is this commotion?" Frank approached them, "You're disturbing the other patients… sir," he looked at Henry.
"Sorry, Frank, uh, sorry, everyone," Henry looked around apologetically, "We just can't seem to do all this stuff on our own, so we figured we'd ask the person who knows his way around these things best."
"Administrative work cannot be done by a person who is currently having a fever," Frank huffed, "This is against regulations! Besides, if he's here, it means that he's off duty, and if he's off duty, he can't be on duty, and doing this would mean he's on duty, so this would be doubly against regulations! Sir."
"Now, look, Frank-" Henry began, before being interrupted by Trapper once more.
"You know what, he's got a point."
"Who, Frank?" Henry almost gasped. To have Trapper John McIntyre say Frank Burns was right about something…
"You know, we shouldn't make Radar work when he's sick. As you say yourself, it's probably overworking that caused him to fall ill in the first place. So let's better try to pull through ourselves."
"You're right. Sorry about that, Radar. We're just kinda helpless without you when it comes to all this clerk stuff. It's my fault, I should've thought about training a replacement for you earlier. And because I failed to do that, you were on duty almost 24/7."
"Oh, it's not your fault, sir, we've been understaffed from the beginning, and besides, I don't mind helping you out now-"
"No, no, you just rest now, we'll manage. Anyway, we'll need a replacement not only for when you're sick, but also for when you go for some R&R as everybody is entitled to. So might just as well train him now and in the meantime do the work ourselves. Don't worry about a thing, and just get better, alright?"
"Alright, sir," Radar nodded uncertainly.
"Good boy. Get some sleep. Or would you like someone to bring you something to read?"
"Oh, that would be great. I miss my comic books. And I'd like to finish that book I started last week."
"That 10-cent horror story book? Oh, Radar, you know you shouldn't read those, the last time you read them I had to sit next to your bed until you fell asleep."
"Don't worry, sir, now I've got twenty people around me, so I won't be afraid."
"I see. Okay, I'll get you your books."
"And, sir? If you could, there's also a box under my bed. Could you please bring it to me without looking inside?"
"What's inside?"
"It's uh, personal. A thing that my brother left me. I feel better having it around."
"Alright, I'll bring you that box, too."
"Thank you, sir."
"You're welcome, Radar," Henry reached down to ruffle his hair a bit. Although Radar usually objected when somebody tried to do this, he only smiled when Colonel Blake did it. Henry and trapper left and Radar closed his eyes to get some more sleep.