Chapter 12

Winchester's demonstration was over after about an hour, minus the scrubbing periods. Hawkeye was now giving Arrow her exam so he could sign her work form.

He went through his usual routine of questions: any headaches? Dizzy spells? Nausea?...

"Ever been stabbed? Cut?" he had noticed that type of scarring on her body ever since her arrival. Had she been anyone else, he would have asked sooner. But he figured she'd tell him in her own time. Only she never did.

All her answers were no but Hawkeye didn't believe some of them. He then proceeded to stand up and walk out of Radar's room where he had done her exam semi privately…

"You… you didn't sign anything," Arrow said.

"Answer the questions honestly and I might change my mind about you working today," he shot back.

Her refusal to correct everyone and open up to a family that wanted to accept her was about to bite her.

"Fine, I'll tell you…"

Hawkeye, who had already stepped through the doors to outside, came back in.

"Is this an 'I'll tell you' because you want to, or an 'I'll tell you' because you know I won't sign until you do?"

"You didn't have Sydney here on an official capacity, so he didn't take notes. But someone from a nearby table must have been listening in until I said I lost my innocence because only half the story made it through the units."

Hawkeye came to sit in front of her like he did the first night she told him about this.

"No one had any choice but to believe rape with the term I used, and since I didn't correct anyone…"

"But that's not what happened. Is it?"

She shook her head while answering. "I was stabbed. Multiple times. Until then, I was a somewhat happy kid and teen. I had no idea there was someone out there who had so much of a problem with orphans that he was willing to kill them. I'm ecstatic that the guy was caught. Just wish no one had to be a victim the second it happened… and that's it. That's why I have these scars. I was stabbed and beaten within an inch of my life all because someone had a problem with orphans."

She couldn't think of any other way to explain it. As a minor, she wasn't allowed in the courtroom to hear the defense. Being unable to hear both sides of the issue, she never truly had closure. She only knew what her trial advocate told her.

"Why didn't you tell me this instead of letting me believe the same as everyone else?"

"It's a family matter, Dad. It's something that should be my choice to share, not a juicy piece of gossip that spreads faster than wildfire."

Hawkeye was over the moon that the gossip he'd heard about his daughter was false. But learning she could have been taken from him for a second time before he could be there for her nearly crushed him.

With her exam now complete, Hawkeye signed the form. The stabbing was the only question he didn't believe her answer. Once again, he got more than he bargained for.

How did she pass the psych eval with a literal near death experience like that? He wondered.

He didn't have time to keep asking himself that question as he went into post-Op to check on their aneurism patient. Since Charles was now leaving, this patient was no longer under the care of the visiting surgeon.

However, while Charles was still on the premises, he decided to take one more look at his patient, insulting Hawkeye in the process.

Outside, Arrow watched as Klinger followed an army lawyer and potter into the main office. That guy's been bucking for a section eight for months she heard. At first, she thought the patient meant Klinger, but it was voice she hadn't heard before. It made her question the lawyers validity.

During her time in Korea, Arrow had made friends with the MP's as they found her to be a bit more likeable than Hawkeye. So, she asked one of them about the patient.

"Is he in fact a lawyer? I wouldn't think of asking without proof. I just don't want to see my friend get arrested for blindly following someone he just met."

"We'll check him out, for you."

"Thank you, but I don't think I should be the one you tell. I think it should be Colonel Potter."

~***~***~

Arrow was in the Officer's Club, drinking waters, not alcohol When Charles came in. He was impatiently waiting for a jeep neither knew wasn't going be coming.

"You must be ready to go back to your cushy job as a colonel's physician," Arrow said.

"You have no idea." How she knew what he was in Tokyo was beyond him. "How did you…"

"To start, Sir. There are at least four reasons for a soldier, and in your case a doctor, to be in Tokyo currently. Leave, medical conferences, you're n officer's physician or in a hospital like the one twenty-first with less primitive conditions as you put it."

"And what makes you think I wasn't on leave, or a patient, even?"

"You're much too relaxed to have been on leave with the knowledge you'd be returning to the place that made you tense and was the reason for the leave. You don't show any sign of physical trauma caused by a bullet, explosive, or sharp objects like a knife," Arrow reasoned.

Charles took a sip of the more expensive alcohol that was offered from the bar tender's private stock.

"Where did you learn such deductive reasoning? Were you training to be on the police force?"

"And file paperwork that wasn't mine or the doctor's I worked for? No thank you. Although I was taking some of those courses while in nursing school so I could investigate my own case."

"How did the court rule?"

"Oh, the court ruled in my favor. But the lawyers and investigators didn't tell me everything that went on behind closed doors. And I wasn't old enough to be in the room."

Radar opened the door. He was all excited that he found Charles because he had been looking almost everywhere.

"Uh-oh, Major. I don't think that jeep of yours is coming."

Potter only confirmed Arrow's words when he said Charles was now assigned to them permanently.

"No. Colonel Baldwin assured me this is just temporary.

"Is this the same Colonel Baldwin who owes you $600?"

Charles laughed at the memory of his colonel losing to someone who had never played the game before. "Yes."

"Need I say more?" Potter asked.

Oh, if only Dad and BJ were here to see this Arrow mused.

"And Arrow…" she stopped laughing long enough to hear what Potter had to say. "Thank you for alerting me of your suspicions. I'd hate to see the corporal in the stockade for the same reason as you."

~***~***~

Klinger may have been trying to get out on a psycho discharge, but he wasn't willing to go as far as the private who pretending to be a lawyer, doctor, priest, and MP. As willing to be arrested as he had claimed to be before Arrow arrived at camp, he hadn't meant a word of it.

He was grateful for Arrow's investigating, but he wasn't going to give up, and she didn't expect him to.

What did come as a surprise was that Major Burns, who had been arrested days after he went insane, got promoted to colonel and given a post at a veteran's hospital in his home state of Indiana. The charges had been dropped.

It was good news for Frank, but no one thought so for the man's patients, some of which he'd likely be seeing again upon their return to the states.

~***~***~

"Arrow, you take Winchester's table," Potter ordered. "Like her father, Major, she's one of the best we've got. You'll want her at your table."

"My form still hasn't been signed, Colonel," Arrow said, unaware that her current daily status had changed.

"You and Hawkeye should talk more often. You've been removed from the roster and are free to work without exams to prove you're healthy enough."

Arrow couldn't believe it. She was finally a fulltime nurse. With this news, the reason why she was still on the roster had yet to hit her.