Chapter 5

Arrow was taking a walk around the compound with the help of a nurse, unaware that she was being watched by Hawkeye and BJ from where they had placed themselves for a viewing of the new latrine's dig site. Although the two doctors, each holding a martini glass filled to the brim, were talking to each other and enjoying some time off, they nevertheless kept a close watch on her.

"Think she'll be okay, Beej?" asked Hawkeye, watching Arrow fumble around.

"It's been four months since her surgery, Hawk. She's recovering just fine," BJ assured, taking a sip from his glass. He sat in contemplative silence for a moment before deciding to ask the question that had been on his mind ever since Arrow was allowed to leave her bed for a few minutes at a time. "Why worry about this patient more than you have the others?"

Hawkeye decided not to answer the question right away. Actually, he wasn't sure if he wanted to answer it at all- at least not before he had a chance to speak with Arrow outside of a doctor-patient relationship.

Realizing he wasn't going to get an answer from his abnormally quiet friend, BJ changed the subject by asking which soldier was using shovel number three. He didn't recognize him.

"Salkowitz," Hawkeye answered suddenly, not looking BJ in the eye, as though he was trapped in a corner. "He's a magician with latrines and cesspools."

"Salkowitz!" BJ called out. "A little deeper on that end. That's where Major Burns sits." His tone made it sound as though he was being thoughtful. "Hawk-"

"Well, how's the new latrine coming along?" asked Father Mulcahey, coming up from behind them.

"Another Taj Mahal," replied Hawkeye, grateful for the interruption.

A moment after speaking with the chaplain, bombs began to explode closer to the camp. The two passed a few more jokes back and forth before rising to their feet and heading to the mess tent. While crossing paths with Arrow and her nurse, Hawkeye stopped them.

"By the sound of those bombs out there, the wounded will be coming in soon. I don't care if you have to carry her back into post-op, just make sure she's in her bed in the next five minutes, and keep her there," he instructed.

"I wish I could argue with you, Doc, but my rib cage still hurts," said Arrow, allowing the nurse to slowly guide her back to her bed.

~***~***~

Hawkeye and BJ were soon at the mess tent, which was one of their only options for food. They came across Major Burns who had wanted to send Arrow away much too soon, something Hawkeye did everything he could to stop so he could keep her with him. Major Margaret Houlihan was with Major Burns. Both were having coffee, making fun of the idea of bugging-out.

Sarcastic phrases left BJ and Hawkeye's mouths while insults came from the majors' but were returned with more sarcasm.

The seemingly childish doctors chose to leave and headed for the coffee. To anyone watching, it would have looked as though the tables had turned, and they were the mature ones for a change.

~***~***~

Minutes that seemed like hours had gone by and Arrow, who felt rather restless, was back outside for another walk. She was by herself this time. The Rumor Mill was strong at work. It started among the doctors and nurses and quickly made its way through the patients that there was to be a bug-out where the camp would take its tents down and pack everything that couldn't be left behind as fast as possible for them to move to a new location.

"A bug out? It can't be," Arrow said to herself in disbelief. "It feels like I just got here and we're already leaving." She was slowly walking around camp as if she was blind. It still hurt for her to open her eyes, not because of how bright it was outside, but because the world would begin to spin around her, causing her to feel sick and ready to collapse. "I have to talk to somebody."

Suddenly she found herself bumping into someone whose voice, scent and skin weren't recognized by her like the doctors' were. She did, however, know who they belonged to.

"I'm so sorry, Arrow. I didn't mean to bump into you like that," the voice said as soft hands came out to prevent her fall.

"It's okay, Father. I know you didn't mean it. Though I must say, your timing couldn't be better," she told the camp chaplain known as Father Mulcahy. "Could I possibly bend your ear in a private conversation?" she asked.

"How private would you like it to be?" Mulcahy asked, sounding shy to Arrow.

"I suppose it could be considered as a confession of sorts," Arrow said questioning her own thoughts.

Father Mulcahy began suggesting private, yet public places outside of his tent for the two to talk. They couldn't use the mess tent because it was being taken down. The colonel's office was out of the question because he might have been using it, and neither knew when he planned to return to his office. Eventually, they agreed to his tent, leaving the door open.

The chaplain led the way to his tent, allowing Arrow to use his arm so he could guide her along the way. He unfolded a spare chair for Arrow to sit down, then pulled a chair out from under his desk for himself to sit.

"Now, what did you want to confess, Arrow?"

"I've been faking my memory loss, Father, though the pain in my eyes and from breaking bones is real. It's true, my memory was affected by the explosion, but something happened to bring it all back," Arrow answered. She hesitantly brought the letter Hawkeye had given her a week after she woke up from her surgery. "I suppose my enlisting was for selfish reasons."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. As you'll read in that letter, I grew up in an orphanage until I was seventeen. That was when my father was located and I was sent cross-country to live with him, only he had been drafted and shipped out before he ever got word of my existence. So, I stayed with my grandfather until I got shipped over here myself," Arrow explained.

"And you're hoping to meet him," Father Mulcahy said.

"Actually, Father. I have met him. And he's every bit the joker I was told about over the last year. I guess I'm just afraid to tell him who I am," Arrow replied. "The memories came back with this letter that I had written while on my flight here."

Father Mulcahy took the letter that Arrow handed over for him to read. Both remained quiet as the chaplain read the letter. Coming to the end of the letter, he said, "Oh, my... though I... can't say I am entirely surprised by this."

"You won't tell him, will you?" Arrow asked.

"I'm afraid this kind of information cannot be kept to yourself forever. You will have to tell him who you are at some point," Mulcahy told her. "He does deserve the chance of getting to know you."

"I'd like to tell him before this bug-out happens if it's real," she assured Mulcahey. She heard sirens and the sound of other vehicles like jeeps and choppers coming toward the camp and the words incoming wounded come over the PA system. "But I don't know if I'll get the chance."

~***~***~

Pre-op was a mess with patients. One patient hallucinated that Major Burns was a woman named Alice and yanked the man down and started making out with him. Burns tried his hardest to get away from the patient, but he needed help which he got from Hawkeye, the chief surgeon.

A delicate surgery was passed on to Hawkeye, to which he remarked, "You always give me the cuties."

"Well, I sure as hell ain't gonna give this one to Alice," Colonel Potter said.

"Looks like shrapnel in the spinal canal. If I go in, we won't be able to move that kid for 24 hours," Hawkeye said. He was showing signs that he believed the bug-out rumor. "Those bone fragments could lacerate the cord."

"So?" Potter asked straight-faced

"The bug-out," Hawkeye clarified.

Potter was getting tired of hearing about a bug-out he wasn't given orders for and decided to call a general so he could kill the rumor weed.

~***~***~

Hawkeye was performing a spinal surgery he wasn't sure he wanted. He couldn't move the patient once this was started without the risk of severing the kid's spinal cord.

Once the patient was fully under, Hawkeye began asking for instruments.

~***~***~

An assembly was called by Radar's bugle horn. Colonel Potter began speaking as the phone rang. Radar was sent to answer it.

"You people have been panicking over a rumor which says that the 4077th is bugging out. That is grade-A, You service people should know by now that scuttlebutt is as common as cooties in your Skivvies. My apologies to those among us of the feminine gland and to our resident celibate - Father Mulcahy," Potter said before telling them of his WWII days when a rumor was going around his unit. "The general has assured me there is nothing to worry about. MASH 4077 is definitely..." he hesitated as he read the telegram Radar handed over to him," bugging out in three hours! Bug out!"

Everyone ran to disassemble their tents and pack everything in the three hours they were given.

~***~***~

Radar raced to O.R. saying, "Hawkeye!"

"Mask!" Hawkeye called out.

Radar covered his face with his hat before continuing with, "It's true. We're bugging out in three hours."

But it was too late. They couldn't stop the operation.

"Everybody's supposed to start packing," Radar stated as he left.

"Beej, you remember asking me why I seemed to care more about Arrow than I do my other patients?" Hawkeye asked his current anesthetist. BJ nodded. "Well, there's a reason for that. A good one, too. And since I'll have to stay behind with this kid until tomorrow, I need you to do something for me."

"I'll keep an eye on her, Hawk," BJ said as if he knew where his friend was going.

~***~***~

"What's going on?" Arrow asked as she felt herself being led to one of the buses. No one really said anything to her about what was happening around her. All she could gather by the dust that was now in the air and the sounds of panic was that the bug-out was no longer a rumor but actually happening.

~***~***~

BJ poured some homemade gin into a rubber hot water bottle that was held up by Hawkeye. It was the breakfast of champions as Hawkeye called it.

"Hawk, I'm staying here with you," BJ said as if forgetting he'd promised to take care of Arrow.

"No, no, no. You gotta go ahead and set up the new O.R. and take care of Arrow for me. I gotta stay and watch the kid we just operated on," Hawkeye replied rather hastily.

"You know, I would have expected to hear about something like that bombshell you dropped on Margaret and me in O.R. had it happened a few months or even years ago. But that really took the cake," BJ said.

"I'm jealous of you," Hawkeye said without sounding angry before he turned to leave. "You got to be there when it happened when Erin was born. I didn't get to know until Arrow was on the operating table."