"Goodbye darling, take care ok, I'll write as soon as I'm settled." I kissed Hawkeye goodbye as we stood in the airport.

"Annie, don't leave, please go AWOL with me," Hawkeye asked, holding me tightly to him one last time.

"Ma'am, your flight is ready."

"Thankyou. Ben I'll see you again, and then we can be pick up where we left off, all right? I'll write you everyday." I kissed my husband one long last time.

"Take care my sexy little Lieutenant," He kissed me and then I had to go.

I looked around San F. Airport, it was early Saturday morning and so far everything was going to plan. I looked at the little photo of Peggy Honnicut and then scanned the crowd for her face.

"Excuse me, excuse me, have you seen a Lieutenant Pierce?" I turned towards the voice, a young woman, holding a little girl, who sucked her fingers shyly.

"Mrs Pierce?"

"Mrs Honnicut?"

"Call me Annie,"

"Call me Peggy," We had to laugh then and out of sheer relief we hugged tightly.

"You're Annie, I've heard a fair bit about you, only good of course." Peggy told me, as we broke apart.

"So you're the famous Peggy, BJ has told me so much about you, this must be Erin. Can I get a cuddle honey?" The girl was shy but Peggy held her out to me. I took 12-month-old and we headed out of the airport.

"You can stay with us Annie, I'm not the greatest housekeeper there ever was, but it's better than a hotel." Peggy told me as we found her car.

"No, I couldn't put you to any trouble, you must have been disrupted enough coming to meet me," I insisted, fastening Erin's seatbelt.

"Not at all, I'm relieved to know that there's another gorgeous woman away from BJ's grasp." Peg said, hiding her face to stop me telling if she was joking or serious.

"Well, don't worry Peggy, BJ is teaching Ben the meaning of commitment. I'm I'll only stay till I'm settled, I'm sure there's a room at the Fort," I said as we drove to Mill Valley.

"Here we are, the Humble Honnicut Hovel." Peggy called, as she turned into the drive of the modest but large home.

I took my bags out of the car. Erin, having warmed to my presence, held my hand all the way up to the house. We put my things in the spare room and sat outside on the back porch and chatted until lunchtime.

"Goodnight Sweet Pea." I tucked Erin into her bed. Peggy had to run next door for half an hour or so, and I was sitting for Erin. It was Sunday night and I was starting at 9 the next morning, so after leaving a note for Peggy I decided to go to bed as well.

Peggy's voice was sleepy as she woke me up at 2am that night.

"Anne, it's the 4077th, they want to talk to you." I dragged on my robe and yawned widely, struggling to the phone in the kitchen.

"Even in civilised country I don't like being woken up at 2am, this better be good!"

"Annie, it's so good to hear you!"

"Hawkeye!"

"Yes, the one and only, now darling, I have to keep it short but there's something the whole camp wants to say to you. Ready guys?"

"GOOD LUCK!" Practically everyone shouted at me, and I pulled the phone away from my ear.

"Thanks guys! Now I really have to go bed again, okay?"

"Yes, my sexy little Lieutenant, but first you have to know, we've put in an official request to get you back,"

"I haven't even started at work yet,"

"And General Clayton says that he's never seen a unit fight so hard for one nurse, but the whole camp's even more screwed up than usual!"

"That's nice darling, now I really need to go back to sleep and Peggy's trying to rip the phone out of my hand, bye love you." I handed the phone to Peggy and left her alone to talk to BJ in peace.

I started at work the next morning, I was in the rehab section for badly wounded soldiers, I had to smarten up my military behaviour again, but I generally fitted in okay.

I missed everyone, even the food, although it was undeniably wonderful to taste real food, proper homemade cooking I was pining for Korea, the 4077th and my friends there.

I had been working for nearly a fortnight when we got mail from the camp. Peggy and I spent all evening reading the wonderful letters. Hawkeye wasn't much of a letter writer, but he was making an obvious effort and I'd gotten a letter from BJ, thanking me for the photos and sending more hugs to Peggy and Erin.

"They miss you really badly," Peggy observed as I read her Hawkeye's letter, and she laughed in the same places I did, sighed at the same time, and wiped her eyes at the same time.

"Oh, I miss them all too, they're fighting really hard to get me back." I said missing Hawkeye more and more.

"They obviously really care about you, my Beej wrote me so many letters fretting about you when you'd been shot." I smiled at that.

"I thought he'd been the only calm person in the unit." I said while Peggy shook her head definitely.

"Not even close, but he knew that he had to get you through it, for you, for your Ben and for himself. Here," She handed me a bundle of letters in BJ's script and I read about how worried he was, about Frank's botched job and the infection, and about the little sleep he'd been getting, how he was trying to keep everyone else in the camp sane.

"Well, it's nice to know they care," I smiled as Peggy and I tried to take our minds off it by cooking an elaborate supper.

"Okay Private, let's see your BP's normal, and your temperature's only slightly up, you'll be fine in a couple of days." I smiled and tucked the pencil behind my ear.

"Thankyou nurse, you look kind of tired, how about a lie down with me?" I flashed the gold band on my finger at him. I did look weary, Erin had stomach bug and kept Peggy and I up all night vomiting.

"Thanks, but I'm a married woman." I kept the fact that Hawkeye and I had chosen not to sleep together in Tokyo until we were together for real quiet.

"Well, if you ever get lonely - look me up." He persisted. I chuckled and moved on.

"Okay, let's see now Sergeant, is there any more movement there?" I gently flexed his shoulder.

"Yes but there's also a lot more pain." He winced as his stiffened, reconstructed joint moved slowly.

"Don't worry, we'll get you a little morphine." I kept going, it was nearly Christmas and there had been a lot happening in the camp, Frank had been given a promotion and gone insane, Margaret was married and there was a new Major in the camp. I missed them all terribly and from what I heard, they missed me back.

"Annie!" Peggy called as I walked in the front door of her house that evening.

"There's a letter for you, it looks official," She handed me the letter which I quickly opened and read.

"They're sending me to Korea again, the MASH 4077th successfully petitioned to get their nurse back. I'm going back, Captain's bars in hand to reassume my position as Assistant head nurse!" Peggy threw her arms around me gladly; I had been pining for the place that for whatever insane reason, I loved so much.

"And you're getting a promotion! When do you leave?" Peggy asked reading the letter herself.

"As soon as I can, which means I'll need two or three days at the most." I told her, knowing I'd leave in an hour if I could.

"Erin's going to miss you," She said softly as I sat down hardly able to believe it.

"I'm going to miss her too, and you as well." I told Peggy hugging my friend closely.

"I'm going to miss you too," She hugged me warmly and then we decided, 3am or no in Korea, to ring the camp and tell them the news.

"Goodbye Annie, I home we catch up again someday," Peggy hugged me as I prepared to fly back to Korea in time for Christmas.

"See you Peggy and thankyou for everything you did while I was here." I kissed her cheek.

"Bye, bye baby. Take good care now Sweet Pea." I lifted Erin and hugged her tightly, not wanting to let the little girl go.

I was torn between two worlds. The pleasant civilisation of Mill Valley or the messy camp that held my dear friends and husband.

I had to let go at last and for the second time, I left the safety and comfort of the States and went back to Kim-Po.

"Ever flown in one of these things before?" I knew the voice; it was John Sanders, the Sergeant who had flown me to the 4077th the first time.

"No, never I'd never even been on a plane till I came out here." I fibbed, laughing at the familiar line, he'd used so long ago.

"Well don't worry, you're with the best darn pilot this side of Korea." He assured me as the chopper rose into the sky.

"Are you ready for your descent into hell?" He asked me as he landed the chopper back at the place I had called home.

"BJ! Margaret!" I collected my friends in a tight hug, and very surprised, they hugged me back.

"How's my little girl?" BJ asked with a teasing tone.

"Not so little I'd say." Margaret commented significantly, referring to the night the whole camp knew I'd spent in Tokyo with my new husband.

"I'm still your little girl!" I protested, meeting Margaret's eyes honestly, telling her with a look nothing physical happened.

"Well I'll be, if it isn't Annie, Captain Annie at that!" Potter observed, seeing my new double bars.

"Colonel!" I ran to him and nearly knocked the man over in my haste to hug him.

"Whoa there!" He joked, hugging me back.

"Hawkeye!" I finally spotted my husband and we ran to each other, Hawkeye lifting me up and swinging me around, kissing me warmly. We came up for air and received a round of applause.

"Goodness, it appears she missed you cretins though I've no idea why." A well-rounded accent stated as I grabbed Hawkeye and BJ in a tight hug again.

"Oh shut up Chuckles," BJ said and we ran back indoors. It was December, two days before Christmas and freezing. Fortunately there weren't heating restrictions yet.

"Well, well, well, I don't think I can go giving orders anymore." Hawkeye teased, as I cuddled onto his knee and he admired my bars, or my neck, which was two inches away.

"You tease! Oh god do you know how much I missed you, do you have any idea?" and I kissed him deeply.

"Well, was that half of how much you missed me?" He asked smiling.

"Not even close!" I kissed him again and sighed with pleasure as his hands came up to caress my head and play with my hair.

"Why don't we head back to your tent?" He asked with a mischievous wink.

"Not on your life Hawkeye!" Angela interrupted definitely.

"And why not?" I asked curiously.

"Because you've moved in with us, they took down your tent when you left." I received the news half-gladly, half-not. I hadn't been thrilled with being so separate from the nurses, but I now I wanted my own tent for a bit, to discover whatever marriage to Hawkeye held.

"Which tent am I in?" I asked, deciding that there was always the Supply Tent.

"Mine," Half a dozen women answered at once and I laughed, there were two nurses' tents and everyone wanted me in theirs.

"She'll go wherever I say she'll go." Margaret said coolly, there was something wrong between her and the rest of the nurses, but for now that could wait as Hawkeye had obviously decided on a rendezvous in the Supply Tent and he was trying to inconspicuously lead me in that direction.

"Hawk, Chuckles and I will clear out of the Swamp for a while." BJ offered with a small wink. A ripple of laughter went around the camp, followed by 'Chuckles' a man who I had yet to meet protesting loudly.

"I, Charles Emerson Winchester III, vacate my tent for my louse of a roommate and his bride's mating pleasures?" He began in a haughty tone.

"Chuckles, don't you have a shift now?" BJ interrupted and the tall, balding man slunk off, presumably to his shift.

"I'll make myself scarce if you two lovebirds want to get reunited." BJ offered again, and I put an end to all mind-in-the-gutter-thoughts.

"What do you mean reunited, there's nothing to be reunited with?" BJ looked surprised and then downright disbelieving.

"You mean, you took your new bride into Tokyo for a night and she left Tokyo, you never knowing when you'd see her again still untouched?" Hawkeye nodded, smiling almost proudly.

"We just didn't want to in case well, you know. but we wanted to wait until we knew we'd be together for real." I explained while BJ still looked disbelieving.

"Well, you did the right thing son," Potter clapped Hawkeye on the shoulder.

"I'm going for a drink, who else wants to come, I'll even buy the first round!" BJ called, and seeing he was trying to give us some room they headed up to Rosie's or generally as far away from the Swamp as possible.

"Well, my sexy little Lieutenant, umm Captain, hell my wife, it looks like it's just you and me. Shall we go and practise some warming-up tactics?" He kissed me, and I knew though I had been pulling away from him for the past year that I was totally ready, and so I took his hand and let him lead me to the Swamp.

"I've never bedded a woman here and with good reason, other people have to live here. I think we'll take the Supply Tent Annie my girl." He said as we opened the door and ran away from the cold wind. I rolled my eyes as he filled a wine bottle with raw gin and added food colouring until it was a satisfactory shade of red.

"Shall we?" He asked, leaving an empty glass pointing to the Supply Tent on BJ's bed. I knew this would be so BJ could find him if he needed to. I took his hand and we hunched over, running to the Supply Room and locating the extra mattresses.

"Ready my sexy little - whatever you are?" Hawkeye asked, taking a swig straight from the bottle before offering me one. I shook my head at the offer of raw booze, I'd grown too used to the reasonable wine Peggy had.

"Well, I'm ready as I'll ever be," Hawkeye took my hand and drew me onto the mattress next to him and the events that followed are best left to imagination.

"Knock, knock? Anyone alive in there?" I woke up and smiled at the dark head next to me.

"Who is it?" I called, and Hawkeye stirred, cuddling me closely to him.

"BJ, are you guys decent?" I looked across at Hawkeye and we both laughed, decent was the understatement of the century, we'd both rugged up again as quickly as we could.

"Yeah, come in," Hawkeye called sounding extremely relaxed and casual.

"Aah, young love." BJ commented dryly taking in our rather messy hair and clothes.

"Ain't love grand?" Hawkeye quipped.

"I'll say! Now, they're needing to do a stock reassessment and there's a war raging, Major H vs. Baker." BJ agreed heartily with Hawkeye before warning us of the impending invasion and then directing the last bit of the sentence at me.

I sighed and pulled myself to my feet, preparing to play peacemaker again. I kissed Hawkeye and tried to neaten myself up a little. It was finally real, I was finally back in Korea, the place we'd all wanted to leave and the place I couldn't bear being away from.