"Hawkeye's driven a jeep into the Officers' Club!"

I sat up and grabbed my robe. Falling out of bed, I dragged it on. Around me, surprised murmurs were audible as my roommates woke at Margaret's voice.

"What's the time?" I asked Margaret, following her out the door.

"It's just short of 0500." Margaret replied, as two MP's dragged Hawkeye to Colonel Potter's tent. I followed them, Margaret on my tail.

"Sorry to wake you sir, but Captain Pierce just drove a jeep through the side of the O-Club." One of the MP's was explaining as Margaret and I joined them. Colonel Potter had turned the light on and was searching for his dressing gown and glasses.

"Never mind, I only have to get up in another four hours." Colonel Potter sighed, and then started at the sight of the five people in his tent.

"I want to see Captain Pierce in my office, Mrs Pierce, I want you in my office in half an hour. Dismissed!" We all left.

At 0530 I reported to Potter, I went straight to Hawkeye, checking him out, and making sure he was okay.

"Mrs Pierce, your concern is needless, Captain Pierce is unharmed. Take a seat." I sat on the desk. Colonel Potter began to talk about how hard we were working, but how the trip to the beach should have given us a chance to relax.

"Are you listening to me?" He addressed Hawkeye, who was gazing at me lovingly.

"I'm all ears Colonel." Hawkeye stated with a lazy smile.

"You're all eyes Ben darling." I told him reproachfully.

"You're all here, Captain baby." He replied, blowing me a kiss.

"And soon, you'll be all there Captain babies. You're taking that 24 hours you won yesterday today, and I'm giving you an extra day. I think Pierce is overworked. You Mrs Pierce are going to see he's okay. You leave at 0900."

"Thanks Colonel. I'll see to it that he comes back refreshed and well- rested." I smiled.

"You do that, I can't find any reason why he did that and I hope a little R&R, will be enough." The Colonel finished.

"Thankyou Colonel, a jeep will be ready then?"

"No, but there's an ambulance headed that way then. You can ride upfront with the driver. Or in the back if you really want."

"Yessir. Thankyou."

"Dismissed!" Hawkeye and I left and I went back to sleep for another few hours.

"Bye Anne-girl, don't let him keep you cooped up all 2 days." BJ gave me a hug.

"See ya Beej, and don't worry, I'll be fine." I laughed and swapped with Hawkeye who was saying adieu to Margaret. She hugged me tight. We'd said goodbye to the rest of the camp, but the four of us, sworn best friends were saying private goodbyes.

"Take care, and don't go being taken prisoner again. That is an order!" Margaret told me sharply, but with a smile.

"Listen Margaret, it's just you and BJ for the next 48 hours, so take care of each other." I exhorted, BJ dragged Margaret and I in for a group hug and then we left for Seoul and 48 hours of each other's company.

"Hey gorgeous, do you want to go out for dinner?" Hawkeye asked that evening.

"I'm exhausted darling. I've heard sex is good for you and I'm not in a hurry to argue but I'm still exhausted!" He laughed. I had had about 4 hours sleep the previous night, and since we'd arrived in Seoul at noon, we'd been in bed and it was closer to 6.

"Come on darling, we'll paint the town red!" Hawkeye sat up leaning over me.

"Okay, baby let's go." I sat up, Hawkeye capturing me in a kiss. There was a knock on the door and I grabbed a pillow and covered myself as the receptionist walked in.

"Sorry to interrupt, Mrs Pierce, there's a call from your outfit."

"Thankyou, I'll be a second." As the woman left, I found my robe and headed for the door. Hawkeye followed me and caught up just as I picked up the phone downstairs.

"Hello?" I fought Hawkeye off my neck with a giggle.

"Captain Pierce, I wasn't sure if I'd get you at this hour." It was Colonel Potter.

"We were just thinking about going out, mmm, Hawkeye just a second please Colonel." I turned to my husband and kissed him heatedly.

"Now let me finish the call!" I picked up the phone again. "Sorry about that sir."

"I understand and I'll let you get back to that in just a minute, but do you think that you could pick up a nice birthday gift for Mrs Potter? I'll reimburse you of course."

"Yes Colonel, I'll get something tomorrow." I breathed as Hawkeye's skilled surgeons fingers easily found my navel.

"Thankyou Captain, have fun, although you sound like you are already."

"Yes baby." Hawkeye wound his arms around me, our robes the only barrier.

"That's Colonel to you!" Potter laughed, knowing I wasn't entirely addressing him.

"Yes Colonel baby!" I laughed back and we hung up. Hawkeye swept me into his arms and carried me upstairs. We never made it out to dinner that night.

"So Hawkeye darling, would you like to tell me why you drove the jeep into the O-Club and ordered a double bourbon?" I asked him hours later. We were still in bed.

"Do I have to justify everything I do to you?" Hawkeye snapped.

"Easy does it darling." I kissed my finger and pressed it to his lips. "I was just wondering why you did." I trailed the finger down his chest.

"Well don't wonder then." Hawkeye bit back, sounding angry. I backed off, not wanting to start a fight, as Hawkeye was ready to start yelling.

"Okay darling, I won't then. How do you like this?" I drew little patterns on his chest with my finger, bending down and kissing where my finger had previously been.

"I like it a lot." Hawkeye chuckled when I lifted my head. He kissed me and any sensible conversation ceased at that point.

"I'll have the chicken." I ordered lunch the next day and Hawkeye stiffened, and made a peculiar choking noise.

"Darling are you okay?" He looked pale and sweaty.

"Not the chicken, she smothered her chicken!" He broke down crying about chicken.

"Ben darling, what is it? Come on, let's go back to the hotel." I helped him up, and left, guiding him, crying about a chicken, back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel I tucked him into bed, and after reassuring me that he was okay, he fell into a deep sleep.

I decided to go home early. While Hawkeye slept, I packed our bags, called a jeep and a driver and got him downstairs and into the backseat.

"I can get you out to the 8063rd, but then you're on your own." The driver told me.

"That's fine thankyou." and the 8063rd, overrun with patients and down a doctor welcomed us with open arms.

"Well glue me to a pig and make me roll in the mud, if it ain't JB's little lady Bella Anne!" it was Roy Dupree, the man who had visited us for a week, I didn't argue and was taken on as an extra surgeon as they had more than enough nurses.

"Clamp Lorraine, and how're you?" Margaret's friend Lorraine and I had hit it off when she and Roy had visited.

"I'm okay, how's Charles?" I smiled; Lorraine and Charles had become good friends.

"He's as snobby as ever, determined not to sink to our level, he's basically Charles." I laughed, while the Chief Surgeon an insufferable Major inspected my work.

"Mighty fine job you do for a girl." I bit back the rude remark and with the rest of the OR turned as Hawkeye shoved one of the other nurses to the floor.

"Cover me Lorraine!" I ran towards Hawkeye grabbing him immediately. The nurse Hawkeye pushed put the mask back on the patient's face. In a second he was asleep.

"She'll smother him, stop her!" Hawkeye was putting up a good fight, I was strong, but this insanity was giving him power I wouldn't be able to hold back much longer.

"Get some tranquillisers into him!" I demanded, trying to hold Hawkeye back.

"We ain't got none li'l miss, we ain't had a delivery in a month! Paint my ears with jam and stick me to an anthill if I'm lying!" Roy slurred.

"Then hold him!" I pushed Hawkeye at Roy, who caught him for a second before I hit Hawkeye. Out cold, he hit the floor, and with someone's help I dragged him to a tent.

"Captain Pierce, what is the meaning of your husband's behaviour?" The CO roared at me, absolutely beside himself.

"I don't know he just has his moments. He drove a jeep into our O-Club yesterday."

"We're not here to swap stories, what the hell was he on about?" He shouted at me.

"It's just him." I stood in the doorway to the tent where Hawkeye lay unconscious.

"Well what do you suggest aside from a court-martial?" He roared.

"All I request is that no one goes near him, and with all due respect Colonel, especially not you, and I also ask that I'm allowed to call my unit."

"Very well, you know him best. You can use the phone in the office."

"Thankyou sir." I got through to Colonel Potter and explained the situation he told me to ring Sidney. That was what I did immediately.

"Hi Sidney, it's Annabelle."

"Annie, what's wrong? Why are you calling?"

"It's Hawkeye." I explained what happened and Sidney said he'd be down on a chopper the same day.

"Well Captain, what's happening with that maniac in there?" The Major demanded, he was a cross between Frank, Colonel Flagg and Donald Penobscott's worst features.

"Major Sidney Freedman is coming. He's a psychiatrist and he's treated Hawkeye and myself before."

"Great! Two loonies and a quack! Some outfit!" He stalked off and I returned to the VIP tent. Hawkeye was just stirring.

"What, where am I?" He sat up but I lay him back down, trying to keep him calm.

"Shh, Hawkeye it's okay, just back and relax." He wasn't going to give in and so I sat beside him the whole time; I didn't leave his side until later when Sidney arrived.

"Hi Sidney, have I ever been glad to see you!" I flung my arms around Sidney as he came into the tent; surprised he put his arms around me.

"One of the loonies is cheating on the other loony with the quack!" It was that horrible Major again, poking his nose into the tent. I felt Sidney's hands tighten on my shoulders, his fingers digging into my skin.

"Annie, don't do it, it's not worth it." Sidney said, his hands still holding me tight. I relaxed as the Major left. Sidney, looking uncomfortable the whole while, kept me there until I relaxed and the blood drained from my face.

"You better now?" I nodded. "Good, I really don't like having to use physical restraint on people." He released me slowly. "Now what about Hawkeye?"

"He did a two-year-old, shouted himself to sleep." Hawkeye fought me all five hours it had taken Sidney to get down. He'd even taken a swing and I had a black eye to match the one I had given him earlier. Exhausted, I'd pushed him onto the pillow and he'd fallen asleep, his face red and hair tousled in that school-boyish way I loved so.

"I need to talk to him, is it safe to wake him?" Sidney looked at my eye. I nodded.

"It should be fine, will you be okay if I get something to eat?" Sidney nodded and sat down beside the cot.

"I suggest you get that cut above your eye stitched." I put my hand to my head. I had hit it on something when Hawkeye had been more violent than vocal in his struggles. I headed towards the hospital and let Sidney do what he wanted.

"Well Sidney?" I asked an hour later, Hawkeye had screamed himself to sleep again.

"I'm going back tomorrow, he's coming with me, there's something wrong with him and staying here, isn't going to help. He needs time to think about what's upsetting him. I'll talk to Potter, and see what I can find out, who was with him on the bus?"

"Umm, he and Margaret were sitting together . . . wait, what about the bus?"

"It's all buses and chickens in his mind, were there any chickens on the bus?"

"No, a baby." I shook my head confused.

"You and I are going to have a little talk in the Mess Tent, I want to know everything I can about the bus." I smiled at Sidney and he walked me to the Mess Tent.

"The loony drugged her loony husband and she's off to screw the quack!" I started towards him, but Sidney put an arm over me in what looked affectionate, but I felt the strength holding me back.

"Yes we're madly in love. Her mind intrigues me so." Sidney bit back calmly. The Major snorted and stalked off.

"Thankyou Sidney." He let me go once I was calm and we walked to the Mess Tent. After a good long, D&M the Colonel requested that we all sleep in the VIP tent and Sidney and I bedded down on the floor, Hawkeye slept on unaware of our discomfort.

"Thankyou again Sidney," It was the next morning and Klinger had been sent in a jeep to come get me. Sidney was flying back up too.

Hawkeye was fuming form his position on the side of the helicopter. It was the only way to get him and Sidney up at the same time.

"Shh Hawkeye, now I've got to go, be good." I kissed Hawkeye and he raved noisily.

"Let's go Klinger." I said firmly.

"Right this way ma'am." He took my elbow and led me to the jeep. As we drove out of the camp, the chopper rose to the sky and Klinger reached over and touched my arm in an unusually warm motion.

"He'll be okay Annie," We went back to the 4077th, and I went straight to BJ and Margaret. Both of them sitting up with me all night, rocking me as I sobbed and cried and then finally settling me into Hawkeye's bunk in the Swamp. I woke once, and BJ was there, lying stunned on his bunk, watching me anxiously.

"Has Sidney called?" I asked at once, sitting up. Someone had removed my shoes, jacket, hat and bars.

"He did. Come here Anne." I realised then that he was drunk, as I crossed the tent shakily and he shifted back on his bed so I could lie down with him.

"Stretch out Anne, it's okay." BJ promised, and I trusted him, lying down next to BJ, who cuddled me warmly to him.

"He called to say that he doesn't know how long he'll be there for, Hawk's a mess." Now I knew why BJ had been drinking. The thought that the war had taken its toll on one of our very closest friends in a way we'd only heard about was just plain scary.

BJ and I held each other and cried until we went to sleep. Later, I heard BJ's voice and felt Charles's hands as he carried me over to Hawkeye's bunk. I was so close to sleep, everyone thought I was. Potter's voice was over me, his hand soft on my cheek. I went to sleep fully, but woke at Margaret's hands, unpinning my hair and taking off my Class-A's. I felt her carefully tuck me in and kiss my forehead, and then I fell deeply asleep, not waking until we had to face the torture of OR without Hawkeye.

I don't know what was harder, the first days without Hawkeye, or the later days as the weeks wore on when I discovered an unplanned, but not entirely unpleasant surprise. Either way there was a huge hole in the camp, a void normally filled by my husband who was bordering on insane in a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo.