4

"Ow! All right, I give. We give. You happy? We give. Ow!"

"Uncle! Uncle!" Trapper screeched, trying to push the chair up. "Now, get off!"

Satisfied, Charles leisurely pulled the seat upright. The remainder of the trip passed pretty much uneventful.

"So this is a foreign country?" Hawkeye surmised his surroundings, when he and Trapper were passing through customs at Tokyo's Narita airport. "Didn't we go over that date thing? Are we a day late? Or early?"

"Japan. It's called Japan, Hawkeye." Trapper advised. "I'm not sure about the date thing."

"Oh, and Japan? Just point me toward the geisha."

"Oh my, please show a little restraint, and do not embarrass your home country. And gentlemen, it's a bit past 0800 hours here, Saturday morning."

"Hey, didn't we get rid of you upon landing?" Hawkeye snickered. "I thought you weren't going on to Kimpo."

"Do not be absurd," Charles let out a sigh. "This is my stop, gentlemen, I am so happy to say. I go on to Tokyo General to demonstrate my expertise of the newest surgical techniques, while you two go and practice your dilettante skills in less than affable conditions."

"That's so? Well, we'll be.." Hawkeye began a nice retort but Charles had left to go over to the bank of telephones.

"Please tell me, that is her." Trapper grabbed Hawkeye's arm, watching the blonde in a WAC dress uniform walk nearby.

"I sure hope so," Hawkeye took a deep breath. And blonde, too. "Excuse me, Major Houlihan?"

"Yes, I'm Major Houlihan." She came closer, eyeing them cautiously. "Are you... ? You're not the doctors I'm supposed to meet, are you?"

"Yes, the very ones!" Trapper stepped up and took her hand. Margaret removed it promptly.

"Don't mind him," Hawkeye ooged in between them, shoving the duffel bags at Trapper. "He's just the bag boy. So, you are the nurse going with us to Ouijongbu, and the new MASH?"

"Yes, I am, and quite proud to be doing so." Margaret was still unsure about going on with them, personally. "At least I think so."

"And you're a major, too."

"Yes."

"Nice clusters," Trapper dropped the bags at Hawkeye's feet.

"Wh.. what?" Margaret sneered at the unpleasant jest.

"Well, gentlemen, I shall finally be taking my leave of..." Charles halted mid-sentence. Everything seemed to freeze for the moment as the two majors locked gazes.

"Major Houlihan?" Trapper put his face in front of Margaret's. "Maybe we should be getting to our plane right about now."

"Yeah, uh, sure," she answered absently. "You can go and find that out, all right?"

"Pardon me for staring, major." Charles regained his composure. "I couldn't believe anyone like yourself would be taking on such a tremendous and dangerous assignment. Especially with these two ruffians." He smiled the sweetest of smiles, "Major Charles Emerson Winchester, the third, at your service."

"Ohhh," Margaret gasped as he kissed her hand. "I am Major Margaret Houlihan, and I must say, as I've told the captains, I'm quite proud of serving my country in this way."

"And I'm sure you will carry forth with the utmost skill and ability." Charles said easily. "The work you do is quite admirable. Watch yourself at this MASH unit."

"Thank you," she beamed. Then added eagerly, " wait a minute, I know my orders said that it would be the captains and myself going to the MASH unit, but when I saw you... ?"

"No, I am stationed here, thankfully and temporarily."

"Now, that we have all of this cleared up," Hawkeye spoke up. "We can be saying our good riddances to the major."

"Oh, but.. "

"Saved by the broadcast," Trapper picked up his duffel, and shoving the other one at Hawkeye when the PA announced the Kimpo flight. He went to take Margaret's arm, but Charles got to it instead. He pulled her to him.

"What? Yes, all right," she replied as he whispered something in her ear. "Yeah, I sure can do that. Oh? And yes, I'll remember."

"Come on, major, we've gotta go be good little soldier doctors for democracy." Hawkeye threw his bag over his shoulder and picked up the larger one of Margaret's.

"Yes, of course," she answered, taking up her small case. A nice smile shared with her fellow major, and she, Hawkeye, and Trapper were finally on their way. Again.