3

Chapter Three...

It's been a rough couple of days for the camp. Moral was down, and it was as cold and wet as ever. So Colonel Potter in his infinite wisdom allowed us a few days of leave each, starting with the enlisted men. I was grateful for the few days I was going to get, but more grateful that Margaret would be getting some well deserved time off too.

After a few weeks, it was finally the officers turn, and so two by two we went. I laugh at the thought of the look on BJ and Charles's face when they got stuck together for the weekend. And since the padre would be helping out with the orphans, that left Margaret and me. Of course I had to make some remark which she promptly replied with some snide comment of her own, but I knew she was okay with the idea of us spending our leave together, with separate hotel rooms of course, but that could easily be fixed.

While Charles and BJ were gone, we were greeted in the middle of the night by six causalities. The three most critical patients didn't make it through the night, and for some reason Margaret blamed herself. She was the on call nurse in post-op, and when the three patients arrested at the same time, she couldn't get help in time to save them. Colonel Potter gave her the rest of the night off after that, and she came right to my tent, and cried in my arms. Under any other circumstance, I would have welcomed the affection she was showing, but not tonight. She didn't need a lover, not that we were but it has been on mind lately, she needed her best friend, and for tonight, that's what I was going to be.

After her tears stopped I could tell she was trying to sleep, and I knew what I had to do. Something I had been doing so many other countless nights; I sang to her.

"Angel of mercy you don't need no golden wing
Angel of mercy you don't need no golden wing
The way you came to my rescue
Heaven must be watchin' over me
When the shadows fallin' and the day turns into night
I hear my angel callin' and I can't wait to see the light
Angel of mercy you don't need no golden wing
The way you came down to my rescue
Heaven must be watchin' over me
Sometimes I get a feelin' like a fever comin' over me
Just a touch of my angels hand and I'm right back on my feet
Angel of mercy you don't need no golden wing
The way you came down to my rescue
Heaven must be watchin' over me
Stay with me baby. Come down from the sky
Just like an angel. Take me to paradise
Angel of mercy you don't need no golden wing
The way you came down to my rescue
Heaven must be watchin' over me"

I could tell she still wasn't asleep, but before I could say anything, she brought her lips to mine for a quick but sweet kiss.

"Thank you Hawkeye, thank you for being with me," she said while hugging herself tighter to me.

"Anything for you Margaret, anything;" I whispered in her ear.

And as she finally drifted off to sleep, it hit me just how much I meant it. Just how much she meant to me.

To be continued...