43

Chuckles of amusement and delight roared from the group at the sight of Hawkeye clad in his famous robe and adorned with an empty gun holster, a cowboy hat and a black arm band that read 'OD'.

"What does 'OD' stand for?" Peg asked curiously.

"Ornery Draftee." Hawkeye joked, giving her a teasing smile.

"Odious Doctor." Frank piped up, shooting his arch enemy a wicked glance.

"Only when you wore it." Hawkeye replied without missing a beat.

"Actually," BJ interrupted with a chuckle. "It stands for 'Officer of the Day', otherwise known as 'Odious Duty'."

"And this is how you're suppose to dress for such duty?" Peg asked with an amused smile.

"No, this is how Hawkeye dressed for such duty." Margaret replied, giving her husband a knowing smile. Then looking back at Peg she added. "I told you that they dressed very unmilitary!"

"You think that that's 'unmilitary'." Klinger exclaimed with a hearty chuckle. "Let me show you how the well dressed doctor makes his rounds in Post-Op." Flipping the photo on the screen he revealed Hawkeye dressed in his tuxedo sporting a pair of diving fins and his famous Groucho mustache and glasses. At the sight of Hawkeye's outrageous attire, the entire congregation exploded into riotous laughter.

"That's Daddy!" Rebecca giggled, nudging her little sister who was seated on the floor beside her.

"Daddy looks silly!" Beth added, giving her father a mischievous smile.

Hawkeye grabbed her and pulled her onto his knee. "I look silly, do I?" He repeated as he gave her a playful tickle followed by a big hug.

"Uh huh!" Was all Beth could say.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Sweetheart." Her mother commented, shooting her father a mischievous look.

"Hey, I don't car what you guys say." Hawkeye replied, pretending to be indignant. "The patients loved me...and so did the nurses!" He glanced slyly at his wife.

"Not as much as this nurse did, though." Margaret replied as she smiled affectionately at him and Beth.

"I must say, Hawk, you certainly go a lot of mileage out of those Groucho glasses." Trapper remarked with a laugh.

"He also got a lot of mileage out of my old tuxedo." Daniel added with an amused look at his son.

"But of course." Hawkeye replied with a sly laugh. "I needed something to add a little class to the upholstered sewer that we lived in."

"And Pierce needed all the help that he could get!" Charles quipped with a sly look at his old bunkmate.

"Don't touch it, Pierce!" Potter said, stopping Hawkeye before he could reply. Looking at Daniel he added. "When those two get started it can get very ugly."

"And trust me, Pierce can't afford to get any uglier!" Charles prodded, shooting his opponent a mischievous look. He was enjoying immensely shooting little digs at his worthy rival.

"Klinger, why don't you keep the slides coming before somebody gets hurt." Henry commented with a slight chuckle.

"Yes, sir, your ex-colonelness." Klinger obliged as he changed the shot.

"Whoa!" There were whistles and cat calls at the picture of Henry dressed in the suit that Trapper & Hawkeye had presented to him just before he'd left, or supposedly left Korea.

"Now that's what I call a suit!" Hawkeye exclaimed giving Trapper a teasing look. "You should have shown that suit to your tailor."

"And that suit lasted well." Henry remarked seriously as he gazed at his picture. "I wore it consistently for over two years."

"That's a darn good suit!" Potter agreed with a serious expression on his face.

Hawkeye started chuckling at a memory that had just came to him. He glanced mischievously at his wife for a moment before saying. "Remember the 'goodbye' kiss that you gave Margaret before you left?"

Henry glanced at his former Head Nurse and chuckled. "I remember." Then he looked at Hawkeye and remarked. "Though I understand that it was nothing compared to the 'goodbye' that you gave her when you left Korea."

Hawkeye and Margaret exchanged loving smiles. "No, I suppose it wasn't." Hawkeye agreed.

"And we have a shot of that famous 'goodbye' kiss at the end of out slide show." Klinger informed the group.

"You do!" Margaret and Hawkeye both exclaimed in surprise. "How?" The couple looked at each other and chuckled, still amazed, even after all these years, at how much they thought alike.

"One of the Enlisted men that was helping collapse the 4077th tents had been taking some photos of everyone saying 'goodbye' and he'd spotted the two of you kissing." Klinger explained. "He was so surprised he took a picture figuring that nobody would ever believe his if he told them what he'd seen."

"Well, come on, let's see the picture!" Henry encouraged eagerly, his expression excited. "This one I have to see!"

"I agree!" Trapper echoed, looking at Klinger expectantly.

The man at the projector chuckled wickedly and replied. "Sorry, gentlemen, but you'll just have to wait until we get there!"

"Ah, come on, Klinger." Hawkeye begged, his pleas followed by several others.

But Klinger remained unmoved. "Nope, sorry. You'll just have to be patient."

"Well then don't just sit there you Lebanese lout!" Margaret exclaimed in a teasing tone. "Get on with it!" Glancing at her husband out of the corner of her eye she added slyly. "I want to see if that kiss looked as great as it felt!"

"Who can resist a request like that!" Klinger laughed as he changed the picture.

"Ah, our humble hovel!" Hawkeye commented with an affectionate smile. Despite the fact that he hated the war and being part of the carnage that he resulted from the conflict, he did have a lot of wonderful memories revolving around the 'canvas cottage' before him.

"And don't forget the Signpost." Trapper added with a chuckle. "Our link to the outside world."

"So this is where you lived for those two odd years, is it?" Peg remarked, looking at her husband and his roommates.

"And no two years could have been odder." BJ quipped with a laugh.

"Except for the three that I spent there." Hawkeye remarked with a smile.

"And after three years of Hawkeye's housekeeping habits I bet the place really looked like a 'Swamp'." Trapper teased, giving his buddy a mischievous look.

"No worse than when you were there." Hawkeye shot back, pretending to be indignant.

"Actually here's a picture of the inside of the tent in question." Klinger replied flipping to the next slide.

"Well, I must say that the tent was appropriately named." Louise McIntyre commented with a laugh.

"And we did it without a decorator." Hawkeye quipped jovially.

"No, they did their own decorating." Klinger replied as he flipped the picture again. This time the shot revealed Hawkeye, BJ and Charles in the middle of 'redecorating' the 'Swamp'. Features were flying everywhere, Charles' mattress was sticking out the side of the tent screen, the entire place was in chaos.

"What on earth..." Henry exclaimed in disbelief. "What are you guys doing?"

"They were just blowing off a little steam." Potter defended, his tone amused.

Henry gave Potter a look of amazement. "You actually let them away with this?"

"Why not?" Potter shrugged nonchalantly. "Everybody needs to burn off some steam somehow. Redecorating the 'Swamp' was their way."

Henry shook his head in disbelief. "You're a lot different from most Regular Army Colonels I've ever met, sir."

"I take that as a complement, Blake." Potter smiled with amusement.

"Where were your bunks at?" Peg asked curiously as she tried to figure out who slept where in the mess of a tent in front of her.

"It's kind of hard to tell in this picture." BJ laughed slightly then asked. "Klinger, can you go back to the picture before this one." Klinger obliged and soon BJ was giving his wife a guided tour of his old home. "Hawkeye's bunk was on the left side of the door, the one with the bathrobe thrown on it in a heap. Across the room from Hawk was Charles' bunk, formerly Frank's. My bunk was beside Hawk's on the other side of the Still - also known as our 'fountain of life'.

"And I have a picture of Hawkeye and BJ with their beloved 'fountain of life'." Klinger commented as he flipped the picture a couple times. The shot was of Hawkeye and BJ, dressed in their bathrobes and straw hats, sitting on either side of the Still, a martini glass in hand.

"Now this is a familiar shot, eh Beej?" Hawkeye commented with a large smile.

"It certainly is." BJ agreed and then looking at his wife added. "This is me and my two favorite roommates - Hawk and our beloved Still."

"You guys certainly do look like you are enjoying yourselves." Peg commented with a laugh.

"We definitely were." BJ nodded eagerly, then added. "At lease as much as two guys can enjoy themselves while sitting in a flea infested tent surrounded by death and destruction."

"It was like having a private slumber party where the invited never went home." Hawkeye commented with a forced light tone. "And the uninvited kept crashing at all hours of the day and night."