44

"I'm still surprised that you got away with having a still in your tent." Peg remarked as she glanced at Colonel Potter. "It thought being a Regular Army man you would have frowned upon such a thing."

"Well, my dear Mrs. Hunnicutt," Potter began with a chuckle. "When I was in WWII I had a still of my own." Then in a stage whisper he added. "I got my Purple Heart when it blew up!" Peg chuckled in surprise at the confession. With a twinkle in his eyes Potter continued. "Besides, I must admit that I drank about as much of that home-brewed swill of theirs as they did."

"I must admit, I'm amazed that any of you are still alive after drinking all that rat poison that came out of that contraption." Margaret remarked earnestly, glancing at the group.

"I've got a stomach made out of iron." Hawkeye boasted proudly.

"That comes from eating in the Mess tent." BJ told him. "Come to think of it, its amazing that any of us are still alive after eating that garbage.

"True!" Hawkeye agreed heartily. Looking back at the photo he asked curiously. "Radar, how did you and Klinger ever get all these pictures? I mean these are wonderful!"

"Remember when I phone you about the reunion I asked you to send me any pictures or negatives that you had from Korea." When Hawkeye nodded Radar continued. "Well, I asked everyone else to do the same. Klinger and I also wrote to all the different nurses and enlisted men who had been assigned to the 4077th and asked them for any negatives and/or pictures that they had to spare."

"That sounds like quite the undertaking." Potter remarked deeply impressed by all the trouble the pair had gone to to make the slide presentation.

"It was." Radar agreed with a nod. "But actually, it was a lot of fun too."

"I couldn't believe how many negatives we got in reply." Klinger commented, his tone reflecting his amazement. "I didn't think that there was that many photos floating around of the good old 'four-oh-double-seven'."

"You should have known, Klinger." Hawkeye chuckled with amusement. "You were our resident developer. I'm sure that you got to see plenty of 'interesting' photos." He shot BJ a sly glance. "Some of them very interesting."

"To say the least." Klinger chuckled, catching his friend's sly reference. "I must admit, Radar and I had a hard time to decide what pictures best depicted what life was like at the 4077th. They were all so terrific."

"I could have summed it up in one picture." Charles replied sarcastically. "Take a picture of the garbage dump out behind the camp. That would have shown everything in one shot."

"I think the selections that you guys made are perfect." BJ remarked, shooting Charles a look of annoyance. "It helps bring back some of the fonder memories of life in that hellhole."

"This must have taken you boys a longtime to do." Potter commented in admiration.

"It did take a while." Klinger admitted, but then added. "But I think that it was well worth the time."

"I agree." Potter nodded as he looked at the picture of Hawk and BJ again.

"What other goodies to you have Klinger?" Henry asked curiously.

"Oh, we have many goodies, sir." The man replied as he changed the photo on the projector.

"Who on earth is that?" Henry exclaimed with a puzzled look on his face.

"The 'MP' is BJ." Margaret replied with an amused smile on her face. "And the funny looking goof-ball is my darling husband."

"This 'darling husband' or your previous 'darling husband'?" Trapper asked curiously.

"With BJ as his 'MP' which do you think?" Trapper shrugged non-committedly causing Margaret to reply with a chuckle. "This one of course." Looking at Hawkeye and BJ she asked. "Could you picture Donald Penobscott pulling some of the stunts that Hawkeye did?"

"Not on your life!" Was BJ's hearty reply.

"Well, who or what were you suppose to be?" Henry asked Hawkeye curiously.

"General Lyle Dumbcoft." Hawkeye replied seriously.

"Who?" Henry asked in a puzzled tone.

"He was pretending to be General Lyle Wisecroft, Chief of Staff." Margaret replied with a chuckle as she gave her husband an amused look. "With his own little twist of course."

"And he's certainly pretty twisted." Charles remarked, shooting the man a challenging look.

"Oh, he certainly is." Margaret laughed in agreement.

"I thought that you liked my twisted sense of humor." Hawkeye commented, giving his wife a mock insulted look.

Margaret grinned and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Of course I love your twisted sense of humor, darling. It matches the rest of you."

Hawkeye grabbed her in a tight embrace and started tickling her gently. "I know how to play dirty too, you know." He commented mischievously as he continued to tickle her.

"Stop it!" His wife exclaimed as she tried to squirm away from his hands. "Let me go!"

"Say 'uncle'!" He told her as he held her fast. "Come on, say it."

"Okay, okay, Uncle! Uncle! UNCLE!" She screamed in defeat as she laughed heartily.

Hawkeye immediately stopped tickling her and released her when she pushed away from him. "You brute!" She scolded, her tone reproachful, but her eyes dancing.

"At least she didn't beat you off with a stick this time, Hawk." BJ remarked with a laugh.

"True." Hawkeye grinned, catching his friend's reference.

"Excuse me?" Trapper exclaimed with a puzzled look on his face. "What are you talking about?"

BJ and Hawkeye exchanged amused looks before BJ replied, nodding towards the picture on the screen. "At the time that this picture was taken, Margaret was trying to set up a Triage program for the nurses so that they could handle that aspect of Pre-Op, allowing the doctors to start operating quicker."

"That was a very high expectation." Trapper mused. "After all, some of the diagnosis can be pretty tricky."

"That was my original concern." Hawkeye admitted. "But I greatly underestimated our talented nursing staff. They were quick to learn and were shortly helping out in Triage, making things go a lot quicker."

"Anyway, to help boost her idea, Margaret invited General Wisecroft to see her new program." BJ looked at his friend and chuckled. "Well, Hawk and I couldn't pass that up. While Charles was giving the nurses a Triage lesson in the Mess tent, Hawk and I crashed the party dressed as 'General Lyle 'Dumcroft'' and his loyal MP bodyguard. We were there to 'inspect the nurses'." BJ chuckled heartily as he remembered the scene that had taken place. "Hawk comes in crying 'Where's the girls! Where's the girls!'. Then he tells one of the nurses to suck in her gut and throw out her chest, then he grabs Margaret to him and says 'You stay just the way you are!'. Margaret started beating him off with her hands and then after he released her she picks up a pointer stick and starts chasing us out with it."

"Yeah, she hit me pretty hard too." Hawk commented, then glanced slyly at his wife and added. "That's how I could tell that she loved me!"

"You wish." Was her only reply, but her eyes were sparkling with amusement.

"Were you in love with him at that point?" Charles asked curiously, watching her closely as she responded.

Margaret paused for a moment before she replied. "At this point I wasn't sure. There were times when I was sure I was and then something would happen and I would be unsure again."

"When did you know for sure?" Charles pressed eagerly.

A soft smile spread across Margaret's face as she recalled the moment she realized for sure that she was in love with Hawkeye Pierce. "Remember when that baby was left on the 'Swamp's' doorstep?" She replied.

"The one that was half American, half Korean?" Potter asked, clearly remembering that particular child.

Margaret nodded and continued. "Remember how hard Hawkeye worked to try to get her out of Korea and sent to America." The others who'd been there at that time nodded in remembrance. "Well, I was so touched and impressed by his obvious concern for the child that I finally realized with unquestioning certainty that I was in love with him. He looked so perfect when he was holding that little darling in his arms."

Hawkeye gave her a sad smile as he remembered the little darling that had touched their lives so long ago. "I wonder what ever happened to her." He commented softly. "I wonder if she ever got out of Korea."

"I don't know." Potter replied softly, his heart also wondering about the welfare of their little charge. "But we did everything that we could for her."

Hawkeye nodded slowly, his eyes sorrowful. "I know. I just wish that it could have been more."

"We all do, Hawk." BJ remarked, his own tone husky. "She was such a sweet little thing."

"I have a picture of her." Klinger piped up as he dabbed at his moist eyes. Moving a couple slides around on the reel he quickly had the photo on the screen.

"Oh, she was adorable!" Patty coed sincerely. "No wonder you were all so concerned about her."

"You're right, Margaret." Peg added with a soft smile. "Hawkeye does look good holding her. It suits him." Hawkeye's old comrades chuckled at the comment.

"I don't know if you would have said that if you'd know him in Korea." BJ teased, shooting his friend a sly smile.