Finding The 4077th

Please...Mozart

The moment after Margaret left for her honeymoon Chris became very clingy again. He wasn't literally clinging to his dad this time, but he seemed to need at least a couple feet near the man to feel safe. He also wanted to be held a lot. Chris often put his arms around his neck and stayed like that for as long as he would allow it.

Hawkeye was having a hard time with it. He wanted to comfort the child but he also didn't want Chris to overdo it. He didn't know if this was healthy for the child or not.

That night Chris woke everyone up by screaming. Hawkeye immediately collected the boy in his arms, making the child stop his screaming and started sobbing.

"Chris, it's okay! You were just having a nightmare." He tried to calm down the little boy who was now sobbing hysterically.

"Shhh...it’ll be okay." he whispered to the frightened child in his arms. His voice was soft and soothing.

Chris felt damp from his sweat as he buried his face against the man he trusted. His sobbing slowed down but he couldn't stop his body from trembling.

This nightmare was a rough one. It was incredibly scary and he had felt so alone. As most of his nightmares this one started out pretty normal, but after a while he noticed people started to disappear. First they simply stopped noticing him and then they would completely ignore him and slowly fade away. It looked a bit like a big black cloud or smoke closing in at a rapid speed. And before he knew it, he was completely alone with nothing but black around him. He called out and cried, but nobody heard him.

Hawkeye held him close. "I know you're scared Chris. I'm here." He rocked the boy slowly back and forth in his arms. "It's okay..." he said again softly. "Everything will be fine…"

The trembling slowly stopped and Chris sighed deeply. After that it only took a couple of minutes before the child was asleep again.

Hawkeye put the sleeping boy next him and collected the blankets from his cot. He quickly wrapped them around the boy to tug him in before he himself fell asleep.

The next day Chris wasn't the only one who seemed to have trouble with Margaret leaving. Frank Burn was clearly not himself. The man was moody and his mood swings had gotten worse. So the Colonel decided to give him a couple of days of R&R.

After Frank left Chris became even more stressed. The child wasn't close to the man, but the change seemed to stress him out. The child completely stopped talking and became very held back. Hawkeye tried to cheer him up or even get a normal reaction from him but nothing seemed to work and it worried the doctor. If Chris was acting this way after only two people left, how would he ever adapt in the US. If he had to take his child away from everything and everyone the boy started to trust, how would he react? If the war ended tomorrow they would be in serious trouble. But on the other hand, this war could last forever and Chris could be well in his teens before they were able to leave.

During the next couple of days, Chris had another nightmare and his mood didn't change. And to make things worse they were overrun with wounded. Hawkeye had to literally pry the boy's arms away from his neck during triage. Chris wasn't happy to let go and it took a couple of stern words before the boy accepted he needed to stay out of the way.

The wounded kept coming and Frank had failed to report back to camp on time. And with Margaret still on her honeymoon they were short a surgeon but also a head nurse.

Nobody seemed to have time to watch over the sad child who was sitting in post-op. Chris wanted to be close to his dad but as he wasn't allowed inside the O.R, the post-op was the next best thing. At least he wouldn't be alone.

He needed to stay out of the way. So he went to sit next to the door on a chair with his notebook. Some of the patients tried to talk with him, but he completely ignored them, he didn't want to talk with them. During times like this it was better to focus on his story or on his schoolwork. He hated to feel this scared and it made his skin crawl.