M*A*S*H 4077th: Nurse Pierce

Chapter 4: The More I See You

Boredom arrived among the camp. Hawkeye and BJ were bored enough in their tent that they took the word and made a game out of it.

"So bored, it's boring," Hawkeye said as he knitted something.

"Boring-a-ding-ding," BJ continued as he threw darts at the dart board that hung on the tent door.

"Boronus, boreetus, boreemus. I came, I saw, I bored," Hawkeye kept going.

"Bored, she bored, they bored."

"All aboard."

"I was gonna say that."

"Sure," Hawkeye said with a hint of doubt.

Just then, two nurses, a blonde and a brunette, were driven onto the compound. The army jeep came to a stop right outside the swamp. He was happy to see new nurses arriving, until he thought he recognized one of them.

"Don't tell me. Don't even think it," Hawkeye said hoping that what he was seeing wasn't real.

"What's wrong?" BJ asked.

"There are five MASH units in Korea, three evac hospitals, I don't know how many aid stations clearing stations, hospital ships, whatever - and she had to land here," Hawkeye continued in disbelief.

"Which one?"

"The blonde on the right."

"Very attractive."

"Completely forgettable looks, that stay with you forever."

"Sounds like we're getting into flashback country," BJ commented as they watched the nurses pass by. Hawkeye did something that caught BJ by surprise. He hid from this nurse. "You gotta be kidding?" BJ laughed. "You just hid."

"I haven't hidden since I was three. Sometimes I'm sorry they ever found me," Hawkeye replied.

"You wanna talk?"

"We were involved for a time..." Hawkeye jumped right into it. "During my "regical surg" my, uh, surgical, uh, residency in, uh, Boston. - Wonderful girl. Good kid."

"You always react like this to good kids?"

"We were close. Pretty close. If I didn't see her every hour, I got the bends."

"What happened?"

"Nothing happened."

"You saw a lot of each other."

"Couldn't help it," Hawkeye continued. "We were living together."

"The plot thickens."

"Not long, a year, a year and a half. Not long. We had a small flat. Painted it ourselves. My hands were Hunter Green for a week. Told everybody I was a tree surgeon. It, uh, busted up sort of."

"You left her?" BJ asked.

"The minute after she left me," Hawkeye explained.

"What's her name?"

"Carlye Breslin. Altogether unusual," Hawkeye said as he perused through one of Major Burns' books and fidgeted as he said the following... "I don't... I don't mind her being here. No, I don't think I really mind at all."

"Is that why you're reading Frank's diary?"

"I mean, she can't help being sent wherever those idiots send her. It's just that of all the people to jump out of a Jeep in southwest Korea why the hell does it have to be her?" Hawkeye said as he slammed the diary down onto the spare cot. "I think I'll check this out. Find out how long she's staying, you know? Maybe she's not even staying. Maybe it's not even her."