"Hawkeye."

Colonel Potter spoke his name softly. This was hard on everybody, but Hawkeye - he was taking it the hardest. He wasn't bouncing back the way he normally would - this hit too close - and Potter was afraid he'd crack under the strain.

"I could get Sydney to come talk to you. If you want?"

"I should have got to her sooner!"

"We had wounded. We needed you to take care of them."

"She needed me!"

"She knew what she was doing, wandering away from camp like that."

"I shouldn't have pissed her off like that. It was so ... childish."

"You can't live in the would haves and should haves, Hawk. She's gone. You'll need to come to terms with it."

((Part 1 of a series of ficlets to ... tie up some loose ends.))

"Margaret! Margaret!"

Hawkeye's voice was getting sore. He'd been hiking through the unfriendly - and downright dangerous - terrain near camp for an hour, with no sight of Houlihan. It had taken a few hours for her to be missed - Most everyone knew that when she was in one of her moods, it was best just to leave her alone - but when the choppers came and she hadn't come rushing back to help, Hawkeye had begun to worry. Couple that with shelling close enough to camp to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and that made for one paranoid Hawkeye.


The bombing had stopped briefly, and that was when Hawkeye had made his move. He was certain he'd find Margaret hiding somewhere along the path, but the farther he got from camp, the less certain he became. The sunlight was beginning to fade, as well, now, making it even harder for him to see.

"Margaret! Answer me!"

He stopped, waiting for an answer.

Nothing ...
Nothing ....
No-- Wait! What was that? Hawkeye moved foward, straining to see in the rapidly dimming light. A body, just a few feet in front of him. he could have sworn it wasn't there five minutes ago, when he hads still been staring blankly ahead, but that wasn't important. Army standard issue - it couldn't be. He rushed foward, half tripping on stray vegetation that crowded the road. It sent him sprawling to his knees next to the body. Margaret. Wounded by shrapnel - and badly, but alive nonetheless.

She was muttering something. Duck? Dug?

"Doug..."

Because I am not in H&M anymore, please remove all my characters from your friendslist.

Go to the admin console and put in

friend remove "2yng2sttledwn"
friend remove "childeofgilead"
friend remove "cloudmyjudgment"
friend remove "drawmenaked"
friend remove "majorhotlips"
friend remove "tough_broth3r"
friend remove "tara_j_maclay"

BJ and Hawkeye had just played another joke on Margaret, and she was fed up. But, as a major in the United States Army, she knew better than to lose her cool. She just walked away.

She walked past the mess, past her tent, past the latrines, past everything. When Colonel Potter asked her where she was going, she just said, "For a walk."

The Colonel gave her a strange look, but nodded, saying, "Hurry back if you hear the choppers. Don't expect this downtime will last long."

He didn't expect her to go far. She never did before.

However, Major Margaret Houlihan was not paying attention to where she was going, walking along a dusty dirt path that would take her to what was left of the bombed out villages in the area. She was too busy formulating a way to get Hawkeye dismissed from the Army. Of course ... she'd threatened that before.

"I wish ... I wish I didn't have to deal with him any more."

It was half an hour or more before she realized she couldn't hear the sounds of war. No bombing, no choppers. Nothing but quiet serenity. She looked behind her, and couldn't see the camp anymore.

"Well, shit," she said.

Up ahead, she saw some buildings. Buildings that didn't look like they'd been touched by the war - odd, but not impossible. She hurried toward them, hoping someone there might know where she was ... and how to get back.

"This is Margaret Houlihan. I am not here, but if you will please leave me a message, I will get back to you soon."