Finding The 4077th

Someone Missing

It took a few days before Chris started to talk again. His first spoken word was the day after Flagg left and during the week he slowly became more talkative.

His nightmares were still there. This past week he had several smaller ones and one very big one which woke up the whole tent but besides the nightmares Chris seemed to be doing better until Rader went on R&R.

The moment the clerk left, Chris became even more clingy than he had been these past days, which irritated Hawkeye immensely. He couldn't get mad at the boy but it was driving him on the wall. It made him feel like such a failure and it worried him a lot about how the boy would react when they finally went back to the USA.

Hawkeye knew the child was just missing his friend but every time the clerk went away for a few days Chris went a bit crazy. The boy was already following him around but now with Radar gone, Chris even had trouble letting him go to the latrine on his own. The child normally waited outside without crying but now it seemed like he started sobbing as soon as Hawkeye was out of sight.

Of course Hawkeye wasn't planning on going to the latrine together with his son, so he had to be stern, but it was difficult. It felt like they were going several steps back instead of going forwards.

Right now he was in a busy operating room and he felt Chris's eyes burn. The boy didn't lose sight of him. The O.R. was a madhouse, they were stacked with wounded. Everywhere he looked, he could see pain and suffering. With every patient he treated, it seemed like two more would appear in its place. They worked non-stop, trying to help as many as he possibly could, but it was an uphill battle.

"Give me the Rib spreader." He said to Margaret, his helping nurse.

"Rib spreader" Margaret said at the same moment everything went dark.

A loud complaint erupted through the room.

"Come on with the lights!" Hawkeye said but he got interrupted by Margaret, who because of the darkness accidentally spread the spreader with his finger between it.

"OW! Margaret!" He yelped.

He heard a small gasp and felt Chris grab a hold of his coat. Of course his son came running up, thinking he was really hurt. "You've caught my finger in the spreader!" he said painfully.

"I'm sorry, Doctor!" She said as she immediately loosened the spreader.

The Colonel let out a loud sigh and snapped. "I thought that damn generator was supposed to be fixed."

Hawkeye freed his finger with a painful hiss and said. "I'm okay." Just to make sure Chris knew he was fine. He hoped that the boy would get back to his chair but the small tremble he felt, told him otherwise.

"Klinger!" The colonel yelled blindly. "Where are you?"

"Hiding from you, sir." The man yelled back.

"Get some candles and fix the generator!" The Colonel yelled loudly. "If it's kaput, crank up the auxiliary."

Klinger ran outside in order to complete the Colonel orders, while at the same time more people came in to help, so now each operating table had someone standing by with a big lantern.

"How's the digit, Pierce?" The colonel asked.

"Throbbing along nicely, thank you." Hawkeye answered.

"I said I was sorry!" Margaret snapped.

"Colonel?" Hawkeye started. Chris was still leaning against him and it was nearing his bedtime soon. He knew Chris wouldn't want to go, but a light out wasn't enough reason to keep the boy awake.