From her vantage point on the chopper pad, Nellie started sketching the camp. Between journaling her thoughts, pictures of the buildings took shape. She spent several hours there, missing lunch. After the sketches of the camp became boring, she moved on to sketching characters from the latest Walt Disney Productions animated film.

She'd seen Cinderella at the very end of her residency. It brought back happy memories from when she and her parents went to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Soon she found flying elephants, dwarves, and princesses sketched out over her journal. Even a deer or two graced the pages.

Around three in the afternoon, she decided to head back to her tent. Her stomach growled. Suddenly missing lunch didn't seem like such a good idea. As she walked through the nurses' tents, she could hear a chorus of voices from the compound. Five nurses went against five corpsmen in basketball. Nearby BJ, Hawkeye, and the Colonel chatted while playing horseshoes.

Nellie ducked inside her tent. Her journal slipped into her side table drawer, and her pencil onto her desk. She did her hair in a quick braid, tired of it falling into her face. As she turned away from her mirror on her desk, she saw three bars of soap sitting on her bed.

She grinned. Quickly Nellie pulled out her small basket of nail polish. From amongst the colors she retrieved the clear coat. She set to work. Each bar of soap received a clear coat of nail polish to keep them from lathering when used. All she would need to do was distribute them to her targets without getting seen: Charles, Hawkeye, and BJ. She decided to leave Margaret out of it, hoping to incriminate her in the prank.

By the time she finished and set them to dry, the clock read 3:30. She grabbed the letter she'd written for Jack and slipped it into her pocket. The compound was still full of people trying to occupy their time. BJ was failing miserably at horseshoes, much to the amusement of Hawkeye. Nellie made her way over to them.

"Just try to release a little later," Colonel Potter said to BJ. "You're almost there."

"I'm about as close to making these as I am to seeing Peg."

"Here here here. Let me show you." Hawkeye took one of the horseshoes from him. He took a step forward and released. The shoe clunked to the ground a foot from the stake. He cursed.

BJ smirked. "Beautiful work."

"Major! Care to try?" Potter held out two horseshoes to her. "Are you better than these two?"

BJ and Hawkeye looked her way. The former stood with his arms crossed. But Nellie just laughed. "Oh no. That's not a question I need answered." She waved them off. "I appreciate the offer, but I've never even seen a horse in person. Let alone tried to throw a horseshoe."

The Colonel cracked a smile. "Well that won't do. We've got a horse here!"

"Sophie," Hawkeye said.

"She's my mare. A true beauty." He went to toss another shoe. After it clanged right into the stake, he turned to her.

A Jeep came whizzing into the compound. Nellie stepped out of the way quickly. It came to halt in front of them. Father Mulcahy was driving.

"Tell me you got it," said Colonel Potter.

"Good news! I got a film. We've got a popular one this week!" Mulcahy climbed out of the jeep. He pulled out the package.

"What is it?" Nellie asked.

"Casablanca."

"Not a western, but a damn good film." Colonel Potter nodded as he took it. He turned to the three surgeons. "You three gonna be at the movie tonight?"

"Sure, why not," BJ said.

"Why not?" Hawkeye looked at him like he was crazy. "Ingrid Bergman's the star and you say sure?"

BJ chuckled. "Don't get me wrong! I'm excited!"

"I should hope so!"

He just rolled his eyes. "Nellie?"

She shrugged. "Probably."

"Ah come on!" Hawkeye poked her in the shoulder. At her questioning look, he continued. "It's a movie! Watch it while you can." Then he smirked. "You can sit with me! We can share popcorn."

"You don't give up, do you." Nellie tried to stop herself from smiling. She shook her head. "I'll go to the movie. But I'll have my own popcorn thank you."

BJ laughed. Patting Hawkeye on the back, he just grinned. "Well you tried."

"I have not yet begun to try!"

"Better watch out," said BJ to Nellie. "He may even start grovelling."

She couldn't stop herself from chuckling. With a simple shake of her head, she walked away. Nellie went directly to Klinger's office. She found him inside typing away at his typewriter.

Nellie pulled out her letter to Jack. She handed it over. "Here, Klinger. Can you send this out tomorrow?"

"Sure." He took the letter and slid it into his outbox. Then he grinned and turned to her. "Did you hear! We got Casablanca!"

With a quiet laugh, she shook her head. "Yes."

"Hey it's big news! We never get good pictures."

Nellie nodded. "I'm sure it is. I'll see you at the movie later."

With a quick smile, she left the office and headed out into the compound. She'd overheard a few corpsmen talking about the weather. Apparently the stretch of moderate temperatures was sure to disappear any day. Looking up towards the sun, she understood why. Even in late March it felt hotter than she'd have expected.

"No you can't!" BJ said loudly.

Nellie looked over. He and Hawkeye were messing with the horseshoes. The latter had thrown his somewhat close to the stake. But BJ seemed to be irritated with something else. Or incredulous.

"You're hopeless at darts," said Hawkeye.

"Me?!"

"You couldn't hit a target if it was two feet from you!"

Nellie laughed. Both surgeons looked over to her and Hawkeye grinned in response. As he picked up his thrown horseshoes, he pointed to her.

"See! She agrees!"

"She's just laughing at you."

Nellie put her hands on her hips. As she walked over, she shook her head. "Ah, no, gentlemen. I don't have enough information to take one side or the other." But she cocked her head to the side. "There's an easy way to solve this."

"Do you play?" asked BJ.

As he too collected his horseshoes, she gave a small shrug. She told them she'd been known to throw a few darts. The grin that settled in to Hawkeye's face made her own smile. Though she had absolutely zero intention of letting him know or developing feelings for the man, she absolutely loved the way his eyes smiled, too. It was infectious.

Hawkeye all but pushed her towards the Swamp. The horseshoes were given to a couple of corpsmen, Roy Goldman and Dennis Troy. They set up their own game.

As Nellie went inside and sat at the bottom of the empty cot, Hawkeye dug around for the darts. BJ closed the Swamp door behind them.

"You're going to look awfully silly when you lose to me in front of Nellie," BJ said.

With an incredulous scoff, Hawkeye looked over at him. His eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah?"

"Great comeback."

Nellie leaned over to look at BJ's bunk area. "Got any more of those rum cookies?"

"Yeah. Hungry?"

"Starved. I missed lunch."

Hawkeye laughed. As he produced the set of five darts, he spun around towards them. He handed them to BJ.

"Five shots each. The one closest wins."

With a nod, Hawkeye turned to BJ and Nellie both. "Let's make this more interesting. Each shot outside the middle ring means the you have to take a drink of gin."

"Seems only fair," Nellie agreed. She sent a smirk towards Hawkeye. Then she held her out her hand. "I think we should all start with one too."

Hawkeye's grin grew. With a flourish, he filled up a martini glass and handed it over to Nellie. She took it carefully. The gin nearly choked her at first, but after a moment it settled down. While Hawkeye filled one for himself, and then for BJ, she sat drinking.

"Who's first?" she asked.

"Me of course." Hawkeye took back the darts.

As he looked around for where best to stand, Nellie scooted a bit on the cot. She gestured over to herself. "Stand here. It's about as far as you can get."

Hawkeye smirked. He scooted over to beside the extra cot. "Any excuse to be by your side, after all."

"Throw the darts, Swamprat." Then she smirked back. "Hey you never know, maybe if you win I'll let you sit next to me at the movie."

The surprised chuckle that Hawkeye released didn't stop Nellie from staring him right in the eyes. BJ just stood to the left, near to Hawkeye's bunk, and watched them both in amusement.

"Right." Hawkeye bowed to Nellie. "Mademoiselle. Prepare to be amazed." He quickly turned and threw one of the darts. It hit just to the right of the nine. He swore.

"Drink up," BJ said.

Hawkeye didn't even hesitate. With a dramatic move, he gulped down half his martini glass of gin. He coughed and sputtered only briefly. "Good batch," he said as he turned to BJ.

"We aged it an extra ten minutes. Throw again."

This time the dart hit the center large ring. His next two resulted in two more large drinks from his glass, but the final one nearly hit the bullseye. Leaving BJ to retrieve the five darts, he grabbed his hat and sat down on the side of the cot that Nellie occupied.

She didn't move much, just enough to turn and face him. With a quick gesture to his absurd hat, she shook her head. "You haven't won yet, Cowboy."

"Oo! Swamprat and cowboy. Thanks for the pet names," he said smartly.

With a scoffing laugh, she shook her head. "BJ, do you mind if I go?"

"Ladies first," he agreed.

"Thank you."

Nellie got up from the cot, leaving Hawkeye to collapse over its side. The darts weighed heavier in her hand than she was expecting. Shifting four to her left hand and one to her right, she prepared to throw. Taking a deep breath, she released it and the dart simultaneously.

The thunk it sounded made her nervous. But to her pleasant surprise, it had gotten inside the innermost circle. She grinned. Darts had never been her best game; Jack had beat her nearly every time. He'd gotten plenty of practice in Honolulu, was what he'd tell her. She tried to channel her brother as she threw the next one.

"I've seen worse," BJ assured her. "Mostly by the Cowboy over there."

This one had hit in the outer circle. One drink. Her last three stayed towards the middle, and if they'd been keeping score, might even have beaten Hawkeye. But in terms of who was closest, he had come out ahead. She hated losing.

BJ took out the darts again. Nellie stood to the side, refusing to give Hawkeye the satisfaction of her company. As she sipped at her gin, she watched BJ move into position. His first two shots went side of the center ring, and his next two stayed near where Nellie's had ended up. But with his final shot, he got even closer to the bullseye than Hawkeye.

"I think that beats you," BJ said with a smirk. He walked over to Nellie and offered to refill her drink.

"Please, thank you."

"Hey just because you won this round doesn't make you better than me, fella." Hawkeye stood and took the darts. He walked over towards the heater. With his back to the door, he started to throw the darts over his shoulder.

BJ hummed. As he handed over the drink to Nellie, he smiled. "I do believe this means I get to sit next to Nellie at the movie."

The smile on Nellie's face grew. She could all but see Hawkeye's jealousy. With a nod at BJ, she agreed. "Why yes it does!"

"He's no fun," argued Hawkeye.

Nellie just laughed. As she downed another drink of gin, she shrugged. "Sorry, Hawkeye. Fair is fair." She stood from the cot and toasted Hawkeye with her martini glass. "Better luck next time."