“Don’t forget to wear your Hawaiian shirt to Casablanca! Max 'Dress to Impress' Klinger will be judging the fashion contest!” The PA continued, “Tonight’s film will begin at 2000 hours exactly. Be there or be square.”

Nellie shook her head. After eating dinner with Hawkeye, BJ, and Colonel Potter, she’d gone back to her tent. The soap she’d covered in nail polish were now dry. With some luck, she would be able to place them in the Swamp later.

A fashion contest? Nellie wondered just how bored her new friends got for that to be a semi-regular event. She had a feeling that Hawkeye would be participating. A part of her hoped that Klinger would show off his crossdressing so that she could experience it for herself. He seemed to have a great fashion sense - for the wrong sex. It made sense he would judge.

The man on the PA had said Hawaiian shirts, so Nellie took down Jack's pink, white, and aqua shirt from her wall. Off went her fatigues and on went the Hawaiian shirt. Using a rubber band, she gathered the excess material and tied it off to the side. With khaki shorts and a small, white flower pin from Honolulu for her hair, she completed what she hoped to be an acceptably fashionable outfit.

A knock sounded on her door. Nellie opened it. To her pleasant surprise, it was Shari and Kellye. Both wore their own Hawaiian shirts as well, and each had put their hair into pigtails.

"Hey," Nellie said. She shifted in her doorway, trying to adjust her sandals.

"We were hoping you'd come share some brownies Peggy got from home." Kellye gestured behind them.

With a big smile, Nellie nodded. "Of course! I'd be honored."

The sun had gone down a few minutes before. Only light from the Post Op windows and a few fires lit the compound. But even so, the camp was far from quiet as they left Nellie's tent. Corpsmen and nurses alike wandered to and from the Mess Tent. Dinner would be closing any minute. They had to prepare for the movie. She wondered if the whole camp would show up for it!

"Peggy's mom makes the most fantastic brownies." Shari subconsciously licked her lips. "They're even still good by the time we get them!"

"To be fair, I bet everything other than Mess Tent food is fantastic," quipped Nellie.

"You'd have thought." But Shari shook her head. "Then I tasted Peg Hunnicutt's fruit cake."

Kellye laughed. "I didn't think it was half bad! But really, I just long for Tokyo. Real Asian cooking. It's like my grandmother would make for us back home." As she trailed off, they reached their tent.

Light streamed out despite the drawn curtains and laughter escaped the door. Kellye knocked once. Without waiting, she went inside. There they found Judy Able, Peggy Bigelow, and Margaret.

"Major O'Hara!" Peggy grinned. The two had been hastily introduced during the OR session, but hadn't spoken since. "Welcome to the Bunkhouse!"

Nellie grinned back. "Please, Nellie's fine." She looked around. A bunk bed sat to either side of the door. Near the entrance, each side had a small end table too. On the third wall, straight ahead, a simple wooden desk and hutch provided workable space. "So the Bunkhouse, eh?"

"Only the finest nursing accomodations south of the 38th parallel," joked Shari.

"Excuse me?" Margaret objected.

"Major, you have your own tent! That doesn't count," Kellye said.

They all laughed.

"Here, have a brownie." Peggy offered a large tin to her. The side had 'The Bigelow Family' scrawled in red script. Inside were one inch by one inch little brownies. "My mom baked them."

Nellie popped one in her mouth. The chocolate explosion she was treated to made her eyes widen substantially. "Oh wow," she managed to say after swallowing.

The whole tent laughed. Shari seemed especially smug at her reaction. Quickly, Peggy Bigelow passed out brownies to the other nurses. Nellie grabbed a second one. The others followed suit as Peggy went to put the tin away; twenty hundred hours was rapidly approaching.

"Will I see you at the movie?" Nellie asked Margaret.

They walked next to each other away from the Bunkhouse. Half a dozen corpsmen hurried into the Mess Tent, all wearing some degree of Hawaiian fashion. Nellie recognized the orderly Goldman and Staff Sergeant Zale. The doors closed shut behind them.

"Oh I don't know," said Margaret. She shrugged.

Nellie flashed her a small smile. She turned to face her as they stood between their own tents. "I'd love for you to come. I need you to sit next to me so Hawkeye can't take that side."

At that, Margaret gave a small laugh. "Alright. Give me a few minutes to freshen up."

She grinned. Nellie headed back inside her tent and looked at the small mirror she'd hung on her desk. She'd never been one to care particularly about her appearance besides looking presentable and professional. Tonight she decided to apply a bit of makeup. After all, there was going to be a fashion contest.

When she was confident in her appearance being what she wanted, Nellie left her tent. A nearby lamp lit the area near her. She leaned against her door.

"You know, you look ravishing standing under an army regulation light bulb."

Nellie turned her attention right at Hawkeye's comment. Both he and BJ were striding over. The smirks on both their faces had her both smiling and rolling her eyes. "Shouldn't you two be getting good seats for the movie?"

"Hawk wanted to try begging you to sit next to him," BJ quipped.

"I object! I don't beg. I will implore, beseech, entreat. I will even grovel. But I will not beg!"

Nellie nodded to him. "How very noble. In that case, I won't insult your intelligence by rejecting you again." As she smiled his way, they all were distracted by the appearance of Margaret from her tent next door. "Ah. Now here's someone else worth sitting next to."

Margaret gave a small smirk. But then she put her hands on her hips and faced the two Captains. "Pierce, are you harassing her?"

"Me? Harass?"

Nellie bit her lip to keep from smirking again. "Don't worry, Margaret. I can handle myself around a flirtatious Captain."

A look of surprise and a silent gasp passed over Hawkeye. He was about to object at the unspoken challenge when Nellie and Margaret walked right past him laughing. Neither caught what Hawkeye said to BJ, or BJ back to Hawk, but they figured it wasn't for their ears anyways.

The Mess Tent was already starting to fill up. Margaret took the end of the third bench back, Nellie sitting down next to her. Before long, BJ and Hawkeye had joined them. A small part of her wanted to apologize to Hawkeye for her quip, but whenever she went to do so, the words wouldn't form. She had her pride to maintain, after all.

"No Hawaiian shirt, Margaret?" BJ asked. He took his seat next to Nellie, stepping over the bench from the back. His own orange shirt complimented his blonde hair nicely.

"I don't own one."

"I was told there would be popcorn?" Nellie asked a moment later. "Where do we get it?" BJ gestured to the back of the tent, and she thanked him. After asking Margaret if she wanted any, Nellie hurried to get some for herself. She wasn't the least bit surprised to find Hawkeye pop up next to her at the popcorn station.

"That was a blow below the belt back there," he teased. His blue eyes looked down into her own. "How could you shoot a man in the back like that?"

"Well, that's the safest way, isn't it?" Nellie shrugged. With a tiny smile, she shook her head. Then she paused. "Tell you what. I do owe you something for that joke. How about we grab drinks at the O Club after the movie." At his growing smile, she held up her hand. "Just drinks. And, you need to stop trying so hard to get me in the Supply Room. I am a doctor here, as well as a woman, and as… somewhat flattering… as the flirting is, I need you to dial it back."

Hawkeye grabbed two little yellow bags of popcorn. He nodded. "It's a date." When she went to object, he stepped back and laughed. "A joke. Just a joke!"

Even though she smiled, her laughter was hesitant. Still, she trusted him. Despite his pursuit of her and the other women, she had yet to hear any negative stories about the man. In fact, Hawkeye seemed to be just about the most liked man in camp.

They returned to their seats, Nellie with her own popcorn, and Hawk with his and BJ's. As a precursor to the movie, Klinger chose Peggy Bigelow as the fashion contest winner and did not, unfortunately, wear a dress to do so. The picture itself started around 2015 hours.

While Claude Rains rounded up the usual suspects in Casablanca and Ingrid Bergman cried her eyes out, the camp was in high spirits. Half way through, Nellie excused herself on the pretense of using the latrine. Instead, she switched the soaps of the Swamp's occupants with her own, altered bars.

She returned to her spot between BJ and Margaret just as Rick and Laszlo began talking.

"Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for?"

"We might as well question why we breathe. If we stop breathing, we'll die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die. "

"What of it? Then it'll be out of its misery."

The movie continued, the tragic love story of Ilsa and Rick coming to its climax as duty to freedom crushed their romance yet again. There was not a dry eye in the Mess Tent as the plane carrying Victor Laszlo and Ilsa flew off into the dark. As the rain fell around them, Renaud and Rick shared a few words to end it.

The lights came on, and thundering applause erupted with it. Nellie had wiped away her tears quickly before the lights, and now smiled at the blank projector screen. BJ and Margaret both left quickly. They were eager to sleep. But Nellie stayed to make good on her offer to Hawkeye.

"Drinks?"

"After you," Hawkeye said.

Nellie took her unfinished bag of popcorn with her. She munched on it. As they crossed the compound, a dozen or so corpsmen and nurses accompanied them. Clearly she hadn't been the only one with the idea for drinks.

"Hey, why don't we go to Rosie's? You haven't been introduced to that fine backwater establishment?"

Nellie looked at him skeptically. "Now this is starting to sound like a date."

"No, no, no. I promise. Scout's honor." He held up his fingers. "Rosie's is cheaper than the Officers' Club."

"Were you ever even a boy scout?"

"Not the point."

She rolled her eyes. "Lead the way."