Nellie and Father Mulcahy walked in silence across the compound. The sun had reached its peak for the day, but a few clouds floated in the sky providing some shade. To Nellie's surprise, the compound was relatively deserted. No orderlies playing basketball, no nurses sunning themselves. She supposed it was just too hot. But when Father Mulcahy opened the Mess Tent door, she found her assumption was wrong.

Instead, the Mess Tent had been decorated with toilet paper streamers, cut out red medical crosses, and more than a few alcohol stands. A banner made of bedsheet hung from the ceiling as well, with a hastily painted 'Welcome Dr. Nellie' across it. But rowdiest of all were occupants. Many nurses and some orderlies and the entire staff of officers had gathered inside and were chewing on chips that someone had broken out.

"There she is!"

At Hawkeye's shout, Nellie turned his way and folded her arms. But a small smile crept onto her face. He wore his Hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat, and BJ had on his own fishing hat. Out of nowhere, Klinger plopped a party hat into her hands.

Someone shouted from the crowd. "Great! Now we can start eating!"

"We'd hate to keep you from your food, Rizzo," Klinger shouted back. Then he turned back. "Happy belated Welcome to Korea, Major."

Nellie laughed. "Thanks."

As the tent turned their attention towards food, she moved her way over to Hawkeye, BJ, Charles, and the Colonel. Margaret moved her way over, a glass of gin in her right hand for herself, and in her left hand for Nellie. She took it.

"Nice party," said Nellie. She couldn't force her growing smile away, and after a moment, she stopped trying. "Who do I have to thank for this?" She looked straight at Hawkeye and BJ.

Hawkeye shrugged innocently. "Well..." With a grin, he pointed behind her. "Klinger gathered the party supplies,"

Between sips of the gin, Nellie turned to thank him. He just shrugged in response. The group took their seats at an empty table, and Klinger said he'd go get them some food.

"So, what brought this on? I appreciate the gesture, but I am a bit confused."

BJ grinned. "We never got the chance to throw you one of these before!"

"And so you just thought to do it today?" She didn't buy the explanation for a minute. BJ and Hawkeye were too observant for their own good, and as Klinger returned with trays for her and for the Colonel, she realized he might've had something to do with it too. "Toilet paper is an interesting choice of decoration though."

"Such a base commodity suits this fetid mud pit" Charles argued. He set his tray down and stepped into his seat beside her, across from BJ. "Toilet paper for a MASH unit is like silk sheets in a normal house."

"Most normal houses don't have silk sheets, Charles," BJ reminded him. Charles just smiled back.

"I think it was a damn good idea, boys" Potter said. "This place needed a pick me up. People were getting as jittery as a june bug in July."

Hawkeye held up his gin. "Here, here."

The volume in the tent only increased as more and more people who hadn't gathered for the last minute party poured in for lunch. Peggy, Shari, Kellye and Judy brought over a small box. It had been wrapped neatly.

"Open it when other people aren't around," Peggy insisted. "These men may be officers, but I wouldn't put stealing past them if they saw what was inside." She winked at them.

Nellie laughed, and looked to Margaret for answers. The head nurse just objected. She had no answers. And so Nellie nodded. "Whatever you say."

"I say you should open it up!"

"Of course you do," Nellie said. "Thankfully, I have self control."

After he sent her a quick smirk, they fell into silence more or less. The food seemed to taste better than usual. As they ate, Nellie found herself thinking about earlier. As thoughts of home returned to the forefront of her mind, she began to question several things. The food's lackluster taste fell away, and instead fears of her qualifications took center stage.

She'd only been in Korea for five days. It had been two months since Baltimore, but most of that had been spent in Honolulu and Tokyo, two wonderful cities. And yet she felt this deep pit in her stomach. If she was feeling this horrible after only five days, how was she going to survive here? Maybe she'd been wrong to volunteer. Maybe the army had been wrong to offer.

Father's words encouraging her to reach out seemed pointless. What good would reaching out do? All her life she'd had to rely on herself. No one else there knew what it was like to be her. Molly had, but that bridge had been burned. Any discussion of military-related matters would only make her fragile peace with Molly worse.

"You alright, Major?"

At the Colonel's question, she shook herself out of her musings. With a quick smile, she put down her fork and smiled. "Yes, sorry. I was just thinking of something." She shrugged, pushing away her plate. "I've actually got a bit of a nasty headache. I think I'll try to nap it off. Thanks for the party." Nellie held up her party hat and smiled. She took it with her.

It was a migraine at this point. She could just tell. The pain had settled behind her left eye, and as she walked across camp the sun made it worse. Hopefully a bit more sleep would do the trick. More sleep, and less thinking.

When she woke up, the clock on the wall of her tent read 2140 hours. The first thing she noticed beyond the time, though, was that her head felt tremendously better. Gone was the pain and nausea, replaced instead by hunger. She had slept through dinner.

The next thing she noticed was a knock on her door. Nellie remember hearing it before; it must've been what woke her, she realized. So she went to the door in her tank top and shorts and pulled it open. It barely surprised her to find Hawkeye and BJ standing there.

"I'm starting to wonder if we need to talk about you not trying to get me to go on a date with you again." She turned to BJ, "Do you encourage him?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted it in the silence that followed.

"You missed dinner, and Peg sent more rum cookies," said BJ. "Hawk suggested we share."

Nellie looked between them. Then she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Sorry. That was rude."

"I mean, I wouldn't say no if asking you to go on a date would work," added Hawkeye quickly.

Put at ease by his teasing, she laughed. "Maybe someday. I do believe you mentioned rum cookies, though." She invited them in with a tilt of her head.

"People might gossip if we come in," Hawkeye said with a wink. He walked right past her and sat on her desk chair.

She just laughed again. "Let them gossip. I'm fairly certain I'll create enough by just existing."

BJ went in and leaned against her desk as she sat on her bed. The tin of cookies popped as he undid it. Then he passed it to her.

"Thanks." Nellie tried to catch the crumbs in her hand as she crunched on her first cookie. Between bites, she turned to them. "I really do appreciate the food. I didn't mean to sleep through dinner."

BJ laughed. "Probably better that you did. It was terrible."

"No matter how many awful meals I get from the mess tent, it still surprises me," muttered Hawkeye. He took a cookie from the tin as well. Silence followed.

"So what prompted that party."

Hawkeye and BJ exchanged a quick glance. The former shrugged, and finished up his cookie before answering. "Well, Colonel Potter wasn't kidding, the camp's on a short fuse. Wounded's coming soon."

"You two like morale specialists or something?"

It was BJ's turn to answer. With a small laugh, he said, "Apparently the camp follows our lead."

"Or so the Colonel is fond of reminding us."

Nellie nodded. "So, a party."

"We figured you might appreciate it too. Bigelow said you didn't have an easy time in post op today." BJ let the silence follow his statement for a few moments.

Immediately she straightened up. Setting the tin to her right, she finished chewing and then shrugged. "I had a headache."

"Was it that lieutenant again," Hawkeye asked. He glared at the closed door before turning back to her. "You should really tell the Colonel-"

"Yeah, and what will he do?" She shook her head. "People don't change overnight. Even seeing me do a good job with his platoon isn't helping so I doubt a verbal thrashing from Colonel Potter will help."

"This camp used to have a dim view of female doctors," BJ admitted. "There was a nurse studying for the exam to medical school. It took a lot of work for her to gain the respect of many here. It can be done though."

Hawkeye grabbed another cookie. His leg shook up and down and he kept his hands busy. Finally, he spoke up again. "I knew a female surgeon. Inga was her name, from Sweden. Before her, I'd never met a single woman in the medical field other than nurses. I had a hard time accepting the fact that she could be as good and even better than me." He glanced at BJ and then back to Nellie. "Since then I've tried to rid myself of the poor opinions."

At first, she didn't respond. It touched her more than she was willing to admit that Hawkeye trusted her with his testimony. Thus far, he and BJ, and many of the nurses, had been nothing but accepting of her and she did have to admit it had been a surprise. Now she knew why. When she tried to respond, she found her voice didn't want to work. She looked beyond Hawkeye at the picture she'd taken with Molly and Jack.

"Thanks. For telling me, I mean." She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. "It's late. You two should probably grab some sleep since wounded are coming."

"You should too." BJ stood up from his leaning spot and stretched.

But she shrugged, walking them to the door. "I think I might take a walk."

"You shouldn't go by yourself. No one should walk around at night by themselves," BJ argued. "Hawk can go with you. He's antsy already. I'll never get sleep if he's in his bunk. He'll toss and turn for hours."

Hawkeye, lit by the spotlight nearby, just threw his hands up in self defense. "Not a date! I promise! Unless, of course, you want it to be."

She shook her head, biting her tongue to try and suppress her own growing smirk. Hawkeye's infernal infectious smile both infuriated her and made her want to smile along. She turned to the other one. "BJ Hunnicutt, you are trying to set us up! Can I have Peg's address so I can write her about your matchmaking!"

This time it was BJ's turn to get defensive. "Hey, I just want some uninterrupted sack time. That means no Hawkeye Pierce."

"People might start talking if me in bed means interrupted sack time," Hawkeye bit back.

Nellie outright laughed. "Fine, fine. I'll let him play bodyguard. You get some good rest." She turned to Hawkeye. "You better behave or I'm going to write my brother about you."

"Now I am scared!"

"Just walk."