Nellie picked at her food. She used her fork to move the creamed corn around its tray compartment. She looked up. Margaret watched her with a smile. With a sigh, Nellie shook her head. "I'm sure I'll get used to it."

Margaret nodded. "You will." With a smile she began eating. Cold cuts, corn, and peas made for a less than scrumptious meal, but she couldn't afford to be picky.

"So, what's it like here?" Nellie glanced around. A group of nurses sat at a table across the main aisle of the Mess Tent. A few Orderlies had another one.

Margaret shrugged. "It depends on the day. When we get wounded, shifts can last as long as fifty hours."

"Do personnel rotate?"

"We take turns grabbing a bit of rest." She took another bite before continuing. "But often the surgeons will do twelve to fifteen hours straight."

Nellie nodded. Clearly she would need to be prepared for extended hours on her feet. Ten hours was typical when at Johns Hopkins, and she hoped that had prepared her well enough. After shoveling a bit more food into her mouth, she continued. "And when there isn't wounded?"

"Everyone deals with the boredom differently. I try to get as much done as possible: laundry, hair, nails, letters home. Pierce and Hunnicutt drink and play pranks. Poker is a favorite past time here. We host a poker game every other Friday in the Swamp."

"The Swamp?"

Margaret nodded. "It's what Pierce named the surgeons' tent when he arrived. It stuck. Good name for it, too; it's a complete disaster."

"Think they'd let me in on the next poker game?" Nellie tried to stop herself from smirking. Her brother had taught her to play back before he attended college, when she was just in high school. After she went to Cambridge for pre-med, it came in handy.

Margaret nodded. "Definitely. Any new money is welcome. There's a game tonight, actually."

"Good."

As they both returned to their food, Hawkeye, BJ, and Colonel Potter all showed up with their own trays. Hawkeye sat beside Margaret and BJ across from him, next to Nellie. The head of the table rightfully went to the Colonel.

"So, Major, how'd the tour go?" Colonel Potter asked. He smiled as he reached to grab the pepper.

"Everyone's been very helpful. I can't wait to be of help in turn," she said.

Margaret smiled and finished chewing. She put her fork down and turned to the other surgeons. "Nellie plays poker."

"Oh?" Hawkeye smirked at her. "We've got a game set up tonight."

"So I hear." She gave a little smile. Then she nodded. "I want in."

BJ laughed. "Trust me. Anyone with money is welcome."

"Considering you just got here from the outside world, you've probably got a pretty penny," Hawkeye added.

Nellie laughed. She made no comment as she finished her meal. She stood from the table alongside Margaret and bid them goodbye. She told them she needed to finish unpacking. What she really wanted was a nap. Once Margaret showed her where to stash her tray, Nellie made her way to her tent.

She welcomed the solitude. As the door closed behind her, she took off her boots. She eased into bed. Nellie found it ironic that the bed she had here felt like her dorm bed in pre med; she had vowed to never suffer that again. Yet here she was, halfway around the world and still suffering the terrible beds of her youth.

After a while, Nellie sighed. She kicked off her blanket sat up. Her gaze traveled to her shot glass that still sat on the desk across from her bed. With a little smile, she stood up and pulled the second suitcase out from under her bed. Two bottles and a bottle opener still sat inside. One was scotch, one was vodka. She pulled out the scotch and opened it. Nellie poured herself a full glass.

"Here's to you, Molly." She held the glass out. "We may be almost six thousand miles apart and separated by oceans, war, and time zones... but you're in my heart. Always." She smiled and lifted the drink higher. "To infinity, towards better things."

She downed the scotch in one gulp. The burning caused her eyes to water ever so slightly. Twelve year old scotch never failed to make her feel better. Nellie considered taking Klinger up on his offer to send a telegram out, but she was tired.

In the end, Nellie decided to take a walk around the camp. She hoped it would get her blood flow moving. There was more to the 4077th than the buildings, after all. With a glance at the clock, she was surprised to find it to be almost 1500 hours. She'd slept for longer than she meant to.

When Nellie opened her door, she saw that a pickup basketball game had been started. Several nurses seemed to be playing against some of the corpsmen. She leaned against her door and watched them. Besides the nurses and corpsmen playing, many of the lieutenants and enlisted surrounded the game to watch. Their cheers made Nellie smile.

She caught the eye of two nurses. One, a young asian woman, shorter and stouter than the others Nellie had seen thus far, nudged the other, a pale woman with freckles and black hair in braided pigtails. They both smiled at Nellie and waved. She waved back. It pleasantly surprised her when they made their way over.

"Major O'Hara, right?" asked the first. She didn't salute, and it didn't bother Nellie in the least.

"That's me!"

"I'm Lieutenant Yamato, but everyone calls me Kellye." She extended her hand and they shook. She had a warm smile on her face and then gestured to her friend who stood only a few inches taller, about the same as Nellie.

The second nurse shook her hand as well. "I'm Lieutenant Shari Saba, call me Shari."

"Then call me Nellie." She grinned and gestured to the basketball game. "That's a good way to pass the time. You won't catch me playing though!"

Kellye laughed. "Ah come on. I'm sure you'd be great!"

"I'll stick to beating the men in surgery, not on the court," she joked.

With a laugh, Kellye agreed. "It's nice to see a woman surgeon. Though I wouldn't trade my nursing for anything."

"Neither would I," Shari added. "But why should the boys have all the fun?"

Nellie grinned wide. She agreed with them. A great roar of excitement went up from the makeshift basketball game. The three women watched as the corpsmen scored again. Nellie then turned to Kellye and Shari. "I was going to check the camp out. I've only seen my tent and the hospital!"

"We could show you," Kellye said. "There's not too much to see, though."

Shari nodded. "Yeah, why don't we show you around?"

"Sounds good to me."

Nellie followed Kellye and Shari past her tent. The women told her that the chopper pads were just at the top of the hill. They went up the steps that had been carved into the hill and soon enough, reached the pad.

"The most severe cases are flown here by chopper," Shari explained. "It's faster than by ambulance."

"Usually one of the medical teams will meet the choppers, sometimes two, and another team will stay at the compound for ambulance casualties," said Kellye.

Nellie nodded. "Makes sense." She looked around at the pad. There was space for two helicopters, easily. Near the road up to the pad someone had left a wooden table and six chairs. In other corners were crates and materials. Then she looked out over the compound. "Nice view."

Kellye and Shari followed her gaze. They all stood quietly, watching the clouds float by in the blue sky. But Kellye soon nodded, and turned to Nellie. "I used to think that too. Then I realized that over there's the minefield."

Silence reigned again. Nellie let that sink in. She had done her best to prepare for the reality of what she was here doing, but the knowledge that there was a minefield right next to a hospital caused her more anger than she'd expected. She turned away from the view. "What's next?"

Kellye looked at her sadly. "You'll get used to it."

"What?"

"To the war."

Shari agreed. "For better or worse, it becomes normal."

Nellie didn't respond. She turned back towards the minefield one more time. Then she gestured for the two nurses to lead on. They obliged.

"The Swamp is where the other surgeons sleep," Kellye said. She gestured to a large tent across from the hospital, the closest sleeping quarters to the main building.

"Is it really as messy as Margaret was implying to me?"

Shari laughed. She nodded and gestured for Nellie to keep walking. Next, they showed her the Officers' Club.

"We don't restrict it to officers," Kellye added. "Enlisted are just as welcome."

After showing her Colonel Potter's tent by the other end of the hospital, Kellye and Shari directed her back past the Swamp and Post Op.

"Showers, Enlisted latrine, Officers' Latrine, and Laundry," said Shari.

They walked by each tent and building. Nellie made mental notes of each one. After Kellye and Shari showed her the supply shed and tent, they wrapped back around to the personnel tents. Behind Major Houlihan's tent were three nurse tents, and near those were six corpsman tents. In front of all those, on the opposite side of Margaret's tent stood Father Mulcahy's.

Nellie stopped in front of her own tent. It was nearly dinner time. The basketball game had split up, and now a few corpsmen stood throwing a baseball around. She looked at her watch. "What time does the Mess Tent start serving food?"

Shari looked at her own watch. "Four-thirty. So in about half an hour."

Nellie nodded. She turned to both women and smiled. "Thank you both for showing me around. Dare I say you're better company than the surgeons?" she joked.

"Of course we are," Kellye teased. "We're women!"

Nellie shook her head with a smile. "In all honesty, they don't seem like a bad bunch. What do you two think of them? Off the record of course."

Shari smiled. "They're a good group of guys. They're all really smart, and kind."

"Except Major Winchester," said Kellye. "He thinks he's above everybody else."

"Though he did honor his debts last September after he lost the baseball bet," Shari reminded her. "I thought he might've backed out."

Kellye nodded. "That's true." She turned back to Nellie. "Really they're all wonderful. Watch out for Hawkeye and BJ though. They'd sooner prank you than do pretty much anything else."

"So I've been told."

"And the Colonel is really nice." Kellye gestured over in the general direction of the hospital. "We were all worried he'd be overly strict after our previous C.O. Henry Blake left."

"Rest his soul," murmured Shari.

"Amen."

"What happened to him?"

Kellye frowned. "He got orders to go home. His plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan and he was killed."

"How awful." Nellie shook her head. "Well, I'm going to get ready for dinner. Thank you again."

"No problem!" Kellye said.
As they left, Nellie ducked into her tent. She sat down on her bed and yawned. With half an hour to kill, she decided to write a letter to her brother. The incoming mail might've been stuck for awhile, but outgoing worked well enough.

"Dear Jack..."