Two days of "Colonel" Hawkeye, and Nellie was starting to hope for Potter back. It wasn't that the camp didn't run smoothly. But she found herself missing the man himself. His sturdy presence, even if she didn't interact with him much, seemed like a rock in the ever-changing MASH unit. Besides, she'd had enough of Charles's constant complaining about being passed over for leadership.

Hawkeye and Klinger had explained to the staff that the Colonel had been needed at Tokyo General Hospital. Briefly Nellie's thoughts drifted to Major Lauren Huntsman, one of the other Athena Project women. She had been stationed at Tokyo General. Besides him going for a sick friend, they hadn't heard much else.

"C'mon Major!" 

Nellie turned. Bigelow's voice forced her from her thoughts and back to the current challenge. She'd been roped into shooting a basketball. The ball careened into her chest and she grabbed it with a grunt. "My turn?"

"Yeah."

Frowning, she went to pawn the ball off on someone else. But Kellye, Gwen, Shelley, and Bigelow stood there with arms crossed.

"Fine." She put her feet in the proper position and vaulted the ball forward. It hit the backboard. "Damn!"

Shelley laughed. "You weren't kidding. You're not very good at this."

"You could have the courtesy to let me fail in peace."

Kellye smirked as she took the ball. "Is that an order?"

Scoffing, Nellie nodded. "I have half a mind to make it one."

The ball zipped through the net with a gentle woosh. The other nurses cheered, and Nellie just bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. But a few moments later, an odd chorus of voices caused them all to turn. Just as BJ and Hawkeye walked by, they found what could only be described as a horde of Korean children walking into camp following an older, white woman.

"We're looking for some doctors!" she said quickly.

"What a coincidence. We're looking for some patients." The smile that had settled on Hawkeye's face only grew as more kids came in. 

BJ asked what the matter was. The others moved over, quickly checking the children for injuries. The youngest looked about four and the oldest maybe thirteen. Nellie stood before a girl on the older end of the spectrum. As Nurse Betty Halpern, they learned her name was, explained, the children were refugees from a village which had been shelled a few days prior.

"I'm taking them south to safety, but we had to hide out in some farmland and they got scratched up somethin' bad." 

Nellie held out her hands, palms up. The girl's face never changed from resolute stoicism. Her brown eyes looked into her own blue ones. Nellie cracked a smile. The girl flinched back as she pushed her hair back and checked her neck. Several cuts trailed down the girl's skin.

"We need to inoculate them for tetanus."

Nurse Betty looked at them and frowned. "Is that really necessary?"

Hawkeye agreed with BJ's assessment. With a nod and a smile, Nurse Betty turned to the kids and spoke in Korean. The language sounded like a song to Nellie's ears. She'd admired it since coming to Korea. Together with the doctors and several nurses, they took the children to the Mess Tent.

The children followed Nurse Betty like ducklings. Before long they were situated in the Mess Tent and BJ went to find Charles to get their supplies ready. By now, a dozen of the nurses crowded into the tent to help, along with Father Mulcahy.

Nellie stayed quiet, watching them. She had never felt entirely comfortable around young children; they always behaved in ways she didn't expect. Her mother had laughed when she'd explained this. Apparently her mother hadn't known what to do with Nellie as a child either, given her penchant for acting contrary to most girls her age. And of course, the behavior had only been egged on by her dad and brother.

Most of the boys acted rambunctious enough, despite their upbringing in a wartorn country. As the minutes ticked by and the waiting dragged on, the kids began to run around. Their screaming and little shrieks as they dodged capture put Nellie on edge. But a few of the older girls and boys stood more quietly. The one Nellie had seen to earlier stood with them.

She walked over to them. The two girls and one boy eyed her warily. But she showed her palms yet again. Then with a deep breath to comfort herself, she gestured inward. "Nellie."

They didn't respond. One of the girls had hair to her shoulders, and the one from earlier had straight black hair down almost to her waist. They really were quite beautiful. Just as Nellie went to give up, they seemed to calm down.

"Sook." The girl Nellie had helped gestured to herself. "Sook." Then she gestured forward. "Nellie." The pronunciation came out strangely, but it got the point across.

Nellie grinned. "Nellie."

The other girl shot her a tiny smile. Pointing at herself, she said, "Sang-Hee."

"Daeshim." The boy set his feet firm, arms crossed. The wariness didn't fade even as he gave his name.

The screeches and pounding of little feet continued to fill the Mess Tent. BJ and Charles handed out several test needles, and finally came to her. Nellie nodded with a smile and took her batch. The kids would be getting a miniature dose to check for allergies. Setting herself down at her usual Mess Tent table, Betty Halpern came over and explained to them in Korean what would be happening.

The injections didn't take long at all. Soon the youngest were running in circles and the oldest standing and glaring. Nellie closed her eyes for a moment and tried to picture her apartment back home. Quiet, neat, warm. The Mess Tent only had one of the three.

"Everybody pipe down!"

She opened her eyes at Nurse Betty's shout and smiled. Sook stood before her. The girl gestured to her arm. A rough, red patch had formed on the injection site. Nellie frowned. Sang-Hee and Daeshim had the same problems, as did the other four she had helped.

"Hawk-"

"They're all reacting," he confirmed.

Charles turned to them. "We'll have to dilute."

"Why? What's the matter?" Nurse Betty frowned. She sat at BJ and Hawkeye's table, looking after the children carefully. 

"Full scale inoculations could put them into shock."

Margaret walked over, a young girl in her arms. She shrugged. "I'll make arrangements for them to sleep overnight."

"Good thing Post Op's clear," said Nellie quickly. She walked over and placed the medicine bottles in Hawkeye's table. "They should fit there." 

Together with BJ, Nellie helped move the serum bottles back to storage. She took a deep breath as they left the Mess Tent. The sun had set a few minutes before, and a handful of stars peeked through cloud cover. Despite the stench of the garbage dump they walked past, it was an enjoyable evening. 

Nellie slipped in the door to the lab. She chewed on her lip as they set the bottles of serum on the table. "Why would they all be allergic?" 

"Good question."

"Some? Sure. But all? The odds of that are fairly small."

They opened the door to the large refrigerator. BJ began to stack his containers with a sigh. "You're not wrong."

"No theories?"

BJ chuckled. "Just hand me the rest." As Nellie handed him the next small crate of vials, he shrugged. "No theories yet. But regardless, we dilute starting tomorrow."

She huffed. With the last crate put away, they closed up the lab. By the time they finished, Hawkeye, Margaret, and the nursing staff had started putting the kids to bed. Post Op rang with the giggling shrieks of young children. As they entered, Klinger passed them holding a particularly pretty young girl. He told her a story, but Nellie didn't catch it.

While BJ helped Margaret corral a little boy, Nellie stood at the Nurse's desk and watched the others. The little boy Hawkeye wrestled with couldn't have been over six. But the smile on Hawkeye's face was the real reward. It seemed somehow more genuine than other times. BJ, Hawkeye, and Margaret treated the kids wonderfully. Even a fool could see how great of a father BJ would make once he got back home. But Hawkeye, mister one-night-stand flirtation extraordinaire, seemed at home with the kids too. Seeing the others so happy filled her own heart. 

For a small moment, the war faded. Here she could see the true colors of her friends. Warm, caring, loving. Margaret's hard-nosed attitude disappeared. Hawkeye's trust issues disappeared. BJ's gentleness only multiplied. Here in Post Op, a room usually quiet and solemn, they now had a place where innocence was allowed not just to be, but grow. Though these kids had seen the worst of life so young, they laughed and they played.

Someone flipped the lights off. The medical staff left the room, most by way of Klinger's office. But Nellie stayed where she was, watching the kids drift off to sleep. Beacons of hope in a dark world. That's all she could think of them as. As the last person left Post Op, Nellie turned and followed.

When the door to the hospital closed behind her, she paused and closed her eyes. Silence. Only the steady chorus of crickets and the slight buzz of the overhead lamp filled the air. A breeze blew from the West.

"You look stunning under that regulation light bulb."

At the sound of Hawkeye's voice, she tried desperately to force down her unbidden smirk. She opened her eyes. He stood next to the door, leaning against the hospital wall. The light above the door cast shadows around them. With another deep breath, Nellie shrugged.

"As I recall, you already tried that line."

"Yeah, well, I got a drink out of it last time."

"You got a drink out of it because I felt bad I snapped at you."

Hawkeye shrugged dramatically and smiled. "Ah well. You can snap at me again if you want."

"Hm. No, I think it's time for bed."

"I can come with you."

Nellie looked up at him. He had fallen into step next to her as she strolled across the compound. Her heart raced for a moment and she bit her tongue to stop the emotions. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"I'm in charge, I could order you to grab a drink with me?"

The laugh she released sounded across the compound. Nellie covered her mouth and shook her head. "Sorry. As for that statement, don't forget, I'm still a Major."

"A Major Darling, sure." 

"You are a child." Again, he flashed his infernal smile between shrugs. So she relented. "Your attempts are getting more creative. But. It's not going to work."

They stood in front of the Swamp. BJ and Charles were penning letters inside to the light of their bed lamps. With a sweeping gesture, he pointed to the door. But she shook her head with a smile.

"Good night, Hawkeye."

As the breeze picked up, Nellie left the door to the Swamp for her own tent. A rat the size of a dog skittered under the basketball hoop. She cringed. Rats. But inside her tent, it was safe. Quiet, clean, safe. Or as clean as one could get in Korea at a MASH unit. With a quick glance at the letter from Molly that still sat on her desk, unopened, she got ready for bed.