Blessed in Life and Death: A M*A*S*H Fanfiction

Chapter 2

Early the next morning, the only person who was alert and up already working was Corporal Walter O'Riley, whose job as clerk involved being ready for any early telephone calls and organising the morning mail.  He sorted the letters by importance, any official looking letters headed straight to Colonel Potter's desk and family and friends letters where then organised into piles according to tents.

Humming away to himself he continued his daily routine. He enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with this time of morning, it was the one part of the day he didn't have to listen to any shouting or yelling, it was the time he wouldn't get disturbed or distracted from his work.

Holding a letter mid-air he froze, the door had definitely just been opened. He frowned, it couldn't be Colonel Potter it was too early for him and judging from last night the majority were most probably sleeping off the excess of alcohol they had consumed the evening before.   So who had just walked through the door?

"Hello? Excuse me...I'm sorry I was looking for the mess tent... I'm new...um...Shayla Pierce..."

Turning round he had found the culprit to be a girl of around his age perhaps younger, with dark brown hair and big hazel eyes. She was quite thin, although proportioned nicely and her smile was warming, compelling him to smile back.

"Pierce...are you by any chance related to Captain Pierce?" He asked, the name suddenly clicking into register.

"Yes, he's my big brother!" Shayla grinned happily.

"Hawkeye has a sister? Wow who'da known." Moving away from her, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Yep that's me and you are?" Shayla asked bringing him back from his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, I'm Walter O'Riley but most people call me Radar."

"Nice to meet you, Radar," Shayla replied holding out her hand. Radar accepted and went to shake her hand. Even in the short time she had been there, he had already decided he liked Shayla and felt pleased that they were now formally introduced. As he brought his hand towards hers it had brushed past the piles of letters and knocked them to the floor. All his neat handiwork lay sprawled across the floor.

Immediately both Radar and Shayla bent down to tidy the mess up. Their heads collided and they returned to standing straight to rub the sore areas. Sharing an awkward smile Shayla let Radar bend down to the floor first and then joined him making sure they didn't bump heads again.

"How were they organised?" Shayla asked bringing a handful back up to the table.

Radar explained his system to Shayla as he brought up another handful of letters.

"Guess I'm not going to be much help then." She replied with a sigh.

Desperate not to let Shayla feel useless Radar quickly thought of something helpful she could do and gave her the task of finding any official letters or any other letters addressed to Colonel Potter. Happy that she could be of use, Shayla got to work and within no time had created a pile of Colonel Potter's letters.

 Being that the letters had already been organised some were still in a relative order making it easier for Radar to reposition into piles. His familiarity with the job resulted in it to be done quickly and it took Shayla just as long to form one pile with only one recipient as it took Radar to form several piles with several different addressees.   Once they were all rearranged he began to place them neatly into his bag, catching the idea, Shayla began to hand him the individual piles one by one so he could put them in the bag. Each time she handed him a pile of letters he would thank her and she couldn't help but grin at the cuteness of it.