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.
"I can deliver these as I show you the mess tent, if you like." Radar said doing up the bag and putting the strap comfortably over his shoulder.
"Yeah, sure, kill two birds with one stone." Shayla replied adjusting Colonel Potter's letters so they were more prominent on the table.
"That's mean." Radar uttered not meaning for it to be so audible. He starting heading towards the door thinking that perhaps Shayla hadn't heard him.
"It's only a figure of speech." Shayla said softly realising he hadn't meant to say it so loud.
"I know. It's still mean." Radar replied pushing the door open and stepping through.
Shayla's eyes widen as she stared after him, her mouth made an inaudible 'aww' and she followed after him, with a little jog to catch up.
"So you love animals then?" Shayla started the conversation. Radar nodded and continued to tell her about the many pets he had owned both at home and since he had been posted here in the M*A*S*H camp.
After the morning alarm of Major Winchester, Captains Pierce and Hunnicut were begrudgingly awake. They were not speaking to their companion, whose life-threatening headache was clearly gone and was now being given freely away.
Still half asleep, Hawkeye wrapped his burgandy housecoat around him and slipped into his boats, heading out of the tent and towards the shower unit in order to wake himself up properly. Sleep hadn't been easy for him; his mind had doted on the responsibility he faced now that Shayla was in Korea with him. As the older brother he felt it was now his duty to see that Shayla was alright and in this danger zone he wondered how well he could carry out that responsibility. Apart from that having the responsibility of another's life was his day job he didn't really want to extend that responsibility any further.
"Good morning, Captain, how was last night?" Corporal Klinger greeted in an enthusiastic tone which startled Pierce out of his thoughts.
Frowning, Pierce eyed Klinger, overwhelmed at the energy the man had in him for the time of day, he tried to take in the question and answer it.
"Not one of the best, you might say, seen better."
"Ah, stood you up did she?" Klinger continued.
"Who stood who up?" Pierce replied not following his train of thought.
"That girl you were with last night, what was her name... Shayla... you left together...I assumed you had, you know..." Klinger raised his eyebrows and gave Pierce a knowing grin.
"I may have left with a girl on my arm but I went to my own tent and slept in my own bed and spent all night thinking about her," Hawkeye said teasing Klinger, even this early in the morning and feeling like he did he could still manage to find a way of turning this into another joke.
"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that, better luck next time!" Klinger commiserated strolling away from him towards the hospital wards.
Hawkeye headed into the showers with a small smile on his face, Klinger had fallen victim to one of his many practical jokes.
Shayla had done pretty much the whole of Radar's round with him, having found that the mess tent wasn't open she had nothing better to do to waste away the time before breakfast. She had found it very enlightening, learning things about the place from simply observing the day to day routine of mornings and hearing anecdotes from Radar as they chatted together.
Now it was finally time to view the mess tent for herself. The majority of people were now up and about, working through their morning routines before they started work. They entered the tent together, Radar insisting he see her fully inside before leaving to finish off his round and check that Colonel Potter had found all of his letters.
"It was nice having company to do my rounds, I always cope on my own but having someone to talk to makes a real difference you know!" Radar said just before he left Shayla alone
"It was nice having someone to talk to; I learnt a lot today about the place and earned a friend." Shayla replied causing Radar to blush; he was honoured that she could call him a friend after so little time together but in his heart he had hoped that she would see him as a little more than friends. Still it was flattering to have such a friend, even if that was the way it would stay.
"See you around!" Shayla added as he turned away to hide his face and hurried out the door.
She watched him leave and smiled to herself, Radar was such a kind-hearted person that it warmed her heart to know she was acquainted with him.
Turning her attention to the tent she followed the masses queuing for breakfast. Despite the lengthy line it went down quite fast and she was soon faced with the choices from which she chose a simple dish of beans on toast. Taking the tray she searched for somewhere to sit, it was pretty crowded now and spaces where becoming limited but she soon spotted her brother who beckoned her to an empty seat next to him.
"Good morning, I see you've met our lovely Radar." Hawkeye welcomed his sister to the table.
"Yes, he is rather sweet isn't he? He showed me where this place was." Shayla explained.
"Oh yeah..." Hawkeye said turning his head to look at her with a little smile.
"Oh come off it, Radar's very sweet and very cute but that's as far as it goes. Not my type thank-you very much Ben " Shayla retorted while in her head she questioned her answer, wondering whether, although previous boyfriends had been the total opposite of Radar, she could possibly see herself ever actually going out with him. She could guarantee he would look after her and he would never cheat on her like some of her other boyfriends had done and he wouldn't let any harm come to her. Maybe he would be an ideal boyfriend.
"Oh so what is your type? You know, for future reference and all that." Pierce enquired jokingly.
"Never you mind!" Shayla retaliated, her mind still trying to work it out.
Luckily she never got much of a chance to work it out before she was distracted by Major Margaret Houlihan who joined them at the table, taking the empty seat opposite them. She looked harassed and stressed and despite it being the morning she looked as though she could do with another night's sleep.
"Margaret! Busy day for you today, organising all those lovely nurses." Pierce said as she sat down and picked up one piece of toast and took a bite.
"Yes, it will be. What I could do without today is a chopper arriving." Margaret agreed tucking into her breakfast as she did so.
As if hearing her every word, the sound of a helicopter could be heard overhead and tannoy threw out Radar's voice across the whole of the unit. 'All Personnel required, incoming wounded!'
"Looks like you spoke to soon there Major!" Pierce added standing up to answer the call of personnel.
"Come on Shay, time to show you the ropes!" He turned to his sister encouraging her up and ushering her out of her seat and out to where the action was taking place and where they were needed. He put an arm caringly around her as they walked out of the tent.
Margaret immediately noticed this; disapprovingly shaking her head she made a mental note to have a stern word with Pierce regarding his attitude with the new nurses. She couldn't risk having any of them distracted from their work in the next few weeks as there was a lot of training to be completed with little time and little space in which to go wrong.