trapper's Guestbook

Jr. didn't answer right away.

 

His eyes dropped—not out of shame, not exactly... but like the question had weight to it. Like it wasn't something you could just brush off with a quick lie and a shrug.

A breath passed through him, slow and measured.

"Some," he said finally, voice quieter than before. "Here and there."

He shifted his stance, boot grinding lightly into the dirt, arms folding like he wasn't quite sure what to do with them.

"Not... like before," he admitted after a second. "It's different here."

His gaze drifted past his father now, mirroring that same distant look—toward the camp, the movement, the sounds that never really stopped.

"Even when it's quiet," he went on, "it ain't really quiet. Your head don't let it be."

That was the closest he came to saying it outright.

His jaw tightened briefly before he forced it to ease again, like he didn't want to make more of it than it already was.

"But I'm alright," Jr. added, a little quicker this time. Not defensive—just... steady. "I get enough."

There was a pause, then his eyes came back to his father, sharper now, more present.

A faint, almost wry breath left him.

"You?" he asked. "You still sleep... or you just got better at pretendin' you do?"

Trapper Jr. let out a quiet breath, shifting his weight slightly as he met his father's gaze. There was a flicker of something there—fatigue, maybe, or the beginning of understanding what this place really was—but he held steady.

 

"Settlin' in," he said, though it came out a little rougher than he probably meant it to.

He glanced past his father for a second, toward the camp—the noise, the movement, the reality of it all—before looking back.

"It's... not exactly like home," he added, a faint, dry edge creeping into his voice. "Or anything they told us it'd be."

There was a brief pause.

"But I'm holdin' my own," he went on, straighter now, like he needed that to be true. "Learnin' fast. You kinda have to around here."

His eyes searched his father's for a moment, something quieter underneath the words.

"...You?" he asked. "You still standin', or is this place finally catchin' up to you?"

Ben took his clothes and was soon taking a shower. He thought about the list that Trapper Sr. had made for him and how Trapper Jr was going to love everything that was being planned out for him. As the hot water was hitting Ben's body while Ben started to rub his body down with soap as he began to plan out every little detail, starting with the romantic dinner under the stars. He knew that he would have to get the food for the romantic dinner in Tokyo, so the first thing he knew he had to do was decide if he wanted to make it a romantic Japanese dinner or if he wanted to stay more traditional. Ben finally decided that authentic Japanese dinner would definitely be more romantic, especially under the stars and with the moon shinning bright. Now that he knew what kind of meal he wanted to make, the next thing was actually planning out the entire meal as he finished soaping his body and began to make a mental list of everything he wanted to get, as far as food is concerned. Once he had done that a smile came over his face as he finished taking his shower.

After Ben finished his shower, he put on his purple robe and gathered his things, he went to his and Trapper Jr's tent to get dressed and relax for a while. Meanwhile, Kellye, who had the day off, decided to go visit Trapper Sr. since she had heard he had a very complicated and long surgery. So, before she went to see how Trapper was holding up, she went to the mess tent to get him a sandwich, just in case he was hungry and maybe give him a back rub since she knew he had worked hard to save that soldier's life. After picking up the sandwich with, with a glass of powdered milk, she walked to the SWAMP and walked right in, though she knew she probably should have knocked first. "Hey love," she said with a smile on her face. "I brought you a sandwich and some milk, though the milk is powdered but still somewhat drinkable," she said with a chuckle as she sat it down on the table next to his cot. Then she sat down next to him on the cot and began speaking. "I heard about your complicated surgery and I thought maybe I could help with those sore muscles of yours," she said with a smile on her face.

Hawkeye couldn't help but smile as he watched his future father-in-law walk away. He knew he had a lot of planning to do to make his romantic proposal one that Trapper Jr would always remember for the rest of his life. Once Trapper Sr was completely out of sight, Hawkeye went back into the scrub changing room and finished changing out of his scrubs and back into his army greens. Then he went to see the Colonel, whichever one was on duty that day to set up a week for him to take his R and R. And after that was sat up and ready to go, Hawkeye left the Colonel's office whistling a very happy tune as he then headed towards the mess tent for a cup of hot coffee, if a person could call it that and maybe see if they had anything to snack on. Once Hawkeye got his snack and his cup of coffee, Hawkeye went and found an empty table, he went over and sat down to eat his snack and drink his coffee while he was thinking over everything that he and his future father-in-law had talked about both in the OR and out of the OR. That was when Hawkeye came to the realization that Trapper Sr. was right about everything. He needed to find a ring that was worthy of Trapper Jr.

So, as Hawkeye sat there and ate and drank, he couldn't help but watch the other doctors and nurses coming and going still thinking about the perfect ring. After thirty minutes of sitting that lost in his thoughts, he finished his snack and drink. Then Hawkeye finally got up and went to the SWAMP. Once at the SWAMP, Hawkeye fixed him a drink and then began to look for a pen and piece of paper. Then once he found what he was looking for, Hawkeye then sat down and began to write out a list of things that he wants to do to make his proposal a night that Trapper Jr would remember. Once he had his list made, which he knew a lot of the stuff he would pick up in Tokyo, he chugged his drink and then decided later he would go find Trapper Sr and tell him what exactly what he wanted to do and how Trapper Sr. could help keep Trapper Jr busy while Hawkeye got everything ready, though Hawkeye knew he had to make it perfectly clear that none of this would happen until Hawkeye got back from R and R. Right now, however, Hawkeye decided he wanted to go take a nice hot shower and relax from that five and half hour surgery, which played hell on his own body.

Kellye took a few deep breaths until she was calm enough to speak to him. "His numbers dropped maybe fifteen minutes after you left," she told Trapper as she fixed her eyes on him. "As for the seizures I believe he was having a grand mal seizure which only lasted a few minutes, but just before I came to get you," she told him as she was following him, holding tight to his hand as if she was afraid to let go. She gave his hand a gently squeezed back, letting him know that she knew he was right there beside her. "He started to have an onset seizure, which was still going on when I left to come get you," she told him as she held onto his hand. As tired as she was, she kept up with his pace as they made their way to post-op. Kellye nodded when she heard him say that she was not alone in this. It made her feel calmer knowing that whatever happened with Private Johnson, she would have supported.

But as they entered the post-op doors, like a dynamic duo ready to fight crime, the site they saw wasn't one of happy ones. In fact, what they were standing there looking at was Private Johnson's bed, with him still in it and a sheet pulled over him. In that instant, Kellye felt her body go numb and cold. As one of the other nurses explained that he just kept seizing until he just stopped and by that point, they knew that he was gone. Kellye stood there for a little bit, just staring at the dead body. She didn't move or say anything as she continued staring at Private Johnson's body. She didn't even know that she had started crying, she was just there. She was glued in that spot, in that time, and no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't moving nor would any words come out of her mouth.