Introductory Ficage

[danakszoul.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow... so, it's been a *lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong* time since I've written any fic in this fandom... But then recently I just got hit with the inspiration and the need to do it, and I found this community. I'm still part of the MASH_slash yahoogroup as well, so this will probably get posted there eventually, too.

Author: Anne Marsh
Title: Someone Else
Pairing: Hawkeye/Trapper, an insignifigant amount of Hawkeye/Nurse Margie Cutler.
Spoilers: Heavy referencing to 'Requiem For A Lightweight'.
Disclaimer: *sigh* I didn't own them when I started writing, I don't own them now that I'm writing again. Oddly enough, I had 'em for a while when I wasn't writing, but lost them in a high-stakes poker game. Oh, you got me, I never owned them!
Feedback: Means the world to me.



"I'm sorry, Ben..." Margie, the very same Margie who spent the movie leaning against my chest, said to me in a very serious tone suggesting she wasn't talking about stepping on my toes on the way to her door.

"Sorry?" I asked, like an idiot. Like the idiot everyone is in that moment they first begin to realize they're being dumped.

"I can't keep doing this. Look, you're a great guy and I like you. We've had fun. But... I just can't, knowing there's someone else..."

"Well, I don't blame you." I sighed. "He's taller than I am. That hair, those eyes. Why, the bruising has healed, and he's in great shape... Go ahead. Date my best friend."

"N-no, *I* don't want to go with your best friend. I meant knowing *you* wanted-- knowing I'm not your first choice."

"But you are, Margie, you are!"

"I know you, Ben. And I'm a smart girl, I can put two and two together."

"Really? What do you come up with? I always get five."

"Yes, that's obvious." She rolled her eyes. "Maybe you haven't figured it out yet, but I have. I've seen it, the way you two look at each other. The way you act around each other. I've seen real love, and I don't know if I like it, but I just can't compete with that. So I'm stepping down. I know when I'm beat, Ben."

It was a kind of a nasty thought, but I couldn't help hoping it would be someone who didn't call me 'Ben' every time she thought she had something important to say.

My mother gave me a first name and a middle name, and most of my life, she'd been the only one to use them. Or, I guess, most my life, no one used them. My father gave me a last name and a nickname, and they proved a lot more useful. Every time someone calls me 'Ben', I think of my mother, and I just can't put the moves on a girl who reminds me of my mother.

"I don't even know who you're talking about." I protested. "Is it-- Oh, it's not-- I mean, it can't be! Do you think it's Margaret? I mean, I guess maybe the two of you have the same first name, but that's got nothing to do with anything. I don't like Margaret. Every time I think I *could* like Margaret, she reminds me that she's not a human being!"

"It's not." She sighed, regarding me with the kind of pity generally reserved for especially slow children and short people.

"Is it Ginger? What? It could be Ginger, I'm very open to that sort of thing. Edie? Mabel? Doris? It's not Maxine, is it?"

"There isn't a Maxine." She blinked.

"Nevermind, it was a joke. There's a-- Forget it. No one'd mistake him for a girl, dress or no dress. I was trying to be funny, and I-- You're really breaking this off because you think there's someone else?"

"Goodnight, Ben."

"You could at least tell me who she is, seeing as how she's the reason you're leaving me!"

"*Goodnight*, Ben."

"Is it Nurse Kelly?"

"You were the closest with 'Maxine'." Was all she said.

---/-/---

"Rough." He thumped my shoulder. "She headd you off at the pass there, huh?"

"Yeah. Before the goodnight kiss. Bam! And she makes it *my* fault, saying I'm in love with somebody else. If I am, I'm keeping it a really good secret, 'cause I don't know who she's talking about! I even asked her, she wouldn't tell me."

"Maybe it's just an excuse."

"I dunno. She sounded so *genuine*." I sighed.

"They always do."

"Yeah. Hey, you know what I need?"

"Now look here, soldier, you can't just come running to my arms every time some other girl breaks your heart." He drew himself up in mock indignation.

"Shut up and make me a martini." I groaned.

"No can do. We're out of vermouth."

"A very dry martini."

"And olives."

"Make me a shallow, conical glass of gin."

There was a pause wherein I did not receive my shallow, conical glass of gin.

"So help me, if you tell me we're out of booze, I will--"

"No, no, we got some. Here, you can even have my olive." He pacified.

"Ew, it's been in your mouth!"

"Do you want the olive or not?"

"I want it, I want it." I groused, holding out my glass.

"One very dry martini."

"Maybe she's not wrong..." I sighed. "I mean, if I loved her, it'd hurt more, wouldn't it?"

"I guess. So... does this mean I can ask her out?"

"No!"

"You just said you didn't really love her, why not?"

"'Cause you can't!"

"Fine. I don't love her, either. Got that black eye all for nothing."

"Shut up and drink your gin."

"You know, this *was* a very dry martini. I'm such a good friend I gave you my olive."

"You can't date the girl I used to date!"

"I want my olive back. You can't date the olive I used to date."

"It's already been in my mouth."

"It was in my mouth first."

"Fine. Take it." I spat it at him. It landed in his drink. "Hey, that was a pretty good shot."

"Yeah! Come on, we gotta go try for distance outside!"

"With your olive?"

"No. We'll find something else." He popped the olive into his mouth.

The argument was forgotten just like that, and we went in search of projectiles we would be willing to put into our mouths.

Outside, we saw Margie at the door of her tent, being chatted up by some guy.

"*Nice*." Trapper said on my behalf. "Already moving on."

"Well, she was popular before she went out with me." I shrugged.

"Wow, you really *aren't* broken up over this break-up. That doesn't make you even a little mad?"

"Not really."

"So it's okay for some total stranger to move in on her. Just not your best friend. Who, by the way, shared his olive with you."

"Pretty much." I nodded.

He sighed and shook his head."You won't get jealous *now*, but heaven forbid *I* should ask her out when it was *me* who got pummeled anyway..."

~I don't blame you~

~That hair, those eyes~

~Two and two together~

~I always get five~

~I've seen the way you two look at each other~

~You were closest with 'Maxine'~

~Now look here, soldier~

~I want it, I want it~

~'Cause you can't~

~You don't get jealous *now*, but heaven forbid *I* should ask her out~

Crap.

"Hey... what's the matter?"

"N-nothing... I just-- I gotta get out of here... I need--"

"Hey! We were gonna spit stuff for distance!" He chased after me. He was the last and the first person I wanted chasing after me. Or the first and the last. He was the only person I wanted chasing after me, but not right now...

I heaved up the day's meals down by the river. He caught up to me.

"Now I *know* you didn't drink *that* much. Was it the food?"

"I'm surprised I don't retch like this every night, that food."

"You know they cooked the steak I had on my eye."

"You had that black days ago, it probably went bad."

"It wasn't that great when I was wearing it, either. You okay now?"

"Oh, no. I'm never going to be okay again."

"C'mon, we all feel that way after salisbury steak night. We'll spit for distance when it's light out... easier to judge that way. We can use breakfast-- it's probably safer than swallowing it."

"Malnutrition is safer than swallowing that stuff. I think you get it either way, but I'll take my malnutrition *without* severe cramping."

"Come to bed." He took my arm. "Hey, you cold?"

"Only in the pit of my soul."

"So, just like any other day?"

I forced a weak smile and let him lead me back to the swamp. "I feel it's only fair to warn you, the next time you say 'come to bed', I'm going to do something to shock the neighbours."

"Good, I hate the neighbours." He grinned, leaning in close to my ear. "Come to bed."

I grabbed his shirt in both hands, yanked him down, and kissed him hard. It was the kind of kiss that movies had to fade to black on, or else pan away from. It was a kiss that would get you banned in Boston. We probably shouldn't tell the people who rate movies, they'd never let him go home. But there we were, kissing, right out in the open for anyone to see.

He had one hand on the door, letting it swing open, and we just stood there. Still kissing. We only stopped to breathe, and even then we didn't back off very far. Dark or no, no one who saw us was going to be in any question as to the gender of the two guys involved. But if there were murmurs of disgust or disapproval, I didn't hear them over the harsh pants and thundering heartbeats.

"Wow."

"See, I was right... I knew she left me 'cause of you." I gasped. "I was just a little fuzzy on which one of us was gonna be kissing you."

"Well, I think you made the right call..." He drawled, trying to regain a little composure.

"Well, you haven't decked me yet, so I figured you were on board."

"Hey, Hawk... I wasn't really gonna-- I mean, I never would have asked her out. I said it to jerk you around, but I wouldn't have."

"I know." I kept one arm around him. We went inside-- Frank was mercifully still with Hot Lips and had missed the show we were putting on out on the doorstep. It was quiet and peaceful and just the two of us...

"Good."

I poured out two shallow, conical glasses of gin, handing one off to Trap. "Cheers."

"To us."

Well, tomorrow I'd have to apologize to Margie... it turns out there was someone else after all.

I'd apologize, but I don't think I could ever be what you'd call sorry. Not really.

---/-/---

FIN

=^_^=
Anne