BF July week 3(?) Cauterize
“I don’t have a choice, we can either amputate the limb and cauterize the wound or he can bleed to death,” the nurse screamed at the medic next to her. “Either help me or get the fuck out of my way, soldier.”
“Shouldn’t a doctor-”
“If there was a living, breathing doctor in this hospital I’d let them do whatever the fuck they wanted. As it stands, we have eighteen nurses and a handful of dead doctors. Some of the nurses have more trauma and combat experience than others and most of us have more combat surgical experience than the doctors did anyway.” Even as she was yelling at the medic, she was prepping the man for amputation. “There is a stack of amputation kits in the back, next to the autoclave. Go get me one! His pressure is dropping too fast to keep talking.” When the medic stared at her dumbfounded, she yelled at him again. “Either get me the kit and glove up or get the fuck out of my operating room.”
There was a hand on his chest, holding him down. His leg felt like it was on fire. “What-”
He barely heard the woman standing over him order more anaesthesia as the world faded again.
-
“He’s still unconscious. Vitals are steady, but he’s restless.”
“It’s to be expected. If he doesn’t wake in the next couple of hours, it will become an issue. Until then, keep an eye on his pressure and keep up with the blood.”
-
“Ma’am?”
The nurse turned to see the medic she had yelled at only hours before standing by the door. “What can I do for you?”
“What happened to the doctors?”
“They’re dead. What do you think happened to them?”
“I understood that, but how did they die?”
“The same way everyone in this war dies. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She tried to contain the attitude she had, but it had been a long and trying month running the M*A*S*H without a doctor. “Three hit an IED on their way out to load injured onto a chopper at the FOB. Two were hit by RPGs on separate occasions when they strayed too far from the safety of the unit, abd the last one committed suicide thirty days ago.”
“Oh.”
She stared at him, waiting for the next question, whenever it came. It wasn’t worth walking away from the discussion before he pointed out that there wasn’t a doctor on staff.
“Why are you still operating as a M*A*S*H if you don’t have any doctors?”
The nurse looked at him and laughed for the first time since she’d ended up in command weeks ago. “Because we can. Just because we don’t have any new doctors doesn’t mean we don’t have new wounded every day. It would be unthinkable to turn away men and women who have been injured when we can help them, just because there isn’t a doctor here.”
“But-”
“Look, you can take your day off here before you go back out to the front, or you can report me if you want, but I don’t care. We have a job to do, and if we don’t do it, no one is going to.”
The medic saluted her. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Major! He’s awake!” One of the nurses yelled as she came running out of the recovery tent. “He’s awake!”
-
“Do you know your name, soldier?”
“Hewson, Daniel Thomas. Lieutenant Colonel, 5th Battalion.” He rattled off his identification number, but she didn’t care. It was good to know he knew what it was, but it was the least of her concerns at that point.
“Colonel Hewson, I’m Major Laura Parker, but you can call me Hatter. Everyone does. This is my unit. Do you know why you’re here?”
“We were ambushed. Lots of the lads didn’t make it. I didn’t think I was going to,” Hewson looked up at her. “Your unit?”
“Yes. We can get into that later. Right now, I need to know if you remember being brought in yesterday.” Hatter was trying to get to the point where she told the Lieutenant Colonel that she’d been the one to make the decision to cut off his leg.
“I remember feeling like my leg was on fire. I remember someone holding me down while you asked for more drugs. I remember…”
Hatter let him trail off, taking his hand in hers. “You lost your left leg below the knee, Hewson.” He shook his head in disbelief, as Hatter motioned for another nurse to bring her a sedative. “I’m sorry, Hewson. I am the one who had to make the call, and it was a choice between saving you and losing the leg, or saving the leg and losing you.”
“I can’t be- I can still feel it, I can feel my toes when I try to wiggle them.”
“Shhhh, I know it’s called phantom limb syndrome.” Hatter tried to calm him as the other nurse added the sedative to his IV line.
“Please, don’t let my men see me this way.”
Hatter didn’t have the heart to tell him that the men who had survived the ambush were still on the front line fighting for their lives. There hadn’t been enough pieces of the dead men to try and put them back together.
-
Standing outside the door to the command, Hatter wondered if they were ever going to get more doctors or if headquarters had forgotten that she’d had to ship all six of her doctors home in coffins. She took a drag on the cigarette and looked around. They wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever, but so far, she and the remaining nurses were doing the best they could. Thankfully they had all been at the M*A*S*H for at least five months and had learned most of what they needed for field medicine in that time. She and two other nurses took turns as officers on duty, chief of surgery, and head nurse.
“Hatter?”
“Yeah?” she turned around to see one of the two other commanding nurses coming for her. “What’s up? I’ve got fifteen minutes to clear my head before I need to be back as chief of surgery.”
“It’s Hewson.”
“Of course it is.” In the week since he’d been there, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Thomas Hewson had been a pain in her ass. They hadn’t been able to get a medevac flight out, so she had begun basic physical therapy to keep his muscles from atrophying, and he was fighting all of it. “Put him in a wheel chair and bring him out here.”
“But?”
“Nan, please, I need to be away from the OR for a minute, and it would probably do him a world of good.”
“So, what did you do this time?”
Hewson almost looked chastised. “Threw an empty bed pan and broke a glass jar.”
“Why are you terrorizing my nurses, Hewson? They’re not responsible for your injury. I made the call.”
“You’re not the one who ambushed my battalion.”
“No, I’m not. I’m the woman who cut off your leg. Hewson, you can probably have me court-martialled if you want for doing so.”
“Why would I do that?”
Hatter looked down at him, relaxed for the first time since he woke up after surgery. “Because I’m not a doctor.”
“You’re the acting commanding officer of a M*A*S*H unit. I can’t fault you for doing what was needed to save my life. I’d rather be alive than not.” Hewson smiled at her for the first time. “That’s what’s got you lot running around like you’ve lost your minds, isn’t it? You’re a M*A*S*H unit without a doctor.”
Hatter could only nod as she smoked her cigarette. “I am the ranking officer, and I out ranked more than half my doctors, but-”
“That doesn’t make you fit to command a hospital unit?” Hewson asked. “Can I bum a cigarette?”
Nodding, Hatter handed Hewson the pack and the lighter. “We reported every death, we shipped every one of them home, and they keep resupplying us, but they aren’t sending doctors. We don’t know what else is going on, because we are so cut off from everything else. The best way in is by helicopter, and if it hasn’t rained in a week, you might get a truck through, otherwise we have to go out on foot, and have wounded carried in on foot. Most of our supplies are air dropped. Patients come in via helicopter because we are so close to the front line, it’s easy to get them in and usually out quickly. We’re running low on blood though, and we don’t have anyone who can donate right now.” Hatter took the cigarettes from Hewson when he handed them back to her. “I can’t run a field hospital without blood. We can do without a lot of things, but blood isn’t one of them.”
“How did you get the name ‘Hatter’?”
“As a nursing student in the military I redesigned the field amputation kit. Someone once said you had to be mad as a hatter to think that everything you could need for field amputation could be shipped in kits, coming pre-sterilised, ready to use, and basically provide instructions. I proved it could be done. The kit that saved your life is a Parker-Hatter Advanced Limb Dressing Kit.”
“That’s a pretty way to say amputation kit, isn’t it?” Hewson paused, watching Hatter. “Do you think that’s why they aren’t sending you doctors?”
“I’ve wondered. But just because I can perform an amputation doesn’t necessarily mean I would be able to perform heart surgery or an appendectomy.”
“But you can.”
Hatter nodded, “But I can.”
-
“Hatter!”
“What can I do for you?” she asked as she turned around to see then communications officer come running towards her. “HQ finally call you back, Rosie?”
Rosie nodded. “And they want to talk to you.”
“Of course they do.”
By the time the commander of operations on the Northern front got around to asking Hatter what was going on, she wanted to strangle him.
“Sir, with all due respect, I am eight klicks south of FOB Theta. Did you want me to refuse the wounded that have been streaming here for the last forty-five days? I don’t have the staff to pick up and move, and if you think we can do that without air support, you have no idea what the terrain here is like.”
“Major Parker, you should have requested support.”
“Sir, I sent six doctors, six of my brothers and sisters home to be buried. Do you think we didn’t request support each time?” Hatter picked up the darts the previous commanding officer had left with his dartboard and began whipping them with all her strength at the board. “I don’t want to command a M*A*S*H, sir, but since I have had no choice, I’ve done so to the best of my ability.”
“How many patients have you and your nu- you and your staff lost since you took command?”
“Of the soldiers that arrived at the M*A*S*H alive, one.”
“One?”
“One, sir. He had shrapnel imbedded in his heart.”
“How many died en route to your hospital from the front?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Because, sir, I have enough living men and women that need my care, to trust the rest of the staff to make sure those men and women make it home.”
“You are the Parker of the Parker-Hatter Kit, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Look, we don’t have any doctors to send to you.”
Hatter went back and forth with the commander for forty-five minutes trying to get some of the things they needed. In the end, he agreed to make sure the next chopper in brought transfusable blood.
“Rosie! Let the Girls know I’m going for a walk. I want to strangle that ass-hat.”
“How did it go?” Hewson asked as he rolled up to Hatter.
“We aren’t getting any more doctors unless we can move the M*A*S*H further from the line. But we don’t have the personnel to move the hospital without air support, and I can’t expect patients to huff it down that hill.”
Hewson lit a cigarette and handed it to her as they moved away from the command tent. “I don’t mean to be selfish, but, do you know when they’re planning to get me out of here?”
“No, I’m sorry, Hewson. You’re stable, so I haven’t been able to get you on a transport out.” Hatter felt horrible. Hewson needed to go home. He was badly injured and needed to start proper physical therapy and to get a prosthetic made so he could start learning how to walk again.
“Did you-”
“Hewson, meet me in the Recovery Tent as soon as you can!”
Hatter took off running, leaving Hewson to stare after her and appreciate the view. She had forgotten that one of the things included in the Parker-Hatter Kits were prosthetic parts for some of the most common injuries. She could at least get Hewson started on learning how to walk again.
“What the hell, Hatter?”
Hatter pulled the roughly fashioned prosthetic out of the kit. “Remember, I told you the kits came with everything? I meant it. Depending on how the wound is healing, we can get you fitted for a temporary prosthetic and get you walking again.”
“Hewson, what’s the matter?” Hatter asked as she caught up with him. She’d never seen him so upset. “Stop.”
“Leave me be, Hatter, I don’t need your sympathy.”
“You think this is sympathy?”
“What else would it be?”
“I like you, Hewson. You don’t take shit from anyone. You believe, for some strange reason, that I can indeed run this hospital without any doctors, and you seem to think that a good use of your time is hanging out with me when I’m fuming and pissed off and want to shoot something. I feel horrible that you’re stuck here. The sooner you learn to walk with a prosthetic, the better you’ll be.” Hatter stood in front of Hewson, with one foot stuck into the wheel of his wheelchair, preventing him from running away from her.
“You can do this! You and your nurses are exceptionally capable!”
“And why don’t you want a prosthetic leg?”
“Because that makes it real!”
Hatter gave Hewson some time to cool off before following him. “Hey, Hewson, can we-”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Hatter. I’m half a man now. I’m worthless. What the hell am I supposed to do with a fake leg?”
Hatter opened the door to Hewson’s tent. With a significantly reduced staff, and patients that weren’t being airlifted out, she had taken to quartering them anywhere she could. Hewson was quartered in the old chaplain’s tent. “What’s in your heart makes a good man, Daniel.”
He was sitting on the cot in shorts, looking at what was left of his left leg. “Hatter, please, don’t.”
The skin was starting to peel where the stitches had been, revealing fresh skin growing over the residual limb. Hatter hadn’t been the one to do Hewson’s post-op checks, but she took the time to appreciate how well his stump was healing. “Don’t what? Don’t do my job as a nurse? Or don’t befriend you? Because if it’s the second one, I have to say, you’re as guilty as I am.”
“Damn it Hatter, I am a superior officer.”
“In theory, yes. But you are not currently in command of a battalion. I, however, am acting commander of this M*A*S*H, a position usually given to individuals with your rank or better.”
“What are you saying?”
“That I brought the immediate post-op prosthesis so that maybe we could go for a walk.”
-
“It’s a bad idea.”
Hatter looked up at Nan, her second in command. “What part of this isn’t a bad idea? I had to beg for blood.”
“You know what I mean, Hatter. You’re getting too close to Hewson. He’s going to go home, eventually.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.”
“But?”
“But everything, Nan. He doesn’t blame me for cutting off his leg. He’s none too pleased about it, except that he’s alive. And he hates letting me see the residual limb. He won’t let me be the one to fit his prosthesis, even though I have the most experience.”
“Hatter, he doesn’t want you to see that he isn’t whole. And it sounds like he’s trying to protect you from feeling guilty about the decision you made.” Nan sat in the chair across from Hatter. “What did you tell us when we decided to continue operating as a M*A*S*H?”
“That we can’t afford to second guess our choices, because if we do, it’s someone’s life.”
-
“Hewson, I have a proposition for you,” Hatter said as they sat down for a cigarette.
“What is that?”
“I want you to take over as acting commanding officer. I’ve already talked to the rest of the command staff and we’re hopeful that if you’re signing off on the request forms we may actually get the shit we’re asking for.”
“So you want to use me for my rank.”
“All you have to do is sign off on the supply requests.”
“Hatter, I wouldn’t know the first thing about supplying a hospital unit.” Hewson toyed with his cigarette as they talked. “What do you want me to do, rubber stamp whatever requests your staff puts through my office?”
Hatter knew he was trying to be sarcastic, but failING miserably. “Yes.”
Hewson started to laugh but stopped abruptly when he saw how serious she was. “Laura-”
“If I’m stuck calling you ‘Hewson’ and not allowed to call you anything else, you’re stuck calling me ‘Hatter’ just like everyone else.”
“That’s not fair.”
“This is war, darling, is any of it fair?”
-
Hewson’s residual limb was healing nicely, and he spent as much of his time walking around the M*A*S*H as possible. He had physical therapy with an ever-rotating cast of nurses four times a week, but he preferred just walking with Hatter as they talked. He had begun signing off on the supply requests, after verifying that no one was ordering anything ridiculous. Slowly, after a few less than pleasant phone calls, things actually began trickling in.
“I need to speak to your acting CO.”
Rosie turned to Hewson, “They want to speak with you, sir.”
Hewson smiled as he took the phone from her. “This is Colonel Hewson.”
“Sir, I thought you were with the 5th Battalion.”
“I’ve been temporarily reassigned.” Which for Hewson really meant ‘I’ve had my leg amputated, but I’m in stable condition so some prick at HQ won’t authorize my transport. So while I’m stuck here, I might as well do some good as acting CO.’
“Sir, the requests far outstrip the budget.”
“Do you know how many patients we treat here every day? We can barely keep them fed, let alone the medical staff.” Hewson waited for the next inevitable question. The conversations always went the same way, and he was certain that if Rosie could have impersonated him, she wouldn’t have even bothered to put him on the phone.
“But sir, you aren’t a medical officer.”
“I never said I was. I’m here to deal with the paperwork and anything that the medical staff shouldn’t have to worry about. They worry about treating the patients, I worry about them”
“Yes sir.”
-
Hewson had started walking around the camp at least three times daily. He enjoyed the freedom and generally used the walks to work on his balance and things related to recovery, but also to see what building or structural supplies the M*A*S*H would need before winter.
He was also trying to come to terms with the fact he had feelings for Hatter, feelings unbecoming a superior office for one of his subordinates. Hewson knew no one in the unit would give a shit. He and Hatter had kept them from having to move two hundred miles to the south, with no help, while transporting patients.
Not to mention the fact that she had been his equal when they met, and most of the M*A*S*H unit still went to her with command issues. Hewson really was there to rubber stamp their supply orders.
“Rosie told me you smacked around another nosy supply officer yesterday.”
“He wasn’t the first or the last, but she’s exaggerating a little.” Hewson paused to watch Hatter. “Why does that excite you so much?”
“You’re a natural leader, Hewson, and because if HQ is going to try and strand us out here and make us run a M*A*S*H unit on the barest of necessities, I’m going to do my damnedest to make sure to stick it to them and get what we need.”
“I saw the order.”
“I know.”
“You’ve requested everything you could ever need to create the perfect prosthesis for me. Why?”
“Look, Hewson, I don’t want you to be stranded out here with me. You didn’t do anything to deserve getting stuck in combat after losing a limb.” Hatter looked out at the forest that surrounded eighty per cent of the camp. “That doesn’t mean I’m not really happy you’re here.”
Hewson smiled and slid his hand over Hatter’s as she was speaking. He wanted to wait ‘till she noticed before he said anything else.
“Hewson, I won’t say I couldn’t do this without you, because we both know I would have figured it out. But, I’m glad I didn’t have to.”
“Hatter,” Hewson whispered as he squeezed her hand gently, causing her to look at him again, “I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” Kissing her lightly on the lips, he whispered, “No one calls me Daniel, that’s why I didn’t want you to, everyone calls me Thom.”
“Thom,” Hatter whispered his name for the first time as she kissed him back.
“We have to be careful, Hatter.”
“No one here will care.”
Hewson nodded. “We still have to be careful. No one here will care, but people outside of our little bubble will.”
-
At some point, someone in the 5th Battalion realised that their Colonel Hewson was the same Colonel Hewson who was somehow acting CO of the M*A*S*H unit and shipped his belongings to him. The remaining members of his command has left him notes and letters and someone had collected the military wire reports about what he and Hatter were trying to accomplish at the M*A*S*H.
“Hatter!”
Hatter looked up from the supply order she was trying to complete to see Hewson running towards her. She had yet to see him run in his new prosthesis and was happy to see that the motion appeared normal. It was only after observing his gait that she bothered to notice he was wearing his own clothes. “They found your stuff?”
“They did!”
“Feel better wearing your own pants?”
“Yes. It is surprising considering it’s all the same military issue crap, but at least I know this is my military issue crap.”
Hatter laughed at Hewson and set her work down. “Did you get anything else good?”
“Everything. After months wondering if they sent this stuff home thinking I was dead, I’m just happy I don’t have to explain to my parents that I’m not in fact dead.”
“Well, yeah. That would suck.”
“Hatter?”
Hatter shook her head and went back to her supply order. “I have no one left at home, Hewson. There are some distant relatives but no one close. My mom died when I was young. My dad died in combat when I was 19.”
“Hatter,” Hewson wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
“I’m ok. It’s been a long time, and we come from a long line of military families, Hewson. I am who I am because of my military family. I would have never been a field nurse if I didn’t grow up knowing that better medicine would have probably saved my great grandfather and uncle’s lives, and my grandfather would have probably been a single amputee instead of a double.”
“That’s why you redesigned the field amputation kit.”
“Yeah.”
-
“Hewson, why are you wandering in circles in the back of camp?”
He looked up to see Hater smiling at him and his heart still skipped a beat when he first saw her. “I’m trying to wrap my head around all of this. I expected to go home shortly after you told me I’d lost my leg. I wanted to be so mad at you when you explained that while you were the acting CO, you weren’t a doctor. But then I saw the look on your face. You were more critical of yourself and your decisions than anyone else ever would be.”
“I warned you that I could probably be court martialled. I did the same thing for you that I’ve done for everyone under my care, I made sure you got the care you needed and made the best decision I could.” Hatter sat down on the bench, watching Hewson continue to pace.
“I know, and while I want to go home, I don’t want to leave without you.”
Hatter smiled sheepishly at him. They had been going ‘round trying to hide the fact they had feeling for each other since they’d kissed the first time. She knew it was a matter of protocol and rules, and all the happy horseshit she had encountered in the military and she understood. Part of her, however, thought that since nothing else was like it was supposed to be, there was no reason she and Hewson should keep the rules of propriety.
“What?”
“I hate the stupid rules.”
“They aren’t all so stupid, Hatter.” Hewson kissed her cheek. “I mean really, if it weren’t for a lack of private space, we’d have been in bed together long ago.” He winked at her before kissing her cheek again. “Come on, you’re on duty tonight and I’d like to pretend this isn’t a M*A*S*H unit in the middle of a war for a few minutes and eat supper with you.”
-
“Hatter, they have me scheduled for the first transport out, with the remaining patients,” Hewson whispered into her hair.
“I know.” Hatter rolled over to face him, “I requested you leave with the patients. We’ll be mostly packed out by then, I’ll leave in less than a month.”
“But-”
“Hewson, as long as the cease fire holds, we’re all getting out of here. It’s just going to take me a little longer than you.” It broke her heart to tell him he was leaving before her. “I will come home to you. I promise.”
Hatter had worn the cleanest thing she owned while Hewson had worn his dress uniform. She hadn’t seen hers since the M*A*S*H unit had moved shortly after she’d arrived.
Their vows reflected the lengths to which they were willing to go for each other, and the promise always to come home. The chaplain had happily officiated, smiling that for once, it was not last rites or anointing of the sick he was performing, but a wedding.
“By the power vested in me, by the United States Military and the Roman Catholic Church, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The chaplain turned to Hewson, “Colonel Hewson, you may kiss the bride.”
As they kissed, the chaplain introduced them, “May I present to you Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Thomas Hewson and Major Laura Alice Parker-Hewson!”
-
Hewson opened the door to see two officers standing on his porch. “Gentlemen, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Hewson asked, he stopped and looked them up and down as he invited the two men into the house, noting the exceptional formality of their dress and appearance. “You can’t be,” he whispered as he realised what they were.
“Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Thomas Hewson?” The officer asked, before saluting Hewson.
“Yes?” Hewson returned the salute and waited.
“We regret to inform you that Major Laura Alice “Hatter” Parker was killed yesterday when the evacuation chopper she was riding in was shot down by enemy fire.”
“No, I talked to her yesterday! She was finally on her way home to me. She can’t-” Hewson collapsed crying; only avoiding hitting the floor when one of the notification officers caught him.
“Sir, we will have an officer help you sort through Major Parker’s belongings if you’d like, and arrange for her funeral. The officer will accompany you to the airport if you choose to be there when her body is brought home.”
“You don’t understand! I spoke with her yesterday, as her flight was taking off! She should be in Germany right now!” Hewson knew they were telling him the truth. He knew that notification officers never joked. They never did anything but deliver the news and try to console those they encountered. Hewson sobbed as the officer helped him into the chair. “She can’t be gone.”
The older officer went into the kitchen and returned with a cup of coffee and tissues for Hewson. “You served alongside Major Parker?” he asked.
Hewson chuckled. “I suppose I did. I lost a leg, she had lost all the doctors and ranking officers in her M*A*S*H unit. As I recovered, I took over the day to day non-medical running of the camp so that she and the other nurses could focus on the patients.”
Hewson spent the next hour telling the notification officers about Hatter; how she had redesigned the field amputation kit, how she had run a M*A*S*H unit for months without a doctor, how she’d insisted that he call her Hatter, right up until the moment they were married.
“We didn’t realise you and Major Parker had married.”
“We were married in country. Obviously everyone in the unit knew, and we submitted the paperwork, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it hasn’t even left the Northern Command office yet.”
“In light of that information, Colonel, we will make sure that you are awarded Major Parker’s new rank and medals. I believe you are to receive one yourself, we will make sure it can be done at the same ceremony.”
Hewson stood with the other family members as they watched the caskets of their loved ones wheeled off the C-130. The same officer who had informed him of Hatter’s death was the one who stood with him as he waited to receive the flag off of Laura’s coffin. Tears streamed down his face as her casket was wheeled off the plane to an honour salute. “Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Hewson, I present to you the flag of your wife, Lieutenant Colonel Laura Parker-Hewson.” Hewson accepted the flag with as much grace and dignity as he could muster. He accompanied the casket to the waiting hearse with his left hand on top of it, wishing he could at least kiss her goodbye.
The funeral was a full military affair. Hewson couldn’t imagine doing it any other way for the daughter of so many military men. Members of the M*A*S*H we given priority flights out of the combat zone to make it home in time for her funeral. Friends and colleagues from ten years in the military came out to show their support. Everyone who had been a member of the 5th Battalion who could make it was there to support him. He had never seen such a disparate group of military members in his life. But it was a testimony to the people Hatter had touched as a M*A*S*H nurse.
“Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May Lieutenant Colonel Laura Alice ‘Hatter’ Parker-Hewson rest in peace.”
Hewson looked up from the casket for the first time since he’d sat down. Once again, the honour guard presented him with the flag from Laura’s casket, folding it perfectly, before handing it to him as he stood and offering both he and Laura a salute. Hewson remained standing as the rest of the honour guard offered the 21-gun salute for Laura.
He waited as all the others approached the casket and said goodbye. Finding it funny that it was only in death that he’d actually begun to think of her as ‘Laura’ instead of ‘Hatter.’
When it was his turn, he laid a single rose on her casket. “I promised you that as soon as you got home, I’d buy you flowers. This wasn’t really what I had in mind.” He kissed his hand and placed it over her heart. “I would be so much less if I hadn’t known you, Hatter.”