Colonel Potter cleared his throat and looked at the assembled officers gathered in his office. "I suppose you're wondering why I roused you at such an early hour for this meeting. Well it is time for the annual camp physicals and I know that you love them so much that you wanted to get an early start so here is your chance. Any questions? Good"

The five groaned loudly. Camp physicals were the worst job, two hundred people needing routine health checks and only a couple of days to do them before ICORPS started demanding the reports. Potter was right an early start was the only way.

The standard operating procedure listed in the Army manual for physical inspection of active troops included the following basic tests:

Weight – a member of Uncle Sam's army is required to keep him or herself at a healthy weight and at the peak of physical fitness in readiness for action.

Temperature – one of the most basic tests for unidentified illness is presence of a fever or raised temperature. Results from this are checked against other tests to look for correlation.

Routine blood work – used to check for illness or weakness. Most often it is the best way of keeping STD's in check in a situation where men and women are more likely to have numerous sexual partners and contraception is not always readily available (dependent like most things on supplies)

Blood pressure – results must show a systolic reading between 90 and 120mmHg and a diastolic between 60 and 80mmHg.

X-rays – Generally more important for new troops to check for underlying skeletal problems however routine films of regular troops are used to check for injury however slight; malformations due to genetics or work load and disease that could seriously affect the structural component of the body.

Cough please – the standard test to check for herniation in males. Corpsmen in MASH units are more likely to suffer with this complaint as they spend a lot of time carrying heavy litters.

The annual physical was also a chance to administer booster vaccines, vitamin shots or preventative medicine such as gamma globulin which could prevent hepatitis A becoming endemic in a camp where everyone lived in each others shoes.

Officers were expected to check each other as standard.

"So Pierce, I guess it's that time again" Colonel Potter removed his glasses and leaned back in his chair, he was used to physicals, he'd had one every year since joining the army at 16 but every time he felt a nervous twist in his gut, what if this time he failed something, what if something was wrong. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind. "Would you prefer first or second?" he asked, it was customary in this camp that the Chief Surgeon took care of the commanding officer and vice versa.

"Age before beauty Colonel" Pierce quipped, indicating that he was in no rush to be examined himself. Thirty minutes later and the tests were completed, the Colonel had passed at least as far as visual inspection went, he wouldn't be fully okay dokied until the blood work and x-rays returned.

"Your turn, Pierce" the Colonel replaced his glasses and beckoned the younger man to remove his shirt so that he could begin. "Those bruises are impressive Pierce. Where did you get them?" Sherman examined the deep purple bruise on his patients arm and the two on his back that were already yellowing as they healed.

"I can't honestly remember Colonel. You know me, I was probably drunk or maybe I have added boxing to my midnight somnambulism's" the surgeon quipped, he had been known to sleepwalk and play games while fast asleep, it was quite possible that he had performed an activity which led to bruising. Without witness' no one would ever know for sure.

The Colonel nodded, although not completely convinced; Hawkeye Pierce was more of a relaxed drunk, sitting and laughing rather than staggering about and crashing into things and the nightmares and sleepwalking that had occasionally plagued him seemed to have ceased after his talk with Sidney Freedman, however he was not about to say anything. "You sound a little congested?" the older man remarked as he tested his patients breathing and lung function.

"I've had a cold. Guess the chestiness is still clearing up"

"I didn't notice you sneezing"

"I didn't get many symptoms, a slight fever which cleared in a couple of days and a bit of a cough which I assumed would clear in its own time."

Another nod, although the colonel couldn't help but worry, he'd know Pierce for several months now and he'd never known him to get sick, not even when the whole camp was down with something and he was surrounded by germs and bacteria. In fact as far as he knew the chief surgeon had only been ill once since coming to Korea and that was before he had arrived. According to Pierce, at least, he only got sick then because of a flu vaccine that Margaret had insisted he had to 'protect' him.

The rest of the exam was routine and the Colonel finished by drawing blood from the dark haired man, smiling in amusement as the surgeon screwed up his eyes and refused to watch the process. For someone that worked in medicine and frequently got covered in blood during operations, he was a wimp when it came to treatment.

"How long do you think it will take to process the blood samples?" Potter asked, making conversation while he transferred the sample to a vial and attached the patient's details.

"I dunno. Charles was going to get started this afternoon and then me and BJ were going to take it in shifts until the work was done. I guess about 2 to 3 days barring casualties. Why? Are you worried about something?"

"No, no just making sure we'll have the report ready on time. I don't fancy having my butt chewed out by some big brass that has never even worked in a hospital." It was a cover, something in the back of his brain was niggling, something that suggested his friend was not very well.