Chapter 1: Happily Ever After

No such address. As expected as it was, it still hurt to see the red stamp on the envelope that she had carefully addressed to the man that had changed her life.

Seven years had passed since the last time that Margaret had had any real contact with Hawkeye. It was at his father's funeral. Hawkeye had taken it upon himself to write her a letter, explaining everything that happened and thanked her being by his side in his final years and for allowing him to be apart of his grandson's life.

So many things had changed in the past twenty years, her life doing a complete one-eighty. Now she was married, had four kids of her own and two stepchildren. She had only recently started back to work, a few years ago when her youngest started high school. Her entire life she had looked down on the idea of being a stay at home mom, thinking that it would be boring and not as fulfilling as an army job. There was never a boring moment, and she was proud of her children. All of them.

Sighing, she tossed the letter down onto the kitchen table. She found herself sitting alone in the kitchen more often than she used to. It had become more quiet as of recent, but so had the rest of the house. She would work morning shifts, so she was gone when everyone else was getting up in the morning. Then she would get home before Ally and Mike would return from school. Trapper seemed to be working later and later shifts. Kathy, Becky, Johnny, and Renee weren't there anymore.

Now however, everyone was home. It was early in the evening as the orange light filtered through the blinds from the window right beside the table. Trapper was up in his study, the kids each in their rooms. No one really wanted to talk to each other. No one wanted to be the first to try and start some normal conversation. And right now, she felt lonelier than she ever had when she was spending her time alone.

Margaret's eyes were glued to the envelope. All she wanted was for things to go back to the way that they used to be. It was less than a year ago, she was helping Becky pick out baby clothes, Kathy plan a wedding. Johnny was looking for an apartment since he had gotten hired in at the steel mill. Renee was learning how to drive while Ally was going through her reinventive phase. Mike was working up the courage to ask out a girl that he had liked for the longest time. Everyone was moving onto better things, growing and maturing.

That had all come to a hault. Becky and her husband were living in another state with their baby boy, Eric, probably the only happy thing. Kathy was supposed to get married last week, but they postponed the wedding. Johnny was somewhere in Vietnam while Ally sat alone in the room that she used to share with Renee. It had been months, and no one wanted to be the one to change anything about her side of the room.

She needed to talk to someone, she needed to talk to him. She and Trapper were talking less and less, the kids weren't doing all that well. She needed Hawkeye. He was always able to help her, to say the right thing at the right time. He knew when to be funny to cheer her up and when to be serious. And she had to tell him about Johnny. Being his father, he deserved to know.

"Hear from him?"

Margaret slightly jumped at the voice, turning around to see her husband standing there. He was leaning in the doorway, his shoulder pressed against the frame. He hadn't shaved today, nor had he bothered to even change his clothes. None of that bothered her, not nearly as much as the stench of gin that followed him.

"No," she flatly replied.

Turning back around in her seat, she looked back to the returned letter. It was always hard to get ahold of Hawkeye. At least when his father was alive, he would keep in touch with him, which in turn made it easier to find him. Ever since then though, he seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. He would show up to random events, like Johnny's graduation, but he would never talk to anyone. He would just stay in the back and observe. It were as if he was afraid to get close.

"I was thinking about writing BJ again. He might have some clue where he's at," she mentioned.

Trapper pushed himself away from the frame and walk over towards Margaret. He grabbed her shoulders and began massaging them. As bad as he felt, he knew that she had to feel ten times worse. It hurt him to not be able to do anything to help her. It was frustrating.

"I'm sure if he knew where he was, he would be personally dragging him over here," he stated.

Margaret just nodded. She knew that he was right. They had talked to BJ before, he knew what was going on with Hawkeye, just as much as they knew. And now with everyone coming into town next weekend, she was pretty sure that BJ would be calling if he had any idea where the man was hiding.

There was suddenly a knock at the door, causing them to both softly groan. Now was not the time. The last thing they needed was to be dealing with guests.

"Let's go see who it is," Margaret said as she got up from her seat. She grabbed onto Trapper's hand and started guiding him to the door.

The two reluctantly walked together, deciding to just get this over with as soon as possible. Once they stopped, Trapped pulled away from her and stood back while Margaret went and opened the door.

Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened. Trapper took a step forward, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Renee?" He asked.