Coming Home.
The wait was unbearable. The "war" had ended a week ago and he still wasn't home. She knew that he wouldn't be home the day after the war ended, but she had been waiting long enough.
Peg Hunnicutt sat at his, rather her, desk now running her hand over the pile of letters he had sent her from Korea. She had written him almost everyday since he had left. That was just over two years ago. It was just enough to keep her going to see letters coming back to her.
The first time the mail got delayed coming out of Korea, she had panicked, fearing the worst. It had taken over a month to get though, but when it did, there were five long, loving letters from B.J. expressing his love for both her and Erin.
Peg had picked up the first letter he had sent her from the war. The descriptions of the people he was working with comforted her. If he had to be in such a god awful place, at least he was with good people around him. From the first time she read about Hawkeye, she told her self that if she ever met him she would do everything in her power to thank him for being there for B.J. and helping him though it all.
Suddenly, Peg felt something tug on the hem of her skirt, and looked down. Erin had woken up form her nap and was wanting to sit in her mother's lap. Peg picked dup her two year old daughter, and held her close.
"Mommy?" Erin said in a still sleepy voice. "When is daddy coming home?" she had asked that question everyday for the past month. It was amazing how aware Erin was.
In the back of her head, Peg feared that when B.J. came home, Erin wouldn't recognize him. This fear was increased when herself and Erin went to pick up B.J.'s friend Walter O'Reilly from the airport when he got his orders to come back to the states. When Walter had walked up to Peg and Erin for the first time, Erin immeditally stretched out her arms and shouted "Daddy!" thinking it was her father. Both Walter and Peg had laughed, but on the inside, Peg's heart broke realizing that Erin didn't remember what B.J. had looked like. But than again, this was logical wasn't it? She was only two months old when he got drafted.
"Mommy? What about daddy?" Erin asked again impatiently.
"Soon, sweetie, soon." Peg hated giving that answer, but it was the only one she had. "Are you hungry?" Erin nodded her head enthusiastically, and climbed off her mother's lap, then ran off to the kitchen.
The rest of the day went very slowly, as it had since the peace was declared. But eventually Erin fell asleep over he coloring books and crayons and Peg put her in her bed. This was the time of day she hated the most. It was the time she missed B.J. the most. After Erin had gone to bed was their time. Most nights they spent on the couch, relaxing, talking, reading, listening to the radio, just being close.
For the last two years Peg had to keep herself busy and not think about all the warm, interment times her and her husband had shared togheter. She did this by cleaning the house from top to bottom, making the house sparkle as best she could. So with a combination of working four days a week part time, to help keep the house payments up, and scrubbing the house she was able to have a dreamless sleep.
Once again, Peg found herself in the office cleaning the desk. She picked up the bundle of letters and held them close to her heart taking in a deep breath. One day she'd give Erin the letters, to show her what her dad was doing instead of being there for the first two years of her life. But for now she'd hold onto them until she had B.J. to hold on to.
Taking the letters into the living room she flopped down on the couch and began to read one of them, as she did every night before she went to bed.
"…and there Hawkeye and I were darling, lost in the middle of Korea, with Ralph following us around, and Fred on my back. After a few miles we somehow found Fred's hut. He was so grateful that we helped him he took us to his barn. And you wouldn't believe it Peggy, but there it was under a tarp. An old WWII motorcycle, complete with gas! I couldn't believe out luck, neither could Hawkeye. He was rather relucktant to let me drive it, but I explained how I was Mill Valley's residant motorcyclist. So Hawkeye, Ralph and I climbed into the motorcycle with the supplies, and headed back to the 4077th."
The sound of a motorcycle pulling up in one of the driveways on their street made Peg's heat begin to race. As much as she tried she couldn't slow her heart rate down, her hands began to shake and she felt like crying. The she heard the door unlock and open. Peg jumped out of her seat and turned towards the door. And there he was standing there with his army bag on his shoulder.
They stood there staring at eachother for the longest time, both trying to immigining if this moment was real. Finally he dropped his bag and she ran to him, throwing her arms around him.
They held each other until B.J. finally pulled away and looked at her. He took his hand and touched her cheek. She took her hand and ran it though his hair, and down his face, and then running her thumb over his mustache. He didn't have it when he left. It was an interesting acquisition. But she didn't care, she'd have plenty of time to get used to it.
Finally he kissed her. It was so intense. It was like the first time that he had kissed her back in college. They had been at one of B.J.'s fraternity social events and she had met him there. After an entire night of talking, he took her down to a pond right off campus and they kissed for hours. This was a million times better than that.
"Peggy." He whisperd as he looked into her eye, they both were on the verge of tears.
"I know B.J.. I know." Then B.J. picked Peg up and spun her around and around until they were both laughing, over come with joy.