Author's Note: Okay so I had this idea all of a sudden and it wouldn't let me work on my other story. Don't worry, I'll get back to Daddy's Little Girl someday…sorry! Just had to get some of this one written down. Also, I've never seen the show on, I think ABC Family, that was called 'My Boys'…I just thought it would be a good title for this story.
I don't own M*A*S*H, but I'd love too! ;-)
My Boys
By: Cora
Being an Army brat, and a former regular Army Major, I've spent most of my life completely surrounded by members of the opposite sex. I always knew I would and, aside from only having a couple female friends that my mother would allow me to have slumber parties with, my life has been pretty great that way. And thank God for the practice, because even with my Army days behind me, I am surrounded by boys.
I live in Crabapple Cove, Maine with my husband, our four little boys, and my father-in-law. Of course, being the only female in the house gets a little stressful, but never lonely. I used to work at the small clinic my husband and his father run and own, but after our first son was born (exactly one year after our wedding), I became a stay-at-home mom and have never been happier.
"Mmm…What's for breakfast?" his voice still sends tiny goose bumps into action by the millions on my neck and shoulders. He wrapped his arms around me from the back and kissed where the goose bumps rose, resting his hands on my swollen belly. (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the fact that I'm about five months pregnant with our fifth child and that my husband really needs learn how to use a condom?)
"French toast, your favorite," I couldn't help the smile on my face when he started nibbling on my ear. "Ben," I giggled, "Ben, we have company!" I could hear our second youngest son, Danny, at the doorway to the kitchen.
His little feet carried him quickly over to where his father and I stood by the stove, "You guys are icky. Is bweakfast weady? I have to go to school today, wight? Is daddy taking me?"
"And so the day begins," I gave a sort of half laugh, half sigh as my little boy kept on talking…he got his babbling from his father.
Hawkeye unwrapped his arms from my waist and picked up the little black haired, blue eyed, future lady's man. "It's summer Danny. You won't start preschool until fall."
"Why do I have to go to pweschool?" Danny's words squeezed my heart a little. There were days I wish he didn't have too. He was growing up way too fast…it didn't seem like it had been almost four years already since he was born.
"Because you'll make tons of friends and it'll be so much fun!" My heart still made a happy little leap every time my husband looked at one of the boys. The amount of love I could see in his eyes and his smile almost made me start crying…along with the stupid pregnancy hormones.
"Remember how much fun Benny had in Preschool last year?" I leaned over and brushed my son's bangs out of his eyes and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. "You'll love it, I promise."
The little boy yawned and nodded in the cowboy pajamas that Colonel Potter had given him, "But, what about Patwick? Who will he play with?"
Hawkeye just chuckled and gave his tiny double a hug and flashed a wink my way, "Patrick will just have to settle with playing with mommy while you're gone."
"Hey now!" I shot back, playfully swatting my husband's gorgeous behind as he played along, pretending to shield Danny from my blow. "Don't worry about Patrick, Sweetie. He'll have just as much fun with me as you did while Benny was at preschool. Besides, it's only three days a week for a couple hours." He still looked a little sad, so I lightly pinched his cheek, "Why don't you go wake up your brothers and tell them that breakfast is ready?"
"Otay!" He started squirming, but Hawkeye just held on to him and tickled him under his chin. "Daddy! Stop it! Daddy!" Poor little guy had my laugh, but it was so cute with him. His dimples were one of the sweetest things I'd ever seen and I guess they also come from me. Other than those two things though, I think everything else came from his father.
I was laughing just as hard as Hawkeye and Danny were, but I was still managing to get breakfast on the table. "Alright guys, it's gonna get cold. Go round everyone up."
"Oh alright…" Ben put the boy down, "let's go get 'em!" At that, Danny zoomed through the living room and hallway, slowed down at the stairs, and I could hear his little feet running through the hallway upstairs.
As I poured cups of juice and milk, I could hear my father-in-law's loud, happy laugh, "Where's the fire Danny?" A few more footsteps, and he was in the kitchen, "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. You just keep getting prettier every day." He was just like his son.
"Hi Dad," I smiled, my cheeks slightly turning pink with the flattery.
He went over to the counter and poured a cup of coffee, "So how's junior today?"
My hand seemed to go down to my stomach without me even thinking about it, "She's squirming around a lot." My smile instantly widened as the baby fluttered a little again.
"Probably smells the food." Daniel winked, "If you don't mind me saying though Margaret, you're carrying a little low. Sure it's not another boy?"
"Shh! Don't jinx it," I headed back over to the counter to grab the syrup. Daniel just smiled and sat down as I took in the last moment of silence for the day before the kitchen was overrun by three boys. "Morning guys!" Danny was completely awake, but JB was close behind him looking like he was still half asleep. I laughed a little when I saw Benny. He couldn't even keep his eyes open. "Were you guys up playing with your Hotwheels again?" I ruffled up their dark blonde hair and gave them both a quick kiss on the cheek after they sat down.
"It's summer Mom, you're not supposed to wake us up so early." JB mumbled, rubbing his eyes and sounding just like his father. He's our oldest at eight years old, and is almost up to my shoulders already. He was lucky and got his height from his father. Everything else of his though was a pretty even split between his father and me. He's definitely going to be quite the charmer one day…
I chuckled, "Well, I thought we could go to the Harbor today for some shopping. We need to get some things before we go to California."
"How much longer before we get to see Uncle BJ?" Benny asked, now wide awake.
I was about to answer, but Danny got to it first, "Next week, mumember?"
When I heard footsteps coming toward the kitchen, I turned around to see another one of my favorite sights. My damn hormones were causing my vision to become a little blurry with unshed, happy tears again. "Someone was already awake when I got up to the nursery." Hawkeye was carrying our youngest little boy who was busy playing with his daddy's nose like he always did.
I met Ben at the doorway and took my fifteen month old redhead, "Good morning Sunshine. How's my baby today?" Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure where the red hair came from. I'm Irish, but the only person in my family with red hair like his is my cousin Rachel. Hawkeye teases me about the milkman all the time, but other than the hair, our little boy looks just like a perfect mix between me and Hawkeye himself. Who knows, maybe it just happened because he was born on St. Patrick's Day.
I gave him a hug and a kiss and sat him in his high chair. He giggled his sweet little baby laugh and happily hit the tray with his tiny hands when I gave him his little pieces of French toast and a bottle of warm milk.
Once everyone was settled at the table, small conversations erupted. "So," Daniel started, "shopping in the Harbor for the day, that sounds like fun."
"Yeah," I nodded, "I thought we'd find a nice outfit for the boys and I might look for something for myself. I don't really have any nice summery dresses that will fit over all this." Patting my stomach, I could feel the baby kick a little more. She always did when I was eating. Well, okay 'it'. But I'm not carrying low… I turned my attention back to the breakfast table and had a bite of the French toast. "So, do you have anything you want me to pick up?" I asked to either Ben or Daniel, whoever wasn't deep in 'intelligent' conversation with one of the boys.
"Maybe some Oreos?" Daniel suggested from across the table. The boys obviously heard, considering the huge smiles on their faces.
"Yeah!" JB acted like we never fed him, "Yeah! You should really get us some Oreos Mom! Please!?"
I laughed, "If you guys are good today."
Benny perked up even more, "If we get Oreos, can we play that game again?"
"Which game's that Benny?" His father asked, even though he knew what he was talking about.
"The one you said you and grandpa used to play all the time! Where you have to lick off the frosting and dip the cookie in milk. That one!" I still had to take a double take every once in awhile around my sons. It still shocked me how much they looked like Ben and I. Benny looked a lot more like me than the other boys. His eyes, his nose, his chin, his hair…everything. Even his attitude was a double of mine. He's extremely stubborn and sometimes I can't even figure out what's bothering him. And if he's like this at six, I'm almost dreading sixteen.
After awhile, I just started eating a little absentmindedly. I was still listening to the conversations for the most part, but I was thinking about other things. I was making shopping lists, to-do lists, a honey-do list for Ben, a list of things I needed to pack for each of the boys…and a check list for my husband since he's certainly not the best at remember everything. Of course they were in my head and I'd have to get them on paper when I had the chance. So who knows when that could be.
"Oh I know something else you could pick up for me, Margaret." Ben was finishing his orange juice.
"What's that?" I asked, reaching over to clean off Patrick's face since he was done and starting to fuss a bit.
"Well," getting up, he came over to me and started rubbing my shoulders, "there's a certain article of clothing of mine I can't find anywhere."
I tried to keep a straight face, "What piece of clothing could that be, Honey?" I was laughing too much to be convincing.
"Oh, just that one you always said you hated." He was still rubbing my shoulders and now my neck so I knew he wasn't too concerned.
Looking up into his bright blue eyes, I replied, "Honey, that could be anything you bought without my supervision." I knew he was talking about his Hawaiian shirt he'd had in Korea and had worn almost constantly the first year we were back home. "Don't worry, I just put it in our trunk of stuff from Korea. I'll get you a new one when we're in town today."
"I guess I could live with that," he leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. "Thanks Honey. But, I should probably go. The boss is making me open today."
Daniel chuckled and threw a napkin at his son, "Oh boloney, I'll be ready in a minute."
After throwing back the napkin, Ben went around and gave the boys hugs and kisses and came back to where I'd just stood up. He wrapped his arm around my waist and looked at the boys, "Be good today guys. Don't give your mom too much trouble, alright. Act like your father, and you'll be fine." He turned to kiss me with his most mischievous smile on his face.
I stuck my hand in front of my lips, "I don't think so, Buster."
"Aw, just a little kiss?" He put on the puppy dog eyes and leaned in again.
I playfully pushed his head back as he tried to get closer, "Only when you take that back."
"Okay, I surrender! Act as little like me as you can." When I removed my hand from his face, he wrapped his strong arms around me as much as he dared and dipped me back to kiss me. I could hear a few 'Eww's' but for the most part, our audience was laughing at us. Especially little Patrick.
When our kiss got a little deeper than either of us expected it to get, I heard Daniel clear his throat, trying (and failing) to sound disgusted. "Alright love birds, you're gonna give the kids nightmares. Break it up."
Ben got me back upright and we pulled apart a little breathless. "I should go," he looked a little disappointed.
"Not like we could do anything right now anyway." I winked and gave him another little peck on the lips, "I love you."
"Love you too." Giving me a hug, he looked down and chuckled, "You too."
"My God, are you ever gonna leave?" I teased the most gorgeous doctor in the cove, "You'll be in trouble if you're late for work again."
"Especially since he's holding up the boss!" Daniel threw in from where he stood by the back door.
"Alright, alright! I'm going. Bye everyone! Good luck! I love you!" He called as he grabbed his brief case, coffee, keys, and loose paperwork in a flash and headed out the door.
"Bye guys." Daniel was about to close the door to leave, "Good luck Margaret, you might need it today."
I just chuckled and waved, "Thanks Dad." And I was on my own…with four boys…to go shopping. Thank God for the Army training.
Okay, so I know you really want another update for 'Daddy's Little Girl' or a sequel to 'Missing Out' but they will come one day! For the time being though, I have a lot more ideas for this story. I really hope you liked it and if you have any questions, I'm sure they'll be answered later in the story. Tell me what you thought! But be nice…haha. Thanks for reading!
PS: The new semester starts very soon and I'm actually gonna have 'real' classes for the rest of the year so if I don't update very often, I'm really sorry! I will update though. Okay, now you can review! ;-)
