It was a typical summer evening, a Friday night to boot, at the Pierce-Hunnicut household. School was just finishing up, with only a week a half to go, and it was hard to say who was most looking forward to Erin having summer vacation- the 7 year old, or either of her proud papas. At any rate, with BJ just preparing a decent meal (he was no gourmet cook, but as Hawkeye often pointed out, he was certainly no Igor. That somehow did not flatter BJ all that much.)

BJ was serving the lemonade, when there was a knock on the door. "Expecting someone?" BJ smiled as he handed Erin her glass of her favorite drink.

Hawkeye shook his head. "Beats me."

"Maybe it's the stork!" Erin declared gleefully, and both BJ and Hawkeye stopped and stared at her in absolutely delighted shock.

"Erin!" BJ laughed. "Where in the world would you get such an idea?"

Hawkeye stood to answer the door, but listened carefully for Erin's answer. "I told Mommy on the phone yesterday I want a brother or sister. She said I'd have to wait for the stork."

"Is that right?" BJ smiled.

"Yeah," Erin continued. "Then Mommy said she sure would like to see the stork that would ever visit our home."

Hawkeye, cracking up laughing in disbelief at Peg's comments, got suddenly quiet. Even BJ noticed the change.

"Hawk? Everything okay?"

No answer.

"Well. Erin, I'd better go check on Uncle Hawkeye. After dinner how about you draw us up a picture of what you think that stork would look like?" BJ kissed her forehead, then went to check on his partner.

"Hawkeye?"

BJ looked on in confusion as Hawkeye and the caller just looked at each other nervously. "Hawk? Do you know this guy?"

Hawkeye took a second to catch his breath. "You could say that."

"Hawkeye..."

then the doctor Pierce, without looking away at the unexpected guest, shocked BJ even more than the second hand comments about a stork from Erin even had. "Beej...this is Trapper."

It took BJ a second, but as the three of them just looked at one another, no one knew what exactly what was going on there.

BJ for some reason had a sick feeling in his stomach. This was no ordinary long lost friend of Hawkeye's.

This was Trapper. The Trapper. The friend before BJ. The friend who'd hurt Hawkeye for the longest time by his not saying goodbye during Korea.

The Trapper who'd shared many laughs, a tent, even more drinks with Hawkeye long before BJ came into the picture.

The Trapper that it took BJ the longest time to get people to see past and to have to learn that BJ could never be Trapper, as much as they would have liked him to have been.

The Trapper who shared parts of Hawkeye's life that no matter how often Hawkeye talked about them with BJ, it would never be the same as having shared those experiences personally with him.

Yeah, That Trapper.

It was going to be a long and interesting evening.

tbc