"Walter, your son is leaving," Mary O'Reilly said to her husband as she finished helping her son bring his belongings to the living room.

"I'll be right there."

Walter thought back to the past 18 years, and what his only son had come to mean to him and his wife. They didn't even know she was pregnant until she was relatively far along, that's how "innocent" Walter still was, but throughout the years, they had no regrets.

Until now. It was hard for Walter to see his only son leave, even if it was supposed to be a joyous occasion. Benjamin was going to school, to study to become a veterinarian, and he was the first of Walter's family to go to college. Yes, it was a happy day in the household, indeed.

Except it wasn't that happy of an occasion for Walter. Goodbyes had never really been his thing, not since Korea, and even then his service in the war meant that goodbyes were forever. Take his friends, his son's namesake Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce, and even Colonel Potter. They were close to him, about as close as any friends could get, and he never really had a proper goodbye with them.

And then, most significantly, there was Henry Blake. His former commander, Colonel Blake had been a casualty of war, dying on his way home. It wasn't fair, Walter surmised. War had never been about fairness, but to lose such a beloved leader like that, well, twenty years later and Walter still couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

He'd thought about naming his only son Henry, but then Mary would ask questions. He hadn't spoken about the war, much. He had said that he'd made friends there, but that was about all he was willing to talk about it. Jovial and friendly to this day, war was the one subject that remained, to his household, unspeakable.

Digging furiously throughout his belongings, he finally found what it was he was looking for. A thermometer. And it wasn't any old thermometer.

It was Henry's. Henry's father's, to be more specific.

0000

"Dad, I don't need a thermometer; we'll be given our own," Ben sighed as he rolled his eyes. Kids these days could be so, so, uncool, Walter laughed to himself.

"Son, I want you to take this, and to keep it with you. It belonged to a good friend of mine. Colonel Blake, as a matter of fact."

Even Mary looked at him in surprise. "Is that the one..."

Walter nodded. "Yes. My commander gave this to me, and it is the only reminder I have left of him. I think he kind of gave it to me as a way of watching over me, and now I want to do the same thing for you."

Ben smiled, then hugged his dad. "Thanks, Dad. I'll take real good care of it."

"Oh, and Ben..."

Ben turned around, suitcase and thermometer in his hands. "Yes?"

"You behave yourself. Or I'll kick your butt."

Ben smiled again as he made his way out of the door. Parents. He had never even heard his father use the word butt, not even once.

Walter watched tearfully as his son left. Perhaps somewhere, up above, someone would be as proud of him as he was of his own son.

The end