The minute BJ Hunnicutt got home from Korea, he realised just how changed he was. He knew he'd have been changed by the war, only a fool could believe they'd go to war and come home just the same.

He had not been changed in the way war generally changes man. Well, he had been, but he'd been changed in another way too. He loved Peg so much, she was the mother of his daughter and the image he'd clung onto, but once he was home, sat in his kitchen with his daughter on his lap and his wife talking nine to the dozen, he realised what was missing.

Hawkeye.

He loved Peg, he realised, but he was in love with Hawkeye. There was a big 6ft 2in hole in his life where Hawkeye should be, wisecracking and making Erin laugh and being there with him.

He didn't know where to start when it came to mentioning it to Peg. It felt like a betrayal to not mention it, but it felt like that the other way too. To tell or not to tell, that is the question.

A week or so later, as he was putting Erin to bed, BJ finally thought he had enough confidence. He made his way down to the kitchen, and saw Peg sat with two cups of cocoa. Cocoa was not often drunk in the Hunnicutt home, only when there were important matters to discuss. BJ panicked suddenly, wondering if Peg had worked it out and was going to ask for a divorce. He almost ran away before Peg smiled sweetly at him, and pulled out a chair next to hers.

BJ sat down and wrapped his hands around the warm mug. He stared into the cocoa and tried to find words. He couldn't quite find the right ones, and luckily, he didn't need to.

"BJ, you remember my friend Val I used to write about when you were, well, you know?" Peg asked quietly. BJ looked over to see Peg staring into her cocoa, much the way he had.

"I do" BJ replied.

"I, um…" Peg started, "I guess I feel about her the way you do about Hawkeye"

BJ felt like all the air had left the room. He couldn't tell if this was Peg saying she loved Val as much as he did Hawkeye, or that she had gone away and she felt like there was a
Val shaped hole in her life. He decided to seize the moment and go for it, there was no other way.

"You're in love with her?" He asked.

Peg nodded and sipped her cocoa, "I am, and you're in love with Hawkeye"

"I'm so sorry Peg, I-" BJ said.

"Don't be sorry," Peg interrupted, "you should go and see him"

BJ sipped his cocoa. He assumed he was in shock, but he felt at peace at the same time. For a start, Peg hadn't hit him when he'd admitted he was in love with his walking, talking disaster human best friend from the war.

The next morning, BJ booked his ticket to Maine. The day he left, he was seen off by Peg and Erin and Val, who BJ had met and liked very much. He was glad that Peg had somebody as lovely as her to come home to, whilst he went off to find Hawkeye.

He had absolutely no plan regarding seeing Hawkeye. He knew he had to get to Crabapple Cove, and he'd consulted some maps before he left so he knew how to get there. He had Hawkeye's address, Hawk had given him that before they'd all left the 4077th.

He hired a car at the airport and drove to Crabapple Cove, hardly taking in where he was going. He was far too nervous about turning up on Hawkeye's doorstep and having to say that he was there because he was in love with him.

It soon became very clear that BJ needn't have worried. He knocked on the door of Hawkeye's house, heart racing, and waited. The door opened, and there stood a very dishevelled Hawkeye. His eyes lit up the second he clocked who had turned up on his doorstep.

"Beej!" He almost screamed, as he threw his arms around his former tentmate. BJ held onto him tight, wondering if this would be the only hug he got from Hawkeye, considering what he was there to say.

Hawkeye let him into the house and led him through to the kitchen. There was the smell of freshly baked bread and coffee, and BJ could instantly see why Hawkeye had held onto the image of home so steadfastly in Korea.

"You look we-well, I'd say you look well, except you really need a shave" BJ said as Hawkeye poured him a coffee.

"Yeah well I've been busy" Hawkeye replied, smiling weakly. BJ instantly knew something was up. He'd been expecting a gag about his still-present moustache, and it hadn't come. Clearly something was bothering Hawkeye.

"Busy? You've only been back a couple of weeks"

"Yeah well," Hawkeye replied, "missing you takes up a lot of one's time"

This was all because he'd missed him? The thought of that gave BJ a tiny bit of hope that maybe his cross-country flight and drive from the airport hadn't been entirely in vain after all. BJ didn't know what to do with himself, how to progress. He decided he just had to go for it, pull off the metaphorical band-aid, and get on with it.

"I missed you too, Hawk, that's why I'm here, or part of it, at least" BJ said, smiling over at his friend, trying to make him seem comfortable. Hawkeye looked over at him with one eyebrow raised.

"Part of it? Pray tell, what is the other part?" He asked.

"The other part is because I'm in love with you"

BJ held his breath whilst he watched Hawkeye's reaction. It went from confusion to happiness to delight, and before BJ could register any of these things, Hawkeye had leapt across his kitchen with an athleticism he didn't actually possess straight into BJ's arms. Their foreheads rested against each other as they worked out what the hell they did next. BJ assumed this display of energy and tenderness was as good of an 'I love you too' as he was going to get out of Hawkeye for a while, and that was absolutely fine by him.

"I guess I gotta go shave" Hawkeye said after a minute, his nose gently brushing BJ's. BJ resisted the urge to break the magic of the moment by making a joke about Hawkeye's nose.

BJ leant forward and placed a gentle, chaste kiss on Hawkeye's lips.

"Yeah, go shave" He said, pulling away to sip his coffee. Hawkeye rolled his eyes and headed upstairs to shave, muttering about no respect and just turning up and expecting a man to be clean shaven.

When Hawkeye returned, freshly shaved and looking more himself, BJ could tell something was bothering him.

"Spill"

"Just like that? Beej you're hot but you're not that hot" Hawkeye replied, refilling his coffee cup.

"I'll try not to be offended" BJ said, "but c'mon, I know when something is bothering you"

"Does Peg know you're here?"

BJ nodded, and Hawkeye softened instantly. He wandered out to the back porch, and sat on the bench swing. BJ joined him, and Hawkeye rested his head on BJ's shoulder. It all felt natural and normal and the way it was meant to be, whilst also remaining new and exciting and illicit and all the adjectives BJ could think of.

"Peg has this friend, Val, you remember she used to mention Val in her letters?"

Hawkeye nodded, leaning forward to kiss BJ gently, nervous about kissing someone for the first time in his life.

"Well Val and Peg are friends in much the way that we are friends" BJ explained, "or at least in the way that we're friends now we've, well, you know"

"Val and Peg are girlfriends in the way that we are boyfriends?" Hawkeye asked, trying to help BJ along. He could tell BJ was purposefully being careful with what he said so he didn't interpret anything wrong, he didn't want to get ahead of himself, and Hawkeye wanted to do anything to let him know that it wouldn't be possible.

"Are we?" BJ asked.

"I mean I'd say so" Hawkeye replied, taking BJ's coffee mug from his hands, placing it on the ground. Hawkeye leant forward and kissed BJ, making it very clear how he felt.

All coffee and conversation was forgotten, in lieu of something far more interesting.

It wasn't until they woke up in each other's arms the next morning that Hawkeye and BJ realised that this was going to be more than 'we're in love and that's great'. They realised that it would, in fact, take an awful lot of admin.

They had Erin to worry about, for a start.

Nevertheless, they were going to try and make a go of it, however they could.

After a few days in Maine with Hawkeye, it was obvious that Hawkeye would not suit California living. That was fine by BJ, he would always be a Californian, but there was something about Maine that had come to mean a great deal to him.

When BJ went home - California home, that was - he went back on the strict instruction that he return a few weeks later with Peg, Val, and Erin. Hawkeye had proclaimed that late August was absolutely the best time of year to see Maine, and that if anyone should experience it like that, it was his boyfriend's wife and her girlfriend.

Any fears BJ may have had about the whole thing going smoothly were eliminated the second they arrived. Almost before she was out of the car, Erin was in Hawkeye's arms, being given the grand tour of the house and gardens.

"And this, Miss Erin, was once my childhood bedroom" Hawkeye said to the little girl, knowing full well that she was too young to understand, but that wasn't going to stop him, "and now it shall be yours, whenever you're here. How does that sound?"

BJ's heart melted at the sight of it.

It was decided over a few too many martinis that evening that Hawkeye and Val would get married. Why should BJ and Peg have all the lavender-tinted wedding fun?

It was also decided that Peg and Val would move into Hawkeye's house, along with BJ and Erin. They'd all be one big, mixed up family, looking to all the world like two married couples sharing a big house for the economic benefits. Nobody had to know who slept in who's bed.

Once Erin began properly talking, all they had to make sure of was that she remembered to call Hawkeye "Uncle Hawkeye" and Val "Auntie Val" in public, rather than the "Dad" and "Mom" to BJ and Peg's "Daddy" and "Mommy" that they had become.