*See Parts 1-2 for Warnings*
© 2000 MCLPart 7
Hawkeye came back from the swamp and went into Radar's office. The sweet boy was talking to his guinea-pig when Hawkeye came in. "Hi Radar." Hawkeye said. Radar knew by the tone of voice, that Hawkeye wanted something. He closed his guinea-pig's cage and turned facing the captain.
"What is it this time, sir?" Radar asked. Hawkeye gave him a faked shocked expression. "Am I really that predictable?" Hawkeye asked. Radar sighed. "okay, okay Radar. I need you to find out who the major was that died at the front about 3 weeks ago, Chelsea said he was up by the 8 station." Hawkeye said. BJ came over and nodded. "And see if she had any family in the states, Hawkeye can't adopt someone who isn't an orphan." BJ said and Hawkeye nodded in agreement.
"Okay sirs, but this will take awhile." Radar said as he rang Sparky. Before the Captains could reply, Radar heard Sparky on the other end. "Hello? Sparky? Yeah it's Radar. I need HQ. Yeah, thanks Sparky." Radar turned back to Hawkeye and BJ as Sparky rang the HQ. Before they even opened their mouths, Radar said,
"Radar, come and get me as soon as you hear anything." BJ looked at Hawkeye, whom had just opened his mouth to talk. He looked at Radar and smiled. "Yeah. What I said. I'll be in the Swamp." Hawkeye said and Radar nodded as he waited for someone to pick up on the other end.
BJ and Hawkeye walked back to the swamp quietly. BJ knew Hawkeye had a lot on his mind, and he knew he'd not seen Hawkeye drink in what felt like forever.
It had actually only been since the night before. BJ opened the swamp's door and as Hawkeye followed him inside, he smiled.
Chelsea was sound asleep on his bunk, all curled up into a ball, her arm hanging off of the side of the bed. BJ shook his head at the huge drowning gown Chelsea wore, and went over to her.
He picked up his blanket and covered her up with it. Hawkeye nodded him thanks and sat down on his bunk. BJ nodded back and sat on one of the tall backed, white chairs.
Bored, Hawkeye picked up 3 pairs of his socks and balled them up, and began to juggle them. A few minutes of that made him even boreder, and he picked up a pad of paper and took his pen out of his pocket. BJ was just starting to close his sleepy eyes when Hawkeye began to fill out an imaginary adoption form.
"Let's see. Name. Okay, that's an easy one." Hawkeye said as he wrote 'Name'. "Chelsea Elizabeth Pierce." Hawkeye said as he wrote it down beside the word 'name'. "Next." Hawkeye said, as he made 4 more lines for his form. "Age. hmm, 7 years." Hawkeye said adding it underneath her name.
BJ was now smiling in his dozing, he was about to say someting when Hawkeye said, "Birthday..Hmmm..lemme see, she said it was..." Hawkeye said, trying to think.
"August 10th." Chelsea said yawning. Hawkeye looked over and smiled. BJ sat up in the chair and looked at Chelsea. "How you feelin?" BJ asked as Hawkeye wrote her birthdate down too.
"I'm okay, sir." Chelsea said, rubbing her eye. BJ smiled. "Call me BJ." BJ said, and Chelsea smiled. "Okay, BJ." Chelsea said, turning her attention to the still writing Hawkeye.
"Was you serious?" Chelsea asked. Hawkeye looked up at her with a confused look. "I mean when you said I could stay here with you." Chelsea said, refreshing his memory. Hawkeye looked at BJ and put the pen and paper down. He got up and sat next to her on BJ's bed.
"If I have anything to do with it you will." Hawkeye said, and Chelsea peeked over and eyed the paper he'd had. "What's that?" Chelsea asked, pointing at it with her good hand. Hawkeye turned and looked at the paper, then reached over and snatched it off of his bunk.
"Nuthin really, just playing with your name." Hawkeye said, lying to her. He didn't want her to know he was trying to adopt her, just in case it didn't work. "How did you know my middle name?" Chelsea asked seeing the word Elizabeth scratched into the paper in ink.
Hawkeye gave her a smile and a small hug. "I guessed." Hawkeye replied as he let Chelsea have the pen to draw with. She took it and drew a smiley face above her name. She giggled at it, making BJ chuckle with her. Secretly, BJ hoped that Hawk did get the okay for the adoption, He thought it was just what Hawkeye needed.
****
Radar got 1 yes and 2 no's in 5 minutes. HQ said the major was indeed her father, Major Connor Irwin. He had been killed on the front, by enemy fire. That was the yes. The first no was was there any known family for his daughter in Korea.
The second no was did she have any in the states. This kid had no one, and Radar was more than happy for Hawkeye. But he was sad for Chelsea. She had no one now, and she might end up in some orphanage, all alone and scared. He didn't want that, and he decided to use all of his string pulling abilities to help Hawkeye adopt the lonely child.
TBC
