Time froze and for a second Hawkeye forgot where he was and to whom he was speaking. It took him several seconds to return to reality, but he felt as though he'd stepped onto a landmine. Frank's voice echoed in his head and he could picture the man clearly. It was a disturbing picture in more ways than one.
To Hawkeye's great relief, Frank's image left his mind, but it took the reminder that Margaret was sobbing on the other end of the line harder than before.

He swallowed hard. "I'll be on the next plane."

Saying goodbye to her was incredibly difficult and hanging up the phone even more so. He wasn't even sure that she'd heard him. But he couldn't think. There was so much to do that he'd completely forgotten about how tired he was. He showered and changed his clothes and then packed a bag. He had to get to Denver-to Margaret as quickly as possible.

He called the airlines, angry that the earliest flight was a red-eye. Unfortunately he took out his anger and frustration on the ticket agent and then apologized profusely when he realized that he'd upset her.

The moment he hung up the phone he was strangely grateful for the extra hours. He definitely had things that he needed to do before he took off for Denver.

First he called the hospital and informed them that due to a family emergency he need to take an undetermined amount of time off. It wasn't a lie; not really. He considered almost everyone at the 4077 family and after all that he'd done for the hospital, they owed him at least this. Fortunately his request was met with well wishes.

More phone calls followed, the first to Boston General.

"Boston General."

"Yeah, I need to speak to one of your surgeons, please. A Trapper-I mean John McIntyre."

"I'm sorry, Dr. McIntyre is in surgery right now."

Hawkeye cursed under his breath. "Right. Look, can you have him call me immediately or as soon thereafter?"

"Of course. Who's calling?"

He smiled. "Hawkeye."

"Who?"

"Just tell him Hawkeye. He'll know."

"Yes sir. I'll have him call you right away."

Hawkeye hung up the phone, feeling completely helpless. After swigging down a beer or two (Maybe more, he wasn't really sure), he picked up the phone and

dialed yet another number.

A woman answered. Peg, he presumed.

"Hello?"

"Is BJ there?"

"Yes, just a minute and I'll… Hawkeye, is that you?"

"Yeah."

"It's so nice to hear your voice! When are you coming to visit us in Mill Valley?"

"I'm not sure. Look, can you just get BJ on the phone?" He snapped.

Peg's voice grew quiet. "Sure. Just a minute."

He hated himself for losing his temper again. Peg didn't deserve his attitude and neither did the girl at the airline. Geez, the news about Frank was making him

crazy.

"Hey, Hawk. How's it going?"

"Hey, look. Tell Peg that I'm sorry for snapping at her, all right? I didn't mean it."

"She knows that, Hawk. In fact, she's used to my snapping at her more often than I should. Comes with the territory of marriage, I guess. But I'll pass on your

apology, okay?"

"BJ I have some news. You're not going to like it."

"Can't be any worse than the stuff we heard in Korea."

"Trust me, it is."

"What is it?"

"Frank's dead."

"What?"

"You heard me, damn it! Frank's dead!" Hawkeye shouted. He forced himself to calm down. "I'm sorry. Geez, now I'm taking it out on you and that's not fair."

"Oh my God…"

Hawkeye could hear Peg's voice move closer to the phone, asking "Honey, are you okay?" He imagined Peg putting her arms around BJ to comfort him and

Hawkeye was strangely jealous. He wished there was someone to comfort him, as odd as it sounded.

"Y-yeah." BJ said. "I'm all right, honey."

"What is it?"

"I'll tell you later. I-I think I hear Erin calling for you."

"All right."

Footsteps and then BJ let out a breath. "God, what happened?"

"No idea."

"How did you find out?"

"Hot Lips-I mean Margaret called me." God, had he really just called her Hot Lips?

"Hawk, you don't think…"

Hawkeye didn't have to ask what BJ meant. They were both thinking the same thing, remembering the general who had died in Margaret's tent.

"That's not funny, BJ! Margaret… she sounded completely distraught!"

I'm sorry, Hawk. Anything I can do?"

"No, I just wanted to tell you. I thought you should know."

"Boy if this isn't karma coming back to haunt us, I don't know what is."

Hawkeye sighed . "Right. All those damned jokes we played on him, calling him Ferret Face. Damn!"

He didn't mean to yell, but he knew that BJ would understand.

"You can't blame yourself, Hawk. These things happen. But come to think of it, you have no idea what happened."

"I should have asked, but the phone call… It was so quick. And I had to strain to hear her. I thought it was a prank call at first and I really went off on her. I had

just gotten off of a seventeen hour shift. And I never thought that Frank would-or that Margaret…"

"They had quite a history, even way before I got there, didn't they?"

"It goes deeper than that, Beej. I don't know if I can even try to explain it."

"She must have really loved him."

"Yeah, who knew?"

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go to her. You don't think that's crazy, do you?"

"Not at all. I wouldn't expect anything less. Give her my love, will you? But make sure you save some of it for yourself."

Hawkeye smiled. "Thanks Beej. I love you, too. But give some of it to Peg and Erin."

"Will do."

The line went dead and Hawkeye stood for God knew how long, holding the receiver in his hand.