"Do you really want me after this?"
"I want you more and more," he said honestly. "I want you to go home with me. I want to wake up with you next to me for the rest of my life. I want to get to know my daughter, and maybe have some more babies with you."
She smiled at him, and at Emily. She was now looking at her parents, without a clue about what was going on. She spotted the dog, and wiggled out of her father's arms. He gave her a kiss, and let her go. Margaret threw herself onto him, knocking him on his back, and kissed him. "I'm sorry."
"I know you did it to protect me," he said. She was laying on top of him, and her hair had fallen across her face. He moved it back with both of his hands. "So, will you marry me?"
"Yes," she smiled. She kissed him passionately, and he wrapped his arms around her and held him to her. She felt so safe at that moment. It had been two longs years since someone held her like that.
They didn't part until they heard Emily yell, "Momma."
Margaret lifted up her head in a panic, and got off of Hawkeye. She saw Emily running towards her crying. Margaret didn't know what happened, and picked up the child and held her on her lap.
"What happened?" Hawkeye asked.
"I don't know," Margaret said checking the little girl over. She saw that the child's finger was a little red. "Did you hurt your finger?" Emily shook her head yes. Margaret kissed it, and held her close. "You're okay," she soothed.
Hawkeye smiled at the pair. He couldn't believe that he had a daughter. He was a little hurt that Margaret didn't think enough of him to tell him. When he thought about the shape he was in back then, she may have been right. He wasn't sure if he could have handled that news back then.
"Did you pinch your finger?" Margaret asked her daughter. Emily shook her head yes and pointed to the toy on which she pinched her finger. She knew that the child was more scared than she was hurt. "Are you okay?"
"No," Emily pouted.
Hawkeye smiled at her. "Do you want me to fix it?"
Margaret smiled and looked at Emily. "Your daddy is a doctor. He can make you all better."
Emily looked at her father and held her hands out to him. "Come here my little munchkin," he smiled taking her into his arms. He sat her down on his lap, "Watch this." He took her chubby little hand in his own, and made some hand motions, then kissed it, and then tickled her neck. She laughed and cuddled closer to him.
"Did Daddy make it all better?" Margaret asked. Emily smiled and shook her head. Margaret smiled at Hawkeye. "How do you like being a daddy so far?"
"Love it," he smiled. "I just wish I would have known sooner."
"I'm really sorry," she said sincerely. She knew that he was very hurt, and couldn't begin to apologize enough to him. "It was such a shock when I found out, and I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't. I didn't want to make things worse for you, and I was sure that the news of a baby would do just that. I should have given you more credit that that."
He smiled at her, "You knew me pretty well. To be honest, I couldn't have handled it. You did the right thing. It makes me sound like a horrible person, though."
Margaret moved closer to him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You are not a horrible person. Things just didn't happen the way we would have liked them to. I know if you didn't have that breakdown, then you would have handled the news of becoming a father very well.
"When Emily was born, I wanted to call you and tell you. I just couldn't do it over the phone. There were so many times that I wanted to tell you. When she started to talk, she didn't have anyone to call 'Dada'. I wanted to cry, I felt so bad for her."
Hawkeye put his arm around Margaret, "She does now, and you know what the best thing about all this is?"
"No, what?"
"She's too little to remember. She will never remember a time that I wasn't there for her."
"No, but we will. And we'll have to tell her one day."
"One day is still years away. We just have to figure out what we're going to do now." Margaret lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked at him with confusion. "You two live in Texas, I live in Boston, and we both work."
"That's not a problem," she smiled. "We'll go to Boston."
"Are you sure?" He asked. Emily was still sitting on his lap leaning against him feeling as safe as she did when she was in her mother's arms. "I have a good track record and can get a job anywhere."
"I'm sure," she smiled. She moved away from him so she could look at him while they talked. "Can we get married soon? I don't want to just move in together."
"I hope you don't want to wait too long to get married. I don't want to be apart from you. Now that I know I have a daughter, I don't want to be apart from her at all."
Margaret heard the panic in his voice, and could see it on his face. "I'm sure we could find someone to marry us tonight."
He smiled, "What about Emily?"
"She'll come with us," she answered. She thought that was a strange question. She was used to bringing her daughter with her everywhere she went. "We'll have to leave soon though. She gets very fussy if she doesn't get her bottle by eight thirty."
"Well what time is it now?"
She looked at her watch, "Seven. I'll call around and see what I can find." She stood up and walked to the kitchen.
Hawkeye looked at his daughter. "Mommy has been waiting for this, hasn't she? I should have went and found her like I wanted to two years ago. Maybe we could have made it work, and you would have had a daddy. Then Mommy wouldn't of had to do it all on her own. I bet its hard taking care of you all alone."
Emily looked at him, "side?"
"What?"
"Side," she said.
Hawkeye had no idea what she was talking about. He stood up and went to the kitchen where Margaret was. She was sitting at the kitchen table flipping through the phone book. She looked up at him, and saw Emily in his arms, and couldn't help but smile. "What the hell does 'side' mean?"
"Pierce," Margaret scolded. "Don't say that."
"Say what?"
She spelled it out for him, "H-E-L-L. She's starting to mimic what she hears."
"Sorry," he said with a smile. He was definitely going to have to work on that. "What does 'side' mean?"
Margaret looked at him like he was crazy. Emily looked at her mother and said, "Side."
"Oh," Margaret said. She looked at Hawkeye, "It means she wants to go outside. Baby language is something you have to get used to. If you want to take her out, you can. Just don't put her down. She just had a bath, and doesn't need to get dirty."
"Okay," he said. "Holler when you find a place," he bent down and placed a kiss on her soft lips. "I love you."
She smiled, and kissed him once more before he stood up. "I love you too." It felt so good to say that. She had longed to tell him that for so many years, and now she could say that to him everyday and not worry about him not saying it back to her. She smiled as she watched Hawkeye walk off with Emily in his arms. She was so happy that her baby girl now knew her father.
Hawkeye and Emily stood outside in the warm night air and looked at the beautiful horses. Emily loved animals. Margaret called around and when she found someone that would marry them, she yelled to Hawkeye to come inside.
"I found someone," she said excitedly when he entered the back door. "Are you ready to go?"
"Should we change?" He asked. He was in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Margaret was wearing a pair of black pants and a short sleeve blue blouse, and Emily was in her pink pajamas.
Margaret smiled at him. "I didn't think I was going to get married, so I didn't bring anything for an occasion like this. Did you?"
"No," he smiled. "What about her?" He said of the baby in his arms. "Should you change her?"
Margaret thought that he meant the diaper, "Does she need to be changed?" At Hawkeye's look she knew that he meant her clothes. "She's fine. We have to hurry though."
"Okay. Do you know where we're going? I have no idea where anything is around here."
Margaret took their daughter from him. "I have directions. You drive, and I'll tell you where to go."
"I think you've done that before," he grinned.
Margaret rolled her eyes at him, "Pierce." She scolded.
He laughed and gave her a kiss. "I missed that."
Margaret gave Hawkeye the keys to the car that she rented, and then grabbed her purse and Emily's diaper bag. "We don't have any rings," she realized as they walked out the door and to the car.
"That's okay. We'll get some tomorrow." He told her. He opened the car door for her, which surprised her very much. She wasn't exactly sure why though. He was always very polite when it came to things like that. Margaret settled Emily on her lap, and the three of them went off in search of the judge that agreed to marry the two of them.
They found the place in fifteen minutes, and the judge was waiting there for them. He often saw young people in a rush to get married because the woman was pregnant, but this was new to him. He had never seen two people in their thirties, with a baby, in a rush to get married. He didn't ask any questions, he just did his job.
Margaret and Hawkeye were so happy to be married. Hawkeye was still in shock over the fact that he had a seventeen month old daughter, but was happy about it. He knew that there was something special about Emily the first minute he laid eyes on her. He looked over at Margaret and Emily, and couldn't believe that they were his wife and daughter. There were no words to describe how he felt.
Margaret finally felt whole again. She wasn't only married to the man she loved, but her daughter now had her father. Margaret would have never married Hawkeye if it was just because of the baby. She knew that he loved her. As happy as she was to be married to the love of her life, she was happier for her little girl. Emily finally had a daddy to treat her like a princess.
