Hawkeye and Margaret got back to the Potters' house just before nine.  Margaret had been keeping Emily's mind off of the fact that she wanted a bottle.  When they got into the house, her efforts failed.  Emily started crying that she wanted her bottle.  Margaret handed her to Hawkeye and she started preparing the bottle.

            "Margaret," Hawkeye said a little overwhelmed by the crying and screaming.  "Something is wrong with her."

            "No, she just wants her bottle."

            "Are you sure?  I've been around her all day, and she hasn't even cried.  This doesn't seem normal."  He had to yell over Emily's crying.

            Margaret smiled at him.  "She's okay.  She's just overtired, and wants her bottle."  Margaret picked up the warm bottle and walked towards her daughter.  "Here it is," she said.  She tired to give the bottle to her, but Emily pushed it away.

            "Oh God," Hawkeye sighed.  "What's wrong?"

            Margaret chuckled.  He was new to this, and she found it amusing.  Emily held her hands out to her mother, "Momma."

            Margaret took her and cradled her, and then handed her the bottle.  "See," she said to Hawkeye.  "That's all she wanted.  She's a good baby, but when she's tired you'd better be ready for a fit.  That's why I always try to get her to bed by eight thirty."

            "I can see why," he said as he followed her into the living room.  Margaret sat down in a chair with the baby, and held her.  He sat down on the couch and looked at the two of them.  He had been missing so much, but now he felt complete. 

            "You'll get used to it," she smiled.  "It just takes a little time."

            He watched them silently for a minute.  Emily looked so much like her mother.  He watched as Emily's blue eyes lost the battle they had been fighting to stay awake.  "I can get you into the hospital if you want," he told his wife.

            "What?"  She was puzzled. 

            "When you two get settled in Boston, I can get you into the same hospital that I work at."  He saw Margaret's face change, and wasn't sure what it meant.  "You do want to go to Boston, don't you?"

            "Of course," she answered immediately.  "Do you want me to work?"

            "If you want to.  I would never stop you, you know that.  I'm not that kind of man."

            She smiled, "I know you're not."  She looked at him wondering what he wanted her to do.  "What if I didn't want to work?"

            A huge smile spread across his face.  He never thought that Margaret Houlihan would want to stop working.  She was after all, a workaholic.  "Then you don't have to work.  You can do whatever you want to do."

            "I had to go back to work when Emily was six weeks old.  It was the hardest thing I ever did.  I still feel guilty when I drop her off at the sitters.  She cries most of the time, and when she does that, I cry too."

            Hawkeye could see how much that bothered her.  She looked like she was about to cry just talking about it.  He guessed that it was hard for a mother to leave her child, especially her baby.  That baby grew inside her, and when it came out, it still depended on her for everything.  He knew that the bond between a mother and her child was like nothing else.  "If you want to stay home, then stay home."

            She smiled brightly, "Really?"  He shook his head yes.  "Thank you.  I want to stay home with her more than anything in the world.  I miss her when I'm at work."

            "Lucky for us I'm a surgeon.  My income is more than sufficient.  We do have another problem though."

            "What?"

            "I have a little one bedroom apartment in the city.  I don't have anything against it, but I don't want my child growing up in the city.  I grew up in the country, and had a great childhood.  I want the same for Emily."

            "Well, what do you want to do?"  She looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms, and saw that there was some milk left in the bottle that Emily was still working on finishing.

            "How would you like to get a house somewhere outside of the city?  I can commute to work.  Do you want to do that?"

            She smiled at him, "I'd love to.  We can put up with your small apartment for a little while.  I'll figure out what we need to do when we get there."

            "I've been thinking about buying a house for a while now.  I figured that if I got married, my wife would want a house."

            "You were thinking about getting married?  Since when did you think about things like that?"

            He smiled, "Since you put the idea in my head."

            "When was that?" 

            "About a year after BJ came to Korea.  I knew I was in love you, and if there was anyone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, it was you."  Margaret smiled brightly.  "She's done," he said referring to the baby.

            Margaret pulled the bottle away from her daughter, and sat it down beside her in the chair.  "I'll be right back.  I'm going to go lay her down in the crib."  She stood up and walked upstairs.

            Hawkeye watched her walk up the stairs, and smiled the whole time.  He loved seeing Margaret as a mother, and she was very good at it.  He didn't know how long she would be gone, so he lay down and stretched out on the couch.

            Margaret came down the stairs five minutes later, and saw Hawkeye laying there with a big smile spread across his face.  "What are you smiling at?"

            "Come here and let me hold you in my arms."

            Margaret smiled brightly.  She hadn't heard something that made her feel that good in a long time.  "I don't think there's enough room for the two of us."

            "Come on," he encouraged.  "If the two of us could spend the night on your cot, than we can fit on this."  He moved toward the edge of the couch to make room for her.  Margaret climbed in the space that he made between him and the back of the couch.  She laid her head on his chest, and wrapped her arm around him.  "See," he said with a smile.  "We can fit."

            She smiled up at him and melted into him more when he wrapped his arms around her.  "Can we stay like this forever?"

            "I wish we could," he said softly.  He held her there and took in the feeling.  He had longed to feel her back in his arms for two long years.  "You smell good."

            That made her smile.  "You feel good.  I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you about the baby.  I'll understand if you never forgive me for that."

            "I'm the one who should be asking you to forgive me.  I wasn't strong enough to handle the news, and you had to go through the pregnancy alone, and raise her alone.  There were so many times that I wanted to go find you and tell you that I wanted to marry you.  If I would have done that, then Emily wouldn't have gone her first year and a half without a father."

            Margaret sighed against his chest.  "I guess our daughter has a pair of fools for parents."

            Hawkeye smiled at her and lifted her chin up so he could kiss her.  "I love you Margaret Pierce."

            She smiled, "I love you."  She gave him a kiss and felt his hands start to roam over her body.  It felt so good to be caressed like that again.  She couldn't get enough of him and maneuvered her body so that it rested more on him than the couch.  Soon she felt his hands make their way up her shirt.  It wasn't until her blouse was completely unbuttoned that she realized where they were.  She pulled her lips away from his, "Stop."  She said breathlessly.

            He kept on kissing her.  "I… can't… stop.  It…feels…so…good."

            Margaret pulled further away, "You have to."  He put his hand behind her head and pulled her closer to him, kissing her.  "No," she pulled away again.  "We're on the couch."

            "So," he said trying to get her shirt off of her shoulders.

            Margaret pulled her shirt closed.  "We're in Colonel Potter's house.  The least we could do is take this upstairs."

            Hawkeye smiled at his wife.  She was right.  "What are you waiting for?"  Hawkeye stood up and offered his hand to pull her up.  Then they walked upstairs.

            Hawkeye headed towards her room.  "What are you doing?"

            He stopped to look at her, "Going to your room.  I only have a twin bed in mine."

            "The baby's in there," she whispered.  She walked to the opened door and pointed to show him the crib in there.

            "Can you move her to the bed in the other room?"  He whispered.

            "No, she'll fall off."  Margaret saw the look of great disappointment on his face and couldn't help but smile.  He gave him soft kiss on the lips.  "That crib has wheels on it, and she's a deep sleeper.  We should be able to move it with her in it."

            He smiled at her.  She wanted it just as much as he did.  "Okay, let's do it."

            They walked over to the crib and the each took a side, and moved it to the other room.  Emily didn't even stir.  Margaret fixed the blanket that was on her daughter, and looked up at Hawkeye.  He was standing on the other side of the crib staring at the little girl.  Margaret walked over to him and wrapped her arm around his waist.

            Hawkeye glanced at her and smiled, and then went back to looking at their daughter.  "She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  How do you think she's going to handle me being around all the time?"

            Margaret smiled at him.  He was worried that Emily wouldn't want him there.  Margaret would have thought the same thing, but she saw how Emily reacted to him.  "You don't have anything to worry about.  She's never taken to anyone like she has to you.  It makes me wonder if she knew who you were all along."

            He smiled at her.  "Do you want anymore?"  He was hoping that she would say yes.  He had only spent one day with their daughter, but he loved it.  He always wanted to have children, and hoped that Margaret felt the same way.

            "Yeah," she said staring at her daughter.  "I'd like her to have someone to grow up with besides her father," she teased.  "I don't think he'll ever grow up."

            He looked at her, "Do you know your shirt is still open?"  Margaret looked down and closed it.  He chuckled.  "You don't have to do that on my account.  I'm the one that wants it off."

            Margaret shook her head, but had a small smile on her face.  "Our daughter's in here.  You're going to have to start watching what you say around her."

            "She's sleeping."

            "It doesn't matter," she said in a motherly tone.  "She's an innocent little girl, and I'd like to keep her that way for as long as possible."

            "Sorry Mommy," he teased.  Margaret rolled her eyes at him.  "Now, let's go our room."  Hawkeye and Margaret went to their bedroom, and spent their first night together without much sleep.  They didn't get to sleep until after three AM.