Margaret immediately put Emily down when they got into the apartment. The child was impatient and overtired. Margaret kept an eye on Emily while she looked around the apartment. She could see the entire thing from the doorway. The door opened into the living room, and the kitchen was off of that. Then there were two doors off of the living room. One went to the bedroom and the other went to the bathroom. Margaret knew what Hawkeye meant about the place being too small for them.
The walls were basically bare, and the furniture had something to be desired. It looked comfortable, but it was ugly. The couch was going to have to go; she could see that right away. They needed to put a bed in there, and the couch wasn't going to fit too. Margaret made the short trip to the kitchen to get a better look at it. It was tiny and had a small table pushed up against the wall.
"What do you think?" Hawkeye asked with a smile. He knew that she was surprised to see such a small place, but he warned her. Margaret turned around and looked at him. He couldn't help but laugh at the look on her face. "I told you it was small."
"I know," she said giving him a small smile. "We need to look for a place right away."
"I'll make a few calls, and see if we can start looking tomorrow. At least we're not in the car anymore."
Margaret walked closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest. "Thank God," she sighed as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Next time we go anywhere, we're flying."
Margaret chuckled, "I agree." He held her there and let her relax a little. She was so tense. He ran his hands up and down her back comfortingly. "That feels so good."
Emily ran into the room crying, and Hawkeye let his wife go. "What's the matter, munchkin?" He picked her up, but she wanted Margaret.
"Mommy," she cried straining to get to her mother. He knew Margaret was on edge, but had to hand the child over.
Margaret took the child in her arms and held her. "What happened? I thought you were exploring."
Emily lifted her head up, "Fall."
"You fell down? Did you get hurt?" Emily shook her head no. "Then what's the matter?" Emily shrugged her shoulders. "You don't know?" Emily shook her head no.
Hawkeye watched Margaret in amazement. Not five minutes ago she was ready to pull her hair out, but now she was relaxed. He didn't know what happened in that span of time to cause such an incredible transformation.
"Bubba," Emily pleaded trying to hold back tears.
"Yeah," Margaret said softly. "You can have your bottle." Margaret grabbed a bottle out of the diaper bag that was filled with juice. She would have rather given the baby milk, but at the time they didn't have any. "Here you go, honey."
Emily took it in her chubby little hands and looked at her mother with pleading deep blue eyes, "Sit me."
"Okay, we'll go sit down."
"Ban-ket," Emily said.
Margaret grabbed the pink blanket out of the diaper bag and the cradled the baby while they walked to the couch and sat down. Hawkeye followed them, and sat in the chair.
"How did you do that?" He asked Margaret.
She was puzzled. "Do what?"
"You were ready to scream when you walked in the house, and now you're fine. What the hell happened?"
Margaret smiled, "I just needed a hug, I guess."
He smiled, "I'll have to remember that. She's out already," he looked at the baby.
Margaret looked down lovingly at the child, and brushed some curls back. "She's had a rough couple of days. A lot has changed for her in such a short time."
"She seems to be adjusting well."
"I hope she keeps it up," Margaret looked at him. "She's a lot more comfortable with you now, but that was when she was in her own house. She's not familiar with this place, and before she'll have a chance to get comfortable with it, we'll be moving."
Hawkeye looked at the child. He had never thought of it that way. From Emily's position things must be pretty scary. "She may be okay though. You're going to be with her all the time. I'm sure she's going to like that change."
Margaret smiled. He was right about that. Changing was going to be easier on her because her mother was always going to be there with her. "You're right. She will have me all the time. That'll give her security."
"I'm going to go get the rest of the stuff out of the car. If you want to lay her in the bed, go ahead."
"Are you going to be able to get everything alone?" She asked. There was a lot in the car.
"I'll get Bob to help me. He's a neighbor." He stood up and gave Margaret a kiss on the cheek. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Hawkeye knocked on his neighbor's door and was invited in. He accepted and sat down for a cup of coffee. He asked for help, and then explained why. He had to fill them in on the short version of the story, and then they started unloading the car.
They grabbed the light things first and then made their way to the apartment. They were quiet because of the baby sleeping. When Hawkeye opened the door, he expected to see Margaret there, but she wasn't. He found her in the bedroom. When she laid Emily down in there, she laid down too. She fell asleep, so Hawkeye closed the door and let her stay that way.
When they had everything in the apartment, Bob made Hawkeye promise to introduce his wife and daughter soon. Hawkeye was happy to promise him. He was looking forward to showing off his family. He told Bob he'd introduce them at another time, and went back into his apartment. He checked to see if Margaret was still sleeping, and she was. She and Emily looked so comfortable that he decided to lie down too. He lay down on the other side of Emily, and went right to sleep.
Emily was the one to wake up her parents. She was glad that they were there, because she had no idea where she was. "Mommy, 'ake up." Margaret opened her eyes, and saw that Hawkeye was there. She looked at the clock. It was four. "Hi, Mommy," Emily said cheerfully.
"Hi, baby. You seem to be in a better mood. It's a lot nicer sleeping in a bed rather than a car."
"No car," Emily shook her head.
"Don't worry," Margaret smiled. "We're not going in the car. We're staying here for a while. This is going to be our new home."
Emily glanced at her father and then back to her mother, "Ake up?"
"No," Margaret said getting up. "Let him sleep. Come on," she held her hands out and picked up her daughter. "Let's see what Daddy did with all our stuff." They walked out into the living room and saw everything in the middle of the floor.
"Messy," Emily said.
"Yes it is," Margaret agreed. "We're going to have to organize it a little better. Do you want to help me put your crib back together?" Emily smiled and shook her head yes. She liked helping her mother do anything. She felt so big when she did. "Then we can get the rooms set up tonight. It's going to take work to make this comfortable for all of us."
Margaret and Emily put the crib together and then started working on organizing some of the other things. Hawkeye slept for another hour, and they let him. Margaret took a two hour nap with the baby, so she figured it was only fair that he was allowed to too.
By the time that Emily went to bed, Margaret and Hawkeye had moved the bed to the living room and sat up the bedroom as Emily's room. The couch was off to the side as much as possible so that there was room for the bed, leaving very little room to walk. They needed to get rid of the couch as soon as possible.
Hawkeye never got a chance to call the realtor, but he did call the next day. The soonest they could look at a place was a week away. As soon as they found that out, they started giving away everything that they didn't need to make room to live in. Emily needed room to play in, and Hawkeye and Margaret needed room so they didn't feel trapped.
After the first week passed, Emily started becoming comfortable with her new surroundings. She loved the fact that her mother was always there, and then her father would come home at night and spoil her rotten. She liked her new life, but she did miss one person. She would ask her mother about her grandmother at times.
The first house they looked at was closer to the city than they wanted. The realtor was a little slow. After they had been looking for three weeks, they found a town that they liked. Then they were able to look at more houses.
Hawkeye walked into the tiny apartment, and saw Margaret and Emily in the kitchen. They were making dinner. It was wonderful to come home to a place filled with life rather than an empty apartment. "The most handsome, smartest, wonderful man that ever lived is home," he called as he shut the door.
Margaret smiled and rolled her eyes. "Hi, handsome."
He walked into the kitchen and gave her a kiss. "Hi Daddy," Emily said causing him to release Margaret's lips.
He smiled at the child and picked her up, "Hi there cutie. What are you making?"
"Food," she answered smiling at him.
"Oh," he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "What did you and Mommy do today?"
"Mommy mad."
Hawkeye was confused. "What? Was Mommy mad at you?" Emily shook her head no. "Well, who was Mommy mad at?"
"Man," she answered.
Hawkeye looked at Margaret. "What is she talking about?"
Margaret smiled at Emily, "You have a big mouth."
"Well," Hawkeye said. "Are you going to tell me?" He sat down at the table with Emily.
Margaret answered him as she continued preparing dinner. "Emily and I walked down to see the realty agent today."
"You didn't," he said dreading what was to come. She had been angry with that guy for not doing a better job and wanted to give him a piece of her mind.
"Yes I did. I'm getting sick of living in this place. Our hotel in Missouri was bigger than this. I know that man is lazy and I'm sick of going at his pace. We need a house, and we're paying him to help us find one. You'd think he'd want us to get one so he can get his commission."
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him that he was lazy and if he didn't give me a list of houses to look at immediately that I would take my business elsewhere."
Hawkeye was just glad that he wasn't there for that. "So, do we have another realtor?"
"No," she smiled triumphantly. "We have a list of ten houses to look at tomorrow. All in or around Tewksbury."
"Wow," he smiled. "In that case, I'm glad you went down there today." Hawkeye looked at Emily, "Was the man scared?" Emily shook her head yes. She hated when her mother was mad. "I bet he was."
"Hey," she defended herself. "At least now we're getting somewhere. It's the end of September already. So, tomorrow morning we have to be up in Tewksbury at eight."
"Eight? But tomorrow's Saturday. I wanted to sleep in. Now I'm going to have to get up earlier than I do for work."
Margaret brought plates and silverware over to the table. "You'll just have to take a nap or something."
"That'll work too. Wait," he said before she walked away. She stopped and looked at him, "Can I have a kiss?"
She smiled and bent down and kissed him. Then she felt a little cubby hand on her cheek pushing her away. She smiled at Emily. "Ooh, you're such a little brat. Are you ready for dinner?"
Hawkeye put the baby in her highchair and helped Margaret bring the food over to the table. They sat down and had dinner as a family, as they did every night. Margaret was enjoying staying home with Emily and watching her develop. Emily's vocabulary was expanding all the time and it made her seem so much older than Margaret was ready for her to be. With Hawkeye and his constant chattering around all the time, Emily was starting to pick up on it.
