The next day they went to look at houses. They met the realtor at eight and spent all morning looking at homes. They took a break from looking at lunch time, and discussed the houses they had seen without the realtor around. Then they went back and looked at a few more before two, and then headed back into the city. Emily fell asleep, and stayed that way even after they got home. Hawkeye laid the baby in her crib, and then went to talk to Margaret.
She was sitting in the living room on their bed looking over the houses. They had pictures of each house, telling all the details and a layout of each house. He laid on his side next to her. "What are you thinking? Did we find a home?"
"I'm not sure," she said. She spread out a couple of houses on the bed so they could look at them together. "What do you think?"
"I like these three the best," he pointed. "How about you?"
"Me too," she agreed.
"Wow, we actually agreed on something." Margaret smiled at him. They usually didn't agree on much, but they did agree on the important things. "We can throw the rest of the houses out the window now that it's narrowed down to these three."
Margaret studied the houses, "I don't know which I like better. This one is closer to the interstate, which will make it easier for you to get to work. But this one is closer to town. And then this one is right in town, but I'm not sure I want that."
"Me either," Hawkeye said. "I don't want to live on a high traffic street. I want the kids to be able to play in the front yard if they want to."
"The kids?" She smiled.
He smiled, "Well, we both agreed that we'll have more. I was just including them too."
"That's very nice of you," she smiled. "Okay," she tossed aside the one house. "Then it's between these two."
"It doesn't matter to me how long it takes to get to work. Other than appearance, what's the difference between these two?"
"Well," she looked at the papers. "This one has three bedrooms, and this one has four. That really doesn't matter though."
"Well it could. How many more kids do you want?"
"I don't know. What difference does that make as long as we have three bedrooms?"
"I guess it doesn't. Kids can always share rooms. Okay, so what else is different?"
Margaret glanced at the papers again. "The one outside of town has more property, and is more secluded than the other. But the other one has plenty of property too. I don't really know which one I want. What about you?"
"Hey, as long as we can have a bedroom and don't have to sleep in the living room, I'm all set. But I do like that four bedroom one better. It just seems more comfortable and set up better. The other one was kind of choppy."
"Yeah, but it seems so big for the three of us." She did like it better though, and it was closer to town. That way she and Emily could take a walk and get to know people easier than living way outside of town.
"It won't always be the three of us. I plan on filling that house with a bunch of kids just like the one we have already."
Margaret smiled, "You do, huh? How full do you want the house?"
"If they all come out as good and cute as Emily, then I want a dozen of them."
"Yeah right," she laughed. "I can tell you right now, that that is not going to happen."
"Okay, so maybe not a dozen, but I do want more. Aside from the size of that house, how do you feel about?"
"I love it. I mean, what's not to love? It's beautiful, and it's new." The house had just been built, and they would be the first owners.
"Is there anymore up there that we have to look at?"
"Well he said something about having some on Tuesday for us to look at, but you're working, so I told him I would get back to him with a better time for us."
"Listen, why don't you and Emily go and look at the houses he has. If there's one that you want me to look at, then we can get the key and look at it on our own time. We need to get out of this place as soon as possible. I'm so sick of it."
"You're telling me," she put the papers aside and lay down on the bed. Hawkeye was on his side in the middle of the bed, and pulled himself up to be closer to his wife. "I hate this place. Emily and I have to get out of here and find something to do every morning, or else I'll go crazy. Emily doesn't seem to mind it though."
"Why would she?" He smiled. "The chubby little thing doesn't have to go far to get anything, not to mention she's the one with a bedroom."
Margaret chuckled, and gave him a kiss. "You know what else that house had that I really liked?"
"What?"
"A huge master bedroom and bathroom. Did you see the tub in there?" He shook his head no with a smile. She was so excited. "It was huge. We could both fit in there."
"Ooh, in that case, let's buy it."
Margaret smiled at him. "I really did love that house. It was close enough to town to be near people, but also far enough away to have some privacy. When I go up there on Tuesday, I'm going to take another look at it."
"Okay, now that we have that figured out, let's have some fun."
"Not now. I'm too tired."
Hawkeye shook his head, "Is sex all you ever think about? I was talking about taking a nap."
Margaret smiled, "That, I'm up for." Margaret cuddled into him and he held her close as the two of the dozed off together.
When Tuesday came around Margaret did just as she said she was going to do. She and Emily went up to Tewksbury and looked at two more houses and then took another look at the four bedroom one that they had looked at on Saturday. The more she saw that house, the more she wanted it. She knew that all she had to do was say the word, and Hawkeye would agree to buy it, but she wanted him to see the other two. They would both be living there for a long time.
Hawkeye got out of work a little early on Friday, so they took a ride up and looked at the houses. He could tell which one Margaret wanted, and he wanted to give her what she wanted. It wasn't a big deal to him where he lived as long as Margaret was happy with it.
When they were walking through the house Hawkeye decided to play a game with her. "You know honey, the more I think about it, the more I don't like this place." Margaret looked back at him with a surprised look on her face. He had to keep himself from laughing. "I think we should go with that two bedroom place."
"What?" She stopped in the middle of the kitchen.
"Yeah," he said looking around the kitchen. "You said it yourself. This place is just too big for us."
"We need at least three bedrooms. What if we have a boy? He'll need his own room." She was disappointed that he didn't seem to like the house that she loved so much.
"Ah, Emily's a handful, we don't really need anymore." Margaret gave him the strangest look. It was a combination of hurt and anger.
"What the hell are you talking about? It wasn't even a week ago that you said you wanted a dozen kids like her. Where is she anyway?" Hawkeye had been holding her looking through the house while Margaret went her own way.
"She's looking around."
"Pierce, there's stairs in here. She'll fall."
"Sorry. Look, there she is," Emily walked around the corner. "See how lost she looks in here. It's too big for her."
"She has a smile on her face," Margaret said. "I thought you liked this house."
"I do, I just like that other one better. What about you?"
"I didn't like it at all. All the rooms were tiny, and it's in the middle of town. We both said that we didn't want that." Margaret was trying to read his face, because something didn't seem right. "Are you sure?" He shook his head yes. She was disappointed to say the least, but what could she do? "Why don't we get the three bedroom out in the country?"
He was surprised to hear that. He didn't expect her to compromise so easily. He just wanted to get a rise out of her, but it didn't work. "I'm just playing with you. I love this house too."
Margaret's jaw dropped and then clenched in anger. "Pierce, you're an ass. Why did you do that?"
"Margaret," he said walking towards her. "I was just kidding. It's not like I was going to go as far as to buy another house." He tried to put his arms around her, but she moved away.
"You know how much getting a house means to me!"
He did know. He knew that she never had a place to call home, and that this was her first real home. She wanted her child to have a place to call home and not move around. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, honey. I want this house almost as much as you do."
Margaret's eyes narrowed and she shook her head. "I can't believe you." She glanced over at Emily and saw her heading out the room. Margaret followed her, and sure enough Emily was headed for the stairs. She let Emily climb the stairs and followed behind her. She wanted to take another look at the bedrooms.
"Where go?" Emily asked when she reached the top of the stairs.
"In there," Margaret pointed.
"Dis?" Emily asked when they entered the room.
Margaret smiled and picked her daughter up, "This is going to be your room. What do you think?"
"No bed."
Margaret chuckled, "Not yet, but we'll get you one. We're going to move here, and this will be your new room. It's nice and big, huh?" Emily shook her head yes and turned her head when she saw her father come in the room.
"Mine," Emily smiled at him.
"What's yours?" Hawkeye asked.
"This room," Margaret answered impatiently.
"Why not the one closest ours? We can hear her better if she's in that room," he pointed to the room on the other side of the wall.
"This one is bigger, and it's perfect for a little girl." It had a big window facing the back with a window seat. "She has a good pair of lungs on her. She always makes sure we can hear her."
"This is nice. I was thinking that we could have the walls painted before we move in. I know you don't like everything white."
"Are you trying to get back on my good side?"
He grinned at her and moved closer. "You know I didn't do it to hurt you."
"I know," she finally smiled.
He leaned in and gave her a kiss. Emily pushed him away from her mother like she always did. He gave Emily a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, you little brat." Emily smiled brightly at him and held her hands out to her father. "Why do you always have to do that?"
Margaret looked around the empty room a little more. "I'm going to take you up on that offer. We should have some rooms painted before we move in. That way we don't have to do it later. It'll be ready for us."
"Do you know what you want?" Hawkeye asked as he walked over to the window and looked out at the backyard.
"In some rooms I do. We should go to the hardware store and get some paint samples."
"We can do that. When we get back home, I'll call the realtor and tell him this is the house we want. Do you like this house, munchkin?" He asked his daughter. "You're going to have a lot more room to play."
"Go side?" She pointed out the window.
"No," Margaret said. "We have to go, honey. We have things we have to do before dinner. Are you ready to go?"
"Where go?" Emily asked her mother.
"We're going to go to the store, and then go home. Mommy and Daddy have things we need to do." Margaret brushed Emily's hair back. "Ready?" She asked Hawkeye.
"Yep, but you drive."
"Okay," Margaret said. She had Emily's coat on her arm, and handed it to Hawkeye.
They decided to go home first to call the realtor and tell him that they wanted the house. He said that it was theirs, but he couldn't do anything until Monday morning. They had figured that much, but Margaret was going to call him on Monday to check up on him and see what they had to sign and when. After they made the call, they went to the hardware store and picked up a paint samples and a few other things, then they went to a pizza parlor and had dinner.
"Mommy, more," Emily said when she ate all the cheese off of her piece of pizza.
Margaret looked at her daughter, "No. Eat what you have, and then you can have more." Emily knew her mother was going to say that. She always made her eat all her food, but that didn't stop the baby from trying to get what she wanted. If she worked hard enough, she could get it.
"What about this for the living room?" Hawkeye held out a paint color.
"I don't know. I think I want something dark in there. So much light comes in through those windows, that a dark color would look really good. I want it to be comfortable."
"Okay. All we know so far is that Emily's room is going to be pink."
"Maybe purple," Margaret said with a smile. "I love that lavender color."
"Okay, do we know what we want for sure in any room?" He took a bite of pizza.
"Yes. I want the room closest to ours to be a pale yellow. That way when we do have another baby, the room will be painted and it won't matter whether it's a boy or a girl."
"That's very good thinking," he smiled. "I hate painting. I know how we can settle Emily's room. Just ask her."
"She doesn't know her colors," Margaret said. "She's eighteen months old."
"Just hold up the colors; she'll point to one. It's going to be her room anyway." He held up the two colors. "Emily, which on do you like?"
"Dat," she pointed to the purple.
Hawkeye smiled at Margaret. "There you go. She wants this." He gave her the lavender paper. "What about our room? We need something romantic."
She smiled at him. He was really into this. She was surprised, but loved it. "Don't worry about that. How do you feel about getting a new bedroom set?"
"We can get new everything if you want."
"Not everything. We have some of my stuff in storage. We could use my bedroom set to put in the guest room. We have my old living room set too, and that's practically brand new, and the baby has an entire set, but she will eventually need to move to a bed."
She was starting to ramble on, and as much as he was enjoying it, he stopped her. "Whoa honey. We can do whatever you want. You saw how I decorate, so I'm leaving all the big decisions about that up to you."
She smiled at him and wanted to kiss him, but he was sitting across the table and so she couldn't reach him without leaning over and making a display of it. She didn't want to do that in a restaurant either. "Okay. I'm just so excited. We're finally going to be out of that tiny apartment and into a home of our own."
"Don't get too excited yet. It may be a little while until we can move in. We have to wait for the closing, and then we need the painters to get in there before we do."
"I know," she said waving her hand to dismiss the thought. "Hopefully we'll be so busy getting things for the house that time will fly. Did you have anything that you wanted to do tomorrow?"
"No," he said. He was sure that she was going to ask him to go furniture shopping or something with her. "What do you want to do?"
"I want to start looking at furniture. I know you don't want to go with me, so I thought you and Emily could stay at home."
"Are you going in the morning or afternoon?" He took a bite of pizza.
She smiled curiously, "Does it matter?"
"I was just hoping to sleep in this Saturday. That's all."
Margaret shook her head. "I'll go later in the morning. But, when do I get to sleep in? You always sleep in, and I have to get up with the baby."
"What are you talking about? You're up before she is every morning."
"I might want to sleep late one day, so you owe me."
"Okay," he smiled. "I owe you. You just tell me when, and I'll be more than happy to let you sleep in."
"Alright,"
she said knowing that the odds of that happening were slim.
"Done," Emily said to her mother. "More, pease."
Margaret gave the child another small piece of pizza. "There you go, baby."
"Tank you," Emily smiled as she began to pick the cheese off the pizza.
"You're welcome," her mother said.
The next day Margaret went out and spent hours shopping and looking around. She didn't want to buy anything big because she didn't have a date for them to be able to move it, and she wanted time to look around and see what other places offered.
It was another four weeks until they could finally move into their new house. It took three weeks for the closing to go through, and another week for the painters to get done. Margaret thought the painters could have been faster, but they decided to take their time. Moving wasn't a problem. Bob helped them move the things they had in their apartment and in storage, and his wife watched the baby for the day. She had sat with Emily a couple of times before, and had a child about Emily's age that Emily played with.
They had most of the new furniture delivered to the house the day they moved in; which was wonderful. They didn't have to move it themselves, and the movers were the ones that lugged the heavy furniture around while Margaret told them where to put it. They would even move it around the room if Margaret wasn't satisfied with where it was. They didn't have to do that, but were kind enough to, so Margaret gave them an extra tip.
The first night they spent there, the only thing that had a home was the furniture that was delivered. Even Emily's crib wasn't set up. All her things were in her room, but nothing was put together. Hawkeye and Margaret's new bed and bedroom set wasn't going to get delivered until the next day, so they didn't have their bed either. Hawkeye and Bob had moved Margaret's old bedroom set upstairs to the room that was going to be the guest room, so they slept in there the first night. Margaret still had Emily's old playpen, so they set it up in her new room, and she had a bed for the night.
The next day the rest of the furniture was delivered, and then they spent the rest of the day setting up rooms. They started with the bedrooms, and then moved to the kitchen. Those were the three most important rooms in the house. By the end of the night, everything was in the room that it belonged in. The walls were still empty, but that was something Margaret planned to fix during the week to come.
Since they still had only one car, Margaret took Sunday and used the car to go shopping for things for the house. Hawkeye was going to have to have the car during the week, so the weekend was the only time that she could go. It also allowed her to go alone because Hawkeye stayed at home with the baby.
Margaret had been gone all day, and wasn't back for dinner either. She told Hawkeye that she might not be, and told him to make dinner and go ahead and eat. So, he made dinner for himself and the baby, and they ate together.
"Mommy home?" Emily asked her father as he lifted her out of her highchair.
"She should be home soon," Hawkeye told his daughter. "I wish she would call and let us know. I'm getting worried about her." He looked at Emily and noticed how dirty she was. "How do you get so messy?"
"Mommy go?" She asked. She wasn't used to being without her mother all day anymore. Two months ago she was, but never liked it, so it didn't take her long to get used to being with her mother all the time. Now she wasn't used to it, and didn't really like it. She was still sleeping when her mother left, and now it was dark outside and she was a getting tired.
"Mommy will be home soon," he assured the child. "You need a bath tonight. How about I give you one now, and then when Mommy gets home you can just stay right in her arms? It sounds good to me. Mommy will appreciate that too, and if you understood what I was saying, then so would you." Hawkeye took the baby and gave her a bath.
When Margaret came home, she had her hands full of bags, and the car filled with more. She walked into the front door and noticed that it was quiet in there. "I'm home," she hollered, not sure where her family was.
Emily was still in the bathtub, but heard her mother yell. She looked up at her father and smiled. "Mommy home!"
"Yes," he smiled at her excitement. "Up here in the bathroom," he yelled loud enough so Margaret could hear him.
Emily held her hands up, "Out."
Margaret walked into the bathroom to see Hawkeye wrapping Emily in her little pink towel. "Hi, baby," she smiled looking at Emily.
"Mommy!"
Margaret took the child into her arms and gave her a hug and a kiss. "I missed you today. Were you a good girl?" Emily smiled and laid her head down on her mother's should.
Hawkeye gave Margaret a kiss on the cheek. "She was terrific."
"What kind of kiss was that? I've been gone all day, and you give me a kiss like you would give your daughter."
Hawkeye smiled and gave her a real kiss. Emily took notice and pushed her father away. He looked at her and she smiled, "Mine." And wrapped her arms around Margaret's neck.
"You're a little brat."
"Mine," she said again.
Margaret smiled at the two of them, and made her way to Emily's bedroom. "What did you get?" Hawkeye asked.
"A lot of stuff," she laid Emily on the changing table. "Do you wanna go unload the car while I get the baby dressed?"
"Sure," he gave her a kiss on the cheek and then left the room.
"I missed you today," Margaret said to the baby as she dried her off. "I bought you some new things for your new room. And I got you some new clothes for the winter. I can't wait to see you in them. You're going to look so cute!" Emily smiled up at her mother as she was getting diapered and clothed. "Did you have fun today? How did you like spending the day with Daddy in our new house? Did you miss me?"
Emily smiled, "Miss you."
Margaret bent down and gave Emily a kiss, "I love you, sweetie." Margaret snapped the last snap on the child's pajamas, and picked her up. "Do you wanna go see what Mommy got today?" Emily shook her head yes. "First, Mommy needs to get something to eat. We'll let Daddy bring everything in, and then we'll look at it."
Emily stayed in her mother's arms the rest of the night. She missed her mother when she was gone. She fell asleep cradled comfortably in the loving arms that she felt so secure in. Just when she would get used to something, something seemed to change. The only thing that was consistent was that her mother was always there. As long as things stayed that way, she would be okay.
For the next few weeks, Margaret decorated the house the way she wanted it. She had never been so happy or comfortable in her whole life. When she found out that she was pregnant with Emily, she felt like she was destined to be single forever. She didn't think she would be able to find someone to love both her and Emily. By the time that Emily was one, she was okay with the idea that she might never get married. She had become comfortable with it.
Now she was married to the love of her life, and the father of her daughter. He loved Emily like no one else on earth could. Margaret had what she had longed to have her entire life. She had a little girl that gave her complete and undivided love. That little person depended on her, and wanted her. She also had a husband that loved her more than she would ever know. He would do anything for her, and she knew that. She knew that these were the best days of her life.
