BJ's mind was reeling. If only everything around him could stop spinning, maybe he could actually think straight... Or maybe the spinning was a good thing. Maybe the world would just spin itself away, and all of this could be a dream... He fell back against the wall, trying to think rationally. Maybe his ears had been messed up, like Father Mulcahy's, in the last shelling attack they had.

As he fell against the wall, his slightly malnourished body, having lost many pounds over the course of two years, made barely a sound. Apparently Peg didn't hear it, nor her love affair, but one person in the house did.

Erin peeked cautiously into the hallway, towards the door, and saw BJ in his army suit. Something like recognition sparked in her eyes. BJ dropped to his knees, tears brimming in his eyes at the sight of his daughter, and he held out his arms shakily. She looked almost ready to walk into them, staring at BJ with a childish wonder, before she shrieked

"MOMMY!"

And it was all over. Peg came running into the hallway to find her husband, his face streaked with tears, still holding his arms out wide to receive his baby girl. Instead, Erin ran around Peg's legs and hid by her bathrobe. After all, it was only around nine in the morning. Another man followed her, whom BJ recognized at an instant. His name was Charlie, and he lived just down the street. He was a handyman of sorts, fixing anything from plumbing to electricity.

"BJ?!"

"PEG?!"

He finally seemed to have snapped out of it, and also snapped out of whatever was holding him back. Dropping his arms, he stood up and drew back to have a mighty punch at Charlie, but Peg grabbed his fist and he stopped immediately to keep from hitting her.

"BJ, what are you doing here? Your plane wasn't supposed to arrive for another hour!"

"Gee, now why would I have expected you to be happy about me coming home from a goddamn war, actually alive?"

"Watch your mouth around my daughter! I mean..."

"She's my daughter too, you know, even though I missed half of her life to stand in blood and operate on kids who seemed her age! To sleep on a creaky cot, to drink martinis until I vomited just to get through the day, to put up with a ferrety man and a snob as roommates, to bear the nearly unbearable winters, the unbelieveably hot summers! How do you think I feel to wait on your every letter like it was a precious drop of water and I was stranded in the middle of a desert, and then come home to find you in the arms of another man? I was expecting the heartbreak of my daughter not knowing me. But I never, never expected this."

"Look, Beej, I'm real sorry..."

Charlie cut in, but BJ looked over Peg's shoulder, dishing out glares that could kill.

"She needed someone to help out around the house while you were gone. I don't know how it went further, but I swear, nothing really happened..."

"YOU THINK KISSING MY WIFE AND SPENDING THE NIGHT AT MY HOUSE DOING GOD KNOWS WHAT IS REALLY NOTHING?!"

Erin began to cry from behind her mother, and BJ automatically fell silent. "Erin, honey, I'm sorry... Please, come here..." But the little girl was fastened to the back of Peg's robe like a stamp to an envelope. The tears welled in BJ's eyes again and he grabbed his bags, turning and walking back out the door. He heard it open and close again a moment after, and was expecting Peg's voice, but he heard Charlie say

"BJ..."

In a moment of uncontained rage, BJ dropped the bag that was balanced in his right arm, whirled around, and planted the back of his fist right into the other man's face. There was a scream from the house, and BJ looked to find Peg at the window. Erin was gone, probably having been shooed off so she didn't have to witness anything. BJ picked up his discarded bag and started walking quickly down the road.