Author Comments: I'm back a day earlier than I expected... good thing, too, if the death threats for that cliff hanger were any indication. For those reviewers who asked, yes, you will hear what the others have been up to, but I'm not sure if it'll be in the detail you want. It sounds like everyone wants to see everyone's reactions... here it is, and I hope it doesn't disappoint.
As they all looked at them, Hawkeye grinned at them all.
"Everybody, these are our, yes our children, Danny and Anna." Hawkeye looked around at the shocked expressions on the faces and laughed along with Margaret.
"We got married about a year after the war ended." Margaret continued
BJ was also being amused by the completely shocked expressions. Then Potter broke the spell by going, "HOT DOG!"
"HOLY TOLEDO!" (Klinger)
"Congratulations!" (Father Mulcahy)
"You can't be serious!" (Radar)
"My god, hell must be freezing over!" (Charles)
"I thought so! Congratulations!" (Sidney)
Trapper finally came out of his spell to exclaim, "Hawk, what the hell?!? You married Hot Lips?!?!"
"It's Margaret now, Trap, I told you." Said Hawkeye, but still with a smile on his face as he looked around.
Potter noticed BJ hadn't looked shocked at all, so said "You expecting this to happen or did you know about it?"
BJ laughed. "I was the best man in the wedding, Sherm."
"You were? And no one told anyone else?"
"I wanted to keep it a surprise, Corn, err, Sherm." Said Hawkeye.
Margaret laughed, "And surprise them we did!"
Peg laughed along with Margaret. "I'll say!"
Trapper turned to Louise. "I guess this means we're going to get abducted by aliens."
"What?" came in unison.
Trapper looked at everyone and said, completely serious, "I told Louise, and I meant it, that we would get abducted by creatures from outer space before these two hooked up."
Everybody laughed. Then Potter said, "Those children look just like you two."
Hawkeye and Margaret smiled proudly. "We know." Said Margaret, then Hawkeye reached over and placed a quick kiss on Margaret's lips.
"Wait a minute. Does our old buddy Frank know about this?" asked Trapper
"Nope." Answered Hawkeye
"I think that it's a good thing he won't be arriving for another," Margaret paused to check her watch, "40 minutes. It might take all of us to deal with him when he gets here and finds out."
Everyone laughed at the thought of what Frank Burns would think, then all started to head into the house.
"Say, Pierce, where's your father?" Potter asked, "After everything you told us in Korea, I expected him to be here."Hawkeye and Margaret glanced at each other. Hawkeye then looked to the ground as he spoke. "He died of a heart attack about two years ago."
Potter placed a hand on Hawk's shoulder. "Sorry to hear that, son."
Hawkeye looked up with a small smile. "It's alright, Sherm. Thanks, though."
Potter nodded. To lighten the mood, BJ spoke up, "I can't wait to see Ferret Face's reaction."
Everybody laughed in agreement.
About 40 minutes later, they heard a car pull up. Hawkeye winked at everybody else then went out to greet Frank, who came without his family."Hey, Frank. Long time, no see."
"Hello Pierce. Anyone else here yet?"
"Everybody is."
Frank looked considerably happier.
They went inside and Hawkeye said, "Frank, you know everybody here except your replacement, Charles Emerson Winchester the Third"
"Nice to meet you." Frank greeted, all the while quickly scanning the room for Margaret, and, finding her, his face lit up.
"The pleasures all mine, I'm sure." Said Charles in return.
Frank went to sit next to Margaret, in the place Hawkeye had been sitting in before he had gone to greet Frank.
"Hello, Margaret." He smiled happily, "I heard you divorced Penopscott."
"That's right, I did."
"That's wonderful that you got away from that evil man"
"It certainly is."
Just then, Anna crawled up to Margaret. Frank, noticing how much the child looked like Margaret, said with a gulp "Is that your daughter?"
Margaret smiled, willing herself not to look at Hawkeye who would most certainly make her burst out in laughter. "Yes, it is. This is Anna."
"Hello there, angel." Said Frank, then looked at Margaret again and said hesitantly, "Where's her daddy?"
Margaret put the little girl on the floor and said, "Anna, go find Daddy."
To Frank's shock and horror, the child crawled quickly to Hawkeye.
"Hey, baby girl. Boy, you can sure crawl fast" said Hawkeye, picking up the girl.
"HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE!" exclaimed Frank.
"Something wrong, Frank?" asked Hawkeye innocently, still holding Anna.
"YES! THERE IS!"
"What is it, Frank?" asked Margaret.
Frank swung to face Margaret.
"You have a child with this degenerate?!?" he said, pointing a finger at Hawkeye.
"I didn't think it was a such a fuss to have children with your husband. Children, Frank, as it more than one." said Margaret.
Frank had gone white. "Husband?" he said, almost a whisper
"That's right, Frank. Margaret and I got married about a year after the war." Put in Hawkeye.
Frank now turned to face Hawkeye. "Married?"
Hawkeye nodded.
"More than one child?"
Hawkeye nodded again and pointed to where Danny was playing with the other children on the floor. "Danny's ours as well."
Frank watched Danny for a few moments in shock, and then looked at Hawkeye with a look of anger.
"What have you done to her?"
"Done to her?" repeated Hawkeye.
"Yes, what have you done to poor Margaret? Get her pregnant to trap her with you?"
"Get her.." Hawkeye started, and then he threw his head back and laughed. "Not a bad idea, Frank but I have to disappoint you. We were married when she got pregnant with Danny."
"Then undo whatever you did to make her stay with you!"
"What are you implying that I did, Frank?" asked Hawkeye, chuckling. "Hypnotize her?"
"Maybe!"
"Frank, use what little mind you have! You can't hypnotize someone to do that, and even if you could, I wouldn't know how." Hawkeye was having a hard time not outright laughing at the absurd ideas coming out of Frank.
Frank turned to look at Margaret. "I'll save you, Margaret. You can't really want to be with him!"
Margaret rolled her eyes. 'Frank, I don't need or want saving. I'm here completely because I want to be. And I happen to love Hawkeye."
Frank stared at her for a moment in shock. Then a look of deadly calm came over his face, and he extended his hand to Margaret. "Well, then, congratulations. I'm happy for you."
Margaret's surprise was reflected in her face, then concern replaced it when she realized that this was the same way he had reacted to her marriage to Donald. He had gone crazy because of it. She hoped this would turn out better.
"Thank you, Frank." She said, with a small smile.
Frank nodded, then turned to Hawkeye. "Same for you."
"Thank you Frank." Said Hawkeye, now slightly concerned because he, too, had recognized the behavior.
Frank nodded, then said "I'm going to get a breath of fresh air. Excuse me."
Frank walked out through the front door, then everybody inside the house heard a screech of, "THAT IMMORAL, DISGUSTING SLIME BALL!"
Hawkeye gave a grin to everybody else. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe Frank is making reference to me."
BJ chuckled. "I would say so."
"At least he's letting it out more that he did, maybe it won't affect him as much." Spoke up Potter.
Charles turned to Margaret. "You can't possibly expect me to believe that you would be low enough to have anything to do with that thing that passes as a human." He motioned to the door that Frank had just walked through. "I only saw him for those couple of minutes and I can already tell that all those bad things said about him were not exaggerations." Then, catching himself, he continued "Realize, this is not meant as an insult to you, Margaret."
Margaret nodded. "I'm not proud of it, but it's true. And I'm not offended Charles, don't worry."
They heard the door open and Frank came in, now composed. "This is a better house than I expected from you, Pierce."
"I can tell you're just ready to compliment, aren't you Franky?"
Frank gave him a look and then, looking at the wives and children, said "So who belongs to who?"
Hawkeye rolled his eyes, and BJ spoke up, "Nice way of putting it, Frank. Anyway, since you asked, this is my wife Peg and my three kids are Erin, Ben, and Katy."
Everybody introduced their families to Frank, then they all settled either on the sofa, chairs, or floor, the people who had been at the camp in the beginning telling the ones who had come later any stories they hadn't already heard about the early time of the 4077th. Then, the ones who had been there at the end told the ones who hadn't about everything that had happened at the camp since they left. Trapper, in particular, was surprised at how much the camp had changed, yet at the same time stayed the same.
About my chapter breaks... as I said earlier, I have already written most of the story, and kinda forgot I would have to break it into chapters to post, therefore it is hard to choose where my chapter breaks should be. Anyway, thanks for reading. R&R!