A/N: Thanks to everyone for your much-appreciated reviews. There are more
people than I can keep up with who've left reviews, but I love you all! You
guys make it worth writing! Angel, this is just for you . . . well, not
just for you, but you're the one who's asked me so often for it, so here it
is!
May - July 1955
I opened one blurry eye, I was back in hospital, and presumably I had survived the crash. I opened my other eye and realised that both Daniel and Hawkeye were watching me with some concern.
"Annie, start with the basics, since when were you pregnant, and who's the father?" Hawkeye demanded.
"Steady on son, she's only just coming round after being unconscious for the better part of 16 days. Annie, can you hear me okay?" Daniel checked my pulse.
"Yeah, what happened?" I croaked, my voice, although out of use since the taxi ride, was much better from the tracheotomy and talking no longer hurt.
"You were in a car accident, your side of the car hit a tree, and you went into spontaneous labour. You gave birth once you were in hospital." Daniel sat down beside me, I was in the Cove's small hospital where I had been born.
"My baby, is he okay? And the twins, I was holding the twins!"
"Annie, calm down," Daniel put a hand on my forehead. "The twins were unharmed, a few minor scratches and were both very badly scared, but are otherwise fine. They've been staying with us, running around on both feet."
"Thank god, and my baby? Where's the baby?"
"She arrived alive and well, when were you due?" I replied with May 13, the date I had guessed in Boston. "That's today, so you really were quite alright, your daughter arrived just fine April 28, completely unharmed."
"Would one of you please call Charles and tell him that his daughter arrived okay?"
"Charles!" Hawkeye echoed. "That baby is a Winchester, that explains why she has no hair!"
"Bald as a boiled egg." Daniel elaborated, "But with a beautiful pair of blue eyes."
"Can I see her? Please Daniel, she's two weeks old already, I want to see her."
"Yes, but only for a little while. You suffered serious concussion, it was touch and go for a while. You'll probably find that you're very tired but you'll be discharged soon because you'll just take up a bed we'll need." Seeing Hawkeye and I were itching for our own time, Daniel left the room to get my baby.
"That was our front yard you crashed through, I was so worried when I ran out of the house and saw your head in the car. I knew you'd have the twins with you. I'm just so glad you're okay."
"I'm glad I'm okay too, I was coming back to you, I want to be in the Cove, I want to be with you, those strings from New Year's Eve are still there if you want them."
"I want them. I've wanted them ever since we signed the papers and you were Miss Dawson again." Hawkeye bent and kissed me. I kissed him back, my IV needle straining at the back of my hand as I lifted it to hold his head.
"I guess I wanted them since then too, I think living with Charles was a way of saying, 'you can't have Hawkeye'. You know I love you though and I'm sorry for running off after New Year's."
"And I love you." Hawkeye put his head down and kissed me again. I smiled as Hawkeye tried to look innocent when his father walked into the room holding my daughter. Daniel said nothing, but looked knowingly at us.
"Hi sweetheart, it's been a long two weeks without Mummy hasn't it?" Daniel placed the bouncing baby girl in my arms, and I was surprised to feel that she was so heavy but then remembered she was already 16 days old.
I got tired pretty quickly and so I fell asleep soon after. I spent most of the next day asleep too, only waking when my baby wanted a bottle. She was fully bottle fed, as I'd been out of things too long to breastfeed. Three days later, I was officially discharged from the hospital with April, as the nurses had affectionately named her.
Hawkeye took her so I could walk with a frame. My legs had been pretty badly bruised in the crash and walking was a stiff, slow, painful process. He helped me into the car and we drove home.
"Captain, Glory, down!" Although my pets were very well behaved and obedient, they had not seen me since I'd left for New York and were prancing around my feet and the walking frame.
"Mama!" Daniel had his arms full with squirming 14mo twins who were dying to get to their mother.
"Hello darlings, just wait until I get into the house and I'll have you for the biggest cuddle ever." I went in and with help sat on the sofa. Daniel put my big twins on my lap, two chubby, sweetly innocent faces stared at me.
"Mama!" Felicity snuggled into me. She was a bright child and realised quickly that the baby bump wasn't there anymore. "Baba gone!" She told me, her face sweetly concerned. In my absence, they'd developed small vocabularies, Mama, Dada, Baba, Gone and Cap - based on Captain - for dog.
"Felicity, baby isn't gone, baby is here, daddy's holding the baby, see, this is April." Hawkeye bent and showed my sleeping infant to my serious twins.
"Baba!" Ben reached shyly and placed one chubby finger in her hand. The tiny pink fingers closed around his and he gave me a wide grin. Felicity also put a hand into her sister's and for a few minutes the twins were content to have their sister hold their hands until it was bath time.
"Hawkeye, can you do the bath, I'd like a bit of time with April and Daniel." Hawkeye complied and took his children out into the bathroom, leaving Daniel, April and I alone.
"I took the liberty of not setting up the sofa bed." Daniel's eyes were a mischievous sparkle as he told me that.
"I don't think I'll need it, not if things are really the way I think. I'm sorry for not telling you about the baby." I apologised, while I nursed my new daughter, trying to get to know every inch of her chubby 9.5lb body.
"I knew, I could tell the minute you walked in that door, announcing that you'd left Charles. Remember I saw your mother through multiple pregnancies. I'm amazed Hawkeye didn't notice though. He was always going on about how no one knew you as well as he did."
"Charles didn't know until I told him." I chuckled. "I had better ring him I guess. We need to talk names."
"Can I take the baby?" I passed April over to Daniel and slowly made my way into the kitchen. I rang Charles and after some wait, got through to him.
"Hello? Charles Emerson . . ."
"Shut up Charlie, you're a father." I spoke over him.
"Annie, my sweet, do tell!"
"Well . . ." I briefly filled him in on NYE, and my Manhattan visit. Then on what I knew of the crash, and finally on the arrival of his daughter that I couldn't even remember.
"Congratulations! Nora knew all along, as did mother they just worked it out. However, they understand what you felt and there is no pressure for you to return whatsoever, you're free to do as you wish."
"Well, I'm staying in the Cove with Hawkeye for quite some time. But we need to talk names. The nurses at the hospital nicknamed her April, but if you don't like it, I can change it."
"No, April is beautiful, but I do like Emma-Rose."
"What about April Emma-Rose Winchester?"
"Annie?"
"Yes Charles?"
"Do you plan to stay with Hawkeye?"
"Well, without trying to rub it in, I do love him very much, and I hope to yes."
"Well, Winchester-Pierce. He's obviously going to have a much larger input in her earlier years than I will."
"If you're sure, April Emma-Rose Winchester-Pierce. Charlie, you're a father."
"And Annie, you're a mother, but I have to go, I'm taking Nora to a concert." We hung up and leaving my newly-named daughter with Daniel, I went and helped Hawkeye bath the twins.
"I guess these guys aren't my babies anymore." I smiled, splashing warm water teasingly at Felicity's face.
"Mama no!" She said firmly. I'd always tried not to say 'no' to my twins, but both of them still knew its meaning.
"You've been told, but they're still my babies." Hawkeye laughed, flicking water at me.
"Well, April is too, sort of, she's been named April Emma-Rose Winchester- Pierce, Charles chose everything but April." I explained, trying to wash BJ's silky black hair. He was fighting me off, preferring play to cleanliness.
"Charles really said that April could have my name?" Hawkeye seemed disbelieving but honoured.
"Yes, he knows that you're going to be more influential towards April if I stay with you."
"And will you stay with me, tell me once and for all, are you going to stay in the Cove, with me, as everything we always seem to want, but never go out and get?"
"If you're staying in the Cove with me as everything we seem to want but never go out and get." Hawkeye kissed me on the side of my head. We finished bathing the kids, settled them in their cots in Daniel's room. It was cooler in the evenings in his room, and as they slept whole nights, Daniel wasn't disturbed. I changed and fed April before putting her in her bassinette beside Hawkeye's bed, she was tired, and went to sleep without protesting.
"Okay, bend your knees, easy now, there we go. You're much better." The physiotherapist told me. It had been six weeks since the accident and I had to see a physiotherapist to ensure that I regained full use of my legs. Everything else was working fine, I was no longer unreasonably tired, and was otherwise healthy.
"That's our last appointment, you're obviously fine Annie." Hawkeye and I left the office and caught a bus back to Portland. Even though I had escaped relatively unharmed, it would be a while before I could catch a cab again, especially as I'd found out the driver hadn't been so lucky, suffering a brain haemorrhage and dying.
"You know what that means my sexy little everything?" Hawkeye asked later that night. We'd soothed April and the twins off to sleep and were reading on the porch.
"No what Ben darling?" I smiled at him.
"If you're legs are fine, that means that you're fit for certain other activities." He kissed the side of my neck, drawing a soft, seductive laugh out of me. I turned and snuggled against him, returning the kisses.
"Those certain activities aren't going to take place when I'm right here." Daniel's voice brought me back to earth. He was sitting on the porch swing with us. "Love is great, but not something I want to see, or hear mind you."
"I'll keep quiet!" I managed to promise as Hawkeye grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house.
"I meant Hawkeye!" Daniel's voice followed us into the house as Hawkeye swept me into his arms. "Not on the sofa!" Hawkeye had just sat down, with me in his lap. I laughed and pressed my head into Hawkeye's shoulder as he stood up again and carried me into our bedroom.
We got things finished in time for April's 11pm bottle. She took catnaps and rarely slept more than two hours. I was glad to have a fully bottle fed baby as at the time of the crash I had still been breastfeeding the twins and even though I was weaning them the strain of breastfeeding another baby for another year - whether or not the twins were weaned - would have been too much, even though I missed the special time it gave my alone with my baby.
12.30, 3am, 5am and finally 8am, April had me up every time, but rewarded me with a cute, toothless grin as I changed and fed her. I'd found that I was handling three young children under two with surprising ease, but reasoned I'd had all of the practise I'd ever need with Mum and my family.
"Open wide, there's my boy!" I spooned stewed apple into the abyss of Ben's mouth. He reached for the spoon and I handed it over to him. Felicity needed help, as she had slammed her hand in the door and three fingers now resembled sausages. She had screamed the place down; Cathy Harrison from across the road had come to see if I needed help. She had been very nice and took the other two for a walk while I tried to soothe my daughter.
"I'm off, tell Hawkeye to get his rear into the office by ten his first patient's at half-past! Bye BJ Sport, see you Princess Felicity, love you Annie." Daniel kissed us all and left.
"Hawkeye, Hawkeye, you gotta go to work!" I left the twins in their highchairs to call Hawkeye. My heart melted as I went into our room. Hawkeye, naked and with only a sheet draped over him to barely make him decent, anyone would still able to see what was under there, lay on his back, April sound asleep on his chest, her head resting over his heart where mine would when I slept beside him.
"Oh, Annie, I guess we just, dozed off." Hawkeye smiled.
"That's fine, come on, Angel features, let's heat you a bottle while Hawkeye gets dressed." We wanted April to call Charles 'Dad' and Hawkeye 'Hawkeye' or 'Ben'. I lifted her up, and left Hawkeye to get dressed.
"Do you know I haven't planned a reunion, and I promised BJ I would." I realised suddenly as I served Hawkeye breakfast a couple of days later. He was trying to watch both twins as they ate, while Daniel gave April her bottle.
"I'm sure we can give it a miss this year." Hawkeye replied with such a cool air of nonchalance that I knew I didn't need to plan any reunion, and it was already sorted. I said nothing and ushered Hawkeye and Daniel off to work, enjoying the peaceful day alone with my three kids.
"Happy birthday!" Hawkeye, Daniel, Felicity, BJ and April piled into my bed, July 4 at about 6am. I groaned inwardly, I hadn't slept well and as much as I loved my 15½month and 9week old children, to say nothing of my 33- year-old partner/lover/boyfriend and his 60-something father, I preferred an hour more or so of sleep.
"Here's something from all of us." Daniel handed me a photo of BJ, Felicity, April, Hawkeye, and Charles. I had spent a day with my siblings in Portland without the kids, and I guessed that this was in aid of the photo as I looked back on Daniel's insistence that I go. How they'd got Charles up was beyond me, but I loved the picture.
"Your babies, and their daddies, I thought it was perfect." Hawkeye explained after I'd hugged everyone.
"Thankyou, you're all so wonderful! And you Sport," I kissed Ben's rosy face as he reached two dimpled arms up for my attention. "Princess, I love you too. Yes Angel-features, I love you just as much." April, although barely old enough to recognise my face, knew that I wasn't kissing her and let out a cry.
"What about me? I got you a very special something." Hawkeye pulled a little box from somewhere and handed it to me. "I thought we'd start completely afresh, we'll keep the old ones as a reminder though." I opened the box, and stared in amazement at the gorgeous ring, breathless and lost for words.
"Marry me again Anne?" Hawkeye said simply.
"Yes!" I started to laugh and cry as he pushed the ring onto my finger and kissed me. We embraced, mindful of the kids, a whole new love, life and world opening before us.
"Come on, come down to the clinic today, we'll bring the kids and tell the town the news!" Hawkeye got out of the bed. "I'm cooking breakfast!" He pulled on his robe and left.
Daniel lay down on the bed next to me, putting an obviously tired head on the pillow, April lay on his chest and he stroked her back with a tender hand as he talked.
"I'm really glad for you two, the minute I saw your beautiful face when you arrived, I knew I'd be seeing a lot more of it, and I guess I'm right. This time I get to kiss the bride!" Felicity slid off the bed, landing with a thump on the floor. Her diaper-clad rear didn't feel a thing and she toddled to the door, hollering for Dada to let her out.
Dada obliged and Daniel and I talked for a little longer, keeping an eye on Ben who was happily playing with my slippers. We got up for breakfast and once everyone was changed, dressed and had plenty of supplies, bottles, clothes, toys, diapers, blankets, for the day, the six of us walked to the clinic and opened up.
"Annabelle, how good to se you!" It was Mrs Robinson, a sweet lady, who was a WWI widow, her brother was killed in the blitz in WW2, and both of her sons, one of her daughters and her son-in-law had died in Korea. Her daughter, was a nurse at a M*A*S*H, and in similar circumstances to I was taken POW, raped, tortured and rescued, but died because of the massive trauma to her body.
"It's lovely to see you too Juliet." I was one of the few people allowed to use her Christian name.
"These must be your babies, why how they've grown!" She admired the twins who were playing on the floor, while I gave April a bottle.
"Yes, I can hardly believe it myself! Juliet, I believe that Dr Pierce Senior will see you now." She allowed Daniel to help her into the office.
The whole town knew Hawkeye and I were engaged by lunchtime. It was a small town and word travelled fast, but someone also put in it the evening edition of the Crabapple Cove Courier, so the news spread extremely quickly.
"You know what I want this time?" Hawkeye asked. We'd taken a walk down the back on the beach, leaving Daniel with the kids. It had been a couple of weeks since Hawkeye'd proposed to me, but we hadn't actually started to plan the wedding.
"What Ben darling?" I asked, wrapping a towel around myself. We'd been for an evening swim and I was starting to feel a little cold.
"I want a proper, white, Methodist wedding." I made a rather surprised and disbelieving noise, so he continued. "Dad's a Methodist, and I was until Korea, so, I think he'd really like it if we had a 'proper' wedding in his eyes."
"Of course, besides, we had a Catholic priest marry us last time." I smiled, remembering the hasty wedding planned in two days before I was transferred out of camp.
"Do you think we can have it the Saturday after next?" Hawkeye asked with a sudden grin.
"That's August 1st. It's awfully short notice darling." I protested mildly, even though I was wholly in agreement.
"The whole town knows, and your family knows, you tell them the date, and they can show up whenever, as will my family." Hawkeye said, with a grin, his arm around my shoulder.
"What the hell, we did it in two days in Korea, with very little contact with the real world, we can do it in two weeks, here!" I said. Hawkeye picked me up, and swung me around. I shrieked and threw back my head, enjoying the spinning, flying feeling, made all the more enjoyable by the loved feeling that I had too.
We went back up to the house, and the next day, began planning the wedding. I was on top of the world, and life was great.
May - July 1955
I opened one blurry eye, I was back in hospital, and presumably I had survived the crash. I opened my other eye and realised that both Daniel and Hawkeye were watching me with some concern.
"Annie, start with the basics, since when were you pregnant, and who's the father?" Hawkeye demanded.
"Steady on son, she's only just coming round after being unconscious for the better part of 16 days. Annie, can you hear me okay?" Daniel checked my pulse.
"Yeah, what happened?" I croaked, my voice, although out of use since the taxi ride, was much better from the tracheotomy and talking no longer hurt.
"You were in a car accident, your side of the car hit a tree, and you went into spontaneous labour. You gave birth once you were in hospital." Daniel sat down beside me, I was in the Cove's small hospital where I had been born.
"My baby, is he okay? And the twins, I was holding the twins!"
"Annie, calm down," Daniel put a hand on my forehead. "The twins were unharmed, a few minor scratches and were both very badly scared, but are otherwise fine. They've been staying with us, running around on both feet."
"Thank god, and my baby? Where's the baby?"
"She arrived alive and well, when were you due?" I replied with May 13, the date I had guessed in Boston. "That's today, so you really were quite alright, your daughter arrived just fine April 28, completely unharmed."
"Would one of you please call Charles and tell him that his daughter arrived okay?"
"Charles!" Hawkeye echoed. "That baby is a Winchester, that explains why she has no hair!"
"Bald as a boiled egg." Daniel elaborated, "But with a beautiful pair of blue eyes."
"Can I see her? Please Daniel, she's two weeks old already, I want to see her."
"Yes, but only for a little while. You suffered serious concussion, it was touch and go for a while. You'll probably find that you're very tired but you'll be discharged soon because you'll just take up a bed we'll need." Seeing Hawkeye and I were itching for our own time, Daniel left the room to get my baby.
"That was our front yard you crashed through, I was so worried when I ran out of the house and saw your head in the car. I knew you'd have the twins with you. I'm just so glad you're okay."
"I'm glad I'm okay too, I was coming back to you, I want to be in the Cove, I want to be with you, those strings from New Year's Eve are still there if you want them."
"I want them. I've wanted them ever since we signed the papers and you were Miss Dawson again." Hawkeye bent and kissed me. I kissed him back, my IV needle straining at the back of my hand as I lifted it to hold his head.
"I guess I wanted them since then too, I think living with Charles was a way of saying, 'you can't have Hawkeye'. You know I love you though and I'm sorry for running off after New Year's."
"And I love you." Hawkeye put his head down and kissed me again. I smiled as Hawkeye tried to look innocent when his father walked into the room holding my daughter. Daniel said nothing, but looked knowingly at us.
"Hi sweetheart, it's been a long two weeks without Mummy hasn't it?" Daniel placed the bouncing baby girl in my arms, and I was surprised to feel that she was so heavy but then remembered she was already 16 days old.
I got tired pretty quickly and so I fell asleep soon after. I spent most of the next day asleep too, only waking when my baby wanted a bottle. She was fully bottle fed, as I'd been out of things too long to breastfeed. Three days later, I was officially discharged from the hospital with April, as the nurses had affectionately named her.
Hawkeye took her so I could walk with a frame. My legs had been pretty badly bruised in the crash and walking was a stiff, slow, painful process. He helped me into the car and we drove home.
"Captain, Glory, down!" Although my pets were very well behaved and obedient, they had not seen me since I'd left for New York and were prancing around my feet and the walking frame.
"Mama!" Daniel had his arms full with squirming 14mo twins who were dying to get to their mother.
"Hello darlings, just wait until I get into the house and I'll have you for the biggest cuddle ever." I went in and with help sat on the sofa. Daniel put my big twins on my lap, two chubby, sweetly innocent faces stared at me.
"Mama!" Felicity snuggled into me. She was a bright child and realised quickly that the baby bump wasn't there anymore. "Baba gone!" She told me, her face sweetly concerned. In my absence, they'd developed small vocabularies, Mama, Dada, Baba, Gone and Cap - based on Captain - for dog.
"Felicity, baby isn't gone, baby is here, daddy's holding the baby, see, this is April." Hawkeye bent and showed my sleeping infant to my serious twins.
"Baba!" Ben reached shyly and placed one chubby finger in her hand. The tiny pink fingers closed around his and he gave me a wide grin. Felicity also put a hand into her sister's and for a few minutes the twins were content to have their sister hold their hands until it was bath time.
"Hawkeye, can you do the bath, I'd like a bit of time with April and Daniel." Hawkeye complied and took his children out into the bathroom, leaving Daniel, April and I alone.
"I took the liberty of not setting up the sofa bed." Daniel's eyes were a mischievous sparkle as he told me that.
"I don't think I'll need it, not if things are really the way I think. I'm sorry for not telling you about the baby." I apologised, while I nursed my new daughter, trying to get to know every inch of her chubby 9.5lb body.
"I knew, I could tell the minute you walked in that door, announcing that you'd left Charles. Remember I saw your mother through multiple pregnancies. I'm amazed Hawkeye didn't notice though. He was always going on about how no one knew you as well as he did."
"Charles didn't know until I told him." I chuckled. "I had better ring him I guess. We need to talk names."
"Can I take the baby?" I passed April over to Daniel and slowly made my way into the kitchen. I rang Charles and after some wait, got through to him.
"Hello? Charles Emerson . . ."
"Shut up Charlie, you're a father." I spoke over him.
"Annie, my sweet, do tell!"
"Well . . ." I briefly filled him in on NYE, and my Manhattan visit. Then on what I knew of the crash, and finally on the arrival of his daughter that I couldn't even remember.
"Congratulations! Nora knew all along, as did mother they just worked it out. However, they understand what you felt and there is no pressure for you to return whatsoever, you're free to do as you wish."
"Well, I'm staying in the Cove with Hawkeye for quite some time. But we need to talk names. The nurses at the hospital nicknamed her April, but if you don't like it, I can change it."
"No, April is beautiful, but I do like Emma-Rose."
"What about April Emma-Rose Winchester?"
"Annie?"
"Yes Charles?"
"Do you plan to stay with Hawkeye?"
"Well, without trying to rub it in, I do love him very much, and I hope to yes."
"Well, Winchester-Pierce. He's obviously going to have a much larger input in her earlier years than I will."
"If you're sure, April Emma-Rose Winchester-Pierce. Charlie, you're a father."
"And Annie, you're a mother, but I have to go, I'm taking Nora to a concert." We hung up and leaving my newly-named daughter with Daniel, I went and helped Hawkeye bath the twins.
"I guess these guys aren't my babies anymore." I smiled, splashing warm water teasingly at Felicity's face.
"Mama no!" She said firmly. I'd always tried not to say 'no' to my twins, but both of them still knew its meaning.
"You've been told, but they're still my babies." Hawkeye laughed, flicking water at me.
"Well, April is too, sort of, she's been named April Emma-Rose Winchester- Pierce, Charles chose everything but April." I explained, trying to wash BJ's silky black hair. He was fighting me off, preferring play to cleanliness.
"Charles really said that April could have my name?" Hawkeye seemed disbelieving but honoured.
"Yes, he knows that you're going to be more influential towards April if I stay with you."
"And will you stay with me, tell me once and for all, are you going to stay in the Cove, with me, as everything we always seem to want, but never go out and get?"
"If you're staying in the Cove with me as everything we seem to want but never go out and get." Hawkeye kissed me on the side of my head. We finished bathing the kids, settled them in their cots in Daniel's room. It was cooler in the evenings in his room, and as they slept whole nights, Daniel wasn't disturbed. I changed and fed April before putting her in her bassinette beside Hawkeye's bed, she was tired, and went to sleep without protesting.
"Okay, bend your knees, easy now, there we go. You're much better." The physiotherapist told me. It had been six weeks since the accident and I had to see a physiotherapist to ensure that I regained full use of my legs. Everything else was working fine, I was no longer unreasonably tired, and was otherwise healthy.
"That's our last appointment, you're obviously fine Annie." Hawkeye and I left the office and caught a bus back to Portland. Even though I had escaped relatively unharmed, it would be a while before I could catch a cab again, especially as I'd found out the driver hadn't been so lucky, suffering a brain haemorrhage and dying.
"You know what that means my sexy little everything?" Hawkeye asked later that night. We'd soothed April and the twins off to sleep and were reading on the porch.
"No what Ben darling?" I smiled at him.
"If you're legs are fine, that means that you're fit for certain other activities." He kissed the side of my neck, drawing a soft, seductive laugh out of me. I turned and snuggled against him, returning the kisses.
"Those certain activities aren't going to take place when I'm right here." Daniel's voice brought me back to earth. He was sitting on the porch swing with us. "Love is great, but not something I want to see, or hear mind you."
"I'll keep quiet!" I managed to promise as Hawkeye grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house.
"I meant Hawkeye!" Daniel's voice followed us into the house as Hawkeye swept me into his arms. "Not on the sofa!" Hawkeye had just sat down, with me in his lap. I laughed and pressed my head into Hawkeye's shoulder as he stood up again and carried me into our bedroom.
We got things finished in time for April's 11pm bottle. She took catnaps and rarely slept more than two hours. I was glad to have a fully bottle fed baby as at the time of the crash I had still been breastfeeding the twins and even though I was weaning them the strain of breastfeeding another baby for another year - whether or not the twins were weaned - would have been too much, even though I missed the special time it gave my alone with my baby.
12.30, 3am, 5am and finally 8am, April had me up every time, but rewarded me with a cute, toothless grin as I changed and fed her. I'd found that I was handling three young children under two with surprising ease, but reasoned I'd had all of the practise I'd ever need with Mum and my family.
"Open wide, there's my boy!" I spooned stewed apple into the abyss of Ben's mouth. He reached for the spoon and I handed it over to him. Felicity needed help, as she had slammed her hand in the door and three fingers now resembled sausages. She had screamed the place down; Cathy Harrison from across the road had come to see if I needed help. She had been very nice and took the other two for a walk while I tried to soothe my daughter.
"I'm off, tell Hawkeye to get his rear into the office by ten his first patient's at half-past! Bye BJ Sport, see you Princess Felicity, love you Annie." Daniel kissed us all and left.
"Hawkeye, Hawkeye, you gotta go to work!" I left the twins in their highchairs to call Hawkeye. My heart melted as I went into our room. Hawkeye, naked and with only a sheet draped over him to barely make him decent, anyone would still able to see what was under there, lay on his back, April sound asleep on his chest, her head resting over his heart where mine would when I slept beside him.
"Oh, Annie, I guess we just, dozed off." Hawkeye smiled.
"That's fine, come on, Angel features, let's heat you a bottle while Hawkeye gets dressed." We wanted April to call Charles 'Dad' and Hawkeye 'Hawkeye' or 'Ben'. I lifted her up, and left Hawkeye to get dressed.
"Do you know I haven't planned a reunion, and I promised BJ I would." I realised suddenly as I served Hawkeye breakfast a couple of days later. He was trying to watch both twins as they ate, while Daniel gave April her bottle.
"I'm sure we can give it a miss this year." Hawkeye replied with such a cool air of nonchalance that I knew I didn't need to plan any reunion, and it was already sorted. I said nothing and ushered Hawkeye and Daniel off to work, enjoying the peaceful day alone with my three kids.
"Happy birthday!" Hawkeye, Daniel, Felicity, BJ and April piled into my bed, July 4 at about 6am. I groaned inwardly, I hadn't slept well and as much as I loved my 15½month and 9week old children, to say nothing of my 33- year-old partner/lover/boyfriend and his 60-something father, I preferred an hour more or so of sleep.
"Here's something from all of us." Daniel handed me a photo of BJ, Felicity, April, Hawkeye, and Charles. I had spent a day with my siblings in Portland without the kids, and I guessed that this was in aid of the photo as I looked back on Daniel's insistence that I go. How they'd got Charles up was beyond me, but I loved the picture.
"Your babies, and their daddies, I thought it was perfect." Hawkeye explained after I'd hugged everyone.
"Thankyou, you're all so wonderful! And you Sport," I kissed Ben's rosy face as he reached two dimpled arms up for my attention. "Princess, I love you too. Yes Angel-features, I love you just as much." April, although barely old enough to recognise my face, knew that I wasn't kissing her and let out a cry.
"What about me? I got you a very special something." Hawkeye pulled a little box from somewhere and handed it to me. "I thought we'd start completely afresh, we'll keep the old ones as a reminder though." I opened the box, and stared in amazement at the gorgeous ring, breathless and lost for words.
"Marry me again Anne?" Hawkeye said simply.
"Yes!" I started to laugh and cry as he pushed the ring onto my finger and kissed me. We embraced, mindful of the kids, a whole new love, life and world opening before us.
"Come on, come down to the clinic today, we'll bring the kids and tell the town the news!" Hawkeye got out of the bed. "I'm cooking breakfast!" He pulled on his robe and left.
Daniel lay down on the bed next to me, putting an obviously tired head on the pillow, April lay on his chest and he stroked her back with a tender hand as he talked.
"I'm really glad for you two, the minute I saw your beautiful face when you arrived, I knew I'd be seeing a lot more of it, and I guess I'm right. This time I get to kiss the bride!" Felicity slid off the bed, landing with a thump on the floor. Her diaper-clad rear didn't feel a thing and she toddled to the door, hollering for Dada to let her out.
Dada obliged and Daniel and I talked for a little longer, keeping an eye on Ben who was happily playing with my slippers. We got up for breakfast and once everyone was changed, dressed and had plenty of supplies, bottles, clothes, toys, diapers, blankets, for the day, the six of us walked to the clinic and opened up.
"Annabelle, how good to se you!" It was Mrs Robinson, a sweet lady, who was a WWI widow, her brother was killed in the blitz in WW2, and both of her sons, one of her daughters and her son-in-law had died in Korea. Her daughter, was a nurse at a M*A*S*H, and in similar circumstances to I was taken POW, raped, tortured and rescued, but died because of the massive trauma to her body.
"It's lovely to see you too Juliet." I was one of the few people allowed to use her Christian name.
"These must be your babies, why how they've grown!" She admired the twins who were playing on the floor, while I gave April a bottle.
"Yes, I can hardly believe it myself! Juliet, I believe that Dr Pierce Senior will see you now." She allowed Daniel to help her into the office.
The whole town knew Hawkeye and I were engaged by lunchtime. It was a small town and word travelled fast, but someone also put in it the evening edition of the Crabapple Cove Courier, so the news spread extremely quickly.
"You know what I want this time?" Hawkeye asked. We'd taken a walk down the back on the beach, leaving Daniel with the kids. It had been a couple of weeks since Hawkeye'd proposed to me, but we hadn't actually started to plan the wedding.
"What Ben darling?" I asked, wrapping a towel around myself. We'd been for an evening swim and I was starting to feel a little cold.
"I want a proper, white, Methodist wedding." I made a rather surprised and disbelieving noise, so he continued. "Dad's a Methodist, and I was until Korea, so, I think he'd really like it if we had a 'proper' wedding in his eyes."
"Of course, besides, we had a Catholic priest marry us last time." I smiled, remembering the hasty wedding planned in two days before I was transferred out of camp.
"Do you think we can have it the Saturday after next?" Hawkeye asked with a sudden grin.
"That's August 1st. It's awfully short notice darling." I protested mildly, even though I was wholly in agreement.
"The whole town knows, and your family knows, you tell them the date, and they can show up whenever, as will my family." Hawkeye said, with a grin, his arm around my shoulder.
"What the hell, we did it in two days in Korea, with very little contact with the real world, we can do it in two weeks, here!" I said. Hawkeye picked me up, and swung me around. I shrieked and threw back my head, enjoying the spinning, flying feeling, made all the more enjoyable by the loved feeling that I had too.
We went back up to the house, and the next day, began planning the wedding. I was on top of the world, and life was great.