A/N: Thanks to Tessa, Jennifer and Melitami for the reviews on the last
chapter. Beatrice, thankyou for your reviews on the earlier chapters, I
seem to have neglected to thank you! Also overdue thanks owed to Karen, Ela
and Satan's Apprentice, for reviews on my other fics. You guys make it
worth writing! Here as promised is the answer to the question on all of
your minds did Annie really do it? (And hey, there's even some gentle smut)
June - November 1957
I took a deep breath and prepared to push the knife into my wrist. Suddenly I heard the unmistakeable cry of a newborn baby. Dropping the knife, my wrist unscathed, I dashed out to track the source of the noise, it seemed to be coming from the front porch.
"You hear that?" Hawkeye had left the phone hurriedly. I nodded, wondering what it was.
"I'll see, you take Jess before she wakes Dad." Daniel had been working late and he was still asleep, but Jess's calls were ringing through the whole house. So Hawkeye headed for the stairs, and I headed for the door.
I unlocked and opened the door, I looked down, a frilly baby basket was on the doorstep, with a brown paper bag, like one you'd receive from the grocery store.
"Oh my goodness, hello Little One, what brings you here?" I didn't worry about where the baby had come from yet, just that it was crying and needed comfort.
"Well, well, well Little One, you've got a note too. I wonder why your mummy picked this house." I had become automatically attached to the baby, knowing that it was only as old as my little Adam would have been.
"Adam?" Jess queried as Hawkeye brought her downstairs. I gave him a look silently berating him for bringing Jess, to which he gave me a helpless one, he later explained that Jess wasn't going to sit quietly in her playroom.
"No Baby, this isn't Adam, he's in Heaven, remember that. This is another baby."
"Who?" Jess asked as Hawkeye put her on the porch swing and picked up the note.
"Lily and Tom's, here listen." Hawkeye started to read the note to me.
"Dear Anne and Hawkeye. The baby you've found is our daughter Lydia Adrienne, she was born on June 12. Tom and I left Portland when I was 4months pregnant and we live in South Portland, but we cannot look after a baby properly. So I asked my friend to leave her on your doorstep. I know your baby is due soon, but please, take Lydia in and raise her. There are some clothes in the bag with her. Look after her as though she was your own, let her call you Mummy and Daddy. When we return to Portland in two weeks, we will sign the adoption papers. Please do not tell Mum, I want to do that myself. See you soon, all our love, Lily and Tom."
"Well Little One, how about we go inside and have some breakfast?" I carried her into the house, Hawkeye ushering Jess inside before picking up her basket and the paper bag of clothes.
"My, my, my. What have we here?" Daniel smiled as I sat down, my beautiful niece/daughter in my hands. She was asleep, her creamy skin the smooth colour of light coffee. Tom was Asian, and though I had not been told from where, I suspected his family was one that had fled South K to avoid the fighting.
"I just found out why Lily and Tom ran away. This is my niece Lydia." The baby opened her chocolate eyes and yawned, a silky ebony fuzz on her scalp.
"She's beautiful, may I?" I didn't want to let the baby go, but Daniel had already gently pried her from my hands, and checked her over.
"She's a perfectly healthy week-old girl, what's happening?" Daniel asked, laying her in her basket.
"We're keeping her." Hawkeye and I answered together, without even an eye conversation.
"Where is Lily?" Daniel asked, not having read the note.
"South Portland, done a great hiding job, she had us convinced she'd left Maine. But she's coming down soon to sort out an adoption." I replied. Upstairs, I heard the kids begin to wake.
"I'd better finish breakfast." I said, lifting the basket and carrying her into the kitchen, I remembered what I had been doing, chopping an apple for Jess. I looked for the knife, and found none, realising with a start where it was.
"Goodness Little One, you don't know how important you are. If you hadn't cried when you did, I would've done one of the stupidest things I've ever done." I said, retrieving and washing the knife. I resumed chopping.
"This is Lydia, she's your Aunt Lily's baby, but we're looking after her for a while." I explained to my four kids.
"Not a boy, I want a bro. Like Adam." Ben said.
"I know sweetheart, and maybe you might have that brother one day." I smiled. I noticed Hawkeye's eyes light up at that. "But maybe not for a couple of years." I stressed.
"How long she be here?" Felicity asked.
"We don't know." I replied. They were all taking the news very well. I guess it was the prospect of the baby not yet being a permanent fixture.
Lily came down two weeks later as she promised, she had not yet told Mum about her daughter. Tom was with her, and when they arrived in Portland the first thing Mum did was scold them both furiously.
"I can't believe you just ran away and eloped like that, whatever put such an irresponsible idea in your head?" She scolded, hugging first Lily and then a surprised Tom. I was watching from a distance but still able to hear every word, Mum not knowing I had come, and I cradled Lydia carefully.
"I'm sorry Mum, I really am." Lily said, spotting me, holding her baby, "Annie, is here, and she has the reason why I left." She beckoned to me, and taking a deep breath I approached Mum, Lily and Tom.
"Mum, I was four months pregnant when I left, this is my daughter Lydia Adrienne. . ." at this point she paused, thoughtfully "Pierce, Lydia Adrienne Pierce. I can't look after her, so Annie will adopt her. It's also perfect timing, as I know Annie was expecting." Lily said.
"What you left her on the doorstep?" Mum said. Lily's face reddened. "You did? I can't believe you Lillian Mary Beresford!" Mum was truly apoplectic now.
"Mum, settle down, you're making a huge scene. As parents it's Tom's and my responsibility to see that our daughter is brought up in the best way possible in a loving environment, we couldn't do that, we can barely support ourselves, so we're doing our best to see that she gets what she deserves." Lily argued.
"Tom, Lily, Mum, let's go, we'll go sit on the beach and have a talk." I said, shifting Lydia to the other arm so I could take Mum's arm and gently lead her out of the train station.
Mum calmed down after that, and understood Lily's point, and was very fond of her granddaughter. Lily and Tom were told about Adam and saw it as an even better reason for Hawkeye and I to raise the baby and much red tape and paperwork later, I was the official mother of my daughter Lydia Adrienne Pierce.
"Listen darlings, you know how I said Lydia was staying with us for a few weeks?" I received four pairs of eyes trained on my face. "Well Lydia is staying with us for always, she's your sister now."
"Why?" Felicity asked.
"Because Princess, Mummy and Daddy signed some paper to say that we'd look after Lydia."
"But she Lily's." Ben said curiously.
"Aunty Lily and Uncle Tom said that Daddy and I could look after her." This time April, with her usual stammering asked why and I handed it over to Hawkeye.
"Because, Aunty Lily and Uncle Tom couldn't look after Lydia when she was born. Aunty Lily was very sick, so they said that they want us to be Lydia's Mummy and Daddy instead." Hawkeye fabricated.
"Th-th-that n-n-nice." April said.
"Yep, sure it is Angel-face, and just because there's a new baby, it doesn't mean that I love you any less."
"Moe?" Jess asked, it meant more.
"Yes Baby, I love you all more!" I smiled, hugging Jess closely. I then hugged all my kids, babying them and spoiling them. It still hurt that Adam had died, but I had my 'Little One' Lydia, whom I loved very much, and was able to care for her as I would for Adam.
It was surprising how quickly things went after that, weeks flew by summer was over and it was getting into November. The twins were 3½ and more cheeky than ever, April was just 2½ and looking more and more like Nora every day, Jess was 17 months, and just about running, so we put gates at the top and bottom of the stairs to prevent accidents with her and Lydia, who was already able to shuffle around on her belly.
"Baby, it's not the end of the world!" I said, listening to a thoroughly incoherent Jess wail as I tried to soothe her.
"Mummy. . ." Jess's normally clear voice was lost in a wave of sobs and babbling.
"Okay you three, what's going on?" I came upstairs to the playroom, leaving a sobbing Jess with Dad. She and Daniel had a very tight bond, and she'd often prefer his company to that of her parents.
"Jess hit me!" Ben said indignant, his 3-year-old pride dinted by the fact that a smaller sister had hit him.
"Why?" April was minding her business in the corner, and I knew it was between Hawkeye's and my children.
"We want Bluey!" Felicity said. "So we take him." She concluded with an air of self-righteousness.
"You know that Bluey is Jess's special teddy, just like Otis is yours, and Harold is Ben's."
"T-T-Toby!" April squeaked suddenly.
"And Toby belongs to April. If you want to play with Bluey you have to ask her."
"We did!" Ben said.
"And what did she say?"
"No!"
"Well then Benjamin Franklin, if she said no, it meant no." I often called him Benjamin Franklin, even though his name was Benjamin Jack. There was no particular reason, just a bad habit I guess.
"But I said please and all!" Ben said.
"We did!" Felicity echoed.
"But she said no! You tried to take it from her then didn't you?"
"It was Lyssa's idea." Ben sulked.
"I don't care if it WAS Felicity's idea, you shouldn't have tried to take Bluey." Bluey was a particular favourite belonging to Jess.
"But then she hit!" Ben stubbed at the carpet with his toes.
"And you hit her didn't you?" Ben nodded. "Well, I'm very ashamed of you, hitting your sister like that, I want you to go sit in your room until I've finished cooking dinner!"
"Mummy!" Ben protested.
"Benjamin Franklin Pierce, go!" I ordered, rasing my voice for probably the first time ever. He stomped out, and went into the pale green room where he slept.
"Now, as for you Felicity, if you told Ben to take Bluey, you should have known better! You can go and sit in your bedroom too! Don't argue missy, get!"
"But I do nothing!" She protested.
"Did you tell Ben to take Bluey?" Her face reddened and she nodded. "Well, then go! Felicity, I'm waiting." She stood defiantly, refusing to go. "Felicity Margaret, I'm going to count to five and if you're not in your room, you'll be in a lot of trouble. One . . . Two . . .Three . . . Four . . ." Felicity still stood there, arms crossed. "Five! Let's go missy!" I picked her up and none too ceremoniously put her in her room. "Now you can just stay there until I've finished cooking dinner." I closed the door behind me, returning to April who was still happily playing at tea party.
"I-I-I very sorry Mummy, I b-b-bad." When talking in full sentences, April only stuttered on the first and last word, leaving us hoping that she'd outgrow it.
"No Angel, you weren't bad, you were good today. Would you like to play with Lyddie downstairs?" I smiled at the very enthusiastic answer. "Okay, let's go." Lydia had been in the playpen downstairs, and I knew it would be pretty safe to leave the 5mo infant with her loving older sister.
"Goodness, what a happy picture!" Hawkeye said sarcastically. I'd given the kids dinner early, as Hawkeye and I were having a night out. Ben and Felicity ate in sullen silence, April poked at her meal with distaste, Jess was still miffed about the bear-napping, and Lydia rather grumpily tried to rid herself of colic while I rubbed her belly.
"We have two misbehaving, and confined to their quarters twins, Felicity's in there until bedtime too, for resisting arrest shall we say. April just doesn't want to eat, Jess is upset about the injustice she underwent, and Lyddie has colic, she drank too fast." I explained.
"I'll see what I can do for April." Hawkeye sat down with her, while I kept rubbing Lydia's sore, bloated belly. A few minutes later, he'd coaxed her to eat, made Jess laugh and helped me clean up the milky vomit that Lydia brought up on my front.
"Thankyou honey, I couldn't manage without you." I smiled as he fixed my hair.
"I know you couldn't, but I couldn't manage without you." He admitted, kissing me behind my ear. I turned around and locked lips with him. However I pulled back before it got too heated.
"Save something for later." I smiled, kissing him one last time. We went into town and had a really nice child-free evening. Don't get me wrong, we loved our children, adopted or otherwise, but we valued the very special 'couple' time that we so rarely got. Later we went for a drive, Hawkeye pulling up in one of the hottest make-out points in town, but as it was a weeknight, it was empty except for another car several feet away.
"Hawkeye, what'd you bring me here for?" I asked, as he 'yawned' and casually put an arm around my shoulder. I leaned into his embrace, enjoying the unspoken teen role-play.
"What? Is there something wrong, would you prefer the backseat?"" Hawkeye asked with a devilish smile.
"No, I like it up front with you." We laughed at the over-used joke. "And as much as I love the whole irresponsible teen act we're playing at, there is one bit of irresponsibility I want nothing to do with. I don't want to get pregnant just yet Hawk." I had recovered from Adam's death and was not ruling out the idea of more, in a few years time.
"I stopped at the drugstore on my way back, don't worry." He replied, "Now shall we climb in back?" This was something he'd done many a time, but a first for me, and I nearly got injured in the process. Much laughing later, I fell over the seat, landing heavily on Hawkeye.
"Someone's feeling aggressive tonight aren't they?" Hawkeye laughed. I pushed myself into a sitting position and studied the bruise on my thigh where I had banged it on the seat on the way over.
"Ow." I muttered, rubbing it ruefully. Hawkeye laughed again, running a hand over the bruise. "I love you so much Hawkeye." I said, leaning in to kiss him. He had intended the touch to be caring and sexual, and it passed both categories with flying colours.
"And baby I love you too. How'd you manage to make such a mess of getting into the back?"
"Hawkeye, I've never been in the backseat of a car in this sense before." I explained, shifting myself into a more comfortable position. Hawkeye took full advantage of that as it gave him access to the buttons on my dress.
"This little piggy went to market." Hawkeye recited the poem I'd say when playing with Lydia's toes as he undid each button. I laughed as Hawkeye's hands slid inside my clothes. I lay back, quite happy to be the submissive partner, and I let Hawkeye kiss and touch me wherever he wanted. Besides, I knew there'd be plenty of time later on to get my revenge.
"I'm just so glad you didn't let someone take you in the back of a car, not the way to do it." Hawkeye breathed.
"Mmm?" I replied a little sleepily. We were in the backseat still, a blanket over us.
"I'm just so glad you didn't let someone, even myself take you in the back of a car." He repeated. I sat up a bit, pushing him off me just a little.
"I'm glad too, but why do you say that?"
"Because it would have been far less special for both of us. You see, it was really something for me knowing that I was the only person to touch you that way."
"Yeah, I see your point. I thought you would be the only one too, but I didn't foresee a few things."
"Like?" Hawkeye asked.
"Like the POW camp, we all know what happened there. And Charles, how do you think April got into the world? And BJ, well if Margaret had been thirty seconds slower, it would've been too late to stop."
"So, tell me honestly, what were they like?" Hawkeye asked with a gleam in his eyes.
"Who?" I queried innocently, even thought I knew whom he meant full well.
""BJ, Charles, I want to know what they had that I didn't."
"Feeling inadequate are we?" Hawkeye merely responded with a murderous glare. "Okay, okay, the POW camp was horrible, I was the private comfort girl as such for the CO of the place. That still gives me nightmares, having to lie there, hearing his breath in my ear, and not being able to do a damned thing because I was in so much pain, and I'm not just talking about my shoulder."
"I'd kill him if I got half the chance! Now, do tell, what about my bunkmate who was able to tell so many wonderful dirty stories?"
"BJ, well, I'm not so sure he was the one telling the stories so much as hearing them." I smiled. "He knew precisely, exactly down to the finest detail what was the right way to touch me, or how to do something. I'm sure you'd been telling him a few secrets. Now as for Charles, well, he's very sweetly passionate, a little shy almost."
"Charles, shy?" Hawkeye found this a riot.
"Yes, very gentlemanly. Never did anything I felt uncomfortable with." I said, remembering days with such clarity that they seemed like they'd only been a matter of hours before.
"We'd better get back, Dad and Mrs O are going to start wondering where we are." Hawkeye said. I realised that he was right. Even though they both knew, and accepted that we were adults, they didn't like us coming back late, as it often disturbed them or the kids.
"Well, I guess you're right, but do you think they can wait a bit longer?" I asked, dragging Hawkeye back down.
"They can wait." Hawkeye replied, pushing my skirt up above my waist at the same time.
"Shoot, I dropped the keys!" Hawkeye and I bent down, groping blindly in the dark for the keys.
"That's NOT the keys!" I yelped a second later. Hawkeye laughed and removed his hand.
"Come on, come around the side, the laundry should be unlocked." We gave up on the keys, walking around and finding the laundry locked for once.
"Dad's room will be open, he always liked a breeze." I said taking Hawkeye's hand. We went back around to Daniel's room, I was right, the window was open.
"I'll get in and go unlock the door." I offered. I slipped in the window, and realised that Daniel's bed was empty. Shrugging I tiptoed out into the hall and unlocked the door from the inside.
"Shh!" Hawkeye put a finger to his lips, listening carefully. I listened too.
"Hawkeye and Annie are real late aren't they?" Mrs O's voice came from the living room.
"Don't worry Edna, let the kids have their fun." Daniel replied.
"I just sure hope they're okay. My Walter never was real streetwise." Hawkeye and I peeked in the door, to see Daniel and Mrs O snuggled on the sofa, extremely cosily.
"Hawkeye knows what he's doing, and Annie packs a punch when she wants." Daniel said, snuggling closer against his wife. He kissed her cheek and at that point Hawkeye and I made a quiet, hasty exit to our room.
"Give me a hand here, I'm going to move Lydia into the study." Hawkeye helped me move the crib. Jess was still in the nursery, but she'd soon have a room upstairs as all it needed was for the paint to dry and then Lydia would have her room. I knew what sharing a room was like, and I wanted our kids to have separate rooms, and as there was plenty of unfinished attic, it was possible providing I had no more than four other kids, and that was unlikely.
"Sweet dreams my Little One." I kissed her little face and returned to the main room.
"Now as for you Hawkeye . . ." I peeled off my dress, to discover my underwear was still in the backseat of the car. I crawled from the end of the bed up to Hawkeye, positioning myself carefully over him. He kissed me and pulled me down.
A few days later Mrs O was talking with a definite air of conspiracy to Colonel Potter. I knew what was going on, and had the same conspiring smugness my mother-in-law had.
"It's all set." She said hanging up the phone.
"Wonderful Mrs O!" I smiled. "You know how to talk to people."
"With a boy like my Walter, I learnt to approach him about anything." She replied. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but I figured with someone as shy as Radar, you'd have to know how to bring up delicate subjects.
"Well would you two ladies kindly tell me what's going on?" Daniel demanded. Hawkeye echoed his father.
"Just one gosh darn minute Daniel Julius Pierce! We ain't spilling no beans until we have our Princess's approval of this!" She caught my daughter as she ran through and whispered something to her. I knew she was only doing it to stretch things out and I decided to play along.
"Hold your horses Benjamin Franklin Pierce, nothing's going ahead until my Benny tells me what he thinks of it." I grabbed Ben as he passed and sat him on my knee. After receiving a very positive answer from him, and Felicity, Mrs O and I shared glances, we couldn't hold back much longer.
"Okay, this Christmas the nine of us are going west to Hannibal. The Potter's kids are elsewhere this year, and they want some company. Radar and his family will be there too, we'll get to meet Marcia and Monica." Identical twin girls had arrived in the O'Reilly home in late July and though Mrs O had gone over to see her family, none of the other Pierces had met the newest arrivals.
"How are we getting there?" Hawkeye asked validly. With four adults and five children from 5 to 42 months things would be interesting.
"We're driving." I replied. "Dad and Mrs O will go in Dad's car with the twins and Jess and we'll have April and Lydia in ours. It'll be a very long trip, but we'll be okay."
"How long is long?" Daniel asked with good reason.
"Portland to Hannibal non-stop is 2 days, leave Sunday morning, arrive Monday night, but we'll probably have to stretch it to three or four to allow for rest stops."
"Sounds great! When do we leave?" Hawkeye said.
"Well the Potters said as soon as we're ready, so Daniel, however long it takes for you and Hawkeye to arrange your patients, we can go."
"I can have them all rescheduled and transferred to Portland by Friday." Daniel said. Hawkeye agreed then.
"Well, Mrs O, anything we should know about?"
"No, the sooner I get to see my Walter, the better." She smiled.
"Great, we leave 8am Saturday morning and we're going to arrive say, 7pm Tuesday." I said cheerfully. And it was set, we were going west for Christmas.
June - November 1957
I took a deep breath and prepared to push the knife into my wrist. Suddenly I heard the unmistakeable cry of a newborn baby. Dropping the knife, my wrist unscathed, I dashed out to track the source of the noise, it seemed to be coming from the front porch.
"You hear that?" Hawkeye had left the phone hurriedly. I nodded, wondering what it was.
"I'll see, you take Jess before she wakes Dad." Daniel had been working late and he was still asleep, but Jess's calls were ringing through the whole house. So Hawkeye headed for the stairs, and I headed for the door.
I unlocked and opened the door, I looked down, a frilly baby basket was on the doorstep, with a brown paper bag, like one you'd receive from the grocery store.
"Oh my goodness, hello Little One, what brings you here?" I didn't worry about where the baby had come from yet, just that it was crying and needed comfort.
"Well, well, well Little One, you've got a note too. I wonder why your mummy picked this house." I had become automatically attached to the baby, knowing that it was only as old as my little Adam would have been.
"Adam?" Jess queried as Hawkeye brought her downstairs. I gave him a look silently berating him for bringing Jess, to which he gave me a helpless one, he later explained that Jess wasn't going to sit quietly in her playroom.
"No Baby, this isn't Adam, he's in Heaven, remember that. This is another baby."
"Who?" Jess asked as Hawkeye put her on the porch swing and picked up the note.
"Lily and Tom's, here listen." Hawkeye started to read the note to me.
"Dear Anne and Hawkeye. The baby you've found is our daughter Lydia Adrienne, she was born on June 12. Tom and I left Portland when I was 4months pregnant and we live in South Portland, but we cannot look after a baby properly. So I asked my friend to leave her on your doorstep. I know your baby is due soon, but please, take Lydia in and raise her. There are some clothes in the bag with her. Look after her as though she was your own, let her call you Mummy and Daddy. When we return to Portland in two weeks, we will sign the adoption papers. Please do not tell Mum, I want to do that myself. See you soon, all our love, Lily and Tom."
"Well Little One, how about we go inside and have some breakfast?" I carried her into the house, Hawkeye ushering Jess inside before picking up her basket and the paper bag of clothes.
"My, my, my. What have we here?" Daniel smiled as I sat down, my beautiful niece/daughter in my hands. She was asleep, her creamy skin the smooth colour of light coffee. Tom was Asian, and though I had not been told from where, I suspected his family was one that had fled South K to avoid the fighting.
"I just found out why Lily and Tom ran away. This is my niece Lydia." The baby opened her chocolate eyes and yawned, a silky ebony fuzz on her scalp.
"She's beautiful, may I?" I didn't want to let the baby go, but Daniel had already gently pried her from my hands, and checked her over.
"She's a perfectly healthy week-old girl, what's happening?" Daniel asked, laying her in her basket.
"We're keeping her." Hawkeye and I answered together, without even an eye conversation.
"Where is Lily?" Daniel asked, not having read the note.
"South Portland, done a great hiding job, she had us convinced she'd left Maine. But she's coming down soon to sort out an adoption." I replied. Upstairs, I heard the kids begin to wake.
"I'd better finish breakfast." I said, lifting the basket and carrying her into the kitchen, I remembered what I had been doing, chopping an apple for Jess. I looked for the knife, and found none, realising with a start where it was.
"Goodness Little One, you don't know how important you are. If you hadn't cried when you did, I would've done one of the stupidest things I've ever done." I said, retrieving and washing the knife. I resumed chopping.
"This is Lydia, she's your Aunt Lily's baby, but we're looking after her for a while." I explained to my four kids.
"Not a boy, I want a bro. Like Adam." Ben said.
"I know sweetheart, and maybe you might have that brother one day." I smiled. I noticed Hawkeye's eyes light up at that. "But maybe not for a couple of years." I stressed.
"How long she be here?" Felicity asked.
"We don't know." I replied. They were all taking the news very well. I guess it was the prospect of the baby not yet being a permanent fixture.
Lily came down two weeks later as she promised, she had not yet told Mum about her daughter. Tom was with her, and when they arrived in Portland the first thing Mum did was scold them both furiously.
"I can't believe you just ran away and eloped like that, whatever put such an irresponsible idea in your head?" She scolded, hugging first Lily and then a surprised Tom. I was watching from a distance but still able to hear every word, Mum not knowing I had come, and I cradled Lydia carefully.
"I'm sorry Mum, I really am." Lily said, spotting me, holding her baby, "Annie, is here, and she has the reason why I left." She beckoned to me, and taking a deep breath I approached Mum, Lily and Tom.
"Mum, I was four months pregnant when I left, this is my daughter Lydia Adrienne. . ." at this point she paused, thoughtfully "Pierce, Lydia Adrienne Pierce. I can't look after her, so Annie will adopt her. It's also perfect timing, as I know Annie was expecting." Lily said.
"What you left her on the doorstep?" Mum said. Lily's face reddened. "You did? I can't believe you Lillian Mary Beresford!" Mum was truly apoplectic now.
"Mum, settle down, you're making a huge scene. As parents it's Tom's and my responsibility to see that our daughter is brought up in the best way possible in a loving environment, we couldn't do that, we can barely support ourselves, so we're doing our best to see that she gets what she deserves." Lily argued.
"Tom, Lily, Mum, let's go, we'll go sit on the beach and have a talk." I said, shifting Lydia to the other arm so I could take Mum's arm and gently lead her out of the train station.
Mum calmed down after that, and understood Lily's point, and was very fond of her granddaughter. Lily and Tom were told about Adam and saw it as an even better reason for Hawkeye and I to raise the baby and much red tape and paperwork later, I was the official mother of my daughter Lydia Adrienne Pierce.
"Listen darlings, you know how I said Lydia was staying with us for a few weeks?" I received four pairs of eyes trained on my face. "Well Lydia is staying with us for always, she's your sister now."
"Why?" Felicity asked.
"Because Princess, Mummy and Daddy signed some paper to say that we'd look after Lydia."
"But she Lily's." Ben said curiously.
"Aunty Lily and Uncle Tom said that Daddy and I could look after her." This time April, with her usual stammering asked why and I handed it over to Hawkeye.
"Because, Aunty Lily and Uncle Tom couldn't look after Lydia when she was born. Aunty Lily was very sick, so they said that they want us to be Lydia's Mummy and Daddy instead." Hawkeye fabricated.
"Th-th-that n-n-nice." April said.
"Yep, sure it is Angel-face, and just because there's a new baby, it doesn't mean that I love you any less."
"Moe?" Jess asked, it meant more.
"Yes Baby, I love you all more!" I smiled, hugging Jess closely. I then hugged all my kids, babying them and spoiling them. It still hurt that Adam had died, but I had my 'Little One' Lydia, whom I loved very much, and was able to care for her as I would for Adam.
It was surprising how quickly things went after that, weeks flew by summer was over and it was getting into November. The twins were 3½ and more cheeky than ever, April was just 2½ and looking more and more like Nora every day, Jess was 17 months, and just about running, so we put gates at the top and bottom of the stairs to prevent accidents with her and Lydia, who was already able to shuffle around on her belly.
"Baby, it's not the end of the world!" I said, listening to a thoroughly incoherent Jess wail as I tried to soothe her.
"Mummy. . ." Jess's normally clear voice was lost in a wave of sobs and babbling.
"Okay you three, what's going on?" I came upstairs to the playroom, leaving a sobbing Jess with Dad. She and Daniel had a very tight bond, and she'd often prefer his company to that of her parents.
"Jess hit me!" Ben said indignant, his 3-year-old pride dinted by the fact that a smaller sister had hit him.
"Why?" April was minding her business in the corner, and I knew it was between Hawkeye's and my children.
"We want Bluey!" Felicity said. "So we take him." She concluded with an air of self-righteousness.
"You know that Bluey is Jess's special teddy, just like Otis is yours, and Harold is Ben's."
"T-T-Toby!" April squeaked suddenly.
"And Toby belongs to April. If you want to play with Bluey you have to ask her."
"We did!" Ben said.
"And what did she say?"
"No!"
"Well then Benjamin Franklin, if she said no, it meant no." I often called him Benjamin Franklin, even though his name was Benjamin Jack. There was no particular reason, just a bad habit I guess.
"But I said please and all!" Ben said.
"We did!" Felicity echoed.
"But she said no! You tried to take it from her then didn't you?"
"It was Lyssa's idea." Ben sulked.
"I don't care if it WAS Felicity's idea, you shouldn't have tried to take Bluey." Bluey was a particular favourite belonging to Jess.
"But then she hit!" Ben stubbed at the carpet with his toes.
"And you hit her didn't you?" Ben nodded. "Well, I'm very ashamed of you, hitting your sister like that, I want you to go sit in your room until I've finished cooking dinner!"
"Mummy!" Ben protested.
"Benjamin Franklin Pierce, go!" I ordered, rasing my voice for probably the first time ever. He stomped out, and went into the pale green room where he slept.
"Now, as for you Felicity, if you told Ben to take Bluey, you should have known better! You can go and sit in your bedroom too! Don't argue missy, get!"
"But I do nothing!" She protested.
"Did you tell Ben to take Bluey?" Her face reddened and she nodded. "Well, then go! Felicity, I'm waiting." She stood defiantly, refusing to go. "Felicity Margaret, I'm going to count to five and if you're not in your room, you'll be in a lot of trouble. One . . . Two . . .Three . . . Four . . ." Felicity still stood there, arms crossed. "Five! Let's go missy!" I picked her up and none too ceremoniously put her in her room. "Now you can just stay there until I've finished cooking dinner." I closed the door behind me, returning to April who was still happily playing at tea party.
"I-I-I very sorry Mummy, I b-b-bad." When talking in full sentences, April only stuttered on the first and last word, leaving us hoping that she'd outgrow it.
"No Angel, you weren't bad, you were good today. Would you like to play with Lyddie downstairs?" I smiled at the very enthusiastic answer. "Okay, let's go." Lydia had been in the playpen downstairs, and I knew it would be pretty safe to leave the 5mo infant with her loving older sister.
"Goodness, what a happy picture!" Hawkeye said sarcastically. I'd given the kids dinner early, as Hawkeye and I were having a night out. Ben and Felicity ate in sullen silence, April poked at her meal with distaste, Jess was still miffed about the bear-napping, and Lydia rather grumpily tried to rid herself of colic while I rubbed her belly.
"We have two misbehaving, and confined to their quarters twins, Felicity's in there until bedtime too, for resisting arrest shall we say. April just doesn't want to eat, Jess is upset about the injustice she underwent, and Lyddie has colic, she drank too fast." I explained.
"I'll see what I can do for April." Hawkeye sat down with her, while I kept rubbing Lydia's sore, bloated belly. A few minutes later, he'd coaxed her to eat, made Jess laugh and helped me clean up the milky vomit that Lydia brought up on my front.
"Thankyou honey, I couldn't manage without you." I smiled as he fixed my hair.
"I know you couldn't, but I couldn't manage without you." He admitted, kissing me behind my ear. I turned around and locked lips with him. However I pulled back before it got too heated.
"Save something for later." I smiled, kissing him one last time. We went into town and had a really nice child-free evening. Don't get me wrong, we loved our children, adopted or otherwise, but we valued the very special 'couple' time that we so rarely got. Later we went for a drive, Hawkeye pulling up in one of the hottest make-out points in town, but as it was a weeknight, it was empty except for another car several feet away.
"Hawkeye, what'd you bring me here for?" I asked, as he 'yawned' and casually put an arm around my shoulder. I leaned into his embrace, enjoying the unspoken teen role-play.
"What? Is there something wrong, would you prefer the backseat?"" Hawkeye asked with a devilish smile.
"No, I like it up front with you." We laughed at the over-used joke. "And as much as I love the whole irresponsible teen act we're playing at, there is one bit of irresponsibility I want nothing to do with. I don't want to get pregnant just yet Hawk." I had recovered from Adam's death and was not ruling out the idea of more, in a few years time.
"I stopped at the drugstore on my way back, don't worry." He replied, "Now shall we climb in back?" This was something he'd done many a time, but a first for me, and I nearly got injured in the process. Much laughing later, I fell over the seat, landing heavily on Hawkeye.
"Someone's feeling aggressive tonight aren't they?" Hawkeye laughed. I pushed myself into a sitting position and studied the bruise on my thigh where I had banged it on the seat on the way over.
"Ow." I muttered, rubbing it ruefully. Hawkeye laughed again, running a hand over the bruise. "I love you so much Hawkeye." I said, leaning in to kiss him. He had intended the touch to be caring and sexual, and it passed both categories with flying colours.
"And baby I love you too. How'd you manage to make such a mess of getting into the back?"
"Hawkeye, I've never been in the backseat of a car in this sense before." I explained, shifting myself into a more comfortable position. Hawkeye took full advantage of that as it gave him access to the buttons on my dress.
"This little piggy went to market." Hawkeye recited the poem I'd say when playing with Lydia's toes as he undid each button. I laughed as Hawkeye's hands slid inside my clothes. I lay back, quite happy to be the submissive partner, and I let Hawkeye kiss and touch me wherever he wanted. Besides, I knew there'd be plenty of time later on to get my revenge.
"I'm just so glad you didn't let someone take you in the back of a car, not the way to do it." Hawkeye breathed.
"Mmm?" I replied a little sleepily. We were in the backseat still, a blanket over us.
"I'm just so glad you didn't let someone, even myself take you in the back of a car." He repeated. I sat up a bit, pushing him off me just a little.
"I'm glad too, but why do you say that?"
"Because it would have been far less special for both of us. You see, it was really something for me knowing that I was the only person to touch you that way."
"Yeah, I see your point. I thought you would be the only one too, but I didn't foresee a few things."
"Like?" Hawkeye asked.
"Like the POW camp, we all know what happened there. And Charles, how do you think April got into the world? And BJ, well if Margaret had been thirty seconds slower, it would've been too late to stop."
"So, tell me honestly, what were they like?" Hawkeye asked with a gleam in his eyes.
"Who?" I queried innocently, even thought I knew whom he meant full well.
""BJ, Charles, I want to know what they had that I didn't."
"Feeling inadequate are we?" Hawkeye merely responded with a murderous glare. "Okay, okay, the POW camp was horrible, I was the private comfort girl as such for the CO of the place. That still gives me nightmares, having to lie there, hearing his breath in my ear, and not being able to do a damned thing because I was in so much pain, and I'm not just talking about my shoulder."
"I'd kill him if I got half the chance! Now, do tell, what about my bunkmate who was able to tell so many wonderful dirty stories?"
"BJ, well, I'm not so sure he was the one telling the stories so much as hearing them." I smiled. "He knew precisely, exactly down to the finest detail what was the right way to touch me, or how to do something. I'm sure you'd been telling him a few secrets. Now as for Charles, well, he's very sweetly passionate, a little shy almost."
"Charles, shy?" Hawkeye found this a riot.
"Yes, very gentlemanly. Never did anything I felt uncomfortable with." I said, remembering days with such clarity that they seemed like they'd only been a matter of hours before.
"We'd better get back, Dad and Mrs O are going to start wondering where we are." Hawkeye said. I realised that he was right. Even though they both knew, and accepted that we were adults, they didn't like us coming back late, as it often disturbed them or the kids.
"Well, I guess you're right, but do you think they can wait a bit longer?" I asked, dragging Hawkeye back down.
"They can wait." Hawkeye replied, pushing my skirt up above my waist at the same time.
"Shoot, I dropped the keys!" Hawkeye and I bent down, groping blindly in the dark for the keys.
"That's NOT the keys!" I yelped a second later. Hawkeye laughed and removed his hand.
"Come on, come around the side, the laundry should be unlocked." We gave up on the keys, walking around and finding the laundry locked for once.
"Dad's room will be open, he always liked a breeze." I said taking Hawkeye's hand. We went back around to Daniel's room, I was right, the window was open.
"I'll get in and go unlock the door." I offered. I slipped in the window, and realised that Daniel's bed was empty. Shrugging I tiptoed out into the hall and unlocked the door from the inside.
"Shh!" Hawkeye put a finger to his lips, listening carefully. I listened too.
"Hawkeye and Annie are real late aren't they?" Mrs O's voice came from the living room.
"Don't worry Edna, let the kids have their fun." Daniel replied.
"I just sure hope they're okay. My Walter never was real streetwise." Hawkeye and I peeked in the door, to see Daniel and Mrs O snuggled on the sofa, extremely cosily.
"Hawkeye knows what he's doing, and Annie packs a punch when she wants." Daniel said, snuggling closer against his wife. He kissed her cheek and at that point Hawkeye and I made a quiet, hasty exit to our room.
"Give me a hand here, I'm going to move Lydia into the study." Hawkeye helped me move the crib. Jess was still in the nursery, but she'd soon have a room upstairs as all it needed was for the paint to dry and then Lydia would have her room. I knew what sharing a room was like, and I wanted our kids to have separate rooms, and as there was plenty of unfinished attic, it was possible providing I had no more than four other kids, and that was unlikely.
"Sweet dreams my Little One." I kissed her little face and returned to the main room.
"Now as for you Hawkeye . . ." I peeled off my dress, to discover my underwear was still in the backseat of the car. I crawled from the end of the bed up to Hawkeye, positioning myself carefully over him. He kissed me and pulled me down.
A few days later Mrs O was talking with a definite air of conspiracy to Colonel Potter. I knew what was going on, and had the same conspiring smugness my mother-in-law had.
"It's all set." She said hanging up the phone.
"Wonderful Mrs O!" I smiled. "You know how to talk to people."
"With a boy like my Walter, I learnt to approach him about anything." She replied. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but I figured with someone as shy as Radar, you'd have to know how to bring up delicate subjects.
"Well would you two ladies kindly tell me what's going on?" Daniel demanded. Hawkeye echoed his father.
"Just one gosh darn minute Daniel Julius Pierce! We ain't spilling no beans until we have our Princess's approval of this!" She caught my daughter as she ran through and whispered something to her. I knew she was only doing it to stretch things out and I decided to play along.
"Hold your horses Benjamin Franklin Pierce, nothing's going ahead until my Benny tells me what he thinks of it." I grabbed Ben as he passed and sat him on my knee. After receiving a very positive answer from him, and Felicity, Mrs O and I shared glances, we couldn't hold back much longer.
"Okay, this Christmas the nine of us are going west to Hannibal. The Potter's kids are elsewhere this year, and they want some company. Radar and his family will be there too, we'll get to meet Marcia and Monica." Identical twin girls had arrived in the O'Reilly home in late July and though Mrs O had gone over to see her family, none of the other Pierces had met the newest arrivals.
"How are we getting there?" Hawkeye asked validly. With four adults and five children from 5 to 42 months things would be interesting.
"We're driving." I replied. "Dad and Mrs O will go in Dad's car with the twins and Jess and we'll have April and Lydia in ours. It'll be a very long trip, but we'll be okay."
"How long is long?" Daniel asked with good reason.
"Portland to Hannibal non-stop is 2 days, leave Sunday morning, arrive Monday night, but we'll probably have to stretch it to three or four to allow for rest stops."
"Sounds great! When do we leave?" Hawkeye said.
"Well the Potters said as soon as we're ready, so Daniel, however long it takes for you and Hawkeye to arrange your patients, we can go."
"I can have them all rescheduled and transferred to Portland by Friday." Daniel said. Hawkeye agreed then.
"Well, Mrs O, anything we should know about?"
"No, the sooner I get to see my Walter, the better." She smiled.
"Great, we leave 8am Saturday morning and we're going to arrive say, 7pm Tuesday." I said cheerfully. And it was set, we were going west for Christmas.