Ben's choked sob caused Margaret to stop. She turned quickly in the direction of the doorway and caught site of her stunned children. The kitchen grew very quiet, save for Ben's sniffling and a last bubble popping in the pot of oatmeal. Glass glittered on the floor like crushed ice. Hawkeye was laying in a puddle of orange juice and hot coffee, blood streaming down his face.

Margaret sat up and looked around. Then she scooted backwards against the cabinets, gathered her knees up and began rocking back and forth. She began to cry.

"Mommy!" Ben yelled, running across the floor towards her. He wrapped his arms around Margaret's neck but she just kept rocking.

"Ellie," Hawkeye said, through a mouthful of blood. But Ellie was now staring at Margaret, frowning.

"Ellie, call Grandpa Ben and tell him to come over here very quickly," Hawkeye said again, trying to stand up.

Ellie opened her mouth and shut it, then ran down the hall. Hawkeye ran a sleeve across his face and spat more blood out on the linoleum. Some of Margaret's hair was on the floor, too. Ben was still circling her like a hawk.

"Ben, go get a washcloth," said Hawkeye.

Margaret began to bang her head against the cabinets. She then sank to the floor, pounding it with her fist. Unsteadily, Hawkeye rose to his feet. Blood pattered from his lip onto the overturned table. Ellie had come back, still standing in the doorway and not daring to enter the room.

'Granpa's coming."

Hawkeye nodded. A wave of nausea passed through him and everything blurred.

"Help me!"

Ellie crossed the threshold and grabbed him, pushing him into a chair. She held a kitchen towel to his face to try and stop the bleeding. Ben came in with the dripping washcloth and looked questioningly at Hawkeye.

"Wipe your mother's face, Benny."

Margaret's face was covered with Hawkeye's blood. He couldn't bear to see it because it was just too much like Korea. Ben crouched in front of his mother and patted her face hesitantly with the cloth.

Daniel Pierce walked into this strange scene. The kitchen table was completely upside down. Puddles of blood were everywhere. Ellie was in the corner, throwing up in the kitchen trash can. Her arms were covered with blood. Hawkeye was slumped in the only upright chair with blood dripping down his shirt. Margaret laid in the corner, curled up into a ball, shaking like a leaf. Ben dropped his washcloth and ran towards Daniel.

"What's happened here?" Daniel asked the very upset child.

"Momma tried to kill Daddy."

Ellie looked up from the trashcan. "That's not true," she said, wiping her mouth.

Daniel felt like crying, too. 'Come here, sweetie. Take Benny upstairs and let him pick out some toys. Then get dressed and you can watch all the TV you want at my house."

She gave him a grateful half-smile and guided Ben upstairs. When they were out of earshot, Daniel picked his way across the floor toward Margaret. She was still shaking and didn't acknowledge him at all.

"Son, you didn't hurt her…did you?"

"The opposite happened," Hawkeye sighed, getting up slowly and approaching the two of them.

"Let me talk to her for a second. Go on and get all that blood off you. You're scaring the kids to death."

When Hawkeye left, Daniel carefully pulled Margaret to a sitting position. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

"Honey, what happened here?"

Margaret just shook her head.

"Do you want to talk at all?" Daniel asked. His deep voice was very soothing.

Finally, Margaret looked up into his eyes. "He doesn't love me anymore," she choked.

"Now why would you say something like that?"

"He called me a drunk!"

Her words hung in the air. Daniel frowned. He knew about her problem and had witnessed a few of her mood swings. Margaret was coming down now. Her agitated breathing was slowing.

"I can promise you this," Daniel said, tilting her head up. "That boy loves you more than life itself. Do you realize how upset he gets when you leave town? Or how much he wrote about you in his letters from Korea?"

"I'll bet he said he hated me."

"No. He never said that. I know you guys didn't get along well in the beginning but I think he was always scheming to ask you out."

Margaret looked thoughtful, then she wiped her nose with the washcloth. "I hit him, Dad."

Daniel tightened his grip on her. "Well, these things happen," he said, looking around.

He heard the front door open and shut. There went Ben and Ellie, escaping the scene of the crime.

"Come on. I'm going to call Iris and she'll get you taken care of," Daniel said, pulling Margaret to her feet.

"Oh, my kitchen," she moaned as he led her away.

XXXXXX

Iris Todd was Daniel's kindly nurse. Her husband had recently passed away and she was nearing seventy. When the kids were born, it was Agnes who delivered them. She knew about the family's ups and downs and even adopted the Pierce kids as her grandchildren, even though she had nine of her own.

While Daniel stitched Hawkeye's lip back together, Iris helped Margaret pack a bag.

"You can stay with me for a while. It'll be like a vacation. We'll have cheesecake and play canasta…"

"What's Hawkeye going to do? Is he okay?" Margaret asked.

"I called my cleaning lady and she'll be over later to clean up. I told her you had a raccoon get loose in the kitchen," Iris said, ignoring Margaret's queries.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye was trying not to squirm as Daniel finished stitching him up.

"You said she had mood swings in Korea. Was she drinking so much then?"

"When she was with Frank…yeah. Towards the end she backed off a bit. I guess she realized about the same time I did that it wouldn't stop once we came back to the states."

Daniel snipped off the end of the thread. "So she cut back and you cut back right about the time…"

"When I realized I might be in love with her," Hawkeye said. "Dad, she cured me. Maybe it was stupid to think I could fix her as well."

"No, it's not stupid. I think liquor alters people's body chemistry. You have your sweet drunks and your mean drunks. Only after a bit you tend to stay one way or 'tother."

They heard the front door close. Hawkeye rushed to the window to watch Margaret and Iris pull away in an old DeSoto. Daniel put a hand on his son's slumped shoulder.

XXXX

Hawkeye slept for what seemed like years, thanks to a sedative. At seven that evening he woke with a start, confused by his surroundings. A picture of his grandfather loomed on the wall and an old black and white picture of his parents sat on the bedside table. The TV droned from down the hall. A door shut in the kitchen. He could hear the crackle of the woodstove and the patter of the cold rain on the windows. It was all very comforting, but the ache in his mouth roused him from under the covers.

Daniel Pierce's home was small but cozy. Ellie was on the couch, eating ice cream and half-heartedly watching "The Monkees".

"Where's your brother?" Hawkeye asked, sitting next to her and kissing the side of her head.

"He's in bed. Grandpa had an emergency and had to go into the office," Ellie said.

"Uh-huh."

Ellie leaned against her father. They sat for awhile like that, looking at the screen but not really watching. Ellie's profile reminded him of Margaret and he had that nagging feeling that sometimes cropped up in his moments of self-doubt.

Would Margaret have been better off without him?

She had been destined to marry an Army mover-and-shaker. A real muscle man, not a skinny doctor in a bathrobe. Hers would have been a home of discipline, not a crazy place full of whoopee cushions, cartoons and loud burps followed by uproarious laughter. A place where you were careful to open that can of nuts just in case snakes popped out. There were rubber rats, funny hats, whiffle ball bats and bathtubs full of toys.

Margaret was stoic about the sea of nuttiness she navigated but sometimes Hawkeye swore he say a faraway look in her eyes. Like when Pickles the cat came downstairs wrapped like a mummy in Charmin or when Ellie tried out Margaret's new makeup on Ben, who afterwards resembled a mini truck stop hooker.

"Want some ice cream Dad?"

Ellie held the spoon to his face, derailing his train of thought.

"Thanks," he said, taking a bite.

"Is Mom gonna be alright?"

"Yes, she'll be fine," Hawkeye said, feeling a stabbing pain of guilt for his possible lie. "Tell you what, when all this is over I'll buy you that scuba suit you wanted."

Ellie smiled, but in her eyes there were many questions Hawkeye couldn't answer. She was a perceptive kid, who'd no doubt overheard her parents talk about BJ Hunnicutt's alcoholism and what it had done to his family. Could it happen to hers, too?

"Don't worry," Hawkeye said, answering the unspoken question. Then he was overcome by a wave of love for the sweet kid with Margaret's smile.

"Give me a hug and go to bed."

Ellie began to protest.

"You still have a fever. Why don't you grab some of Grandpa's old Life magazines and work on those?"

"Night Dad," she said, kissing his cheek.

"I love you, kid," Hawkeye said, watching Ellie wander down the hall.

XXXXX

"Are they going to take my children from me?"

Margaret was curled in Iris's guest bed, crying for her children. She missed them terribly. Iris sat on the side of the bed, trying to comfort the very distraught and confused woman.

"No, honey, no one's going to take your kids."

She sighed when Iris finally left the room. It troubled Margaret that she could barely remember what happened in the kitchen, only the shattered expressions on her children's faces. It wasn't like she'd never hit Hawkeye before but this time she'd tried to strangle him as well. But Hawkeye would never have hit her. She couldn't imagine him hitting anyone except Frank Burns.

Now he was at Daniel's house. Margaret desperately wanted to hear Ben's laughter, Ellie's records and feel Hawkeye's arms wrapped around her body.

There's too much at stake here. She knew it from the terror in his eyes when she leap at him. It was in Ellie's furious look at her after Hawkeye spat out blood.

"Oh God," she said to the ceiling, "What have I done?"