Chapter 4

Margaret felt like a stranger as she entered her own house. She wondered where Andy was as she walked up the stairs to put Emma in her crib. Tears were streaming down her face as she gently laid Emma down.

"You know it's funny. I never realized how much I loved your father until I realized that he'd moved on without me. I guess I always thought that somehow he would see that he needed me like I need him. I'll be ok though, I have the best part of him. I have you. I love you so much sweetheart" she whispered as she lovingly ran a finger down Emma's tiny pink cheek.

Hearing a noise she turned around. She jumped when she saw Andy standing silently in the doorway.

"Andy….I didn't know you were standing there…."

"I know" the cold look in his eyes was starting to make her heart beat faster.

"I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you…"she was trying to buy time. She didn't know how much he'd actually heard.

"You agreed to marry me, you live in my house" his voice was getting louder and harsher with each sentence, "I play daddy to your baby, and Now I hear you profess your love for another man!"

"Andy let's talk about this in another room" she said pleadingly "I don't want to wake Emma up."

"I don't give a Damn about what You want!" he said in a low menacing voice.

"You don't understand" she was trying to back away from him, but she only managed to back herself into a corner.

"You don't think I fucking understand! You used me you little whore and what's worse is that you tricked me into loving you!" he was screaming in her face, but there was now where she could go. For the first time in her life she felt totally helpless. She could hear Emma crying in the background. She tried to duck when she saw his fist coming at her face, but there wasn't enough time. She fell to the floor as blackness surrounded her.

All she felt was pain. She wanted to open her eyes, but she felt so sleepy. Slowly she sat up, fighting back a wave of nausea. At first she was confused, still trying to figure out why she was hurting and on the floor. A sob escaped her lips as the events of the previous night came flooding back to her. Moving as quickly as she could, she stood and hurriedly went to check on Emma. After making sure that Emma was ok, she did a quick scan of the house to make sure that Andy was gone. Noticing the blood on her dress, she quickly went to the bathroom to get cleaned up and to change clothes. As she started to scrub her face, she winced at her reflection. Her left eye was swollen completely shut. She was desperately trying to think of someone that she could call to give her a ride to the bus station. She didn't want to bring Trapper in the middle of this. She knew that he'd try to make Andy pay for what he'd done to her. It wasn't safe to call Sam. What if Andy tried to stop her? He might hurt Sam too. She hurried back into Emma's room to pack her things first. She hurriedly threw things in, not bothering with any sort of order. Emma had woken up by this time and Margaret swept her up and carried Emma on her hip as she ran to her own room to pack.

She froze as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. As quietly as she could, she reached over and softly pushed the bedroom door shut, cursing as she remembered that it didn't lock. The footsteps seemed to pause outside the door as if debating on which door to try. She looked down at Emma, who was smiling up at her oblivious to the danger they were in.

The footsteps moved on and Margaret released a breath that she hadn't even been aware of holding. Carrying Emma over to the window, she looked out, trying to determine if they could make it out safely that way. Being on the second story, it would be quite a jump. Determining that it was the only option, she carefully and slowly tried to open the window. Only it made a loud creaking noise! She froze, listening for the footsteps. They had stopped and were slowly coming back, listening for anymore sounds. Panicking she held Emma tightly and was about to jump when she heard him call her name.

"Margaret?"

Once again she stood frozen, not out of fear this time, but shock. Could it really be him?

"Hawkeye?" she called out timidly, still not believing her own ears.

"Margaret, where are you?" he called back, his footsteps quickening as he came towards her voice.

Running towards the door she quickly jerked it open and flung herself into Hawkeye's arms. Hawkeye felt like crying as he stood holding Margaret and her baby in his arms. When he'd read Margaret's note, he'd hoped that she missed him. But now, looking at the photos on the wall, standing in the house that she shared with another man, he saw the truth. She'd moved on. She had a baby with someone else. She had probably wanted to invite him to a wedding or something.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you. The door was open." He said into her hair, still not ready to release her and face reality.

"I'm just glad you're here" she whispered, her voice slightly muffled by his chest.

"But….why are you here?" Now that the shock and happiness had subsided, she had started to get a grasp of the situation. He was still married. He still didn't know about Emma, and she'd wager that he still hadn't seen her eye.

Not wanting to make a fool of himself and sound like a love sick puppy he hurriedly tried to explain. "Your letter sounded urgent, but you didn't leave your address and you weren't at the hotel. Since you were with Trapp, I assumed that you were in Boston. So I drove up here. Trapper wasn't at home, but his wife gave me your address. I didn't.."

"Wait a minute! Slow down" she said interrupting him "What letter?"

"The one you left in my house! By the way, how did you get in my house?" he asked as he pulled back to look at her. "What the hell happened to your eye?"

"It doesn't matter, I have to finish packing" she replied, pulling away from him and going back into her room. Following her into the room, he grabbed her by the shoulders spinning her around to face him.

"You're at least going to leave him aren't you?" she could hear the concern in his voice, but that just made her angrier. Why was he even here? He should be at home with his wife!

"What the hell do you think?" she angrily yelled gesturing towards the suitcases. She immediately regretted her outburst when she saw the hurt look in his eyes. After all, it wasn't his fault. He couldn't have found her after the war, even if he'd tried. She'd known where he'd be, but she never even called. How could she blame him for moving own with his life? They'd never been together anyway!

"I'm sorry Hawk….it's just…"

"It's ok; I know you're going through a lot right now. Let me hold her, that way you can pack faster."

"Her name is Emma" she said as the handed Emma to her father.

"Do you need for me to pack her things?"

"It's already done"

"I'll go ahead and put them in the car"

After putting Emma's things in his car, he looked down at the child. She was beautiful! She had shiny black hair, but her eyes looked exactly like Margaret's.

"You're a beautiful little girl, you know that?" he said while tickling her tiny neck with one finger. Emma just giggled in response.

Margaret turned to look at Hawkeye as he entered the room with Emma. It was a heartbreaking sight. She could never tell him now. That could break up his marriage.

"Do you think he'll fight you for custody?"

Margaret looked over at Hawkeye who was now sitting on the floor playing with Emma.

"He won't try to take her"

"How do you know?"

"All finished" she said, closing the last suitcase and dodging his question.

Handing Emma back to Margaret, Hawkeye picked up the last two suitcases to take them to the car. While Hawkeye was putting her suitcases into the trunk, Margaret was still debating on where to go.

Noticing that she had a faraway look in her eyes, and still hadn't gotten in the car, he went over to her and pulled her back into his arms.

"It'll be ok," he told her while gently placing a kiss on her forehead, "You and Emma can stay with me for as long as you need to."

"Are you crazy? I can't live with you and your wife!" she yelled, jerking away from him. He was worse than Frank! "Just take me to the bus station!"

"What are you talking about? Do you see a wedding ring?" he held up his left hand for emphasis.

"Don't you dare lie to me Pierce! I saw the invitations! And to think, I trusted you!"

"Oh, you want to talk about trust! How the hell did you see the invitations? How did you leave the note on my table?"

"The door was open! I thought you were at home!"

"You're lying, and you know what? I don't even care! We haven't even seen each other in over a year! I'm not arguing with you! You want to go to the bus station? That's fine with me, but let me ask you one thing. You did see the invitations; did you ever stop to wonder why they were on the table and not in the mail?

"You're didn't get married?" she felt like an idiot now. Why hadn't she thought about that?

"I was engaged. About a month before the wedding, I backed out. I couldn't marry her. I'd given my heart to you years ago, even if I didn't realize it at the time. I love you Margaret." At that point he pulled her to him, kissing her passionately.

Giving in, her hands went up to his back, then tangling in his hair and pulling him down deeper into her mouth. Breathless they both pulled back.

"I love you so much Margaret" he said gently caressing her cheek. "I'm sorry, I know this is to soon for you, but I can't let you walk out of my life again without telling you how I feel" he whispered. Tears were streaming down her face

"Hawkeye….I lied to you" This wasn't what he was expecting to hear.

"Huh?"

"You're going to hate me, but you deserve the truth" At this point Hawkeye was becoming more worried by the minute.

"I was engaged too. But I knew that I loved you. That's one reason that I came to see you"

"And I love you so lets…"

"No, wait! Let me finish. I also came to tell you that I'd had your child." Unable to read the look on his face, she hurriedly went on. "I wanted to tell you, but after everything that happened in Korea, I wasn't sure if that was the best thing. I just wanted you to be happy" she pleaded grabbing his hands. "Please don't be mad at me, I love you more than anything, and I didn't want to force you into marriage because of a baby."

"Shhh" he whispered, silencing her with his finger on her lips "Just give me a minute to think" as he said this he pulled her to him slowly rocking her. He could feel her sobbing against him and his shirt was getting wet from her tears. He said nothing, but he kept running his fingers through her hair and rubbing her back in an effort to sooth her. He wanted to be mad. He'd missed the birth of his first and only child. He hadn't helped pick out her name. He didn't even know her full name. And what if he hadn't come today? His first born would've grown up calling someone else Daddy. He could feel Margaret's fingernails digging into his back. She was clinging to him as if she thought that he might turn around and walk away from her forever. He looked over her head to her child….their child, who was sitting in the car, looking at them curiously. He couldn't feel the anger that he wanted. All he could feel was happiness! Emma was his! Margaret had said that she loved him! There was only one option for him. Pulling back from Margaret, he pulled out a handkerchief from his top pocket and gently dabbed Margaret's tears away.

Holding her face in his hands, he leaned down and gently kissed her lips. Resting his forehead against hers he whispered "Let's go home now"

The End

A/N I'm a sucker for happy endings!