A/N: Wow! It feels like a long time since I've updated.
It was a normal night at our house. Elliot and Dad were watching Ed Sullivan, Mother was sewing and shaking her head about the music, and I was reading. Actually, I was pretending to read, because I was too nervous to see the page.
"M-M-M," I stuttered.
"Are you cold, dear?" Mother asked absently.
"No. Not cold at all." I flipped a page in my book and realized I was reading Dad's German dictionary.
"M-M-" Oh no, not this again, I thought. Snapping out of the stuttering, I asked quickly, "May I make an announcement?"
"As long as it doesn't last longer than the commercials," answered Elliot.
I stood up. "I...I...I'm..."
"Jaclyn, if you have something to say, please say it," Mother commanded.
"I'm pregnant."
The room fell dead silent, except for Ed Sullivan welcoming an Italian opera singer.
"What did you say?" Dad asked.
"I said that I'm pregnant."
There was quiet for three seconds.
"You aren't even married yet!" said Mother. She set down her sewing and stood up. "Jaclyn Waters, how dare you do anything like this?"
"And how do you know I'm not married?" I asked. "However much you wish you could, you haven't kept track of my life. Especially in Korea." I held my left hand out. "See those rings? I didn't lie--they ARE souvineers. Souvineers from the one person who I love."
Mother gave me the iciest glare you could imagine. It was even worse than the one that she gave me when I got home from Korea.
Dad's reaction was a little different.
"You got MARRIED!" he cried, and jumped up to hug me. "Jaclyn, I'm so happy! So who is the man?"
"Hawkeye Pierce," I told him. "Benjamin Franklin Pierce, but everyone calls him Hawkeye."
"And he's still at your unit?"
"Yeah." I sighed.
"Congratulations, Jac. Geez, where did this guy learn how to SING?" demanded Elliot.
"Well, I don't approve," said Mother.
"You aren't the one married to him," I said.
And this was the beginning of one of Mother's famous snits.