BJ, Peg, and Erin stared at the two of them with their mouths hanging wide
open in shock. "Married?!" said BJ, obviously delighted "Congratulations!"
he yelled. BJ jumped up immediately, and started to hug Hawkeye in
congratulations. The group spent the next 10 minutes hugging each other.
When they sat down again, BJ said "We gotta have a drink to celebrate.waiter.waiter.a bottle of your finest champagne.and another juice for the kid here."
"Hey, watch it with the fine champagne, Hunnicut. I'm the one paying for this" teased Hawkeye.
"You have a good job, Pierce, you can pay for it. I happen to know doctors make a lot of money." BJ teased right back.
Hawkeye opened his mouth to counter BJ's last statement when Peg quickly intervened "OK. Enough of this. Let's move on to other things. And the number one topic is; BJ told me during the war you two acted like you couldn't stand each other at times. How the heck did you end up together?"
"Especially considering last time I checked, Margaret was in the Army and was moving around from one US Army hospital to another shaping it up." BJ continued "Are you actually living in one place now?"
Margaret laughed "That was what I was doing, BJ. As you know, right after the war, after I helped end things at the 8063rd, I came back here thinking I was going to work in an Army hospital. One Army hospital. Then I was given the opportunity to help many Army hospitals, and you know I can't give up a chance to help out at places, so I did it. And I told everybody from the 4077th what I was doing. This, as I said, was right after the Korean War ended. So this was nearly three years ago. I'd been keeping in touch of everyone from the 4077th, as you know. Then about 1 year ago, I was assigned to a hospital in Maine, near Crabapple Cove, so I decided to look up Hawkeye while I was in the neighborhood.Hawkeye, you want to tell this part?"
Hawkeye grinned "Why not? She came to see me and we went out to dinner. This great place that sells lobster. Year round. All year this delicious lobster positively melts in your mouth. It was last March.or April.I don't remember which. the lobster I imagine was frozen but tasted as if it was fresh. It was the softest lobster you'll ever see! You didn't even need a lobster cracker to crack it! It."
"Enough with the lobster, Pierce." Margaret interrupted.
Hawkeye pouted and mock sniffled "But Margaret.I wanna talk about the lobster.I love lobster.I didn't get it for so long and I missed it so much and." Hawkeye stopped talking, mainly because Margaret had gotten up from her chair, which was on the other side of Hawkeye's and kissed Hawkeye passionately.
She ceased and sat back down amidst BJ and Peg's amused smirks and said extremely calmly "I knew that would shut up the lobster maniac, now Hawkeye, dear, if you would continue, after the lobsters, if you please.
Hawkeye straightened up in his chair, gave Margaret a mock salute and said in a corny Southern accent "Yes ma'am. Right away ma'am." He switched back to his normal voice "OK, now where did I leave off? Was it before the lobsters? Yes, I believe it wa.OK maybe it wasn't." he corrected at seeing the ghost of Margaret's 'Major Rules and Regulations Houlihan' glare. Hawkeye shuddered. That look had a lot of memories of times he really annoyed Margaret badly attached. "I never want to do something so bad to make Margaret have to use that look on me again." Hawkeye thought to himself. Immediately the look on Margaret's face softened as if she could read his thoughts.
"Um." said Peg awkwardly.
Hawkeye jumped back into his usual joking self as if nothing had happened "I thought about this before or after the lobster controversy for a long time and I came to the conclusion that I left off after the lobsters. Anyway, Margaret and I went out for dinner. We had a good time. no, a fantastic time. We both knew without telling the other we wanted to do this again so we did. Again. And again. And again. It started to get real serious. So, naturally, the next day, Margaret found out she was done with her rotation in Maine and going on to Georgia or somewhere. Of course, she didn't want to go. She asked if she could stay at the Army Hospital in Maine permanently, but there were no permanent nursing jobs open so she had to chose between me and the Army and she chose."
"Hawkeye!" Margaret blurted out, interrupting Hawkeye "I realized that I loved Hawkeye, while I only liked the Army, and even that's stretching it a little, so I resigned my commission. Hawkeye got me a job at the Crabapple Cove Walk-In Clinic where he works. So we were working together days and seeing each other nights. We started dating each other more seriously and then suddenly a week ago, Hawkeye popped the question and I said yes."
"I hate to interrupt but I have a quick bone to pick with Hawkeye." BJ interrupted irritably, which was odd for the usually happy-go lucky BJ "Oh, Hawkeye, my supposed best friend, are you and Margaret telling me that for the better part of the last year, you two have been dating and you didn't tell me your supposed best friend?"
"Yep. That's, in summary, basically what I'm telling you." Hawkeye said.
BJ glared "If I hadn't asked you down, would you have told me at all?"
Hawkeye stared at BJ. He had thought BJ was joking about all that 'supposed best friend stuff'. "Beej, are you kidding?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" spat BJ.
"Of course I would have told you even had I not come down here." said Hawkeye in disbelief. How could BJ think, even for a second, that they weren't best friends anymore? Hawkeye continued "At the beginning I didn't want to say anything for fear of jinxing something. As things progressed, I knew I wasn't gonna screw up anything but I wanted to find some impressive way to tell you, that I was dating the ONE. The woman of my life. The one you knew I was going to be with, even though I was too thick to believe you. I couldn't find it, so I kept putting off telling you, putting off that day for no reason at all telling myself 'I'll tell him tomorrow', until one day last week I found myself on one knee in my living room with Margaret and an engagement ring outstretched in my hand happened. Then I knew I had to tell you mainly because I was dying to tell you everything, but also because I hated you of all people not knowing the most important detail of my life. You mean way too much to me, BJ, for you to be left out in the cold like that. Do you really think I think that little of our friendship that I wouldn't ever tell you about one of the biggest relationships in my life? But I found a way to tell you. I would come down, invite Margaret along, like she'd just shown up unexpectedly, and tell you we were getting married. And you came up with the idea of surprising Peg and Erin and not tell them we were coming. Remember Beej? Coming down was my idea, not yours. You just didn't know the real reason behind why we were coming. Remember?"
BJ smiled "Yeah I remember"
Hawkeye continued "You and I went to hell and back together. You being there, helped me through the roughest period in my life. You mean more to me then any other best friend I have ever had.yes, even Trapper." He said, reading the thought in BJ's mind.
BJ burst out laughing unexpectedly "How did you do that? I was just thinking that same thought! You're turning into Radar or something!"
Hawkeye joined in the laughter, like he almost always did when BJ laughed, and vice versa. "Or something is more like it. I guess we've known each other so long, we know what the other is thinking."
"I guess we must be on the same wavelength." added BJ.
Peg groaned "Now there's a scary thought."
"Hey! I take offense!" joked BJ. "You're acting like that's a bad thing!"
"How did you guys come up with the surprise visit idea?" asked Peg "What happened? Because as far as I know, BJ, you were at a meeting in San Francisco about patient care or something."
BJ laughed "That's what you were supposed to think, darling. This whole thing actually started.well, early last week. Hawkeye called and, for a reason I just learned, wanted to come down. He said at the time he wanted to come down because he hadn't seen us in awhile or something (which is true, Hawk. You gotta come down more often). Anyway, I bought the story and came up with the idea of it being a surprise for Peg and Erin, so I told Hawk not to say anything and didn't say anything myself. Hawk said he had some vacation time coming for the week of the 18th of April, so I checked my calendar and agreed. But I still wanted my surprise. As the days went on, I didn't think I would get it unless I took a day out of work and didn't tell you about it. And then I was picked to go to the patient care meeting, which was scheduled for the 18th of April. I told you about the meeting, Peg, but then I thought about it and realized it was the perfect excuse to go and pick up Hawkeye for the surprise and no one would miss me. I would pick him up after the meeting or something. That morning, while you were making breakfast, Peg, Hawkeye called at about 8:00 AM our time, from Iowa. I told him about the plan and he told me two things 1) Margaret Houlihan had literally shown up on his doorstep back in Crabapple Cove and was it all right for her to tag along and 2) The plane had been forced to make an emergency landing in Iowa and couldn't leave Iowa until Thursday because of a bad weather pattern over Nevada (that was the conversation you heard, Erin)."
"Which was true, by the way" interrupted Hawkeye and BJ continued
"But now, since he wasn't coming till today, I had to think of a reason to come up here today. Then it came to me. I would tell you the meeting had been rescheduled to Thursday, but it wouldn't and I would go up to San Francisco on Monday for the meeting and then take a day off on Thursday to pick up Hawkeye and Margaret. It's a good thing you don't call me at work too often, Peg." finished BJ.
"And what did you guys do in Iowa?" asked Peg.
"We went to visit an old friend of ours from the 4077th, Radar O'Reilly." Hawkeye answered.
BJ grinned "How is ol' Radar anyway?"
"Doing great, mom's doing great, farm's doing great, and." Hawkeye grinned slyly" Radar's got a girlfriend. Her name's Patty. They met at the airport when Radar was coming back to the 4077th from R&R"
"Radar's got a girlfriend." BJ repeated in disbelief "Our Radar. The same guy who used to sleep with a teddy bear and used to stutter whenever a girl talked to him?"
"The very same." smiled Hawkeye fondly.
When they sat down again, BJ said "We gotta have a drink to celebrate.waiter.waiter.a bottle of your finest champagne.and another juice for the kid here."
"Hey, watch it with the fine champagne, Hunnicut. I'm the one paying for this" teased Hawkeye.
"You have a good job, Pierce, you can pay for it. I happen to know doctors make a lot of money." BJ teased right back.
Hawkeye opened his mouth to counter BJ's last statement when Peg quickly intervened "OK. Enough of this. Let's move on to other things. And the number one topic is; BJ told me during the war you two acted like you couldn't stand each other at times. How the heck did you end up together?"
"Especially considering last time I checked, Margaret was in the Army and was moving around from one US Army hospital to another shaping it up." BJ continued "Are you actually living in one place now?"
Margaret laughed "That was what I was doing, BJ. As you know, right after the war, after I helped end things at the 8063rd, I came back here thinking I was going to work in an Army hospital. One Army hospital. Then I was given the opportunity to help many Army hospitals, and you know I can't give up a chance to help out at places, so I did it. And I told everybody from the 4077th what I was doing. This, as I said, was right after the Korean War ended. So this was nearly three years ago. I'd been keeping in touch of everyone from the 4077th, as you know. Then about 1 year ago, I was assigned to a hospital in Maine, near Crabapple Cove, so I decided to look up Hawkeye while I was in the neighborhood.Hawkeye, you want to tell this part?"
Hawkeye grinned "Why not? She came to see me and we went out to dinner. This great place that sells lobster. Year round. All year this delicious lobster positively melts in your mouth. It was last March.or April.I don't remember which. the lobster I imagine was frozen but tasted as if it was fresh. It was the softest lobster you'll ever see! You didn't even need a lobster cracker to crack it! It."
"Enough with the lobster, Pierce." Margaret interrupted.
Hawkeye pouted and mock sniffled "But Margaret.I wanna talk about the lobster.I love lobster.I didn't get it for so long and I missed it so much and." Hawkeye stopped talking, mainly because Margaret had gotten up from her chair, which was on the other side of Hawkeye's and kissed Hawkeye passionately.
She ceased and sat back down amidst BJ and Peg's amused smirks and said extremely calmly "I knew that would shut up the lobster maniac, now Hawkeye, dear, if you would continue, after the lobsters, if you please.
Hawkeye straightened up in his chair, gave Margaret a mock salute and said in a corny Southern accent "Yes ma'am. Right away ma'am." He switched back to his normal voice "OK, now where did I leave off? Was it before the lobsters? Yes, I believe it wa.OK maybe it wasn't." he corrected at seeing the ghost of Margaret's 'Major Rules and Regulations Houlihan' glare. Hawkeye shuddered. That look had a lot of memories of times he really annoyed Margaret badly attached. "I never want to do something so bad to make Margaret have to use that look on me again." Hawkeye thought to himself. Immediately the look on Margaret's face softened as if she could read his thoughts.
"Um." said Peg awkwardly.
Hawkeye jumped back into his usual joking self as if nothing had happened "I thought about this before or after the lobster controversy for a long time and I came to the conclusion that I left off after the lobsters. Anyway, Margaret and I went out for dinner. We had a good time. no, a fantastic time. We both knew without telling the other we wanted to do this again so we did. Again. And again. And again. It started to get real serious. So, naturally, the next day, Margaret found out she was done with her rotation in Maine and going on to Georgia or somewhere. Of course, she didn't want to go. She asked if she could stay at the Army Hospital in Maine permanently, but there were no permanent nursing jobs open so she had to chose between me and the Army and she chose."
"Hawkeye!" Margaret blurted out, interrupting Hawkeye "I realized that I loved Hawkeye, while I only liked the Army, and even that's stretching it a little, so I resigned my commission. Hawkeye got me a job at the Crabapple Cove Walk-In Clinic where he works. So we were working together days and seeing each other nights. We started dating each other more seriously and then suddenly a week ago, Hawkeye popped the question and I said yes."
"I hate to interrupt but I have a quick bone to pick with Hawkeye." BJ interrupted irritably, which was odd for the usually happy-go lucky BJ "Oh, Hawkeye, my supposed best friend, are you and Margaret telling me that for the better part of the last year, you two have been dating and you didn't tell me your supposed best friend?"
"Yep. That's, in summary, basically what I'm telling you." Hawkeye said.
BJ glared "If I hadn't asked you down, would you have told me at all?"
Hawkeye stared at BJ. He had thought BJ was joking about all that 'supposed best friend stuff'. "Beej, are you kidding?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" spat BJ.
"Of course I would have told you even had I not come down here." said Hawkeye in disbelief. How could BJ think, even for a second, that they weren't best friends anymore? Hawkeye continued "At the beginning I didn't want to say anything for fear of jinxing something. As things progressed, I knew I wasn't gonna screw up anything but I wanted to find some impressive way to tell you, that I was dating the ONE. The woman of my life. The one you knew I was going to be with, even though I was too thick to believe you. I couldn't find it, so I kept putting off telling you, putting off that day for no reason at all telling myself 'I'll tell him tomorrow', until one day last week I found myself on one knee in my living room with Margaret and an engagement ring outstretched in my hand happened. Then I knew I had to tell you mainly because I was dying to tell you everything, but also because I hated you of all people not knowing the most important detail of my life. You mean way too much to me, BJ, for you to be left out in the cold like that. Do you really think I think that little of our friendship that I wouldn't ever tell you about one of the biggest relationships in my life? But I found a way to tell you. I would come down, invite Margaret along, like she'd just shown up unexpectedly, and tell you we were getting married. And you came up with the idea of surprising Peg and Erin and not tell them we were coming. Remember Beej? Coming down was my idea, not yours. You just didn't know the real reason behind why we were coming. Remember?"
BJ smiled "Yeah I remember"
Hawkeye continued "You and I went to hell and back together. You being there, helped me through the roughest period in my life. You mean more to me then any other best friend I have ever had.yes, even Trapper." He said, reading the thought in BJ's mind.
BJ burst out laughing unexpectedly "How did you do that? I was just thinking that same thought! You're turning into Radar or something!"
Hawkeye joined in the laughter, like he almost always did when BJ laughed, and vice versa. "Or something is more like it. I guess we've known each other so long, we know what the other is thinking."
"I guess we must be on the same wavelength." added BJ.
Peg groaned "Now there's a scary thought."
"Hey! I take offense!" joked BJ. "You're acting like that's a bad thing!"
"How did you guys come up with the surprise visit idea?" asked Peg "What happened? Because as far as I know, BJ, you were at a meeting in San Francisco about patient care or something."
BJ laughed "That's what you were supposed to think, darling. This whole thing actually started.well, early last week. Hawkeye called and, for a reason I just learned, wanted to come down. He said at the time he wanted to come down because he hadn't seen us in awhile or something (which is true, Hawk. You gotta come down more often). Anyway, I bought the story and came up with the idea of it being a surprise for Peg and Erin, so I told Hawk not to say anything and didn't say anything myself. Hawk said he had some vacation time coming for the week of the 18th of April, so I checked my calendar and agreed. But I still wanted my surprise. As the days went on, I didn't think I would get it unless I took a day out of work and didn't tell you about it. And then I was picked to go to the patient care meeting, which was scheduled for the 18th of April. I told you about the meeting, Peg, but then I thought about it and realized it was the perfect excuse to go and pick up Hawkeye for the surprise and no one would miss me. I would pick him up after the meeting or something. That morning, while you were making breakfast, Peg, Hawkeye called at about 8:00 AM our time, from Iowa. I told him about the plan and he told me two things 1) Margaret Houlihan had literally shown up on his doorstep back in Crabapple Cove and was it all right for her to tag along and 2) The plane had been forced to make an emergency landing in Iowa and couldn't leave Iowa until Thursday because of a bad weather pattern over Nevada (that was the conversation you heard, Erin)."
"Which was true, by the way" interrupted Hawkeye and BJ continued
"But now, since he wasn't coming till today, I had to think of a reason to come up here today. Then it came to me. I would tell you the meeting had been rescheduled to Thursday, but it wouldn't and I would go up to San Francisco on Monday for the meeting and then take a day off on Thursday to pick up Hawkeye and Margaret. It's a good thing you don't call me at work too often, Peg." finished BJ.
"And what did you guys do in Iowa?" asked Peg.
"We went to visit an old friend of ours from the 4077th, Radar O'Reilly." Hawkeye answered.
BJ grinned "How is ol' Radar anyway?"
"Doing great, mom's doing great, farm's doing great, and." Hawkeye grinned slyly" Radar's got a girlfriend. Her name's Patty. They met at the airport when Radar was coming back to the 4077th from R&R"
"Radar's got a girlfriend." BJ repeated in disbelief "Our Radar. The same guy who used to sleep with a teddy bear and used to stutter whenever a girl talked to him?"
"The very same." smiled Hawkeye fondly.