A/N: Yay for the internet FINALLY being up in my dorm room, so I can FINALLY update…now I never get offline, but whatever… shrugs

Okay, just to let you guys know, I'm not a scary, psycho-terrorist freak because I know how to make a bomb, I'm just a 5-ft tall obsessive, OCD, loser-freak girl who owns a copy of the book Fight Club, which is where I got all the info on bomb-making. It's there, both in the movie and the book, I swear! Watch it or read it if you don't believe me! And if you still think me to be an obsessive, OCD, loser-freak girl, blame my cousin who got me hooked on and obsessing over Fight Club (and bought me the book for my birthday).

And to further prove to you guys that I am in need of a life, I'm starting to write the chapter titles below my long, random, stupid author's notes, cause I've actually been thinking of good ones for a change and fore reasons passing understanding, they're not showing up on the chapter list even though I type them in everywhere humanly possible. (they also make good dividers between my author's note and the actual story cause nothing else seems to work for me.)

Okay, that's it for now, hope you guys like it! And review please! Reviews are what I live for! I heart reviews!

Wedding Bells and Bomb Shells

Chapter 24 – The Morning After Part One

Hawkeye sat morosely in the room where just the day before he had been so happy. He had danced with his wife, laughed with his best friend, all unknowing of the doom that would befall them mere hours later.

The police had come and almost immediately found shards of glass around the scene of the accident. They found large ones that smelled strongly of gasoline and orange juice. They called in the bomb squad, who predicted that gasoline had been mixed with orange juice, lit on fire and tossed through the open window where it exploded. The small size of the bomb explained why the explosion was pretty much confined to the dance area. Their next step was to hire professional excavators to dig though the rubble from the caved-in walls to look for survivors. Hawkeye had already been over there. They told him that it looked good, but that they had a window of 48 hours in which to find Margaret and BJ. If they hadn't found them by the end of the 48 hours, they would most likely be dead, either from malnutrition or suffocation. Hawkeye had been hoping to help, but was told in no uncertain terms that he would be more getting in their way than anything and asked to leave the scene of the accident. He had retreated to the other side of the room, back to the table where he had sat the day before, eating with his wedding party, the rest of his friends not far away, having the time of his life.

The rest of his friends took it in shifts to keep vigil with Hawkeye, who was the only one of them to stay the entire day. Hawkeye stayed because he wanted to be on the scene when BJ and Margaret were. The women stayed at the Hunnicut house where they habitually grouped, more for moral support than anything. When the Ritz Carlton had been evacuated, the few guests, who hadn't hopped the next plane in fright, had all been given rooms at a nearby hotel, but mostly, the gang grouped at the Hunnicut house, where the men went when they weren't at the ballroom and the women stayed to cook for the children, sending food to the ballroom for the men and consoling Peg, who was quite distraught with worry over her husband. She didn't show it much for fear of worrying her daughter, but when Erin went to bed was another story…

Hawkeye shoved the hardly touched plate of food that the women had sent out from in front of him. On second thought, he threw it into a nearby trashcan, not wanting to get yelled at by one of his friends when they discovered he wasn't eating. He hadn't eaten since his wedding and the constant nagging to eat was driving him crazy, but he was too worried to eat. Colonel Potter was the worst offender in the 'nagging him to eat' category. He and Father Mulcahy had officially taken on the job of food transporters and they usually stayed for a few hours after delivering the meal. Father Mulcahy had been mostly silent, instead choosing to pray, which only served to be a constant reminder for Hawkeye of what the good father was praying for. Colonel Potter had gone back and forth between nagging Hawkeye to eat and trying to get him to laugh over some stupid memory back from Korea, or on something one of the kids had done back at the house. It seemed somewhat wrong to Hawkeye to laugh here, so the Colonel's attempts had more annoyed Hawkeye than anything and he was glad when Colonel Potter and Father Mulcahy finally left. He was quite fond of the both of him and he appreciated their attempts to make him feel better, but none of that was what Hawkeye needed right now. He needed his wife and best friend back.

Klinger and Radar had left a few hours ago. Like Hawkeye, they had left the ballroom only to change out of their tuxes, but had been there from then on. Unlike Hawkeye, they had left, unable to survive longer than 24 hours without sleep. Hawkeye drew on his past in Korea, trying to survive for sometimes weeks at a time without sleep. They all had done it, but though he had been the one to complain most, Hawkeye seemed to be the only one who remembered how to do it.

Charles and Trapper were there now, but they had wandered off together soon after arrival, both claiming they were too anxious to sit for too long. They were off looking for clues, trying to figure out who had set the bomb, for this was the one thing that baffled the police and they still had no suspects, but Hawkeye seriously doubted that his friends would be able to find anything that the police had overlooked and had said that much to them when they invited him to join them, to which they had confessed that they were doing this more to keep their minds occupied than anything. As for Hawkeye, he was too miserable to do anything other than sit down and think and feel sorry for himself and he knew himself well enough to know that no amount of anything, even booze would be able to distract him from his worries. For he found he didn't really care whether whoever had set the bomb was caught or not. They could go free for all he cared, as long as Margaret and BJ were all right. If they weren't…well, that was another story.

Movement near the doorway caught Hawkeye's eye and he turned his head sharply to find out what it was. Frank Burns hovered near the doorway. He stood there for a moment, almost as if debating whether or not to enter the room. Apparently, he decided against it, for he walked towards the room across the hall. Frank was the only other guest who stayed after the explosion, other than the old 4077th gang, Daniel Pierce, Olivia Houlihan, and Lorraine Anderson, everyone else had cleared out the second after the explosion. Frank was also the only other person who had stayed at the ballroom as long as Hawkeye, though what he was doing or why he was even there was unclear to everyone; he hadn't spoken to anyone either, though Hawkeye found he didn't care about that either.

As for Frank's daughter, Stephanie, she had gone back to the Hunnicut's with everyone else. She had been elected baby-sitter again to keep the children out from underfoot as their mothers and all the other females in the house went on huge cooking and baking sprees to keep their minds off everything. The kids had holed up in Erin's room, seeking reassurance in each other and in Stephanie when the women were busy that the 'big boom' wouldn't happen again.

Erin, when she wasn't sobbing that she wanted her daddy, was sullen and silent. She sat by day by the window in her room, which looked out into the front yard, hoping against hope that her daddy would magically reappear and she would see him coming up the walk. Obviously, he hadn't and every night when she was told to go to the bed, she took up her sobbing once more. Nothing could distract her from this, not even playing with her new friends, Becky and Cathy McIntyre, whom she still played with, never losing sight of the window, but without the enthusiasm she had had before. Strangely, Hawkeye was the only one who could make her feel better, not even Peg could achieve this, but Hawkeye very rarely had gone back to the house and even when he did, he found he could not find the words to make the little girl feel better. He wanted to reassure her, but he didn't want to tell her that there was a chance that her father might die, but he didn't want to lie to her either. This indecision was another reason that he avoided the house, not to mention the fact that he hated being in his best friend's house and his best friend not being there with him.

"Hawkeye?" said a voice tentatively, that startled Hawkeye out of his thoughts, making him jump

"Peg" Hawkeye identified the speaker, simultaneously trying to slow his heart rate down.

"Sorry, Hawkeye, didn't mean to scare you" Peg apologized, sitting down

"It's okay" he waved his hand "What are you doing here?"

"Oh I don't know…I just needed to get out of the house for a little while. I mean, I appreciate how everyone's trying to make me feel better with all the cooking and baking, but it kinda feels like I'm not being allowed to worry about BJ. Like, for instance, I wanted to come down here to find out what progress is being made, but the general consensus was that it would bother me too much, so…" a slightly guilty look stole across Peg's face "…I snuck out of my own house. I mean, I really appreciate the fact that they care and that they're trying to distract me from driving myself totally crazy with worry; I do, but it's almost like they're trying to distract me so much that I'm not allowed to worry at all"

Hawkeye smiled, his first genuine smile all day and took Peg's hand in his "Why do you think I'm here?"

Peg burst out laughing at this. The two sat in companionable silence for a long while, each thinking of the significant other they were currently missing; taking solace in the fact that the other knew exactly what they were going through. Margaret couldn't die. Hawkeye tried to assure himself. No, it wasn't possible, they had barely been married for six hours, they still had a lifetime together…but he, of all people, knew best of all how life could suddenly, tragically, and without warning, be cut short. The thought of this happening to his Margaret made Hawkeye feel like his innards were being removed piece by piece with a wrench. And every time he tried to convince himself that any minute now, the excavation crew would come and tell him that they found her, there was that dammed little voice again; that dammed little voice that ineloquently reminded him that he knew first-hand how death can take anyone and everyone. He had been one of the few who had been at the 4077th from the beginning. Him and Margaret. Even the thought of her made Hawkeye feel like his insides were getting twisted up, pretzel-style. God, he missed her. He wanted her back so badly. So badly it hurt; a constant stomachache. He'd give anything and everything to have his arms around her just one more time, and for the first time ever, Hawkeye finally fully understood what his father had gone through when his mother had died. The constant pain and heartache. He knew what that was like now; he was feeling it and he had barely been married to her for six hours. But then again, he had loved her for longer than either of them had realized, so that probably had something to do with it. Whatever it was, Hawkeye found he really didn't care. All he cared about was finding Margaret and soon. It had taken him an idiotic amount of time to realize fully that Margaret was the person he had been waiting for his entire life. He honestly wasn't sure what he'd do with himself if she died. He really wasn't sure if he'd be able to live without her.

"Hawkeye?" Peg said suddenly, for the second time in the course of an hour, snapping Hawkeye out of his thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah. Anything."

"I'm pregnant"

Hawkeye's face lit up "Peg! That's fantastic! That's the best bit of news I've heard all day! Congratulations! Bet Beej is thrilled!"

"That's the thing, Hawkeye" Peg said quietly "BJ doesn't know"

"Why?"

"I wanted to wait to tell him until things settled down a little. Until we could be alone together, so I could tell him in private; you know just the two of us, you understand, right, Hawkeye?"

"Yeah. Of course. Telling the husband that you're pregnant is a time for the two of you; not the two of you, your five-year old and his two friends sleeping in the next rooms plus other friends coming in from all over the country"

"Yeah, but now he might never know he's going to be a daddy again" Peg burst into tears

"Peg, don't talk like that" reprimanded Hawkeye "It's not like you to be so pessimistic"

"Can't help it" protested Peg, sounding more like her daughter than her normal self.

"Is that why you came down here? One of the reasons at least?"

"I needed to tell someone, I was driving myself crazy, remembering how I hadn't told him and he how was missing and how he didn't know and how every time this week he asked me if something was up and I said no! I lied to him, Hawkeye. He suspected something was up, and I denied it because I wanted to wait to tell him. Oh God, how I regret that now…If I had known…"

"You're going to drive yourself crazy with those "If I had known"'s"

"I noticed that, actually"

"It's not your fault, Peg" Hawkeye assured his best friend's wife "You had no way of knowing that anything like this was going to happen and you were in perfect right to want to wait until the two of you were alone. He's going to pull through and you're going to be able to tell him about the baby. Yes, I'll admit, there is a chance that something bad might happen, but if you give up all hope, then you'll just drive yourself crazy. Believe me I know"

Peg smiled through her tears and lay her hand on top of Hawkeye's "Don't worry, they'll find Margaret. And don't worry, BJ means too much to me for me to give up hope that he's still alive under there. I just, like you said, drove myself crazy with 'what if's, and I got scared trying to contemplate life without him. I can't lose him, Hawkeye and I won't. They can't have him, I'm not done with him, yet" Peg said firmly

Hawkeye laughed and lay his other hand on top of Peg's "That's the spirit."

"Margaret too. Even though I've only known her for two weeks, I feel like I've known her forever. I feel like I can tell her anything, she's really become my best friend. We still have so much more love to give them. So much more ahead of us that they can't be taken away from us." Peg looked into Hawkeye's eyes, a look of fierce determination and hope in her eyes. She smiled at him "Thanks Hawkeye. Talking to you really helped."

"Hey, you did most of the convincing, I just sat here and listened."

"Well, thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder and vent for a little while"

Hawkeye smiled back "No charge. Anytime"

"I feel almost ready to face the masses back at my house"

"How's Erin doing?"

Peg shook her head mournfully "She wants her daddy. She still doesn't understand why he's hasn't come back yet. She's too little to remember what it was like when he was in Korea, so she's got it in her head that because he's not back yet, she's never going to see him again." Peg shot Hawkeye a hard look that said 'You know you would know that if you came over every now and again'

"You know I can't be there right now, Peg" Hawkeye said gently "I can't…I can't face her. I don't want to lie to her; tell her everything's gonna be all right and then have it not. I can't lie to her. She trusts me, I worked hard for that and I don't want to screw that up. And I can't be there while everything's up in the air here. Not now."

Peg put a hand on Hawkeye's shoulder "Don't worry, Hawkeye, I understand. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have looked at you like that. I mean I understand you don't want to lie to Erin and I understand that you can't stand being in the house without BJ there, because I feel the same way, but…"

"Motherly instincts. Trying to protect and keep your baby from harm. Understandable"

Peg smiled "You know, I can understand how BJ always says he can tell you anything, you're just so understanding"

Hawkeye laughed "Most of the time. You just caught me on one of my good days"

"No, I mean it. You're a good friend to him. You always have been. You're always there right when he needs you most"

"And he's always there for me too, so it comes out even."

Peg stood up "Okay, I'm really going this time. See you later, Hawkeye"

"Be careful…" He trailed off and looked horrified.

"What?" Peg asked, concerned

"It's finally happened… I've become my Great-Aunt Bertha…"

Peg burst out laughing "I knew what you meant. And you don't need to worry, Hawkeye." She placed a hand on her abdomen and smiled down at it fondly "I'll do anything to protect this."