A/N: Oooh…I love cliffhangers, don't you? (starts laughing manically) Well, anyway, here's the next chapter, where all…(oh okay, I lied, most) of your questions will be answered...
Thanks for all the reviews! You guys are so awesome and helpful with your suggestions! I haven't got anything but positive remarks about the sequel, so that's in the works, though I'm not sure when cause I still have to finish this, cause I can't put up the sequel until I finish this of course, it'll spoil the ending! And I'm working on a few other stories too (no other MASH at the moment, sorry) , and I'm still working on the plot idea, it's no more than a wee plot bunny at the moment, but I shall work on it, figure out all the details, and I hope to have it up by…you know, I'm not going to put up a date, cause we all know how I am with posting and that kind of stuff, so we'll just go with soon.
And it was pointed out to me by laurydorythat my paragraphs are too long. I've gotta admit, I skim long paragraphs too, I just never think of that when I'm writing em. Sorry bout that, that's a downfall of mine. My mom tells me that too, but, hey, at least I'm not writing everything as one long paragraph anymore! I used to do that writing papers in school, drove my teachers nuts...I just never noticed it. I just love writing long rants! Anyway, thanks to laurydory for bringing that to my attention!
I love how none of my editing things aren't coming out lately... Especially paragraph indents. I just had to go through the editing section of uploading and do it there, so if it doesn't work, I'm sorry. Also if anyone knows of a good way to divide sections, or any of it, come to that, I'd really like to know, cause nothing seems to work for me, so if you'd let me know. I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
Anyway, enough of my inane babbling! Enjoy! And review! I live and breathe reviews. Okay, that was odd, I'm sorry...
Disclaimer: Must I? If I owned any part of MASH, I'd be rich and old. I'm neither.
-AEM
Hawkeye stood expressionless. Trapper and Charles exchanged another uneasy look.
"Hawk…" Trapper said tentatively after about ten minutes "You okay?"
Hawkeye blinked "Yeah. Great." He said tonelessly "Who is it?"
"Um….Maybe you should see it" Trapper glanced over at Charles again
The three men walked in silence over towards the remnants of the dance floor. They stopped at the side of a wall. The wall led into an alcove where the beverages had been.
Trapper turned to Hawkeye and put a hand on his shoulder "Hawk, you might wanna just wait here…They might not talk if you're there…"
"Okay" Hawkeye agreed so readily, that Trapper was stunned…not to mention worried. Hawkeye hadn't so much as spoken in the last few minutes since Trapper had told him about knowing the identity of the bomber, and then agreeing not to confront someone who had quite possibly killed either his wife or his best friend quite complacently, was unlike Hawkeye. Trapper had expected him to fly out in a rage at any minute, but no…he'd been cool and calm throughout this entire thing, if it had been Louise, he would have been digging though the rubble with his bare hands…But then again, Trapper supposed that this was a good thing. He'd rather deal with cool, calm Hawkeye, rather than in a rage Hawkeye.
Trapper and Charles left Hawkeye and continued into the alcove. "McIntyre…" Charles whispered "How did you…"
Trapper shushed him and wordlessly pointed to the person that was coming out of the shadows…
They looked from Trapper to Charles, with a horrified look
"Stop that" Trapper said casually "I told you I was going to bring someone back. You know Dr. Winchester. Tell him what you told me, okay?"
The newcomer nodded and took a deep breath "I've gotta get this off my chest, I can't live a second more if I don't…I didn't do it…"
Charles rolled his eyes and glared at Trapper, who had his arms crossed over his chest, a finger over his lips. He glanced at Charles as he began to glare and motioned with that finger towards the speaker, who was continuing
"…But I just as well did it. It was my idea. Not the bombing per se, but…You have to understand though, I didn't want to hurt anybody, neither of us did. Dr. Hunnicut was always nice to me, and his daughter is the one of the sweetest girls I have ever met, and possibly killing the bride was the furthest thing from either of our minds…I would rather die than hurt any of them…We didn't set out to hurt anyone, honest, I swear!"
The speaker had started talking faster with every word, desperate to explain, but soon smiled almost ruefully and flushed "Sorry. I just really needed to get that out, I really wanted to make sure you know that hurting anyone was not out intention. Our intention was…You have to admit it, you were mean…you always have been and…that's not right…He's gotten to accept your teasings and all that and that's not right. Who gave you the right to treat someone like that? To take advantage of the feelings that he had for her and use them for your own sick, twisted game to make him look like a fool. But he's gotten to accept the way you treat him and, again, that's not right. So I told him he should stand up for himself, stop acting as the rug for you all walk all over and do something about it. Stand up to you and show you that he's not going to let you guys treat him the horrible way you do.
It was my idea to do something about it, but the bomb was him. You're probably wondering why I've told you all this. There's no proof that either of us did it, so we could get away with it very easily, he made sure of that and he's been here ever since to make sure that all of the tracks we worked so hard to cover stay that way and he told me to stay at Dr and Mrs. Hunnicut's house to make sure that there was no way that I could get blamed for it. But it's not trouble I'm worried about anymore…
Two people who did absolutely nothing wrong except be in the wrong place at the wrong time might be dead now all because of me, and just the thought that makes me sick, because they were so nice to me. They weren't supposed to be there. The plan was just to make the wall explode and nothing more. No one was supposed to be there! No one had been dancing over there…It was the perfect spot. Dr. Pierce looked like he was headed in that direction, but fortunately, Erin started crying at that precise moment because her mother ran by without saying hi, so I was able to intercept him and lie and say that Erin wanted him, but I had no idea that anyone was over there cause they weren't supposed to be. I know that this might sound totally weird, but it's the truth…every last bit of it...
My father's a good man. He gets no respect from anyone; from my mom, my sisters…he always wanted to be friends with you, but you were too busy mocking him for what he believed in that you never even gave him a chance. Sure, he's not 'one of the guys', he might not believe in the same things you do, but he's still a person and every person deserves respect. You brought this all on yourself…well maybe not this precise situation, but one day, my father had to grow a backbone, and I couldn't bear to see him so crestfallen every time someone walks all over him, I just helped him pick today for that day…."
"STEPHANIE!" yelled an outraged voice. Three heads turned to the sound of the voice and regarded Frank Burns storming over towards them from the opposite direction from which Trapper and Charles had come from. He stopped in front of his daughter "What are you doing! You're not supposed to commit a crime and then confess to it, that's not how this works! We're going to get in trouble now! This wasn't part of the plan!" Frank stomped his foot like an angry little child.
"But that's exactly what you deserve…" Hawkeye came out of the shadows to face the two people who had hurt his wife and his best friend. He was visibly shaking, and Trapper couldn't help thinking 'Explosion in 5…4…3…' , but when Hawkeye spoke again, his voice was calm "You might have killed two innocent people and your only excuse is that we weren't treating you nicely, Frank? Because that's a damned stupidly childish reason, I think. What is this, second grade? Okay, I'll be the first to admit that we never treated you too well. Or well period, come to that, but that still doesn't give you the excuse to do something as drastic as you did. You set a bomb, Frank…You know the damage a bomb can do, you were in the war same as us…"
Frank's eyes darted around nervously "No one was supposed to know…" he mumbled to no one in particular.
"That still doesn't change the fact that you did it" Hawkeye managed to catch the nervous man's eyes. Hawkeye kept up his piercing gaze until Frank had to break away out of shame.
"Daddy, I had to" Stephanie whispered, looking up at her father. The tears that had been threatening to fall all throughout her monologue began to escape "I couldn't live with myself knowing that I had possibly killed two innocent people…"
"Neither could I, but…" Frank looked at his daughter, sadly "…but you didn't do it, I did. So you have no reason to feel guilty…"
"But I am the one who came up with the idea to show them that you're not a coward in the first place…" Stephanie said quietly
"But we were just getting them back! It wasn't meant to get this far! We didn't mean anything by it! I didn't want to hurt anybody either!" Frank yelled, desperately, now addressing Hawkeye, Trapper, and Charles "I didn't want to hurt them! They weren't supposed to even be there! I wouldn't hurt either of them! Especially not Margaret!"
Hawkeye was silent for a full minute. His face turned deadpan, changed soon to a glare and Trapper expected this to be his moment of outrage. But again, when Hawkeye spoke, he only spoke forcefully. He still didn't shout "You…" he breathed angrily through his nose and jabbed a finger into Frank's chest "have no goddamned right to speak of Margaret. You claim to care for her, but then you set a bomb to where she's getting married.
You speak of this as…as some sort of game…some sort of playground game where one kid makes fun of another kid, so the first kid has to find some way to get the other kid back, but…this isn't a game, Frank. This is real life. These are human lives you've threatened and, yes, I know you 'didn't want to hurt anybody', but you've threatened human lives, and though you didn't want to hurt anybody, you did, Frank. You and your daughter. And as…as much as I want to …god, I don't even know what I want to do to you for hurting my wife, but I'm not gonna do it. God knows you deserve it, but this isn't entirely your fault…"
Trapper, Charles, Frank and Stephanie all gasped at this pronouncement, but Hawkeye continued like there had been no disruption
"Margaret didn't want to invite you. I really didn't either, but…Stephanie is right about one thing, I wanted to mock you one more time…I wanted you to think that Margaret was extending an olive branch and wanted to see you again by inviting you to her wedding. I don't know if you noticed, but the groom's name…my name on the invitation was smudged because I didn't want you knowing that I was the groom. I wanted to mock you by getting you all the way down here, then rubbing it in your face that I, your old adversary from the war, was marrying the woman that you once had feelings for. I'm going to admit that you weren't the only one acting childish, I was too, and maybe Stephanie's also right that we had no right to treat you the way we always have, but if I hadn't let my childishness cloud my judgment, none of this would have happened and I would be happy with my wife right now"
Hawkeye screwed his eyes up tight to keep from crying. He succeeded and a moment later, his piercing blue eyes regarded Frank again "I'm not allowing myself to hurt you for hurting Margaret and BJ, because I can't. I don't have the right too, because, Stephanie was talking third parties to this whole thing, and I'm as much a culprit too as either of you, because…if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here and none of this would have ever happened. I blame myself as much as I blame either of you, so I'm not allowing myself the satisfaction of hurting you, but I am allowing myself one luxury. I'm allowing myself to turn you in.
As much as I want my wife and my best friend back, I'm not going to allow the man who threatened their lives and so many more lives to go free" Hawkeye's eyes became alight with this odd light. It wasn't his usual snapping, electric blue light that came out when it came to his wisecracks. It was more a dull blue light, but it was strong and betrayed his determination to do something, anything, to avenge his wife and his best friend, and more importantly, his determination in that BJ and Margaret would be all right.
"You're going to jail, Frank" a grim little grin crossed Hawkeye's face "Do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars and all that jazz. You're not going to get away with this one, Frank. You're not going to slither your way out of it like you've done all the other times you've done something wrong, like the time after Margaret married Penobscott and you spent the weekend chasing after them, got arrested, then somehow, got promoted and shipped out instead. You're not getting away with this." Hawkeye met Frank's eyes again and looked deep into them, and, with that, looked more determined than ever "I'm going to make sure of that"