A/N: Wow I hate writers block…then plus exams and other assorted insanity hasn't left a lot of time for writing (and wouldn't you know inspiration came back the minute I had to start studying for finals, and left the moment I came home for winter break . This is my life) So anyway, sorry for the delay (as always). And also as always, thanks for reading and I hope you like it!
Okay and a couple of people had questions about what happened during last chapter and the revealing of the identity of the bomber. I know I wrote it kinda oddly, but I wanted to keep the identity a secret for as long as humanly possibly cause I'm mean like that heeheee. So here's what happened: Stephanie started to feel so guilty because of what her and her father did and she needed to tell someone, so she told Trapper. Trapper told Charles and Hawkeye he had found out who set the bomb and brought Charles to listen to Stephanie confess while Hawkeye was listening in the shadows because Trapper was afraid that Stephanie wouldn't talk if Hawkeye was there. Hope that clears it up. Sorry if I confused anyone.
Yay for reviews! Thanks everyone! You guys are all so kind with your reviews and your kind reviews…keep em up!
Anyway…I'm thinking maybe 2 or 3 more chapters, which with any hope I'll get up relatively soon…hopefully in the next two weeks before winter break ends and I have to go back to school. As for sequel/prequel….I know I want to do them, but I've also got a whole bunch of other stories floating around up there and next to no time to write anything, so hopefully it'll get up relatively soon
Oooh and for the first time ever I've added a song to my fic here…I've had 'End of the World as We Know It' by REM stuck in my head for a few days now and I suddenly realized when I needed to come up with a chapter title that it fit to what was going on in the chapter so first I made it into a chapter title, then I decided why not add it into the chapter? Little something new I'm trying, so gimme feedback on it and pretty basically any other aspect of the story! Enjoy!
Aaaaand on with the story
Chapter 27 – The End of the World As We Know It
"You have the right to remain sil…"
"Stop!" Frank yelled, interrupting the police officer, who was arresting him and attempting to handcuff him at the same time "Please! Just wait a minute before I have to be quiet! I have to say something!"
The police had been called right after Frank and Stephanie had confessed to setting off the bomb as had the gang at the Hunnicut house. The police had arrived five minutes before Peg, Klinger, Radar, Colonel Potter and Father Mulcahy had (the rest were at home watching the children) and they all, including Hawkeye, Charles and Trapper were watching quietly as Frank got arrested, becoming shocked at his interruption.
The policeman rolled his eyes at Frank's outburst and came after him with the handcuffs again
"No! Just one minute please!" pleaded Frank, desperately, twisting out of the police officer's reach " I made the bomb! I set the bomb! I'm the one who read about how to make a bomb, in a pamphlet for soldiers back in the war! I'm the one who came up with the god-forsaken idea to get them back using bomb in the first place! She…" he gestured to Stephanie, who was standing silently nearby in the firm grasp of another policeman, handcuffed and not putting up a struggle, like her father. She seemed almost detached, and started when her father started to speak of her to the police "She had nothing to do with this! It was all my idea!"
That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, and aeroplanes and Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn-world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs. Feed it off an aux speak, grunt, no, strength, ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height. Wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site. left of west and coming in. A hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team. By team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped
Look at that low playing! Fine then…
"But Daddy," Stephanie said quietly, tears leaking down her face once more "I told you to get them back…"
"But you had nothing to do with the bomb. She didn't, I swear." Frank turned back to the cop, who was trying to arrest him, and began babbling insanely, talking faster and faster with every word "I wouldn't let her anywhere near it, right, Steph? Listen…I don't want to be arrested…actually, I'd rather be arrested than let loose among Pierce and his crowd over there, come to that, but that's not the point. The point is…my daughter did nothing wrong. You don't have to arrest her, do you? All she did was tell me I should find a way to get them all back. All the rest was me, not her. She had absolutely nothing to do with it. She's a minor, can't you just…I dunno…give her a reprimand and send her back to her mother? Pleaaaase? I'll even take whatever punishment you were going to give her, if you need me too" Frank looked the police officer in the eyes "Do whatever you want to me, just please, spare my daughter"
Uh oh. Overflow, population, common food, but it'll do. Save
Yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs,
Listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and
The revered and the right, right. you vitriolic,
Patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty
Psyched
The police officer looked dubious. The members of the 4077th, however, were shocked. Frank Burns sacrificing himself for someone else?
Stephanie looked up at her father, her eyes shining with pride. He was proving that he had a backbone better than any bomb ever would. Now everyone would know what she had known all along…
It's the end of the world as we know it…
It's the end of the world as we know it…
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine
Finally, the police officer, who had been attempting to handcuff Frank, sighed "All right, we'll let your daughter go. She wasn't really up for anything, anyway, and she is a minor. All right, Mike, let 'er go"
Frank grinned as the other police officer unhandcuffed the young girl. She immediately went to go run to her father, but the police officer stopped her
"You gotta go, miss. You're going with Mike to the airport. We're getting you back to Indiana as soon as possible
"What about my father?"
"He's going to jail, missy, that was the agreement, he goes, you go back home to your mother"
Stephanie scowled and the 4077th gang were startled at her sudden resemblance to her father. She didn't look too much like him, otherwise, but when she was angered, she lost her upper lip just like he did.
Her look softened after a minute and her upper lip reappeared. "Can I at least say goodbye?" she asked quietly. Both police officers scuffed their feet and looked awkward at the idea of not giving in to the crying girl, so they agreed immediately.
Six o'clock - tv hour. don't get caught in foreign
Towers. slash and burn, return, listen to yourself
Churn. locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood
Letting. every motive escalate. automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a votive. step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no
Fear cavalier. renegade steer clear! a tournament,
Tournament, a tournament of lies. offer me solutions,
Offer me alternatives and i decline
Stephanie flung herself into her father's arms "Daddy! I don't wanna go back to Indiana and living with Mom! Not without you!"
"I know you don't want to go back and live with your mother, Stephanie, but you have to. It's the only way I could get you off and I'd much rather see you living with your mother than in a jail cell…Especially when this was all my fault because I don't know if you ever noticed, I don't take the blame for a lot…for most things…" he laughed awkwardly, but cut it off immediately when he noticed that Stephanie wasn't laughing.
He then got a strange look on his face and smiled slightly. He looked his daughter straight in the eyes, and placed his hands on her shoulders "…but I'd rather go to jail if it means that you're safe cause you're my favorite daughter and I love you so much…"
Frank looked shocked at what he had just heard come out of his mouth, but then he realized something. Throughout his life, he had said a lot of things, to his mother, to Louise, even to Margaret; false statements of adoration, of promise, of love, but he had never really and truly meant any of them. He had never really had any feelings for anyone (well, with the possible exception of his mother) and anything he did had to have some way of benefiting him, but it was at this moment that Frank Burns realized that, for the first time, possibly ever, he did love someone other than himself.
He loved his daughter. He wasn't even sure why, maybe it was because she loved him for him, not some ideal of him like Margaret did, or just because marriage was the next step in life and he happened to be there, like Louise did.
Love was nice, Frank realized to himself, as he also rather wished he had had more of it in his life. It was nice to have someone to care about, who also cared about you, even if you weren't the greatest person on the planet and would throw you to the roadside once they found something better. Ever since Frank had come back from Korea, Stephanie had been there, with her unique ability to be able to look past all his faults and see that there was so much more to him. He had used her naieveness to his advantage at first, but soon, he had realized that he cared for her just as much, as she had for him but it wasn't till now that he fully understood love. He used to think any kind feelings toward someone was love, but now he fully understood that loving someone was more than that.
It was wanting to do whatever it takes to protect someone, even if it meant putting yourself in harm's way. Wanting to be there to comfort them in times of pain and laugh with them in times of triumph. He just wished he had realized this before now. Love was very nice, Frank decided, most definitely and he loved his daughter with all his heart.
Tears once again streamed down Stephanie Burns' face as her father wrapped his arms around her. Though he had said 'I love you' many times, this was the first time he had said it on his own, not as response to hers. And though he had often called her his favorite daughter, this was the first time he had actually sounded genuine about it, not as if he was trying to rub it in his wife's face that she hadn't been able to turn all their daughters against him or into his uncaring two other daughters' faces that he didn't like them as much as he liked her. For the first time, Stephanie really felt that her father really did love her.
It's the end of the world as we know it (it's time i had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (it's time i had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it and i feel fine (it's time i had some time alone)
"So what do you think is going to happen?" Trapper was the first one to break the silence.
They had all watched in silence as their former colleague had been taken away in handcuffs a few minutes before, after watching his daughter be taken from him, possibly forever not five minutes before. He hadn't said a word. He watched her go silently, then following a few minutes later, still not saying a word. After all they had seen, this side of Frank that no one had even known existed, they were in shock.
"To who?" Klinger asked, in some confusion. "Frank and Steph?"
"Yeah" Trapper responded, looking towards the door
The other night i dreamt of knives, continental
Drift divide. mountains sit in a line, leonard
Bernstein. leonid brezhnev, lenny bruce and lester
Bangs. birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! you
Symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? right
"Frank's going to jail" Hawkeye responded, tightly "And Stephanie's going back to her mother. Whether she thought of the idea for Frank to do something to get us back or not is irrelevant. She didn't do anything. She didn't set the bomb or, think of the idea for a bomb, or in fact, was anywhere near the bomb, a piece of insight and thoughtfulness I never would have thought capable to come from Frank. But Stephanie's guilty of nothing more than loving her father" Hawkeye paused then continued talking, speaking the words that were on all of their minds, but they didn't know how to say them…
"It's funny though, just when we thought we had Frank Burns all pinned down…I thought I had him there within five minutes of meeting him, but, just when we thought we knew him, he goes and does something noble like this. We just thought of him as a whiny, uncaring snot who didn't care about anybody but himself. I guess it just goes to show you that even when you think you know someone so well, they can still do something that will surprise you. That how they may act around you isn't necessarily all they feel. And it makes me wonder if this was in him all along, and if we had treated him with a bit more respect back in Korea, maybe he wouldn't be quite as crazy as he is now. We all immediately blamed it on him because he wouldn't stand up for himself. We all said that it was him, that he was an idiot and not capable of being anything more than an idiot, but maybe it wasn't all him. Maybe it was us too…"
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it and i feel fine (it's time i had some time alone)
Hawkeye lapsed into silence as the crew of the MASH 4077th exchanged brief looks of embarrassment and opinions of truth in Hawkeye's statement. They all stood in companionable, but thoughtful silence, pondering Hawkeye's words. This silence, like -the one before, was soon broken, this time by a high-pitched, familiarly accented squeal of "CHAAAAALES!"
Everyone turned to discover that the source of the noise was a petite, blonde female, who was currently attacking Charles with great gusto. She leapt into the air and flung her arms around Charles' neck "Oh Charles!" she sobbed into his shoulder.
The group had only a moment to register Charles' look of utmost astonishment before they noticed an older couple walking quickly towards them, further increasing Charles' astonished look.
"Charles! You're all right!" yelled the older woman, noticeably relieved. She and the man standing next to her, though they were an older couple, looked as if they had artificially aged a couple decades and were quite pale.
Charles, for the first time in his life, had been finding himself at a loss for words. "Mother! Father! Honoria!" he managed to get out, trying not to notice Hawkeye's jaw drop low enough to scrape the ground "What on Earth are you all doing here?"
"We were at Heathrow Airport" spoke up Honoria, still clinging to Charles like she had decided never to let go of him ever again "We had just gotten to London and we were waiting for our baggage when the television began reporting about a bomb set off at a hotel in California and I recognized it as the name of the city that you were going to."
"And all we could think of was that you were dead and the last thing we ever said to you was that you were no longer a part of our family and we couldn't bear that thought" sobbed Mrs. Winchester
"We're so sorry, son…I'm so sorry." added Mr. Winchester, approaching his son "I'm sorry for how I've treated you. Banishing you for standing up for what you believed in is not the way for a father to treat his son. I didn't even notice what I was doing and it is only now that this tragedy has put it into perspective. I am so sorry for making you think that we love Honoria more than you. I'm so sorry. We never treated you fairly, I see that now, and I never should have kicked you out. That was uncalled for, but I want you to know you can I've been an abysmal father, and I apologize for that, Charles. I just only hope you can find it inside you to forgive an old fool for not seeing his son the way he should have"
It's the end of the world as we know it…
Charles stared at his father in utter disbelief. He disentangled himself from his sister and faced his father face to face, for the first time ever "I accept your apology, Father. But I can't come home. Not now, not ever. I will be returning to Boston and I will come back to the manor one last time to retrieve the rest of my belongings, but I cannot stay there anymore. I'll still visit, but I cannot live there any longer. It's high time I found my own place on my own terms.
"I don't belong there with you anymore, not because I still hold the events of my childhood against you, but because I'm not the same man that I was when I left you four years ago. I've changed a great deal since then and you're still the same and who I am now does not mesh with who I was then, and who you are now. For once, I am going to be the bigger man and forgive you, but there's no way I can return to the Winchester estate, especially when my friends are in dire straights like this. I honestly couldn't care less if you don't like this or are angered by any of this because" he looked around at the group of war veterans around him and the woman that he cared for
Lorraine knew a different Charles than his family knew, but he was fully prepared to become the Charles she knew rather than the Charles his family knew. He liked Lorraine's Charles better "I have a new group of people ready to accept me for how I prefer to be and if you cannot accept any of this, then you haven't learned anything at all"
Charles stepped back, a look of confidence and pride on his face, so unlike the way he used to look when he felt these emotions and able to admit that his former colleagues at the 4077th MASH were his friends for the first time ever.
It's the end of the world as we know it…
"I understand Charles and we're fully prepared to accept you for how you are…how you want to be. The fact that you want to stay here for your friends is commendable and the fact that you have the gained the confidence to stand up for what you believe in is admirable" Mr. Winchester said formerly. He gravely shook his son's hand and left the room.
It's the end of the world as we know it…
Charles, stunned, accepted the handshake from his father, without really registering it. His mother kissed him on the cheek and Honoria did the same, trying to remain dignified, but failing as she impulsively threw her arms around her brother. They both left the room behind Mr. Winchester.
The gang looked at Charles with a newfound respect. Hawkeye merely walked over and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Dr. Pierce, Mrs. Hunnicut!" a young man of around 23 ran up to them, breathing hard as both of the people named turned "We…we think we found something!"
And I feel fine…