A/N: Hey there loyal readers! Bah, sorry for the delay…I had writer's block with like one part, it was driving me crazy lol. Also, it's kinda short, so sorry about that. But anyway, here goes. Second to last chapter! Last chapter's gonna be an epilogue of sorts, and with any hope, it should be up relatively soon if all goes well college-wise and I stop getting distracted with the other stories I'm working on. I'm working on the sequel a bit, I've got the first chapter down and most of the second, but if I post those, I've kinda got to have a story to post, so what I suppose I'm trying to say is it'll be up soon. And unfortunately, I'm not in college for fanfiction writing, (as much as I wish I was) so I've gotta actually do some work for college too. Heehee.

And I love reviews, so please review! Feedback always welcome about anything, so feel free! I feed off of feedback if that makes any sense haha.

Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy!

-AEM

Wedding Bells and Bomb Shells

Chapter 30 - Our Forever

Hawkeye began loitering around at the hospital, same as he had the hotel ballroom, he was still even wearing his wedding tux four days after the wedding (they were starting to get angry calls from the tux rental company). He spent most of his time with Margaret, waiting for her to wake. BJ slept a lot too, in fact he had fallen asleep in the ride to the hospital and hadn't been awake since. The doctors had been quick to assure that neither case was a coma or anything, just the standard fatigue after a trauma, though Hawkeye hadn't needed to be told that and was starting to get in trouble for reading their charts.

Hawkeye had gone to visit BJ a lot, a process which wasn't too complicated seeing how BJ's room was directly across from Margaret's. The fact that Margaret hadn't woken up didn't trouble Hawkeye in the least. The simple act of finding her after nearly losing her in the explosion had firmly convinced him that everything would be all right and she would be all right and nothing more would happen to ruin the life he and Margaret were about to start together.

"Hawkeye?" whispered a voice quietly, making Hawkeye jump a foot off of the end of Margaret's bed, where he was perched, looking for who had called his name, though he was nearly positive who it was.

"Margaret…" Hawkeye said softly, in disbelief, staring at her lying on the bed, her blue-eyes opened staring right back at him "Margaret!" he cried as his brain finally caught on to what was going on and raced over to the bed "Oh God, Margaret!" he sat on the bed and wrapped his arms around her as she buried her head in his chest "My Margaret! I thought I had lost you…"

"Oh Hawkeye…" breathed Margaret, hugging him close "I'm right here, darling. I'm fine. I don't even remember what happened. Last thing I remember is I'm dancing with BJ and then suddenly we heard this loud noise that reminded me of the bombs in Korea, I was so scared, Hawkeye and it sounded like the walls were coming down on us…no more than sounded, I could see it and…" she trailed off and looked up at Hawkeye, horrified "Oh my God, BJ…is BJ all right?"

"Yeah, babe, he's fine. He regained conciousness after they found him, but then he lost it as he was coming to the hospital, but it's nothing to worry about"

Margaret breathed a sigh of relief "Thank God…"

"I'm sure Father Mulcahy already has"

That reminded Margaret of something else. She looked up at Hawkeye, wide-eyed "Is…?"

Hawkeye cut her off, placing a finger gently across her lips "Everyone's fine, love, don't even worry"

"But weren't you and Peg dancing nearby?"

"Yeah but we had gone to sit down barely five minutes before"

"Good. But I still don't know what happened"

Hawkeye told her the story and by the end Margaret was employing a few choice words about the actions and pretty basically everything about Frank Burns and what he had done, using the Irish temper that reminded Hawkeye why he had fallen in love with her in the first place. Hawkeye laughed…laughed for the first time in days "Have I ever told you you're the light of my life and the joy of my existence, Margaret, my love?"

Margaret smiled back and snuggled closer to Hawkeye "Well, I'm your wife, that's the way it should be after all"

"Exactly. And after four days of thinking I had lost you so soon after you became my wife…"

"Four days!" Margaret yelled, in disbelief "…Was it really four days?" she squinted up at him suspiciously

"Yeah…" Hawkeye confirmed, confused

"Four days!" Margaret started off again "That dirty, rotten, asshole! Because of his childish, inhumane antics, we just spent the first four days of our marriage; me unconscious under a pile of rubber, you, not even knowing if I was alive…"

"Margaret…Margaret…" Hawkeye covered Margaret's lips with his finger again "Shhh…baby, it doesn't matter. It's over now. Sure, that was the most horrible way to spend the first few days of being married, but it doesn't matter. We're together now, that's all that counts. You have me and I have you and we have forever. The last few days don't matter. They're in the past. Our forever begins now. And I am now going to kiss my bride"

Ten minutes later, they parted for air "Were you scared, Hawkeye?" Margaret asked, leaning against Hawkeye's chest

"Of course I was scared" Hawkeye answered promptly "I thought I had lost you. You've become everything to me and I couldn't live with the thought of living without you if I lost you. I didn't leave the ballroom once during the whole time you were lost to me… I spent that time trying to remember what my life was like before I met you. I can barely do it. You've been a part of my life so long, even back when we hated each other and bickered every chance we got, you were still there. And I was contemplating a life without you. And…I'm not interested. I'm not interested if you're not a part of my life. You're the most important person in my life, Margaret. You mean more to me than anything…anyone in the world. So when I realized that you were buried under the rubble, my world came crashing down. Literally. And I hated that feeling. I hated the thought of my life without you in it. I mean, I was trying so hard to believe that you'd be all right…I had to or else I would go crazy again, and that didn't appeal to me either. God, I love you so much. You're my life, Margaret and without you, a part of me is missing and that's the part that keeps me going. The part that makes me want to wake up in the morning and live through the day just to see you at night. Without you, I'm incomplete."

"Oh Hawk…" Margaret sniffled and snuggled closer "I love you too. So much. More than anything and if it had been you instead of me…"

"I would have been happier cause you would have been out of danger"

"I wouldn't be able to stand it. You're the one that made me see that who I was wasn't a good person, wasn't who I wanted to be. You saved me from myself. You were the first thing that made me really truly happy and without you, my happiness is gone. My reason for living is gone. There's nothing in my life before you, I ruined it all because of who I had been. The real Margaret Houlihan started with you. You're my past, my present and my future. I'm as incomplete without you as you are without me."

Tears flowed freely down both of their cheeks as they held each other close, to make up for all the time they had lost. Hawkeye pressed his lips to hers

"God I missed this" Hawkeye whispered huskily "I missed you. I love you, my wife"

"I love you too, my husband" Margaret whispered back

The kiss deepened and Hawkeye shifted to get more comfortable. The sound of something metal clinking loudly on the tile floor broke their concentration

"What was that?" Hawkeye looked around frantically checking all the various wires and stuff coming from Margaret, thinking he had broken something

"Something on the floor" Margaret was leaning over pointing to something on the floor

Hawkeye picked it up and stared at it, open-mouthed. He didn't say a word.

"Hawkeye, what is it?" Margaret prompted, curiously

Wordlessly, Hawkeye held out his dogtags.

"Your dogtags?" Margaret asked, confused "I don't understand…"

"I never took them off when I got home, I don't know why. I guess I just got so used to wearing them, I never noticed that they were there. BJ noticed when were getting ready for the wedding the other day and I just got this feeling that something terrible was going to happen, something like what happened in the war. I guess it did"

They stared at each other, both thinking the same thing. The most horrible thing that had happened to them had meshed with the best. Both Margaret and Hawkeye realized at that moment that no matter how hard they might try, the war would always be there to haunt them. But just like when the war had ended, the good had won out over the terrible. They loved each other, and their love for each other had gotten them through the hard times of the last few days. And that was all that mattered.

Hawkeye glanced toward the hallway that separated Margaret's room from BJ's room. He could see Peg sitting at BJ's bedside. She had eyes for nothing else, but her husband. Hawkeye watched as she suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around the form in the bed "Hey, BJ's awake" Hawkeye told Margaret, very pleased.

"Oh good" Margaret smiled "Can I go see him?"

"Yeah, not now though. Peg's got pressing business to take care of with him"

"What?" Margaret asked her husband. He didn't turn to her to answer, however, his eyes were glued to the action across the hall.

"Peg's pregnant, but she didn't want to tell BJ before the wedding"

"Oh wow…and then BJ was missing and he didn't know"

"Yeah it nearly killed Peg that he might die and not know." Hawkeye's eyes still hadn't left BJ's room. Peg was holding one of BJ's hands between her own. Hawkeye couldn't see Peg's face, but he could see BJ's. Hawkeye watched as BJ's face lit up and he, probably using all the energy he had in him at that moment reached up and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her towards him and kissing her soundly

Hawkeye reached for his wife's hand and squeezed it, as if making an unspoken bond that one day that would be them "Now he knows"