The next morning I woke up at six-thirty to the phone ringing.

"Whoever calls before nine should be hung," I groaned as I got up from my chair.

I grabbed the phone. "Hello?" I said, cringing as my breath bounced back at me. A toothbrush was needed--badly.

"This is Grace Belkin from the hospital in Crabapple Cove. Is this the home of Jaclyn Waters?" a woman with a New York accent asked.

"Yes it is," I said.

"And you have a Hawkeye Pierce residing with you?"

"For a short time," I answered. What was this, a survey?

"May I speak to him, please?"

"I'm sorry, but he's sleeping."

"It's about his father." The woman blew her nose. "See...well, it would be I could tell him."

"You could call back in a few hours," I suggested. Waking Hawkeye was NOT on my list of "Top 10 Things I Can't Wait to Do In The Morning".

"Look, ma'am, it took me twenty minutes to get this call through. With all the wind you North Dakotans are experiencing, I probably won't be able to get through until 1972!" the woman said.

Ignoring her mix-up of states, I sighed. "Give me the message."

"Are you a relative?"

"I'm close enough!" I growled.

"His father had a heart attack yesterday morning and died last night," she said. "You can see how I wanted to be the one to tell Hawkeye."

I sat down in a chair, stunned. "Maybe I should wake him up," I said, but it was three seconds too late. The phone line turned to static.

To quote Calla:

Oh crap.

I willed myself to stand up and go into the living room.

"Hawkeye," I whispered shakily. "Hawk. Hawkeye. BEN. Get up."

Without opening his eyes, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me on top of him. I shrieked.

"If you don't let me go, my family will kill you, and we'll feed you to the pigeons!"

"Ahem."

I felt my muscles go stiff. That arresting tone could only belong to one person.

Mother.

"Mr. Pierce, will you let go of my daughter?" she asked.

Hawkeye had enough sense to, and I leaped up.

She shook her head and bustled out to the kitchen.

"Now is it just me, or do you think that she actually ENJOYS that you're here?" I asked.

"Well, who wouldn't? A charming, attractive bachelor?" Hawkeye grinned. "Well, that was dessert. Now how about breakfast?"

"Uhhhh." I pushed my hair back. "I need to talk to you. Out in the porch."

"Let's hope the conversation has a parental warning on it."

"Let's not."

I opened the door to our porch, and we sat down on the piano bench.

"While you were sleeping, I...I got a phone call," I said. "It was from a woman named Grace Belkin."

He groaned. "She works with Dad, and has this weird schoolgirl crush on me. One night she called our house every hour when I had a cold to make sure that I hadn't died. On the eighth time, Dad said that I had and she came over to see if--what's wrong?"

"Hawk...your dad had a heart attack and he...he passed away last night," I said softly.

This was the first time I had seen Hawkeye Pierce cry.