Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.
A/N: I've taken the part where Hawkeye writes his will and I have tweaked it a bit. Hope you like it. Hawkeye may seem a bit OOC a bit in some parts.
A/N, 31/10/11: Edited the story to remove the grammatical and typographical errors. The story remains as it was.
At the Mill Valley Town Hall, cars were being parked side-by-side, with their occupants making their way towards the building.
Inside the hall, there were streamers and home-made decorations lining the walls, giving it a festive celebratory look.
There were old tables with food crowding them and at the end was a table solely for presents.
"BJ!" a scolding voice was heard.
The offender innocently took his hand away from the food and made his way to his wife; the woman who scolded him.
"No picking at the food." Peg told her husband.
"Fine, is everyone here?" BJ asked her.
"Nearly, the only one not here is Hawkeye, I'm afraid to know why." Peg informed the now growing crowd.
"He better not play any practical jokes today." Margaret Houlihan said in a voice that sounded a lot like her Major voice.
A couple of people – namely Colonel Potter, Klinger, Radar, BJ, Peg, and Erin - laughed at Margaret's comment, Charles agreed wholly with her.
Hawkeye was walking along a crowded path that made its way to the town hall. He was getting a few strange looks as he hummed to himself while wearing his beloved Hawaiian shirt with some cargo pants, on top of that he wore his famous purple robe that many nurses in Korea could only dream of taking off.
His excuse was ' he needed to keep up appearances'.
As he spotted the town hall, that familiar glint in those blue eyes came back making his eyes sparkle.
The old 4077th veterans plus their spouses were talking animatedly about their lives since they last saw each other when the surgeon casually made his way through the doors of the building, silencing everyone.
Oh God! He's going to be playing practical jokes all night. BJ thought helplessly.
Hawkeye looked in BJ's direction and caught his gaze and BJ saw the sparkle in his best mates's eyes and laughed.
Which made everyone else laugh, including Charles.
"Oh son, shoulda known you would do something outrageous, but that?" Colonel Potter laughed.
"What can I say; I like to live in style." Hawkeye replied seriously, while trying to keep a straight face.
"Hi Hawk, it's nice of you to finally show up." BJ welcomed him with a slap on the back.
"I was finishing the last touches to Erin's present." Hawkeye defended himself.
Hearing her name Erin Hunnicutt made her way to Hawkeye to hug him.
"Happy Birthday, Erin!" he congratulated the blonde-haired girl.
"Thank you." Erin thanked him.
Everyone went back to talking with each other, but now they had another interesting topic – Hawkeye, oh and his present.
As everyone was finishing up playing catch-up with everyone, they all realised they were quite hungry and made their way towards the food tables.
"Hmm, this is positively delicious, much better than that garbage they called food in that hell hole." Charles muttered with food in his mouth.
There were quite a few murmured agreements.
"How about we do the presents now?" Peg suggested to everyone.
"Good idea." Colonel Potter agreed.
Erin made her to the table that was now quite high with presents and stopped in front of it, trying to decide where to start.
The group spread themselves behind her in a semi-circle so they could see her open her presents.
As the pile got smaller, she'd gotten a holiday from Colonel, Mildred, Margaret and Radar, a necklace from Charles, money from Klinger and the keys to the small granny flat on her parents' land.
When she'd finished opening all the presents from the pile and ran all the names of the people who'd given her presents, she realised something odd, she couldn't remember opening a present from Hawkeye. Neither could anyone else.
I wonder what he's got her. Margaret warily thought.
"I suppose you're wondering where my present is." Hawkeye spoke up after the silence that descended on the group became too much.
Erin just nodded.
Hawkeye reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a white envelope that was slightly bulging with the name Erin scrawled on the front.
"I had this written out back in the war, but the time was never right to give it you." he quietly explained, noticing the confused and curious expression plastered on her face.
The town hall was in silence once again as Erin carefully opened the envelope, trying not to rip it and pulled out some papers that were full of Hawkeye's familiar writing. Some of the papers were starting to go yellow.
'...Corporal Stanley T. Young,
Sergeant Robert M. Zelnick.
To Erin Hunnicutt,
I leave you a list of all the young men your daddy took care of while he was in Korea.
Many of them have him to thank for being alive today.
I want you to understand why he had to be away during the first years of your life.
I hope I have the chance to give you this in person
But around here, you never know.
This concludes my last Will and Testament
Benjamin Franklin Pierce.'
The group were staring at Erin trying to gauge he reaction to get an idea of what Hawkeye gave her.
By the time Erin got to the end of Hawkeye's letter, she had tears making their way down her face leaving snail trails.
"Erin, honey, what's wrong?" Peg worriedly asked her.
Erin didn't seem to hear her mum though.
"Thank you so much Hawkeye, it's the best present I've ever got." Erin tearily thanked her favourite uncle.
"When did you write it exactly?" she asked him with curiosity and fear in her eyes.
As Erin was speaking to Hawkeye, BJ and Peg went and got the letter that was hanging loosely in their daughter's hand and silently read it.
"When I was at an aide station, we were getting bombed badly, I thought I'd better write one. I, um, I added a lot more names to the list since that night. He was a hero, Erin, to many men and their families." Hawkeye declared to a now crying Erin and a shocked group of war veterans.
Peg and BJ finished the letter and passed it on to the rest of the group. Peg had tears running down her face, just the same as her daughter while BJ had unshed tears and a look of deep respect and love in his eyes that was aimed fully at the man he and many others considered as their rock and hero.
The group all finished reading the letter and all of them had tears running down their faces. Not only was it a present to Erin, it was unknowingly a letter to all the 4077th members' spouses, explaining exactly what their loved ones did.
Erin walked up to Hawkeye and stopped right in front of him.
"I always considered dad as a hero, but because of your letter I now consider him as my hero." Erin then ran to her dad and hugged him.
That day, many people went home with a different view of what the people of the 4077th went through and just how many people they helped. But the one thing they went home with was a hero, their loved one. Even Hawkeye.