The first few days of Hawkeye's absence was hard on everyone. The place was much more somber without Hawkeye there to alleviate the mood but gradually things started to return to normal - at least as normal as it could be. BJ knew that things would be difficult for Margaret and tried to distract her. He recruited various people from camp to do things with her. It didn't especially help but Margaret appreciated the effort. She had taken her ring off her finger after her shift the night Hawkeye left but couldn't bring herself to put it back in her jewelry box so she put it on her dogtags as a reminder.
She wrote to him every day but she never knew what to say and could never send any of the letters. She couldn't bring herself to visit him either. Not even with BJ although she had given him a message to give to Hawkeye. The only thing she could do was talk to him on the phone when a call was put through and that was an awkward situation for everyone.
As everyone else began to plan for the future Margaret didn't even know where to begin. Her father was constantly sending her updates on employment opportunities he had found. A few months ago the positions offered would have been a dream come true and they were still exciting possibilities but her heart wasn't in to any of them. Her heart was in Tokyo.
Margaret didn't know what would happen with her and Hawkeye after the war and it scared her. Their relationship had changed so much since they were married but they never talked about it. She could barely bring herself to think about it but without him around to distract her, she was forced to.