When he returned to the 4077th Hawkeye felt as if he'd entered an alternate universe. He wasn't the same person he had been before the beach trip and the camp certainly wasn't the same. With the war really looking like it was about to end refugees and POWs flooded the camp and more importantly wounded continued to arrive in large numbers. All of this was bad enough but shelling from the enemy due to a tank that was accidentally crashed in the camp was more than Hawkeye could bare and he decided to dispose of it of himself.
As commotion over his latest escapade calmed down, Hawkeye decided to have a drink in the Swamp. It was a very depressing drink BJ wasn't there to share it with him, Charles wasn't even around to spar with, Potter was dealing with the influx of people, and Klinger was preoccupied with Soon Li. Not long ago he had been the center of things and now he was an outsider. Everyone treated him like a fragile piece of glass that could crack at any moment. Frustrated Hawkeye stood up to go and see the one person he wanted to be with most.
"Can I come in?" Hawkeye asked as he knocked on Margaret's door but entered anyway.
"Hello," Margaret greeted unsurely.
"Want to go for a walk?"
"Sure."
The walk was a quiet one. Once they were off the camp grounds Hawkeye took Margaret's hand in his; nevertheless, the silence was an awkward one.
"The weather's nice," Margaret said uncomfortably after a while.
"The weather!" Hawkeye exclaimed stopping dead in his tracks and letting go of Margaret's hand. "Please, Margaret show me a little more respect than that."
"What is wrong with you?" Margaret asked shocked and concerned.
"You. Everyone but especially you. Don't use kid gloves with me Margaret. I can see what the weather is and I don't want to talk about it. Strangers at bus stops discuss the weather. Not us!"
"What do you want me to say?" Margaret asked feeling her blood begin to boil.
"I want you to treat me like a person. I want you to be the hotheaded Hotlips Houlihan and yell at me for being an irresponsible maniac for driving the tank in to dump."
"You are an irresponsible maniac for driving the tank in to the dump but I don't have to tell you that!" Margaret yelled back.
"That's better!" Hawkeye exclaimed satisfied that finally some normalcy was returning and Margaret was fighting him.
"I hate you!" Margaret declared letting go of all the feelings she had kept bottled up. "I hate that I've been stuck at camp for all this time worrying about you and thinking about you. I hate that everyone is sitting around planning for the future and I don't know what I'm doing. I hate that my father keeps sending me wonderful job opportunities that I should be thrilled about but I just can't be because -"
"Margaret stop," Hawkeye gently interrupted as he realized what this was all about. "I'm sorry."
"What?"
"I'm sorry I didn't respond to the message you had BJ give me in Tokyo," Hawkeye said walking over to her. "I love you, too. I thought you knew that."
Margaret looked up at him and was stunned.
"I was out of my head in Tokyo. I wanted to forget. I wanted to forget that woman. All women, especially you - because I love you and it was just too hard," Hawkeye explained as his voice began to break. "I missed you, Margaret."
"Oh Ben," Margaret said stroking his face with her hands and giving him a kiss. "I missed you too."