The sounds of the house soothed Hawkeye with their familiarness. Something sizzled and glasses clinked in the kitchen as the soft sound of the TV mixed in from the living room. Margaret's voice rang through the house with its old lilt, which had softened in the years since Korea. He smiled at the sound of Ben and Ellie's voices at the table, the muttered give-and-take he missed since Ellie escaped to college.
Then he must have slept because Margaret was in the room again. She was beside him in bed, reading the paper with her glasses on.
"Mmmpfh. Hey sexy," Hawkeye muttered, turning over on his back.
"Hey yourself. I brought you some dinner," she said softly, never looking away from the paper. A tray with a sandwich and orange juice sat on his bedside table. Hawkeye sat up slowly and began to eat.
"You know, it's funny we still eat so much peanut butter. We ate so much in Korea I used to dream about Mr. Peanut trying to kill me in the middle of the night," he said.
"Well, if the stink in your tent didn't get you, you were lucky. It killed me everytime I had to go in there."
"You didn't come in there much, if I recall. Save for when we had some serious booze going."
Margaret swatted at him but missed. She was doing better, not as weepy or disoriented. Funny how she seemed emotionless when her own father died. Al Houlihan had made a shaky truce with Hawkeye but relations were still strained. He criticised every car they bought, Maine, the fact the kids didn't go to private school...and those criticisms hurt. Al loved his grandchildren but was always talking about what a great nurse Ellie would be. They'd known long ago that Ellie wasn't cut out for medical work. She fainted at the sight of her own blood.
"Disgusting!" Ben said loudly from somewhere in the house. "It's all in your teeth!"
"She must have that saltwater taffy,"said Margaret. It was a standard gift from Margaret's sister, who'd finally settled down in Atlantic City. Mary couldn't get through her head that no one really liked it. It spent most of its time sitting in a glass container on the coffee table. Sometimes Ellie or Ben would jam about ten pieces in their mouths and gross everyone out.
The bedroom door flew open. Ben came in with his sister not far behind. "Okay Ellie. Show them," Ben commanded. Ellie smiled like a Cheshire Cat and stuck out her tongue, stained a vibrant shade of green.
"I can't believe you got a college scholarship," Margaret moaned as the kids sat on the bed.
They laughed and then sat silently. A wave of sadness had hit them at once. Ben stared at the floor, running a hand over his lower lip. This was about as troubled as Hawkeye had ever seen the kid. Ben was happy-go-lucky and sweet. A good argument for a mix-up at the hospital. But Daniel Pierce was a real pussycat, too.
"I remember Dad taking me out to lunch on the day I told him I was going to marry your mom," Hawkeye said wistfully, out of the blue. Margaret looked up quickly.
"He said he was so proud I'd found someone and I could someday have a family, too. Dad knew I'd changed in Korea. He said I was shutting people out. By getting married I was letting people back in."
Margaret smiled warmly through her teary eyes. "He was like a father to me. I couldn't, you know, talk to my father about lots of things. But with Daniel I always felt safe, like I could open up to him about being scared about having babies and how it would be to be a mom. He protected me," she said.
"Grandpa told me, once, when I was real small, that we'll never know what lies on the bottom of the ocean at its deepest. That started me thinking about how insignificant we are in the whole scheme of things. And I had to know what was down there," said Ellie. Hawkeye put a hand on her back.
"He always came to my games. He used to let me drive his car around the elementary school parking lot, too. I guess I wasn't supposed to tell you guys that," Ben said, blushing.
"That's okay. That's how I learned," Ellie said, adding quietly, "I can't believe we're burying him tomorrow."
They shook their heads. Hawkeye looked at all of them, marvelling at how different his family was, and how special. Without Daniel Pierce they never would have happened. Ben and Ellie left, dragging their feet down the long hallway.
"I've had four cups of coffee and I'll never get any sleep," Margaret sighed. "And I have to sing tomorrow."
"You'll sleep. Come here," Hawkeye beckoned. She leaned against his chest. They sat silently like that for a moment, just listening to each other's breathing. The sound calmed Hawkeye immensley. Closing his eyes, he could see them at the 4077th bickering, making love, bickering, kissing, bickering and slowly falling for one another. The realization that he loved Margaret literally knocked the wind and the rug out from under him. None of the gang could believe it when they got married. The Pierce children were treated with awe when some of them got together. Klinger said it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen, more amazing than the time Frances Kusnierz downed 14 Packo's dogs in one sitting. Ellie and Ben were miracle children in the sense that Hawkeye and Margaret loving each other was a miracle. Sure, the others had kids...Charles had a son, Klinger a daughter and Radar had five country girls to look after. But Ben and his sister were special and both Hawkeye and Margaret knew that.
He began massaging her scalp, just like when they were newlyweds. Margaret could get really uptight those days and this was one of the ways Hawkeye would calm her down. There was another way, but it takes longer than five minutes and leaves you a little sweaty. He hummed a little while her body slowly relaxed and her eyes closed.
She fell asleep in his arms. Hawkeye envied her, and wondered what she'd dream that night. Would it be whistling shells, crashing artillery and the coppery scent of blood? Sometimes Margaret would talk in her sleep about Korea, mumbling instructions to nurses and insults to doctors.
Hawkeye stared ay the ceiling and thought of all those letters he'd written that arrived at this very house. How his father must have cried sometimes over the things his son wrote about. He must have laughed, too, at the escapades and the nurse-chasing. In the long run, the young man that went to war came back a world-weary veteran that Daniel hardly knew. It took them a long time to connect again and Margaret played a large part in that. The war humanized her but left her with some demons, too, that took a long time to work out. Her drinking got out of hand once and the whole family witnessed her final war-related breakdown. Daniel was also key in her recovery.
What would they do without him? How would the family hold up at the funeral? The thoughts swirled in Hawkeye's head as the people that made up his world slept closely. Slowly, the memory of one of the best nights in Korea began to drift in, and he fell asleep holding Margaret's hand. It was soft and warm.