"I think I'll leave that to my son in law," Margaret said, with more than a little humor in her voice.

"What most of you didn't know, because I asked BJ to cover for me, I lost most of my hearing near the end of the war." Mulcahy confessed.

"So when you went to get those prisoners out of the line of fire, you were injured more than you let on." Sherman Potter gave both Mulcahy and Honnicutt a look that said they were in trouble for not disclosing the severity of the injury a decade earlier.

"Yes, I was." Mulcahy admitted.

"I persuaded BJ I would get it looked after. I did eventually when I realized I couldn't hear the children at the orphanage very well. I went down to Seoul, at the time I was still a chaplain. I told the doctor there I was still suffering the effects of an injury. He figured out rather quickly I was having trouble hearing what was said." He smiled ruefully before continuing "actually I nearly got my face slapped by one of the nurses, it wasn't any of you, as I found out later she'd just arrived in country the week before, she'd never been at any MASH unit. I thought she said something, well all I did was ask her what I thought she said. The doctor heard and saw the whole episode. He calmed down the nurse by telling her that he suspected I'd lost some hearing and hadn't intentionally propositioned her. After several tests I was told I had to wait until I was back in the States before they could operate as there were only a few places that did that surgery and would routinely expect a positive outcome. I was fortunate they were able to repair most of the damage, though I have a higher probability to be quite deaf when I'm older." Several of the nurses he'd worked with looked at him with empathy instead of pity, Mulcahy realized he should have told them ten years earlier that he'd had trouble hearing.

"After my surgery I took a leave of absence from the priesthood, partly to recover, and to think, and during that time I had knew I had to leave the priesthood."

The look of shock on several faces told Mulcahy he'd surprised more than a few people that night with his story. He took a breath before continuing "I realized I wanted to get training to become a counselor, either in the army or for veterans affairs, I didn't care which, but I knew I could make a difference having seen combat." This was the hard part, he knew there were a few practicing Catholics in the group, they might take offense at what he said next. "If I wanted to stay a priest, I had to stay a priest. If I wanted to become a counselor or psychologist, I had to make a hard decision. Thus, the Vatican, well, they forced me to make a very hard decision, to stay in the priesthood and respect the vows that for all intents and purposes I made when I was sixteen."

They realized he'd decided to join the priesthood before he'd graduated from high school; several had changed their original major to medicine or nursing.

"I knew I wanted to treat their spiritual bodies, but I also knew I could heal their psychological bodies as well if I had some more training, and that meant more schooling. I knew I'd be able to stay in the Army after my surgery after BJ told the fitness board I'd already had counseling training already, after all isn't that is part of what chaplain does. They agreed, I stayed in the Army. I moved back to Philadelphia where I went to school part time and went into the reserves. It took me longer to finish because I decided to go for my doctorate. So you all can call me Dr. Mulcahy." He took a bow as most of the group applauded. Burns was not one of them, he had no appreciation for anyone in the mental health field and it had deteriorated ever since his short stint as a patient after Margaret's wedding to Penobscott.

"So when did you meet your wife?" Nurse Bigelow asked. This question was on the tip of several people's tongue. She just beat them to it.

"I was getting there; I had to explain what happened after Korea before getting to that." He stopped for a moment as he saw that Monica was tired and wanted to sit down, so he led her to a nearby chair before continuing.

"As I was saying, I moved back to Philadelphia where I was working in one of the deaf schools. Surprisingly it was okay for me to work there, never mind I didn't have the qualifications to teach or be a counselor there and I certainly couldn't be the priest since it was a public school, and I'd left the priesthood. I think I got the job because the bishop I had to talk to regarding my future obviously knew of my plans to attend graduate school and had to give me the bad news that I had to make a choice. He also knew I'd been temporarily deaf. To my eternal amazement he put in a good word for me with the board of the school, actually he arranged for me to have an interview with the school board. I think it's because his nephew is deaf, the same age of most of the students at the school. I want to think he wanted someone there who could really relate to the students." Those who had children in school understood what the former priest was trying to say.

"The problem was it was only part time, also the wages were not enough to live on, remember as a priest I'd taken a vow of poverty, so I knew good and well what I could survive on, I also worked at a youth center located very close to the school. Frankly, I enjoyed working with the kids there as well. and assisted with the boxing program. Between the two jobs, and getting into the swing of studying again I was too busy to have much of a personal life for a few years. After all it had been a few years since I'd cracked the books, not counting all the time I spent in sermon preparation."

"Not that any of us attended with much regularity," BJ admitted. A few spouses gave their mates a look of the truth is coming out, but for the most part they already knew that church attendance had been minimal during that time.

"Sherm, I'm ashamed of you," Mildred said, with a twinkle in her eye, even to this day; she had trouble getting her husband into the church pew unless he'd had Saturday night off.

"Mildred, you had to be there" was all he said, and his wife knew what he meant. They hadn't survived over forty years of marriage for nothing.

Trying to get his story back on track Mulcahy continued, "I was saying that I'd been at the Franklin school for about two years, at the Revere Avenue Center for just about as long. It was the beginning of the fall semester for most of the colleges and universities. There was an agreement with the several of the universities to have their students work with the children as part of their studies. That fall there was one exceptional student at the center. She got along very well with the students; as her humor was infections, her name, Monica Lynnette Muir."

'Not Pierce?" Charles Winchester asked

Margaret explained. "When we were granted guardianship of the Muir's, they were already in high school, we all agreed there was no need for them to give up the last name their parents gave them."

Monica finally spoke up, "I knew who John was as I'd seen pictures of everyone from Korea in a photo album Mom and Dad had. I have to admit I didn't tell him who I was for awhile." She thought back to the moment she finally told him who she was.

Flashback

Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Fall 1955

"John, I know you are going to spend most of the Thanksgiving weekend with the kids here, and I wish I could too, but I promised my guardians I would spend my first Thanksgiving at the university back home." She'd found out his legal first name was John and called him that from the start.

"So where do your guardians live?" He'd become extremely fond of this young woman, in fact John Francis Mulcahy was facing the realization he felt more than he should towards her, considering the age difference. He was actually glad Monica was going to be away over the weekend and planned to keep busy so he wouldn't have to think about her while she was gone.

"It's a small township, about an hour out of Portland, Maine called Crabapple Cove, it's right on the Atlantic. I've lived there my entire life, until I came down here for school." Monica said, she when he heard the name of the town she would get a response.

"I knew someone in Korea from there, you might have heard about him, Ben Pierce?" If she was a lifelong resident she'd know Hawk's legal name.

"Yes, I do. He and his wife are now my guardians. John I wish I could talk more. I need to go if I'm going to get back to the dorm before curfew. See you Monday." With that, she left the center, leaving a startled Mulcahy behind. He wondered whom Hawk had married, was it someone local or had he and Margaret Houlihan finally admitted there was an attraction between each other.

End Flashback

Monica explained, "we didn't date officially for over a year, partly because of John's schedule also we dealt with the fact the school I was attending has a strict dating policy for freshman. at the time it was just about as strict for sophomores. So for the most part, the only time we saw each other was at the center or 'happened' to meet each other when with other people. I knew he like me, and I liked him, but we had a few things to work out, if we were going to get serious."

"I was still a practicing Catholic, even though I'd left the priesthood, but when I realized I had the perfect chance to see her most of the day on Sunday if I attended her church so I stopped attending my church. It caused a rift between my sister the sister and I for a little while, since she hadn't really understood why I'd left the priesthood in the first place" Mulcahy explained carefully.

"It was one of the sticking points we had I'm not against Catholicism, per se. I just don't agree with several of the church's points of view." Monica explained, just as carefully "We talked about it for several months, we located some former priests who'd left because they'd wanted to marry. We weren't at that point yet in our relationship, but I could tell John was seriously thinking about it."

"I still had at least two more years of schooling left, I didn't want to marry Monica until after she graduated. I proposed to her, and she accepted, my only condition was our wedding take place after graduation, which wouldn't be for another year and a half. By then I knew who her guardians were, and a bit apprehensive on getting the blessing for the wedding."

"We knew that she was seeing a John Mulcahy, and for some reason we both didn't think it was the Mulcahy we both knew. Monica neglected to mention he was several years older than her, just that she was seeing a graduate student who was getting his doctorate in psychology."

"Because of my work schedule and my reserve duties, I wasn't ever able to go up to see her when she went home. Just in case they recognized my handwriting, we had one of the students fill out the envelope when I sent her letters."

"However, after we were engaged I knew it was time to meet the parents. To say they were stunned was an understatement. Daniel, Ben's dad had figured it out but had kept quiet, and he has a film reel about the initial meeting."