It was with some trepidation that B.J. walked into his house that evening. Mrs. Jergenson's surgery had gone well, and he wasn't as late getting home as he'd initially thought. He hadn't tried calling Hawkeye again, after that first time, too worried about the implications of another call going unanswered.
Better to face the situation—whatever that situation might be—in person.
"Hawk?" he called as he shut the door behind him, fervently hoping to hear a response. He paused, waited.
"Beej?" came Hawkeye's voice from the kitchen. "That you? Everything OK? You're a little late."
B.J. let out a relieved sigh. Hawkeye was home, and safe, which sent so many pent-up worries on their way. "Sorry, I had emergency surgery." He stepped into the kitchen, where Hawkeye was at the stove, stirring something.
"I figured it was something like that. I'm just heating up some soup, nothing special."
B.J. placed his hands on Hawk's shoulders. "That'll be fine." He paused, then gathered the courage to broach the subject. "I tried to call, when I first found out that I had to stay late. There wasn't any answer."
Hawkeye's shoulders tensed briefly. He turned the stove down to low and stopped stirring. He faced B.J., nodding. "I was out for most of the afternoon," he admitted. He pulled B.J. into an embrace, then kissed his mouth softly. "Don't be pissed, but I saw Carlye again."
Exactly what B.J. didn't want to hear. But he forced himself not to jump to conclusions, not to react strongly. "You did?" was all he said.
"Yeah. But don't worry, that's the end of it, Beej. We had lunch, and we spent a few hours reminiscing, but now she's going back home and that's that."
"Oh." Why did it seem like there was more to this story? He waited.
And sure enough, Hawkeye wasn't quite done with his explanation yet. "Truth is, Beej, she hadn't entirely given up on the idea of… rekindling something. But I want you to know, I love you and I'm here to stay, and Carlye doesn't pose a threat to you. She's in the past." He leaned in for another kiss, this one deeper and sweeter than the first. "There's only you. You know that, right?"
B.J. wasn't sure what had transpired that afternoon, but as he looked into Hawk's eyes, there was no doubt in his mind that his lover meant what he was saying. Whether it was the full story or not didn't even matter. The end result was that Hawkeye was here, in their home, declaring his love, and that was all B.J. needed to know.
"You're the only person for me, too, Hawk," he said, pulling him into a hug. They held one another for a few minutes, neither one saying anything, just leaning against each other and breathing in unison. When B.J. stepped back, he asked, "How long before the soup's ready?"
"Just a couple minutes." Hawkeye turned back to the stove and started stirring again.
"OK, be right with you," B.J. said, heading out of the kitchen and to the bathroom, where he washed his hands and took a long look in the mirror above the sink. As he watched, his reflection gave him a contented smile.
From the bathroom he made a detour into the bedroom. He took the gold wedding band off the nightstand and stared at it, turning it in his fingers, thinking about commitment and love, devotion and forever.
"Beej?" Hawkeye called from the other room. "Soup's on!"
He slipped the band onto the ring finger of his left hand, then he went to join Hawkeye in the kitchen for supper.