The next morning she looked out her doors and saw it was still snowing but very lightly. There was about 5 feet of snow since yesterday's snowstorm. She sniffed the air and could smell something unfamiliar. She put her light blue robe on and made her way to the kitchen. When she walked in she couldn't help but give a chuckle. Hawkeye stood in front of the stove wearing an apron that said 'If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen' making something in the complete nude.

He heard her and smiled. She raised her eyebrows as if to say, 'And why are you naked?'

"I was getting to warm in here but I wanted to make you breakfast in bed but since you're awake I guess you'll have to eat down here."

Margaret noticed to it was a bit warm in there to even though she was used to being cold and loved the heat. She took off her robe and placed it on one of the chairs.

"Well don't let me stop you from carrying out your dreams. If you want I could go back up to bed," she said amused.

"If you bring me with you," he grinned back.

"Then who's going to cook breakfast and since you already have that pretty much covered I'll meet you upstairs." She shot him a smile and pranced back upstairs.

He grinned up at the ceiling and quickly finished making breakfast. He put it all on a tray and brought it upstairs with coffee and orange juice. When he got to the door of her room he hesitated just a second before walking in smiling.

"Brrrr. It's cold in here. How can you stand it?" Of course he was still naked and from coming from the overly warm kitchen to her room at the second floor where all the heat refused to go it was quite a shock.

"Well then get under the covers before you freeze your… you know what," said Margaret blushing slightly.

Hawkeye looked at her in mock amazement. "Me? Expose myself to a young woman of the opposite sex? I'd never think of it."

Margaret rolled her eyes. "That didn't stop you last night."

"Touché." He crawled under the covers with her and put the tray on her lap.

On it was a plate of what looked like fried puffs with powdered sugar on top, toast, coffee and orange juice.

"I wasn't sure what you wake up with in the morning so I brought up both."

She took the orange juice and he took the coffee.

"This is nice Hawkeye. Thanks. But what are those?" She pointed toward the puffs and he gave her a confused look.

"Don't tell me you never had an Aebleskiver! Everyone knows what an Aebleskiver is!"

Margaret shook her head and took one. She bit into it and smiled.

"Good?" he asked.

She swallowed. "Good."

They ate the rest the plate together and talked about old times. They laughed about Klinger's escape plans, Charles's snobbishness, and Frank's idiotic ways. When all was eaten and talked about they sat for a second collecting their thoughts then they looked at each other at the same time. Then something burst inside of them at the same time and they lunged at each other and their lips meet in a rough embrace.

He climbed on top of her and looked down at her. She looked nice with her hair in a fan around her head like a halo and all the nice sheets and pillows looked shabby compared to her. He loved her. He just realized after all this time. He really loved this woman who he was with right now. He doubted he could ever find anyone better. He just sat there looking at her when she was thinking just the same.

Margaret looked up at him with her frosty green eyes up to his piercing blue ones. This man she was with was one of the best men she ever knew. The others she treated like fathers but he was like a brother. More like a very, very distant brother, who just happens to be sitting on her mostly naked except an apron.

She slowly untied the apron and slipped it off of him. He laid on top of her and started kissing her softly as his hands explored her. Then his tongue parted her lips. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer into her. Her tongue started to wrestle with his own when his hands wound up at her breasts. He looked up briefly, took a double take and stiffened. He sat up and climbed off her.

Margaret looked up at him as he sat at the edge of the bed. "What's the matter Hawkeye?"

"This room," he sighed and combed his fingers through his hair.

"What's the matter with this room?"

"It's just the memories that come with it."

"Does it have to do with your mother?"

He looked at her sharply. "Who ever said it did?" He got up quickly and left taking his apron.

Margaret stared at the door sadly and shook her head. He just couldn't talk about it. She sighed and got dressed for the day.

She came down about another hour later. She had straightened her room up so it looked neater. She looked for Hawkeye but guessed he must be up in his room. She had seen his door closed like it was all the time. She went and listened and could hear thick pages being turned. She crept back downstairs and got a good look at the house. It was rather clean for two bachelors and guessed that they had a cleaning maid or they were very clean men. And with the Swamp as an example and knew that Hawkeye was very alike his dad she guessed it must be the first.

She got her snow stuff on and went outside. At first she couldn't get outside the door but she soon kicked the snow out of her way and made her way to the cliff. She found a bench a way's off and sat down. She watched the waves crash upon the shore undeterred by the heavy snowfall. She sat and thought about Hawkeye. She tried not to but his laughing face kept showing up in her mind's eye.

She could feel someone watching her and looked up at the house. Her eyes followed up the side of the house until it found the doors that were in her room. She thought she saw the curtains move but brushed it off as a trick of the light.

She kept watching the waves letting her thoughts float around her head almost like the wind that was picking up quite a bit until she heard someone yelling her name. She turned back to the house and could see Hawkeye's head leaning out of the back door of the house yelling at her to get back into the house before she was blown off the cliff.

She smiled at his concern and waved letting him know she was on her way. She stood up but just as soon as she stood up she was swept up by the wind and carried over to the edge of the cliff. She tried to grab onto something but there wasn't anything on the cliff except some long dead grass. She tried grabbing for it but the roots just broke in her hands. As soon as the wind had carried her off it stopped and she noticed that she was still on top of the cliff except just barely. Her arms had grabbed onto the edge of the cliff but the most of her was hanging off the cliff.

"Help! Help! Someone help! I'm on the cliff!" she screamed into the wind that just carried it out of her mouth. She trembled when she noticed that her fingers were numb with the cold and the strain of holding her body up aloft.

"Don't look down. Whatever you do don't look down Margaret," she kept telling herself.

Just as she thought she couldn't hold on much longer she felt strong hands grasp her wrists and a voice say, "It's okay. I got ch'ya. I got ch'ya."

Then she felt herself being pulled up and carried somewhere. She couldn't quite remember where she was because of the shock. She had thought she was going to die. Those cliffs were very high and she knew that if she fell she had a very slim chance of surviving.

She felt warmth envelope her as she was set down on something soft and someone grasping her hands after taking off her snow stuff. After a while she finally focused her eyes and could see Hawkeye looking at her concerned.

When he saw that she recognized him he sighed and asked if she was okay. She took a moment checking herself out to see if anything hurt and replied she was fine.

"Didn't you think it was crazy to be on top of the cliff like that with the wind howling like that?" he asked after he had gotten over his concern.

"Wouldn't you think it was crazy if a person you cared for just left with no reasonable explanation?" she countered.

He sighed. "That room just has a some bad memories."

"It has something to do with your mother doesn't it Hawk?" asked Margaret softly as she touched his arm lightly.

Hawkeye sighed again and looked at the embers of the fire in the den. Margaret waited patiently for him to say something. After a moment or two Hawkeye looked at her with sad eyes. "That was my mom's room. My parents slept in the same room of course but she had a room all to herself incase she needed to get away from us boys. Which I must admit was a lot." He smiled fondly but his eyes soon got that sad look again. "The summer I was 10 she was about to give birth to my new baby sibling. Something went wrong with the delivery and she died along with the baby." He looked down at his hands. "I had snuck into her room where she was giving birth and was hiding behind the curtains of the doors that led out to the balcony. I was there when she took her last breath even though no one knew I was there." He looked at her. "That's why I can't really stand to be in that room, her room."

They sat there for a while with Hawkeye looking into the embers and Margaret watching him. He got up and went up the stairs to his room where she heard his door close. She sighed herself. The man she loved was in pain. She sat a moment before something came to her mind.

She quietly tiptoed up the stairs to his room and stood outside his door. She knocked softly and could hear him say softly to come in. She peeked her head into his unlit room and found him with his back to her.

"Hawkeye?"

"What is it?" he said gruffly.

"I want to help you."

"What can you do? You can't bring her back and you can't in hell replace her."

"I know that but I have something in mind that might help. Just close your eyes and lay back."

He gave a snort but did as he was told. Margaret let the rest of her slip into his room and sat on the bed next to him. "I can ease your pain a bit by taking some of your pain for my own."

"You heard her last breath," she said as she kissed both his ears softly. "You probably saw her in her last moment of life." She kissed both his eyes softly. "You probably smelled her perfume even after she had passed on." She kissed his nose. "You probably felt to see if she was alive." She picked up his hands and one by one kissed his fingertips.

When she was done she put his hands to her chest. "I know you miss her but now I know how it feels to miss someone. I've taken some of your pain for my own."

Hawkeye lay as if asleep. He smiled slightly with his eyes closed. "Thanks Margaret. It actually feels as if it has lessened some."

Margaret smiled and kissed him softly on the lips and said even softer, "I love you Hawkeye."

Hawkeye kissed her back. "I love you too, Margaret."

She curled up next to him and let him put an arm around her waist. They laid like that for the remainder of the afternoon doing nothing but laying with the person they loved. They soon fell asleep with twin smiles of love for each other.

When they woke up they could hear a voice downstairs yelling up the stairs to them. "Hey! You guys still up there? I hope you haven't done anything dirty in my house while I was snowed in at the clinic."

Hawkeye moaned and yelled back at his dad, "We didn't do anything Dad! Just go away!"

"I was just gone. You guys come down and have some supper. I made chili so come down while it's still hot!" Daniel shook his head at the stairs and went back to the kitchen to dish out the chili for the three of them.

Margaret woke up and felt something squeezing her softly. She smiled and remembered falling asleep with Hawkeye. She rolled over and smiled into his face. "Hey."

"Hey," he smiled back. "We better get up or my dad will come up to see what we're up to."

Margaret got up and watched Hawkeye as he stretched. He was quite a man. Handsome, smart, caring, a doctor who she could trust her life with.

They went down and had dinner with Daniel. He told them that he had been rescued by the snowplows around one that afternoon and had soon gotten home. He noticed that they weren't anywhere downstairs so he just left them be until he had supper ready for them.

After dinner they gathered into the den and they all took turns telling funny stories about their lives. Hawkeye and Margaret kept telling stories about their MASH unit and when they looked at each other Daniel couldn't help but notice a certain twinkling in their eyes that reminded him so much of him and his wife. He soon thereafter left making an excuse that he was tired because of being holed up at the clinic and left them to themselves.

The laughter soon fell into silence between them as they sat side by side on the love seat. They watched the blazing fire turn into embers only did then did one of them talk.

"Margaret," Hawkeye started, "I learned something these last few days that I've been ignoring for four years. And just realized this morning," He took a deep breath. He got down on one knee, took out a ring from his shirt pocket, held it out to her and asked, "Will you Margaret Houlihan become my wife?"

Margaret looked down at him with 'a deer caught in headlights' look. This was totally unexpected. She looked at him for a moment while his piercing blue eyes searched her frosty green ones.

"Yes!"

"Yes?"

"Yes!" she smiled down at him.

Hawkeye smiled and slipped the sapphire ring on her finger. "You just made me the happiest man in the world Margaret!"

"And you've just made me the happiest woman!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck.

Daniel came down the stairs in his robe and looked into the den. "What's going on?"

"I just asked if Margaret would marry me!" Hawkeye exclaimed with dancing eyes.

"And I said, 'Yes!'" finished Margaret.

"Well it's about time," Daniel muttered loudly.

"What?" asked Hawkeye confused.

"Ever since you came back from Korea I've seen the way your face lightens up whenever you brought up Margaret. And them just tonight when I left I saw the way you guys were looking at each other I knew it was about time you asked her. Whether you called her up on the phone or you went looking for her."

Hawkeye looked at his dad strangely. "How could you figure that out? I didn't even have it in my mind to do that."

Daniel smiled. "I was just like that with your mother. Just take it from an old man."

Then Hawkeye smiled. "Well I guess pretty soon you'll get your wish for grandkids then Dad."

"Not until we're married buster," said Margaret as she slapped him.

"How soon the wedding?" asked Hawkeye.

Margaret thought for a moment. "October. I've always wanted an October wedding."

"Why not now? We can elope then after we have our wedding night we can make snow angels in the freshly fallen snow. I think that would be more romantic," said Hawkeye as he nuzzled her neck.

"That does sound romantic but I'm sticking with the October wedding. Soon after October comes winter. Then we can make snow angels to our hearts content."

Hawkeye sighed. "Okay, October it is."

Margaret smiled at him. "Just wait. Maybe tonight we can make your snow angels. How's that you old romantic?"

Hawkeye smiled back. "Fine, lets go get started at them snow angels." He picked her up and tossed her out the front door into the snow where she fell into a drift. He laughed as she laid down as flat as she could and started making her snow angel as the snow fell softly on her.

As she got up to go back into the house and give her betrothed a piece of her mind she looked up at her room and thought she saw a figure of a woman holding a baby and waving at her but of course it could have just been her imagination.

They couldn't wait till October to get married so instead they had it on the anniversary of Hawkeye's mother's death by his request. He wanted to remember the day with a happy memory instead of just a sad one.

At the reception Margaret often looked in a corner of the den were everyone was gathered for the toasts. In the corner she could she could see a woman in a light yellow dress holding a bundle smiling at her son and his new bride. She gave a small wave and faded away. From then on Margaret never saw her again except in the pictures Hawkeye showed her.

After their wedding the new Mr. And Mrs. Pierce left to go to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon where Margaret got pregnant. It was a wonderful perfect baby boy. They named him Daniel Henry Sherman Pierce. After Danny they had three other children named Clarisa, Addam and Becky. After complications in Becky's birth Margaret refused to have any more children even though Hawkeye said it was so fun to make them.

The little family lived peacefully in Crab Apple Cove until 1992 when Hawkeye had a heart attack and died in his wife's arms. One short month later and Margaret joined her husband at Heaven's pearly gates. They walked in holding each other and smiling.