It was overwhelming, all the things Hawkeye had to do. Travel out to Mill Valley every Friday to spend the weekend house-hunting with B.J. and, incidentally, look at nursing homes too. (And, since he was only seeing B.J. on the weekends, have a lot of sex—enough to get him through the Monday-through-Thursday dry spells.) Get his Crabapple Cove house up for sale (he would miss the Swamp, but maybe he and Beej could re-create it in their new home). Start transferring the practice over to Jim Dixon. Start packing up both his house and his office. Reassure Aphrodite that she would be making the trip across the country with him. Start thinking about a job out west…
B.J. wanted him to consider a position at the hospital where he worked, San Francisco General. It would only be a matter of time before there was a surgical opening, he reasoned. Hawkeye was a little hesitant. He hadn't operated since he left Korea, and he wasn't sure he still had the magic touch. B.J. smiled wickedly and said he most certainly did, eyebrows bouncing a la Groucho Marx.
There would be time later to figure out his career. The first order of business was finding a house, and when they stepped into the three-bedroom rancher on Dorset Lane in Mill Valley, they knew instantly that it was The One. It just felt like home, Hawkeye marveled, even more so than his cozy Cape Cod back in Maine. He and B.J. trailed the Realtor as she went through her sales pitch, but the house was pretty much selling itself.
"It's perfect," Hawkeye whispered to B.J. while the Realtor rambled on. B.J. squeezed his hand.
The Realtor was saying, "Built in 1953—"
And they exchanged a look. That's a sign, Hawkeye thought; the year the war ended. B.J. grinned at him, a shared understanding.
Meanwhile, the Realtor seemingly never stopped for breath, and now she was saying, "And do either of you play golf? The Mill Valley Golf Course is only two miles away—"
"We'll take it!" they said in unison.
And that, finally, got the Realtor to shut up. She whirled on her heels to look at them, commission dollar signs in her eyes. "Wonderful! I'll draw up the papers tonight."