Pierce came over last night. He was escaping the Swamp to save his nose from falling off thanks to Charles's kippers for dinner, and his ears from falling off from BJ telling him about Erin's first playdate for the millionth time. He brought some very fancy cognac, claimed it was a friendship gift from Charles, (I very much doubt that), and spent the next half an hour driving me insane while I tried to get some paperwork done. I may have kissed him just to shut him up. Or maybe he kissed me first.
Either way, the kiss (and everything that followed) was unexpected. It wasn't supposed to happen, and I blame the cognac. And Pierce. And also Charles.
It was fun, though. And good. In more ways than one, actually.

She stared at the canvas roof up above, trying not to breathe too hard. For some reason, it felt important not to let him know she was out of breath. Heavy breathing didn't seem to concern him, though, his was hot against her neck. Hot and heavy. All of him was hot and heavy, still half on top of her, and it felt like she was melting into the thin mattress.

Surreal, most of all it felt surreal.

How had she even ended up here, in bed, with him? Her plans for the evening had been to finish the paperwork, fold the laundry, read for a little while, and then sleep. Now, there was hot breath on her neck and a naked man in her bed. Naked Pierce in her bed. Naked her in her bed. With Pierce. How? There had been cognac, and bickering, and more cognac, and then - everyone was naked. Hot and heavy.
It had been good, really, really good. Fun, they had laughed, fought for dominance, their usual routine. Just like last time, there was his laughter in her ear.
Margaret felt a hot wave of embarrassment coarse through her body when she thought about last time. The memory of that overwrought, clingy, pathetic excuse of a human being was something she wanted to forget. Bury deep. She wasn't that person, never had been, not really, she had just lost her mind for a while, clung to the one tiny bit of control she could find. It had been one moment of insanity, nothing else, and it wasn't supposed to happen again.
But there they were. Naked in her cot. Same situation, different setting. Different people, in so many ways. She wasn't the same, would never behave that way again, he had to know that. Right? She hadn't been herself back then, just lost, and terrified. She had confused comfort with love for a split second, terrified of being alone again. Terrified of everything.

He shifted, probably trying to find a more comfortable position in the very limited space. He propped himself up on his elbow and leaned his head in his hand, she could feel his eyes on her as she continued to stare up, fixating her eyes on the canvas, like it was some great riddle that needed to be solved. She felt stupid and very childish for refusing to look at him, so she forced herself to meet his eyes.

"You okay?"

She nodded.

"So, listen…" he said and cleared his throat.

No. No, she did not want to listen, she did not want to hear him say that this was nothing, just a horrible mistake, she needed to be in control of this.

"No," she began, trying to untangle herself enough from him to sit up. Doing so, she became acutely aware of the naked situation again. Where had the sheet gone? The blanket, the stupid bedspread? Her clothes? She reached down to the floor and tried to find them, fumbling blindly. She felt fabric and grabbed at it, but when she pulled it up, she realized it was just his t-shirt. She grabbed it anyway, tried to cover herself with it as she sat up, and pulled her legs towards her chest. The t-shirt was tangled up and covered very little. Stupid thing.

"This… This…" She gestured vaguely at the bed and them in it. "This was not… Just… It was just something that happened."

She pulled at the t-shirt and tried to untangle it, why was it so impossible, it was just like him to have such a stupid garment.

"It's not… Just…"

"Margaret, can you please panic without ruining my second favorite shirt? I've seen everything already, and may I say wow. I've had my hands on everything already, and may I say an even bigger wow."

She glared angrily at him, and he sat up too and leaned back a little against the flimsy wall. She saw spots on his face that shimmered from her lip gloss.

"I know," he said, "This…" Now it was his turn to gesture at the bed and them in it." It wasn't… It's not…"

He chuckled and shook his head.

"For two usually very articulate people, we sure have a problem with words tonight, don't we?"

She snorted and kept pulling at the uncooperative fabric.

"You want a drink?"

"Yes," she said before the last word had even left his mouth.

He got up and went for the bottle and glasses over at her desk. She looked away. Apparently, he was not at all bothered by nudity, and his tall, lanky body in her tent felt so strange. All that skin. On his way, he picked the sheet up from the floor and threw it at her. She quickly pulled it over herself and relaxed a little. There, less skin in her tent. He handed her a glass and got in under the sheet too. He sat close; her toes touched his thigh.

"Well," he said, "here's to unexpected turn of events."

"Here, here," she said and took as big a sip as she could manage.

"Look, I honestly had no intentions of seducing you when I came here tonight," he said, "but this was for sure a very nice way to spend an evening."

She frowned.

"I don't just allow myself to be seduced, you know. I'm not part of your adoring fan club."

He snorted a laugh into his glass and coughed a little.

"There's an understatement if I've ever heard one! If we were in middle school, you would for sure have been a member of the 'I hate Benjamin Pierce Club'. Been president of it!"

"There was one?"

"Yes, founded by Ron Buckley. He was mad at me because I gave Carol Wilks, whom he had a crush on, half of my peanut butter sandwich when she had forgotten her lunch. She kissed my cheek as a thank you, and he thought I was putting the moves on his girl."

"Were you?"

"Have we met? Of course I was! So, Ron started the club, but only a week later it turned out that Carol liked Steve Mayfield. And I don't blame her, his parents owned the ice cream bar down on Sycamore Avenue, and they had the best chocolate milkshakes. They were so thick you could barely get them through a straw, and if you told Mrs. Mayfield that her hair looked nice, she would always give you extra whipped cream."

Margaret smiled. She very much liked how Pierce looked in that moment, his hair messy, his eyes a bit dreamy, a small smile on his face.

"Well, good for Carol," she said.

"Literally. After that, I think the club just dissolved, and to be honest it never really took off to begin with. But I don't think Ron ever officially canceled it, and I'm sure he would still love another member."

"I'll keep that in mind."

They both drank. Margaret drained her glass and put it on the nightstand.

"I don't expect anything from you, you know," she said. "This was nice, but I'm not looking for anything serious."

She wasn't. This was the exact same thing as it had been with Tom. Fun, but nothing more. Just a way for her to find her footing in the world again. In the new, husbandless world.

"It was stress relief between two professionals," she continued. Then she frowned and shook her head. "Professionals? Sorry, bad choice of word."

He grinned.

"Well, if this whole medicine thing doesn't work out for us, we can just head over to Rosie's and see if she's looking to expand her night staff. Maybe she'll take us on as a duo."

She scoffed and poked his thigh with her toe. He reached in under the sheet and grabbed her ankle.

"Margaret, I know. You and me, we have had our hands in the same chests, tried to sort out the same bellies. If that's not intimate, I don't know what is. And in that friendship-contract of ours, the rules were never really specified, remember?"

He winked at her. For a second she couldn't figure out what he was talking about, but then she remembered that moment in her tent. When they were back in camp again, and everything was back to normal. Except nothing really was the same after that.

"We've both been around," he continued, "and besides – it's stupid to have these amazing, interlocking bodies and not put them to use, right?"

"Right. It's no big thing."

"Well, it's kind of a big thing…"

That made her laugh for real, and she kicked him with her other foot.

"Ow!" He grinned.

"Also, I don't believe we have been properly introduced." He grunted a little as he bent forward and put his glass on the floor. "I'm Hank, construction worker by day and in my spare time I like to hang around picturesque countryside huts and protect fair maidens from falling debris with my burly body."

He reached his hand out to her. She only hesitated for a second before she took it.

"Hello Hank, I'm Darlene. Coincidentally, I'm also a hut-enthusiast, when I'm not enjoying long walks on the beach in exotic locations."

He laughed, and they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Darlene."

He snuck his hands back under the sheet and stroked the inside of her calves with his thumbs.

"This is nice. It was great last time, but I have to say I rate this performance higher. It's even more fun when you're not terrified, in pain, and stinky from a nice, brisk walk through the lovely but deadly Korean countryside."

She took a deep breath and exhaled dramatically. She felt comfortable. Strangely, unexpectedly comfortable. It really had been stress relief, in the best way. Tomorrow, she would see Pierce flirt with a nurse, and that would be just as it should. Margaret herself had a weekend in Tokyo coming up, and she wouldn't hesitate a second at the chance of a fling with someone handsome, but still. Still, they had this, and as embarrassed as she had felt only minutes ago, it was still her friend in her bed. Nothing had happened that hadn't happened before, except she was comfortable now. Confident. Could even joke about what had once been a pain so sharp it had been deafening, all-consuming. Time moved differently in Korea, that was for sure. Sometimes for the better. Much better.

"Well, I'm happy you feel better about it, I'm sure you did your best," she said. "The stink remains, though."

He stared at her, mouth open and eyes wide.

"What the hell, Houlihan?"

He began to laugh. Before she could pull her legs away, he moved his hand up and tickled the fold of her knees. She shrieked and immediately covered her mouth with her hands while trying to kick him away. Even though she was comfortable, the rest of the camp could under no circumstances know what was going on in her tent.

"You're in for it now, Darlene," Pierce grumbled, and let his hands creep farther up her thighs.

Then, she wasn't trying to fight his hands off anymore.

It was the 79th day anniversary of her divorce, yes - she was counting, the more days the better, the whole Donald fiasco getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. She spent the anniversary with a friend. A friend with a warm, interlocking body. A friend who was not very burly, and only stank a little. In fact, if she was to be completely honest, she didn't mind his smell at all.

Author's Note:

It happened! It finally happened! Margaret and Hawkeye hooked up, and things didn't fall apart afterwards!

My only goal for this chapter was for the two of them to get together again, and actually have a good time. As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, I am not happy with the writing for Comrades in Arms Part 2, and here - I wanted to show how far Margaret has come. In my mind, this is set between season 8 and 9. She has gone through the whole Donald-fiasco, she has been through the disappointing ending with Scully, she has turned down the offer to come to Tokyo when it came with too high a price. And her night with Tom, the reporter, made her see that it's okay to enjoy the company of a man, without it having to become a relationship. I just feel like by this point, she is finding her groove again, and that she could actually handle another situation like this with Hawkeye. Actually be able to relax and joke. Well, after panicking a little, this is Margaret Houlihan after all, and she feels many, many things... :)

I hope you enjoyed it, I loved writing this chapter!