Margaret continued to hold Hawkeye as he sobbed in her arms. "Why" was all he would say. Her heart was aching for him. She knew this was bringing up old wounds for him.

"Hawk"

He pulled away from her and looked deep into her ocean-blue eyes. "We need to leave here."

"What? Why?"

"I don't want to live in a place that's going to treat my family the way you've both been treated."

"Hawkeye; I'm not running away, I'm Army we don't retreat, we stand and fight."

"Or get blown up."

"Hawk, this is your home, not a war-torn country, we can't run away."

"I don't need these people here, I only need you two and Dad."

Margaret took his hands in hers. "I'm tired of not having a home, I'm not going to run. I know deep down you don't want to either. You're just upset right now, I know I am."

"Margie; it's more than that, there are some people here, that have preconceived ideas. I don't want her subject to them."

"Hawk you know as well as I do there are people like that everywhere, we can't hide from the world."

He ran his hand through his hair, "I know you're right, still she's a baby, she's not going to hurt anyone, plus she's our daughter, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone hurt her or you."

Before either could say anything else, Daniel walked back into the house, "All is taken care of."

"Dad?"

"As I said before I know who was behind this, I took care of it."

"Dad who was it?"

"Hawk you don't need to know."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't, knowing will not solve anything. This has been going on for a while now."

"What do you mean? Going on for a while?"

"It goes back to when you were in Korea, there were people that didn't approve of you being sent over there."

"I was drafted, it's not like I went voluntarily." After he said it, his words dawned on him. "Oh Margaret I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that." She took his hand

"I know what you meant, it's true I was there because I wanted to serve, I know in the beginning you didn't want to be there, but I saw how your heart changed as you got to know the people and the children. I saw how much they meant to you, especially the children."

Hawk smiled, "What is it about you that manages to get through to me when no one else can?"

"I just see the real Hawkeye Pierce, the one that you keep hidden from the world, and I love him. Although it took me a while to find him, but I'm grateful I did."

Daniel patted his son's shoulder, "Hold on to that one, she's a keeper for sure."

"Oh, I plan to Dad. We're getting married on Saturday."

"That's fantastic, we can have it here in the backyard if you'd like to."

"Mr Pierce I would love that, my last marriage was in an Army Camp."

Daniel gave them both an odd look. "Let me explain dad, Margaret was married briefly in Korea to Lt Col Donald Penobscot, and after a series of unfortunate events, they divorced."

"Ahhh I see; well my dear sometimes life looks out for us, and clearly it did in your case."

"Actually it was your son that looked out for me, he was there with me through everything, and now I can't imagine my life without him, trust me when I say I never thought I would fall for him as hard as I did."

Hawkeye laughed, "Well it caught me by surprise as well, especially after that disastrous trip to the 8063rd."

Margaret cringed at that particular memory. "Well, that was one for the books. I think I'll just take her upstairs and change her clothes. If you'll both excuse me." She said as she headed upstairs.

Daniel gave his son a look, "Care to explain that?"

"Not particularly but I need to, the short version is we were both sent to a neighboring MASH unit to demonstrate a new surgical procedure, when we got there they had bugged out, well we started back to the 4077, and ended up getting shelled and shot at. The jeep stalled, well you know me and vehicles. We heard a noise, so we ran and took cover, turned out to be North Koreans. They fixed the jeep and took it, leaving us stranded. So we took off on foot, and after walking for a while we came upon an abandoned hut, so we took refuge in there."

Daniel raised his eyebrow, "I'm guessing things went a little too far?"

"Not at first, when we first got there, I spotted a wounded North Korean a few yards away, I went to try and treat him, he was gone by the time I reached him. I had just made it back when shell fire started up. The hut started to shake, so I pushed Margaret to the ground and got on top of her, well I ended up with a piece of wood in the back of my leg."

"Sounds painful."

Hawkeye nodded, "Thank god, Margaret is a very skilled nurse, she removed it."

"And what happened after that?"

"We started talking and drinking, and she opened up about what had been nagging at her, it got late and we decided to try and get some rest, around an hour or so later we woke up to extremely loud shelling, Margaret was screaming and scared, I went over to her, trying to calm her down, things got a little out of hand from that point on."

"I see where this is going, Ben..."

"Dad, we were both willing, it's afterwards that I regret, I pushed her away, I didn't want to admit that she wiggled her way into my heart."

"She is your mother made over son, I had a hard time acknowledging my feelings for her, but once I did I was a goner, I thank god for every day I had with her."

"Funny thing is, even after all that, I still couldn't tell her I love her, it wasn't until the last day we were still at the 4077, that it hit me hard that I had lost the love of my life, she was leaving and I'd never see her again, I whispered in her ear, to find me after she left Korea."

"I think she did just that. Now why don't you go spend some time with your family son, don't worry about anything."

"Thanks, Dad, oh there's some baby stuff being delivered later today."

Daniel held up his hands, "Say no more, I'll have them set it up in the empty spare room upstairs.

Hawkeye nodded as he made his way up the stairs and to his bedroom. As he approached the cracked door, he stopped and listened to Margaret talking. "We need to help Daddy, he's having a hard time with what's happening, but he's a good daddy, and he loves you, he fought so very hard for you when you were in Korea. He tried every way he could think of to do right by you. Now we need to help him." Before she could say anything more, Hawk walked in and went over to sit with his family on the bed.

He reached for his little girl taking her from her mother and holding her in his arms, she looked up at him and smiled as she started playing with his nose. He smiled back at her, "There's my baby"

Well, that part was harder than I thought it would be to get out, hopefully, the rest will be smooth sailing from here on out. Please drop a review...