In Times of Need
Just a warning, this story contains violence, mention of violence and some language! All necessary to the story though!
Hawkeye sat on the beach, staring out at the sunset. He was awestruck, as he was every time he saw this sight, the beauty took his breath away. During his years in Korea he had conjured this scene in his mind during the long lonely nights. It helped him to feel closer to home.
He thought back to Korea, his return to Maine last month, and most especially the people there. BJ, his best friend, who was so relieved to be home with his wife and daughter. He and BJ had found it hard, being apart for the first time in 2 years, but they were both settling back into life. Hawkeye knew that they would remain close, and very important to each other for the rest of their lives. They had seen too much together. Sherman Potter, Max Klinger, Father Mulcahy, they were all important. Even Charles. Only Margaret was missing. She had returned to the States 6 months before the end of the war, after discovering she was pregnant by her husband, Donald Penobscott. They had heard from her only once since, a short terse note to let them know she had arrived safely and was staying with her parents for a while. Hawkeye sighed. He missed having Margaret around. Without his realising it, she had become a very important part of his life. He loved her deeply, but despite his reputation as a Romeo, hadn’t wanted to rock the boat whilst she was married. And then she had become pregnant and left. So he had never had a chance to tell her how he felt. After she left he had not dated, he had not found a woman who compared to Margaret in anyway.
The sun dipped beneath the horizon, and Hawkeye decided it was time to go home. It wasn’t a long walk, and he soon was walking up the steps into his porch. As he opened the front door, Daniel Pierce came hurrying towards him.
“Hawkeye, hold it a sec. There’s a young lady here to see you.”
Hawkeye’s eyes lit up as they did whenever they encountered a member of the fairer sex. “Fabulous. Is she pretty?”
Daniel tutted. “Very, but that’s not it. She got here about an hour ago, very distressed. Hawk, it’s Margaret Houlihan.” Hawkeye’s head snapped, and his eyes became anxious.
“Margaret? Is she ok? What’s wrong?”
Daniel put up a hand to stop the flow of his son’s words. “Hawkeye, I don’t know anything. She’s in the kitchen. Talk to her yourself.”
Hawkeye gave his father a grateful smile, and walked past him into the kitchen. Sure enough, Margaret was sitting at the table, cradling a tiny baby in her arms. As he entered, she put a finger to her lips, and said quietly “Sssh. She’s almost asleep.” Hawkeye silently pulled out the chair next her and patiently waited. After a few minutes, Margaret gently placed the baby in the pram sitting next to the table, and turned to face Hawkeye. “Hiya Hawk.”
Hawkeye was confused. His father had said that Margaret was very distressed, yet now she was perfectly calm and collected. And he hadn’t mentioned a baby. He put these thoughts to one side, and replied
“Hi Margaret. You look beautiful. Being a mother agrees with you.”
Margaret smiled shyly, and smoothed her hair.
“Thank you, Hawkeye. You’re looking good too. Civilian life suits you.”
“So why are you here Margaret? Friendly visit?” Margaret suddenly looked defensive, and she pulled back slightly.
“Do I need a reason to visit a friend?” She asked frostily. Hawkeye was taken aback.
“No, no, of course not. I’m just surprised. I thought you would hate me after I confirmed your pregnancy. I thought you’d hold me responsible.”
Margaret looked at him tiredly, and then sighed. “I did for a while. And then I realised it was that no good son-of-a-bitch Donald Penobscott. But I love my daughter, I love being a mother. I’ve felt more fulfilled this last month than in the whole of the rest of my life. I have a real purpose to my life, that isn’t selfish, all about me.”
Hawkeye smiled. Margaret really did seem content. “So what happened to Penobscott?”
Margaret stood up briskly. “Would you do me a favour? Would be able to take me into town? I need to find a hotel.”
“Nonsense. You’re staying here.”
“But-”
“Absolutely not, Margaret. You are staying here.”
Margaret regarded her friend for a moment, and then gave in. It would be lovely to be with Hawkeye again, and she needed to talk to him.
“That would be lovely, thank you Hawkeye.”
The little baby in the pram started to cry. Margaret moved towards the basket, but Hawkeye was there before her, scooping the tiny bundle gently into his arms. The crying stopped immediately, as the little girl regarded this new person. Margaret, watching them, found to her surprise, that she felt no anxiety over Hawkeye holding her child. Usually when other people held her, Margaret hovered over them anxiously, never quite trusting them not to drop the baby, or squeeze her too hard, but now she felt no desire to do anything like that. She completely trusted Hawkeye. She had trusted him with her own life several times, she could trust him with her daughter‘s. And Hawkeye had an innate gentleness when dealing with children, and an instinctive knowledge of what would be right to do with them. He held the baby in the crook of his arm, and looked up at Margaret.
“She’s just gorgeous, Margaret. What is she called?”
“Emma Jane.”
“She’s so beautiful, Margaret. How old is she now?”
“A month. She was a little early.”
Emma was yawning again, so Hawkeye placed her back into her pram. “Why don’t we have a coffee? He suggested. “Or even better, a glass of wine.”
“Ooo, how sophisticated. Did you finally realise how horrible that rot gut was?”
Hawkeye pretended to be offended. “Not at all! I just haven’t gotten around to setting the still up yet!”
Margaret laughed at his characteristic reply.
“A glass of wine would be lovely please Hawkeye. We’ve been travelling since 7 this morning. But I mustn’t have too much, or Emma will get drunk when I feed her!”
2 hours later, Hawkeye and Margaret had moved to the lounge, and had drunk the best part of a bottle. They were chatting like old friends, but whenever Hawkeye approached the subject of Margaret’s husband, she clammed up and changed the subject. Finally he had had enough, and demanded to know what was going on. Margaret bristled, but seeing the concern written in Hawkeye’s face, gave in.
“I suppose you had to know sometime. I just didn’t know where else to go. Donald, he, I mean, well, I’ve left him.”
“What? Why? Margaret, what happened?” Margaret sighed and pushed her hair back from her face, revealing a large red mark down the left side of her face.
“I didn’t know what else to do, Hawkeye. I was so scared that he would hurt Emma, I just couldn’t stay…..” She trailed off, looking despairingly at Hawkeye, her eyes shining with tears. “I didn’t know where else to go.” Hawkeye took her hand, holding it firmly, comfortingly.
“You’ve come to exactly the right place, Margaret. You and Emma can stay here as long as you want, he won’t find you here. I’ll look after you, I promise.”
“The jackass! The class A jackass!” BJ Hunnicutt roared down the phone at his friend. “He hit her?” He had just heard Margaret’s story from Hawkeye, and was furious. Hawkeye had rarely seen or heard him so angry before. “Just wait till I get my hands on him! He’ll wish he was never born!”
Hawkeye chuckled, “now now Beej, don’t do anything that will land you in prison. We have to play his game. So we sneak into his room at night and put him in a cast again?”
BJ laughed in reply. “This time though, can we give him a real injury. Just plastering is so passé.”
“Mmmm, ok! Just don’t tell Margaret. She just wants to forget all about it.”
However, before BJ and Hawkeye could act, Penobscott took matters into his own hands. Hawkeye arrived home from work one day, about 2 weeks after Margaret had turned up on his doorstep, and noticed a strange car in his driveway. As he put his key into the front door, he suddenly heard Margaret sobbing loudly, and the baby begin to scream. He pushed his way into the house to find Donald Penobscott coming down the stairs, clutching Emma tightly, and followed by Margaret who was on the point of hysteria.
“Please, don’t my baby. Donald, don’t take my baby, please.”
Margaret grabbed Penobscott’s sleeve, but he continued down the stairs. When he saw Hawkeye standing in the doorway he stopped. Margaret took the chance to try and reach round to grab Emma, but Penobscott swung his elbow back and hit her in the face, knocking her off her feet, and she fell hard down the stairs. He tried to push past Hawkeye, but Hawkeye resisted, and drawing back his fist, punched Penobscott full in the face.
“You bastard!” Hawkeye growled. “What the hell do you think you are doing?”
Penobscott shook himself, and squared up to Hawkeye.
“I’m removing my child from the presence of this slut before she starves her, or even kills her. Margaret isn’t fit to be a mother, even you know that, Pierce. Do you really think I am going to leave my daughter with the likes of her?”
Hawkeye bristled with anger. “Penobscott, you are filth. Do you think you are capable of looking after a baby? She might dent your man-about-town image a bit, a little girl tagging along. And for your information, Margaret is a fantastic mother. I‘ve watched her with Emma, and Emma adores her. Now, give me the baby and get out of here.”
Penobscott laughed derisively
“Give you my baby? I don’t think so. Now get out of my way before I move you.”
“Give me that baby, and you can leave, and I won’t say a word.”
Penobscott raised his fist, but another voice stopped him.
“Not so fast, buddy” Hawkeye spun round to find himself facing BJ, Daniel Pierce and four police men. Dizzy with relief, he turned back to the angry man.
“Well Penobscott, are you going to fight your way past seven of us?” Penobscott stared wildly at him for a moment, and then tried to make a break for it, but he didn’t stand a chance against the seven men, and was quickly restrained. Hawkeye gently took Emma, who calmed down when she was back in arms she recognised, and then went over to Margaret, who was lying unconscious on the floor. He rapidly checked her vital signs, and then called to BJ.
“Beej! She’s unconscious, but otherwise fine. Lets get her to the hospital.” As Hawkeye was still holding Emma, BJ scooped Margaret up, and was shocked to discover how underweight she was. He felt another surge of anger, but contained it, and simply carried Margaret out of the house and into the back seat of his car, which already contained Erin Hunnicutt, with Peg in the front seat. Peg gave a gasp of shock as she saw the state Margaret was in.
“Peggy honey, do you think you could have Erin on your lap? I’d like to be able to take Hawkeye and the baby too, I don’t think he’s in any state to drive.”
Peg nodded, and reached over to haul Erin onto her lap. Through the window she could see an angry man being bundled into a police car, and another man, angry, but gently cradling a small baby. She presumed this was the Hawkeye that her husband had been talking about since he returned from the war. She watched as BJ guided this man towards the car, and held open the back door for him. As the door opened she could hear what he was saying.
“….her vital signs, she’s fine, but we need to get to the hospital as soon as we can. Come with us, and bring Emma, and I’ll come back later and sort things out.”
Hawkeye Pierce climbed into the car, and giving Peg a terse nod, turned his attention to Margaret.
During the tense drive to the hospital, BJ explained the reason behind his sudden appearance.
“When we spoke on the phone the other day, I thought that Margaret might need a bit of cheering up, so I decided to surprise you both. Looks like I arrived just in time. Penobscott might have hesitated to take on me, your father and four cops, but if it had just been you, or your dad, he might have succeeded.”
Hawkeye shuddered. He didn’t want to think about what the implications could have been if Penobscott had succeeded.
When they arrived, BJ ran inside to alert someone, and almost immediately came running back out, followed by two men bearing a stretcher. They pulled Margaret out of the car onto the stretcher and carried her carefully back inside, followed closely by Hawkeye and the baby, BJ, Peg and Erin. After a swift examination, the attending doctor concurred with what BJ had said earlier: Margaret was fine, just unconscious, and there was nothing to do but wait. She was taken to a ward upstairs, where Hawkeye took a chair next to her and refused to move, cradling Emma in one arm and holding one of Margaret’s pale limp hands in his. All through the night he sat there, not sleeping or moving. He allowed Peg to take Emma for a while when she began to cry, but every time someone suggested he get some food or some rest, he just shook his head, and insisted on having Emma with him for the rest of the night. Finally, BJ pulled a chair up next to him.
“Hawk?” Hawkeye turned his head to see the outline of his best friend in the half light of the early morning. BJ spoke softly. “Do you want me to sit with her for a bit? You look dead on your feet.”
Hawkeye shook his head.
“I have to be here Beej, when she wakes up. If I’m not here I can’t protect her. I couldn’t protect her before, from Penobscott, but I can now. If I’m here no one can hurt her.”
BJ began to understand the depth of his friend’s despair. Ever since he had known Hawkeye and Margaret they had had a funny sort of relationship, hating each other, but at the same time being each other’s mutual strength and protection. He knew what a torment it would be for Hawkeye not to be able to protect Margaret from something so awful as this. He also knew his friend’s physical limits, and knew that Hawkeye would be able to go a lot longer without food or rest. As he opened his mouth to speak, Hawkeye cut across him.
“I love her, you see, BJ. I just can’t imagine life without her. Those last few months in Korea were hell. I just kept imagining her, living with that creep, cooking his meals, sharing his bed. I knew he didn’t love her. I could have given her such a good life, Beej. She shouldn’t have gone through all that suffering for someone who didn’t love her, when I was there for her. But I protected her then, and I protected her when she came to me, so why couldn’t I protect her last night? When she needed me the most? I’ve failed her Beej, and this is my punishment. This is justice for all the times I could have told her, could have taken her in my arms and held her, and didn’t because I was too cowardly. And now she might never know.”
As BJ opened his mouth to speak again, another voice cut across him, soft and weak, but gentle.
“She does now.”
BJ and Hawkeye stared at Margaret, who was lying looking at them, a look of great tenderness on her face. Hawkeye gasped, and tears sprang to his eyes as he leaned forward to kiss her.
“I love you, Margaret. I love you more than anything.” He sobbed as he kissed her mouth. She lifted a hand to his face to stroke his cheek, and then to Emma.
“I love you too Hawkeye. But are you sure you want to take us on? Emma and I, we’re a package, we come together. I can’t ask you to take responsibility for another man’s baby.”
Hawkeye shook his head.
“Margaret, you and Emma both mean the world to me. I love her as much as I love you. You are my girls, my beautiful girls.” BJ saw Peg coming up the ward, and motioned to her to be quiet. He moved to join her, and felt a lump in his throat as he looked at the happy new family, his best friend, and the woman he loved.
The End
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