Hey everybody, I know it was a while before I got back to this, but I did this as a break from my other one, while I had a little writer's block. Then, inspiration struck for that one, but I also got writer's block for this one. Anyway, in the first chapter, the song he sings, well the last verse was supposed to go with the end and somehow my computer decided it liked it better there. I never noticed until it was posted, but it kind of suits it, doncha think? Also, I can't think of a better title. What do you think of this one? R&R, and if you have a better idea for a title that you don't mind me using, let me know. One more thing before I continue the story, I know that Hawkeye lost his sight when BJ was there, but it fit into the story well, so I didn't really care. Besides, from now on, you may have to forget a lot of the episodes and stuff. Anyway, enough 'jabber jabber jabber' and on with the fiction, remember: FICTION. Not mine, never were, yada yada yada.

Hawkeye and Margaret fell asleep cuddled together on the tiny cot that night. Hawkeye's arm was around her waist, and still, in his sleep, he'd rub little circles on her back. The MPs must have alerted Henry, and they were awoken by an announcement.

"Would Captain Pierce and Major Houllihan please report to Col. Blake's office, on the double. He would like to speak to you about your, ahem, absence from the movie last night."

This really ticked off Hawkeye. Nobody knew what had really happened, and he and Margaret exiting her tent late the next morning with her in his robe, and now with this announcement, Margaret would definitely be putting up with a lot of harassment from the others at the camp.

Hawkeye looked over. Margaret was still sound asleep. "Margaret? Margaret? We have to get up. Henry wants to speak to us. I think the MPs told him about it." She never stirred, so he leaned over and planted a small kiss on her lips.

She slowly opened her eyes, she seemed a little nervous, but once she saw it was Hawkeye she smiled. "Good morning."

"Good morning sleepy head. Henry wants us in his office. I think he found out about what happened. C'mon."

"Oh, God! I'm a mess! I can't go yet!"

"Don't worry about it, c'mon. We have to get going. You look beautiful."

"Thanks."

Hawkeye slowly opened the door and peaked out. Unfortunately, the camp had come to life and people were walking past Margaret's tent about their daily routine. He knew that there would probably be a few whistles and catcalls. When the pair emerged from the tent the camp seemed to stop. Everyone could hardly believe their eyes as they saw the pair together. Hawkeye walked in front of Margaret, trying to protect her in any way he could. A few catcalls came their way, which Hawk answered with a salute altered by sticking his middle finger up. The crowd realized that something had happened last night, and it wasn't what everyone initially had though. Something was seriously wrong.

When they finally reached the door to the office, Hawkeye opened the door for her, and put his hands on her shoulders to gently guide her in the room.

Henry was sitting at his desk, staring into space.

"Hey Henry." Hawkeye said in a depressing tone. "I guess the MPs told you, huh?"

"Yeah. Margaret, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Colonel." Hawkeye shook his head as he noticed how well she kept her dignified stature, even after something like this.

"Look, Pierce, the MPs told me everything. Frank is on his way to Seoul in a heavily guarded truck in shackles. He won't be bothering anyone anymore. But the thing is, we still want a reliable person with Margaret at all times. Pierce, they said you volunteered for the job. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"I'm sure."

"Now, Margaret, you look in hard shape. You've got a few bruises, and God knows what else. Hawk she needs a complete physical. Who's gonna do it?"

Margaret spoke up "Colonel, I would prefer if the Pierce did my physical. No offense to you, but you know after last night, I am a little jumpy and have a feeling I will be around all men, but Pierce saved me, and I know I can trust him. Sir I know I can trust you, but I still would feel most comfortable with Pierce."

Henry understood, and asked if he could speak with Hawkeye privately. "Henry, I can't leave her."

"Okay, well" He leaned over and whispered in Hawk's ear "I know I can trust you Pierce, but I want you to know that you better take damn good care of her. I know she won't like this, but I believe you should accompany her everywhere, even the shower. If he were to somehow manage to get back here, it would be a vulnerable place to get her. And no wisecracks about it."

"Henry, don't worry. She's in good hands."

He led her out into the x-ray room, which dubbed as a private exam room, for personal cases such as this.

"Margaret, I feel bad about this, after what happened, but, uh, this is a, uh complete physical. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Really." She started to move her arm to slip off her shirt and winced in pain.

"What is it?" He helped her out of it and examined her arm. "Lucky for you, we're in the x-ray room. I think you may have a hairline fracture there. Okay, let's see what else we've got. Multiple lacerations and the chest, arms, legs, stomach, and face. A few cuts, nothing really serious. wait now, what's this. He felt a little dried blood and noticed a deep gash in her leg. Shit. How did he do that?"

"He had his pocket knife. Before he took his pants off."

"That bastard. And that's cleaning it up a bit because of a lady present. Now, I need to ask you, he, attempted to rape you, but, did anything, actually uh. happen?" He couldn't think of a good way to ask that.

"If you mean sexually, know, he couldn't. I managed to keep him away from that until you came."

"So there's no, uh."

"No damage, and I can't be pregnant or anything like that."

"Okay, that's what I wanted to know, just, you know, it's not an easy thing to say."

"I understand."

"Let's have a look at your arm." He took the x-rays and got the bone set. Although it was simply a hairline it had slipped a little during the night and was a little difficult to set. Once he finally finished the awkward physical, he cleaned off the plaster and spoke again.

"You're probably wondering what Henry had whispered to me. He didn't want to make you uncomfortable by saying it in front of you, but rather get me to talk to you about it. First of all, he just wanted to make sure I'd be able to protect you. If you feel you need an MP to guard you, you let me know." He paused for her to answer.

"I'm fine, I'd rather have you guard me than an MP. I saw you take on Frank last night, so I think you could do it again if you had to, God forbid."

"Okay, well secondly, he told me that this would be a complete physical, and no matter how awkward to get all bases covered. Which we finally managed to do.

"Last, this is the thing I need to talk about. Uh, well he said he didn't want to have you showering by yourself, because it would be the most vulnerable place for him to get you, were he to manage to come back. The thing is, we don't want to send nurses up there with you, in fear of endangering a lot of young ladies. Now, I promise, I know the position you are in and I would never make any wisecracks or anything, but he suggested that I accompany you. I mean, I'd turn away and everything, but just to have someone there. What do you think? We really don't want you to go anywhere alone."

Normally, she would have thought it was a way to get into her pants, but seeing the look on his face she knew he was sincere. "Hawkeye, I think that that would probably be a good idea. As long as you don't look."

"Okay. Now, I've got some fatigues for you, they're a little big, well actually they're an extra one of my shirts, but for now, until we get to your tent, plus I don't know if your shirts will fit over that cast on your shoulder."

He helped her get dressed and offered a hand to get help her off the table. As she slipped off the table, their eyes met.

"Hawkeye, thank you so much for everything." She whispered and reached up to softly kiss him on the lips.

"I don't mind. Really, I don't. I want to make sure you're safe at all times. C'mon, do you want to get something to eat? If you want we can order out, get Trapper to get some food for us so we don't have to hear questions. I think Henry will call a meeting in the mess tent this afternoon at which he will explain without details what happened, and just to lay off of us. We'll be sticking together, and doing everything together, and he figured that they might start talking, you know? But for now, if you feel like being away from the curious glances and things, we can eat in your tent?"

"Well, would you mind if maybe we went into the mess tent ourselves, but went back to the tent to eat."

"Okay, well c'mon my dear, we'll go get some slop to eat." He offered her arm and she linked it to hers and left the building together.

They walked into the mess tent together, and the tent seemed to quiet immediately. Hawkeye followed Margaret to the serving table, got their food, ignoring everyone else. They simply walked out the tent, trying to be as strong as possible in the situation. Silently they went into Margaret's tent and sat down to eat their dinner.

"Hawkeye, you know, you don't need to be doing all of this for me. I, I can take care of myself."

"Margaret, I know that you are 30 years old, yes I looked at your file. Anyway, you're single; I know you can take care of yourself. And Frank is locked up in Seoul. It's just that it is a slight possibility that he could come back, and we want you to be safe. I'm doing this because I don't want to endanger you or the rest of our staff. I may not always act it, since I, well have constantly played tricks on you, but it was mostly to get Frank, and I care about you. When I saw him doing that to you, I felt so mad. I am so devoted to the sanctity of human life, but at that moment, I honestly felt like I would kill him."

"Hawkeye thank you. You know, really I'm glad you want to do this, it's just that I wanted to let you know you had a choice. Frankly I am relieved that you will do this for me." She started to cry. "I've been trying to hold this in, but I'm really scared."

"Oh Margaret, c'mere." He got up and sat down next to her on her cot. He put his arms around her and she buried her head in his chest.

"Hawkeye, I'm afraid!"

"I know, I know." He rubbed her back soothingly and rested his chin on her hair. "Margaret? Can I ask you a question?" She looked up at him questioningly. "You don't have to answer, but, what caused him to do that? I know you two have been together for a while, so I was very surprised to see what I saw."

"Well, I had gotten a letter from a friend. She has a house, a husband, and two beautiful children. I realized that I have nothing. I'm 30 years old and have nothing! Frank, he has everything. Wife, children. I would never get anything out of him in the future, I would just get hurt. When I tried to explain this to him, he snapped, and well, he, he" She broke into fresh tears again. Between sobs she managed to get out "I just want a normal life, a husband. My own man. Not someone who is married with children. A lot of colonels I've well, you know, are married. I've never had a serious relationship. I feel ready for one now, though. I'm ready to give up this life, and settle down."

"I know how you feel. I did have one serious relationship, but she left me because she didn't want to compete with my work. Other than that, all the women I've ever been with have just been a quick fix. I feel like just settling down, in Crabapple Cove, with a wife. Have a couple kids, work at the family practice."

Margaret had stopped crying and was looking up at him. "That sounds so wonderful." She whispered, as both of them slowly moved closer, their noses almost touched.

"Margaret, you'll tell me if you're not ready." He whispered.

"Yes" She mumbled against his lips. They kissed passionately, his lips moving gently against hers. "Hmm." She mumbled. When he lifted his lips of hers, she was a bit breathless.

"Margaret?"

"Yeah?"

"What's happening?"

"I don't know. But I like it."

"Me too. I don't want to start anything we can't finish though, Margaret, so I don't know if it's good idea to do any more. Listen, tomorrow is the trial in Seoul. I'm going to go with you, I have to present evidence. It's not going to be easy, but we'll pull through it. Frank Burns will never again hurt you."

"Attention all personnel! Incoming casualties! Both teams to the operating room! Nurses to triage! Get your tap shoes and get a dance partner, it's gonna be a long one!" The PA blasted to life.

"Shit." Hawkeye mumbled. "We don't have a replacement yet either. This'll be great. C'mon let's get to work."

They headed to the OR and got ready for a long shift.

****

They had been operation for 3hours when Radar popped his head in.

"Sir?"

"Yes?" Henry, Hawkeye and Trapper answered in unison.

"I mean the colonel sir. I've got great news sir, you're going home. Tomorrow morning."

"That's great!" "Wait to go!" And other things could be heard around the OR.

"You serious? Well that's great!! I can't believe it! But we'll be down two surgeons then. Will we get new ones soon?"

"Well actually, sir, we'll be down three surgeons. Cap'n Macintyre? You're going home too. Tomorrow morning with the colonel. Sorry Hawkeye."

Hawkeye looked over at Margaret, and both were relieve he wasn't going home and leaving her there. "That's okay Radar. But I'm going to Seoul tomorrow with the Major, so when is the new surgeons arriving?"

"Captain Hunnicut, Major Winchester and Colonel Potter will be arriving tomorrow afternoon. The Chinese have been pushed back. There's two more wounded, and they actually don't think there will be any more until next week, so we've got no worries."

"That's good. Suction."

"Yeah, Retractor. C'mon sweetie, I don't want to have to cut around your b-cups."

"Say, Henry?" Hawkeye spoke up. "Have you spoke to everyone, and explained the, uh, situation?"

"Yeah, I did during breakfast."

"Great. Were there any problems?"

"A few nurses were a little upset, afraid, you know, but Trapper and I comforted them."

"I'm sure you did."